ON THE HOLY PERSIAN MARTYRS.
SIMEON BISHOP OF SELEUCIA AND CTESIPHON, A HUNDRED OTHER BISHOPS, PRIESTS OR CLERICS: USTHAZANES, EUNUCH TUTOR OF KING SAPOR: ABEDECHALAS AND ANANIAS, PRIESTS: PUSICIUS PREFECT OF THE ARTISANS AND HIS DAUGHTER.
AD 349.
PrefaceSimeon, Bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, Martyr in Persia under King Sapor (Saint)
The Hundred Bishops, Priests or Clerics Martyrs in Persia under King Sapor (Saints) Usthazanes the Eunuch, Martyr in Persia under King Sapor (Saint)
Abedechalas, Priest, Martyr in Persia under King Sapor (Saint)
Ananias, Priest, Martyr in Persia under King Sapor (Saint)
Pusicius, Prefect of the Artisans, and his daughter (Saint)
BY G. H.
Most bloody were the wars between the Romans and the Persians, when Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, was emperor among the former, and Sapor, a most bitter enemy of the Christian religion, reigned among the latter. He stirred up a fierce persecution against the Christians, which St Jerome in his Chronicle records as begun in the seventh year of Constantius's reign, that is the year of Christ 343. It was most fierce in two years especially; and those who suffered in the former of these have their sacred veneration on this April 21, the rest on the following day, as we shall then say. The day of the former Martyrs was Good Friday in Holy Week, except for Usthasanes the Eunuch, who had been beheaded the day before on Maundy Thursday. If then the day of April 21 is combined with the said Good Friday, the year 349 necessarily seems to be marked, Time of martyrdom AD 349, April 21, Good Friday, when with the cycle of the Moon VIII and of the Sun XXII, the Dominical letter A, Easter was celebrated on April 23: in which year, under the Consulship of Ulpius Limenius and Fabius Catulinus Philonianus, Constantius, being engaged in the Persian war in Mesopotamia, called the sons of veterans to military service, and he himself in the month of April was stationed at Antioch, as Jacques Godefroy learnedly proves from the laws of the Theodosian Code. But in the following year 350, when the Emperor Constans died, Constantius was staying at Edessa in Mesopotamia on account of the Persian war, as Philostorgius in book 3 of his History, chapter 22, and after him Nicephorus Callistus in book 9, chapter 28, testifies. Then King Sapor again on the very day of Good Friday sent a most cruel edict against the Christians throughout the whole of Persia, as will be said on the following day. Baronius reported that St Simeon with his companions suffered in the year 343, but then Good Friday fell on March 25, on which day these Martyrs are recorded in no calendars, but rather on the 14th in the Strozzi Ms. Likewise by Bellinus, Maurolycus, and Molanus, St Simeon the Archbishop in Persia is reported, whom we believe, with the said Molanus, to be this Simeon of Seleucia, and to be called Archbishop by way of superabundance, because among the bishops who were his companions in martyrdom he was of primary authority.
