Saint Nazarius, apostle and martyr

Summary:

Nazarius was the son of an illustrious Jew called Africanus and of Saint Perpetua, a devout Christian from a noble Roman family. Perpetua was a spiritual daughter of Saint Peter, who had baptized her. At the age of nine, Nazarius was perplexed to see his father and mother each practice a different religion. While he hesitated as to which one he should embrace, his parents told him to follow his own path.

God personally revealed to him that he should follow in his mother's footsteps, and he was baptized by the future pope Saint Linus.

Informed of his choice, his father tried to dissuade him from his resolution by describing the various torments inflicted on Christians at the time. But Nazarius would not change his mind. He set about preaching Christianity with "the greatest constancy" and remained faithful to Christ until the end.

The Roman authorities followed his activities and wherebouts. They planned to arrest and kill him. Fearing for his life, his parents prayed together that God would lead him safely out of Rome.

As they both begged the Lord to save Nazarius, gave their son seven chests loaded with various riches, and told him to leave the city immediately.

Nazarius promised to pray for their protection. He then travelled great distances across the Italian peninsula, preaching the Gospel and distributing his goods to the poor.

Ten years later, he was preaching in the region of Piacenza (Italy, Emilia-Romagna) and Milan (Italy, Lombardy), when God send him to minister to Christian prisoners, especially two young brothers condemned to death, called Gervasius and Protasius.

Following God's command, Nazarius went to the Milan prison, talked to the guards at the entrance, and surprisingly, was allowed to visit the Christian prisoners, including the future martyrs Gervasius and Protasius whom he met for the first time. He encouraged and comforted all.

When the governor of the prison learned of this permission granted without his consent, and of Nazarius encouraging the Christians to hold fast to their faith, he had the future saint arrested in the middle of the city, and ruthlessly handed him over to the Prefect of Rome, who at the time was exercising criminal justice in a special court for cases threatening public order.

In the face of threats, Nazarius persisted in confessing Jesus Christ. The prefect, drunk with rage, had him whipped and condemned to exile, threatening to kill him immediately if he ever returned. 

Nazarius began a short period of wandering, having to beg to survive. He had a vision of his mother, who had died shortly after his departure: she begged him to go to Gaul, which Nazarius did without being told the details of his mission.

He arrived in Cemenelum (modern-day Nice in southern France), where he preached continuously and converted many people. A woman from the local nobility entrusted her 9-year-old son Celsus to him, to be baptized and raised as a Christian.

Nazarius' reputation for holiness spread far and wide. When the Prefect of Gaul learnt of his popularity, he ordered a group of soldiers to seize Nazarius and Celsus. Nazarius's had his hands bound behind his back, a chain tied around his neck and he was thrown into a squalid dungeon. The next day, he had to appear before his judges, not knowing what had happened to Celsus.

Once again, God intervened: the prefect's wife, informed of the arrest of the saint and the child, told her husband that it was unjust to condemn innocent people in this way, and his actions could provoke "the vengeance of the almighty gods". Celsus was returned to Nazarius, and the two expelled from the city. 

Nazarius and Celsus headed for Geneva (Switzerland). From there, they travelled to Trier (Germany), where Nazarius was one of the first to preach the Gospel. Here again, his preaching and example moved many people to ask for baptism. Nazarius built a small chapel where he celebrated mass, and moved in with Celsus nearby.

When Cornelius, governor of Trier, heard of Nazarius' success, he informed Emperor Nero, who was quick to react by ordering them to be imprisoned as soon as possible. Nero sent a hundred men to prevent any uprising by the city's inhabitants.

The Romans found the two Christians beside their chapel. They tied their hands and said to Nazarius: "The great Nero is summoning you". They led him in chains to Nero. As for little Celsus, who was crying, they slapped him to force him to follow the troop.

After several weeks of hard marching, they reached Rome. Nero had them imprisoned until he could think of a way to kill them.

A few days passed. The Roman emperor injured his foot while hunting. Frightened, he wondered about the cause of this accident, remembered Nazarius and Celsus, and thought the gods must angry with him for having let these Christians live for so long. So he summoned them again.

