Library › Passion of Sts James and Marian

Passion of Sts James and Marian

tr. Owen, 1927

james

I.

WHENEVER the blessed martyrs of God Almighty and His Christ, as they hasten to their promised kingdom in heaven, give with diffidence some charge to their dear ones, mindful of the humility which is ever wont to exalt men in the Faith, the more modestly they make their request the more surely they obtain it.

To me also this duty of proclaiming their glory has been left by God’s illustrious witnesses, I mean Marian (Marianus), one of our beloved brethren, and James, both of whom you know to have been closely twined with me, not only by the common bond of the Gospel,¹ but also by fellowship in life and private ties. Who, when about to wage so lofty a contest against the distresses of an age so cruel and heathen onslaughts, charged that their warfare on which they entered by the impulse of the Spirit should through me come to the knowledge of the brethren, not that they wished the glory of their crown to be boastfully proclaimed on earth, but that the multitude of common folk and the people of God might be armed by the trials of the past to be examples of the Faith. And it was not without reason that they laid upon me in the confidence of friendship that task which I am about to fulfil. For who can question the fellowship of our life in peace, when the same season of persecution has found us living in unbroken love?

II.

For we were proceeding to Numidia together, as ever before, and had entered, a company of friends and equals, on that journey which was leading me to the welcome duties² imposed by faith and religion, them to Heaven.

We had reached a place called Muguae, the suburb of the colony of Cirta,³ a city where at that moment through the blind fury of the heathen and the action of the military officials the onslaughts of persecution surged like waves of this present world,⁴ and the rage of the destroying Devil gaped with greedy jaws to try the faith of the just. Henceforward the blessed martyrs Marian and James were in possession of sure signs that the Divine choice had fallen on them, for, having been led when the hour was ripe into that district in which the storm of persecution was raging with unusual fierceness, they understood that their steps had been directed under Christ’s guidance to the very place of their crown. For the fury of a bloodstained and blinded governor hating and working hatred was hunting out with bands of soldiers all the beloved of God.

Nor was the frenzy of his cruelty wreaked on those alone who, undisturbed by previous persecutions, were living unto God without let or hindrance, but against these also the Devil stretched forth his insatiate hand, who were long ago driven into exile, martyrs in spirit, if not yet in blood; on these the savage madness of the governor had bestowed their crown.

III.

Among these there were being conducted from their exile to the governor Agapius and Secundinus,⁵ bishops worthy to be praised, both for their concord in the love of the Spirit, one for the added holiness of celibacy. They were being conducted, I say, not, as the heathen thought, from punishment to punishment,⁶ but rather from glory to glory, from one contest to another, that those who by upholding the Name of Christ had subdued the lying pomps of the world might also by virtue of a faith made perfect tread underfoot the sting of death.⁷ For it was not lawful they should seek victory more tardily in an earthly struggle, whom the Master already was in haste to have with Himself. And during that journey, wherein Agapius and Secundinus, famous bishops turned into glorious martyrs, proceeded, by the election of Christ as well as by the temporal order of the governor, to the combat of their blessed passion, it befell, brethren, that they deigned to enter our lodging. And so mighty a spirit of quickening and of grace was in them that it was not enough for God’s holy and illustrious witnesses to devote their own precious blood to glorious martyrdom unless by the inspiration of their faith they made others martyrs also. So strong was their charity, so strong their love⁸ to the brethren, that, though they might have silently built up the faith of the brotherhood by examples of such faithful and stubborn fortitude, nevertheless, making wider provision for the steadfastness of our perseverance,⁹ they poured into our hearts the dew of sound discourse; for those who lived on the word of God could not keep silence. No wonder that in those few days the souls of all of us were stirred to fuller life by the wholesome discourse of those in whom Christ already shone in loveliness flashing from their coming passion.

IV.

