Quote:Primus and Felician were brothers, and being accused of professing the Christian religion, during the persecution of Diocletian and Maximiam, they were thrown into irons, which an Angel broke, and they were delivered. But being soon led again before the prætor, and as they most earnestly clung to the Christian faith, they were separated one from the other. The steadfastness of Felician was the first to be put to the test in diverse ways. As they who strove to persuade him into impiety, found it hopeless to gain aught from him by words, he was fastened hand and foot to a stake and there left to hang three days, without either food or drink. The day after that, the prætor having called Primus before him, thus addressed him: “Seest thou how much wiser is thy brother, than thou art? He hath obeyed the Emperors, and they have made him honorable. Thou hast only to follow his example to be made partaker of his honors and favors.”

Primus replied: “What hath befallen my brother, I know, for an angel hath told me. Would to God, that seeing I have the same will that he hath, I were not divided from him in the same martyrdom.” These words raised the wrath of the prætor, and to the torments which he had already inflicted in Primus, he added this also, that he had boiling lead poured into his mouth, and this, in presence of Felician. After that, he had them both dragged into the amphitheater, and two lions let loose upon them, in presence of about twelve thousand people, who were gathered together to see the show. The lions only fawned upon the knees of the saints, making friends with them, caressingly moving their heads and tails. This spectacle turned five hundred persons of the assembled crowd, together with their households, to the Christian religion. The prætor then, moved beyond all endurance, by what had passed, caused Primus and Felician to be beheaded with the axe.