ST. ZOE 311 saints and their master were natives of Italy, but went from Eome to Atalia or Satalia, in Pampbylia. The fonr Chris- tians refiised to partake of a feast given by their master, suspecting the meat to be offered to idols. Zoe took a basket of the meat and said to the porter, " You have so much to do, with people coming and going at all hours, go to sleep and leave the care of the gate to me ; I will awake you if you are wanted." There were dogs tied outside the gate and when beggars or thieves came near the house, they attacked them and drove them away. Zoe, seeing a great many very poor people, quieted the dogs by giving them some of the food out of her basket, and then distributed the rest to the poor, exhorting them at the same time to become Christians. Her two sons told her they could no longer stay among their heathen fellow-servants, and added, '* Have you not taught us that St. Paul says, ' Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers ' ? " The mother tried to restrain their enthusiasm, fearing that when persecution met them they would not have courage to persevere ; but they went to Catalus and told him they had no master but Jesus Christ Catalus said they were out of their senses, and sent for their father and mother. Zoe came, and when Catalus asked for Hesperus, she reminded him that he had sent him to his villa outside the town. He answered, " I wish you and your sons were there too, that I might not have had so much trouble with you. These silly boys come and tell me you have a God of your own. Whom I have never heard of, and that you will not worship the gods of your fathers, although you know what blessings have come to your mistress Tertia and how she has had a son since we began to pay special adora- tion to the great goddess Fortuna." So he ordered them all to go away to his villa Tritonia. Soon afterwards Catalus made a great feast in honour of the birth of his son, and ordered that all his de- pendents should rejoice. A good portion of meat and wine was sent to Zoe, but she knowing it was offered to idols, threw the meat to the dog and poured tK^ wii^^ on the ground. When this wm^ ,14 to Catalus he was very angry and sent for Zoe, her husband, and sons ; he said he wotdd have no more of their new God, and he ordered the boys to be tortured, saying to Zoe, ** Now we will see if your God is able to help them." Zoe stood by and saw her boys torn with iron hooks and bade them be of good courage and be true to their Master in heaven. The four were then cast into a furnace. Cat- alus heard them singing psalms in the fire. He wondered and considered how he could torture them still more. When they knew this, they prayed to the Lord to receive their souls in peace, and at once died. Next day, Catalus opened the furnace, and found them all lying there dead but uninjured, with their faces turned to the east. BM, AA,SS. St. Zoe (2) or ZoA, July 5, Jan. 20, M. 286. Eepresented suspended from the bough of a tree over flames. She was wife of Nicostratus, primiacriniuSf which Butler translates " master of the rolls." The martyrs Marcus and Marcel- lianus were in the house of Nicostratus, under sentence of death, and St. Sebastian exhorted them not to be shaken by the tears of their friends but to be faithful unto death. While he was speaking a heavenly light shone around him, and seven angels stood beside him. 2k)o had been dumb for six years, from palsy, but her understanding and her powers of observation were rather sharpened than diminished by her misfortune. She was so struck by the miracle she witnessed, and so impressed by the words of St. Sebastian, that she tried to express by signs, her belief in his teach- ing and her anxiety for the conversion of her friends who were present. St. Sebastian restored the power of speech to her by making the sign of the cross on her mouth. Nicostratus, St. Tran- quillinus and his wife (the parents of Marcus and Marcellianus) and several other persons were converted at the same time. Not long afterwards Zoe was arrested while praying at the tomb of St. Peter ; she was dragged to a statue of Mars and required to bum incense before it ; on her refusal she was put in a dungeon without food or light and con- demned to die of hunger, but after six
