Encomium in xl martyres ii

Of the Same Author: Encomiastic Oration on the Forty Martyrs, Delivered in the Martyrium. The soldiers of the Romans, according to ancestral law and ancient custom, which children have received from their forebears and preserve to the present day, at the beginning of the current month equip themselves in full armor and proceed to a plain sufficiently broad and level, where it is possible to extend a horse-race, to practice tactics, and to train in every form of armed exercise; they also make a commemoration of the year and keep the day as a festival. But I, celebrating the memory of the martyrs and having announced this to you on the previous day, today present to those able to see the soldiers of Christ, the forty, who surpassed all eagerness in their contests, armed through memory, as a wonder: an ornament of the Church, a joy of the peoples, and a glory of God who strengthened them. It is altogether excellent and highly beneficial for the young to be nurtured and for men to flourish together with the narratives of virtue. Hearing is the most vital part of the senses, and no less instructive than sight. For through the ears it vividly introduces learning into the souls; and there is no small danger whether the narratives are good or base. For as those things are spoken, so necessarily does a corresponding image arise in the thoughts; and continuous thought and contemplation of the mind leads a person to desire to do what he ponders. Therefore, prepare your hearing calm and undistracted.

pass on to their children, so that the blessed martyrs might be honored as is fitting, and you, through remembrance, might be instructed in piety and love of God. For me, a twofold contest lies ahead, and I fear lest I do dishonor to the subject by the weakness of my exposition. For if one considers the magnificence of the matter at hand, it carries off the victory over any speech; or if one considers the man who before us crowned the saints with his own wisdom—a man whose wonder is common to the whole world, an exact standard of learning both among Christians and from outside, a statue of philosophy, a model and a challenge for bishops, a teacher whose works and words are in harmony, who has an uncontested reputation among all people, except perhaps among those for whom even Christ is not free from blasphemy. For just as no one denies that the sun gives light and warmth, so no one will deny that the great Basil was adorned with every beauty of virtue. He, then, a lofty praiser of the lofty, a holy servant of the holy, fulfilled the reward for the champions according to the power he possessed. But I must not be silent on this account, because the one who preceded me proclaimed the wondrous things greatly. For the purpose now is not a contest with the speaker, but care for your benefit, the hearers; and each one benefits as he is able, while the enjoyment of greater things is supplied by those who are richer. Now the forty were soldiers, having received the rank of bearing arms for the emperor of the Romans in life, but Christians in faith, and pious in religion.

Since the ruler of that time, being one of the polytheists, with the bitterness of demons suggesting that plan to him, was driving Christians with a new law and edict, commanding all his subjects either to offer incense to the demons or, if they did not do so, to be condemned to death, and before death to endure many torments on their whole body—then indeed, the blessed ones, making the tyrant’s cruelty and the godless law an occasion for their own valor, and having broken away from the other soldiers, formed a chosen and Christ-loving phalanx, commanded by the power of the Spirit, and openly set themselves against the abominable edicts. And all together, as with one voice, they proclaimed our faith, saying that they cared little for this temporary life and offered their bodies up to various forms of punishments. So the servant of the violent law, more tyrannical than the law itself, having learned of the saints’ resistance, hastened to devise a punishment equal to their zeal, and for their unyielding souls he contrived a new and extraordinary cowardice. “If I threaten them with the sword,” he said, “the fear is too slight to cause terror, and they will by no means yield; for they are men who have lived in arms from childhood and are accustomed to bearing iron. If I apply other tortures to them, they will endure them nobly, being not inexperienced in blows and wounds; nor is fire fearful to those who are as steadfast as these. Therefore it is necessary to devise a punishment that will have both the painful effect of suffering and a long, protracted duration.

