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Innocent hailed from near Rome, and he reluctantly succeeded Pope St. Anastasius I in the year of Our Lord 402, by unanimous choice. One of Innocent’s great hopes was to broker peace between the Emperor Honorius and Alaric the Goth, but his efforts were in vain, and the Goths sacked Rome in the year of Our Lord 410. Innocent was in Ravenna meeting with the Emperor at the time, but he hastened back to Rome to minister to the Christians there. With the holy pontiff’s guidance, the Christians demonstrated such virtue in their suffering that many pagans were converted by their example. Innocent declared that only bishops may administer Confirmation, and that absolution should never be denied to those dying repentant. He affirmed the final authority of the papacy in ecclesiastical matters, while confirming the findings of councils that had condemned the Pelagian heresy. Innocent also reconciled many Novatian heretics to the Church, and defended St. John Chrysostom against his persecutors. He died in the year of Our Lord 417 after a reign of fifteen years, and was quickly hailed as a saint.
AT Rome, the martyrdom of St. Victor, pope and martyr.
Also, at Rome, St. Innocent, pope and confessor.
At Milan, the birthday [into heaven] of the holy martyrs Nazarius and a boy named Celsus. While the persecution excited by Nero was raging, they were beheaded by Anolinus, after long sufferings and afflictions endured in prison.
In Thebais, in Egypt, the commemoration of many holy martyrs who suffered in the persecution of Decius and Valerian. At this time, when Christians sought death by the sword for the name of Christ, the crafty enemy devised certain slow torments to put them to death, wishing much more to kill their souls rather than their bodies. One of these Christians, after suffering the torture of the rack, of hot metal plates and of seething oil, was smeared with honey and exposed, in the broiling heat of the sun, with his hands tied behind him, to the stings of wasps and flies. Another was bound and laid among flowers, when a shameless woman approached him with the intention of exciting his passions, but he bit off his tongue and spat it in her face.
At Ancyra, in Galatia, the holy martyr Eustathius. After various torments, he was plunged into a river, but being delivered by an angel, was finally called to his reward by a dove coming from heaven.
At Miletus, in the time of the emperor Licinius, the holy martyr Acatius, who completed his martyrdom by having his head struck off, after having undergone different torments and been thrown into a furnace, from which he came out uninjured through the assistance of God.
In Bretagne, St. Sampson, bishop and confessor.
At Lyons, St. Peregrinus, priest, whose happiness in heaven is attested by glorious miracles.
℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
℟. Thanks be to God.