ON THE HOLY MARTYRS ELEAZAR THE ELDER, THE SEVEN MACCABEE BROTHERS, AND THEIR MOTHER.
AT ANTIOCH IN SYRIA.
Before Christ, the year 166.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Eleazar the Elder, Martyr, at Antioch in Syria (S.)
The Maccabee Brothers, Martyrs, at Antioch in Syria (SS.)
The Mother, Martyr, at Antioch in Syria (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
§ I. The appellation of the holy brothers, their race, age, and arena or place of martyrdom.
Although concerning the Saints proposed in the title all things seem most plain, inasmuch as they are confirmed and sealed with the seal of eternal truth, there occur nonetheless things which lie subject to discussion, and especially those which we have undertaken to examine in this article; They are sought in vain namely, whence the name of the Machabees or Maccabees (it is not pleasing to dispute about the orthography) was given to them; at what time they completed their most glorious contest for their ancestral laws; and in what place at last—whether at Jerusalem, as some think, or rather at Antioch, as the more common and more probable opinion holds, and one far more conformable to the scriptural narrative, which we have already sufficiently noted that we have adopted. Here therefore is the first, but not useless nor empty, question about the name; namely why those seven brothers, who in Scripture are plainly anonymous, nor marked with any nobility of race or of a particular tribe—why, I say, by Josephus, by the holy Fathers, and by all the most ancient writers of the Church they are endowed with the appellation of Machabees; which here seems to be called not proper or specific, but merely generic, just as the chief interpreters judge in Serarius, Redanus, and others, from whom it will be enough to pluck a few things here which abundantly suffice for the solution of the question.
[2] the proper names of each There are those who think that name derived from the mother (whom it pleases to call Machabæa) to the seven sons; but others from the elder-born, who was called Machabæus and transmitted the surname to the younger brothers. But these things are of such a kind that they rest on no sufficient authority, no more than the proper names of the remaining brothers, of which one may find not a single class. In the Latin version of Josephus on this subject by Erasmus, after the already-mentioned Machabæus the firstborn, the second in order is called Aber, the third Machiri, the fourth Judas, the fifth Achas, the sixth Areth, the seventh Jacob: but it is pleasing neither to compare Josephus's paraphrase, nor the formation of those names, with the sacred text; besides that another series of names, exhibited in Calmet, reckons the same brothers in this manner and order, namely Abbin, Gourias, Eusebinas, Marcella, Antonius, Isleazar, Samonas; the mother's name is defined as Solomonis, the father's as Archippus; and Eleazar is called a priest, the instructor of the brothers. All of which, as we reckon them devised merely at will, equally with the other fiction of the Greek Menaea, so we do not think them to be seriously refuted, lest we seem to wish studiously to involve, with obscure side-issues of this kind, matters otherwise most well-known and most certain. We proceed to somewhat clearer things.
[3] Excellently beyond the rest our praised Redanus disputes about the denomination of the Machabees in his great apparatus from page 45, where the appellation is sufficiently clear where, having fully related and discussed all the Rabbinic and Cabalistic explanations—or shall I say wrappings—of the venerable name, and then the manifold and far-fetched Hebrew etymologies, at last on page 48 he hands down the more probable etymology of Machabæus, and proves the name to be Greek and given to Judas by the Greeks; of which sort he adduces and explains many, of the same or like origin, as monomachus, Symmachus, etc., more fully set forth there; so that there is no need of mystical and symbolic inscriptions to unfold the most pugnacious disposition of Judas, to whom that appellation first fell, sufficiently demonstrated by the whole history of the Machabees. Truly he could receive no name from the Greeks (these are Redanus's words) more apt to his polemical and warlike disposition, none which could more dexterously be transferred from Judas, to whom it first fell, to others: to his brothers first of all, men most illustrious in arms and battles, then to the seven Machabee Martyrs and the Machabee mother, and the rest who in the history of the Machabees, for the divine law and fatherland, either fought bravely, or more bravely through torments lost their temporal life, and acquired the eternal.
[4] And this, unless I am greatly mistaken, all things being duly weighed and considered, derived from the warlike Judas is the true and only cause of the surname, which passed first into Judas, or if you will even by prolepsis, then into the brothers, and at last into our illustrious Martyrs; just as before Redanus, Serarius too had observed in various places, especially in the first Preface to the books of the Machabees, page 365, where he shows it sufficiently demonstrated that the inscription was taken from the chief vindicator of most holy religion, and the most excellent leader of sacred wars. For he, he says, when he was called Judas, had the surname Machabæus:.. and about him the greatest part of these books treats… Then from him to his brothers and others who bravely and piously acted in these books, the same appellation flowed forth, as Nicetas warns on the 22nd oration of Gregory Nazianzen. There follows the text of Nicetas: In the books of the Machabees a certain man is described, Judas by name, Machabæus by surname, who for the city of Jerusalem, and the worship of the Mosaic Law, and his fellow-tribesmen, did many things excellently and strenuously. On whose account the name of the Machabees was inscribed also on the other parts of the history. Since therefore in the same volume the contest of Eleazar, and of the seven sons and the mother, is contained, they themselves also were named Machabees: for neither does he who wrote the history relate that they drew their race from Judas Machabæus.
[5] I am not indeed ignorant that another derivation of this name is brought forward almost by St. Gaudentius, in his treatise on the Machabees near the beginning, whom Gaudentius does not gainsay. while, alluding to the true progeny known in the time of the Machabees, he thus speaks: Those were Jews before the coming of the Lord Savior, living only under the old Law, and who drew the surname of the Machabees from their race, just as today the progeny of the Anicii, or if there are any such words of nomenclature which claim a stock of nobility descending from a heap of earthly riches: which indeed in the obvious sense do not seem altogether to cohere with the things disputed above. But the most holy Prelate opens his mind a little more clearly in what follows, explaining the matter more aptly and according to the received sense in this way: Let it seem absurd to no one that I compared them a little before to the Anicii. For the Anicii are named by us from the Greek speech "the invincible," where at last he reduces all things, in relation to our most holy Martyrs, to the constancy of faith in overcoming the atrocity of tortures; in which we shall rightly judge them to have most deservedly obtained the appellation of the Anicii or the invincible, equally as of the Machabees, so that the objected difficulty easily vanishes.
[6] The Spanish descent is fictitious. The other question which is wont to be raised about the race of the Machabees, and about the stock and fatherland of the Asamonaeans, in Serarius page 420, does not pertain to our Martyrs, whom it is enough to have been true Hebrews and utterly incomparable vindicators of their law, but not of the class of those whom pseudo-Julian in his Adversaria so describes that he is worthy of commiseration rather than of refutation. You would call his ineptitudes jokes, which it may here be allowed to mix for a while with serious matters. Thus he trifles at number 52: It is also established that the father of Eleazar the scribe and martyr, and the father and grandmother of the seven most holy Machabee martyrs, joined by kinship with Asamonaeus and Simon, came from Spain into Judaea; and afterward, that Mattathias called his first son John Gadis (because his mother is said to have been a Gaditana). These were called Machabees, because they followed the standards of Judas, who placed upon his standards for a military watchword (as Isaac the Rabbi writes) that, Who is like to thee among the strong, O Lord? as in Exodus 15, number 11; of which words the initial letters in Hebrew are M. C. B. I., which by abbreviation make Machbi or Machabæi, whence the name of the Machabees came to the leader and the soldiers. Which to have related, let it be enough.
