Passio septem monachorum

THE PASSION OF THE SEVEN MONKS, BY AN UNCERTAIN AUTHOR. THE PASSION OF THE MOST BLESSED MARTYRS WHO SUFFERED AT CARTHAGE UNDER THE IMPIOUS KING HUNIRIC ON THE SIXTH DAY BEFORE THE NONES OF JULY. (I) About to proclaim the triumphs of the blessed martyrs, to set forth what was done I beg divine assistance, so that He who granted them the victory of overcoming may extend to me, unworthy and undeserving, whatever adornment of words there may be. For then I shall be able to relate what is desired, if they themselves deign to plead for me, a wretch, before the Lord. (II) Now the seventh year of the most cruel and most impious king Huniric was passing, and behold the ancient enemy, the sluggish serpent indeed, brandishing the poisons of his three-forked tongue, used Cyrila, once a bishop of the Arians, as his minister, subverting and seizing the mind of the bloodstained king, so as to persuade him that he could not hold a peaceful and long-lasting kingdom unless he destroyed the name of the innocent. Yet by the judgment of God, after not many days, he...

most pious death, overtaken by it, he expired, teeming with worms. He began to persecute with bloody mouth the whole multitude of Catholics, which throughout the entire African province had been multiplied like the sand of the sea, as was foretold of the patriarch Abraham, so that he might wound it with the sword of rebaptism and defile that singular and pure garment of baptism, which Christ had purified with the wine of His own flesh and, pressing it in the press of the cross, had made white, with the foul filth of dark blackness. The tyrant, moreover, being as he was pliable and savage, taking up the serpentine suggestion, began to stir up the whole of Africa at one time with savage edicts. First, he thrust a very great and vast throng of priests and ministers into cruel exile in distant and remote regions: to them he ordered to be given, as a mercy, a double-sharp kind of grain, which it is permitted for beasts of burden alone to eat, not ground by the industry of the mill, but armored with the remaining husk of the bran; later, as the madness of his impiety increased, even this

he most cruelly ordered to be removed. Shortly after, he commanded that all the churches at once be closed, their venerable doors blocked with huge stones; for he ordered that all the monasteries of men or of holy virgins be given to the pagans, that is, the Moors, along with their inhabitants. There was one single lament for all, one whole and complete desire to die for Christ. Equal rivers of tears flowed, because the Lord had permitted them to feed on the bread of tears and to drink of tears, in measure or perhaps without measure. Yet, even if some part of the perishing crows is found coming out of the ark, gaping at dead bodies, still greater is the number of happy doves in the name of the Trinity. How many noble and excellent men, lords of broad and wide estates, exchanged earth for heaven and at the same time surrendered both body and property! And how many delicate and most noble women, contrary to the modesty of nature, beaten with rods before a gazing crowd and tortured with various torments, bore victorious trophies! How many little children, laughing at the deadly edicts, scorned the world before they ever entered its seductive path!

(III) Then seven brothers were seized, who lived together in one monastery in the harmony of the Lord's service, for it is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell together as one: namely, Bonifatius the deacon, Servus the subdeacon, Rusticus the subdeacon, Liberatus the abbot, Rogatus the monk, Septimus the monk, and Maximus the monk—in number like the Maccabean brothers, whom one mother, the Catholic Church, had borne and, through the womb of the eternal font, had salutarily brought forth, from the territory of the city of Capsa, over which the holy Uindemialis, an eminent priest and faithful bishop of Christ, presided. When they were brought to the city of Carthage, first the serpent tried to hiss with seductive flatteries, promising fleeting honors and the riches of immense pleasures, as well as the king's friendship and many other things with which the devil, snaring souls, usually catches the foolish with worldly birdlime. But all these things the soldiers of God spurned as if they were contagions, crying out with one voice: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Nor, with the Lord's help, can what has once been commanded in the holy Gospel to be given be repeated in us; for he who has once been washed has no need to be washed again, because he is wholly clean. Do what you will, inflict punishments on our bodies: it is better to suffer temporal torments for a short time than to pay and undergo eternal penalties. Keep what you promise, you who will perish shortly along with those very riches.

