ON THE HOLY MARTYRS OF EDESSA, SARBELIUS AND BARBEA.
Under Trajan.
CommentarySarbelius, Martyr at Edessa in Mesopotamia (S.) Bebaea or Barbaea, Martyr at Edessa in Mesopotamia (S.)
From various sources.
[1] Edessa, an ancient city of Mesopotamia, toward the borders of Armenia, is ennobled by many trophies of Saints. Among them is Sarbelius with his sister Barbea. The feast day of these Martyrs, Their memory is celebrated on various days in the ecclesiastical calendars: 29 January, 15 October (not the fifteenth day before the Kalends of October, as Baronius wrote here in his Annotations to the Martyrology), and perhaps also 4 and 5 September. Nor are their names always written in the same way: names, Sarbelius, elsewhere Sarbilus, Sarbelus, Sarbelos, and in Galesin's Notes Sabbellus, in Ferrarius Sarbeolus. She whom Baronius calls Barbea is everywhere called Bebaea by the Greeks, as if one were to say Constans, or Constantia.
[2] We have received the Acts of these Martyrs from the Martyrologies alone. The Roman Martyrology for 29 January reads thus: At Edessa in Syria, of the holy Martyrs Sarbelius and his sister Barbea, Acts from the Martyrologies, 29 January, who, having been baptized by Blessed Barsimaeus the Bishop, were crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Trajan under the governor Lysias. Galesin gives a fuller account, from the Greeks, as he acknowledges: At Edessa, of the holy Martyrs Sarbelius and his sister Barbea. He was a priest of idols, vehemently rebuked for his impiety by Barsimaeus, Bishop of that city, and with the help of God's grace, heeding his words, was imbued with the Christian religion, and was baptized together with his sister. When the governor Lysias learned of this, he had Sarbelius seized and first beaten with rods, lacerated with a scraper, and scorched with fire; then enclosed between two pieces of wood and sawn apart: and finally commanded that he, together with his sister, who had previously been most grievously and variously tortured, be beheaded under the Emperor Trajan.
[3] But the Greek Menaea read: On the same day (29 January), the commemoration of the holy Martyrs Sarbelus and his sister Bebaea, from the Menaea on the same day, who suffered at Edessa. They lived in the reign of Trajan. S. Sarbelus was a sacrificing priest of diabolical error and impure victims, who, when at a certain festive celebration of the demons he had begun the impious rites in the accustomed manner, was rebuked by Barsimaeus the Bishop and sharply reproved, as one who had been the cause of ruin to many, and was pricked in his heart by the grace of Christ; and induced by the Bishop's words, he embraced the divine faith together with Bebaea, his own sister, and was cleansed by the same Bishop with the saving waters. Then, brought before the governor Lysias for examination, Sarbelus was first beaten with rods, then cut with knives, then his face was shaved, and with his hands bound behind his back his belly was beaten, then suspended by one hand he was again lacerated, and finally various parts of his body were burned with applied torches: and at last he carried away the crown of martyrdom, when he was placed in a certain machine and crushed and split from the head, and finally struck with an axe. His sister Bebaea was also beheaded by the command of the same governor.
[4] But on 15 October, the same Menaea record these events somewhat more distinctly: from the same, 15 October. On the same day, of the holy Martyrs Sarbilus and his sister Bebaea. In the times of Trajan, S. Sarbilus, a priest of idols, was taught the mysteries of the faith and baptized by the holy Bishop, together with his sister Bebaea. Having been denounced as a Christian before the Prefect of the city of Edessa, he was brought before his tribunal, and the Prefect first ordered him to be beaten with rods. But when the Saint made many jests against him and his idols and the Emperor, the enraged governor had him beaten with ox-hide whips not once or twice, but seven times in alternating rounds, lacerated with hooks, and burned with torches. While these things were done, and the Saint, fixed upon God, prayed, the Lord of hosts mitigated his pains. Observing his noble spirit in enduring tortures, the tyrant again ordered him brought forth, and had nails driven into his head, then ordered him sawn apart. But when the Saint had emerged unharmed from both torments by divine power, those standing by were astonished. When his sister Bebaea saw these things, she openly professed herself a Christian before the Judge. He, having cruelly lacerated her with scourges, shut her in prison. And seeing that the Saint, suspended by one hand and with the skin of his body torn off, was still breathing, he ordered both to be beheaded. But certain of the faithful, having secretly taken up their bodies, committed them to the earth, praising and blessing God, Amen.
[5] The Menologion published by Henry Canisius reads: On the same day, the commemoration of the holy Martyrs Sarbilus and his sister Bebaea under the Emperor Trajan. from the Menologion, But Baronius cites a Menologion in which their martyrdom is thus described: Sarbelius, a priest of idols, was converted to the faith of Christ together with his sister Barbea through Barsimaeus, Bishop of Edessa, and both were seized: after the most grievous torments, Sarbelius was bound between two pieces of wood and sawn apart; and his sister was beheaded. If these things are found thus in that manuscript of Sirletus, which Baronius elsewhere acknowledges he used, it is manifest that it differs greatly from the Ingolstadt edition which Canisius published. Galesin records the same day: At Edessa, of the holy Martyrs Sarbelius and his sister Barbaea; and Galesin. who, under the Emperor Trajan, being accused of the Christian religion, were brought to trial before the Prefect of that city, were first grievously tortured, and then, noble for their illustrious confession of faith, received the palm of martyrdom by the severing of their necks. Ferrarius also records them on that day.
