St. Tarcisius

Feast Day: August 15 Died: August 15, 257 Patron: First Communicants, altar servers

Statue of St. Tarcisius on the altar of San Silvestro in . His are beneath the church.

Tarcisius was young boy living in Rome during the time of the persecution of Christians at the hands of Emperor Valerian. Christians were forced to meet secretly in private homes or underground in the Catacombs to hear the Word of God, to pray and to celebrate Holy Mass.

Tarcisius served as an altar boy. After Mass, the priest would ask a volunteer to take the Holy to the Christians who were imprisoned by Valerian. It was a dangerous mission. When Tarcisius offered, the priest initially refused stating that he was too young. Tarcisius convinced the priest that no one would suspect such a young boy to take on such a dangerous mission. So, the priest agreed.

A group of pagan boys stopped Tarcisius demanding to know what he carried. Tarcisius whispered, “My Jesus, strengthen me.” But one boy heard his words and cried out that Tarcisius is a Christian, an enemy of the Emperor. They beat him, stoned him and kicked him to the ground. According to a poem by , the boys turned over Tarcisius’ body and the Host was mysteriously gone. Pope Benedict XVI explains that “The Most was not found on St Tarcisius … that the consecrated Host which the little had defended with his life, had become flesh of his flesh thereby forming, together with his body, a single immaculate Host offered to God.”

In another version, a Roman soldier, also a secret Christian, saw the boys beating Tarcisius and ran them off. He tended to the dying Tarcisius whose last words were, “I am dying, but I have kept my God safe from them.” The body of St. Tarcisius is buried beneath San Silvestro Church in Rome, Italy.

Pope Benedict XVI’s prayer to St. Tarcisius: “…teach us the deep love and great veneration that we must have for the Eucharist: it is a precious good, a treasure of incomparable value; it is the Bread of life, it is Jesus himself who becomes our nourishment, support and strength on our daily journey and on the open road that leads to eternal life; the Eucharist is the greatest gift that Jesus bequeathed to us.”