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SS. NICASIUS, NINTH ARCHBISHOP OF RHEIMS, AND HIS
COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
IN the fifth century, an army of barbarians from
Germany, ravaging part of Gaul, plundered the city of Rheims.†
Nicasius, the holy bishop, had foretold this calamity to his flock.
When he saw the enemy at the gates and in the streets, forgetting
himself, and solicitous only for his dear spiritual children, he went
from door to door encouraging all to patience and constancy, and
awaking in every one’s breast the most heroic sentiments of
piety and religion. In endeavoring to save the lives of some of his
flock, he exposed himself to the swords of the infidels, who, after a
thousand insults and indignities, (which he endured with the meekness
and fortitude of a true disciple of God crucified for us,) cut off
his head. Florens his deacon, and Jocond his lector, were massacred
by his side. His sister Eutropia, a virtuous virgin, seeing herself
spared in order to be reserved for wicked purposes, boldly cried out
to the infidels, that it was her unalterable resolution rather to
sacrifice her life, than her faith or her integrity and virtue. Upon
which they dispatched her with their cutlasses. St. Nicasius and St.
Eutropia were buried in the churchyard of St. Agricola. Many miracles
rendered their tombs illustrious, and this church was converted into
a famous abbey, which bears the name of St. Nicasius, and is now a
member of the congregation of St. Maur. The archbishop Fulco, in 893,
translated the body of St. Nicasius into the cathedral, which the
martyr himself had built, and dedicated to God in honor of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. His head is kept in the abbey of St. Vedast at
Arras. See St. Gregory of Tours, and Gall. Chr. Nov., t. 9, p. 6. The
Acts of St. Nicasius in Surius (14 Dec.) were written before Hincmar,
probably in the seventh century, but are of small importance, as Dom.
Rivet observes.
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