ON THE HOLY MARTYRS ANANIAS THE PRIEST, PETER THE KEY-BEARER, AND SEVEN SOLDIERS.
UNDER DIOCLETIAN.
Preliminary Commentary.
Ananias, Priest, Martyr (St.) Peter, Key-Bearer, Martyr (St.) Seven soldiers, Martyrs
By J. B.
[1] Although our Matthaeus Raderus in his manuscript annotations on the Menaea of the Greeks affirms that there is no mention of these in any Calendar or Fasti Memory of St. Ananias and companions in Martyrologies, January 26 except in the Menaea, we shall presently bring forward several Martyrologies that treat of them, and on various days. Indeed, on January 26 the cited Menaea have the following: "On the same day, the commemoration of the holy Martyrs Ananias the Priest, Peter the Keeper of the Keys, and with them seven soldiers." Then they adorn him with this eulogy, which Maximus, Bishop of Cythera, translated into the vulgar Greek language and published in his Lives of the Saints: "Under the Emperor Diocletian, when the governor Maximus was administering Phoenicia, they there obtained the crown of martyrdom. When Ananias was brought before Maximus and fearlessly confessed Christ but mocked the idols, he was first beaten with blows, then his shoulders were burned with red-hot spits, and salt and vinegar were sprinkled on the already scorched flesh. Afterward, by prayer he shook the temple and cast the idols to the ground. Cast into prison, he was refreshed with heavenly food. There he converted the very doorkeeper of the prison to the religion of Christ; and together with him he at last suffered death by order of the governor Maximus, being thrown into the sea along with the other seven soldiers whom he had drawn to the standard of Christ."
[2] January 27 Pietro Galesini listed them at January 27 in these words: "On the same day, of St. Ananias the Martyr, who under Diocletian Caesar, before the governor Maximus, voluntarily professed the Christian faith and inveighed against the worship of idols. He was therefore seized; first he was beaten with blows, then pierced with red-hot awls; afterward, with the wounds he had thus received rubbed with salt and vinegar, he was placed in custody so that he might be killed by hunger in that place. But by divine power it came about that for seven days he was nourished with heavenly food. When the guardian of the prison, Peter, noticed this, he abandoned his impiety and embraced the Christian religion. For this reason he, together with the other, was by order of the governor bound to a wheel; both were placed on a gridiron with fire kindled beneath. When the fire was suddenly and miraculously extinguished, the torturers, when they perceived the marvel of the thing, professed Christ as God with a free voice. And so these men, who were seven in number, and those two, Ananias and Peter, were thrown into the sea and attained the palm of martyrdom." So he, who in his Annotations declares that he expressed the whole martyrdom of Ananias in Latin from Greek records. Juan Tamayo de Salazar inscribed them on the same day in the Spanish Martyrology thus: "In the port of Juliobriga in Spain, of the holy Martyrs Ananias and Peter his guardian, with seven other soldiers, who, having recognized the evidence of the true faith and the constancy of the Martyr, believing in Christ, were thrown into the sea and fearlessly attained the trophy of glory." We shall inquire about the place of martyrdom later.
