Saints James, Marian, Agapius and Emilian

We were traveling in Numidia, and we had gathered the people of our retinue, as we always did; but the road we were following led us to fulfill the ministry that religion and faith had imposed upon us, while it led our companions to heaven. They arrived at a place called Muguas, near the suburbs of Cirtha, a Roman colony. In this city, at that moment, the blind fury of the Gentiles and the orders of the military officers had stirred up a cruel persecution, like the unleashed waves of the age; the rage of the devil, thirsty for the blood of the righteous, was eager to test their faith. This is why our blessed martyrs Marian and James did not doubt that this was a certain sign of divine mercy answering their prayers; for, if they found themselves in the place and at the time where the persecution was raging with the most cruelty, they understood that it was the hand of Christ that had led them to the crown of martyrdom. Indeed, all those whom Christ cherishes were the object of the prefect's blind fury, who had them sought out by his soldiers; his cruel madness was not exercised only against the faithful who served their God in full liberty, after having emerged victorious from previous persecutions; the devil also extended his insatiable hand over those who, long condemned to exile, had earned by their desire, if not by the shedding of their blood, the crown of martyrs. Now, among those who were thus recalled from exile to be presented to the prefect, were Agapius and Secundinus, both bishops, both commendable for their tender Agapius Martyr bishop who appears in a vision to James to invite him to the heavenly banquet. char ity for th Secundinus Martyr bishop, companion of Agapius. e brethren, but one of them especially for the holiness of his continence. It was not from one torment to another that they were being dragged, as the Gentiles might believe; rather, they were going from one glory to another glory, from one combat to another combat. After having snatched their fellow captives from the pomps of the world and subjected them to the yoke of Christ, they were going, with the courage inspired by a consummate faith, to trample underfoot the sting of death. And certainly, it would have been a crime not to run to victory in these struggles of this world that last only an instant, when the Lord was hastening to meet them to have them with Him. Thus Agapius and Secundinus were going to the noble combat that had, it is true, been prepared for them by an earthly power, but to which Christ himself was calling them. We had the happiness of offering hospitality to these two pontiffs, who were to unite the palm of martyrdom to the glory of the priesthood. Such was the spirit of grace that animated them, that not content with offering to God the precious sacrifice of their blood in a generous and holy testimony, they wanted to make all the faithful into martyrs, by inspiring them with their courage in the faith. It is true that the mere spectacle of their devotion and constancy would have sufficed to confirm the faith of the brethren; but their charity, their tender affection for us, wanted to further ensure our perseverance. They let fall upon our souls, like a celestial dew, the word of salvation; for it was given to them to see Him who is called the Word or the speech of God, and they could not remain silent about His wonders. I am not surprised if, during the few days they remained with us, our souls drew life and courage abundantly from their holy exhortations; for already Christ, on the eve of their passion, was making His grace shine forth in them.

Finally, when they left us, their examples and instructions had prepared Marianus and James to follow the same path, walking in their glorious footsteps. Scarcely two days had passed since they had departed, when the palm of martyrdom came of its own accord to find these two beloved brothers. It was no longer, as everywhere else, one or two stationary soldiers; it was an entire century that was seeking victims for persecution.

This troop, armed with violence, and with it an impious multitude, had rushed in a crowd to the villa where we were living, as if to a powerful bulwark of faith. An attack a thousand times glorious for us! A blessed alarm worthy of being celebrated with transports of joy! They came to us so that the blood of the righteous, of Marianus and James, might fulfill here below the designs of God's mercy. We find it difficult here, beloved brothers, to contain the joy with which our hearts are filled. Scarcely two days ago, saints tore themselves from our embraces to go and undergo their glorious passion, and we still have with us brothers who are going to be martyrs! When the hour of divine kindness approached, it deigned to give us also some share in the glory of our brothers; we were dragged from Muguas to the colony of Cirtha. Marianus and James, our beloved brothers, followed us there; destined for the palm, their love for us and the mercy of Christ guided them in our footsteps; for, by a contrast that deserves to be noted, those followed who were nevertheless going to lead the way for all the others. They did not wait long: they exhorted us with a holy transport of zeal, and proclaimed loudly and without fear that they too were Christians. Immediately, therefore, they were interrogated; as they persevered in courageously confessing the name of Christ, they were led to prison.

