ON ST. RAYMUND THE CONFESSOR,
AT TOULOUSE IN GAUL.
ELEVENTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Raymund, confessor, at Toulouse in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
§ I. On the cult of St. Raymund, restored in the 17th century.
Toulouse, as an ancient and magnificent city, fully described by Catel, the ancient writers of old praised, among whom Martial repeatedly calls it Palladium. Likewise it was called turreted and fivefold, adorned with a capitol, whence perhaps even today there are eight Capitouls, or as many regions, A view of Toulouse into which the city is divided, subject to prefects of the same name. It is assigned by Catel to Narbonese Gaul, not to Aquitania, the head of the ancient Volcae Tectosages. It is a powerful city, very ample and most frequented by people, the chief city of the province of Occitania, or as we now speak of Languedoc, situated on the river Garonne, which is there joined by a most beautiful bridge. It was once subject to the Archbishop of Narbonne, then of Bourges, first raised to a metropolis by Pope John XXII. How much it suffered, on the occasion of the tumults stirred up by the Albigensians, I judge to be commonly known. It remains today a most celebrated city, illustrious for its supreme Court of Parliament, its noble Academy, and other prerogatives no less notable, and will grow further in fortunes and opulence if the canal begun by King Louis XIV, by which free access for ships from the Mediterranean sea should lie open to Toulouse, obtain its wished-for issue, with free navigation thereby to the Ocean by the Garonne, so that it will be a rich emporium of both seas. This brief notice we premise, about to treat of the Saint who obtained his surname from that city, Raymund of Toulouse.
[2] Among the first apostles of Gaul St. Saturninus is deservedly counted, where a canon in the church of St. Saturninus, to whom the people of Toulouse fell to be cultivated, among whom he himself, crowned with a glorious martyrdom, is even to this day revered with singular veneration as the protector and tutelary patron of the city, a temple built in his honor, either in the suburb or near Toulouse, where was founded a college of Canons, which is named from the Saint, by a corrupted French appellation, Saint Sernin. Of that chapter, once more than once changed, inasmuch as it consisted first of canons living regularly under the prefecture of a Provost, then for a short time of monks, then of canons regular of St. Augustine, over whom from the year 1118, according to Catel, an Abbot presided, until at last in the year 1526 seculars succeeded the regulars; of that chapter, I say, is reported to have been a member the one of whom we treat, St. Raymund (in Castellanus Ragmundus), fellow-countryman, of the same name, and almost equal to another saint, Prior of the church of St. Saturninus, then Bishop of Barbastro and Roda. Of that other St. Raymund it was treated on the 21st of June; this our one, at that church of St. Saturninus, in his youth discharged the office of cantor (choir-leader, I suppose); afterward joined in matrimony, at last, his wife having died, was co-opted among the Canons, and, as he was earnestly devoted to works of charity, is said to have been elected almoner, or perhaps steward, in which office he himself, at his own expense, splendidly restored the fallen or ruined church of St. Saturninus, and, distinguished for other works of mercy toward the poor, and for the foundation of a hospice, or college for the maintenance of clerics, was most celebrated at Toulouse.
[3] On narrating these things especially he insists who distributed some sort of Legend of this St. Raymund into nine short lections, St. Raymund was wholly aflame with works of charity. hitherto in manuscript, as below at length. Specimens of those works occur at once in lection 2: Raymund, wholly a Saint, kindled with an inestimable ardor of charity, whatever he obtained of the revenues of the estates which he had acquired for himself, he took care, desiring to transmit it into the heavenly treasures through the hands of the poor, in a work of piety. For every year, the winter time approaching, he bought from the revenue of his property what garments he could, and distributing them one by one to individuals, he strove to exercise the works of mercy secretly, at fitting hours, withdrawing them from human gaze, lest the breeze of favor should dissolve them. Such things recur at the very beginning of lection 3: Every year also, at the entrance of the Lenten observance and on the more solemn feasts, preparing food for a hundred and more poor, he ministered abundantly; nor yet on that account, as though content with these, did he recall his mind from the daily administration of alms. Full of encomiums of this kind are the things which follow in the aforesaid lections, so that our Saint seems to have been wholly aflame with works of charity of that kind, from his first conversion to God.
[4] Here it comes to mind to wonder that examples of so singular and so inexhaustible a charity lay hidden thus under a bushel for many centuries, Once scarcely known outside Toulouse, so that the sanctity of so great a man did not extend its rays beyond the walls of Toulouse; nor even there so recognized and admitted but that it found detractors, whom especially the composer of the aforesaid lections refutes, describing no less the vindication of St. Raymund than the series of his life, and that dry enough and perfunctory. Indeed it will seem scarcely credible to many that the memory of that Saint, celebrated nowhere in any ecclesiastical calendars, placed nowhere in so many Usuardine additions, nay, not even known to Constantine Ghini, so liberal and so diligent a collector of all the holy Canons, should first have become known to our Elders through the appendix of Saussay: whence I suspect that Bollandus had recourse to our people of Toulouse, that he might receive from thence a fuller notice, which in the year 1643 our distinguished Possinus, then still younger, suggested, sending the manuscript lections which I have just indicated, neither very exact nor accurately transcribed, perhaps because the copyist did not sufficiently distinguish the ancient script, nor, being not sufficiently skilled in the Latin tongue, knew how to distinguish solecisms from correct constructions.
[5] In the title of those lections Raymund is expressly called most blessed; on the occasion of a plague driven off from his countrymen in the year 1652, in the text everywhere a Saint, nay, wholly a Saint, and he is depicted as a worker of illustrious miracles, in the more laborious proving of which the three last lections are spent. The author of the French Life, printed in the year 1656, Jean Baptiste Jalras, of the family of St. Francis, in the very beginning of his work did not hesitate to call St. Raymund a Thaumaturge. Further, from that French Legend, and from another Latin one, which in the year immediately preceding a man not unlearned, nor unskilled in the speech of Latium, who wished to lie hidden under the letters B. M., had published, and who at the end of his little work heaps up very many testimonies, that he may more evidently demonstrate the title of excellent sanctity due to Blessed Raymund, which, described in §4 of this commentary, you will find: from these legends, I say, I would believe that the more celebrated cult of St. Raymund became known to the Catholic world, especially for this cause, that in the year 1652 the city of Toulouse, afflicted by a dire plague, having conceived a most solemn vow concerning the relics of St. Raymund, to be held in greater honor and laid away in a costly silver coffer, felt his most present aid, as in express words the Anonymous writer testifies, whom I shall continue so to call, although I learned later that he was the Lord Medon, royal counselor in the seneschalsy of Toulouse. Whoever he was, he thus began his preface:
[6] it spread the fame of his sanctity more widely; The excellent life of the Lord Raymund, whose ashes, on account of the plague driven from the city, the people of Toulouse now consecrate by public vow; I, bound by a private vow, trusting not so much in my own strength as in his very aid, undertake to write. My labor, however slight, cannot but be full of legitimate glory, because it cannot but be very acceptable to the heavenly ones. For if it is so gratifying to God that those bones of illustrious souls, devoid of all sense, should be in the highest dignity among men; how much more gratifying will it be that their deeds, everywhere breathing virtue and piety, be commended by our writings to posterity? Which, since I have always persuaded my mind that it is so, I have hoped more confidently that I could be snatched from so great a calamity, if I should execute this province with a devout mind. You have the public vow of the whole city of Toulouse, you have the private vow, you have not obscure indications of the cult formerly neglected, which the author of the French Life, Jalras, page 113, more openly indicates, accusing his fellow-townsmen of Toulouse that, forgetful of their ancient benefactor, they had before neglected to revere his relics, the memory of the Saint being in a manner buried in oblivion, which on the occasion of that new prodigy shone forth more illustriously, so that the festivities of the Saint were thence multiplied: for besides the present celebration, received from time immemorial, R. P. Prevost (whom it will be permitted to call Provost), canon of the Congregation of St. Genevieve, noted that a certain Lord Dayde, in some history of the church of St. Saturninus, published at Toulouse in the year 1661, somewhere observed that St. Raymund is honored with a peculiar cult also on the 7th of January, on account of the solemn translation of the sacred body on that day in the year 1657 to the chapel of his college: then on the 30th of the same month, on account of the vow of the year 1653, conceived by the people of Toulouse on that very day: finally on the 12th of November, on account of the deposition of the relics into a silver shrine or shrines, as you have below at number 40.
[7] That cult, splendidly restored or renewed, recognized, inserted into the Proper of the Canons Regular on the 8th of July; I suppose, the Canons regular of the Congregation of Windesheim, who, reviewing St. Raymund in their Order, from that time, unless I am mistaken, began to honor him with a double office, among their own Propers, three lections not inelegantly adapted to the Saint, which indeed are excerpted from our already cited ones, but deviate from the true birthday in this, that they commemorate him on the 8th of July, whereas in our lections it is most expressly said that he died on the fifth before the Nones, that is, on this third day of July. From their Gallican Congregation the Windesheimers may have borrowed it, and that one consulted the French Legend, in which Jalras, page 93, asserts that St. Raymund rendered up his spirit to the Creator on the 8th of July 1059. At what time first the office of our Saint was received by the Canons regular of the Gallican
Congregation, is not yet explored by me; I suspect, however, that the whole occasion of that assumed cult, both in France and in Belgium, proceeded from the already mentioned Toulouse miracle: and this the Provost praised elsewhere most recently confirmed, when by his letters he testified that not before 1662 was that office adopted by his Congregation.
[8] For the rest, in this too the Windesheim lections abound, that where the author of the older Legend determines no time of his life, in which his death too is wrongly marked 1159. these roundly declare that in the year of salvation one thousand one hundred and fifty-nine St. Raymund was called to the heavenly beatitude, which whence they were taken, or could be taken, I do not yet sufficiently understand; unless perhaps from some particular Legend or office of the Canons regular of St. Saturninus, which the aforesaid Provost alleges, a learned man, and thoroughly versed in the Lives of his own holy Canons, testifying in letters given to me on the 26th of August 1718 that the Saint of whom we treat, under almost the same lections which I have called the Windesheim ones, and with a double office likewise, is venerated in the collegiate church, now secular, of St. Saturninus at Toulouse, not on the 8th, but on the true day of his death, the 3rd of July, which Saussay rightly kept in the appendix of his Gallican Martyrology; nor do I sufficiently perceive why Castellanus departed from him in his Universal, transferring St. Raymund to the 4th of July, with no guide, no forerunner: erring also in this, that with the cited offices he records the death of the Saint in the year 1159.
§ II. On the age of St. Raymund.
The age of the Saint to be gathered as best one can, For the day of his death, or birth in heaven, a more certain argument can by no means be had than from our cited Legend, most expressly marking the fifth before the Nones of July, as we have already said. A greater and almost insoluble controversy is about the age of the Saint, or the determined time in which he lived; for to define the years of his birth, death, or the course of his whole life is, in my judgment at least, altogether impossible. In our whole Legend one, and that somewhat obscure, mark occurs, whence at last it is gathered that St. Raymund lived at that time in which the church of St. Saturninus, before destroyed, was restored from the foundations. Behold the words from lection 4: What shall I say of the excellent work of the church of St. Saturninus, over which he presided through many years' time, and, besides the member of the head, which had already been completed, beginning the body from the foundations, before the day of his death, the divine mercy helping, he carried the walls round about up to the completion of the windows. Another ray of light, however slight, would shine forth, from the crossing by two bridges of the river Hers, if in Catel, or some other historian of Toulouse, the age of such bridges could be detected.
[10] from the restoration of the temple of St. Saturninus, We must therefore cleave to the restoration alone of the temple of St. Saturninus, whose times if we can define happily enough, this at least will be held for certain, that at that time, beyond all doubt, our Saint lived. In which matter our most approved author will be the praised Catel, On the Counts of Toulouse, from page 176; where, after he has treated of the destruction of the first temple of St. Saturninus, he adds that Bishop Roger gathered again all the once-disputed oblations, for the cause of building a new church, which words he adduces from the Bull of Urban II, given on the 12th of the Kalends of August 1097. Further, he connects the age of Roger with Henry I, King of France, and Pons, Count of Toulouse. And this reckoning the Anonymous writer of the Life not badly adopted, at the beginning, where he thus speaks: But in what year I should place his birth, I plainly do not know, since it is established for me by no monument: but that he lived in the same age as Henry the First, King of the Gauls, Pons, Count of Toulouse, and Roger the Bishop, is most probable: as it seemed before to Catel, most skilled in our affairs; from whose authority no reasons impel me to depart. Where I would have you accurately observe that the Anonymous does not say that St. Raymund was born at that time, but that he lived in the same age as those three, whose age we judge is to be somehow unearthed, inasmuch as he lived with them. Whether he died at the same time as they, we shall conjecture below.
[11] King Henry, Count Pons, and Roger, Bishop of Toulouse, being alive. That we may therefore fix a most probable epoch, since King Henry the First paid the debt of nature on the 5th of August in the year 1060, after he had reigned alone twenty-nine years and fifteen days, it cannot be doubted that St. Raymund lived his age before that year. But that Bishop Roger and Count Pons were still surviving in the year 1060 is said to have been shown from documents by Bernard Gui, in Catel On the Counts, page 119, yet so that Pons died before the year 1071, which is also to be thought of Roger, whom the Sammarthani say died in that very year 1060. However it be, we judge that this must be admitted most probably, that our Saint lived and flourished in the same age, at the same time, as King Henry, Pons, and Roger, not now a boy or a youth, but a man of adult age and a Canon of St. Saturninus. Yet I would not dare thence to infer that he died also at the same time as they, which the author of the French Life seems to have gathered, when in the words related above he says that he rendered up his spirit to the Creator on the 8th of July of the year 1059, as though indeed he had lived his age with the aforesaid Princes in such a way that he preceded them in death.
[12] These things having been disputed with Catel as near to the truth as may be, what Oedipus will now explain to us in what year St. Raymund began to live, The Saint could not have reached the 12th century in what year he ceased. Here mere conjectures must be used, and one must grope, that anyone may with at least some appearance of truth in some measure determine the course of the Saint's life, wherein it is far easier to overthrow the opinions of others than to establish one's own firmly enough. Meanwhile, from those things which have already been discussed, this certainly follows, that St. Raymund could not have prolonged his age up to the year 1159, inasmuch as, living exactly the same age with Bishop Roger, King Henry, and Count Pons, he ought altogether to be reckoned not much younger than they, at least to have passed his fiftieth year when they died, so that if he reached the fifty-ninth year of the 12th century, he must be said to have been more than a century and a half old, which no sober man would dare to assert without indubitable testimonies: whence it evidently appears that those regular Canons—both Gallic and Belgian and others—who chose to insert such an epoch, resting on no foundation, into their Proper, and consequently Castellanus, and all those who embraced the aforesaid opinion, are to be charged with a chronological error.
[13] Lest I here involve my readers in many minutiae, I will say what I think. The very opinion of the people of Toulouse, that the Acts of St. Raymund were arranged by St. Anselm, as is proved against the people of Toulouse ad hominem; then still a monk of Bec, sufficiently shows that they cannot extend the age of their Saint to the 12th century, since St. Anselm ceased to be a monk in the year 1093, in that year on the 6th of March elected Archbishop of Canterbury. If therefore he wrote the life while still a monk, he wrote it most certainly before the year 1093, and so before that year St. Raymund had already died. I use the argument ad hominem, although I am by no means persuaded that St. Anselm exercised in describing those lections a style which is nothing less than worthy of him; besides that the compiler of them sufficiently intimates that he writes not so much present or recent things, but those which are perhaps two centuries, if not more, older than his age, when he so solicitously asks that no one doubt to accommodate faith to the things which he pursues, adducing for the proof of the matter and the integrity of his faith nothing else except the report of the faithful, or the persevering tradition and miracles, wrought also long before. To say nothing of the shapeless work, in which scarcely any mark of history appears.
[14] Now by another, and that a most solid reason, we shall easily prohibit our Saint from the entrance of the 12th century. and from the consecration of the temple of St. Saturninus in the year 1096. Catel demonstrates, On the Counts of Toulouse, page 177, that Pope Urban II, seventeen Bishops or Archbishops assisting, in the year 1096, on the 9th of the Kalends of June … consecrated the church of St. Saturninus the Martyr, Bishop of Toulouse. No one, I suppose, will have persuaded himself that the supreme Pontiff consecrated a church not yet finished, consisting at least of walls alone and lacking a roof. And yet from the often-cited Legend we have just now shown that our Blessed, before the day of his death, the divine mercy helping, carried the aforesaid church only up to the completion of the windows; hence it seems to me indubitable that St. Raymund departed from the living long before the temple had been carried so far that it could be consecrated, and so some years before 1096. If it now befell anyone to be so happy as to tell us in how many years there was need for the rest of the mass of the temple to be superimposed on the completion of the windows, the nearest approach would lie open to the secret which we seek, namely that the time in which our Saint died might not improbably be detected.
[15] It is probable that he did not survive the year 1074. Let us here again grant something to probable conjecture. Bishop Roger, yielding to fate in the year 1060, had gathered again all the oblations, for the cause of building the new church; it is not added, nor ought it to be said at that place, that he himself set his hand to the work, but it seems not doubtful that he began the work, and completed the member of the head, which our lections say was done before our Saint began the body from the foundations. These things indicate to us not obscurely that the work of St. Raymund was begun after the year 1060, which it is altogether permitted to suppose; then indeed, since through many years' time—others write for thirteen years—the Saint presided over that work, it is credible that about the year 1073 or 1074 it was carried up to the completion of the windows; and hence at last this conclusion will be drawn, that about that time St. Raymund rendered up his blessed soul to God. Nor wonder further that fully twenty years and more were necessary for a cornice to be placed on the mass of the building carried so far, the largess of St. Raymund having ceased, whence for gathering alms, the Count of Toulouse helping in vain, there had to be labor for so great an interval of time; wherein I do not see what could deservedly be objected, since Catel, at the place cited above, does not fear to doubt whether it was then fully finished when it was consecrated by Urban, namely, because the tower perhaps and other works were then unfinished, for the completing of which the liberal donation of the Count opportunely came, which is there briefly described.
[16] He built the temple while he was a canon, I am greatly mistaken if any Raymundian epoch, however still confused, can be more probably drawn out from the adduced monuments, to which alone we are restricted. And indeed the writers of Toulouse plainly agree with me, when they so often mention that the sacred body was buried for fully six hundred years before, on account of the miracle mentioned above, it was more solemnly elevated. Nor does the scruple in any way disturb me, to be objected by someone from our Legendary, which keeps almost no order of things, from this
that after the words just now cited, he speaks as though after the completion of that work of the church of St. Saturninus, having become an imitator of the most blessed Fathers, he at last, in the same church, under a regular habit, served his King. As though he would say what all the more recent writers most roundly build up from this very passage, that the Saint then abdicated all his goods, namely, being about to take the religious habit among the Augustinian regular canons. Hear the Anonymous, number 8: While he thus stripped himself of all fortunes, whatever there was in him of earthly cares, though very little, he resolved altogether to exchange for heavenly things. Which that he might more easily accomplish, into the roll of the Augustinian regulars of St. Saturninus … he wished to be inscribed. That scruple, I say, is perhaps from the supposition that at that time those very religious, or regular canons, then possessed that temple, who, while the writer was gathering his materials, presided over it, which is easily overthrown from Catel. Let it here suffice to have proved that our Legendary is either guilty of the greatest inconsequence, or that St. Raymund attended to his work up to the day of his death, and most plainly died at it.
[17] and he died at that work. The scruple I do not think worthy of a longer refutation, since I judge that St. Raymund was a canon, nay, a regular one, which the twice-repeated names signify; but of that number who, although they kept some common life in the cloister or monastery, were yet bound to no abdication of goods, so that even at the time when he was a canon he could attend to promoting the building of the church from his own revenues, which the words already said sufficiently prove: beginning from the foundation, before the day of his death … he carried the walls round about up to the completion of the windows; namely then, he himself, not still immersed in the world, but existing as a canon of St. Saturninus. This again the author of the lections openly intimates, number 6: that St. Raymund made no testament to his parents, but to Christ or the poor; which would be most ineptly said of a regular canon bound by the vow of poverty. But what I was hinting, that it can easily be shown from Catel that no regular canons, or, as they are understood today, religious of the order of St. Augustine, were found at Toulouse while St. Raymund lived, will appear from the following §.
§ III. On the more notable works of the Saint and the state of his life.
[18] Among the other singular virtues of St. Raymund, we have already said that one shines especially, which ought to be called the first, the greatest, and the virtue of virtues, The chief works of our Saint Charity toward God, and that which is indissolubly connected with it, mercy toward one's neighbor. This the Saint seems to have undertaken especially to cultivate, and this certainly, as has already been shown from a brief specimen, the Anonymous adorner of our Legend extols above the rest, whose words, to be given in their place, lest I here repeat them, from the elogium of Saussay, elegant enough, I take those things which more especially illustrate the Saint from that head. Full, he says, of the bowels of charity, he exercised works of mercy as diligently and copiously as secretly and modestly, and, wholly poured out with pious affections toward the needy and the sick and any afflicted, he did not exclude even the Jews, though enemies of the faith, from the consolations of his charity. He built a hospice out of his own means, which he assigned to thirteen poor clerics. Having compassion also on the misfortune of some who, by the devil's working, were drowned in the gulf of the river Hers while they crossed, he built two bridges over the channel of that river from his own store. But his charity was not exhausted by these expenditures.
[19] It will not be irksome, I suppose, to learn besides another part of the elogium, Saussay extols him with his elogium. drawn by the praised Saussay with an equal river of eloquence: For the basilica of St. Saturninus, of whom he was a most zealous cultivator, fallen with age, he took care to have restored from the foundations, over whose structure he presided for thirteen years with all insistence, and carried its mass almost up to the summit. Then, kindled with a more vehement fire, thinking it not enough to offer his own to God, he consecrated himself wholly a living sacrifice to Christ, and in the very church of St. Saturninus, having taken the habit of holy religion, under the institute of St. Augustine, he entered upon a life as much drawn away from the flesh as united to God, and conformed to the virtues of the angelic spirits. By admiration of whom some were roused, and incited by the grace of his example, deserting the fleeting things of the world, took refuge in the tranquillity of a like religious purpose. Thus, with Raymund leading and shining, the canonical discipline there, which had withered, flourished again. Whose faith, religion, chastity, meekness, benignity, charity, and mercy shone with singular splendor in that assembly. Thus far Saussay, with no less compass of words describing the last illness, death, and burial of St. Raymund.
[20] Of the bridges built, nothing distinct is handed down: You have heard of the bridges at the river or torrent Hers, Herce, or Ircium. A somewhat clearer notice of them in Catel, the Latin Anonymous, and Jalras I have sought in vain: Catel and Jalras scarcely call them bridges; the Anonymous in his annotations indeed suggests various readings, pages 50 and 51, first describing our Legend, then from another manuscript paper Life subjoining these things: But hearing that the river Hers, by the multitude of rains, spread its channel far and wide; having compassion on travelers, because many, in sailing, the boat being sunk, were miserably drowned in the waters, with his own money he built two bridges of brickwork. Then are cited the words of Saussay already related by us. But all these things exhibit to us diverse expressions, leaving the matter itself, the site, the epoch, the present state—all which we would have explained—equally ambiguous, nor by my letters, more than one, could I obtain any light from Toulouse. What pertains to the various modes of writing the name of the river, and to the origin and course of the river itself, you will find in the annotations subjoined to the Legend below.
[21] The hospice or college of thirteen poor, Of the temple of St. Saturninus nothing remains to be said; its structure, the time of the structure, and the rest pertaining to it I judge to have been abundantly explained in the preceding paragraph. A more illustrious and in some sort a crowning work, whence to our Blessed both greater glory and perennial fame, persevering even today, accrued, is the Hospice, or rather college founded for the maintenance of poor clerics, of which we have already said some things cursorily, and heard Saussay speaking, and which is again to be narrated in the very legend, lection 3. To this the Anonymous in his annotations does his usual part, that from his other manuscript paper Life he reports a text somewhat different in these words: But considering that the poor need shelter no less than food, he built a hospice near the very basilica of St. Saturninus; which he furnished with beds, linens, and the rest of the necessary furniture, revenues being conferred which would suffice for maintaining thirteen poor. It would have been altogether better to produce the instruments of the foundation, to show its augmentation, to explain the institute of the college, and other things making for the notice, than to chant the bare variations of phrases. Those things therefore from Catel, On Occitania, book 2, page 225, deserve to be described a little more accurately. Behold his words, rendered from the French into Latin.
[22] Catel describes them at length. The college of St. Raymund, both in the ancient documents and in the very Life of St. Raymund, which exists there, comes under the name of Hospice: and therefore the collation of the places of the same college anciently pertained to the almoner of the abbey of St. Saturninus. But, that almonry being afterward united to the chapter of the said church, the canons now have the right of nominating to those places, at least he who is the hebdomadary. It is called the college of St. Raymund, because that saint, a canon of St. Saturninus, was its founder, who began to build it, and did not finish it: but those things which he had built being consumed by fire, it was afterward rebuilt in another place by the most illustrious Santandreanus, Bishop of Carcassonne, whose insignia still exist in the same college. The Life of the Saint relates that this college was first instituted for the sustenance of thirteen poor clerics; but tradition bears that the Bishop of Carcassonne, the rebuilder, added three places, of which matter, however, no documents exist in the college. This is established, that Master John Bonhomme, presbyter and curate … when he observed that in that foundation no priest was comprehended, having made a testament to that effect on the 17th of April 1518, added to the foundation two priests as members, who should be bound to celebrate a daily Mass alternately in the chapel of the same college, whereby the number of members happily increased to eighteen, which remains even today.
[23] And these things thus far concerning the notable monuments founded by St. Raymund at Toulouse, He was a canon of St. Saturninus, whose persevering memory, as far as it is permitted to gather, most probably vindicated him from oblivion. There now remains the controversy concerning the condition or profession, let us say the state of life, which the Saint held last and in which he made the end of his living. That in his boyhood and youth he was delegated to blessed Saturninus and in his church discharged the office of cantor, the Legend is witness, nor is it worth the labor to call this into doubt. It is likewise clear that afterward, fearing the slipperiness of his age, he joined a wife to himself in lawful wedlock. But then, not many years intervening, his wife dying, he embraced the virtue of continence. These things we suppose as indubitable, although no indications, even the slightest, remain, whence anyone may define his age when he underwent the law of matrimony; nor the time in which he lived in it, nor the length of the ensuing celibacy, which we have certainly not dared to extend to so many years as were necessary for the construction of the bridges, for the foundation of the already-mentioned college, for the other works of mercy which were perpetual to him, and finally for the fully thirteen others of the building of the temple of St. Saturninus, since it is most probable to us, nay, seems all but certain, that the Saint died at that last work.
[24] The whole difficulty of this controversy is reduced to the last words of lection 4: having entered upon a common and regular life; in the same church he at last served his King, under a regular habit. Which words the Anonymous, according to his notable liberty, dared thus to interpret, in our number 8: Which that they might more easily accomplish, into the roll of the Augustinian regulars of St. Saturninus … he wished to be inscribed; while meanwhile in so many of his annotations, neither from his manuscript Life of the college, which is the very same as ours, nor from the other manuscript paper Life, does he bring forth even a single word which points to or smells of the Augustinians, or the rule of St. Augustine, from afar. The words of the former legend we have already given; behold the text of the other, commonly the paper one: At last in the monastery of the same basilica, having taken the habit of religion, he served God, and at the same time, by his own example, drew very many of the nobles to the same exercise. These last things are explained a little more clearly and neatly at the beginning of our fifth lection, in this manner: Whence indeed it happened that some, incited by the grace of his example, took refuge in the tranquillity of the same purpose, and, spurning the fleeting things of the world, panted with all their strength toward the summit of the eternal inheritance. Thus at last it came to pass that all filth was banished from the canonical church of the Brethren of Good Purpose, serving God with the whole mind, and it was there established.