[7] On the age Now to the age, or rather the... of the most valiant Champions
As regards the time of martyrdom, a controversy does not seem able to be raised, since the year is sufficiently defined in the sacred text itself, namely book 1, chapter 1, ℣ 57, where one reads, on the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred and forty-fifth year, referring these to ℣ 30 and 21, and then to book 2, chapter 5, ℣ 11, so that it is plainly beyond doubt that they suffered in that year. If you ask what number that year should be called from the founding of the world, the answer of the Chronologists is obvious: that it depends on various systems, which to examine or weigh is certainly not of this place. Salianus, Labbeus and Brietius differ little among themselves, these marking 3886, that one 3887; from whom Calmet recedes, in whom I find noted the year 3837, and most recently in our Berruyer, in the History of the People of God, the year 3840, to which I would in vain here add a long series of others thinking otherwise: to me the Chronology of our Salianus has always pleased no less than his History, in whose opinion, volume 6 page 53, the already-mentioned 145th year of the Greeks is to be combined with the year of the world 3887, which was 166 before the birth of Christ, where he also excellently pursues the whole history of the Machabees.
[8] some discussion also. Further, aptly to our matter, he corrects the error of Josephus, when he confounds the first disaster inflicted on the Jews by Antiochus in the year 143 with the second, which happened two whole years after, that is 145: For after two years, he says, that one (Antiochus) did not come (to Jerusalem) but, as Scripture says, sent the prince of tributes, whom in another place he calls Apollonius; so that here you may see the solution of the other knot flow of itself, no less entangled than the rest, concerning the place of the most bloody contest, about which it is wonderful that so great a dissension could arise, so that not a few, with the recent French Legendist, have set the arena at Jerusalem, since from the sacred text it evidently appears that, with the tyrant Antiochus looking on, the matter was accomplished, while from elsewhere it is established, the year being marked by Scripture, that Antiochus did not come to Jerusalem, and so it can seem by no means doubtful that in the very city of Antioch both Eleazar and the seven sons with the mother completed their most glorious contest. Whether from the fort of Susandrum (as Josephus will have it) they were led to Antioch into the king's sight, I would not dare so certainly to assert: from wherever the most cruel tyrant ordered them to be dragged thither, St. Augustine does not seem to have doubted that they suffered at Antioch, and were there afterward honored by the Christians with a distinguished basilica, whence relics were from time to time translated also to various Western churches, which must be said below at more length. And let these things about the name, race, age and arena be enough said; it follows that we should subjoin some distinguished monuments concerning their most ancient cult.
§ II. A cult most celebrated as well as most ancient in the universal Church.
Concerning the celebrity of the cult of our holy Machabees there are such arguments that scarcely about any other Saints of the universal Church can much more be found or adduced, It is scarcely credible, which from the most distinguished encomia of the holy Fathers, both Greek and Latin, a little below will be most manifest. And equal antiquity accrues from the same head, which the Kalendars, Sacramentaries and Martyrologies to be cited will most abundantly demonstrate. But this indeed is wholly singular, that those who from the whole history of the Old Testament were the last, these same in the Church of Christ obtained the honors of the Saints and religious cult before all others, nay alone, although so many others from just Abel down to Zacharias had poured out their blood under the old Law; the reasons of which matter are variously brought forward in Serarius page 464; concerning which you may see St. Bernard disputing in epistle 98 of the Horstian edition; for us let it be enough that, just as our true Martyrs poured out their blood for Christ the Savior, so they had most bravely striven for the vindication of the Law of the Lord and the religion of the fathers: and this indeed above all seems worthy of the greatest admiration, and glorious to those holy champions among few, that although they had preceded the coming of the Savior by a century and a half and more, nevertheless they were counted, worshipped and celebrated among the first and chief Martyrs of the Church.
[10] And indeed the witnesses of this matter are, as many in number, how ancient the cult was so greater than every exception in authority: for whether you consult the most ancient sacred Fasti of the Church which are extant, there before others—though illustrious Christian martyrs—you would find the Machabees themselves recorded; or whether you name the holy Fathers of the first centuries, or finally all the most ancient writers of the Church, you would not undeservedly say that all these vied in some manner in praising and adorning them; as we shall endeavor a little more fully to demonstrate in the paragraph soon following, some specimens being adduced. Here our sacred Tables must be run through by us, from which we are accustomed to dig out grounds and monuments for the cult of the Saints, which both among the Greeks and Latins are so obvious that it manifestly appears that the holy Machabee brothers (with whom we always reckon the holy old Eleazar and the mother connected) were neither postponed to the most celebrated martyrs of the Church, nay were set before very many, at least in order of time. But since in the Greek Fasti—understand the Menaea, Menologies or Synaxaries—nothing greatly recurs which contributes anything to confirming or illustrating that antiquity, it will be more opportunely demonstrated from our Kalendars, Sacramentaries, Martyrologies and other most approved documents of that kind.
[11] in our Fasti: Most well-known now, and wholly to be venerated for its antiquity, is the Kalendar of Polemius Silvius (whose Laterculus Bollandus had given), edited by us entire in volume VII of June from page 178, in which, with the whole text, the indications of Christianity are so rare, the Saints ascribed to those Fasti so rare, that in the whole course of the year, besides the Epiphany, the Nativity and the Passion of the Lord, only six chief martyrs are celebrated, namely SS. Peter and Paul, Vincent, Lawrence, Hippolytus and Stephen; among them nonetheless on the very Kalends of August it is most expressly announced: And of the martyr Machabees. And these things, since they are near to the fourth century, clearly evince that which Baronius noted, namely this kind of ancient celebrity, which the ancestors cultivated with more inclined zeal, as many orations of the holy Fathers testify, recited in the Church on that solemn day, concerning which below. Here we insist on the Fasti alone, from which you see it manifest that, even before St. Peter's Chains, the festivity of the holy Machabees was solemn at Rome; which moreover the Kalendar of Carthage confirms, edited first by Mabillon, then among the sincere Acts of the Martyrs by Ruinart, where on the said day their express commemoration is made, not that of St. Peter's Chains, as also in the old Kalendar in Achery, volume 10, from page 130.
[12] likewise in the Hieronymian. Wholly the same is the reading of all the Hieronymian codices, in which the announcement of the holy Machabees is set before the other festivity in the first place. Thus the most ancient Epternach codex announces: In Antioch, of the seven Machabee brothers with the mother. Other codices in words a little more numerous: In Antioch, the passion of the holy Machabees, seven brothers with their mother, who suffered under King Antiochus. Which order also you will find constantly kept in the contracted or shorter codices, both those edited by us in volume VII of our June, and in the three chief ones which Martène more recently published in volume 3 of the Thesaurus of Anecdotes. Whether further—which Galesinius wished to gather by conjecture in the notes to his Martyrology—it follows from the sermon of Nazianzen that that anniversary feast-day began to be observed with divine Offices in the Ambrosian and Greek church almost from the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel: as you will perceive below that it cannot easily enough be discerned from the said place, so neither is it ready to define. The testimonies certainly wont to be adduced both from Greek and Latin Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries most rightly prove what we intend, that the festivity of the holy Machabees was ancient as well as celebrated in both Churches, and indeed with the already-mentioned prerogative, which in Rabanus, Wandelbert, Usuard and Notker remained intact.