[2] The author of the Menologion which we have often cited under the name of the Emperor Basil seems once to have had the Acts of martyrdom described at greater length, the Acts of martyrdom are given from Sozomen for from these seem to be taken the encomia of Simeon himself and the others on the 14th day of the month. There it is said, what is nowhere else said: St Simeon, not enduring the impious works of the Persians and their commands, wrote to the King: "Because we, being servants of Jesus Christ our God, do not endure to be subject to you: do therefore what you will." We, while the original Acts lie hidden, are compelled to be content with what the ancient author took from them, namely Hermias Sozomen, who flourished in the century nearest to the Saints' passion, in his Ecclesiastical History dedicated to the Emperor Theodosius the Younger, book 2, chapter 8 and the two following: and from him Cassiodorus took these things in book 3 of the Tripartite History, chapter 2, along with almost all the Latin Martyrologists. Thus after Usuard, Ado, Notker, and others, they are reported in today's Roman Martyrology: In Persia the birthday of St Simeon, memory in the Latin sacred calendars and Roman Martyrology, April 21, Bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon: who by order of Sapor King of the Persians, being arrested and laden with irons, exhibited before iniquitous tribunals, when he would not adore the sun, and concerning Jesus Christ with free and most constant voice confessed; first he was afflicted for a long time in the prison dungeon with a hundred others (of whom some were Bishops, others Priests, others Clerics of various orders): then when Usthasanes, the King's tutor, who had earlier fallen from the faith but had been recalled through him to penitence, had constantly undergone martyrdom; on the next day, which was the annual day of the Lord's Passion (with all being slaughtered by the sword before the eyes of Simeon, who strenuously exhorted each one), at last he himself also was beheaded. There suffered also the most illustrious men Abedechalas and Ananias his Priests; Pusicius too, Prefect of the King's artisans, because he had strengthened the wavering Ananias, with his neck pierced around the tendon and his tongue thence drawn out, died a cruel death; after whom his daughter also, who was a consecrated Virgin, was killed. Ctesiphon is a city of Assyria on the other bank of the Tigris, then episcopal, built in times past by the Parthians in hatred of Seleucia, which was not far distant. Concerning both we read more fully on February 20, at the life of St Sadoth, who, the successor of St Simeon, was invited by him through a vision to martyrdom.
[3] In the Menologion of the Emperor Basil, April 14. In the Menologion, these Martyrs are referred to April 14, perhaps because according to the tables of some, as often happened at that time, Easter was celebrated eight days earlier. And in the former encomium, with St Simeon are said to have been slain Priests, Deacons, and others, one hundred and fifty: who in Sozomen and others are only one hundred, and are said to be Bishops, Priests, and Clerics. In the second encomium then, treatment is made of Pusicius, who is called Phasic, and of his daughter, a nun or consecrated virgin, concerning whom these things are related, not indicated by Sozomen: "To her being brought before him, the King ordered her to deny Christ and sacrifice to the sun and to fire. When she could not be persuaded to this, first indeed the King ordered her to be stripped and cruelly scourged with whips, and her sides burned with torches; then to be suspended and torn with iron claws, and finally her sacred neck to be severed by the sword." Among other Greeks, April 17. Thus there.
[4] In the printed Menaia and in the Parisian Ms. Synaxaria of both the Collège de Clermont of the Society of Jesus and of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the festive memory of these Martyrs is celebrated on April 17, under this title: The contest of the most holy Martyr Simeon, Archbishop of Persia; and of his companions Abdelas the Priest, Chustazat and Phusic, and of others at the same time one hundred and fifty. On the same day concerning these same Holy Martyrs the remainder of the office is performed, whose Canon
St Joseph the Hymnographer wove into this Acrostic.
Στέφω
μάκαρ
σε
Συμεὼν
ὑμνοδίαις.
ΙΩΣΗΦ.
With hymns, blessed Simeon, I crown thee, JOSEPH.
The metrical Ephemeris also celebrates Simeon as struck with the sword on April 17: by which nothing else is proved than that this feast was particularly kept by the Greeks at Constantinople, in honour of Simeon and his companions: whether on the occasion of relics translated thither, or from some other cause, who shall say? It is enough to have noted that the style of that Ephemeris is to praise the death of the Saints as though it had been undergone on the day on which they are venerated.
[5] Galesinius, who drew a good part of his Martyrology from the Menaia, retained the same day; and by his example held out the torch to Canisius who followed him, the author of the German Martyrology. In these the Priest Abdella is written, and this is he who above is called Abedechalas, and he had as companion Ananias, also a Priest, omitted here. Names variously written. Chusthazat, in the Menaia Chusdazat, above is called Usthazanes; namely the eunuch and tutor of King Sapor; Phusio then in the text of Curopalates is called, above Pusicius, in Sozomen Pusices, Prefect of the King's artisans. Those who in the Menologion of the Emperor Basil and in the Parisian Synaxarion are added as one hundred and fifty Martyrs, in the Menaia are said to be one thousand one hundred and fifty: and to the thousand Martyrs one, to the one hundred and fifty another distich, is applied in this manner:
Πίπτοντας
ἀνδρῶν
ἀμφὶ
χιλίους
ξίφει
Ἰδὼν,
ἔφης
ἂν,
Παῦλε
Μαρτύρων
νέφος.
