Martyrs of Gerunda

ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF GERUNDA, INVENTUS AND 359 OTHERS.

[3] In the same persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, S. Narcissus was killed while he was performing divine service; to which very many seem to have been present, given the piety of those times and the rarer opportunity for performing or participating in sacred rites; and we refer all of them to the same number. The same seems to be true of S. Inventus—that he was from the same blessed company of holy athletes. among these S. Inventus, patron against quartan fever: S. Inventus is especially helpful to those suffering from quartan fever: for which reason he is held in great veneration. This Collect has been recited concerning him from many centuries past in that same Church: "Grant, we beseech You, almighty God, that through the intercession of Blessed Inventus, Your Martyr, we may be freed from all adversities in body and purified from evil thoughts in mind. Through the Lord."

[4] His image is seen in the same church of S. Felix, his veneration. on the new panel of the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary, just as it had also been on the old one. They were formerly accustomed to keep vigils on the eve of his feast in that same church. All these things I received from the priests of that same church.

[5] Many venerate those three hundred and sixty Martyrs with a singular piety; and not without reason: The patronage of these against floods, since many of their benefits to that city are extant: for without their patronage, the waters would perhaps long since have brought destruction to it. A certain citizen of Valencia, a learned and pious man, arranges for the office of these holy Martyrs to be performed annually at the principal altar of S. Felix, anniversary observance. and this prayer is read in the sacred rite: "Grant, we beseech You, almighty God, that we who celebrate the birthdays of Your Saints, whose bodies rest here, may be freed from all threatening evils by their intercessions."

[6] Whence the number of these Saints is gathered. The number of these holy Martyrs is gathered from a certain printed compendium of the Indulgences of the Church of S. Felix, in which the bodies of the Saints Narcissus and Felix, and 360 others, are said to rest there. Certain Papal bulls, which exist in the archive of that Church, assert the same; some of them, however, mention only sixty Martyrs.

ON S. IRENE, OR HERENA, WIDOW OF S. CASTULUS THE MARTYR, AT ROME.

ABOUT THE YEAR 300.

Irene or Herena, widow at Rome (S.)

In the Acts of S. Sebastian, above on 20 January, chapter 22, mention is made of S. Castulus, the Zetarius of the palace of Diocletian, and host of the Saints, who was crowned with martyrdom on 26 March: and in chapter 23, Irene, or Herena, S. Irene tends S. Sebastian. or, as others write, Aerena or Syrena (perhaps Serena), his wife, a religious woman; who, when S. Sebastian had been pierced with arrows and left as though dead, went at night to bury his body, but finding him alive, took him to her house and carefully tended him, so that within a few days he recovered full health. Her name today has been entered by the manuscript Florarium in the register of the Saints, with these words: "Also of Syrena, widow of Castulus the Martyr." Whether she too underwent martyrdom, or died a peaceful death (either amid the storms of the persecutions or after peace was restored to the Church), we have read nowhere.

ON S. BLAESILLA, ROMAN WIDOW.

Year of Christ 383.

Blaesilla, widow at Rome (S.)

BHL Number: 1367

From various sources.

[1] The name of Blaesilla, a most noble and most devout widow, entered in the registers of the Blessed, is displayed by the German Martyrology, Constantius Felicius, Philip Ferrarius in the general catalogue of Saints and in the catalogue of the Saints of Italy, The feast of S. Blaesilla. Silvanus Razzi, volume 1, On Women Illustrious for Holiness. Baronius treats of her in volume 4, at the year 382, numbers 40, 42, 43. Spondanus in the compendium of Baronius under the same year, number 8.

[2] S. Jerome mentions her in various places. In Epistle 22 to S. Eustochium, her sister, On the Preservation of Virginity: "You have learned the burdens of marriage and the uncertainties of wedlock from a domestic example: In the seventh month she was bereaved of her husband, since your sister Blaesilla, older in age but lesser in purpose, after receiving a husband, was widowed in the seventh month. O unhappy human condition, ignorant of the future! She lost both the crown of virginity and the pleasure of marriage. And although widowhood holds the second degree of chastity, yet what crosses do you think she endures from moment to moment, seeing daily in her sister what she herself has lost; and though it is harder to go without a pleasure one has experienced, she has a lesser reward for her continence? Let her however be secure, let her be joyful; the hundredfold and the sixtyfold fruit come from the one seed of chastity."

[3] Jerome himself writes in Epistle 116 to S. Paula, her mother, and Eustochium, which is the preface to Ecclesiastes, how he stimulated S. Blaesilla in her widowhood to piety and divine worship: "I recall," he says, stimulated to virtue by S. Jerome, "about five years ago, when I was still at Rome and was reading Ecclesiastes to S. Blaesilla to provoke her to contempt of this world and to consider everything she saw in the world as nothing, that she asked me to discuss, in the manner of a little commentary, the more obscure passages, so that without me she might understand what she read. And so, since in the midst of our undertaking she was snatched away by sudden death, and we did not deserve, O Paula and Eustochium, such a companion of our life, and struck dumb then by so great a wound; now, stationed in Bethlehem, in a rather small city, I pay what I owe both to her memory and to you."

[4] The same Jerome, in Epistle 26 to S. Pammachius on the death of Paulina his wife, who was another sister of S. Blaesilla, writes thus: "At the close of my letter I recalled your chariot of four (which consisted of Pammachius, often praised by him. Paula, Eustochium, and Paulina) and noted that a fifth, Blaesilla, was missing from the proposed team, who was the first of you to precede to the Lord." S. Pammachius is venerated on 30 August; S. Eustochium on 28 September; and S. Paula on 26 January, where S. Jerome in her Life, no. 3, establishes S. Blaesilla as the eldest of her five children, and says he consoled Paula over her death, in Epistle 25, which Surius published on this day. Epistle 23 he wrote to S. Marcella (whose life we give on 31 January) concerning the illness of S. Blaesilla. We have excerpted from both letters those things which in any way presented the life of Blaesilla, omitting what did not pertain to her, since those letters are otherwise in everyone's hands.

[5] Epistle 23, cited above, commemorates the illness of Blaesilla and the occasion for renouncing all vanities, and among other things writes thus: After a grave illness, "We saw our Blaesilla burning continuously with the heat of fevers for nearly thirty days; so that she might know that the luxuries of the body are to be rejected, which is shortly to be plowed by worms. The Lord Jesus also came to her, and touched her hand, and behold, rising, she ministers to Him. She gave off something of negligence and riches, bound in bandages, she was lying in the tomb of the world; but Jesus groaned and, troubled in spirit, cried out saying: 'Blaesilla, come forth.' She, called, arose, and having come out, dines with the Lord. Let the Jews threaten and swell, let them seek to kill the one raised up: let the Apostles alone glory. She knows that she owes her life to Him who restored it: she knows that she embraces the feet of Him whose judgment she feared shortly before. The body lay almost lifeless, and approaching death was shaking the gasping limbs. Where then were the aids of relatives? Where were words emptier than all smoke? She owes you nothing, O ungrateful kinship, who has died to the world and been reborn to Christ. Let whoever is a Christian rejoice: whoever is angry shows that he is not a Christian."

[6] she renounces the pomps of the world and vain adornment, "Our widow formerly adorned herself more fastidiously, and all day long sought at the mirror what she might be lacking; now she speaks confidently: 'But we all, with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.' Then her little maids arranged her hair, and her innocent head was bound with curling head-bands; now her neglected head knows that a veil alone is sufficient for it. At that time even the softness of feathers seemed hard, and she could scarcely lie upon piled-up couches; now she rises in haste for prayer, and with a ringing voice, snatching the Alleluia ahead of the others, she is the first to begin praising her Lord. Her knees are bent upon the bare ground, and her face, formerly stained with white lead, is cleansed with frequent tears. After prayer the psalms resound; assiduously devoted to the service of God. and her relaxed neck, tottering knees, and eyes drooping toward sleep, by the excessive ardor of her mind, scarcely obtain permission to rest. Her dark tunic is less soiled when she has lain on the ground. A cheaper shoe; the price of gilded footwear is lavished on the needy. Her belt is not adorned with gold and gems, but is of wool, most pure in all simplicity, and such as can bind her garments rather than tear them."

[7] In Epistle 25 he consoles the mother Paula on the death of Blaesilla, and proclaims many things about her virtues, beginning thus: "Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? And I shall weep, not, as Jeremiah says, for the wounded of my people; nor, like Jesus, for the misery of Jerusalem; but I shall weep for holiness, mercy, innocence, she died in the 20th year of her age, chastity; I shall weep that all virtues together have perished in the death of one person. Not that she is to be mourned who has departed; but that we must grieve with greater impatience who have ceased to see such a woman. For who with dry eyes would recall that a young woman of twenty years raised the banner of the Cross with such ardent faith that she grieved more for her lost virginity than for the death of her husband? Who would pass without sobs over her persistence in prayer, the brilliance of her tongue, skilled in languages, the tenacity of her memory, the sharpness of her intellect? If you had heard her speaking Greek, you would have thought she did not know Latin. If her tongue had turned to Roman speech, it had no foreign flavor at all. And indeed, what all Greece marvels at even in that great Origen, in a few, I will not say months, but days, she had so overcome the difficulties of the Hebrew language that she vied with her mother in learning and singing the psalms."

[8] conspicuous for the humility of her clothing, The humility of her clothing did not, as it often does with most people, betray a swelling spirit; rather, since she had cast herself down in her inward mind, there was no difference between the dress of her servant-maids and that of their mistress, except that she was more easily recognized because she went about more negligently attired. Her steps wavered from illness, and her thin neck could scarcely support her pale and trembling face; yet she always held either a Prophet or a Gospel in her hands. Tears fill the face; sobs seize the voice; and the troubled inward parts do not release the tongue that clings to the palate. When the burning of fevers was consuming her holy little body, and a circle of relatives surrounded the half-alive woman on her bed, she entrusted these as her final words: "Pray to the Lord Jesus, that He may forgive me, because I was unable to fulfill what I desired." Be at ease, my Blaesilla: we are confident; you prove true what we say. Conversion is never too late. This saying was first dedicated in the case of the thief: "Amen I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise." Luke 23.

[9] After, however, the soul had cast off the burden of the flesh and flown back to its Author, splendidly buried: and the long-wandering soul had ascended to its ancient possession; the funeral rites were prepared according to custom, and with the order of nobles going before, a golden covering was spread over the bier. splendidly buried: It seemed to me then that she was crying out from heaven: "I do not recognize these garments; this apparel is not mine; this adornment is foreign to me." But what are we doing? While intending to restrain a mother's tears, we ourselves are weeping. I confess my feelings: this entire letter is written with tears. Jesus also wept for Lazarus, because He loved him. He is not the best consoler whose own sighs overcome him, whose softened heart perspires with words broken in tears. I call to witness, my Paula, Jesus, whom Blaesilla now follows: I call to witness the holy Angels, whose fellowship she enjoys, that I endure the same torments of grief that you suffer; that I am a father in spirit, a foster-parent in love.

[10] Let us favor our Blaesilla, who has migrated from darkness to light, she had been contemplating the monastic life: and amid the ardor of incipient faith received the crown of a completed work. Truly, if untimely death had snatched her away while she was thinking of worldly desire and—which may God avert from His own—the pleasures of this life, she would have been worthy of lamentation and to be mourned with every fountain of tears. But now, since, with Christ being favorable, about four months ago she washed herself in what was, as it were, a second baptism of her resolution, and thereafter so lived that, having trampled the world, she always thought of a monastery, do you not fear that the Savior might say to you: "Are you angry, Paula, because your daughter has become my daughter?"

[11] Spare, I beseech you, yourself; spare your daughter who now reigns with Christ; spare at least your Eustochium, whose young age and nearly tender infancy is directed under your guidance. The devil now rages, and because he sees one of your children triumphing, grieving that he has been crushed, he seeks in the one remaining the victory that he has already lost in the one who has gone before. Great piety toward one's own she was carried out amid her mother's great mourning; is impiety toward God. Abraham joyfully slew his only son, and you complain that one of several has been crowned? I cannot speak without groaning what I am about to say. When they carried you half-dead from the midst of the funeral procession, the people whispered among themselves: "Is this not what we often used to say? She grieves for a daughter killed by fasting, because she did not at least hold grandchildren from a second marriage for her. How long will the detestable race of monks not be expelled from the City? Not be overwhelmed with stones? Not be cast into the waves? They have seduced a miserable matron, who is proved not to have been a true nun by the fact that no pagan woman ever so bewailed her children." What sadness do you think Christ felt at these words?...

[12] What crosses do you now suppose our Blaesilla suffers, what torments does she bear, seeing Christ displeased with you? She now cries out to her mourning mother: "If ever you loved me, mother, if I nursed at your breasts, if I was formed by your instructions, do not envy me my glory; and do not bring it about that we be separated forever. Do you think I am alone? In your place I have Mary, the Mother of the Lord. I see many here whom I did not know before. O how much better is this company! I have Anna, once prophesying in the Gospel: and, to increase your joy, the labors of so many years I have achieved in three months. We have both received the one palm of chastity. Do you pity me because I have left the world? But I grieve for your lot, whom the prison of this age still encloses, whom daily fighting in battle, now anger, now avarice, now lust, now the enticements of various vices drag to ruin. If you wish to be my mother, take care to please Christ. I do not acknowledge a mother who displeases my Lord." She speaks these and many other things which I pass over in silence, and she prays to the Lord for you, and obtains pardon of sins for me, so that I may be at ease concerning her state of mind: mindful of her own in heaven. because I warned, because I exhorted, because I endured the jealousy of relatives so that she might be saved. And so, while the spirit rules these limbs, while we enjoy the passage of this life, I pledge, I promise, I vow: my tongue shall resound with her, my labors shall be dedicated to her, my talent shall sweat for her. There shall be no page that does not proclaim Blaesilla: wherever the monuments of our discourse shall reach, she shall travel with my little works: virgins, widows, monks, and priests shall read her fixed in my mind. The brief span of her life shall be compensated by eternal memory; she who lives with Christ in heaven shall also live on the lips of men. The present age too shall pass away, and future centuries shall follow, which shall judge without love and without envy. Between the names of Paula and Eustochium she shall be placed in the middle: she shall never die in my books: she shall always hear me speaking, with her sister, with her mother."

ON S. GAUDENTIUS, BISHOP OF NOVARA IN ITALY.

ABOUT THE YEAR 418.

Gaudentius, Bishop of Novara in Italy (S.)

From various sources.

[1] At Novara, an ancient and celebrated city of Cisalpine Gaul, a feast is celebrated on 22 January and 3 August for S. Gaudentius, whom the acts of his life, the Milanese Breviary, and other writers record as the first Bishop of that city, although the records of that Church, as Ferrarius attests, The feast day of S. Gaudentius, 22 January. disagree. And on this day indeed his birthday is commemorated; on that day his deposition is recalled. Galesinius writes for 22 January: "At Novara, S. Gaudentius, Bishop and Confessor. He was the first Bishop of that city, performed many deeds wonderfully and divinely, and, illustrious for the holiness of his life, rested in the Lord. His body, piously buried by his clergy, became renowned for many miracles." Canisius writes nearly the same things. He is also commemorated in the Roman Martyrology, and those of Bellinus, Maurolycus, Felicius, and others. But for 3 August the same Galesinius writes: "At Novara, S. Gaudentius, Bishop and Confessor, concerning whom see 22 January." Deposition 3 August. Bellinus, Maurolycus, Canisius, Ferrarius, Molanus in his additions to Usuard, the manuscript Florarium, Felicius, and others record nearly the same.

[2] Translation 22 October and 21 January. Ferrarius writes thus for 22 October in his new catalogue of Saints: "At Novara, the Translation of S. Gaudentius, Bishop." He cites the records of the Church of Novara. In a manuscript, not very ancient, of the Carthusian house of Brussels, the following is found for 21 January: "Translation of S. Gaudentius, Bishop and Confessor, in the city of Novara." Commemoration 3 February. But Baronius in his Notes to the Martyrology writes: "The people of Novara celebrate on this day likewise his birthday; but the Translation, performed again in the months of August and October, as is clear from the records of the same Church." But for 3 February, Maurolycus writes: "Also of Gaudentius, Bishop of Novara, who was a disciple of Blessed Martin." Canisius and the Carthusians of Cologne in their additions to Usuard record him on the same day.

[3] The anonymous author committed the Acts of S. Gaudentius to writing in the time of Leo, Bishop of Novara; or, as he himself writes in chapter 4, number 21: "Having ventured to run hastily through these few things in words, By whom and when the Life was written. he marked them in unlearned fashion for the people and the faithful to reread, supported by the merits of the blessed Pope Leo, who, with God as guide, last held the See of Blessed Gaudentius of the city of Novara, through whom the entire people rejoices in their patron." Hence you may refute what Galesinius wrote: "Leo, Bishop of the same city, encompassed his (Gaudentius's) holy deeds in a book, which Mombritius included in his first volume on the Saints." The title of the life in Mombritius is: "On the Deposition of S. Gaudentius, Bishop and Confessor of Novara, the Preface of Leo, his Successor." Leo held office, as Baronius writes from the records of the Church of Novara, in the times of Pope Paul. Paul was elected on 28 May 757 and died in the year 767.

[4] In the proper Offices of the Saints of the Canons Regular of the Order of S. Augustine of the Lateran Congregation (which venerates him as a professed member of the same institute with the rite of double), there are three Lessons composed from this Life. His dates are described with sufficient clarity: as a young man he left his homeland: His dates. he was an assistant to S. Laurence the Priest in caring for the salvation of souls: he lived with S. Martin at Milan; which has been said to have occurred between the years 356 and 360, on 13 January in the life of S. Hilary: he either accompanied S. Eusebius of Vercelli into exile in the year 356, or rather visited him in exile: he was on familiar terms with S. Ambrose the Bishop: he was consecrated Bishop by S. Simplicianus, who succeeded to the chair of S. Ambrose in the year of Christ 397, under the consuls Caesarius and Atticus, and he lived in that office for 20 years; and so he appears to have died about the year of Christ 418, at a very advanced age. The author commits a certain anachronism in narrating these events, which it is surprising Baronius retained in volume 5, year 397, number 41. For he writes that after S. Laurence was killed, Gaudentius betook himself to S. Martin, and thence went as a companion to S. Eusebius into the East; but elsewhere he records that S. Laurence was killed under the rule of Valentinian: these statements conflict with each other, since S. Eusebius went into exile and S. Martin dwelt at Milan under Constantius. Mention is made of the ordination of S. Gaudentius in the Milanese Breviary on 26 August in the Lesson on S. Simplicianus.

LIFE BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR

from Boninus Mombritius.

Gaudentius, Bishop of Novara in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 3278

By an anonymous author, from Mombritius.

CHAPTER I.

The birth, education, and flight from his homeland of S. Gaudentius.

[1] Author's Preface. When I was considering more attentively the life and virtues of the preceding Saints, suddenly by divine prompting the memory of the most celebrated Acts of Blessed Gaudentius came to mind: and although I, so small a servant, being rude in eloquence, am not sufficiently able to foresee by how many and how great signs the Lord decreed to make him illustrious, because I am unequal and unworthy for so great a burden; nevertheless, supported by divine authority, which says: Psalm 80:11 "Open your mouth, and I will fill it"; and also encompassed by the merits of the aforesaid Bishop and patron, it is worthwhile that I should at least undertake to narrate a few things out of many, as though avoiding slothfulness. Provided, however, that the judgment of Blessed Laurence the Martyr, likewise patron, should not be withdrawn in part, so that those whom Ambrose, himself radiant, had united through the bond of faith in fellowship, should not seem to resound with an unequal triumph. Clinging therefore to the paths of this aforesaid holy wise man, by avoiding prosperity he trampled the adversities of the world, and therefore, placed in a heavenly seat, he triumphs as victor with the Angels.

[2] Blessed Gaudentius, then, was born in the city of Ivrea, in the region of Hesperia (Italy), whose walls are nearest to the borders of the Alps of Europe, S. Gaudentius was noble, of noble birth and from citizens who were almost the leading men. But within the Ausonian city of Novara he afterwards shone forth as an outstanding Shepherd, and there he held the priestly chair for twenty years, and by a glorious death became its patron; indeed, irradiated from heaven by the splendor of divine grace, and with added brightness of mind, he came forth as a shining morning star among the heavenly bodies. For from his very cradle he had burned so ardently in the purpose of religion, pious from infancy itself, and his earliest infancy was nourished with studies of such great wisdom, that afterwards in his youthful age, by divine inspiration, he pursued the Ecclesiastical rule with his whole effort and love. He restrained himself so attentively by his own discipline, as though indicating by his future appearance what manner of Priest was being prepared in the temple of God. For although he was indeed youthful, chaste, and of a less than mature age, he seemed to contain the sign of the most perfect chastity, and he placed, as it were, a first foundation of continence itself in his soul: then, in order to repress the desires of adolescence and to attain advances in wisdom, he chastised himself with prayers and the reins of abstinence, and instructed many who came to him in the precepts of the perfect life.

