SS. RUFINUS AND VALERIUS, MM.

THEY were overseers of the imperial taxes near the river Vesle, in the territory of Soissons. They were Christians, and their fasts and plentiful almsdeeds were proofs of their extraordinary piety. The emperor Maximian Herculius, having defeated the Bagandæ near Paris, left the bloody persecutor, Rictius Varus, the præfectus-prætorii, in Gaul, with an order to employ all means in his power to extirpate, if possible, the Christian name. After much blood spilled at Rheims, he came to Soissons, and gave orders for Rufinus and Valerius to be brought before him. They had hid themselves in a wood, but were discovered, put on the rack, torn with scourges armed with leaden balls, and at length beheaded on the high road leading to Soissons. They suffered in the third age. The ancient Martyrologies mention them on the 14th of June. See their acts abridged by Tillemont, t. 4, p. 459.