The Lives of the Saints Volume 1 - St. Patrick's Basilica

her to renounce her faith. He inquired what was her religion. Her answer
was: "I am a Christian." Her brother, Fortunatianus, undertook her
defence, and endeavored to prove her lunatic. The saint, fearing his
plea might be the means of her losing the crown of martyrdom, made it
appear by her wise confutations of it, that she was in her perfect
senses, and protested that she had not been brought over to Christianity
against her will. The proconsul asked her if she would return with her
brother? She said: "She could not, being a Christian, and acknowledging
none as brethren but those who kept the law of God." The proconsul then
laid aside the quality of judge to become her humble suppliant, and
entreated her not to throw away her life. But she rejected his
entreaties with disdain, and said to him: "I have already told you my
mind. I am a Christian, and I assisted at the collect." Anulinus,
provoked at this constancy, reassumed his rage, and ordered her to
prison with the rest, to wait the sentence of death which he not long
after pronounced upon them all.
The proconsul would yet try to gain Hilarianus, Saturninus's youngest
son, not doubting to vanquish one of his tender age. But the child
showed more contempt than fear of the tyrant's threats, and answered his
interrogatories: "I am a Christian: I have been at the collect, and it
was of my own voluntary choice, without any compulsion." The proconsul
threatened him with those little punishments with which children are
accustomed to be chastised, little knowing that God himself fights in
his martyrs. The child only laughed at him. The governor then said to
him: "I will cut off your nose and ears." Hilarianus replied: "You may
do it; but I am a Christian." The proconsul, dissembling his confusion,
ordered him to prison. Upon which the child said: "Lord, I give thee
thanks." These martyrs ended their lives under the hardships of their
confinement, and are honored in the ancient calendar of Carthage, and
the Roman Martyrology, on the 11th of February, though only two (of the
name of Felix) died on that day of their wounds.
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The example of these martyrs condemns the sloth with which many
Christians in this age celebrate the Lord's Day. When the judge asked
them, how they durst presume to hold their assembly against the imperial
orders, they always repeated, even on the rack: "The obligation of the
Sunday is indispensable. It is not lawful for us to omit the duty of
that day. We celebrated it as well as we could. We never passed a Sunday
without meeting at our assembly. We will keep the commandments of God at
the expense of our lives." No dangers nor torments could deter them from
this duty. A rare example of fervor in keeping that holy precept, from