ON ST. MYRON, PRIEST AND MARTYR,
AT CYZICUS IN LESSER MYSIA,
Under Decius.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The yearly veneration of the Saint, his Acts, the time and the arena of his martyrdom.
Myron, priest and martyr, at Cyzicus in Lesser Mysia (St.)
BY J. P.
The Roman Martyrology on this day has thus: In Achaia, St. Myron, priest and martyr, The yearly memory of the Saint among the Latins: who under the emperor Decius and the governor Antipater, after many torments, was beheaded at Cyzicus. Galesinius records him with this somewhat longer announcement: In Achaia, St. Myron, priest and martyr, who, under the emperor Decius, by command of the governor Antipater, being afflicted with grievous punishments for the glory of Christ, and at last condemned to lose his head, offered his neck with a steadfast and willing mind. Molanus, however, most briefly: Of the holy martyr Myron. But the memory of this most holy athlete is more celebrated among the Greeks, as is gathered from their sacred calendars. For not only is his name noted in the Typicon which is called that of St. Sabas, in the Kalendar of the Ruthenians in Possevinus, in the Slavo-Russian Menology of Sparwenfeld, and elsewhere; but he is also honored with a due eulogy in the great printed Menæa, in the Menology of Sirletus, and in that of the emperor Basil. And the text of this last-named, printed in Greek at the end of our first volume of August, runs thus in Latin:
[2] This man, under the emperor Decius and the governor Antipater, was a priest of the church of Achaia. among the Greeks likewise with a eulogy: Now when on the day of Christ's Nativity Antipater had betaken himself to the church that he might arrest the Christians, he, being full of holy fervor, upbraided him. On that account he was hung up and scraped; then he was cast into a furnace; but the furnace kept the Saint indeed unharmed, while it burned up a hundred and fifty of the men who stood near it. And when the Saint was again being compelled to sacrifice to the idols, and could not be driven to it, his skin was cut into thongs from the shoulders down to the feet; and taking one of these thongs, he flung it into the proconsul's face. Then he was scraped about his flayed flesh; and Antipater, beholding him and being filled with shame, made away with himself by his own hands. But the martyr, being thence led to Cyzicus, and sentence being received from the proconsul that he should undergo the sword, had his neck struck off. For the rest, the marks of this Saint, which we have just now reported and shall report more fully below, are far too different from St. Myron the Wonderworker, bishop and confessor, whose Acts we illustrated on the VIII day of this month, for the one to be confounded with the other; which nevertheless Ferrarius seems to do in his New Topography to the Roman Martyrology, folio 45 verso, where on the XVII of August is placed Myro, priest and martyr under Decius, surnamed the Wonderworker.
[3] But what of the time of his martyrdom? It has just been said the time of the martyrdom, that it befell under the emperor Decius, and it will be said a little later in the Acts which we are about to give. But since that emperor did not sit long — namely from the year 249 of the common era to 251, as may be seen at large in Pagi's Critique of Baronius — no great controversy can be raised here about a time which is enclosed within such narrow bounds; beyond whose limits the Slavo-Russian Menology just cited wanders unskillfully, in whose Latin copy in our hands St. Myron is said to have suffered in the year 282. Nor, according to the premises, does Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology assign the true time of the martyrdom closely, when he sets it about the year 253. Now we would have the reader briefly informed concerning the Acts of the Saint before we bring them forward.