Then they were subjected to cruel and numerous torments by a stationary soldier, the executioner of just and pious men. He had taken, to aid his cruelty, the magistrates of Centurio and Cirtha, who thus made themselves the priests of the devil; as if faith were broken along with the limbs in one who counts the care of his body as nothing! But James, who had always appeared stronger in his faith, because he had already triumphed over the persecution of Decius, repeated with noble pride that not only was he a Christian, but that he was also a deacon. For his part, Marianus provoked the tortures by confessing that he wa s a re diacre Apostle who appeared miraculously during the Battle of Jerez. ader: he was indeed. How can one describe the new torments that the cruel artific lecteur Lector and martyr, son of Mary, known for his visions and courage under torture. es of the devil, always too skillful at shaking faith, invented against them? Marianus was suspended to be torn; so that, by a special providence of God, the very torture of the martyr was truly his exaltation. The knot that held him in the air tightened, not his hands, but the tips of his fingers, so that the mass of the body, supported by such weak limbs, would increase the pain. They even had the cruelty to attach heavy weights to his feet; so that, pulled in opposite directions, the entire frame of the body was dislocated; the nerves were broken, the entrails torn; but, O barbaric impiety of the Gentiles, against the temple of God, against the co-heir of Christ, you have done nothing! You have suspended the limbs of a martyr, opened his flanks, laid bare his entrails; but our Marianus has placed his trust in God; and the more the torments of his body multiplied, the more his courage grew. Finally, the fury of the executioners was defeated, and he had to be led back to prison, all joyful in his triumph. There, with James and the other brothers, he celebrated, through long and fervent prayers, the victory of the Lord.

Gentiles, what will you do now? Do you believe that Christians feel the torments of a prison, that they will be frightened by the darkness of this world, they for whom the joys of eternal light await? Their spirit, fortified by the hope of the grace it is soon to enjoy, embraces the heavens in its noble aspirations, and it is no longer in the tortures with which one wishes to punish it. In vain will men seek, to exercise their punishments, a deep retreat, the dark horrors of another, a dwelling of darkness; when one hopes in God, no place is dreadful, no time seems sad. Christians consecrated to God, their Father, receive, both day and night, the consolations of Christ, their brother. Thus it happened to Marianus. After the torments with which his body had been torn, he fell into a deep and tranquil sleep; and, upon waking, he himself told us in these terms what the divine goodness had shown him to sustain and encourage his hopes: "My brothers," he said to us, "I saw rising before me, at a great height, a tribunal of dazzling brilliance, upon which sat a personage performing the office of judge. He dominated a platform to which one ascended by numerous steps. The confessors were made to approach one by one, in order, before the judge, who condemned them to be beheaded, when suddenly I heard a clear and powerful voice that cried: 'Bring Marianus!' and immediately I climbed onto the platform. At that moment, I perceived, seated at the right of the judge, Cyprian, whom I had not yet seen; he offered me his hand, raised me to the highest step of the platform, and said to me with a smile: 'Come sit with me.' I sat down indeed; and the interrogation of the other confessors continued. In the end, the judge rose, and we led him to his praetorium. We walked through places where pleasant meadows unfolded, and which the smiling foliage of the woods embellished; tall cypresses and pines whose heads rose to the sky extended their shade far and wide; one would have said that the greenery of the forests surrounded these places like an immense crown. In the middle, the pure waters of an abundant spring filled a vast basin to the brim. But suddenly the judge disappears from our eyes; then Cyprian, taking a cup that by chance was on the edge of the fountain, filled it again, presented it to me, and I drank from it myself with happiness. Finally, while I was giving thanks to God, the sound of my voice woke me."

At this account, James remembered that God had deigned to show him the crown that was reserved for him. Indeed, a few days before, Marianus and James, and I with them, were traveling together on the same cart. Toward the middle of the day, at a place where the road was rocky and difficult, James had been seized by a deep sleep; we called him, and when he had awakened: "My brothers," he said to us, "I have just experienced a great emotion; but it is joy that transported my soul; you too, therefore, rejoice with me. I saw a young man of prodigious stature; he had for clothing a robe of such dazzling whiteness that the eyes could not contemplate it; his feet did not touch the earth, and his forehead hid itself in the clouds. As he passed rapidly before us, he threw us two purple belts, one for you, Marianus, and one for me, and he said to us: 'Follow me promptly.'" In such a sleep, what strength against the enemy! What vigil can be compared to it! How happy is the rest of him who watches in faith! The earthly members alone are chained, for it is only the spirit that can see God. How, after that, to describe the transports of joy and the generous sentiments of our martyrs, who, on the point of suffering for confessing the holy name of God, had had the happiness of hearing Christ and seeing him offer himself to their gaze. Nothing had been able to stop him, neither the noisy agitation of a cart, nor the brightness, nor the heat of the day, in the middle of his course. He had not waited for the silent hour of the night; and, by a special and entirely new grace, he had chosen, to show himself to his martyr, a time when he is not accustomed to reveal himself to his saints.

