ON THE HOLY MARTYRS WHO SUFFERED IN THE THEBAID UNDER DIOCLETIAN.
About the year 302.
CommentaryVery Many Saints, Martyrs in the Thebaid under Diocletian
[1] Since very many persons suffered the most grievous torments for the name of Christ in the Thebaid, a province of Egypt, whose not only Acts but even names have perished, the Church has consecrated the memory of all of them together on this day, Their commemoration in the sacred calendars. on which the following is read in the Martyrology: "In Egypt, the commemoration of very many holy Martyrs who were slain under the persecution of Diocletian by diverse kinds of torments in the Thebaid." Eusebius is said to describe their contests in his book On the Martyrs, if that is a different work from the Ecclesiastical History. In the latter, book 8, chapter 8, he narrates their sufferings collectively, and from him Baronius, volume 2, year 302, numbers 75 and following; Nicephorus, book 7, chapter 8; and Rufinus, book 8, chapter 8, thus interpreting Eusebius:
[2] Various torments. In Egypt, innumerable others with no lesser glory, both men and women, and also children and the elderly, setting little store by the present life for the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, sought the blessedness of future glory. Some of them, after beatings, after chains, after iron claws, after scourges, and after other horrible torments of diverse kinds, were handed over to the flames; others were cast into the sea; not a few were also beheaded, presenting their necks willingly to the executioners' axes; some were consumed by starvation; others were affixed to crosses, on which some were hung in a perverted manner with the head pressed downward and the feet raised on high.
[3] Especially in the Thebaid. In the Thebaid, indeed, the cruelty exceeded all narration. Instead of iron claws, the torturers used potsherds of clay vessels, with which they lacerated the whole body until they had scraped away the entire skin of the flesh. Women too, stripped naked so that not even their private parts were covered, were suspended by one foot on high by means of machines contrived with a certain art, with their heads plunged toward the ground, and exposed in a most shameful spectacle, were left hanging for an entire day. Others, wherever two trees were found near to one another, had their branches bent toward each other by force, and to each branch one of the Martyr's feet was bound; then they suddenly released the branches that they had bent by force. When these returned to their natural position by the force of nature, tearing apart* and cutting through the entrails, they carried away the severed limbs with them. And this went on not for a few days or a short time, but for several years. Every day at least ten, but sometimes even a hundred men or women, and also small children, were slaughtered by the aforesaid kinds of punishment.
[4] Eusebius witnessed these things. We ourselves also, at the same time, when we were traveling through the parts of Egypt, saw with our own eyes how an innumerable multitude of the faithful were brought before the most savage governor sitting on his tribunal, and he ordered each one who confessed in turn that he was a Christian to be struck with the sword. And when these eagerly and voluntarily submitted to the sword, having first made their confession, that inhuman and cruel man, moved neither by the contemplation of their great number nor by the magnanimity of their courage, nevertheless ordered all to be led out and beheaded. They all went forth together to the field adjoining the walls, not dragged by the bonds of executioners but bound by the chains of faith. No one was absent, though no one guarded them; Wondrous eagerness. all went willingly, indeed each one striving to outstrip the other, and they offered their necks to the executioners. The hands of the executioners gave out, and those who took their places one after another grew weary; the edge of the sword was blunted. I saw the exhausted executioners sit down, regain their strength, recover their spirits, and change their swords; the very day itself did not suffice for the punishment. Yet not one of them all, not even a small infant, could be deterred from death. But each one feared this alone: lest perchance, while the hastening sun closed the day, he might remain separated from the company of the Martyrs. Thus, with the confidence of faith, steadfastly and bravely, with joy and exultation, they seized the present death as the beginning of eternal life. Finally, while the first were being slaughtered, Preparation for martyrdom. the rest did not yield their spirits to idleness or torpor, but singing psalms and hymns to God, each awaited the place of his martyrdom, so that even while doing these things they might breathe out their last breath in the praises of God. O truly wonderful and worthy of all veneration was that blessed flock, that troop of valiant men, that crown of the splendor of the glory of Christ!
NoteSo reads the edition of Joannes Schallus; but the edition of Beatus Rhenanus reads despicatisque* ("and having been torn apart").