Finally, in their departure they left Marian and James so disposed by their example and teaching that these were ready to follow the guidance of the fresh footprints of their glory. For hardly had two days slipped away before their own palms summoned our beloved Marian and James. For here it was not a case of one or two police,¹⁰ as in other places, but a furious bevy of centurions and a disorderly crowd had flocked to the country-house where we lived as though it were some famous seat of the Faith. Welcome inroad! Blessed tumult, a theme for joy. For they came to us only for this that the righteous blood of Marian and James might ratify God’s choice. Scarcely could I, brothers beloved, keep in bounds at that moment my overflowing joy—I who two days before had sent some from my arms to the very last act of their passion, and kept others, martyrs to come, with me still. When the ripe hour of the Divine choice made a louder call on those, it touched me also with some portion of my brothers’ glory, and I was dragged from Muguae to the colony of Cirta. I was followed by my dear friends, elect to the palm of suffering, who were guided by their love for me and the choice, now already ripe, of Christ. So strangely but in perfect¹¹ order of march those followed who were destined to go before. In the end they had not long to wait; for, while encouraging me with special fervour, they betrayed by the frankness of their joy that they were Christians. Soon, when questioned, as they persisted in bold confession of the Name, they were conducted to prison.

V.

Then they were assailed with many severe tortures by the police, those executioners of just and pious souls, who had called in to aid them in their cruelty a centurion and the magistrates of Cirta, the Devil’s priests, as if faith, which sets no store by the care of the body, could be broken by the mangling of the limbs. And James, indeed, always by virtue of his faith stricter than most, who had already once triumphed over the attacks of the Decian persecution,¹² was at pains to confess himself not a Christian only, but a deacon. Thereby he exposed Marian to the tortures, because he only confessed to being a reader,¹³ as indeed he was.

What tortures were those! What novelty in the torments! How cunningly devised by the poisonous intelligence of the Devil, and the arts by which he turns men from the faith. Marian was hung up to be torn; to that martyr in the very midst of his mangling grace was given; he was so tortured that the very pain exalted him. The thongs that held him as he hung bound, not his hands, but the top joints of his thumbs,¹⁴ that these, from their slightness and weakness, might suffer more in supporting the rest of the limbs. Moreover, unequal weights were fastened to his feet, that the whole framework of the body, torn two ways at once by contending agonies, and broken by the tearing of the bowels, might hang by its sinews. You were of no avail, heathen wickedness, against the temple of God, against the joint heir with Christ!¹⁵ Though you hung up his limbs, racked his sides,¹⁶ rent his bowels, my Marian, trusting in God, grew in spirit as much as he grew in body.¹⁷ At last the cruelty of his torturers was beaten, and much rejoicing in his triumph he was shut up again in prison. There with James and the rest of the brethren he celebrated the joy of the victory of the Lord in repeated prayer.

VI.

How now, ye heathen? Do ye believe that Christians, whom the joy of the everlasting light awaits, feel the pains of prison and shrink from the darkness of this world? The Spirit, in sure hope of the coming reward, embracing heaven in its thought, has no further part in its own sufferings. Though you seek out for punishment an abode secret and hidden, the oppressive horror of some murky cavern, the home of darkness, those who trust in God feel no place hideous, no time gloomy. Christ cherishes by night and day them, His brethren, dedicate to God His Father. For what the favour of God showed to Marian for assurance of the hope of salvation, when after that torturing of his body he had sunk deep into the calm of slumber, he himself on his awaking told us, in these words: ‘There was shown me, brethren, the towering front of a tribunal high and white, on which instead of the governor there sat a judge fair to look upon. In that place there was a scaffold,¹⁸ whose floor was not low, nor was one step enough for the ascent of it, but it had a succession of many steps, and was of great height to climb. And there were brought forward companies of confessors one by one, whom that judge commanded to be put to death by the sword. And it came to my turn. Then I heard a voice loud beyond all measure of one saying: “Make Marian come up.” And I was climbing that scaffold, when lo of a sudden there appeared to me sitting on that judge’s right Cyprian,¹⁹ and he stretched out his hand, and lifted me on to the higher part of the scaffold, and smiled, and said: “Come, sit with me.” And so it was that, while I still sat by his side, the other companies had audience. And that judge rose, and we escorted him to his palace. Now our road lay through a country lovely with meadows, and clad with rich leafage of green woods, shady with cypresses rising to the height and with pine-trees that knocked at the door of heaven, so that you might think that place to be crowned through the whole round of its circumference with green groves. The hollow in the midst abounded with fertilizing rivulets flowing from a clear spring and with pure waters. And behold of a sudden the judge vanished from our eyes. Then at this point Cyprian caught up a bowl, which was lying by the edge of the spring, and when he had filled it as one athirst from the spring, he drained it, and filling it again handed it to me, and I drank gladly. And as I said “Thanks be to God”, awakened by the sound of my own voice I rose.’

VII.

