Dear Karen,

I only have a minute – a new series of “exercises” is being demanded of me, and I wanted to get this out to you today, in honor of your namesake.  I promised to do some research into the fellow but still have come up with nothing more than the little that has been preserved for us about him by the first Christian historians.  You remember, of course, how awfully the Egyptian Christians suffered under the persecution of Emperor Decius – many who escaped the enraged magistrates fled into the desert, many whom the magistrates caught were driven into the desert, only to perish of hunger, thirst, exposure, or wild beasts (animals and men).  Many others were simply sold into slavery (which actually benefited the Church in a way –these slaves became missionaries wherever they went, spreading the faith of Christ to the farthest corners of the empire).

Chaeremon was a very old man when the persecution broke out; he was the bishop of Nilopolis.  He and a companion had taken refuge in the rocky wastes of Arabia, hoping to outlast the Emperor’s fury and return to succor the survivors.  When the storm passed, Christians were sent to retrieve them but were unable to find any trace of them, not even a snatch of clothing or a piece of bone.  Ichyrion was another courageous Christian. Unfortunately, he worked for one of the leaders of the persecution, and when he was asked to sacrifice to the Roman gods in the very first wave of “investigations,” he refused.  Nothing could induce him to change his mind (and they tried everything), so finally his master had him mutilated and impaled.

Ah me, so glorious are the first links in the great chain of our Catholic faith, stretching back to the ancient days!  I often wonder how I would measure up if I were faced with that kind of pressure. God only knows. But you have your own battles to fight, especially as you go home to your staunchly Protestant family.  Be sure to set aside plenty of time for prayer, and for the rest, just strive to serve everyone all the time in the authentic spirit of Christ, and the Lord will take care of everything else. I’ve got to go – I think I hear them coming now.  Ciao. Uncle Eddy.