Varus and His Hermit Companions

ON SS. VARUS AND HIS HERMIT COMPANIONS, SOLDIER AND ASCETICS, EGYPTIAN MARTYRS, AND ON BL. CLEOPATRA, WIDOW, AND HER SON, CONFESSOR, IN PALESTINE,

ABOUT THE YEAR CCCVII.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Varus, soldier, martyr in Egypt. (S.)

His companions, ascetics, martyrs in Egypt. (SS.)

Cleopatra, widow, in Palestine. (S.)

Her son, confessor, in Palestine. (S.)

E. C.

§ I. The announcement of the Martyrs in the sacred calendars. They suffered under Galerius Maximian.

St. Varus, the Greek and Latin calendars In the Roman Martyrology at the 19th of October, after the holy Martyrs Ptolemaeus and Lucius, Beronicus and Pelagia with their companions, St. Varus is announced in the third place in this manner: "In Egypt, of St. Varus the soldier, who under the emperor Maximinus, while he was visiting and refreshing seven holy monks held in prison, when one of them had died, wished to be substituted in his place, and, having suffered most savage things with them, obtained the palm of Martyrdom." Whether St. Varus suffered under Maximinus or rather under Galerius Maximian, whether his companions were truly monks, and whether he in whose place he suffered died in the prison itself, will have to be examined below. Further, Baronius drew that announcement of St. Varus, as he advises in the Notes, from the Menologion of the Greeks, by which name he designates the Menologion

of Sirleto in manuscript, which was afterwards published by Heinrich Canisius in the Lectiones antiquae. In this Menologion, then, at the 19th day of October, the following elogium falls to St. Varus and his companions In Canisius, Lectiones Antiquae, Basnage edition, volume III, p. 410.: "Commemoration of the B. Martyr Varus, who lived under the emperor Maximian, serving as a soldier in Egypt, born of illustrious and pious parents: and when seven holy men were held for a long time in prison for the cause of the Christian faith, St. Varus daily took care of them; and when one of their number had died, he himself wished to be numbered in his place. Therefore, being led to the judge with the rest, grievously beaten and torn with bars, stretched in those very torments until the fifth hour, he gave back his blessed soul to God."

[2] announce St. Varus The Menaea of the Greeks, from which Papebroch not undeservedly asserted [Volume II of April, p. 4, no. 5; compare volume I of March, p. 862, volume III of March, p. 443, no. 4, and volume I of August, p. 168*.] that Sirleto collected his Menologion written in Latin, likewise refer St. Varus with his companions to the 19th day of October: Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ, μνὴμη τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος Οὐάρου καὶ τῶν σὺν αὐτῷ: "On the same day (the 19th of October), the memory of the holy Martyr Varus and his companions."

Στίχοι· Ξεσμοὺς ἀπείρους καρτεροῦντος Οὐάρου, Σατὰν πλάνης ἔξαρχος, οὐαί μοι, λέγει.

While Varus bravely endures intolerable tearings, Satan, the prince of error, cries: Woe is me.

There follows then the Synaxarion, or compendium of the Acts of St. Varus; but since it is represented to the letter in the version of Sirleto reported at the preceding number, we refrain from bringing it forward here in Greek. With the Menaea, in assigning the day of the cult of St. Varus and his companions, almost all the calendars agree, except the Menologion of Basil, in which these things occur in praise of our Martyrs, a little more explicitly than in the Menaea: "On the same day (the 25th of October), the contest of the holy Martyr Varus and of the seven holy companions. The holy Martyr Varus, serving as a soldier in Egypt under the emperor Maximian, and distinguished for piety, when certain holy men, drawn from the caves of the mountains in which they had long lain hidden, had been cast into chains for the faith of Christ, entered the prison and attended with much kindness on the saints, loosed from their chains. They were the authors to him that, wiping away the fear of his mind, he should openly and publicly worship Christ. When, therefore, one of those seven had died in prison, St. Varus substituted himself in the place of the dead man. When the prefect learned this, he ordered Varus, brought into his sight together with the rest, and having publicly confessed Christ, to be beaten with rods, and, hung up, to be torn in the sides. Likewise the six other Saints too, snatched up on high, were combed with iron hooks, and beaten with rods for five hours, until they gave up their spirit to the Lord."

[3] at the 19th of October. As regards the day of the cult, I have seen no calendars which with the Menologion of Basil refer blessed Varus to the 25th of October, except certain Slavic ones, whose clause, perhaps taken from the aforesaid Menologion, is read in Assemani Kalendaria Ecclesiae, volume V, p. 319.: "Varus, martyr, and seven companions." All the others assign to St. Varus the 19th day of the same month, and not the calendars alone, but likewise the hagiographical collection which Symeon Metaphrastes published at Constantinople about the middle of the tenth century, and that both in the most ancient copies which are preserved at Paris [Manuscrits de la bibliothèque du roi, Paris, 1740, volume II, codices 1480, 1484, 1495, etc.], Vienna [Lambeck, Commentarii, Kollar edition, volume VIII, column 537 and following, codices 16, 17, 18.] and Venice Library of St. Mark at Venice, codex 352., and in the more recent ones. From Metaphrastes Surius gave the Acts of St. Varus at the 19th of October in the Lives of the Saints, and after him Molanus announces him at the same day in the second edition of Usuard Martyrology of Usuard, Louvain, 1573, folio 176. and the following ones. That before Metaphrastes St. Varus had already been inscribed in the calendars on that day is gathered both from Metaphrastes himself, who did not change the days of cult which he found established, and from the consensus of the brief Menologia, even very ancient ones, which frequently occur in the codices of the Gospels and record only the names of the Saints, with an indication of the Gospel to be recited on their feast day. Let an example be the Menologion written at Jerusalem in the Holy Mountain in the tenth century, as its editor Scholz pronounces De Menologiis, etc., Bonn, 1823., in which at the 19th of October is read thus: Τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος Οὐάρου καὶ τὼν σὺν αὐτῷ: "Of the holy Martyr Varus and his companions." On this day also he is commemorated in the Typicon of St. Sabas, as I gather from the notes of our predecessors; in the Menologion of the Ruthenians of the diocese of Kiev sent to our predecessors in the year 1688 by George David, missionary S.J. residing at Moscow; finally in the Slavo-Russian Menologion with which Baron von Sparwenfeld presented the Bollandian museum about the same time. And with all these agrees the recent Greek-Catholic Kalendar for the use of the monks of the Order of St. Basil of the Italo-Greek rite, which was printed at Rome in the year 1845 by the press of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

[4] St. Varus in the Acts From the calendars, if they are compared with one another and with the Acts, three chief difficulties arise, as was said at the beginning of this §; these, therefore, we now undertake to treat in order. First it must be inquired under which emperor St. Varus suffered and in what year it took place. In the Menaea and in the Menologion of Basil he is reported to have obtained Martyrdom under Maximian; but since the Greeks often write Maximian for Maximinus, the matter must first be examined. Baronius, as we have seen, substituted Maximinus (above, no. 1), in which matter Tillemont followed him Mémoires, volume V, part III, p. 103. Brussels, 1707.. But the Acts which we publish speak clearly (no. 1): "In the days of Maximian, who was the son-in-law of Diocletian." These things fit Galerius Maximian alone, who, created Caesar in the year 292, married Valeria, daughter of Diocletian Compare Pagi at the year 292, no. 2., and was often called by the one name Maximian by the ancient writers [Compare Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum, chapter IX and passim; volume III of April, p. 484, no. 5 and following; and at the end of the Volume, p. LXI, etc.]. Symeon Metaphrastes, who, as will be said more fully below, reworked our Acts with a more elegant pen, doubting perhaps whether the assertion of the anonymous author about the kinship with Diocletian was accurate, kept only the bare name of Maximian: Μαξιμιανοῦ τοῦ τυράννου τὸ δυσσεβὲς ἀνὰ πᾶσαν σχεδὸν τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐκδόντος διάταγμα, πέμψαντος δὲ καὶ τοῖς κατ᾽ Αἴγυπτον ἄρχουσιν... "When Maximian the tyrant had published his edict through almost the whole earth, and had sent it also to the governors who were in Egypt," etc. Yet Metaphrastes did not contradict the older Acts, both because Galerius Maximian, as has been said, not seldom appears with only the latter appellation, and also because the other Maximian mostly comes forward distinguished by the surname Herculius, and it was most well known that he held the empire of the West, not of the East. Finally, neither could he have designated Maximinus, who from the year 305 as Caesar, and from the year 307 or 308 [Pagi at the year 307, no. 23; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, Paris, 1697, volume IV, p. 107.] as Augustus and emperor, governed Syria and Egypt, since he writes that the edict of that Maximian was published through almost the whole earth: for these things can fit Galerius Maximian alone, who in the year 303 was the author to Diocletian of beginning the persecution, and of issuing several edicts in succession against the Christians. Baronius, however, to whom the Metaphrastic Acts alone were known, since he was not ignorant from elsewhere that Maximian is often said by the Greeks for Maximinus, and that Galerius Maximian never ruled in Egypt by himself, but through the Caesar Maximinus, believed with some right that the latter should be substituted for the former. But since we have obtained so express a designation in our Acts (as it can easily be admitted), it only remains that we briefly explain how it is to be understood and by what reasons it is supported.

[5] he is rightly said to have suffered under Galerius Maximian The Martyrs who suffered in the East, that is in Egypt and Syria and the neighbouring regions [Compare Tillemont, place cited, p. 88; Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica, book IX, chapter I, Turin, 1746, p. 387, with note a; Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum, chapter XIX, Paris, 1748, volume II, p. 210.], while the tenth persecution was raging, can be said to have obtained the palm of martyrdom under Galerius Maximian in a twofold manner. First indeed in a wider sense, because the persecution was stirred up by him Eusebius, book VIII, last chapter, p. 355., and while it lasted the same edicts were always retained Eusebius, book IX, chapter X, p. 403., and he himself from the year 305 to the year 308 held supreme dominion in Egypt and Syria as emperor [Pagi at the year 307, nos. 17 and 23; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, volume V, p. 107.]; nay, when at the end of the year 307 or the beginning of the following Ibid., place cited. Maximinus was proclaimed Augustus and emperor, he did not obtain such an empire that some power and authority in the East did not fall to Galerius as the senior Augustus: which is manifest from both Victors In Pagi at the year 314, no. 12. and from Eusebius [Book IX, chapter I, place cited, p. 387, and On the Martyrs of Palestine, chapter III, p. 362 c.]. The Acts are not, therefore, to be blamed forthwith which report the Martyrs of those regions in which Maximinus held dominion to have suffered under Galerius Maximian. The other manner, however, is more accurate, by which this is said only of those who became martyrs before Maximinus had declared himself Augustus, that is, before the year 308. To embrace much, then, in few words: those who suffered in the East before the month of May of the year 305, in which Galerius compelled Diocletian to yield the empire, will more rightly indeed be said to have suffered under Diocletian, yet not undeservedly also under Galerius; and likewise those who are reported to have suffered from the year 308 until the death of Galerius in Egypt and Syria, where Maximinus reigned, you will more rightly refer to Maximinus, but not undeservedly to Galerius; finally those who obtained martyrdom there from the month of May of the year 305 to the year 308 can be referred both to Galerius and to Maximinus.

[6] he is said to have suffered It ought not, therefore, to seem strange if from these things some confusion has arisen among the ancient hagiographers, and if they have often put one of the persecutors for the other. So Prudentius, in the hymn on St. Romanus, who underwent martyrdom at Antioch on the 17th of November of the year 303, while Galerius was still Caesar under Diocletian, wrote these words among others Arevalo edition, p. 1066.:

Galerius, as antiquity reports, was by chance Ruling as leader the state of the Roman world, Harsh, savage, rough, implacable: He had sent edicts far and wide into all the world, That whoever preferred to live should deny Christ.

Ruinart excuses Prudentius Acta Martyrum, Verona, p. 279., adducing the opinion of Valesius, who judges that in the year 303, while Romanus was suffering, Galerius was staying at Antioch. But Prudentius, and others who have written so, do not need this excuse, unless they have openly written that Galerius before the year 305 was not Caesar only, but already Augustus and emperor Compare Arevalo, column 1063.. Moreover, not even this very thing can be brought forward in defence of Prudentius; which I establish thus against Valesius and those who have followed him Ruinart, place cited; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, volume IV, p. 45.. Eusebius expressly writes that Romanus the Martyr appeared at Antioch before the emperor himself Eusebius, On the Martyrs of Palestine, chapter II, p. 360.: "When the ministers who were to kindle the pyre were awaiting the judgment of the emperor (τοῦ βασιλέως), who was then by chance present: 'Where,' he said, 'is the fire for me?' Having said this, he was summoned and set before the emperor," etc. But in the first year of the persecution Ibid., p. 361., or of Christ 303, in which Romanus suffered, Galerius was indeed Caesar under the emperor Diocletian, but was not yet emperor, as Eusebius himself noted in another place On the life of Constantine, book I, chapter 18, p. 453.. Moreover Eusebius, after the passage which we have recited, a few lines being interposed, writes of the same Romanus the Martyr P. 361.: "After which punishment, thrust into prison, and there wasted for a very long time, at length, when the vicennalia of the empire were already at hand, and according to the solemn custom," etc. That in this place the vicennalia of Diocletian are in question, who was elected emperor in the year 284, and who is established from Lactantius to have celebrated his vicennalia at Rome in the month of November of the year 303, no one has ever doubted. But since Eusebius there writes that Romanus, after he appeared before the emperor, was wasted for a very long time, and more distinctly in the Books on the Resurrection Works of Sirmond, Paris, 1696, volume I, column 69. that he was kept in prison many months, why could not Diocletian during those many months have gone from Antioch to Rome, and there in the month of November, while Romanus at Antioch was at length obtaining his long-delayed martyrdom, have celebrated the vicennalia? Diocletian therefore, and not Galerius [In the note to Eusebius, On the Martyrs of Palestine, chapter II, p. 360, note b.], was at Antioch in the course of the year 303, and that the latter was staying there at that time can no longer be brought forward in defence of Prudentius. Nor can it be objected, first, with Valesius [Compare Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, volume IV, p. 608, note 16, and p. 47.], that Diocletian in the year 303 stayed so long at Nicomedia that he could not have been present at Antioch (which is not more than sixteen days' journey distant from Nicomedia) at the first punishments with which St. Romanus was afflicted; since, ever since the book of Lactantius was discovered, we are no longer compelled to admit this [Lactantius, chapter XII and following; compare Tillemont, Mémoires, volume V, part I, note 7, p. 317.]. Nor, secondly, can it be said with Stefano Evodio Assemani Acta Martyrum Orientalium, part II, p. 175. that Diocletian celebrated his vicennalia at Antioch in the year 303 and at Rome only in the year 304; since a passage of Lactantius, to which Assemani did not advert, teaches altogether the opposite Lactantius, chapter 17, p. 204.: "Diocletian ... went at once to Rome, that he might celebrate there the day of the vicennalia, which was to be on the twelfth day before the Kalends of December" (the 20th of November). "These solemnities being celebrated ... he burst forth from the city as the Kalends of January were approaching, on which his ninth consulship was being conferred on him. He could not endure thirteen days, so as to proceed as consul at Rome rather than at Ravenna." Further, the chronologers by unanimous reckoning establish that this ninth consulship began in the month of January of the year 304 [Compare Pagi at the year 304, no. 1; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, volume IV, p. 49; Baluze in the note to Lactantius, p. 301, edition of 1748.]. Therefore Diocletian celebrated his vicennalia at Rome in the year 303, and not 304. And let these things suffice for reconciling Eusebius with Lactantius, and for defending both Prudentius and our Acts, and any others whatever in which the persecution of Diocletian and his edicts should be attributed to Galerius.

