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The Tortures and Torments
of the Christian Martyrs
from
De SS. Martyrum
Cruciatibus
(a Modern Edition)
Chapter XII
Of Martyrs driven into Exile, and condemned to Hard Labor
or the Mines
Returning
once again to the discussion and evidence of the remaining methods of
punishment used in antiquity for the torment of the Christian Martyrs,
(enumerated in Chapter 9), we find that the last methods to be examined
pertain either to banishment, or condemning to hard labor or to
the mines.
The first of these — banishment — is found in the works
of many reliable authors, including Tertullian, Cyprian, Jerome (in
speaking of the Holy Apostle St. John), as well as by a great number
of Histories of the Blessed Martyrs, in particular of Pope Clement,
Flavia Domitilla, and Saints Bibiana, Demetria, and Severa, virgins
and martyrs.
Concerning Christians condemned to hard labor, such as digging, carrying
sand and stones, and the like, we can appeal to the Histories
of many Saints, such as Pope Clement, and St. Severa, mentioned just
above, as well as to those of Saints Papias, and Maurus, Roman soldiers.
Of Martyrs sent to the mines, we have ample evidence in Tertullian and
Cyprian, in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, and in numerous
Acts of the Saints, as, for instance, those of St. Silvanus,
Bishop, and thirty-nine comrades in affliction, and of Saints Paphnutius
and Nemesianus. The last are commemorated in the Martyrology
on September 10 in these words:
"In Africa, anniversary of
the Sainted Bishops, Nemesianus, Felix, Lucius, likewise of another
Felix, Victor, Dativus, and others, who, under Valerian and Gallienus
when the rage of persecution was at its height, were, upon their
first steadfast profession of Christ, heavily beaten with clubs,
then bound in fetters and sent off to dig in the mines, and so fulfilled
the struggle of a glorious martyrdom."
Likewise of St. Paphnutius, on
September 2nd:
"In Egypt, anniversary of
St. Paphnutius, Bishop and one of those Confessors who, under the
Emperor Maximian, were condemned to the mines after their right
eyes had been put out and left legs hamstrung. Later, under Constantine
the Great, St. Paphnutius strove earnestly against the Arians on
behalf of the Catholic Faith; and at last died in peace, glorified
with many crowns."
So again of St. Spiridion, on
December 14th:
"In the island of Cyprus,
anniversary of St. Spiridion, Bishop, one of the Confessors whom
Maximian, after putting out their right eyes and maiming their left
legs, condemned to the mines. He was renowned for his gift of prophecy
and the glory of the signs granted him, and in the Council of Nicaea
he overcame the philosopher Ethnicus, who disparaged the Christian
Religion, and brought him to the True Faith."
Athanasius writes:
"But as many as the Arian
persecutors could lay hands on, they banished to that part of Egypt
called the Great Oasis. And the bodies of those who died they at
first refused to surrender to their friends, but kept them secretly
unburied to satisfy their capricious spite, thinking their cruelty
might so remain undiscovered. In doing so, however, they made
a great error; for the friends and relations of the murdered men,
rejoicing in their confession of the truth, yet mourning the concealing
of their dead bodies, and loudly proclaiming the cruelty of what
was done, caused the tragedy of their enemies' atrocities to be
more and more known abroad. Both in Egypt and in Africa they drove
many Bishops and priests into exile ... whom they hurried away with
such violence that some died on the way, others perished in banishment,
with more than thirty Bishops of the Church in all being exiled."
And again in another place,
"Under the Emperor Constantius,
who was ever ready to assist the Arians, they succeeded in effecting
the banishment from Alexandria to Armenia of two priests and three
deacons. Arius moreover and Asterius, the Bishops respectively of
Petra in Palestine and Petra in Arabia, were exiled to upper Africa.
Lucius too, Bishop of Adrianople, who had boldly opposed them and
rebuked their wickedness, was once more bound hand and head as they
had done to him before, and bore him away into exile, where he died."
