Forty-two Martyrs

CONCERNING THE HOLY FORTY-TWO MARTYRS,

Theodore Craterus the Protospatharius, Constantine the Drungarius, Callistus the Turmarcha, Aetius and Melissenus the Generals, and Theophilus the Patricians, Bassoes and Other Leaders of the Troops, Captured at Amorium and Killed in Syria.

AROUND THE YEAR 841.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Theodore Craterus Protospatharius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Constantine Drungarius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Callistus Turmarcha, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Aetius, General, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Melissenus, General, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Theophilus Patricius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Bassoes, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

The Other Thirty-Five Leaders of the Troops, Martyrs, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria

Section I. The Sacred Veneration and Life of These Martyrs. The Time and Place of Martyrdom.

[1] Amorium was an ancient city, honored with an episcopal see, in Phrygia Salutaris, neighboring Galatia, to which it was later assigned, and was made the metropolis of New Galatia. In this city the glorious Martyrs were captured: whom the Greeks celebrate on March 6 with special veneration in the printed Menaia and in the Mazarin, Chiffletian, and other manuscripts, and in the manuscript Synaxarion of the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus in Paris, and in Maximus of Cythera in these words: These Martyrs are venerated by the Greeks on March 6. "On the sixth day of the month of March, the memory of the holy forty-two Martyrs — Theodore, Constantine, Callistus, Theophilus, Bassoes, and their companions — who contended at Amorium. These were among the chief men of the city of Amorium, who, when it was intercepted by the Agarenes during the reign of Theophilus, were led away captive because they were Tribunes and Generals of the armies, and sprung from the most noble lineage among the Romans. These neither from fear, nor from love of life, nor from weakness of spirit, nor afflicted by prolonged calamity, laid aside the faith they held in Christ: but with manly constancy of purpose and generous virtue of soul they resisted the tyrants. For they did not infect their souls with bodily afflictions, as with old brine: but all contended heroically, lest they betray the faith given to Christ. And so, filled with joy, they offered their necks to be cut by the sword." The same is read in the New Anthology, with only the number of Forty-two indicated, none of their names expressed. In the Menaia, among the odes and hymns, the same number is repeatedly expressed, and the five named in the eulogy are subsequently addressed by their own names, and Theodore is called "illustrious," Constantine "pious" and "led to martyrdom like a lamb," Callistus "excellent in divine meditations," and Theophilus "great and strong." Finally, the invincible spirit of all of these, as well as of all the others, is proclaimed amid the squalor of prolonged imprisonment.

[2] In the manuscript Greek Menologion, which was written by order of the Emperor Basil called Porphyrogenitus, at the following day, this eulogy is found: likewise on March 7 and perhaps March 8. "The contest of the holy Martyrs, who were captured at Amorium but killed in Syria. During the reign of Theophilus the Iconoclast, father of Michael (whose mother Theodora, having restored the images, celebrated orthodoxy), these holy Generals and Tribunes were wealthy and noble men: who at that time, when the Emir came from Syria with an infinite multitude into the eastern parts of the Roman Empire, were sent by the Emperor to defend the city of Amorium. But seeing the infinite multitude of the Saracens, they entered the fortress and bravely defended it. But God permitting it, so that transgressors might be chastised, the fortress was taken by force, and a multitude of citizens was slaughtered. The Generals themselves were captured, led away to Syria, confined in prison, and having suffered many squalors and miseries, were led out of prison and compelled by force to embrace their impostures. But constantly refusing, they received the sentence that they should be punished by beheading. And when Constantine had greatly encouraged his companions, he was beheaded with them." In the Menologion translated by Sirleto, they are referred to March 8, but on account of some transposition of events, which we have noted elsewhere as having occurred between these days, they should perhaps be moved back to March 6 or 7. In it, it is written thus: "On the same day, of the holy Martyrs who were detained at Amorium and suffered martyrdom in Syria — Theodore, Constantine, Theophilus, Basso, and their companions, numbering forty-two." Ferrarius in the General Catalogue describes that Menologion at March 8. Callistus is omitted in both: but the one called Basson or Bassion is he who in the Menaia above is named Bassoes (Βασσωή) or Basoes (Βασωή).

[3] The ancient Latins did not mention them in the sacred Calendars. Molanus in the Supplement to Usuard at March 6 writes the following: "Of the holy 42 Martyrs recently discovered at Ammorium." By the Latins on March 6. But what he means by "recent discovery" he does not explain. That they were killed on March 6 will be established below. Galesinius has the following: "In Greece, of the holy 42 Martyrs — Theodore, Constantine, Calixtus, Theophilus, and the rest — who, divinely found at Amorium, already most valiant champions of the faith, having completed an outstanding contest, adorned with bloody robes, enjoy eternal glory in heaven." From there they were transcribed into the later edition of the German Martyrology. No mention is made of Bassoes; for Callistus, Calixtus is written; and the martyrdom is attributed to Amorium, which is better reported as having taken place in Syria in today's Roman Martyrology in these words: "Likewise, the passion of the holy forty-two Martyrs, who, captured at Amorium and led to Syria, having completed an outstanding contest there, as victors received the palm of martyrdom."

[4] We found the Life and contest of these Martyrs, written long ago and hitherto unpublished, in Rome in three ancient manuscript Greek codices — namely, of the Vatican Library, The Life written in Greek by Euodius, of the Vallicellian Library of the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory, and of Cardinal Sforza — and we give it below in Latin translation. Leo Allatius mentions these Acts in his Diatribe on the Writings of the Simeons, page 113, in these words: "The splendid subject of the present feast" (Φαιδρὰ μὲν τῆς παρούσης ἑορτῆς ὑπόθεσις) — by Euodius. "The Martyrdom of the holy and glorious forty-two Martyrs of Christ" (Μαρτύριον τῶν ἁγίων καὶ ἐνδόξων τοῦ Χριστοῦ τεσσαράκοντα δύο Μαρτύρων). We ourselves also found Euodius to be the author of these Acts in the Sforza codex, and from the context itself we gather that the writer was a contemporary, who seems to have flourished under the Empress Saint Theodora and her son Michael, when the orthodox faith had been restored, as was said on February 11 in the Life of Saint Theodora. In the Acts below, at number 36, the place of martyrdom is described thus: Place of martyrdom. "When they came near the river Euphrates, for around it their great city Samara is situated" (ὅτε οὖν πλησίον ἦλθον τοῦ ποταμοῦ Εὐφράτου, περὶ αὐτὸν γὰρ τὸ Σάμαρα ἡ μεγάλη πόλις αὐτῶν κατοικεῖται). Perhaps where the ancients had Samosata — nor is Mount Taurus far from there, a certain promontory of which is called Samara by Orosius as cited by Ortelius in his Geographical Thesaurus: unless Zimara is understood, a city of Armenia on the Euphrates, and the whole region then understood by the name of Syria, which had been given to the Saracens before.

[5] Michael Balbus, a native of Amorium, after Leo the Armenian was butchered during the sacred rites on Christmas Day, Time of capture and martyrdom: seized the Empire in the year 820, and when he died in the year 829, his son Theophilus succeeded him, who died in the year 841 at its end or at the beginning of the following year, as was more fully treated in the Life of his wife Saint Theodora. George Elmacinus, in his Saracen History written in Arabic and rendered into Latin by Thomas Erpenius, book 2, chapter 9, mentions the war of Emperor Theophilus with the Caliph Mutasim, waged in the Arabic year 223, that is, of the Christian Era 838, in which he asserts that Zabatra was captured by Theophilus — called by others below Sozopetra and Zapetrum — and then that Ammoria, or Amorium, was occupied by Mutasim using catapults and ballistae, which rather occurred in some nearby year. Baronius at the year 841 treats of the slaughter of Theophilus, the capture of Amorium, and the contest of these Martyrs. But that they were confined in prison for a full seven years, the Acts state below at number 27, and other writers confirm. We therefore believe they were captured around the year 840, and afterwards completed their martyrdom in the year 847.

