Saint Hippolytus the Jailer

When he was before his tribunal, he said to him: "Have you then become a magician as well as that wretch whom we had burned, and to whom you gave burial?" — "I am no magician," replied Hippolytus, "any more than he was; but I have become a Christian, and I take more glory in this quality than in all the finest titles in the world."

Valerian, at this answer, had his m outh bru Valérien Roman emperor under whom the martyrdom took place. ised with stones; then he was stripped of his clothes, which were those with which he had been clothed at baptism; he was broken with several blows of a stick, and he was cruelly rubbed with thistles. This torture, which left him all bloody, could not shake his constancy nor draw any complaint from his mouth; he courageously told the tyrant that he would gain nothing from him by all these torments, and that he would give even the last drop of his blood for Jesus Christ, whom Lawrence had made known to him. Valerian, then changing his methods, wanted to win him over with gentleness. He therefore had him given the clothes of a Roman knight, and, seeing him splendidly dressed, he said to him: "Be now our friend, continue the office you held with us, enjoy in peace the goods that fortune has given you, and do not amuse yourself any longer with this vain superstition that has deceived you."

Hippolytus replied that he no longer recognized any master but Jesus Christ, nor any knighthood other than fighting for the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth.

The emperor, more irritated than ever, handed him over to a provost to conclude his trial and have him put to death. The latter first went to his house to seize all his goods by right of confiscation; but, finding all his people Christian and entirely resolved to follow his example unto death, he began by discharging all his fury upon them. He therefore had Concordia, that pious woman wh Concorde Nurse and governess of Hippolytus, martyred by scourging. o had been the nurse and governess of Hippolytus, stripped, and had her whipped with such barbarity that she expired under the lashes in the hands of the executioners. Then he himself led the other eighteen outside the Tiburtine Gate, where he had them beheaded. Finally, all these executions having served no purpose in changing the resolution of Hippolytus, who was present for them all, he had him tied by the feet to the necks of several untamed horses, which dragged him with fury along paths covered with pebbles, brambles, and thorns, which tore all his flesh and bruised his whole body with inexplicable pain. Thus this generous soldier of Jesus Christ rendered his very pure soul, still adorned with the robe of innocence that it had received at the sacrament of regeneration, to go and receive in heaven the sweetness of immortality; this occurred on August 13, three days after the execution of Saint Lawrence.

His body, broken as it was, was taken by the priest Justin, who had previously helped him bury that of Saint Lawrence, and was buried quite near him, in the same field, named Véran. But, more than five hundred years later, Pope Leo III gave it as a rich gift to Charlemagne, Emperor and King of France, who placed it in the monastery of Lièvre, from where it was later transferred to the Abbey of Sai nt-Denis, in France, abbaye de Saint-Denis Place where the saint's relics were kept until the French Revolution. in a chapel of his name where God performed several miracles through his intercession. It is said that the very pious King Robert, so roi Robert King of France who ordered the reconstruction of the church of Saint-Aignan and the translation of the relics. n of Hugh Capet, was extremely devoted to him. When he was besieging the cast le of Avallon, in château d'Avallon Fortress besieged by Robert the Pious, site of a miracle. Burgundy, seeing the feast of Saint Hippolytus approaching, he secretly slipped away from his camp to come and solemnize it at Saint-Denis. His devotion was not without reward, for during this journey the walls of this fortress, which was stubbornly resisting his arms, miraculously fell of their own accord, and the news was brought to the King when he was finishing hearing Mass in the Saint's chapel, on the day of this feast. Several 18th-century historians do not approve of this miracle, and claim that this prince took Avallon by famine and entered it through a breach that was made by his machines. This is a fact upon which the glory of Saint Hippolytus in no way depends, and which is much less than what he can do through the all-powerful virtue of God. We report it only on the faith of those who wrote the acts of King Robert, who must be the guarantors of it. Du Saussay, in his Martyrology, placed the siege of Melun in place of that of Avallon. He adds in his supplement that Pope Alexander III, h aving entered the pape Alexandre III Pope who proceeded with the canonization of Bertrand in Toulouse. chapel of Saint Hippolytus at Saint-Denis, did not want to believe that his bones had been brought there from Rome; but that at the same hour they were heard to move and make noise in their reliquary, as if to complain of this incredulity, which caused His Holiness to exclaim: Credo, Domine Hippolyte, credo; jam quiesce: "I believe, My Lord Hippolytus, I believe; rest now." The inhabitants of Cologne also claim to have his body in the church of Saint Ursula: but if it is our Blessed Roman knight, and not some other martyr of the same name, they can only have parts of it. A parish was dedicated in Paris, in the Saint-Marcel suburb, under the patronage of this glorious Martyr. Several other churches and chapels in France have been erected in his honor. There are relics of this Saint in the church of Bay (diocese of Langres). They undoubtedly come from the old abbey of Auberive, which is nearby. People go there on pilgrimage to be cured of weakness of the limbs.

Saint Hippolytus is represented: 1° dragged by spirited horses that tear his flesh to shreds; 2° in the habit and armor of Roman soldiers; 3° in the company of Saint Lawrence, his spiritual father.

His life is drawn from the acts of Saint Lawrence.