So what did the deviser of evils carefully plan against the saints? After deliberation, he discovered an aerial danger, which the season and the region readily supplied. For the season was winter, and the place was Armenia, a neighboring country which, as you know, is severe in winter, not even providing warmth to its inhabitants during the summer season, but only enough heat to nurture the ear of grain; the vine plant is unknown among them, and one who has not traveled far does not know a cluster of grapes; such a person asks about a bunch of grapes as we do about things that happen among the Indians. There, with snow on the ground, the sower cuts open the earth, and a snowstorm overtakes the harvest; and the winds strip the reaper unless he binds himself tightly with his garments and struggles against the force of the winds. Autumn and spring are almost nonexistent, as if dragged into the dominion of winter by a bad neighbor. In that country, then, and in the present month, he stripped the saints and set them in the open air with their bodies completely naked, opposing the king of the Assyrians and the Babylonian furnace, as he punished the disciples of piety. Nothing is comparable in pain: fire that burns, and frost that congeals and withers. For fire is like iron, swiftly bringing death; but frost, having equal pain, prolongs the end. For in general, afflictions caused by cold are slower, such as quartan fevers, cancers, and carbuncles, and all those conditions that medical philosophers have declared the cold humor produces in bodies.

Thus the colder and fatter creatures are more sluggish and have a body that is difficult to manage; and the irrational animals are likewise. The warmer ones are swift and quick for pressing need; those of the opposite disposition are slow and shackled with numbness. Thus a swift horse is roused to the race by a whistle before the whip; the donkey is slow and barely completes the journey with blows of clubs. The leopard is swift, with a dry and hot body, darting through the glens; the bear, on the contrary, lingers with its thicker limbs. I have not given you this natural history out of season, but so that you may learn the endurance of the men by examining the manner of their punishment. Winter makes rivers that are navigable by ships become passable on foot, and turns flowing water into the hardness of stone; and it dissolves rocks when it penetrates their depth; and it equally ravages bodies of opposite natures, turning soft ones to stone and dissolving hard ones. Thus wine, when frozen, takes the shape of the containing jar, and soft oil stands solid, shaped to the place of its vessel; but glass and pottery, when wetted, are shattered. Animals that have received a mountain and open-air life, some perish, others forget their wildness due to the excess of the evil. For deer and gazelles in enclosures

They nest. At that time they do not fear dogs, nor do they flee from those who approach. For the greater terror always casts out the fear of lesser dreads. Birds take up residence among men and remain under the roof. But men dig up the sea and strike the water with stone-working tools, and they do not mingle with one another nearby. Such a season became a weapon for the tyrant against the martyrs. For it was necessary, it seems, that the great and harmonious phalanx of the blessed ones should contend with a novel mode of punishment, so that they might acquire a glory for piety incomparable to that of the many martyrs. So they stood, and their limbs were frozen as they trembled, yet they kept their resolve unshaken, providing a spectacle full of struggle for angels, men, and demons. The angels awaited the separation of the souls, so that they might receive them and lead them up to their own order. The men watched for the outcome, testing the power of our common nature: whether through fear and hope of the future we could overcome such great pains. The demons paid close attention to what was happening, eager to see the athletes’ fall and their cowardly renunciation in the face of dangers. But their hope was put to shame, because of God who gives strength. For they saw the mutilations, each one his own and all of them one another’s. One lay with a foot or fingers fallen off; another lay with his innate heat completely chilled.

Just as the most violent of winds, when they blow upon a place thick with growth, then shake the lofty trees and bring them down to the ground root and all, so was the company of the blessed laid low by the storm: the noble plants of the paradise, the ornament of the race, the roots of our own growth, the soldiers of Paul, the bodyguards of Christ, the destroyers of altars, the builders of churches, those who enrolled to fight against barbarians and completed the contest against the common enemy of mankind. Their death was not by force and inexorable necessity, but salvation was readily at hand and within their power, had they wished to weaken in their resistance. For a bath was nearby, which was adjacent by design to the place of punishment; and the door stood open, and those standing by called them. For the tyrant, being a sophist of persecution and of varied cunning, placed the bait of transgression close to those who were being frozen, and urged them to desert to the remedy, as his father did to the first-formed ones for the tasting of the tree. But they then intensified their courage all the more, knowing that endurance provides torment at that time when one refrains from pleasure when it is within one's power; which in earlier times the inspired Daniel is shown to have done. For when he was urged to partake of abundant and pleasant food and drink, out of hatred and aversion for idol-offerings he loved eating seeds; and fasting he flourished, and without food he was more robust than those who lived in luxury.

