1st January is the saint’s day for a 2nd
century Christian martyr named Concordius.
Little is known about Concordius’s early life, apart from
the fact that he was a dedicated Christian who spent most of his time in remote
parts of the Apennine Mountains of central Italy, praying and meditating.
At some time during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius,
Concordius was captured and taken to Spoleto (the town in the photo) to face trial before Torquatus,
the governor of Umbria. At first, Torquatus was prepared to be lenient by
promising Concordius his freedom if he agreed to renounce his faith and worship
a statue of Jupiter. Concordius refused to do this and he was ordered to be
beaten with wooden clubs.
At the next hearing, Torquatus demanded that Corcordius
state his name, to which he replied: “I am a Christian and I confess Jesus
Christ”. For this, Corcordius was tortured on a rack, during which time he sang
hymns.
He was flung into prison under sentence of death by
beheading. When the soldiers arrived to carry out the sentence he was given one
last chance to repent by making a sacrifice to an idol. Instead he spat at the
idol, after which the sentence was carried out.
© John Welford
No comments:
Post a Comment