THE ERA OF MARTYRDOM

His resurrection gave a new direction to all the hearts of the followers, and after the mission of the Holy Spirit, they had the power to proclaim Christ's name boldly, to the confusion of Jewish rulers who started the works of persecution.

The martyrdom started with Saint Stephen. As if he was ordained also to open the cruel era of martyrdom, the apostles followed beginning with James the Great. Then, Phillip, Matthew, James the Less (brother of the Lord), Matthias, Andrew, Saint Mark, Peter, Paul, Jude, Bartholomew, Thomas. Luke, Simon, John, and Barnabas. The latter's death was supposed to have taken place about 73 A.D.

The first Roman persecution started under Nero in the year 67 A.D. The Roman Empire tolerated Christianity at first, understanding it as a party among the Jewish parties such as the Pharisees, Essenes, or Sadducees. But as soon as Christianity revealed itself with a separate identity, it became suspicious and triggered persecution, which started sporadically and became systematic from the first century until 303 A.D.

The victims of persecution, who were executed for faith and suffered death by all mean means, enjoyed the fame of martyrs or "witnesses." Other Christians were imprisoned for a time or sent to the mines. Those who survived and endured the torture enjoyed the fame of "confessors." Both martyrs and confessors are saints. The martyrs became saints automatically and gained the veneration of the church. They were officially registered, and their relics had to be contained in consecrated altars.

However, martyrdom does not necessarily entail the shedding of blood. There are many other ways of bearing witness to Christ and suffering as a result. Other forms of holiness were assimilated to martyrdom by saints. In the words of Isidore of Seville (d. 636): "Many who bear the attacks of the adversary and resist the desires of the flesh are martyrs, even in their heart: They would have been martyrs in the time of persecutions."

The record of martyrdom can be attributed to Eusebius, the fourth-century church historian, who kept a record of these persecutions. The following eyewitness account gives an idea of not only the intense pain inflected upon the victims but also the jubilant spirit in which they earned their crown of martyrdom:

The Scillitan Martyrs were condemned and executed at Carthage on the 17th July, a.d. 180. The martyrs belonged to Scili, a place in that part of Numidia which belonged to proconsular Africa. The proconsul at the time, who is said by Tertullian to have been the first to draw the sword against the Christians there, was P. Vigellius Saturninus. The consuls for the year were Praesens II. and Condianus. Marcus Aurelius had died only a few months before.

The exact date of the martyrdom was long under dispute, and the question has recently arisen whether the Acts were originally written in Latin or Greek. Baronius placed the date as late as 202. The text had become corrupt in passing through various Latin and Greek versions and transcriptions, and it was long impossible to recognize the names of the consuls for the year in the first line of the piece. But M. Leon Renier conjectured that the word bis pointed to a consul’s name underlying the word preceding it, and suggested the year 180, when Praesens and Condianus were consuls. This conjecture was confirmed by Usener’s publication in 1881 of a Greek version from a ninth century ms. in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, though even here the names, though recognizable, were in a corrupt form, Usener believed this version to be a translation from a Latin original, and his theory has been confirmed by Mr. Armitage Robinson’s discovery of a Latin ms. of the ninth century in the British Museum, containing the Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs in a form briefer than any of the other versions and believed to be the original. Mr. A. Robinson’s translation which follows, is from the Latin which he discovered, and which is printed in Texts and Studies, vol. i., No. 2.

When Praesens, for the second time, and Claudianus were the consuls, on the seventeenth day of July, at Carthage, there were set in the judgment-hall Speratus, Nartzalus, Cittinus, Donata, Secunda and Vestia.

Saturninus the proconsul said: Ye can win the indulgence of our lord the Emperor, if ye return to a sound mind.

Speratus said: We have never done ill, we have not lent ourselves to wrong, we have never spoken ill, but when ill-treated we have given thanks; because we pay heed to Our Emperor,

Saturninus the proconsul said: We too are religious, and our religion is simple, and we swear by the genius of our lord the Emperor, and pray for his welfare, as ye also ought to do.

Speratus said: If thou wilt peaceably lend me thine ears, I can tell thee the mystery of simplicity.

Saturninus said: I will not lend mine ears to thee, when thou beginnest to speak evil things of our sacred rites; but rather swear thou by the genius of our lord the Emperor.

Speratus said: The empire of this world I know not; but rather I serve that God, whom no man hath seen, nor with these eyes can see. I have committed no theft; but if I have bought anything I pay the tax; because I know my Lord, the King of kings and Emperor of all nations.

Speratus said: It is an ill persuasion to do murder, to speak false witness.

Cittinus said: We have none other to fear, save only our Lord God, who is in heaven.

Saturninus the proconsul said to Speratus: Dost thou persist m being a Christian?

Saturninus the proconsul said: Have a delay of thirty days and bethink yourselves.

Speratus said a second time: I am a Christian. And with him they all agreed.

Saturninus the proconsul read out the decree from the tablet: Speratus, Nartzalus, Cittinus, Donata, Vestia, Secunda and the rest having confessed that they live according to the Christian rite, since after opportunity offered them of returning to the custom of the Romans they have obstinately persisted, it is determined that they be put to the sword.

Saturninus the proconsul ordered it to be declared by the herald: Speratus, Nartzalus, Cittinus, Veturius, Felix, Aquilinus, Laetantius, Januaria, Generosa, Vestia, Donata and Secunda, I have ordered to be executed.

And so they all together were crowned with martyrdom; and they reign with the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen.

September 11 Coptic New Year 1723

Beginning of the blessed Coptic year. It is necessary to keep it a holy day with full purity and chastity. Let us start a new demeanor as St. Paul the Apostle says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation." (2 Co. 5:17-18) And Isaiah the Prophet says, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the meek; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Isaiah 61:1-2) And David the Prophet says, "You crown the year with Your goodness; and Your paths drip with abundance." (Psalms 65:11)

We ask our God to keep us without sin and help us to act according to His will with the intercessions of the pure Saint Mary, all the Martyrs and Saints. Amen. ( From St. George & St. Joseph Church, ca )