ON SAINT BATAS THE PERSIAN,
MARTYR IN MESOPOTAMIA.
CommentaryBatas the Persian, Martyr in Mesopotamia (S.)
[1] The Contest of the holy and Sacred Martyr Batas the Persian is indicated on this first day of May by the Greeks, in the printed Menaea and in Maximus Bishop of Cythera, Eulogy from the Menology of the Emperor Basil in these bare and now-proposed words. But of what sort that contest was, in the Menology of the Emperor Basil it is thus set forth. The holy Martyr Batas was born of the region of Persia, and taught the faith of Christ by his parents. But when he was in the thirtieth year of his age, having left father, mother, wife, children, and all the riches in which he abounded, having set out abroad, he subjected himself to the monastic discipline: and being versed in the study and conversation of divine things, he longed to die a Martyr for the faith of Christ. A persecution therefore having arisen against the Christians, when the rest of the monks who were with him had fled from the monastery; he alone remained in it. Where being apprehended he is led away to the President of Nisibis, and by him is bidden to abnegate Christ, and to adore the sun and the fire. He did not assent: but with the highest confidence of mind professed Christ. Wherefore when by ten satellites both his hands had been stretched out, by the excessive violence his shoulders were torn apart. Then when his genital parts were tightly bound with ropes, he was dragged along the ground and struck with rods. Finally tortured plainly in all the members of his body, beaten with the sword he fell. Thus far the Menology of the Emperor Basil: MS. Synaxary to which similar things has the old Greek Synaxary of the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus at Paris, in which without mention of fire, he is bidden to adore the sun: and in the stretching of his hands, are said not only the shoulders torn apart, but also the rest of the harmony of the body: finally it is said, that his head being cut off by a stroke of the sword, he departed from life. Some eulogy also we found in the MS. Menaea of Cardinal Mazarin.
[2] In the above-cited MS. Menaea with Peter Francis Chifletius, the same things are somewhat more largely explained, which therefore it pleases to add, and the MS. Menaea. and they are of this kind. The memory of the holy Martyr Batas the Persian. This man was from Persia, taught the faith of Christ by his parents. When he had attained about thirty years of age, he heard Christ in the Gospel saying: Luke 14, 26. He who shall not leave father and mother, or wife, or children, or brethren, or possessions, cannot be my disciple. And filled with the Holy Spirit, and all burning with divine desire, he left all things: and embracing the monastic life, led an austere and laborious life: and surpassed all the monks in fasts and vigils: and with no moderation applied subdued the appetite of the senses: but applying all custody of himself, he desired to end his life by martyrdom. A persecution therefore being moved against the Christians, and all the monks who lived with him according to the command, which forbids one to expose oneself to peril, withdrawing, he alone remained, longing to fulfill his desire by martyrdom. There therefore being apprehended, when he was now in the thirtieth year of monastic exercise, he was led to Iasdich the brother of Barsabanas, then President of Tzebius. But bidden to adore the sun, he obeyed not: but with great constancy pronounced himself to be a Christian. Wherefore both his hands by ten soldiers with so great violence were stretched, that his shoulders were torn apart: then he is struck with clubs, and bound in his private parts with a rope by twenty soldiers lying on the ground he is dragged. And when he still persevered in professing the faith of Christ, he is placed supine, and over his belly is forced to sustain a great heap of stones. Finally when his precordia and the other members of his body below the breasts had been cleft with the sword, his head being cut off the Martyr fell. These things there. Nisibis is a known city of Mesopotamia, nor do we doubt, but that there Tzibium was, unless this by error crept in for Nisibis. But at what time there lived Barsabanas and Iasdich we have not yet been able to know. It was done after Jovian the Emperor, peace being made with the Persians, conceded to them Nisibis in the year 364. To the eulogy in the same MSS. this distich is prefixed:
Καὶ τῷ Βατᾷ τμηθέντι κάραν ξίφει, Βατὰ πρεπόντως οὐρανοῦ τὰ χωρία.
Batas also, his head cut off by the sword, fittingly reached the high places of heaven.
But there is a play on the word βατὸς (which signifies passable and accessible) compared to the proper name of the Martyr: which play could not be expressed in Latin.