Every September 6, the Church remembers Saints Cletus (Leto) and Donatian, martyrs of the 5th century.
Both were bishops, brave defenders of the Christian faith, willing to give their lives for Christ in times when the Roman Empire had entered into clear decline and the barbarians indiscriminately punished those who held any type of authority, especially if it was born of the Christian faith. Cletus (leto) was burned alive, while Donatian died in the desert, after being deported by the king of the Vandals, Huneric (ca.430-484).
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Barbary
The Vandals were a Germanic people from central Europe – present-day Germany and Poland – famous for having invaded the territories of the Roman Empire in North Africa (Carthage) and advancing to the capital, Rome. The vandals organized one of the most violent looting that the Eternal City has suffered throughout its history.
In 483 Bishop Eugene and the clerics of Carthage (a city under Vandal rule at the time) had been taken to the royal palace and then driven to the outskirts of the city, heading into exile. The clerics who wanted to stay within the borders of the kingdom settled in the southern part, where they would gradually be tortured and massacred.
After this episode, Huneric showed some tolerance towards Catholics – he had embraced Arianism years before and considered Catholics as heretics – but this attitude would not last long. In the year 484, King Huneric ordered action against the Catholics. Thus, all the Catholic churches in North Africa were closed and their property confiscated, to be handed over to the mob.
Bishop Donatian
Faced with such injustice, Donatian and four other bishops from the province of Birsa, Africa, (Presidio, Mansueto, Germán and Fusculus), gathered a group of Christians and organized a protest in front of the gates of the Carthaginian capital city. King Humericus, furious at the revolt, ordered his soldiers to “crush” the “rioters.”
Donatian and the four bishops were brutally beaten, and then forcibly driven into the desert, where they were left to die of hunger and thirst.
Bishop Cleto
Saint Cletus, bishop of Leptis Minor (North Africa), considered “a zealous and very wise man” (see: Roman martyrology) had earned the enmity of Huneric for his energetic opposition to Arianism, he was locked up in a stinking dungeon, from which he was only taken out after two months to be burned alive.
Central Editorial
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