[4] the Acts, Among our transcripts copied from a codex of the Imperial Library of Vienna, of which mention has so often recurred and will yet recur, these are found: Μηνὶ Αὐγούστῳ ιζ᾽ μαρτύριον ἐν συντόμῳ τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος Μύρωνος. That is: In the month of August, the XVII, a summary of the martyrdom of the holy martyr Myron. The beginning is: Ὁ ἅγιος μάρτυς τοῦ Χριστοῦ Μύρων ἦν ἐπὶ Δεκίου τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ Ἀντιπάτρου ἄρχοντος τῆς Ἀχαίας πρεσβύτερος τῆς ἐκκλησίας. That is: The holy martyr of Christ Myron, under the emperor Decius and the governor Antipater, was a priest of the church of Achaia. That summary will somewhere be of use to us in the Annotations to the Acts, which, rendered into Latin, we shall presently bring forward. They bear this title: Μαρτύριον τοῦ μ. Μύρωνος τοῦ ἐν Κυζικῳ — The martyrdom of Myron the martyr at Cyzicus. In the margin are set words, not however all of them entire, which I thus restore entire, and thus read: Μηνὶ τῷ αὐτῷ κα᾽ — In the same month (August), the XXI day. To the said Martyrdom our Papebroch prefixes these marks: From the Ambrosian codex f. N. n. 152. See the Acts of Maximus. That Saint you have on the XIII day of this month; and the things noted in the Commentary prefixed to those Acts at number 80 plainly indicate that the Acts of St. Maximus, which we there treated, and this Martyrdom of which we are now treating, are the offspring of the same author and were received from the same codex. Concerning the time and the name of the author, and likewise concerning his monastery, mention has been made in the same place. Thither therefore we send the reader, lest we do over again what has been done. We meanwhile, according to what was there said, have noted before the Martyrdom of St. Myron the author and the monastery in which the author dwelt. Besides those documents which I have indicated concerning the same Saint, it seems not out of place to treat also of the place of his contest.
[5] the arena Ferrarius, in his New Topography to the Roman Martyrology, folio 45 verso, describes it in these words: Cyzicus (Chizico and Spiga), a most ancient episcopal city of Lesser Mysia upon the Hellespont and the Propontis, between the mouths of the rivers Rhyndacus and Esapus (rather Æsepus), joined like an island to the mainland by a bridge, once famous and renowned for its white marble, distant from Mount Ida forty-four miles, midway between Apamea, a city of Bithynia, and Lampsacus on the same coast. To which more might be added from Cellarius, Notitia orbis antiqui, vol. 2, book 3, chapter 3, page 22. To this city, then, St. Myron was sent, that he might crown by martyrdom the contest which he had before endured in Achaia, according to what has been noted above.
[16] But concerning Achaia there remains a certain difficulty from this, of his contest. that more than one place is called by that name, nor is it sufficiently plain which is here to be understood. Among geographers, therefore, there is noted Achaia taken broadly, and Achaia proper or taken strictly: of which the latter is a province of the Peloponnesus toward the north, bounded on the north by the Corinthian Gulf, on the west by the Ionian Sea, on the south by Elis and Arcadia, and on the east by Sicyonia, &c. But Achaia taken broadly is what is Greece proper, and Hellas to Strabo and Pliny, a most illustrious region of Europe now called Livadia, as Castaldus testifies … Its boundaries are on the north Thessaly, on the west Epirus, on the east the Ægean Sea, &c., as Baudrand notes, whose words I have quoted. In Ferrarius, just mentioned, folio 1 verso, only one Achaia is marked, Achaia (Livadia), a region of Hellas or Greece, whose situation and extent he there sets forth. But which Achaia it may be in which St. Myron is said to have contended for Christ, it is not easy for me to determine.
THE MARTYRDOM
By Laurence, a monk of Rutium in Calabria, from the Ambrosian codex f. N. n. 152. Translated by J. P.
Myron, priest and martyr, at Cyzicus in Lesser Mysia (St.)
By Laurence.