[7] about the year 307. It remains that we inquire whether the very year in which St. Varus suffered can be determined. From the things which are read at the beginning both in our Acts and in the Metaphrastic ones, it would be easy to conjecture that St. Varus underwent martyrdom not long after the edict which was issued against all Christians in the year 304 [Eusebius, On the Martyrs of Palestine, chapter III, p. 361; compare Tillemont, Mémoires, volume V, part I, p. 335, note 20.]; and this perhaps is the reason why in the Great Horologion of the Greeks, which was printed at the press of Venice in the year 1845, St. Varus is read to have suffered in the said year: Οὗτος ἤθλησεν ἐπὶ Μαξιμιανοῦ ἐν ἔτει 304: "He suffered under Maximian in the year 304." Certainly we shall not say that martyrdom befell him before that year; but that we should say it happened somewhat later is suggested by what is written in our Acts about the son of B. Cleopatra, who carried off and hid the body of St. Varus after his martyrdom. It is narrated, namely, that he was then twelve years old (no. 10), and then, after no small interval of time, that the persecution against the Christians had quieted down (no. 11), and that the body of St. Varus was translated into Palestine: in which place the discourse about the same son is so conducted that it is plain he was even then very young. Whence the Menaea, to be adduced below, in one place call him "little son," and the Muscovites in their figured Ephemerides, as will likewise be said below, depict him as a boy beside his mother. But if we say that St. Varus suffered in the year 304, since the persecution did not quiet down before the year 313, it will have to be said that the son of Cleopatra, who at the time of the martyrdom was twelve years old, had in the year 313 reached at least the twentieth year of his age. That martyrdom, therefore, took place later; but that it should not be deferred to the last years of the persecution, but rather be referred to the middle time, two things in the Acts seem to require. First indeed, that those new punishments which, under the appearance of humanity and clemency, began to be in use from the beginning of the year 308, namely the gouging out of the right eye, the searing of the left hamstring and condemnation to the mines [Eusebius, History, book VIII, chapter 12, p. 344; On the Martyrs of Palestine, chapter VIII, p. 368; Lactantius, chapter XXXVI, p. 232.], are not mentioned in our Acts, but those ordinary ones which were used before that year, and which were described by Eusebius Book VIII, chapter VIII, p. 338. and by St. Phileas of Thmuis Ibid., chapter X, p. 341; compare the Acts, nos. 1, 7 and following.. Next, it is narrated of the son of Cleopatra (no. 12), whose father was a soldier, that when he had returned to his fatherland he was enrolled in military service and obtained the military garment. Further, we know from those skilled in Roman antiquities that the military age among the Romans was the seventeenth year; so that blessed Cleopatra returned into Palestine about five years after the Martyrdom of St. Varus, and so it must be said that the martyrdom itself took place five years before peace was restored to the church, that is, about the year 307.

[8] The companions of St. Varus Now concerning the Companions. That they are called monks by Baronius will not please everyone. And indeed in the Acts they are said barely to have lived as solitaries in the desert and to have dwelt for thirty years among wild beasts and reptiles (nos. 2 and 3). Nor are they called monks in the Menologion of Sirleto (above, no. 1); but Baronius seems to have drawn this from the Metaphrastic Acts, published in Lippomano and Surius, as he indicates in the note at the 19th of October. In the same place, then, he adds these words: "That many monks were crowned with martyrdom under Maximinus you have expressed not only in the Martyrologies and Menologies, but in Eusebius, History, book 8. Further, that the very institute of monks was not recent, but flourished from the beginning of the nascent church, you will easily gather from what Philo writes about the Essenes (or about the Therapeutae), and what Dionysius the Areopagite and others have, although the name itself was not so very old. Whence Augustine on John, Tractate 97, speaks thus Maurist edition, volume III, part II, column 738.: 'Monasteries and Hospices were afterwards called by new names, but the things themselves were before their names.'" To this opinion, the testimony of the Areopagite being removed (concerning whose antiquity opinion is various), we judge that one may safely subscribe, in this way namely, that unless we contend that St. Antony and his disciples were not monks, we cannot dissent from Baronius. For before St. Antony and St. Hilarion, the followers of this institute were for the most part called neither monks nor anchorites, but are everywhere called ascetics or philosophers by Eusebius and others [Eusebius, History, book II, chapter XVII, p. 60, book VII, chapter XXXII, p. 326, etc.; compare Examen historicum et canonicum libri de regularium et saecularium juribus, Brussels, 1847, p. 53 and following.]. If you deny indiscriminately that these ascetics were monks, because they were not cenobites, you will likewise have to deny this of St. Antony and his anchorite disciples: for the desert does not make the monk, and moreover it cannot be doubted that some of the old ascetics were hermits [Eusebius, History, book VI, chapter IX, on Narcissus, p. 232; compare Examen historicum, p. 59.]. Nay, you will likewise have to deny this also of St. Hilarion and of St. Aones or Eugenius, of whom the former founded monasteries in Palestine Works of St. Jerome, edition of 1565, volume I, p. 246 and following., the other in Mesopotamia near Nisibis Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis, volume III, part II, p. 864 and following.. For both were disciples of St. Antony, and founded Lauras rather than cenobia: all of whom if you refuse to call monks, the whole of antiquity will stand against you. Certainly St. Athanasius called not only St. Antony and his disciples monks, but also the ascetics who had flourished in Egypt before St. Antony: "For not yet," he says Works, edition of 1627, volume I, p. 453. (when St. Antony entered the desert), "were monasteries so frequent in Egypt, nor had any monk at all known the vast desert; but whoever wished to be at leisure for himself exercised himself in solitude not far from his own village." But although in Egypt before St. Antony the ascetics were already called monks, elsewhere, however, long after

him, the former name persisted: which is easily made out from Basil and Gregory Nazianzen In Antonelli, Works of St. James of Nisibis, p. 118 and following., and likewise from the canons of the synod of Gangra, which was held between the year 362 and 370, as the brothers Ballerini have demonstrated [Appendix to the Works of St. Leo, p. XXV; compare the Works of St. Basil, edition of 1730, volume III, p. LII, column 2, c; and Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, volume I, column 371.].

[9] they are not undeservedly called monks. But to return now to the Companions of St. Varus: from the words of St. Athanasius, Baronius rightly called them monks, whom also the Basilian Menologion, in the place adduced above (no. 2), names ὁσίους; for the Greeks commonly reserve this appellation for holy monks. Yet perhaps it will not easily be admitted that they spent thirty years in the desert, as is written in the Acts (no. 3), on account of the passage of St. Athanasius just praised: but some exceptions are established by St. Jerome In the life of St. Paul the hermit. and by the writer of the Life of St. Pachomius Acta Sanctorum, volume III of May, p. 296, no. 1, and compare ibid., note g.. Let such a withdrawal into the Egyptian desert before St. Antony, then, have been very rare; let us nevertheless keep faith with the Acts.

[10] One of the seven seems to have died in the desert. There remains the last difficulty, which we said at the beginning of this § arises from the comparison of the calendars with the Acts. In the Basilian Menologion one of the seven hermits is asserted to have died in the prison itself, and the same thing is expressed clearly enough in the Menologion of Sirleto, and thence in the Roman Martyrology; but this assertion is contradicted by the Acts, both ours and those which Symeon Metaphrastes adorned from ours. "They were, moreover, six in number," say the former (no. 3); "for they had been seven while they were living apart in the desert... But one had died in the desert." And again at no. 4, the six present are questioned thus by the governor: "Where is the other, the seventh of you, who is most sought?" The seventh, therefore, was sought, but not found; he could not, therefore, have died in the prison.

§ II. On B. Cleopatra, who translated the body of St. Varus from Egypt into Palestine. On the relics of St. Varus and on the Acts to be published.

B. Cleopatra, formerly unknown to some hagiographers, In our Acts, after the martyrdom of St. Varus has been narrated, an ample place is held by the deeds of B. Cleopatra, Widow, who ordered the body of St. Varus to be carried off and hidden in her house until, peace having been restored to the church, she translated it to Palestine, of which she was a native. This Cleopatra is represented with her son, at the 20th of October, in the illustrated Ephemerides of the Muscovites published by Papebroch before the first volume of May. Of this image Papebroch speaks thus Volume I of May, p. XLVIII.: "Cleopatra, a nun (as he conjectures from the habit). She has here before her her little son, nobly clothed; but who she is and whose, I have not yet ascertained, nor any Saint of this name in the calendars of the Greeks seen so far. What if she underwent martyrdom under Batyrus, tyrant of Russia, and is a native?" Nor did Ignatius Kulczynski, of the Order of St. Basil, know more of B. Cleopatra, who, in the Specimen of the Ruthenian church published at Rome in the year 1733, added Animadversions on the figured Ephemerides of the Muscovites inserted in the Acta Sanctorum: for there, at the 20th day of October Part I, p. 54., he writes thus: "Of this St. Cleopatra I find nothing in my books: but I praise the conjecture of Papebroch, that she perhaps suffered martyrdom with her offspring, not under Batyrus, but under Batu, tyrant of the Tartars, who plundered Russia in the year 1241 and the following." The image of B. Cleopatra is wanting in Assemani in the Capponian Tables Kalendaria Ecclesiae, volume V, p. 310., but it will not be out of place to bring forward what the same comments on the one which is depicted in Papebroch: "The picture," he says, "represents Cleopatra with a virginal crown on her head, in the habit of nuns, holding a cross in her right hand, the left extended; having before her her little son nobly clad, also holding a small cross in his hand. In the same habit as Cleopatra are seen depicted (in Papebroch) in this same month, on the 28th day, Neonilla and Parasceve; on the 29th day Anastasia; on the 30th day Zenobia; in the month of July, on the 12th day, Euphemia; on the 15th day Julitta with her son Cyricus; on the 22nd day Mary; on the 25th day Anne. Of whom some were nuns, as Parasceve; others Virgins and Martyrs, as Neonilla, Anastasia, Euphemia; others neither Virgins nor Martyrs nor nuns, as Anne the mother of the Mother of God, Julitta and Mary Magdalene. Therefore from the habit which Cleopatra wears it seems that nothing certain can be gathered as to whether she was a nun or a Martyr."

[12] becomes known from the Acts. From our Acts all those doubts and conjectures about B. Cleopatra and her son vanish. The Greeks very often, when they venerate some Saint, defer other less known Saints, of whom mention is made in his Acts, to the following day. So, since in the Ephemerides of Papebroch P. XLVIII., as in the Capponian Tables Kalendaria, place cited, p. 308., St. Varus was represented at the 19th of October in military habit and bearing a cross in his hand, the Ephemerides refer B. Cleopatra with her son to the following day. And concerning Cleopatra the conclusion of Assemani is confirmed, that it cannot be gathered from the habit whether she was a nun or a martyr. For a martyr she certainly was not; but it was permissible with some right to depict her and her son holding a cross in hand for this reason, that they were most devoted to the martyr St. Varus. But why she is depicted in monastic habit our Acts teach at the last number: "She prepared, then, a great banquet and served those reclining at table with great joy and alacrity, and on the following day, the crowds being dismissed, she secluded herself in the martyrium" (or in the Church in which the body of St. Varus had been laid), "and she was there continually free for the ministry of prayers and calling upon the Lord." But Metaphrastes embellishes these things somewhat, unless he learned something from elsewhere, which is not likely: "Then also," he says Surius, volume V, Cologne edition, 1580, p. 953, chapter XIV., "when she had caused the mystical sacrifice to be performed, in which she was to be initiated, she invites to a sumptuous supper those who had been partakers with her of the sacred hymns. Then, when she had thus bidden the world farewell, and had brought all her riches into the treasuries which cannot be taken away, into the bellies of the poor, I say, and had clothed herself in a thin tunic, she ministered at the tomb of the Martyr; and so, being free for fasts and prayers," etc. From which words it is no wonder that B. Cleopatra was taken for a nun by the Muscovite painter.

[13] Her cult from the Acts and the Muscovite Ephemerides, That she, moreover, was venerated together with St. Varus and with her son is made out not from the Muscovite Ephemerides alone, but much more from the Acts, in which she is both distinguished by the title of Blessed and it is expressly stated that her memory is celebrated. The passage can be read below in Greek in the Acts (no. 19); in Latin we interpret it thus: "Seven years having elapsed, B. Cleopatra died and was buried beside them" (St. Varus and her own son) "in the martyrium: with whom may the Lord give a part to you also" (perhaps: to us), "as also to all who are gathered together to celebrate their memory" (namely of St. Varus, B. Cleopatra and her son). From which last words it is plain that these Acts were written to be recited on their feast day. Since, therefore, Cleopatra and her son were formerly venerated on the same day with St. Varus, and almost all the things which pertain to them are to be drawn from the Acts of the same Martyr, we rightly gather here whatever has become known about them; but at the following day, when they occur in the Muscovite Ephemerides, they will be recounted only among the Passed Over and referred to another day. It remains that we bring forward certain things about B. Cleopatra from the Menaea, where in the office of St. Varus, among the Prosomoia or like-melody Verses, in the third verse these words are had, translated from Greek into Latin.

