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Martyrdom³²⁷⁴

3274 Cureton gives it in Latin.—Tr.

3275 This piece is taken from the well-known work of Surius, De probatis Sanctorum vitis.  It does not appear who made this Latin translation. Metaphrastes is a celebrated Byzantine writer, who lived in the ninth and tenth centuries.  He derives his name from having written paraphrases, or metaphrases, of the lives of the saints.  Fabricius gives a list of 539 lives commonly attributed to him.—Dr. W. Plate, in Smith’s Dict. Biog. and Myth.—Tr.

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.]

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

3277 Ps. cxlvi. 3.—Tr.

3278 Dux.

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

3279 Matt. x. 33.—Tr.

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

3280 2 Cor. iv. 16.—Tr.

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.

3282 Matt. x. 28.—Tr.

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

3283 2 Cor. v. 1.—Tr.

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.

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.

3286 In the Syriac account “Telzeha:”  see p. 690, supra.—Tr.

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.

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.

3289 Rom. viii. 18.—Tr.

3290 Lit. “bitter.”—Tr.

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