Should you behold a thousand men falling by the sword, You would say, Paul, that we have a cloud of witnesses.
Τέμνουσιν
ἀνδρῶν,
τριπλοπεντηκοντάδα,
Τὴν
Τρισπροσώπην
προςκυνοῦσαν
οὐσίαν
They slay thrice fifty men, Who adored the essence of Three Persons.
But those thousand, in the Menologion of the Emperor Basil and the two aforesaid Parisian Synaxaria, are transferred to the following Martyrs, to be celebrated on April 22, where there are also two hundred and fifty Martyrs: so that we may conclude from this that similar numbers of the same Martyrs crowned in Persia are easily found joined sometimes to one group and sometimes to another. But what is it that the elogium in the Menaia and the Clermont Synaxarion begins thus? Κτησιφὼν καὶ Σαλὴκ, ἡγεμονεύοντες ἐν ταῖς κατὰ Περσίδα πόλεσι, ἐπιςέλλουσι τῷ Βασιλεῖ, ὅτι ὁ Ἀρχιερεὺς τῶν Χριςιανῶν Συμεῶν καὶ ἕτεροι οὒκ ὀλίγοι. "Ctesiphon and Salec, presiding over cities established in Persia, reported to the Emperor that Simeon, Bishop of the Christians, and not a few others were unwilling to obey him." Should anyone think, because St Simeon was Archbishop of Ctesiphon and Seleucia, that it therefore follows that the accusation proceeded from the Prefects of these cities, and that someone then transformed the names of the cities into proper names of Prefects? What the Acts assert, we hold: that the abbreviators of Acts not rarely err, we have learned by experience: nor is there need to track down the origin of each error. In the Menologion of Sirletus, on the same April 17, these things are read: Of the holy Martyr Simeon, Bishop in Persia, and of his companions Abidellas the Priest, and of others one thousand one hundred and fifty. In the very ancient Casinese Ms., on April 20, and April 20 after other Martyrs of that day, the memory of St Simeon the Martyr is kept, whom we judge to be the one referred by others to this day in Latin. But the church of Dol in Brittany also received this Saint Simeon to be venerated on the present day with an office of three Lessons, the third of which, proper, is found in the Breviary of 1519. The church of Tours did the same, according to the Breviary of 1611, but in its later revision made in 1635, the use of such office was abrogated. Franciscus Laherius in his Menologion of Virgins calls the daughter of Pusicius "Pusice," which name we have nowhere else read as hers.
ACTS OF MARTYRDOM.
From the Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen, book 2, chapters 8, 9, and 10.
Simeon, Bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, Martyr in Persia under King Sapor (Saint)
The Hundred Bishops, Priests or Clerics Martyrs in Persia under King Sapor (Saints) Usthazanes the Eunuch, Martyr in Persia under King Sapor (Saint)
Abedechalas, Priest, Martyr in Persia under King Sapor (Saint)
Ananias, Priest, Martyr in Persia under King Sapor (Saint)
Pusicius, Prefect of the Artisans, and his daughter (Saint)
FROM SOZOMEN.
[1] When with the advance of time the number of Christians among the Persians was greatly increasing, so that they began to hold assemblies and to have Priests and Deacons, this matter grievously offended the minds of the Magi, who, as a kind of tribe or priestly stock, had by a certain succession administered the religion of the Persians almost from the beginning: St Simeon accused by the Magi and the Jews before Sapor, and the Jews also were much troubled, who out of envy, naturally as it were implanted in them, are accustomed always to be hostile to the Christian religion. And for this reason they began to accuse before Sapor, then King of the Persians, Simeon, who was at that time Archbishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, the principal city in Persia, claiming that he was a friend of the Emperor, and that he was betraying the affairs of the Persians to him. Sapor, persuaded by their calumnies, after the Christians were vexed or killed. first of all afflicted the Christians with immoderate tributes, because he knew that most of them had cultivated voluntary poverty. Then he gave power to harsh and inhuman men for exacting those tributes: so that, forced both by lack of money and by the ferocity of the exactors, they should begin to spurn their religion, the one thing for which he was working with all his might. After this, he ordered the priests and ministers of God to be slaughtered by the sword, the churches to be destroyed, their treasures and monuments to be brought forth into the public, and Simeon, as a betrayer of the kingdom of Persia and of religion, to be brought forward.