[3] In many ancient manuscript Martyrologies and some printed ones, February 25 the birthday of these champions is assigned to February 25. Thus the manuscript Florarium: "In Phoenicia, the passion of Saints Ananias the Priest and Peter, with seven soldiers." The Martyrology of the College of the Society of Jesus at Louvain, written on parchment in a quite ancient hand: "In Phoenicia, of Saints Ananias and Peter, his jailer." Hermann Greven the Carthusian, in his supplement to Usuard printed in the year 1521, has only this: "Of Ananias the Martyr." The manuscript Martyrologies of the Church of St. Gudula at Brussels, of the House of St. Jerome at Utrecht, of the monastery of St. Cecilia at Leiden, and of the Lake of St. Mary outside the same city, and likewise another distinguished and ancient one in our possession, have the following: "In Phoenicia, of Saints Ananias the Priest and Peter, his jailer. Of these, the first, under the governor Maximian, was beaten with scourges, had his wounds sprinkled with salt and vinegar and rubbed with a most rough hair-shirt, and then, together with the aforesaid Peter -- who had been converted by his constancy -- after various punishments was cast together into a blazing furnace, and thrown headlong into the sea with seven other soldiers, and they attained the glory of martyrdom." In the most ancient Martyrology of Ado, which is preserved in the monastery of St. Lawrence near Liege, the following was written in the margin but in an ancient hand: "In Phoenicia, the passion of St. Ananias the Priest, and Peter, with seven soldiers. with an epitome of the Acts This Ananias, under the governor named Maximian, was beaten with scourges, and with his wounds sprinkled with salt and vinegar and rubbed with a most rough hair-shirt; and by his breath alone the idols were shattered. He was thrust into prison, where, while he was visited by the Lord, Peter the jailer was moved to compunction, and believing in Christ, began to adhere to him, both by the presence of his body and the defense of the Christian faith. Then, brought out of prison, he was burned on a gridiron with coals placed beneath but was not overcome; then he was rubbed with salt and his flesh was cut with a blade. Peter was laid back upon a heap of coals. After this, confined in prison for seven days, they were brought out and cast into a furnace, but the fire availed nothing against them. Seven soldiers, who had raged against them in their punishments, marveled at their most constant virtue and believed in God, abandoning paganism. Having been subjected to many torments together with them, they were at last thrown headlong into the sea and rested in Christ in a blessed end. The governor himself, driven mad by the fury of his mind, voluntarily threw himself into the sea and perished wretchedly -- but first repenting that he had raged so cruelly against the Saints. However, by anticipating the fruit of repentance with a voluntary death, none remained."
[4] At March 27 Hermann Greven again mentions these Martyrs as follows: "Of Ananias the Priest and Peter, likewise on March 27 and of seven other soldiers drowned under Diocletian." On the same day our Peter Canisius composed an ample eulogy for them, embracing an epitome of the Acts, and asserts that their bodies were buried in Phoenicia; but he disagrees with the Acts in that he assigns their memory to that day, while the Acts we give expressly state that the most blessed Martyrs were consummated on the sixth day before the Kalends of March. the Acts vary on the day We suspect, however, that some error is present there, and that it should read the fifth before the Kalends of March, since no Martyrologies that we have seen mention them on the sixth before the Kalends, that is, February 24. Nor do they mention them on the days designated by the manuscript of Budek and the Combats of the Martyrs printed at Paris. For these say they were consummated on the fourth before the Kalends of February, which is January 29. The latter, however, reads thus: "But the holy Martyrs suffered under the Emperors Maximian and Diocletian, on the day on which our Lord Jesus Christ reigned and triumphed on the Cross." This is commonly believed to be March 25. They are named in the Calendar on neither day.
[5] Our Heribert Rosweyde had transcribed the Acts of Ananias and his companions from a distinguished and ancient codex of the monastery of Gladbach in the province of Juelich, which is here published from manuscripts which we have collated with another codex likewise from the Imperial monastery of St. Maximin at Trier. We received the same from our Jean Gamans from a manuscript of the monastery of Budek of Canons Regular in Westphalia; but these seem somewhat interpolated and embellished, others at hand as also do those which Rosweyde formerly had transcribed from the Combats of the Martyrs printed at Paris a hundred years ago. These Acts also exist among the Histories of Saints printed at Cologne in the year 1483, and two years later at Louvain, which Molanus seems somewhere to call the second part of the Legend; but those Acts are abridged, as also are those which were contained in a manuscript codex of the Church of the Holy Savior at Utrecht. Since these Acts exist in so many codices and their memory is recorded in several Martyrologies, one might wonder why Tamayo de Salazar in his Notes at January 27 declares that "the commemoration of these Martyrs among our own (that is, the Spanish) and foreigners is exceedingly barren. From two sources the name and the arena of the contest and the ferocity of the tortures can be known: namely, Dexter and Galesini." From these he himself wove together the Acts, with not a few additions from I know not where. We cited the words of Galesini in number 2. In the Chronicle certain more recent details are uncertain attributed to Dexter, at the year 308, Commentary 2, number 10, the following is found: "In Spain, in the port of Juliobriga, St. Ananias and companions, who, having endured many torments, were victorious." From these words, even if we granted to that Chronicle the authority that some wish, it would still not be established for certain that this is the same Ananias of whom Galesini and others treat -- especially if that Spanish Ananias was a soldier, and indeed a military commander, as Tamayo writes, while the other was a priest, as is established from the cited Martyrologies, Menaea, and Acts.
