#early christians
12 March: the Feast of St Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death.
The Mass of St Gregory is a favourite depiction in Christian art.
Tradition has it that, once when celebrating Mass, a woman smiled when receiving Communion. Questioned, she laughed at Gregory’s reverence for the host, insisting that it was nothing more than bread she had baked that day. Legend holds the host then appeared as a finger. Subsequently, tradition asserted that the image of Jesus as the “Man of Sorrows” appeared on the altar during the Mass.
Saint Polycarp of Smyrna’s Prayer at The Stake
Lord God almighty, Father of Jesus Christ, that dear Child of yours, through whom we have come to know you, God of the angels and powers, God of all creation, God of the race that lives in your presence, the race of the just.
I bless you because you have thought me worthy of this day and hour, worthy to be numbered among the martyrs and to drink out of the cup your Anointed has drunk from, so to rise and live for ever, body and soul, in the incorruptibility that is the Holy Spirit’s.
May I be admitted with them to your presence today, a satisfying, welcome sacrifice. You have made my life a preparation for this; you showed me that this was to be and now you have brought it about, like the veracious and truthful God that you are. For this and all your blessings I praise you and give you glory, through the eternal high priest, Jesus Christ the heavenly, your dear Child.
He is with you and the Holy Spirit. Through him may glory be given you now and in the ages to come. Amen.
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Prayer of Saint Afra of Augsburg at her martyrdom
Lord God almighty, Jesus Christ, you did not come to call the just; you came to call sinners to repentance.
Your promise is clear; it admits of no doubt. You were so good as to say that as soon as a sinner turned away from his evil deeds, you would say no more about his sins. Accept, then, as a sign of my repentance, the sufferings I am now undergoing, and by this fire that is waiting to burn my body for a time, deliver me from the eternal fire that burns body and soul alike.
Thanks be to you, Lord Jesus Christ: in your mercy you have chosen me to be a victim for the glory of your name – you who offered yourself on the cross as a victim for the salvation of the whole world, you the innocent for us the guilty, you the good for us the wicked, you the blessed for us the cursed, you the sinless for all us sinners.
To you I offer my sacrifice, to you who are one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, with whim you live and reign, as you always will, age after age. Amen.
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