[13] In all the other Martyrologies, especially the more recent, and in all the other Latin ones that a transposition was made, our daily experience teaches, and that the same had long ago obtained in various Sacramentaries Menard sufficiently shows, who in the Gregorian Sacramentary, finding no memory of the SS. Machabees on the appointed day, rightly in the annotations adduced the words of St. Leo, sermon on the Machabees: For the cause of gladness is twofold, in which we both keep the birthday of the church (whose anniversary festivity of dedication was then celebrated) and rejoice in the passion of the Martyrs (whose relics probably had been deposited there). Menard further cites the codex of Batoldus, in which is a double Mass, the first of St. Peter, the other of the SS. Machabees. But in the Reims one, he says, there is one Mass of the Machabees, none of St. Peter, although the title of the solemnity of St. Peter precedes in it the title of the celebrity of the Machabees: so that hence, though I be silent, you may easily understand that in different churches the rite gradually varied, and that in the later centuries (about the ninth, unless I am mistaken) the festivity of St. Peter in Chains, which now we see everywhere received, wholly prevailed, both in Office and Mass, while nevertheless in the book of Sacraments of the Roman Church edited by Thomasius the Machabees alone long and long ago held the Kalends of August, with three particular collects, which can be seen there.
[14] I reckon that I have discharged my pledge according to both parts, also in the metrical ones: both of the celebrity and of the antiquity of the cult of the SS. Machabees, from the older Kalendars, Sacramentaries and Martyrologies produced hitherto; among which Rabanus, Wandelbert and Notker deservedly ought to be numbered, in whom the same reckoning is kept as in the earlier ones, as is clear from Rabanus, who seems altogether to have transcribed his from the Hieronymian—the position or place, however, being omitted—when he thus announces: Of the holy Machabees, seven brothers with their mother, who suffered under King Antiochus. Hear likewise Wandelbert thus singing in the first place:
August at last, now filled with full grain, what new rites it may bring, let us show in song the Saints, whom fierce Antiochus with the mother drove to death; who to the Christ to come of their own accord consecrated their blood— the Machabees by right hold the Kalends of August.
Then indeed Notker, expressing the arena of the martyrdom and invincibly proving it from St. Augustine, whose place I would wish a little more distinctly explained: At Antioch of Syria, the nativity of the seven Machabee brothers with the mother; who, as blessed Augustine says, before the times of grace revealed, proved by manifold passion, were found faithful. Whom Antiochus, the most cruel forerunner of Antichrist, having banished them from their fatherland, being envious and unwitting, caused to consecrate the gentile soil by the shedding of their sacred blood.
[15] Here now at last you may add, if it so please, the whole series of all the Martyrologists: and with no less solemnity this only will be the discrepancy between these and the more ancient, that Ado, following the Little Roman and Bede, or rather Florus, marked the SS. Machabees only in the second place. But lest anyone doubt about Bede's mind, that Martyrology exists in the praised Achery in the same
volume, expressed on page 128, in his metrical Martyrology:
The Machabees are celebrated at the rising of the month of August.
Now if you consult the Greek monuments, there is a wonderful agreement with the Latins on the day, and everywhere the same opinion in the rest, which, that I may forbear more, the Menology edited by Sirletus sufficiently expressed, in these words: Commemoration of the holy Machabees, Eleazar and the sons, who were under Antiochus son of Seleucus, by whom the whole nation of the Hebrews was destroyed and driven into servitude. There is extant in their praise an oration of St. Gregory Nazianzen. Add, after our manner, the text of the Basilian Menology, which you have in Greek in this very volume, August 1, here turned into Latin: Eleazar, that most worthy man, was the preceptor of the seven sons of St. Salomonis, dwelling at Jerusalem. But when King Seleucus was laying waste Jerusalem, and leading away into servitude the race of the Hebrews, these too were seized, and compelled to taste heathen sacrifices, and to pollute themselves by eating them. But when, by no means obeying, they strove for their ancestral laws, they were subjected to various tortures: and first indeed Eleazar, cruelly beaten and cast into the fire, and praying, gave up his spirit to God; then the sons, according to the order of age, brought into the midst, and tortured with racks, distensions, wheels and flames, immolated their life for piety, proving in the very deed that reason is superior to sufferings: the mother at last of these, Salomonis, entering of her own accord into the furnace, joined herself to her sons through death. The place of the other elogia will be supplied by those which we shall presently give from the praised Nazianzen and Chrysostom. Here let a little verse from the Greek metrical Moschus have place:
Καῦσαν ἐνὶ πρώτῃ ΣΟΛΟΜΩΝΗΝ ἑπτά τε Ὕιας
With her SEVEN SONS Solomen was first burned.
[16] In the Greek Tables. The last monuments here—not in dignity but in order—of the most solemn cult I subjoin, namely temples, but only the first built and dedicated to the holy Machabees; as is that first and chief one which we adduced from St. Augustine, founded at Antioch, if not while the persecution was still raging, at least under the very beginnings of the Church pacified by Constantine, whence that the celebrity of the Saints was immediately propagated into the remaining regions of the East, the panegyric orations of SS. Nazianzen and Chrysostom abundantly teach, to say nothing now of other monuments, more fully explained in Du Cange on Constantinople. Further, that from Asia it soon penetrated into Africa and Europe is concluded from testimonies in no way doubtful; certainly at Rome, whether on the Esquiline or in another place, they relate that a basilica was founded, and in it their relics deposited—those who have made mention of the Roman basilicas along with the Roman Martyrology itself. Further, that at Lyons in Gaul the church of the holy Machabees was no less ancient is thence most certainly concluded, because in Ado in the Martyrology the body of St. Justus, bishop of that city, brought back from Egypt, was, with worthy cult, laid in the basilica of the blessed brothers the Machabees and most glorious martyrs, already from the beginning of the fifth century: not to mention a more ancient one, which stood sacred to them at Vienne, the metropolitan itself, afterward marked with the name of St. Maurice. What could be desired further for the evidence of the argument, I do not see.
§ III. A few out of the many encomia of the holy Fathers.
The elogia of the Fathers are profuse, When I name encomia, I would not have you so understand it as if the intent were to transcribe those orations, long and elegant, which those first doctors of the Church delivered to the people on the festivity of the SS. Machabees; this one thing I have here set before myself, to point out with the finger the chief panegyrics, meaning to pluck thence some things which may serve as a specimen, and kindle minds to seek the rest in the very sources. There will be found there not elogia only or panegyric laudations, but also grave and subtle disputations by which the most valiant Martyrs are vindicated to Christ and the Church, and are compared even with the very first Christian martyrs. Nor are the most deserved praises only of the old Eleazar, and of the seven brothers and the incomparable mother, sung, but the truest and most apt moral precepts are deduced from their victories, all of which to heap together here would be importunate, since in their own places they are ready and obvious. We carry out what we have meditated. And the first place, as among the encomiasts—if not more excellent, at least more ancient—the already more than once praised St. Gregory Nazianzen seems to deserve, of whose oration 22, in volume 1 of the Billian edition from page 397, it will be enough to transcribe the beginning. Thus he speaks:
[18] Of Nazianzen, But what of the Machabees? (for under their name we keep this festal day) who, although among many they are not honored, because they did not contend after Christ, are nevertheless worthy to be honored by all, since for the laws and institutions of their fathers they showed a soul superior to their lot. And they who before the passion of Christ underwent martyrdom, what then would they have been about to do, if after Christ they had suffered persecution, and had had his death, undertaken for the cause of our salvation, set before them for imitation? For they who without an example of this kind flourished with so great praise of virtue, would they not have shown themselves much braver, had it befallen them to face danger with an example? And at the same time this is a mystical and secret discourse, to me indeed and to all endowed with the love of God quite probable; namely that none of those who before the coming of Christ fulfilled all the numbers of virtue attained it apart from the faith of Christ. For although the Word was afterward freely promulgated in its own time, yet to pure souls it was known even before: as can be clearly perceived from the many who before him were honored. Wherefore the Machabees are not to be despised on this account, because they existed before the cross; but because to the norm of the cross they conformed the reckoning of their life, therefore they are to be praised and celebrated with the honor of words.