[6] The same Menaea together with Cytheraeus, and most of the Martyrologies already cited, did they suffer in Phoenicia? affirm that Ananias and companions obtained the palm of martyrdom in Phoenicia. The Acts that we give from the manuscripts of Gladbach and St. Maximin say that their bodies were buried in Phoenicia. Those transcribed from the Budek codex report that, their chains having been broken, they were carried in a moment to the shore of the sea, opposite a city that was called "Fenete." This is perhaps altered thus by the one who reviewed and interpolated those Acts. Although there was in Palestine a city called Phennesus or Phaeno, it was not a maritime one. The Legend printed at Cologne and Louvain about 170 years ago, as we said, reads thus: "And they buried them with honor in Phoenicia, in a place where many wonders are performed through the merits of the Saints." "Fenice" is also written in some manuscripts, in others "Phoenice"; in Canisius, "in Phoenicia"; in the Menaea, "en phoinike"; in the Lives of Saints of Cytheraeus, "kata phoiniken." In the Combats of the Martyrs printed at Paris, it is said: "And on another day, the governor, sitting on his tribunal in the province of Bithynia, or in Bithynia? in the city of Mansistum," etc. And near the end: "The most blessed Martyrs were consummated in the province of Bithynia, in the city of Mansistum." Nowhere else have I read of a city called Mansistum. Juliobriga is known to the ancients -- to Pliny, book 3, chapter 3, and to Ptolemy, book 2, chapter 6, who counts it among the inland cities of the Cantabri. or in Spain? Pliny then in book 4, chapter 20, places in the region of the same Cantabri the "port of Victoria of the Juliobrigenses." Whether that city still exists, and whether it is one or two, and by what name it is called, I see is not sufficiently agreed upon among more recent writers. Nor is it profitable to be occupied longer in investigating a single place, since it is safer to agree with the majority, who establish the place of the contest of Ananias and companions in Phoenicia. If any document emerges on the other side that is clear and certain, we shall follow it.
[7] Concerning the time of their martyrdom also, nothing else is established before the year 305 except what most affirm: that they triumphed under Diocletian. Not, therefore, as is written in that Spanish Chronicle, in the year 308, since Diocletian had abdicated the purple four years before.
ACTS FROM ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS.
Ananias, Priest, Martyr (St.) Peter, Key-Bearer, Martyr (St.) Seven soldiers, Martyrs
From manuscripts.
CHAPTER I: The torments inflicted upon St. Ananias the Priest after he confessed Christ before the tribunal; the idols together with the temple overthrown by his breathing.
[1] Ananias, a holy man, surrounded himself from childhood with the rudiments of the faith, merciful, Ananias, holy from boyhood benevolent, separated from all the activities of the world, and was exceedingly learned in the divine Scriptures, so that he had the power of memory in place of a book. afterward he becomes a priest While he was still of tender age, he was seized by the people and ordained a deacon. With the people insisting, after a short time he was ordained a priest. Faithfully fulfilling the commandments of the Lord, he paid flattery to no one but was upright in the truth.
[2] While he governed his life well with the Lord's help, behold, a decree went forth from the Emperor Diocletian that Christians should sacrifice to the gods. when persecution arose On another day, then, the governor, sitting on his tribunal, ordered Christians to be brought forward to offer incense. Then a certain man named Munificandus, a profane fellow full of the vanity of idols, who appeared to be the procurator of the city, hearing the governor's order, immediately went to the house of St. Ananias. Entering, he found him reading a codex and said to him: "Get up, why are you sitting here?" St. Ananias, looking at him, said: "What is it, friend?" And he answered: "The governor summons you." he is brought before the governor And St. Ananias, rising up, said joyfully: "Let us go in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." And they soon came to the court.
