Vincent was born at Huesca in Granada in Spain.  He was early turned to study, and learned sacred letters from Valerius, Bishop of Saragossa.  He was accustomed to deliver discourses for this Prelate, who, owing to an impediment in his speech, was not able to preach himself.  This coming to the ears of Dacian, Prefect of the province under Diocletian and Maximian, he caused Vincent to be arrested at Saragossa, and brought before him at Valencia in bonds.  The saint was scourged, and afterward tormented on the rack, in presence of numerous spectators, but neither torture, threats, nor fair words could bend his resolution.  He was then laid on a grating over hot coals, his flesh mangled with iron hooks, and white-hot plates of metal applied to the wounds.  The still breathing remains were taken back to a prison, and laid on broken potsherds, that the agony of his naked body might prevent his sleeping from exhaustion.
As he lay in his dark cell, a glorious light suddenly filled the prison, to the astonishment of all who saw it.  The gaoler informed Dacian, who caused the martyr to be brought out and cared for in a soft bed, hoping that though he had failed to move him by cruelty, he might seduce him by pretended kindness.  But the indomitable soul of Vincent, armed with faith and hope in Christ Jesus, remained unconquered even to the end, and triumphing over the fire, the steel, and the cruelty of the tormentors, passed away to receive the victorious crown or martyrdom in heaven on the 22nd day of January.

His body was thrown out unburied.  A raven perched upon it and kept off with his beak, claws, and wings both the other birds and a wolf, which came to prey on it.  Dacian then had it thrown into the sea, but by the will of God it was washed up again, and the Christians took and buried it.

Anastasius was a Persian monk who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Places at Jerusalem in the reign of the Emperor Heraclius, during which journey he endured bonds and stripes on account of his confession of Christ at Caesarea, in Palestine.  Soon after his return, he was arrested by the Persians for the same cause, and, after enduring divers torments, he and seventy other Christians were beheaded by order of King Chosroes.  His relics were first carried to Jerusalem, to the monastery in which he had made his monastic profession, and afterwards to Rome, where they were laid in the monastery of Saints Vincent and Anastasius.

Fabian was a Roman, and sat as Pope from the reign of the Emperor Maximian till that of Decius.  He appointed a deacon to each of the seven districts of Rome to look after the poor.  He likewise appointed the same number of subdeacons to collect the acts of the Martyrs from the records kept by the seven district notaries.  It was by him that it was ordained that every Maundy Thursday the old Chrism should be burnt and new consecrated.  He was crowned with martyrdom upon the 20th of January, in the persecution of Decius, and buried in the cemetery of St. Callistus on the Appian Way, having sat in the throne of Peter fifteen years and four days.  He held five Advent ordinations, in which he ordained twenty-two priests, seven deacons, and eleven bishops for divers Sees.

The father of Sebastian was of Narbonne, and his mother a Milanese.  He was a great favourite of the Emperor Diocletian, both on account of his noble birth  and his personal bravery, and was by him appointed captain of the first company of the Praetorian Guards.  He was in secret a Christian, and often supported the others both by good offices and money.  When some shewed signs of yielding under persecution, he so successfully exhorted them, that, for Jesus Christ's sake, many offered themselves to the tormentors.  Among  these were the brothers Mark and Marcellian who were imprisoned at Rome in the house of Nicostratus.  The wife of Nicostratus himself, named Zoe, had lost her voice, but it was restored to her at the prayer of Sebastian.  These facts becoming known to Diocletian, he sent for Sebastian, and after violently rebuking him, used every means to turn him from his faith in Christ.  But as neither promises nor threats availed, he ordered him to be tied to a post and shot to death with arrows.

Sebastian was treated accordingly, and left for dead, but in the night the holy widow Irene sent for the body in order to bury it, and then found that he was still alive, and nursed him in her own house.  As soon as his health was restored, he went out to meet Diocletian, and boldly rebuked him for his wickedness.  The Emperor was first thunderstruck at the sight of a man whom he believed to been some time dead, but afterwards, frenzied with rage at the reproaches of Sebastian, ordered him to be beaten to death with rods, under which torment the martyr yielded his blessed soul to God.  His body was thrown into a sewer, but he appeared in sleep to Lucina, and made known to her where it was, and where he would have it buried.  She accordingly found it and laid it in those Catacombs, over which a famous Church hath since been built, called St. Sebastian's-without-the-Walls.

St. Canute, king of Denmark, was murdered in St. Alban's Church, Odense, July 10, 1086. The Martyrology confuses him with his nephew, St. Canute the Duke, who died on January 7, 1131, and was canonized November 8, 1169, by Pope Alexander III. St. Canute is also called Canute the holy, or Danish Knut, or Knud, Den Hellige, or Sankt Knut, or Knud.The son of King Sweyn II Estrithson of Denmark, Canute succeeded his brother Harold Hen as king of Denmark. Canute opposed the aristocracy and kept a close association with the church in an attempt to create a powerful and centralized monarchy.

