AUBENAS, MARTYRS OF, Blessed. - Two Jesuits are designated by this name: Father Jacques Salès and the coadjutor brother Guillaume Sardan (Saltamochio), killed by the Huguenots out of hatred for the faith and especially for the Eucharist, on Feb. 7, 1593, at Aubenas (diocese of Viviers).
Father Salès, born at Lezoux on March 21, 1556, was a professor of philosophy and theology, alternating teaching with mini-
AUBENAS, MARTIRI - The Blessed Giacomo Salès and Guglielmo Saltamochio, martyred on 7 Feb. 1557. Painting by Bottoni (1926) - Rome, General Curia of the Jesuit Fathers.
stry. In Nov. 1592 he was sent to A., which had been recaptured a few years earlier from the Huguenots by Catholic arms, with the task of winning back to the faith, and reconfirming in it, wavering or fallen souls. Brother Saltamochio (Sautemonche), b. at St-Germain-l'Herni (Clermont) in 1557, was given to him as a companion. Good fruits were already beginning to be reaped, when suddenly, during the night towards 6 Feb., the Huguenots, breaking the agreed truce, suddenly burst into A. and seized the two missionaries. Disputes immediately flared up over religion and especially over the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, in which the Calvinists, faced with the rigorous logic of Fr. Salès, came off worse. They then called upon Fr. Salès to recant what he had said in defense of revealed truth; but having obtained nothing, on the afternoon of 7 Feb. they took his life. Brother Guglielmo, having refused to abandon him, shared the same fate. The two martyrs were beatified on 6 June 1926. Feast day on 7 Feb.