[14] and her praises from the Menaea. "The wonderful Cleopatra, when she had anointed you, St. Varus, with spices, laid you under the earth and built a sacred house, holding a wondrous festival and entreating you with much confidence; whose little son you enrolled in the spiritual warfare and adorned with glory and brought into the choirs of the Saints." Then in the Canon, whose author, B. Joseph the Hymnographer, departed from life after a long life in the year 883 Acta Sanctorum, volume I of April, p. 169., Ode 7: "Shining with the beauty of contests, illustrious martyr, Cleopatra carried you away, obtaining glory from you as a recompense, namely of the confidence which she fervently professed towards you, showing a perfect mind. When the woman worthy of all veneration had poured out tears over you and anointed you with precious spices, she hid you in the earth, you who yourself consign the evil mind to the tomb and from your tomb illumine us. The woman ever to be remembered did not cease to serve you holily, servant of Christ, until you became for her a procurator of the kingdom of heaven; of which she was made worthy through you, with her most loving son." Ode 8: "Holy Martyr, having heard the maternal prayers, you enrolled that august boy in the splendid warfare of the heavens, and showed him, by ineffable love, made a partaker of your glory. Cleopatra carried you out of Egypt as a priceless treasure, you who enrich all Palestine, which venerates you with so great devotion, with the divine gifts of healings."

[15] No relics of St. Varus seem formerly to have been at Constantinople. The third Troparion of this Ode and the remaining Odes we omit, since they pertain to St. Varus alone or his Companions and teach nothing which we do not know from elsewhere. Only a few things occur in the ninth and last Ode about the relics of St. Varus, which, translated into Latin, sound thus: "Therefore we the faithful praise you, who from your remains copiously draw the gift of health.. By divine power the earth is sanctified in which your most valiant body lies." From the words which precede the interposed points (for that the latter are to be referred to Palestine is beyond doubt from the last Troparion of the number immediately preceding) you would say that some remains of St. Varus were present at Constantinople, where B. Joseph, the writer of the Canons, lived. Likewise Chrysostom delivered a homily on the Egyptian Martyrs Montfaucon edition, volume II, column 699. whose relics had been brought to the city in which he was preaching, and the learned judge it more probable that it was delivered at Constantinople than at Antioch, since such sacred things were very frequently transferred to the imperial city; I confess, moreover, that in a certain Coislin codex Montfaucon, Bibliotheca Coisliniana, codex 110. of the Paris Library I come upon the same homily copied after the Acts of St. Varus. But neither from St. Joseph the Hymnographer

nor from St. John Chrysostom may a certain argument be drawn by which you could prove that some relics of St. Varus were brought to Constantinople. For as concerns St. Chrysostom, he puts forward no name of the Martyrs in this homily, and indeed they are said, their backs and ribs torn, to have been condemned to the mines: which manifestly cannot be applied to ours, of whom we are treating. And the words of St. Joseph the Hymnographer are easily understood of the faithful generally, who flock together from every side into Palestine to venerate the relics of the holy Martyr. Moreover, the writers of the Acts, namely ours and Metaphrastes, make no mention of relics translated to Constantinople; and if this had been done, surely Metaphrastes, a citizen of Constantinople, could not have been ignorant of it.

[16] Our Acts are older than the Metaphrastic ones. Now briefly concerning the Acts, which we now publish for the first time, with a Latin interpretation added. These, namely, Henschen and Papebroch had copied in the year 1661, while they were staying at Rome, from the Vatican codex 866. We have indeed those of Symeon Metaphrastes too Compare Allacci, De Simeonibus, p. 127., the beginning of which we gave at no. 4, and of which mention has often fallen in this Commentary; but since from their comparison with the former it is manifest that Symeon had ours before his eyes, and, having contracted them here and there, adorned them with a neater style (as he was accustomed), we commit to print the older ones alone. For he added no fact which is lacking in ours, as anyone will find who will compare with ours the interpretation of the Metaphrastic writing which is presented in Surius at the 19th of October; so he will at the same time have thoroughly perceived the method which Metaphrastes used in adorning older acts, and about which there has been so much dispute on both sides [Compare Montfaucon, Palaeographia graeca, pp. 269, 273, 275; Honoré de Sainte-Marie, Animadversiones in regulas criticas, volume I, p. 203 and following.]: to which also the things which we shall presently bring forward in the Annotations to each chapter will contribute. We say that these Acts are older than the Metaphrastic for this reason, because they have certain things which could not have been drawn from Metaphrastes, as will be plain from the Annotations; next because after Metaphrastes, who obtained the highest esteem among the Greeks, new Acts of the same Martyrs were not composed, except perhaps certain rare homilies delivered by sacred orators in the form of a panegyric. Thirdly and finally, because the Metaphrastic Acts have the greatest affinity with ours, and since it is certain that our anonymous author could not have drawn all his material from Metaphrastes, it remains that we say, what has already been stated above, that Metaphrastes himself took ours as his exemplar. Nor does it please us to stop here: for if anyone will compare these Acts of ours with other most approved ones, for example those of SS. Tarachus, Probus and Andronicus, which were printed in volume V of October, he will readily agree that the former part was drawn from the best documents; so that these Acts seem to be reckoned among the most genuine (yet after the proconsular or presidial ones).

ΜΑΡΤΥΡΙΟΝ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΟΥΑΡΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΣΥΝ ΑΥΤΩ.

THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. VARUS AND HIS COMPANIONS.

From the Vatican codex 866, folio 121 and following.

Varus, soldier, martyr in Egypt. (S.)

His companions, ascetics, martyrs in Egypt. (SS.)

Cleopatra, widow, in Palestine. (S.)

Her son, confessor, in Palestine. (S.)

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.

Chapter I. Six hermits having been cast into prison, St. Varus succeeds in the place of the seventh, who had died before he was taken. The martyrdom of St. Varus.

Ἐγένετο ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Μαξιμιανοῦ γαμβροῦ Διοκλητιανοῦ, ἀπεστάλη πρόσταγμα παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐν πάσῃ γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ τοῖς κατὰ Μητρόπολιν ἡγεμόσιν, ὥστε πάντας τοὺς χριστιανοὺς ἐπιθύειν τοῖς θεοῖς καὶ ἀπολύεσθαι, τοὺς δὲ ἀντιλέγοντας τοῖς προστάγμασι μετ᾽ αἰκισμῶν καὶ βασάνων ποικίλων ξίφει καὶ πυρὶ ἀναιρεῖσθαι. Τοῦ δόγματος δὲ τουτοῦ καταλαβόντος, πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι ἔτρεχον ἐπὶ τὸν ἀγῶνα τῆς οὐρανίου κλήσεως· ἀνὴρ δέ τις τῶν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ἱδρυμένων ἀριθμῶν ἐτύγχανεν ὀνόματι Οὐάρος, τίμιος ἐν τῇ στρατιᾷ καὶ τῶν πρώτων εἷς, εὐσεβῆς δὲ καὶ φοβούμενος τὸν Κύριον ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας αὐτοῦ· ὃς κατὰ νύκτα κρυφέως ἠγείρετο καὶ προσέπιπτεν τοῖς ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ ἠσφαλισμένοις, καὶ τοῖς αἵμασιν αὐτῶν ἐσφράγιζεν αὐτοῦ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ τὰ στήθη· ἐφοβεῖτο γὰρ ὁμολογῆσαι τὸν Χριστὸν φανερῶς, ἵνα μὴ κακῶς ἀπολεῖται· θανατὸς γὰρ αἴσχιστος ὥριστο κατὰ τῶν εὐρισκομένων ἐν τῇ πίστει ταύτῃ, ὧν οἱ μὲν τῷ πυρὶ κατακαίοντο, οἱ δὲ ἐν τοῖς λέβησιν ἐῤῥίπτοντο, ἄλλοι δὲ διαφόροις βασάνοις καὶ αἰκισμοῖς ἀνηλίσκοντο· μέθη γὰρ δεινὴ καὶ ἀχλὺς ἐπέκειτο τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, σκότος δὲ καὶ γνόφος εἶχεν τὰς ψυχὰς αὐτῶν, ὥστε μηδὲ τὸ σὐμφορον κατανοεῖν.

[2] Συλλεφθέντων δὲ τίνων ἁγίων ἀπὸ τῆς ἐρήμου, ἀπὸ χρόνου ἱκανοῦ ἀποδράντων τὴν ἐπιβουλὴν τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἠγγέλθη τῷ ἄρχοντι ὅτι δὲ διδάσκαλοι τῆς τῶν χριστιανῶν πίστεως παρέστησαν καὶ ἔξω εἰσιν χειροπέδαις δεδεμένοι. Τότε περιχαρὴς γενόμενος ὁ ἀσεβέστατος ἡγεμὼν ἐκέλευσεν ἀσφαλισθέντας αὐτοὺς, προσαχθῆναι τῇ ἑξῆς καὶ ἐτοιμασθῆναι τὰς στρεβλώσεις, καὶ τὸ ξύλον. Παραδοθέντες οὖν τοῖς δημίοις ἐνεβλήθησαν ἐν τῇ ἐσωτέρᾳ φυλακῇ, οἱ δὲ καὶ τοὺς πόδας αὐτῶν εἰς τὸ ξύλον ἠσφαλίσαντο. Ὀὐάρος δὲ, γνοὺς ὅτι ἐν πολλῇ ἀναγκῇ εἰσιν οἱ περίφημοι ἅγιοι, χρήματα τοῖς φυλάσσουσι δέδωκεν, καὶ εἰσελθὼν νυκτὸς ἔλυσεν αὐτῶν τὰς ἀλύσεις, καὶ τοὺς πόδας αὐτῶν ἀφῆκεν ἐκ τοῦ ξύλου καὶ πεσὼν προσεκύνησεν αὐτοῖς· καὶ δεηθεὶς αὐτῶν, ἔπεισεν αὐτοὺς μεταλαβεῖν τροφῆς, ἡμέρας γὰρ ὄκτω εἶχον νηστεύοντες· καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· δέομαι ὑμων, ἅγιοι μάρτυρες δοῦλοι τοῦ Χριστοῦ, αὔριον ἔχετε τελειωθῆναι ὑπὸ τῶν πονηρῶν ἀνθρώπων τούτων, ἀλλὰ δεήθητε τοῦ σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ, ἵνα δόῃ μοι μέρος μετὰ τῆς καρτερίας ὑμῶν· ἀνὴρ γὰρ εἰμὶ στρατιώτης τῶν ἐν τῇ στρατίᾳ ἐπισήμων, χριστιανὸς καὶ τῶν ἁγίων δοῦλος, ἀλλὰ φοβοῦμαι ὁμολογῆσαι, ἵνα μὴ ἀπολλύωμαι κακῶς· οἶδα γὰρ οἵῳ τέλει παρεδόθησαν οἱ ἐν τῇ πίστει ταύτῃ ληφθέντες, ἀλλ᾽ εὔξασθε ἵνα ἀπέλθῃ ὁ χειμῶν οὗτος κατὰ τῶν χριστιανῶν καὶ φανῶμεν οἱ τῷ Χριστῷ πεπιστευκότες.

[3] Λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ ἁγίοι· οὐδεὶς θερίζει, ἒαν μὴ τῷ χειμῶνι σπείρῃ, οὐδεὶς φοβούμενος τελειοῦται, καὶ μάλιστα τοῦ Χριστοῦ βοῶντος καὶ λέγοντος· ἀμὴν, λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐὰν μὴ τις ὁμολογήσοιεν ἐμοὶ ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, οὔδε ἐγὼ ὁμολογήσω αὐτὸν ἒμπροσθεν τοῦ πατρός μου τοῦ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· δεῦρο οὖν συνόδευσον ἡμῖν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν· τοιαύτην γὰρ συνοδίαν οὐκ εὐρίσκῃς· Διαλεγομένων δὲ αὐτῶν, ἰδοῦ ἐπεισέρχονται στρατιῶται ὀφείλοντες λαβεῖν τοὺς ἁγίους εἰς τὴν ἀγώγιμον δίκην, καὶ εὐρίσκουσιν Ὀὐάρον φιλοῦντα τοὺς πόδας αὐτῶν κλαίοντα, καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ στρατιῶται· μαίνῃ, ἄνθρωπε, οὐ φοβῇ μὴ πως ἀναγγέλθῃ τῷ ἡγεμόνι ὅτι χριστιανὸς τυγχάνεις, καὶ τὸν βαθμόν σου καὶ τὴν ψύχην σου κακῶς ἀπολέσῃ; λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Οὐάρος· γένητό μοι χριστιανὸν εὐρεθῆναι, καὶ μετὰ τούτων διαπαντὸς· τίς δέ με καταμηνύσει, φίλων μου ὑμῶν ὄντων καὶ ἑτέρων; καὶ ἕλκουσι τοὺς ἁγίους οἱ στρατιῶται, ἀλύσεσι τὰς χεῖρας καὶ τοὺς τραχείλους δήσαντες· ἦσαν δὲ ἓξ τὸν ἀριθυὸν· ἑπτὰ γὰρ ἦσαν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ἀποταξάμενοι ἀπὸ τριάκοντα ἔτων, θηρίοις καὶ ἑρπετοῖς συνδιατρίβοντες, καὶ ἀληθῶς, κατὰ τὸ εἰρημένον, ἐπὶ ἀσπίδα καὶ βασιλίσκον ἐπιβαίνοντες καὶ καταπατοῦντες λέοντα καὶ δράκοντα· ἀλλὰ εἷς ἐτελειώθη ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τὸν δρόμον τετελεκὼς καὶ τὴν πίστιν τετηρηκώς.