[25] Here I understand a regular and religious habit; I hear the Brethren of Good Purpose in
the canonical church, serving God with the whole mind, but before the rule of St. Augustine was known there. to whom perhaps the author, whom I judge to have been truly a regular Canon, or one professing the rule of St. Augustine; to whom, I say, he perhaps wished to say more than he dared to express. But in vain do I torment myself to draw thence religious of a true name, that is, canons professing the rule of St. Augustine, whom today scarcely any learned man can recognize before the 12th century, so that the Anonymous must be said to have plainly played the fool when in our number 3 he roundly asserted that St. Raymund was imbued with humane letters in the school of the Augustinian regulars of St. Saturninus. It is all too commonly known that the name of religious properly so called is falsely attributed to the congregations, frequent enough at that time, whether you call them of canons, joined in monasteries to churches, observing a common life under an abbot or provost; or of laymen, under some regular habit, following the same kind of more perfect life; or by whatever name at last you call those pious sodalities: for, to lay my mind open expressly, I judge it certain that in the time of St. Raymund the canons, in whatever way regular, of St. Saturninus most probably were utterly ignorant of the rule of St. Augustine, properly so called. As we are dealing with a known matter, in which those earlier regular canons, living almost according to the norm of the Council of Aachen, have long ago been accurately distinguished from others fully three centuries later, so I judge it superfluous to discuss at length the odious question, already so often agitated.
[26] Two classes of regular canons being admitted, I freely and gladly admit what on that matter the praised R. P. Provost, canon of St. Genevieve, disputed with me in his letters given most recently on the 26th of August and the 17th of October, whose words from the last I shall not be reluctant to make Latin. Thus he addresses me: You conclude, he says, having read Catel, that St. Raymund is not ours, and you are my author to consult the same writer, that I may perceive the same at the place assigned. I admit the facts and the principles on which you rely, but I draw thence a conclusion a little different. It will seem a paradox. Allow me, I beseech, to explain the matter. The reason of the equivocation, as far as it is permitted to gather, arises hence, that the regular Canons of today, glorying in the rule and institute of St. Augustine, are reckoned different from those who preceded them, under the simple appellation of regular Canons, or of Canons leading a common life in a monastery, in which supposition your difficulty seems to lie. But, be it said with your leave; that hypothesis is not to us the norm by which it must be weighed whether some Saint is rightly numbered among ours. This is enough for us, that it cannot reasonably be doubted that that Saint, of whom the question is, was a Canon, an observer of the common and regular life; although I would not have you infer that for that precise cause it is truly declared that he was such a regular Canon of the Order of St. Augustine. I shall indeed take care that that title be not attributed indiscriminately to all our Saints, but only to those who were distinguished by such a name while they lived, and who are later than the 11th century: to others, who preceded those times, only the appellation of regular Canons belongs, or rather of canons leading a common life. Thus the Provost.
[27] the controversies are easily composed. I subscribe, I say, to the most sound opinion of the learned and prudent man; nor indeed will I struggle against the regular Canons of today, although they claim for their Order all the ancient chapters of Canons living in common, and among them that very one of St. Saturninus; concerning which Blessed Gregory VII, about the year 1081, writing to his legate Cardinal Richard, abbot of St. Victor of Marseilles, book 9, letter 29, thus records: The Canonry of St. Saturninus, situated near the city of Toulouse, though recently, yet has decently instituted the canonical life, and from that time is recognized to have lived regularly. Whether according to the rule of St. Augustine? That no one would dare to build up concerning St. Raymund, to whom it was still free to dispose of his goods by testament, as is clear from the preceding paragraph, and from the Legend itself, to be given in its place. I confess indeed that St. Raymund could have contributed greatly to introducing regular discipline into that monastery, but that he truly professed the rule of St. Augustine, from the chronology deduced above, I think most evident that it can by no means be admitted. This one thing I will grant to the authority of Catel, that he writes, in the above-cited book On Occitania, page 264, that under William, Count of Toulouse, who had attempted to introduce monks, not in the year 1183, which he there wrongly marks, but 1083, as better elsewhere, the canons were restored to the church of St. Saturninus, who afterward became regular canons of the Order of St. Augustine, namely some years after St. Raymund had flown to the crown of his merits, who, initiated into no sacred order, as far at least as is clear, in the lay state had most probably administered the office of almoner there, as a faithful and prudent servant.
§ IV. On the ancient Acts of St. Raymund, and on the more recent Lives and miracles.
Already more than once was to be named the old Legend of our Saint, or the nine manuscript lections, which we said were sent by Possinus to Bollandus in the year 1643. The manuscript legend is not rightly ascribed to St. Anselm, They bear the title, Here begins the life of the most blessed Raymund the Confessor, perhaps once used, either among the members of the Raymundian college, or among the Canons of St. Saturninus in the ecclesiastical office. They fill five little pages, written in a script neither neat enough nor accurate enough: which indeed could be pardoned, unless constructions recurred, often obscure, sometimes gaping, sometimes even defiled with solecisms, so that, although they can by no means be called barbarous, yet they are far from the style of St. Anselm, to whom Saussay does not hesitate to ascribe them, at the place of his Martyrology cited above; where, a long elogium being premised, part of which we have described, he pronounces these things toward the end: All which and many other true and wondrous praises of him St. Anselm, while he was a monk of Bec, having set out to Toulouse, thoroughly learned from an authentic report of things recently done, and by a clear discussion, by which he also composed the lives of the other Blessed patrons of that tract. What Saussay here means I plainly do not grasp; those who have more accurately reviewed the works of St. Anselm attribute to him only one tract which pertains to the lives of the Saints, On the passion of SS. Guigner or Fingar, Piala, and their companions, which, though it bears the name of some Anselm, is plainly denied to the saint Archbishop of Canterbury of that name by our Elders on the 23rd of March. But that St. Anselm wrote of the other Saints of Toulouse, there is no one who has hitherto reported.
[29] But though it were freely granted that St. Anselm once wrote something of those Saints, which was rather by some regular canon, nay, of our St. Raymund too, that indeed Saussay did not see, whose inflated oration is almost wholly taken to the letter from our lections, in which he could easily have observed that their writer or collector was not so near to St. Raymund, when in the exordium he thus speaks: Whence let no one doubt to accommodate faith to the things which we pursue, both because we have learned the truth by the report of the faithful, and because, all ambiguity being set aside, we have known several by their working, of which if perchance something, injury requiring, oblivion has abolished, still, God granting, similar or greater things are done there by most frequent use. You hear the gaping period, in which for "the truth" (veritatem) was read "truth" (veritas); as will be observed again in the annotations. For the rest, even from that text alone, you well understand that that legendary, many lustres after the Saint's death, did not weave a historical series, much less a chronological one, of the life and deeds done by St. Raymund, from present memory, but meditated an apology against those who doubted of the sanctity of our Blessed, and did not fear to detract from his signs and miracles. Nothing further do you here read, nothing in the whole legend will you find, which strongly savors of St. Anselm.
[30] it was written about the 13th century, Behold another near specimen of elegance: Raymund therefore, to be praised not so much for the nobility of his parents as for the nobility of his virtues, at Toulouse free from the least things, to which human frailty is sometimes wont to be bent. For this man in his boyish years, etc. He wished to say, I suppose, that the Saint, born at Toulouse, was not occupied with those things to which human frailty is wont to be liable. I pass over many other things of that kind, dislocated perhaps by the fault of copyists, which in our edition we shall try to supply as best we can; but whether in that whole not sufficiently ordered frame of things anything occurs worthy of St. Anselm, will be your judgment. I should prefer to think, as I intimated above, that it is the offspring of some regular Canon of St. Saturninus, who, not bearing the disparagements of men not thinking piously enough of St. Raymund, perhaps one, nay two centuries after the Saint's death, from the report of the faithful or popular tradition, gathered those deeds and miracles; about to stop with those vindications of his the mouths of the malevolent speaking iniquitous things. If I combine the matters and times aptly enough, I shall not fear to suspect that they regard the times of the Albigensians, or at least men not much alien from their impiety, who thought perversely of the Saints and their miracles and cult.
[31] The R. P. Provost sent other printed legends, Since, besides those lections, meager enough, I could scarcely find anything in Catel or elsewhere by which the life of St. Raymund could be illustrated a little more distinctly and accurately, I had, as I said, more than once to have recourse to Toulouse to obtain reinforcements. Meanwhile the praised R. P. Provost, canon of St. Genevieve at Paris, opportunely came to my aid, sending those lives from which I have tried to draw out the age of St. Raymund, as far as I could, and which I have shown to be composed and printed on the occasion of the most celebrated miracle by which the Saint had freed his people of Toulouse from a monstrous pestilence in the years 1652 and 1653. This the Latin Anonymous openly professes, when he asserts that he writes from a vow in the title of his little work in this manner: The Life of the divine Raymund, now for the first time composed from a vow by B. M., according to the faith of the Acts which are kept in the Archives of St. Saturninus and of the college of St. Raymund. You would believe this man, whoever he was, to have found some new and wondrous instruments, with which he undertook a huge work of great effort. But meanwhile, when you have unrolled the whole, you will find more of words and sentences indeed, but of the matter scarcely anything, certainly nothing solid, which is not contained in our aforesaid lections, only those things being excepted which pertain to the illustrious benefit granted to the people of Toulouse, and then still celebrated in recent memory. That you may perceive this clearly, we shall subjoin that whole Life sincerely and entire to our Legend.
[32] On the front of the little work an error crept in, when for the year 1656 and another Latin one written from a vow by the Anonymous B. M., the printer put 1666, which is sufficiently clear from the brief dedicatory letter to the most illustrious Lord Pierre de Marca, then Archbishop of the see of Toulouse, where the author truly expresses the day and year, on the day before the Kalends of July 1656. That dedication we thought should be passed over, of which it will be enough to adduce here only one or another specimen. Thus he addresses the Prelate:
Just as we here in our miseries are helped to seek the patronage of the Saints, so also it does not misbecome the Saints, be it said with their leave, in a manner not much unlike, though in a better condition, to seek among mortals the protection of their dignity, which they still obtain on earth. Then a little below: The very bones of the divine Raymund, still enclosed in a marble tomb, exult as if for joy to come into your hands, and hope that through You their veneration will hereafter be greater. The rest makes not to our purpose. But we shall give the preface untouched, because it contains the occasion of the little lucubration and other things worthy of note. Further, the ten chapters into which he himself divided his Legend, we have distributed into as many numbers, explained by marginal additions, after our manner. The author subjoined various annotations, of which we shall pluck especially those which can be of some use for the illustration of the matter. The first contains testimonies concerning the sanctity of St. Raymund (he himself prefers to write Raimund), which I did not think should be neglected. Thus it runs from page 38.
[33] That by the appellation of Divus or Sanctus (for both suit those in which the title of Saint is vindicated; who have been placed in the roll of the Blessed; whatever John Filesac may have said, On political idolatry, chapter 1) Raymund was adorned, is clear from a most ancient manuscript codex of St. Saturninus, which they call a missal; in whose Calendar on the 3rd day of July mention is made of St. Raimund the confessor. From the manuscript Chartulary of St. Saturninus, in which there are, from page 153 to page 163, twenty-nine donations, made to the hospital or college of St. Raimund, from the year 1122 to the year 1164. From the ancient statutes of the Chapter of St. Saturninus, in which, from folio 8 to folio 86, Raimund is ten times mentioned as a Saint. From the manuscript codex of the college of St. Raimund, in which is had his life and the prayers to be said every year, on the 3rd day of July, in his peculiar cult. From the other manuscript life, finally, of the Lord Raimund. Relying on these or certainly most similar arguments, our Catel in the History of the Counts of Toulouse, page 177, and in the Acts of Occitania, book 2; Saussay too in the Gallican Martyrology, volume 2, in the Supplement, page 1140, ascribed Raimund to the Catalogue of the Saints. For the rest, whence Saussay had it that St. Anselm, then a monk of Bec, came to Toulouse for the sake of committing the life of the divine Raimund to posterity, though I do not doubt that it was most clearly perceived by him, I should very much like to know.
[34] Scrupulous indeed is the reverence toward Saussay, as though he had inserted nothing into his work which was not most clearly perceived by him: but nothing new is suggested. altogether other today is the opinion concerning the Saussayan work; what I think of that magnificent assertion, I have sufficiently explained. But that the monuments which our Anonymous has now again displayed are papers of no great moment, I said must be gathered from this, that in his whole work he brought forward scarcely anything above the manuscript lections. Thus in his other annotations through fully twenty pages, he continually sounds great words, the manuscript life of the college of St. Raymund; the other manuscript paper life, the most ancient Acts, and other things of that kind, which are reduced at last to this, that in other words at times they declare exactly the same thing: namely, the aforesaid lections were more often copied by unskilled scribes, and somewhat here and there, as the ages bore, changed by some, and, kept in various places, merited various appellations. But this I observe cursorily, that the miracles which are narrated in our three last lections are separated from it, and added toward the end of the notes from page 58; where he says that the title indicates that they were collected by the Venerable Bede the presbyter, which he rightly observes that Chronology does not permit, since Bede preceded the Lord Raimund by 300 years. I suppose that the writer gathered this from the fact that a homily of the Venerable Bede is indicated, which being passed over, the series of miracles is subjoined. If he found others, yet it is certain that the name of Bede crept in here no less ineptly than that of St. Anselm elsewhere. What is sewn on to the last little pages, concerning the meaning of "regular" and "canon," you would call appendages plainly foreign to our matter.
[35] Much more verbose is the French panegyric. The other Life of St. Raymund, published in French about the same time, namely in the year 1656, we said was by R. P. Jean Baptiste Jalras, of the sacred family of St. Francis, which you would rightly call a panegyric and moral oration, to be delivered from the pulpit over several days, inasmuch as it is extended to 123 pages, from which, as to what pertains to the history of the Saint's life, besides those things which are had in the lections, you would extract nothing but pious thoughts, not indeed altogether improbable, but which it is certain enough that he found nowhere in the ancient monuments. The more recent miracles which he added toward the end we shall subjoin at the end, after our two lives. That you may judge of the rest of that work from some specimen: the preacher torments himself through fully nine pages, so that, although he confesses that St. Raymund was rich, yet he may remove far from him every shadow of nobility and titles, in which I have no controversy with him, any more than in his other episodes; which I freely and largely grant him; being resolved to admit nothing except what I shall have found established in the more ancient legends. But since, as I have already said above, all things are at last to be recalled to the often-named nine lections, I shall here subjoin them from our apograph, restored as best I could, when I shall have weighed a little the notices received from Toulouse.
§ V. Notices received from Toulouse.
A writing of Canon Maynard received from Toulouse. I have already said that I long ago sent to Toulouse not a few doubts, concerning various matters pertaining especially to the cult, relics, ecclesiastical office, Acts, age, and profession of our St. Raymund, for which I had most earnestly requested the necessary explanations. It was written back that my first little commentary had perished: to the second at last followed that solution which, neglecting the circumstances of the whole life and Acts, confirms only those things which I had established above from our legend, the Latin Anonymous, and Father Jean Baptiste Jalras. Nevertheless the endeavors of the very reverend Lord Joseph Maynard, canon of St. Saturninus, explaining at least some things which were passed over by others, namely done after the edition of the lives written by them, pleased me. It seemed therefore good to render his whole little treatise here entire, some observations being added which may in some measure conduce to unraveling the matter, especially toward the end, where Maynard not badly refutes the opinions concerning the age of the Saint, yet so that he does not prove his own rightly enough, leaving the most intricate business undecided. Hence I conjectured, and every prudent person will conjecture with me, that a fuller explanation is awaited from Toulouse in vain, whatever ancient tables the praised Maynard threatens to extract from the hiding-places of his archives. Behold the whole answer, to which he prefixes this title: St. Raymund of Toulouse, canon of the church of St. Saturninus of Toulouse.
[37] First it is established from ancient and continuous tradition, he asserts the Saint for the people of Toulouse, confirmed by ancient and indubitable monuments, that a certain Raymund, patron of the college named from his name in the city of Toulouse, is held a Saint by the people of Toulouse, for almost six hundred years. For not only in the ancient acts which are kept in the archives of the church of St. Saturninus of Toulouse is frequent mention made of a certain hospital of St. Raymund, near the monastery of the same church, as may be seen in the bull of Alexander III of the year 1169, to the regular canons dwelling in the aforesaid monastery, and also in a certain instrument of the review of the goods of the same monastery, made in the year 1246, in which these things are read: In the hospital of St. Raymund there are thirty-six linens: in the church of St. Raymund there are five complete vestments of a priest: from which it is understood that already then a certain Raymund had a religious veneration among the people of Toulouse; but also it is clear from the statutes of the aforesaid college written in the year 1430 that then, as now, the feast day of Blessed Raymund was kept, whom they call the patron of the college. It is to be noted that the appellation of the hospital of St. Raymund, before always and only used, gradually passed into the appellation of the college of St. Raymund, in my opinion at least, from the time when a certain house near the aforesaid hospital was assigned to poor scholars, who before dwelt in the hospital. Further, the very stones, on which the name of St. Raymund shines written in Gothic characters, openly testify that he was held a Saint from ancient times. From these things therefore it is at least proved that the people of Toulouse rightly venerate, with a religious and public cult, that Raymund whom their ancestors for almost six hundred years held a Saint and pursued with the same cult.
[38] But that this holy Raymund, praised in the aforesaid acts, to whom, namely, those pressed by the pestilence had recourse, pertains to the people of Toulouse, and that his relics are with them; for this matter there is so constant and so manifest a tradition, so long-lasting a peaceful possession, that there is scarcely any room for doubting that these things are so. For besides that a certain stone tomb, in which first, as is asserted, the body of Blessed Raymund was laid, religiously set apart for many centuries in a sacred shrine, was from age to age pointed out, so to speak, with the finger, and had great veneration, it was so persuaded to the people of Toulouse, and so implanted in their mind, that in it were kept the relics of Blessed Raymund, that in the year 1652, the pestilence depopulating Toulouse daily more and more, the leading men of Toulouse, on the authority of John Berserius, prince of the supreme senate, a man indeed of the highest religion, but of the highest erudition besides, in no way doubted, in order to summon for themselves and their fellow-townsmen a great patronage with God in so great a calamity, to bind themselves by a vow concerning the elevating of the relics of Blessed Raymund and their being laid in a nobler place: to which vow all applauded, not only of the laity but also of the ecclesiastics, both secular and regular, nay of the chief men and prelates; first of all the most illustrious Lord de Montchal, Archbishop of Toulouse, most skilled in the canons of the Church; which he assuredly would have guarded against, unless the truth of the sacred relics had been constant and clearly perceived by him.
[39] and, being heard, they paid the vow; How true and how pleasing to God that reverence had been, the happy event proved; for without delay, and certainly not without a miracle, the disease abated and soon ceased. For the cause of paying which so salutary a vow, about three years having intervened, the Eight Capitouls and the other chief nobles of the city came to the aforesaid Archbishop of Toulouse and to the abbot of St. Saturninus, humbly asking that the sacred sepulcher of St. Raymund be opened; whose prayers being gladly heard, the sepulcher was opened with solemn rite on the fifteenth of the Kalends of October in the year 1656, the whole clergy of the church of St. Saturninus being convoked for that cause, who, the cross going before, solemnly processed to the chapel of St. Raymund, accompanied both by the chief men of the supreme senate and by others of the city, and with a great crowd of people. Hence the sacred relics, drawn out before all the bystanders, especially the chief men of each order, were carried away with religious pomp into the basilica of St. Saturninus and there laid up, until all things
were prepared for the solemnity of the elevation. At last, on the day before the Ides of November of the aforesaid year, with all pomp and great apparatus, the solemnity of the elevation of the sacred relics was celebrated, for eight continuous days, in the aforesaid basilica. For the sake of this matter a great platform was erected, to which there was an ascent on either side, and there upon a table richly adorned the sacred relics were laid, wax-candles being kindled on every side, both that they might lie open to the veneration of all, and that satisfaction might be made to the pious zeal of those flocking together.
[40] the relics elevated and laid in a silver shrine, For the parishes of the whole diocese, led not by blind reverence, but by the very command of their superiors, on the day appointed for each, religiously processed in troops and turns to the basilica of St. Saturninus, that, venerating the sacred relics of Blessed Raymund, they might render thanks to God for the benefit of health obtained by his intercession. On the first day of that celebration the most illustrious Bishop of Lombez performed the sacred rite with solemn ceremony, and during the solemnities delivered from the pulpit a most eloquent oration concerning St. Raymund, which finished, clothed in pontifical vestments, he ascended the aforesaid platform, the whole clergy accompanying and the sacred ministers assisting. Then, having first venerated the sacred relics, he presented them to be venerated by the whole crowd, then one by one arranged them in silver shrines, wrought with wondrous art, and fixed by the vow of the citizens of Toulouse. On the eighth day, for closing this so great festivity, a general procession was proclaimed, at which were present the senators of the supreme court, clad in red garments, for greater reverence and the gravity of the matter, in which procession forty-five coffers or shrines of sacred relics, which for very many centuries back are kept in the basilica of St. Saturninus, were triumphantly carried, first of all the shrines of Blessed Raymund, which were borne in turns by the canons, under a most precious canopy, borne by the Eight Capitouls, with the joy and applause of the whole city, voices and trumpets sounding by turns. And this solemnity and pomp the most illustrious Bishop of Comminges most excellently concluded with a panegyric oration, and from that time every year, on the same recurring day, the memory of this elevation is celebrated. All these things are had from the authentic acts which were written concerning this matter, and which are kept in the archive of the church of St. Saturninus.
[41] Which since they are so, is it not manifestly proved from these things with notable triumph and solemnity in the year 1656. that a certain Raymund, distinct from the other Saints of the same name who lived later, is rightly held a Saint by the people of Toulouse, nay, that he and his relics pertain to them? To what purpose, I ask, would the people of Toulouse, smitten with so grave a calamity, in so great an abundance of sacred relics which they certainly have, have had recourse to doubtful ones? Who would not see that it was by no means doubtful to them that these, of which we speak, were sacred; and of no other than that Blessed Raymund whom, as a saint and their fellow-citizen, they had long venerated; and what wonder if of their own holy fellow-citizen they promised themselves nothing but favorable things, as it happened? Nor let it move you if perhaps no ancient tables exist concerning this matter; for that stone tomb, of which I spoke above, always ascribed to the divine Raymund of Toulouse and religiously set apart in a shrine, dedicated under his invocation, for more than five hundred years, manifestly testified the matter of itself, so that no room was left for oblivion or subreption. But, as it is permitted rightly to suspect, tables are not altogether in fact wanting, from which it can be drawn that the aforesaid Blessed Raymund was of Toulouse, or a Canon of the church of St. Saturninus of Toulouse, which, God helping, we shall someday extract from the hiding-places of our archives; yet these things which I have already adduced suffice abundantly for asserting to the people of Toulouse their holy Raymund.
[42] Let their holy Raymund indeed remain asserted to the people of Toulouse, We grieve that more was not transmitted. as we have thus far tried laboriously enough to assert, and to discuss here and there not carelessly those things which might in some measure illustrate his sanctity. That is allowed to be wanting by Canon Maynard which I especially demanded; namely those tables which, God helping, he will someday extract from the hiding-places of his archives. Why did he not now furnish it? Why did he not shake out the archives, that he might transmit tables of that kind to us, since my requests, more than once destined for Toulouse, especially sought them? No more opportune occasion could have arisen for him, no more urgent reason could be brought, of collecting all his monuments most diligently and accurately, than that through my letters he understood that whatever instruments pertaining to his St. Raymund were eagerly awaited, for inserting into our work on the Acts of the Saints those things which, if they come forth too late, will not have their place there. But indeed, Maynard promises more there than he will ever do; let him explore and search the hiding-places of his archives by the lamp, he will probably draw out for us thence no other tables than those which Catel, Possinus, the Latin Anonymous, and Jalras long ago unrolled, that is, our pure and simple Legend, not badly contracted by the elogium of Saussay. Maynard would have done us a most welcome thing if, as he sweated splendidly for the cult, homeland, and elevation of the relics, so he had bestowed his effort on studiously dissolving the other doubts. Of those he touches one briefly, about which he seems little solicitous to solve it duly and exactly. Thus he proceeds:
[43] But in what age St. Raymund of Toulouse lived, neither Catel, Maynard disputes concerning the age of the Saint, nor Chatelain (so he himself writes), be it said with their leave, sufficiently attained. Not indeed Catel, when he said that regular Canons were not introduced into the church of St. Saturninus before the year 1183. Since it is established, both from the bull of confirmation of the regular state constituted in the church of St. Saturninus, published by Gregory VII, and from book 9 of the same Gregory, letter 29, and from very many other Acts which we have in hand, that the notable Canonry of St. Saturninus, situated near Toulouse, instituted the Canonical life about the year 1079. No less far does Chatelain seem to err, when he assigns the death of St. Raymund to the year 1159; since he is called a Saint in the bull of Alexander III in the year 1169, about ten years after his death, on Chatelain's hypothesis, which by no means agrees with so brief an interval. Besides, the basilica of St. Saturninus, to whose restoration tradition bears that Blessed Raymund contributed his wealth, was restored before the year 1097. Hence it is gathered clearly enough that our Blessed Raymund flourished in the declining eleventh century, then when the regular observance recently instituted in the church of St. Saturninus was most vigorous.
[44] but somewhat clearer things are wanted. The eleventh century we too long ago detected; a more distinct epoch of the Saint's age we were seeking, which I do not think can easily be drawn out from the hiding-places of the archives. Catel's slip in the year 1183 Maynard not badly observes, but he could have corrected him from Catel himself, On the Counts, book 2, page 176, where, also speaking of the monks intruded into the church of St. Saturninus by Count William, he rightly notes the year 1083, which the times of William most certainly require, which we touched briefly at number 27. We easily assent to Maynard too in this, that he asserts from Gregory VII that the notable Canonry of St. Saturninus, situated near Toulouse, instituted the canonical life in the time of Blessed Gregory VII, although those multiplied instruments do not define it so evidently, being to be recalled to the single letter of Gregory. But if Maynard, by the canonical life, understands the observance of the rule of St. Augustine, introduced at that time, we do not see that this can in any way be drawn from the words of Blessed Gregory, and we think with Catel that this was first done some years after 1083. That Castellanus with others wrongly referred the death of St. Raymund to the year 1159, we judge to have been abundantly proved above. Further, the church of St. Saturninus was certainly restored before the year 1097, nay much earlier, inasmuch as it was consecrated in the year 1096, as Catel expressly and well noted, and you have at number 14, where the added indiction IV altogether settles the matter. Behold now the conclusion of the little writing. All these things I, Joseph Maynard, Canon of St. Saturninus of Toulouse, wrote, after diligently inquiring into the truth. At Toulouse, on the 4th day of January 1719. Now let us subjoin the very lives and miracles of St. Raymund.
THE LIFE
Distributed into nine lections, from a manuscript of Toulouse.
Raymund, confessor, at Toulouse in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 7079
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
Lection I.
The deeds indeed of all the Saints, whom either the immense spaces of the lands, or long-lived antiquity, has rendered obscure to us, religion has undertaken to be recalled with the merit of Christian devotion, Born at Toulouse, first a cantor, then married, but especially by the examples of those by whom our infirmity is strengthened, and by whose relics, whose merits also, we are protected from enemies: for in human affairs authority is wont to be exhibited more easily to those things which we have beheld with our eyes than to those which we have learned only by reading or hearing; whence let no one doubt to accommodate faith to the things which we pursue, both because we have learned the truth b by the report of the faithful, and because, all ambiguity being set aside, we have known several by their working, of which if perchance something, negligence requiring, oblivion has abolished, still, God granting, similar or greater things are done there by most frequent use. Now therefore, turning aside to the series of the matter, let us begin to explain the point, who, or whence, was he himself of whom we have proposed to speak. Raymund therefore, to be praised not so much for the nobility of his parents as for the nobility of his virtues, at Toulouse born, was free from the least things, to which human frailty is sometimes wont to be bent. For this man in his boyish years, elegantly instructed in the studies of letters, not, as that age is wont, cleaving to folly or following the blandishments of boyish wantonness, after he had reached youthful strength, by the mercy of blessed Saturninus, to whom he had been delegated by his parents, discharged the office of cantor: but he himself, fearing the slipperiness of his age, considering another law in his members, warring against the law of his mind, believed it would be good, lest he should break out into worse things, to join a wife to himself in lawful wedlock. Whence it came to pass that, dreading the years of infirmity, he lawfully took a wife, and, as long as she lived, served the matrimony of the marriage-bed irreproachably. But thou, O Lord, etc.