But for us, no one will be able to tear from the doorposts of our foreheads what the artisan of the Trinity deigned to inscribe in a single baptism. (IV) Why say more? While they were being fortified with such constancy by divine power, they were ordered to be consigned to prison custody, and thus were more cruelly burdened with weights of iron and assigned to dark places, where no compassion of gentleness smiled. But that people of the aforementioned city, always faithful in the Lord, by giving a gift to the jailers, frequented the martyrs of Christ day and night, and were so strengthened by them in the teaching and virtue of the faith that they themselves desired to endure such things with full delight for the name of Christ and willingly placed their necks under the sword of the persecutor. This, however, came to the ears of the tyrant; inflamed with the drunkenness of fury, he orders them to be driven with still unheard-of tortures and burdened with greater chains, and commands a ship to be filled with bundles of dry wood, and with all bound in it, to be burned in the middle of the sea by setting fire beneath. (V) And when they were led out of custody, a multitude of the people of God led the warriors of the Trinity like innocent lambs to the sacrifice, and they beheld the roaring weights of chains like some necklaces, because those were not bonds, but rather ornaments.

They therefore advanced with confidence to the punishment, as if hastening to a feast, chanting with one voice through the circuits of the streets to the Lord: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. This day is a day of vows for us, and more festive than any solemnity. Behold now the acceptable time, behold now the day of salvation, when for the faith of our Lord God we are led forth to the prepared punishment, lest we lose the garment of the faith we have acquired.' And they cried out to the peoples with a public voice: 'Do not fear, O peoples of God, neither dread the threats and terrors of present tribulations, but rather let us die for Christ, just as He Himself died for us, redeeming us with the price of His own blood.' Yet with vehement effort, the authors of the evils desired to separate one who seemed a little child among them, named Maximus, from the company of the saints, saying: 'Little child, why do you hasten to death? Abandon them, they are mad, and listen to our counsel, so that you may be able to find a remedy for life and approach the palace of so great a king.' Then he, though of childish age, yet with the maturity of an old man, cried out: 'No one separates me from my holy father, Abbot Liberatus, and from my brothers, who nurtured me in the monastery. With them I have lived in the fear of God, with them I desire to undergo the passion, with whom I believe I shall also find future glory.

Do not think that you can deceive my youth: the Lord wished to gather us seven together at the same time; He will deign to crown us all with a single martyrdom. Just as no one could perish from that fortunate number of seven Maccabees, so also the sevenfold number of our congregation will suffer no loss. For if I deny Him, He will also deny me, since it was said by Him: 'He who denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father, who is in heaven; and he who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father, who is in heaven.' (VI) Therefore, having been led with haste to the naval punishment by the will of the unspeakable king or his cruel ministers, with hands and feet stretched out, they were nailed rather than bound. And when fire had been set to the wood, it was immediately extinguished by divine command, with all watching; and although it was repeatedly renewed with nourishing fuel, again and again the pyres and globes of flames were extinguished. And when, because of this, the tyrant was filled with both fury and shame, he ordered them to be killed by blows from oars and thus, one by one, to be dispatched like dogs, their brains crushed.

They who in such a manner of death happily rendered their due spirit to the Lord, nor did they fear being killed by the shaking wood, they whose every hope was always in the wood. But when the venerable bodies were cast into the sea, immediately, contrary to the nature of the sea, at that same hour the sea hastened to return the unharmed bodies to the shore, nor did it dare, as is its custom, to hold them in the deep for a three-day delay, lest it fail to obey the Lord's command. At this kind of miracle, even the tyrant himself, though unrepentant, as is reported, was terrified. The multitude that was present, rejoicing, entrusted the bodies of the holy martyrs to a careful burial, with the venerable clergy of the Carthaginian church leading; where also the preaching deacons, already made confessors for the third time, Salutaris and Muritta, bearers of the relics, were present. (VII) Therefore, the blessed relics of the saints were deposited with solemn hymns in the monastery of Bigua, adjacent to the basilica which is called Celerinae. And thus in the confession of the Trinity the most blessed martyrs suffered and, with the Lord crowning them, completed the splendid course of their contest. To Him is honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Here ends the African story. Here begins the Roman stories. Book one.