Τῆς ἐπιφανείας τοῦ μεγάλου Θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ιἠσοῦ Χριστοῦ τῆς κατα σάρκα γεγενημένης ἐκ τῆς πανάγνου Παρθένου καὶ Θεομήτορος, ἥν τινα καὶ Χριστοῦ γένησιν ὀνομάζομεν, θεοφιλῶς ἐν τῇ καθολιῇ τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἐκκλησίᾳ τελουμένης καὶ πάνυ λαμπρῶς, ὁ ἐναγὴς καὶ βέβηλος Ἀντίπατρος τῆς Ἀχαίας τότε τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐγκεχειρισμένος, Δεκίου τοῦ δυσσεβοῦς βασιλεύοντος, θὴρ ωσπερ ἀτίθασσο σὺν πλήθει στρατιωτῶν εἰσιὼν τὸν ναὸν τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ποιμνην διασκορπίζει, καὶ πολλοὺς συλλαμβάνεται τῶν πιστῶν. Μύρων οὖν ὁ θαυμάσιος, ἱερεὺς ὢν τηνικαῦτα τῆσδε τῆς ἐκκλησίας, τῷ γένει λαμπρὸς, τοῖς τρόποις χρηστὸς, τὸν βίον σεμνὸς, πάντα φόβον ἔξω βαλὼν τῇ πρὸς Χριστὸν ἀγάπῃ, πρόσεισι τῷ ἀνθυπάτῳ γενναίᾳ ψυχῇ, καὶ στηλιτεύει τούτου τὴν ἀπόνοιαν, καὶ τὸ τῆς γνώμης ἀνήμερον, καὶ κῦνα τοῦτον ἀποκαλεῖ καὶ πολέμιον καὶ θῆρα.
When the Epiphany of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ — that is, His birth according to the flesh from the all-pure Virgin and Mother of God, which we also name the Nativity of Christ — was being celebrated in a manner pleasing to God, and with great splendor, in the Catholic Church of the Christians, the accursed and profane Antipater, who at that time had been entrusted with the government of Achaia, while the impious Decius was reigning, entering the church like an untamed wild beast with a multitude of soldiers, scattered the flock of Christ and seized many of the faithful. Myron therefore, that admirable man, being at that time priest of this church — illustrious in his family, upright in his manners, venerable in his life — casting out all fear through his love toward Christ, came before the proconsul with a noble soul, and branded his madness and the savagery of his mind, and called him a dog and an enemy and a wild beast.
[2] Εἶτα καὶ πρὸς τὸ πλῆθος ἐπιστραφεὶς, Ἄνδρες, λέγει, φιλόχριστοι, στῆτε γενναίως ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀμωμήτου πίστεως· μηδεὶς ὑμῶν πρὸς τὰς ἀπειλὰς τοῦ τυράννου, μηδεὶς πρὸς τὰς ὑποσχέσεις ὅλως ὑποχαυνούσθω· παρίσταται γὰρ ἡμῖν Θεὸς βοηθῶν, καὶ γέρα προτεινόμενος ἀείμονα καὶ ἀθάναθα. Τούτοις αὐτοῦ τοῖς λόγοις τὸ πλῆθος ὑποστηρίξαντος, ὁ δεινὸς ἐκεῖνος Ἀντίπατρος θυμοῦ γεμισθεὶς συσχεθῆναι καὶ τοῦτον κελεύει παλαι φίλον ἀυτοῦ τυγχάνοντα καὶ συνήθη, καὶ ἅμα πλησίον τοῦ ναοῦ τοῦ Διονύσου κατα τὸν φόρον λεγόμενον γενόμενος, παρίστησι τοῦτον τῷ βήματι· καὶ τὴν τοσαύτην παῤῥησίαν αἰτιασάμενος, Θῦσον, λέγει, Μύρων, τοῖς ἀθανάτοις θεοῖς, ἵνα μὴ κακῶς ὡς εἷς ἀπολῇ τῶν κακούργων.
[2] Then, turning also to the multitude, he says: "Men who love Christ, stand nobly for the faultless faith; let none of you be at all unnerved by the threats of the tyrant, none by his promises; for God stands beside us as our helper, and holds out to us rewards abiding and immortal." When by these words of his he had strengthened the multitude, that dreadful Antipater, filled with rage, orders that he too be seized — though he had long been his friend and familiar — and, having come at the same time near the temple of Dionysus, at the place called the forum, he sets him before the tribunal; and charging him with such great boldness of speech, he says: "Sacrifice, Myron, to the immortal gods, that thou perish not miserably as one of the malefactors."
