Acta De Martyribus Caesaraugustianis

The Acts of the Martyrs of Caesaraugusta, or the Passion of the Innumerable Martyrs of Caesaraugusta, by Saint Braulio, Bishop of Caesaraugusta Those who suffered under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, on the Kalends of November (303). The deeds of ancient men of the world, whose stubbornness consisted in breaking through the battle lines of warriors and in spilling the innocent blood of those who duly observed the laws of their lands, and the roofs or enclosures of their homes, were celebrated not only in the gymnasia of the Greek philosophers, but also resounded in the studies of the Latin pagans. Indeed, the fame of their name is sung both by the monuments of historians and by the books of poets. Hence, lest the material of various books should perhaps perish with the passage of time, they impressed the tips of letters carved on tablets of metal, whether of marble or of bronze, and, extolling the triumphs of their fellow citizens with the praises of many encomia, they transmitted their deeds or accomplishments in writings to be read by future generations, so that the memory of those whom they loved in the fleeting age might not utterly slip away.

Therefore, if pagan and sacrilegious men, who were nonetheless destined to perish in those who were to perish, or perhaps after the shedding of human blood perished by a horrible death, wrote down such great and such oracles as if they were miracles, so that after their death some omens of consolation might be performed, what ought we Christians, born of Christian parents, to do, except that the offices of our tongue serve the victories of the soldiers of Christ, and that we serve the praises of our Emperor, who armed his martyrs with the triumphal standard, so that they might fight most fiercely against the enemy and conquer? Let the organs of our hearts resound with modulated voices, so that while we join in compassion with their passions, we may merit, through their prayers and with the help of Christ the Lord, to be associated in the eternal mansions. Now, therefore, proceeding with the order of the received narrative, I shall hasten with step to those things which the fame of ancient times, by the report of pagans, has been handed down to us.

During the times of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, they issued commands throughout the whole world, in accordance with their sacrilegious institutions, that not only should all gatherings of Christians be driven from the cities, but that each person should be granted the license to pursue and kill them. First, indeed, they sought to incline the intention of their minds toward the worship of demons by many flatteries and persuasions, and then, if they refused to fulfill the imperial commands and to offer sacrifices to the gods, to utterly uproot the religion of the Christian name together with its followers. Immediately, troops of satellites fill the deadly commands of the princes, and, having taken up their diabolical duties, the savage bands of apparitors run through the whole expanse of the world, like lion cubs driven by the necessity of hunger, mangling and destroying the bodies of the holy martyrs. But the more atrociously their impiety raged, the more ardently the Religion of Christ’s soldiers grew. Among them, indeed, their standard-bearer, Datianus, a man of a far more pestilential, profane, and sacrilegious mind than all others, obtained from those same most impious emperors the title of governor, so that he might proceed to Spain and rage more fiercely with the madness of his mind against the members of Christ.

When he had arrived in the province of Spain, the savagery of his cruelty could not remain hidden, but with the bitterness of his accursed ferocity, like a rabid lion, he began to seek out all Christians and to tear their bodies with bloody fangs. Yet it was by the providence of the almighty Lord that, for the illumination and patronage of certain cities, with a sacrilegious spirit they dedicated holy victims to Christ the Lord at the sacred altar, through whose intercession the frequent grace of the Lord would come to the citizens. And while he was carrying out these sacrilegious duties, entering the city of Caesaraugusta, armed with a diabolical spirit, he dedicated to us the renowned holy triumphator, the martyr Vincent, who, at the peak of his most blessed illumination, adorned not only the city of Caesaraugusta but also Valencia with the distinguished honor of his body. And then, with the mad aspiration of cruelty, he shed the innocent blood of eighteen illustrious men, namely: Quintilian, Matutinus, Urban, Faustus, Felix, Primitivus, Coecilian, Fronto, Apodemus, Cassian, Publius, Martialis, Successus, Januarius, Euvolus, Optatus, Lupercus, and Julius. And he also added to this a most abundant sacrifice for martyrdom: the glorious virgin of God, Engratia, sprinkled with the dew of her purple blood.

Therefore, when Datianus could not overcome the minds of those devoted to Christ the Lord with the intention of holy devotion, but the sacred soldiers, for love of the eternal King, more willingly poured out their sacred blood, the devil, consulting him, fully armed him with arguments for other arts. Finally, as the undoubted report of ancient times relates, having summoned his satellites, the cunning serpent laid bare the madness of his heart with these turbulent words. "Nothing," he said, "O soldiers of our princes, do we accomplish by laboring in this line of battle, nor can we bend the strength of Christian minds to the worship of our gods; and while we desire to conquer them by raging more cruelly, we abundantly serve their victories. Let the plan of our disposition be secret; let none of you be a traitor or a revealer, nor let any of them hear the early or late arrangement of our plan. This innumerable multitude of Christians, which is contained within the circuit of this city, is to be destroyed by a clandestine plan rather than by the atrocity of force; for if we decide to inflict kinds of torments on them individually for the worship of our gods, while we cannot overcome the intention of their hearts, we procure a dangerous destruction for ourselves rather than for them.