Moreover, the two brothers were not the only ones to enjoy this heavenly favor. Aemilianus, who, in the ranks of the gentiles, belonged to the equestrian order, was also in prison with the other Christians. He had reached the age of fifty without having lost t he priv Emilien Hermit in the forest of Pont-Gibaut and first spiritual master of Braque. ilege of chastity. He had even redoubled his long fasts in prison; his more multiplied prayers were, with the Sacrament of the Lord, the only food that, every day, sustained his soul and prepared it for the combat. Now, Aemilianus also, in the middle of the day, had fallen asleep, and, when he awoke, he told us in these terms the secrets of his vision: "I was leaving prison," he said to us, "when suddenly I met a gentile, my brother according to the flesh. In a voice full of insult he asked us for news, and questioned me with curiosity how we found ourselves in the darkness of the prison and its forced fasts. I answered him that, for the soldiers of Christ, the word of God was, in the midst of darkness, the most brilliant light, and in fasts, a food that fulfills all desires. At these words, he replied: 'Know, all of you who are held in prison, that if you persist in not changing, the death penalty awaits you.' But I, who feared that this might be a lie invented for pleasure to deceive us, wanted confirmation of news that fulfilled all my wishes: 'Is it true,' I said to him, 'that we shall all suffer?' He repeated his first words again, and said: 'Soon your blood will flow under the sword. But I would like to know if you all, who thus despise death, will receive equal rewards in heaven, or if your crowns will be different.' I answered him: 'I am not capable of giving an opinion on such a lofty question. However,' I said to him, 'lift your eyes a little toward the sky; you will see the innumerable army of the stars shining there. Do all these stars shine with the same brilliance? And is the light in all of them equal?' At this answer, the curiosity of the gentile found yet another question to ask: 'If therefore,' he said to me, 'there must be a difference between you, who are those who will merit the preference in the good graces of your God?' — 'Among all the others,' I answered him, 'there are two especially whose names I must not tell you, but whom God knows. They are those whose victory is more difficult and almost without example; more rare, consequently, their crown is more glorious. It is for them that it was written: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.'

After these visions, they remained in prison for a few more days; then they were brought again before the tribunal, so that the magistrate of Cirtha, not content with the first punishments by which he had honored the generous profession of their faith, might send them back to the prefect. At this moment, one of our brothers, who was among the spectators, drew upon himself the eyes of all the Gentiles; for, having had the happiness of proclaiming his faith, it seemed that the splendor of Christ shone upon his face as well as in his words. The impious, in the heat of their fury, asked him if he, too, was of the religion of the martyrs and bore the same name as they. Immediately, by a prompt confession of his faith, he merited to share their happiness. Thus the blessed martyrs, while they were being prepared for the torture, won many witnesses to God. Finally, they were sent to the prefect; they traveled this difficult and painful road with joy; upon their arrival, they were presented to this magistrate; after which they were thrown for the second time into the prisons of Lambaesis. For prisons are the only hospitality that the Gentiles know how to give to the righteous.

For several days, blood was shed without pity, and a great number of our brothers were sent to the Lord; however, the senseless rage of the prefect could not reach Marian and James, and the other victims among the clergy; so numerous were the laity who were struck; for this impious man, cruelly skillful, had separated the different Orders of our religion, hoping that the laity, thus isolated from the clergy, would yield to the temptations of the century and to their own terrors. That is why our two friends, the faithful soldiers of Christ, and, with them, the rest of the clergy, grieved that the laity had preceded them in combat and in glory, and that such a slow and late victory had been reserved for them.

