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| Martyrdom of the Holy Confessors Shamuna, Guria, and Habib, from Simeon Metaphrastes.
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Ancient
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Martyrdom3274
| 3274 Cureton
gives it in Latin.—Tr. | of the Holy Confessors Shamuna, Guria,
and Habib, from Simeon Metaphrastes.3275
In the six hundredth year
from the empire of Alexander the Macedonian, when Diocletian had been
nine years sovereign of the Romans, and Maximian was consul for the
sixth time, and Augar son of Zoaras was prætor, and Cognatus was
bishop of the Edessenes, a great persecution was raised against the
churches in all the countries which were under the sway of the
Romans. The name of Christian was looked upon as execrable, and
was assailed and harassed with abuse; while the priests and the
monks,3276
| 3276 [A token of
mediæval origin.] | on account of
their staunch and unconquerable stedfastness, were subjected to
shocking punishments, and the pious were at their wits’ end with
sadness and fear. For, desiring as they did to proclaim the truth
because of their yearning affection for Christ, they yet shrunk back
from doing so for fear of punishment. For those who took up arms
against true religion were bent on making the Christians renounce
Christianity and embrace the cause of Saturn and Rhea, whilst the
faithful on their part laboured to prove that the objects of heathen
worship had no real existence.
At this period it was that an accusation was
preferred before the judge against Guria and Shamuna. The former
was a native of Sarcigitua, and the latter of the village of Ganas;
they were, however, both brought up at Edessa—which they call
Mesopotamia, because it is situated between the Euphrates and the
Tigris: a city previously to this but little known to fame, but
which after the struggles of its martyrs obtained universal
notoriety. These holy men would not by any means spend their
lives in the city, but removing to a distance from it, as those who
wished to be remote from its turmoils, they made it their aim to be
manifest to God only. Guria’s purity and lovingness were to
him a precious and honourable possession, and from his cultivation of
the former the surname of the pure was given him: so that from
his name you would not have known who he was, but only when you called
him by his surname. Shamuna devoted his body and his youthful and
active mind to the service of God, and rivalled Guria in excellence of
character. Against these men an indictment was laid before the
judge, to the effect that they not only pervaded all the country round
about Edessa with their teaching and encouraged the people to hold fast
their faith, but also led them to look with contempt on their
persecutors, and, in order to induce them to set wholly at nought their
impiety, taught them agreeably to that which is written:
“Trust not in princes—in the sons of men, in whom is no
safety.”3277
By
these representations the judge was wrought up to a high pitch of
madness, and gave orders that all those who held the Christian religion
in honour and followed the teaching of Shamuna and Guria, together with
those who persuaded them to this, should be apprehended, and shut up in
safe keeping. The order was carried into effect; and, seizing the
opportunity, he had some of them flogged, and others tortured in
various ways, and induced them to obey the emperor’s command, and
then, as if he were behaving kindly and mercifully, he allowed others
to go to their homes; but our two saints, as being the
ringleaders and those who had communicated their piety to others, he
ordered to be still further maltreated in prison. They, however,
rejoiced in the fellowship of martyrdom. For they heard of many
in other provinces who had to pass through the same conflict as
themselves: among them Epiphanius and Petrus and the most holy
Pamphilus, with many others, at Cæsarea in Palestine; Timotheus at
Gaza; at Alexandria, Timotheus the Great; Agapetus at Thessalonica;
Hesychius at Nicomedia; Philippus at Adrianopolis; at Melitina Petrus;
Hermes and his companions in the confines of
Martyropolis: all of whom were also encircled with the crown of
martyrdom by Duke3278
Heraclianus, along with other confessors too numerous for us to become
acquainted with. But we must return to the matters of which we
were before speaking.