[19] The rest I do not pursue, although to the very end they are most worthy, Chrysostom, homily 1 having elegantly embraced not the praises only of the holy Martyrs, but also the history itself. Nor does St. John Chrysostom yield to these, in the very city of Antioch, in the very place of the contest, at the ashes yet bloody, magnificently proclaiming in three well-long orations the constancy and fortitude of the Saints with his golden eloquence. Lo, a few things about each, from volume 2 of the newest edition, homily 1 from page 622: How beautiful to us is the joyful city! how, more splendid than the whole year, is this day! not with the sun pouring rays into the earth clearer than its wont, but with the light of the holy Martyrs, more than lightning, irradiating for us the whole city. For than six hundred suns these are more splendid, and clearer than great luminaries. On account of them today the earth is more adorned than heaven itself. Do not tell me of dust, do not think to me of ashes, or bones consumed by time: but open the eyes of faith and see the virtue of God sitting by them, the grace of the Spirit surrounding them, the glory of the heavenly light poured around. Not such are the rays sent from the solar orb into the earth as the flashes leaping from the holy bodies which blind the eyes of the devil. Have now also the beginning of the following homily 2:
[20] That we should all praise the holy martyrs with one tongue is impossible; homily 2 but even if six hundred mouths and as many tongues were available to us, we still would not render a discourse equal to their praises: and the same happens to me, when I contemplate the illustrious deeds of the seven Martyrs, as to some avaricious man who sits by a fountain flowing with gold, in which are seven pipes, and tries to exhaust the whole, but, much and immense labor spent, departs with the greater part left behind. For however much you exhaust the fountain, the greater part is nevertheless left. What then? shall we, because we cannot bestow according to their dignity, keep silent? by no means: for they are Martyrs, who receive the gifts, and in bearing judgment about such bestowing imitate their Lord. What then does he do? when someone brings gifts, not attending to the magnitude of the thing offered, but to the alacrity of the mind of him who offered, he measures out the reward… Let us therefore boldly set about to praise, and what we did yesterday, let us now also, if it please, do. For yesterday we spent the whole discourse on the praises of the mother alone: which was done by us, not because we sought to tear her from the choir of the sons, but that we might render our riches safer; which surely now also let us do—one of the sons being taken aside, let us say a few things about him: for it is to be feared lest the praises of the seven Martyrs, like seven rivers flowing together in a crowd, flood and overwhelm our discourse. Likewise also homily 3.
[21] and likewise homily 3. When I see both the commendation due to the martyrs, and the multitude reduced into straits, I am grieved. Wherefore, if it so seems, let us defer doctrine for the present, but let us study to imitate the fortitude of the martyrs. First therefore let the elder Eleazar come forth into our midst, the beginning of the contests, the foundation of the martyrdom, the door of endeavors, the prince of fortitude, the forerunner of endurance; that gray hair growing young again, the protomartyr of the Old Testament, the image of Peter the prince of the Apostles. The adversary, both flattering and beating with rods, failed, nor yet did he cease to declaim who was harassed with tortures. The elder stood, trembling with excessive old age; the tyrant sat, panting threats and slaughter: and he who trembled went away vigorous; he who wantoned in flourishing age withdrew conquered. The gray hair stood tortured; the enraged youth exercised judgment with authority, and the gray hair carried off the victory. O new kind of victory! a whole army at once, shooting arrows from the bow, one old man, wounded, turned to flight. The miracle of the contests of the Old Man does not suffer me to make a step to the fortitude of the young men; but nevertheless it is necessary that we proceed to those who offered violence: for they too enacted illustrious triumphs over the tyrant. For the youth ought not to have appeared less intrepid than the gray hair. Seven youths therefore then, when they had bravely fought, were crowned, etc.
[22] Then of Cyprian, These as an instance of many: see the other Greek Fathers in the interpreters Serarius and others; to whom can be added a long series of the Latin Fathers; but for us here the SS. Cyprian, Ambrose and Augustine will suffice. Hear first, book 4, epistle 6, page 405 in the praised Serarius: What in the Machabees—the grave torments of the blessed martyrs and the manifold penalties of the seven brothers, and the mother comforting her children in the penalties and herself also dying with the children? Do they not testify documents of great virtue and faith, and exhort us to the triumph of martyrdom by their sufferings? And in the book on the exhortation of martyrdom, chapter 9: But what proclamations of confessions did they put forth, how illustrious, how great documents of faith did they afford? King Antiochus hostile—nay, in Antiochus Antichrist expressed—sought to defile with the contagion of swine's flesh the mouths of the Martyrs, glorious and unconquered by the spirit of confession; and when he had grievously beaten them with scourges, and had been able to advance nothing, he ordered the pans to be heated: which being heated and kindled, he ordered him who had first spoken, and had more provoked the king by the constancy of virtue and faith, to be brought forward and fried, his tongue first drawn out and cut off, which had confessed God—which happened more gloriously to the martyr: for the tongue having confessed the name of the Lord ought itself to go first to God. After, in the second, harsher penalties being devised, etc.
[23] These are the words of Ambrose in Serarius page 407, Of Ambrose, from book 1 of the Offices, chapter 41: But what shall I say of the passions of the martyrs? And lest we wander further, the Machabee boys carried back no lesser triumph over the proud king Antiochus than their own parents: since those conquered armed, these without arms. The unconquered cohort of seven boys stood, girt by the royal legions; the tortures failed, the torturers gave way; the Martyrs did not fail. One, stripped of the skin of his head, had changed his appearance, had increased his virtue; another, ordered to put forth his tongue to be cut off, answered: The Lord does not hear those speaking alone, who heard Moses being silent. He hears more the silent thoughts of his own than the voices of all. You fear the scourge of the tongue; do you not fear the scourge of blood? Blood too has its own voice, by which it cries to God, as it cried in Abel. There follows, from book 2, epistle 7: Not degenerate from the Abrahamides and the Machabees was the striving of the boys, of whom some sang over the flames, others, when they were being burned, did not beg to be spared, but inveighed, that the persecutor might be the more inflamed. Then from book 2, on Jacob and the blessed life, chapter 11: After him were set the seven boys with the mother. One may insult the tyrant, who, while he cunningly thinks it should be begun from the old man, chooses a master, by whom he might make the disciples braver, whose as it were boyish age he provoked to fault with rewards, arraigned with terrors to fear. But they, not degenerate, etc.
[24] We come to St. Augustine, than whom no one more frequently contended for the SS. Machabees, Of Augustine, no one more fully pursued their praises. Lo, brief headings from sermon 300, volume 5 of the Benedictine edition from column 850. Thus it begins: This day the glory of the Machabees made solemn for us: whose marvelous passions, when they were read, we not only heard, but also saw and beheld. Of old these things were done before the Incarnation, before the Passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They existed in that first people, in which the prophets existed, who foretold these present things. He goes on to show that they were Christians in the very thing, though not in name. Then number 6: The Machabees therefore are martyrs of Christ. Therefore not incongruously nor unseasonably, nay most fittingly, their day and their solemnity is celebrated by Christians rather. What such thing did the Jews know how to celebrate? A basilica of the SS. Machabees is proclaimed to be at Antioch: in that city, namely, which is called by the name of the persecuting king himself. For they endured the impious persecuting king Antiochus, and the memory of their martyrdom is celebrated at Antioch, so that at once there sound both the name of the persecutor and the memory of the crowner. This basilica is held by Christians, was built by Christians.
