15 August

THE Assumption of the most holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God.—At Rome, on the Appian Way, St. Tharsicius, acolyte. The Pagans accosted him as he was carrying the sacrament of Christ's body, and began to inquire what it was. But he judged it an unworthy thing to cast pearls before swine. They therefore beat him with sticks and stones until he expired. The sacrilegious searchers examined his body, but found no vestige of the sacrament of Christ, either in his hands or in his clothes. The Christians took up the body of the martyr, and buried it reverently in the cemetery of Callistus.—At Tagasta, in Africa, St. Alipius, bishop, who was the disciple of blessed Augustine, and the companion of his conversion, his colleague in the pastoral charge, his valiant fellow-soldier in combating heretics, and finally his partner in the glory of heaven.—At Soissons, in France, St. Arnulf, bishop and confessor.—At Alba, in Hungary, St. Stephen, king of the Hungarians, whose feast is celebrated on the 2d of September.—At Rome, St. Stanislaus Kostka, a native of Poland, confessor, of the Society of Jesus, who being made perfect in a short space, fulfilled a long time by the angelical innocence of his life. He was inscribed on the list of the saints by the Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XIII.

And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors and holy virgins.

Thanks be to God.

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