SAINTS JOHN AND PAUL (362 A.D.) Martyrs and what they can tell us about going along to getting along . . .

Ask them.

They lost their heads over Jesus. In their own back yard.

[They] were brothers and officers of the Roman army in the days of Constantine the Great, and life was good. But their preferments and rewards for loyal service were about to go away.

New man in charge Julian the Apostate, raised a Christian, had returned to the cult of idols and was attempting to re-establish it in the empire, embraced paganism and sought to restore it to its former ascendancy. The brothers resigned their position in the palace, seeing many who went along with this and prospered.

Not for us, they said. The emperor tried to win them back. Gave them ten days to think it over. They spent the time giving everything they had to poor people. The emperor sent the imperial officer Terentianus, who brought “a little idol of Jupiter for their adoration.” He found them in prayer. They said no and in the middle of that night were decapitated in their own garden, secretly because the emperor feared their execution might cause a sedition.

He instigated a rumor that they had been exiled but demons had used people to broadcast their martyrdom, including the officer’s son, and it was only after the father prayed at the martyrs’ tomb that the child, imprisoned for doing this, was liberated. This so impressed tha father that he became a Christian, with all his family, and wrote the history we have reported.

The brothers? By their renouncement of favors and their heroic resistance, they purchased never-fading glory, more than the emperor could provide in a million years, figuratively speaking.

Their basilica

. . . sits atop one of the seven hills of ancient Rome; and since the fifth century, their names have been included in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Their feast day is celebrated on June 26, the date of their martyrdom.

Such a little thing the officer asked, just worship this little idol and we’re outa here. Nothing would have happened here. Was that too much for the emperor to require? Turns out it was, and we 21st-century worshipers can pray these days,

O Almighty God, let our joy be doubled on this feast of the victory of blessed John and Paul, for they were made true brothers by sharing the same faith and the same martyrdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father almighty and the Holy Spirit, world without end.

Amen.