ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF TODI: SEUSTIUS AND EIGHTY OTHERS.
Under Diocletian.
PrefaceSeustius, Martyr at Todi in Umbria (S.) Eighty other Martyrs, at Todi in Umbria.
[1] At Todi (or, as more recent writers usually spell it, Tuderti), a town of Umbria, commonly called Todi, situated not far from the bank of the Tiber, S. Seustius and eighty other Martyrs are venerated on this day, who are recorded as having died in a glorious contest in the times of Diocletian. The feast of SS. Seustius and companions, Thus Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of Saints: At Todi in Umbria, of eighty holy Martyrs under Diocletian and Maximian. But Giovanni Battista Possevino in his history of the Saints of Todi, and Ferrarius himself, records S. Seustius on 10 February, although the latter in his Notes acknowledges that he is venerated on 29 January; which we also have learned from other sources.
[2] Possevino follows in Italian style the deeds of S. Cassianus, Bishop and Martyr, written in Latin by an ancient author at the urging of the venerable Father Bassianus; which we also shall give on 13 August. Acts. In these are the stories of Seustius and the other eighty, whom Ablavius, uncle of S. Seustius and father of S. Cassianus, killed for the cause of the Christian faith. Those things which properly concern the eighty and Seustius are presented by Ferrarius in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy on this day, from the Lessons of the Church of Todi approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
[3] Possevino writes that when the Franks held power in Tuscany, they carried off the body of S. Seustius to Gaul, to the city of Nantes, Relics of S. Seustius; where God still bestows very many benefits upon mortals through his patronage. But neither in the proper offices of the Church of Nantes, which we have, nor in the Gallican Martyrology of Andrew Saussay, nor in the Lives of the Saints of Armorican Brittany (among whose peoples the Nantais are numbered) published by Albert le Grand de Morlaix, is any mention made of S. Seustius. But since the people of Todi report this, it is likely that by some occasion of war or other disaster, his relics were either lost, or carried away from Nantes, or hidden, with the memory obliterated at the same time.
[4] But the relics of the remaining eighty Martyrs we have learned are preserved among the people of Todi in a church dedicated in their name. of the rest. Possevino writes that all were struck with the axe and their bodies then burned in the place where the basilica of S. Fortunatus now stands, which the same Possevino writes was formerly called the church of S. Cassianus, in his account of the Life of S. Fortunatus, which we shall give on 14 October.
ACTS FROM PHILIP FERRARIUS.
Seustius, Martyr at Todi in Umbria (S.) Eighty other Martyrs, at Todi in Umbria.
[1] Ablavius, Proconsul in Etruria under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, coming to Todi afflicted many of the Christians with martyrdom, among whom were eighty whom S. Cassianus, Bishop of Todi, had converted to Christ. These Ablavius, while they remained immovable in the resolution of the faith they had received, condemned to capital punishment without any form of trial. Eighty Martyrs killed at Todi. Their bodies were thrown into the fire in the Apennine region (in which place near the city a magnificent church was built by Bishop S. Fortunatus in honor of the Martyrs) around the year of salvation 303. S. Cassianus followed these Martyrs closely by shedding his blood.
[2] Among the number of these Martyrs was Seustius, a nephew of the same Ablavius by his brother, whom the Proconsul would readily have freed; but when the citizenry protested that he should carry out the same sentence against Seustius as against the others, fearing the edicts of the Emperors, S. Seustius is handed over to his mother to be perverted: he tried to recall his nephew from his resolution by blandishments and promises: and he handed him over to his mother, to turn him from his purpose. But when she was discovered to be a Christian (for she had secretly brought her son to Bishop Pontianus who was hiding in a cistern, She encourages him: and by him was vehemently inflamed, together with her son, to undergo martyrdom bravely), Ablavius, angered, when she returned to him with her son and spat upon the idols offered to her that she might worship them, He is slaughtered by his uncle: ordered her to be tortured for a long time, and Seustius, having been tortured in various ways and beaten with clubs, he slaughtered with his own hands with a dagger. At which time a great earthquake swallowed up the Apennine region, which overhung the ancient city, with a great gaping chasm.
[3] The body of Seustius, enclosed in a wooden chest, was yoked by the Proconsul's order to two untamed bullocks to be dragged: at Lake Trasimeno, in the place called Confinis, He is buried, they stopped, where a noble matron of Arezzo buried his body, with a church built there.
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