42 Holy Martyrs of Amorium

They took prisoner and led away to Syria the principal officers, forty-two in number, among whom were Theodore, sur named Craterus, or the Strong, Constan Théodore, surnommé Cratère, ou le Fort Former priest who became an imperial officer, one of the principal martyrs of the group. ti ne Callistus, Aëtiu Constantin Calliste Secretary to the patrician Aetius and one of the 42 martyrs. s, Melisserenus, and Theophilus, who were patricians and held high offices at court. They were thrown, each laden with a triple chain, into dark dungeons where one could not even recognize one another at midday; they were denied the most common comforts of life; they were prevented from being visited by anyone other than their jailers and guards, who treated them with great cruelty; they were granted only enough bread and water to keep them from dying; they had only the ground for a bed and rags full of vermin for clothing.

When they were thought to be sufficiently weakened and almost entirely broken, they began to be solicited to change their religi on; the c le kalife Muslim sovereign who ordered the captivity and execution of the 42 martyrs. aliph sent them doctors who were considered the most skillful among the Muslims. Feigning to come of their own accord, out of compassion, they brought the prisoners money or clothes, in order to win them over; for the caliph said that he counted the conquest of a city as nothing in comparison to souls.

They went so far as to tell them that, to end their misfortunes, they would be satisfied with an outward declaration, without forcing them to renounce their religion entirely. The holy confessors, sustained by the grace of Him whom they served, showed themselves as invincible to these artful suggestions as they had been to the miseries they had been made to suffer. They were wearied by a thousand propositions: "It does not suit you to be so proud," the Muslims told them; "listen to us, then you may despise our advice if it is not advantageous to you. Do you not love your parents, your children, your wives, the company of your friends, the customs of your country? You have only one way to regain all these goods, which is to dissimulate a little, to let yourselves be circumcised and to pray with the caliph; he will shower you with goods, and the war will provide you with some opportunity to return home and resume your religion." The Christians replied: "Would you act this way, if you were in our place?" — "Yes," said the Muslims, "for there is nothing dearer than freedom." And they confirmed it with an oath. — "And we," replied the Christians, "do not take counsel, when it concerns religion, from those who are not firm in their own." And they sent them away confused.

Some days later, others came who, under the same pretext of giving them alms, began to pity, even with tears, these brave warriors, full of spirit and courage, whose only misfortune was that they did not know the prophet; addressing them, they said: "Leave this narrow path, where the Son of Mary has ordered you to walk; enter the wide path for this life and for the other, which the great prophet has shown us. What does he teach that is incredible, when he says that God can give to those who serve him all kinds of pleasures in this life, and paradise in the other? Leave your ignorance and do not reject these benefits; for, as he is good, seeing that men were too weak to fulfill the law of Jesus, so hard and so difficult, he sent his prophet Muhammad to relieve them of this weight and save them by faith alone."

Far from being sensitive to these guilty pleasures, which were placed before their eyes, the holy Martyrs looked at one another smiling, and replied: "Can you believe a religion to be true and pleasing to God that gives the flesh full liberty and subjects reason to the passions? What difference is there between beasts and men who live this way? For us, nothing can separate us from the charity of Jesus Christ."

Finally, they sent, to deliver a final assault on the glorious athletes of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a type of Muslim religious, called fakirs; after giving alms to the captives and pushing hypocrisy to the point of kissing them, they spoke as follows: "See to whom God gives power now: is it to the Romans or to the Muslims? To whom does he give fertile lands and victorious armies? Is it not to us? Yet he is just; if we did not observe his commandments, he would not give us so many goods, and he would not subject you to us if you had not refused to believe in his prophet."

The spirit of the generous captives of Jesus Christ was as invincible to these vain reasonings as their heart had been to the glitter of a false happiness: "Allow us," they said, "to ask you a question: When two men dispute the possession of an inheritance, if one is content to shout that it is his, without producing witnesses, and the other, without disputing, brings several trustworthy witnesses, to whom should the inheritance be awarded?" — "To the one," the Muslims replied, "who provides good witnesses."

— Our Saints continued: "Jesus Christ came, born of a Virgin, as you yourselves say, having for him all the ancient prophets who predicted his coming. You say that Muhammad came to bring a third law; should he not have had at least one or two prophets as guarantors of his mission? As for the advantage you claim to derive from your conquests, do you not know of those of the Persians, who subjugated almost the whole world, and of the Greeks, who defeated the Persians, and of the ancient Romans, whose empire was so extensive? Did they follow the true religion? Did they not worship several deities through a senseless idolatry? God sometimes gives victory to those who serve him; sometimes he allows them to be defeated when they offend him, to punish them by the hands of the wicked."