[3] Munificandus entered and presented him, rejoicing as though he had been the first to obey the governor's commands. When the governor saw him, a strong young man, cheerful of countenance and very comely in appearance, he said to him with wonder of mind: "What is your name?" Ananias answered: "I am a Christian." The governor said: "State by what name you are called." St. Ananias answered: having professed himself a Christian "If you seek my name, I am called Ananias." The governor said: "Since you have said you are a Christian, sacrifice to the gods according to the command of the Emperors. For the Emperors have thus ordered that all Christians who are found should sacrifice to the gods; if they refuse, they are to be subjected to various torments even unto death; but those who obey shall obtain great honor. he refuses to sacrifice to idols Therefore, comply with me and sacrifice to the gods, and you can be a man of the first rank." St. Ananias said: "From my boyhood I have learned to sacrifice to God and to worship Christ Jesus with a pure heart; but to the empty and vain demons whom you call gods, I do not sacrifice. Do what you will."
[4] The governor said: "I see that you are a man young in age yet exceedingly wise in speech; and how have you given yourself over to such an error as to worship one God and Christ, whom the servants of the Jews crucified as an evildoer?" St. Ananias said: "If you knew the power of His Cross, He freely proclaims Christ: you would abandon the error of the idols and worship Him, that He might heal the wounds of your soul -- He who is the true God, the only Son of God the Father, almighty in all things with the Father, who, with the will of the Father and His own, gave Himself for the nature of men before the end of this world, so that those who were held captive, bound by the snares of the devil, He might redeem with His precious blood, and that the madness of the impious and the vanity of the idols, which you worship, He might by the judgment and power of His death consign to eternal punishments." The governor said: "With many seductive words you have puffed up my ears, as though you could persuade me to abandon the glory of the gods and to worship a crucified man, as you also wish. But hear me: sacrifice to the gods, and you will provide no small benefit for yourself, and you shall be great in my administration." St. Ananias said: "Him whom I have always worshipped even until now as my provider -- God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ -- Him I am prepared to serve. For you appear to be a minister of demons, and you are to be tortured with no small torments."
[5] The governor said: "Because I allowed you to speak with boldness, you blaspheme the gods and think me to have fellowship with demons. But from now on I shall strip away your pride and, as a blasphemer, I shall torture you with punishments and compel you to worship the gods who protect the city, by whom the world is also governed." St. Ananias said: "Truly, because you are blind and wretched, you lack sense, you who do not know the true God, the begetter of the one Word and the governor of all things, and who think the world is governed by unclean demons like yourself." The governor said: "Sacrifice to the gods, He scorns the threats of the governor: for I will have your limbs stretched apart." St. Ananias said: "You are accustomed to terrifying those like yourself with your threats; but do not threaten me with words. Rather, I say, do what you think fit, for my protector is at hand."
[6] At this the governor, enraged, entered the temple, which had been built with great magnificence, where there was a gilded chamber full of statues, themselves of silver overlaid with gold; led into the temple, and he ordered St. Ananias to be brought in, and said to him: "Sacrifice to great Hercules; behold his glory and his power." St. Ananias said: "You are deceived, wretch; you do not know what befits you. For these of stone, wood, iron, and bronze he mocks the gods were made by men and adorned with silver and gold, to seduce you fools, so that through perverted understanding you might follow those who neither see, nor hear, nor speak, nor walk, nor can help anyone, nor save themselves if any one of them should be broken to pieces." The governor, hearing this, ablaze with fury, ordered him to be stripped and stretched out and beaten with rods. And while St. Ananias was being beaten, beaten with rods, he raised his eyes to heaven and said with a loud voice: "Look, O Lord, and help Your servant." The governor, however, ordered him to be beaten all the harder. And when thirty centurions had been changed out in the beating, so that both rods and sinews were exhausted, and with cudgels, the governor began to rage still more and ordered him to be fastened to the stocks, so that his inner parts might be laid bare to view. But St. Ananias, with a cheerful countenance, was singing a hymn to God, saying: "Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord, and from those who rise up against me, free me; deliver me from the workers of iniquity, joyfully he sings: and from bloodthirsty men save me." And all marveled that, though so cruelly mangled by blows, he rejoiced with a stout heart.