This is a special gift of God, to grant to faithful servants in times of distress what is beyond hope. But since envy clings to lofty achievements, the blessed company was in danger of being mutilated, and we came within a little of losing the full number of the fourth decade. For one man, renouncing because of the frost, at the very end of the victory—alas!—abandoned his fellow soldiers and, by resorting to the bath, went over to the tyrant’s device, sparing his already withered flesh, being a lover of life. He fell short of his hope and did not obtain even his temporary life, dying immediately after his transgression. A wretched Judas among the martyrs, neither disciple nor rich, and moreover drawing the noose upon himself. Let no one be surprised. For it is customary for the devil to use this kind of facile trickery against those who yield to him: he deceives and flatters in various ways in order to cast them down; and having cast them down, he immediately tramples upon them and mocks the one who lies prostrate. He celebrates the calamity with shame, and rejoices in the shame of the one who has been ensnared. Hence the Psalmist called him both enemy and avenger, indicating the fickleness of his character by the contrariety of the names. For he never becomes a friend or a man of peace to men; but he then pretends friendship when he wishes to put on a mask of deceit. But the helper of our weakness, the cultivator of goods, words, and deeds, found for himself, as Abraham did, a sheep for sacrifice from among the enemy, a confessor from among the blasphemers, and a martyr from the company of the persecutors.

One of the tyrant’s executioners, having been deemed worthy of a vision of angels who came to the martyrs, and being enveloped in the manifestation of the holy spirits, as once Paul was by the glory of Christ when he traveled to Damascus, immediately changed his mind, and stripping himself of his garment, mingled with those who were freezing. And in a brief moment of time he became, all at once, a convert, a confessor, a martyr, washing in his own blood the bath of regeneration, with blood that was congealed and did not flow; a crowned victor, a man worthy of everything. Because of him, I have the forty for the Church of God. Because of the noble one, the company of martyrs is not mutilated. Because of the convert, we celebrate a festival on a perfect number. And the devil suffered a pleasant and laughable thing: for as he was stealing the soldier, he was robbed of the persecutor and executioner. Then what after this? The thrice-blessed ones arrived where they were hastening. But the master of punishment, unable to bear the martyrs’ victory with equanimity, waged war on the dead bodies, ordering that the houses of the holy souls be consigned to fire, and through one action imitated both wild beasts and bitter men. For beasts tear the garment cast at them when the men they pursue flee; and men, when their enemies withdraw, burn and demolish their houses. And one of the martyrs might justly say to him: No longer, vain one, do I fear your cruelty. For I was afraid as long as souls were present with those who were freezing, lest the excess of torture overcome the courage of the pious.

When this fear had passed, use the remaining clay as you wish; even if you taste the flesh, I care not. For the more you display your raging cruelty, the more you crown the victory of those who have departed. For the noble assaults of those arrayed against us become precise proofs of the courage of those who have prevailed. But why do we linger long? The bodies were burned, and fire succeeded them. That dust, and the remnants of the furnace, the world divided; and almost every land is blessed by these sanctifications. I too have a share of the gift, and I have laid the bodies of my fathers beside the relics of the soldiers, so that at the time of the resurrection they may rise with those who are confident helpers. For I know that they are powerful, and I have seen clear proofs of their confidence before God; and indeed I wish to tell one of the things that belong to the wonder of their activity. There is a village belonging to me, in which the relics of these thrice-blessed ones rest; there is a neighboring small town, called Ibora. In this town, according to the customary Roman law, while a levy of soldiers was taking place, one of the soldiers came to the aforementioned village, assigned by his commander for the guard of the place, to restrain the impulses and outrages of his fellow soldiers, which those serving as soldiers are accustomed to inflict upon the country folk out of boldness. This man was ill in one of his feet, and he limped; and the affliction was chronic and hard to cure.

