August 10, 2025 - "Saints Liberatus, Boniface & Companions"

In 484, some fifty-four years after the death of Saint Augustine, the Vandal king, Huneric, issued a decree ordering the closing of all Christian monasteries.  The seven monks of the monastery of Gafsa, Tunisia, founded under Augustinian inspiration, were taken prisoners.  They were the Abbot Liberatus, Deacon Boniface, Subdeacons Servus and Rusticus, and the lay monks Rogatus, Septimus, and Maximus.  They were taken to Carthage where efforts were made, in vain, to have them renounce their faith. 

 

Maximus who at fifteen was the youngest monk, was particularly pressured to abandon his confreres and his Christian way of life.  He refused to do this because he preferred to accept the same fate as the rest.  King Huneric then ordered them all to be burned to death.  When it proved impossible to set the wood of their funeral pyre on fire, they were clubbed to death by the order of the king. 

 

The seven died for the sake of Christ, united in their faith and Augustinian fraternity.  The Augustinian Order was granted the right to celebrate their liturgical memorial on June 6, 1671. 

 

May Saints Liberatus, Boniface, and Companions, the Augustinian Martyrs of Gafsa, pray for us. 

 

Until next week, 

Fr. John