[7] burned with a red-hot iron, Again therefore the governor said: "Sacrifice at least now, and I will release you." St. Ananias said nothing to him. The governor, however, gnashing his teeth in anger, ordered his back to be seared with a red-hot iron, sprinkled with salt and vinegar, rubbed with a hair-shirt, and his back to be rubbed with salt mixed with the finest vinegar, using a camel-hair cloth. And while this was being done, St. Ananias, looking up to heaven, said: "You who made the land of the Sodomites, consumed and laid waste by fire on account of their disobedient iniquities -- now also, O Lord, signing himself with the Cross, he overthrows the idols by his breath, show through me a sign of Your power, that this impious judge may be confounded together with all his satellites." And fortifying the lips of his mouth with the sign of Christ, he blew upon the statues; and immediately they were shattered and became as dust. And St. Ananias said to them: "Behold, see what you were worshipping, wretched ones! Where is their power? and the temple. Why could they not help themselves? For even the temple itself will be destroyed as you go out." And so, when they had gone outside, it immediately collapsed from its foundations. The governor, seeing this, ordered the holy man of God to be cast into prison and not even water to be given him. And on that same day a successor was appointed for the governor.
AnnotationsCHAPTER II
The conversion of Peter: torments inflicted upon him and Ananias.
[8] St. Ananias, therefore, thrust into prison, prayed to the Lord, In prison he prays while fasting: saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them; who formed man with Your hand and placed him in the paradise of delights, and gave him commandments to keep, but by the malice of the serpent through Eve he transgressed the precept; and You were patient with him according to Your great mercy, You who had first made all things for his sake -- that by day the sun should be in the sky, and by night it should shine adorned with stars and the moon, that the earth should bring forth all manner of fruits to nourish him, that the sea from its own bosom should provide him with food and serve for his passage, so that nothing should be wanting to him; who from the beginning made those who served You to sit in the bosom of Abraham; who from my youth taught me in Your law, and caused knowledge to be imparted to me, and turned away from me the error of the enemy -- do not abandon me, nor reject me, but fulfill the course of my contest, and make me a partaker with all Your Saints who have been consummated before me, to receive the crown of Your glory." On the seventh day Christ appears to him While he was saying these things, having been seven days in prison, on the following night the Lord Jesus Christ came to the window of the prison and said to him: "Behold, I am He, Ananias, whom you invoke; I am He for whose sake you suffer these things. I am present with you; fear not, I will not forsake you." Ananias, moreover, fell upon his face, and comforts and blesses him: saying: "Lord, bless me more fully." And the Lord said to him: "I have blessed you, and I have granted you that your inheritance shall be eternal life." And He added, saying to him: A pillar of cloud shines in the prison: "You shall receive no sustenance from men; for I Myself will give you unfailing food."
[9] And immediately a pillar of cloud began to appear in the prison, shining with immense splendor. And again on the twelfth day, the Holy Spirit, coming in the form of a dove, alighted upon the very window of the prison on the twelfth day the Holy Spirit appears in the form of a dove: and comforted him, saying: "Be strong, Ananias, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
[10] But Peter, the keeper of the prison, hearing and seeing the dove speaking, and after that flying away to heaven, Peter, moved to compunction by the vision, and seeing St. Ananias remaining so strong for so many days without food, and praying to God day and night with a loud voice, and an immense light always shining in the prison -- pierced in his heart, he opened the door of the prison, and entering, cast himself at the feet of St. Ananias, saying: "Servant of God, come to the aid of my soul, joins himself to him and confesses Christ: and deign to give me the sign with which you are signed and the faith which you hold; and being signed, I will fight alongside you, I will be with you, and with you I will confess the Lord your God and Jesus Christ, for whose sake you endure these things, and likewise I will be consummated." The holy man of God, seeing the man's constancy, gave him faith in Christ. And they both began to be together in the prison, singing a hymn to God: "The Lord rules us, and nothing shall be wanting to us; in a place of pasture there He has placed us."