Antonius, then, the governor of Edessa, having
permitted others to return to their homes, had a lofty judgment-seat
erected, and ordered the martyrs to be brought before him. The
attendants having done as they were bidden, the governor said to the
saints: Our most divine emperor commands you to renounce
Christianity, of which you are followers, and to pay divine honour to
Jupiter by offering incense on the altar. To this Shamuna
replied: Far be it from us to abandon the true faith, whereby we
hope to obtain immortality, and worship the work of men’s hands
and an image! The governor said: The emperor’s orders
must by all means be obeyed. Guria answered: Our pure and
divine faith will we never disown, by following the will of men, who
are subject to dissolution. For we have a Father in heaven whose
will we follow, and He says: “He that shall confess Me
before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in heaven;
but he that shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My
Father and His angels.”3279
The
judge said: You refuse, then, to obey the will of the
emperor? But can you for a moment think, that the purposes of
ordinary men and such as have no more power than yourselves are to be
really carried into execution, while the commands of those who possess
supreme power fall to the ground? They, said the saints, who do
the will of the King of kings spurn and reject the will of the
flesh. Then, on the governor’s threatening them with death
unless they obeyed, Shamuna said: We shall not die, O tyrant, if
we follow the will of the Creator: nay rather, on the contrary,
we shall live; but, if we follow the commands of your emperor, know
thou that, even though thou shouldest not put us to death, we
shall perish miserably all the same.
On hearing this, the governor gave orders to Anovitus
the jailor to put them in very safe keeping. For the mind which
is naturally inclined to evil cannot bear the truth, any more than
diseased eyes the bright beams of the sun. And, when he had done
as he was commanded, and the martyrs were in prison, where many other
saints also had been previously shut by the soldiers, the Emperor
Diocletian sent for Musonius the governor of Antioch and ordered him to
go to Edessa and see the Christians who were confined there, whether
they were of the common or of the sacred class, and question them about
their religion, and deal with them as he should see fit. So he
came to Edessa; and he had Shamuna and Guria first of all placed before
the tribunal of judgment, and said to them: This, and no less, is
the command of the lord of the world, that you make a libation of wine
and place incense on the altar of Jupiter. If you refuse to do
so, I will destroy you with manifold punishments: for I will tear
your bodies to pieces with whips, till I get to your very entrails; and
I will not cease pouring boiling lead into your armpits until it
reaches even to your bowels; after that, I will hang you up, now by
your hands, now by your feet, and I will loosen the fastenings of your
joints; and I will invent new and unheard of punishments which you will
be utterly unable to endure.
Shamuna answered: We dread “the
worm,” the threat of which is denounced against those who deny
the Lord, and “the fire which is not quenched,” more than
those tortures which thou hast set before us. For God
Himself, to whom we offer rational worship, will, first of all,
strengthen us to bear these manifold tortures, and will deliver us out
of thy hands; and, after that, will also give us to rest in a place of
safety, where is the abode of all those who rejoice. Besides, it
is against nothing whatever but the body that thou takest up arms:
for what possible harm couldst thou do to the soul? since, as
long as it resides in the body, it proves superior to torture; and,
when it takes its departure, the body has no feeling whatever
left. For, “the more our outward man is destroyed, the more
is our inward man renewed day by day;”3280
for by means of patience we go through
with this contest which is set before us. The governor, however,
again, with a kind of protestation, in order that, in case they did not
obey, he might with the more justice punish them, said: Give up
your error, I beg you, and yield to the command of the emperor:
ye will not be able to endure the tortures. The holy Guria
answered: We are neither the slaves of error, as thou sayest, nor
will we ever obey the command of the emperor: God forbid that we
should be so weak-minded and so senseless! For we are His
disciples who laid down His life for us, so manifesting the riches of
His goodness and His love towards us. We will, therefore, resist
sin even to death, nor, come what may, will we be foiled by the
stratagems of the adversary, by which the first man was ensnared and
plucked death from the tree through his disobedience;3281
| 3281 Or
“through his disobedience in the matter of the tree,” if
per ligni inobedientiam are the real words of the Latin
translator, who is not, generally speaking, to be complimented for
elegance or even correctness, but seems to have made a servile copy of
the mere words of the Greek.—Tr. | and Cain was persuaded, and, after
staining his hands with his brother’s blood, found the
rewards of sin to be
wailing and fear. But we, listening to the words of Christ, will
“not be afraid of those that kill the body but are not able to
kill the soul:” Him rather will we fear “who is able
to destroy our soul and body.”3282
The tyrant said: It is not to give you an opportunity of
disproving my allegations by snatches of your own writings that I
refrain from anger and show myself forbearing; but that you may perform
the command of the emperor and return in peace to your
homes.