Lection II.
[2] Not many years indeed intervening, she dying, embracing the virtue of continence, his wife having died, he gives himself wholly to works of mercy. he resolved to trample the luxury of carnal concupiscence, which he deliberated, and did. For thenceforth he never clung to any of women, thus at last, the pleasure of his flesh c being vanquished, the more freely, the more frequently and fervently seizing the purpose of sanctity, he studied to assume to himself the one commandment which is greatest among the rest, that of charity: which, beyond what may seem credible, except to those who saw, he devoutly fulfilled to the very end. Who could suffice to praise fully the immensity of his charity, in seizing the road of whose so vast a solitude the genius of writers would not be affrighted? From the proclamation therefore of his charity, let no one ascribe it to temerity that I graze a few things out of many; and let my devotion's writings, though they may seem to be marked with some note of reproof, in a wild d manner
tear apart: for I prefer that the powers of my weakness should succumb to the business of so great a matter, than that those things which I believe will profit many should remain untouched, through the poverty or negligence of writers. Raymund, wholly a saint, kindled with an inestimable ardor of charity, whatever he obtained of the revenues of the estates which he had justly acquired for himself, he took care, desiring to transmit it into the heavenly treasures through the hands of the poor, in a work of piety. For every year, the winter time approaching, he bought from the revenue of his property what garments he could, and distributing them one by one to individuals, he strove to exercise the works of mercy secretly, at fitting hours, withdrawing them from human gaze, lest the breeze of favor should dissolve them.
Lection III.
[3] Every year also, at the entrance of the Lenten observance, and on the more solemn feasts, He founds a hospice for poor clerics. preparing food for a hundred and more poor, he ministered abundantly, nor yet on that account, as though content with these, did he recall his mind from the daily administration of alms. For who, needing mercy, sought from him the aid which he could confer, and went away frustrated? Who, seeking help from him, and acquiescing in his holy admonitions, returned unadvised? But he himself, compelled by the need of some thing, most frequently went about traversing the workshops of the poor, but especially of those whom he had once known to be wealthy, or whom either sickness of body, or the necessity of some misfortune, had deprived of the use of their household goods; to whom, expending large benefits with a stealthy hand, he admitted no witness of his work except God, from whom no secret can lie hidden: fearing lest the blast of popular breath should overthrow the structure of his house, whose foundations he laid upon the firm rock. To the Jews also, whom holy mother Church had not yet borne to Christ through the laver of the sacred faith, he did not neglect to stretch out the hand of charity, but, greatly compassionating the afflicted, he grieved that the divine handiwork of the Creator in them should be tortured with the most bitter torment of poverty. But over these, the greatly venerable man, seeing that the poor needed shelter more than food, studied to build a Hospice for them, which, begun but not yet completed to the end, furnishing with beds, cloths, and utensils as far as he could, from the revenues of his estates he appointed that daily expenses be there ministered for maintaining thirteen poor. Whose house, therefore, which he had begun while living, even now dead he retains as his insignia; for as while living he had been wont to minister there to the poor from his own goods, so also from the contributions f of many, to the uses of the poor, dead, he ceases not to minister, whence indeed can be proved that large benignity which he had always had toward the poor: for as in life he exhibited the office of compassion which he had promised, so also after death he now ceases not to expend his largess.
Lection IV.
[4] After finally the building of the Hospice, no long time having passed, the holy man, hearing that the river Hers g, by any pouring of rains, spread the channel of its gulf far and wide, He builds bridges at the Hers and then the temple of St. Saturninus. and more frequently brought many impediments to travelers, and had miserably deprived of life even those crossing by sailing, the boat being sunk; greatly grieved, and, that he might reserve for life those whom the devil was trying to drown, judging the crossing of the river perilous, he consulted the more prudent as to what should be done with the money which he had gathered for the proper uses of the poor. But they, diligently regarding the necessity of the perilous matter, and likewise comparing the fertility of the land, which then ministered necessaries to the poor, said that it would be better for him to spend the collected money on the building of bridges: and, as they had advised, afterward, not many years intervening, they saw it completed. For he built two bridges over the channel of the river Hers, of the aforesaid money, of stone work, and yet meanwhile did not withdraw his hand from the largesses of alms which he had been accustomed to. Since therefore in these and other things of this kind the prudent man was to be praised, what at last shall I say of the excellent work of the church of St. Saturninus, over which he presided through many years' time h, and, besides the member of the head, which had already been completed, beginning the body from the foundations, before the day of his death, the divine mercy helping, carried the walls round about up to the completion of the windows. He himself indeed, the Lord Raymund, that I may confess the truth of him, was incessantly intent on the zeal of holy work, and day and night, revolving in meditation the precepts of his Lord, glowed, kindled with the ardor of divine charity; but everywhere the holy man, that he might supply the perfection of charity, that which was wanting, that Evangelical saying which the Lord speaks: He who wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, frequently retracting it with himself, having become an imitator of the most blessed Fathers, at last in the same church served his King under a regular habit i.
Lection V.
[5] Whence indeed it happened that some, incited by the grace of his example, took refuge in the tranquillity of the same purpose, Then having embraced a more perfect rule of life, and, spurning the fleeting things of the world, panted with all their strength toward the summit of the eternal inheritance: thus at last it came to pass that all filth was banished from the Church, and the canonical life of the brethren of Good Purpose, serving God with the whole mind, was there established. For who then could ever fully perform the praises, whose chief things indeed are made manifest to God alone, but are hidden from men? O man worthy of all praise, filled with all mercy, for performing whose praise the eloquence of our speech does not suffice! Who could commend by writings the gifts of his virtues, since especially in our times k we can equal no one to him in the title of meekness and benignity? Him therefore, adorned with these and such cultivations of virtues, God the omnipotent rewarder of each, wishing to bestow a largess on His soldier, permitted to labor with a long sickness, that whatever of filth the spirit had contracted in the drunken prison-house of the body, he might, as in a furnace of a raging fire, burn out by cooking with the laborious trouble of sickness. But meanwhile, when he knew that the day of his death had drawn near, reckoning himself lower among the lower, he judged it very rash that he should be buried with the brethren; and thus he demanded in every way that he might merit to be buried where he had foreseen the place of his burial. For he had foreseen the place of burial near the collegiate house which he had made for the poor clerics, and there, the divine grace providing, had ordered a stone vessel to be prepared for himself.
Lection VI.
[6] But that all this was done by the dispensation of divine goodness, we have learned by evident indications, that the office of compassion, which he had expended while living, holily, as he had lived, he dies, buried among his poor. dead he might extend even more copiously to the poor of Christ. Holy Raymund therefore, worn out with the weight of infirmity and old age, but most certain of the remuneration of his reward, panted with all his bowels for the fellowship of the heavenly court, and the more, his limbs failing, he drew near to the exit of life, the more insistently he took care to commend himself to the Lord; for more frequently he diligently summoned his brethren to himself, as in life, so also in death, and washing away his sins to them with tears and groanings by confessing, as though placed in readiness, he fortified himself with the participation of the body and blood of the Lord. Which being often and duly performed, coming to his last, on the fifth before the Nones of July he rendered up his spirit to heaven; making no testament to his parents, because he desired to be a portion of the inheritance of Christ, namely he instituted Him his heir. Then indeed, the funeral rites honorably performed by the brethren, by the intervening leave of the Prior l, he was buried where he had long before asked, himself poor with the poor; where indeed after the burial of his glorious body large benefits are granted to the infirm; hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind, gait to the lame, to the weak former health is restored, from the possessed also demons are put to flight; which efficacy of miracles that the Author of divine power should grant to the merits of His beloved was necessary, so that He might block up with evident signs the mouths of certain perfidious ones, detracting from his probity m.
Lection VII.
[7] A reading of the holy Gospel according to Luke. At that time Jesus said to his disciples: Appearing a third time in a vision, he heals a blind and a lame man, No one lights a lamp and puts it in a hidden place, nor under a bushel, and the rest. A homily of the venerable Bede the presbyter. Of Himself the Lord speaks these things, and showing that, although He had said above that no sign should be given, nor except the sign of Jonah, yet the brightness of His light is by no means to be hidden from the faithful. But God, weighing the merits of each, did not long suffer His servant to be frustrated of the title of merited praise, and willed that those who before had derogated from his goodness should perish by the scruple of their infidelity: nay, He deigned to show what he had done, or how great he was in the lot of the Saints, or the innumerable marks of his virtues. Whence it came to pass that in the same territory n Raymund the saint appeared to a certain man celebrating vigils in the church of blessed Susanna, and, indicating who he himself was, commanded that he should go to announce to Toulouse how great things the Lord would deign to do through him, no long space of time intervening. But when the simple and rude man, disturbed by the novelty of the words, refused to execute it, on the following night he appeared to the same man, and rebuking him for his negligence, admonished him still to execute what he had heard. But again the man, thinking it something phantastic, when uncertain he did not acquiesce in the admonitions, the holy man was present, and striking him once in the face, began to promise sharper things than he had suffered, unless he should more quickly accomplish what was commanded. Rising at last, timid, and livid, and utterly deprived of the light of his eyes, he resolved to execute the commands, and did not delay to enter Toulouse in haste, which the Saint had commanded him to go to. But when he had come to the aforesaid place, he sought the sepulcher of the blessed Man. The prayer completed, what he had seen, or what had happened, with signs exhibiting faith to his word, he set forth to all who were present: but they, except those in whom was a sounder mind, ascribing what they had heard to ravings, held it for nothing; yet he himself, the light of the eye of which he had been deprived being immediately received, did not desist from the office of publishing that for which he had been sent. But meanwhile, while he persisted in what he had begun, a certain man was present, bearing a boy in his arms, whom nature had deprived of the office of walking; whom he himself, who had before foretold these things, taking in his hands, carried before the sepulcher of the Man, and taught the boy to go forth. Yet still, certain persons not desisting to gnaw the sanctity of the blessed Man with a venomed tongue, God the author of all truth refuted their perfidy, with open assertions of miracles.
Lection VIII.
[8] For afterward, no long interval of time mediating, a certain lettered youth, weakened in the lower part from the middle of the body, likewise one weak in the middle of the body, who seeking the nourishment of daily food had long lain in the collegiate house, without hope of recovering health; on the night of the anniversary, with a candle which he had gathered bit by bit from fragments, came before the sepulcher of the holy Man, creeping on his hands. But while there, devout and suppliant, he demanded of God and holy Raymund with the prayers he could, suddenly a most vehement heat, coming from heaven above, poured over him, so that he thought he would die, unless that unwonted heat should more quickly recede. Whence it came to pass that, while his sinews were stretched with a creaking, he sought help with loud cries: but of this compassion which he cried for, no one presumed to extend the benefit to him, that the divine power might complete what it had begun. And so, by the art of the divine medicine, the weakness being removed,
strengthened, he there rendered thanks, as he knew how, to the giver of so great benignity, and thence sought in haste the threshold of the church of blessed Saturninus, needing the support of no one, and thus returned home unharmed, and for very many years bore testimony against those barking at the merits of the holy Man.
Lection IX.
[9] Likewise, of what I learned of a certain cleric, from the report of those who were present at the miracle of this matter, and a demoniac. among other things I ought not to keep silence. A certain cleric, when he had already passed his boyish years, bound by the love of a certain master of his, by the hand of that his teacher, in every preceding business of crime, exercising the cruel crime of tyranny upon a certain woman and her son, both being slain, incurred the crime of homicide, and sprinkled the purity of innocence, which he had until then preserved, with the stains of nefarious crimes. Whence it came to pass that afterward, aspiring to the summit of the sacerdotal office, he received the grades without examination, and while he impudently remained for some time in the presbyteral order, God the avenger of all crimes at last would not have hidden of how great a rashness he was guilty. For this man on a certain day, while according to custom he celebrated the solemn office of the sacrifice, seized by a demon, the power of the middle of his body taken away, fell prostrate to the ground, and thus, lifted by the hands of the bystanders, for three days remained without word, without voice. To his friends and kinsmen, asking what they should do, he made known that he had suffered many assaults and terrors, and did not blush to confess that, unless he were handed over to a certain Raymund to be kept, he had utterly failed. Whence those who were present, solicitously weighing what it might be that he had said, recall to memory the virtues of holy Raymund, the report of which had already begun to be spread through the near borders of the region. But there, vows and gifts being offered to God, that He might deign to restore him to health; seeing this done in vain, they resolved to bring him to the sepulcher of the blessed Man, by whatever means they could. Where at last, when they had led him resisting, the artificer of malignity roared much more sharply, seeing that he could no longer resist, and not bearing the power of the divine virtue, was compelled to release the vessel founded to the honor of God, which he had claimed for himself, many who had gathered as if to a spectacle beholding it. And so the man, restored to his former health, rendered thanks to God and holy Raymund, and returning to his own, thenceforth remained immune from that temptation o.
ANNOTATIONS.
THE SECOND LIFE
From the Edition of the Anonymous of Toulouse.
Raymund, confessor, at Toulouse in Gaul (S.)
from the edition of the Anonymous
The excellent life of the divine Raimund, whose ashes, on account of the plague driven from the city, The author's preface explains the vow and the piety of the city of Toulouse. the people of Toulouse now consecrate by public vow; I, bound by a private vow, trusting not so much in my own strength as in his very aid, undertake to write. My labor, however slight, cannot but be full of legitimate glory, because it cannot but be very acceptable to the heavenly ones. For if it is so gratifying to God that those bones of illustrious souls, devoid of all sense, should be in the highest dignity among men, how much more gratifying will it be that their deeds, everywhere breathing virtue and piety, be commended by our writings to posterity? Which, since I have always persuaded my mind that it is so, I have hoped more confidently that I could be snatched from so great a calamity, if I should execute this province with a devout mind. Indeed I have truly found that human prudence, care, and industry are applied in vain in the most urgent evils; but that in God the best and greatest all hope of safety is uniquely to be placed. Such certainly from every age has been this mind of our city, prejudged by innumerable examples: and therefore all know, who are not ignorant of the affairs of our ancestors, that it stood by the peculiar providence of the Deity. It would not have sustained the most powerful onset of so many enemies, or broken the most ferocious phalanxes of heretics, by which it ought to have been utterly plundered and laid waste, unless it had been defended by the hidden hand of the heavenly ones. And we know that by a slight sprinkling of water innumerable enemies were put to flight, and their monstrous attempts made vain. Whence no wonder if it has long deserved to be called holy by all, which is sanctified by so many and so great miracles. Renowned for this prerogative, it yields to none of cities, surpasses all in piety, certainly overcomes the most religious in religion. For it suffers within its walls no other than the true and single worship of the Roman Church, and has laws by which it drives far from itself not only the Jews, whom even Rome itself does not reject, but also the wretched Calvinists, and provides that none of them ever be received among its citizens; nor that temples be built in the neighborhood within the space of four leagues. Excellent laws indeed, most faithful proofs of the piety of Toulouse! I pass over the reverence with which it cherishes to the marrow in its bosom those sacred bodies of the Saints: since even those very bones, though I be silent, speak not only this, but its singular magnificence. A specimen of which, as it lately gave a great one in the divine Eadmund, so certainly now in the divine Raimund it will give a very great one. But let these few things out of many concerning my homeland, and concerning the causes which impelled me to the present undertaking, suffice. It remains finally that I free my pledged faith, and now, most holy Raimund, adorn you with due praises according to the measure of my genius.
[2] The birth of St. Raymund, There are two things by which the births of men are wont to be commended: the nobility of ancestors, and the splendor of the homeland, which, although some have thought them to confer nothing, or little, to virtue, have at least this not contemptible advantage, that they suggest all things honorable at home and abroad, and with less trouble render good morals, otherwise to be instituted not without great labors. In these goods the divine Raimund abounded; for born of most illustrious parents, and in the most flourishing city of Toulouse, he enjoyed a most liberal nature: thus by the domestic examples of the former, and by the public examples of the latter's virtue, he was conveniently formed. But in what year I should place his birth, I plainly do not know, since it is established for me by no monument: but that he lived in the same age as Henry the First, King of the Gauls, Pons, Count of Toulouse, and Roger the Bishop, is most probable, as it seemed before to Catel, most skilled in our affairs: from whose authority no reasons impel me to depart. All the rest, to my great joy, remain entire. For it happens sometimes that the tender age of many illustrious men, and the preludes of their later virtue, are pressed down by eternal oblivion, which yet is not done without a certain secret providence of God, that we may be warned, namely, that life is to be esteemed only from its end: since on this term all the honor and dignity of the years gone before depends. The life of man is like a day, which you would not call beautiful on every side from the rising sun, painting heaven and earth with as it were a thousand colors; but from the continued splendor, and finally the same setting with pleasing majesty. So neither does the happy germ, luxuriant in the growing and greening blade, nor the joyful crops of good hope, always render rich and great harvests of great abundance; but ripe fruits, and safe from the injuries of tempests: so true is it that most auspicious beginnings are not always sure forerunners of a good end. Those things indeed were in the divine Raimund; in whom you may see nothing which does not shine from his birth to his death. For the first, likewise the middle, the last were constantly most similar, and a bright night closed his kindly days.
[3] His youth he did not loosen in delights, to which, greatly
for the most part, his first formation in good arts and morals. and at last with an incurable evil, parents indulge. He did not lie hidden in the embraces of a tender mother, or in a soft bosom, on which light age, as on a rock, is very often broken. For quickly, glowing with the desire of piety, he had nothing prior to tearing himself away from these enticements. It was a wonder that a boy of this weakness of age should exhibit toward sacred things the reverence of an old man; daily to make vows to God, and with a most constant mind to pour out prayers: by so unwonted an example, no one meanwhile was not kindled. For those things which are done beyond custom and unexpectedly are wont to strike the sluggish minds of men more sharply than those which are expected and done according to custom. Meanwhile he applied himself vehemently to the study of letters (which, how much it is nourished by purity and piety of mind, can scarcely be told). And now he had passed the first studies of grammar; when from his parents, favoring his just desires, he obtained that he should betake himself to the school of the Augustinian regulars of the divine Saturninus, where then the youth of Toulouse were wont to be imbued with good disciplines. Such indeed was in those times the rarity of the learned, so great the neglect and almost hatred of the liberal arts, that of those by whom youths could be formed in good instructions, none were found, even in the greatest cities, except monks. A monstrous and horrible barbarism had profaned all holy things: had impiously violated those venerable monuments of antiquity: had finally brought all evils with it: and, what no one but a hard man would contemplate with dry eyes, had as it were banished into exile our sweet muses too, without which life is unpolished and squalid, and has nothing of pleasantness or solace. They would have perished utterly, and even the very hope of ever recalling them would have perished, unless the monks within their cloisters, a rough refuge, had received them bloodless and almost lifeless. These therefore the divine Raimund had as masters of his learning, by whose religious admonitions too he was so far stimulated to the love of piety, although of himself he was sufficiently incited, that he devoted himself to the office of cantor, as they call it, with the highest pleasure of soul. And thus, he who had attained the purity of the English, wished also to discharge their chief office.
[4] Advanced in age, he began to consider more attentively what he should determine concerning himself: He is joined in matrimony. to turn over in his mind what kind of life was more accommodated to his disposition: which state, which condition was nearer to salvation: to survey all sides, not ignorant of the advantages and disadvantages of human miseries; who understood thoroughly that, whithersoever he should turn, nothing was safe from the greatest perils, and all things mingled with evils, and full of anxiety. What the poor man should do, and to what he should apply himself, he knows not. For while the mind is in doubt, it is driven by a slight impulse this way or that. At last, dreading the straits of a stormy life, he applied his mind to marriage, the faithful station of chastity, and joined to himself in wedlock a most honorable virgin. Her name you would seek from me in vain: yet one thing it is not fitting to pass over; that on this festal day of the nuptials there shone no profane wedding-song: no torches of Cupid, which so very often kindle such savage fires: nor finally with unchaste auspices, but the heavenly ones assenting, heaven favoring, and chaste love breathing, was the marriage entered upon. Some years he remained without children, but, what you may wonder more, without quarrel or any controversy.
[5] Free of his wife, he shines with virtues, especially charity toward the poor, His wife having died, the divine Raimund did not fill his house with womanish lamentation, although he loved her most tenderly; for it does not become true friendships to pursue the dead with cowardly complaint, but to remember those whom you may aid. Wherefore he continually poured out prayers to God; that if there still remained any fault of his beloved wife to be purged, he might suppliant receive it upon himself, and repair it by his own merits. Marriages entered with such love, no wonder if they persevere even beyond death; since otherwise they are scarcely tolerable for a little time. Tell me, what is more just than to embrace with that charity dear parents, and tender friends, with whom you have familiarly perceived all the amenities of life, now dead and then setting out far? What more cruel than, when you can soothe with your prayers the horrid and intolerable torments which they suffer, not even to remember them? While they live, we are wholly intent on deserving well of them; now no care of the dead touches us, and often, so great is our negligence, we now seem as it were to hate the absent whom we once loved! Of second nuptials he never thought; taking it ill indeed to repeat marriages. Let no one indeed pretend this, that he says he is burning; since excessive fires, by maceration, if only you will, can easily be checked. For such is the condition of the wretched flesh, which, if you indulge it, kicks back; but if you oppose it, suddenly becomes more modest and obeys reason. And so both in chastising the body and in cultivating the soul he always applied equal diligence, who came to his wished-for end so quickly that he was a marvel to the whole city. Of all the virtues, which you would have said had coalesced with him, he cultivated in every way charity toward the poor in a wondrous manner, glowing with which he sometimes deserted care of himself, that he might most vigilantly provide for their advantages. Though he abounded in great riches, he did not, as is almost the custom of all, enjoy them for pleasures; but, solidly cleaving to the precepts of Christ, he brought diligent aid to the needy. He did not increase his household estate by usury, without law; namely, he had then converted all the force both of his mind and of his money to this, that he might treasure up for himself in the heavens treasures never to perish. A divine, not a human art of gaining, this, from which not moderate but immense usuries emerge! Truly he lends to the Lord who has mercy on the poor.
[6] The river joined by bridges, and by other means he succors his neighbor. In these times there was frequent travel for those making pilgrimage to Toulouse for the sake of Religion, on that side where the little river Ertius runs down. And when he had heard that, when it overflowed, not a few had been miserably absorbed by the waters twice or thrice, he took care at his own expense to have a double bridge built of brick work. Thus he most liberally favored the safety of pious men, and at the same time piety. But from marks of this kind—tokens, inscriptions—by which the feigned liberality of men thinks it will be most commended to posterity, he deliberately abstained; that he might teach all, but especially his own fellow-citizens, laboring with this madness, that the solid memory of good deeds lives in God alone, not in men, lighter than a shadow, with whom all things perish, and there is nothing but emptiness. Lent approaching, as they call it, he chose for himself every year a hundred, or more, beggars, whom he fed at his own cost, and formed in divine institutions. From him let many learn true charity toward the poor. For very many, otherwise not bad, think themselves excellently taught in bestowing alms if they labor much in refreshing the body of the wretched; but of souls little solicitous, which yet in the matter is the greatest thing. Wherefore I would deservedly call those wisely pious, who instituted that the poor be fed in hospices: for thus it is consulted no less for piety than for largesses.
[7] Impelled by this mind, the divine Raimund founded a house near the temple of the divine Saturninus, He founds a hospice and builds the temple of St. Saturninus. which afterward, named for the divine John, he furnished with all furniture and honorable revenues, for the sake of thirteen poor scholars, inaugurated with the tonsure, whom he willed to be continually educated in it. This house afterward, the divine Raimund being dead, amplified by many donations of the pious, obtained the name of the Hospice or Hospital of St. Raimund even to our times. After this, he undertook to restore the greater part of the temple of the divine Saturninus, which some years before had perished by fire. The work was carried up to the windows by his money and labor. A great example indeed of great munificence! Deservedly therefore, people of Toulouse, you venerate the sacred bones of the divine Raimund, and retain his memory fixed in your souls; since he had nothing more important in life than by his example to provoke you to the zeal of piety. He still drives you from heaven, and watches over your safety from the citadel, as a most faithful sentinel, nor suffers his fellow-citizens to be afflicted now with the last evils. This you experience, this you feel.
[8] While he thus stripped himself of all fortunes, whatever there was in him of earthly cares, He is here said to have been a religious, though very little, he resolved altogether to exchange for heavenly things. Which that he might more easily accomplish, into the roll of the Augustinian regulars of St. Saturninus, who now, the institute being changed, are called by the full name of dignity Canons, he wished to be inscribed. In that solitude he had resolved to live altogether obscure, that he might more freely and loftily meditate on the eternal joys. Yet long he could not lie hidden, the splendor of his excellent virtue quickly illuminating that retreat: which afterward many chose for themselves as a port of quiet. Happy those who prefer sacred cares to profane; for what security is there in so great a variety of worldly things, and as it were a wave! With greater peril indeed, ensnared in the world, we make our pilgrimage through this precipitous globe, than the monks: the true monks, I say, who as much from the heart as from the mouth, and without all disguise, said their last farewell to the world, serving God alone: of whom you would not wrongly say that they sail in the port; while we, through innumerable chances and hazards of life, experience the deep sea, famous for shipwrecks. Senseless men, who are caught more by nuts than by the treasures of heaven.
[9] Some years he had passed most religiously in the monastery, and almoner of the monastery. when he is chosen prefect of the sacred largesses, commonly the almoner. All congratulate him on the merited office, the poor hope for themselves all things favorable hence, on account of his singular liberality. And not undeservedly; for quickly he abundantly and fully filled their hope. His scholars especially, whom he had gathered in the Hospice, he always earnestly aided by deed and counsel. Many men notable for piety he once moved by his example to transmit their possessions to them, certainly not more vehemently moved them by the allurements of speech. Which among the best is wont to be the worst kind of men; who as it were with sweetmeats bait the dying, that they may cheat them of their goods: and yet, O crime, wish to be held rivals of Evangelical continence; truly covering the rapacity of the raven with the simplicity of the dove! Otherwise had the divine Raimund disposed himself, nor was this ever the custom of the Divine ones.
[10] He asks to be buried in the Hospice founded by himself. After he had long enough by his virtue paved for himself the way to eternal salvation, he learned divinely that he would soon die. Wherefore, seized by a sharp disease, persevering in the same humility to his last breath, he most earnestly asked the prefect, whom they call the Prior of the monastery, that he would allow him to determine concerning his own body; and to be buried in the hospice, among his poor scholars; that even dead he might not cease to exhort them by the religion of his sepulcher. Excellently indeed: for before the cold ashes of the Saints, cold souls grow warm! Prayers being poured out again and again, at last the Prior could scarcely be bent: for he ill endured to be bereft of so great a treasure. But humble persistence conquered the obstinacy. And what could he have denied to the divine Raimund, who expected that by his merits and grace he would soon be most commended to God? Fate approaching, he chose the place of burial, so greatly desired, in the hospice. Soon, when to the prayers of the bystanding monks, whom the greatest grief and mourning consumed, he to his last
had commended himself, he breathed out his most holy spirit to God the best and greatest. His body, his sweet remains, the monks, prostrated by so great a loss, the citizens afflicted and desolate, laid in its place. Illustrious in life for every kind of virtue, he stood most illustrious after his death for many miracles: which are all to be learned from one last one, and deservedly to be esteemed: although those I shall presently subjoin in their place from most ancient parchments.
