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After the martyrdom of Pope St. Fabian in the year of Our Lord 250, the Church was without a pope for over a year, the persecution being so great that no assembly could gather and elect a successor. Finally, when the Emperor left Rome to go to war, sixteen bishops assembled and elected the reluctant Cornelius. Almost immediately, a renegade priest named Novatian rose up as an antipope, asserting that Cornelius and others were too lenient in dealing with Christians who had apostatized but repented. Thanks in part to the support of his friend St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, Cornelius withstood this schism and authoritatively declared the Novatianists to be heretics, not merely schismatics, for they eventually denied the ability of the church to forgive not just apostasy, but all mortal sins. When persecution increased once more, with the Christians blamed for a plague that struck the city, Cornelius was exiled from Rome and eventually martyred on what is now the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Bishop Cyprian was martyred on the same date a few years later, and the church honors the two friends together today in one feast, deferring to the Exaltation on the 14th and Our Lady of Sorrows on the 15th.
THE Saints Cornelius and Cyprian, pontiffs and martyrs, whose birthday [into heaven] is the 14th of this month.
At Chalcedon, the birthday of St. Euphemia, virgin and martyr, under the emperor Diocletian and the proconsul Priscus. For faith in our Lord she was subjected to tortures, imprisonment, blows, the torment of the wheel, fire, the crushing weight of stones, the teeth of beasts, scourging with rods, the cutting of sharp saws, burning pans, all of which she survived. But when she was again exposed to the beasts in the amphitheatre, praying to our Lord to receive her spirit, one of the animals having inflicted a bite on her sacred body, whilst the rest licked her feet, she yielded her unspotted soul to God.
At Rome, the holy martyrs Lucia, noble matron, and Geminian, who were subjected to most grievous afflictions and a long time tortured, by the command of the emperor Diocletian. Finally, being put to the sword, they obtained the glorious victory of martyrdom.
Also, at Rome, at a place on the Flaminian road, ten miles from the city, the holy martyrs Abundius, priest, and Abundantius, deacon, whom the emperor Diocletian caused to be struck with the sword, together with Marcian, an illustrious man, and his son John, whom they had raised from the dead.
At Heraclea, in Thrace, St. Sebastiana, martyr, under the emperor Domitian and the governor Sergius. Being brought to the faith of Christ by the blessed apostle Paul, she was tormented in various ways and finally beheaded.
At Cordova, the holy martyrs Rogellus and Servideus, who were decapitated, after their hands and feet had been cut off.
In Scotland, St. Ninian, bishop and confessor.
In England, St. Editha, virgin, daughter of the English king Edgar, who was consecrated to God in a monastery from her tender years, whence she may be said to have been ignorant of the world rather than to have forsaken it.
℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
℟. Thanks be to God.