[3] Θύσω, εἶπεν ὁ Μύρων, ἀλλὰ τῷ
[3] "I will sacrifice," said Myron, "but to the
Θεῷ μου θυσίαν αἰνέσεως· δαίμοσι γὰρ καὶ κωφοῖς ξοάνοις ἀνθρώπων χερσὶ κατασκευασθεῖσιν οὔποτε Μύρων θυσίαν προσίσει. Αὐτίκα τοίνυν ἀναρτᾶται τῷ ξύλῳ καὶ ξέεται τὰς σάρκας πικρῶς, ὥστε τὴν ὑποκειμένην γῆν ἐμβαφῆναι τοῦ αἵματος τούτου. Μηδένα οὖν οἶκτον αὐτοῦ λαβὼν ὁ κατάρατος, κάμινον ἀναφθῆναι κελεύει, πίσσῃτε καὶ ἐλαίῳ καὶ κληματίδι ταύτην ἐκτραφῆναι φρικτῶς· καὶ τοῦ ξύλου τοῦτον καταγαγὼν, Ταύτῃ σε, Μύρων, εἶπεν, ἐμβαλὼν κατακαύσω, εἰ μήγε τοῖς θεοῖς ἀπονέμοις τὸ σέβας. Οὐ θύσω τούτοις, ὁ Μαρτυς ἔφη, παράνομε, Χριστιανὸς ὢν ἐκ πρώτης τριχὸς, καὶ Χριστοῦ δοῦλος καὶ μύστης.
[4] Τότε κελεύεῖ τῷ πυρὶ τοῦτον ἀκοντισθῆναι. Ἀπαγόμενος οὖν προσηύχετο, Κύριε, λέγων, ἔπιδε ἐπὶ τὴν προσευχὴν τῶν δούλων σου, καὶ λύτρωσαι ἡμᾶς ἕνικα τοῦ ὀνόματός σου, μὴ εἴποι ὁ ἐχθρός· Εὖγε, ευγ᾽ εἶδον οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου. Ταῦτα ἔφη, καὶ ἅμα τῷ πυρὶ παρεδόθη· καὶ ἦν ἰδεῖν τὸ παράδοξον τότε, τὸν μὲν ὡς ἐν δροσώδει ποᾷ ἐμπεριπατοῦντα τῇ καμινῳ, καὶ ᾄδοντα τὸν ἐπινίκιον ὕμνον· τοὺς δὲ περὶ ταύτην φλογιζομένους, ὡς καὶ πολλοὺς αὐτῶν τὴν ψυχὴν ἀποῤῥῆξαι. Ὅπερ θεασάμενος καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ ἀνθύπατος, ἐξεπλάγει τῷ θαύματι, καὶ δέους πλησθεὶς ἀνεχώρησε κελεύσας ἐξενεχθῆναι τὸν Ἅγιον, καὶ τῇ φυλακῇ δοθῆναι. Τῇ ἑξῆς οὖν παρίστησι τοῦτον αὖθις τῷ βήματι, καὶ πάλιν πρὸς θυσίαν καλεῖ· καὶ ἐπεὶ μὴ πειθόμενον εἶχεν, ἀποδαρῆναι τὸ δέρμα προσέταξε· καὶ ἅμα δημίων χεῖρες εἶχον αὐτὸν, καὶ μαχαιρίσι φεῦ ἀνιλεῶς τὸ ἐκείνου δέρμα κατέτεμνον, λώρους ἀπὸ τῶν ὤμων αὐτοῦ καὶ μεχρὶ ποδῶν ἀποσπῶντες. Ὁ δὲ (ὦ ψυχῆς ἀνδρείας καὶ γενναίου φρονήματος) ὑπομένων ὑπέμεινα τὸν Κύριον, ἔψαλλε, καὶ προσέσχε μοι, καὶ εἰσήκουσε τῆς δεήσεώς μου.