[11] Toulouse freed from the plague in the year 1652. The year 1652 is infamous for a pestilence, which the malignity of the air, and a defect of the sun, had sent into the city of Toulouse. Horrible to see, so little a fire at the beginning, forthwith grew into a huge conflagration! In this way a most frequented and most flourishing city, in the space of a few months, was widowed not only of the cheap common folk, but also of the excellent men by whom it was adorned. In this unspeakable calamity indeed, when the Eight Capitouls saw that all remedies, cares, vigilance, and other human aids profited nothing, they had recourse, better advised, to the heavenly ones. Yet too late; for perhaps we should not now bewail so many excellent men extinct, if they had first moved the clemency of the deities by their prayers. To the divine Raimund therefore they bind themselves by a vow, that they will lay his sacred bones, before distinguished by no ornaments, in a silver ark, and dedicate to him a solemn day, since by his aid they hoped more confidently that our city would be saved. And without delay; God assenting to their vows, straightway the atrocious pestilence ceased to rage, the serenity and salubrity of the air returned, and health to the citizens: which that they were done by a miracle no one but an impious man and a hater of the deities will deny. For the rest, we especially experience that he aids those laboring with other diseases, and with fever.
Thus far the Anonymous, of whose style and gravity of verbose sentences it has been said in the commentary, §3. To add notations here seemed superfluous, since with only more words he narrates more fully the very same things which above in the Lections are more contracted, only those three last being excepted, embracing the miracles, which he himself transferred to another place, as has also been said at the cited place. But as to the school of the Augustinian regular Canons which at number 3 he sings to us at Toulouse, in which our Saint learned good letters, at the beginning of the 11th century, how alien from the truth this is, we have shown in the aforesaid commentary §2. It only now remains that we here at the end represent the more recent miracles, handed down by Jalras.
A HANDFUL
Of more recent miracles, from the year 1652 to 1656.
From the life published in French by J. B. Jalras.
Raymund, confessor, at Toulouse in Gaul (S.)
By Jalras
The author warns, toward the end of his work, page 127, that he has tasted only a few miracles from many more, A few miracles out of many, whose list can be seen among the members of the college of St. Raymund at Toulouse. I would not dare to deny faith to the man, but it is certainly altogether to be wondered at that at least such a catalogue of miracles has not reached us, after, by repeated prayers, I requested to be transmitted to me from Toulouse whatever pertained to St. Raymund. I rely therefore on the authority of Jalras alone, in whom those few miracles are described from page 123. I do not at all doubt that the confidence roused toward St. Raymund arose on the occasion of that more celebrated miracle, by which the whole city of Toulouse was delivered from the deadly plague, in the said year 1652. The writer does not indicate the determined time in which each miracle was done, but since the aforesaid French life was published by him in the year 1656, it is given clearly enough to be understood that all happened in the time described by us. I follow the order arranged by Jalras himself, and make his words from French into Latin.
[1] The Lord de Bertrand, a clerical counselor in the supreme court of Toulouse, which are reduced to various healings. seized by a grave disease, from which he easily foresaw that he could not be freed by the help of physicians, had recourse to Blessed Raymund; by whose patronage having obtained the entire health of body which he could not by human aids, he paid his vow at the Saint's tomb, and there performed sacred rites.
[2] The Lord de Puget, likewise a counselor of the same court, came to the same tomb, to be present at the sacrifice of the Mass, celebrated there by his domestic chaplain, that he might give thanks for health recovered by the Saint's intercession.
[3] A third member of the aforesaid court, the Lord de Mazuyer, demonstrated equal gratitude in the chapel of St. Raymund, for a similar benefit granted to his wife and children.
[4] The Lord de Galion, treasurer of France, came thither suppliant, and rendered thanks for health obtained by the intervention of our Saint.
[5] The Lord de Subran, counselor of the seneschalsy, or secondary court, at Rieux felt that same helping aid of St. Raymund which Toulouse had experienced: for, the plague raging there, under the Saint's patronage, in the midst of the plague-stricken, he with his whole household remained unharmed, and afterward, about to give thanks for the benefit received, went to the tomb.
[6] The Lord Despoux, Vicar general of the Order of St. Bernard in the district of the court of Toulouse, and Prior of Boulbonne, celebrated a eucharistic Mass in the aforesaid chapel, as a token of a grateful mind, because by the aid of St. Raymund he had driven off a sickness.
[7] The Lord Baron de Saintarailhes, delivered from the pestilence, and the quartan fever being put to flight, felt the propitious hand of St. Raymund invoked, and did not blush to testify this openly in the aforesaid chapel.
[8] The Reverend Fathers of Mount Carmel, the Reverend Trinitarian Fathers, and the Reverend Capuchin Fathers, gratefully proclaim the aid of St. Raymund bestowed on their communities at Toulouse, acknowledging that very many of their number escaped free from various diseases, having drunk water into which the relics of St. Raymund had been dipped.
[9] A holy nun, of the Order of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, likewise by a similar remedy happily drove off a long disease with which she had struggled.
[10] The Lord Rector or Pastor at Gargas, as the graces of healings sought were patent and general to his parishioners, so willed that the testification of the benefits received should be common and general, and therefore, a solemn supplication being instituted, led all his people to the chapel of the Saint, their preserver from the epidemic. This Pastor, solicitous for the flock which the hand of God had touched, hearing of the Toulouse miracle, imitated the vow of that city, whence his parish too soon obtained the same favor; for those stricken by the plague were straightway well; those whom it had not yet invaded remained immune from all evil.
These few things out of many from the praised Jalras, to which there remains nothing for us to add; whence we put an end both to the Acts of St. Raymund and of this whole day, nay of the whole first volume, which could not be carried further.
SYNAXARIUM
From the Menologium, collected by the command of the Emperor Basil, of which the last six months are kept in manuscript in the monastery of the Basilians of Grottaferrata in Latium.
FROM A MANUSCRIPT OF GROTTAFERRATA
ΜΗΝΙ ΙΟΥΛΙΩι Α᾽. ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΑΝΑΡΓΥΡΩΝ ΚΟΣΜΑ ΚΑΙ ΔΑΜΙΑΝΟΥ.
THE FIRST DAY.
Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs.
Κοσμᾶς καὶ Δαμιανὸς, οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυρες, ὑπῆρχον μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Καρίνου. Ἰατροὶ δὲ ὄντες τὴν τέχνην, περιήρχοντο πάντα τόπον, πᾶσι τοῖς ἀσθενοῦσι παρέχοντες τὰς ἰάσεις. Μισθὸν τῆς ἰατρείας αἰτοῦντες τοὺς θεραπευομένους τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν πίστιν. Ὑποληφθέντες οὖν παρὰ τῶν πεπλανημένων εἰδωλολατρῶν, ὡς διὰ μαγικῆς τέχνης τὰς θεραπείας ποιοῦντες, κατεμηνύθησαν τῷ βασιλεῖ. Καὶ κρατηθέντες ἠνάγκαζον τὸ ἀρνήσασθαι τὸν Χριστὸν, καὶ μὴ πεισθέντες, πρὸς βασάνους ηὐτρεπίζοντο. Ἀλλὰ δυνάμει Χριστοῦ τὸν βασιλέα Καρῖνον τῆς πλάνης ἀπήλλαξαν. Ἐκτραχηλισθέντα γὰρ αὐτὸν ἰασάμενοι, οὐ μόνον αὐτὸν παρεσκεύασαν πιστεῦσαι τῷ Χριστῷ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς οἰκείους αὐτοῦ πάντας. Ἐκ τούτου οὖν ἐν τιμῇ διάγοντες, ἐφθονήθησαν παρὰ τοῦ διδασκάλου αὐτῶν. Καὶ εἰς ὄρος ἀναχθέντες παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ δῆθεν ἐπὶ συλλογῇ βοτανῶν ἐλιθοβολήθησαν.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥ ΟΣΙΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΠΕΤΡΟΥ.
Peter.
Πέτρος ὁ ὅσιος Πατὴρ ἡμῶν ὑπῆρχεν ἐκ τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Εἰρήνης τῆς εὐσεβεστάτης, υἱὸς Κωνσταντίνου Πατρικίου, ὑφ᾽ οὗ καὶ πᾶσαν γραφὴν ἐδιδάχθη ἑλληνικὴν καὶ χριστιανικήν. Εἶτα συνευχθεὶς γυναικὶ γέγονε πατρίκιος. Καὶ διὰ τὴν ἀνδρείαν αὐτοῦ προεχειρίσθη δομέστικος τῶν σχολῶν παρὰ Νικηφόρου βασιλέως, τοῦ πατρὸς Σταυρακίου. Καὶ συνεκστρατεύσας τῷ βασιλεῖ κατὰ Βουλγάρων, μετὰ τὴν σφαγὴν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὴν φυγὴν τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Σταυρακίου, ἐκρατήθη μετὰ ἑτέρων πεντήκοντα, καὶ δι᾽ εὐχῆς λυτρωθεὶς τῶν δεσμῶν ὑπὸ ἐπιφανείας τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰωάννου τοῦ Θεολόγου, τὸν κόσμον καταλιπὼν, ἐγένετο μοναχός. Καὶ συνήσκει ἐν τῷ ὄρει τοῦ Ὀλύμπου τῷ ἁγίῳ Ἰωαννικίῳ. Μετὰ δὲ κοίμησιν ἐκείνου τὴν βασιλεύουσαν καταλαβὼν, καὶ προσκαθεσθεὶς τῷ παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ οἰκοδομηθέντι ναῷ ἐν τοῖς Εὐάνδρου, καὶ πᾶσαν ἀρετὴν ἐπιδειξάμενος, καὶ πολλὰ θαύματα ποιήσας, ἐτελειώθη.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Β᾽. Η ΚΑΤΑΘΕΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΤΙΜΙΑΣ ΕΣΘΗΤΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΥΠΕΡΑΓΙΑΣ ΘΕΟΤΟΚΟΥ.
THE SECOND DAY.
The Deposition of the Robe of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Λέοντος τοῦ Μεγάλου, ἀδελφοὶ δύο πατρίκιοι Γάλβιος καὶ Κάνδιδος, πόθον ἔσχον τοῦ ἀπελθεῖν καὶ προσκυνῆσαι τοὺς ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ἁγίους τόπους. Τὴν ἔφεσιν οὖν αὐτῶν πληρώσαντες, ἀπῆλθον εἰς Παλαιστίνην. Καὶ ἀπληκεύσαντες εἰς οἶκον Ἑβραίας γυναικὸς γραὸς, εὗρον ἐκεῖ πλήθη ἀσθενῶν κατακειμένων. Καὶ ἐρωτήσαντες, ἔμαθον ὅτι ἐκεῖ ἐναπόκειται ἡ τῆς Θεοτόκου τιμία ἐσθὴς, καὶ αἰτησάμενοι εἰσῆλθον προσκυνῆσαι αὐτὴν, καὶ διὰ νυκτὸς λαβόντες λεληθότως τὰ μέτρα τῆς θήκης, ἀπῆλθον εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα· καὶ κατασκευάσαντες ὁμοίαν θήκην, πάλιν ὑπέστρεψαν· καὶ θέντες ἐκεῖ, ἀνελάβοντο τὴν πρωτότυπον, καὶ ἤγαγον εἰς Κωνσταντινούπολιν, ἀποθέμενοι ἐν τῷ προαστείῳ αὐτῶν, Βλαχέρναι λεγομένῳ, δοξάσαντες ἅμα τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ τῷ λαῷ τὸν Θεὸν ἐπὶ τῷ τοιούτῳ θησαυρίσματι.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΥΑΚΙΝΘΟΥ.
Hyacinth, Martyr.
Ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Ὑάκινθος ὑπῆρχε μὲν ἐκ τῆς χώρας Φρυγίας, ἐν ᾗ καὶ τὴν εὐσέβειαν ἐπαιδεύθη. Ἀπελθὼν δὲ εἰς Κύμην τὴν πόλιν ἰᾶτο τοὺς νοσοῦντας ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ γνωσθεὶς παρὰ τῶν εἰδωλολατρῶν, ἐκρατήθη, καὶ παρεδόθη τῷ τῆς χώρας Ἡγεμόνι, καὶ ἀναγκασθεὶς θῦσαι τοῖς εἰδώλοις, καὶ μὴ πεισθεὶς, ἐβασανίσθη, καὶ εὐξάμενος τῷ Θεῷ παρέδωκε τὸν Ἡγεμόνα πνεύματι ἀκαθάρτῳ, καὶ θαυματουργήσας, ἐθεράπευσεν αὐτὸν πιστεύσαντα εἰς Χριστὸν, καὶ ἀπελύθη· εἶτα κρατηθεὶς παρὰ τῶν Κυμαίων ἐτιμωρήθη, καὶ πάλιν εὐξάμενος καὶ σείσας τὴν πόλιν, καὶ τὰ εἴδωλα συντρίψας, πολλοὺς ἔπεισε πιστεῦσαι τῷ Χριστῷ. Καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα κρατηθεὶς παρὰ Κλεάρχου τοῦ ἄρχοντος, καὶ τὰ σκέλη συντριβεὶς, ἀπεκλείσθη εἰς φυλακὴν, καὶ τῆς φυλακῆς ἀπολυθεὶς, καὶ περιερχόμενος πᾶσαν χώραν, καὶ τοὺς νοσοῦντας ἰώμενος, νοσήσας καὶ αὐτὸς, πρὸς Κύριον ἐξεδήμησεν.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΙΟΥΒΕΝΑΛΙΟΥ.
Juvenal, Patriarch of Jerusalem.
Ἰουβενάλιος ὁ ἐν ἁγίοις πατὴρ ἡμῶν, ὑπῆρχε μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Θεοδοσίου τοῦ Μικροῦ, τρίτος πατριάρχης Ἱεροσολύμων γενόμενος μετὰ Κύριλλον τὸν ἁγιώτατον. Παρῆν δὲ τῇ ἐν Ἐφέσῳ συνόδῳ τῶν διακοσίων ἁγίων Πατέρων, διαλάμψας ἐν λόγοις καὶ δόγμασι μετὰ Κυρίλλου τοῦ ἀοιδίμου πατριάρχου Ἀλεξανδρείας· ἔφθασε δὲ καὶ μέχρι τῆς ἐν Χαλκηδόνι τετάρτης συνόδου, ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Μαρκιανοῦ τοῦ κτίσαντος τὸν ἐν Βλαχέρναις ναόν. Ὑφ᾽ οὗ ἐρωτηθεὶς, ποῦ
ἐτέθη τὸ τῆς Θεομήτορος ἄχραντον σῶμα, ὅπως ἀποστείλας ἀναλάβηται, καὶ ἀπόθηται αὐτὸ ἐν τῷ τοιούτῳ ναῷ, ἔφη ἀπὸ γραφῆς μὲν μὴ εἰδέναι, ἐξ ἀρχαίου δὲ λόγου διδαχθῆναι, ὅτι ἀνελήφθη, καταλειφθέντων ἐν τῷ τάφῳ μόνων τῶν ἐνταφίων. Τότε ὁ μὲν Βασιλεὺς ἀποστείλας, ἀνελάβετο αὐτὰ, καὶ ἀπέθετο ἐν Βλαχέρναις. Ὁ δὲ ἅγιος Ἰουβενάλιος ὑποστρέψας εἰς τὴν ἰδίαν ἐκκλησίαν, ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἐκοιμήθη.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Γ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΜΑΡΚΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΜΩΚΙΑΝΟΥ.
THE THIRD DAY.
Marcus and Mocianus, Martyrs.
Μάρκος καὶ Μωκιανὸς, οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυρες, κρατηθέντες διὰ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ὁμολογίαν παρὰ Μαξίμου τοῦ ἐπάρχου, ἀρνήσασθαι μὲν τὸν χριστιανισμὸν, ὑποκύψαι δὲ τῇ πλάνῃ τῶν εἰδώλων κατηναγκάζοντο. Βασανιζομένων οὖν τούτων, παιδίον μικρὸν παρεστὸς τῷ βωμῷ τῶν θυσιῶν, ἤλεγξε τὸν ἔπαρχον ἀδικοῦντα, καὶ κρατηθὲν καὶ μαστιχθὲν, ἀπεκλείσθη εἰς φυλακὴν μετὰ Παύλου τινὸς χριστιανοῦ παρόντος, καὶ τοὺς ἁγίους θαρσοποιοῦντος. Δεξάμενοι δὲ οἱ Ἅγιοι τὴν διὰ τοῦ ξίφους ἀπόφασιν, ἤγοντο δέσμιοι τὴν ἐπὶ θάνατον, προσευχόμενοι τῷ θεῷ καὶ εὐχαριστοῦντες, ὅτι κατηξιώθησαν τῆς ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ μαρτυρίας ἀξιωθῆναι. Ἠκολούθουν δὲ αἱ γυναῖκες αὐτῶν μετὰ τῶν τέκνων κλαίουσαι, ἕως τοῦ τόπου τῆς ἑαυτῶν σφαγῆς· ἔνθα καὶ φθάσαντες, ἀπεκεφαλίσθησαν, τὰς κεφαλὰς δεξαμένων τῶν τιμίων αὐτῶν γυναικῶν.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥ ΟΣΙΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΙΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΙΑΡΧΟΥ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥΠΟΛΕΩΣ.
Anatolius, Patriarch of Constantinople.
Ἀνατόλιος ὁ ἐν ἁγίοις πατὴρ ἡμῶν, ἦν μὲν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Ἀλεξανδρείας πρεσβύτερος τῆς ἁγιωτάτης τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκκλησίας, ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Θεοδοσίου τοῦ Μικροῦ· διὰ δὲ τὴν ἀρετὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν γνῶσιν, ἀποκρισιάριος ἀποσταλεὶς εἰς Κωνσταντινούπολιν ὑπὸ Διοσκόρου πατριάρχου Ἀλεξανδρείας τοῦ αἱρετικοῦ, ἐλπίσαντος αὐτὸν ὁμόφρονα ἕξειν τῆς οἰκείας κακοδοξίας παρεγένετο ἐν τῇ ἐν Χαλκηδόνι τετάρτῃ συνόδῳ, καὶ σὺν τοῖς ἁγίοις ἑξακοσίοις τριάκοντα πατράσιν ἀναθεματίσας τὸν Διόσκορον· τὸ τοῦ ἁγίου Φλαβιανοῦ ὄνομα ὑπὸ Διοσκόρου καθαιρεθέντος ἐν τῇ Ἐφέσῳ λῃστρικῇ συνόδῳ, καὶ ἄδικον θάνατον παρὰ τῶν αἱρετικῶν ὑπομείναντος, τοῖς δὲ πτύχοις ἐνέταξε, καὶ τοὺς αἱρετικοὺς πάντας ἀνεθεμάτισεν· εἶτα πατριάρχης προχειρισθεὶς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως καὶ καλῶς τὸ ποίμνιον ἰθύνας, πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἐξεδήμησεν.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΥΑΚΙΝΘΟΥ.
Hyacinth, Martyr.
Ὑάκινθος ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς, ἦν μὲν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Καισαρείας Καππαδοκίας. Κουβικουλάριος δὲ ὑπάρχων, καὶ ὑπὲρ τῶν τῆς τραπέζης δουλείᾳ Τραϊανοῦ, τοῦ παρανόμου βασιλέως ἐν Ῥώμῃ, ἔσεβε τὸν Χριστόν. Διαβληθεὶς οὖν ὑπὸ τῶν εἰδωλολατρῶν καὶ κρατηθεὶς, ἠναγκάσθη θῦσαι τοῖς εἰδώλοις καὶ μιαροφαγῆσαι. Ὁ δὲ πρὸς τὸ μὴ πεισθῆναι τοῦτο ποιῆσαι, καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν μᾶλλον ὡμολόγει τρανότερον, Θεὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι λέγων μόνον, καὶ κύριον τοῦ παντός. Ὅθεν τυφθεὶς σφοδρῶς, παρεδόθη τῇ φυλακῇ. Τοῦ δὲ βασιλέως προστάξαντος τῷ δεσμοφύλακι, καθαροὺς μὲν ἄρτους μὴ προσαγαγεῖν αὐτῷ, ἐκ δὲ τῶν εἰδωλοθύτων μόνων βρώματα παραθῆναι, αὐτὸς ἐπὶ πλείσταις ἡμέραις τούτων μὴ γευσάμενος, ἀλλ᾽ ἄσιτος διαμείνας, τὸ πνεῦμα τῷ Θεῷ παρέθετο.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΘΕΟΔΟΤΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΘΕΟΔΟΤΗΣ.
Theodotus and Theodota, Martyrs.
Καὶ οὗτοι οἱ ἅγιοι Μάρτυρες διὰ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ὁμολογίαν κρατηθέντες παρὰ τοῦ δυσσεβοῦς Τραϊανοῦ, καὶ καταναγκασθέντες ἀρνήσασθαι μὲν τὴν ἀλήθειαν, θῦσαι δὲ τοῖς εἰδώλοις· καὶ μὴ πεισθέντες, διαφόρως τιμωρηθέντες, ἀπεκλείσθησαν εἰς ἐκείνην τὴν φυλακὴν, εἰς ἣν ὑπῆρχεν ἀποκλεισμένος ὁ ἅγιος μάρτυς Ὑάκινθος. Καὶ διδασκόμενοι ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνου, καὶ ἐπὶ πλεῖον εἰς τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ πίστιν στηριζόμενοι, κατεμηνύθησαν ὑπὸ τῶν φυλάκων εἰδωλολατρῶν ὄντων τῷ βασιλεῖ Τραϊανῷ· καὶ μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν τοῦ ἁγίου Ὑακίνθου ἐκβληθέντες τῆς φυλακῆς, παρέστησαν αὐτῷ, καὶ πάλιν βιασθέντες μιαροφαγῆσαι ἤλεγξαν αὐτὸν, καὶ τὴν πλάνην διέπτυσαν τῶν εἰδώλων. Τότε κρεμασθέντες ἐπὶ ξύλον ἐξέσθησαν, καὶ λαμπάσι κατεκάησαν, καὶ τῶν ξύλων καταβιβασθέντες τὸ διὰ ξίφους τέλος ἐδέξαντο, τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν τῷ Θεῷ παραδόντες.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Δ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΙΕΡΟΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΘΕΟΔΩΡΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΚΥΡΗΝΗΣ.
THE FOURTH DAY.
Theodore, Bishop of Cyrene, Martyr.
Θεόδωρος ὁ ἱερομάρτυς ἦν μὲν ἐπὶ βασιλείας Διοκλητιανοῦ ἐκ πόλεως Κυρήνης· τὴν δὲ καλλιγραφικὴν καλῶς ἐκμαθὼν τέχνην, καὶ βίβλους πολλὰς κατασκευάζων, παρεῖχε τοῖς Χριστιανοῖς εἰς τὸ δοξολογεῖν τὸν Θεόν. Διαβληθεὶς οὖν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἰδίου υἱοῦ τῷ τῆς πόλεως ἄρχοντι, ἐκρατήθη μετὰ καὶ ἄλλων πολλῶν χριστιανῶν· μεθ᾽ ὧν ἦν καὶ ἡ ἁγία Λουκία· καὶ ἐπιζητηθεὶς τὰς βίβλους, ἃς ἔγραψε, καὶ μὴ παρασχών, ἐτύφθη σφοδρῶς, καὶ τῷ βωμῷ προσελθεῖν, καὶ λιβανωτὸν ἐπιβαλεῖν βιαζόμενος, αὐτὸς δραμὼν καὶ λακτίσας αὐτὸν, ἀνέτρεψε. Τότε κρεμασθεὶς ἐπὶ ξύλον καθηλώθη, καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν ἐξετμήθη, καὶ τοῦ ξύλου καταβιβασθεὶς, εἰς φυλακὴν ἀπεκλείσθη, καὶ ἰδόντες αὐτὸν θεραπευθέντα, πολλοὶ ἐπίστευσαν ἐπὶ τὸν Κύριον ἄνδρες τε καὶ γυναῖκες· οἵτινες καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ ἐτελειώθησαν.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Ε᾽. ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΗΣ ΟΣΙΑΣ ΜΑΡΘΑΣ ΤΗΣ ΜΗΤΡΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΣΥΜΕΩΝΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΤΩι ΘΑΥΜΑΣΤΩι ΟΡΕΙ.
THE FIFTH DAY.
Martha.
Ἡ Ὁσία Μάρθα μήτηρ μὲν ὑπῆρχε τοῦ Ὁσίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Συμεῶνος τοῦ ἐν τῷ θαυμαστῷ ὄρει, πᾶσαν ἀρετὴν διὰ τῆς ἄκρας ἀσκήσεως κατορθώσασα· πίστιν δὲ πολλὴν ἔχουσα πρὸς τὴν Θεομήτορα Παρθένον, ἀεὶ προσήδρευεν ἐν τῷ ταύτης ναῷ. Αἰτουμένη αὐτὴν ὑπὲρ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου παντὸς σωτηρίας. Ὅθεν καὶ πρὸ τῆς τοῦ σώματος ἐκδημήσεως τὰ ἀποκείμενα αὐτῇ αἰώνια ἀγαθὰ ἐδιδάχθη τε καὶ ἐμυήθη. Καὶ τότε μετὰ ἀγαθῶν ἐλπίδων ἀπελθοῦσα ὕστερον τοῖς προσεδρεύουσιν αὐτῆς τῷ ἁγίῳ λειψάνῳ ἐπιφανεῖσα, καὶ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ἐκεῖνα διηγησαμένη, πᾶσαν χαρὰν ἐποίησεν ἀγαθὰ ἐκεῖνα, ἃ ὀφθαλμὸς αἰσθητὸς οὐκ εἶδεν, ἃ ἡτοίμασεν ὁ Θεὸς τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτόν. Οὕτω δοξάζει Κύριος τοὺς δοξάζοντας αὐτόν τε καὶ τὴν ἀσπόρως καὶ ἀφθόρως τεκοῦσαν αὐτὸν δέσποιναν ἡμῶν Θεοτόκον.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΙΑΣ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΑΓΝΗΣ.
Agnes, Martyr.
Ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Ἀγνὴ, τὸν τρόπον τῷ ὀνόματι κατάλληλον ἔχουσα, πολλὰς τῶν ἀκολάστων γυναικῶν διὰ νουθεσίας καὶ παραινέσεως τῶν πονηρῶν ἔπειθεν ἀπέχεσθαι πράξεων, καὶ πιστεύειν Χριστόν. Διὰ ταῦτα κρατηθεῖσα παρὰ τοῦ τῆς χώρας ἄρχοντος, ἐβασανίσθη σφοδρῶς· καὶ μὴ πεισθεῖσα θῦσαι τοῖς εἰδώλοις, εἰς πορνεῖον ἐπέμφθη ἐπὶ τὸ μιανθῆναι παρὰ τῶν ἀκολάστων. Ἀλλὰ τῷ Χριστῷ θαρρήσασα, ᾧ καὶ τὴν πίστιν καὶ τὴν ἁγνείαν διετήρει, ἄσπιλος καὶ καθαρὰ διεφυλάχθη ὑπὸ θείου ἀγγέλου σκεπομένη, τοῦ μὴ ἐῶντός τινα προσεγγίσαι αὐτῇ, ἐξ ὧν εἷς τολμήσας προσελθεῖν, παραυτίκα ἐνεκρώθη· ὡς δὲ τοῦτο ἤκουσεν ὁ Ἄρχων, προσεκαλεῖτο αὐτὴν, καὶ ᾐτήσατο ἀναστῆσαι τὸν νεκρὸν, καὶ τῆς Ἁγίας εὐξαμένης εὐθέως ἠγέρθη ὁ τεθνηκὼς, καὶ νομίσας ὁ ἄρχων ὅτι διὰ γοητείας ἤγαγεν αὐτὸν, πυρὶ παρέδωκεν αὐτήν.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΚΥΠΡΙΛΛΗΣ.
Cyprilla, Martyr.