[3] he converted many: Moreover, he committed the seeds of the Gospel, though in rude speech, to be sown among the natives; and also, with religious solicitude, he urged his parents, whom paganism still held, to the grace of faith — blessed person of such great merit and such great virtue: to whom it was granted first to be a Teacher, then a Priest; who fulfilled with evident examples what he taught in words. he became renowned for miracles: Meanwhile he began to become illustrious through signs and to be adorned with the miracles of virtues, for he cured the sick by his prayer and, commanding by his word, put demons to flight. This most gentle man, laboring with all his strength, took care lest, delighted by the breeze of worldly favor, he should stain his ears with the pollution of arrogance.

[4] Therefore, while these things were being done by the most blessed man, that venomous persuader and rival of all goodness, the enemy of the human race, seeing that through him a perfect people was daily being won for Christ the Lord, strove by cunning persuasion to assail the minds of very many and to call them back from their excellent resolution; to such a degree that, resisting God's servant by open machination, they treated him as contumacious and contemptible. And so there was fulfilled in him he suffered the slanders of the malevolent, what is written: "No prophet is without honor except in his own country"; and therefore he was not seen to work many miracles there, which happened because of their unbelief. Matthew 13:57. But while the splendor of light had reached some who piously believed, a dark fog had suffused certain others who wickedly detracted; the followers hasten to glory, the faithless are dragged to deserved punishment. The most blessed man, perceiving their obstinacy, was afflicted with a very great sorrow, in imitation of the blessed Apostle Paul, who wished himself to be anathema from Christ for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh. Romans 9:5. But nevertheless, weighing by deep consideration how hidden and subtle is the judgment of God by which holy preaching is withdrawn from the ears of certain people, because they do not deserve to be raised up by grace, as it is written: "Let the impious one be taken away, that he may not see the glory of God." And so, counting carnal kinship as nothing, he shrank from them as enemies of the Catholic religion, to such a degree that, detesting all their company, supported by the example of David, he said within himself: Psalm 25: "I will not sit in the council of the malicious, and I will no longer communicate with the wicked; but I will cling to the innocent and surround Your altar, O Lord, lest by sharing a table with the impious, it become a scandal to me." And straightway he began to bring before the eyes of his mind the deeds of the ancient holy Fathers, considering how the holy Fathers, by fulfilling the divine commands, were made partakers of the Angelic citizens and merited to obtain the kingdoms of heaven: and he found that Abraham, the friend of God, had gone forth by divine command from his land and kindred; and that many other elect of God, by leaving earthly things, had received a hundredfold increase in heavenly things. Immediately, hastening with all speed to fulfill the divine commands, and renouncing all things, not a deaf hearer of the Gospel, he renounced himself, took up his cross, and followed Christ. he departs from his homeland: And so it happened that the farther he withdrew from his paternal soil for the name of Christ, the more he daily deserved to draw nearer to heaven.

CHAPTER II.

His labor with SS. Laurence of Novara, Martin, and Eusebius for the conversion of souls.

[5] Setting forth thence, after not many days had passed, he betook himself to Novara, he comes to Novara, and there he found that the Priest Laurence had arrived long before from the western parts for the name of Christ: who, clothed with the fervor of faith, was fighting against the wicked perfidy of the pagans like a standard-bearer and warrior, amid hostile tumults, through the midst of battle lines; and indeed, girded with faith, he had with his own hands built sacred baptismal fonts some distance from the city, in which baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity was continually celebrated. where S. Laurence was converting many, He did not cease to teach the pagans that God is perfect in the Trinity, whom he had come to know, and, setting forth His judgment and mercy, he gradually endeavored to unite to God the souls that he was snatching from the devil by his preaching: and it happened in a wondrous manner that an armed people could in no way resist an unarmed man. The Lord also deigned to work such great miracles through him that he won the hearts of the rebellious no less by miracles than by preaching. But one day, when according to custom he had consecrated to the Lord an innumerable multitude of infants reborn by the grace of baptism, and was proceeding fearlessly amid the impious ranks of the worshippers of the Mausoleum; he was crowned with martyrdom by the impious together with the multitude of infants then baptized, and ended his present life; but, having obtained eternal life in heaven with the Angels, he triumphs as victor: and was crowned with martyrdom; whose venerable body to this day and up to the present time gleams daily with many signs and miracles of healings in that same city of Novara. But thanks be to You, Lord Jesus, who permitted the weapons of the assailing enemy to be a testing of Your faithful, not wounds; and You bestow upon Your own such a reward through labor that none of Your people may be glad to have been an unarmed soldier of the enemy.

[6] Therefore, while dutiful service to the task undertaken directs us to the deeds of our particular Patron, we do not pursue at length the many things that were done through the same most blessed Martyr Laurence. Nevertheless, let it suffice that we have not been forgetful of him; he collaborates with him: for in such matters it is more fitting to believe by faith than human narration can demonstrate. Therefore, when Blessed Gaudentius had come to that same athlete Laurence, he was most graciously received by him: adhering to him step by step and obeying his divine instructions, he became a lawful emulator, and having been most fully instructed in the rule of the Holy Trinity, he tended the royal flock in equal fellowship for a long time. But after his glorious death, it is certain that Gaudentius attached himself as companion and scribe to Blessed Martin in the metropolitan city of Milan on account of his glorious doctrine. he lived with S. Martin:

[7] But when, in the time of the Emperor Constantius, the Arian heresy had sprung up with the poisoned flower of its toxic root, and the aforesaid Emperor had been persuaded by certain enemies of the Catholic faith, Valens and Ursacius, that the most blessed Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli, together with very many other Bishops worthy of God, should be condemned to exile: he voluntarily accompanies S. Eusebius of Vercelli into exile: which also came to pass; at that same time Blessed Gaudentius, stripped of fear and clothed with the fervor of faith, secure in the love of Christ, feared nothing concerning his own death: but in order to display in himself the form of that supreme and sublime love by which Christ had taught men to lay down their lives for their friends, and by displaying it to make it manifest, he hastened without any delay, clinging to the most blessed man S. Eusebius the Confessor, and with a ready spirit he sought exile together with him, and voluntarily accompanied him as a servant and companion, prepared to die, made an exile even from his companions by divine love, because as it is written, "love is as strong as death." Song of Songs 8:6. O rightly most perfect man, whose imitators the very Priests desire to be, who from almost his very first beginnings burned with such great love that, clinging at the outset to the most blessed Laurence, he became an assistant to his martyrdom, and presented the office of his order as a most gentle Lector most learnedly. Then, having become a follower of the most blessed Martin, an outstanding Confessor, and having been found the most skilled of all Notaries, he ascended, as it were climbing the steps of a worldly order. But now, joined to so great a Confessor Eusebius in his crisis, he preferred to obtain martyrdom rather than to advance to the Episcopal rank. O truly blessed man in all things, who according to the Apostle Paul desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ! For whom to live is Christ and to die is gain! Philippians 1:23. Hence it is understood how great was the love with which he loved Christ, when he did not fear Constantius in his sovereignty. For he who thus thrust himself into open peril for the love of Christ desired martyrdom, if only a persecutor had not been lacking. It is established, therefore, what kind of master that most blessed man had become at that time, who had had such great and such skilled teachers. But now let us return to the discourse of our narrative.

[8] After the ancient enemy perceived that the flock of Vercelli had been left destitute by the absence of its Shepherd, he was seen to assail the aforesaid Church of God and all the people with certain malicious suggestions and internal warfare. he is sent back by him to Vercelli, But swiftly, with God's help, the mercy of God drew near through the arrival of Blessed Gaudentius: who, when he had been dispatched by the pious Shepherd Eusebius to the aforesaid city for the guardianship of the flock, taking precautions on all sides for God's flock, did not allow it to be mangled by the bites of the wolf; but with all solicitude, according to the Prophet, ascending against the adversary and setting up a wall for the house of Israel, that he might stand in battle on the day of the Lord, namely representing the role of the outstanding Shepherd in the aforesaid Church, he kept vigil through the night over the flock with all diligence for a long time, until he delivered the Lord's sheepfolds unharmed to the returning Shepherd. Ezekiel 13:4. and for a time instructs the people. And so, after three years had passed, when Eusebius had returned, as a companion and colleague he honored the same Gaudentius with the highest regard, and in return for such great service, both Churches of God were at last under a common governance for both peoples, as overseers, as if from two flocks one sheepfold had been formed; they united both flocks with undivided love: from then until now and up to the present day, by God's will, the people is seen to remain undivided. Amid these things the magnificence of God is wonderfully present in His Saint, so that He might propagate the begun work of virtue with more prosperous successes, and, like a light shown from heaven, might illuminate the whole world with the brightness of celestial light.

CHAPTER III.

Miracles, prophecies, episcopate.

[9] He lives austerely: During that time the most blessed man, within the walls of the city, not far from where the church of the holy Mother of God is now known to be situated, had sought out a certain small dwelling, like the enclosures of a monastery, circumspect for habitation. When he had first approached it, armed with faith and fearless with constancy, he gave himself over entirely to very great abstinence in fasts and vigils; so that whenever the natural necessity demanded a little sleep, he rested not upon the softness of bedding (as he never had been accustomed) but upon the surface of a mere mat and haircloth alone.

[10] While spending a certain night there almost sleepless in keeping vigil, suddenly in the silence of the dead of night a fire broke out above the walls from the fall of a certain descending flame, from which a great conflagration had grown, surrounding everything, and had quickly reached his dwelling, where he was held in a light slumber. At last he learned through a disciple the extraordinary cause, and proceeding with swift course, he encircled the heart of the flames with spiritual canticles, and prepared to resist the flames of immense height with the sign of the Cross: He extinguishes a fire by the Sign of the Cross: wherefore, although the flames touched the neighboring and adjoining houses on every side, turning back upon themselves they did not dare to touch the remaining houses; exulting, he proceeded to his dwelling, and there, singing, he paid the praises due at the morning hours.

[11] Not long after, when that most blessed man, the glory of the Churches, Ambrose, Bishop of the holy Church of Milan, he is visited by S. Ambrose, divinely admonished, had hastened to the city of Vercelli on account of a certain discord among the people, and, illuminating the whole world with his rays like the Sun, had left there an enduring concord of peace, he hastened to return to his own See: and when, as the day was now declining toward evening, he was passing by the city of Novara, and hurrying on to his intended destination, he put off visiting the blessed man, saying to his companions: "We ought to have seen the Reverend Gaudentius, but the day is already declining toward evening." Having said these things, he continued the journey he had begun: and not long after, having proceeded thence, suddenly the horse of the most blessed Ambrose stopped, and he could not move it further: he began therefore to strike the horse with a whip and to bloody it with spurs; but the horse, remaining immovable, shrank from the proposed journey as if from mortal danger. And when so great a man was worn out by long striking, immediately, illuminated by the divine Spirit, returning to himself as was his custom, he said: "We are not permitted to complete the journey we have begun, unless we see Blessed Gaudentius." When he had said this, immediately retracing his steps, he returned to the city; he went where he wished, but willingly.

[12] Ambrose predicts the episcopate for him; Gaudentius in turn predicts his death: Blessed Gaudentius, when he recognized through the Spirit that so great a man was coming to him, immediately attempted to go out to meet him. But Ambrose, looking upon him with a cheerful spirit, embraced and kissed him, and, as though rebuking him while announcing a mystery, said to him: "You will be a Bishop, as I see." But Gaudentius, who by his merits also foresaw the future, with the placid countenance that was his, not in reproach but as though rendering a favor in return, replied: "Indeed, but I shall be consecrated by another." This happened so that the reason for a similar miracle might be spoken by one Spirit in two men — one regarding the fact, the other regarding the time — and each prophesied future events. Then, bidding farewell to each other, S. Ambrose returned to his metropolitan see. And not long after, according to the prophecy of Blessed Gaudentius, Ambrose departed to the Lord by a glorious death, himself predicting and leaving behind as his successor the most worthy Blessed Simplicianus.

[13] But now the desired time, longed for by the wishes of all, was approaching, that the people who had long waited should petition the earthly Prince by prayer that the most blessed Gaudentius would be their Bishop, whom they knew had been wholly pleasing to the heavenly Prince. Nevertheless they sent a modest embassy with a few words, he is made Bishop of Novara: setting forth the desired cause and praying that he would deign to be a gracious hearer of their petitions: so that Gaudentius, worthy of God, raised to the sacred summit, might at last assume the See of governance. Suddenly the Prince, endowed with heavenly gift of subtle counsel, and having suppressed the desire of all, ordered that what divine providence had predestined should be fulfilled without delay; and thus, with the Lord arranging it, he merited the Episcopal dignity as the first to hold the See of Novara. The pontifical distinction, obtained from the most blessed Archbishop Simplicianus, was more of a burden to him than an honor.

[14] He became, therefore, all things to all men, not seeking what was useful for himself, but what was useful for many, that they might be saved. And suddenly, as if the Lord deigned to light a certain lamp in His Priest, increasing daily through him the preaching of the word and the salutary seeds of the kingdom of heaven. He soon so advanced in the reform of a people infected with ancient poisons that the worshippers of the impious Mausoleum, who had formerly made Blessed Laurence a Martyr, seemed to behold a new light of truth for themselves, so that he allowed no one without the grace of baptism to dwell without delay in the city entrusted to him from heaven: for he who had merited to be a Confessor did not hesitate to approach fierce peoples as a preacher. But when he continually besought the Lord for their conversion and taught them that through baptism they had remission of sins, he converts very many pagans: and that they could not be saved otherwise; as if the rays of the true sun shone upon their hearts, astonished and beholding the glory of God with unveiled face, and by faithful confession willing to abandon the error of their ancient punishment, they were baptized by that same Bishop. By divine gift, therefore, the outstanding warrior snatched the spoil from the enemy and restored it to the Creator.

[15] And after a short time, such great grace of virtues was increased in him he becomes renowned for miracles: that signs were performed through him no less than formerly through the Apostles. For, as we said a little above, he who when still a young man put demons to flight by his word and healed the sick by his prayer — God was seen to be magnified daily through His Saint by exercising miracles: so that thereafter he restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, wholeness of gait to the lame; and what would be long to recount one by one. Moreover, because the Lord and Savior, while still on earth, had said to His disciples: "If you believe in me, the works that I do, you also shall do, and greater than these shall you do"; water with which he had washed his hands cures diseases. for the flame of the Spirit had so kindled the blessed man to the love of faith that if anyone secretly carried off the water dripping from his hands when they were being washed, and touched the body of any ailing person with it, a most manifest cure followed. John 14:12. But how many or what signs the Lord worked through him at the last are thought to be believable by none other than those who beheld them with their own eyes alone. Moreover, the most blessed man strove without ceasing to refresh the hearts of all with divine feasts, taking care that they should not neglect the commandments, repeatedly citing that decree of the Savior: Matthew 10:9 "Do not possess gold or silver; but according to the Apostle, having food and clothing, let us be content with these." 1 Timothy 6:8; 1 Corinthians 9:27. He himself labored with all his might, chastising his body and bringing it into subjection, lest perhaps, while preaching to others, he himself should be found reprobate — to such an extent that by preaching and working he might bring back a doubled profit from his business to the Lord. And since, according to the voice of the Savior, he had himself first done in all things what he taught, who doubts that he is great in the kingdom of heaven? For he was a Priest of God, bearing the pontifical mitre, who by crucifying his body in himself and persecuting vices through the mortification of the flesh, obtained a new martyrdom.

CHAPTER IV.

Death, funeral, miracles.

[16] But when he had built churches, monasteries, and cells throughout the parishes in sufficient abundance, and rejoiced as the Father of innumerable clergy, exulting in the great zeal of his sons; at last he prepares to collect the interest stored up by the eternal Father. The Lord therefore did not delay to console and reward His faithful servant. For when he had now completed four lustra (twenty years) in the pontifical rank, and knew that his death was near at hand, he judged it more useful that, while he was still living, he should announce his future successor by prophetic signs, lest thereafter some dispute, as often happens, He designates Agapius as his successor by divine direction: should arise among the flock divinely entrusted to him concerning the future Shepherd. And so, having assembled the clergy with the people, he first admonished them to retain in their minds the words of God which they had received in their ears through himself, so that, dreading the peril of eternal death, they should hasten daily toward the heavenly kingdom, and many other things; adding also this: that the entire people of the Church should know that their future Shepherd and his religious successor would be a prudent man, Agapius by name, predestined by God, and that all should persist unanimously in agreement upon his election, lest the ignorant people appear to rebel against the divine presence.

[17] he dies. And while the most blessed man did not cease to teach the people with such admonitions, with what virtue he could, not long after, full of days, resplendent with the splendor of his merits, he commended earthly things to earth; but his spirit, desiring to be present among the heavenly choir of Angels, ascended on high. Suddenly a throng of innumerable peoples flowed together from all sides; the walls, the courtyards, all the streets were thronged. The lamentation of all was immense, the sorrow intolerable; only these words did the groans of the grieving wrest forth amid their sobbing: "Alas, desolate flock, what will you do? Behold, with your Shepherd lost, you are scattered: and who will ever be able to deliver you from the ravenous teeth of wolves?" During that time the basilica, where the Priest of God now awaits the time of resurrection, entombed with wondrous beauty, had long since been begun to be built by him with the greatest effort, but had remained not yet completed: which afterwards the blessed man Agapius completed and finished with every honor. Meanwhile the bereft people, afflicted by a twofold sorrow — both for the death of their Shepherd and for the unfinished basilica — unable to endure so great anguish, prostrate upon the pavement, produced a wailing beyond human measure, to such a degree that not even the ministers of the Church were permitted the freedom to carry out their office.

[18] The body is laid in the church, At last the most holy man hastens to visit in spirit the people whom he had left in body, not in affection. Without delay: a divine inspiration from heaven so filled the hearts of all that the venerable body should be laid in the church of the holy Mother of God, not in a human sepulchre, but to be preserved in the ground alone, until the aforesaid hall of so great a Bishop should be prepared and completed by the reverend man Agapius, his successor. And so the entire multitude of the people, illuminated by divine radiance and strengthened by his past virtues, casting aside all doubt about the corruption of the sacred body according to custom, placing the holy and venerable body upon a wooden board in the sacristy, and establishing the holy funeral rites to be performed there with all veneration, they continued to observe them unceasingly. it remains long uncorrupted: And so who would doubt that the consecrated body, gleaming with a rosy radiance and fragrant with the sweetness of perfume, remained unburied from the twenty-second of January until the third of August? And yet that body was seen daily by many as it displayed no small miracle in itself; for indeed the hair of the head and cheeks and the nails of the hands and feet, as once when he was alive, so in the sight of many, continually grew and sprouted. For this reason, therefore, the most Blessed one merited to display such signs in his body, so that all who beheld them might be given to understand that he whom they first mourned as dead on earth without consolation, they should afterwards believe to be living in heaven with the Angels. After these signs he so proved himself present by abundantly restoring health to various infirmities that, like a light shown from heaven, or a certain ray of the Sun bursting forth, he illuminated the whole world with the brightness of celestial light. very many are healed at it: Because of this, from not a few villages and cities, not only neighboring but also distant, an immense multitude of people flowed together to the holy and venerable body on account of such manifest miracles.

[19] Amid these things Blessed Agapius, together with all the people, dedicated the aforesaid basilica, completed at great expense and with extraordinary embellishment, with the due ceremonies. Then, six months and twelve days after his death, they consigned the holy body, still uncorrupted, as though of one day after death, to the sepulchre with the highest honor. it is buried: Where daily, through the working of our Lord Jesus Christ, his merits are made glorious by the frequent concourse of peoples; so that the sick may experience how fitting it is for them to honor this servant of God, where blindness receives sight, it is made illustrious by miracles. lameness receives the ability to walk, and the closed doors of the ears merit to receive hearing: and how the wondrous brightness of his virtues has shone forth to all ends of the earth, I think it is hardly possible for anyone to express; yet I shall recount, as I am able, one celebrated miracle from among many.

[20] A young woman born of noble stock in the city of Rome possessed innumerable wealth and immense riches: A woman possessed by a demon is led from Rome to Novara at S. Peter's direction, but one day, while she was walking through the secluded parts of her estate, she unexpectedly fell victim to the weapons of the demons, and her breast became a temple of foul legions, and her companions at last found her frenzied: a few could not restrain the raving woman, who, maddened against all, gnashing her teeth, became with rabid mouth the enemy of her companions. Meanwhile they bound her on all sides with chains, led her to the church of Blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, and dragged her to the place near his sacred tomb. Then at last the phalanx of demons, through the possessed body, produced various voices in the manner of an organ; and now pouring forth the hisses of a serpent, vibrating with poison, now imitating the bellowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep, now the croaking of birds or the roars of wild beasts. At last the most Blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, moved by pity, deigned to manifest his mystical power through a certain most holy man; he warned the companions to undertake a long journey, to traverse all of Italy, to hasten with swift course to the city of Novara, if indeed they sought the health of the wretched woman held in the bonds of demons, and to approach the shrine of Blessed Gaudentius the Confessor, for it would come to pass that by his merits the captive would in a short time recover her former health. Immediately, obeying the commands of the heavenly gatekeeper, the relatives set out on the journey, and after nearly five hundred miles they arrived at the city of Novara: where the young woman, as soon as she entered the temple, was immediately seen to be freed from the vexation of demons, was released from her iron chains, and at once she came to the resting place of the blessed body, and washed it with profuse groans and tear-streaming cheeks. Then, healed, raising her face to the sacred mysteries, she gave thanks for the gift of so great a salvation. she is healed at the relics of S. Gaudentius. Soon, to the wonder of the people and her companions, she arose strong, gave praise to the Lord Christ; and thus at last, exulting, she hastened to revisit her kinsmen safe and sound, returning swiftly to her own home, until at last she arrived joyfully in the City, safe and well. These things, accomplished fittingly in this manner — immediately the relatives and all who had been afflicted on her account received, as it were, their own salvation.

