Rev. Alban Butler (171173). Volume XII: December. The Lives of
the Saints. 1866. St. Servulus, Confessor From St. Gregory, Hom.
25, in Evangel. and Dial. l. 4, c. 14. IN this saint was
exemplified what our divine Redeemer has taught us of Lazarus,
the poor man full of sores, who lay before the gate of the rich
mans house. Servulus was a beggar, and had been afflicted with
the palsy from his infancy; so that he was never able to stand,
sit upright, lift his hand to his mouth, or turn himself from
one side to another. His mother and brother carried him into the
porch of St. Clements church at Rome, where he lived on the alms
of those that passed by. Whatever he could spare from his own
subsistence he distributed among other needy persons. The
sufferings and humiliation of his condition were a means of
which he made the most excellent use for the sanctification of
his own soul, by the constant exercise of humility patience,
meekness, resignation, and penance. He used to entreat devout
persons to read the holy sc