Three Saints are given the holy patronage of Lectors:

St Pollio

St. Bede, the Venerable, was born near St. Peter and St. Paul monastery at Wearmouth-Jarrow, England. He was sent there when he was three and educated by Abbots Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrid. He became a Benedictine monk at the monastery, was ordained when thirty in the late 7th Century , and except for a few brief visits elsewhere, spent all of his life in the monastery, devoting himself to the study of Scripture and to teaching and writing. He is considered one of the most learned men of his time and a major influence on English literature. His writings are a veritable summary of the learning of his time and include commentaries on the Pentateuch and various other books of the Bible, theological and scientific treatises, historical works, and biographies. His best-known work is HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA, a history of the English Church and people, which he completed in 731. It is an account of Christianity in England up to 729 and is a primary source of early English history. Called "the Venerable" to acknowledge his wisdom and learning, the title was formalized at the Council of Aachen in 853. He was a careful scholar and distinguished stylist, the "father" of English history, the first to date events anno domini (A.D.), and in 1899, was canonized by Pope Leo XIII and declared the only English doctor of the Church. He died in Wearmouth-Jarrow on May 25 which also serves as his feast day.

Prayer to The Venerable St. Bede: Careful Historian and Doctor of the Church, lover of God and of truth, you are a natural model for all readers of God's inspired Word. Move lectors to prepare for public reading by prayerfully pondering the sacred texts and invoking the Holy Spirit. Help them to read in such a way that those who hear may attain learning and edification. Amen.

St. Pollio was martyred on April 27, c. 304. He was a Lector of the Church of Cybalae in Pannonia (Hungary), a province on the Danube, who was burnt alive under Diocletian. Following is the passio of Saint Pollio.

On the day the Governor Probus arrived at the town of Cibales, Pollio was arrested. The Lector Pollio, a man of great virtue and a lively faith, was presented to Probus as he alighted from his chariot and accused of irreligious speech and action.

Probus asked his name. "I am Pollio, the chief of the readers."

Probus: "Of what readers?"

Pollio: "Why, of those who read the word of God to the people."

Probus: "I suppose you mean by that name a set of men who find ways and means to impose on the credulity of fickle and silly women, and persuade them to observe chastity, and refrain from marriage."

Pollio: "Those are the fickle and foolish who abandon their Creator to follow your superstitions; while our hearers are so steady in the profession of the truths they have imbibed from our lectures, that no torments prevail with them to transgress the precepts of the eternal King."

Probus: "Of what king, and of what precepts do you speak?"

Pollio: "I mean the holy precepts of the eternal King, Jesus Christ."

Probus: "What do those precepts teach?"

Pollio: "They inculcate the belief and adoration of one only God, who causes thunder in the heavens; and they teach that what is made of wood or stone, deserves not to be called God. They correct sinners, animate and strengthen the good in virtue: teach virgins to attain to the perfection of their state, and the married to live up to the rules of conjugal chastity: they teach masters to command with mildness and moderation, slaves to submit with love and affection, subjects to obey all in power in all things that are just; in short, they teach us to honor parents, requite our friends, forgive our enemies, exercise hospitality to strangers, assist the poor, to be just, kind, and charitable to all men; to believe a happy immortality prepared for those who despise the momentary death which you have power to inflict."

Probus: "Of what felicity is a man capable after death?"

Pollio: "There is no comparison between the happiness of this and the next life. The fleeting comforts of this mortal suite deserve not the name of goods, when compared with the permanent joys of eternity."

Probus: "This is foreign to our purpose; let us come to the point of the edict."

Pollio: "What is the purport of it?"

Probus: "That you must sacrifice to the gods."

Pollio: "Sacrifice I will not, let what will be the consequence; for it is written: He that shall sacrifice to devils, and not to God, shall be exterminated."

Probus: "Then you must resolve to die."

Pollio: "My resolution is fixed: do what you are commanded."

Probus then condemned him to be burnt alive; and the sentence was immediately executed a mile outside town. St. Pollio's feastday is April 28th.

St. Sabas, also known as Sabbas the Goth, a martyr in the area of modern Romania.

Died 372. The account of the martyrdom of Saint Sabas was recorded in a letter soon after his death at the hands of a Gothic ruler north of the Danube. Saint Jerome tells us that King Athanaric of the Goths began persecuting Christians in his tribe about 370. Sabas, converted to Christianity in his youth, was Lector to the priest Sansala, apparently at Targoviste in modern Romania.

We are told that Sabas exemplified the Christian virtues of obedience and humility, and that he loved to sing the divine praises in church and decorate the altar. His desire for chastity was so great that he refrained from even speaking to women unless it was absolutely necessary. Most of all, Sabas loved the truth.

Sabas denounced the practice of some Christians of pretending to eat meat offered to pagan gods though in reality it had not been sacrificed to the gods by arrangement with some officers. He said that they had renounced the faith by their pretense. For this, he was forced into exile but later was allowed to return.

During another persecution the following year, some Christians swore that there were no Christians among them. Sabas loudly proclaimed his Christianity. After his first arrest, he was released as an insignificant fellow, owning nothing but the clothes on his back, 'who can do us neither good nor harm.'