During this long wait, James was consoled by a new vision. Agapius, that holy pontiff of who Agapius Martyr bishop who appears in a vision to James to invite him to the heavenly banquet. m we have spoken, had, for a long time already, consummated his martyrdom. Two young girls, Tertulla and Antonia, whom he loved with a truly paternal tenderness, had suffered with him. Often he had asked God for them to associate them with his martyrdom, and God had deigned to reward his faith, giving him the assurance of it with these words: "Why do you ask incessantly for what you have long since merited by a single prayer?" Now, Agapius appeared to James in his prison, in the midst of sleep. Indeed, on the point of receiving the blow of death, while waiting for the arrival of the executioner, one heard James saying: "How happy I am! I am going to join Agapius, I am going to sit with him and all the other martyrs at the heavenly banquet. This very night, I saw him, our blessed Agapius; in the midst of all those who had been locked up with us in the prison of Cirtha, he appeared the happiest; a joyful and solemn banquet reunited them. Marian and I, carried away by the spirit of direction and charity, ran to it as if to an agape, when suddenly a young child came to meet us, whom I recognized as one of the two twin brothers who, three days before, had suffered with their mother. A necklace of roses was passed around his neck, and, in his right hand, he held a palm of smiling greenery. "Where are you running?" he said to us; "rejoice, be in gladness; tomorrow you will sup with us." Oh! how great, how magnificent is the goodness of God towards his own! What paternal tenderness in the heart of Christ Our Lord, who gives his beloved children such beautiful rewards and makes them know in advance the benefits that his clemency reserves for them!

However, the day succeeded the night in which this vision was manifested, and soon the prefect's sentence would serve to fulfill the promises of God. It is a condemnation, but one that frees Marianus and James, along with the other clerics, from the tribulations of the century, to make them participants in glory, in the society of the Patriarchs. They were therefore led to the place of their triumph; it was a deep valley, crossed by a river whose banks rose gently into hills, thus forming, on both sides, like the tiers of an amphitheater. The blood of the martyrs flowed into the riverbed; and this scene was not without mystery for the saints who, baptized in their blood, were still to receive in the waters a kind of new purification.

You would have seen then the ingenious system of a barbarity that shortens its blows to multiply them. Surrounded by a whole people of martyrs whose heads were destined for the sword, the executioner arranged them with art in long files, so that his sacrilegious blows seemed to run from one head to the other, carried away by a blind fury. Thus nothing stopped his cruel ministry; it was the quickest way to complete this barbaric execution. If, indeed, he had struck them all in the same place, the corpses would have piled up in an enormous heap; the riverbed itself, soon filled, would not have sufficed for such a dreadful carnage. Following custom, before striking the victims, they were blindfolded; but the darkness could not obscure their souls; a vast, immense light flooded them with its ineffable splendors. A great number, despite the veil that hid the brightness of the day from them, told their companions in death and the brothers who were witnesses to their torment that they saw scenes of marvelous beauty, steeds whiter than snow, ridden by young men whose white robes cast a vivid brilliance. Others, at the same time, among the martyrs also, confirmed the accounts of their companions through the testimony of another sense; they had heard the quivering of the steeds and the sound of their footsteps. As for Marianus, already filled with the spirit of prophecy, he announced, with an assurance full of courage, that the day was near when the blood of the just would be avenged. He predicted the numerous plagues with which the world was threatened, the pestilence that would descend from heaven upon the earth, captivity, famine, earthquakes, and the floods of insects whose stings would be deadly. By these prophecies, not only did the Martyr's faith confound the Gentiles; they were also a powerful goad, or rather like the sound of a trumpet in battle, to excite and strengthen the courage of the brothers, reminding them that in the midst of the terrible plagues of the world, the just of God should not let slip the beautiful opportunity for a pious and honorable death.

When the sacrifice was completed, the mother of Marianus, transported with a joy worthy of the mother of the Maccabees, and now assured of the fate of her s on whose marty mère de Marien Mother of Jesus, she promises a reward to Dismas for his hospitality. rdom was consummated, congratulated him on his happiness and congratulated herself for having given birth to such a son. She embraced this body that her womb had carried and which was today her glory. Her lips, with religious tenderness, placed numerous kisses on the still-bleeding wound. O Mary, how happy you are! Happy to be the mother of such a son, happy to bear such a beautiful name! Who would not believe in the happiness that such a great name brings with it, seeing this new Mary receive such glory from the fruit of her womb? Truly, the mercy of the almighty God and of his Christ is ineffable toward those who have placed their trust in his name. Not only does his grace prevent and strengthen them, but also, by redeeming them with his blood, he gives them life. Who could measure the greatness of his benefits? His paternal mercy works unceasingly and pours upon us the gifts that faith shows us as the price of the blood of our God. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever! Amen.

Saint James and Saint Marian are patrons of Gu bbio, Gubbio Italian city of which John of Lodi was bishop. in Umbria: their relics are kept in the cathedral of that city. Their feast is celebrated in Algeria on March 30.

These Acts are part of the collection of Dom Ruinart.