[6] There were various wars of Emperor Theophilus with the Saracens, Events related in other published and manuscript histories, which are reported by George Cedrenus, John Scylitza Curopalata, and John Zonaras, as also by Leo the Grammarian published together with the Chronography of Theophanes in the Louvre edition, to which in his Annotations François Combefis frequently cites a certain Continuator, from whom he sent us what was done under Theophilus: and he asserts that this author wrote under Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, son of Leo, and that he flourished nearly seventy years after the execution of these Martyrs. Combefis calls him the Vatican Continuator, because those records are preserved in the Vatican Library. The King of the Saracens in Cedrenus and the other writers already mentioned is called Amerumnes, Ameramnunes, and Amermumnes; by Elmacinus, Caliph Mutasim; and under him there were various generals and princes, called Protosymboloi: thus in the Acts at number 12 only Abesac is established, while in the Menologion of Emperor Basil the Emir, who is called Ameras by Cedrenus and others, Various princes of the Saracens, is the governor of Melitene in Armenia. In the Chronicle of Simeon the Logothete (whom the Theban Hippolytus, a contemporary, testifies to be that celebrated Metaphrastes himself — and also the author of the Chronicle, still extant in the Vatican Library, as Gesner says), Gudes is considered the chief general of the Agarenes. Likewise, in the earlier wars, Impraelus, the general of the Arabs, was in command. If however some other meaning underlies these names, we will gladly learn more: meanwhile we give the fragment from the aforesaid Chronicle of the Logothete,

supplied by the same Combefis, concerning the translation of the bodies of the Saints.

[7] Only two of the more illustrious Martyrs are enumerated in the Acts: Saint Theodore, a soldier who had been a priest, a eunuch, surnamed Craterus or "the Strong," holding the dignity of Protospatharius; and Saint Constantine the Drungarius, who alone is named in the Menologion of Emperor Basil. Seven Martyrs designated by their dignities. The word "drungus" is a barbarian term found in Vopiscus meaning a body of men. In the Emperor Leo's Tactica, drungarii and turmarchae are placed in charge of light vessels distributed by themes; thus the third Martyr is Callistus the Turmarcha, who together with two others was a Patrician; and similarly Theophilus, the fourth Martyr, is called a Patrician by Leo the Grammarian and the Logothete. These two add two generals, Melissenus and Aetius, the last of whom is also regarded as a Patrician and General of the Orientals: finally, Bassoes or Bassion or Basson is the one who is perhaps called Bubutzicus by Cedrenus and Boburzicus by Scylitza, and is designated below as the Prefect of the Couriers.

Section II. Events Narrated from Cedrenus, Leo the Grammarian, and Others.

[8] When Impraelus, the general of the Arabs, had undertaken expeditions against the Romans, Wars waged with varying fortune: Theophilus also led his forces out against him, relying on Manuel the Protostrator and Theophobos the Persian... When battle was joined and many had fallen on both sides, at length the cohorts of Theophilus gave way and yielded to the Agarenes; with Theophobos deceiving the enemy by a stratagem, the Emperor sought safety in flight... The following year Theophilus again led his forces against the Saracens, and engaging with them at Charsianum, he routed them and led away up to twenty-five thousand captives, and returned home in possession of a brilliant victory. Among the Saracen captives there was a certain man ready of hand and famous for the agility of his hands, known to the Domestic of the Schools and commended by his testimony — for he was both an excellent horseman and, using two spears while riding, quite skillfully unhorsed his adversaries. When therefore the Domestic, ordered to celebrate the triumph of his victory in the Circus, A Saracen fighting with a double spear, led this man before the rest, the Emperor, induced by his praises, ordered him to mount a horse and, taking two spears, to give a display of his skill and prowess before all. When this was done and the less experienced were delighted by the spectacle, Saint Theodore scorns him, Theodore, surnamed Craterus — the same who not long after became the chief of the company of the holy Forty-two Martyrs — standing closer to the Emperor, began to mock this Agarene and to affirm that nothing brave or terrible was being done by him. The Emperor took offense, and reproached Craterus as effeminate and unmanned, who could accomplish nothing of the sort. Craterus replied that he did not know how to use two spears: for he had not learned this, since there was no need for such trifles in war: trusting in the help of God, he would unhorse that man with a single spear. The Emperor, irritated by these words, swore by his own head that he would take Craterus's life unless he fulfilled in deed what he had boasted in words. And engaging him, he throws him headlong. And Theodore immediately mounted a horse and, taking up a spear, engaged the Saracen hand to hand and quickly threw him headlong from his horse. The Emperor was indeed put to shame, seeing the Saracen thrown down by a eunuch, yet both revering the man's valor and respecting his own courtiers, he addressed Craterus kindly and presented him with garments as a mark of honor. John Scylitza Curopalata and John Zonaras have the same account, but the translator of the former, Giovanni Battista Gabio, calls Theodore by the surname "the Strong" — who shortly after was placed in command of the company of the holy Forty-two Martyrs. But in the translator of Zonaras he is called Craterus Theodore, who shortly after was adorned with the crown of martyrdom, one of the number of the Forty-two Martyrs: where in the Greek Κράτερος Θεόδωρος is read, as the Continuator also has. But let us continue the rest from Cedrenus.

[9] At the beginning of spring, Theophilus again gathered his forces and moved against the Saracens... When battle was joined, the Ishmaelite side prevailed, and the Emperor, surrounded, nearly fell into the hands of the enemy... At the beginning of the following spring, the Agarenes and Theophilus, having each made an expedition to wage war against the other, returned home having accomplished nothing, each fearing the other... As spring of the following year approached, Theophilus set out with great forces against the Agarenes, and advancing far into Syria, laying waste and plundering everything in his path, he also stormed two cities and led away captives from them. Theophilus storms Sozopetra, the homeland of Amermumnes: He also stormed Sozopetra itself, the homeland of Amermumnes, despite the latter's much entreating by letter that he spare his homeland. Having accomplished these things, the Emperor returned to Constantinople. So much there; and Leo the Grammarian narrates the same events thus: "The Emperor departed with Manuel and the Senate against the Agarenes, and having occupied Zapetrum and Samosata — cities fortified by Amerumnes with an abundance of wealth and a strong wall — and having won a brilliant victory and become illustrious for his spoils, he returned." The Continuator of Theophanes says: "Sozopetra itself, which was the homeland of Ameramnunes, was also stormed: on account of which it happened that Theophilus was entreated by him through letters to withdraw from there."

[10] Amermumnes therefore, says Cedrenus, his spirit deeply wounded by the destruction of his homeland, Whose anger and forces he feared, assembled forces from everywhere — from Babylonia, Phoenicia, Palestine, Coelesyria, and even from farther Africa — commanding his soldiers that each should inscribe "Amorium" on his shield: by which he indicated that he intended to attack Amorium. All his forces assembled at Tarsus. Theophilus also made an expedition and reached Doryleum, which is a three days' journey from Amorium. There were then many who advised the Emperor to avoid the onslaught of the Saracens, rushing with a force greater than could be checked, and to transfer the inhabitants of Amorium elsewhere. But Theophilus, considering this disgraceful and unmanly, [He places Saints Aetius, Theodore, and others — later Martyrs — in charge of Amorium:] and judging it noble and brave to fortify the city and save it by the counsel of a vigorous general, sends Aetius, Patrician and General of the Orientals, with a force adequate to defeat the enemy; he also places in charge of the multitude those who shortly afterwards became Martyrs — Theodore Craterus, Theophilus, Bubutzicus, and the rest — who were chiefs not only of the army then sent, but also of the company of the Forty-two Martyrs. After the Prince of the Saracens came to Tarsus with his entire army, he deliberated with his advisors what should be done: and he judged that they should not proceed directly to Amorium, but should send his son with part of the army to test the Roman army. For he reasoned thus: if his son defeated the Emperor, the father too would undoubtedly win the victory; if things turned out otherwise, it would be better to remain quiet. He therefore sent his son, and with him the Emir who at that time governed Melitene, together with about ten thousand Turks, the entire Armenian army, and the General of Generals, who pitched camp at Dazymenum.

[11] Against this force Theophilus set out with an army composed of Persians and troops from the West and East — and it was by no means contemptible — and when he came to the place called Anzin, He surveys the enemy forces from a lookout, he decided to survey the multitude of the enemy before engaging in battle. And so, led by Manuel, the Domestic of the Schools, to the highest lookout, and viewing the enemy forces from there, he conjectured that they were more numerous than his own: while Manuel meanwhile warned him not to consider the numbers, but the harvest of spears on both sides. After Theophilus judged the enemy army to be stronger than his own, deliberation was held as to how he might attack it by stratagem. Manuel and Theophobos thought this should be done by night; the other generals urged that battle should be joined by day, and the Emperor agreed with them. With this opinion prevailing, at first light an extremely fierce battle was begun. He begins to win in battle: In this battle, while the Imperial cohorts fought bravely, the Ishmaelites took to flight. But as the Turks pressed on with constant use of arrows and drove the Romans back from pursuing the enemy, the fortune of battle changed. For the Roman legions, unable to withstand the force of Turkish arrows, abandoned the Emperor and fled: then he is overcome, while the commanders of the legions and the Persians allowed nothing of the sort on their part, but surrounded the Emperor and fought for him with the utmost force. And indeed the Emperor would then have been cut to pieces with his men, had not night fallen and a light rain slackened the strings of the Turkish bows: whereby the Romans, freed from the fear of arrows, had an opportunity to seek safety...

