22 MAY 2025. Today the Church of the Latin Rite and the Orthodox Church celebrates two of her early saints from Africa. While history has lost nearly all of the detail of the lives of Saints Castus and Emilius, what we do know of them offers an impressive and moving account of the hope, strength, and mercy found only in our God!
During the third century persecution of Christianity by Decius in Carthage, we first learn of our brothers. They were imprisoned and under threat of a terrible and painful death of martyrdom, they denied their Christian faith. After this trespass of our Lord's faith in them--the same faith the Lord places in each of us that we will remain faithful to Him, the Truth--they were released from prison.
However, fearing they had offended God by their denial of Him, they repented of their sin, and strengthened in their sure hope in Christ, they began to boldly live their Christian lives. This led, again, to their imprisonment, but this time their faithfulness to the Lord was firm. For this firm faith and hope in the Lord, speaking truly as Christians, they were burned to death, suffering a red martyrdom for their faith. In this, they are courageous and sure examples for all of us that stumble, loose our way, and fail to live up to the call that each of us has as adopted brothers and sisters with Christ.
We see in Saints Castus and Emilius that faith overcomes. It is never too late to turn again to God, to undergo conversion, and to place our faith in the one, true God. Our Lord is our sure hope, and that hope is stronger than the sting of death or punishment in this world. This why St. Augustine of Hippo praises our brothers with this witness:
It is not the punishment or the torture they suffer that makes them martyrs, but their justice. God is pleased not with our pain and suffering, but with our righteousness. Therefore, let us not look at someone’s martyrdom, but at the purpose of the martyrdom. For example, the two thieves who were crucified with the Lord: they had the same punishment as He did, but they were crucified for their sins, while He was crucified so that our sins might be forgiven. Also, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given by the Lord. That is why those who trust in themselves are forsaken by God, like Peter, who dared to say that he would give his soul for the Lord’s sake, and the Lord revealed to him that he would soon deny him three times. So too, the martyrs Castus and Emilio, while they had a great impression of themselves, suffered defeats, and God helped them when they began to fight the devil and were humbled. For our salvation also rests on the Lord’s humiliation: we would not have known salvation if the Lord had not condescended to humble Himself for us. Let us therefore honor the martyrs with reverence and not with thoughtlessness and frivolity, with firmness but not stubbornness, with unity and not with the division of heresies. If we want to imitate the martyrs, let us imitate their righteousness.
(Augustine of Hippo, Sermo 285, Indie Natali martyrum Casti et Aemilii, PL 38, 1293-1297)
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