St. Felicity and Her Seven Sons - July 10th
Felicity was a noble Christian women of Rome. After her husband’s death, she served God and employed herself in prayer and works of charity. Her good example led others to embrace the faith. This angered the pagan priests, who complained to Antoninus Pius, the Emperor. They said she was an enemy of the state because she was making the gods angry. So the Emperor ordered Felicity arrested along with her seven sons. She came, calm and unafraid. The governor took her aside and tried in vain to make her sacrifice to the gods. He ended with the words, “Unhappy women, if you wish to die, die! But do not destroy your children!”
“My children,” she said, “will live forever if, like me, they scorn the idols and die for their God.”
This holy mother was forced to watch her sons being put to death. One was scourged, two were beaten with clubs, three beheaded and another drowned. Four months later, she, too, was beheaded. Her strength came from knowing that in Heaven she would be with God and her sons forever in perfect happiness.
St. Felicity, we may say, was martyred eight different times, because she had to watch each of her sons die before she too gave up her life for Jesus. What courage and faith!
Let us pray every day that God will bless our family and friends and that we will all meet again in Heaven.