[2] Therefore the Magi, with the help of the Jews, who assisted them eagerly in this matter, demolished the churches: they brought Simeon, arrested and bound in iron chains, to the King: who there showed himself both a conspicuous and a strenuous man. For when Sapor had ordered him to be brought in to be examined; neither was he afraid of anything, nor did he adore the King. Wherefore the King, greatly moved, asks what is the cause, why he now by no means adores him, when before he had done so. brought in, he honours the King, To whom Simeon said: "I was not before brought in to betray the true God; and therefore I did not refuse to render due honours to the King: but now to do the same is not lawful: for now I come to contend for piety and our religion." When he had said these things, the King orders him to adore the sun: which if indeed he should be willing to do, he promises that he will give him many gifts, and hold him in great honour. But if he should refuse, he refuses to adore the sun: he threatens to destroy both him and the whole race of Christians. But when he could neither terrify Simeon by threats nor bend him by promises, but heard him with manly and constant soul affirming that he would never either adore the sun or betray his religion; he orders him to be held in chains for some time, thinking, as it seems, that he wished to come to his senses.
[3] he rebukes Usthazanes the apostate, Usthazanes, the old eunuch, tutor of Sapor, and holding the chief place in the royal household, seeing him being led to prison, rising up (for he was sitting by chance before the doors of the palace) honourably saluted him. But Simeon began to rebuke him with insulting words, and inflamed with bile began to cry out; and with averted countenance passed him by because, being a Christian, a little before under constraint he had adored the sun. Wherefore the eunuch Usthazanes began to shed tears, and converts him to groan, to put off the splendid garment with which he was clothed, and as a man placed in mourning, to put on a black one: he sits before the gates of the palace, laments, weeps with groaning, and thus says: "Woe is me, wretched! what kind of God shall I expect to be towards me, whom I have now long since denied? For on this account Simeon, not having deemed me worthy even to speak a word to me, with averted face thus hurriedly passed me by."
[4] When Sapor learned of these things, he sends for him, asks the cause of his mourning, and whether any calamity had befallen him in his household. To whom Usthazanes: "In these halls, O King, no misfortune has befallen me. For would that for that which has happened to me, I had fallen into all other kinds of calamities: for that indeed would certainly have been much easier to bear. [Usthazanes before Sapor acknowledges that he has erred: steadfast in the Christian faith, he is adjudged to death,] But now I mourn because I remain in life, and because when I ought long since to have died; I still see the sun, which to gratify you, not truly from the heart, but with feigned appearance alone, I adored: so much so that for both reasons I have deserved death: both because I have shown myself a betrayer of Christ, and a deceiver towards you." When he had said these things, he calls upon God the maker of heaven and earth with an oath as his witness, that in the future he would never depart from this resolution. But Sapor, exceedingly amazed at the incredible change in the eunuch, burned with more grievous anger against the Christians, as though they had effected this matter by magic arts: but nevertheless moved with pity towards the old man, he showed himself now gentle, now fierce toward him, and with all his strength laboured to bring him from his resolution. When he profited nothing, Usthazanes constantly asserting that he would never be so foolish as to worship the things made by the Creator of all, the God, instead of the Creator Himself; then inflamed with anger, he orders his head to be cut from his neck with the sword.