[25] In sermon 301: A great spectacle, he says, is set before the eyes of our faith. a few from which. With the ear we heard, with the heart we saw the mother wishing her sons to end this life before her; with wishes far contrary to human custom. For all men wish their sons to precede them in migrating from this life, not to follow: but she wished to die later. For she did not lose her sons, but sent them ahead; nor did she look at what life they ended, but what they began. For they ceased to live where they were sometime to die; and began to live, to live without end. It is little that she was a spectatrix; we have rather marveled that she was an exhortatrix. More fruitful in virtues than in offspring; seeing them contending, in all of whom she herself contended, and in all conquering she herself conquered. One woman, one mother, how did she set before our eyes one mother, the holy Church, everywhere exhorting her sons to die for the name of him from whom she conceived and bore them? Thus the world filled with the blood of martyrs, the seeds being cast forth, the harvest of the Church sprouted up.
[26] The rest are indicated. To have tasted these things is enough, I think, and abundantly; you have sources also in Surius which may satiate you: return for the rest to Serarius, praised in the places already cited, suggesting very many other things from the holy Gaudentius, Leo Pope I, Maximus of Turin, Prosper, Isidore, Bernard, and likewise from Victorinus Afer, Alcimus Avitus, Prudentius, Venantius Fortunatus, besides others cited, from whom it is not needful to transcribe more. The remarkable poem of Victorinus Afer, of which a short fragment is exhibited there, exists entire in the Bibliotheca Patrum of the Paris edition, volume 4 from column 383: nor do we think it needful to adduce the metrical elogia of the SS. Machabees by Hildebert and Marbod. Here it remains that concerning the relics of our Saints and their Acts we should give a foretaste of those things which, though they do not exhaust the matter, may at least furnish a sufficient notice.
§ IV. The Relics and Acts.
Which were carried to Rome, Who, in what year, nay in what century, raised the sacred bodies of the SS. Machabees from their sepulchers at Antioch, is not handed down to memory: nor indeed can it be established for certain when they were translated to Rome, either wholly or at least for the greater part, where that they were deposited from so many centuries back seems sufficiently beyond doubt from the words of St. Leo cited above: nor is it less certain that the same relics are hitherto held there in the highest veneration, not only in the celebrated church called of St. Peter in Chains, or on the mount, namely the Esquiline, but also, as Piazza testifies, in various other places, as in the Lateran basilicas, of St. Mary Major and elsewhere, in which what or how much remains, what was translated into Gaul as far as Paris or elsewhere, there is no one who would dare sufficiently to explain, much less to determine, especially since the tradition among the people of Cologne is wholly different, where both the bodies and the heads are said to be honored, as Gelenius narrates in syntagma 52, who—it is wonderful—neglected to indicate what parts were carried off into Spain, where our Pinius described them from the reliquary-catalogue of the Escorial, while he tarried there in the year 1722. For the rest, it has pleased to relate here the Cologne history, described more briefly and more neatly by Serarius page 406, afterward to be more fully illustrated by Saussay.
[28] which and how The words of the Roman Martyrology about the already-mentioned translation being premised, he thus goes on: But at Cologne of Agrippina there is a convent of virgins and a church which of old was called of the Blessed Magdalene, now for 400 years already is called of the Machabees: in whose high altar a gilded chest, and in it the seven heads of those Machabees and of the mother, are seen, which indeed the book of that place (put together by that Helias Merceus, who in the year of the Lord 1504 restored that temple to that form and beauty in which it stands today; and to whom Erasmus dedicated the little book of Josephus on the Machabees corrected by him; compiled from the Fathers and various annals) relates were first translated from Antioch to Constantinople, then by Eustorgius bishop of Milan to Milan, and hence by Reginold archbishop of Cologne to Cologne, when namely in the year 1160 the emperor Frederick had again besieged Milan. And the same things at more length F. Merssaeus Cratepolius narrates in the annals of the Archbishops of Cologne, folio 9 and following, and again folio 63. But in composing the times Cratepolius does not seem to speak sufficiently consistently, when in the former place he explains the order of the translation of the SS. Machabees otherwise than in the second, to whom in both places it ought to have been said more distinctly that the bodies of the three Magi as well as of the Saints of today were translated by bishop Reinold from Italy to Cologne.
[29] Let us further now hear the rest from Serarius, where he relates the words of Erasmus to the above-mentioned Helias Merceus, to Cologne, on the occasion of that most precious treasure of the SS. Machabees, deposited among those Nuns in a place then so illustrious. Thus he addresses the man: Indeed I congratulate that college, celebrated also by many other titles, yet chiefly on this, that it befell it to be enriched with so distinguished a treasure. Nay more, I judge all Cologne of Agrippina greatly to be congratulated, a city happy in so many ways: but by no other happier title than that it embraces in its bosom at once so many and so excellent pledges of piety: to be happier still, if it express the virtues of those whose relics it keeps; and if it be not alien from the morals of those whose bodies it possesses. Namely, if it imitate the piety of the three Kings by the sincerity of religion; if it emulate the purity worthy of the martyrdom of the eleven thousand Virgins by the sobriety of life; if it reproduce the most valiant Machabee youths, and the heroine of unconquered breast, by the constancy of an unbroken mind. And these indeed are the most right and most holy admonitions of Erasmus, from which would that he himself had not first swerved.
[30] But as regards the history of the translation here mentioned, it is not easy to decide: we must candidly confess that neither the authority of Cratepolius, nor of Serarius, nor of others sufficiently evinces that the sacred bodies and all the heads of the Machabees were so deposited there that thence one should doubt about the identity of the Roman and other relics throughout the Church. Indeed I protect myself with my accustomed shield, and, leaving all the contending parts in pious, full and peaceful possession, I shall at last in this place subjoin the historical oration which Saussay composed with his accustomed gravity, and inserted into his Gallican Martyrology, in these very words altogether: On the same day, the birthday of the holy seven Machabee brothers, who at Antioch with their mother Salomon, contending for the protection of the Law of God, affected by King Antiochus Epiphanes with the harshest torments, by the illustrious constancy of faith accomplished an illustrious triumph. These the Fathers, both Greek and Latin, celebrated with excellent praises. Nay even St. Paul the Apostle held them in such honor that at Vienne of the Allobroges, where he first established Crescens as bishop, building the first sacred edifice, he dedicated it in their honor, which even now is seen in the cloister of the chief church of Vienne. Whence arose the veneration of these holy champions, which even now flourishes there, most conspicuous and notable among the inhabitants at the festivity of today.
[31] much less the times There stands also at Cologne of Agrippina a cenobitic church of Benedictine virgins, under the appellation of those holy Martyrs; in which their bodies, or their sacred ashes, are religiously kept. But the heads, still solid, are preserved, and are exhibited today to the devout people to be piously honored. And thus they are said to have been translated and received there. Namely, when at Antioch, where those divine Agonists suffered, their sacred pledges had long been kept, blessed Helena, mother of Constantine, when with pious affection she traversed Palestine, carried them thence with her to Constantinople, which Justinian afterward placed in the most magnificent basilica of Holy Sophia raised by him, for the sake of procuring for them ampler honor, with the precious remains of the three Magi, who adored Christ in the cradle. They stood there until the times of the emperor Emanuel. By whom, then granted to the Milanese, they were laid in that chapel which afterward bore the appellation of St. Eustorgius, and grew into remarkable amplitude on account of their cult, and the memory of the three holy Magi, whose relics had also been translated thither.