When he had entered the place of martyrdom and the repose of the saints, and after praying to God, he invoked the intercession of the saints. By night a man of dignified appearance appeared to him, and after conversing about some other matters, he said, "You are lame, soldier, and do you need healing? But allow me to touch your foot." And taking hold of it in the dream, he pulled it violently. While the nocturnal vision was doing this, a sound arose in waking reality as great as would occur if a bone had slipped from its natural joint and then been forcibly set back into place, so that it woke both those sleeping with him and the soldier himself. The man immediately awoke and began to walk soundly in his natural manner, as was his custom. This miracle I myself witnessed, having encountered the man himself as he proclaimed it to all, heralding the beneficence of the martyrs and praising the kindness of the soldiers. If I should add something that pertains to me in particular, I will speak. When we were about to celebrate the first festival over the relics and to place the reliquary in the sacred shrine, my mother—for it was she who gathered and adorned the feast for God—commanded me to come and participate in the rites, though I was living far away, still young, and numbered among the laity. As is wont to happen in urgent matters, being busy, I foolishly received the summons rather heavily, finding fault with my mother because she had not postponed the festival to another time, but had drawn me away from many cares and pulled me to this one, a day before the gathering. I arrived at the place.

A night-long vigil was being held in a garden, where the relics of the saints were also being honored with psalmody. As I slept nearby in a small chamber, a vision of this kind appeared to me in a dream: I seemed to wish to enter the garden, where in waking reality the all-night vigil was being celebrated. When I came to the door, a multitude of soldiers was seen sitting at the entrance. Suddenly they all rose up, brandishing rods and rushing at me threateningly, and they did not permit my entry. I would have received blows as well, had not one, as it seemed, more kindly disposed begged me off. When sleep released me and I came to reflect on my fault regarding the invocation, I perceived what the fearful apparition of the soldiers signified. With many lamentations I bewailed my own vanity, and I shed a bitter tear even over the very shrine of the relics, that God might be gracious to me and the holy soldiers might grant me amnesty. I have said these things so that we might be persuaded that the martyrs live, and that they are bodyguards and assessors of God, who today have benefited and adorned our Church. Brighter and greater is this fortieth day, having the memory of the Forty Martyrs, and the month is more illustrious among months, and the harsh winter no longer seems severe to me; nor do I complain against the savagery of the present season. For this, having become a weapon of the persecutor, has perfected this sacred phalanx for me. And just as the mother of the seven Maccabees, because she had a soul more God-loving than flesh-loving, neither reproached the cruelty of Antiochus the tyrant of Syria, nor was distressed by the punishments and misfortunes of her sons.

to receive the solitude as a benefaction, and childlessness as an aid; nor did Stephen think he was being harmed by stoning, but rather was being brought to life. So too we owe thanks to the God-fighters for the good outcome, because they have become the cause of so many goods for us, even if they acted not with the intention of benefiting, but of fighting. For even enemies unwillingly confer benefits no less worthy than genuine friends. The devil benefited Job more than he harmed him; the king of the Assyrians became a benefactor of Daniel. Let the three youths acknowledge gratitude to the furnace; and let Isaiah, sawn asunder, praise the Hebrews. And let Zacharias, slain between the temple and the altar, honor the perpetrators; and John, beheaded, proclaim Herod a benefactor; and the apostles, those who bound and scourged them; and let all martyrs love their persecutors. For if those had not opened the stadium, the athletes would not have made their courage public. What more could one admire in the men set before us for praise: their number, their courage, or their unerring harmony? Let us not pass over the number insensitively or ungratefully. For one who has so many intercessors would never depart from prayer and supplication without success, even if he were heavily burdened with sins. And of this thought and hope, God is witness in his dialogue with Abraham, when he accepted the entreaty for the Sodomites, seeking not forty righteous men, but ten, to avert the destruction of a city about to be annihilated.

We, following the Apostle, having so great a cloud of martyrs surrounding us, let us count ourselves blessed, rejoicing in hope, persevering in prayer, sharing in the memories of the saints. For the forty martyrs are strong defenders against enemies, and trustworthy advocates of supplication to the Master. With hope in them, let the Christian take courage, both when the devil weaves temptations, and when wicked men rise up, and when tyrants seethe with rage, and when the sea grows wild, and when the earth does not bear what it is appointed to produce for men, and when the heaven threatens calamities. For their power suffices for every need and circumstance, and receives abundant grace from Christ, to whom all glory is due for ever. Amen.