👑Saints Protus and Hyacinth were eunuch brothers, servants of Saint Eugenia, who, after converting their mistress to Christianity, dedicated themselves to an ascetic life. Arrested during the persecution of Emperor Valerian, they were martyred by beheading around the year 257 for refusing to sacrifice to idols, becoming a testament to the unwavering faith they confessed.
🛡️ Introit – Psalm 36(37):39-40But the salvation of the just is from the Lord, and he is their protector in the time of trouble. Be not emulous of evildoers; nor envy them that work iniquity.
📜 Epistle – Hebrews 10:32–38
For call to mind the former days, wherein, being illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions. And on the one hand indeed, by reproaches and tribulations, were made a gazingstock; and on the other, became companions of them that were so used. For you both had compassion on them that were in bands, and took with joy the being stripped of your own goods, knowing that you have a better and a lasting substance. Do not therefore lose your confidence, which hath a great reward. For patience is necessary for you; that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little and a very little while, and he that is to come, will come, and will not delay. But my just man liveth by faith.
🕊️ Gospel – Luke 12:1–8
At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed: nor hidden, that shall not be known. For whatsoever things you have spoken in darkness, shall be published in the light: and that which you have spoken in the ear in the chambers, shall be preached on the housetops. And I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will shew you whom you shall fear: fear ye him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows. And I say to you, whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God.
🤔 Reflections
✍️He who fears losing temporal goods in confessing Christ will lose eternal goods, for 'my just man lives by faith,' and faith wavers when it fears the loss of what is seen in exchange for what is not seen (Saint Augustine, Sermon 6). The confidence of the martyrs was not based on the absence of suffering, but on the certainty of the promise, for 'he that is to come, will come, and will not delay,' and this expectation transforms tribulation into a step towards glory (Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies on Hebrews). Therefore, the public confession of Christ, which the executioners try to silence by killing the body, is precisely the act that God proclaims 'on the housetops' of heaven, for He does not forget even a sparrow, much less the soul of one who gives his life for Him (Saint Gregory the Great, Homily 39 on the Gospels).
🔎The Gospel of Saint Matthew (10:26-33) offers a direct parallel, specifying that the fear of God is due to His ability to destroy 'both soul and body' in hell, a detail that Luke's version generalizes. Matthew also frames the proclamation 'on the housetops' as a direct command to the disciples ('speak in the light'), whereas Luke presents it as an inevitable consequence. Saint Mark, in turn, presents the maxim about what is hidden in the context of teaching by parables (Mk 4:22) and the confession of Christ in terms of 'not being ashamed' of Him and His words (Mk 8:38).
⛓️Christ's exhortation to confess Him before men is theologically deepened by Saint Paul in Romans 10:9-10, where he connects oral confession ('with the mouth confession is made') to inner faith ('with the heart one believes'), establishing it as a condition for salvation. The precept to 'fear not' finds an echo in 2 Timothy 1:7, where Paul states that God has given us a 'spirit of power' and not of fear, directly linking courage to a divine gift. The martyr's attitude, who does not fear the death of the body, is summarized in Philippians 1:21: 'For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.'
🏛️The Roman Catechism, in explaining the First Commandment, condemns simulation and hypocrisy as sins against religion, echoing Christ's warning about the 'leaven of the Pharisees.' The encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis of St. Pius X warns against the enemies of the faith who act covertly within the Church, reinforcing the idea that 'nothing is covered that shall not be revealed.' The sanctity of martyrdom as the supreme act of confessing the faith is exalted in documents such as Mediator Dei by Pius XII, which presents the martyrs as those who, by uniting their sacrifice to Christ's, offer the most sublime witness to the truth.
👑See English articles here.