From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
A FOURTH Roman Virgin, wearing on her brow a martyr’s crown, comes today to share the honours given to Agnes, Emerentiana, and Prisca, and offer her palm to the Lamb. Her name is Martina, which the pagans were wont to give to their daughters in honour of their god of war. Her sacred relics repose at the foot of the Capitoline hill, in the ancient temple of Mars, which has now become the beautiful Church of Saint Martina. The holy ambition to render herself worthy of him whom she had chosen as her divine Spouse, gave her courage to suffer torments and death for his sake; so that of her, as of the rest of the martyrs, we may say those words of the Liturgy, washed her robes in the Blood of the Lamb. Our Emmanuel is the Mighty God,[1] the Lord that is mighty in war,[2] not, like the Mars of the pagans, needing the sword to win his battles. He vanquishes his enemies by meekness, patience, and innocence, as in the martyrdom of today’s Saint, whose victory was grander than was ever won by Rome’s boasted warriors.
This illustrious Virgin, who is one of the Patrons of the City of Rome, is honoured by having her praises sung by one of the Popes. It was Urban the Eighth who wrote the Hymns which are recited on her feast, and which we subjoin to the Lessons which recount the glorious combats of our Saint.
Martina Virgo Romana patre consulari, illustri genere nata, teneris adhuc annis orbata parentibus, christianæ pietatis ardore succensa, divitias quibus affluebat, mira in pauperes liberalitate distribuit. Sub Alexandro principe cum deos inanes colere juberetur, immane facinus summa Ubertate detestatur. Quaproper iterum atque iterum affecta verberibus, uncis, ungulis ferreis, testarum fragmentis lacerata, acutissimis gladiis membratim concisa, adipe ferventi peruncta, demum in amphitheatro damnatur ad bestias: a quibus illæsa divinitus evadens, in ardentem rogum injecta, incolumis pari beneficio servatur.
Ex ejus tortoribus nonnulli miraculi novitate correpti, Dei aspirante gratia, Christi fidem amplexi, post cruciatus gloriosam martyrii palmam, capitis abscissione promeruere. Ad ejusdem preces nunc terræ motibus exortis, nunc ignibus e cœlo tonante delapsis, deorum templa prostrata sunt, et simulacra consumpta. Interdum ex vulneribus lac cum sanguine erupit, splendorque nitidissimus ac suavissimus odore corpore emanavit: interdum sublimis regia in sede divinis laudibus una cum cœlitibus interesse visa est.
Hisce prodigiis, ejusque in primis constantia, acriter permotus judex, caput Virgini amputari præcepit; qua perempta, auditaque de cœlo voce, qua ad Superos evocabatur, urbs tota contremuit, ac multi idolorum cultores ad Christi fidem conversi sunt. Sacrum Martinæ corpus sedente sancto Urbano Primo, martyrio affectum, Urbano Octavo Pontifice Maximo, in pervetusta ejusdem Ecclesia, ad Mamertinum carcerem in Capitolini divi radicibus, cum sanctorum Martyrum Concordii, Epiphanii, et sociorum corporibus repertum, eodem loco in meliorem formam redacto, atque decentius ornato, magno populi concursu, totius Urbis lætitia, solemni ritu ac pompa repositum est.
Martina, a noble virgin of Rome, was the daughter of a Consul. Having lost her parents when quite a child, and being exceedingly fervent in the practice of the Christian religion, she was singularly charitable to the poor, and distributed among them her immense riches. During the reign of Alexander Severus, she was ordered to worship the false gods, but most courageously refused to commit so detestable a crime. Whereupon she was several times scourged; her flesh was torn with iron hooks and nails, and with potsherds, and her whole body was cut with most sharp swords; she was scalded with boiling oil, and was at length condemned to be devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheatre; but being miraculously left untouched by them, she was thrown on a burning pile, from which she also escaped unhurt, by the same divine power.
Some of the men that had inflicted these tortures upon her, being struck by the miracle, and touched by the grace of God, embraced the Christian faith, and, after suffering many tortures, gained the glorious palm of martyrdom by being beheaded. The prayers of Martina were powerful with God. Earthquakes shook the city, fire fell from the heavens in the midst of loud thunder, the temples and idols of the gods were overthrown and destroyed. More than once, milk flowed from her wounds together with the blood, and a most sweet fragrance was perceived by the bystanders; and sometimes she was seen raised up and placed on a beautiful throne, and singing the divine praises surrounded by heavenly spirits.
Vexed above measure by these prodigies, and above all by her constancy, the judge ordered her to be beheaded. Which being done, a voice from heaven was heard calling Martina to ascend: the whole city trembled, and many of the idolaters were converted to the faith of Christ. Martina suffered under the Pontificate of Urban the First; and under that of Urban the Eighth, her body was discovered in an ancient Church, together with those of the holy Martyrs Concordius, Epiphanius and Companions, near the Mamertine prison, at the foot of the Capitoline hill. The Church was restored and decorated, and the body of the Saint was again placed in it, with much solemnity, in the presence of a great concourse of people, and amidst shouts of joy from the whole city.