[12] Amermumnes, learning of the victory of his forces, Amorium is besieged: determined to delay no longer but to make for Amorium. Having therefore assembled his army and instructed his son to do the same, he set out. When they had joined forces, fortified their camp with a rampart, and surrounded Amorium with a deep trench, he began to attack with all his might; the Turks continually shooting arrows and the Saracens bringing up siege engines: And it is bravely defended: while the Romans who were inside defended the city courageously and promptly destroyed the machines. While the siege continued thus, with the enemy allowing no respite in the attack, meanwhile Theophilus, having barely escaped from flight, reached Doryleum and there awaited the outcome. And thinking he should test the mind of Amermumnes, he sent envoys with precious gifts and many promises, asking him to raise the siege. When they reached the Saracen camp and came before Amermumnes, they set forth what the Emperor had commanded. But he, burning with implacable anger over the destruction of his homeland, reproached the Emperor for cowardice, mocked and made sport of the embassy, detained the envoys in chains, and waited for the outcome — pressing the siege all the more vigorously: and dividing his army into many parts, he attacked the city in turns, hoping that with fresh and unexhausted forces constantly coming up to take their part in the assault, those inside, worn out by their labors, would surrender. Amorium is captured by treachery: But the townspeople defended themselves bravely, and nothing was accomplished by the assaults, and the city would by no means have been taken, had not the treachery of a certain Amorian intervened. This man, Baditzes by name, corrupted by gifts and having abjured the Christian religion on account of some dispute, had fallen to such rashness that he betrayed his homeland: and having secretly conferred with the Saracens, he warned them to attack the city from that side where he knew it was easier to scale the walls.

[13] When the city was stormed, what great slaughter was dealt and how many captives were taken cannot be expressed in words. For the Saracens, angered because they had lost many of their illustrious men during the siege, with no pity for those upon whom they fell, slaughtered the men, seized the women with their infants and children, The 42 Martyrs are led away as captives, and set fire to the finest buildings. In the end, this most beautiful city of the East perished in so short a space of time that nothing was left except ruins. The leaders of the cohorts were led away as captives — Callistus, Constantine, Theodore Craterus the Patricians, and with them very many others, distinguished by military commands and other supreme dignities. After Amorium was captured in this way, the Prince of the Saracens, as if exulting over his achievements and feasting proudly upon them, ordered the Emperor's envoys to inspect everything that had been done, and sent them back to their master as messengers of the disaster. The Emperor in turn sent them again to Amermumnes, asking that the illustrious men captured in the storming of the city, who were related to him by blood, and the remaining captives be returned to him, and promising twenty-four hundred-weights for their ransom. The Emperor striving in vain through envoys, The barbarian sent these back too with ignominy, saying he would be a fool if he returned the captives for so many hundred-weights, when he himself had spent a thousand hundred-weights in assembling his forces. When the envoys returned home without success, Theophilus, overwhelmed by the weight of the calamity, refused almost all food and drink, and only water pressed from snow

accepting, he fell into dysentery... Following this, utterly consumed by illness, he shortly after paid his debt to nature, having held the Empire for twelve years and three months. So far Cedrenus, and the same is read in Scylitza, as also, though abbreviated in places, in Zonaras. Leo the Grammarian, who is more ancient than these, narrates the final battle and the execution of the Martyrs thus in his Chronology:

[14] When the Emperor was proceeding to the palace of Bryae with his retinue, it was reported by the General of the Orientals that the Protosymbolus of the Saracens was advancing with an army to plunder toward Amorium. The Emperor, having made the customary distribution to the army and the nobles, hastened in a short time toward Cappadocia. Amermumnes, selecting eight thousand soldiers and appointing Sudes, a man most renowned among the Agarenes for valor and prudence, as general, sent him against the Emperor. When they engaged, the Emperor was defeated and fled, and returned in disgrace, barely escaping with his life. Amermumnes, accompanied by a great force, set out and besieged Amorium: and after various engagements he could not take it, as the citizens fought bravely and nobly against him. But a certain disciple of the philosopher Leo, dwelling in the fortress, signified to Amermumnes, who wished to withdraw, by some means of astrology: "If you maintain your position at the fortress for only two more days, you will take us." And so it happened. For it was betrayed by a certain man called Boiditzes and Manicophagus. They are beheaded. Very many renowned and not ignoble men were also captured and led away as captives to Syria: Theophilus the Patrician, and these Generals — Melissenus and Aetius, and Theodore Craterus the Protospatharius, and Callistus the Turmarcha, and *Cyrillus the Drungarius, and Bassoes, and certain leaders of the troops — who, driven by the Protosymbolus with tortures to deny the faith, refused to comply and were beheaded with the sword, having obtained eternal life in exchange for temporal.

* The Continuator: twenty-seven.

* Scylitza: Boburzicus.

* Scylitza: Diazimon.

* Others: Constantine.

ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM

by the contemporary author Euodius,

From Three Greek Manuscripts.

Theodore Craterus Protospatharius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Constantine Drungarius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Callistus Turmarcha, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Aetius, General, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Melissenus, General, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Theophilus Patricius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Bassoes, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

The Other Thirty-Five Leaders of the Troops, Martyrs, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria

PROLOGUE.

[1] Since the splendid theme of the present panegyric magnificently introduces the contest, victory, and reward of the Martyrs of Christ, it follows that it must also encompass the mournful tragedy: for it is not possible for us to reach the place where we may behold the seats of the Martyrs except by passing through it. Let no one, however, lose heart upon hearing this sad announcement: first because nothing unseemly, nothing incongruous will be heard about the proposed contest of these same men: and secondly because, as the Sacred Scriptures say: "If we were without discipline, we would be illegitimate and not sons." Heb. 12:8 If indeed it is fitting to call "discipline" the destruction of a most populous city, the slaughter of innumerable armies, and the common extermination of temples and sacred things, of priests and virgins alike. Calamities of the Church What? For this is by no means the end, as long as those threats — "I will make my arrows drunk with blood," etc. — have thus far, alas, being turned away from the wicked, been drawn out at length and have no conclusion.

[2] Unless perhaps someone may wisely distinguish the punishment of delay, and, dividing the diverse things of those who are tested among diverse categories, assign them accordingly: Deut. 32:42 so that for some, paternal correction may be found (for what son is there whom a father does not chastise?) — or a hard recompense relieving the weight and bitterness of those torments that await all on the other side, for whom kindly gentleness was not sufficient for instruction: but for others, if it is not painful to confess, it may be a demonstration of aversion and a manifest sign of reprobation — those who are moved neither by paternal corrections nor by manifold benefits and indulgence to perceive and choose what is beneficial for them.

[3] But although we fortify ourselves with these thoughts as much as possible, These are to be referred to the hidden judgments of God, lest we become entangled in the errors of ignorance, ingratitude, and imprudence: yet it is better to ascribe such things to the incomprehensible judgments of God: who also imposed silence through the Prophet upon His disciple Jeremiah, lamenting over the ruin of Jerusalem, saying: Jer. 45:4 "Behold, what I have built, I destroy: and what I have planted, I uproot: and do you seek joys for yourself?" For the rest, let us relate as briefly as possible, as is our custom, what preceded the contest of the Martyrs, so that the course of our narrative may proceed in a straight path.

CHAPTER I.

The Empire Harassed by the Saracens. Amorium Captured. The Leaders of the Troops Led Away into Captivity, All Others Slain.

[4] There was a time when the Roman Empire, established in orthodox doctrine and a right way of living according to the Apostolic traditions, had Generals and Masters of nations subject to it — He who undertook its protection having manifestly declared: Matt. 28:18 "All power is given to me in heaven and on earth" The Eutychian and Monothelite heresies — Jesus, I say, Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. But afterwards these persons perverted the understanding of sacred doctrines:^a the Emperor himself, like that Uzziah, entangled himself in the more sacred concerns of the Church of God and in Theology not to be approached by profane feet, confusing the natures and wills in the Theandric substance of Jesus Christ: and not even permitting that by either one of them that which is created should be said to be accomplished; judging the divine essence to be in need of something, and not to have anything more sublime and higher than all want: 2 Chron. 26:16 while the priests^b for the most part, and nearly all the bishops, adopted the opinions that pleased him.

[5] Then, when the very defender of the Empire, as if having suffered a singular injury, They are punished by the irruption of the Saracens: had resolved to withdraw from him and ceased to succor him — so that he would not more wantonly cling to his madness in blaspheming against Him, or even add something worse — a certain warning and occasion of perdition finally fell upon him. The race of the Ishmaelites,^c hitherto confined to the more remote interior of the desert and shackled by the bond of the divine word, was immediately released and set free, and devastated first the regions beyond Mesopotamia; then consumed Palestine, Egypt, and Africa, and the Roman armies, routed and destroyed, by the barbarian sword.