When the emperor saw Nazarius, he thought he was hallucinating: the saint's face shone with a supernatural brightness. He ordered him to cease his spells and to sacrifice to the gods. Nazarius, taken to the temple, said nothing; he closed his eyes, then raised his face in the direction of the statues of the pagan divinities, which inexplicably crumbled one by one.

On hearing this, Nero ordered the two Christians to be drowned by being thrown into the Tyrrhenian Sea, with instructions that if they managed to escape, they were to be captured, burnt alive and their ashes cast in the sea.

Nazarius and Celsus were taken on board a ship. When it reached the open sea, they were thrown into the waves. Immediately, however, an extraordinary storm erupted around the ship, while "the greatest calm" reigned around the saints. The sailors feared they would perish, and some repented of the wickedness they had just committed against the two holy men. At that moment, the crew, about to perish in the storm, saw Nazarius and Celsus walking on the water and climbing back onto the ship without difficulty. Nazarius calmed the waves with a prayer. The ship, miraculously saved and steered by the Holy Spirit, headed for Genoa (Italy, Liguria), where they disembarked.

Nazarius and Celsus settled in Albaro (today a district of Genoa). The saint preached there with great success. This village was one of the first places in Italy where masses were celebrated.

Finally, Nazarius and Celsus went to Milan, where they had left Gervasius and Protasius. When the prefect Anolin, who was rabidly opposed to the Christians, heard of their arrival, he had them imprisoned. It was then that a mysterious messenger told Nazarius that his father had converted to Christianity following an apparition of the apostle Saint Peter, who asked him to follow his wife and son in the Christian faith.

Nazarius and Celsus were quickly brought before a tribunal, which this time was intractable: the two Christians, as Roman citizens, were taken out of the city and beheaded.

Some Christians removed their bodies and buried them in the garden of a pious man called Ceratius. The following night, the two martyrs appeared to him and asked him to bury their remains in a place far from his house, for his own safety. Ceratius was too afflicted by his daughter's illness to be able to do so right away. He begged the two martyrs to first cure his paralytic daughter. The two saints were able to grant this miracle. Ceratius then found the strength to dig up the two bodies and to bury them as they had recommended.

In 395, Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, received a divine revelation informing him of the place where the two martyrs were buried, somewhere in a garden outside the city. The bodies were found in an exceptional state of preservation. Fresh blood, with a wonderful odour, flowed from the chest of Saint Nazarius. The two martyrs were taken to the Basilica of the Apostles, where they were buried in a very beautiful and solemn ceremony. On this occasion, Pope Damasus I sent a silver casket to Saint Ambrose to enshrine the relics.

Ambrose wrote the following about Saint Nazarius: "Nazarius, famous for the generous blood he shed, deserved to ascend to the kingdom of heaven. Suffering all the cruelest torments, he overcame the rage of tyrants by his constancy and never gave in to the threats of persecutors, for he had Our Lord Jesus Christ, who fought with him, to support him in the midst of his battles [...] Led into the middle of the sea, supported by the angels, he walked dry-footed on the waves."

Beyond reasons to believe:

The collective memory of several thousand Europeans has preserved intact the exceptional life of Saint Nazaire, whose sanctity was proclaimed by the Church.

Going further:

Jacobus de Vorágine (1995). The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. Vol. II. Translated by W. G. Ryan. Princeton NJ USA: Princeton University Press. pp. 18–21.

More information:

• Pinio, Joannes (1868). Acta sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur. Julii (in Latin). Vol. Tomus 6. Dies XXV-XXVIII. Paris: V. Palmé. pp. 503–533.
• Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis (in Latin). Vol. II (K-Z). Bruxelles: Société de Bollandistes. 1900. pp. 881–882.
• Saint Gregory (Bishop of Tours) (1988). Raymond Van Dam, tr. (ed.). Glory of the Martyrs. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. pp. 69–70.
• The Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus in Carcassone, France (6th century)