[21] Meanwhile the grace of the people and their venerable well-being shone forth, whose fame, gleaming through every mouth, could not be hidden, so that with the Prophet the entire people cried out: "You have visited the earth, O Lord, and made it drunk." Psalm 64:10. O how great is Your glory, O Christ, through him, who, in order to show Your servant equal to Blessed Peter, willed to declare him by the responses of that same heavenly gatekeeper with so great a miracle. This event shines forth among his other miracles, so besprinkled with the splendor of glory, that the entire people of the city of Novara sing praise to God and say: "You have turned the desert into a pool of water, O Lord, and the waterless land into springs of water"; whence also the present Church cries out: "The right hand of the Lord has wrought power, the right hand of the Lord has exalted me." Truly these are Your gratuitous gifts, O Lord: from the fountain of Your piety You pour living water upon the ignorant and fill empty hearts. For to recount the miracles and deeds of such great virtues, neither a barren mind nor a humble page suffices. This Life written at the command of Leo, Bishop of Novara. "Having ventured to run hastily through these few things in words, I have marked them, unlearned, for the faithful peoples to reread, supported by the merits of the blessed Pope Leo, who, with God as guide, last held the See of Blessed Gaudentius of the city of Novara, through whom the entire people rejoices in their patron." With the deeds of the blessed man having been set forth, however unworthily, in whatever words, we now dispose to give an end at the fitting time; we place a hand upon our mouth and hasten to return inward to our conscience. And indeed, since as unworthy servants we cannot imitate him, let us ask by our prayers that he become our patron, so that we may be aided by his merits, whose birthday we celebrate, with the help of Him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever.

ON S. ANASTASIUS THE PERSIAN, AND HIS SEVENTY COMPANIONS, MARTYRS IN ASSYRIA.

Year of Christ 628.

Anastasius the Persian, monk, Martyr in Assyria (S.) Other 70 Martyrs in Assyria

From various sources.

Section I. The Acts of S. Anastasius, composed in antiquity.

[1] The history of the glorious Martyr Anastasius the Persian was most celebrated immediately after his death, comprising a twofold treatise: one contained his conversion to the Christian faith, his monastic life, and the struggle undertaken for the faith; The Acts of S. Anastasius the other contained the translation of his relics and the very many miracles worked through them. Both were attributed outstanding authority by the 350 Fathers assembled at the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in the year of Christ 787, composed in antiquity, 159 years after the death of S. Anastasius, with the Legates of the Roman Pontiff Hadrian presiding — the two Peters, one an Archpriest and the other a Priest and Hegumen of S. Sabas — together with S. Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople, and the representatives of the other Patriarchs. Having proscribed the heresy of the Iconoclasts and restoring the veneration of sacred images, they judged it necessary to establish their doctrine from these in the Fourth Session.

[2] On this occasion they indicated the beginning of each treatise, and then inserted an entire section into the synodical Acts; which Gregory, the God-loving Deacon of the holy great Church of the laudable Apostles, read aloud, recited at the Second Council of Nicaea; with this introduction: "From the martyrdom of the holy Martyr Anastasius the Persian, whose beginning is: 'The Only-begotten Son and Word of God, through whom all things were made.'" He then read what is contained below in number 10. When this was completed, Theodorus, the most holy Bishop of Myra, said: "It is evident that the tradition of venerable images is solemn (in Greek, endesmos, legitimate)." Then from the latter treatise Euthymius, the most reverend Deacon and monk (in Greek, notarios) read on behalf of the God-loving Bishop of Gothia, with this introduction: "From the miracles of the holy Martyr Anastasius, whose beginning is: 'I wish to set forth a narration of miracles.'" He then read what is reported below in the second treatise, numbers 7, 8, and 9, performed at Caesarea in Palestine. When these had been recited, Peter and Peter, the God-loving Priests and Representatives of Pope Hadrian of Elder Rome, said: "This image of S. Anastasius is at Rome in his monastery to this day, together with his precious head." John, the most holy Bishop of Taormina, said: "The most honorable Representatives spoke truly, for there was also in Sicily a woman suffering from a demon, and while at Rome she was made well through the aforesaid most sacred image." John, the God-loving Priest, monk, and Representative of the Eastern Pontiffs, said: "In addition to what has been said, it has been shown from what has been read that images of the Saints also work miracles and bring about healings."

[3] Baronius recites the same from the Acts of the Synod in volume 8, at the year of Christ 627, number 20 and following, first remarking: "As for what pertains to the triumph of the Martyr Anastasius, what is missing from his Acts is the Translation to Caesarea in Palestine, where he first contended for the faith and overcame the impious: believed to have perished, for besides those Acts there still existed a book of his miracles, which also perished, with only a fragment surviving, which, recited in a large assembly of Fathers and transcribed, is found in the Fourth Session of the Second Council of Nicaea." The same could have been said of the earlier treatise cited there, namely that the martyrdom whose opening is cited there had hitherto not been published in print. Baronius, in his Notes on the Martyrology for this day, writes: "We have in our library his deeds, rendered into Latin from the Greek by a certain Gregory the Cleric, to which is prefixed a Preface whose opening is, here published from manuscripts, 'The Only-begotten Son,' etc." — the very same passage that is cited in the Council. The same martyrdom was provided to us by very ancient manuscript codices from the monasteries of Gladbach in Jülich and S. Maximin at Trier, but in the latter with a somewhat varying and nearly flowing and verbose phrasing. Boninus Mombritius, omitting the Preface, published the life and martyrdom, agreeing fairly well with the former manuscript. But in none of these copies is mention made of Gregory the translator: could it perhaps be that his name was prefixed to the Baronius codex by some copyist, because Gregory the Deacon read a part of it to the Fathers at the Synod of Nicaea? But that Gregory was a Greek, from the clergy of Constantinople, and much later in date. Whether Baronius surmised this for some other reason, we do not know. The same Baronius suspects that it is the very same life which Bede, poorly translated, emended. The words of Bede are, at the end of his Ecclesiastical History: "I corrected as best I could the Book of the Life and passion of S. Anastasius, badly translated from Greek and other things translated from Greek: and worse emended by some unskilled person, restoring it to its proper sense." The language is certainly unpolished, and here and there it differs from the Greek exemplar which we have obtained of both treatises — both the martyrdom and the miracles: but it too is mutilated in some of its parts; otherwise, the two passages cited in the Synod are produced in the very same Greek words. From which you may learn that these Acts are entirely genuine and authentic. These, therefore, hitherto not yet published in this form, as far as we know, we have translated from the Greek; and, so that its proper honor and authority may remain with the ancient translator, we give the same from those ancient manuscripts, formerly rendered into Latin.

[4] The author of the life seems to have lived in the same monastery as Anastasius himself, which we infer from number 13, where he writes: written by a contemporary. "But we know this (in Greek: egnomen hemeis): that he, marveling and astonished at the constancy of the Saints, wished to read scarcely anything else except what nourished that holy desire in him." And in number 37, speaking of the revelations which the Saint had disclosed to his fellow captives, he adds: "they related these things to us with their own mouth" (in Greek: idio stomati tauta hemin exegesamenoi); or, as the ancient translator has it, "they carefully made them known to us." In the prologue he says he was commanded to write the life of the holy Martyr, from which you may be less uncertain that he was a monk. Was he the same monk who, sent by the Hegumen Justin to Caesarea to console him, had accompanied him from Caesarea into Persia, and thence brought back first the monastic garment, and afterwards also the bodily relics to the monastery? He could have reported these things about himself as though about another person. Certainly, he who would have informed the writer of these things is never cited as different from the author. And this is more clearly evident from chapter 6, number 36: "But the other Christian captives, who were shut up in prison, when they had come to understand something of the Persian language, themselves revealed to us what the guards were talking about among themselves." John Basilius Sanctorius names Hilarion the monk as the author of the life; but he does not say where he gets this. Baronius, at the year 627, number 1, persuades himself that it was either Antiochus the monk or Sophronius, Bishop of Jerusalem, both writers of that period.

[5] There are other Acts composed by Simeon Metaphrastes drawn from these, with the lengthy preface omitted and another shorter one substituted. But the history of the Translation is also missing, as well as the miracles, unless these were torn from the work of Metaphrastes or neglected by copyists. The same was written by Metaphrastes, We omit the commentary of Metaphrastes, both because it contains nothing new and must derive its authority from these Acts; and because it is widely available, rendered into Latin by Gentianus Hervetus, first published by Aloysius Lippomanus and Laurentius Surius, and then inserted in volume 8 of the Annals of Baronius. The same Acts have been described more briefly in various languages by Lippelous, Marchantius, Ribadeneira, Villegas, Sanctorius, Ortiz Lucius, and other more recent writers. Fabricius, Peter Thomas Saracenus, and others. The earlier life is reported by Bede in his Six Ages, Vincent in book 23, chapter 14, Peter de Natalibus in book 2, chapter 113, Trithemius in book 3 on the illustrious men of the Order of S. Benedict, chapter 68, and other Martyrologists cited below. It will be opportune to set forth here the words of Bede: "Anastasius the Persian, a monk," he says, "suffered a noble martyrdom for Christ: born in Persia, as a boy he learned the magical arts from his father; but when he had received the name of Christ from Christian captives, Summary of the Acts from Bede. his mind was immediately wholly converted to Him, and leaving Persia he went first to Chalcedon and Hierapolis, seeking Christ, and then to Jerusalem: where, having received the grace of baptism, he entered a monastery of the Abbot Anastasius at the fourth mile from the same city, where, living under the rule for seven years, when he had come to Caesarea in Palestine for the sake of prayer, he was captured by the Persians and for a long time endured many beatings amid prisons and chains, under the judge Marzabanes: at last he was sent to Persia to their King Chosroes, by whom, beaten three times at intervals, and finally suspended by one hand for three hours of the day, he was thus beheaded, and together with seventy others completed his martyrdom. Immediately a certain demoniac, clothed in his tunic, was cured. Meanwhile the Emperor Heraclius, arriving with his army and having conquered the Persians, led back the Christians who had been taken captive, rejoicing. The relics of the blessed Martyr Anastasius were brought first to his monastery, then to Rome, and are venerated in the monastery of the Blessed Apostle Paul, which is called Ad Aquas Salvias."

Section II. The time of his conversion to the faith, and of his martyrdom.

[6] These things are clear from the Acts themselves: nor would they need any elucidation at all, had not the greatest Chronologers created new difficulties for themselves here. Heraclius becomes Emperor in the year of Christ 610, in the month of October. The beginnings of the Emperor Heraclius are certainly recorded with definite marks in the Greek Annals. The Alexandrian Chronicle, written during his lifetime, establishes that in the year Phocas was killed in October and Heraclius himself assumed the Empire, the Indiction was 14, and the date was 3 October, a Saturday. That year was Christ 610, in which Indiction 14 began at Constantinople from September, with the Dominical letter D. Theophanes, Cedrenus, and others agree. This being established, the city of Chalcedon was several times either surrounded by siege by the Persians, or at least, with the surrounding territory and neighboring regions laid waste, incurred the danger of siege. In the 5th year of Heraclius, Indiction 3 (or rather the 6th of Heraclius, Indiction 4, as Dionysius Petavius shows should be read in his Chronological Notes on Nicephorus), Saan, who is called Saes by others, Besieged by the Persians the Exarch of the Persians, made a plundering raid all the way to Chalcedon — so says the Alexandrian Chronicle. But the Patriarch Nicephorus, in his Historical Compendium, writes that after Alexandria was occupied and all Egypt reduced to servitude, Chalcedon in the 6th year of Heraclius. he marched with all his forces to Chalcedon and besieged it with a prolonged siege: but having made a pact with Heraclius, he led Heraclius's ambassadors with him to the East to Chosroes, by whom he was most cruelly killed by being flayed alive. Therefore Cedrenus, in the 6th year of Heraclius, and Paul the Deacon, book 18 of his Mixed History, chapter 6, must be corrected, since they wrote that Carthage was then besieged instead of Chalcedon: the Greek for the latter is Chalkedon, for the former Karkedon; so that the very similarity of the word easily provided occasion for error. Baronius and others followed them.

[7] Our Dionysius Petavius, in his Chronological Notes on the Historical Compendium of Nicephorus, and in book 11, On the Doctrine of Times, chapter 49, records that Anastasius came with the army of the aforesaid Sais to the siege of Chalcedon; Anastasius was not then converted; and consequently that in the year 616, the 6th of Heraclius, he gave his name to Christ, and, what follows from this, in the year of Christ 622, the 12th of Heraclius, he completed his martyrdom. Many things prevent us from agreeing with him. First, the authority of a contemporary and eyewitness author, approved by 350 Fathers at the Second Synod of Nicaea. This author, therefore, at number 12, writes that he became a monk "in the eighth Indiction, under the reign of Heraclius, in the tenth year of his reign" (in Greek: en Indiktioni ogdoe basileuontos Herakleiou, etous dekatou tes basileias autou). The Latin manuscripts, those of Gladbach and S. Maximin, as well as Boninus Mombritius, have the same: Metaphrastes also agrees. That year is Christ 619 from October, and 620 for the greater part of it; where we regret that there is a lacuna in the Alexandrian Chronicle: it is necessary therefore to draw light from later historians, unless indeed their light is rather kindled from this source. Theophanes in book 18, chapter 6, and Cedrenus following him, write that in the tenth year of Heraclius the Persians captured Ancyra in Galatia by war. Galatia borders on Bithynia, and Ancyra itself is not far from Chalcedon; so that these words of Nicephorus seem to be understood precisely of this incursion: "And the Persians were preparing and hastening to come all the way to Chalcedon" (in Greek: Pareskeuazonto de hoi Persai, kai epeigonto mechris elthein eis Chalkedona). Indeed the Persians, advancing still further, were hastening toward Chalcedon. So also the author of the life: "He was with the very army that was led by Sain, and came as far as Chalcedon" (in Greek: Egeneto syn auto to strato to hypo tou Sain agomeno, kai elthen heos Chalkedonos). This is a different Sain, or Sathin, from the one we mentioned as having been killed before: for this one was later defeated and routed by Theodore, the brother of Heraclius, in the 16th year of Heraclius, while in the meantime Sarbarus, or Sarbarazas, but in another Persian incursion toward Chalcedon. was again besieging Chalcedon. This Sain therefore either besieged Ancyra this year as supreme commander of the army and thence made a plundering excursion to Chalcedon; or certainly, while Sarbarazas or another was pressing Ancyra, he himself, perhaps as a commander of cavalry squadrons (for Anastasius was a kaballarios, a cavalryman), undertook this expedition to Chalcedon: and was forced to return suddenly to the East, because Philippicus was leading Heraclius's army toward Persia — not Heraclius himself, as Metaphrastes says. Cedrenus confused the earlier siege of Chalcedon with this incursion, placing it at the 12th year of Heraclius; which Baronius followed, correcting the Acts of Metaphrastes, and judging in those Acts that the conversion of S. Anastasius occurred not in the 10th but in the 12th year of Heraclius, that is, of Christ 621; which however would actually have been 622: for since the beginning of the years of Heraclius is reckoned from 3 October 610, the 12th year after the Easter solemnity, which is narrated as having already been completed, would be the year of Christ 622. But if you maintain that, how can he have lived seven years in a monastery and, even by Baronius's own testimony, have died in January of the year of Christ 627, after having been imprisoned for about six months at Caesarea and in Persia?

[8] Let there stand, therefore, the first and authentic opinion of the contemporary author, which rests upon the firm and certain sequence of the remaining events. Anastasius returned from Chalcedon to the East; he withdrew from the army; at Hierapolis first, then at Jerusalem, He becomes a monk in the year of Christ 620. he lived with a goldsmith; having embraced the faith of Christ, and indeed the monastic life, in the 8th Indiction, the 10th year of Heraclius, the year of Christ 620, he persevered in the monastery for seven years, as stated in number 13. The Greek and Latin manuscripts, Mombritius, Metaphrastes, and Bede all agree. He is cast into prison in the year 627. He departed from the monastery to Diospolis, Gerizim, and Caesarea in Palestine, number 16; he was thrown into prison here in the year of Christ 627, the 17th of Heraclius; he celebrated in the month of September the feast of the Exaltation of the Lord's Cross under Constantine the Great, number 27; he was carried off to Persia, and at last was crowned with martyrdom, he is crowned with martyrdom in the year 628, on 22 January. number 39, "on the twenty-second of the month of January, in the eighteenth year of the reign of the most pious Heraclius, and the sixteenth of his son Constantine" (in Greek: kata ten deuteran kai eikada tou Ianouariou menos, etous oktokaidhekatou tes basileias Herakleiou tou eusebestatou, kai hexkaidekatou Konstantinou tou huiou autou). That year was Christ 628. This is confirmed by the speech of the Martyr himself to his fellow captives, number 37: "I indeed," he said, "shall be perfected tomorrow; but after a few days you will be released, and the unjust and wicked King Chosroes will be killed" (in Greek: Ego men, aurion teleioumai; met' oligas de hemeras hymeis men apolythesesthe, ho de adikos kai poneros basileus anairethestai). And it is said immediately in number 38 that after ten days, on the first of February, Heraclius arrived there with his army. The letter of Heraclius himself agrees, sent from Persia in that same year of his reign, Indiction 1, in the month of April (of which the 3rd day was a Sunday, as is stated there) to Constantinople, and read there on 15 May, the very day of Pentecost; in which he records that the impious Chosroes was captured and bound by his firstborn son Siroes on 24 February, and on the 28th of the same month, King Chosroes is killed on 28 February. having been tortured with every pain, was taken from the living; and he adds at the end that on 20 April he broke camp, intending to proceed to Armenia. And here (number 38) his brother with the army "went out as far as the region of the Armenians" (in Greek: exelthen heos tes ton Armenion choras).

[9] These things are so clear that they ought not to need corroboration by the authority of other Chronologers. This should be added, which Petavius excellently observed in his Chronological Notes on Nicephorus: Confused chronology elsewhere. that the two years 17 and 18 of Heraclius were conflated into one by Theophanes and Cedrenus; with whom Metaphrastes agreed, and the ancient translator of this Life, when they wrongly expressed the year in the Acts as the 17th of Heraclius and the 15th of Constantine instead of the 18th and 16th. Following them, Baronius at the year of Christ 627 reports both the martyrdom of S. Anastasius and the death of Chosroes, both of which occurred at the beginning of the following year. As for the fact that Sigebert in his Chronicle, Vincent, Peter de Natalibus, and Trithemius report that he suffered in the 8th year of Heraclius, we are entirely of the opinion that this happened because the life was incorrectly copied, in which the 18th should have been written.

Section III. The place of martyrdom. The monastery of S. Anastasius.

[10] What the writers of Martyrologies are accustomed to do, when the place of martyrdom or death of some Saint is either unknown, or otherwise uncelebrated, or at least very far distant — namely to substitute another more famous place where he was either born, or dwelt the longest, or otherwise was buried and venerated after death — this also happened to S. Anastasius; of whom the Roman Martyrology says: "At Rome at the Aquae Salviae, S. Anastasius the Persian, monk," etc., although he was in fact killed in Persia. But in what part of that very extensive kingdom, we inquire here. And indeed Persis proper was not so vast, as Ptolemy describes it in book 6 of his Geography, chapter 4, and table 5 of Asia; enclosed within Media, Carmania, Susiana, and the Persian Gulf. But gradually the neighboring regions on all sides, subjugated by the Persian Kings, Persis understood in various senses. began to be denoted by the single name of Persis, especially among foreigners. Because, however, the ambitious Kings of Persia, greedy for wider dominion, constantly coveted the provinces of the Roman Empire bordering on their own and attacked them in war, they always established the seat of their kingdom in the outermost and usually subjugated provinces. Chosroes certainly chose Assyria, the western boundary of the Persian kingdom, which they themselves called Adiabene, as Theodoret attests in chapter 2 of his Philotheus, or book 9 of the Lives of the Fathers, separated from Greater Armenia by Mount Niphates, and fortified by the rivers rising thence, formerly called Leucus or Lycus, Caprus, and Gorgus, then the Greater and Lesser Zab, Tornas and Narba, and the Tigris, which receives them. Some places of that region have been explained on 10 January in the Life of S. Domitian, Bishop of Melitene: others must be treated here.

[11] The royal palace of Chosroes, below in number 29, is called Diskarthas (in Greek: Diskarthas), by Cedrenus Dystagerde, by Theophanes Deseridan and Dastager; by the Emperor Heraclius in the cited letter Dastagerchosaer, that is, Dastager of Chosroes: toward which Heraclius was hastening, not far from Nineveh, having crossed the Tigris and both Zabs, Dastager, the palace of Chosroes. when Chosroes pitched camp opposite this palace of his, at a place called Barasroth: but learning that Heraclius had crossed the river Tornas, he immediately moved from there and with great speed headed for Ctesiphon, a city known to Ptolemy and other Geographers. But not daring to make a stand even there, having crossed over the bridge of the Tigris river, he fled to Seleucia, called Guhersam by the Persians, situated at the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Meanwhile Heraclius, on the tenth day after the death of S. Anastasius, on the very first of February, arrived at the palace, and having broken camp from there, went about burning regions and cities throughout all of February. So Theophanes relates, more or less, who, because he compressed two years into one, did not correctly (which follows from this) distinguish the events by months. Then Heraclius, as he himself testifies in his letter to the people of Constantinople, sent scouts in various directions to Siarsura and the little Zab, Chalcas, or Iesdem (in Greek: kai heos tou mikrou Saba, tou chalkas, tou Iesdem): and when Siroes, with Chosroes now killed, asked for peace, he granted it and set out for Armenia, intending to return to the provinces under his rule.