[6] Nevertheless, His most wise providence, When those were repressed, these too were repressed, intent on the salvation of men, "did not deal with us according to our sins," to speak with the Prophet, "nor repay us according to our iniquities": He did not allow the Empire to be utterly destroyed and delivered to final ruin; but confined the Ishmaelite race within certain boundaries within Cilicia and Syria. Ps. 103:10 Scarcely at last had our people brought themselves to think correctly about the divine economy of the Incarnation itself, when they obtained firm possession of the remaining regions beyond the aforesaid borders; but they were excluded from the glory of monarchy, God judging it right, as I think, that those who had held their true Lord in mockery should not be called absolute Masters.

[7] And affairs remained in this state for some time, until the Iconoclasts grew strong, until another heresy — not to say madness — arose in succession and irrationally rose up against the glory of Christ; indeed it utterly abjured Christ Himself, removing His image of the Incarnation from the midst, wishing to eliminate idols (as was pretended) assimilated to inanimate things of the Incarnation; but in reality counting the animate flesh of the divine Word among those same things, so that (if indeed it was truly doing this for that reason) it proceeded by exactly the same reasoning as those who taught that it was not lawful to contract marriage, because the act of marriage and of fornication was one and the same.

[8] This viper, fittingly called by a bestial name, was brought to us by the region of Isauria:^d under Leo the Isaurian, but indeed before the feet (so to speak) of divine vengeance there were signs — the revolutions and falls of heavenly stars to earth, continuous earthquakes, the finest and strongest structures of the ruling city destroyed: to which were added numerous and almost infinite slaughters, and premature deaths raging throughout the whole Empire. But when the more conspicuous plagues were inflicted especially upon the royal city, as against the root and cause of all evil existing therein, nowhere did any perception of them appear; instead, new increases of blasphemy were observed: for that soul, burning with hatred of Christ with all its might, even attacking the name of Theotokos, was striving to remove from the midst even the name of the Mother of God itself.

[9] But what retribution finally befell this one? The boundaries that had separated the Romans and the Ishmaelites were removed, and again, all the garrisons of our military forces throughout all of Cilicia having been driven out and expelled, therefore the Romans were defeated and Constantinople besieged, everything was occupied all the way to Cappadocia itself. In addition, the Royal City itself was surrounded by siege — not only by the Ishmaelites, but also by the Avars and the other nations of various languages, filling the entire Propontis and whatever regions lie within the straits of Abydos — and Constantinople was besieged for a full seven years.

[10] But indeed, not even after such great transgressions was the invincible tolerance of the Divinity diminished in the slightest: When the images were restored, peace was established, for God, who is truly exempt from passions, is alone so: but with Him patiently enduring his wicked servants, the image of His sacred Incarnation was again restored by pious bishops^e and emperors through a Synodal decree. And so that those who held power at that time might know without doubt that the greater and better part of the world had been devastated because of the insult inflicted upon Him, and that conversely, by reason of the piety shown toward Him, the whole world was sustained — even though a woman together with a boy held the scepters of the Roman Empire — that most powerful dynasty of barbarians nevertheless entered into conditions of peace with the Romans, with no other procuring this than the Son of God, honored according to the true and God-pleasing form of religion: so that from this, people might be more incited to piety.

[11] But he who^f resembled that impious one in morals as well as in name, returning to his vomit and entangled in the mire of the same heresy, And it is disturbed again under Leo the Armenian, indeed banished all the orthodox bishops into exile: and he ordered the sacred vestments and divine treasures, reduced to ashes, to be scattered through the public streets. Against this man, therefore, the rebellion of the tyrant Thomas was immediately stirred up, and the strength of Roman power was broken by civil war. And he indeed, spewing out his wretched soul in a bitter end upon the very throne, left behind in the Christian commonwealth his Christ-hating madness, until another held the empire — one called Theophilus, but not truly so,^g and Theophilus, who strove no less zealously than his predecessors not only to defend, but even to increase and promote their madness. And how many defeats he himself also suffered in war from the Ishmaelites, how many regions, cities, and islands were utterly devastated on account of the injury inflicted upon the image of Christ, it is impossible for us to narrate. It will suffice, therefore, to recall the one city in which the Saints were captured, and how it was overthrown.

[12] After these things, therefore, Abesac, that

Protosymbolus of the Ishmaelite nation (for so they call their Princes), coming with great power against the famous city of Amorium^h and within a total of thirteen days demolishing the walls with siege engines, Amorium is intercepted. he indeed took the city; but keeping alive the seven leaders of the Troops, he ordered the legions under them to be killed, and everything of men who had either a home or a refuge therein to be slaughtered. When he returned to his own territory, [The soldiers together with the people are slaughtered; the leaders of the Troops are consigned to prison,] he ordered the aforesaid military leaders to be consigned to dark and foul custody, bound with double and triple fetters and constrained by the pressure of stocks: and commanding them to be tortured rather than sustained with scant bread and water supplied even more sparingly, he placed guards and observers over them, lest anyone except the jailers should speak with them.

[13] Who, O Christ the King, who could accurately know the multitude of those tears, in which they are treated most harshly, of those inconsolable groans of those who endured such things for Your sake, except You alone? For they did not have as much water as they poured forth tears from their eyes: those who had once nourished many poor received not as much bread as the lice, mice, and whatever other creeping things there are under the earth took from their flesh. For a bed they had the ground; for bedding, fine and foul ash: and if at any time some cheap and contemptible rag was thrown upon them, their torment was increased by the noxious vermin nesting in it.

[14] To this was added such dense darkness that not even at midday itself could they properly discern one another's faces, unless perchance they sometimes used a fire-striker. They were allowed neither the use of a bath, nor the ability to cut their superfluous nails and hair. And so far were they from being permitted to warm themselves in the rays of the sun, that they were not allowed even to behold them at all. They begged their guards to allow some of them to go out to beg for alms: and if the guards sometimes agreed to their requests, ten soldiers followed the one released from bonds: and when he returned, that most miserable bread was torn apart and examined, and the most wretched little vessel was shaken out, lest perchance some treacherous writing might be hidden in them.

^a The Emperor Heraclius, a Monothelite, or certainly his grandson Constans, son of Constantine, also a Monothelite, can be understood here, whom Pope Saint Martin condemned together with the Monothelite error in the Roman Synod of the year 649.

^b Certainly the Patriarchs of Constantinople — Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul — as also the Antiochene Macarius, the Alexandrians Cyrus and Peter, and others, were Monothelites.

^c Mohammed obtained a place to dwell in the Empire from Heraclius in the year of Christ 628, and died in the year 631: whose successors gradually occupied the regions of the East and Africa. Consult Theophanes and other writers of those times.

^d Leo the Isaurian published his deadly edict against the veneration of images in the year 730; his son Constantine Copronymus and Leo, the latter's son, followed, infected with the same poison.

^e From the year of Christ 780, Constantine, the son of the last Leo, and his mother Irene ruled, under whom the former piety was restored together with the veneration of images, with Saint Tarasius created Patriarch of Constantinople in the year 784: under whom the Second Council of Nicaea was held, as all those matters were related in the Life of Saint Tarasius on February 25.

^f Leo the Armenian seized the Empire in the year 813; more will be said about him on March 13, in the Life of Saint Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople, whom he sent into exile. Michael Balbus, a man of the same stamp, succeeded Leo; against whom Thomas rebelled, as Leo the Grammarian and others excellently report.

^g Theophilus began to reign in the year 829.

^h Around the year 840, as we said above.

CHAPTER II.

They Are Variously Solicited to Defect.

[15] As long as their former bodily strength remained to these most noble men, the barbarians held no conversation with them about religion: [They are tempted by the Protosymbolus, who under the appearance of consoling the captives] but when they saw them weakened and as if worn down, certain of those who were considered among them to be more skilled in false doctrines, and who pretended to display some humanity, came to the prison at the instigation of the Prince, and as if having persuaded the Prefects of the guards by much entreaty, finding it opened, they sat down to converse with the captives, and sometimes, having given silver, they also provided some garments: but then they did not hesitate to exhort them to abjure the faith of Christ: for that violent Prince did not value so highly having reduced that entire city, though great, though most wealthy, into his power, as if he could lead these Saints over to his religion: since he used to say that it was so much greater to carry off a victory over souls than over bodies, as the former surpass the latter in dignity. For to cast down bodies, without reaching the soul, is very easy even for wild beasts.