A short extract now from Theodoretus'
History describing the driving into exile of Catholics under
the Emperor Valens, must, for our present purposes, suffice, after which
we will leave this part of our subject:
"Sentence was delivered on
the holy men by Magnus, Count of the Provincial Treasury, to this
effect, that they were to be expelled from Alexandria and sent away
to dwell in exile at Heliopolis, a city in Phoenicia, in which no
inhabitant would endure to hear the name of Christ, for they were
one and all idol worshippers. Accordingly he ordered them to immediately
embark on a ship, he himself standing on the shore and brandishing
a drawn sword at them, thinking to strike terror into the souls
of men who had again and again wounded hostile demons with the two-edged
sword of the Spirit. Then he gave a final command to set sail without
any provisions having been loaded in the ship or anything whatever
given them to sustain them in the cruelty of exile."
A similar barbarity fills the
heart of Elizabeth, Queen of England, in our own day, who is now torturing
her Catholic subjects with every sort of bitter torment and innumerable
afflictions and penalties, sometimes (see Sanders, Anglican Schism)
driving them into banishment as a token and proof of her pretended clemency.
But of her own impiety and that of her father, Henry VIII, we have spoken
elsewhere at greater length.
Of Martyrs Condemned to Hard Labor, Building or Cleaning
Sewers, or Working on the Roads and Streets
This sort of punishment is mentioned
by Suetonius, who states in his Life of Nero:
"He began the artificial lake
between Misenum and Avernus and the canal from Avernus to Ostia,
and with a view to finishing these works, ordered all prisoners
that were anywhere confined in jail to be conveyed to Italy, and
convicted persons to be condemned in every case to hard labor."
And again in Caligula:
"Many respectable people were
first disfigured by branding marks, and then he condemned them to
the mines, to work on the roads, and to wild beasts."
Pliny (Letters), speaking
of the Emperor Trajan, tells us that:
"Any older offenders that
are discovered and who were sentenced ten years ago, will be assigned
to various tasks not far removed from hard labor; for men of this
sort are commonly taken away for cleaning the sewers and working
on the highroads and public streets."
Further particulars concerning
these punishments may be found in the History, of Pope Marcellinus
as follows:
"When Maximianus returned
from the African province to Rome — and eager to please Diocletian
Augustus, who was determined to build Therma named after
himself (hence, the Diocletian's Baths) — he first set about
by persecuting Christians soldiers of that faith, forcing all, whether
Romans or foreigners, to the degradation of forced labor, and in
different places condemned them to quarrying stone or digging sand.
At this time lived a certain Christian, Thrason by name, a man of
importance, and wealth and faithful in his life; seeing his fellow-Christians
worn out with weariness and hard labor, he would of his abundance
supply food and nourishment to the holy martyrs ..."
And further on:
"Maximian commanded that Cyriacus,
Largus, Smaragdus, and Sisinnius, should dig sand, and carry it
on their own shoulders to the spot where the Thermae were
being built. Among the rest was an old man, Saturninus by name,
who was now sadly broken by age, and they began to help him carry
his load. But when the guards saw this, how Sisinnius and Cyriacus
were bearing both their own and others' burdens ..."
The same, or very similar, accounts are given in the
records of the passion of St. Cyriacus and his companions, and of St.
Severa, virgin and martyr.
St. Athanasius also makes mention of the same form of punishment:
"The Arians drove the old
Bishops into exile, disposing of some in the stone-quarries [Footnote:
Stone quarries (lapidicinae), places whence stone is extracted,
called in Greek latumiae. Hence prisons are called latumia,
either because criminals were sent there to quarry stone, or because
the Tyrants of Syracuse had near that city great stone quarries
excavated in the rock like a jail, from which the stones had been
hewn for building the city originally, and made use of these as
prisons. It will be remembered how the unhappy survivors of the
disastrous Athenian expedition, under Lamachus (B.C. 415), against
Syracuse, perished in these latumiae.], and hounding others
to death."
Victor mentions this even more
frequently in his Vandal Persecution, where he writes in one
place:
"When the tyrant failed to
break down the wall of their constancy, he devised a plan of allowing
no men of our Religion that held office in his Court to touch the
usual allowances and pay, further endeavoring to wear them out in
manual labor. He ordered well-born and delicately nurtured men to
the plain of Utica to cut the field crops under the blaze of the
burning sun, where all then went rejoicing in the Lord."