[32] to reconcile aptly. But then, Milan being overthrown by the emperor Frederick, at the demand of Reinold, his chancellor and archprelate of Cologne, both the bodies of the Machabees themselves and of the three Magi, together with the sacred corpses of the two tutelary Saints of Milan, Felix and Nabor, were carried off to Cologne of Agrippina, to the Magdalene convent, situated in the Ursuline field, with worthy honor
were laid back, where even now, the invocation of the Machabees being now given to the sacred edifice, they are most religiously kept, and are today publicly brought forth to be celebrated with due veneration. It cannot be told more neatly nor more elegantly. But by what tolerable chronology Saussay may have thought that he had aptly divided these things into their times, and by what reasoning further these can be composed with the tradition of the people of Cologne, I ask someone to teach us. St. Eustorgius carried off the bodies (whether he be the first or the second); but Justinian, later than either, placed the same in the church of St. Sophia; Manuel at last in the 12th century first granted the same, whence grew the cult of St. Eustorgius among the Milanese. All things inconsistent, in reconciling which most learned men long ago labored in vain: we have already agreed about possession, so that it neither is free nor pleases to recook the cabbage further.
[33] A like contest about the mother. Lest, however, anything be left untouched, lo, a brief separate gleaning about the relics of the most holy mother of the Machabees. By chance I lit upon the Oriental Itinerary of Cornelius Bruyn, a Dutch painter, translated into French and edited in the year 1700, in which, while on page 43 he describes the Greek patriarchal church of St. Nicholas at Constantinople, he mentions three sepulchers, or as many iron chests, in one of which they will have preserved the bones of the mother of our seven Machabee martyrs, whom they themselves call Maccabaea. So there, by Greek tradition, which the Montfaucons in Italy certainly will not admit, in Ughelli volume 1, col., to Cologne where under the name of St. Felicity the same mother is honored on the 9th of the Kalends of December, and there her most sacred body is said to be placed, with the holy virgin Margaret there, famous for very many miracles; so that thence the religious cult of that same most illustrious mother, and under the same name of St. Felicity, was propagated as far as Florence, to the old church there, which under such appellation—restricted to the mother of the SS. Machabees—is both parochial and monastic, as the R. D. Benvenutus, Prior of that same church, once taught Papebroch by letters, in which both by Office and Mass her festivity is annually celebrated on this day, 1 August. Enough of the relics: now it is time that we also warn a few things about our Acts.
[34] And indeed what remains here to be noted last, on that title it far, far surpasses all the rest which are contained in this work, however vast, The Acts are the word of God. namely that they were written by the pen of God himself, and so cannot be deceived; for it is not pleasing to adduce here Josephus's paraphrase On the Empire of Reason—a merely verbose and not sufficiently faithful paraphrase of the sacred text itself—nor the manuscripts which are in our possession, both Greek and Latin, contracted from the same work of Josephus, but the pure word of God itself from the sacred Bible; disposing and combining the historical series (which the learned know to be disjoined in the Machabee books praised so often) in such a way that the whole series of that most monstrous Jewish persecution is connected from book 1 of the Machabees chapter 1 with the end of chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6 of book 2; and so in our first chapter are related all the things which Antiochus, in a manner driven by furies, did most cruelly and most impiously against the whole people of God; then from chapters 6 and 7 of the second book the very glorious image of the most bloody martyrdom, so elegantly and vigorously expressed that no paraphrase, however adorned and polished, can be compared to it. If perhaps here and there something occur not equally clear, the interpreters are at hand whom it is easy to consult.
THE ACTS
From the sacred Scriptures themselves.
Eleazar the Elder, Martyr, at Antioch in Syria (S.)
The Maccabee Brothers, Martyrs, at Antioch in Syria (SS.)
The Mother, Martyr, at Antioch in Syria (S.)
CHAPTER I.
The occasion of the martyrdom, from the monstrous persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes; from Machabees book I, chapter I, from ℣ 21, joined with book 2, chapter 5, from ℣ 11 to the end, and chapter 6 of the same book, up to ℣ 17.
21. And Antiochus, after he had smitten Egypt, turned back in the hundred and forty-third year, and went up against Israel.
22. And he went up to Jerusalem with a great multitude.
23. And he entered into the sanctuary with pride, and took the golden altar, and the candlestick of light, and all its vessels, and the table of proposition, and the pouring-vessels, and the vials, and the little mortars of gold, and the veil, and the crowns, and the golden ornament that was in the face of the temple: and he broke them all in pieces.
24. And he took the silver, and the gold, and the precious vessels, and he took the hidden treasures which he found: and having taken all away, he departed into his own land.
25. And he made a slaughter of men, and spoke in great pride.
26. And there was great mourning in Israel, and in every place of theirs.
27. And the princes and the elders groaned: the virgins and the young men were weakened, and the beauty of the women was changed.
28. Every husband took up lamentation, and those who sat in the marriage bed mourned.
29. And the land was moved over its inhabitants, and the whole house of Jacob put on confusion.
30. And after two full years of days, the king sent the prince of tributes into the cities of Juda, and he came to Jerusalem with a great crowd.
31. And he spoke to them peaceable words in deceit: and they believed him.
32. And he fell suddenly upon the city, and smote it with a great plague, and destroyed much people out of Israel.
33. And he took the spoils of the city, and burned it with fire, and destroyed its houses, and its walls round about.
34. And they led away the women captive, and possessed the children and the cattle.
35. And they built the city of David with a great and strong wall, and with strong towers, and it became to them a citadel.
36. And they placed there a sinful nation, wicked men, and they grew strong in it, and placed arms, and provisions, and gathered together the spoils of Jerusalem.
37. And they laid them up there, and they became a great snare.
38. And this was done for an ambush to the sanctuary, and for an evil devil in Israel.
39. And they shed innocent blood round about the sanctuary, and defiled the sanctuary.
40. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem fled because of them, and it became a habitation of strangers, and it became a stranger to its own seed, and its children forsook it.
41. Its sanctuary was made desolate like a wilderness, its festival days were turned into mourning, its sabbaths into reproach, its honors into nothing.
42. According to its glory its ignominy was multiplied, and its loftiness was turned into mourning.
43. And king Antiochus wrote to all his kingdom, that all the people should be one, and that everyone should leave his own law.
44. And all the nations consented according to the word of king Antiochus.
45. And many of Israel consented to his servitude, and sacrificed to idols, and profaned the sabbath.
46. And the king sent letters by the hands of messengers to Jerusalem, and to all the cities of Juda, that they should follow the laws of the nations of the land.
47. And should forbid holocausts, and sacrifices, and atonements to be made in the temple of God:
48. And should forbid the sabbath and the solemn days to be celebrated:
49. And he ordered the holy things to be defiled, and the holy people Israel:
50. And he ordered altars to be built, and temples, and idols, and swine's flesh to be immolated, and common cattle:
51. And to leave their sons uncircumcised, and to defile their souls with all unclean things and abominations, so that they should forget the law, and change all the justifications of God.
52. And that whosoever should not do according to the word of king Antiochus should die.
53. According to all these words he wrote to his whole kingdom, and he set princes over the people, who should compel these things to be done.
54. And they commanded the cities of Juda to sacrifice.
55. And many of the people were gathered together to those who had forsaken the law of the Lord, and they did evil things upon the land:
56. And they drove the people of Israel into hiding-places, and into the hidden retreats of fugitives.
57. On the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the hundred and forty-fifth year, king Antiochus set up the abominable idol of desolation upon the altar of God, and throughout all the cities of Juda round about they built altars:
58. And before the doors of the houses, and in the streets, they burned incense, and sacrificed:
59. And they burned the books of the law of God with fire, tearing them:
60. And with whomsoever were found the books of the Testament of the Lord, and whosoever observed the law of the Lord, according to the edict of the king they slew him.
