Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/452

This page needs to be proofread.
438
438

438 ST. JULIA oyer his enemies ; and on his return he treated Jnlia as if he was her slave and not she his. When she had been in captivity twenty-eight years, she had a vision, in which the Lord told her to return to her native country, to receive the crown of martyrdom. Next day she told her dream to Claudius, and bade him detain her there no longer. He said he could not stay there without her as his enemies, from whom he had been kept safely by her prayers, would come and kill him. So they went together to Troyes, where the Emperor Aurelian then was. His prsBfect Elidius very soon had Julia apprehended, and as she confessed that she was a Christian, he ordered her to be stretched with trodeaa and to have hot coals put on her back. The exe- cutioners, as soon as they had stretched her out, were struck blind so that they could not go on with the torture, and they implored Julia to help them. Others were ordered to scourge her, but their arms became powerless. The emperor, who was present, commanded her to sacrifice to his gods, threatening her with immediate death in case of refusal. She said she was ready to die and would on no account sacrifice to his gods. So he sentenced her to be be- headed. Claudius presented himself to Aurelian, saying, " Order me also to be beheaded with her, for I am her dis- ciple." Aurelian asked who he was, and he answered, '< I am Claudius the king, who took her captive when I fought against the Eomans, and her God has given me many blessings for her sake, during eight and twenty years that I have served and honoured her. A short time ago her God told her to return to Troyes, to receive the martyr's crown, and I said I would not let her go unless I might come with her. She told me to leave all I had, and give my goods to the poor and come with her, and her God would give me the crown of everlasting life, so I have come with her, and I will die with her." Aurelian said, ** You are not a Christian, so how can you die for Christ's sake ? " Claudius answered, " I think that if I shed my blood for Jesus Christ, I shall be a Christian. He will accept me for the sake of His blessed martyr Julia." Then Aurelian ordered him to be put to death outside the walls of the city. Twenty other Christiaiif offered themselves to Aurelian and were put to death at their own request, and buried in the same place where Julia and Claudius were killed and boried. B.M. AA,SS,j from her acts collected by Canisius and Surius. The story is almost the same as that of St. Auceoa, and is perhaps a dnplicate of it. (See Luckja.) St Julia (22) or Julius, April 16, M. 303, was one of nineteen martyrs at Saragossa, celebrated by Pmdentiiis, ia his book of crowns, in which he con- gratulates Saragossa on having more martyrs to Christ than any other town in Spain. His hymn on Uie subject is given by Papebroch in AA,SS. JxJIf. St. Julia (23), Oct. 1, M. with her brother and sister, SS. Yerissimus and Maxima, at Lisbon, probably 303. JS.Jf. AA^S. St Julia (24) of Resaphe, Oct 7, Y. M. early in the 4th century. Put to death under Marcian, governor of Augusta Euphratesia or Resaphe, in Syria, soon after the martyrdom of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, and buried near them. The place was afterwards called Sergiopolis. It is in the diocese of Hierapolis. B.M. AA,SS. Butler. St. Julia (25), EusTocHiuM. St. Julia (26) of Egypt, July 29, is perhaps the nun who is mentioned in the Life of St. Euphrasia (8). St. Julia (27), May 22, V. M. in Corsica. Patron of Brescia and Bergamo. On the taking of the city of Carthage, either by the Yandals in 439, or the Persians in 625, St. Julia was among the captives, and fell to the lot of a man named Eusebius, whom she served according to the apostolical precept, not with eye-service, but as unto the Lord, and her leisure she devoted to reading or to prayer. Moreover, she fasted con- tinually, save only on the day of the Lord's resurrection. Her wan face and wasted limbs showed the severity of her solf-disciplinc ; she was pale as the violets of abstinoDce, white as the lilies