Κυπρίλλα ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ Μάρτυς ὑπῆρχε μὲν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Κυρήνης ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Διοκλητιανοῦ. Ἐκ προγόνων δὲ οὖσα χριστιανὴ συνῴκησεν ἀνδρὶ ἐπὶ δυσὶν ἔτεσιν, καὶ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς τελευτήσαντος, ἔμεινεν ἐν χηρείᾳ ἔτη εἴκοσι ὀκτώ. Ὅτε δὲ ἐκρατήθη Θεόδωρος ὁ ἁγιώτατος ἐπίσκοπος Κυρήνης, καὶ ἀπεκλείσθη εἰς φυλακὴν, κατὰ συγκυρίαν ἀλγήσασα τὴν κεφαλὴν, ἀπῆλθε πρὸς αὐτὸν, χάριν ἰάσεως, καὶ θεραπευθεῖσα διηκόνει αὐτῷ σὺν Λουκίᾳ καὶ Ἀρόᾳ ταῖς ὁσίαις γυναιξίν. Μετὰ δὲ τὴν τοῦ ἁγίου Θεοδώρου τελείωσιν, παραστᾶσα τῷ ἡγεμόνι καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμολογήσασα, πρότερον ἐτύφθη, εἶτα ἄνθρακας ἐπὶ τῆς παλάμης δεξαμένη, ἐβιάζετο ὑπὸ τῶν δημίων κρατούντων τὴν αὐτῆς χεῖρα, λιβανωτὸν προσενεγκεῖν τοῖς θεοῖς. Ἡ δὲ ἐβόα· οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτο ἑκούσιος θυσία· ἐγὼ γὰρ τῷ Χριστῷ μου θύω. Καὶ ταῦτα εἰποῦσα ἐκρεμάσθη ἐπὶ ξύλου, καὶ ξεομένη παρέδωκε τὸ πνεῦμα.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΣΤ᾽. ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥ ΟΣΙΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΣΙΣΟΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ.
THE SIXTH DAY.
Sisois.
Ὁ Μακάριος Σισόης ἐκ βρέφους τὸν Θεὸν ἀγαπήσας, καὶ τούτου σταυρὸν ἐπ᾽ ὤμων ἄρας, ἠκολούθησεν αὐτῷ· καὶ τὰς παρατάξεις τῶν ἀοράτων ἐχθρῶν τροπωσάμενος, χαίρων ἐχώρησεν πρὸς τὰ ἐπίπονα τῆς ἀσκήσεως σκάμματα· ταπεινοφροσύνης δὲ εἰς ἄκραν γενόμενος, ἐδέξατο καὶ χαρίσματα θαυματουργίας· καὶ γὰρ καὶ νεκροὺς ἀνέστησε, καὶ δαίμονας ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀπήλασε, καὶ νοσοῦντας ἐθεράπευσε, καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ θαύματα ἐποίησεν· ἦν δὲ καὶ τὴν ἐντυχίαν προσηνὴς, καὶ μετριόφρων, καὶ ἡδὺς ἐν τοῖς ἀποφθέγμασιν· ἐξ ὧν πολλὰ συνεγράφησαν εἰς τὴν τῶν πολλῶν ὠφέλειαν· οὐκ ὀλίγους δὲ καὶ τῶν παιόντων ἀδελφῶν διὰ παραδειγμάτων ἐπιτηδείων, πρὸς μετάνοιαν ἐπιστρέφων διώρθου. Εἶχε δὲ καὶ τοῦτο, τὸ μηδέποτε κατακρίνειν ἄνθρωπον. Οὕτω δὲ βιώσας ἀγγελικῶς, πρὸς Θεὸν, ὃν ἐπόθησεν, ἐξεδήμησεν, ἀπολαβὼν τὴν ἡτοιμασμένην αὐτῷ αἰώνιον βασιλείαν.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΙΑΣ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΛΟΥΚΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΣΥΝ ΑΥΤΗι.
Lucia and Companions, Martyrs.
Ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Λουκία ἡ παρθένος, ἑτέρα ἐστὶ παρὰ τὴν ἐν Σικελίᾳ Λουκίαν τὴν παρθένον· ἦν γὰρ αὕτη ἐκ τῆς χώρας Καμπανίας· καὶ κρατηθεῖσα παρὰ τοῦ τῆς τοιαύτης χώρας Ἄρχοντος, ἐτιμωρήθη, καὶ θαυματουργήσασα, ἔπεισεν αὐτὸν πιστεῦσαι Χριστῷ· καὶ οὐ μόνον ἀπελύθη παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἶκον καὶ δούλας λαβοῦσα, ἡσύχαζεν, εὐχομένη τῷ Θεῷ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ. Μετὰ δὲ παρέλευσιν ἐτῶν εἴκοσι, ἀμφότεροι ἐπιθυμήσαντες τοῦ μαρτυρῆσαι ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ, κατέλιπον ἅπαντα, καὶ ἀναλαβόμενοι τοὺς οἰκείους ὑπηρέτας, ἀπῆλθον πρὸς τὸν ἡγεμόνα τῆς χώρας, καὶ παρέδωκαν ἑκουσίως ἑαυτοὺς, καὶ ἐρωτηθέντες, καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμολογήσαντες, ἐτιμωρήθησαν διαφόρως· ὡς δὲ ἐπιπολὺ ἐνέμενον τῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πίστει, τὴν διὰ ξίφους ἀπόφασιν δεξάμενοι, ἀπεκεφαλίσθησαν ἅμα τῇ λοιπῇ συνοδίᾳ αὐτῶν, καὶ οὕτω τελειωθέντες, ἐστεφανώθησαν ἐν Χριστῷ.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΙΕΡΟΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΑΣΤΕΙΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΔΥΡΡΑΧΕΙΟΥ.
Asteios, Bishop of Dyrrachium, Martyr.
Ἀστεῖος ὁ ἱερομάρτυς ἦν μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Τραϊανοῦ. Κρατηθεὶς δὲ παρὰ τῶν εἰδωλολατρῶν, παρεδόθη Ἀγρικολάῳ τῷ ἡγεμόνι· καὶ προτραπεὶς ἀρνήσασθαι τὸν Χριστὸν, καὶ θῦσαι τοῖς εἰδώλοις, καὶ μὴ πεισθεὶς παρεπέμφθη φυλακῇ· πρὸ τοῦ κρατηθῆναι δὲ, ἐθεάσατο τοιοῦτον ὄναρ. Ἑαυτὸν ἔβλεπεν ἐπὶ πέτραν ἑστῶτα, κεχρισμένον πίσσῃ καὶ ἐλαίῳ· καὶ ἔξυπνος γενόμενος, εἶπε τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ κληρικοῖς· Ἀδελφοὶ, δεῖ με παθεῖν ὑπὲρ τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Λοιπὸν ὑμεῖς ἀπελθέτε ἕκαστος ὑμῶν, ὅπου δύναται διασωθῆναι. Ταῦτα εἰπὼν, ἐκρατήθη, ὡς εἴρηται, καὶ παραστὰς τῷ Ἀγρικολάῳ, καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμολογήσας, ἀπεκλείσθη εἰς φυλακὴν, καὶ τῆς φυλακῆς ἐκβληθεὶς, ἐτύφθη σφαίραις μολυβδίναις. Εἶτα ἀλειφεὶς μέλιτι, ἐκρεμάσθη ἐπὶ ξύλου ἐν ὥρᾳ καύματος, ὅπως ὑπὸ σφηκῶν καὶ μυιῶν καταβρωθεὶς ἀποθάνῃ· καὶ τούτου γινομένου, εὐχαρίστως φέρων τὴν τιμωρίαν, παρέδωκε τῷ Χριστῷ τὴν ψυχήν.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΦΩΚΑ, ΚΑΙ ΑΝΑΜΝΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΓΕΓΟΝΟΤΟΣ ΘΑΥΜΑΤΟΣ.
Phocas, Martyr; a miracle.
Ἐξηγήσατο Λέων ὁ ἐπονομαζόμενος Ποντιανὸς, ὅτι Σισίνιος ἐκεῖνος, ᾧ ἐπίκλην ὁ στιβαρὸς, πλέων ἐν τῷ βασιλικῷ στόλῳ, ἐκρατήθη παρὰ τῶν Σαρακηνῶν, καὶ δεθεὶς ἁλύσεσι δυσὶν, ἀπεκλείσθη εἰς φυλακήν. Εἰς τοιαύτην δὲ ἀνάγκην
περισχεθεὶς, ἐπεκαλεῖτο τὸν Θεὸν καὶ τὸν αὐτοῦ ἱερομάρτυρα Φωκᾶν· Ἅγιε ἱερομάρτυς Φωκᾶ, λέγων, ἐλέησόν με, καὶ λύτρωσαί με τῆς κατεχούσης με ἀνάγκης τῶν δεσμῶν. Ὑπνώσας οὖν, εἶδε τὸν Ἅγιον ἐπιστάντα αὐτῷ ἐν σχήματι πρεσβυτέρου, καὶ εἰπόντα αὐτῷ· Ἐγέρθητι, καὶ ἀναχώρησον· Καὶ ἔξυπνος γενόμενος, εὗρε τὰς ἁλύσεις συντετριμμένας, καὶ ἑαυτὸν λελυμένον καὶ τὴν φυλακὴν ἀνεῳγμένην· καὶ φυγὼν διεσώθη ἕως τοῦ οἴκου αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἦν ἐπιτελῶν ἀεὶ τὴν μνήμην αὐτοῦ μετ᾽ εὐχαριστίας πολλῆς· καὶ τὸν Θεὸν δοξάζων, τὸν τοιαῦτα χαρίσματα παρέχοντα τοῖς Ἁγίοις αὐτοῦ.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΙΣΑΥΡΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΣΥΝ ΑΥΤΩι.
Isaurus and Companions, Martyrs.
Ἴσαυρος ὁ τῶν μυστηρίων τοῦ Χριστοῦ διάκονος, καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ, ἐγένοντο μὲν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Ἀθηνῶν. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς βασιλείας Νουμεριανοῦ, ἐκ τῆς ἰδίας πατρίδος ἀναχωρήσαντες, ἀπῆλθον ἐν Ἀπολλωνιάδι τῇ πόλει· καὶ δι᾽ ἀποκαλύψεως ἀγγέλου Θεοῦ, εἰσῆλθον ἐν σπηλαίῳ, ἐν ᾧ κατῴκουν Φίλιξ καὶ Περεγρῖνος καὶ Ἐρμείας, χριστιανοὶ ὄντες καὶ αὐτοί· οἵ τινες ἰδόντες τὸν ἅγιον Ἴσαυρον, οὕτως ἐχάρησαν, ὡς καὶ τὰ ὑπάρχοντα αὐτοῖς δοῦναι πτωχοῖς, καὶ ἀκολουθεῖν αὐτῷ, καὶ διδάσκεσθαι ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ· οἱ δὲ συγγενεῖς αὐτῶν πειραθέντες μεταγαγεῖν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὰ ἴδια, καὶ μὴ δυνηθέντες, διέβαλον τῷ τῆς πόλεως ἄρχοντι. Ὁ δὲ κρατήσας αὐτοὺς, ἀπεκεφάλισεν. Ἴσαυρος δὲ, ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ διάκονος, καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ, ἀπεστάλησαν δέσμιοι πρὸς τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ τιμωρηθῆναι, καὶ βληθέντες ἐν πυρὶ καὶ ἀβλαβεῖς ἐξελθόντες, ἔπεισαν πολλοὺς πιστεῦσαι Χριστῷ, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο παροργίσαντες τὸν ἄρχοντα, ἀπεκεφαλίσθησαν.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Ζ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΠΕΡΕΓΡΙΝΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΣΥΝ ΑΥΤΩι.
THE SEVENTH DAY.
Peregrinus and Companions, Martyrs.
Οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυρες Περεγρῖνος, Λουκιανὸς, Πομπήϊος, Ἡσύχιος, Παπίας, Σατορνῖλος, καὶ Γερμανὸς, ὑπῆρχον ἐκ τῆς χώρας Ἰταλίας, ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς βασιλείας Τραϊανοῦ, διὰ τὸν κατὰ τῶν χριστιανῶν διωγμὸν ἐμβάντες εἰς πλοῖον, κατήντησαν εἰς τὸ Δυρράχιον· καὶ ἰδόντες τὸν ἅγιον ἱερομάρτυρα Ἀστεῖον κεχρισμένον μέλιτι, καὶ κρεμάμενον ἐπὶ ξύλου, καὶ ὑπὸ σφηκῶν καὶ μυιῶν κατακεντούμενον διὰ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ὁμολογίαν, ἐμακάρισαν αὐτὸν, καὶ γνωσθέντες, ἐκρατήθησαν παρὰ τῶν ταξεωτῶν, καὶ ἐρωτηθέντες, καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμολογήσαντες, παρεδόθησαν Ἀγρικολάῳ τῷ ἡγεμόνι, καὶ παρ᾽ ἐκείνου ἐμβληθέντες εἰς πλοῖον δέσμιοι, καὶ ἐν τῷ τοῦ Ἀδρίου πελάγει ῥιφθέντες, τὸ μακάριον τέλος ἐδέξαντο· ὧν τὰ λείψανα ἐκβαλοῦσα ἡ θάλασσα ἔκρυψεν ἐν τῇ ἄμμῳ· καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἐμφανισθέντα τῷ Ἀρχιεπισκόπῳ Ἀλεξανδρείας, κατετέθησαν ἐντίμως.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥ ΟΣΙΟΥ ΘΩΜΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΤΩι ΜΑΛΕΩι ΟΡΕΙ.
Thomas.
Ὁ ἐν ἁγίοις πατὴρ ἡμῶν Θωμᾶς, ὅτε μὲν ἦν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, ἐγένετο περιφανὴς καὶ περίβλεπτος πλούτῳ καὶ δυναστείᾳ· ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ βαρβάρων πολλὰ τρόπαια ἔστησεν· ὅτε δὲ κατέλιπε τὸν κόσμον διὰ τὸν εἰς Χριστὸν πόθον, καὶ τὸ τοῦ βίου πικρὸν κλυδώνιον, καὶ ἐγένετο μοναχὸς, οὕτως ἐγένετο περιφανέστερος, ὡς φαίνεσθαι ἐν νυκτὶ ὥσπερ στύλος πυρὸς τῇ ἐπισκέψει τοῦ μεγάλου προφήτου Ἠλίου, οὗ καὶ τὸν τύπον ἐζήλωσεν, ἡσυχάζων ἀεὶ, καὶ τῷ Θεῷ ἀπερισπάστως προσευχόμενος, ἐν ὄρει τῷ καλουμένῳ Μαλεῷ, ὅθεν καὶ χαρίσματα ἰαμάτων λαβὼν, δαίμονας ἀπήλασε· καὶ πηγὴν ὕδατος διὰ προσευχῆς αὐτοῦ βλῦσαι πεποίηκε, καὶ τυφλοῖς τὸ βλέπειν, καὶ χωλοῖς τὴν εὐδρομίαν ἐχαρίσατο, καὶ ἕτερα θαύματα πολλὰ ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ Χριστοῦ ποιήσας, καὶ θαυμαστὸς τοῖς πᾶσι γενόμενος, καὶ τὸν Θεὸν, ὡς ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατὸν, θεραπεύσας, πρὸς αὐτὸν χαίρων, καὶ ἀγαλλόμενος ἐξεδήμησεν.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Η᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΠΡΟΚΟΠΙΟΥ.
THE EIGHTH DAY.
Procopius, Martyr.
Προκόπιος ὁ μεγαλομάρτυς ἐγεννήθη μὲν ἐν τῇ πόλει Αἰλίας, ἐκ πατρὸς χριστιανοῦ, καὶ μητρὸς ἑλληνίδος, ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Διοκλητιανοῦ. Ἀνατραφεὶς δὲ παρὰ τῆς μητρὸς μετὰ τελευτὴν τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ, προσήχθη Διοκλητιανῷ ἐπὶ τὸ τιμηθῆναι· καὶ προχειρισθεὶς δοὺξ Ἀλεξανδρείας, ἀπεστάλη οὐ μόνον πολεμίοις ἐχθρὸς, ἀλλὰ καὶ χριστιανοῖς· ἀπερχομένῳ δὲ πρὸς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ, ἦλθεν αὐτῷ φωνὴ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, λέγουσα· Νεανία παῦσαι τοῦ πολεμεῖν τοὺς δούλους μου, ἵνα μὴ ἀποθάνῃς. ὑπεδείχθη δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ σχῆμα σταυροῦ, καὶ ἀπελθὼν εἰς Σκυθόπολιν, καὶ χρυσοχόον προσκαλεσάμενος, ἐποίησε τύπον σταυροῦ κατὰ τὸ ὑποδειχθὲν αὐτῷ σχῆμα, καὶ ἐφόρει αὐτόν. Στήσας δὲ τρόπαια κατὰ τῶν Σαρακηνῶν, καὶ ὑποστρέψας, κατεμηνύθη τῷ βασιλεῖ παρὰ τῆς μητρὸς, ὡς χριστιανὸς, καὶ τιμωρηθεὶς διαφόρως, καὶ θαυματουργήσας, οὐ μόνον ἑτέρους πολλοὺς ἔπεισε πιστεῦσαι Χριστῷ, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴν τὴν μητέρα καί τινας γυναῖκας· μεθ᾽ ὧν ἀποκεφαλισθεὶς πρὸς Θεὸν ἐξεδήμησεν.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Θ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΙΕΡΟΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΥ.
THE NINTH DAY.
Cyril, Martyr.
Κύριλλος ὁ ἱερομάρτυς τῇ εἰς Χριστὸν πίστει, καὶ ταῖς θείαις ἀρεταῖς συναυξηθεὶς ἀρχιερεὺς κατέστη τῆς ἐν Κρήτῃ ἐκκλησίας. Καὶ καλῶς τὸ ποίμνιον ἰθύνας, καὶ τὸν λαὸν Κυρίου πληθύνας διὰ διδασκαλίας καὶ παραινέσεως, διωγμοῦ κινηθέντος, ἐκρατήθη παρὰ τῶν εἰδωλολατρῶν, καὶ δεθεὶς, παρεδόθη τῷ ἄρχοντι· καὶ ἐμβληθεὶς εἰς πῦρ, ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἀβλαβὴς ἐξελθὼν, τῶν δεσμῶν, οἷς ἐδέδετο, καέντων, καὶ τῶν ξύλων, οἷς ἡ φλὸξ ἐτρέφετο, εἰς κόνιν λεπτυνθέντων, ἀπελύθη παρὰ τοῦ ἄρχοντος, θαυμάσαντος τὸ γεγονός. Καὶ τοῖς τοῦ βασιλέως προστάγμασιν, ὡς ἀδίκοις οὖσιν, ἐπιμεμψάμενος. Καὶ τότε μὲν οὕτως. Ὕστερον δὲ ἰδὼν ὁ ἄρχων πολλοὺς τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν πίστιν ἀσπαζομένους, φοβηθεὶς τὸν τοῦ βασιλέως θυμὸν, κρατήσας τὸν Ἅγιον, καὶ ἄκων ἀπεκεφάλισε, προξενήσας αὐτῷ ζωὴν ἀθάνατον, καὶ ἀΐδιον μακαριότητα τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐρανῶν.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΠΑΤΕΡΜΟΥΘΙΟΥ, ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΣΥΝ ΑΥΤΩι.
Patermuthius and Companions, Martyrs.
Πατερμούθιος καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ ὑπῆρχον ἐπὶ τῆς τυραννίδος Ἰουλιανοῦ τοῦ παραβάτου, ἐν τῇ κατὰ Αἴγυπτον ἐρήμῳ ἡσυχάζοντες. Ἀπερχομένῳ δὲ τῷ παραβάτῃ πρὸς τὸν κατὰ τῶν Περσῶν πόλεμον, κατεμηνύθησαν παρὰ τῶν εἰδωλολατρῶν, καὶ κρατηθέντες, ἤχθησαν ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ· ἦν δὲ ὁ μὲν Πατερμούθιος ἐτῶν ἑβδομήκοντα πέντε, ὁ δὲ Κόπρης ἐτῶν τεσσαράκοντα πέντε, καὶ διαχωρισθέντες, ἠναγκάζοντο ἀρνήσασθαι τὸν Χριστόν. Πεισθεὶς οὖν ὁ Κόπρης ταῖς θωπείαις τοῦ παραβάτου, ἠρνήσατο· καὶ μαθὼν τοῦτο ὁ Πατερμούθιος, κλαίων παρεκάλει τὸν Θεὸν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ. Εἰσαχθεὶς οὖν καὶ αὐτὸς, καὶ ἰδὼν τὸν Κόπρην ἱμάτια λαμπρὰ περιβεβλημένον, ἐδάκρυσε· καὶ γνοὺς ὁ Κόπρης ὅτι δι᾽ αὐτὸν ἔκλαυσεν, ἀνακράξας, ἔφη· Οὐκ ἔτι εἰμὶ Ἰουλιανίτης, ἀλλὰ Χριστοῦ δοῦλος. Ἐκκοπεὶς οὖν τὴν γλῶσσαν, ἐβλήθη εἰς πῦρ μετὰ τοῦ Πατερμουθίου· καὶ ἰδὼν αὐτοὺς Ἀλέξανδρός τις, μηδὲν ἀδικηθέντας, καὶ πιστεύσας τῷ Χριστῷ, σὺν αὐτοῖς χαίρων ἀπεκεφαλίσθη.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Ι᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΜΕʹ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΕΝ ΝΙΚΟΠΟΛΕΙ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΗΣΑΝΤΩΝ.
THE TENTH DAY.
The Forty-five Martyrs.
Οἱ τεσσαράκοντα πέντε τοῦ Χριστοῦ Μάρτυρες ὑπῆρχον ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Λικιννίου, καὶ τῆς ἡγεμονίας Λυσίου· ὧν ἐξῆρχον Λεόντιος, Μαυρίκιος, Δανιὴλ, καὶ Ἀντώνιος· κρατηθέντες οὖν παρέστησαν τῷ δουκὶ Λυσίᾳ ἐν Νικοπόλει τῆς Ἀρμενίας· καὶ τὸν μὲν Χριστὸν ὁμολογήσαντες, τὰ δὲ εἴδωλα διαπτύσαντες, τυφθέντες καὶ λίθοις συντριβέντες τά τε στόματα καὶ τὰ πρόσωπα, ἀπεκλείσθησαν εἰς φυλακὴν, ἐπὶ πολλαῖς ἡμέραις ἄσιτοι διαμένοντες· καὶ ἰδόντες τὴν αὐτῶν καρτερίαν οἱ τηροῦντες αὐτοὺς στρατιῶται, ἐπίστευσαν τῷ Χριστῷ· εἶτα τῆς φυλακῆς ἐκβληθέντες, καὶ τὰ σκέλη πελέκεσιν ἀποκοπέντες, οἱ μὲν ἤδη τεθνηκότες, οἱ δὲ ἔτι ἐμπνέοντες, εἰς κάμινον πυρὸς ἐμβληθέντες, ἐτελειώθησαν, ἀπολαβόντες τὴν ἡτοιμασμένην αὐτοῖς πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου παρὰ Χριστοῦ ἀθάνατον βασιλείαν.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΒΙΑΝΟΡΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΣΙΛΟΥΑΝΟΥ.
Bianor and Silvanus, Martyrs.
Βιάνωρ ὁ μάρτυς τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἦν μὲν ἐκ τῆς χώρας Πισιδίας, διὰ δὲ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ὁμολογίαν κρατηθεὶς ὑπὸ Σεβηριανοῦ ἡγεμόνος τῆς Ἰσαυρίας, καὶ ἀναγκασθεὶς ἀρνήσασθαι τὸν Χριστὸν, καὶ μὴ πεισθεὶς, ἐκρεμάσθη ἐπὶ ξύλου· καὶ ἐξέσθη πικρῶς μετὰ σιδηρῶν ὀνύχων, καὶ σφαίραις πυρωθείσαις σιδηραῖς τὰς μασχάλας, καὶ τοὺς ὀδόντας ἐξερριζώθη, κατεκάη, καὶ τὰ ὦτα ἀφῃρέθη. Ἰδὼν δὲ αὐτὸν τοιαῦτα ὑπομένοντα στρατιώτης τις, Σιλουανὸς λεγόμενος, ἐπίστευσε τῷ Χριστῷ, καὶ παραυτίκα καὶ αὐτὸς τὴν γλῶσσαν ἐκκοπεὶς, ἀπεκεφαλίσθη. Ὁ δὲ πολύαθλος Βιάνωρ τρυπηθεὶς τοὺς ἀστραγάλους, καὶ τὸν δεξιὸν ὀφθαλμὸν ἐξορυχθεὶς, καὶ τὸ δέρμα τῆς κεφαλῆς ἐκδαρεὶς, ἀπεκλείσθη εἰς φυλακὴν, καὶ τῇ ἐπαύριον μικρὸν ἔτι ἐμπνέων, ἐκβληθεὶς τῆς φυλακῆς, καὶ βασταζόμενος ὑπὸ τῶν δημίων ἀπεκεφαλίσθη.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΙΟΥ.
Apollonius, Martyr.
Ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Ἀπολλώνιος ἦν μὲν ἐκ τῆς χώρας Λυδίας, πόλεως Σάρδεων· περιήρχετο δὲ πᾶσαν πόλιν καὶ χώραν, διδάσκων τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας, καὶ πολλοὺς τῶν ἀπίστων ἐπιστρέφων ἐπὶ τὸν Κύριον. Καταμηνυθεὶς οὖν παρὰ τῶν εἰδωλολατρῶν τῷ τῆς πόλεως Ἰκονίου ἄρχοντι κατεσχέθη, καὶ δέσμιος ἀχθεὶς, παρέστη ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐρωτηθεὶς, δοῦλον Χριστοῦ ἑαυτὸν ὡμολόγησεν· ὅθεν ἀναγκασθεὶς εἰς τὴν τύχην τοῦ βασιλέως ὀμόσαι, ἔφη μὴ εἶναι θεμιτὸν εἰς βασιλέα ὀμνύειν θνητὸν, καὶ μάλιστα τὸν μὴ ἐπιγινώσκοντα τὸν ποιητὴν τοῦ κόσμου Θεόν· ταῦτα εἰπὼν, τῇ προστάξει τοῦ ἄρχοντος ἐτύφθη σφοδρῶς· καὶ κρεμασθεὶς ἐπὶ ξύλου, καὶ σιδηροῖς ἥλοις καθηλωθεὶς, τὸ πνεῦμα τῷ Θεῷ παρέθετο· καὶ οὕτω τὸν τοῦ μαρτυρίου δρόμον τελέσας, ἀπέλαβε τὴν τῶν οὐρανῶν βασιλείαν.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΙΑ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΜΑΡΚΙΑΝΟΥ.
THE ELEVENTH DAY.
Marcianus, Martyr.
Μαρκιανὸς ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς, ὑπῆρχε μὲν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Ἰκονίου· νέος δὲ ὢν ἐδιδάχθη τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν πίστιν, καὶ βαπτισθεὶς ἐκήρυσσε μὲν τὴν ἀλήθειαν· ἤλεγχε δὲ τὴν τῶν εἰδώλων ἀπάτην καὶ τὴν ἀσθένειαν, καὶ τοὺς εἰδωλολάτρας ἐπεστόμιζε. Κρατηθεὶς οὖν ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν, παρεδόθη τῷ ἄρχοντι, καὶ εἰς ἐξέτασιν ἀχθεὶς, ἠναγκάζετό ποτε μὲν ὑποσχέσεσι φθαρτῆς καὶ προσκαίρου τιμῆς, ποτὲ δὲ ἀπειλαῖς, ἀρνήσασθαι μὲν τὸν Χριστὸν, θῦσαι δὲ τοῖς εἰδώλοις. Μὴ πεισθεὶς δὲ τοῖς τοῦ ἄρχοντος λόγοις, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἐνώπιον δήμου τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμολογήσας, τυφθεὶς ἀπεκλείσθη εἰς φυλακὴν, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο τῆς φυλακῆς δέσμιος ἐξελθὼν, καὶ τῷ ἄρχοντι παραστὰς, καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς ὁμολογίας ἐχόμενος, ἐξέσθη τὸ πρόσωπον σιδήροις, καὶ τὰ νεῦρα διεκόπη, καὶ μαχαίρᾳ τὴν γλῶσσαν ἐξεκόπη, καὶ ἐπὶ ἐσχάρας πεπυρακτωμένης ἐτέθη· καὶ τέλος ξίφει τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀποτμηθεὶς, τὸν τοῦ μαρτυρίου δρόμον ἐπλήρωσεν.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΚΙΝΔΑΙΟΥ.
