Browsing Category Saint of the Day

The Rev’d Alban Butler (1710-1773) undertook to write a thoroughgoing account of saints for the Catholic Book Society (Derby, England: Thomas Richardson & Son). What resulted was a massive 12-volume (one per month) work: The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints: Compiled from Original Monuments and Other Authentic Records. The first edition was completed in 1759, and became a classic in hagiography, with later editions that included commentary, such as the 1842-1846 work, used here.
[Because subsequent research showed that certain individuals never existed or had actually been pagan deities cloaked in a Christian veneer, or because the miracles were simply too “out there” for a more modern audience, a severe gelding of Butler’s magisterial work took place in 1956. Alas.]
Out of each day’s multiple stories, I shall lift up those vignettes to riff on. Enjoy and (if it’s in your particular vernacular) be edified! – TK

March 12: Maximilian: Cowardly Lion or Ancient Peacenik?

Tim Koch Saint of the Day 0 Comment

Maximilian lived during the latter part of the third century. He was a military brat (his father, Victor, was a Roman soldier stationed in present-day Tunisia and Libya). It was fully expected–Butler reports that it was the law–for the sons of soldiers to become soldiers themselves.

So Maximilian went to enlist, as it were. He was found to be of an appropriate stature (5’10” in height, according to ancient records that were converted to 18th-century English measures). But when it came to his uniform, Maximilian refused to don a leaden collar around his neck upon which the Emperor’s name and motto were engraved. He also refused to have a military mark or tattoo placed upon his hand.

This didn’t go well for Maximilian. It went even worse when he gave out the reason that the Roman army was filed with superstitions and that, as a Christian, he wanted no part of them. No part of the hazing, no part of the uniform, no part of the military life for our Maximilian.

In the end, yes, Max ended up with a military deferment: he was beheaded–a fate that he himself found preferable to being in the Roman army.

What do you make of this?