It is unquestionable, then, that
it was customary with the ancients to send offenders and Christians
to hard labor in the way of inflicting the greatest possible injury
and insult upon them, and particularly on those who were ennobled by
military service. Properly speaking, it was only persons of the viler
sort that were usually assigned to public works; and if soldiers were
so treated, this was directly contrary to the laws, which forbade a
soldier to be condemned to the mines or to be tortured, and under no
circumstances to be forced to labor at building operations or perform
the daily tasks of slaves.
One building that was constructed by the sweat and toil of Christian
soldiers and Christian martyrs is that enormous pile which to this day
we call (as we had mentioned above) The Baths of Diocletian.
The circumstances of its building cannot but make us assign it to the
special favor of Almighty God, that in later years, when Pope Pius IV
was seated on the Papal throne, the most important part of this building,
which remained intact, was changed to serve as a Church, and solemnly
and duly consecrated to Mary the Mother of God and the Holy Angels (Church
of Santa Maria degli Angeli at Rome).
Of Martyrs Condemned to the Mines
Many were the sufferings and indignities
we are told of as endured by persons condemned to the mines. To begin
with they were disfigured with marks and brandings, and deprived of
all their goods and of the Roman citizenship, if they possessed it;
then they were beaten with cudgels, and loaded with fetters; compelled
to lie on the bare earth, if they wanted to rest their weary limbs;
tormented with filthy, stinking surroundings and by periods of fasting.
Moreover the crown of the head was shaven; and lastly in the case of
the holy martyrs condemned to this punishment under the Emperors Maximian,
Diocletian and Galerius, the right eye was plucked out and the left
leg hamstrung.
That those sent to the mines were degraded by marking and branding is
also seen in a passage already quoted from Suetonius' Life of Caligula:
"Many persons of respectable
condition, after first disfiguring them by branding marks, he condemned
to the mines."
Constantine, on the other hand,
writing to Eumelius in a rescript dated from March 21, states:
"If any man has been condemned
to penal imprisonment or to the mines in punishment for the crimes
he has been convicted of, no writing is to be made on his face,
albeit on hands or ankles the sentence of his condemnation may be
set in one, and one only, branding. The human face, which was formed
in the likeness of the divine beauty, should never be spoiled and
degraded."
Constantine, the first Christian
Emperor, then clearly shows us by his words that up to his own day the
practice had continued of branding the faces of those condemned to the
mines with black marks that could never be obliterated and deep-cut
letters.
As to confiscation of property and deprivation of citizenship, many
pertinent statutes can be found in Roman laws enacted before Constantine
the Great.
It is necessary for us to understand
that those condemned to the mines were reduced to the condition of slaves
— which is again proven by reference to Roman law, from which it followed
necessarily that each article of their goods became public property
upon their condemnation.
"A man condemned to the mine
becomes a slave in virtue of his punishment, and accordingly those
upon whom this sentence has been pronounced have their goods confiscated
to the benefit of the treasury. For this reason, any property possessed
by the person whom you declare to have been subsequently released
by our clemency, belongs rather to the public revenue than to himself."
Further, that the Blessed Martyrs
condemned to the mines were beaten with cudgels, bound with fetters,
had the one half of their heads shaven, were tortured with hunger, filth
and foul stenches, and the like, is clear from one of St. Cyprian's
Letters, addressed to Nemesianus and the other martyrs, his companions,
then imprisoned in the mines:
"But that you should have
been so badly beaten with cudgels and tormented — and by these pains
making a first beginning and initiation of your confession of faith
in Christ — is indeed a thing to stir one's indignation. Yet
has no Christian ever shuddered at the cudgels, seeing that his
hope is all in another instrument of wood, the Cross. Christ's servant
has known the sacrament of his salvation; by the Cross of wood has
he been redeemed to eternal life; by the Cross advanced to the crown
of blessedness. What wonder is it, I ask you, if, vessels of gold
and silver, you have been sent to the mine, which is the true home
of gold and silver, except only that now is the nature of the mines
changed, and the places which were heretofore used to supply gold
and silver, begin to receive the same?