Cindaeus, Martyr.
Ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Κινδαῖος, ἦν μὲν πρεσβύτερος τῆς ἐν Σίδῃ τῇ πόλει ἐκκλησίας, ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς βασιλείας Διοκλητιανοῦ καταμηνυθεὶς Στρατονίκῳ τῷ ἡγεμόνι, ὅτι τὸν Χριστὸν σέβεται, ἐκρατήθη, καὶ ὑποδεθεὶς ὑποδήματα σιδηρᾶ μετὰ ἥλων ὀξέων, ἠναγκάσθη τρέχειν κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν τὴν φέρουσαν πρὸς τὴν λεγομένην ἱερὰν πύλην, τυπτόμενος ὑπὸ τῶν δημίων. Ἐπεὶ δὲ πρόσταγμα εἶχον οἱ δήμιοι καῦσαι αὐτὸν, ὑπήντησαν δὲ
τινι πένητι, φόρτιον βαστάζοντι ξύλων, μέλλοντι αὐτὰ πωλῆσαι καὶ τραφῆναι· καὶ ἐβούλοντο ἁρπάσαι δωρεὰν, καὶ καῦσαι τὸν Ἅγιον· αὐτὸς ἐκβαλὼν τὸ τίμημα, δέδωκε τῷ πένητι· καὶ θεὶς τὰ ξύλα ἐπὶ τῶν ἰδίων ὤμων, κατέλαβε τὸν τόπον τῆς τελειώσεως· καὶ ἀναφθείσης καμίνου, εἰσῆλθεν ἐν αὐτῇ· καὶ τότε μὲν ἐξελθὼν ἀβλαβὴς, παρεσκεύασε τὸν ἱερέα τῶν εἰδώλων σὺν τῇ γυναικὶ αὐτοῦ πιστεῦσαι Χριστῷ. Ὕστερον δὲ εὐξάμενος παρέδωκε τὸ πνεῦμα, τὸ δὲ λείψανον αὐτοῦ ἐτάφη ἐντίμως.
ΚΑΙ ΑΝΑΜΝΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΓΕΓΟΝΟΤΟΣ ΘΑΥΜΑΤΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΠΑΝΕΥΦΗΜΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΕΥΦΗΜΙΑΣ.
A miracle of St. Euphemia, Martyr.
Ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Θεοδοσίου Μικροῦ Εὐτυχής τις μοναχὸς καὶ πρεσβύτερος γέγονεν αἱρέσεως ἀρχηγὸς, λέγων ἐπὶ Χριστοῦ ἓν θέλημα, καὶ μίαν ἐνέργειαν· καθαιρεθεὶς οὖν διὰ τοῦτο ὑπὸ Φλαβιανοῦ τοῦ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως Πατριάρχου, ὅμως οὐκ ἐπαύετο τοῦ ταράσσειν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν· κρατήσας δὲ τῆς βασιλείας ὁ ἐν ἁγίοις Μαρκιανὸς, συνεκαλέσατο σύνοδον ἑξακοσίων τριάκοντα πατέρων, καὶ γενομένης ζητήσεως μετὰ τῶν αἱρετικῶν, ἤρεσε πᾶσιν ἐκτεθῆναι δύο τόμους, ἕνα τῶν ὀρθοδόξων, καὶ ἕνα τῶν αἱρετικῶν, καὶ ἀνοιγῆναι τὴν λάρνακα τῆς Μάρτυρος, καὶ τεθῆναι τοὺς τόμους ἐπὶ τοῦ στήθους αὐτῆς, καὶ τὸν ἐκθησόμενον παρ᾽ ἐκείνης κρατῦναι. Καὶ τούτου γενομένου, μετὰ οὐ πολλὰς τὰς ἡμέρας ἀνοίξαντες τὴν λάρνακα, εὗρον τὸν μὲν ἐν τῶν αἱρετικῶν τόμον ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτῆς κείμενον· τὸν δὲ τῶν ὀρθοδόξων, ἐν τῇ χειρὶ κατεχόμενον· καὶ οὕτω μὲν ᾐσχύνθησαν οἱ αἱρετικοὶ, εὐφράνθησαν δὲ οἱ ὀρθόδοξοι.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΙΒ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΠΡΟΚΛΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΙΛΑΡΙΟΥ.
THE TWELFTH DAY.
Proclus and Hilary, Martyrs.
Πρόκλος καὶ Ἱλάριος οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυρες ὑπῆρχον μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Τραϊανοῦ ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Ἀγκύρας, χριστιανοὶ δὲ ὄντες, ἐκήρυττον τὸν Χριστὸν, καὶ πολλοὺς τῶν ἀπίστων ἐπέστρεφον πρὸς αὐτόν. Πρῶτος οὖν κρατηθεὶς παρὰ τῶν εἰδωλολατρῶν ὁ Πρόκλος, παρέστη ἐνώπιον τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ ἐξετασθεὶς, καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ἐπὶ πλεῖον ὁμολογῶν, ἐξεδόθη Μαξιμίνῳ τῷ ἡγεμόνι· καὶ κρεμασθεὶς ἐξέσθη σιδήροις, καὶ λαμπάσι πυρὸς, τὴν γαστέρα καὶ τὰς πλευρὰς κατεκάη, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα δεξάμενος ἀπόφασιν τοῦ κατατοξευθῆναι, ἤγετο γυμνὸς ἐπὶ τὸν τόπον τῆς τελειώσεως, καὶ κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν συναντήσας Ἱλαρίῳ τῷ ἀνεψιῷ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀσπασάμενος αὐτὸν, ἐγένετο αἴτιος τοῦ κρατηθῆναι αὐτὸν, καὶ αὐτὸς μὲν κρεμασθεὶς ἐπὶ ξύλου, καὶ σαγίτταις κατατοξευθεὶς, παρέδωκε τὸ πνεῦμα. Ὁ δὲ Ἱλάριος, τυφθεὶς καὶ ξεσθεὶς, καὶ ἐπὶ μίλια γυμνὸς κατασυρεὶς, τελευταῖον ξίφει τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐτμήθη.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΙΑΣ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΓΟΛΙΝΔΟΥΧ.
Golinduch, Martyr.
Ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Γολινδοὺχ, ὑπῆρχε μὲν ἐκ Περσίδος ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Μαυρικίου· συνῴκει δὲ ἀνδρὶ ἀρχιμάγῳ, καὶ ὁρᾷ ἄγγελον Θεοῦ καθ᾽ ὕπνους, δεικνύοντα αὐτῇ τόπον φωτεινὸν, ἔνθα οἱ δίκαιοι ἐχόρευον, καὶ ἕτερον σκοτεινὸν, ἐν ᾧ οἱ εἰδωλολάτραι ἐτιμωροῦντο· καὶ δοκιμάσασα εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὸν φωτεινὸν τόπον, ἐκωλύθη, εἰπόντος τοῦ ἀγγέλου· ὅτι ἐὰν μὴ γένῃ χριστιανὴ, οὐκ εἰσέρχῃ. Ἔξυπνος δὲ γενομένη παραυτὰ ἐβαπτίσθη, καὶ γνωσθεῖσα παρὰ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς, καὶ τοῦ βασιλέως, ἀπεκλείσθη εἰς τὴν τῆς λήθης φυλακὴν, καὶ πάλιν εἰς λάκκον, ἔνθα ἦν δράκων, καὶ μετὰ χρόνους πολλοὺς ἐκβληθεῖσα, ἐτιμωρήθη διαφόρως, καὶ βουλλωθεῖσα τὸν τράχηλον, ἤγετο ἀποκεφαλισθῆναι. Ἐκβαλὼν δὲ τὴν βούλλαν σώαν ὁ ἄγγελος, ἔδωκε τῷ δημίῳ, καὶ λυπουμένην τὴν Ἁγίαν διὰ τὸ μὴ παθεῖν ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ πλήξας μετὰ σπαθίου κατὰ τοῦ τραχήλου, ῥεῦσαι μὲν αἷμα πεποίηκε, οὐκ ἀπεκεφάλισεν δέ. Μετὰ ταῦτα ζήσασα, καὶ πολλοὺς ὠφελήσασα, πρὸς Κύριον ἐξεδήμησεν.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΙΓ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΣΕΡΑΠΙΩΝΟΣ.
THE THIRTEENTH DAY.
Serapion, Martyr.
Σεραπίων ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς, ὑπῆρχεν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Σευήρου, ἀνὴρ θεοσεβὴς, καὶ τὸν τρόπον ἀγαθός. Κρατηθεὶς δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν εἰδωλολατρῶν διὰ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ὁμολογίαν, παρεδόθη Ἀκύλᾳ, τῷ τῆς χώρας ἐκείνης ἄρχοντι· καὶ παραστὰς ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐρωτηθεὶς ποίας θρησκείας τυγχάνει, ὡμολόγησε παρρησίᾳ τὸν Χριστόν. Τυφθεὶς οὖν διὰ τοῦτο σφοδρῶς· καὶ σιδήροις ὀξέσι τὸ σῶμα ξεσθεὶς ὅλον, παρεπέμφθη φυλακῇ, λιμῷ καὶ δίψει πιεζόμενος, μετὰ δὲ πολλῶν ἡμερῶν παραδρομὴν, τῆς φυλακῆς ἑλκυσθεὶς, παρέστη δεδεμένος τῷ ἄρχοντι· καὶ μηδεμίαν πληγὴν ἢ τραύματος οὐτελὴν φέρων ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματος, διὰ τὸ θεραπευθῆναι παραυτίκα ὑπὸ Χριστοῦ, εἰς ἔκπληξιν ἤγαγεν ἅπαντας, καὶ πολλοὺς παρεσκεύασε πιστεῦσαι Χριστῷ· καὶ φοβηθεὶς ὁ ἄρχων, ἵνα μὴ πλείονας προσαγάγῃ Χριστῷ, πυρὶ παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν, καὶ οὕτω τὸν τῆς ἀθανασίας διαθλήσας ἀγῶνα, ἐτελειώθη.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΙΑΣ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΜΥΡΟΠΗΣ.
Myrope, Martyr.
Ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Μυρώπη ὑπῆρχε μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Δεκίου, ἐκ τῆς νήσου Χίου· περιήρχετο δὲ τὴν Ἐφεσίων πόλιν, τὰ ἐκ τῶν λειψάνων τῶν ἁγίων Μαρτύρων καὶ Ἀποστόλων προχεόμενα μύρα συνάγουσα, καὶ ἰωμένη τοὺς ἀσθενοῦντας. Ὅθεν καὶ φερωνύμως ἐκλήθη Μυρώπη. Καταλαβοῦσα δὲ τὴν νῆσον Χίων, καὶ εὑροῦσα τὸν ἅγιον Ἰσίδωρον, διὰ Χριστὸν μαρτυρήσαντα, καὶ τελειωθέντα, ἀνείλετο τὸ λείψανον αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔκρυψε παρ᾽ ἑαυτῇ, καὶ πολλῶν κρατουμένων διὰ τὴν τοῦ λειψάνου ἀφαίρεσιν, καὶ τιμωρουμένων, ἐφανέρωσεν ἑαυτὴν, λέγουσα λαβεῖν καὶ κρύψαι τὸ λείψανον. Κρατηθεῖσα οὖν παρὰ τοῦ ἡγεμόνος Νουμεριανοῦ, τοῦ καὶ τὸν ἅγιον Ἰσίδωρον βασανίσαντος, ἐτύφθη σφοδρῶς, δὲ ἀπεκλείσθη εἰς φυλακὴν, καὶ δι᾽ ὀπτασίας τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰσιδώρου τῶν ἀποκειμένων αὐτῇ ἀγαθῶν τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν λαβοῦσα, τῷ Θεῷ τὸ πνεῦμα παρέδωκεν.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΙΔ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΙΟΥΣΤΟΥ.
THE FOURTEENTH DAY.
Justus, Martyr.
Ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Ἰοῦστος ὑπῆρχε μὲν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Ῥώμης· ἐστρατεύετο δὲ ἐν τῷ τάγματι τῶν Νουμερῶν· ὑποστρέφων δέ ποτε ἀπὸ τοῦ πολέμου, ὁρᾷ σταυρὸν κρυσταλλοειδῆ, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ σταυροῦ ἀκούει φωνὴν ἐξελθοῦσαν καὶ εἰποῦσαν αὐτῷ, καταλιπεῖν τὰ εἴδωλα καὶ πιστεῦσαι Χριστῷ. Καταλαβὼν οὖν τὴν Ῥώμην, καὶ διασκορπίσας τὸν πλοῦτον αὐτοῦ τοῖς πτωχοῖς, ἡσύχαζε κατ᾽ αὐτὸν, τῇ εἰς Χριστὸν ἐπαγαλλόμενος πίστει. Γνωσθεὶς δὲ παρὰ τοῦ τριβούνου, ἐκρατήθη παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ καὶ μὴ πεισθεὶς ἀρνήσασθαι τὸν Χριστὸν, δεθεὶς ἁλύσεσι, παρεπέμφθη Μαγνεντίῳ τῷ ἡγεμόνι, καὶ ἐμμένων ἐπὶ πλέον τῇ εἰς Χριστὸν πίστει, ἐτύφθη λώροις ὠμοῖς, καὶ πεπυρακτωμένην περικεφαλαίαν περιετέθη τῇ κεφαλῇ· εἶτα ἐπὶ ἐσχάρας ἠνθρακωμένης ἡπλώθη γυμνὸς· καὶ τέλος ἐν καμίνῳ πυρὸς μεγάλου βληθεὶς, τὸ ἑαυτοῦ πνεῦμα παρέδωκε τῷ Θεῷ.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥ ΟΣΙΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΘΑΥΜΑΤΟΥΡΓΟΥ ΟΝΗΣΙΜΟΥ.
Onesimus.
Ὀνήσιμος ὁ ὅσιος ὑπῆρχεν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Καισαρείας τῆς Παλαιστίνης ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Διοκλητιανοῦ, υἱὸς γονέων εὐσεβῶν, βαπτισθέντων, ὡς ὁ λόγος, ὑπὸ θείου ἀγγέλου· καὶ εὐαγγελισθέντων καὶ τὴν σύλληψιν τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτῶν, καὶ τὸ ὄνομα διδαχθέντων. Μετὰ δὲ γεννηθῆναι καὶ ἀνατραφῆναι ἐν παιδείᾳ καὶ νουθεσίᾳ Κυρίου, ἀπελθὼν εἰς ἓν τῶν κατὰ τὴν Ἔφεσον μοναστηρίων, ἐν ᾧ διέτριβον ὀκτακόσιοι ἀσκηταὶ, ἐγένετο μοναχὸς, καὶ ἦν ἀγωνιζόμενος ὑπὲρ φύσιν ἀνθρωπίνην. Θρηνοῦντες δὲ τὴν αὐτοῦ στέρησιν οἱ γονεῖς, ἐτυφλώθησαν· καὶ διωγμοῦ κινηθέντος κατὰ τῶν χριστιανῶν, καὶ τῶν ἀσκητῶν πάντων φυγόντων, παρεγένετο καὶ αὐτὸς εἰς τὸν οἶκον αὐτοῦ ὡς ξένος, καὶ τοὺς μὲν γονεῖς ἐποίησεν δι᾽ εὐχῆς ἀναβλέψαι· ἑαυτὸν δὲ οὐκ ἀπεκάλυψεν αὐτοῖς· ἀλλὰ γράψας ἐν χάρτῃ τὰ κατ᾽ αὐτὸν, καὶ θεὶς ἐν μιᾷ τῶν θυρίδων, ἀπῆλθεν εἰς Μαγνησίαν, ἔνθα πολλὰ θαύματα ποιήσας, πρὸς Θεὸν ἐξεδήμησεν.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥ ΟΣΙΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΟΜΟΛΟΓΗΤΟΥ ΙΩΣΗΦ.
Joseph.
Ἰωσὴφ ὁ ἐν ἁγίοις πατὴρ ἡμῶν ὑπῆρχεν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Θεοφίλου τοῦ εἰκονομάχου, υἱὸς μὲν Φωτίνου καὶ Θεοκτίστης, ἀδελφὸς δὲ Θεοδώρου ἡγουμένου τῶν Στουδίου, ὃς διὰ τὴν ἐνάρετον αὐτοῦ πολιτείαν, ψήφῳ κοινῇ, ἐπίσκοπος χειροτονεῖται Θεσσαλονίκης· ἔνθα χρόνου ἅλις διατρίψας, καὶ τὴν ὀρθόδοξον πίστιν διδάξας, πρὸς τὴν βασιλεύουσαν ὑπέστρεψεν πόλιν κελεύσει βασιλικῇ· καὶ παραστάντες αὐτός τε καὶ ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ τῷ εἰκονομάχῳ βασιλεῖ, ἠναγκάζοντο ἀρνήσασθαι τὴν προσκύνησιν τῶν σεπτῶν εἰκόνων, καὶ μὴ πεισθέντες, ὁ μὲν ἐν τῇ τῆς Ἀπολλωνιάδος ἐξωρίσθη λίμνῃ ὁ Θεόδωρος, ὁ δὲ φυλακαῖς διαφόροις προσομιλήσας ὁ Ἰωσὴφ, καὶ τῇ λοιπῇ κακοπαθείᾳ ἐγκαρτερήσας, καὶ πάλιν διά τινος τῶν δυσσεβῶν ἀποσταλέντος παρὰ τοῦ βασιλέως ἀναγκασθεὶς ὑπογράψαι τῷ τόμῳ τῆς αἱρέσεως, καὶ μὴ ἀνασχόμενος, κατακλεισθεὶς εἰς σκοτεινοτέραν φυλακὴν, ἐτελειώθη.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΙΕ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΚΥΡΙΚΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΙΟΥΛΙΤΤΗΣ.
THE FIFTEENTH DAY.
Cyricus and Julitta.
Ἰουλίττα ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς ὑπῆρχεν ἐπὶ Διοκλητιανοῦ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Ἰκονίου· διὰ δὲ τὸν ἐπικρατοῦντα διωγμὸν ἐν Ἰκονίῳ, ἀναλαβομένη τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς Κύρικον, τριετῆ ὄντα, ἀπῆλθεν εἰς Σελεύκειαν· καὶ εὑροῦσα καὶ ἐκεῖ τὸν αὐτὸν διωγμὸν, παρεγένετο εἰς Ταρσὸν, ἔνθα καὶ Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ ἡγεμὼν, ὠμὸς καὶ θηριώδης ἄνθρωπος, ἐβασάνιζε τοὺς Ἁγίους· καὶ κρατηθεῖσα, καὶ τοῦ παιδὸς ἀποχωρισθεῖσα, ἐτιμωρεῖτο· τὸ δὲ παιδίον λαβὼν ἐπὶ τῶν γονάτων ὁ ἡγεμὼν, ἐκολάκευε· τὸ δὲ οὐκ ἐπεστρέφετο πρὸς αὐτὸν, ἀλλὰ δι᾽ ὅλου ἔβλεπεν ἀτενῶς πρὸς τὴν μητέρα, καὶ ψελλιζούσῃ τῇ φωνῇ, τὸ μὲν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἀνεκαλεῖτο ὄνομα, πρὸς δὲ τὴν μητέρα ἔσπευδεν ἀπελθεῖν· καὶ χολώσας ὁ ἀνηλεὴς θὴρ, ἐλάκτισεν αὐτὸν, ῥίψας ὑπὸ τῶν βαθμίδων, καὶ συντριβείσης τῇ πέτρᾳ τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ, ἀφῆκε τὴν ψυχὴν, καὶ δοξάσασα τὸν Θεὸν ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ, μετὰ πολλὰς τὰς βασάνους, ἀπεκεφαλίσθη καὶ αὐτή.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΑΒΟΥΔΙΜΟΥ.
Abudimus, Martyr.
Ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Ἀβούδιμος ὑπῆρχεν ἐπὶ Διοκλητιανοῦ βασιλέως ἐκ τῆς νήσου Τενέδου. Κρατηθεὶς δὲ καὶ πολλὰ καταναγκασθεὶς ἀρνήσασθαι τὸν Χριστὸν, οὐκ ἐπείσθη· ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ὡμολόγησε παρρησίᾳ τὴν θεότητα αὐτοῦ· ὅθεν πάλων πηχθέντων, εἰς μάστιγας ἐξετάθη, καὶ τύπτεται ὑπὸ ἐννέα στρατιωτῶν. Βιασαμένων δὲ αὐτὸν τῶν δημίων μιαρῶν ὑπογεύσασθαι θυσιῶν, οὐκ ἠνέσχετο. Διὸ ξέουσιν αὐτὸν χερσὶ σιδηραῖς, καὶ μετὰ πολλὰς ἑτέρας βασάνους μὴ πεισθέντα ἀπεκεφάλισαν, καὶ ἰδοὺ μέσης ἡμέρας ἐφάνη ὁ Μάρτυς τῷ Διοκλητιανῷ μετὰ ἀγγέλων κατεχόντων ῥομφαίας, καὶ φόβῳ οὐρανίῳ ἐξέπληξεν αὐτόν. Καί φησιν, ἴδε, Ἀβούδιμος ὁ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ Θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος, ὃν σὺ μὲν νομίζεις τεθνάναι· ὁ δὲ Θεὸς τῇ αὐτοῦ βοηθείᾳ δείκνυσί σοι, ὅτι ἰσχύει κατὰ τῶν συνεργῶν σου τῶν δαιμόνων, καὶ κατὰ σοῦ. Ὁ δὲ ἄνομος, ᾧ ἀνοχῆς Θεοῦ ἄνθρωπον ὤφειλε μεταβαλέσθαι, καὶ πιστεῦσαι Χριστῷ, μᾶλλον μανεὶς, τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Μάρτυρος πυρὶ παρέδωκεν.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΚΥΡΙΑΚΟΥ.
Antiochus and Cyriacus, Martyrs.
Ἀντίοχος ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς, ἦν ἀπὸ Σεβαστείας, ἰατρὸς τὴν τέχνην. Περιερχόμενος δὲ τὰς πόλεις πάσας, καὶ ἰατρεύων τοὺς ἐν ἀσθενείαις, ἐκρατήθη ὑπὸ Ἀδριανοῦ ἡγεμόνος, καὶ πολλὰς βασάνους ὑπομείνας πρότερον, ὕστερον εἰς λέβητα ἐμβληθεὶς, καὶ
μὴ φλεχθεὶς ἄγεται θηριομαχῆσαι, ᾧ τινι προσέχαιρον τὰ θηρία, καὶ κινούμενα πρὸς τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτοῦ, κατεφίλουν αὐτόν. Μία δὲ πάρδαλις ἀνθρωπίνῃ φωνῇ ἤλεγξε τὸν Ἡγεμόνα. Εἶτα ηὔξατο ὁ Ἅγιος, καὶ διελύθησαν εἰς ψάμμον πάντα τὰ εἴδωλα. Καὶ κατὰ ταῦτα ἀπετμήθη τὴν κεφαλὴν, καὶ ἔρρευσεν ἐκ τοῦ τραχήλου αὐτοῦ σὺν αἵματι γάλα. Κυριακὸς δὲ ὁ τὸν Ἅγιον ὑποκεφαλίσας, ἰδὼν τὸ θαῦμα, καὶ παρρησιασάμενος ἑαυτὸν χριστιανὸν ἀνωμολόγησε, καὶ ἀνάθεμα εἰπὼν τοῖς εἰδώλοις Ἀδριανοῦ, ἐτμήθη καὶ αὐτὸς τὴν κεφαλήν, καὶ προσετέθη τῷ ἁγίῳ Ἀντιόχῳ, καὶ οὕτω τελειωθέντες, ἀπέλαβον παρὰ τοῦ οὐρανίου καὶ μεγάλου βασιλέως τὴν τῶν οὐρανῶν βασιλείαν.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΠΑΥΛΟΥ, ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΣΥΝΟΔΙΑΣ ΑΥΤΟΥ.
Paul and Companions, Martyrs.
Οὗτοι ὑπῆρχον Αἰγύπτιοι τὸ γένος, κρατηθέντες δὲ, καὶ εἰς τὴν πόλιν Διοκαισάρειαν ἀχθέντες, παρέστησαν τῷ ἄρχοντι, καὶ ἐρωτηθέντες, καὶ ὁμολογήσαντες τὸν ἀληθινὸν ἡμῶν Θεὸν, τοὺς ἀριστεροὺς πόδας κατεκάησαν, καὶ τοὺς δεξιοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐξωρύχθησαν, καὶ ξίφεσι καὶ πυρὶ ἐτελειώθησαν. Καὶ μετ᾽ αὐτῶν ἕτεροι πολλοὶ ἄνδρες τε καὶ γυναῖκες ὁμολογήσαντες τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Καὶ ἡ μὲν ἁγία Θέη ἐπὶ ξύλου τανυσθεῖσα ἐξέσθη, ἡ δὲ ἀδελφὴ αὐτῆς Οὐαλεντίνα, τῷ δικαστῇ ἐπιθεμένη κατέστρεψε τὸν βωμὸν τῷ ποδὶ, καὶ ἐξέσθη καὶ αὐτὴ ἀφειδῶς. Παῦλος δὲ, ὁ ἅγιος μάρτυς, τὴν διὰ τοῦ ξίφους ἀπόφασιν λαβὼν, καὶ στὰς, προσευξάμενος ὑπὲρ χριστιανῶν, ὑπὲρ Ἰουδαίων, ὑπὲρ Σαμαριτῶν, ὑπὲρ Ἑλλήνων, καὶ ὑπὲρ ἑτέρων ἐθνῶν, ὅπως εἰς γνῶσιν Θεοῦ ἔλθωσιν, καὶ παυθῇ ὁ κατὰ τῶν χριστιανῶν διωγμὸς, εἰς οἶκτον καὶ δάκρυα πάντας ἐκίνησε, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἐτμήθη τὴν κεφαλήν.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Ις᾽. Η ΑΝΑΜΝΗΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΝ ΧΑΛΚΗΔΟΝΙ ΑΓΙΑΣ ΣΥΝΟΔΟΥ ΤΩΝ ΕΞΑΚΟΣΙΩΝ ΤΡΙΑΚΟΝΤΑ ΠΑΤΕΡΩΝ.
THE SIXTEENTH DAY.
The Six Hundred and Thirty Fathers of the Synod of Chalcedon.