[4] Δημοσίᾳ οὖν καθίσας ὁ ἡγεμὼν, δήμου πολλοῦ, στρατιωτῶν καὶ ἰωτῶν * κυκλωσάντων αὐτὸν, ἐκέλευσεν τοὺς ἁγίους ἀχθῆναι, καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς· ποίας τύχης ἐστέ; καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· χριστιανοί· λέγει αὐτοῖς· πόθεν ἐστέ καὶ τίνων παῖδες; λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· πατρίδα οὐκ ἔχομεν ἐπὶ γῆς· εἰ δὲ ἀληθῶς τὴν πόλιν ἡμῶν θέλεις καταμαθεῖν, πίστευσον εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν· ἡ γὰρ πατρὶς τῶν χριστιανῶν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ᾠκοδόμηται· καὶ παλὶν λέγει πρὸς αὐτοὺς· πόθεν ἐστέ, καὶ πῶς λέγεσθε, εἴπατε, ἐπεὶ ὄμνυμι τοὺς θεοὺς πάντας τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ὅτι ζῶντας ὑμᾶς διαχειρίσομαι καὶ κυσὶν κελεύσω κατεσθίειν τὰ σπλάχνα ὑμῶν· οἱ δὲ λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· τὴν μὲν ἀπειλήν σου οὐ φοβούμεθα, εἴπαμεν δὲ σοι ὅτι ξενοί ἐσμεν καὶ παρεπίδημοι, καθὼς πάντες οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν· λέγει ὁ ἡγεμῶν· μιὰν μελετὴν ἔχουσιν οἱ κολάσιμοι οὗτοι, τοιγαροῦν γυμνωθέντες τυπτέσθωσαν. Τυπτομένων δὲ αὐτῶν, λέγει αὐτοῖς· ποῦ ὁ ἕβδομος ἕτερος ὑμῶν, ὁ μάλιστα καὶ ζητούμενος; καὶ εὐθέως ἀποπηδήσας ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄχλου ὁ ἅγιος Οὐάρος ἔστηκε μέσον καὶ λέγει· ἐκεῖνος ἐτελειώθη, ἐμὲ δὲ ἐνεστήσατο ἀντ᾽ αὐτοῦ κληρονόμον τῆς αὐτοῦ ὑπομονῆς· εἴ τι οὖν χρεωστεῖ ἐκεῖνος, ἔστηκα ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ πληρῶν, τὰ γὰρ ἐπιφερόμενα τοῖς πατράσιν οἱ κληρονόμοι ἀποτιννύουσιν.

[5] Καὶ θυμωθεὶς ὁ ἡγεμῶν λέγει· τίς ἐστιν οὗτος; λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· στρατιώτης, καὶ τῶν πρώτων εἷς. ὁ δὲ λέγει· ἐν ποίῳ ἀριθμῷ ἀναφέρεται· λέγουσιν αὐτῷ· ἐν Τυάνων τῇ πόλει· λέγει ὁ ἡγεμῶν τῷ ἁγίῳ Οὐάρῳ· οὗτοι σ᾽ ἐπλάνησαν ἀπολέσαι σου τὸν ἀριθμὸν καὶ τὰς ἀννώνας μεγάλας οὔσας, καὶ ἀπολέσθαι κακῶς; λέγει αὐτῷ Οὐάρος· ἀπὸ πολλῶν ἐνιαυτῶν ἀποτρέφομαι ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν ἀννώνων , καὶ οὐδέποτε ἐνεπλήσθην· πάλιν γὰρ ἐπείνουν ἐξ αὐτῶν τρώγων, ηὖρον δὲ ἀννώνας ἐκείνων πολὺ κρείττους· λέγει ὁ ἡγεμῶν· ποίας ταύτας; λέγει αὐτῷ· τὸν ἄρτον τὸν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καταβάντα, καὶ ζωὴν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις παράσχοντα· ἔχω δὲ ἀντι τοῦ οἴνου, τοῦ μεθὴν καὶ κατηβαρίαν ἐργαζομένου, τὸ ποτήριον τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τὸ πήγην ἀθανασίας πάρεχον τοῖς μεταλαμβάνουσι· ἀντὶ δὲ τῶν κρεῶν, τῶν φθορὰν ποιούντων, ἔχω τὰς σάρκας τοῦ ἀμώμου καὶ ἀσπίλου ἄμνου, τοῦ αἵροντος τὰς ἀμαρτίας τοῦ κόσμου.

[6] Λέγει ὁ ἡγεμῶν τοῖς ἅγίοις· οὐχ ὑμεῖς ἐστέ οἱ προάγοντες αὐτὸν ἐλθεῖν εἰς ταῦτα; καὶ ἰδοῦ ἀπολέσατε τοιοῦτον στρατιώτην τοῦ βασιλέως· ὄμνυμι τοὺς μεγίστους θεοὺς ὅτι τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμῶν κακῶς πρὸ αὐτοῦ ἀπολέσω. Λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ ἁγίοι· ἄφρων! τοῖς ἀγγέλοις ἐστρατολογήσαμεν αὐτὸν καὶ ἔγνως παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ τὰ σωτήρια ὀψόνια τῆς στρατίας· μικρὸν δὲ ἀνάμεινον καὶ ὄψει τῆς στρατίας τὴν ἀνδρείαν. Λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ ἡγεμῶν· ποίαν ἀνδρείαν τῶν κολασίμων; λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ ἅγιοι· τί ἀνδρειότερον ἑνὸς νικῶντος σε τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς ἀπολείας καὶ τὰ στρατεύματά σου, τὰ μικρὸν ὕστερον ἅμα σοι ἀφανιζόμενα; Λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ ἡγεμῶν· τὰ σώματα ὑμῶν ἄρτι ἀφανίζω, ἐὰν μὴ πεσόντες τοῖς θεοῖς προσκυνήσητε. Λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ ἅγιοι· θεοὶ οἱ τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν μὴ ποιήσαντες ἀπολέσθωσαν ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς γῆς, ὅτι πάντες οἱ θεοὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν δαιμόνια εἰσὶν, ὁ δὲ Κύριος τοὺς οὐρανοὺς ἐποίησεν. Λέγει αὐτῷ Οὐάρος· τί κόπους παρέχεις τοῖς ἁγίοις φλυαρῶν, τῆς ὀμολογίας

ἀνάξιος ὢν; ἰδοῦ πρόκεινται σοι ἡπλωμένοι, ποίει ὃ βούλει. Λέγει ὁ ἡγεμῶν· ὁ ἐμὸς σκοπός ἐστιν, ἵνα ἀπολέσω πάντας τοὺς μὴ λατρεύοντας τοῖς θεοῖς τῶν Αἰγυπτίων· φείσασθε οὖν ἑαυτῶν καὶ ἀπαλλάγητε τῶν ἡτοιμασμένων ὑμῖν δεινῶν. Λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Οὐάρος· τὰ ἡτοιμασμένα ἡμῖν παρὰ σου, δίκην ἀράχνης, διαλύεται· τὰ δὲ ἡτοιμασμένα σοι καὶ πάντι τῷ οἴκῳ σου, τέλος οὐκ ἔχει.

[7] Καὶ θυμωθεὶς ὁ ἡγεμῶν ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ ξύλου ἀναστηθῆναι, καὶ λέγει τοῖς ἁγίοις· ἐὰν μοῦ περιγένησθε, μανεὶς ἀρνήσομαι τοὺς θεοὺς. Λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ ἁγίοι· δοκίμασον τέως τὴν σὴν δύναμιν ἐν τῷ ἐνὶ τῶν προκειμένων, καὶ ἐὰν αὐτὸν νικήσης γνώθι ὅτι καὶ ἡμᾶς καταβάλεις. Λέγει τῷ ἁγίῳ Οὐάρῳ ὁ ἡγεμῶν· μὰ τὴν ἐμὴν κεφαλὴν, ἐξ ὧν πάσχεις κακῶν, ἀσφαλίσονται οἱ λοίποι στρατιῶται μὴ καταλιμπάνειν τοὺς ἰδίους θεοὺς, καὶ προσκυνεῖν ὅν προσκυνεῖτε Χριστὸν. Λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Οὐάρος· ὅμοιος γένοιο τοῖς θεοῖς σου, σὺ καὶ πάντες οἱ πεποιθότες ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς, τοῖς μὴ λαλοῦσιν, μήτε ἀκούουσιν, μήτε ὀρῶσιν, μήτε κινομένοις· καὶ θυμωθεὶς ὁ ἡγεμῶν ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὸν κατενεχθῆναι ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου, καὶ ταθῆναι λώροις καὶ ῥοπάλοις ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων πλευρῶν αὐτοῦ κατακοπῆναι. Ὅτε δὲ ἢρξαντο αὐτὸν τύπτειν, λέγει ὁ Οὐάρος τοῖς ἁγίοις· εὐλογήσατε τὸν δοῦλον ὑμῶν, ἅγιοι πατέρες, καὶ εὔξασθε ἐνδυναμωθῆναι μὲ, πρώτος σβέσαι * τὸν θυμὸν καὶ τὰς βασάνους τοῦ δυσσεβοῦς τούτου. Καὶ ἀνατείναντες οἱ ἁγίοι ἄνω τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς εἶπον· εὐλογητὸς εἶ, Κύριε, ὁ τοὺς ὑπέρ σου πάσχοντας στεφανῶν διαδήματι τῆς ὑπομονῆς· δερόμενος δὲ ἐπὶ πολὺ ὁ ἅγιος Οὐάρος λέγει τοῖς ἁγίοις· μὴ ταραχθῆτε· οἶδεν γὰρ ἡ ἁγία ὑμῶν εὐχὴ, ὅτι ἐρέων αἰσθάνομαι καταφερομένων μάλλον ἢ τῶν ροπάλων.

[8] Λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ ἡγεμῶν· τί ἄρτι ὠφελήθης, ἄθλιε; λέγει αὐτῷ Οὐάρος· τοσοῦτον ὠφελήθην ὃσον σὺ ἐζημιώθης. Λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ ἡγεμῶν· οἱ πλάνοι οὗτοι σέ ἐδίδαξαν τοιαῦτα λαλεῖν. Λέγει αὐτῷ Οὐάρος· οὐδέποτε πλάνοι πραγματεύοντες σωτηρίαν, ἀλλ᾽ ἀγαθοὶ ὄντες καὶ ἄφθονοι εὐεργέται, ἐκ τοῦ ἰδίου θησαυροῦ προσήνεγκαν μοὶ τὴν εὐεργεσίαν ταύτην· ὁ δὲ πλάνος καὶ γόης σὺ εἶ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἀνεχόμενοι τῆς σῆς ἀφροσύνης· καὶ χολάσας ὁ ἡγεμῶν ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὸν πάλιν προσαχθῆναι τῷ ξύλῳ, καὶ ξέεσθαι ἐντόνως τὰς πλεύρας αὐτοῦ. Ὥς δὲ εἶδον τὰς πλεύρας τοῦ ἁγίου Οὐάρου οἱ ἁγίοι ἐπὶ πολλὰς ὥρας ξεομένας, λέγουσιν τῷ ἡγεμόνι· ἀσεβέστατε, λίθοις τῶν ἀκροτόμων οὐκ ἀνήλισκες οὕτως ἀποξέων; λέγει ὁ ἡγεμῶν· ἔλθῃ ὁ Χριστὸς ὑμῶν, καὶ ῥύσεται αὐτὸν. Λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Οὐάρος· μὴ γένοιτο μοὶ ῥυσθῆναι ἐκ τῶν βασάνων τούτων, τῶν ἀεὶ μοὶ ἀνάπαυσιν παρεχούσων· τῶν γὰρ μελλούσων ἤδη εῤῥύσαντό με. Καὶ τρίσας τοὺς ὀδόντας ὁ ἀσεβῆς ἐκέλευσεν κατὰ τοῦ ἥπατος αὐτοῦ τυφθῆναι, εἰπὼν· ἐξενέγκατε αὐτῷ τὰ σπλάγχνα, ὁρῶντος αὐτοῦ· λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Οὐάρος· υἱὲ διαβόλου καὶ ἐχθρὲ πάσης δικαιοσύνης, τὰ μὲν σπλάχνα μου ἐξελέγκαι δύνῃ, τὴν δὲ πίστιν μου ἀποσυλῆσαι οὐκ ἰσχύσεις.

[9] Ἰδόντες δὲ οἱ ἅγιοι τὴν κοιλίαν αὐτοῦ ῥισσομένην, ἔκλαυσαν, καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ τύραννος· βλέπετε ὅτι ἥττηθε, καὶ διὰ τὶ κλαίετε καὶ λυπεῖσθε, εἰ ἀληθῶς ἀθανασίαν ἡγεῖσθε τὸν δι᾽ ἐμοῦ θανατόν; Λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ ἅγιοι· κλαίομεν διὰ τὴν συμπάθειαν τὸ θηριῶδες καὶ ἀπάνθρωπον παραιτούμενοι, γελῶμεν δὲ καὶ ἑορτάζομεν εἰδότες ὅτι διὰ τῶν ὀλίγων στρεβλώσεων τὴν αἰώνιαν ἀπόλαυσιν κληρονομοῦμεν· καὶ θυμωθεὶς παλὶν ὁ ἡγεμῶν, ἐκείνους μὲν συλληφθῆναι εἰς τὸ δεσμωτήριον εἰς κόλασιν τηρουμένους, Οὐάρον δὲ πρὸς τὸ βασανισθῆναι ἐπὶ τοῦ ξύλου πάλιν. Ἰδὼν δὲ ὁ ἅγιος Οὐάρος ἀλύσεσι συρομένους λέγει αὐτοῖς μεγαλῇ τῇ φωνῇ· παραθέσθε με, ἅγιοι ἀθληταὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ θαρσεῖτε, ὅτι οὐ μὴ ἀποκριθήσομαι τῷ ἀσεβῇ τούτῳ ἄχρι λόγου ἑνὸς, οὐδ᾽ οὐ ἀνοίξω τὸ στόμα μου πρὸς αὐτὸν· ἀλλ᾽ ἰδοῦ πορεύομαι πρὸς τὸν Δεσπότην μου, εὐχαριστῶν ὑμῖν προξένοις γενομένοις τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς. Βασανισθεὶς δὲ ἐπὶ ὥρας πέντε ἀφῆκεν τὸ πνεῦμα· ἔμειναν δὲ οἱ βασανίζοντες … αὐτὸν ἔτι ἐμπνέειν, ἰδόντες δὲ ὅτι νεκρὸν σῶμα ᾔκιζον, λέγουσιν τῷ ἡγεμόνι· ἀπὸ πολλῆς ὥρας τέθνηκεν, ποῦ οὖν κελεύεις τεθῆναι τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ; λέγει αὐτοῖς· κατενεχθεὶς συρέσθω ἔξω τῆς πόλεως καὶ ῥυπτέσθω τοῖς κυσίν. Κατενέγκαντες δὲ αὐτὸν ἔσυραν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἔῤῥιψαν αὐτὸν ὅπου τὰ θνησιμαῖα ἐῤῥίπτοντο τῶν ἀλόγων ζωῶν.

