Feast of SAINT EMYGDIUS

Although not a Carmelite, St. Emygdius was formerly honored liturgically by the Discalced Carmelites. The 2004 edition of the “Martyrologium Romanum” lists his feast as August 5th. He is considered the patron saint of Ascoli, and is invoked universally for protection from earthquakes.

PRAYER.

O God! 
who hast adorned the Blessed Emygdius, Thy Martyr and Pontiff, 
with victory over idols, 
and with the splendor of miracles; 
mercifully grant that, through his mediation, 
we may deserve to conquer the deceits of evil spirits, 
and to shine by our virtues. 
Through our Lord Jesus Christ...

LESSON IV.

Emygdius was born in Treves of a noble Frank family. In his twenty-third year he embraced the faith of Christ in spite of the opposition of his parents, who were idolaters, and this faith he steadfastly professed. He lived with three disciples, Euplus, Germanus, and Valentinus. He scorned human pleasures, and thus be applied himself the more entirely to divine things. Fired with a burning love of neighbor, he journeyed to Rome in order to bring about the salvation of many souls, and he was there received as a guest, in the Island of the Tiber, where he cured, by baptism, the daughter of his host, who had been ill for five years of an incurable disease.

LESSON V.

Alittle later he opened the eyes of a blind man, in the presence of the people, by the sign of the Cross. Thereupon the crowd, thinking that he was the son of Apollo, carried him off by force to the Temple of Aesculapius. He there declared himself the servant of Christ, and by calling upon Christ’s name he restored to health a great number of sick persons, who were vainly beseeching the help of the idol. Emygdius tore down the altars, and, having broken in pieces the statue of Aesculapius, he cast it into the Tiber. These acts, and the conversion of thirteen hundred of the heathen, which followed, together with that of the priests of Aesculapius, enraged Posthumius Titianus, the Prefect of City. Emygdius, by the counsel of an angel, escaped from his threats, and betook himself to the Pontiff, Saint Marcellus, by whom he was consecrated Bishop, and sent to Ascoli.

LESSON VI.

On his way thither Emygdius converted a multitude of persons to Christ by the many miracles which he wrought. The demons, whose wailing issued from the idols and filled the temples upon his arrival at Ascoli, declared a traveller to be the cause of their distress. The people were aroused, and sought to slay him, whereupon Polymius, the Governor, who was brought out by the tumult, called Emygdius to him, and in a long but fruitless discourse he urged him to worship Jupiter and the goddess Angaria, the patroness of Ascohi. He even promised him as a reward the hand of his daughter Polisia, whom Emygdius converted to Christ and baptized on the spot. Her baptism was followed by that of sixteen hundred men, the Saint having drawn, by a miracle, an abundance of water from a rock. Thrown into fury by these events, Polymius cut off the head of the holy Bishop, whereupon the body, wonderful to relate, stood erect, and, bearing in its hands the head which had been cast upon the ground, carried it to the Oratory, a distance of three hundred feet. It was removed thence to the principal church, where it is honored to this day with great devotion by the people of Ascohi, as well as by a multitude of people from other parts. The blessed death of Emygdius took place during the persecution of Diocletian.

Taken from the book “Saints of Carmel” (BOSTON: JOHN CASHMAN & CO., 1896).