Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Usuardus, Ado, &c. Martyrology of S. Jerome. Authority: — The ancient authentic Acts.] AINT SYMPHORIAN was the son of Faustus, of a noble Christian family, living at Autun in Gaul. He had been baptized by S. Benignus, and was in the bloom of life when the Emperor Marcus Aurelius began his persecution of the Church. On a certain day the image of Berecynth was being carried in procession through the city, when Symphorian refused to bow his knee as it passed. He was seized by the mob, and brought before Heraclius, the governor of the province, who happened then to be at Autun. Heraclius asked Symphorian why he refused to kneel to the image of the Mother of the Gods. “ I am a Christian,” answered the young man, “and I adore no images. Give me a hammer, and I will make short work of Berecynth.” “ The fellow,” said Heraclius, “ seems to me to be not only sacrilegious towards the immortal gods, but to be tainted with rebellion. Officers ! of what place is he a native ?”
One of them answered, “ He is of this place, and of a noble family.” The judge said to Symphorian, “You flatter yourself on account of your birth, and are perhaps unacquainted with the Emperor’s orders.” He then ordered him to be bound, and said to him, “ What say you to this, Symphorian ?” The martyr continued his denunciation of the idol. Then Heraclius commanded him to be cruelly beaten with clubs, and sent to prison. Two days after he was brought out of his dark dungeon, and presented before the tribunal. Heraclius offered him preferment, saying, “ It would be much better for you to serve the immortal gods, and to receive a gratuity from the public treasury, with an honourable military office. If you have a mind, I will cause the altars to be adorned with flowers, that you may offer to the gods the incense which is due to them.” Symphorian testified by his answer that he despised the offers that were made him, and abhorred the superstitions attending the worship of Cybele. At length the judge condemned him to die by the sword. He heard the sentence with joy. As he was carried out of the town to execution, his mother, standing on the walls of the city to see him pass by, cried out to him, “ My son, my son Symphorian: remember the living God, and be of good courage. Raise your heart to heaven, and consider Him that reigneth there. Fear not death which leads to certain life.”
The relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of S. Symphorian, with the exception of the skull, were preserved in the Abbey dedicated to him by S. Euphronius, Bishop of Autun, in the 5th century. The monastery was pillaged and burnt in 1570, by the Huguenots under the Admiral Coligny; but a few fragments of the relics which the Huguenots flung into the river were saved. The head, which was in the little church of S. Pantaleon[AugUSt 22.
lez-Autun escaped their fury. All the relics that remain are now in the cathedral. S. Symphorian is represented aS a youth with a palmbranch trampling on the image of Berecynth.