[5] Οὕτω ψάλλων οὐ μόνον οὐδὲν ὑπέμεινεν ἀγεννὲς, ἀλλὰ καὶ λῶρον ἕνα τῶν οἰκειῶν σαρκῶν ἀποσπάσας ἐπιῤῥίπτει τῷ ἡγεμόνι, Δέξαι τοῦτο, εἰπὼν, αἰμοβόρε κύων, καὶ φάγε ἀνθρωπείων σαρκῶν ὀρεγόμενος. Ἐκκαίεται τούτοις τὸν θυμὸν κακοῦργος, καὶ τὰς ὑπολειφθείσας σάρκας τῷ Μάρτυρι τοῖς ὄνυξιν ἐγκελεύεται τέμνεσθαι. Πιπτουσῶν οὖν αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ γῇ, τῷ ξέεσθαι ὀστᾶ μὲν καὶ ἁρμονίαι διεγυμνούντο, σπλάγχνα δὲ καὶ τῶν κρυφίων ἡ σύνθεσις διεφαίνετο, καὶ ἦν ὅλως θέαμα οἰκτρὸν καὶ ὀφθαλμοῖς ἀνημέροις. Ἠλγησεν ἂν ἰδοῦσα καὶ φύσις ἄψυχος τὸ γινόμενον. Ἀλλ᾽ ὁ Μάρτυς, Ὁ βασιλευων εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἔλεγεν, εἰσεπάκουσον, ὁ δοξαζόμενος ὑπὸ πάσης ἀγγελικῆς δυνάμεως, Χριστὲ βασιλεῦ τοῦ παντὸς, πρόστηθί μου τοῦ δούλου σου, καὶ τῶν σῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐν μετοχῇ με γενέσθαι ποίησον. Ἦλθεν οὖν οὐρανόθεν φωνή· Ἠτοίμασταί σοι, Μύρων, τόπος εἰρήνης καὶ εὐφροσυνης, λέγουσα, ἤδη γὰρ τὸν δρόμον τετέλεκας τὴν πίστιν τετήρηκας.
[6] Ταύτης τῆς φωνῆς καὶ ὁ κακομήχανος ὑπακούσας, γοητείαν ἐκάλει τὸ πράγμα, καὶ θῦσον τοῖς θεοῖς, ὦ κακὴ κεφαλὴ, λέγων· ἔιδ᾽ οὖν, ἀλλὰ θηρίοις ὑποβληθήσῃ, καὶ οὐδέν σοι παράπαν αἱ ποιαῦται τερατεῖαι προσωφελήσουσιν. Οὐ θύω, φησὶν ὁ Μάρτυς· Χριστιανὸς γάρ εἰμι. Ταῦτα εἰπόντα δέχεται τοῦτον ἡ φυλακὴ, τὰ θηρία ἐτοιμάζονται, καὶ τῇ ἑξῆς ἄγεται πάλιν ὁ Μάρτυς ἐπὶ τὸ στάδιον· ὃν ἰδὼν ὁ τύραννος ὑγιῆ μὲν τῷ σώματι, φαιδρῷ δὲ τῷ προσώπῳ, καὶ κάλλει διαπρεπῆ, Πολλαί σου, λέγει πάλιν, Μύρων, αἱ γοητεῖαι· ἵν᾽ οὖν μὴ τοῖς θηρίοις γένῃ βορὰ, θῦσον Διονύσῳ καὶ ἀπαλλάγηθι τούτων. Μὴ πειθομένου τοίνυν τοῦ Μάρτυρος τοῖς λόγοις τοῦ καὶ θηρίων αὐτῶν ὠμοτέρου, λέαινα κατ᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐπαφίεται. Ἥδε δρόμῳ τοῦτον καταλαβοῦσα περιέλειχέ τε, καὶ ὡς ἂν εἰ κατεσπάζετο. Εἶτα δὲ καὶ τὰ δεσμὰ τούτου, τὸ παράδοξον, τοῖς ὀδοῦσι διέκοψε.