Just before Easter 372, the persecution was renewed. Atharidus and his troops broke into the lodgings of the sleeping Sansala, bound him, and threw him on a cart. They pulled Sabas out of bed without allowing him to dress and dragged the modest saint naked over thorns and briars, forcing him along with whips and staves. At daybreak Sabas said to his persecutors: "Have not you dragged me, quite naked, over rough and thorny grounds? Observe whether my feet are wounded, or whether the blows you gave me have made any impression on my body." His body bore no bruises or abrasions, which enraged his tormentors, causing them to rack him on a make- shift devise.

Sabas refused an opportunity to escape when the mistress of the house in which they were lodged overnight, untied him. He spent the rest of the night helping the woman to dress victuals for the family.

The next day he was hung upon a beam of the house, and offered and refused meats that had been sacrificed to idols. One of Atharidus's slaves struck the point of his javelin against the saint's breast with such violence that all present believed Sabas had been killed. But he was unharmed. At this, Atharidus declared that Sansala should be dismissed, but Sabas must be drowned.

On the banks of the river, the officers wanted to let him go. Overhearing them, Sabas asked why they were so dilatory in obeying their orders? Then he continued, "I see what you cannot: I see persons on the other side of the river ready to receive my soul, and conduct it to the seat of glory: they only wait the moment in which it will leave my body."

Thereupon he was tied to a pole and held down in the Buzau (Mussovo) River until he was dead; 'This death by wood and water,' says the correspondent, 'was an exact symbol of man's salvation,' i.e., symbols of baptism and the cross. When he was dead, they drew his body out of the water, and left it unburied: but the Christians of the place guarded it from birds and beasts of prey.

Junius Soranus, duke of Scythia, a man who feared God, sent the body to Cappadocia. A letter was sent with these relics from the church of Gothia to that of Cappadocia governed by Saint Basil, which contains an account of the martyrdom of Sabas, and concludes thus: "Wherefore offering up the holy sacrifice on the day whereon the martyr was crowned, impart this to our brethren, that the Lord may be praised throughout the Catholic and Apostolic Church for thus glorifying his servants."

About 50 other Christians were martyred during this same persecution and are honored today.

In art, Saint Sabas is sometimes pictured suspended by his fingers from a fig tree, or being thrown into a river. He is venerated in Romania and his feast day is April 12.

Other Saints who proclaimed the Word and lost their lives:

A brief listing of lectors who served their Church and were martyred

for their dedication to the work of Christ and refusal to proselytize or give up the sacred texts to pagan authorities,

many who are proclaimed saints in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Branches of Christianity.

- Submitted by Russell D. James -

St. Timothy of Antinoe d. 286, Feast day: May 3

St. Timothy was an African lector and perhaps the only married lector on this list. He and his wife, St. Paula of Antinoe, were married only twenty days when they were martyred under the rule of Emperor Diocletian.

St. Theodulus of Thessalonica d. 303, Feast day: April 4

St. Theodulus was one of the first martyrs of Crete who died under the persecution of Emperor Decian. He was martyred with St. Agathopus for not turning over sacred texts to the authorities.

St. Procopius d. 303, Feast day: July 8

We learn from the longer account that he was a lector, interpreter, and exorcist in the church, and that he was exceedingly ascetic in his manner of life. He was martyred under the persecution of the emperor Diocletian.

St. Alphaeus of Caesarea d. 303, Feast day: November 17
Alphaeus approached a crowd of people who had fallen away from the Church who were on their way to offer sacrifice to pagan gods. He urged them to turn back to Christ and was arrested, tortured, and shackled to the priest, St. Zaccaeus. They were thrown in prison and later beheaded.

St. Dioscorus d. 305, Feast day: May 18

Martyred in Egypt after undergoing different tortures, including pulling out his nails and burning his sides with torches. Those who tortured him were humbled by a shining light from heaven, but at last martyred him by burning him with red-hot metal plates.

St. Desiderius d. 305, Feast day: September 19
With St. Januarius, bishop of Beneventum, and Festus, his deacon, St. Desiderius was dragged in chains ahead of the governor’s chariot to Pozzuoli and thrown to the beasts in the arena there, together with deacons St. Sosius of Misenum and St. Proculus of Pozzuoli, and some laymen. The beasts left them unharmed and nearly five thousand pagans were converted to Christianity. The governor was enraged and they were all beheaded.

St. Mucius d. 312, Feast day: February 6

St. Mucius was martyred with his bishop St. Silvanus and deacon St. Luke under Emperor Maximian following a long imprisonment.

St. Viator d. 390, Feast day: October 21

He was a lector in the Church of Lyons, serving bishop St. Justus. He survived his bishop by only a few weeks.

St. Eutropius of Constantinople d. 404-405, Feast day: January 12
Eutropius and his priest, Tigrius, were outspoken defenders of St. John Chrysostom, who had been banished from Constantinople. Eutropius and Tigrius were accused by heretical authorities of setting fire to the cathedral and Eutroprius died after long torture.

St. Jucundus d. 451, Feast day: December 14
St. Jucundus died with his bishop St. Nicasius and his deacon St. Florentius at Rheims. They were cut down by the sword outside their church with other faithful.