61. In their power they did these things to the people of Israel, who were found every month and month in the cities.
62. And on the five and twentieth day of the month they sacrificed upon the altar which was over against the altar of God.
63. And the women who circumcised their sons were slain, according to the commandment of king Antiochus.
64. And they hanged the children by their necks throughout all their houses, and those who had circumcised them they slew.
65. And many of the people of Israel determined with themselves that they would not eat unclean things, and they chose rather to die than to be defiled with unclean meats.
66. And they would not break the holy law of God, and they were slain:
67. And there was very great wrath upon the people.
Machabees book 2, chapter 5.
11. These things therefore being done, the king suspected that the Jews would forsake the alliance; and for this cause, setting out from Egypt with enraged mind, he took the city indeed by arms;
12. But he commanded the soldiers to kill, and not to spare those they met, and to slay those going up through the houses.
13. So there were slaughters of young and old, and exterminations of women and children, and killings of virgins and little ones.
14. And there were slain in the whole three days eighty thousand, forty thousand bound, and no fewer sold.
15. But neither did these things suffice: he dared also to enter the temple, holier than all the earth, Menelaus being his guide, who was the betrayer of the laws and of his country.
16. And taking the holy vessels with wicked hands, which had been placed by other kings and cities for the ornament of the place and for glory, he handled them unworthily, and defiled them.
17. So Antiochus, alienated in mind, did not consider that on account of the sins of the inhabitants of the city God had been a little angry: for which cause also there happened a contempt about the place:
18. Otherwise, unless it had befallen that they were involved in many sins, as Heliodorus, who was sent by king Seleucus to spoil the treasury, so this man too, immediately upon arriving, would have been scourged, and assuredly repelled from his boldness.
19. But God did not choose the nation for the place, but the place for the nation.
20. And therefore the place itself was made partaker of the evils of the people; but afterward it shall be a partaker of the good things: and that which was forsaken in the wrath of God almighty shall again, in the reconciliation of the great Lord, be exalted with the highest glory.
21. Therefore Antiochus, having taken away a thousand and eight hundred talents from the temple, speedily returned to Antioch, thinking in his pride to make the land
navigable, and the sea passable for travel, on account of the elation of his mind.
22. And he left also overseers to afflict the nation: at Jerusalem indeed Philip, a Phrygian by race, in morals more cruel than the very man by whom he was appointed.
23. And at Garizim, Andronicus and Menelaus, who more grievously than the rest pressed upon the citizens.
24. And when he was set against the Jews, he sent the hateful prince Apollonius with an army of twenty-two thousand, commanding him to kill all of full age, and to sell the women and young men.
25. Who, when he had come to Jerusalem, feigning peace, rested until the holy day of the sabbath: and then, the Jews keeping holy-day, he commanded his men to take arms.
26. And all those who had gone forth to the spectacle he slew: and running through the city with armed men, he destroyed a huge multitude.
27. But Judas Machabæus, who had been the tenth, had withdrawn into a desert place, and there among wild beasts led his life in the mountains with his followers: and feeding on the food of hay, they remained, lest they should be partakers of the defilement.
Of the same book, chapter 6.
1. But not long after, the king sent a certain old man of Antioch to compel the Jews to transfer themselves from the ancestral and God's laws:
2. And to defile also the temple which was at Jerusalem, and to surname it of Jupiter Olympius; and at Garizim, as they were who inhabited the place, of Jupiter the host.
3. And most wicked and grievous to all was the incursion of evils.
4. For the temple was full of the luxury and revellings of the nations, and of those fornicating with harlots; and women thrust themselves of their own accord into the sacred edifices, bringing in things which were not lawful.
5. The altar also was full of unlawful things, which were prohibited by the laws.
6. And neither were the sabbaths kept, nor the solemn days of the fathers observed, nor did anyone simply confess himself to be a Jew.
7. But they were led with bitter necessity on the birthday of the king to the sacrifices; and when the feast of Bacchus was celebrated, they were compelled, crowned with ivy, to go about in honor of Bacchus.
8. And a decree went out into the neighboring cities of the gentiles, the Ptolemies suggesting it, that in like manner they too should act against the Jews, that they should sacrifice.
9. And that those who would not go over to the institutions of the Gentiles should be killed: so there was misery to be seen.
10. For two women were accused of having circumcised their sons, whom, the infants being hung at their breasts, when they had led about publicly through the city, they cast down from the walls.
11. But others, meeting together in neighboring caves, and secretly celebrating the sabbath day, when they had been pointed out to Philip, were burned with flames, because they feared, on account of religion and observance, to bring help to themselves with their own hand.
12. But I beseech those who shall read this book, that they be not affrighted on account of the adverse events; but let them reckon that the things which happened were not for the destruction, but for the correction of our race.
13. For indeed, to not allow sinners to act according to their will for a long time, but to apply punishments at once, is a token of great benefit.
14. For not, as with other nations, does the Lord patiently wait, that he may punish them, when the day of judgment shall have come, in the fullness of their sins.
15. So also with us he determined, that our sins being rolled to the end, so at last he may take vengeance on us.
16. On account of which he never indeed removes his mercy from us; but correcting his people in adversities, he does not forsake them.
17. But let these things be said by us in few for the admonition of readers. But now we must come to the narration.
CHAPTER II.
The history of the martyrdom itself, from book 2, chapter 6, from ℣ 18 to the end, and the whole of chapter 7.
18. Now Eleazar, one of the chief of the scribes, a man advanced in age and of comely countenance, was compelled, his mouth opened wide, to eat swine's flesh.
19. But he, embracing a most glorious death rather than a hateful life, went forward voluntarily to the punishment:
20. And considering how he ought to approach, patiently enduring, he determined not to admit unlawful things for the love of life.
21. But those who stood by, moved with wicked compassion, on account of the ancient friendship of the man, taking him aside secretly, begged that meats be brought which it was lawful for him to eat, that he might feign to have eaten, as the king had commanded, of the flesh of the sacrifice;
22. That by this deed he might be freed from death: and on account of the old friendship of the man, they did him this kindness.
23. But he began to consider the eminence worthy of his age and old age, and the gray hair of his inborn nobility, and the acts of his most excellent conduct from a boy: and according to the constitutions of the holy law established by God, he answered quickly, saying that he wished rather to be sent before into the grave.
24. For it is not worthy of our age, he said, to feign: so that many of the youths, thinking that Eleazar, ninety years old, had gone over to the life of the aliens,
25. And they themselves, on account of my simulation, and on account of a little time of corruptible life, be deceived; and through this I acquire a stain and execration to my old age.
26. For, though in the present time I be snatched from the punishments of men, yet the hand of the Almighty, neither living nor dead, shall I escape.
27. Wherefore, by bravely departing from life, I shall appear worthy indeed of my old age;
28. And to the young men I shall leave a brave example, if with prompt mind and bravely I undergo an honorable death for the most grave and most holy laws. These things said, forthwith he was dragged to the punishment.
29. But those who led him, and a little before had been milder, were turned to wrath on account of the words spoken by him, which they thought had been uttered through arrogance.
30. But when he was being killed with strokes, he groaned, and said: Lord, who hast holy knowledge, thou manifestly knowest that, whereas I could have been freed from death, I endure hard pains of the body: but according to the soul, on account of the fear of thee, I willingly suffer these things.
31. And he indeed in this manner departed from life, leaving not only to the young men, but also to the whole nation, the memory of his death for an example of virtue and of fortitude.
Chapter 7.
1. And it happened also that seven brothers, together with their mother, being apprehended, were compelled by the king to eat swine's flesh against right, being tortured with scourges and whips.
