Ready to substitute themselves for Saints Peter and Paul, their fervour and conviction allowed them to be martyred rather than renounce Our Lord
Newsdesk (21/07/2025, Gaudium Press) Alongside the great Saints Peter and Paul, we honour two saints born directly from the apostolate of those two pillars of the Church, Saint Martinian and Saint Processus.
When ones reads the story of these two saints, one can only say that one feels the power of the graces that animated the Apostolic Church in the days of Its infancy.
They were soldiers of Nero, who were on guard duty in the Mamertine Prison when Peter and Paul arrived there. These two prisoners seemed strange to them at first. They were not like the others, they did not emit darkness, but rather a special light seemed to come forth from them. They spoke kindly, they gave their food to others, they helped the sick, they spoke enthusiastically about a Jewish Prophet they called Jesus.
They had seen such prisoners before, those who called themselves Christians – after Nero decreed to persecute them, they were brought to prison in droves. They were people who seemed, by their presence, to change the very face of the prison itself.
The miracle of the water of life
Processus and Martinian listened to these Christians and, eventually, they began to enjoy their message, grace touched them, until at last they decided to become followers of Christ and declared that they wanted to be His disciples. They ask for Baptism. They even offer themselves as substitutes for Peter and Paul so that the two Apostles can escape the prison, with themselves remaining in their place.
But the first thing is Baptism, the Sacrament of Christian Initiation, the regenerating water in the Spirit.
Alas, there was no water, the indispensable material of the Sacrament. But at that moment, the first Pope worked one of his many miracles: St. Peter made a cross in front of the Tarpeian Rock, from which the clear liquid began to flow, water which was also used to baptize 47 others who had already asked for the Sacrament. This spring has not been exhausted to this day, and continues to be the occasion of many favours, something very symbolic because it is the font of Peter.
Persecution is now directed against the converted jailers.
But it is clear that the pagan empire will not so easily admit that former jailers of Christians are now Heralds of the Good News of Jesus.
Judge Paulinus sent for Martinian and Processus. He tells them not to worry, that they will be forgiven this fleeting moment of weakness, of vain illusion; but that, of course, they should abandon such absurd new beliefs, such nonsense, and that there was already Jupiter or Mars or whatever pagan god, ultimately the Devil, who awaited their incense and their worship. Paulinus did not understand the power of the grace that had come to the jailers with Baptism, but he saw it when he was confronted with their determined will: they were and would remain Christians, so they told him. In Christ they had found true freedom, a freedom that prison walls could not enclose.
The torture begins
It is said that they did everything to them. They were slapped across the mouth, they were whipped, beaten with rods … Finally they were burnt, and then beheaded. But when they were being burned, without any natural explanation, the judge Paulinus was blinded, an evil spirit took hold of him and he died after three days.
There was a Christian matron, Lucina, who collected the bodies of the two imprisoned martyrs, as she did for many. She had them buried on her property, on the Roman Via Aurelia, and later was begun the construction of a church in their honour.
Their relics now lie in an urn under an altar dedicated to them at St. Peter’s Basilica and the whole Christian world honours them, for they are in Heaven.
With information from Catholic.net
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
The post The Jailors Who Were Set Free by Christ appeared first on Gaudium Press
Related Images:
