Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Martyrology of S. Jerome, Ado, Notker, Usuardus, Hrabanus. Authority: — The Acts attributed, but erroneously, to S. Ambrose. They are probably by S. Maximus of Turin.] The Emperor Carus died when on his march against the Persians. His death was attended with ambiguous circumstances. He was said to have been struck with lightning in his tent. He was succeeded (284) by his sons, Carinus and Numerian; Carinus, a sensual despot, soft but cruel, devoted to pleasure, but destitute of taste; and though exquisitely susceptible of vanity, indifferent to public esteem. Numerian was cast in a different mould. THE ASCENSION.
After Giotto’s Fresco m the Arena at Fadua. “And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cl received Him from their sight. And while they looked steadfastly towards Heaven, as He v up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel; which said, Ye men of Galilee, why si ye gazing up into Heaven? this same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven, sha come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven."— Acts i., 9, 10, n. He was virtuous and accomplished, but his constitution was delicate, and he sank into an early grave. Carinus lost his life by the hand of a tribune, whose wife he had dishonoured, and the upstart Diocletian [Roman emperor 284–305, who began the ‘Great Persecution’ of Christians in 303] assumed the imperial purple. But there lived two youths, Cantius and Cantianus, and their sister, Cantiana, or Cantianilla, of the blue Anician blood, grandsons, or grand-nephews of the Emperor Carus. Their tutor, a Christian named Protus, saw that they could not with safety remain in Rome, and he fled with them to Aquileia. Into their young hearts he had succeeded in instilling the divine lessons of the Gospel, and the young princes had in all probability been baptized. At Aquileia, Dulcitius and Sisinnius were governors. They sent word to the usurper Diocletian of the presence of the youths and their sister in Aquileia, and they insinuated that, being Christians, this charge would cover their condemnation. Order for their arrest speedily followed; they were to be arrested and tried on the charge of being Christians. But in the meantime, the guardian, Protus, had heard of the message to Diocletian, and he hurried the children from the city. Diocletian ordered them to be pursued, and put to death, wherever they were taken. An accident to the litter in which the children were being conveyed away, delayed them on the road, and the soldiers overtaking them, the three children and their guardian were promptly executed. The place of the martyrdom was at Aquae Gradatae, since called San-Cantiano. The bodies of the martyrs were buried by a priest, and they remained for seven hundred years at Aquileia, till they were obtained by King Robert the Good of France for the church of Etampes, which he had just erected. In 1793, the revolutionary mob broke the reliquary, and scattered the bones, but some portions were preserved by the faithful, and are to this day objects procession of the “Corps saints” takes place, to which great numbers of children are brought by their mothers.