In the persecution of Galerius Maximian In the days of Maximian, who was the son-in-law ^a of Diocletian, an edict ^b was sent forth by him into all Egypt, directed to those who governed in the metropolis ^c, namely that all Christians should sacrifice to the gods; if they did so, they should at once be freed, but if they contradicted the edicts, they should be put to death by sword and fire after scourgings and other torments. When that edict had become known, all the Saints ran to the contest to which heaven was calling them ^d. In the cohorts of soldiers which were stationed in Egypt there was a man by the name of Varus, honoured in the army and one of the chief men, but conspicuous for piety and fearing the Lord with his whole heart. He, rising by night, used to prostrate himself before those who had been thrust into prison, and with their blood signed his eyes and breast ^e. For he feared to confess Christ publicly, lest he should perish miserably, since a most shameful death had been decreed against those who were caught in this faith; of whom some were burned with fire, others were thrown into cauldrons, others finally were consumed by various torments and punishments. For a grievous stupor and darkness had come upon men, and their souls were wrapped in darkness, so that they did not even consider what was for their salvation.

[2] six hermits of Egypt are handed over to prison, Then certain Saints were taken from the desert ^f, who for a long time had escaped the plots of impious men; and when it was announced to the governor that teachers of the Christian faith were present and standing at the doors with their hands bound, the most impious man, greatly rejoicing, ordered them to be handed over to prison, and torments and the stocks ^g to be prepared, and that they be brought forth on the following day ^h. Handed over, then, to the executioners, they were thrown into the inner prison, and these fixed their feet in the stocks. But Varus, having learned of the great want of these distinguished Saints, gave money to the guards, and, entering by night, having loosed their chains ⁱ and freed their feet from the stocks, fell down and venerated them. He also suppliantly urged them to take food from him, since they had now remained fasting for eight days; then: "Holy Martyrs," he said, "servants of Christ, tomorrow your life will be taken from you by these faithless men; pray Christ the Saviour that he may make me a partaker of your fortitude. For I am a man given to military service and distinguished in the army, a Christian indeed and a servant of the saints; but I fear to confess the feelings of my mind, lest I perish miserably. For I know to what death those have been handed over who have been caught in this faith; but pray that the troubled time hanging over the Christians may vanish, and that we may be able to make it manifest that we believe in Christ."

[3] and in the place of the seventh, who had died in the desert, The Saints say to him: "No one reaps unless he has sown in the troubled time ^k; no one subject to fear consummates martyrdom, especially since Christ cries out and says: 'Amen, amen, I say to you, if anyone does not confess me before men, neither will I confess him before my Father who is in heaven.' Come then, be our companion on the journey to heaven; for such a journey, which we might accomplish together, could scarcely befall you otherwise." And while they were conversing, behold, the soldiers come upon them who had been ordered to lead the Saints to the judicial proceeding, and they catch Varus kissing their feet with weeping, and they say to him: "You are mad, man; do you not fear lest it be announced to the governor that you are a Christian, and so you miserably lose your rank and your life together?" Varus says to them: "Would that I may be found a Christian and not be torn away from these for ever! But who will expose me, since you are my friends, and others likewise?" The soldiers, then, after they had bound the hands and neck of those Saints with chains, drag them from the place. They were six in number; for they had been seven while they were living apart in the desert, having spent thirty years among wild beasts and reptiles, truly, as it has been said, walking upon the asp and the basilisk and trampling the lion and the dragon; but one had died in the desert ^l, his course consummated and the faith kept.

[4] St. Varus is substituted. When, therefore, the governor had sat in public, surrounded by a multitude of the people and of soldiers ^m, he ordered the Saints to be brought, and said to them: "Of what condition are you?" They say to him: "Christians." He said to them: "Whence are you and from what parents born?" They say to him: "We have no fatherland on earth; but if you truly wish to know our city, believe in Christ, for the fatherland of Christians is built in heaven." And he says again to them: "Whence are you, and how are you called? Answer, for I swear by all the gods of the Egyptians ⁿ, I will butcher you alive and give your entrails to the dogs to be devoured ^o." They say to him: "Your threats indeed we do not fear; but we have told you that we are strangers and sojourners, as all our fathers were." Then the governor said: "These criminals have one and the same mind; let them therefore be stripped and beaten with stripes." And after they had been beaten, he says to them: "Where is the other, the seventh of you, who is most sought?" And at once St. Varus, leaping out of the crowd, stood in the midst, saying: "He has departed from life, but he has constituted me heir of his endurance. If therefore he owes anything, I am here to pay it for him; for heirs discharge the debts of their fathers."

[5] St. Varus The governor, moved, said: "Who is this?" They say to him: "He is a soldier and one of the chief men." He said again: "To what cohort [p] is he enrolled?" They say to him: "That of the city of the Tyanians [q]." The governor says to St. Varus: "Have these men led you away into this, that you should lose your place in the cohort and a ration that is certainly abundant, and should at length perish miserably?" Varus says to him: "For many years I have fed on that ration, and I have never been satisfied; for eating it I hungered again [r]; but I have found a ration much better than these. " The governor says: "What kind?" He said to him: "The bread which came down from heaven and gives life to men; and in place of wine, which works drunkenness and heaviness of the head, I have the cup of the blood of Christ, which opens a fountain of immortality to those who drink of it; in place of meats, which generate corruption, I have the flesh of the pure and spotless Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world."

who led him on to such things? Behold, you have lost so great a soldier of the emperor. I swear by the greatest gods, I will miserably destroy your life for his loss." The Saints say to him: "Senseless man! We have enrolled him with the Angels, and you have already learned from him the saving rations of our warfare; but wait a little and you will see also the fortitude of this warfare." The governor says to them: "What fortitude in men about to be handed over to punishment?" The Saints answer him: "What is braver than he who conquers you, the prince of perdition, and your garrisons, which will perish with you not long hence?" The governor says to them: "Behold, I shall presently destroy your bodies, unless you fall down and adore the gods." The Saints say to him: "Let the gods who did not make heaven and earth perish from the face of the earth, for all the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens." Varus says to him: "Why do you cause annoyance to these Saints by chattering, you who are not worthy of confession? Behold, they lie stretched out before you; do what you will." The governor says: "My aim is to destroy all who do not adore the gods of the Egyptians. Take care therefore for yourselves and avoid the punishments prepared for you." Varus says to him: "The things which have been prepared by you for us vanish like a spider's web; but those prepared for you and your whole house will have no end."

[7] St. Varus And the governor, angered, ordered him to be bound fast in the stocks on the scaffold. And to the Saints he says: "If you overcome me, I will deny the gods out of rage." The Saints say to him: "Try how much you can do on one of those who are here before you, and if you overcome him, know that you have cast us down too [s]." The governor says to St. Varus: "By my head, from the things which you suffer the other soldiers will be strengthened not to abandon their own gods, and not to adore the Christ whom you adore." Varus says to him: "May you become like your gods, you and all who trust in them, who neither speak nor hear nor see nor move." And the governor, angered, ordered him to be loosed from the stocks, and stretched with thongs, and beaten with scourges from four sides [t]. And when they began to beat him, Varus says to the Saints: "Bless your servant, holy fathers, and pray that I may be strengthened and may be the first to overcome the anger and the torments of this impious man." And the Saints, lifting up their eyes, said: "Blessed art thou, O Lord, who crownest with the diadem of patience those who suffer for thee." Then St. Varus, flayed in great part, says to the Saints: "Be not troubled, for your holy piety knows that I feel wool laid upon me rather than scourges [u]."

[8] various torments The governor says to him: "What profit has now befallen you from these things, wretch?" Varus says to him: "As great a profit as there is punishment for you." The governor says to him: "These seducers have taught you to speak such things." Varus says to him: "By no means are they seducers who work salvation, but, being good and liberally beneficent, they have conferred that benefit on me from their own treasure; but you are a seducer and an enchanter, you and all the abettors of your madness." And the governor, indignant, ordered him to be placed again in the stocks and his sides to be sharply torn. And the Saints, when they saw the sides of St. Varus being torn for very many hours, say to the governor: "Most impious man, would you not destroy the stones of the crags, tearing them so?" The governor says: "Let your Christ come, and he will free him." Varus says to him: "May it not befall me to be freed from these torments, which will give me eternal rest; for they themselves have already freed me from those to come." Then the impious man, gnashing his teeth, ordered him to be beaten on the liver: "Take out his entrails," he said, "while he himself looks on." Varus says to him: "Son of the devil and enemy of all justice, you can indeed take away my entrails, but you are not so powerful as to be able to strip me of my faith."

[9] having suffered, he expires. And the Saints, seeing his belly torn apart, were weeping; and the tyrant says to them: "Behold, you are conquered; and why do you mourn and lament, if you truly reckon the death inflicted by me to be immortality?" The Saints say to him: "We mourn out of compassion, deploring what is savage and inhuman; but we laugh and as it were keep festival, seeing that through a few torments we shall acquire everlasting enjoyment." And the governor, angered again, ordered them to be led away to prison, to be kept for punishment, but Varus to be driven to new torments in the stocks. And St. Varus, seeing them dragged away in chains, says to them with a loud voice: "Remember me, holy athletes of Christ, and be of good courage; for now I will not answer this impious man even a word, nor open my mouth. But behold, I go to my Lord, blessing you, who have become for me procurators of eternal life." And when he had endured torments for five hours, he gave up his spirit; and the torturers, thinking that he was still breathing, went on torturing; but seeing that they were harassing a dead body, they say to the governor: "He has been dead a long time; whither then do you order his body to be carried?" He says: "Take him down, and let him be dragged outside the city, and there let him be thrown to the dogs." And having taken him down they dragged him outside the city and threw him into the place where the carcasses of brute animals were cast.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Ἀριθμός, number, cohort. Metaphrastes has τάγμα, which is the same, as is plain from Sozomen, book I, chapter 8: τὰ Ῥωμαίων τάγματα, ἅ νῦν ἀριθμοὺς καλοῦσιν. Surius, chapter 3, must therefore be emended: "From what legion he is."

q. Ἐν Τυάνοις or Τυάνων. Metaphrastes has thus: τάγματος μὲν τοῦ ἐκ Τυάνων. But Surius: "From the legion indeed of Tyana"; but it should be translated: "From the cohort of Tyana," or "which is from Tyana." For cohorts were frequently named from the city in which they were enrolled, not so legions. Tyana is indeed a quite well-known city of Cappadocia, but it is likely that the Tyana of Egypt is here in question, of which mention is made in Stephanus the geographer.

r. These words Metaphrastes omits, and he dispatches briefly what follows. So often in these Acts he has comprised long conversations in a few words.

s. Here Metaphrastes softens what in our Acts is rather rude: δοκίμασόν σου τέως τὴν δυναστείαν εὐρήκασιν ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἡμῶν ἀδελφοῦ, καὶ εἴγε τούτου κρείττων ὀφθῆς, τότε τάχα καὶ ἐφ᾽ ἧμῶν χρηστῶν οὐκ ἀμοιρήσεις

ἐλπίδων: "Try on this our brother what you can do, and if you prove superior to him, then perhaps you will not be deprived of good hope against us too." Ἐν τῷ ἐνὶ τῶν προκειμένων in our Acts Metaphrastes interprets of St. Varus, which interpretation certain things favour, but they could also be understood of any one of the companions.

t. "He ordered him ... to be beaten from four sides": ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων πλευρῶν, literally "from the four sides"; whence Metaphrastes deduces that four men were present: διὰ τεσσάρων ἑλκόμενον ῥοπάλοις ἀνδρῶν συνθλᾶσθαι: "to be dragged by four men and beaten with clubs."

u. Metaphrastes has these words somewhat otherwise, from Hervet's version in Surius, chapter 5: "For behold, your prayers, which have persuaded God, have made the harsh torments smooth and light, and have changed annoyance into refreshment, so that I do not even feel the blows."

* Perhaps θωπῶν.

* The codex has Τυάνοιο, perhaps Τυάνοις.

* The codex has ἀνόμων.

* σβέσω.

Chapter II. The martyrdom of the Companions of St. Varus. B. Cleopatra, peace having been restored to the church, carries his body into Palestine. The happy death of B. Cleopatra and her son.

Κλεοπάτρα δέ τις γυνὴ ἐκ τῆς Παλεστίνης ὁρμαμένη, εὐσεβὴς καὶ φοβουμένη τὸν Κύριον, ἐσημειοῦτο τὸν ἀγιώτατον βασανιζόμενον· ἥτις καὶ ἔκλαιεν πικρῶς, καὶ κατασταραττομένη τὸ στῆθος, ἐφοβεῖτο ὁμολογῆσαι ὅτι χριστιανὴ ἦν. Λαβοῦσα οὖν νύκτωρ τοὺς παίδας αὐτῆς, καὶ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς δώδεκα ἔτων ὄντα, ἔκλεψεν τὸ σῶμα τοῦ ἁγίου, καὶ ὀρύξασα ὑποκάτω τῆς κλινῆς αὐτῆς ἔκρυψεν αὐτὸν, ἀλίψασα μύρῳ καὶ περιβαλοῦσα αὐτὸν ἐσθῆτι πολυτελῇ, ἔμεινεν πάσαν θεραπείαν αὐτοῦ ποιουμένη. Τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον ὁ δυσσεβὴς ἡγεμῶν ἐκέλευσεν παραστῆναι τοὺς ἁγίους τοὺς ὄντας ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ· σταθέντων δὲ αὐτῶν ἒμπροσθεν τοῦ ἡγεμόνος, λέγει αὐτοῖς· ἑωράκατε οἵῳ τέλει παρεδόθη Οὐάρος ὁ ὑμέτερος μαθητὴς, καὶ ὅπως αὐτοῦ περιεγενόμην αἰκίσας μεχρὶ θανάτου; ἔτι δὲ καὶ τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ θηρίοις ἀγρίοις παραδοθῆναι ἐπέτρεψα, πρὸς τὸ μὴδε λείψανον αὐτοῦ εὑρεθῆναι· πιστεύθητε οὖν μοι, καὶ θύσατε τοῖς θεοῖς, ἵνα μὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς κακῶς ἀπολεῖσθε. Λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ ἅγιοι· Οὐάρος ὁ ἡμέτερος ἀδελφὸς ἐνίκησέν σου τὴν κακότεχνον γνώμην, περιεγένετο τῶν ἀπειλῶν σου, καὶ πέγνιον ἔδειξεν τὰς πολυτρόπους σου μηχανὰς τῶν κολαστηρίων, καὶ ἀπέλαβεν * τὸν μίσθον, παρὰ τοῦ δεσπότου Χριστοῦ κληρονομήσας τὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἀγαθά· σὺ δὲ ἀνθ᾽ ὧν τοὺς δούλους τοῦ Θεοῦ μηδὲν ἐπταικότας βάσανίζεις, καὶ ἀναιρεῖς, μένουσίν σε αἰώνιοι βάσανοι.