These words did not at all shake the resolution of
the martyrs; but, approaching nearer: What, said they, does it
matter to us, if thou art angry, and nursest thine anger, and
rainest tortures upon us like snow-flakes? For then wouldst thou
be favouring us all the more, by rendering the proof of our fortitude
more conspicuous, and winning for us a greater recompense. For
this is the crowning point of our hope, that we shall leave behind our
present dwelling, which is but for a time, and depart to one that will
last forever. For we have “a tabernacle not made with
hands”3283
in heaven,
which the Scripture is accustomed also to call “Abraham’s
bosom,” because of the familiar intercourse with God with which
he was blessed. The governor, seeing that their firmness
underwent no change, forthwith left off speaking and proceeded with the
threatened punishments, giving orders to the jailor Anuinus that they
should be severally hung up by one hand, and that, when their hands
were dislocated by having to bear the entire weight of the body, he
should further suspend a heavy stone to their feet, that the sense of
pain might be the sharper. This was done, and from the third hour
to the eighth they bore this severe torture with fortitude, uttering
not a word, nor a groan, nor giving any other indication of a weak or
abject mind. You would have said that they were suffering in a
body which was not theirs, or that others were suffering and they
themselves were nothing more than spectators of what was going
on.
In the meantime, whilst they were hanging by their
hands, the governor was engaged in trying other cases. Having
done with these, he ordered the jailor to inquire of the saints whether
or not they would obey the emperor and be released from their torture;
and on his putting the question to them, when it was found that they
either could not or would not return an answer, he ordered that they
should be confined in the inner part of the prison, in a dark dungeon,
dark both in name and in reality, and that their feet should be made
fast in the stocks. At dawn of day, their feet were loosened from
the confinement of the stocks; but their prison was close shut up, so
that not a single ray even of sunlight could make its way in; and the
jailors were ordered not to give them a bit of bread or a single drop
of water for three whole days. So that, in addition to all the
rest, the martyrs were condemned to a dark prison and a long privation
of food. When the third day arrived, about the beginning of the
month of August, the prison was opened to admit light, but they were
detained in it still up to the 10th of November. Then the judge
had them brought up before his tribunal: Has not all this time,
said he, sufficed to induce you to change your minds and come to some
wholesome decision? They answered: We have already several
times told thee our mind: do, therefore, what thou hast been
commanded. The governor forthwith ordered that Shamuna should be
made to kneel down on one side3284
| 3284 Lit.
“with one foot.”—Tr. | and that an
iron chain should be fastened on his knee. This having been done,
he hung him up head downwards by the foot with which he had made him
kneel; the other he pulled downwards with a heavy piece of iron, which
cannot be described in words: thus endeavouring to rend the
champion in twain. By this means the socket of the hip-bone was
wrenched out of its place and Shamuna became lame. Guria,
however, because he was weak and somewhat pale, he left
unpunished: not that he regarded him with friendly eyes—not
that he had any compassion on his weakness; but rather by way of
sparing for another opportunity one whom he was anxious to
punish: lest perchance, as he said, through inadvertence on my
part he should be worn out before he has undergone the torments in
reserve for him.