[7] Τότε πλῆθος συνιέντες τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ, Μέγας ὁ Θεὸς, ἐβόησαν, ὃν ὁ Μύρων κηρύττει· ἀπόλυσον, ἀνθύπατε, τὸν ἀναίτιον, ὃν καὶ θῆρες ποιοῦντες ᾐδέσθησαν. Φοβηθεὶς οὖν ἐκεῖνος μή τι νεωτερισθείη κατ᾽ αὐτοῦ, πέμπει τὸν Ἅγιον ἐν Κυζίκῳ πρὸς τὸν τὴν ἀρχὴν ταύτης διέποντα ὡς ἂν ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ τῷ ξίφει τελειωθῇ. Ὃν ἐκεῖνος δεξάμενος μετὰ τῶν ὑπομνημάτων, ἐπεὶ μὴ πειθόμενον εἶχε, δίδωσι κατ᾽ αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀπόφασιν. Φασὶ δὲ τὸν Ἀντίπατρον ἑαυτὸν ὑπὸ δαίμονος ὀχλούμενον ἀνελεῖν. Τέμνῃ τοιγαροῦν, καλλίνικε ἱερομάρτυς Μύρων, τὴν πάντιμον καὶ σεπτὴν κεφαλὴν, καὶ θάπτῃ φιλοτίμως ὑπὸ τῶν φιλοθέων, εἰς δόξαν τοῦ Πατρὸς, καὶ τοῦ Υἱοῦ, καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, τῆς ὁμοοσίου καὶ ζωαρχικῆς καὶ ἀδιαιρέτου Τριάδος· ᾗ πρέπει ἡ τιμὴ καὶ ἡ προσκύνησις νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.
The martyr rebuking the governor Antipater At the Manifestation a of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, which took place according to the flesh from the most pure Virgin and Mother of God (which we also call the Nativity of Christ, and which is celebrated in the Catholic Church of the Christians with all piety and splendor), the detestable and impure Antipater, who was then set over Achaia b, while the impious Decius was emperor, entering the church like an untamable beast with a multitude of soldiers, scattered the flock of Christ and arrested many of the faithful. The admirable Myron, therefore, who at that time was a priest of that church — illustrious in birth, kindly in manners, venerable in life — casting out all fear through his love toward Christ, approached the proconsul with a generous spirit and inveighed against his madness and his savage temper, calling him a dog, an enemy, and a wild beast.
[2] and, exhorting the Christians, is arrested by him, Then, turning to the assembly, he said: "Men who love Christ, stand nobly for the undefiled faith. Let none of you be softened in the least by the tyrant's threats or by his promises: for God is present to us as our helper, and sets before us rewards which abide forever and are immortal." When by these words he had confirmed the assembly, that horrible Antipater, full of anger, ordered that he too be arrested — a man once his friend and familiar — and, being at the same time near the temple of Bacchus in what is called the forum, he ordered him to stand before his tribunal; and, charging him with this freedom of speech, he said: "Sacrifice, Myron, to the immortal gods, that thou perish not miserably as one of the criminals."
[3] and to torments "I will sacrifice," said Myron, "but to my God a sacrifice of praise: for to demons and deaf images, made by the hands of men, Myron will never offer sacrifice." Straightway therefore he is hung upon the wood, and his flesh is torn so bitterly that the earth beneath was drenched with his blood. But that accursed man, touched with no pity toward him, ordered a furnace to be kindled, and to be dreadfully fed with pitch and oil and faggots; and when he had brought him down from the wood, he said: "Into this, Myron, I will cast thee and burn thee, unless thou render worship to the gods." "To these I will not sacrifice," said the martyr, "O wicked man, for I am a Christian from my earliest years, and a servant and priest of Christ."
