(1ST CENT.)
[Roman and other Western Martyrologies. Commemorated by the Greeks
on Sept. 13th. Authorities:--The Acts of the Holy Apostles, c. 10,
the notices in the Martyrologies, and allusions in the Epistles of
S. Jerome. The Acts given by Metaphrastes are not deserving of much
attention.]
Cornelius, the centurion, was officer of the Italian band at Cæsarea.
He was a devout proselyte, who feared God, with all his household, and
gave much alms to the poor and prayed often and earnestly to God. He
saw in a vision an angel, who told him that his prayers and alms had
come up for a memorial before God, and that he was now to hear the
words of Salvation, and to be instructed in the fulness of divine
truth. He was to send to Joppa, to the house of one Simon, a tanner,
for S. Peter, the prince of the Apostles, who would instruct and
baptize him.
This he accordingly did, and S. Peter, hastening to Cæsarea, baptized
him and all his house. And the Holy Ghost fell upon them.
Cornelius was afterwards, by S. Peter, ordained bishop of Cæsarea,
where he strove mightily to advance the kingdom of Christ, and
witnessed a good confession before the chief magistrate. He died at a
ripe old age, and was buried secretly in a tomb belonging to a friend,
a Christian of wealth. And, it is said, that a bramble grew over the
spot and laced the entrance over with its thorny arms, so that none
could enter in till S. Silvanus, bishop of Philippopolis, in Thrace,
in the beginning of the 5th century, hacked away the bramble, and
discovered, and translated the sacred relics.