By this time two hours of the day had passed since
Shamuna had been hung up; and the fifth hour had now arrived, and he
was still suspended on high—when the soldiers who stood around,
taking pity upon him, urged him to obey the emperor’s
command. But the compassion of sinners had no effect upon the
saint. For, although he suffered bitterly from the torture, he
vouchsafed them no answer whatever, leaving them to lament at their
leisure, and to deem themselves rather, and not him, deserving of
pity. But, lifting his eyes to heaven, he prayed to God from the
depth of his heart, reminding Him of the wonders done in old
time: Lord God, he said, without whom not even a poor little
sparrow falls into the snare; who didst cheer the heart of David amid
his afflictions; who gavest power to Daniel even against the lions; who
madest the children of Abraham victorious over the tyrant and the
flame: do Thou now also, O Lord, look on the war which is being
waged against us, acquainted as Thou art with the weakness of our
nature. For the enemy is trying to turn away the workmanship of Thy right hand from the
glory which is with Thee. But regard Thou us with looks of
compassion, and maintain within us, against all attempts to extinguish
it, the lamp of Thy commandments; and by Thy light guide our paths, and
vouchsafe us the enjoyment of that happiness which is in Thee:
for Thou art blessed for ever, world without end. Thus did he
utter the praise of the Umpire of the strife; and a scribe who was
present took down in writing what was said.
At length the governor ordered the jailor to
release him from his punishment. He did so, and carried him away
all faint and exhausted with the pain he suffered, and they bore him
back to his former prison and laid him down by the side of the holy
Guria. On the 15th of November, however, in the night, about the
time of cock-crowing, the judge got up. He was preceded by
torches and attendants; and, on arriving at the Basilica, as it is
called, where the court was held, he took his seat with great ceremony
on the tribunal, and sent to fetch the champions Guria and
Shamuna. The latter came in walking between two of the
jailors and supported by the hands of both: for he was worn
out with hunger and weighed down with age: nothing but his good
hope sustained him. Guria, too, had also to be carried in:
for he could not walk at all, because his foot had been severely galled
by the chain on it. Addressing them both, the advocate of impiety
said: In pursuance of the permission which was granted, you have,
doubtless, consulted together about what it is expedient for you
to do. Tell me, then, whether any fresh resolution has been come
to by you, and whether you have in any respect changed your mind in
regard to your former purpose; and obey the command of the most divine
emperor. For thus will you be restored to the enjoyment of
your property and possessions, yea of this most cheering light
also. To this the martyrs reply: No one who is wise would
make any great account of continuing for a little while in the
enjoyment of things which are but transient. Sufficient for us is
the time already past for the use and the sight of them; nor do we feel
the want of any of them. That death, on the contrary, with which
thou art threatening us will convey us to imperishable habitations and
give us a participation in the happiness which is yonder.
The governor replied: What you have said has
filled my ears with great sadness. However, I will explain to you
what is determined on: if you place incense on the altar and
sacrifice to the image of Jupiter, all will be well, and each of you
will go away to his home; but, if you still persist in disobeying the
command of the emperor, you will most certainly lose your heads:
for this is what the great emperor wills and determines. To this
the most noble-minded Shamuna replied: If thou shalt confer upon
us so great a favour as to grant us deliverance from the miseries of
this life and dismissal to the happiness of the life yonder, so far as
in us lies thou shalt be rewarded by Him who lays out our possessions
on what is for our good. The governor replied to this somewhat
kindly, as it seemed, saying: I have patiently endured hitherto,
putting up with those long speeches of yours, in order that by delay
you may change your purpose and betake yourselves to what is for your
good, and not have to undergo the punishment of death. Those who
submit, said he, to death which is only for a time, for the sake of
Christ, will manifestly be delivered from eternal death. For
those who die to the world live in Christ. For Peter also, who
shines so brightly among the band of apostles, was condemned to the
cross and to death; and James, the son of thunder was slain by Herod
Agrippa with the sword. Moreover, Stephen also was stoned, who
was the first to run the course of martyrdom. What, too, wilt
thou say of John the Baptist? Thou wilt surely acknowledge
his distinguished fortitude and boldness of speech, when he preferred
death rather than keep silence about conjugal infidelity, and the
adulteress received his head as a reward for her dancing?