[11] Θυμωθεὶς δὲ ὁ ἡγεμὼν ἐκέλευσεν ἕνα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν ταθῆναι ἐπὶ τοῦ ἐδάφους, καὶ νεύροις ὡμοῖς τύπτεσθαι αὐτοὺς· ἐπὶ πολλὰς δὲ ὥρας βασανισθέντες, καὶ ἀτονισάντων τῶν δημίων, τοῦ τε αἵματος αὐτῶν τὴν γὴν πεπληρωκότος, ἐκέλευσεν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως ἀπενεχθῆναι, καὶ ξίφει τὰς κεφαλὰς ἀποτμηθῆναι, καὶ τὰ σώματα αὐτῶν ῥιφθῆναι ὅπως ἀπὸ κυνῶν καὶ θηρίων καὶ πετεινῶν καταβρωθῶσιν· καὶ οὕτως ἐτελέθησαν οἱ ἅγιοι καὶ ἔνδοξοι Μάρτυρες, καὶ ἀπέλαβον τοὺς στεφάνους παρὰ τοῦ ἀγωνοθέτου Χριστοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Τῶν δὲ σωμάτων αὐτῶν κειμένων, καὶ μὴ βεβρωσκομένων ὑπὸ θηρίων, τίνες τῶν χριστιανῶν λαθραίως νυκτὶ λαβόντες αὐτὰ, καὶ κηδεύσαντες ἐπιμελῶς, κατέθεντο ἐκεῖ πλησίον. Κρόνου δὲ διαδραμόντος ἱκανοῦ, καὶ παυσαμένης τῆς κατὰ τῶν χριστιανῶν διώξεως, ἡ μακαρία Κλεοπάτρα ἐσκέψατο τὴν πατρίδα αὐτῆς καταλαβεῖν· ἑτοιμάσασα δὲ πάσαν τὴν ὕπαρξιν αὐτῆς, διὰ ἐπισήμου προσελθοῦσα τῷ ἄρχοντι, ἔλεγεν· ὁ ἀνήρ μου στρατιώτης ὑπῆρχεν τῶν τὰ πρῶτα φερόντων, πλεῖστα δυνηθεὶς κατὰ τῶν πολεμίων· τεθνήκε δὲ καὶ ἐνταῦθα ἀπόκειται, τελείας ταφῆς μὴ ἠξιομένος· δέομαι οὖν τοῦ μεγέθους σου, κέλευσόν μοι ἀκινδύνως αὐτον μετενέγκαι ἵνα τελείᾳ ταφῇ αὐτὸν παραδώσω; καὶ ἐπινεύσας τῇ ἱκεσίᾳ αὐτῆς ὁ ἡγεμῶν, ἐκέλευσεν παρασχεθῆναι αὐτῇ τὴν αἴτησιν, χρήματα πάμπολλα εἰληφὼς.

[12] Ἐξελθοῦσα δὲ, τὸν μὲν ἄνδρα αὐτῆς ἄφῆκεν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, τὸν δὲ ἅγιον Οὐάρον ἐκβαλοῦσα ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἱματισμῷ πολυτελῇ καὶ μύροις παλὶν περιβαλοῦσα, ἔβαλεν αὐτὸν ἐν τύλῃ μετὰ ἐρέας πολλῆς, καὶ οὕτως αὐτὸν ἐξένεγκεν ἐκ τῆς Αἵγυπτου, ἵνα μὲ νοηθῇ καὶ ἀποσπασθῇ παρ᾽ αὐτῆς· ἤρξαντο γὰρ οἱ χριστιανοὶ ἀναφαίνεσθαι καὶ τὰ λείψανα τῶν ἁγίων ἐπιζητεῖν, καὶ ἀποτίθεσθαι ἐν τοῖς μοναστηρίοις αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰ μνημόσυνα αὐτῶν ἐπιτελεῖν. Ἐγγίσασα δὲ ἡ Κλεοπάτρα τῇ κώμῃ αὐτῆς, ἀπέθετο αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ προγονικῷ αὐτῆς μνήματι, ἐν τῇ ὀδῷ διακειμένῳ. Μεθ᾽ ἡμέραν δὲ ἐξήει μετὰ τῶν ἰδίων μετὰ λύχνων καὶ θυμιαμάτων· συνέμαθον δὲ καὶ γυναῖκες καὶ ἄνδρες ἐξιέναι μετ᾽ αὐτῶν. Μεθ᾽ ἡμέρας δὲ ὀλίγας δῆλον γέγονεν τοῖς τὴν περίχωρον οἰκοῦσιν ὅτι μάρτυρ ἅγιος ἀπόκειται ἐν Σύρῃ τῇ κώμῃ· ἔστιν δὲ παρὰ τὸ Θαβώριον ὄρος· καὶ ἤρξαντο φέρειν τοὺς ἀῤῥώστους αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς ἐνεργουμένους ὑπὸ πνευμάτων ἀκαθάρτων, καὶ πάντες ἐθεραπεύοντο· ἰδοῦσα δὲ ἡ Κλεοπάτφα ὅτι συνέχοντο οἱ ὄχλοι, (στενὸς γὰρ ὁ τόπος) ἐσκέψατο ὅσα εἶχεν πωλῆσαι καὶ ἐγεῖραι αὐτῷ ναὸν· εἶχεν δὲ υἱὸν μονογενῆ ἐτῶν ιβ᾽, ὃν ἀπέστειλεν στρατεῦσαι ἐν τῇ τοῦ βασιλέως αὔλῃ δοῦσα οὐκ ὄλιγα χρήματα, (τὰ δὲ πλείονα ἀνήλωσεν εἰς τύμβιον τοῦ Μάρτυρος), ἀπήντησεν τε τὸ χαρτίον τῆς στρατίας ἵνα ἑορτάσωσιν μετ᾽ αὐτῆς. Ἦν γὰρ πλουσία καὶ τῶν ἐπισήμων πρώτη.

[13] Λέγει δὲ καθ᾽ ἑαυτὴν ἐνθυμηθεῖσα ὅτι, ἃμα τελειώσει τοῦ ἁγίου νάου, ὀφείλω ἐνδύσαι τὴν χλαμύδα τὸν υἱόν μου καὶ ἅμα ἐμοὶ βαστάσει τὴν κλίνην τοῦ ἁγίου Οὐάρου, φορῶν τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῦ σχήματος τῆς στρατίας. Πολλὰ οὖν δαπανήσασα ἡ ἅγια ἐκείνη γυνὴ, ἤγειρεν αὐτῷ ναὸν, πάντι τῷ κόσμῳ αὐτὸν κοσμήσασα. Τότε συγκαλέσασα πάντας τοὺς ἐπισκόπους, καὶ τὰ πλήθη τῶν μοναστηρίων καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν χριστιανῶν, ἐξέβαλεν τὸν ἅγιον ἀπὸ τῆς θήκης καὶ ἤνεγκεν κλίνην καινὴν καὶ ἔστρωσεν καθαρὰς σινδόνας καὶ προσήγαγεν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν καὶ εὐλογησαν αὐτὸν, καὶ εἰσδραμοῦσα εἰς τὸ ταμίειον ἔθηκεν τὴν χλαμύδα καὶ τὴν ζώνην τοῦ παιδίου ἐπὶ τὴν λάρνακα τοῦ ἁγίου, καὶ λαβοῦσα περιἔζωσεν αὐτὸν· συναχθέντων δὲ τῶν ὄχλων ἐξήνεγκεν τὸ λείψανον, καὶ ἐβάστασεν σὺν αὐτῇ τὸ παιδίον αὐτῆς. Γέγονεν δὲ πρὸς αὐτοὺς πλῆθος ἄνδρων καὶ γυναικῶν, ὧν οὐκ ἦν ἄριθμος, ὡς τοὺς κατοικοῦντας τὸν τόπον φροντίζειν πόθεν ἔχοιειν ὔδωρ τοσοῦτον ἐπαρκοῦν αὐτοῖς· συνεκροτήθη δὲ ἡ ψαλμωδία ἀπὸ ἀλεκτοροφωνίας ἕως ὥρας θ᾽, καὶ γενομένης τῆς καταθέσεως ἔπηξαν τράπεζαν καὶ ἐτέλεσαν τὴν ἀναφορὰν, καὶ πάνδημον εὐχὴν πεποίηκασι ὕπερ τῆς Κλεοπάτρας καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτῆς.

[14] Λυθείσης δὲ τῆς συνάξεως, ἔπεσεν τῇ χώνῃ τῇ ἐπικειμένῃ τῷ προσώπῳ τοῦ Μάρτυρος, καὶ ἐδέετο αὐτῷ λέγουσα· δέομαι σοῦ τοῦ στεφανοῦ καὶ τῆς ὑπομονῆς, εἴ τί ἐστὶν συμφέρον καὶ εὐάρεστον, παρακάλεσον τὸν Δεσπότην ποιῆσαι τῷ ἐμῷ υἱῷ ἀνθ᾽ ὧν ἐθεράπευσα σε τότε ἐν τῷ διαβολικῷ χειμῶνι, καὶ νῦν ἐν τῇ εἰρήνῃ· παρεκάλεσον τὸν Θεὸν δοῦναι ἐμῷ υἱῷ ὑγίειαν ἐν Χριστῷ καὶ χάριν ἐν τῇ στρατιᾷ αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιον· τοῦ βασιλέως· ναὶ δέομαί σου, μνήσθητι ὅτι οὐδὲν σοι προετίμασα, οὐκ ἄνδρα, οὐ παῖδας, οὐ χρήματα· καὶ ἐξελθοῦσα ἐκεῖθεν ὑποδοχὴν πολυτελῆ τῷ πλήθει ἐκείνῳ ἐποιεῖτο· διηκόνει δὲ καὶ ὁ υἱὸς αὐτῆς, ἵνα μηδενὸς γεύσηται ἓως ἄν ἀναστῶσιν οἱ ἀνακλινόμενοι· εἰποῦσα ὅτι ἐκ τῶν περισσευμάτων ἀναπαυσόμεθα, ἐγώτε καὶ σὺ, τέκνον· ἀναστάντων δὲ τῶν ὄχλων, ἠτόνησεν τὸ παιδίον καὶ ἀνεκλίθη· ἐλθοῦσα δὲ ἡ μητὴρ μετὰ τὸ ἀναπαῦσαι τοὺς ὑπηρέτας, ἐφίλησεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τοῦ παιδίου λέγουσα ὑπὲρ τῆς ὑγιείας σου, τέκνον, ταῦτα πάντα εἰργασάμην, ἵνα προπέμψῃς μὲ ἐν τῇ ζωῇ σου πρὸς τὸν ἅγιον, ἀλλ᾽ ἀνάστα καὶ μετάλαβε τροφῆς, ὅτι νήστης εἶ, καὶ πολλὰ κεκοπίακας· ὁ δὲ μόλις αὐτῇ ἐλάλησεν· ἐφλέγετο γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ πυρετοῦ.

[15] Καὶ ἐπιπεσοῦσα αὐτῷ ἡ μητὴρ, ἐνηγκαλίσατο τῷ αὐτῷ καὶ εἶπεν· ζῇ Κύριος καὶ ἡ εὐχὴ τοῦ ἁγίου, ὅτι οὔτε ἐγὼ γεύσομαί τινὸς ἕως οὗ ἴδω τὶ ἀποβαίνη τῷ μονογενῇ μου· δι᾽ ὁλῆς δὲ τῆς νυκτὸς ἐβάστασεν ἐν τῷ κόλπῳ αὐτῆς τὸ παιδίον, περὶ δὲ τὸ μεσονύκτιον παρέδωκεν ὁ παῖς τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἀναστάσα ἐβάστασεν τὸ παιδάριον, καὶ ἐνδραμοῦσα εἰς τὸν ναὸν ἐῤῥιψεν αὐτὸν ἐπάνω τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου, καὶ ἀπελάβετο τῆς τραπέζης, καὶ ἔκραζεν λέγουσα· ὦ τῆς ἀντιμισθίας τοῦ δικαίου τούτου! ὦ βία ἀντιποιοῦσα οἵα ἀπεδόθη μοι τῇ ἀθλίᾳ! δός μοι τὸν υἱὸν μου, ὃν μετὰ μόχθου ἔθρεψα, δός μοι τὸ παιδίον μου τὸ ὀρφανὸν, καὶ ἀπερίστατον, ὦ τῆς βίας τοῦ δικαίου τοῦτου, ἀντ᾽ ἐκείνων ταῦτα μοι ἀποδεδοκότος! δός μοι τὸν ὀρφανὸν, δι᾽ ὃν ὅλα ἐκεῖνα πεποιήκα ἵνα ζήσῃ, καὶ γένηταί μοι παρηγορία· δός μοι τὸν ὀρφανὸν, ἐπεὶ γινώσκε ὅτι ἔνταυθα ῥίσσω τὴν κεφαλήν μου ἐγγύς σου· παρακάλεσον τὸν δεσπότην σου ἀποδοῦναί μοι τὸν μονογενῆ μου, πολλοὺς γὰρ ἀνέστησεν καὶ ἀπὸ χρόνου ἀποθανόντας, δός μοι τὸν ὀρφανὸν μου ἐπίλαβε κἀμὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν. Πᾶσα δὲ ἡ ἐκκλησία ἔκλαυσεν σὺν αὐτῇ, ἦν γὰρ τὸ παιδίον ὠραῖον καὶ τῷ ἴδει εὔμορφον· ἔκλαιον δὲ διὰ τὴν εὐσεβεστάτην ἐκείνην, ὅτι οὐκ ἄξια ὧν ἐποίησεν ἀπέλαβεν.

