St. Armogastes and Companions
Armogastes, Archinimus & Saturus
Feast day: March 29
Death: 455/460
Martyrs of the Vandals.
. Armogastes and Saturus were orthodox Catholics and high officers at the palace of the Vandal king Genseric. When the king returned from Italy in 457, he enacted and enforced a more stringent penal code against the Catholics. Armogastes was stripped of his honors and cruelly tortured. As occurred with many other saints, his tormentors had a difficult time. No sooner had his tied him up with cords than they would break--repeatedly--each time Armogastes lifted his eyes to heaven. Finally, they hanged him upside-down by one foot. But the saint remained nonplussed, so Prince Theodoric ordered that he be beheaded. An Arian priest advised against it, saying that he should not be killed "lest the Romans should venerate them as martyrs." Therefore, he was sent to work in the mines of Byzacena from where he was condemned to work the remainder of his life as a cowherd near Carthage, Tunisia; however, he died soon afterwards.
Saturus was master of Huneric's household. Huneric threatened to deprive him of all he owned as well as his slaves, wife, and children unless he give up his faith. His own wife tried to convince Saturus to convert, but he courageously answered her in the words of Job: "You have spoken like one of the foolish women. If you loved me, you would give me different advice, and not push me on to a second death. Let them do their worst: I will always remember our Lord's words: 'If any man born to me, and hate not his father and mother, his wife and children, his brethren and sisters, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.'" Like Armogastes he was deprived of everything. One sources reports that he too ended his days as a cowherd.
Archinimus of Mascula in Numidia also resisted the king's attempts to convert him to Arianism. Like Armogastes, he was condemned to beheading, but he received a reprieve while he stood under the axe. Although the Roman Martyrology names Archimimus and Masculas, as martyrs of this group, it apparently refers to Armogastes, with the meaning 'president of the Theater, a native of Mascula" or possibly we should understand "Archinimus, the Masculan"
Armogastes, Archinimus & Saturus
Feast day: March 29
Death: 455/460
Martyrs of the Vandals.
. Armogastes and Saturus were orthodox Catholics and high officers at the palace of the Vandal king Genseric. When the king returned from Italy in 457, he enacted and enforced a more stringent penal code against the Catholics. Armogastes was stripped of his honors and cruelly tortured. As occurred with many other saints, his tormentors had a difficult time. No sooner had his tied him up with cords than they would break--repeatedly--each time Armogastes lifted his eyes to heaven. Finally, they hanged him upside-down by one foot. But the saint remained nonplussed, so Prince Theodoric ordered that he be beheaded. An Arian priest advised against it, saying that he should not be killed "lest the Romans should venerate them as martyrs." Therefore, he was sent to work in the mines of Byzacena from where he was condemned to work the remainder of his life as a cowherd near Carthage, Tunisia; however, he died soon afterwards.
Saturus was master of Huneric's household. Huneric threatened to deprive him of all he owned as well as his slaves, wife, and children unless he give up his faith. His own wife tried to convince Saturus to convert, but he courageously answered her in the words of Job: "You have spoken like one of the foolish women. If you loved me, you would give me different advice, and not push me on to a second death. Let them do their worst: I will always remember our Lord's words: 'If any man born to me, and hate not his father and mother, his wife and children, his brethren and sisters, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.'" Like Armogastes he was deprived of everything. One sources reports that he too ended his days as a cowherd.
Archinimus of Mascula in Numidia also resisted the king's attempts to convert him to Arianism. Like Armogastes, he was condemned to beheading, but he received a reprieve while he stood under the axe. Although the Roman Martyrology names Archimimus and Masculas, as martyrs of this group, it apparently refers to Armogastes, with the meaning 'president of the Theater, a native of Mascula" or possibly we should understand "Archinimus, the Masculan"
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