St. Nazarius’s father was a heathen, and enjoyed a considerable post
in the Roman army. His mother Perpetua was a zealous Christian, and
was instructed by St. Peter, or his disciples, in the most perfect
maxims of our holy faith. Nazarius embraced it with so much ardor,
that he copied in his life all the great virtues he saw in his
teachers; and out of zeal for the salvation of others left Rome, his
native city, and preached the faith in many places with a fervor and
disinterestedness becoming a disciple of the apostles. Arriving at
Milan he was there beheaded for the faith, together with Celsus, a
youth whom he carried with him to assist him in his travels. These
martyrs suffered soon after Nero had raised the first persecution.
Their bodies were buried separately in a garden without the city,
where they were discovered and taken up by St. Ambrose in 395. In
the tomb of St. Nazarius a vial of the saint’s blood was found as
fresh and red as if it had been spilt that day. The faithful stained
handkerchiefs with some drops, and also formed a certain paste with
it; a portion of which St. Ambrose sent to St. Gaudentius bishop of
Brescia. St. Ambrose conveyed the bodies of the two martyrs into the
new church of the apostles, which he had just built. A woman was
delivered of an evil spirit in their presence. St. Ambrose sent some
of these relics to St. Paulinus of Nola, who received them with great
respect, as a most valuable present, as he testifies.[319]
The martyrs died as the outcasts of the world, but are crowned by God
with immortal honor. The glory of the world is false and transitory,
and an empty bubble or shadow; but that of virtue is true, solid, and
permanent, even in the eyes of men; for, to use the comparison of St.
Basil,[320] as the more we look upon the sun the more we admire it,
and by reviewing it never find it less bright or less beautiful; so
the memory of the martyrs which we celebrate, after so many years,
is only more fresh in our minds, and will be more flourishing in all
ages to come.