[16] When the Saints received their attack nobly and rejected the proposition made to them as an abominable crime, they said: urge defection from Christ, "Pride and arrogance do not become you: first give your minds to what we say, and if we do not counsel what is useful and beneficial for you, do not assent. Do you perhaps neglect your dearest children, your sweetest parents and spouses? Have you entirely put off that love implanted and necessary by nature, which even wild beasts revere? Do you despise the sweetest enjoyment of your goods, the company of kinsmen and friends, the willing service of most obedient households, honor from princes, glory to be bestowed upon you by subjects — or the ancestral customs in which you grew up? Who in such a case, and with such a lack of so many goods, would not devise some plan for salvation; and if only one presents itself, judge that this very one ought to be embraced?"

[17] "If all things flowed according to your wishes, there would be nothing for which you would renounce your own salvation: for no one of sound mind could regard this as the work of reason: at least a pretended one: but now, since no other counsel presents itself by which you can recover such great goods, what we suggest is indeed most full of humanity — that, dissembling for a while, you allow yourselves to be circumcised, and worshipping together with the Protosymbolus, be heaped with boundless goods by him: and again, through the occasion of war, it will be possible for you to return as fugitives to your religion and your people, or as victors after victory you will return, to the admiration of all." To which the noble servants of Christ replied: "If you yourselves had fallen into the same evils in which we are now held, but they are refuted, would you yourselves have been willing to do what you advise us?" "Indeed we would," they replied; "for what do we believe to be more necessary than life, and that free and quiet?" And they even confirmed their agreement to this by oath. "But we," the lovers of Christ immediately added, "will not accept the exhortation concerning the faith from those who profess themselves to be unstable in their own faith." Thus having spoken with one another, the latter returned in confusion with their mission unaccomplished to him by whom they had been sent, having suffered rather than accomplished what they intended.

[18] After some days that followed, others entered the custody in the same manner as the first had maintained, Others bewail their lot, as if to bestow alms upon the captives, and with feigned tears began to mourn over them — because, forsooth, through ignorance and unbelief they had incurred those punishments. "What great evils," they said, "are caused by not believing in the great Prophet Mohammed, among all who are ignorant of him! For are not these, whom we behold surrounded with heavy chains, all men of distinction, kinsmen of Emperors, and masters of others even in the art of war? Does not the strength of their bodies correspond to their genius? Did they not, by the mere display of arms, rouse even those who were ignorant of weapons to war? Was not a great number of defenders at hand for them? Indeed, more than seventy thousand armed men, from those Romans alone who had assembled, were delivered into the hand of our most faithful Protosymbolus. into which they have fallen. What rendered all that power ineffective except the rejection of that Prophet, in whom believing, his servants won this victory over them?"

[19] "But nothing surprising happened if, not having been taught by anyone what was beneficial for them, they did not recognize it, being human: for those who are found to have been ignorant of something are accustomed to obtain pardon." Likewise these thoughtless ones, changing their speech, said: "You" — for it is on your account that we say these things to one another — "passing from that narrow way on which the Son of Mary commands you to walk, while they despise the easy law of Mohammed: and being led into the broad way, spacious both in this and in the future world, which the great Prophet has proclaimed — call us blessed, as the best counselors and the authors of many advantages for you. What incredible thing does our Prophet teach when he says that God is powerful enough to fill the one who obeys Him with every pleasure both here and to establish him as an heir of paradise there? Is God in need of riches, or is He destitute of the enjoyment of other things?"

[20] "Depart from that unbelief of ignorant men, since it is altogether against reason that, as if God could not give pleasures both here and in the future: when God offers double gifts both here and there, you, as if you knew something more, should disdain them, as though you thought Him to be in need: and should wish to be dividers among His goods, not accepting when He gives, but when it seems good to you, despising His goodness out of excessive arrogance. Do not even you sometimes, when you offer something to your servants, if you see them procrastinating in accepting or refusing altogether, as though greatly injured by them, inflict blows in return for benefits? And if mortal men do this, will not the immortal God do so much more to you? Accept therefore the teaching of our Prophet of this kind, and being freed from present troubles, both living and dead enjoy the gifts of God set before you. For since God was exceedingly merciful, and saw that every man who wished to carry out in actual practice the hard and difficult law of Jesus would lose heart, He sent this His Prophet Mohammed, who would remove all its weight, would solve every difficulty; after all the delights and pleasures of the present life, promising also the joy that is there, and saving by faith alone those who obeyed him."

[21] When these wise men heard such ravings, whose madness the Saints refute, looking at one another with manly gravity, they softly smiled together, and wiping their eyes with their hands, they added that prophetic song: "The wicked have told me fables, but not like your law, O Lord: all your commandments are truth; the wicked have persecuted me, help me." Ps. 119:85 Then, turning to them, they said: "Do you truly believe this to be true and pleasing to God — this doctrine of being conquered in every concupiscence and iniquity by the appetites of depraved flesh, and of subjecting the reason that is in us as a slave to various pleasures; so that prudence cannot overcome them even in the slightest degree, and tame their resistance with the bit and bridle of temperance? What difference will there finally be between a man living thus and a brute animal? Such a law clearly bears the evident mark of being the work of one who

also wrote ravings about Solomon, saying that not God but some wild rooster had been the master of such great wisdom to him. Ps. 44:22 Then, continuing their discourse, they said: "We, O men, are disciples of those whose voices were heard addressing God: 'We have not departed from You: but for Your sake we are put to death all the day long: we are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter: nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus — neither things present, nor things to come.'" Having heard this, they too returned rebuked to their Princes, no more instructed to think better.

[22] Some time passed meanwhile, when others arrived displaying a pretense equal to the former ones — those whom they call Gymnosophists: these too, having distributed alms to the captives, kissed them all and, having sat down, said: "What, The Gymnosophists argue from the progress of the Saracens, O prisoners, is impossible with God?" They replied: "Nothing — which is most befitting the divine nature." "If, therefore," they said, "all things are possible with God, let us see upon whom He bestows His power at this time — upon the Romans or the Ishmaelites? To whom has He given the richest and most famous lands for a possession — to you or to us? Whose armies does He Himself enlarge, and whose battle-lines are mowed down like hay? Is not God just? If He had not found us fulfilling His commandments, He would not so magnificently demonstrate His beneficence toward us: conversely, if He did not know you to have fallen into unbelief concerning the Prophet sent by Himself, He would by no means have given you over to be subjugated by us."

[23] The Saints replied: The Saints argue that Mohammed's law lacks the testimonies of the Prophets, "If you could be persuaded by the teachings of the holy Prophets, it would indeed be easy to convict this reasoning of yours of falsehood: could you indeed adduce a passage of theirs from Scripture inspired by God, since you do not approach this; and you adhere only to your master; and you reproach us for being afflicted because of unbelief concerning him? Come, answer us also when we ask. If two men are litigating over the possession of a single field, and one cries out without witnesses, insisting that the field should be adjudged to himself; while the other, without contention, brings many distinguished witnesses who say that the field should be given to him rather than to the other: whose possession, O Saracens, do you think that field will become?" "His, manifestly," they say, "who brings the most trustworthy witnesses." "Rightly," say the Saints; "so we therefore judge on equal terms between the Saracens' master and the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ came, made man from a Virgin (as we have heard you yourselves often asserting), having with Him all the ancient and undoubtedly trustworthy Prophets foretelling His coming and dominion: furthermore, as you say, the great Mohammed was sent by God, bringing you a third law — ought not he too to have had two, or at least one, of the Prophets supporting him, to show that he was divinely sent?"

[24] When the lovers of Christ had produced this evident proof, That it is worthy of ridicule, one of them, surnamed Bassoes, replied very graciously: "The Prophet of the Saracens also has the most celebrated and truthful Isaiah foretelling about him, and if it would not be burdensome to these learned men, I would also adduce his very words." "By no means," they say; "for we know how to grant pardon to those who err out of nothing other than ignorance, even if perhaps with some injury to the Prophet." To whom he said: "Do you not say that the most recent and, as it were, the seal of all the Prophets is Mohammed?" "Truly," they say: "he alone is the true and first Prophet." To which the lover of Christ replied: "But Isaiah, whom you also acknowledge as a Prophet of God, says somewhere: 'The Lord will destroy the head and the tail from Israel,' which someone interpreting says: 'The head means the Prince who is a respecter of persons; the other means the Prophet who teaches iniquity: this, evidently, is the tail.' Is. 9:14 Do not be disturbed, I beg you: and they show how absurd are the things prescribed in it: is not this unjust to us — that your Prophet legislated that no one who has put away his wife out of hatred should go out again to take her back, unless she has first been married to another? For let us pass over the other absurdities of his prophecy and law: to me this certainly seems to be what that truthful Prophet Isaiah called the 'tail.'"