[16] Διημέρευσεν δὲ ἐκεῖ κλαίουσα· πάντες δὲ οἱ ἰερεῖς αἰδοῦντο παραμυθήσασθαι αὐτὴν· περὶ δὲ τὸ μεσονύκτιον ἡσύχασεν περιπτυξαμένη τῷ παιδίῳ· ἦν γὰρ ἀπὸ πολλοῦ κλαυθμοῦ…? καὶ ἰδοῦ ἐπιφαίνεται αὐτῇ ὁ ἄγιος Οὐάρος ἔχων τὸ παιδίον ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ· ἦσαν δὲ ἐζωσμένοι ζώνας ἀπὸ χρυσοῦ, καὶ αἱ χλαμύδες αὐτῶν ὡς ἀπὸ φωτὸς, καὶ τὰ φιβλώματα αὐτῶν ὡς ἀστέρες, διαδήματα ἔκειντο ἐπὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς αὐτῶν, ἔχοντα ἀστέρας περὶ κύκλῳ, καὶ ἰδοῦσα ἐπτωήθη φόβῳ, καὶ πεσοῦσα προσκύνησεν ἔχουσα τὸν πόδα τοῦ ἁγίου εἰς τὴν μιὰν χεῖρα καὶ τὸν πόδα τοῦ παιδίου εἰς τὴν ἄλλην χεῖρα· καὶ ἤγειρεν αὐτὴν ὁ ἅγιος Οὐάρος, καὶ εἶπεν· τί μου καταβοᾶς, ὦ γύναι, ὡς ἀδικίαν κατὰ σοῦ πεποιηκότος, καὶ ὡς ἀντ᾽ ἐκείνων πάντα τὰ ἐνάντια ἐργασαμένου· μὴ γὰρ ἐπιλέλησμαι ὧν μοι πεποίηκας ἐν τῇ Αἴγυπτῳ καὶ έν τῇ ὁδῷ· οὐ καθ᾽ ἑκάστην εὐφραινόμην τῶν θυμιαμάτων σου; καὶ ἐπέβλεπον εἰς τὰς λυχναψίας σου; οὐκ ῇσθόμην ὅτι ἀνέστειλάς με ἀπὸ τῶν ὀστέων τῶν ἕξω τῆς πόλεως ῥιφέντων, καὶ ὑπέθηκάς με ὑπὸ τὴν κοίτην σου, ἢ ὅτε ἐλάβες με ἐν τῷ σάκκῳ τῆς ἐρέας;

[17] Οὐκ ἔγνων ὅτι ἀπέθου με ἐγγὺς τῶν γονέων, οὓς συνέχομεν, οὓς ὑπὸ ἁμαρτιῶν πολλῶν ἠλευθέρωσα διὰ τὴν χάριν σου, παρακαλέσας τὸν δεσπότην Χριστὸν δοῦναι αὐτοῖς τὴν ἄφεσιν; οὐκ ἔγνων

ὅτι ἐξήνεγκάς με ἀπὸ τοῦ μνήματος καὶ ἐβάστασας τὴν κλίνην μου, μετὰ τοῦ φιλοχρίστου σοῦ υίοῦ; οὐκ ἐγὼ συνυπηρέτουν ὑμῖν τοῖς πλήθεσιν, καὶ ἐν ὀνόματι Χριστοῦ εὐλόγησαν τὴν ἐτοιμασίαν σου; οὐ σὺ με παρεκάλεσας, ὅτε με κατέθου ἐν τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ, ἵνα παρακαλέσω τὸν Θεὸν ὑπὲρ τοῦ σοῦ υἱοῦ, ὅπως ποιησει μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ τὸ εὐάρεστον καὶ στρατολογήσει αὐτὸν ἐν τῷ καταλόγῳ τῶν πρωτοτόκων; διὰ τοῦτο ἐδεήθην τοῦ Κυριοῦ, καὶ ἐποίησέν μοι τοῦτο, καὶ ἔνδοξον στρατίαν δέδωκεν αὐτῷ ὠς ὁρᾶς, καὶ νῦν, εἰ βούλει, λάβε αὐτὸν, καὶ εὐθέως περιεπλάκη αὐτῷ τὸ παιδάριον λέγων· μὴ Κύριέ μου διδάσκαλε, μὴ ἀνάσχῃ αὐτῆς παραδοῦναί με τῷ κόσμῳ τῆς ἀδικίας, οὗ μόλις ἀπηλλάγην, μὴ Κύριέ μου, μὴ ἀποστήσῃς με τῆς συνδιαγωγῆς σου καὶ τῶν ἁγίων μεθ᾽ ὧν οἰκοῦμεν.

[18] Τῆ δὲ μητέρι εἶπεν· ὕπαγε ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ, ὦ γύναι, ἐστίν γυνὴ διαφθονομένη τῷ μονογενῇ αὐτῆς, καὶ παραλαμβάνουσα αὐτὸν ἀπὸ βασιλείας εἰς πτωχείαν, καὶ ἀπὸ φωτὸς εἰς ζοφόν; καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ἡ γυνὴ· λάβετέ με μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν ἵνα κἀγὼ συμβασιλεύω ὐμῖν. καὶ λέγει τῷ ἁγίῳ· δέομαί σου μὴ ἀποῤῥίψῃς με τοῦ μονογενοῦς μου· λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ ἅγιος Οὐάρος· καὶ ἐνταῦθα οὖσα ἐκεῖ μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν εἶ, ἀλλ᾽ ὕπαγε ἐν εἰρήνῃ καὶ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ παιδίου, ὅ ἔχεις ἐν ταῖς ἀγκάλαις σοῦ ἀπόθου παρ᾽ ἐμοῖ ἐν τῇ σορῷ καὶ ἐπιτέλει τὰ μνημόσυνα ἡμῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἐπισκεψόμεθά σε ὅτε βούλεται ὁ Δεσπότης· ἰδοῦ ἐπιστεύθης, πόρεύου ἐν εἰρήνῃ· καὶ ἐξυπνισασα ἔντρομος διηγεῖτο τῷ ὄχλῳ τὸ ὅραμα, καὶ λαβοῦσα στόλαν καθαρὰν καὶ μύρα, ἀνέδυσεν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς καὶ παρέθετο τῷ ἁγίῳ ἐκεῖ· πάσαι δὲ αἱ φίλαι αὐτῆς καὶ αἱ διακονοῦσαι αὐτῇ παρεκάλεσαν αὐτὴν ἐπιθῆναι αὐτῷ τὴν ἔσθητα τῆς στρατῖας αὐτοῦ λέγουσαι· μήπως εἴδῃς αὐτὴν ἐν τῃ οἴκῳ σου καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς θλίψεως πληγῇ ἡ ψυχή σου· ἡ δὲ οὐκ ἐβούλετο, λέγουσα· ὑμεῖς οὐκ οἴδατε οἷα φορεῖ ὁ ἐμὸς ὐιὸς.

[19] Καὶ ἐξελθοῦσα παρεκάλεσεν πάντας λέγουσα· δέομαι ὑμῶν παραμείνατε ἐγγὺς μου τὴν αὔριον, ποίησω γὰρ ἑορτὴν μεγάλην διότι ἐστράτευται ὁ υἱός μου ἐν τῇ στρατίᾳ τῶν ἀγγέλων· εἶδον γὰρ καὶ ἐχάρη μου ἡ ψυχὴ, καὶ ἐδόξασα τὸν Θεὸν· καὶ ἐποίησεν δοχὴν μεγάλην καὶ διηκόνει τοῖς ἀνακειμένοις μετὰ χαρᾶς μεγάλης καὶ εὐθυμίας καὶ τῇ ἐξῆς πέμψασα τοὺς ὄχλους ἀπετάξατο ἐν τῷ μαρτυρίῳ καὶ ἦν ἐκεῖ λειτουργοῦσα ταῖς ευχαῖς διαπαντὸς καὶ δεομένη τοῦ Κυριοῦ· ἐπεφαίνοντο δὲ αὐτῇ κατὰ κυριακήν οἱ ἅγιοι ἐναλλάσσοντες αὐτῶν τὴν δόξαν λαμπροτέραν· μετὰ δὲ ἕβδομον ἔτος ἐτελεώθη ἡ μακαρία Κλεοπάτρα καὶ ἐπέθη παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἐν τῷ μαρτυρίῳ; μεθ᾽ ὧν δῷ καὶ ὑμῖν ὁ Κύριος μερίδα καὶ πάσιν τοῖς συναγομένοις ἐν τοῖς μνήμοσύνοις αὐτῶν, εἰς δόξαν Πατέρος καὶ Υἱοῦ καὶ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, ὧ ᾖ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμὴν.

Cleopatra secretly carries off the body of St. Varus. The martyrdom A certain woman, Cleopatra by name, a native of Palestine, pious and fearing the Lord, was watching the most holy Varus while he was undergoing torments; and she wept bitterly, but, troubled in spirit, did not dare to confess that she was a Christian. Taking, then, by night her servants and her son of twelve years, she carried off the body of the Saint, and when she had anointed it with spices and splendidly clothed it, digging the earth under her bed, she hid it there. And she persevered in showing it every service. On the following day ^a the impious governor ordered the Saints who were held in custody to be brought, and when they stood before him: "You have seen," he said, "to what death Varus your disciple has been handed over, and how I conquered him by torturing him even to death? Moreover, I have also ordered his body to be given to the wild beasts, so that not even the corpse can be found. Believe me, therefore, and sacrifice to the gods, lest you too die shamefully." The Saints say to him: "Our brother Varus has overcome your malice, he was superior to your threats, and, showing a pledge (of his fortitude to God) against your manifold inventions of torments, he has received his reward, having obtained heavenly goods from Christ the Lord. But you, because you afflict with torments and death the servants of God who have done no evil, eternal torments await you."

[11] of the Companions of St. Varus Then the governor, angered, ordered each one to be stretched out on the ground and beaten with raw thongs. And when they had undergone the torments for very many hours, the executioners being wearied and the earth soaked with blood on every side, he ordered them to be carried outside the city and their heads to be cut off with the sword, then their bodies to be cast out to be devoured by dogs, by wild beasts and by birds. Thus, then, the holy and illustrious Martyrs suffered even to death and received their crowns from Christ God, the President of the Games. And when their bodies remained there and were not eaten by the wild beasts, certain Christians, carrying them off secretly by night and diligently performing their funeral rites, laid them there close by. When, then, no small time had passed, and the persecution ^b against the Christians was quieting down, Blessed Cleopatra was deliberating to return to her fatherland; and when she had arranged all her affairs, having obtained access to the governor through a certain distinguished man ^c, she said: "My husband was a soldier among the more illustrious, and very powerful against the enemy, but he has died and lies here, not yet having obtained a complete burial: I ask your highness, therefore, grant that I may carry him away without danger and so duly commit him to the tomb." The governor, having received much money, assented to her supplication and ordered that she might carry out her petition.

[12] B. Cleopatra carries the body of St. Varus into Palestine, Going out, then, Cleopatra left her husband in Egypt ^d, but St. Varus, raised from the earth, wrapped again in a precious garment and with spices, she carried with her out of Egypt, but placed in a mattress with much wool ^e, so that no one would suspect he was there, or think of carrying him off. For the Christians were beginning to appear and to seek out the remains of the Saints, and to lay them in monasteries ^f and to complete their monuments. And when Cleopatra had drawn near to her village, she laid him in the monument of her fathers, which was on the road; and, the day having elapsed, she went out thither, attended by her household, with lamps and incense. And both women and men learned that she had gone out with those companions; and after a few days it became manifest to those dwelling in the neighbourhood that the holy martyr lay in the village of Syre ^g (it is situated near Mount Tabor); and they began to bring their sick and those who were vexed by unclean spirits, and all were cured. And Cleopatra, seeing the multitude pressing (for the place was narrow), determined to sell whatever she had in order to build a church for him. She had an only son of twelve years ^h, whom she sent to the court of the emperor ⁱ that he might learn military service, and for this she gave much money; yet she consecrated a part to the sepulchre of the martyr. The document of military service was at once sent from the court; and a festival was to be celebrated, since she was rich and among the more illustrious of the region.

[13] and builds him a church. And she said within herself: "When the church is finished, I must at the same time clothe my son with the chlamys, and he, then for the first time distinguished in military habit, shall carry with me the coffin of St. Varus." The holy woman, then, built the church at great expense, and presented it with every adornment; and having called together all the bishops and the inhabitants of the monasteries ^k and the other Christians, she brought forth the Saint from the chest, set up a new bier and spread clean linens, and brought her son to the priests, who blessed him. Then, running to her chamber, she laid the chlamys and belt of the boy upon the coffin of the Saint, and then girded him with them. And when the multitude had gathered, she brought forth the sacred body, which she wished to carry with her boy; and so great a crowd of men and women came that the inhabitants of the place anxiously considered where a sufficient quantity of water might be available. Continuous psalmody resounded from the morning cockcrow until the ninth hour; and, the deposition being made, they set up a table and completed the sacred oblation, a public prayer also being instituted for Cleopatra and her son.

[14] The son of B. Cleopatra The synaxis being finished, she bent over the lid which covered the face of the martyr and prayed him, saying: "I ask by your crown and endurance, if there is anything useful or becoming, ask of the Lord that he grant it to my son for the service which I then showed you (in Egypt) in that storm brought on by the devil; and now also in this time of peace ask of God that he give my son health in Christ, and favour in his military service before the emperor. I ask you indeed to remember that I have venerated nothing more than you, not husband, not children, not riches." Going out thence she gave a splendid banquet to that multitude, and she herself served with her son, not wishing to taste anything before those reclining at table had withdrawn; for she said: "I and you, son, shall be refreshed from the leavings of the table ^l." And when the crowds had withdrawn, the boy fell sick and lay down; and his mother, going to him while the servants were already resting, kissed the boy's eyes, saying: "For your health, son, I have done all these things, that you, surviving me, may send me before you to our Saint; but rise and take food, since you are fasting and have laboured much." But he scarcely answered her, because he was burning with fever.