They have set fetters moreover
on your feet and bound your holy limbs, those temples of God, with
degrading chains — as if the spirit could be bound fast with the
body, or your gold be soiled with the contact of iron. To such as
are dedicated to God's service and testify His faith by their religious
life, these things are weapons, not bonds; it is not to shame they
fetter the legs of Christian men, but to the glory and brightness
of perfection. Oh! feet happily fettered, that shall not be released
by the smith, but by God Himself! Oh! feet happily fettered, which
are started on the blessed road to Paradise! Oh! feet tied and bound
now for a brief space, that they may be free forever hereafter!
Oh! feet that stumble for a while shackled with chains and cross-bars,
but will soon run in the glorious path that leads to Christ!
What matter if envious and
ill-conditioned cruelty hold you in its chains and bonds, when you
will so soon be leaving this earth and these pains for the kingdoms
of the sky? True, in the mines the body is not pampered with beds
and bedding, but it is comforted with the refreshment and consolation
of Christ. Your toil-wearied carcasses lie on the bare ground, but
it is surely no punishment to lie with Christ. Your limbs are always
squalid with scurf and foulness for lack of baths; but you are washed
internally in the Spirit. Your bread is scanty and unclean; but
man does not live by bread alone, but by the word of God. You shiver,
and have naught to cover you; but he who puts on Christ is clad
and warmed abundantly. Your heads are half shorn, and the hair rough
and ragged; but when Christ is your head, how beautiful must that
head be, which is called after the name of the Lord. All this deformity
that is hateful and abominable in the eyes of the Heathen, what
splendor shall be accounted worthy of it?"
Similar are the words of the following
letter sent back to him by the sufferers to whom St. Cyprian wrote:
"Our fellow-prisoners give
many thanks to you, under God, most beloved Cyprian, for you have
refreshed their laboring breast with your letter, healed their limbs
bruised by the cudgels, loosed their feet bound in the stocks, made
complete again the hair of their half-shaven heads, enlightened
the gloom of the dungeon, leveled the mountainous places of the
mine, have even set fragrant flowers before their noses and shut
out the choking smell of smoke. Moreover your assistance, and that
of our most beloved Quirinus, has been received, and the provisions
sent to be distributed by Herennianus the Sub-deacon and Lucanus,
Maximus and Amantius, the acolytes, applied to make up whatever
was lacking to our bodily sustenance."
Lastly, we know from the Roman Martyrology and
from Eusebius that martyrs condemned to the mines often had their right
eyes torn out and the sinews of their left
legs
cut. Eusebius writes:
"When Diocletian and Maximian
were wearied with the excess of the sufferings inflicted on us and
tired of their slaughter of human beings; when they were now sated
and over-sated with bloodshed, and had come to feel such clemency
and mercy as was to be expected of them, to avoid the appearance
of exercising any special cruelty upon us for the future — for they
professed that it was not seemly to contaminate States with domestic
bloodshed, nor to stain their Empire with the blot of inhumanity
(an empire which all held, of course, to be so clement and full
of pity), but rather that all mankind should enjoy the blessings
of a genuine and merciful royal rule, and that no one, henceforth,
should be punished with death, and that this kind of penalty be
remitted and relaxed towards us — these benignant Princes directed
merely that our eyes be torn out, and one leg broken! For, in their
view, these were mild tortures and very gentle punishments for us
to endure. Accordingly it is impossible to tell the number of those
who, in deference to their horrid gentleness, have had their right
eyes dug out with daggers (and the sockets they were torn from seared
with a hot iron), their left legs mutilated at the articulation
of the joints, and themselves afterward condemned to the copper
mines in various provinces, not so much to take advantage of their
labor as to torture and torment them."
Further, St. Clement implies that
Christians condemned to the mines used to be guarded by soldiers; and
the law dealing with the subject informs us that they were regularly
coerced with such lashes as are given to slaves.