[6] These appear to be the same persons, certainly they suffered the same things, who are celebrated with Thatuel on 4 September in the same Greek Menaea. For they read thus:
Both Thatuel and Bebaea being cut down / Found a sure life in place of a false one. / Zarbelus, not venerating impure worship, / Is pelted with stones by the hands of impure men. Whether the same on 4 September in the Menaea,
They lived under the Emperor Hadrian. Thatuel was a priest of diabolical error: but being rebuked by a certain Bishop, he yielded to the faith. For this reason, by Augarus the prince, his face was beaten with rods, with his hands bound behind his back he was burned, and his belly was beaten. Suspended by one hand, he was shaved, and with fire placed beneath he was burned. Then, placed in a carpenter's machine, he was sawn from the head downward, and finally by the sword completed his contest.
[7] The Roman Martyrology as augmented by Baronius has Thamelus in place of Thatuel. On the same day, he says, of SS. Thamelis, formerly a priest of idols, and his companions, Martyrs under the Emperor Hadrian. and Menologion? Baronius in his Notes calls him Thamuel, citing the Menologion, in which he is called Thatuel. For it reads thus: On the same day, the Birthday of the holy Martyrs Petronius, Charitina, Zarbelus, Thatuel, and Bevaea, who shed their blood for Christ under the Emperor Hadrian. Of these, Thatuel, when he was a priest of demoniacal falsehood, was converted to the faith of Christ by a certain Christian Bishop. For this reason, by Augarus, the governor of that region, he was beaten with rods, his eyes were burned, and with his hands bound behind his back he was struck on the belly, suspended by one hand he was lacerated; afterward, with a mason's instrument, he was sawn from the crown of his head together with his sister Bevaea, and finished by the sword.
[8] Who would not suspect the same Bebaea, the same Sarbelus, and Thatuel to be Sarbelus's brother, or Sarbelus himself under the double name Sarbelus Thatuel, or by the single word Sarbelthatuel? For as to the fact that these are said to have suffered under Hadrian, those under Trajan: perhaps they were seized under Trajan and put to death under Hadrian: or the persecution was ordered by Trajan, and the execution carried out afterward by Hadrian or his governors. Both certainly attacked nations toward the east. That the latter group -- Sarbelus, Bebaea, and Thatuel -- were of Edessa, whether they are the same or different from the former, we conjecture from the name of Augarus, or Abgarus, Abgari, or Augari, Kings of Edessa, the governor: that name was familiar to the rulers of Osroene, whose capital was Edessa. Hence Augarus the Osroenian, allied to the Romans by treaty under Pompey, later favoring the Parthians, was the cause of Crassus's disaster, as Dio records, book 40. Another, about eighty-five years later, was the most celebrated Abgarus, the prince of Edessa, who sent messengers to Christ the Savior and received from him the image not made by hands, of which there is frequent mention in ecclesiastical writers. Then this Augarus, in the times of Trajan or Hadrian, opposed our religion, which S. Thaddaeus had brought to Edessa when the earlier Abgarus had been healed and baptized, perhaps to gain favor with the Romans. Whether Lysias held the prefecture of the city in his own name or in the name of the Emperor is uncertain. This is perhaps the same Abgarus of whom Julius Capitolinus speaks in his Life of Antoninus Pius: He removed King Abgarus from the Eastern regions by his authority alone. There was also an Abgarus, King of the Persians, subdued by Severus, as Spartian attests. Finally, Xiphilinus, the epitomator of Dio, in his account of Antoninus Caracalla writes: When Augarus, King of the Osroenians, had come to him as to a friend, he broke faith with him, seized him, and threw him into chains, and took Osroene, now deprived of its king.
[9] Moreover, those whom the Menaea and Menologion celebrate on 4 September, Thatuel and Bebaea, Galesin records on the following day, Acts from Galesin, 5 September, with these words: In Greece, of the blessed Martyrs Thatuel and his sister Bebea. She, under the Emperor Hadrian, inflamed with the ardor of the faith, turned very many from false worship by her exhortations. She was therefore thrown into custody, first cruelly beaten; then lacerated with scrapers down to the bone, and finally pierced through the throat with a lance. He, for his part, having always professed the faith of Christ the Redeemer with the utmost freedom of speech, not moved from his resolution by any of the torments with which he was variously and horribly afflicted, was at last raised upon a wooden frame and sawn asunder in the middle with an iron saw, and bore away the palm of a noble martyrdom. Galesin writes that he translated these from a Greek book. Petronius, who is joined with these Martyrs on 4 September in the Menologion, is said in the Menaea to have been a disciple of S. Paul the Apostle, and, after the death of S. John, the spiritual father and teacher of piety for S. Hermione the Virgin, daughter of Philip the Deacon, and does not pertain to the Osroenians. Charitina (unless she is the one venerated on 5 October, or on 12 June, or perhaps Charis, whom, though obscure, we gave on 28 January) is unknown to us. We shall treat of Barsimaeus, who baptized Sarbelius and Barbea, on 30 January.