Again the governor said: It is not that you may
reckon up your saints, as you call them, that I bear so patiently with
you, but that, by changing your resolution and yielding to the
emperor’s commands, you may be rescued from a very bitter
death. For, if you behave with such excessive daring and
arrogance, what can you expect but that severer punishments are in
store for you, under the pressure of which you will be ready even
against your will to do what I demand of you: by which time,
however, it will be altogether too late to take refuge in
compassion? For the cry which is wrung from you by force has no
power to challenge pity; whilst, on the other hand, that which is made
of your own accord is deserving of compassion. The confessors and
martyrs of Christ said: There needs not many words. For lo!
we are ready to undergo all the punishments thou mayest lay upon
us. What, therefore, has been commanded thee, delay not to
perform. For we are the worshippers of Christ the true God, and
(again we say it) of Him of whose kingdom there shall be no end; who
also is alone able to glorify those in return who glorify His
name. In the meantime, whilst these things were being said by the
saints, the governor pronounced sentence against them that they should
suffer death by the sword. But they, filled with a joy, beyond
the power of words to express, exclaimed: To Thee of right
belongeth glory and praise, who art God of all, because it hath pleased Thee that we should carry on to
its close the conflict we have entered upon, and that we should also
receive at Thy hands the brightness that shall never fade away.
When, therefore, the governor saw their unyielding
firmness, and how they had heard the final sentence with exultation of
soul, he said to the saints: May God search into what is being
done, and be witness that so far as I was concerned it was no
wish of mine that you should lose your lives; but the inflexible
command of the emperor to me compels me to this. He then ordered
a halberdier to take charge of the martyrs, and, putting them in a
carriage, to convey them to a distance from the city with some
soldiers, and there to end them with the sword. So he, taking the
saints out at night by the Roman gate, when the citizens were buried in
profound slumber, conveyed them to Mount Bethelabicla on the north of
the city. On their arrival at that place, having alighted from
the carriage with joy of heart and great firmness of mind, they
requested the halberdier and those who were under his orders to give
them time to pray; and it was granted. For, just as if their
tortures and their blood were not enough to plead for them, they still
by reason of their humility deemed it necessary to pray. So they
raised their eyes to heaven and prayed earnestly, concluding with the
words: God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, receive in peace
our spirits to Thyself. Then Shamuna, turning to the halberdier,
said: Perform that which thou hast been commanded. So he
kneeled down along with Guria, and they were beheaded, on the 15th of
November. This is the account of what happened to the
martyrs.
But forasmuch as the number sought for a third in
order that in them the Trinity might be glorified, it found, oh
admirable providence! Habib—at a subsequent time indeed:
but he also, along with those who had preceded him, had determined to
enter on the journey, and on the very day3285
| 3285 i.e., the
anniversary.—Tr. | of their martyrdom reached his
consummation. Habib, then, great among martyrs, was a native of
the same place as they, namely of the village of Thelsæa;3286
| 3286 In the
Syriac account “Telzeha:” see p. 690,
supra.—Tr. | and he had the honour of being
invested with the sacred office of the diaconate. But, when
Licinius swayed the sceptre of the Roman empire and Lysanias had
appointed governor of Edessa, a persecution was again raised against
the Christians, and the general danger threatened Habib. For he
would go about the city, teaching the divine Scriptures to all he met
with, and courageously seeking to strengthen them in piety. When
this came to the ears of Lysanias, he gave information of it to the
Emperor Licinius. For he was anxious to be himself entrusted with
the business of bringing the Christians to trial, and especially
Habib: for he had never been entrusted with it before. The
emperor, then, sent him a letter and commanded him to put Habib to
death. So, when Lysanias had received the letter, search was made
everywhere for Habib, who on account of his office in the Church lived
in some part of the city, his mother and some of his relations residing
with him. When he got intelligence of the matter, fearing lest he
should incur punishment for quitting the ranks of martyrdom, he went of
his own accord and presented himself to a man who was among the chief
of the body-guard, named Theotecnus, and presently he said: I am
Habib for whom ye are seeking. But he, looking kindly at him,
said: No one, my good man, is as yet aware of thy coming to
me: so go away, and look to thy safety; and be not concerned
about thy mother, nor about thy relations: for they cannot
possibly get into any trouble. Thus far Theotecnus.
