Urticinus, a Pious Christian, Beheaded with the Ax, at Ravenna, A. D. 99.
Next to Timothy is placed Urticinus or Ursinius, a physician at Ravenna in Italy. Having been reported to the Judge Paulinus, as being a Christian, he was tortured in manifold ways for the name of Christ. Having borne all with constancy, and still refusing to sacrifice to the gods of the heathen, he was finally sentenced by the judge, to be beheaded with the ax.
When Urticinus received this sentence of death, he began to tremble and shake before the impending death, and to deliberate with himself, whether he should deny Christ, or how he might the most easily escape death.
But while he was thus counseling with flesh and blood, one of the company of Judge Paulinus, whose name was Vitalus, stepped up to him from behind, and strengthened him with these words: “My beloved brother in Christ, Urticinus, who, as a faithful physician, by thy potions, didst so often and so happily restore to health the sick, take heed, lest by thy denial thou plunge thyself into eternal death and damnation.”
Through this admonition Urticinus regained such courage, that he joyfully prepared for death, and, having of his own accord offered his neck to the ax, he thus, through the separation of his head from the body, came to a godly and noble end. See concerning this, A. Mell., 1st book, van de Hist. der Vervolg., fol. 18, col. 3 and 4, according Venant. Fortunat., lib. 4. Vitæ S. Martini. Hieronym. Rub. Hist. Raven., lib. 1. Beda, Usuard. Ado. Vincent, Spec. Hist., lib. 9, cap. 50. Volateran. in Antrhopal. Pet. Dam., in Serm. de S. S. Vitali and Valeria.
VITALUS, BURIED ALIVE AT RAVENNA FOR THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST; AND HIS WIFE BEATEN TO DEATH WITH STICKS, AT MILAN, ABOUT A. D. 99.
Vitalus, before his conversion, was a Roman knight and citizen of Milan. He had come to Ravenna with Paulinus, the judge; but when he perceived the bloodthirstiness of his lord, whom he had hitherto served faithfully according to the manner of the world, he bravely left him, and straightway enrolled himself under the banner of Christ, but was very soon apprehended by the enemies of truth. For Paulinus, his lord, not knowing why he had left him, but having learned that he had encouraged Urticinus—who had just before been beheaded with the ax, for the faith—when the latter wavered, and that he had restrained him from sacrificing to the gods; likewise, that he had buried him after his death, conceived a suspicion that he also must be a Christian. Upon this suspicion, and through the accusations of others, he had the pious Vitalus apprehended, and having found from his own confession, that he was really a Christian, he caused him to be put on the rack, to try him whether he would not apostatize from Christ.
Thereupon Vitalus addressed Paulinus, the criminal judge, in these words: “You must certainly be deprived of your reason, to think that I should be deceived by you, and brought to eternal suffering in soul and body, while I have sought to deliver others from the danger of delusion.”
A wicked heathen priest, perceiving that he adhered firmly to Christ, and would in no wise do honor to the gods, advised Paulinus to bury Vitalus alive. Paulinus, following the evil suggestion of this priest, had a deep pit dug down to the water, at the place where the Christians were usually executed—called ad Palmam because a palm tree stood there—and had Vitalus buried in it, up to the middle (of his body), and then covered up with stones and earth.
Now when Valeria, the wife of Vitalus, after the death and burying alive of her husband, returned home from Ravenna to Milan, where she resided and had her children, she could not remain concealed long, but made herself known to be a Christian woman; for when she was constrained to eat of that which was offered to idols, she very steadfastly refused and resisted, yea, moreover, openly reproved the idolaters, saying, “I am a Christian, and can, therefore, in no wise eat that which is offered to Sylvanus, your god.”
Thereupon these idolaters seized her, and beat her to death with sticks. She was buried at Milan by the Christians. This happened by virtue of the first persecution, or the edict of Nero, which, it is stated, remained in force under Vespasian and under Domitian. A. Mell. Hist., fol. 16, col. 3, about Luke.
Concerning this martyrdom see the above mentioned authors, annotated with regard to Urticinus.