[12] So much for the palace of Chosroes, Discartas or Dastager, and its location. Bethsaloe, the place of martyrdom. Six milestones distant from it was the town of Bethsaloe (chorion in Greek), where S. Anastasius was imprisoned and afflicted with various torments; not far from there, at a river (perhaps the Tornas), he was crowned with martyrdom. In the same town of Balsaloe there was the house of the son of Iesdim, who, following the party of Siroes, defected from Chosroes together with several Princes, as Theophanes attests in chapter 48; to whose palace, distinct from the former one (unless there is again an error in the same chapter 18), the Emperor had already retired before 25 December and celebrated the feast of the Nativity of Christ. He was an excellent Catholic, as were very many in Assyria, whom, according to the same Theophanes, chapter 27, Chosroes in the 15th year of Heraclius, out of hatred for him, was compelling to become followers of Nestorius, and was confiscating the treasures of all the Churches of that region. Through these sons or subjects of Iesdim, The monastery of S. Sergius. the body of S. Anastasius was obtained by bribing the executioners with money, and carried to the monastery of S. Sergius, which was a single mile distant from Balsaloe, and honorably interred; it remained there for an entire year; and thence, translated to the monastery in which he had previously led the monastic life for seven years, it became known to the world through the renowned miracles performed everywhere.

[13] Peter Thomas Saracenus writes: "All writers proclaim that he was made a monk in the Convent of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the fourth milestone from the city of Jerusalem; all histories attest the same" — which is true regarding the location of the monastery, but not the name. The Greeks in their Menaia for this day and in the Menologion edited by Canisius The monastery of S. Anastasius. hold that he assumed the sacred monastic habit in the cenobium, or Laura, of S. Sabas. That Laura was about ten miles distant from Jerusalem, as was stated in the Life of S. Euthymius on 20 January, numbers 2 and 3, where we reported the seven monasteries built by him. But below, in number 12, it is said that the cenobium in which S. Anastasius spent seven years of his life was only four miles, or milestones, distant from Jerusalem — which do not agree well enough. But why is it called in the Acts the cenobium of S. Anastasius the Abbot? We do indeed find in the Council of Constantinople held under Agapetus and Mennas in the year of Christ 536 that John, Archimandrite of the monastery of S. Anastasius near the Agogus, petitioned and subscribed. But it is not counted among the monasteries of the desert of the holy city. One might perhaps conjecture that S. Anastasius lived not in the Laura, nor in any of the seven monasteries built by S. Sabas, but in some neighboring one — namely from those monasteries which had been commended to the care of Sabas by the Patriarch Salustius, as was shown above in the Life of SS. Theodosius and Euthymius: and that, because it did not at that time glory in any holy founder, like the Lauras or cenobia of SS. Euthymius, Theodosius, Sabas, Theoctistus, Gerasimus, etc., after the relics of the holy Martyr had been brought there and a religious pilgrimage to them had been established from all directions, it assumed his name; and so by a certain prolepsis it is called below the monastery of S. Anastasius: whom they would have surnamed Abbot rather than Martyr, because he had led the monastic life in that monastery. And this conjecture might seem the more probable because, although it was one of those ancient monasteries whose ascetics Cyril describes extensively in the Lives of SS. Euthymius, Sabas, and John the Silentiary, and John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, neither of them anywhere mentions the monastery of S. Anastasius; even though the latter lived, only a few years before S. Anastasius, in the Laura of Pharan and the cenobium of S. Theodosius, which were close enough neighbors. But the Latin translator seems to disagree, when he says that he was brought by Elias the Priest to Anastasius the Abbot. And more clearly the Martyr himself below predicts freedom to certain captives and asks them that when they come to the holy city, they go to the dwelling which is called that of Abbot Anastasius, and make known to the Abbot and the Brethren what they had seen happen there: from which it is evident that the cenobium was named after another Anastasius. But had these monasteries adopted the rule of S. Benedict at that time? Was S. Anastasius a Benedictine? We find no trace of this in John Moschus or other writers of that age. Yepes does not count Anastasius among the Benedictines: Trithemius, Wion, Menard, and Dorganius do. Ghinius numbers him among the Canons. The Carmelites venerate him with a double Office as an alumnus of their order.

Section IV. The manner of martyrdom of S. Anastasius: his relics translated from Palestine: public veneration.

[14] The Acts indicate that public veneration was paid to S. Anastasius in Assyria and Palestine immediately after his death. The feast of S. Anastasius among the Greeks, 22 January. On this day his memory is observed at Constantinople in the most sacred place of his martyrdom (so the ancients used to call temples or chapels), which is within the church of the holy Martyr Philemon, in the place they called the Strategium (or praetorium). So the Greeks in the Menaia, and Maximus of Cythera, with a long narration of his life and martyrdom. Translation on the 24th. The same celebrate the Translation of relics from Assyria to Caesarea and to his own monastery on 24 January. His commemoration is on this 22nd of January in the Greek Anthologion, Horologion, the Menologion of Christopher Proconsul of Mytilene, and another which Genebrardus translated: so that it is surprising that Baronius in his Notes on the Martyrology states that the Latins observe S. Anastasius on this day, but the Greeks on the fifteenth; Commemoration on the 15th. on which day, only in the Menologion edited by Canisius, this eulogy of him is recorded: "On the same day, the Birthday of the holy Martyr Anastasius the Persian. He lived under the Persian King Chosroes and the Roman Heraclius: his homeland was Razech; having set out for Jerusalem, and there received baptism, he became a monk in the monastery of S. Sabas, and having attained every exercise of monastic life; seized with the desire to undergo martyrdom, he betook himself to Caesarea in Palestine: where, having seen certain magi and mocking them, he was seized by them, led before Barsabanes, and variously tortured; finally brought before the King of the Persians, he was more severely tortured by him, his neck so tightly constricted by a noose that he could not breathe: at last he is struck with an axe, his head cut off for the faith of Christ."

[15] Whether his relics were translated to Constantinople on that day, or there was some other reason for instituting the celebration, Relics brought back to Palestine, is unknown to us. Various writers, soon to be cited, report that the relics were transported from Constantinople to Italy; none record in what year they were brought to Constantinople. Below, part 2, number 18, it is said that the Brother who had brought the relics from Assyria carried them around, not without very many miracles, through Syria, Cilicia, Cappadocia, and the remaining provinces of Asia, all the way to Constantinople, and in number 19 that he brought them back to Palestine. then to Constantinople: Were some parts then offered to the Emperor Heraclius, to his son Constantine, or to the Patriarch or other Abbots? Or later, when Palestine was devastated by the incursion of the Arabs, the Cross of Christ was carried by Heraclius to Constantinople, and Jerusalem was handed over after a two-year siege to Omar, leader of the Arabs — was the entire body of S. Anastasius brought there? These events took place in the years of Christ 635 and 636, the 25th and 26th of Heraclius.

[16] Peter de Natalibus, cited above, says concerning the body of S. Anastasius: "Now, however, some to Venice; it is said to be in the church of the Holy Trinity in Venice, which the inhabitants of that city assert was translated there from Constantinople." Maurolycus, the German Martyrology, and Resendius in his letter to Kebedius report the same. Which should perhaps be understood of some portions. For Bede, cited above, says: "The relics of the blessed Martyr Anastasius were first brought to his monastery, then to Rome, and are venerated in the monastery of the Blessed Apostle Paul, which is called Ad Aquas Salvias." These words are also found in the Martyrologies of Bede himself, Ado, Notker, Galesinius, the Cologne Martyrology, the Florarium, and others. Also in the Chronicle of Marianus Scotus, at the 15th year of Heraclius, year of Christ 626, although he had placed the martyrdom earlier at the 6th year of Heraclius, year of Christ 617, deceived by a faulty chronology. Had he read that this translation had occurred in the ninth year after death? — at which time we said Jerusalem was conquered by the Arabs around the year of Christ 636. Baronius on the Roman Martyrology writes: "There are found there," he says of the manuscript Acts of S. Anastasius found in his library, as mentioned above, and to Rome, "in addition after the same Acts, an elegant history of a possessed girl freed at Rome in the church of S. Mary Ad Aquas Salvias by the power of the Martyr: that church was formerly called by that name, which afterwards, on account of the relics of the Saints Vincent and Anastasius brought there, was called by their name." The same history has a wonderful agreement with what the Apostolic legates of Pope Hadrian testified at the Second Council of Nicaea, Session 4, concerning the head of the same Martyr translated to Rome together with the venerable image of his face. The same is preserved to this day with religious devotion in that same church, although an inscription bearing the name of the Apostle Paul, who was beheaded in that same place, has been placed on the sacred image by some person ignorant of the matter. So Baronius. Pancirolus, region 9, church 16, believes this place at Rome called Ad Aquas Salvias was named from an ancient and noble family. It is near the Porta Capena, now called S. Sebastian's; not far from which S. Paul was beheaded, into the monastery Ad Aquas Salvias. and in his honor a temple and monastery were erected by posterity, which, also called S. Mary's, is now called SS. Vincent and Anastasius: of which Eugenius III was Abbot before his pontificate. Pancirolus writes above, church 15, that the body of S. Anastasius was brought there by command of the Emperor Heraclius; but that, with the head and image left there, the remaining body was translated two hundred years later to the church of S. Savior at the Holy Stairs, where it is said by the same author, region 2, church 12, to have been placed under the altar together with a portion of the most holy Cross. Two other churches bearing the name of SS. Vincent and Anastasius are mentioned by Pancirolus, the first of region 3 and the eleventh of region 11.

[17] The ancient Martyrologies recall the earlier translation on this day: that of S. Jerome, which is clearly augmented from this source, reads: "At Rome, Ad Aquas Salvias, S. Anastasius the Bishop" — erroneously, unless another Anastasius is meant. The Old Roman Martyrology: "Ad Aquas Silvias (Rosweyde corrects this to Salvias), S. Anastasius the monk." The manuscript Martyrologies of Centula and S. Maximin: "At Rome, Ad Aquas Salvias, S. Anastasius, monk and Martyr." Various manuscripts and printed editions, Rabanus, Usuard, Bellinus, and others add: "who, after very many torments of prison, scourging, and chains, which he had suffered in Caesarea of Palestine, was at last afflicted by the Persians with much punishment, and finally beheaded together with seventy others." His 70 companions were strangled, Concerning these companions, Rabanus and the manuscripts of Liessies and S. Martin of Tournai are silent; in the manuscript of S. Lambert of Liege this was added by a more recent hand. Bede, Ado, Notker, Galesinius, and others cited above report in full. The martyrdom of the companions is described in the Acts, number 33, where the legates of Chosroes command "that the holy Martyr himself and about seventy men be led out of the town of Betsaloe to a river, and thus he ordered all of them to be strangled with cords before the holy Martyr" (in Greek: achtenai exo tou choriou Betsaloes auton te ton hagion Martyra, kai hosei hebdomekonta andras para potamon, kai houtos emprosthen tou hagiou Martyros schoiniois apopnixai hapantas ekeleuse); and immediately: "and as they killed each one they said to the Saint..." etc. They commanded that both the holy Martyr Anastasius himself and at the same time seventy men be led out of the town of Betsaloe to a river, and that all be strangled with cords before the holy Martyr; and as they killed each one they said to the Saint — who was the last — "he has ended by a similar death" (in Greek: eteliothe to homoio thanato). "And after they strangled him, they cut off his one head, and taking the seal-impression carried it to the King" (in Greek: meta de apopnixai auton, apetemon autou ten mian kephalen, kai labontes ten bullan apegagon to basilei). The ancient translation in Mombritius and in both manuscripts agrees, and without doubt so does Metaphrastes in Greek, who was badly rendered by Hervetus, as though they had been plunged into a river: "Pitifully," he says, not drowned. "strangling them before the eyes of the Martyr, they said to the Saint as they drowned (correct: killed) each one." Baronius in the Roman Martyrology followed Hervetus: "At Rome, Ad Aquas Salvias, S. Anastasius the Persian, monk, who after very many torments of prison, scourging, and chains, which he had suffered in Caesarea of Palestine, afflicted with many punishments by Chosroes, King of the Persians, was finally beheaded" — (so far from the ancient Martyrologies cited above, to which he adds) — "after first having sent ahead seventy companions to martyrdom by drowning them in the river." "His head was brought to Rome, together with his venerable image, at the sight of which demons are put to flight and diseases are cured, as the Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea testify." The words of the Council have been related above.

[18] The same Baronius inquires in his Notes by what manner of death he perished, since some say he ended his life by the noose, others by the sword. "I am satisfied," he says, "for the resolution, He himself was strangled, by what is written in the Greek Menologion, in these words: 'His neck was so tightly constricted by a noose that he could not breathe; at last he is struck with an axe, his head being cut off for the faith of Christ.'" So Baronius. The Menaia report similar things. Nevertheless, from the Acts, both the Greek and the Latin manuscripts, and in Mombritius and Metaphrastes, it is certain the head was then cut off. that S. Anastasius died by the same death as the 70 Martyrs, who were strangled by a noose or cords; and none of their heads were cut off after death, which happened to Anastasius alone after he was strangled, so that the head might be carried to Chosroes. Bede, however, omitting the strangling, writes that he was beheaded, with which the Latin Martyrologies agree. In the modern Roman Breviary, lesson 6, it is said that he was struck with an axe together with seventy other Christians. In the old Breviary published by Cardinal Quignonez by order of Paul III, it reads "strangled," but incorrectly "with sixty Christians." In the Breviary of Speyer, three first lessons are reported concerning S. Anastasius, who is there placed before S. Vincent, citing Simeon Metaphrastes, in the third of which it reads thus: "Having led them out to the bank of a river, placing cords around their throats, they strangled about seventy of them. Then, since he was not terrified by fear of death, strangling him in like manner, they cut off his precious head and carried it to the Emperor." Lippelous, on account of the words of Metaphrastes, says that after his consummation he was beheaded. In the same way it has been translated into French in the Lives of the Saints published by Viellius, Marchantius, Lavallius Robinus, and Renatus Benedictus.

[19] At Capua the same church is dedicated to S. Anastasius as to S. Vincent, and because the latter is venerated on this day, the former is transferred to the following day; as the first Calendar indicates in the Sacrarium Capuanum of Michael Monachus. In the Ephemeris of Bede, Anastasius the Martyr is noted on 26 August.

ACTS

from the ancient Latin manuscripts.

Anastasius the Persian, monk, Martyr in Assyria (S.) Other 70 Martyrs in Assyria

BHL Number: 0408

From the Latin manuscripts.

PROLOGUE.

[1] The Only-begotten Son and Word of God, through whom all things were made, Salvation offered to the world through Christ, who is co-equal and consubstantial with the Father and the holy and life-giving Spirit, had mercy on the human race that was about to perish and was subject to the tyrannical power of death and corruption. Psalm 17:10. He inclined the heavens and descended, according to what is written. Born through a Virgin, taking the form of a servant, He lived among men, always arranging all things for the salvation of our race; and indeed by His own death He destroyed him who had the power of death. Lying in the three-day burial of His own body, effecting the cleansing of corruption, and by His descent into hell overturning the bars that detained what the transgressions of many ages had held, thus His glorious resurrection made us rise together and commanded us to sit together in heavenly places, as the Apostle says. Ephesians 2:6.

[2] From this indeed, clothed from on high with power, those who were foreordained through themselves, became ministers and witnesses of His passion, the blessed Apostles, preached by the Apostles, traversing the whole world, preaching the divine commandments. They came together, by the mercy of God, through cities and regions, nations and peoples; to tribes and tongues they preached. And uprooting from the ground those things which had been held by paternal tradition and by the error of impiety for many ages, they taught men to follow the Angelic way of life. From this all good things were now fulfilled in the world, so that they might know the Lord their Creator, according to what is written, as when much water covers the sea. From this, earthly things were joined to heavenly, and eternal life was granted to the world. From this the whole nature of mankind rejoices in the great and ineffable gifts of God.

[3] But because the devil, the plotter and deceiver from the beginning of human life, and the cunning enemy of the righteous, finding no way to undermine so abundant a goodness which was being wrought in men through the grace of Christ, and seeing the great gift given to the world, and perceiving himself cast down from the heavens, devised a contrivance worthy of his malice; yet being unable to do any great harm to those who are nurtured in piety, but rather accomplishing the greatest good; vainly impeded by persecutions stirred up by the devil. spreading himself in various and manifold ways among those who then held the royal scepters, he caused a universal persecution to arise against the Church of God, and thereby turned the whole world, as it were, against itself in confusion. But He who resisted against his assault is greater than he. Although this caused some small harm, yet it did not injure the worshippers of God; rather, to this very day the devil himself is confounded. For nothing is more wretched than he. By the endurance of the holy Apostles and victorious Martyrs the deceiver has been cast out: and again the Church of Christ receives its own ornament of piety, and by the grace of God it flourishes daily and grows, and in each age has an abundant number, under the protection of the grace of God.

[4] Now the salvation that has been wrought among us is from the grace of God's good gifts. But men, having received the mercy of the great and ineffable gifts of Christ, while languishing and afflicted with every variety of disease, or bound in many ways by the chains of transgressions, and drenching the earth with the shedding of blood, and by fornications and adulteries and other innumerable vices On account of the sins of Christians, and wicked deeds kindling the wrath of God against themselves, we have drawn upon ourselves, so to speak, the entire hand of God's discipline. Whence He delivered us into the hands of the most wicked enemies and to a King unjust and iniquitous and malicious — nearly the entire earth, all cities and regions, some delivered over to fire, others torn up by the roots, and captive everything that was choice and desirable, both in persons and in possessions, regions devastated by Chosroes. while all that was left He subjected to destruction with insatiable madness. We have been forsaken by God: yet not to the end has the benign and lover of mankind, God, looked down upon us with contempt, as the events themselves make clear, but He has given us sweet hope, that we might even now be glorified among His own faithful servants and Martyrs.

[5] But here we shall make a fitting discourse, according to the voice of the great Apostle who says: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and how untraceable His ways!" Romans 11:33. Anastasius the Persian is crowned with martyrdom: For to the Persians indeed He delivered for correction those who are by grace His sons and heirs. But from Persia He chose for Himself a Martyr who would demonstrate even unto blood his love, faith, and confession in Him; and what is more, not only men but women also would display their contest and struggle, and even to the end would obtain the crown for the faith of Christ through the example of the Cross. His Acts are here described. One of these was our own crowned champion Anastasius, whose life from beginning to end I have been commanded to write, setting before me as witness the very God and Lord Jesus Christ whom he himself confessed, and thus I shall begin the discourse of the narration, under the Lord's protection.

CHAPTER I.

The conversion of S. Anastasius to Christ.

[6] He was indeed from a region of Persia called Razech, from the estate of Rasnuni: and his name was Magundat. Anastasius is instructed in magical arts by his father: He was the son of a certain magus named Bau, who was also a teacher of the magical art. And his father instructed him from boyhood in the magical art.

[7] He became a young man. It happened therefore that he served in the military as a recruit along with many others, he becomes a soldier under Chosroes: and was in the royal city of the Persians under the Emperor Chosroes. Now the desolation of the holy city had taken place, and the venerable and adorable places had been consumed by fire in the aforesaid wrath which we suffered on account of our sins. The Cross of Christ brought to Persia. The honorable and life-giving wood of the precious Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ was led as a captive into Persia. O wondrous thing! The Cross of the Lord was indeed being led as a captive to the folly of those people, yet it was rather taking captive the hearts of the unbelievers. Fear and astonishment seized the unbelievers, while the hearts of the faithful shone with joy and gladness. Its fame was spread everywhere throughout all Persia.

[8] Meanwhile the aforesaid recruit Magundat, who is also Anastasius, hearing the fame and power of the precious Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, inquired about it — how and in what manner the mystery of the venerable Cross was constituted. And learning its power from the faithful, and from others who said he learns the mystery: that the God of Christians hung upon this cross, which had come there, for the salvation of the human race; immediately, just as good earth that has received rain will be prepared to bring forth fruit, so he too, receiving through hearing the ineffable power of our Lord Jesus Christ and His wondrous name, received in the inmost part of his heart the admonitions of life, thinking how he might reach the worship of the great God who dwells in heaven, whom the Christians worship. He inquired diligently from certain people how this was the very cross on which Christ the Son of God was crucified, whom the Christians worship and adore: he desires to become a Christian: and, greatly marveling, the servant of God Anastasius resolved to attain to the Christian religion. And the more he perceived through hearing the things of truth, the more the seduction of the magical art departed from his heart. For as darkness flees from light, shadow from the sun, and smoke from fire, so also deceit is driven out by the teaching of truth.

