In martyres Aegyptios

Encomium on the Egyptian Martyrs. 1. Blessed is God, that even from Egypt there are martyrs—Egypt, the god-fighting and most frenzied land, whence come the godless mouths, whence the blasphemous tongues—from Egypt martyrs, and not only in Egypt, nor in the neighboring and adjacent country, but throughout the whole world. And just as in times of abundance of wares, when those who dwell in cities see that the harvest has become greater than the need of the inhabitants, and they send it out to the cities abroad, both displaying their own generosity and, with the surplus of these goods, easily purchasing in return whatever they may need from those others—so too have the Egyptians done with the athletes of piety. Seeing that by the grace of God the harvest among them had become great, they did not confine this great gift of God within their city; but they sent out to every land the treasuries of good things, displaying their own brotherly love, glorifying the common Master of all, adorning their own city in the eyes of all, and declaring it the metropolis of the whole world. For if cold and cheap pretexts, and favors that serve only for the present life, have been able to bestow this honor upon many cities, how is it not just that this city, which grants none of these perishable and corruptible things, but rather men who, even after death, possess great security for the cities allotted to them, should receive from them this preeminence above all?

For the bodies of these saints fortify our city more securely than any wall of adamant, unbreakable and impregnable; and like some lofty crags thrust forward on every side, they not only repel the assaults of these visible and tangible enemies, but also the machinations of the invisible demons, and they overturn and dissolve every stratagem of the devil as easily as a brave man might overturn and cast down the playthings of children. And as for the other devices made by men—such as walls, ditches, arms, and multitudes of soldiers, and all that has been devised for the security of the inhabitants—it is possible for the enemy to repel them by other, more numerous and greater, excesses of engines on their part; but when a city is fortified with the bodies of saints, even if they spend countless sums of money, they will not be able to set up any such engine against the cities that possess them. This possession is useful to us not only against the plots of men, nor only against the malice of demons, beloved; but even if our common Master is angry with us because of the multitude of our sins, we shall be able, by proffering these bodies, quickly to render him propitious to the city.

If those who had achieved great things among our ancestors, putting forward the names of holy men and taking refuge in the appellation of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, obtained some comfort and reaped great benefit from the memory of these names, much more shall we, when we put forward not only names but also the very bodies that have contended, be able to have God propitious, gentle, and kind. And that what we say is not boastful, many know, both of the locals and of those who have come from elsewhere, how great is the power of these saints, who also bear witness to what is said, having learned through experience itself their freedom of speech before God; and this is quite reasonable. For they did not contend for the truth in a random manner, but they resisted the violent and unbearable force of the devil so steadfastly and vigorously, as if contending in bodies of stone and iron, not in perishable and mortal ones, as if already having passed over to the impassible and immortal nature, which does not yield to the bitter and painful necessities of the body. For just as some wild beasts, savage and untamed, surrounding the bodies on all sides, the executioners dug into their ribs, scraped their flesh, exposed their bones and laid them bare, and nothing stops them from that savagery and inhumanity.

but even after laying hold of their backs and entrails, and penetrating into their innermost parts, they did not find the treasure of faith stored within them to plunder, but suffered the same as if some men, besieging a most royal city full of great wealth and possessing ample treasures, and after demolishing its walls and coming to the very treasuries of the money, had overturned doors, broken down bars, dug up the floor, searched everything, and yet were unable to carry off its wealth and depart. For such are the possessions of the soul: they are not betrayed to the sufferings of the body, when the soul holds them securely, but even if one should tear open the breast itself, and taking the heart, divide it bit by bit, it will not surrender the treasure once entrusted to it by faith. This has come about by the grace of God, who orders all things and is able to accomplish marvels even in weak bodies. And what is more wonderful: not only did they, in their frenzy, take nothing from the treasures stored within them, but they also caused them to be guarded with greater security, and made them more brilliant and more abundant. For no longer did the soul alone, but also the body itself, partake of greater grace, and not only did it not lose what it had after being cut and mangled many times, but it even drew to itself a greater and stronger influence. What could be more marvelous than this victory, that those whom they held and had in their power, and bound and tortured at will, they were unable to conquer, but were themselves miserably and wretchedly defeated by them?