[11] And behold, Maximian arrived as successor to the governor; and hearing that St. Ananias was in prison, they are brought before the new governor: together with the keeper of the prison who had been converted, he delayed not at all but immediately ascended his tribunal and ordered them to be brought in before him. When he saw them, he said to them: "Sacrifice to the gods." St. Ananias said: "That governor who was before you accomplished nothing with me by saying, 'Sacrifice to the gods.' And do you again dare to utter wretched and foolish words?" The governor said: "He indeed was a mild judge, and brought nothing very severe against you in the way of torments; but if you do not consent to sacrifice to the gods, to whom the Princes of the world also sacrifice for the common welfare, I will torture you with great punishments and destroy you, as criminals, by a cruel death." St. Ananias said: "Behold, I am ready. Ananias responds nobly to him. Bring forth your torments; I do not despair of the faith of my Lord." At this, the governor, enraged, ordered a gridiron to be brought and St. Ananias to be bound upon it and fire to be placed beneath. But St. Ananias, with a cheerful countenance, praised the Lord, saying: "For You have tested us, O God; You have tried us by fire, he is roasted on a gridiron: as silver is tried by fire."
[12] The governor then ordered St. Ananias to be released from the gridiron, and turning to Peter, said to him: "You -- sacrifice." Peter said: "As my master and Lord Ananias has confessed, so also do I confess, for I too am a Christian and can do nothing other than follow the way of Christ, who will bestow upon me life and glory." both mock the threats of the governor: The governor said: "If, then, your master consented to sacrifice, what would you do?" Peter said: "A man who serves the devil can say nothing true. For just as the sea cannot pass over a mountain set before it, so neither can my master deviate from the faith of Christ, nor can I, his child, whom he has joyfully brought from darkness into light. And do you think me so foolish as not to know that through such a man I cannot be made perfect?" The governor, however, turning to St. Ananias, said to him: "Behold, your flesh is consumed; why do you not sacrifice, so that you may be freed from the torments that await you?" St. Ananias said: "If I knew that what you say was to my advantage, I would not endure these things from you, which I confess I do not even feel. But if you have fiercer torments, bring them forth, that from the testing you may learn that the Lord my God, Jesus Christ, is my protector." The governor then ordered his back to be rubbed with the roughest salt and shark-skin; Ananias is rubbed with salt; Peter is placed upon coals: and Peter to be laid upon a heap of burning coals. But the Saints, rejoicing, praised the Lord together, saying: "Lord, look upon us to help us; let all our enemies be confounded, who seek our souls to take them away."
AnnotationsCHAPTER III
Seven soldiers converted, baptized, and drowned in the sea together with SS. Ananias and Peter.
[13] The governor, hearing these things, ordered in anger that the Saints be taken back to prison and that the bathhouse be set on fire. The Saints, however, placed in prison, glorified the Lord, saying: "Lead our souls out of prison, to confess Your name, O Lord." And when for seven days the bathhouse, set ablaze, appeared as a fiery furnace, the governor ordered the Saints to be brought out of prison and shut up in the bathhouse. When they had been led there, and the doors were opened, and they had been thrust in while invoking the inseparable Holy Trinity, shut up in the burning bathhouse, they pray to God: immediately the flame that was belching forth was extinguished, and the attendants closed the doors. St. Ananias, however, prayed, saying: "Lord, who govern all things by Your power; who sanctified Isaac, offered to You as a sacrifice, and prepared a ram in his place; who brought Your servant Daniel out of the den of lions; who rescued Ananias, Azarias, and Misael from the furnace heated sevenfold; who delivered Jonah from the belly of the whale and spared the Ninevites; and who led Your people through the Red Sea, giving them manna to eat and water from the rock to drink -- as therefore, Lord, You delivered all who pleased You, so also deliver us, Lord, from the mouth of the devil."