In ecclesiastical matters, Canute generously patronized several churches, including the Cathedral of Lund, Denmark's archbishopric; established a Benedictine abbey at Odense; and supported apostolic preaching throughout Denmark. In temporal matters, he attempted an administrative reform, particularly an enforced levying of tithes that incurred the wrath of the rural aristocracy. In 1085 he reasserted the Danish claims to England and, with the count of Flanders and King Olaf III of Norway, prepared a massive invasion fleet that alarmed the Norman-English king William I the Conqueror.

Canute's plan, however, had to be abandoned suddenly, for those aristocrats who opposed his tax policy revolted as he was preparing to embark for England. He fled from the rebels, led by his brother Prince Olaf, to St. Alban's Church, Odense, which he had founded, and was assassinated there with the entire royal party.

Canute was buried in St. Alban's, renamed c. 1300 St. Canute's Cathedral. Miracles were recorded at his tomb, and, at the request (1099) of King Erik III Evergood of Denmark, he was canonized (1101) by Pope Paschal II.

Patron: Zeeland, Denmark

The Lesson is taken from a Sermon by St. Leo the Pope

When the twelve holy Apostles had received from the Holy Ghost the power to speak all languages, they divided the whole world into districts, which they severally allotted to themselves as fields for their Gospel labours.  Then was Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, sent to the capital city of the Roman Empire, that he might cause the light to shine thence throughout the whole body of the civilized nations.  At that time what nation was there that had no representative in Rome?  When Rome had learnt, what people that did not learn too?

In Rome were the dreams of an unbelieving philosophy to be destroyed, in Rome were the empty utterances of earthly wisdom to be confuted, in Rome profanity to be put down, even in Rome, where the activity of superstition had gathered together from the whole earth every error which it could find.  O most blessed Apostle Peter! this was the city to which thou didst not shrink to come.  The Apostle Paul, thy comrade in glory, was yet occupied in founding the Churches, and thou didst enter alone into forest of wild beasts roaring furiously; thou didst commit thyself to that stormy ocean, more boldly than when thou walkest upon the waters to come to Jesus.

Thou hadst already taught them of the circumcision who were converted; thou hadst founded the Church of Antioch, the first that bore the noble name of Christian; thou hadst published the law of the Gospel throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia; and thou didst not fear for the hardness of thy work, nor turn back because of thine old age, but didst boldly set up the trophy of the cross of Christ upon those Roman walls, where the Providence of God had appointed the throne of thine honour, and the glorious scene of thy passion.

Anthony was an Egyptian, the child of noble and Christian parents, whom he lost while yet very young.  On one occasion he entered a Church, and heard these words of the Gospel, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.  He took these words as if they were addressed to himself personally, for this was the obedience which he thought every word of the Lord Christ should meet with.  He therefore sold his whole possessions, and gave the price to the poor.  Being thus delivered from worldly entanglements, he set himself to lead on earth the life of an angel.  Finding himself, as it were, about to enter the field of battle against Satan, he thought it wisest to add to the shield of faith, which he already possessed, all the rest of the armour of God, wherefore he observed all those who were eminent for any grace, and strove to copy them.

He was excelled by none in watchfulness and self-restraint.  He surpassed all in long-suffering, meekness, tenderness, lowliness, perseverance, and continual study of the Holy Scriptures.  He had such a loathing of the company and conversation of heretics and schismatics, especially Arians, that he used to say that a faithful Christian ought as far as possible never to come near any such.  He took the sleep which was needful for the body lying on the ground.  Such was his devotion to fasting, that he took nothing with his bread but salt, and drank only water; he never ate or drank before sunset; he often abstained from food altogether for two days at a time; and very often passed whole nights in prayer.  Being so valiant a soldier of God, Anthony was attacked by the devil with divers temptations, but he overcame them all by prayer and fasting.  Nevertheless, these frequent triumphs over Satan did not lull Anthony into security, for he was well aware of the numberless arts of assault possessed by the evil one.

Then he betook himself into the vast deserts of Africa that lie near Egypt.  Day by day he advanced on the path to perfection.  Day by day the attacks of the fiends became more violent, but day by day his strength grew greater to strive against them.  At length he came to mock at the powerlessness of the devils, against whom he stirred up his disciples to fight, teaching them with what arms to combat.  Believe me, my brethren, he used to say, Satan is afraid of good men's watchings, and prayers, and fasts, and voluntary poverty, and mercifulness, and lowliness, but above all, of their warm love for Christ our Lord, the mere sign of whose most holy Cross is enough to undo him and put him to flight.  He became such an object of dread to the devils, that many persons throughout Egypt who were tormented by them, were delivered by calling on his name: moreover the fame of his holiness was so spread abroad, that Constantine the Great and his sons wrote to him to commend themselves to his prayers.  In the hundred and fifth year of his age, and the fulness of his reputation for piety and miracles, having roused up great numbers to follow his example, he gathered his monks around him, and when he had exhorted them to strive after Christian perfection, he passed to heaven on the 17th day of January.