[15] he dies. Then the mother, throwing herself upon him and embracing him in her arms, said: "As the Lord lives and the prayer of the holy martyr, I too will taste nothing until I see what befalls my only-begotten"; and so through all the time she held her son in her bosom, until in the middle of the night he gave up his spirit. Rising, then, she took up the boy and, running to the church ^m, cast him upon the altar, and, laying hold of the table, she cried out, saying: "O what a recompense of this just one, O what violence, which in return for all that I, wretched woman, have given, renders contrary and adverse things! Give me my son, whom I nourished with toil, give me the orphaned and forsaken boy. O the violence of this just one, who for all my service bequeaths me this. Give me the orphaned boy, for whose sake I did all these things, that he might live and be my consolation. Give him to me, for know that I will break my head here beside you. Ask your Lord to give me back my only-begotten, since he raised up many even who had been dead a year; give me back my orphan, or take me also to him." Meanwhile the whole church wept with her, for the boy was comely and beautiful to see: and they wept on account of the most pious woman, since their

[16] St. Varus Further, she spent the day there thus in weeping, and all the presbyters were afraid to console her; but towards the middle of the night she rested, reclining upon the boy, worn out, namely, from much weeping; and behold, St. Varus appears to her, leading the boy by the hand, both girded with golden belts, and their chlamyses as it were of light, and their brooches like stars, and the diadems on their heads had stars round about. Seeing these things, Cleopatra was terrified, and, falling down, she venerated them, holding with one hand the foot of the Saint, and with the other the foot of the boy. But St. Varus roused her: "Why do you assail me with clamours," he said, "O woman, as if I had done you injustice and had rendered altogether the opposite for your benefits? For the things which you did for me in Egypt and on the journey have not escaped me. Did I not rejoice daily at your oblations and look upon your lights kindled, and did I not perceive that you took me up from among the bones which are cast out outside the city and placed me under your bed, and then put me in that sack with the wool?

[17] with her son "Do I not know that I was placed beside your parents, who are with us, whom I freed from many sins on your account, asking Christ the Lord to impart remission to them? Do I not know that you brought me out of the monument and carried my bier with your pious son? Did I not serve the multitude with you, and did they not bless your readiness in the name of Christ? Did you not ask, when you were laying me on the altar, that I should entreat God on behalf of your son, that it might be done with him according to his good pleasure, and that he would enrol him in military service in the Catalogue of the first-born? Therefore I prayed the Lord and he granted me this, and presented him, as you see, with an illustrious military service; but now, if you wish, take him back." But the boy at once, clinging to him, said: "No, Lord, my master, I cannot bear that she should hand me over again to the world of iniquity, from which I have scarcely departed; no, my Lord, do not take me away from your company and that of the Saints with whom we live."

[18] appears to his mother. Then he said to his mother: "Depart from me, woman; does a woman envy her only-begotten, and will she take him from the royal court to poverty, from light to darkness?" The woman said to them: "Take me with you, that I too may reign as you do." And to the Saint she says: "I beseech you, do not remove me from my only son." Varus says to her: "Remaining there, you are with us too; but depart in peace, and lay the body of the boy which you have in your arms beside me in the coffin, and keep our memory on earth, and we will visit you when the Lord wills. Behold, you have believed; go in peace ⁿ." When she had awakened, trembling, she narrated the vision to the multitude, and, having taken a shining garment with spices, she clothed her son in it, and laid him there beside the same Saint. And all her friends and handmaids asked her to put on him the garment of military service, saying: "Lest you see it in your house and your soul be wounded with grief." But she would not, saying: "You do not know what kind of things my son wears."

[19] The death of B. Cleopatra. Then going out she asked all, saying: "I ask you all to be present tomorrow; for I will celebrate a great festival, because my son has been enrolled in the military service of the Angels. For I have seen, and my soul has rejoiced, and I have praised the Lord." She prepared, then, a great banquet and served those reclining at table with great joy and alacrity, and on the following day, the crowds being dismissed, she secluded herself in the martyrium, and she was there continually free for the ministry of prayers and calling upon the Lord. The Saints used to appear to her on the Lord's day, varying their splendid glory. And when seven years had elapsed, blessed Cleopatra died and was buried beside them in the martyrium; with whom may the Lord give a part to you also, as also to all who are gathered together to celebrate their memory; to the glory of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory for ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

is content, innumerable narratives could seem to him to have passed from heathen history into ecclesiastical. For the rest, if our writer had been familiarly acquainted with Cicero or Herodotus, there is no doubt that he would have narrated more happily what he wished to hand down to the memory of posterity.

* The codex has ἀπέβαλεν several times.

Notes

a. Compare the Commentary, no. 4 and following.

b. That edict against all Christians was the fourth of this persecution [Compare Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica, book VIII, chapter VI, p. 336, and note d; Tillemont, Mémoires, volume V, p. 80.]. Antonio Giorgi declared that he had in his possession a fragment of one of these, in the Theban language, as it was published in the Thebaid [Fragmentum Evangelii S. Johannis graeco-copto-thebaicum, p. CX, note 1.].

c. Alexandria is designated [Compare Giorgi, De antiquis Italiae Metropolibus, p. 7.].

d. What the holy men did then we learn from the eyewitness Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica, book 8, and the book On the martyrs of Palestine.

e. The veneration of the ancient Christians for the blood of the martyrs is plain from very many acts [Compare volume I of February, p. 388 b, and the French work Les trois Rome, by the abbé Gaume, volume IV, Brussels edition, p. 311.]. See below, Annotation h.

f. Why Baronius said they were monks, see in the Commentary, no. 8 and following.

g. Ξύλον seems here to designate the stocks, since a little after it certainly returns in the same signification. More has been said about the stocks in the Auctarium to volume V of October, page 46. It will help to say something about it here too. The stocks, then, consisted of a board pierced in two, four or five places. Through these holes were passed the thongs by which the iron or wooden fetters of the feet, hands or even neck were drawn tight; so that, if the accused were bound by the feet alone, they stood; if also by the hands, they lay prone or stretched out after the manner of cattle; and much more so if the neck itself was bound fast. And in one of these ways they were kept in prison; below in this passion they are likewise shown bound fast on the catasta, or on a board somewhat raised before the tribunal of the judge.

h. On the first day after they were taken they already appear before the judge; and St. Varus is reported to have suffered on the same day. Whence it follows that they spent only one night in prison, and when in the Acts, no. 1, St. Varus is said to have anointed his breast with the blood of the martyrs, this is to be understood of other martyrs, and not of the companions of his passion; which is very much confirmed there from the context. In the Menologion of Sirleto and likewise in the Menaea (see the Commentary, nos. 1 and 2) it is indicated that St. Varus took care for several days of those Martyrs who are venerated with him on this day; but I think that the synaxarist of the Menaea did not interpret well the Acts of Symeon Metaphrastes, which plainly agree with ours; for we know that this has often happened elsewhere.

i. I do not see why Tillemont refuses to admit these things [Mémoires, volume V, part III, p. 380.]. Why could not St. Varus have loosed their chains, either alone or with the help of the guards to whom he was lavishing money?

k. In winter, in a troubled time or in a storm, or in affliction. Symeon Metaphrastes has the same word: Εἰ μὴ χειμῶνος πρότερον τὰ σπέρματα καταβάλῃ;; for which Gentian Hervet in Surius at the 19th of October, chapter 2, substituted "in tears," wishing to agree with Scripture. The anonymous author wrote these things from memory; which he did also in what follows, where the words of Christ are expressly alleged by the companions, Matthew X. 32, Luke XII. 8; but these are omitted by Metaphrastes, who however immediately after speaks in almost the same words as the anonymous author: δεῦρο δὴ οὖν, ἀδελφὲ, σύνοδος ἡμῖν γενοῦ. This is his method: to cut away certain things, to substitute others of his own, especially in the speeches brought forward here and there to mix in frequent sentences drawn from the sacred letters, and finally to express everything in general more ornately.

l. Compare the Commentary, no. 9.

m. In the Greek is added καὶ ἰωτῶν, which word is unknown to me. Symeon writes: πλῆθος στρατιωτῶν τῶν ἐκεινοῦ λόγων καὶ νεύματος: "A multitude of soldiers who hung on his words and nod" (in Surius, chapter 3). Whence ἰωτῶν is perhaps written for θωπῶν, of flatterers.

n. Metaphrastes has these words thus: τὴν ἔφορον γὰρ ὑμῖν ὄμνυμι, φησὶ, δὶκην καὶ τὴν μεγάλην τῶν θεῶν δύναμιν; Hervet in Surius, chapter 3, translates: "For I swear to you, he said, by the most mighty power and justice of the gods," but better: "For I swear to you, he said, by overseeing justice (among the Greeks Dike or Astraea) and the mighty power of the Gods."

o. On these punishments compare the Commentary, no. 7, towards the end.

a. If St. Varus suffered on the day on which he is venerated, the 19th of October, his companions obtained the same palm only on the 20th.

b. The persecution quieted down at the end of the year 312 or the beginning of the following [Pagi at the year 313, nos. 15 and 16; Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, volume IV, pp. 142 and 146.].

c. Metaphrastes here: διὰ τινος τῶν ἐν ῥήτορσι γεγραμμένων τῷ ἐπὶ τοῦ τόπου ἤ ἡγεμονεύοντι προσφοιτᾷ: "Through one of those who were enrolled in the number of the orators, she approaches the governor of the place."

d. These things are narrated in the same way by Metaphrastes, chapters 9 and 10.

e. Metaphrastes: ἐν τύλῃ ἐρέας; but Hervet must have read ἐλαίας, for he translates in Surius, chapter 10: "In an olive-wood chest," which now, from the manuscript Acts of Metaphrastes which are in hand, and from our anonymous author, is beyond doubt to be rejected. In what follows in Surius the style and amplification of Metaphrastes is recognized, but by Hervet (chapter 10) certain things have not been well rendered, others omitted. It should therefore be translated thus from the Greek of Metaphrastes: "When, then, she had hidden the body of the Martyr (for at first indeed she feared the madness of the gentiles, but then also and much more the fervour of the pious, since all, as was fitting, applied themselves with the greatest zeal to that work of carrying off the remains of those who had suffered for Christ), these, then, labouring most sweetly about these things, she herself came into Palestine."

f. Below, at no. 13, he writes of the inhabitants of the monasteries. But this word is not to be understood as if monasteries were in question such as existed only some years after the persecutions. Such were not then in Palestine [St. Jerome, in the Life of St. Hilarion, Works, volume I, edition of 1565, p. 244.], but perhaps certain asceteria in which a few ascetics lived together [Compare the Works of St. Basil, volume III, p. LIII and following, no. 2; Examen Historicum, etc., pp. 47 and 57; Acta Sanctorum, volume III of May, p. 324 b.]: and so what is read in the Acts in both places must be understood of these.

g. "In the village of Syre," but Metaphrastes: Ἔδρα δὲ κατωνόμαστο; and that Hervet too read so in his codex is plain from the interpretation in Surius, chapter 10: "In a certain village ... whose name was Edra"; σύρη or σύρα and ἔδρα may have been written one for the other from the likeness of the letters, especially as they are rendered in manuscript codices. These names we have found neither in Dapper nor in the most diligent Van de Velde [Cartes topographiques de la Palestine, Brussels, 1847.].

h. The writer repeats here that the son of Cleopatra was twelve years old, which he had already said of him when, while the persecution was raging in Egypt, he was present with his mother carrying off the Body of St. Varus (no. 10). Here, therefore, either ιβ᾽ seems to have been intruded by the copyist in place of ιζ᾽, or to have been inadvertently repeated by the anonymous author. For from the death of St. Varus to the return into Palestine no small time elapsed; for in Palestine he was enrolled in military service, which among the Romans took place only in the seventeenth year of age. Compare the Commentary, no. 7, towards the end, and the Acts, nos. 13 and 14. Metaphrastes indicated his age in neither place, but in the former writes only that he was then in his first age, namely when St. Varus suffered: Πρώτην ἄγοντα τὴν ἡλικίαν.

i. What is had here about the journey of the son to the court of the emperor has been changed by Metaphrastes, chapter 10: "She sends money to those who were in power, asking that they would deign to honour her son; and at once imperial letters were sent to her, conferring a dignity on her son."

k. Compare Annotation f. Metaphrastes likewise mentions bishops and presbyters, then: ὅσοι τῶν μοναχῶνἐπὶ τῶν κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν βίῳ διέλαμπον.

l. Metaphrastes here wished to forewarn his reader: "But what is now to be said will indeed trouble the ears and minds of those who are of small and abject mind; but of those who, as far as can be, know the way of God and the admirable providence of that great wisdom, it will rather move the tongue to bless, and to admit the fact, on account of the usefulness which came from it." In Surius, chapter 11.

m. These things have been somewhat adorned by Metaphrastes: "When, then, she had seen this bitter event," he says, "at first indeed, her sight darkening, she fell to the ground, and her voice failed her together with her mind, since the sudden grief was like a bond on her tongue. But when she had come to herself a little, and had somewhat recovered her senses, taking up on her shoulders the dead body of her son, she enters the church which she had built for the Martyr, and, carrying it to the sacred altar, lays it down there." So in Surius, chapter 12, a few things being supplied which are printed in another type. What he has at the beginning of chapter 13, "So she spoke, and falling down again she lamented," etc., are likewise absent from our Acts, but there Metaphrastes may have indulged his genius; for these things are certainly too slight for us to say on that account that he had other Acts besides ours at hand. But when the reader perceives what is handed down in this place in the Passion about the prayer of St. Cleopatra, there will doubtless occur to his mind the things which are commonly reported about the piety with which the common people in certain regions honour the Saints. But in these matters the words are less to be considered than the very affection of the mind. For the rest, St. Augustine did not hesitate to praise a mother who had lost in her lap her sick son, a catechumen, a suckling infant, and whom he proposes as an example to his people in these words [Sermon 324, otherwise 33 On various subjects]: "Filled with the affection of confidence, she took him up dead, and ran to the memorial of B. Stephen the Martyr, and began to demand her son from him and to say: 'Holy Martyr, you see that no solace has remained to me. For I cannot say that my son has gone before, whom you know to have perished: for you see why I lament. Give back my son, that I may have him before the sight of him who crowned you.' While she was praying these and such things, with tears in a manner not asking but (as I said) demanding, her son came to life again." It is worth while to have read about these things Bossuet in his Warning to the Protestants on the charge of idolatry.

n. Tillemont believes he finds here a likeness between the son of Cleopatra and Cleobis and Biton, of whom one reads in book I of Herodotus and in Cicero in the Tusculans. Whoever will compare either of these writers with the Acts will find it beyond doubt far-fetched, and indeed if by this analogy, such as it is (for there is scarcely any here)

Varus and His Hermit Companions

ABOUT THE YEAR CCCVII.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. VARUS AND HIS COMPANIONS.

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.

ANNOTATIONS.

ANNOTATIONS.

Notes

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