[14] On the third day, the governor ordered the seven soldiers to open the bathhouse. After three days they are unharmed, though bystanders are burned: And as they went, a multitude of the people gathered to see whether anything had perhaps remained of their bodies. But when they opened the doors, the belching flame consumed many of the pagan people. Those seven soldiers, however, saved by the Lord's presence, saw a multitude of angels with St. Ananias and Peter; seen surrounded by angels: and immediately returning to the governor, they said to him: "Lord Governor, those Christians who were cast into the bathhouse are holy men and serve the living God, the heavenly King. [The seven soldiers report this to the governor and declare their belief in Christ:] We have seen with them the angels of God in great glory, and so great a blaze of fire was held to be cooler than dew. But you have unjustly ordered innocent men to be condemned." The governor said: "They are sorcerers, and they have seduced not only the fire but also you. Or perhaps you have received a bribe from them?" The soldiers said: "Know that we are servants of the immortal God; for we have received no bribe from them. Insane man, what could we have received from those whom you ordered to be shut up naked in the fiery bathhouse? But we know that He whom they serve is able both to cool fire and to bestow upon them gold and silver. Know therefore that we have been converted to the God of Ananias and Peter; you have in us, too, strong athletes, resisting your wickedness."
[15] At this, the governor, enraged, ordered them to be bound to columns in the forum they are beaten with raw-hide thongs and to be beaten severely with raw-hide thongs. He ordered Ananias and Peter, however, to be brought out of the bathhouse and led before him at his tribunal. When he saw them, he said to them: "Why have you given yourselves over to so obscure a hope, choosing that man who was crucified by the Jews above life itself, and you will not consent to us?" Ananias said: "Wicked man, impious one, not only do you shed innocent blood, but you even blaspheme His passion besides! Have you heard of so many mighty works that He wrought at that time? Ananias reproves the governor for his blasphemy, Have you not heard that the blind received sight, the deaf hearing, the lame the ability to walk, the paralyzed their health, the lepers were cleansed, the dead were raised? Who, moreover, has ever dared to blaspheme this? But even now, in defense of Him, we feel nothing of the various punishments which you, like a rabid dog, inflict upon us. and announces a grim exile to him. But therefore His judgment will not be slow against you, because on account of the impiety of your blasphemy, He will now send from heaven one who will rend the members of your body with powerful torments; and then you will know that the true God is in heaven."
[16] At this the governor, enraged, ordered much wood to be brought together, and a great pyre to be made, and oil to be poured over it, and fire to be kindled, and St. Ananias and Peter to be cast therein. And immediately they led them to the furnace. He is cast into the fire with Peter, But they, signing themselves with the sign of the Cross, entered the fire. And immediately the flame, rising up, was borne aloft round about to a height of twenty cubits. For the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, had descended into the midst of the fire, preserved unharmed, with the Holy Spirit appearing in the form of a dove, even in the sight of the people, and was with those Saints. The governor then ordered the soldiers to be released from the columns. When they had been released, he ordered them to be cast into the fire. But they prayed to the Lord, saying: "God of the angels and of all the Saints, Lord Almighty Jesus Christ, as are also the seven soldiers: pardon our crimes and preserve us unharmed from the burning of the fire, for in You we trust." And holding one another's hands they entered the fire; and immediately a cloud, sending forth water, extinguished the fire, and the fire did not touch them.
[17] The governor, however, hearing these things and raging with anger, ordered the amphitheater to be prepared with priestly honor. And immediately the governor arose with them and went to the stadium. Ananias, exposed to a leopard and other wild beasts, is not harmed, And when they had entered and taken their seats, he ordered Ananias to be brought in and a leopard to be released against him. But the leopard, bounding forth, ran to St. Ananias and bowed its neck at his feet; and after this, rising up with joy, it embraced his knees. And a voice was sent forth from heaven, saying: "Ananias, Ananias, your crown is prepared; but is strengthened by a heavenly voice: but upon Maximian great wrath hangs, who persists in afflicting you, a worthy servant of Christ, with diverse punishments." And the leopard, made gentle, returned to its cage. The governor, however, hearing these things, ordered all the wild beasts to be released at once. And the beasts, coming forth, gave such a great roar that all fell on their faces in fear. And the beasts, running to St. Ananias and surrounding him, gazed upon him with wonder, and with bowed heads they worshipped him, and with their tongues they licked the ground where the footsteps of the holy man of God had trod, and then immediately returned to their cages.