Eutropius tells us that Tarquinius Superbus was the first Roman to devise
this punishment of the mines; but he certainly was not
the first to discoverer it, for Diodorus Siculus and Suidas both state
in so many words that Semiramis, the Queen of Assyria, worked the mines,
and did so by the help of prisoners of war. Women as well as men were
sometimes condemned to labor in them.
Of Insults and Indignities
Practiced by both Heathens and by Heretics upon the Dead Bodies of the
Blessed Martyrs
We have already seen from St.
Athanasius, in a passage quoted above regarding exiled Catholics, how
the enemies of the
Christian Faith not only exercised their cruelty upon the Blessed Martyrs
while they were yet still alive, but also upon their dead corpses, such
that their inhumanity and savagery extended even toward the bodies of
martyrs when lacking life and feeling. To begin with, Eusebius, in the
Eccleslastlcal History, provides many examples of these horrors,
of which we will quote only one or two. In one place he writes:
"Caesar, having answered by
letter, ordered that all who confessed the Faith of Christ be put
to torture. The Governor, determined to make a spectacle of the
Christians to the mob, commanded the Blessed Martyrs to be brought
forward into the judgment-hall. There he once more examined them,
and pronounced sentence that any who were Roman citizens would be
beheaded, while the remainder were to be delivered over to the beasts."
Then after these Saints had victoriously
won the crown of martyrdom, the Historian adds:
"But even so their rage and
cruelty against the Saints were not satisfied, for these savage,
barbarous people were stirred up by a savage and furious beast:
the Devil. Scarcely, if at all, did their rage slacken. Rather,
they began to exercise their insults, cruelty, and malevolence anew
on the dead bodies of their victims. Even though they had been overcome
by the martyrs' constancy, being devoid of all human feeling, their
madness was not a whit diminished nor repressed; rather, the bitter
spite both of governor and people grew greater still.
The dead bodies of those whom
the pestiferous stench of the prison had choked, or who had died
under torture, were exposed to be mangled by dogs, and were, moreover,
carefully watched day and night, to prevent any of the faithful
from committing them to a tomb.
Finally, the limbs of the
martyrs slain in the amphitheatre — any that is, which had not yet
been devoured by beasts or consumed by fire — were either
rent into small pieces or burned up like coal. What is more, the
heads of those who had been decapitated were collected and laid
with the trunks, and for several days guarded by pickets, to make
sure of their being left unburied.
Meantime many people came
to mock these poor remains, and to cry, 'Where is their God now?
What has their religion profited them, which they preferred to their
own lives?' ... Neither by taking advantage of concealment by night,
nor by offering substantial bribes, could the bodies be recovered
by their friends; but were always carefully watched, the Heathen
appearing to deem it a great thing gained, for them to be left lying
unburied.
Last of all, after the martyrs'
remains had lain six whole nights and days under the open sky and
subject to every ignominy, they were first burned at the hands of
vile and abandoned wretches and reduced to ashes, then thrown broadcast
into the Rhone, which flows nearby, to the end that no trace of
them should be left anywhere upon the earth."
And again:
"The remainder of the Christian
band were bound
with chains, and driven by the officers on board boats, which were
then launched out into the deep sea and stormy waves. Some of these
servants of the Great King who had, after their death, been decently
and properly committed to the earth in burial, were formally ordered
by the Emperors to be dug up again and cast into the sea, lest if
they were deposited in tombs and commemorated by monuments, people
should deem them gods and honor them with religious veneration."
And in another place still:
"But this monster of cruelty
(the Tribune Maxys), proceeding to yet further extremities of inhumanity,
and every day increasing his almost bestial rage against men of
piety, altogether transcended the laws of nature, going so far as
to insolently deny burial to the lifeless bodies of the Saints;
and to this end ordered their corpses, left out under the open sky
for beasts to mangle, to be carefully watched night and day. Accordingly
a great number of men might for many days be seen fulfilling this
harsh and barbarous duty, while others again kept a careful look-out
from a watch tower or high place to see that no corpse was taken
away. So wild beasts, dogs, and birds of prey tore their limbs and
scattered their remains hither and thither; until the whole city
was strewn everywhere with the entrails and bones of men.
