Suffer in Peace - St. Tarcisius

Wondering in Musée d'Orsay in Paris, I was stunned by a sculpture.
It is a young boy appears to be in great pain.
In that pain, is the devout effusions of sacred peace.
Have to admire the artist's exceptional touch,
not just bringing a rock to life,
but also making the life so expressive.
The sculpture is ST. TARCISIUS, by Alexandre Falguière.

ST. TARCISIUS

Taken from "The One Year Book of Saints" by Rev. Clifford Stevens

Tarcisius was a twelve-year-old acolyte
during one of the fierce Roman persecutions of the third century,
probably during that of Valerian.
Each day, from a secret meeting place in the catacombs where Christians gathered for Mass,
a deacon would be sent to the prisons
to carry the Eucharist to those Christians condemned to die.
At one point, there was no deacon to send and so St. Tarcisius, an acolyte,
was sent carrying the "Holy Mysteries" to those in prison.
On the way, he was stopped by boys his own age
who were not Christians but knew him as a playmate and lover of games.
He was asked to join their games, but this time he refused
and the crowd of boys noticed that he was carrying something.
Somehow, he was also recognized as a Christian,
and the small gang of boys, anxious to view the Christian "Mysteries,"
became a mob and turned upon Tarcisius with fury.
He went down under the blows,
and it is believed that a fellow Christian drove off the mob
and rescued the young acolyte.
The mangled body of Tarcisius was carried back to the catacombs,
but the boy died on the way from his injuries.
He was buried in the cemetery of St. Callistus,
and his relics are claimed by the church of San Silvestro in Capite.
In the fourth century,
Pope St. Damasus wrote a poem about this "boy-martyr of the Eucharist"
and says that, like another St. Stephen,
he suffered a violent death at the hands of a mob
rather than give up the Sacred Body to "raging dogs."
His story became well known when Cardinal Wiseman made it a part of his novel Fabiola,
in which the story of the young acolyte is dramatized
and a very moving account given of his martyrdom and death.