Μετὰ τὴν καθαίρεσιν τοῦ δυσσεβοῦς Ἀρείου, τὴν ὑπὸ τῶν τριακοσίων ἁγίων Πατέρων ἐν Νικαίᾳ γεγενημένην, ἐμπνευσθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου Εὐτυχὴς ὁ αἱρετικὸς, ἐβούλετο ἀνανεῶσαι τὴν ἐκείνου αἵρεσιν, λέγων ἐπὶ Χριστοῦ μίαν φύσιν γενέσθαι μετὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν. Ἀλλὰ τῆς βασιλείας κρατήσας ὁ ἐν ἁγίοις Μαρκιανὸς, μετὰ τελευτὴν Θεοδοσίου υἱοῦ Ἀρκαδίου, συνήγαγεν ἐν Χαλκηδόνι σύνοδον ἱερὰν ἑξακοσίων τριάκοντα θεοφόρων Πατέρων, καὶ καθεῖλεν οὐ μόνον Εὐτυχῆ, μᾶλλον δὲ δυστυχῆ καὶ ἄθλιον, καὶ τοὺς ὁμόφρονας αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν ἀρειανισμὸν παντελῶς ἠφάνισε, κρατύνας τὸ ἅγιον σύμβολον τῶν ἁγίων Πατέρων, καὶ ἐπιβεβαιώσας, καὶ ἀναθεματίσας ἅπαντας τοὺς αἱρετικοὺς, συνεργησάσης εἰς τοῦτο καὶ τῆς ἁγίας μεγαλομάρτυρος Εὐφημίας, καὶ τὸν ὅρον τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας, καθάπερ ζῶσα, παρασχοῦσα τοῖς ὀρθοδόξοις.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΩΝ ΟΝΗΣΙΦΟΡΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΠΟΡΦΥΡΙΟΥ.
Onesiphorus and Porphyrius, Martyrs.
Ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Ὀνησιφόρος ὑπῆρχε μὲν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Ἰκονίου, συγγενὴς ὢν τῆς βασιλίσσης Τρυφαίνης. Κατῴκει δὲ ἐν τῇ πόλει Ἰκονίου, ἔνθα καὶ δεξάμενος τὸν μέγαν ἀπόστολον Παῦλον, ἐδιδάχθη ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνου τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας, καὶ βαπτισθεὶς πανοικὶ, ἐκήρυττε τὸν Χριστὸν, καὶ διὰ τούτου διωχθεὶς, ἐκ τοῦ Ἰκονίου ἀπελθὼν κατῴκησεν εἰς τὸ Πάριον. Εὔπορος δὲ ὢν, πολλὴν τῶν πτωχῶν ἐποιεῖτο πρόνοιαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ Παύλῳ πρὸς τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα ἀπερχομένῳ, πολλὰ χρήματα εἰς διακονίαν τῶν ἀδελφῶν δέδωκε, καὶ πρὸς Ῥώμην ἀπαγομένῳ δεσμίῳ ἠκολούθησε. Καὶ προτραπεὶς ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνου πάλιν κατέλαβε τὸ Πάριον. Καὶ κρατηθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ ἄρχοντος ἅμα τῷ δούλῳ αὐτοῦ Πορφυρίῳ, ἐβασανίσθη. Εἶτα ἀγρίοις ἵπποις προσδεθεὶς, καὶ συρεὶς μίλια δεκατέσσαρα, παρέδωκε τὸ πνεῦμα. Συγκακοπαθήσας δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ ὁ Πορφύριος ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτοῦ τοῖς κατὰ Θεὸν ἀγωνίσμασιν, ἐτελειώθη.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΙΖ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΙΕΡΟΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΑΘΗΝΟΓΕΝΟΥΣ.
THE SEVENTEENTH DAY.
Athenogenes, Martyr.
Ἀθηνογένης ὁ ἱερομάρτυς Χριστοῦ ἦν μὲν ἐκ τῆς Σεβαστείας ἐπὶ Διοκλητιανοῦ βασιλέως, κρατηθεὶς δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ ἡγεμόνος μετὰ τῶν δέκα μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ, καὶ πολλὰς βασάνους σὺν αὐτοῖς ὑπομείνας διὰ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ἀγάπην, τελευταῖον τὴν διὰ τοῦ ξίφους ἐδέξατο τελευτήν. Λέγεται δὲ περὶ αὐτοῦ ὅτι πρὸ τοῦ κρατηθῆναι, ἀπελθὼν εἰς τὸ μοναστήριον, τοὺς μαθητὰς οὐχ εὗρεν, προκατεσχέθησαν γάρ. Τὴν δὲ ὑπαντήσασαν αὐτῷ ἔλαφον, ἣν ἀνέθρεψεν ἐν τῇ μονῇ, εὐλόγησεν καὶ ἐπηύξατο μὴ κυριευθῆναι ὑπὸ τῶν κυνηγετῶν, καὶ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτῆς, ἀλλὰ καθ᾽ ἕκαστον χρόνον ἄγειν ἐν τῇ μνήμῃ αὐτοῦ αὐτήν τε καὶ τὰς ἐξ αὐτῆς μελλούσας τίκτεσθαι μόσχον ἕνα. Ὃ καὶ γέγονεν. Ὁρᾶται γὰρ μετὰ τὴν ἀνάγνωσιν τῶν ἁγίων Εὐαγγελίων ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ εἰσερχομένη ἡ ἔλαφος, καὶ τὸν μόσχον αὐτῆς ἀνατίθησι τῷ Ἁγίῳ, καὶ πάλιν ἐξέρχεται. Ὃν θύοντες οἱ συλλελεγμένοι, εὐωχοῦνται εἰς δόξαν τοῦ Ἱερομάρτυρος καὶ τιμήν.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΙΑΣ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΜΑΡΙΝΗΣ.
Marina, Martyr.
Ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Μαρίνα ὑπῆρχεν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Ἀντιοχείας τῆς Πισιδίας, θυγάτηρ Αἰδεσίμου ἱερέως τῶν εἰδώλων. Χριστιανὴ δὲ οὖσα, ἐκρατήθη, καὶ προσαχθεῖσα Ὀλιμβρίῳ τῷ ἐπάρχῳ, καὶ πολλὰ βασανισθεῖσα, τὸν μὲν Χριστὸν οὐκ ἠρνήσατο, τῶν δὲ εἰδώλων τὴν ἀσθένειαν, καὶ τὴν ματαιότητα διεχλεύασεν. Ἀπεκλείσθη οὖν ἐν φυλακῇ, καὶ ἐφάνη αὐτῇ δράκων παμμεγέθης, ἔχων ὄφεις περὶ τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ. Καὶ συρίζων πέριξ τῆς Ἁγίας, ἠπείλει καταπονεῖν αὐτὴν, καὶ κατασφραγισαμένη καὶ ποιήσασα τὸν τύπον τοῦ σταυροῦ, ἐνέκρωσεν αὐτόν· εἶτα ἐρρίφη εἰς λάκκον ὕδατος, καὶ φανεῖσα περιστερὰ εὐλόγησε τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ ἐβάπτισεν αὐτὴν, καὶ τῆς λίμνης ἐξελθοῦσα, καὶ πάλιν τῷ ἐπάρχῳ παραστᾶσα, καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν παρρησίᾳ ὁμολογήσασα, ἔλαβε τὴν διὰ ξίφους ἀπόφασιν, καὶ καταλαβοῦσα τὸν τόπον τῆς τελειώσεως, καὶ ἐπὶ πολὺ προσευξαμένη, ἀπεκεφαλίσθη.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΙΗ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΑΙΜΙΛΙΑΝΟΥ.
THE EIGHTEENTH DAY.
Aemilian, Martyr.
Ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Αἰμιλιανὸς ὑπῆρχεν ἐκ πόλεως Δοροστόλου Μυσίας τῆς Θράκης ἐπὶ Ἰουλιανοῦ τοῦ παραβάτου. Δοῦλος μὲν τυγχάνων ἕλληνός τινος, χριστιανὸς δὲ ὑπάρχων, καὶ λαβὼν καιρὸν, ἐκράτησε σφύραν, καὶ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸν ναὸν τῶν εἰδώλων, καὶ συνέτριψε πάντα τὰ ἀγάλματα, καὶ τὰς θυσίας διεσκόρπισεν· οἱ δὲ εἰδωλολάτραι ἀγνοοῦντες τὸν τοῦτο ποιήσαντα, ἐκράτησαν γηπόνον τινα, καὶ ἤρξαντο τύπτειν αὐτὸν, καὶ σύρειν πρὸς τὸν ἡγεμόνα. Τότε ὁ Ἅγιος ἰδὼν, παρέδωκεν ἑαυτὸν, λέγων· Ἐγώ εἰμι, ὁ τοῦτο πεποιηκώς. Ἀχθεὶς οὖν πρὸς τὸν ἡγεμόνα, ἤλεγξε τὴν ἄνοιαν αὐτοῦ, ὡς ἐπὶ ματαίοις πεποιθότα εἰδώλοις. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο εἰς ὀργὴν κινήσας αὐτὸν, ἐτύφθη σφοδρῶς μετὰ ῥαβδίων, καὶ ἔτι ἐμμένων τῇ εἰς Χριστὸν ὁμολογίᾳ, παρεδόθη πυρὶ, καὶ μέσον αὐτοῦ τὸν Θεὸν εὐλογῶν καὶ δοξάζων, ἀφῆκε τὴν ἁγίαν ψυχήν.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΥΑΚΙΝΘΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΜΑΣΤΡΙΔΙ.
Hyacinth of Amastris, Martyr.
Ὑάκινθος ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς, ἦν γονέων εὐσεβῶν, υἱὸς Θεοκλήτου καὶ Νεονίλλης, ἐπὶ Ἡρακλείου ἐπισκόπου Ἀμάστριδος. Ὅστις ὄνομα ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀγγέλου ἐδέξατο, καὶ τριετὴς γενόμενος, τῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐπικλήσει παιδίον ἀνέστησεν τεθνειός. Συναυξανομένης δὲ τῇ ἡλικίᾳ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐπεὶ πρὸς πολιὰν ἔφθασε, πολλὰς μεταξὺ θαυματουργίας πεποιηκὼς, ὁρῶν τοὺς εἰδωλολάτρας δένδρα θρησκεύοντας, τοῦτο δὲ ἦν πτελέα διάκουφος, καὶ ἅτε τετριμμένη, ἐξέτεμε αὐτό. Κατασχεθεὶς οὖν, ἤχθη πρὸς τὸν ἄρχοντα, καὶ πρὸς τοὺς τῆς πόλεως Ἀμάστριδος ὑπερέχοντας, καὶ τυφθεὶς σφοδρῶς, ἐξερριζώθη τοὺς ὀδόντας, καὶ δεθεὶς σχοινίοις, ἐσύρετο ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, καὶ καλάμοις ὀξέσι κατεκεντεῖτο· εἶτα βληθεὶς ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ, τῷ Θεῷ τὸ πνεῦμα παρέθετο. Τὸ δὲ λείψανον αὐτοῦ κατετέθη ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ πόλει, βρύον ἀεννάως ἰάματα.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΟΣΙΑΣ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΘΕΟΔΟΣΙΑΣ.
Theodosia, Martyr.
Ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Θεοδοσία ὑπῆρχεν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ Καβαλλίνου ἐκ τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, θυγάτηρ γονέων εὐσεβῶν. Τελευτήσαντος δὲ τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῆς, καὶ τῆς μητρὸς, ἅπασαν τὴν καταλειφθεῖσαν αὐτῇ περιουσίαν δοῦσα πτωχοῖς, εἰσῆλθεν εἰς μοναστήριον, καὶ ἐγένετο μοναχή. Κρατήσας δὲ τῆς βασιλείας Λέων, ὁ εἰκονομάχος, καὶ τὸν ἁγιώτατον πατριάρχην Γερμανὸν τοῦ θρόνου ἀπελάσας, καὶ τὰς ἁγίας εἰκόνας ἀπαλείφων, ἐβούλετο καὶ τὸν ἐν τῇ χαλκῇ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν χαρακτῆρα καταστρέψαι, καὶ μαθοῦσα τοῦτο ἡ ἁγία Θεοδοσία μετὰ καὶ ἑτέρων γυναικῶν, καὶ ζῆλον θεῖον ἀναλαβοῦσα, τὸν ἀναβάντα εἰς τὴν σκάλαν σπαθάριον ἐπὶ τὸ καταλῦσαι τὴν ἁγίαν εἰκόνα ῥίψασα, συνέτριψε, καὶ ἀνελθοῦσα εἰς τὸ πατριαρχεῖον, ἤλεγξεν τὸν αἱρετικὸν Ἀναστάσιον· τότε αἱ μὲν ἄλλαι γυναῖκες ἀπεκεφαλίσθησαν, ἡ δὲ Θεοδοσία συρομένη σχοινίῳ, ἀπεσφάγη μετὰ κέρατος ἐν τοῖς τοῦ βοὸς ἐμβόλοις.
ΙΘ᾽. ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥ ΟΣΙΟΥ ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΔΙΟΥ.
THE NINETEENTH DAY.
Dius.
Δῖος ὁ ἐν ἁγίοις πατὴρ ἡμῶν ἦν ἀγωνιζόμενος ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Θεοδοσίου τοῦ Μεγάλου ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ τῆς Συρίας. Εἰς ἄκραν δὲ ἄσκησιν ἐλθὼν, παρεγένετο δι᾽ ἀποκαλύψεως καὶ εἰς Κωνσταντινούπολιν, καὶ καταλαβὼν τὸν τόπον, ἔνθα νῦν τὸ αὐτοῦ μοναστήριον ἵδρυται, δαιμόνων ὄντα τότε κατοικητήριον, καὶ τὰ πονηρὰ πνεύματα ἐξελάσας, προσηύχετο τῷ Θεῷ. Διὰ δὲ τὴν ἀρετὴν αὐτοῦ τῷ βασιλεῖ γνωρισθεὶς, πολλοὺς τῶν πειρασμῶν ἐλυτροῦτο, καὶ τῷ Θεῷ προσῆγε, καὶ ναὸν ἔκτισε μέγιστον, καὶ θαύματα ἐποίησε πολλά. Καὶ γὰρ τὴν ῥάβδον αὐτοῦ πήξας, ξηρὰν οὖσαν, ἀναβλαστῆσαι παρεσκεύασεν, ἥτις μέχρι τοῦ νῦν ὁρᾶται, καὶ ὕδωρ ἀναβλῦσαι πεποίηκεν, καὶ νεκρὸν ἀνέστησεν. Ἀσθενήσας δὲ καὶ ἀπαγορευθεὶς ὡσεὶ νεκρὸς κείμενος, καὶ τῶν Πατριαρχῶν ἀπελθόντων πρὸς ἐπίσκεψιν αὐτοῦ, Ἀττικοῦ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἀντιοχείας, ἐξαίφνης ἀνανήψας εἶπεν· Ὅτι ἐχαρίσατό μοι ὁ Θεὸς ἔτη ιε᾽. Ἀναστὰς οὖν, καὶ ταῦτα ἐκπληρώσας, πρὸς Κύριον ἐξεδήμησεν.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΗΣ ΟΣΙΑΣ ΜΑΚΡΙΝΗΣ ΑΔΕΛΦΗΣ ΤΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΥ.
Macrina, sister of Basil the Great.
Ἡ ὁσία Μακρίνα, κάλλει σώματος, καὶ τρόποις κοσμουμένη χρηστοῖς, συνεζεύχθη μὲν ἀνδρί. Συναφείας δὲ μήπω γενομένης, ἐπεὶ ὁ ταύτην ἁρμοσάμενος, ἐν ἀποδημίαις ἐτελεύτησεν. Αὐτὴ πάσης ἐπιμιξίας κοσμικῆς χωρίσασα ἑαυτὴν, συνῆν τῇ μητρὶ ταῖς θείαις γραφαῖς σχολάζουσα, καὶ ἐν τάξει δευτέρας μητρὸς, τοὺς μετ᾽ αὐτὴν γεννηθέντας ἐκτρέφουσα ἀδελφούς. Δέκα γὰρ ὄντων τῶν ἁπάντων παίδων αὕτη ἦν πρώτη. Ὁσίως δὲ καὶ ἐν ἀσκήσει βιώσασα, πολλοῖς εἰς ὠφέλειαν ἐγένετο. Διδάσκαλος γὰρ ἦν οὐ μόνον λόγων, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἔργων· ὁ γὰρ ποιήσας καὶ διδάξας, φησὶν τὸ ἅγιον Εὐαγγέλιον, οὗτος μέγας κληθήσεται ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν. Πρὸς δὲ τὸ τελευτᾶν γενομένη, συνεφιλοσόφησε τῷ ἀδελφῷ αὐτῆς Γρηγορίῳ, τῷ Νύσσης ἀπελθόντι εἰς ἐπίσκεψιν αὐτῆς, περί τε ψυχῆς, καὶ ἄλλων τινῶν γραφικῶν ζητημάτων· καὶ οὕτω προσευξαμένη, πρὸς Θεὸν, ὃν ἐθεράπευσεν, ἐξεδήμησεν.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Κ᾽. Η ΠΥΡΦΟΡΟΣ ΑΝΑΒΑΣΙΣ ΕΙΣ ΟΥΡΑΝΟΥΣ ΗΛΙΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΠΡΟΦΗΤΟΥ.
THE TWENTIETH DAY.
The Ascension of Elijah the Prophet.
Ἠλίας ὁ προφήτης ἦν μὲν ἐκ τῆς χώρας Θέσβυς ἐκ γῆς Ἀράβων, ἐκ φυλῆς Ἀαρών. Κατῴκει δὲ ἐν Γαλαάδ. Καὶ ὅτε ἔτεκεν αὐτὸν ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ, εἶδεν ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ ὀπτασίαν, ὅτι
ἄνδρες λευκοφανεῖς αὐτὸν προσηγόρευον, καὶ πυρὶ ἐσπαργάνουν, καὶ φλόγα πυρὸς ἐδίδουν αὐτῷ φαγεῖν· καὶ ἐλθὼν εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα, ἀνήγγειλε τοῖς ἱερεῦσι, καὶ εἶπε αὐτῷ ὁ χρηματισμός· Μὴ δειλιάσῃς, ἄνθρωπε, ἔσται γὰρ ἡ οἴκησις τοῦ παιδίου φῶς, καὶ ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ ἀπόφασις, καὶ κρινεῖ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ καὶ πυρί. Οὗτος οὖν προεφήτευσεν ἔτη εἴκοσι πέντε, προλαβὼν τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ παρουσίαν ἔτη ὀκτακόσια δέκα ἓξ, πῦρ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ κατήνεγκεν, καὶ τὸν ὑετὸν ἐπέσχεν ἐπὶ ἔτη τρία, καὶ μῆνας ἕξ. Καὶ πεντήκοντα δυσσεβεῖς κατέκαυσε· καὶ ἐν τῷ Χωρὴβ ὄρει τὸν Θεὸν εἶδε· καὶ τὸν Ἰορδάνην ἔσχισεν τῇ μηλωτῇ, καὶ εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἐν ἅρματι πυρὸς ἀναληφθεὶς, ζῇ μέχρι τῆς σήμερον.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΚΑ᾽. ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΩΝ ΑΓΙΩΝ ΠΑΤΕΡΩΝ ΣΥΜΕΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΔΙΑ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΝ ΣΑΛΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ.
THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY.
Simeon Salos and John.
Οὗτοι πόλεως Ἐδέσης ὁρμώμενοι ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Ἰουστίνου ἐγνωρίζοντο. Ἀπελθόντες δὲ εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν πόλιν, καὶ τὸ ζωοποιὸν ξύλον προσκυνήσαντες, οὐκ ἔτι πρὸς τὰ οἰκεῖα ὑπέστρεψαν· ἀλλὰ τὴν μονὴν τοῦ ἁγίου Γερασίμου καταλαβόντες, γεγόνασι μοναχοὶ, καὶ τοῦ μοναστηρίου ἐξελθόντες, τὴν ἔρημον κατέλαβον, πᾶσαν ἄσκησιν, καὶ σκληραγωγίαν ἐπὶ τεσσαράκοντα ἔτεσιν διανύσαντες. Ἔπειτα ὁ μὲν Ἰωάννης ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ κατελείφθη· ὁ δὲ Συμεὼν ὑπέστρεψεν εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν πόλιν. Καὶ ὑποκριθεὶς μωρίαν, πολλὰ θαύματα ἐν τῇ προσποιήσει ταύτῃ εἰργάσατο. Θανὼν δὲ καὶ φερόμενος τοῦ ταφῆναι ὑπὸ δύο πενιχρῶν ἀνθρώπων, Ἑβραῖός τις ἤκουσε ψαλμῳδίας πλείστης ἀγγελικῆς, καὶ προκύψας τοῦ οἰκήματος, ὁρᾷ δύο μόνους τοὺς τὸ λείψανον αὐτοῦ βαστάζοντας, καὶ συνεὶς ὅτι μὴ ἔχων ἀνθρώπους ψάλλοντας, ἔσχες ἀγγέλους ὑμνοῦντας. Ἐτελειώθη δὲ ὁ ὅσιος Ἰωάννης.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΙΕΖΕΚΙΗΛ ΤΟΥ ΠΡΟΦΗΤΟΥ.
Ezekiel the Prophet.
Ἰεζεκιὴλ ὁ ἔνδοξος καὶ μέγας προφήτης, ἦν μὲν υἱὸς ἑνὸς τῶν ἱερέων ἐκ τῆς σειρᾶς τοῦ Λευΐ. Προεφήτευσε δὲ ἔτη εἴκοσι, προλαβὼν τὴν σάρκωσιν τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἔτη τετρακόσια ἑβδομήκοντα ἑπτὰ, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας καιρῶν ἀπελθὼν ἐν γῇ Χαλδαίων, ἔδωκεν τέρας μέγα, ὅθεν οἱ ὄφεις, τὰ βρέφη αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ κτήνη ἀνήλισκον. Διὸ καὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀνῃρέθη διὰ τὴν τοιαύτην αἰτίαν· ἀντέκειντο γὰρ αὐτῷ πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας, καὶ ἀπέκτεινεν αὐτὸν ὁ ἡγούμενος τοῦ λαοῦ ὡς ἐλεγχόμενος ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐτάφη ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ χώρᾳ ἀπὸ τῶν συγγενῶν ἐντίμως, ἀναδραμὼν πρὸς Θεὸν, δι᾽ ὃν τοὺς πολλοὺς ὑπέστη πειρασμοὺς ὑπὸ τῶν παρανόμων, καὶ ὑπολαβὼν τὰ ἀγαθὰ, ἃ ὀφθαλμὸς οὐκ εἶδε, καὶ οὖς οὐκ ἤκουσε, καὶ ἐπὶ καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη, ἃ ἡτοίμασεν ὁ Θεὸς τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτὸν ἁγίοις.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΚΒ᾽. ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΙΑΣ ΜΑΡΙΑΣ ΤΗΣ ΜΑΓΔΑΛΗΝΗΣ.
THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY.
Mary Magdalene.
Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ ἐκ τῶν Μαγδάλων ἦν τῶν ὁρίων Συρίας. Ὀχλουμένη δὲ ὑπὸ δαιμονίων ἑπτὰ, ἐθεραπεύθη ὑπὸ Χριστοῦ· καὶ διὰ τὴν τοιαύτην εὐεργεσίαν ἀκολουθήσασα αὐτῷ, γέγονε μαθήτρια αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἦν διακονοῦσα αὐτῷ μέχρι τοῦ πάθους αὐτοῦ, καὶ πρώτη τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἅμα τῇ ἄλλῃ Μαρίᾳ μύρα κομίζουσα κατεῖδεν, ἡνίκα ὀψὲ σαββάτων εἶδον ἄγγελον, πρωΐας δὲ δύο ἀγγέλους ἐν λευκοῖς καθεζομένους, καὶ πάλιν αὐτὸν πρὸς Κύριον, ὃν καὶ κηπουρὸν λογιζομένη, ἤκουσε παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ, Μή μου ἅπτου. Μετὰ οὖν τὴν θείαν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἀνάληψιν, ἀπελθοῦσα εἰς Ἔφεσον πρὸς τὸν θεῖον Ἰωάννην τὸν Ἀπόστολον, καὶ Εὐαγγελιστὴν, ἐκεῖ ὁσίως κεκοίμηται, καὶ ἐτέθη πρὸς τὴν εἴσοδον τοῦ σπηλαίου, ἐν ᾧ οἱ ἅγιοι καὶ μακάριοι ἑπτὰ κεκοίμηνται παῖδες. Ὕστερον δὲ ἐπὶ Λέοντος τοῦ σοφωτάτου βασιλέως τὸ ταύτης ἅγιον κομισθὲν λείψανον, ἐν τῇ ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ συσταθείσῃ μονῇ τοῦ ἁγίου Λαζάρου κατετέθη.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΚΓ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΙΕΡΟΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΦΩΚΑ.
THE TWENTY-THIRD DAY.
Phocas, Martyr.
Φωκὰς ὁ ἱερομάρτυς ἦν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Τραϊανοῦ, ἐν ἀμέμπτῳ πολιτείᾳ καὶ παντοίαις ἀρεταῖς διαλάμπων. Κρατηθεὶς οὖν, προσηνέχθη Ἀφρικανῷ τῷ ἐπάρχῳ, καὶ ἐρωτηθεὶς ὡμολόγησε τὸν Χριστόν. Ἀντιστὰς δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ ὁ ἔπαρχος ἐν λόγοις, καὶ πειραθεὶς βλασφημῆσαι μὲν τὸν Χριστὸν, αὐτὸν καὶ τιμωρήσασθαι· σεισμοῦ γενομένου, ἐξαίφνης πεσὼν μετὰ τῶν ὑπ᾽ αὐτῷ στρατιωτῶν, ἄπνους ἔκειτο. Ἀλλὰ προσευξάμενος ὁ Ἅγιος, ἤγειρε καὶ αὐτὸν, καὶ τοὺς στρατιώτας, καὶ πάλιν κρατηθεὶς, ἀπεστάλη δέσμιος πρὸς Τραϊανὸν, καὶ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ κηρύξας τὸν Χριστὸν, καὶ τὴν περὶ αὐτοῦ οἰκονομίαν πᾶσαν διεξελθὼν, κρεμασθεὶς ἐξέσθη, καὶ ἐπὶ πλέον ἐμμένων τῇ εἰς Χριστὸν ὁμολογίᾳ, εἰς ἄσβεστον ἐνεβλήθη· καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς ὑγιὴς ἐξελθὼν, εἰς λουτρὸν σφοδρῶς ἐκπυρωθὲν, καὶ ὑπερκαὲν εἰσήχθη, ἐν ᾧ τὸν Θεὸν δοξολογῶν, καθάπερ ἐν τῇ δροσοβόλῳ καμίνῳ οἱ ἅγιοι τρεῖς παῖδες, παρέδωκε τὸ πνεῦμα.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΤΡΟΦΙΜΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΣΥΝ ΑΥΤΩι.
Trophimus and Companions, Martyrs.
Τρόφιμος καὶ Θεόφιλος οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυρες μετὰ τῆς ἱερᾶς συνοδίας αὐτῶν, ὑπῆρχον μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς κατὰ συγχώρησιν Θεοῦ βασιλείας Διοκλητιανοῦ τοῦ παρανομωτάτου καὶ τυραννικωτάτου, τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμολογοῦντες, καὶ τοὺς προσερχομένους αὐτοῖς ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ διδάσκοντες, καὶ βαπτίζοντες. Διαγνωσθέντες δὲ καὶ κρατηθέντες, παρέστησαν ἐνώπιον ἐκείνου δέσμιοι, καὶ ἀναγκασθέντες ἀρνήσασθαι μὲν τὸν Χριστὸν, θῦσαι δὲ τοῖς εἰδώλοις, καὶ μὴ πεισθέντες, ἐτύφθησαν σφοδρῶς, καὶ κρεμασθέντες ἐπὶ ξύλων, ἐξέσθησαν· εἶτα ἐλιθοβολήθησαν, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα τῶν ξύλων καταβιβασθέντες, εἰς κάμινον μεγάλην ἐνεβλήθησαν. Ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς καμίνου τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ ῥυσθέντες χάριτι, καὶ ἀβλαβεῖς ἐξελθόντες, ὡς μηδὲ τριχὸς ἁψαμένου αὐτῶν τοῦ πυρὸς, ἐξέπληξαν τὸν τύραννον, καὶ τέλος κλίναντες τοὺς αὐχένας, τὰς ἱερὰς αὐτῶν κεφαλὰς ἀπετμήθησαν.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΚΔ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΙΑΣ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΙΝΗΣ.