Then it came back to the memory of James also that a manifestation of the Divine favour had signified this crown to him. For during the preceding days when Marian and James, and myself with them, were making our journey together in the same carriage, about midday, as we were travelling along those rough parts of the road he was overtaken by a strange deep sleep. When, being disturbed and roused by us, he awoke, ‘I was troubled,’ he said, ‘my brothers, not without joy; but you must rejoice with me. I beheld a youth of great height, beyond telling, whose dress was a robe ungirt,²⁰ that shone with a light so dazzling that the eye could not look upon it steadfastly: his feet did not tread the earth, and his countenance was above the clouds. As he ran past us, he tossed into my lap two purple girdles, one for you, Marian, and one for me, and said: “Follow me quickly.”’ O sleep more active than all waking hours! O sleep in which he slumbers happily who watches in faith! Which had lulled only the earthy members, since none but the spirit could see the Lord. How exultant, how lofty must the souls of those martyrs be believed to have been, to whom, as about to suffer in the confession of His Sacred Name, it was given to hear and see Christ beforehand, offering Himself to His own in any place, at any time. The restless jolting of the travelling carriage was no bar, nor the midday, then blazing in an unclouded sun. He did not wait for the solitude of night: by a new kind of grace the Lord chose for His martyr a new time of vision.

VIII.

Nor was this favour shown to one only, or two. For there was a certain Aemilian, who, though he was reckoned of equestrian rank among the heathen, was for all that in prison, and himself one of the brethren, who had lived from boyhood up to nearly his fiftieth year in celibacy. After fasts prolonged with double strictness²¹ in prison and prayers often repeated, through which his devout soul found nourishment, and prepared for the Sacrament of the Lord on the morrow, he lay down in slumber at midday, and soon after, when sleep was flown, declared to us the secrets of his vision. ‘I was led from prison’, he told us, ‘and a heathen, my brother in the flesh, met me. He, being very curious about our affairs, asked in an insulting voice how long we were going to remain in the penal darkness and starvation of the prison. I gave him answer that the soldiers of Christ had in darkness most clear light, and in fasting the Word of God for food most satisfying. When he heard this, he said: “Be assured that for all you who are shut up in prison there remains, if you obstinately persist, the punishment of death.” But I, who feared that he might be playing with a lie made up to deceive me, wished to make my desire a certainty, so I said to him: “Shall we indeed suffer all?” And he again declared: “Sword and blood are nigh at hand for you. But I would like to know,” he went on, “whether for you who despise this present life the rewards bestowed in heaven are equal and unvarying to each and all.” My answer was: “I am not capable of giving decision on so great a matter. Lift”, I said, “your eyes for a moment to heaven: you will see a countless multitude of flashing stars. Does every star shine pre-eminent in equal glory of light? And yet the light of all is one.” To this he replied with a still more searching question: “If then there be some variety of reward, which of you rank higher in earning the goodwill of your Lord?” “Two indeed above the rest,” I answered, “whose names must not be told to you, and are known to God.” Finally, when he pressed me more closely and became more offensive in his questions, “They are those”, I said, “who are crowned more gloriously, the tardier and more difficult their victory; and for this it was written: “It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.”’

IX.

After these visions they remained a few days more in prison, and were then brought into open court, that the magistrates of Cirta might send them on, distinguished by the record²² of their brave confession, with the account of the first stage in their condemnation to the governor. And behold one of our brethren standing near drew the eyes of all the heathen to him, since already in virtue of his coming passion Christ shone in his face and look. And when they demanded of him with violence and fury whether he too were of the same religion and Name, he snatched by quick confession at such sweet companionship. So the blessed martyrs, while preparing themselves for martyrdom, gained by reason of their records more witnesses to God; and being now sent on to the governor, hastened with goodwill on a troublesome and difficult journey. Then after an audience of the governor they were guests again²³ of the prison at Lambesa.²⁴ For this is the only hospitality provided by the heathen for the just.

X.

Meanwhile, the bloodshed of many days was sending to the Lord numbers of our brotherhood, nor could the rage of the infuriate governor, busy in dealing so many blows at the laity, reach his victims Marian and James and the rest of the clergy. For scheming cruelty had carefully divided the different ranks of our religion, imagining that the laity separated from the clergy would yield to the temptations of the world and their own fears. So my beloved and faithful soldiers of Christ and the rest of the clergy began to be a little downcast that the laity should have completed the glory of their contest, while for themselves was reserved so sluggish and so late a victory.