[9] Blessed Anastasius had a brother in the flesh who was also serving in the army and marching with the army led by Sain, he sets out with the army to Chalcedon: the commander of the Persian army, and came as far as Chalcedon. But Philippicus, of holy and divine memory, with the army surrounding him, entered Persia. Hearing this, Sain turned back. And so it happened that the servant of God Anastasius came with the Persian army to the eastern region: he deserts from the army: and from there he departed from the army, and leaving his own brother he came to Hierapolis, and turned aside to a certain Christian Persian, a silversmith, and stayed with him. He learned the craft from him and worked with him.

[10] When therefore the love and grace and desire to be illuminated abounded in him, he earnestly asked the aforesaid silversmith to instruct him in how he might attain to the grace of holy baptism. But the silversmith, thinking within himself, feared lest he be endangered on account of the fear of the Persians: nevertheless he went with him to the church of the holy Martyrs, [seeing sacred paintings in the temple at Hierapolis, he is strengthened in his resolution of faith,] and prayed: and he beheld the pictures of the Saints and their histories, and asked him what these were: and he heard from him the contests of the Saints, the wonders they performed, and the terrible torments they suffered from tyrants, and their endurance, and he marveled in awe. Remaining therefore a short time with the aforesaid most Christian man, he conceived in his soul the excellent desire to come to Jerusalem and there to be deemed worthy to obtain the consecration of holy baptism.

[11] he goes to Jerusalem. And having his purpose fixed in the love of God, he came to the holy city, and stayed with a certain Christ-loving man, likewise a silversmith, and revealing all his desire — that he wished to be joined to Christ, that he might be deemed worthy of the grace of holy baptism — he was brought by him to Elias, the most holy Priest of the Holy Resurrection, who received him as a son predestined by God; and afterwards he informed the most holy Priest Modestus, the Vicar of the Apostolic See, concerning him, and had him baptized together with others who were also from the same region, who themselves also, receiving a blessed end for Christ in the city of Edessa, were crowned with martyrdom.

CHAPTER II.

The monastic life. The desire for martyrdom.

[12] Blessed Anastasius was detained by the most holy Priest Elias in his house for eight days. And encouraging him to persist in his good resolution, the aforesaid most holy Priest Elias asked him what he had in mind concerning himself for the future. He becomes a monk: He asked him to make him a monk. After removing the white baptismal garments, he immediately brought him to Anastasius the Abbot, of holy memory, whose monastery was four miles distant from the holy city, and earnestly entreating, together with other Brethren of the aforesaid venerable monastery, Justin the Prior, a man most admirable and in all things prudent and full of the precepts of God, he entrusted to him the servant of God Anastasius. And he, receiving him, associated him with his congregation. This took place in the eighth Indiction, under the reign of our lord Heraclius, the most pious and most Christian Emperor, in his tenth year. He assigned him also one master, a Brother of the same congregation, a prudent man, he learns his letters: who taught him both letters and the pleasing doctrine of God, together with the psalter, and tonsuring him he gave him the holy habit and adopted him as a son.

[13] he serves the Brethren, Blessed Anastasius performed every kind of service and passed through all the duties in the aforesaid monastery, pleasing all through the grace of God. For he was very diligent in the service of the Brethren and in the work of the hands, and above all intent upon the monastic rule, and frequent at the celebration of the Mass. devoted to piety; And hearing without ceasing the holy and divine scriptures, he read more attentively the lives of the holy Fathers and devoted himself diligently to them: and if he did not understand something, he asked his master, a competent man, prudent and accomplished in all things: and he learned from him what he inquired, and admiring, he glorified God. inflamed to martyrdom by reading the Acts of the Martyrs: He read assiduously in his cell, in greater privacy, the contests and struggles of the holy Martyrs, daily shedding tears, and thought and burned more secretly in his heart, kindled by this desire, that the Lord might deign to call him to the palm of martyrdom; that He might deem him worthy to become a companion of His servants who had suffered for His name, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He persevered in that same dwelling for seven years.

[14] But when the ancient enemy and foe of the human race saw the servant of God Anastasius persisting with such great perseverance in the service and love of Christ, and wishing to call him back from his good resolution he is tempted by the recollection of the magical art: and to persuade him to leave the aforesaid monastery, he sent into him wicked thoughts, even to recall to his memory the magical art which he had learned from his father. But he, seeing the cunning of the most wicked devil, gave himself to prayer and more earnestly besought the Lord to snatch him from the snares of the adversary. he reveals the temptation to the Abbot: He revealed the secrets of his heart to the Abbot of his monastery, and tearfully besought him to pour out prayers to the Lord on his behalf, that He might deliver him from the jaws of the adversary. And this the aforesaid Abbot did. He also admonished him and strengthened him in the Lord according to the grace that had been given to him in the Lord, he is freed from it. and making prayer for him before all the Brethren in the church, he drove the diabolic attack away from him.

[15] He is admonished in a dream about undergoing martyrdom: After a few days, the servant of God Anastasius saw a dream in the night, as follows: He saw himself standing on a high mountain, and someone coming to him and extending to him a golden cup full of wine, and saying: "Take and drink." Receiving it, he drank. Immediately upon waking, he interpreted the dream he had seen as being that which he desired. Rising at once, he went to the church to complete the morning hymns, as the holy Lord's Day was dawning. When the morning hymns were completed, he asked the Abbot of the monastery to speak with him in private. And entering the sacristy, he fell at his feet, asking with tears that he pour out prayers to the Lord on his behalf, that He might receive him as worthy, hoping that he would die in those very days. He said, however, to the Abbot: "I know, Father, how many labors you have had with wretched me, he commends himself to the Abbot, as one about to die soon: and that I have troubled you greatly, and that through you God brought me from darkness to the true light. But I ask, Father, that you pray to the Lord for me." The Abbot said to him: "What is the reason, my son? Or how do you know that in these days you will depart from this world?" He then narrated to him the dream he had seen, and affirming, he declared that he would certainly die in those very days, whether by a natural death or through martyrdom, which he desired. He feared, however, to speak openly about martyrdom, lest the Brethren should rebuke him.

[16] The Abbot gently consoled him with many admonitions. Celebrating the solemnities of the Mass with the Brethren and partaking of the divine mysteries, he took food with them. And having slept a little and awakened, unable to bear the burning of his heart, driven by the desire for martyrdom, he leaves the monastery. wishing to fulfill his desire which was pleasing to the Lord, he departed secretly from the monastery, taking nothing with him except what he was wearing, and went to Diospolis. From there he set out for the sake of prayer to Mount Gerizim, and from there he proceeded to other venerable places. He was led by the grace of the Lord, and came all the way to Caesarea in Palestine, and remained in the house of the blessed and immaculate Mother of God Mary for two days.

CHAPTER III.

Captivity, beatings, and interrogations at Caesarea in Palestine.

[17] According to the predestination of God which had been given him by God, he proceeded as far as the church of Blessed Euphemia for the purpose of prayer. And as he was going along, passing through a certain place, He reproves those practicing the magical art: he saw in the house of a certain Persian people practicing the magical art. And led by zeal for God, he entered to them and said: "Why do you err, and cause the souls of men to err by your sorceries?" Astonished at his words and at his boldness, those men asked him, saying: "Who are you who says these things?" He said to them: "I too once erred, just as you do, and I once knew that accursed art, and I was aware of your incantations." And rebuking them, they fell silent, and asked him not to disparage or reveal their art to anyone, and he left them.

[18] And passing on a little way from them, certain officers sitting before the gate of the praetorium saw him: and as he passed by, they said among themselves in their own tongue: "This man is an informer." he confesses himself to be a Christian: Hearing these words as they conferred among themselves, Blessed Anastasius looked at them and said: "What are you discussing among yourselves? I am not an impostor, but a servant of my Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed I am better than you, because I have merited to be a servant of Him who deigned to descend from heaven for sinners. For I too was once in the service, just as you." But they rose up and seized him, he is arrested: and their chief came out and, inquiring where he was from and investigating diligently, ordered him to be held in custody for three days, during which he ate nothing of their food, mindful of their deceitfulness in their sorceries.

[19] When Barzabanes came to Caesarea (for he was not there when Blessed Anastasius was seized), and the chief of the officers reported to him concerning the prisoner, he brought him into his praetorium. While Barzabanes was occupied with other business, a certain Christian was found there who had recognized Blessed Anastasius while he was in the house of the Blessed Mother of God Mary, ever Virgin: he is encouraged by a certain Christian: and speaking with him in private, and inquiring for what reason he had been detained by them, and learning the cause, he pronounced him blessed for his good resolution, and strengthened him in the Lord with divine words, admonishing him not to fear torments, and not to be afraid to die for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, but to answer Barzabanes boldly and confidently concerning whatever he was questioned about, reminding him also of the word which the Lord spoke in the holy Gospel: "He who perseveres to the end, he shall be saved." Matthew 10:22 and 24:13.

[20] The servant of God Anastasius was then brought in and, standing before Barzabanes, did not prostrate himself before him according to the rite observed among them. And Barzabanes, looking at him, said: "Where are you from? And what is your name?" He replied: "I am a Christian. he is brought before Barzabanes: But if you wish to learn my lineage, I am a Persian, from the region of Razech, from the village of Rasnuni. I was an officer and a magus; but I left the darkness and came to the true light. My name was formerly Magundat, but by my Christian name I am called Anastasius." Barzabanes said to him: he freely professes the faith of Christ: "Leave this error and return to your former religion, and we will give you money and very many possessions." He answered and said: "May it not befall me to deny my Lord Jesus Christ." Barzabanes said to him: "Then do such garments please you, as those you wear?" Blessed Anastasius said: "This garment is Angelic and glorious." Barzabanes said to him: "You have a demon." Blessed Anastasius answered and said to him: "When I was in error, I had a demon; but now I have the Lord Jesus Christ my Savior, who destroys demons." Barzabanes said to him: "Do you not fear the Emperor? For if he learns about you and your situation, he will order you to be crucified." Blessed Anastasius said: "Why should I fear him? He is a corruptible man, just like you."

[21] Then Barzabanes, enraged, ordered him to be led to the fortress in iron chains, and had him carry stones without ceasing. he is variously harassed, And the servant of Christ Anastasius suffered many and innumerable tribulations. For certain men from his region, seeing what was being done to him, were ashamed and rebuked him, saying: "Why did you choose to do this? No one from our region has ever become a Christian; and behold, you have made us a laughingstock." And with other deceitful words they tried to persuade him. But he drove them away from himself. Turned to madness, they struck him without pity and pulled his beard, even by his own countrymen: and tore his garments. Not only did they do this to the servant of God, but they placed on his neck great stones which four men could not roll. And bound in this way he did his labor: one chain around his neck, another they placed on his feet: and they inflicted many crueler and savage torments upon him. cruelly bound, he labors: But the bravest athlete of God, Anastasius, endured all things joyfully for the name of Christ.

[22] Again Barzabanes ordered him to be brought before him, and said to him: "If truly, as you said, you were the son of a magus, he is brought before Barzabanes again: and you know the magical art, tell me from whom you learned it, or some part of it, so that I may know." He replied: "May God not permit that anything more should come from my mouth concerning such a matter." Barzabanes said to him: "Why then do you remain in this state? Return to your former religion: for I will intercede for you with the Emperor Chosroes." He said to him: "You have written, and you have received a rescript. Do what you will." And Barzabanes said: "I have not written, but I will write, and whatever he commands me, I will do." Holy Anastasius answered: "Go, he is severely beaten: write whatever evils you wish about me, for I am a Christian." Barzabanes said: "Let him be cast to the ground and beaten until he carries out what is commanded him." Anastasius, the servant of God, when they wished to bind him, said: "Let me be: I have no need of bonds." And making the sign of the holy cross upon his forehead, he sat upon the ground, and they bound him and beat him. Holy Anastasius said to them: "Strip off the habit in which I am clothed, so that it may not suffer injury, and then beat my flesh; he taunts his torturers, for what you are doing is child's play. Even if I were cut limb from limb, I would never deny my Lord Jesus Christ." Barzabanes said to him: "Yield to me, for I will write to the Emperor for you." But he answered and said: "Go, write to your Emperor whatever you wish." And Barzabanes said: "Then do you not fear the Emperor?" Blessed Anastasius said: "Why should I fear your Emperor? Is he not a man who will die, just as you? Does he not die, just as you? Does he not see corruption, just as you? and Barzabanes: Why then do you tell me to fear him, who sees corruption like you, who are mud? Should I not rather fear the Lord Jesus Christ, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who never saw corruption?"

[23] That proud Barzabanes was stupefied at the response of the Martyr; again he ordered him to be led to the fortress. And after a few days he had him brought before him and said: "Remember the magical art, and sacrifice; so that you do not die a miserable death and be deprived of this light." The servant of God answered him: "To which gods do you command me to sacrifice? The sun, he mocks the gods of the Persians. and the moon, and fire, and the sea, mountains and hills, and all the other elements and metals? May God not grant that I should ever worship your graven images. For all these things Christ the Son of God made for our service. But you err, serving demons and four-footed beasts. You men, made in the image of God, are ignorant of the God who made you. If you had known Christ who made you, you would at some point have turned to the true light, and been delivered from the power of the demons who cause you to err; and to believe in God, who does not lie to those who believe in His name, saying to them: 'I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries will not be able to resist.' He wished to have me, an uneducated man and a foreigner, as His servant for His glory, while bestowing strength upon those who believe in Him." While S. Anastasius continued with these and similar good words, and while the adversaries were astonished and marveling, the Martyr of God Anastasius, now crowned three times in the confession of Christ, a most brave combatant, was immediately led back to the fortress in chains.

CHAPTER IV.

Piety and constancy in prison.

[24] The Abbot sends two to console him. When the most holy Abbot of the aforesaid monastery, in which Blessed Anastasius had received the holy habit, learned of his steadfastness and confession which was in Christ, and that without fear he was bravely contending, and of his eagerness and perseverance, he rejoiced with great joy together with the entire congregation entrusted to him, and blessed the Lord, and prayed day and night with the whole congregation that He would direct his course, that he might persevere to the end. He sent two of the Brethren of the monastery to Caesarea to Blessed Anastasius with letters of consolation, strengthening his spirit in the Lord. While the Martyr of Christ Anastasius was in the custody of the fortress, he did not cease to glorify Almighty God with psalms and hymns day and night.

[25] He had with him also another young man placed in chains, one of the servants of Barzabanes, held for a certain cause: who, not wishing to trouble him, but rising at night with the servant of Christ Anastasius rises at night for prayer: to celebrate the morning Hymns in the praises of God, would bend his neck toward his neck and his foot toward his foot, so that the extension of the chains would not cause labor for the servant of God. On one night, therefore, while he was chanting the psalms, a certain one of the prisoners who was there listened to him — a Hebrew by religion, and of noble birth, but most gentle in character, as we learned. This man, seeing the blessed Martyr persevering by day in the toil of carrying stones, and by night in praises, was astonished, saying: "What does this mean?" While looking at him for a long time, therefore, lying on the pavement in the silence of the night, with the blessed Martyr standing and chanting the morning Hymns, he is seen with Angels, he suddenly saw certain figures in white garments entering through the door of the prison and surrounding the blessed Martyr, from whom a copious light shone in the prison. The aforesaid man, amazed at the vision, said within himself: "Holy God, these are Angels." Gazing at this, he saw those same figures wrapped in cloaks, holding crosses in their hands, and said to himself: "These are Bishops." Marveling at these things, looking at the Martyr of Christ Anastasius and those who were with him, he saw an immense light, and him clothed in white garments together with those who had appeared to him; and behold a certain young man stood before him holding a golden censer and he himself clothed in white: and casting incense. The man who was beholding these things struck with his hand his sleeping neighbor, who was a Christian, the Judge of Scythopolis, in order to show him what he saw; but he could not, because he was sleeping soundly. He himself, however, continued to attend to what he saw, remaining motionless in body, though tossing himself upon the first man with whom he was lying. And at some point, having been awakened, he learned from him what this was. The Hebrew said to him: "Do you see anything?" And looking, they now saw nothing. But he communicated to him all that he had seen, and together they glorified the Lord Jesus Christ.

[26] Because, as we mentioned above, Barzabanes learned from the first and second interrogation the constancy of the servant of God Anastasius, he wrote to the Emperor Chosroes concerning what had been done regarding him. And it happened that within a few days he received the Emperor's command; and he sent word to him in prison through his own servant, saying: he refuses to deny Christ even verbally, even in private. "Behold, the Emperor has commanded that you merely say in word, 'I am not a Christian,' and immediately I will release you, so that you may go wherever you wish: whether you wish to be a monk, be one; or a cavalryman, as you were before, or to be with us — do as you wish." But the Martyr of Christ answered and said: "May it not come to pass that I deny Christ." When therefore he had directed many promises and persuasions to him through his servant, and he would in no way yield, he afterwards sent word to him through his aforesaid servant, saying: "I know that you are ashamed before your countrymen, and therefore you do not wish to deny before them; but because the Emperor's command is pressing — if you wish, say the word before me and two others alone, and I will release you." But the Martyr sent word back to him through the aforesaid messenger, saying: "Far be it from me: neither before you, nor before any others will I ever deny my Lord." Then he said to him in person: "Behold, the Emperor has commanded that you go in chains to Persia." But the blessed Martyr of Christ Anastasius said: "If you wish to release me, I will go alone to your Emperor." When he heard the blessed Martyr firmly persisting, neither frightened by threats nor persuaded by blandishments, he ordered him to be sealed and led to prison. And after five days he sent him with two other Christians, on whom he likewise stamped the seal.

[27] Meanwhile, as the feast day of the Exaltation of the venerable Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ was approaching, On the feast of the Exaltation of the holy Cross, the blessed Martyr himself, and the two Brethren of his monastery, and the two most Christian men, and certain faithful of the city, were spending the night in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, so that they forgot they wore chains, glorifying our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives such great patience to those who hope in Him. At dawn a certain administrator of the state entered — himself a most Christian man — and went to Barzabanes and asked him that the chains be removed from the Martyr, so that he might lead him to the church only for the feast day, adding: "For I will bring him back again into custody." And so it was done. And Barzabanes permitted it. And when he was led to the church, he is permitted to go to the Christian church; great joy and consolation arose among all the faithful, giving thanks to God for the contest of the Martyr of Christ and for his frequent tribulations which he was enduring. A dispute arose among the people of that same city concerning him, between the faithful and the unbelievers. And some, astonished at the tribulations which the servant of God Anastasius was enduring, grew strong, and the faithful were strengthened in Christ by his patience and perseverance; and in many words the Martyr of Christ Anastasius consoled the faithful. whom he encourages: And those who were despairing of the Christian faith were strengthened by his eagerness, kissing his chains, and as though made victors they said to Blessed Anastasius: "We too, like you, ought to die for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ." And they consoled him in the Lord, and showed him the greatest honor, men and women alike. And when the solemnities of the Mass were completed, the Administrator, doing him some force, led him to his own house, so that he might take some nourishment with the two Brethren of his monastery. And when they had taken food they were mutually strengthened, and conversing about divine matters, both were edified in the Lord. And afterwards, again rejoicing and exulting, they proceeded to the prison as if to a banquet, he returns joyful to prison. and there they glorified the Lord Jesus Christ, who conferred such great grace upon His servants.

CHAPTER V.

Torments endured in Persia.

[28] When five days had passed, he departed from the city of Caesarea together with the aforesaid two most Christian men, and one Brother from his monastery, and many men and women who knew him, He is sent to Persia: with a great outpouring of tears, glorifying God for his good resolution, by which he had resolved to die for Christ. And one Brother from his monastery went with him, as has been said, according to the command of the Prior, for his consolation and service; taking great care to bring to the Brethren, and indeed to his most holy Abbot and to the entire congregation, whatever he should learn about him to the end through the grace of the Lord: for this was a great joy and gladness to them. on the way he is honored by Christians: As they came through cities and towns, faithful men came to meet him, and glorified the Lord, the Creator of all, receiving him with honor, and kissing his chains, and providing whatever was necessary. Blessed Anastasius also wrote a letter of supplication to his Abbot from Hierapolis, he writes to his Abbot that he may pray for him: asking him to pray to the Lord on his behalf and pour out prayers that He might receive him as worthy and bring his course to completion. And from the river Tigris he likewise sent word to him.

[29] Entering the territory of Persia, Blessed Anastasius was sent to prison at the estate called Bethsaloe, which is six miles from Discartas, where the Emperor was. The Brother who was with him remained in the same estate, in the house of Cartacius, son of Deiesdin, the chief administrator of public affairs of the Persians, who was a Christian. by order of Chosroes, And while the blessed Martyr remained for some days with the captives who had come there, it was reported to the Emperor Chosroes what had happened concerning him. And sending one of his Judges, he ordered him to be examined. The Judge came to the prison with the Tribune who was in charge of the prison and questioned him, he is examined by a Tribune: asking who he was and where he had come from, and why he had left their religion and become a Christian. The Martyr of Christ Anastasius answered him through an interpreter (for he did not deign to speak to them in the Persian language) and indeed, being much compelled, he said to them: "You err, worshipping demons in place of God. For I too once, when I was in error, worshipped them. But now I adore the almighty Lord Jesus Christ, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and I know well that your worship is perdition and the deceit of demons." The Judge said to him: "Wretch, was not He whom you Christians worship crucified by the Jews? How then have you erred, leaving your religion and becoming a Christian?" But Holy Anastasius said: He boldly confesses Christ. "That He was crucified by the Jews, you speak truly; but that He did so willingly, why do you not say? For He it is who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He willed to descend to earth and to be incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and to be crucified so that He might free the human race from the error of Satan, who is worshipped by you. But you, worshipping fire and the other elements; and — what it is wicked to say — serving the creature rather than the Creator."

