Welcome to the traditional Catholic daily devotional for Monday, May 12th, 2025.

It's the Feast of St. Nereus, Domitilla, and Pancratius, third class with the color of red.

In this episode, today's news from the church, the Medici altar returns to the Holy Sepulchre,

a preview of today's sermon, Our Lady, and the Choice of Our State in Life,

and today's thought from Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

But first, the call act of today's Mass.

May the Holy Feast of thy martyrs, Nearest Achilius, Domitilla, and Pancras ever comfort us,

we beseech thee, O Lord,

and make us worthy to serve thee.

Today we remember three, well four early Roman martyrs, whose names have echoed in Christian memory

for centuries, Nereus, Achilles, Delmatilla, and Pancras, all commemorated together on May 12th. We'll mostly just focus on three of them, Narius Achilles and Pancras, because we don't know very much about Delmatilla at this point. But Nerius and Achilles were Roman soldiers. Tradition says they once served the emperor, but dramatically converted to Christianity. As the ancient poem by one of the

popes puts it, they suddenly threw down their arms, fled the service of the tyrant, and confessed

Christ. They were executed for refusing to recant the faith. Their tombs were discovered in the

catacombs of Domitilla, and the basilica built over their graves still bears witness to their courage.

Pancras, or Pancratius, perhaps the most well-known of the three today, was just a boy when he

was martyred, probably around 14 years old. He, too, refused to deny Christ during one of the

Empire's brutal crackdowns on Christians. His tomb lies along the Via Aurelia, and a

church has stood there in his honor since the 4th century. What's especially remarkable is how

early these saints were venerated. Pilgrims visited their graves within just a couple generations of

their deaths, and ancient Roman calendars already listed May 12th as their shared feast.

It's one of the oldest known feast that we have.

Over time, legends have grown around them,

...