Thus, every time the infidels returned to the charge, they were forced to withdraw in confusion. Seven years passed in this way in trials from which the constancy of the forty-two martyrs always emerged victorious. They gave thanks to God that He gave them this means to expiate their past sins and prayed for the conversion of the Muslims; finally, their death was resolved. On the fifth day of March in the year 845, the traitor Baditzes, who, as we have recounted, had surrendered the city of Amorium, came in the evening to the door of the prison, called Constant ine, secretary to the patrician Aetius Constantin, secrétaire du patrice Aèce Secretary to the patrician Aetius and one of the 42 martyrs. and companion of his glorious captivity, and, speaking to him through a hole, urged him that no one should hear them, because he had a secret to reveal to him. Then he said to him: "I have always loved the patrician, your master; having therefore learned for certain that the Caliph has resolved to have him put to death tomorrow, if he does not consent to pray with him, I have hastened to give you this advice which can save your life. Persuade him to obey, and obey yourself, keeping in your heart the faith of the Christians, and God will forgive you because of the necessity that is imposed upon you." Constantine, wishing to repel this attack with an invincible weapon, made the sign of the cross against the mouth of the apostate, and said to him: "May God cause you to perish, tempter! Withdraw, worker of iniquity." Then he returned into the prison, and, having taken aside the patrician, his master, he announced to him that the door of the prison and that of heaven were about to open for him, without speaking to him of the rest, for fear of exposing him to temptation. Constantine, having learned this good news, invited his companions in captivity and glory to sing the praises of God all night long.

The next day, an officer came on behalf of the caliph, with armed men and a terrible apparatus; having had the prison doors opened, he ordered the most prominent of the prisoners to come out; they came out to the number of forty-two. The caliph's officer tried once more to win them over by saying: "Do you not wish, then, to pray with the caliph today? For it is for this that he has sent me, and I know that there are some among you who desire it; when it is seen how they will be honored, those who have refused will lament their bad fortune."

The noble warriors replied: "We pray to the only true God that, not only the caliph, but you and the whole nation of the Arabs, may renounce the error of Muhammad and worship Jesus Christ, announced by the Prophets and by the Apostles, so far are we from abandoning the light for darkness." — "Take care," said the officer, "what you say, for fear of repenting of it; your disobedience will bring upon you grave torments." — They replied: "We commend our souls to God, and we hope that, until our last breath, He will give us the strength not to renounce His faith." — The officer continued: "You will be reproached, on the day of judgment, for having left your children orphans and your wives widows; for the caliph could have them brought here, and there is still time, if you wish to acknowledge the prophet Muhammad. The Romans obey a woman who will not be able to resist the orders of our master: as for goods, do not be troubled; one year of the tribute of Egypt can enrich your descendants to the tenth generation."

But our Saints preferred to enrich themselves for eternity; they burned to leave for their true homeland, which is heaven, and where they hoped to see one day and possess without fear their wives and children; they cried out with a loud voice: "Anathema to Muhammad and to all those who recognize him as a prophet!"

They were therefore led to the place of execution, which was outside the city, on the banks of the Euphrates, where the officer who had judged them followed them to speak to them again before the execution, and to send back absolved those whom the fear of death might have intimidated. He first had Theodore Craterus presented to him, whose past life he knew: he believed that the reproaches he would make to him pub Théodore Cratère Former priest who became an imperial officer, one of the principal martyrs of the group. licly would produce what promises and threats had not been able to do; for it must be noted that Theodore was a eunuch, that he had formerly been ordained a priest, and that, having left the ecclesiastical state in a spirit of libertinism, he had taken up the sword and had advanced in the armies and at court to the position of protospatharios, that is to say, first squire, which was one of the most prestigious in the empire.

The officer said to him: "You who were a priest among the Christians, who have borne arms and killed men, in contempt of your profession, why now do you wish to appear a Christian? Is it not better to implore the help of the prophet Muhammad, since you have no more hope in Jesus Christ, whom you have renounced?" — "It is that very thing," replied Theodore, "that compels me to shed my blood for Him, so that He may forgive my sins. If your slave, after having fled, returned to fight for you until death, would you not forgive him?" — "Come then," continued the officer, "since you wish to die." Immediately the Saint went to place himself on the sand, and, having made his prayer to God, offered his head to the executioner, who, by severing it, procured for him endless happiness. The others followed him courageously and received the crown of martyrdom.

The caliph, unable to help but admire their constancy, said upon seeing th e renegade Baditzes le renégat Baditzès An apostate who surrendered the city of Amorium to the Arabs before being executed himself. : If this man had been a true Christian, he would not have become an 'apostate'; and, at that instant, he had his head cut off. Thus, this coward could not preserve the temporal life to which he had sacrificed an eternity of happiness, and hell, which he had long carried within him, kept his soul. The Greeks and the Latins have agreed to celebrate the memory of our holy Martyrs on March 6, which is the day of their death. Their history was written by Evod ius, Évode Senator who became a priest and offended Saint Gall. who lived almost at the same time. To these Acts must be added what the authors of the Eguantine History wrote about the end of the empire of Theophilus, such as Cedrenus, Zonaras, John Skylitzes, Leo the Grammarian, and the continuators of Theophanes. Roh rbacher al Rohrbacher Hagiographer cited as a source. so dwells on it at great length in his History of the Church; it is from there that we have drawn what we have said about it.