[30] The Judge said to him: "What have you to do with these words? Behold, the benevolence of the Emperor has prepared for you a rank of honor and golden belts and horses, and that you should be among his chief men: only return to your former religion." Blessed Anastasius said: he rejects the gifts offered: "I will never deny my Lord Jesus Christ, but rather I adore and worship Him with all my strength: and the gifts of your Emperor I count as dung." The aforesaid Judge departed and reported to the Emperor Chosroes. Filled with fury, the Emperor ordered him to be cast into prison, intending to afflict him with punishments on the morrow. The aforesaid Judge came the next day at the Emperor's command with wrathful fury to the prison he scorns the threats: and began to threaten and terrify him, thinking to make him yield from such a resolution through punishments. But the holy Martyr Anastasius answered him, saying: "Do not labor, my lord Judge, nor weary yourself. For with Christ strengthening me, I will not yield to you, nor will you make me depart from the faith I have embraced. But if you wish to do something, do it." Then he ordered him to be bound according to the Persian custom and beaten with rods without pity, saying: "You do not yield to the honors and gifts of the Emperor? Now you shall learn his wrath day after day. For I shall afflict you thus daily until you are consumed." The holy Martyr Anastasius answered and said to him: "I yield neither to the gifts of your Emperor, nor do I fear your threats. Whatever you wish, therefore, do."

[31] Then he ordered him to be unbound and laid on the ground, and a beam to be placed upon his shins, commanding two very strong men to stand on the two ends of the beam. We all know that the form of this torment was unbearable. But the holy Martyr of Christ Anastasius, giving thanks to Almighty God, he is savagely tortured: endured the pains bravely. When the Judge saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather, just as iron is tempered by cold water, so through divine grace he was being strengthened by such pains, he ordered him to be thrust back into prison until he could report to the Emperor about him. The Sellarius, who was in charge of the prison and was a Christian, he is encouraged by the Christian Prefect of the prison and others: and the Brother of the monastery who was accompanying the Martyr of Christ, entered to him, consoling and admonishing him unto good. Many Christians who were there, among whom were the sons of Iesdin, also entered to him and fell at his feet and kissed his chains and asked him to deign to pray for them and to give them some blessing for their protection. But the blessed Martyr rebuked them for saying such things. They, however, placed wax upon his chains and, taking the impression, received this as a blessing.

[32] Again, therefore, after a few days the Judge entered the prison to Anastasius and said to him: "What do you say? Will you obey the Emperor's command, or do you persist in this?" Holy Anastasius, shaking his head, recoiled from him as from something abominable, saying: "Both once and twice and many times I have told you that it is impossible for me to deny Christ the Son of God: do therefore what you wish, and do it quickly." Then that reckless barbarian ordered him to be bound as before and beaten longer with rods, he is beaten again with rods: and leaving him in the prison, departed. After a few days he again entered to him, urging him to deny Christ the Son of God — sometimes with blandishments and promises of money and dignities, sometimes with threats and torments. he is suspended from one hand, with a stone tied to his foot. When he saw that the servant of Christ was neither shaken by terror nor seduced by blandishments, but persevered in the faith of Christ, he ordered him again to be bound and beaten as before, and then ordered him to be released and suspended from one hand, with a great stone tied to his foot, and leaving him thus, he departed. While the Martyr of Christ endured this torment for a space of about two hours, he afterwards sent and ordered him to be taken down; and he went and reported to the Emperor concerning the resolution of his mind and the perseverance he had in Christ.

CHAPTER VI.

The martyrdom of S. Anastasius and his companions. Their burial.

[33] And after fifteen days, the Emperor sent the aforesaid Judge and others with him to kill the blessed Martyr and very many Christians with him, as well as captives. Coming, they ordered them to be led out of the estate of Bethsaloe, 70 Christians are killed. among whom they killed Blessed Anastasius together with about seventy men near the bank of a river. And first they ordered those most holy men to be strangled before the holy Martyr, with cords placed around their throats, and so all were suffocated: among whom were the aforesaid two most Christian men who had accompanied the most holy Martyr of Christ Anastasius from Caesarea.

[34] And as they killed them, they said to the holy Martyr: "Why have you resolved to lead so miserable a death as these? Rather yield to the Emperor and live and receive honor from him, and be in the palace as one of us, and do not be deprived of this light and the sweetness of life." But the most victorious Martyr of Christ Anastasius, looking toward heaven, gave thanks to God who had completed his course and fulfilled his desire. And answering he said to them: "I desired to be cut limb from limb by you for the love of Christ: but since this is the death you threaten, I give thanks to my Lord Jesus Christ, that through a brief pain you have made me a sharer in the glory of His Saints." S. Anastasius is also killed. And so with great joy and eagerness he received his glorious passion and died by a similar death. And after they strangled him, they cut off his precious head, and taking the sealed impression carried it to the Emperor.

[35] Since the Tribune who was in charge of the prisons was a Christian, as has already been said, he wished to place the body of the Martyr separately. But this became known to the executioners. And when the sons of Ihesdin learned of the end of the holy Martyr — because their servants had followed Blessed Anastasius when he was led to death, in order to see the outcome — the body is redeemed, they secretly gave the executioners an immense sum of money, and they allowed his holy body to be placed separately. And the following night, the Brother who had followed him from the monastery of the holy man took with him the servants of the sons of Ihesdin and certain monks who were there, from which dogs had abstained; to carry away the body of the holy Martyr. And they found dogs eating the bodies of those who had been killed, but the body of the Martyr lying separately, untouched. "For precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints: and the Lord guards all their bones, and not one of them shall be broken." Taking therefore the body of the Martyr and wrapping it in precious linen cloths which the sons of Ihesdin had given, it is carried to the monastery of S. Sergius, he brought it and buried it in the monastery of the holy Martyr Sergius, one mile distant from the aforesaid fortress. The contest and course and the confession in Christ of the most victorious Martyr Anastasius were completed on the twenty-second day of the month of January, in the first Indiction, in the seventeenth year of the reign of the most pious Heraclius, and the fifteenth year of his son Constantine.

[36] On the day after the passing of the holy Martyr Anastasius, two men in custody were conversing with each other, one saying to the other: "Do you know that the dogs came and sat beside the body of that monk, and did not touch it, but guarded it?" Another companion said to him: illuminated from heaven by night, "And when I had completed my watch and walked to my house, I saw something like a bright star upon the pavement, and going to see what it was, I no longer saw the star, but found the body of that monk lying there." These things the guards were saying among themselves. But other Christian captives who were shut up in the prison, when they had come to understand something of the Persian language, themselves revealed to us what the guards were talking about among themselves.

[37] Having been released from their chains and coming to the holy city, they spread these things everywhere; but they also added another thing, saying: "While Blessed Anastasius was with us in prison, he confessed to us thus, saying: 'Know, Brethren, He had foretold his own death and other future events. that by the grace of God I indeed shall be finished tomorrow and shall pass from this world: but after a few days you will be released: and the unjust and wicked King will be killed. But as you walk, with the Lord prospering you, to the holy city, go to the dwelling which is called that of Abbot Anastasius, and tell my Abbot and the Brethren these things.'" The men who had heard these things from the mouth of the holy man, and who knew the outcome of events, glorified the Lord, who glorifies those who glorify Him: and they fulfilled the command of the holy Martyr, and what they had seen and known with their own eyes, they carefully made known to us. The aforesaid Brother of the monastery, who had been attending him, after burying the body of the holy Martyr and placing it with all diligence in the aforesaid monastery of S. Sergius, remained there, considering how he might return without danger to the Abbot and to his own dwelling.

[38] Heraclius comes to Persia. And after ten days, on the first day of the month of February, the most Christian and most pious Emperor Heraclius joined them in those parts with his army. When the Brother saw them, he was greatly overjoyed, and they more diligently inquired of him what he was doing there, and he informed them in detail. And they glorified God, and said to the Brother: "Arise and come with us, and save your soul." And he was with them in great honor while they were in Persia, and returned with them through the region of Armenia. After a year he returned to his own dwelling, bringing with him also the monastic garment of the holy Martyr Anastasius, and reported diligently and in detail to the Prior and the Brethren what had happened to the Martyr, and of his glorious end, and of the labor of his own journey, and they glorified God, who saves those who hope in Him. Through the monastic garment of S. Anastasius, The first sign occurred through the monastic garment of the blessed Martyr Anastasius. There was a certain young man in the monastery who was wickedly vexed by an unclean spirit. He took the aforesaid monastic garment of the holy Martyr Anastasius and clothed him with it. He was immediately healed through the grace of the Lord, a demoniac is freed. and through the intercession of Blessed Anastasius the Martyr, to the glory and praise of Almighty God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who is glorified in His Saints, to whom is honor and glory and power and majesty through immortal ages of ages, Amen.

THE SAME ACTS

rendered into Latin from the ancient Greek manuscript.

Anastasius the Persian, monk, Martyr in Assyria (S.) Other 70 Martyrs in Assyria

From the Greek manuscript.

PROLOGUE.

[1] The Only-begotten Son and Word of God, through whom all things were created, who is co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father and the most holy and life-giving Spirit; having mercy on the human race, lost and reduced under the tyranny of death and corruption, inclined the heavens and descended, as it is written: Psalm 17:10 and born of a Virgin, Salvation brought to the world through Christ, having assumed the form of a servant, He lived among men, and disposed and arranged all things for our salvation: and by His own death deposing him who had the power of death, and with His body buried for three days, effecting the cleansing of corruption; and by His descent to the underworld, overturning the long dominion of hell; by His glorious resurrection after three days He raised us up and established us in heavenly places, as the Apostle says. Ephesians 2:6.

[2] And straightway, clothed with power from on high, having become overseers and ministers of the Word and witnesses of His sufferings, the blessed Apostles illuminated the whole world with divine preaching, and provoked every city, province, nation, people, and tongue preached by the Apostles, to the pursuit of true religion, and tore up by the roots the error of impiety, handed down from forefathers and wholly inveterate; and planted a certain Angelic way of life on earth. Hence the whole world was filled with the knowledge of God, according to what is written: "as much water shall cover the seas." Hence earthly things were joined to heavenly, and eternal life began to be lived on earth. Hence the whole of human nature was filled with the great and ineffable gifts of God.

[3] But that baleful plotter against human life from the beginning and detractor, and adversary of the pious, not finding by what means he could disturb so great an outpouring of good things upon men through the grace of Christ, and seeing himself cast down from heaven like an evil slave, devised a plan worthy of his malice, which however would not greatly harm the pupils of piety, but on the contrary would greatly benefit them. For cunningly and in many ways insinuating himself with those who then administered the Roman Empire, vainly impeded by tyrants, he stirred up manifold persecutions against the Church; and as much as lay in him, he overturned and confounded the entire world. But his machinations turned out contrary to his hopes; and having harmed the devout worshippers of God little or not at all, he brought upon himself great infamy and shame. For just as he had once been expelled by the holy Apostles, the artificer of fraud was laid low by the glorious endurance of the Martyrs: and again the Church resumed its former ornament of piety, and flourished by the divine grace of Christ, and grew daily into a vast number of years, fruitful in glory.

[4] But as if seized by a certain satiety and weariness of divine benefits, and by complete forgetfulness of the greatest and ineffable gifts of Christ, men languished and committed various and many crimes, the devastation of provinces on account of sins. sprinkling the earth indeed with human blood, and by fornication and adultery and other innumerable shameful deeds kindling the wrath of God against us, we drew upon ourselves, so to speak, the entire hand of chastisement and punishment. Wherefore He delivered us into the hands of the most wicked enemies, and to an unjust and criminal King — nearly the entire land, whole cities and provinces, some devastated by fire, some undermined from their foundations, and leading into captivity whatever was choice and desirable in persons or possessions, and dissipating all the rest with insatiable fury. But the good and benign God did not despise us to the end; as events themselves declare, and this raises us to good hope, that His glory is to this day most greatly amplified in His sincere servants and Martyrs.

[5] It will be opportune, since we have come to this subject, to exclaim with the great Apostle, transfixed with wonder at the unsearchable judgments of God: "O the depth of the riches and of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how untraceable His ways!" Romans 13:33. For behold, to the Persians indeed He delivered...

Here one leaf was missing from the manuscript.

[8] ...he was storing up in his heart as a treasure. Then reasoning with himself: "How is it possible," he said, "that the great God who dwells in heaven, whom, as I hear, the Christians worship, came here?" And inquiring studiously from certain people, he learned that this was the cross to which Christ, the Son of God, was affixed, S. Anastasius inquires about the Christian faith: whom the Christians venerate. Greatly marveling at what was said, and as if struck with a certain astonishment, he did not cease to investigate attentively what pertained to the Christian religion; and the more truth poured itself into his soul, the further the error of the magical art was driven away. For as light drives out darkness, the sun shadow, and fire smoke, so the teaching of truth banishes error.

[9] Since this blessed man had a natural brother, he enlisted with him in the military, and in the army that Sain led, set out for Chalcedon. But when the holy Philippicus, desiring to draw him away by an outstanding stratagem, led his forces into Persia, Sain, roused by this news, moved from there to pursue him: and so it happened that the servant of God Anastasius came with the Persian army to the eastern regions. But there, having left the army and his brother, he deserts from the army: he retired to Hierapolis and turned aside to a certain Christian, a Persian by birth and a silversmith by trade; and living with him, he learned that craft and worked with him.

[10] When therefore he was burning with a most vehement desire to receive illumination, he besought that man with many words to deem him worthy of the grace of baptism. But the silversmith, out of fear of the Persians, lest he create some danger for himself, kept deferring his wishes. Nevertheless he went with him to the churches, and Anastasius prayed, and contemplating the histories of the holy Martyrs, he asked him what these meant, seeing sacred images, he is animated to receive the faith: and hearing from him both the miracles of the Saints and the intolerable torments which the tyrants inflicted upon them, he marveled in amazement at their constancy, which was beyond human capacity. Having therefore spent a short time with that Christian man, he conceived in his soul the excellent desire to go to Jerusalem and there to receive holy baptism.

[11] Intending to execute that plan with God's favor, he came to the holy city and lived with a Christ-loving man he goes to Jerusalem: who practiced the same craft of working silver; and when he had opened to him his whole desire — that he sought to give his name to Christ and to be initiated by sacred baptism — he was brought by him to Elias, the most holy Priest of the Holy Resurrection: he is baptized, with another man, who also later became a Martyr. who, embracing him as a son sent by God, brought him with him to Modestus, the most devout Priest, who at that time was Vicar of the Apostolic throne, and arranged for him to be baptized together with another man, endowed with exactly the same character and formerly imbued with the same superstition, who himself also, having attained a blessed end, received the crown of martyrdom in the city of Edessa.

CHAPTER II.

The monastic life. The desire for martyrdom.

[12] When the blessed man had spent eight days of illumination in the house of the Priest Elias, the latter asked him what he intended to do henceforth, what manner of life he had decided to embrace. He asked him, saying: "Make me a monk." Having therefore completed the ablution, he immediately brought him to the monastery of the holy Abbot Anastasius, He becomes a monk: which was four miles distant from Jerusalem: and with many entreaties, together with others, to the Superior of that cenobium — Justin, I mean, a man illustrious in other matters and eminently adorned with heavenly gifts — he entrusted to him the servant of God Anastasius. Justin, receiving him, enrolled him in his congregation, in the eighth Indiction, under the reign of the most pious and Christ-loving Heraclius, in the tenth year of his reign: and he gave him as a master one of his own disciples, he learns his letters: an industrious man, who taught him Greek letters and the psalter, and tonsuring him clothed him with the sacred monastic habit and raised him as his own son.

[13] The Blessed man undertook various ministries in the cenobium, especially of the kitchen and garden, proving his industry and virtue in them admirably by the grace of Christ; he serves the Brethren: for he was very diligent in the service of the Brethren and in every kind of manual work, and especially in the canon of the holy liturgy: and hearing the sacred scriptures read without ceasing, and the lives of the holy Fathers, he applied his mind to them with diligence; and if he did not fully grasp something, he asked his master, who understood all things abundantly. And learning from him or from other more excellent Brethren what he sought, he marveled, glorifying God. reading the Acts of the Martyrs, he is stirred to the desire for martyrdom. Reading privately in his cell the contests and victories of the illustrious Martyrs, he shed many tears, and in the secret chamber of his heart he besought God, cherishing the desire to undergo such a contest as the Saints had undergone, to the praise and glory of God. But we know this: that when he marveled at the fortitude of the Saints, he wished to read scarcely anything else than what would nourish the flame of this aroused desire.

[14] But when the most wicked demon observed such great love of his toward God, in order to suppress it and drag the servant of God into distress, he sent perverse thoughts into him, He is tempted by the recollection of the magical art: and the memory of those magical words which, as has been said, he had learned from his father, and severely afflicted him with these. But he, having discerned the wiles of the most cunning enemy, prayed to God to snatch him from the snares of the devil; and revealing to the Superior of the monastery what was taking place in his heart, he besought him with many tears to pray to God that he might be delivered from the snares of the adversary. The Father instructed him and strengthened him according to the wisdom divinely given him, and by prayers poured out to God together with the congregation of the other Brethren, he freed him from that attack.

[15] But a few days later, a dream was presented to the servant of God Anastasius in the night, of this kind: He saw himself standing on a high mountain, and someone approaching him who offered him a golden cup adorned with gems, full of wine, he is taught in a dream about his future martyrdom: saying: "Take, drink." And he seemed to himself to take the cup and drink. Immediately, as if inspired by a certain divine spirit and having obtained his wishes, he arose and went to the church for the canon of the nocturnal psalmody, as the holy Lord's Day was dawning; and asking the Abbot to retire with him into the Diaconicon, there, falling at his feet, he besought him to pray to God for him, inasmuch as he was to die within a few days; and began to speak thus in supplication: "I know, Father, how much trouble you have endured on account of miserable me; how much difficulty I have caused you; and that through you God led me from darkness to light: but pray for me, for God's sake." The Abbot said to him: "What is the matter? Or how do you know you are to die in these days?" He then set forth his dream, and affirmed that he would certainly die in those days, whether by a common death or by some other manner: for he was afraid to speak openly, lest they should ridicule him.

[16] Then, strengthened by many and various exhortations of the Abbot, he completed the canon with the Brethren, and having participated in the synaxis and the divine mysteries and taken food with the Fathers, he slept a little: and waking again, by that desire, he leaves the monastery. unable to bear that ardor of his soul, he departed secretly from the monastery, taking nothing with him except the garment he was wearing, and set out for Diospolis: then to Mount Gerizim, and having prayed there and at the other venerable places, led by the grace of God he came to Caesarea in Palestine: where he stayed two days in the church of the most praised Mother of God, Mary.

CHAPTER III.

Various torments endured at Caesarea.

[17] According to the arrangement of the providence that wisely and benignly disposes all things, while heading toward the church of S. Euphemia for the sake of prayer, he saw in passing, in a certain house, the Magi of the Persians exercising magical arts: He reproves those practicing the magical art: and seized with divine zeal, he approached them and addressed them thus: "Why do you err, and drag others into error by your sorceries?" The men, marveling at his boldness, said: "Who are you, or whence, who says these things to us?" He replied: "I too was once among you, and I know your impostures." And when he had begun to confute them, they fell silent; but they asked him not to reveal their secrets to the public, and so they let him go.

[18] He had scarcely gone a little way from them when certain Cavalrymen, or Horsemen, sitting before the Derbas, which is the praetorium of the Sellarius, saw him and said to one another in their own tongue: "This man is an informer." Hearing this, the blessed man looked at them and said: "What are you chattering about? I am not an informer, he professes himself a Christian: but a servant of Jesus Christ; and I am better than you, since I too was once a Cavalryman like you." They rose up and seized him. The Sellarius came out, and having inquired where he was from and carefully investigated everything pertaining to him, detained him in custody for three days: he is arrested: during which days he was unwilling to accept any food from them, since he held their stratagems suspect.

[19] When Marzabanas arrived (for he had not been at Caesarea when the servant of God Anastasius was arrested), the aforesaid Sellarius reported to him what had taken place and brought him to his praetorium. But since Marzabanas was occupied with other business, there was present a certain Christian man, who had also known the Saint before, while he was staying in the church of S. Mary the Mother of God, and speaking with him and understanding what had already taken place, he is encouraged by a certain Christian: he pronounced him blessed for having so nobly begun to fight for the faith, and strengthened him with divine words, warning him not to dread the tortures or the very death to be undergone for Christ; but to answer Marzabanas bravely and fearlessly; "for he who perseveres to the end, he shall be saved."

[20] The servant of God, being brought in and presented to Marzabanas, by no means fell at his knees in reverence, according to the custom received among them. Marzabanas, fixing his eyes on him for a long time, he is brought before Marzabanas: said: "Who are you, or whence?" The Saint answered: "I am a Christian. But if you wish to know where I am from, I am a Persian by race, from the province of Rhasech, the place called Rhasmemyi. I was a Cavalryman and a magus: but I left the darkness and came to the light." Marzabanas said to him: "Leave this error, and return to your former religion. And we will give you very many gold coins and fine adornment." He truly answered: "May God not permit it, he freely professes the faith of Christ: that I deny Christ." Marzabanas said to him: "Does this garment you wear so please you?" He replied: "This garment is my boast." Marzabanas said to him: "You are driven by a demon." The Saint answered: "When I was held in my former error, then a demon drove me: now Christ is in me, who pursues demons." Marzabanas said: "Do you not fear the King? Lest, if he hears of you, he order you to be crucified?" The Saint said: "Why should I fear him? He is a man subject to corruption, like you."

