ON THE HOLY PONTIC MARTYRS.
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FOURTH CENTURY.
CommentaryMartyrs in Pontus (Saints)
I. B.
[1] These were first inscribed in the Roman Calendar by Cardinal Baronius, previously unknown in any martyrologies, and he added this encomium: "In Pontus, the commemoration of very many holy Martyrs, Martyrs inscribed in the Martyrology, of whom some in the persecution of Maximian were drenched with molten lead, others tortured with sharp reeds under their nails, and vexed with many horrible torments, and these same repeatedly applied, by their illustrious passion merited palms and crowns from the Lord."
[2] These words are taken from Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book 8, chapter 24, where, summarily recounting what punishments the holy Martyrs suffered in various provinces during the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, he writes among other things: the torments they suffered, "Horrible to hear are the things that were endured in Pontus. The fingers of some were pierced with sharp reeds under the nails from the tips: the backs of others were drenched with the boiling and ignited substance of molten bronze, and those parts of the body which serve necessity were burned. Others endured foul and bitter tortures in those members and organs which it is not lawful to name, tortures which speech shrinks from expressing: which those noble and just judges, forsooth, devised to display their ingenuity, as though it were some distinguished specimen of wisdom; and in inventing new kinds of torture, they strove to surpass one another, as if competing for prizes."
[3] These things are interpreted or explained somewhat differently by Rufinus, book 8, chapter 13: "In the regions of Pontus," he says, "still crueler deeds were perpetrated. Sharp reeds were driven under the nails of the fingers of some. Upon others, lead liquefied by fire was poured over their backs down to the private parts, through which natural evacuation is customarily carried out. Upon women also, rods of glowing bronze, and also upon women. without any regard for humanity or compassion, were thrust into the private recesses of their organs and natural members. But what am I to do, when the very names fail me for the crimes committed, and not even words can be found by which to enumerate the atrocities that were perpetrated? Yet the most brave and pious Martyrs endured all these things, while those excellent and illustrious Judges thought that their wisdom would earn the admiration of all only if they discovered some new torment of cruelty and some new kind of punishment."
[4] The names of these most valiant champions are hidden from us, though they are written in the book of life. Baronius says that these contests occurred in the ninth year of the persecution of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, namely the fifth year of Constantine, when? in the consulship of Galerius Maximian VIII and Licinius Augustus, of the common era 311. But although Eusebius assigns certain martyrdoms of the Saints, which he commemorates in that book, to specific years, he surveys most of them in such a way as to collect summarily what was done from the nineteenth year of Diocletian, which he establishes as the first year of the persecution, in various provinces.