XI.

Agapius, who had long ago completed his campaigns²⁵ for the faith he had crowned by his martyrdom, had been used to pray with supplications often repeated on behalf of two young women, Tertulla and Antonia, whom he loved as daughters very dearly, that they too might by the favour of God become martyrs with him, and had gained assurance of his merits by the following revelation. For it was said to him: ‘Why are you continually asking what you have merited by a single prayer?’ This Agapius appeared at that time to James while he was in prison during the time of sleep. For in the very moment of his passion, while he was awaiting the executioner, ‘Good,’ said James, ‘I am on my way to the banquet of Agapius and the other blessed martyrs. For last night, brothers, I saw our dear Agapius amid all the rest who were shut up along with us in the prison at Cirta exceeding glad, and holding a solemn and joyful banquet. And when I and Marian in the spirit of love and charity hurried thither as to a Love-feast,²⁶ there ran up to meet us a boy, who was clearly one of the twins who had suffered three days before with their mother, with a garland of roses round his neck, bearing in his right-hand a bright green palm-branch. “Why are you in such haste?” he said, “Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for to-morrow you also will dine with us.”’

O great and glorious favour of God to His own! O true and fatherly kindness of Jesus Christ our Lord, who grants to His beloved benefits so bountiful, and declares before bestowing the gifts of His mercy. When the first day after the vision dawned, the sentence of the governor rendered homage to the promises of God, that sentence which restored at last Marian and James and the rest of the clergy to the patriarchs in glory, and delivered them from the miseries of this present world. For they were led to the scene of their crown, a place sunk in the midst of a river-valley with lofty hills on either bank: the high ground on either side served also for seats as in a theatre. In the middle of the hollow the river-channel itself drank the blood²⁷ of the Blessed. Nor was there wanting both kinds of Sacrament, since they were not only baptized in their own blood but washed²⁸ in the river.

XII.

You might have seen then strange and ingenious short cuts in savagery. For since the numbers of the just were a burden to the hand of the executioner, and to the sword itself which had so many necks to deal with, inventive cruelty arranged rows or lines drawn up in order, that the blade of the impious murderer might take the beheading of the faithful in a rush of fury. And secondly he devised for himself this way of expediting his wickedness that the bloody and barbarous task might not prove beyond his powers. For, if he had stood in one place to give the blow, the heaped-up bodies would have risen to a huge pile; and finally the channel of the river would have been choked by so great a heap of slaughter and have left no room.

When their eyes were bandaged according to custom before the sword-stroke, no darkness shrouded the sight of the free soul, but a rich inestimable blaze of light immeasurable shone upon them. For many, with their relatives and the brethren sitting by them, though their eyes were not open for carnal vision, yet declared they saw marvellous things, an appearance of horses in heaven white as snow, on which rode young men clad in white.²⁹ And there were not wanting some of the same company of martyrs who confirmed by their ears the stories of their comrades, and recognized their truth by the neighing and noise of the horses which they heard. There and then Marian also, filled with the spirit of prophecy, confidently and boldly foretold the quick avenging of the blood of the righteous, and as though from the height of heaven threatened diverse temporal plagues, pestilence, captivities, famine, earthquakes, and the tormenting poisons of flies.³⁰ By this prophetic utterance the faith of the martyr not only triumphed over the heathen but sounded in the ears of the brethren a note, as it were a trumpet-blast, of a courage for them to emulate, that amid so great temporal plagues the saints of God might snatch the chance of a death so good and precious.

XIII.

When all was over the mother of Marian, exalting with a joy like that of the mother in the days of the Maccabees,³¹ sure, his passion finished, of her son, began to congratulate not him only but herself, who had borne so great a child. Her religious devotion embraced in the body of her son the glory of her own womb, and imprinted on the very wounds in his neck repeated kisses. O Mary rightly named! O mother blessed both in thy son and in thy name! Who could believe that in her thus honoured in the offspring of her womb the happy fortune of so great a name ever went astray? Truly inestimable is the mercy of God Almighty and His Christ towards His own, whom for their trust in His Name He not only strengthens with the favour of His grace, but quickens with Redemption through His Blood! For who can measure His benefits according to their proper worth? Who in this also works ever with a father’s tenderness, that the very ransom which we believe to be paid in our own blood is provided by Almighty God: whose is the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Contents