But Habib, because the occasion was one that
called for martyrdom, refused to yield to a weak and cowardly spirit
and secure his safety in any underhand way. He replied,
therefore: It is not for the sake of my dear mother, nor for the
sake of my kinsfolk, that I denounce myself; but I have come for the
sake of the confession of Christ. For Lo! whether thou consent or
no, I will make my appearance before the governor, and I will proclaim
my Master Christ before princes and kings. Theotecnus,
accordingly, apprehensive that he might go of his own accord to the
governor, and that in this way he might himself be in jeopardy for not
having denounced him, took Habib and conducted him to the
governor: Here, said he, is Habib, for whom search has been
made. When Lysanias learned that Habib had come of his own accord
to the contest, he concluded that this was a mark of contempt and
overweening boldness, as if he set light by the solemn dignity of the
judicial seat; and he had him at once put on his trial. He
inquired of him his condition of life, his name, and his country.
On his answering that he was a native of the village of Thelsæa,
and intimating that he was a minister of Christ, the governor
immediately charged the martyr with not obeying the emperor’s
commands. He insisted that a plain proof of this was his refusal
to offer incense to Jupiter. To this Habib kept replying that he
was a Christian, and could not forsake the true God, or sacrifice to
the lifeless works of men’s hands which had no
sensation. The governor hereupon ordered, that his arms should be
bound with ropes, and that he should be raised up high on a beam and
torn with iron claws.3287
| 3287 Compare
the “combs” of the Syriac, p. 684,
supra.—Tr. | The hanging up was far more difficult to bear
than the tearing: for he was in danger of being pulled asunder,
through the forcible strain with which his arms were stretched out.
In the meantime, as he was hanging up in the air,
the governor had recourse to smooth words, and assumed the guise of
patience. He, however, continued to threaten him with severer
punishments unless he should change his resolution. But he
said: No man shall induce me to forsake the faith, nor persuade
me to worship demons, even though he should inflict tortures more and
greater. On the governor’s asking him what advantage he
expected to gain from tortures which destroyed his whole3288
| 3288 Reading
“totum” for “solum.”—Tr. | body, Habib, Christ’s martyr,
replied: The objects of our regard do not last merely for the
present, nor do we pursue the things that are seen; and, if thou too
art minded to turn thy look towards our hope and promised recompense,
possibly thou wilt even say with Paul: “The sufferings of
this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which is to be
revealed in us.”3289
The
governor pronounced his words to be the language of imbecility; and,
when he saw that, notwithstanding all the efforts he made, by turns
using smooth words and assuming the part of patience, and then again
threatening him and menacing him with a shocking3290
death, he could not in either way prevail
with him, he said, as he pronounced sentence upon him: I will not
inflict on thee a sudden and speedy death; I will bring on thy
dissolution gradually by means of a slow fire, and in this way make
thee lay aside thy fierce and intractable spirit. Thereupon, some
wood was collected together at a place outside the city on the
northward, and he was led to the pile, followed by his mother, and also
by those who were otherwise by blood related to him. He then
prayed, and pronounced a blessing on all, and gave them the kiss in the
Lord; and after that the wood was kindled by them, and he was cast into
the fire; and, when he had opened his mouth to receive the flame, he
yielded up his spirit to Him who had given it. Then, when the
fire had subsided, his relatives wrapped him in a costly piece of linen
and anointed him with unguents; and, having suitably sung psalms and
hymns, they laid him by the side of Shamuna and Guria, to the glory of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, who constitute a
Divine Trinity, which cannot be divided: to whom is due honour
and worship now and always, and for evermore, Amen. Such was the
close of the life of the martyr Habib in the time of Licinius, and thus
did he obtain the privilege of being laid with the saints, and thus did
he bring to the pious rest from their persecutions. For shortly
afterwards the power of Licinius waned, and the rule of Constantine
prospered, and the sovereignty of the Romans became his; and he was the
first of the emperors who openly professed piety, and allowed the
Christians to live as Christians.
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