[25] "We too know how to philosophize," they say: "but if it has so pleased God, who are we to resist Him? Mohammed does not need the testimony of men, since he was appointed a prophet by God and received such laws from Him." The Christian replied: "Perhaps it was also bringing you a command from God that he prescribed the frequent marriages — or, to speak more truly — the furious madness toward women during the time of your fasts, and the continuing of lasciviousness and gluttony throughout all those nights until dawn?" "Most certainly," they say.

[26] But the Saints said: "There remains one of your arguments to be dissolved — the one drawn from military triumphs: Then they respond to the previously raised objections. since you wish to define religion by military successes. Do you perhaps not remember the past victories of the Persians, by which they subjugated nearly the whole world? Then that of the Greeks, by whom the Persians too were overcome? And after these succeeded the empire of the ancient Romans, encompassing the entire world. What then? Were those men worshippers of the true religion? Did they not all follow an idolatrous multitude of Gods, even to the point of madness? Whence then such great victory and power for them? Therefore it falls to the truly pious both to win victories from God from time to time, and also to be overcome most easily, when through ingratitude they offend God, the giver of victory, sinning without repentance: but He, to exact vengeance for the crimes they have committed, uses not virtuous people, but most wicked men. And this is what escapes you, and causes you to think yourselves pious, although you are by no means so. But let what has been said so far suffice: for we who are Christians by no means accept a master who lacks the agreement and testimony of the holy Prophets — not to say their adversary." Having said these things, these men returned to their Prince, reporting to him the steadfast spirit of those men in their religion: and the Saints, equally drenched in tears, gave thanks to God that they were Christians at all, and that they endured these hardships for His truth: and they supplicated and besought with great urgency that those who were held in the errors of the impious Mohammed be delivered from so foolish and irrational a devotion.

CHAPTER III.

The Final Contest of the Saints for the Faith.

[27] Confined in this manner for seven full years, carrying about a soul failing on account of the hardships of prison, After seven years of prison patiently endured, they did not cease night and day to meditate on the Psalms of David, nor did they relax the care of continuing their prayers both in common and privately: but they directed perpetual thanksgiving for all things to God; and especially for their own salvation, which they could not doubt was ordered by His manifold providence. For, purified through tribulation from the stains of past pleasures, and enlightened in spirit through the constancy of prayer and solitary quiet, they spoke thus to one another: "What shall we render to the Lord, who loves us so greatly and deems us worthy of the happiness of suffering for Him? For behold, the labors to be endured for virtue, from which we were far removed in the world and would not even willingly receive mention of them, we now endure in the seventh year without harm, He Himself entirely strengthening us: and would that it may also be permitted to say from the Testament: 'I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.'" Ps. 116:13

[28] Therefore, while the Saints persevered in such exercise and meditation, on the fifth day of the month of March, as the sun was already declining toward its setting, there came to the prison a certain former leader of our army, well known to the Saints, who is said to have been the betrayer of that great city, Boodes the apostate, an apostate from the Christian faith and an initiate of the Saracens, surnamed Boodes;^a and standing before the doors of the prison, he called out a certain man named Constantine,^b a learned man adorned with every virtue, the notary and fellow-captive of Constantine the Patrician: and he ordered him to approach alone through a certain opening; for he claimed he had certain secrets to report to him. When the most religious man was listening to him alone, Boodes said: "You know, most wise lord, what great love I have had for a long time to this day toward your lord, the Patrician Constantine: since therefore I have learned for certain He announces the decree of death and tempts the notary Constantine to defect, that the Protosymbolus has formed a plan to kill him tomorrow, unless perchance he consents to pray together with him, I have hurried to present to you my opinion, by which you might be saved from such a death. Therefore persuade him to attend the Saracen rites: and you do the same: but in spirit do by no means depart from the Christian faith, and the Lord will be propitious to you on account of the pressing necessity."

[29] But that true lover of Christ, forming a cross with his hand against the face of that impious man, said: "Depart from us, worker of iniquity." When the one beloved of God, the Patrician, entered the inner custody, he asked who had called him and for what reason? To whom the religious man, taking him aside in secret, reported the sentence of his death: but he suppressed the impious counsel of the other in silence, fearing lest the devil might perhaps gain some ground against him and trip him up with terrifying thoughts, as if only circumcision were what he was sentenced to. He courageously prepares himself for death. But the Martyr of Christ, immediately giving thanks to God, said: "The Lord's will be done." Then, drawing up a written testament through the hand of the most holy Constantine concerning his own affairs, he exhorted all his fellow-captives to stand by him in singing hymns to God throughout the whole night.

[30] When they had done this, early in the morning a certain leader arrived, The next morning they are led out of prison: with a terrifying display and a large escort of armed men, sent by the Protosymbolus: ordering the doors of the prison to be broken open, he commanded the leaders to come forth from their bonds. Forty-two men therefore came out from custody, and the door was immediately shut again at his command. Then he said to the Saints standing before him: "How many years do you think have passed while you have been confined here?" "Why do you ask a known fact?" they reply. "This is now the seventh year in all." "From so prolonged a captivity of so many years," the other adds, "you have certainly learned how great was the affection of humanity and compassion of the most faithful Protosymbolus toward you: They are tempted again: for the fury that was always armed against enemies did not carry him away to order your execution, which he could have done long ago: nor did it carry away the one who succeeded him in dignity. It was fitting therefore that, having experienced his gentleness and long-suffering, and seeing him demonstrate these toward captives, you should pray for him and love him with all your heart." To which the Saints replied: "Since indeed our law prescribes that we pray for our persecutors, we do so: but to love him in the way you describe is not permitted by our Prophet, who says to God: Ps. 139:21 'Because those who

hate You, O Lord, I hated.'"

[31] But the leader said: "How is it possible to pray for someone while hating him? You surely err when you say you pray for him." "Truly," say the Saints, "we said that: for we prayed for him before God, that He would infuse in him the true knowledge of Himself, in place of what he now falsely thinks he truly has: and if this had been done, we would have striven not only to love him but also to honor him greatly, according to the saying of our master: 'But to me Your friends, O God, are exceedingly honored.'" Ps. 139:17 The leader said to them: "This speech of yours pertains to our entire nation. Are the Roman Princes then so deranged as to think that so great a multitude and the power of a nation so grand and so strong could be gathered together without divine providence? For this necessarily follows, if we are hateful to God."

[32] The Saints said: "We do not say that: for we know that no one subsists who is destitute of divine providence, even though he has never heard the name of God — indeed, even though he shamelessly heaps continual insults upon Him: They show that God cannot be called the author of evil: but that your opinion about God is erroneous: for while confessing the name of God and the mighty works that should be present with Him — namely, that He is the creator of all things both visible and invisible — you mock Him by asserting Him to be the author of both evil and good, the creator of both truth and falsehood, of both equity and iniquity, of both justice and injustice, of both modesty and arrogance, of both gentleness and impudence, of both wisdom and luxury, and however many other contrary virtues and actions there are, that it is not necessary to enumerate them all here. If, therefore, it were possible for the things said about Him by you to be found true and subsisting, we would indeed rightly say that you had found the true knowledge of God: but if, as much as the deepest darkness is distant from the sun — and even more — the cause of evil is absent from that blessed essence, and what does not exist at all cannot appear with Him to whom alone it properly belongs to exist: how would you not be reproved, thinking that you have, but in reality by no means having, the true knowledge of God — the consequence of which is to hate God as He truly exists?"

[33] "What then," responds the leader, "do you say there is another God who is the effector of evil and sin, Nor that Christians believe in two Gods: which we see branded everywhere upon the whole world? So then there will be two Gods — one good, the other evil — and how could it be possible for the world to subsist with them fighting against each other?" The Saints replied: "We do not say there is a different God, distinct from Him who is good, who is the author of evil — far be it: but that a certain one of the Angels was found who, by the spontaneous choice of his free will, busied himself with what was by no means useful to him and contrary to good things, and through love of these proceeded first to hatred of God, But that the author of sin is called the devil, and then also of men: and thus finally it was permitted him to exercise the testing of our free will, and to try whether we incline it toward God, or rather comply with his suggestions. You therefore, drawn by him into error, have attributed his evil deeds to God who is subject to no passions and is altogether immutable." And yet the leader adds: "The Prophet Mohammed teaches that the omnipotent God is the author of every human action, whether evil or good." The Saints said: "It seems, therefore, that he fashioned within himself another God, such as the Greeks called the Agathodaemon, and delivered him to you for worship — one who neither exists nor ever will exist. But we know and confess the true God, proclaimed in the old law by the holy Prophets, and in the evangelical law by the Apostles of Christ — the author, namely, of good things only: and we acknowledge no other God."