[21] Then at last, roused to anger, he ordered him to be seized in iron chains and cast into the fortress, and to carry stones without ceasing. he is variously harassed. While engaged in this labor, the servant of God endured many and intolerable vexations. For certain men born in the same province, seeing him and considering what had happened to him as their own disgrace, even by his own countrymen: accosted him, saying: "What is this you have done to us? No one of our province has ever been a Christian. Behold, you expose us to everyone's mockery and reproach." And with various words composed to deceive, they incited one another. But he despised them and drove them away. They, inflamed with fury, came daily, and now tore out his beard, now beat him cruelly, now tore his garments; they also placed upon him stones cruelly bound, he labors: which four of them could scarcely lift — and this while he had another man chained to him, and was bound with one chain about the neck and another about the foot; and they inflicted other cruel things: all of which the unconquered athlete endured with a cheerful countenance.

[22] Marzabanas orders him to be brought before him again and says: "If you are truly the son of a magus, as you said, and trained in magical disciplines, he is brought before Marzabanas again: speak of them, that I may know." The Saint answered: "May God not permit anything of that sort to come from my mouth." Marzabanas said: "What? Then do you persist in this? Return to your former religion. I will then write about you to the King." "You have written," said the Saint, "and received a reply. Do therefore what you wish." Marzabanas replied: "I have not written, but I will write, and whatever he commands I will carry out." The Saint said: "Go, and write whatever evils you wish about me; for I am a Christian." Marzabanas said: "Let him be thrown down and beaten, until he promises to do what is commanded." When they wished to bind him, the servant of God said: "Let me be; I have no need of bonds." And sitting down, he placed himself in the very posture and manner in which he was to be bound by them; and they began to beat him with rods. The Saint said to them: he is severely beaten: "Strip me of this garment, that it may not be harmed; and then strike my flesh: for what you do is child's play. Even if you cut me limb from limb, I will not deny my Christ." Marzabanas said again: "Yield to me, and I will write about you to the King." He answered: "Begone, and write what you wish to the King." Marzabanas said: "What then? Do you not fear the King?" The Saint answered: "Why should I fear your King? Is he not a man, like you? And as you will die, will he not die too? Will he not rot, just as you? Which then shall I more fear — him, subject to corruption, like you, mud? Or Christ, who created heaven and earth?"

[23] Astonished by the Martyr's boldness, that proud man ordered him to be led back to the fortress. After a few days, having been brought out of custody again, he said: "Practice the magical arts and sacrifice, lest you perish miserably, deprived of this light." he mocks the gods of the Persians. The servant of God answered: "To which gods do you command me to sacrifice? The Sun, the Moon, Fire? The horse? And therefore also to mountains and hills and all the rest? May God not suffer me ever to sacrifice to those divinities of yours. For all those things Christ created for the service of men. But you, deluded by a shameful error, worship created things and demons — you who are men, yet ignorant of the God who created those things. For if you knew Christ, you too would embrace the light, and be delivered from the power of the demons who delude you. God, who cannot deceive, promised with His own mouth to give a mouth and wisdom to those suffering for His name, which all their adversaries could not gainsay — He willed this to be proclaimed by an uneducated man, born among barbarians, for His own glory and the confirmation of the faithful." When by these God-inspired words the Martyr of Christ struck his adversaries, and the champion of truth was crowned with a threefold confession, he was again led back to the fortress, nobly adorned with the chains he was suffering for Christ.

a. In Greek, Delator.

CHAPTER IV.

Piety and constancy in prison.

[24] When the most holy Hegumen of the cenobium in which the Martyr of Christ had dwelt understood the beginning of his confession and his great and unshaken eagerness and constancy of soul, he was filled with singular joy together with his entire holy community; and he prayed to God day and night with the whole the Abbot sends two to console him. Brotherhood, that He might give him strength to complete the course of confessing His holy name. Sending two Brethren to Caesarea, he strengthened his spirit's courage with athletic letters. While the Martyr of Christ Anastasius was detained in custody, he never ceased from psalms and hymns, singing glory to God continually day and night.

[25] Since he had chained to him, as has been said, a certain young man, one of the servants seized for some cause, not wishing to cause him any trouble, Anastasius prays at night without disturbing his fellow prisoner. he would indeed rise at night to complete the customary canon of divine praise, but he would incline his neck toward the neck of his companion lying down, placing his foot near the other's foot, so that the tension of the chains would not cause him inconvenience. When therefore he was chanting the psalms one night, a certain one of the guards was listening — a Hebrew by the profession of his sect, but, as we have learned, modest and gentle in character. And seeing the Saint by day being worn down by the carrying of stones, but by night persevering in divine prayers, he stood with an astonished mind, reasoning with himself about who he might be. And gazing at him for a long time, while lying on the pavement in the nocturnal darkness, with the Saint standing and chanting the morning hymns, he suddenly sees certain figures clothed in white entering the prison through the door Angels attend him. and surrounding the Martyr: and a comparable light shone forth broadly. He stood astounded at this spectacle, and said within himself: "Holy God, these are Angels." And while he turned these things in his mind, he sees them wearing cloaks marked with crosses, and said within himself: "These are Bishops." And while he marveled at these things, He himself also shines with heavenly light. he turned his eyes to the Martyr of Christ Anastasius, and he too was resplendent with extraordinary light, as were the others. And behold, a certain young man, surrounded with great glory, stood before him, bearing a censer and burning incense. While that man was observing all these things, he tried to rouse his sleeping neighbor with his hand — who was a Christian, the Prefect of Scythopolis — in order to show him what he had seen: but he could not. He remained therefore stupefied, with watchful reasoning attending to what he had seen, but with body unmoved: at last, however, straining with all his might, he threw his whole self upon the other who was lying down. The latter, waking, asked what the matter was. The Hebrew answered: "Look here." And looking about, they saw absolutely nothing. The Hebrew narrated everything he had seen; and they praised God together with one accord.

[26] After, as has been written, Marzabanas had learned from the first and second interrogation the unconquerable spirit of the servant of God, he wrote about him to King Chosroes, and received within not many days the King's command; and leading him out of the prison, through his Major he said to him: "Behold, the King commands that you merely confess in word that you are not a Christian, and immediately I will release you. Go then where you wish; if you want to be a monk, be one; if a Cavalryman, He refuses to deny Christ even verbally, even in private. as before, and to be with us — do as you wish." The Martyr of Christ answered: "May that not befall me, that I deny my Christ." With many promises and exhortations conveyed through his Major, he was by no means able to move him. At last he signified to him through the same man: "I know that you dread your countrymen and dare not deny Christ before them; but the King commands — say the prescribed words at least before me and two other Sellarii alone, and I will immediately release you." The Saint answered: "May it not befall me that either before you or before others I deny my Christ." Marzabanas sent him word through the same man: "Behold, the King has commanded that you be sent in chains to Persia." The Saint answered: "If you were to release me, I would go of my own accord to the King." When he perceived that the holy Martyr generously resisted every approach and yielded neither to threats nor was softened by blandishments, having stamped him with an impressed seal, he ordered him to be led to the public custody, to set out on the journey within five days, together with two other Christians, whom he also sent sealed with him.

[27] In the meanwhile, as the holy feast of the Exaltation of the venerable Cross drew near, a vigil was celebrated in the prison: Anastasius, two Brethren from his monastery, He keeps the vigil of the holy Cross in prison, and the two above-mentioned Christians, and certain pious men of that city, spending the night in psalms and hymns and the rest of the spiritual feast, so that, having forgotten the miseries of their captivity, they praised God together. Early in the morning a certain Commerciarius, a Christian man, entered to Marzabanas and asked that the chains be removed from Anastasius for a time, and that he be allowed to lead him to the church. the feast in the church; When this was done, there was great joy among the faithful and great consolation for past sufferings, since the Martyr of Christ was present in the church. For the men of that city had fallen into great despair, and their spirits had almost failed from the experience of so many grievous and inexpressible sufferings. and he consoles the citizens. But seeing the faith and constancy of the blessed man, they revived as it were, and grew strong in faith again, forgetting their domestic troubles because of the extraordinary consolation given by the Martyr. And this was remarkable: that those who had been crushed by adversity and scarcely held onto the faith at that time became trainers for the holy Martyr, kissing his chains and saying: "If we are ready to die for Christ on your account, how much more ought you to meet death for Christ, the common Lord of all, with every eagerness?" And they showed him much and indescribable honor, both men and women. When the assembly was over, the Commerciarius, entreating him earnestly and almost using force, led him to his own house with the two Brethren of his monastery. And having taken food with them, he restored him, rejoicing and exulting in the Lord. There too there was likewise great joy among all, glorifying God.

CHAPTER V.

Torments endured in Persia.

[28] When the five-day term had expired, he departed from the city, and together with those two Christ-loving men who had suffered false accusation in some case, was escorted by many Christian citizens, both Persians and of other nations, He is sent to Persia: all giving thanks to God for his resolution. One of his fellow monks accompanied him by the command of his Abbot, for his consolation and service, and afterwards to report fully, by the divine grace assisting, all that had befallen him from beginning to end to the most holy Abbot and the congregation over which he presided. The Martyr's presence brought great joy and consolation in each city and place, on the way he is honored by Christians: and with every honor and glory they all received and escorted him as a Martyr of Christ. The Martyr himself wrote from Hierapolis to the Abbot of his monastery, asking him to pray for him, that Christ might preserve him unharmed amid all that honor and glory. he writes to his Abbot. He wrote also to him from the river Tigris, similarly entreating him to pray to the most benign God, that he might complete his course, to the praise and glory of His most holy name.

[29] When at last the Martyr of Christ had reached Persia, he was cast into custody at the place called Balsaloe, six milestones from Discartas, where the King was residing. The Brother who had gone with him remained in the same place, in the house of Cortac, son of Ihesdin. And while the Saint had been there for some days with those who were held captive there, report was made to Chosroes concerning him; By order of Chosroes, he is examined by a Prefect: who, sending one of his Prefects, ordered him to be examined. The Prefect, coming to the prison with the Tribune who was in charge of the guards, interrogated him — who he was, or where he was from, and why, having left their religion, he had become a Christian. The Martyr of Christ answered through an interpreter, for he did not deign to speak to them in the Persian language, even though much compelled to do so, and said to them: "You err, worshipping demons in place of God. For I too, once captivated by the same error, worshipped them: now I worship and adore the almighty God, He freely confesses Christ: who made heaven and earth and all that is in them; and I have clearly perceived that your divinities are the ruin and deceit of demons." The Prefect said to him: "Wretch, was not He whom the Christians worship crucified by the Jews? How then, deceived, did you leave your religion and become a Christian?" The Martyr answered: "Crucified by the Jews, because He willed it — you speak truly of that. But He it is who made heaven and earth and all that is in them: and it pleased Him to descend to earth and to assume human nature and to be affixed to a cross, so that He might free the human race from the error of Satan, whom you worship. But you, worshipping also the rest, which I am ashamed to name, have vain hopes, and adore created things instead of Him who created them."

[30] The Prefect said to him: "What have you to do with these words? Behold, the divinity of the King has prepared for you a great dignity, he rejects the gifts offered: and golden belts and horses, that you may be among his chief men: only return to your former religion." The Martyr of Christ answered and said: "I do not deny my God, but I adore and venerate Him. The gifts of your King I count as dung." The Prefect departed and reported all these things to the King. The King, angered, sent him back the next day to torture the Martyr. he scorns the threats: The Prefect therefore arrived, inflamed with fury, and ordered him to be led out of the prison; and began to shake him with terrible threats, as he supposed, hoping that he could utterly cast him down and crush him. But the Martyr of Christ answered: "Do not labor, my lord Prefect; for with my Lord Jesus Christ strengthening me, you will never persuade me to abandon the faith." Then he ordered him to be bound in the Persian fashion and savagely beaten with rods, and said: "You refused to yield to the honors and gifts of the Emperor; learn now what you shall have instead. For I shall wear you out with stripes in this manner daily." The holy Martyr of Christ Anastasius answered and said to him: "I am not moved by the gifts of your King, nor do I fear your threats, O impious and unjust man. Do therefore what you wish."

[31] Then he ordered him to be bound supine on the ground, and a beam to be set upon his shins, and two strong men to stand on each end of the beam. We all know how intolerable a form of torture this is. he is savagely tortured: The holy Martyr gave thanks to God, bravely enduring all these labors. When the Prefect saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that by these pains, just as iron is hardened by cold water, he was confirmed by divine power, he ordered him to be led back again to the prison until he had reported to the King about him. Since the Sellarius who presided over the custody was a Christian, the Brother who had followed the Saint from the monastery, taking courage, came to him on alternate days, consoling and encouraging him unto good. he is visited by Christians: Many Christians also who were dwelling there, among whom were the sons of Ihesdin, approached him, and falling at his knees, kissed his chains and prayed that he would pray for them and give them some blessing for their protection. But since the holy Martyr refused this, they poured wax upon his chains, and taking the impression, received it as a blessing.

[32] After a few days the Prefect came again to the prison and addressed the Saint thus: "What do you say? Do you obey the King? Or do you persist in your resolution?" The Saint, shaking his head, looked upon him with disdain, saying: "Once, and twice, and many times I have told you that it cannot be that I deny my Christ. If therefore you wish to do something, do it quickly." Then that savage barbarian ordered him to be bound in the same manner as before and beaten long and mercilessly with rods; he is beaten again with rods: and leaving him in custody, he departed. After some days he came again to him, and using the same arguments exhorted the holy Martyr to repudiate the faith of Christ — now with blandishments and promises of the most ample wealth, now with terrible threats and bitter torments. But when he saw that his resolution sat immovable in his soul, and that the solidity of his faith could not be shaken, he ordered him to be bound, as had been done once and again, and beaten with rods: then to be released and suspended from one hand, he is suspended from one hand, with a stone tied to his foot. and a great stone to be tied to his foot; and thus leaving him, he departed. When the Martyr had endured this torment for a space of about two hours, he sent and ordered him to be taken down; and departing, he reported to the King the Martyr's boldness and his immutable resolution of mind.

CHAPTER VI.

The death of S. Anastasius and his companions. His relics.

[33] After five days the King sent the same Prefect and others with him, to kill the holy Martyr and other Christian captives. Coming, they ordered Anastasius and about seventy other men to be led outside the town of Betsaloe, 72 Christians are killed; where the custody was, to the river: then all to be strangled with cords before the holy Martyr, among whom were also those two Christ-loving men who had been brought from Caesarea with the holy Martyr.

[34] When all had been killed to a man, they said to the Saint: "What do you wish? Do you want to perish miserably with these? Rather yield to the King, and live, and accept the honors he offers, and you will be great in the palace, like one of us; and do not thus forsake this sweet life." But the glorious Martyr of Christ Anastasius, looking up toward heaven, gave thanks to God that his desire was now fulfilled, and answering said to them: "I had hoped to be cut limb from limb by you for the love of my Christ. But if this is the death you threaten, I give thanks to my God that through a brief labor He makes me a sharer in the glory of His holy Martyrs." and S. Anastasius: And so with great joy and eagerness of spirit he underwent a similar death. And after they had strangled him, they cut off his head alone, and taking the sealed impression, sent it to the King.

[35] Since, as has been said, the Sellarius who presided over the custody was a Christian, he wished the body to be placed separately so it could be more easily recognized: but the executioners, who were Hebrews, did not allow it. When the sons of Ihesdin learned of the death of the holy Martyr (for his servants had been present when he was led to death, supporting his hands), they secretly gave the executioners much money, his body is redeemed, and brought it about that the body of the holy Martyr was allowed to be placed separately. The following night, the Brother who had followed from the monastery, taking with him the servants of Ihesdin and certain monks from those who were dwelling there, went to carry off the body of the Martyr. And he found dogs devouring the bodies of the other slain men, but the body of S. Anastasius, placed indeed separately but nearby, untouched by the dogs: entirely untouched by them. "For precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, and He preserves all their bones; not one of them shall be broken." Taking therefore the body of this holy Martyr, he wrapped it in precious linen cloths which the sons of Ihesdin had given, it is laid in the monastery of S. Sergius; and carrying it thence, he laid it in the monastery of the holy Martyr Sergius, which was about one mile distant from the aforesaid town. The glorious Martyr Anastasius completed the contest of his confession of Christ on the twenty-second of January, in the eighteenth year of the reign of the most pious Emperor Heraclius, and the sixteenth of his son Constantine.

[36] On the day after the death of the holy Martyr, therefore, two of those who were in custody were talking together; and one said to the other: "Do you know, Brother, that yesterday dogs came and sat beside the body of that monk, and did not touch it, but stood by as if guarding it? I remained watching this for nearly two hours, and neither did the dogs depart nor touch it." The other said: "I too, returning home in the evening from the watch, caught sight of something like a shining star on the pavement: I approached to see what it was; as I drew nearer, illuminated from heaven by night. the star indeed had ceased to appear, but I beheld the body of that monk lying on the ground." And the guards, marveling, were narrating these things to one another in their native tongue. But certain Christian captives, since they understood the Persian language, heard these things.

[37] Two of these, together with many others, came to the holy city after the death of King Chosroes, to whom the holy Martyr of God Anastasius had foretold, while he was with them in prison, both his own death and their liberation, The Saint had foretold his own death and other future events. and the fall of the King, speaking thus: "Know, brethren, that by the grace of God I shall be finished tomorrow; you will be freed within a few days; and the unjust and wicked King will be taken from the midst of you: but when, with God leading you prosperously, you have arrived at the monastery called that of Abbot Anastasius, narrate these things to the Superior of the monastery and to the Brethren." When therefore those men had heard these things from the Saint, and had then seen with their own eyes the outcome of events, they glorified God who glorifies those who glorify Him: and they carried out what the Martyr had commanded, relating these things to us with their own mouth. But the oft-mentioned Brother of the same monastery buried the body of the holy Martyr and decently placed it in the aforesaid monastery of S. Sergius, and remained there until he could return without danger to the one who had sent him.

[38] The Emperor Heraclius comes to Persia. And after about ten days, on the first of February, our most pious and most religious Emperor arrived with his army: and when the aforesaid Brother saw them, exulting with immense joy, he addressed them in the Roman tongue. They asked him: "What are you doing here?" He set forth to them everything that had been done concerning the holy Martyr. They glorified God and said to the monk: "Arise, come with us, and save your soul." And he was with them the whole time they were in Persia, and returned with them as far as the province of Armenia. After a year he finally returned to the monastery, and accurately narrated everything to the Abbot, and brought the monastic garment of the glorious Martyr, which he had been wearing when he was killed. He also reported that there had been in the monastery where the Martyr's body had been laid a demoniac freed through the monastic garment of S. Anastasius. a certain young monk, whom an impure spirit was violently assailing. After many prayers, his Abbot clothed him with the Martyr's monastic garment, and he was immediately healed by the grace of Christ, to the glory of God, who is glorified in His Saints, to whom belongs all glory, honor, adoration, dominion, majesty, and magnificence — to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and always and forever and ever, Amen.

MIRACLES OF S. ANASTASIUS

By an anonymous author, an eyewitness. Rendered into Latin from the ancient Greek manuscript.

Anastasius the Persian, monk, Martyr in Assyria (S.) Other 70 Martyrs in Assyria

From the Greek manuscript.

I. Concerning the miracle which was performed in the royal city.

After the athletic contests of the glorious Martyr, when the Brother who had been with him had returned from the province of the Persians to the holy city, and had then set out again for Persia to bring back those holy and venerable relics to his monastery, a certain minter of miliaresia, a Persian by race, named Barasur, who had his domicile in the royal city of the Persians, asked the Brother he had found there for a small portion of the sacred relics. S. Anastasius frees a demoniac. Having obtained it and immediately withdrawn from there, he deposited it in his house. He had a friend whom, as the man himself confessed, a demon had severely vexed for twenty-eight years. He therefore washed the relics given him by the Brother with a certain liquid and offered it to his friend to drink: who was immediately restored to health by the power of Christ and of the holy Great-Martyr Anastasius. These things that man himself wrote in Syriac characters in the monastery of the holy Martyr.

II. Concerning the physician.

Also another: A certain physician in the same city was vexed by a wicked spirit. When he had learned that the Brother was present there, he went to him and asked him to give him relics of the Saint. He received them and kept them with him; and immediately he was freed from his disease through the help of the holy Martyr. Infirm people therefore came to him, since he was a physician, he cures various diseases. in great numbers, and he no longer wished to cure anyone with medicines, incisions, cauterizations, or other remedies of that kind which he knew how to use from the precepts of the medical art, but washing the relics of the glorious Martyr, he offered the liquid to the sick as a drink, and in this way restored their health.