We unite into one the three hymns of Urban the Eighth, in which the holy Church prays for the deliverance of Jerusalem. It is the last cry of the Crusades.
Hymn
Martinæ celebri plaudite nomini,
Cives Romulei, plaudite gloriæ:
Insignem meritis dicite Virginem,
Christi dicite Martyrem.
Hæc dum conspicuis orta parentibus,
Inter delicias, inter amabiles
Luxus illecebras, ditibus affluit
Faustæ muneribus domus.
Vitæ despiciens commoda, dedicat
Se rerum Domino, et munifica manu
Christi pauperibus distribuens opes,
Quærit præmia cœlitum.
Non illam crucians ungula, non feræ,
Non virgæ horribili vulnere commovent :
Hinc lapsi e Superum sedibus Angeli
Cœesti dape recreant.
Quin et deposita sævitie leo,
Se rictu placido projicit ad pedes;
Te, Martina, tamen dans gladius neci
Cœli coetibus inserit.
Te, thuris redolens ara vaporibus
Quæ fumat, precibus jugiter invocat,
Et falsum perimens auspicium, tui
Delet nominis omine.
Tu natale solum protege, tu bonæ
Da pacis requiem Christianum plagis;
Armorum strepitus, et fera prælia
In fines age Thracios.
Et regum socians agmina sub crucis
Vexillo, Solymas nexibus exime,
Vindexque innocui sanguinis hosticum
Robur funditus erue.
Tu nostrum columen, tu decus inclytum,
Nostrarum obsequium respice mentium :
Romæ vota libens excipe, quæ pio
Te ritu canit, et colit.
A nobis abigas lubrica gaudia,
Tu, qui Martyribus dexter ades, Deus
Une, et Trine, tuis da famulis jubar,
Quo clemens animos beas.
Amen.
Citizens of Rome! sing to the celebrated name
of the glorious Martina.
Sing the praises of this admirable Virgin
and Martyr of Christ.
She was born of noble parents,
and was brought up in every delicacy,
surrounded by all that could pamper nature,
and with riches of a princely house at her command.
But she spurns these luxuries,
dedicates herself to the Creator of all things,
and with a liberal hand distributes her riches to the poor of Christ,
that she may gain the riches of heaven.
She shrinks not at the torturing hook, the wild beasts,
or the cruel wound-inflicting rods.
Angels descend from heaven,
comforting her with divine food.
The very lions lose their fierceness,
and tamely come crouching at her feet.
The sword, Martina! gave thee the wished-for death,
and death united thee to the choirs of heaven.
Our ceaseless prayers mount up to thee from thine altar,
where clouds of incense shroud devotion's love;
and thy blessed name banishes
that of the false deity Mars.
Do thou protect thy fatherland,
and give to Christian countries the rest of holy peace,
driving unto Thracian coasts
the din of arms and war.
Marshal the armies of princes under the banner of the Cross,
deliver Jerusalem from her chains.
Avenge innocent blood,
and once for all crush down the Turkish foe,
O thou our Patron, and our City’s Saint!
see this homage of our loving hearts.
Hear the prayers of thy Rome,
which on this festive day offers thee its hymns and reveres thy name.
O God, whose arm protects the Martyrs,
take from us the pleasures which would make us fall.
O Triune God! give to thy servants the blessed light,
wherewith thy mercy crowns the soul with bliss.
Amen.
Thus does Christian Rome hymn thy praises, O generous Martyr! and whilst praising, begs thee to protect her with thy loving care. She is safe from danger, if shielded by such watchfulness as thine. Hear her prayers, and drive far from the Holy City the enemies that would plot her ruin. She has foes more to be dreaded than they that attack her walls with the cannon of their fierce artillery; she has them who plot the destruction of her independence. Disconcert these plans of perfidy, and remember, O Martina! that the City which now asks thy aid was the mother that trained thee to be a martyr.
Obtain for us from Jesus, thy Spouse, the courage to destroy those idols of our affections, to which we are so prone to offer the sacrifice of our hearts. The enemies of our salvation are untiring in their attacks upon our frailty; oh! stretch out to us thy helping hand; that hand which made the idols of Rome tremble, is not less powerful now to stay the violence of the world that threatens to destroy our souls. Thy own brave combats have given thee a place of honour near our Redeemer’s Crib: if, like thee, we will but resist and conquer, this Mighty God will welcome us, too, and bless us. He came into this world that he might vanquish our enemies, but he requires of us to share with him the toils of the battle. Pray for us, O Martina! that our confidence in God may ever be accompanied by diffidence in ourselves, and we shall never be cowards in the great contest for heaven!
[1] Isa. ix 6.
[2] Ps. xxiii 8.