[5] Being led by the lictors to this punishment, Usthazanes begs them to wait a little: for he has a thing in mind which he wishes to communicate to the King. Therefore, having called to himself a eunuch most faithful to him, he orders these things to be reported to Sapor: "What goodwill from my early youth up to this time, [he asks, and obtains, that it should be proclaimed by a herald, because he is a Christian] O King, I have shown towards your family, and with what zeal I have served both your father and you, I seem to need no witnesses, especially with you, who have these things sufficiently explored and known. Wherefore for all the services which I have sometimes so kindly bestowed on you, grant me this one thing as a kind of reward, that to those who do not know me, I may not seem to undergo this punishment as if unfaithful to your kingdom, or caught in any kind of wrongdoing. And that this may be open to all, let a herald openly proclaim that the head of Usthazanes has been cut off, not because he has been convicted of any wickedness committed by him in the palace, but because he is a Christian, and would not deny his God in order to comply with the King's will." And the eunuch reported these things to the King: and Sapor, as Usthazanes had demanded, orders the herald to proclaim the same. For he thought that others would with ready and prepared minds depart from the Christian religion, if they were assured to be beheaded. that no mercy would be granted to any Christian, since Usthazanes, the old man, the King's tutor, his familiar and well-disposed, was even being put to death. But Usthazanes desired so eagerly that the cause of his punishment be proclaimed for another end: since he considered that, just as, when terrified by fear he had adored the sun, he had cast fear into many Christians: so now he would incite no fewer to imitate his greatness of soul and constancy, if only they understood that he was being slaughtered for the Christian religion. In this way Usthazanes
departed from the life which he had here passed in the greatest glory.
[6] Simeon confirms 100 Bishops, Priests, and Clerics, then beheaded, But Simeon, being made certain of his death in prison, gave thanks to God for him. On the day after, which was the sixth day of the week, on which, before the celebrated feast day of the Resurrection, the memory of the saving Passion of Christ is accustomed annually to be recalled, the King decrees that Simeon should be struck with the sword. For being again led out of the prison to the King, with strong and great soul he disputed with Sapor concerning the Christian faith, and refused to adore either him or the sun. On the same day the King likewise orders a hundred others, who were in prison, to be beheaded: finally Simeon, when he had beheld the death of all the rest with his eyes, to be slaughtered. Part of these were Bishops, part Priests, part from the order of the other Clerics. When all were being led to the place where they were to undergo the punishment of death; the chief of the Magi asks them, whether they wished to live, and to cultivate the same religion as the King, and to venerate the sun. But when none of them wished on these conditions to remain in life, they are led directly to the place where they were to be struck with the sword. While the lictors apply themselves to the work, and are occupied in the slaying of the Martyrs, Simeon standing by them as they were being killed, orders them to be of good cheer, and speaks to them about death, about resurrection, about piety; and confirming with testimonies drawn from the Sacred Scriptures that thus to die is truly to live; and through cowardice to betray God is truly to die: for they, even if no one inflicted death upon them, would soon die, since this end can be avoided by no one born into this light; but after death those things which are eternal do not come to all in the same way; but each, as if examined by a certain balance, will render an accurate account of his former life: and these for right deeds will receive immortal rewards, those for evil deeds will suffer eternal punishments: finally, to be willing to die for God he himself is beheaded with 55, along with the Priests Abedechalas and Ananias: is the highest of all goods and a most blessed thing: While Simeon ran through these things in speaking, and like a master of a gymnasium instructed them how they should bear themselves in contests, each lending attentive ears to him, eagerly advanced to death. The lictor, after he had killed those hundred, finally in the last place beheaded Simeon, and with him Abedechalas and Ananias, both old men, Priests of the church of which Simeon was Bishop, arrested together with him and cast in chains.
[7] At that same moment of time Pusices, Prefect of all the King's artisans, St Pusicius with his tongue extracted is killed together with his daughter. standing by there by chance, when he saw Ananias, for whom slaughter was now prepared, trembling, said: "A little while, O old man, close your eyes, and be of good cheer: for immediately you shall see the light of God." Scarcely had he spoken this, when he was arrested and led to the King. And when he had confessed himself a Christian, because with free mouth before the King he had spoken words on behalf of the Christian religion and for the Martyrs; on that account, as if he had said something wicked, it was commanded to the lictors that he should be afflicted with an exceedingly strange and especially cruel kind of death. The lictors therefore, piercing his neck around the back, through it draw out his tongue. Furthermore his virgin daughter, falsely accused of crime by certain persons, is arrested, and at the same moment of time is killed.