[4] Then he ordered him to be thrown into the fire; and as he betook himself thither, he prayed, saying: "Lord, look upon the prayer of Thy servants, and deliver us for Thy name's sake, and he is condemned to the fire, in which he triumphs, lest the enemy say: Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it." Having said this, he was without delay delivered to the fire. And then a marvelous thing was given to be seen: the Saint walking in the furnace as it were upon dewy grass, and singing a hymn of triumph; while those who stood near it were burned, so that many of them lost their lives c. When the proconsul himself saw this, he was struck by the miracle and, full of fear, withdrew, ordering the Saint to be carried out thence and delivered to prison. On the next day, therefore, he summoned him at once to the tribunal, and called upon him again to sacrifice; but because he could not bring him to it, he commanded him to be flayed. And without delay the hands of the executioners held him, and with knives (alas!) they cut his skin unmercifully, tearing thongs from his shoulders down to his feet. But he (O manly spirit and generous prudence!) sang: With expectation I have waited for the Lord, and He was attentive to me, and heard my prayers.
[5] Singing thus, he not only showed nothing of the ignoble, and most nobly insults the tyrant. but even, tearing off one thong of his own flesh, flung it at the prefect, saying: "Take that, thou flesh-eating dog, and eat, thou who cravest human flesh." At these things the malefactor was inflamed with anger, and ordered the flesh that remained beneath the martyr's nails to be cut away. And when it had fallen to the ground, the bones indeed and the framework of the body were laid bare by the tearing; and the entrails and the arrangement of the inward parts were plainly seen; and it was altogether a spectacle pitiable even to eyes devoid of gentleness. Nature herself, though without soul, would have grieved at what was done. But the martyr said: "Thou who reignest forever, hear me; Thou who art glorified by every angelic power, O Christ, King of all, be present to me Thy servant, and make me a partaker of Thy good things." There came, therefore, a voice from heaven, saying: "There is prepared for thee, Myron, a place of peace and gladness: for thou hast now finished thy course, thou hast kept the faith."
[6] When the contriver of evils also had heard this voice, he called what had happened an enchantment, [The lioness not only does not harm him, but fawns upon him and frees him from his bonds.] and said: "Sacrifice to the gods, thou evil head. Look therefore to what thou doest: else thou shalt be cast to the beasts, and such tricks shall profit thee nothing at all." To whom the martyr: "I do not sacrifice: for I am a Christian." When he had said this the prison received him; the beasts were made ready, and on the following day the martyr was again led to the stadium. And when the tyrant saw him sound of body, with a cheerful and comely countenance, he said once more: "Many are thy enchantments, Myron: that thou mayest not therefore become food for the beasts, sacrifice to Bacchus, and let them go." When therefore the martyr was not bent by the words of one crueler than the beasts themselves, a lioness d was let loose upon him. But she, running up to him, licked him all about and in a manner kissed him. And then — wonderful to say — she cut through his bonds with her teeth.
[7] Then the multitude of the people, perceiving the power of Christ, cried out: Sent to Cyzicus, he is beheaded. "Great is the God whom Myron preaches. Let go, O proconsul, the innocent man, whom even the beasts have reverenced by what they did." He therefore, fearing lest some new thing should be attempted against him, sent the Saint to the governor e of Cyzicus, that he might be put to death by the sword under him. And when the latter had received him together with the acts f, since he did not find him obedient, he pronounced sentence against him. Antipater is said, being harassed by a demon, to have brought a violent death upon himself. For thee, therefore, O excellent victor and holy martyr Myron, thy most honored and venerable head is struck off, and thou art splendidly buried by the lovers of God, to the glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the consubstantial, life-giving, and undivided Trinity: to whom belong honor and adoration now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.