Holy Martyr Boniface (+290); Righteous Aglaida
The holy Martyr Boniface was the slave of Aglaida, a rich young Roman woman, and was in a love affair with his mistress. Afterwards Aglaida was converted to Christianity. She could not break off her tie with her lover, but tried in every way to cover this sin with good works, and often helped Christians in need. Once she heard that a cruel persecution of the Christians had begun in the East. She called Boniface to her and asked him to go to the East and bring back from there the body of some martyr.
Aglaida hoped that a martyr of Christ would help her overcome her sin and would intercede for her before God. Hearing this, Boniface answered with a laugh: “My lady, if I do not find any holy relics and suffer for Christ myself, will you receive my body with honour?” Aglaida took what was said seriously and reproached him for allowing himself to play the buffoon before setting out on a holy errand. Her words made Boniface think too.
On arriving in Cilicia, in the city of Tarsus, Boniface left his companions at an inn and himself hurried to the city square, where Christians were being tortured. The blessed one saw with his own eyes the cruel sufferings of the Lord’s chosen ones and their faces shining with the grace of God. Filled with compassion, Boniface begged the martyrs to pray that he too might be counted worthy of the same lot. Then the judge asked Boniface who he was. “I am a Christian!” the blessed one answered boldly, and then refused to offer sacrifice to the idols. For this they began to torture him on the spot: they beat him so that his flesh fell away in shreds and his bones were laid bare, pricked him with needles under his nails, and at last poured molten tin down his throat; but by God’s will he remained unharmed. The people crowding round the tribunal were seized with indignation; they pelted the judge with stones and then rushed to the pagan idol-temple to smash the idols.
The next morning, when the unrest had somewhat subsided, the judge ordered the holy martyr to be thrown into a cauldron full of boiling pitch, but this too did the blessed one no harm. Saint Boniface was sentenced to be beheaded with the sword. Blood and milk gushed from the wound. The sight of this miracle converted some five hundred and fifty people to Christianity.
Meanwhile Saint Boniface’s companions, who had waited in vain at the inn for two days for the blessed one to return, began to look for him, thinking that he had given himself up to frivolous merrymaking. At first their search was fruitless, but at last they came upon an eyewitness of the saint’s martyrdom. He led them to the place where Boniface’s beheaded body still lay. For a long time the martyr’s companions begged his forgiveness with tears for their unworthy thoughts, and then they bought his holy remains and carried them to Rome.
The day before they arrived, an angel appeared to Aglaida in her sleep and commanded her to make ready to meet her former slave, now her master, protector and fellow servant of the angels. The holy woman asked the clergy to receive the holy relics with honour, and then built a church dedicated to the martyr and placed the holy relics in it. Many miracles took place at the holy relics. Aglaida distributed all her property to the poor, and herself went to a convent, where she spent eighteen years in repentance and gained even in her lifetime the gift of casting out unclean spirits. The holy woman was buried near the tomb of the blessed Boniface.