2. But one of them, who was the first, thus said: What dost thou seek, and what wilt thou learn from us? we are ready to die rather than to transgress the ancestral laws of God.
3. So the king, angered, ordered pans and brazen pots to be heated: which being at once heated,
4. He commanded the tongue of him who had first spoken to be cut off, and the skin of his head being drawn off, the tops also of his hands and feet to be cut off, the rest of his brothers and the mother looking on.
5. And when he was now made useless in all things, he ordered the fire to be applied, and him, still breathing, to be roasted in the pan: in which when he was being tortured for a long time, the rest together with the mother mutually exhorted one another to die bravely.
6. Saying: The Lord God will look upon the truth, and will be comforted in us, as Moses declared in the protestation of the canticle: And in his servants he will be comforted.
7. So when the first was dead, in this manner they led the next to be mocked, and the skin of his head with the hair being drawn off, they asked whether he would eat, before he were punished throughout his whole body through each member.
8. But he, answering in the language of his fathers, said: I will not do it. On account of which he too, in the following place, received the torments of the first.
9. And being set in the last breath, thus he said: Thou indeed, most wicked one, dost destroy us in the present life; but the King of the world will raise us up, who die for his laws, in the resurrection of eternal life.
10. After him the third is mocked, and being demanded his tongue, quickly put it forth, and steadfastly stretched out his hands.
11. And with confidence he said: From heaven I possess these, but for the laws of God I now despise these very things, because from him I hope to receive them again.
12. So that the king and those who were with him marveled at the young man's spirit, that he counted the torments as nothing.
13. And this one thus dead, they vexed the fourth, tormenting him in like manner.
14. And when he was now at death, thus he said: It is better, being given to death by men, to expect hope from God, to be raised up again by him: for to thee there shall be no resurrection to life.
15. And when they had brought forward the fifth, they vexed him. But he, looking upon him, said:
16. Having power among men, though thou be corruptible, thou doest what thou wilt; but do not think that our race is forsaken by God.
17. But do thou patiently endure, and thou shalt see his great power, how it will torment thee and thy seed.
18. After him they brought the sixth, and he, beginning to die, thus said: Do not err in vain: for we suffer these things for our own sakes, sinning against our God, and things worthy of admiration have been done in us:
19. But do not thou think that it will be with impunity to thee, that thou hast tried to fight against God.
20. But above measure the mother was marvelous, and worthy of the memory of the good, who, beholding her seven sons perishing under the space of one day, bore it with good courage, on account of the hope which she had in God:
21. She exhorted each one of them in the language of her fathers bravely, filled with wisdom: and inserting a masculine spirit into a feminine thought,
22. She said to them: I know not how you appeared in my womb: for neither did I give you the spirit, and the soul, and the life, and I myself did not frame the members of each one.
23. But indeed the Creator of the world, who formed the nativity of man, and who found out the origin of all, will again with mercy render to you the spirit and the life, as now you despise your own selves for his laws.
24. But Antiochus, thinking himself contemned, and at the same time the voice of the reproacher being despised, when the younger yet remained, not only exhorted him with words, but with an oath affirmed that he would make him rich and blessed, and, transferred from the ancestral laws, would have him for a friend, and would furnish him necessary things.
25. But when the young man was by no means inclined to these things, the king called the mother, and urged her that she should become to the young man for salvation.
26. But when he had exhorted her with many words, she promised that she would persuade her son.
27. So, inclined toward him, mocking the cruel tyrant, she said in the language of her fathers: My son, have pity on me, who carried thee in my womb nine months, and gave thee milk for three years, and nourished thee, and brought thee to this age.
28. I ask, son, that thou look to heaven and earth, and to all that are in them, and understand that God made them out of nothing, and the race of men.
29. So shall it be, that thou fear not this executioner, but, being made worthy partaker with thy brothers, receive death, that in that mercy I may receive thee with thy brothers.
30. While she was yet saying these things, the young man said: Whom do you wait for? I do not obey the command of the king, but the command of the law, which was given to us through Moses.
31. But thou, who hast become the inventor of all malice against the Hebrews, shalt not escape the hand of God.
32. For we suffer these things for our sins.
33. And if for our rebuke and correction the Lord our God is a little angry with us, yet again he will be reconciled to his servants.
34. But thou, O wicked one, and most flagitious of all men, do not be vainly lifted up with vain hopes, inflamed against his servants.
35. Thou hast not yet escaped the judgment of the omnipotent God, who beholdeth all things.
36. For my brothers, having now sustained a little pain, are made subject to the testament of eternal life: but thou by the judgment of God shalt pay the just penalties of thy pride.
37. But I, like my brothers also, deliver up my soul and my body for the ancestral laws, invoking God to become sooner propitious to our nation, and thee with torments and stripes to confess that he alone is God.
38. But in me and in my brothers the wrath of the Almighty shall cease, which was justly brought upon our whole race.
39. Then the king, kindled with anger, raged against this one more cruelly than against all, taking it ill that he was mocked.
40. And so this one too died, trusting in all things in the Lord.
41. And last of all, after the sons, the mother also was consumed.
42. Therefore about the sacrifices, and about the excessive cruelties, enough has been said.
Note.
Eleazar the Elder, Martyr, at Antioch in Syria (S.)
The Maccabee Brothers, Martyrs, at Antioch in Syria (SS.)
The Mother, Martyr, at Antioch in Syria (S.)
There will perhaps be those who expected more from us about such illustrious Saints, not only those things which could be given from Josephus, but also from the Christian and illustrious writers, namely Hildebert the venerable archbishop of Tours, and then from Marbod bishop of Rennes, whose poems on this subject are long known, and more recently anew reviewed and edited by Antonius Beaugendre of the Order of St. Benedict, Congregation of St. Maur, in the year 1708, to which perhaps others of this kind could be added. I will frankly confess that at first the already-praised poems did not displease me, which accordingly I had taken care to have transcribed and prepared for the press: but the matter afterward being more maturely weighed, in those verses—savoring more than enough of their own age—I found nothing from which any value could accrue to our commentary, much less to the sacred Acts themselves; so that I have judged it superfluous to augment our work, sufficiently grand in its own bulk, with those songs. Let them be seen in the volume already cited: nothing has been neglected by us which anyone could deservedly think to pertain to the true glory of the Saints.
ST. PETER IN CHAINS
AT ROME.
From the Martyrologies.
CommentaryPeter in Chains, at Rome (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
I here call upon the Martyrologies alone, among which the Roman on this day announces: At Rome, on the Esquiline, the dedication of St. Peter in Chains, where Baronius learnedly disputes about it at length, so that here the whole matter would have to be explained from the egg, unless, by a manner long received among us of reducing the festivities of the Saints, whatever they be, to their proper birthdays, Papebroch had long ago anticipated us on the 29th of June in the Analects on SS. Peter and Paul, volume V from page 449 to 452, exhausting the whole matter, both about the builder and the dedication of the temple, and about the chains brought thither by Eudoxia, to such a degree that he even adduces the Hieronymian announcement itself, number 113; which is there handed down in these words: At Rome, the dedication of the first church, built and consecrated by blessed Peter, and his absolution from the chains. There is also cited the dissertation of Florentinius, so that here the Martyrologists alone remain, whose chief ones we related in the Observation on Usuard, where we said they used nearly this phrase with the Bede edited by our men: At Rome, at St. Peter in Chains. Besides, the metrical elogium of Wandelbert is related. About the somewhat longer exposition of Rabanus and Notker, it was also said on the 29th of June. Lest therefore here I recook the cabbage, I remit the erudite readers, and those curious about these matters, to the cited place.