III. Concerning the charioteer.

A certain charioteer, named Calotychus, who according to that fortunate name now lives most blessedly, himself also related many great wonders of the holy Martyr, which he had performed in his house in the city of the Persians. Of which I have decided to record a few. He builds an oratory for keeping the relics, He therefore went to the monk, and entreating him, obtained a portion of the venerable relics: and having built an oratory in his house, he placed them there. This charioteer related that he and his companions had one day, after the death of the impious King Chosroes, gone to seek their stipends. But those who presided over the royal affairs, looking at them with a stern countenance, drove them away, saying: "The folly of Chosroes has passed. We do not want a charioteer. Go and work, that you may provide yourselves a livelihood." Having heard this, they departed confused and sorrowful. When therefore they were in great distress and in want of necessary provisions — since they were skilled in that one art alone and had no other income — the wife of the man of whom we speak, grieving, with vehement devotion besought the Saint to help them and supply them with food. When she had finished her prayer, leaving the oratory she found a miliarensis lying on the ground: and giving thanks to God and the Saint, she sent and purchased oil for the Saint's lamp. Within a few days the Saint presented himself to the charioteer to be seen, he appears; and said: "Go again to the palace, and receive your stipends." He arose and called his companions together, and urged them, saying: "Come, he obtains for him the stipends that had been refused. let us go this once more in the name of God and S. Anastasius, to receive our stipends; without doubt we shall obtain them." But they, being deeply afflicted and not believing him, said: "Who is this S. Anastasius? If it happens, we too will believe in him." And rising, they went again to the palace. The officials, seeing them, with all benevolence and kindness gave them their stipends, as they had formerly been accustomed to receive; and dismissed them. Coming to the New City, when each had received ten miliaresia, they held a banquet, giving thanks to God, who grants such grace to His Saints.

IV. Concerning the disciple of the same charioteer.

That Calotychus of whom we have already spoken had disciples learning the same art. Among these, a certain one had long been held by a desire for something, apparently honorable, which, however, through the work of the evil demon He assists a man who vowed to light a candle before the relics: — who is accustomed to oppose such endeavors — he had not achieved. Remembering therefore the holy Martyr, he invoked him as a helper, saying: "Anastasius, if you are now at hand for me, so that I may succeed in completing this matter, I will contribute two miliaresia for a candle to be dedicated to you." Hearing this, his wife said: "Go; for I believe in the God of S. Anastasius, that you will obtain what you wish and return, having accomplished it." He departed, and what he had long desired to accomplish but had been unable to, he achieved in one hour. And returning with immense joy, carrying two miliaresia, he cried out: "Great is the God of S. Anastasius! Accept the two miliaresia which I promised I would offer to your holy temple." And from that time the said New City began to flock to the charioteer's house. And many who were afflicted with various diseases slept in the Martyr's oratory, he heals many sick people. and departed free from all affliction and restored to health.

V. Concerning the son of the painter.

A certain painter had a son of about fifteen years, whom an evil spirit, dwelling in him, tormented. He frees a demoniac: He went to the charioteer and entreated him thus: "Let my son be brought," he said, "so that he may sleep in the oratory of him whose wonders you proclaim, that we too may believe." The boy was therefore brought to the charioteer's house, and he placed him in the oratory. Whenever he was inside, he suffered no trouble from the demon: but if he went a little outside the oratory, the enemy would seize him, tear him, and torment him. They, recognizing the malice of the demon, washed the relics and gave him a drink from them daily, and suspended the relics themselves from his neck. And thus by the goodness of God the boy was cured, and went away praising and glorifying God and giving thanks to S. Anastasius.

VI. In the city of Palmyra.

The aforesaid monk, therefore, taking with him the holy relics, set out on the journey toward the holy city of Christ our God, and came to the city of Palmyra. The citizens came out to adore the sacred relics; and among them a certain young man with swollen eyes, who stood weeping and beseeching the Martyr that through him God would show him mercy and cure his blindness. When the Brother inquired about the cause of his disease and how long the illness had held him, the citizens answered: "It is already four years since he has been able to see, At Palmyra, he restores sight to a blind man. and he has spent all his resources on physicians, and has finally been made completely blind." The Brother said to him: "If you believe that God can help you, you shall see His glory through S. Anastasius." And he cried out, saying: "I believe indeed." He said to him again: "You must therefore fast and receive the grace of God." The man said: "I will abstain from everything you command; but I cannot abstain from wine for many days." The Priest said to him: "Not even for seven days?" And he said: "Absolutely." The Brother had outside the sacred case a small portion, which he took and washed and gave to him, commanding him to open his eyes and anoint his pupils. He went away and did as commanded, and within seven days he returned healed, praising and glorifying God and His Martyr Anastasius.

VII. Concerning the unbelieving woman.

Come now, let us also narrate, as far as possible, the things done by the Saint at Caesarea in Palestine. The relics are received at Caesarea with great solemnity. When the holy body drew near to the holy city, it was made known to the whole city: and all were filled with great joy, and rising and striking the sacred wood, they assembled in the most venerable temple of the Mother of God, which is called "the New." And then with Crosses and a Litany they came out to meet the holy relic, glorifying, rejoicing and exulting, and as if reviving — indeed refreshed by the presence of the Martyr — from the weakness of faith that was in them, and from the deadening of other vices, they received great consolation. And while they were praying, kissing, and rolling about the tomb, and paying the due tribute to the relic and the memory of this Saint, a certain woman who was, as it were, among the notables of the Caesareans (if it be right so to say, and not rather otherwise, as the events themselves made clear), named Arete (that is, "Virtue"), but in her conduct entirely contrary to virtue, said in disbelief: "I do not adore a relic that comes from Persia." A matron who despises them O wretched and senseless soul, who did not hear, unhappy woman, the most sacred Psalmist David rebuking the audacity of the wicked and saying: "Restrain your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile." Psalm 33:14. What therefore does God, who glorifies those who glorify Him, do to her? I shall tell in order. When the holy relic had entered the city, the citizens of that city, having taken counsel together, began to build an oratory for the Saint near the Tetrapylon, which was in the middle of the city: and they set up his image there. While it was still being built, the Martyr appeared in her dreams to that unhappy woman, in the habit of a monk, and said to her: she is punished with severe pain when the Saint appears to her in dreams; "Do your loins pain you?" And she said to him: "No, my lord, I have nothing wrong; I am well." And together with that word she awoke, and feeling that a powerful pain had fallen upon her, she began to cry out, groan, and suffer without ceasing, so that she could not breathe at all, enduring unbearable pain, so that, taking leisure, she considered with herself and inquired who he had been, and from what cause such a sudden pain had been inflicted upon her. But in this state she spent four days: and on the fifth day at dawn she saw the Saint standing before her and saying: "Go down to the Tetrapylon and pray to S. Anastasius, and you will be healed." And she, rising and recalling her wicked words which she had spoken against her own head, called her servants and said to them: "Take me, admonished by him, she goes to the relics, take me, that we may go to the Tetrapylon of S. Anastasius; for I now know, having been taught, to adore and honor a relic that comes even from Persia: and what God has cleansed, not to call common." Her servants therefore lifted her up on a litter (that is, a carrying-chair) and proceeded. And when they drew near to the place, she from afar raised her eyes she is healed by him. and seeing the image of the Saint, began to cry out with a great voice and with a flood of tears: "This is in truth the one whom I saw in my dreams, foretelling to me the evils that hold me." And when she had cast herself upon the pavement and wept much, with the Saint appeased, she was raised up healed. And she who shortly before was being carried by others and was in danger at death's door, went home on her own feet, praising and glorifying God in concord with the others and magnifying the Martyr.

VIII. Concerning what happened to a soldier's horse.

The relics are brought to the Tetrapylon. When the venerable Tetrapylon had been built in the name of the holy Martyr and already completed, and when the translation of the relics was taking place, another miracle worthy of commemoration occurred. In the month of March (for at its beginning a certain solemn custom had become established among the soldiers, that they adorn their horses and enter the field and exercise themselves and produce, as it were, a specimen of a military encounter), after these things had been done, it happened that a certain soldier was racing his horse against another: and when he wished to rein in and stop the horse at the appointed place, he could not. As he was therefore being carried through the middle of the city, he came closer to the venerable Tetrapylon, and being unable any longer to draw breath or to check its momentum, he crashed into a very great upright stone, on the far side of which two little boys were standing. Certain persons miraculously preserved unharmed. The horse fell on the spot, and the soldier was thrown off: but the stone was broken, and crushed the boys beneath it. This event, or rather crime, was contrived by the wicked demon, yet it did not have the desired outcome, since the most benign God, through His Saint, inflicted upon the demon the confusion and punishment he deserved. For neither did the soldier thrown from the horse sustain any injury, nor the horse that had fallen, nor the boys caught under the stone: so wisely and benignly does that providence mercifully govern our race, even though we are for the most part laden with immense crimes, and even now and forever works wonders among us through the holy Martyrs.

IX. Concerning the son of the Subdeacon.

A certain Subdeacon of the holy Church of God which is at Caesarea had a son of about twelve years; A dying boy recovers. who was seized by a severe disease. And when it had lasted for some days, at last he succumbed, and having become entirely livid, he wasted away so that his bones clung to his flesh, and he forgot, as the Prophet says, to eat his bread. Psalm 101:5. For thirteen full days he took absolutely no food, as his father testified, and he lay without a voice. What hope was therefore left for him? Already others were consoling the father with fitting words and at the same time urging him to make arrangements with cheerfulness for the funeral of his son. When therefore no art could any longer heal the sick boy, then the Almighty and most benign God showed His own mercy toward man through the holy Martyr. For a certain one of the father's acquaintances said to him: "If you had the apomyrisma, that is, the liquid with which the relics of S. Anastasius have been washed, you would see wonders." He said: "I have it." And taking the liquid, he anointed the boy, who immediately began to sweat profusely. Then the physician arrived and, seeing him still breathing — indeed, doing better — and astonished, he too glorified God. And taking him, he washed him and gave him nourishment. And thus he was made well through the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord. His father also built an oratory for the Saint, celebrating a feast annually in thanksgiving.

X. Concerning the sailor who was vexed by a demon.

When these things were being spread throughout all Caesarea, a certain sailor, vexed by an unclean spirit and suffering grievously from it, came and prayed that he might be helped by the Saint's patronage, so that he too might become a herald of his miracles with the others. While he persevered in the church of the Saint, the Saint appeared to him in his sleep and said: "What ails you? I am Anastasius the Persian. Go to Abbot George, and he will give you relics, and wearing them you will be healed." He went to him, revealed the dream, and entreated that he might obtain at least a small portion: A demoniac is freed. and when he had received it, he placed it in a silver case and hung it around his neck. The following night the spirit who hates virtue appeared to him in human form and said to him: "Do you wear the relics of S. Anastasius?" He said: "Absolutely." Hearing this, the demon said: "Truly, if you wear them, I depart." And from that hour that man was made well, by the grace of Christ and the intercession of the holy Martyr. Many therefore, afflicted with various diseases, came to the venerable Tetrapylon, and invoking the Martyr, departed healed. A certain receptor of the temple of the holy and glorious Martyr Cornelius, Also another demoniac. named John, surnamed Saluphius, had a wife whom a demon so terribly tormented that he even broke her hip and, fixing her to her bed, tortured her to the utmost. This John found a certain man carrying the Saint's relics, and calling him over, he received from him two bissae (or vessels) of the apomyrisma — one of water, the other of wine — so that he might anoint her whole body with the wine and give her the water to drink. And in this way she was restored to health and glorified God, who provides the means of salvation to all who desire to be saved.

XI. Concerning the boy healed at Diospolis.

When the sacred relics had departed from Caesarea toward the holy city of Christ our God, An ailing infant healed at Diospolis. they came to Diospolis. And a certain Deacon, prominent in the clergy of that Church, had an only son, recently born, who was oppressed by illness and had not nursed for four entire days. And while the father was greatly afflicted in spirit, certain people said to him: "Why do you not adore the holy relics which have been brought from Persia?" But he, dejected in spirit, said: "If I am to know that he is a Saint, let him raise my son, and I will believe that he suffered for Christ." And that very night the infant was healed and nursed. And his father, rising, took him and his mother and all his household, and venerated the Saint's relics, glorifying and praising God and His Martyr Anastasius.

XII. Concerning the woman who had strayed from the road.

Having thus far run through the very many miracles performed by the Saint on the journey and at Caesarea, we have narrated but a few. To these miracles it is fitting to add another grace, namely the compassion of the Saint. A certain woman named Photi, who had become a servant of the sacred hospital for the blind, situated in the holy city of God, was going to Emesa on account of some domestic business together with others traveling in the same direction. Since it was winter and rain was falling, it happened that she, being weaker and wearied by the labor of the journey, came into the region beyond the Jordan. When evening was approaching and her companions had deserted her, looking about and not recognizing which way she should go, she began to be distressed in spirit, to be at a loss; to consider the unfamiliar road, the unseasonable hour, the ambushes of beasts and serpents and demons — things known to those who are accustomed to making journeys. Coming a little to herself, therefore, she prostrated herself on the ground, wailing and lamenting the danger that had unexpectedly come upon her, and was invoking the Saint to be her helper and guide in her wandering, crying aloud with a great voice: "S. Anastasius, now show your wonders also toward me." The Saint appears to her as she wanders and leads her back to the road. While she was thus crying out and imploring him with hot tears, behold, he too hears her supplication, and skillfully imitating the Lord, he stands by her as she wanders, in the appearance of a monk, and taking her hand, he lifts her up; and walking with her all the way to the village where her companions were, he then ceased to be seen. Then she recognized that it was the Saint who had led her, and began to glorify God before all, and to narrate what had happened to her on the road, and the aid that had been shown her by the Saint.

XIII. Concerning the Optio.

A certain Optio was passing through the province of Samaria, with a military band following him. Toward evening they turned aside to the village of a certain Samaritan, whose character I cannot depict otherwise than by his very name. For the Prophet rightly says of them: "Wickedness is in their dwellings, in the midst of them." Psalm 54:16. This man therefore, endowed with diabolical character and receiving from the devil gifts not of healing but of deceit, A wicked Samaritan mixes poison for the Optio: mixed poison with the food and set it before the Optio. He, ignorant of the ambush, simply took the food, and the next day rose and continued the journey he had begun. Shortly afterwards his left jaw began to be contorted, and everything was hideously distorted, so that his mouth was brought close to his left ear. It happened therefore that he ate with certain honored men, who seeing him in that state appeared to pity him. He said: "Certain men of my band advise me to anoint the affected parts with the apomyrisma of S. Anastasius, and they promise that I shall certainly be cured." Those who heard this called him back, as though making light of the Saint, and said — one: "There is no better Martyr than S. Theodore"; another: "than S. George"; another: "S. Mercurius"; and each according to his own faith. Having somewhat agreed with them, he was more negligent in tending his health. But the following night, while sleeping, he saw himself sitting with those who had diverted him from the salutary counsel, and a certain Anastasius, who had then been made a soldier, standing before them, holding a club in his hands and breaking the heads of those who had tried to make him more negligent. But when he finally came to him, he began to beseech him and cry out: "Please, my lord! I have nothing against you." he is healed by S. Anastasius. The Saint said to him: "I too know that you have become negligent and listened to men who are ready to criticize." And so the holy Martyr of God, anointing his jaw and mouth, restored them to their proper position by the grace of Christ.

XIV. Concerning the soldier.

A certain soldier from the fifteenth band of the Illyriciani had been suffering extreme pain in the liver for the space of four years, and having nearly exhausted his life on many physicians, had made no progress. A pain of the liver is cured. Hearing from a senior member of his own band about S. Anastasius, he had recourse to him. The senior said to him: "If you believe in the God of S. Anastasius, I will give you the apomyrisma, and you will recover." He, accepting the word with faith, asked for the apomyrisma, and having received it, went away to his winter quarters, that is, the station assigned for wintering: and within four months he returned healed, giving thanks to God and the holy Martyr.

XV. Concerning the nun of Constantinople.

When the Brother wished to go to that God-guarded city with the holy relics, and was making the journey through Syria, Cilicia, Cappadocia, and the other provinces, what manner of miracles and how many were performed by this Saint, The relics are brought to Constantinople: who, a sinner like me, could unfold, and worthily relate the glory of each? Therefore I purposely pass over many, lest in attempting to relate them consecutively I appear to repeat the same things in empty verbosity for those who are inattentive of mind. These events shine even more brightly hitherto and hereafter among those who were born in those places. Let us hear now the wonder that was performed in the royal city. A certain religious woman, from the monastery which is called that of the Augusta, situated near the church of S. Thomas which is surnamed Apostolion, had a cancer in her breast; which the physicians, seeing it, said to her: "This malady will burst today or tomorrow; a nun is healed of a lethal cancer. and after it has burst it will penetrate to the heart and bring death." She, having received the fatal sentence from the physicians without evasion, began to be afflicted in spirit and to wail bitterly. But hearing the astounding miracles of the Saint, and how merciful and benign he is toward all, and having embraced his cause with right faith, she had indeed God penetrating her heart, usefully saying to her through the Saint: "Take courage, daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace." Sending therefore to the monk, she received the apomyrisma, and anointing the breast in which the malady was lodged, she was healed, by the beneficence of the most benign God and the holy Martyr Anastasius.

XVI. Concerning the demoniac.

When the Brother then returned from that most celebrated city to the holy city of our God, he came with certain others to Abydos. None of the passengers, nor indeed the captain himself, knew that he had relics in the ship. When therefore on the Lord's Day they had put in at the city, On the Lord's Day they attended the sacred mysteries. they disembarked from the ship so that they might be deemed worthy of the venerable and holy mysteries; and having partaken of them, all returned again to the ship. Only the captain meanwhile remained outside: but the monk reclined in the ship and slept a little. A demoniac is freed. It happened at Abydos, by God's permission, that a certain Brother was being vexed by an unclean spirit. And while they lingered there a little and waited for the captain, the demon cried out: "Unless the relics that are in the ship come, I will plunge this creature into the sea." Hearing this, the captain ran to the ship and, calling his servant, roused the monk, and putting him under oath, asked whether he had relics with him. When the monk in turn inquired about the reason, the sailor said with great urgency: "Rise quickly, so that we may free the man." He arose, took the holy relics, and disembarked from the ship. But as he entered the church, the demoniac seized his own garment and tore it from top to bottom; and he stood naked, enduring his torment and crying out: "Begone, dog-eater! Why do you come to me? You were once mine; but now you have come against me." And suddenly, as if thrown out, he leapt onto the ambo and smashed three of the candles suspended there. But the Brother entered beneath the altar, weeping and giving thanks to God, who had visited him through His holy Martyr Anastasius.

XVII. Concerning the woman possessed by a demon.

The monk came with the holy relics to Ascalon, where a certain woman had a daughter severely afflicted by an unclean spirit and dwelling with the other demoniacs in the sacred church of our Lady the Mother of God. She, afflicting and tormenting herself daily, heard about the miracles of the holy Martyr from another woman, Also another demoniac. and seeing that pious man, she asked for the apomyrisma, which he gave her, and a little bit from the sinew of the sacred right hand of the holy Martyr. She tied the sinew to the girl's neck, and gave her the apomyrisma to be anointed with, and she, wearing the sacred relics and anointed with the apomyrisma, as soon as she...

Here one leaf had been torn from the manuscript.

...and to be troubled in spirit. His wife, hearing this, inquired from him what ailed him. "I ache in all my limbs," he said, "as if thirty men were beating me with rods." About the hour of the morning canon he began to convulse, foam, and cry out. Early in the morning his wife sent for the Brother of Theophanes. For he was his friend. He came, and when he saw him so changed and biting his own tongue, asked by his wife, he brought the image of this Saint, the worker of miracles, and placed it at his head. The demon is restrained by the image of S. Anastasius; He then became quiet and remained motionless and free of disturbance for two hours. Then the other man took the image back and went home. As soon as the wretched man was deprived of the Saint's protection, the evil spirit, seeing this, attacked him again, and seizing him nearly suffocated him and tried to hurl him to the ground from the height where he was. Then again his wife sent to the house of Theophanes, asking him to come with the greatest speed before some misfortune should be inflicted on him by the demon. He arose together with the monk, and taking the Saint's relics and image, went and found him raving and threatening to throw himself down from the height. Seizing him they laid him down and placed the image and relics of the Saint at his head. And again he became quiet and remained motionless for five days. For this reason he was given up by many physicians. But after the fifth day he lifted his eyes and began to recognize those who were visiting him and said: "For God's sake, my lords, do me a favor and give satisfaction to those monks." They asked: "Which monks?" He, nodding his head, said: "Those who are standing among you. For one of them struck me with rods and broke my hands, so that I cannot move them. And if the other had not helped me, he would have killed me entirely." While he was saying these things, those who had gathered understood that the one was S. Anastasius himself, and the other, about whom we shall treat in the following miracle, was the holy Abbot Cyrus. For this befits the Saints, that they accompany one another, then the demoniac is freed. not because this is superfluous — for to each grace has been given in part according to the measure of faith — but so that they may show us the undivided love which the grace of the Holy Spirit is accustomed to distribute among the Saints. The relics of the holy Martyr remained there until the sick man was completely restored to health. Then at night the Saint appeared to the wife of Theophanes and said: "I have done what was mine to do for that man: tell your husband to go and place me back in my place." When she had told this to her husband, he went and brought the image and sacred relics back to his house. And from that hour the man was completely healed, by the grace and benevolence of the best and greatest God, and by the patronage of the Martyr...

The rest, which is to be lamented, was missing from the manuscript.