FAUSTINUS and JOVITA were brothers, nobly born, and zealous professors
of the Christian religion, which they preached without fear in their
city of Brescia, while the bishop of that place lay concealed during the
persecution. The acts of their martyrdom seeming of doubtful authority,
all we can affirm with certainty of them is, that their remarkable zeal
excited the fury of the heathens against them, and procured them a
glorious death for their faith at Brescia, in Lombardy, under the
emperor Adrian. Julian, a heathen lord, apprehended them; and the
emperor himself passing through Brescia, when neither threats nor
torments could shake their constancy, commanded them to be beheaded.
They seem to have suffered about the year 121.[1] The city of Brescia
honors them as its chief patrons, and possesses their relics. A very
ancient church in that city bears their name, and all the martyrologies
mention them.
The spirit of Christ is a spirit of martyrdom, at least of mortification
and penance. It is always the spirit of the cross. The remains of the
old man, of sin and of death, must be extinguished, before one can be
made heavenly by putting on affections which are divine. What mortifies
the {417} senses and the flesh gives life to the spirit, and what
weakens and subdues the body strengthens the soul. Hence the divine love
infuses a spirit of mortification, patience, obedience, humility, and
meekness, with a love of sufferings and contempt, in which consists the
sweetness of the cross. The more we share in the suffering life of
Christ, the greater share we inherit in his spirit, and in the fruit of
his death. To souls mortified to their senses and disengaged from
earthly things, God gives frequent foretastes of the sweetness of
eternal life, and the most ardent desire of possessing him in his glory.
This is the spirit of martyrdom, which entitles a Christian to a happy
resurrection and to the bliss of the life to come.
Footnotes:
1. See Tillemont, t. 2, p. 249. Pagi, &c.