[34] They steadfastly confess Christ, The leader said to them: "Do you not wish, therefore, to worship today with the most faithful Protosymbolus? For it is for this reason that I have been sent to you: and I know that there are some among you who desire to obtain that happiness — whom, when those who refuse see them immediately glorified on that account, they will bewail their own unhappiness and imprudent stubbornness." To which the Saints all with one voice agreed to answer: "We pray the one true God that not only the Protosymbolus, but also you, and the entire nation of the Saracens, may withdraw from the impious error of Mohammed, and render worship and adoration to God alone, proclaimed through the Prophets and Apostles of Christ: and may it not befall us to pass from light to darkness of our own will."

[35] "See to it," said the leader, "what you say, lest you repent: for this stubbornness of yours will not be dismissed as if through negligence, without great punishments." But the Saints said: "We commend our souls to God, who is immortal and truthful, and in Him we trust that to our very last breath, the faith which we have in Him must not be denied by us." To whom he said again: And they reject the promises made to them: "The orphanhood of your children and the widowhood of your spouses will be cast against you on the day of judgment: because they are today deprived of all of you, inasmuch as you refuse to worship according to the will of the Prince. For the greatest Protosymbolus could command your boy Emperor to send them all here safe and sound: but even now, if you are willing to convert and have received and confessed the Prophet Mohammed, you will, as I said, shortly see all your family members, whom it will be most joyful for you to recognize. For a woman now rules Romania, and she will not be able to contradict the command of the great Protosymbolus. And do not be anxious about wealth and possessions: for the tributes of Egypt, which the most devoted friend of his own, the Protosymbolus, will provide for you for one year, will be sufficient to enrich your posterity down to the tenth generation." Then, as if from one mouth, the Saints exclaimed: "Anathema upon Mohammed and upon all who confess him as a Prophet."

[36] Immediately therefore the leader ordered them to be seized by armed soldiers, And so they are dragged away to execution, their hands bound behind their backs, and dragged like lambs to the place of slaughter. At this sight, an infinite multitude of Saracens and Christians began to run together to the spectacle of the coming execution. And they had already approached nearer to the river Euphrates (for around it their great city Samara is situated), when the leader, calling one of the Saints — Theodore by name, but surnamed Craterus, that is, "the Strong" — said to him: "You who were once a cleric, Theodore, from priest to soldier, and of the Order which the Christians call sacerdotal; since you cast aside so great a rank, and put on the spear and military arms, becoming guilty of human blood — why do you now contend by dissembling to appear a Christian, being conscious that you have long since abjured the Christian religion? Ought you not rather to defect to the teaching of the Prophet and Apostle Mohammed, and from him obtain help and salvation? The crime of apostasy to be washed away by martyrdom, You, I say, who have no hope of confidence with Christ, having been previously denied by your own voluntary desertion." "Indeed," replied the noble Martyr of Christ, "for this very reason all the more must I now pour out my blood for His faith and love, so that the good one may grant me pardon for those things which I have committed against Him. Does not your own runaway slave, who then returns and fights to the death for your sake, obtain remission of his former desertion and ingratitude on account of his later fidelity?" "Then," replies the leader, "let your will be fulfilled; I have proposed what was beneficial for you."

[37] When the Ethiopian executioners were sharpening their swords, and some here and there were hurling them high and catching them again, He encourages Constantine, this Craterus, most dear to God, being anxious for the Patrician, lest a feeling of faintheartedness might steal upon him at the sight of the slaughter of his friends — since he stood nearest to him — said: "Come, my lord, since you surpass us all both in the eminence of your dignity and in the adornment of your virtues, you must also be the first of us all, and be the first to receive the crown of martyrdom from the heavenly King, Christ Jesus: just as you were honored with gifts bestowed before all others by the earthly Emperor." When the Patrician heard this most holy argument from him, he said to him: "Rather, you go first and do this with great fortitude of spirit, and you will have me and all who are with me following."

[38] No more was needed for one hastening to the crown. Having therefore made his prayer, And he precedes the rest in death, commending his soul to God, he approached the executioner and with a ready spirit underwent a glorious death. After him the rest of the Saints also, in order, each according to his former rank, as if they were vying with one another in due honor to approach a royal table, concluded their lives with a noble death: none of them displaying any appearance either of dread or of hesitation; so much so that the leader himself was astounded at their approach to death joined with singular confidence.

^a Above in Cedrenus and others, as also below, he is called Baditzes.

^b Whether Constantine the Notary was joined to the Martyrs of whom we treat, we cannot determine. His virtue and constancy are praised.

EPILOGUE

[39] The Martyrs crowned with a triple crown, This was the Saints' manner of contending for Christ; such was their most blessed end out of love for Him: to which the beginning was given by military expeditions, and the thousandfold calamities occasioned by them, of men fighting against the impious and defending the Church of God and, according to the prescription of the Gospel, laying down their lives for their brethren. These were the chief leaders of those blessed men we have described, crowned with the crown of a triple victory: for they were neither led astray from the right way by the Imperial heresy, which attacked Christ through the elimination of His image; they took up arms for the salvation of their homeland; and they cheerfully accepted death for Christ.

[40] Rivals of the Forty of Sebastea, These were once the equals of every most noble man, and were glorious both in flesh and in spirit: these, similar in both number and honor to those great and ancient forty Martyrs of Christ, mystically declared through the very number of two by which they exceeded them that this sacred number of forty would be similar and equal to theirs, and would be a second one: since they themselves also perished on the same days of the Lenten fast; so that they had all things in common with them — the time, the faith, the death, and the crowns. Their unshaken faith strengthened many in Christ: of whom it recalled some who were already straying, confirmed others who were wavering; and even preserved the still-intact from harm. The allurements of pleasures did not carry them away; the prolonged endurance of miseries in prison did not dissolve the intensity of the love by which they were borne toward Christ; barbarian ferocity and insolence did not terrify their manly spirit.

[41] Victory over the devil, Nor could the enemy and deceiver of souls trip them up, although he had set in motion every kind of deception against them — promising riches and power: setting before them abundance of possessions, servants, and a thousand things comfortable to the body: heaping up fears, threats, straits, reproaches, and the enticements of persuasive words. And this not by now attacking the athletes of Christ, now withdrawing from them, but in such a way that he never ceased during nearly that entire period of seven years to persecute and harass

them, so that they might fall away from the love of Christ: but in all things and through all things, they repulsed the enemy, vanquished and broken by the strength of Christ's Martyrs, by no means sparing their own bodies; because they fought for the salvation of the soul alone.

[42] Gain from captivity, They turned the hardships of most difficult captivity into an occasion of profitable trade and of acquiring the kingdom of heaven: and the very way by which most are led to perdition was for them the entrance to the path leading to salvation and sovereignty. They too can say with the Apostle: 2 Tim. 4:7 "We have fought the good fight, we have finished the course, we have kept the faith; henceforth there are laid up for us the crowns of righteousness, which the just Judge will give us in that day: and not to us only, but also to all who fight for Him and strive to add something to the sacrifice which He offered for us."

[43] Triumph over the barbarians, O pure and perfect sacrifice! O chosen victims! O offerings acceptable to God! A rational oblation, a holocaust of sweetest odor, a sacrifice of praise, bringing true glory to Christ! Through you the prostrated pride of the barbarians clearly recognized how much stronger are a few soldiers of Christ than an infinite multitude of the impious: and that neither abundance of power or piety gave them this confidence against the Christians, but the abundance of our sins; since a few who were pleasing to God most easily triumphed over them, and having won a victory which they considered greater than that which is won over bodies, they deployed all kinds of goods like siege engines to circumvent you, He congratulates them, but were by no means able to prevail.

[44] Through you the Imperial city is adorned. Of you all who hold positions of dignity or who have been admitted to the Senate boast. When Christians offer their prayers in wars to you, they also experience you as helpers. You who once shared in our sufferings and knew how miserable and uncertain a life we lead, how much confusion and harshness are found in it — And he petitions their intercession. be also outstanding intercessors for us before Christ, for whom you contended; praying at the same time for the salvation of our souls and bodies, in Christ our Lord Himself, with whom be to the Father and the Holy Spirit glory, honor, and adoration now and always and forever and ever. Amen.

FIRST APPENDIX

The Martyrdom of These Saints.

From the Manuscript Chronicle of the Continuator of Theophanes.