[18] The governor, seeing this, covered with confusion, pronounced this sentence against them, saying: he is ordered to be cast into the sea with the rest: "Ananias, the author of the crime of sacrilege, and Peter his disciple, and the seven soldiers who, seized by madness, have proved rebellious and have not been obedient to the commands of the Emperors, but who, of their own willful inclination, casting aside their fortunate arms, have desired with great eagerness to be partakers of their guilt -- it is my pleasure that all these, who blaspheme the gods and prove hostile to the honor of our Lords, be led to the sea and plunged into the deep: I order them to be put to an evil death, as they deserve, with weights of lead bound to their necks, hands, and feet, and to be sunk into the depths of the sea." And the officials, taking charge of them, compelled them to walk.
[19] And when the Saints were being led away, they went rejoicing, each one bearing his burden -- that is, they carried the immense weight of lead, loaded upon their shoulders. And bidding farewell to the brethren who were in the city and to the friends who went along with them, they came to a certain secluded place where there was a small body of water. The seven soldiers, seeing this, cast themselves at the feet of St. Ananias, whom he baptizes on the way, requesting baptism. St. Ananias therefore caused the persecutors to be separated to one side, and he blessed that water, praying to God and saying: "Waters, increase from the spring in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, baptized by John the Forerunner, sanctified the water of the Jordan; and now be filled to His glory." And immediately a great quantity of water burst forth, the water increased by the blessing: and that place was filled. And St. Ananias blessed it and, taking each one, baptized them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[20] And setting out from there, they went joyfully, singing a hymn to God: "God, You have become our helper; You have turned our mourning into joy and have girded us with gladness." And when they came to the appointed place, they bound them with lead and immense ropes and placed them in a boat and brought them out into the midst of the sea.
St. Ananias, standing, prayed to the Lord, saying: "Almighty God, pious and merciful, who have not remembered our iniquities, Having prayed to God, who desire the repentance of the sinner, that he may turn from his unjust way and live; O Lord, who by Your will called Your twelve Apostles and sent them into the world to preach You as the provider and savior of our souls; You therefore I beseech, Lord -- Father and Son and Holy Spirit -- who are mighty to save: receive the trust which You have committed to us, which You have kept inviolate and guarded." When he had completed his prayer, he is submerged with them: he signed all those whom he had baptized, that they might first be cast into the sea, and he himself, signing himself and saying, "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," was cast into the sea after them.
[21] And when they had descended into the depths of the sea, immediately the ropes themselves together with the lead were broken, and the sea carried the bodies of all the Saints to the shore; and on the following day they were brought to the city. [The bodies, cast upon the shore, are buried by Christians admonished from heaven,] Certain religious men, who had been warned during the night by a vision, together with other Christian soldiers, collecting the bodies of the Saints, wrapped them in spices, singing a hymn to God and raising a resounding voice with instruments; and rejoicing, they buried them with honor in Phoenicia, in which place many miracles are performed, and are made illustrious by miracles. demons are expelled from the possessed, and the infirmities of all the sick are cured.
[22] On the thirtieth day after the passion of the Saints, fire fell from heaven upon Maximian, as if it were iron, The governor, struck by heavenly fire, and his hands were cut off, his eyes blinded, and his wounded feet were consumed by worms; and he roared, afflicted by many torments, saying to all: "Hear, all nations, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether free or slave: let no one dare to inflict tortures upon the servants of God, and wasting away, he acknowledges his crime, for an example is made in life for all, just as I too acted in ignorance." But with great entreaty he adjured his household and soldiers to cast him into the sea, because he could not endure such great pain of torments. The soldiers, however, obeying his commands, lifted him up and cast him into the sea, [he orders his men to throw him into the sea, and is immediately devoured by sea beasts.] and immediately, in their sight, the sea beasts receiving him devoured him, so that the sea did not even cast his bones upon the shore, according to what had been foretold by St. Ananias. The most blessed Martyrs were consummated on the sixth day before the Kalends of March, in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father for all ages of ages. Amen.
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