THE TWENTY-FOURTH DAY.
Christina.
Ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς Χριστίνα ὑπῆρχε μὲν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Τύρου, στρατηλάτην δὲ παρόντα ἔχουσα, εἰς πύργον ὑψηλὸν ἀνήχθη παρ᾽ ἐκείνου, πρὸς τὸ μὴ θεᾶσθαι ὑπό τινος, ἀναβιβάσαντος εἰς τὸν πύργον καὶ τοὺς ἑαυτοὺς θεοὺς, καὶ προστάξαντος αὐτῇ θύειν καὶ προσκυνεῖν αὐτοῖς. Ἀλλ᾽ ἐκείνη κατανοήσασα τὴν ἀσθένειαν αὐτῶν, οὐδαμῶς προσεῖχεν αὐτοῖς. Τοῦ δὲ οὐρανοῦ τὸ κάλλος διὰ θυρίδος βλέπουσα, καὶ ἐκ τῶν ποιημάτων τὸν δημιουργὸν κατανοήσασα, συνέτριψε τὰ εἴδωλα, καὶ ἔρριψε κάτω. Καὶ διαγνωσθεῖσα καὶ τοῦ πύργου καταβιβασθεῖσα, πάσαις τιμωρίαις καθυπεβλήθη παρὰ τοῦ οἰκείου πατρός. Ἀποκλεισθεῖσα δὲ καὶ εἰς φυλακὴν, ἐτρέφετο ὑπὸ ἀγγέλου· καὶ ῥιφεῖσα ἐν θαλάσσῃ, ἐδέξατο τὸ ὕδωρ εἰς βάπτισμα, καὶ τῆς θαλάσσης ἐξελθοῦσα, ἀπεκλείσθη πάλιν εἰς φυλακὴν καὶ μετὰ τελευτὴν τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτῆς, εἰς ἐξέτασιν ἀχθεῖσα Δίονι τῷ ἄρχοντι, ἐτύφθη σφοδρῶς, καὶ θαυματουργήσασα, πολλοὺς ἐποίησε πιστεῦσαι Χριστῷ, καὶ τοὺς μαστοὺς ἐκκοπεῖσα, καὶ κατὰ καρδίας πληγεῖσα τοῖς κονταρίοις, ἐτελειώθη.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΚΕ᾽. ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΙΑΣ ΑΝΝΗΣ ΤΗΣ ΜΗΤΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΘΕΟΤΟΚΟΥ.
THE TWENTY-FIFTH DAY.
Anne, mother of the Mother of God.
Ἄννα ἡ σεβασμία μήτηρ τῆς ἐνδόξου δεσποίνης ἡμῶν Θεοτόκου, καὶ ἀεὶ παρθένου Μαρίας, ἦν μὲν ἐκ φυλῆς Λευῒ, ἀπὸ Βηθλεὲμ δὲ τῆς Ἰουδαίας, θυγάτηρ Ματθὰν τοῦ ἱερέως· ὅστις Ματθὰν ὑπῆρχεν ἱερατεύων ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Κλεοπάτρας, πρὸ τῆς βασιλείας Ἡρῴδου υἱοῦ Ἀντιπάτρου. Ἔσχε δὲ θυγατέρας τρεῖς, Μαρίαν, Σόβην, καὶ Ἄνναν· ἔγημε δὲ ἡ πρώτη θυγάτηρ ἐν Βηθλεὲμ, καὶ ἔτεκε Σαλώμην τὴν μαῖαν. Ἡ δὲ δευτέρα καὶ αὐτὴ ἐν Βηθλεὲμ, καὶ ἔτεκεν Ἐλισάβετ τὴν μητέρα τοῦ Προδρόμου. Ἡ δὲ Ἄννα εἰς τὴν γῆν τῆς Γαλιλαίας, καὶ ἔτεκεν Μαρίαν τὴν Θεοτόκον· ὡς εἶναι τὴν Σαλώμην, καὶ τὴν Ἐλισάβετ, καὶ τὴν Θεοτόκον, θυγατέρας ἀδελφῶν τριῶν θηλειῶν. Ἡ δὲ Ἄννα, ὡς εἴπομεν, γεννήσασα, τὸ μέγα ὄφελος, τὴν σωτηρίαν τοῦ κόσμου, τὴν ἄχραντον καὶ ὑπεράμωμον Θεοτόκον, καὶ ἀναθρεψαμένη, καὶ ἀπαγαγοῦσα ἐν τῷ ναῷ Κυρίου, καὶ ἀναθεῖσα αὐτὴν τῷ Θεῷ, πρὸς αὐτὸν χαίρουσα ἐξεδήμησεν.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΗΣ ΟΣΙΑΣ ΕΥΠΡΑΞΙΑΣ.
Eupraxia.
Ἡ ὁσία Εὐπραξία ἦν μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Θεοδοσίου, οὗ καὶ συγγενὴς ἐτύγχανεν, θυγάτηρ δὲ Ἀντιγόνου τοῦ συγκλητικοῦ. Οὗ τελευτήσαντος αὐτὴ παρὰ τῆς μητρὸς Εὐπραξίας ἀνετέθη τῷ βασιλεῖ, ὡς συγγενεῖ καὶ ἐπιτρόπῳ αὐτῆς φροντίζεσθαι ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ· καὶ μνηστευθεῖσα συγκλητικῷ τινι, ἐπείπερ ἐκεῖνος πρὸ τῆς συναφείας, ἐτελεύτησε, τὰ ὑπάρχοντα αὐτῇ δοῦσα πτωχοῖς, μετὰ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτῆς κατέλαβε τὴν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ πόλιν Θηβῶν, καὶ εἰσελθοῦσα εἰς μοναστήριον, ἐν ᾧ ὑπῆρχον ἑκατὸν μονάζουσαι, ἀπεκείρατο, καὶ αὐτὴ μὲν προσήδρευεν τῷ μοναστηρίῳ, τὴν ἰσάγγελον βιοῦσα ζωήν. Ἡ δὲ μήτηρ αὐτῆς περιελθοῦσα τὰ κατὰ ἀνατολὴν κτήματα αὐτῆς, καὶ τὰ μὲν πωλήσασα, καὶ δοῦσα πτωχοῖς, τὰ δὲ ἐκκλησίαις ἀναθεῖσα, ὑπέστρεψεν εἰς τὸ μοναστήριον, καὶ ὀλίγον ἐπιβιώσασα ἐκοιμήθη· καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἡ Εὐπραξία μεγάλης ἀρετῆς ἐλθοῦσα, καὶ θαύματα ποιήσασα, ἀνεπαύσατο ἐν Κυρίῳ.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΗΣ ΟΣΙΑΣ ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΔΟΣ.
Olympias.
Ἡ ὁσία Ὀλυμπιὰς ὑπῆρχεν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Ἀρκαδίου, καὶ Ὁνωρίου τῶν υἱῶν Θεοδοσίου τοῦ μεγάλου, θυγάτηρ μὲν Ἀκούνδου τοῦ κόμητος, ἐγγόνη δὲ Ἀβλαβίου τοῦ ἐπάρχου· νύμφη δὲ μόνον χρηματίσασα, γυνὴ δὲ οὐδενός. Τοῦ γὰρ λαβόντος αὐτὴν, πρὸς Κύριον ἐκδημήσαντος, παρθένος ἅμα καὶ χήρα διέμεινε. Διατελέσασα δὲ πάντα τὸν βίον αὐτῆς ἐν νηστείαις καὶ προσευχαῖς, ταῖς τῶν δεομένων εὐποιΐαις, καὶ πᾶσαν, ἣν εἶχε, περιουσίαν κενώσασα εἰς θεραπείαν τῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἀρχιερέων, καὶ τὸν μακάριον Ἰωάννην, τὸν Χρυσόστομον διαφερόντως τιμήσασα, καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἀσθενείαις θεραπεύσασα, ἐπειδήπερ ἐκεῖνος ἄδικον ἐξορίαν παρὰ τῆς βασιλίσσης Εὐδοξίας ὑπέστη, ἐπὶ τέλει καὶ αὐτὴ τῷ τῆς ὁμολογίας κατεκοσμήθη στεφάνῳ· ἐξορισθεῖσα γὰρ ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀληθείας, πολλοὺς πειρασμοὺς ὑπέμεινεν· ἀλλὰ μέχρι τέλους εὐχαριστοῦσα τῷ Θεῷ, τὸ πνεῦμα παρέθετο.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Κς᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΙΕΡΟΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΕΡΜΟΛΑΟΥ, ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΣΥΝ ΑΥΤΩι.
THE TWENTY-SIXTH DAY.
Hermolaus and Companions, Martyrs.
Ἑρμόλαος ὁ ἱερομάρτυς καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ, Ἕρμιππος, καὶ Ἑρμοκράτης ἐκ τοῦ κλήρου τῆς ἐν Νικομηδείᾳ ἐκκλησίας ὑπῆρχον πρεσβύτεροι περιλειφθέντες ἐκ τῶν καυθέντων δισμυρίων Ἁγίων ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ὑπὸ Μαξιμιανοῦ τοῦ δυσσεβοῦς, καὶ κρυπτόμενοι ἔν τινι δωματίῳ. Ἐπεὶ δὲ ὁ ἅγιος Παντελεήμων κρατηθεὶς, καὶ εἰς ἐξέτασιν ἀχθεὶς Μαξιμιανῷ τῷ δυσσεβεῖ, ἠναγκάσθη περὶ Ἑρμολάου εἰπεῖν, ποῦ κρύπτεται. Καὶ μὴ εἰδὼς ψεύδεσθαι, ὡμολόγησε τὸν τόπον, ἐκρατήθησαν καὶ αὐτοὶ Ἑρμόλαος, Ἕρμιππος, καὶ Ἑρμοκράτης, καὶ δέσμιοι παραστάντες τῷ τυράννῳ, ὡμολόγησαν παρρησίᾳ τὸν Χριστόν. Καὶ τὰ εἴδωλα διεχλεύασαν καὶ διέσυραν, καὶ τοὺς εἰς αὐτὰ πιστεύοντας ἀθλίους ἀπεκάλεσαν. Ὅθεν διαφόρως τιμωρηθέντες, ἀπεκεφαλίσθησαν, καὶ οὕτω τελειωθέντες, ἀπέλαβον βασιλείαν τὴν ἀκατάλυτον καὶ ζωὴν ἀΐδιον.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΣΑΓΚΤΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΣΥΝΟΔΙΑΣ ΑΥΤΟΥ.
Sanctus and Companions, Martyrs.
Οὗτοι ὑπῆρχον ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Μάρκου Ἀντωνίνου, ἐκ Ῥαβέννης τῆς πόλεως, χώρας Γαλλίας. Διὰ
δὲ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ὁμολογίαν κρατηθέντες παρὰ τοῦ τῆς χώρας ἡγεμόνος, πρῶτον μὲν ἐβασανίσθησαν σφοδρῶς, τὸν Χριστὸν ἀρνήσασθαι καταναγκαζόμενοι. Καὶ τοῦτο μὴ ποιήσαντες, παρεδόθησαν φυλακῇ. Ἔπειτα τῆς φυλακῆς ἐκβληθέντες, πάλιν ἐτιμωρήθησαν. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ χαλκᾶ πέταλα πεπυρωμένα κατὰ τῶν πλευρῶν ἐδέξατο. Ὁ δὲ θηρίοις ἐξεδόθη. Ὁ δὲ εἰς σιδηροῦν θρόνον πεπυρωμένον ἐκαθέσθη. Καὶ γυνή τις, τυφθεῖσα ἀπὸ πρωΐας ἕως ἑσπέρας, καὶ ἐπὶ ξύλου κρεμασθεῖσα, καὶ θηρίοις ἐνδοθεῖσα, καὶ ἵπποις προσδεθεῖσα, καὶ ἐπὶ πολὺ συρομένη, παρέδωκε τὸ πνεῦμα· οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ, ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ βληθέντες, σχοινίοις ἀπεπνίγησαν, καὶ βορὰ τοῖς κυσὶν ἐρρίφησαν· καὶ ἄψαυστα τὰ λείψανα αὐτῶν διαμείναντα, τῷ ποταμῷ Ῥοδανῷ ἐναπερρίφησαν.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΚΖ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΠΑΝΤΕΛΕΗΜΟΝΟΣ.
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY.
Panteleimon, Martyr.
Παντελεήμων ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μέγιστος μάρτυς, ἦν μὲν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως Νικομηδείας, υἱὸς δὲ Εὐστοργίου ἕλληνος, καὶ Εὐβούλης χριστιανῆς, ἰατρὸς τὴν τέχνην, διδαχθεὶς ταύτην μὲν παρὰ Εὐφροσύνου, δόξαν μεγίστην ἔχοντος ἐν τοῖς ἰατροῖς, τὴν δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πίστιν παρὰ Ἑρμολάου τοῦ πρεσβυτέρου, ἀφ᾽ οὗ καὶ ἐβαπτίσθη, δι᾽ ἣν καὶ παῖδα ὑπὸ ἐχίδνης πληγέντα, καὶ θανατωθέντα ἀνέστησε, καὶ τυφλὸν ἀναβλέψαι ἐποίησε, καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ διενήργησε θαύματα. Διαγνωσθεὶς δὲ τῷ βασιλεῖ Μαξιμιανῷ, καὶ κρατηθεὶς, καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμολογήσας, ἐβασανίσθη διαφόρως, καὶ τελευταῖον τὴν διὰ τοῦ ξίφους ἀπόφασιν λαβὼν, δεθεὶς ἁλύσεσι, καὶ καταλαβὼν τὸν τόπον τῆς τελειώσεως, προσεδέθη δένδρῳ ἐλαίας, καὶ ἀποτμηθεὶς τὴν κεφαλὴν, ἔρρευσεν αἷμα καὶ γάλα, ὅπερ μέχρι τῆς σήμερον φαινόμενον, παρέχει τοῖς προσερχομένοις πᾶσι πιστοῖς ἰάματα.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΙΑΣ ΑΝΘΟΥΣΗΣ.
Anthusa.
Ἡ ὁσία Ἄνθουσα ὑπῆρχε μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ Καβαλλίνου. Καταλιποῦσα δὲ τὸν κόσμον, καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ποθήσασα, ἐν ὄρεσι καὶ σπηλαίοις διέτριβεν, καὶ εὑροῦσα μοναχόν τινα πρεσβύτερον ἅγιον ἐν τοῖς χωρίοις τοῦ Μαντινέου προσκαθεζόμενον, ἐκεῖνον ἐμιμήσατο εἰς ἄσκησιν, καὶ εἰς τοσοῦτο προσῆλθεν ἀρετῆς, ὡς καὶ εἰς φοῦρνον ἐκκαέντα σφοδρῶς εἰσελθεῖν, καὶ μὴ καῆναι. Μετὰ καὶ τελευτὴν Σισιννίου τοῦ ἁγιωτάτου πρεσβυτέρου, διαγνωσθεῖσα ὑπὸ τοῦ Καβαλλίνου, ὅτι τὰς ἁγίας εἰκόνας τιμᾷ, καὶ σέβει, ἠναγκάσθη παρὰ τῶν ἀποσταλέντων, ἀρνήσασθαι τὴν τούτων προσκύνησιν, καὶ μὴ πεισθεῖσα, ἐτύφθη σφοδρῶς. Ἐπεὶ δὲ μὴ δυναμένῃ τεκεῖν τῇ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐμήνυσε γυναικὶ παιδία δύο γεννῆσαι, τὸ μὲν ἄρσεν, τὸ δὲ θῆλυ. Τούτου γενομένου, ἀπελύθη τῆς βασάνου, καὶ οὕτω παρεσκεύασε τὴν βασίλισσαν διατεθῆναι πρὸς αὐτὴν, ὡς καὶ εἰς μητρὸς τάξιν ἔχειν, καὶ οὕτως ἐκοιμήθη.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΚΗ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΕΥΣΤΑΘΙΟΥ ΑΓΚΥΡΑΣ.
THE TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY.
Eustathius of Ancyra, Martyr.
Εὐστάθιος, ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς, στρατιώτης μὲν ἦν, χριστιανὸς δὲ, καὶ προσαχθεὶς Κορνηλίῳ τῷ ἡγεμόνι Ἀγκύρας, καὶ ἐρωτηθεὶς, παρρησίᾳ ὡμολόγησε τὸν Χριστὸν, ὅθεν ἐτύφθη σφοδρῶς, καὶ τοὺς ἀστραγάλους τρυπηθεὶς, καὶ σχοινίοις περιληφθεὶς, σύρεται ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως Ἀγκύρας, ἕως τοῦ Σαγγάρου ποταμοῦ, ἀκολουθοῦντος καὶ ὁρῶντος τοῦ ἡγεμόνος. Ἐκεῖσε δὲ ἐν γλωσσοκόμῳ βληθεὶς, ἐρρίφη ἐν τῷ ποταμῷ. Κατ᾽ εὐδοκίαν δὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπιστὰς θεῖος ἄγγελος ἐξήγαγε τὸ γλωσσόκομον ἐπὶ τὴν ξηρὰν, καὶ εὑρέθη ἐν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἅγιος ἀβλαβὴς, ψάλλων· Ὁ κατοικῶν ἐν βοηθείᾳ τοῦ Ὑψίστου, καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Μαθὼν δὲ τοῦτο ὁ ἡγεμὼν, καὶ αἰσχυνθεὶς, σπασάμενος μάχαιραν ἀνεῖλεν ἑαυτόν. Ὁ δὲ ἅγιος Μάρτυς εὐξάμενος, καὶ μεταλαβὼν τῆς θείας δωρεᾶς, διὰ τῆς ἐκπεμφθείσης αὐτῷ οὐρανόθεν περιστερᾶς, ταῖς χερσὶ τοῦ ἐπιφανέντος ἀγγέλου τὸ πνεῦμα παρέθετο, καὶ κατετέθη τὸ λείψανον αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ πόλει Ἀγκύρᾳ.
ΚΑΙ ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΑΚΑΚΙΟΥ.
Acacius, Martyr.
Ἀκάκιος ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς ἦν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Λικιννίου, ᾧ καὶ παραστὰς, καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμολογήσας, καὶ κρεμασθεὶς ἐξέσθη, εἶτα παρεδόθη Τερεντίῳ τῷ ἐπάρχῳ, ὑφ᾽ οὗ εἰς τήγανον πεπυρωμένον ἐνεβλήθη, πίσσης καὶ ἐλαίου καὶ στέατος πεπληρωμένον, καὶ μηδὲν ἀδικηθεὶς, εἰς Ἀπάμειαν καὶ Ἀπολλωνιάδα τῷ ἡγεμόνι ἀπερχομένῳ ἀκολουθεῖν ἠναγκάσθη, ἔνθα ἐν τῷ ναῷ εἰσαχθεὶς τῶν εἰδώλων, προσευχῶν πάντα συνέτριψε τὰ ξόανα· μετὰ ταῦτα τῷ τριβούνῳ παραδοθεὶς, καὶ τυφθεὶς σφοδρῶς, ἐθηριομάχησεν. Εἶτα εἰς φοῦρνον ἐμβληθεὶς, ἀβλαβὴς διέμεινεν. Δόξας δὲ ὁ τριβοῦνος ψυχρὸν εἶναι τὸν φοῦρνον, καὶ προσεγγίσας ἰδεῖν, αὐτὸς μὲν κατακαεὶς εἰς κονιορτὸν ἐγένετο. Ὁ δὲ Ἀκάκιος παρεδόθη Ποσιδονίῳ τῷ ἄρχοντι· καὶ περιτεθεὶς βαρέα σίδηρα, ἤχθη εἰς Μίλητον, καὶ πάλιν συντρίψας τὰ εἴδωλα, ἐτμήθη τὴν κεφαλὴν, τῆς τομῆς ῥευσάσης αἷμα καὶ γάλα.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΚΘ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΚΑΛΛΙΝΙΚΟΥ.
THE TWENTY-NINTH DAY.
Callinicus, Martyr.
Καλλίνικος, ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς, ἦν μὲν ἐκ τῆς χώρας Κιλικίας· χριστιανὸς δὲ ὢν, καὶ διδάσκων τὸν λόγον τοῦ Χριστοῦ, παρῄνει μὲν ἀπέχεσθαι τῶν ματαίων, τὸν δὲ ποιητὴν τοῦ παντὸς ἐπιγινώσκειν Χριστόν· ὅθεν κρατηθεὶς, ἤχθη πρὸς τὸν ἡγεμόνα, καὶ παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ παντοίαις βασάνοις ὑποβληθεὶς, ὑποδήματα σιδηρᾶ μεθ᾽ ἥλων ὀξέων ὑπεδέθη καὶ ἠναγκάσθη τρέχειν ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἵππων μέχρι τῆς πόλεως Γάγγρας, ἀπεχούσης σταδίους ἑξήκοντα, καὶ πεζεύσας ἑξήκοντα στάδια, καὶ ἰδὼν τοὺς ἀπάγοντας αὐτὸν στρατιώτας τῷ δίψει λειποψυχοῦντας, προσευξάμενος ἐξήγαγεν ὕδωρ ἐκ τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἐπότισεν αὐτούς· καὶ φθάσας τὴν πόλιν Γάγγραν, ἀπεκλείσθη εἰς φυλακὴν, καὶ μετ᾽ ὀλίγας ἡμέρας, τῆς φυλακῆς ἐκβληθεὶς, καὶ καταναγκασθεὶς ἀρνήσασθαι τὸν Χριστὸν, καὶ μὴ πεισθεὶς, πυρὶ ἐτελειώθη καὶ κατετέθη τὸ τίμιον αὐτοῦ λείψανον χερσὶ χριστιανῶν ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ τόπῳ τῆς τελειώσεως.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι Λ᾽. ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥ ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΥ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΣΤΡΑΤΙΩΤΟΥ.
THE THIRTIETH DAY.
John the Soldier.
Οὗτος ἦν ἐπὶ Ἰουλιανοῦ τοῦ παραβάτου στρατευόμενος, ἀποσταλεὶς οὖν μετὰ καὶ ἑτέρων στρατιωτῶν εἰς τὸν κατὰ τῶν χριστιανῶν διωγμὸν, ἦν μὲν τοῖς ὁρῶσι διώκτης, συνεμάχει δὲ κρύφα τοῖς χριστιανοῖς, τοῖς μὲν πρὸ τοῦ κρατηθῆναι μηνύων φυγεῖν· τοῖς δὲ μετὰ τὴν κατάσχεσιν λάθρα ἐπινοῶν τὴν ἀπόδρασιν· οὐ μόνον δὲ τὸ συμπαθὲς πρὸς τούτοις ἐπεδείκνυτο, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς ἐνδεέσιν ἐχορήγει τὰ ἐπιτήδεια καὶ προσευχαῖς καὶ νηστείαις, καὶ τῶν ἀσθενῶν ἐπισκέψεσι, καὶ ταῖς τῶν θλιβομένων παραμυθίαις τὸν βίον αὐτοῦ ἐπεκόσμει, καὶ πρὸς τὸ σεμνὸν μετερρύθμισε. Οὕτω δὲ βιώσας, ἐν Κυρίῳ ἀνεπαύσατο, καὶ κατετέθη ἐν τόπῳ, ἔνθα καὶ οἱ ξένοι ἐτίθεντο. Ἐγνώσθη δὲ ὕστερον γυναικί τινι δι᾽ ἀποκαλύψεως, ὃς αὐτῇ ἐπιστὰς, τήν τε ἐν τῷ βίῳ πρᾶξιν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ὃ ἐπεκέκλητο ὄνομα διεσάφησε· θαυματουργῶν δὲ καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ, ἐπέχει καὶ τοὺς δρασμοὺς τῶν δούλων.
ΜΗΝΙ ΤΩι ΑΥΤΩι ΛΑ᾽. ΑΘΛΗΣΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΓΙΑΣ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΙΟΥΛΙΤΤΗΣ.
THE THIRTY-FIRST DAY.
Julitta, Martyr.
Ἰουλίττα, ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς, ἦν μὲν ἐκ πόλεως Καισαρείας Καππαδοκίας. Δίκην δὲ ἔχουσα πρός τινα πλεονεκτικὸν ἄνδρα καὶ βίαιον, ὃς γῆς ταύτης τὸ πλεῖον ἀποτεμὼν, καὶ ἀγροὺς, καὶ ζῶα, καὶ κώμας καὶ οἰκέτας, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν τοῦ βίου κατασκευὴν πρὸς ἑαυτὸν μετέστησε, καταφρονήσας τοῦ δικαίου, καὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ συκοφάνταις καὶ ψευδομάρτυσι, καὶ δωροδοκίαις τῶν δικαζόντων ἐπερειδόμενος. Παραστᾶσα τῷ δικάζοντι, καὶ ἀρξαμένη ἀναδιδάσκειν τὴν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς τυραννίδα, διεβλήθη παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ, ὡς εἴη χριστιανὴ, καὶ πρὸς μηδὲν ἰδοῦσα τῶν παρόντων, ἀλλὰ πάντων καταφρονήσασα, Ἐρρέτω, εἶπεν, ὁ βίος, καὶ ἡ τούτου δόξα· ἐγὼ γὰρ τὸν τῶν ἁπάντων δημιουργὸν, καὶ ποιητὴν οὐκ ἀρνήσομαι. Παραυτὰ οὖν ὁ ἄδικος κριτὴς πυρὶ ταύτην παρέδωκεν· ἡ δὲ κάμινος περισχοῦσα τῆς Ἁγίας τὸ σῶμα, ὥσπερ τις θάλαμος φωτεινὸς, τὴν μὲν ψυχὴν ἐπὶ τὴν οὐράνιον χωρίαν ἔπεμψεν· τὸ δὲ τίμιον αὐτῆς σῶμα ἀκέραιον διεσώσατο τοῖς προσήκουσι καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς πιστοῖς.
ΚΑΙ ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΟΥ ΟΣΙΟΥ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ ΗΜΩΝ ΕΥΔΟΚΙΜΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΝΕΟΥ.
Eudocimus the Younger.
Οὗτος ὁ Μακάριος ὑπῆρχεν ἐπὶ τῆς βασιλείας Θεοφίλου τοῦ μισοχρίστου, οὗ οἱ γεννήτορες σὺν τῇ τοῦ βίου περιφανείᾳ, πατρίκιοι γὰρ ἦσαν, ὀρθόδοξοι ἐγνωρίζοντο, Καππάδοκαι τὸ γένος· διὸ καλῶς ὁ Εὐδόκιμος ἀναγόμενος ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν τὰ εἰς ἀρετὴν, κανδιδάτος ὑπὸ Θεοφίλου ἐτιμήθη, καὶ στρατοπεδαρχεῖν ἐτάχθη, πρῶτον μὲν κατὰ τὴν Καππαδοκῶν χώραν, ἔπειτα κατὰ τὸ Χαρσιανὸν, ζυγός τις δίκαιος ὢν καὶ κανὼν, καὶ ἰσότητα πᾶσαν φυλάττων, ἐλεημοσύνας τε πλείστας ἐκτελῶν καθ᾽ ἑκάστην, καὶ τὰς ἐκκλησίας καλλιεργῶν, χήρας καὶ ὀρφανοὺς ἐκδικῶν, καὶ ἁπλῶς πάσης ἀρετῆς ἰδέαν μετερχόμενος· κατὰ Θεὸν οὖν πολιτευσάμενος, νόσῳ σωματικῇ κατασχεθεὶς, τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ τῷ Θεῷ παρέθετο. Οἱ δὲ προσήκοντες, τὴν αὐτοῦ κέλευσιν ἀποπληροῦντες, μετὰ τῶν ἐνδυμάτων καὶ ὑποδημάτων ἔθαψαν, θαύμασι πολλοῖς ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ δοξασθέντα.
THE END.
Appendix to July, Volume I
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