Theodore Craterus Protospatharius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Constantine Drungarius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Callistus Turmarcha, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Aetius, General, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Melissenus, General, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Theophilus Patricius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Bassoes, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

The Other Thirty-Five Leaders of the Troops, Martyrs, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria

As time went on, Amorium bravely defended, when many on both sides — both attackers and defenders — had fallen, and the Agarenes, making no progress, had much abated their arrogance, at length the entire multitude of the people, numbering up to seventy thousand after the destruction, fell by the sword: for it was not possible to escape the exterminating sword of divine vengeance, on account of the sins by which they had provoked the divine majesty, compounded by the crime of heresy. The affair was conducted in this manner. Among those whose spirit and faith had failed, there was a certain wretch named Baditzes: this man, when the barbarians were already about to depart and return to their own territory in shame, by letters sent with an arrow, said: "What? Betrayed by Baditzes, Having endured so much, will you withdraw empty-handed, exhausted by fruitless labor? Come, approach those towers where you see a stone palm above and a marble lion on the outside; meet me there, one who knows your situation thoroughly and will provide excellently for it. Since the fortifications are weaker there, you will easily reduce those inside into your power, and you will judge me worthy of great honor." They came, therefore, as they had been commanded, and entering by stealth, they began to cut down and slaughter whomever they encountered. There was no one who escaped death: It is captured and destroyed. all fell, with streams of blood flowing everywhere. Thus Amorium was destroyed, and the citizens, betrayed by the cruel hands of the impious, were most cruelly slain, with only those left alive who were sent to Baghdad — the leaders of the troops and the stronger men, among whom the forty-nine Martyrs are to be counted: all the rest were consumed by the enemy's sword. For not even by a second embassy could Theophilus succeed in getting the enemy to allow them to be ransomed for two hundred hundred-weights, and the captive people to be freed from the enemies' hands: requesting, if that were denied, The leaders demanded back in vain, at least those who were related to him by blood and had been sent there as a garrison. But the tyrant, elated and puffed up with immoderate insolence, sent back both the first and second envoys in mockery, adding the insult of words, saying: "Do you wish to buy for so few hundred-weights what has cost us up to a thousand, spent freely and for honor's sake?" Theophilus, shaken in spirit by these words, Emperor Theophilus dies, and as if seized by some boiling fire, found it necessary to use the refreshment of water drawn from snow, which itself even seemed lukewarm from the intense heat of his heart: whence it happened that he contracted the disease of dysentery from such drinking, and by that very disease migrated from this life, even unwillingly.

[2] The Agarene, having returned to his own region, locked the captive leaders in stocks in a dark prison, They are led away captive: ordering them to endure life there on scant water and bread: and they were kept bound in such darkness that even at full midday not even the smallest ray of light shone upon them, and they could not recognize one another except by the sound of the voice, excluded from the company of all people except the guards, as if they were living in a vast wilderness. In these miseries they persevered for a full seven years: until on the fifth day of the month of March, the one who had betrayed Amorium and abjured Christ — Boiditzes — came to the prison, calling out Constantine, a man nurtured in the studies of wisdom, who was the Patrician's secretary and keeper of records; having first declared that no one of those inside could be made aware of the secrets he had come to communicate. When Constantine declared that no one was present, he said: "Come now, They are solicited to apostasy by Baditzes: most dear and sweet soul; for you know what ardent love I have been joined to you from the beginning. Come, I say, and together with the Patrician, be willing tomorrow to pray with the Protosymbolus and attend his rites, lest you miserably perish, pierced by swords and spears: for since this matter is as dear to his heart as anything can be, I thought it fitting to make it known to you as a faithful friend: and to urge that by outwardly complying with him to some extent, you adhere inwardly in faith to God who searches hearts: and do not fall from the hope of eternal life by sinning."

[3] But he, not easily softened or deceived, replied with steadfast spirit: And they devoutly prepare themselves for death, "Away from me, worker of iniquity; away, far away!" And saying this, he rushed away and called the Patrician aside, and of what had been said to him he clearly announced nothing, fearing lest some thought of faintheartedness might creep upon the disturbed man; but he explained only this one thing — that sentence of death had been passed against them for the morrow. The Patrician gave thanks to God at this; and when he had arranged his affairs, he roused all those present through Constantine to continue hymns throughout that whole night. To be undergone at last in the seventh year: When morning came, a certain tribune approached with a terrifying appearance and ordered the leaders alone to come out: and forty-two men came forth, and when he had ordered the prison to be immediately shut, he said: "What year of your captivity is this?" And he foolishly babbled many other things, wishing to induce them to consent to his impiety. They replied that this was indeed the seventh year: but to the rest of his discourse, seeking their response with noble and brave spirit from the divine scriptures, they were sentenced to the punishment of death.

[4] When they came to the Euphrates (for beside it their city Samara was built and stood), the most wicked man addressed Theodore Craterus, Theodore questioned by name, to see if he could perhaps draw him by fear of death to abjure the faith. "And you, Theodore," he said, "with what confidence of soul do you hope to approach God through death, whose salutary commandments, as you are wont to call them, you by no means loved? For you neither returned from the clerical Order, in which you were once enrolled, to that state; nor do you have hands clean of blood, which you again defiled with manifold contamination and uncleanness in wars." Theodore, without any hesitation, replied: "For that very reason I also hasten to pour out my own blood, He spurns the offer of life, that making it a bath for my sins and a price of redemption, I may deserve to be rewarded with His kingdom. And indeed, if one of your servants who ran away and then returned were to serve you thenceforth with a service pleasing to you, I do not think he would find you ungrateful, being excluded from pardon."

[5] Then, like an Olympian champion, entering the arena of the contest, and turning to the Patrician Constantine, as if to drive away a creeping dread and fear, he said: "Come, O soldier of Christ, you to whom in life it fell to be the first of us all before the earthly King: be the first also to receive the crown of martyrdom. And he encourages the others. But to you," replied Constantine, "as one noble and brave, that prerogative is owed: and therefore, delivering yourself first to death, you will have me following." Therefore, encouraging and exhorting one another, they proceeded to martyrdom to be concluded by death, in the order of the dignities each had held in the world; all admiring the remarkable readiness and eagerness of their spirit.

APPENDIX II.

The Martyrdom and Burial of the Same Saints.

From the Manuscript Chronicle of Simeon the Logothete.

Theodore Craterus Protospatharius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Constantine Drungarius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Callistus Turmarcha, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Aetius, General, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Melissenus, General, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Theophilus Patricius, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

Bassoes, Martyr, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria (Saint)

The Other Thirty-Five Leaders of the Troops, Martyrs, captured at Amorium, killed in Syria

When the Saracens advanced against Amorium, the Emperor immediately fled all the way to Cappadocia. After the Emperor was defeated and Amorium captured, Amermumnes then selected fifty thousand men and, placing over them Gudes, the most celebrated general among the Agarenes, sent them against the Emperor; and when battle was joined, the Emperor was defeated and fled, and returned with great disgrace, barely saving his life. The Saracens then, surrounding Amorium and making many assaults, and seeing the city constantly defended by those within, were thinking of withdrawal: but a certain disciple of Leo the Philosopher, being in the fortress, advised them that if they persevered for two days, they would win the victory, as indeed happened. For the city was betrayed to them by Baditzes and Manicophanes: With the barbarian refusing the ransom for the leaders, and the most renowned men were captured — Theophilus the Patrician and army commander, Melissenus and Aetius and

Theodore the Protospatharius and eunuch Craterus, Callistus the Turmarcha, Constantine the Drungarius, and Bassoes the Prefect of the Couriers, together with some leaders of the troops: whom the Emperor, wishing to ransom, sent envoys to Amermumnes with two hundred hundred-weights; to whom the latter was by no means persuaded and replied that even if he promised a thousand hundred-weights for the sake of ransoming the captives, he would not free even a single one of them all.

Led away therefore as captives to Syria, they suffered much violence not only from the Protosymbolus, After seven years of imprisonment they are beheaded: but also from Baditzes, worn down by seven years of custody: but since they could by no means be induced to deny Christ, they were finally struck with the sword, loving eternal life above temporal; and after one day they were cast into the river. Then indeed something utterly remarkable happened: that each head, after amputation, was reunited to its body and grew together, and just as the souls were received into the same place of paradise, so too the bodies obtained a common burial from the faithful. After they were killed, And after them Baditzes the traitor, the Protosymbolus ordered Baditzes also to be beheaded, saying that even if he was a true Christian, he ought not to have apostatized. When this was done and his body was cast into the current together with the aforesaid Saints, it was found outside their heap; and his head, far from it, was by no means reunited to his body, as had happened for the Saints who were likewise rolled into the river: and while the bodies of all the Saints were carried straight to the opposite bank in the sight of the people, this one man's body was torn apart, mangled, and devoured by crocodiles.