For they were not warring against them, but against the God dwelling within them; and that one who wars against God must of necessity be defeated with great loss, paying the penalty for the mere attempt, is evident to anyone. Such are the victories of the saints. And if the contests and struggles were so wondrous and extraordinary, what might we say about the prizes and crowns laid up for them on account of their endurance? For they did not stop at these tortures, nor did they end the race here, but the arena extended further for them, the evil demon expecting by the addition of punishments to trip up the athletes, while the benevolent God permitted and did not hinder, so that both the madness of the unbelievers might be shown more clearly to all, and more splendid and numerous crowns might be woven for them. And just as happened in the case of Job and the devil—the one asked for more punishments against him from God, expecting to prevail by the addition of horrors over the noble athlete of piety, while the other permitted and granted the evil requests of the evil demon, making his own athlete more illustrious—so too did it happen here. For when it had gnawed their body from all sides, more fiercely than any wild beast, and had bloodied its tongue and mouth, if not with the blood of the saints, then with those inhuman and cruel pebbles, defeated by their endurance, and having gorged itself sufficiently on that inhuman feast, and having taken its fill, it departed.

Consider how great was the patience of the saints, which sated such madness with its own sufferings. He came again, contending in his madness, and striving to overcome all the beasts by another kind of cruelty. For those beasts come to this feast by necessity of nature, and when sated they depart, and even if they see countless bodies, they touch none of them; but this man came to this feast by the wickedness of his choice, and having glutted himself on their very flesh, he wove another device against them, delivering the saints to a very long and grievous death; for he ordered them to work perpetually in the mines. O the folly! Having received such clear proof of their courage and endurance, he expected to prevail by this means. And indeed the saints dwelt with beasts, they who were companions of angels and citizens of the heavens, and were enrolled in the heavenly Jerusalem, and the desert became holier than any city. For in the cities these lawless and tyrannical edicts were dared every day; but the desert had freedom from this inhuman service; and the courts were full of unholy deeds and unlawful commands; but the deserts had citizens more law-abiding than all men, those who had become angels from men, and the desert vied with heaven, at least by the virtue of its dwelling citizens. And by nature the punishment was most grievous, but by the zeal of the contestants it became easy and light and manageable.

Then they thought they saw the light many times over, and believed that the saying of the prophet—that the moon would be as the sun, and the sun seven times brighter—had already been fulfilled in that light. For there is not, there is not a more cheerful soul than one deemed worthy to suffer for Christ something of the things that seem terrible and unbearable to us. They already thought themselves transported to heaven and dancing with angels. For what more did they need of heaven and angels, when the Master of the angels, Jesus, was with them in the desert? For if, where two or three are gathered in his name, he is in their midst, much more was he then in the midst of those assembled, not as if gathered in his name, but suffering continuously for the sake of the name. For you know, you know clearly, that there is no punishment more severe than this, and that those condemned by this sentence would have chosen to endure countless other deaths rather than bear the pain that came from that place. They were handed over to the mines, where they had to dig copper, often being themselves more precious than gold and incorporeal gold, not gold dug up by the hands of convicts, but found by the zeal of faithful men; they worked the mines, they who were full of countless treasures. What could be more bitter and painful than that life? They saw fulfilled in themselves the accounts about those great men, which Paul recounts concerning the saints: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, lacking, oppressed, ill-treated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and in the hollows of the earth.

These things also happened in our own generation. Knowing this, then, beloved, that both now and from the time men came to be, all those dear to God were allotted a life that is grim, laborious, and full of countless hardships, let us not pursue the soft, dissolute, and ease-filled life, but the laborious, the painful, the life that has afflictions and tribulations. For just as it is impossible for the athlete to obtain the crowns through sleep, idleness, and luxury, nor the soldier the trophies, nor the pilot the harbor, nor the farmer the full threshing-floor, so too is it impossible for the faithful man who has passed his life in idleness to obtain the promised goods. How then is it not absurd that in all worldly matters labors are set before pleasure, and dangers before safety, and this when the expectation from those labors is cheap and small; but when heaven is set before us, and the honors of angels, and life without end, and association with angels, and goods which it is impossible even to conceive or describe, we expect to attain them through idleness, ease, and a dissolute soul, and do not deem them worthy of the same zeal as worldly things?

No, I implore you, let us not so basely deliberate concerning ourselves and our own salvation, but looking to these holy ones, these noble and steadfast athletes, given to us as luminaries, let us direct our own life according to their endurance and patience, so that by their prayers we may be able, after our departure from here, both to see them and to greet them, and to be enrolled among their heavenly tents. May it be granted to all of us to obtain this, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom glory is to the Father and to the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.