But let the duties of the heralds run before them throughout the whole circuit of the city, so that the multitude which is hidden within the walls of the buildings may be driven out from this city as quickly as possible, as if granted the license of freedom to remain there and cherish their hearth wherever each one’s will may have arisen, provided that none of their religion, from masters to slaves, be found in the little dwellings of this city to be joined in our fellowship. Finally, you, our fellow soldiers, bring forth arms from the public arsenals, gird the fastenings of your loins with double-edged swords, hasten as quickly as possible to the hiding places of concealed spots, and, about to wage war against an unarmed enemy, suddenly leaping forth from hidden places, hasten to overwhelm the line of their multitude in rivalry, and cut down with sharp swords whomever you find. We therefore order that the entrances of all gates be barred, so that if perhaps anyone, fleeing the edge of the sword, should wish to return to the city, he may find everything barred, destined to perish by the sword nonetheless, he who before the edge of the sword stood as a fugitive; and those whom we could not bend to the worship of our gods, let none of those who have preferred to worship Christ survive, let none remain unavenged.

Finally, the troops of attendants run before the auspices of the entire city; the raucous duties of the heralds resound with their clamoring voices: the bars of the western gates are thrown open, and the crowds of the faithful of both sexes rejoice; the columns of people pour forth in throngs. The old men hasten to support their tottering limbs with trembling hands on their staffs, lest they be deprived of the solace of their fellow Catholics. The multitude of youths and adolescents of their own accord leave the open doors of their homes. The weaker sex of women, stronger in spirit than in the weakness of their sex, hurries with the wailing throngs of infants and the clamoring servants, so that you would believe the entire population of the city was migrating utterly to the spectacle of a raging world, as the distinguished Preacher says: We have become a spectacle to this world, to angels and to men. Why say more? The whole crowd of Christians went out, rejoicing and singing: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. And so the gates of the entire city are barred by the official guard, so that none of them might find a way back in. From hidden places, bands of armed men suddenly leap out, with deadly swords they attack the throngs of Christians, and as if they were a great multitude of lambs, they lay low the bodies of the unresisting Catholics. The demonic spearmen are drenched with the blood of the innocent, they are glutted with the corpses of the dead, and not even thus are they sated with the manifold cruelty of the slain.

Then that deadly and most twisted serpent, the governor Datianus, ordered the pagan multitude to consign the piled-up bodies of the slain to the fires before the sight of the entire city, and lest perhaps someone from near or far, hidden in some lair of the Christians, should snatch for himself the ashes of the holy martyrs, he commanded that all criminals of various charges, whom the secret prisons of the city held, be quickly brought forth from their cells, and after their heads were cut off, he ordered their ill-omened bodies to be joined with the bodies of the saints and thus burned together. The fair bodies of the martyrs are burned together with the bodies of murderous brigands, following the example of our Head, that is, the true God and Man, who is known to have been crucified between two thieves for our salvation, nonetheless granting to the just the eternal joys of the heavenly paradise, and to those others the never-ending torments due to their merits. Woe to you, minister of the devil, Datianus! Is it not enough for the increase of your crimes to envy the merits of the living, to extinguish the lives of innocent citizens contrary to the commands of the laws, unless you also took care to add the cause of this unspeakable crime? What did such savagery of enormities profit you? What did that raging madness of these cruelties profit you? You destroyed the innocent populace of an earthly city, and you dedicated a people to our City of Jerusalem, always rejoicing with Christ. Now, therefore, the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death will not touch them.

You also are held bound by the torments of never-ending infernal fires. Those slain ones greatly await the reception of their own bodies, so that among the other bands of martyrs they may be crowned with a double reward. You, however, in no way wish to receive your own criminal body with you, lest you be consigned with the devil and his angels to eternal fires by a double crushing, that is, of soul and body. Behold, we venerate with the highest exultation the ashes of countless holy martyrs, which we gaze upon with our eyes, and rejoicing in their triumphs, we unite with them in compassion. Finally, we have consecrated a hall to almighty God in honor of the saints, so that the Christian people, rejoicing, may not allow those whom your savagery wished utterly to uproot by name to be separated from their festive joys. O blessed and exceedingly blessed Caesaraugusta, drenched with the blood of the blessed, which has dedicated so many thousands of martyrs as offerings to the Lord! Therefore, let the cities of the whole world, adorned with the precious blood of martyrs, rejoice with you. Finally, let golden Rome itself, the head of the most noble cities, which, together with the two great consuls of Christ, the holy apostles Peter and Paul, bears the ever-increasing abundance of roses of countless martyrs, rejoice.

Let the multitude of the whole region of Spain also rejoice with us, bearing with you the dignity of the Christian name. And although the inhabitants of some cities enjoy the support of few martyrs—that is, of one, two, three, or perhaps four—you more abundantly overflow with the increase of innumerable martyrs. But while they are joined to our saints’ festivals, those who are sustained by the patronage of few martyrs are also polished, in merit, by fellowship with us. We, however, whom the unity of the holy Catholic faith has associated with the merits of the present holy martyrs, let us rejoice together in their annual cycle of feasts and triumphs, let us celebrate the vigils with the highest devotion, so that we may deserve to share in the merits of their life. Let us exult in the Lord, let us rejoice to God our Saviour, let us anticipate His face in confession, and let us rejoice to Him in psalms, because we are His people and the sheep of His flock; so that He who conferred the triumph of victory upon His holy martyrs may deign to grant us to imitate their example, and that He who prepared ethereal dwellings for them in His kingdom by His power may grant us the speedy indulgence of His mercy, so that we may deserve to obtain eternal refreshments in the heavenly abodes, by the grant of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.