In the end, even those who
had hitherto been hostile to us declared they had never known anything
more atrocious and dreadful, commiserating not so much the misfortune
of the individuals so terribly treated as the insult to their own
self-respect and the claims of nature, the common parent of all
mankind. For the spectacle of human flesh, not merely being devoured
in one spot, but lying torn and mangled everywhere (surpassing the
power of pen to describe or tragedy to represent), was offered to
the eyes of all at every gate of the city, while some even declared
they had seen separate limbs or even whole corpses, to say nothing
of fragments of human entrails, actually inside the gates.
But now hear a great marvel!
During several days when these things were being done, a miracle
was to be seen. Though the weather was perfectly fine, the sun shining
brightly, the air clear, and the whole sky calm and beautiful, suddenly
the pillars throughout the city supporting the colonnades both of
public and private buildings began to exude copious drops, as it
were of tears. The Forum too and the streets, though no vestige
of rain fell, grew wet in some mysterious way as though drenched
with water; so that the word passed everywhere from mouth to mouth
that mother earth could not longer tolerate the wickedness and impiety
of the atrocities then committed, but was in some inexplicable fashion
shedding floods of tears, the very stones and all inanimate nature
weeping these odious crimes and justly rebuking the iron hard-heartedness
of men and their nature that was so cruel and so lacking in proper
pity."
All this is on the authority of
Eusebius, who is further confirmed in what he states by Theodoretus
and by Sozomen in their Ecclesiastical Histories, the former
speaking of the Emperor Valens, the latter of Julian the Apostate. Theodoretus
writes:
"After Palladius, a man greatly
given to superstition, finished torturing the tender bodies of Catholic
boys, some of these, when their martyrdom was consummated, were
left lying, defrauded of due burial. So their parents, brethren,
kinsmen, and I may say the whole city, claimed this one boon, this
last solace, might be granted them. But Oh! for the pitiless harshness
of their judge, or rather their executioner! — they who fought so
gallantly for their religion, they meet the same fate as murderers,
and their corpses are left unburied; they who wrestled so stoutly
for the Faith, are exposed to be devoured by birds and beasts. But
even more! Any who took pity on the fathers of these martyrs slain
for conscience' sake, are themselves beheaded as though guilty of
an odious crime."
Lastly, Sozomen offers us the
following passage:
"But when as they had torn
their bodies in pieces (to wit, Saints Eusebius, Nestabus and Zeno)
and so broken their heads that the brains ran out on the ground,
they conveyed them to a place outside the city where the carcasses
of dead animals were thrown. Then lighting a pile, they burned their
bodies, and the bones left over which the fire had not entirely
consumed, they mixed up with camels' or asses' bones that were lying
thereabout — in such a way as to make it extremely difficult to
find the blessed martyrs' relics amid so many bones. Yet did they
not remain for long so hidden away."
These, then, were the tortures
and torments, thus far described by me, by which the Christian martyrs
of either sex were afflicted, and through which, in times of persecution,
they won their way to the glorious crown of martyrdom.
These, O, Gallant soldiers of God ... these, you unconquered champions
of Christ — these tortures and torments, I say, are the bright insignia
of your victory, the manifest signs of your faith and fortitude, these
the marks of your triumph! Death, which you sought so eagerly, you glorious
warriors of God's army, has earned you an everlasting life of gladness.
You, you alone are truly happy! Who will not proclaim your blessedness
complete, for holding wealth and this world's pleasures of no account
for Christ's sake, you have desired above all things else to pour out
the last breath of life amid the most dreadful torments! In time of
persecution, when the anguish of your sufferings grew more and more,
fixing the eyes of your soul on the celestial guerdon, you spoke thus
to God in your hearts without movement of the lips: "Here on earth,
most gracious Lord God, let the torments of the body be multiplied a
hundredfold, that there in Paradise gladness and peace may be increased.
Oh, breasts burning with the flame of love divine! Oh, Hearts kindled
with the ardor of the Holy Spirit!"
It is not to be marveled at, if these most gallant athletes of God,
abiding in the midst of storms, were deterred by no perils, but made
only the more eager and determined by suffering, craved that every hour
ever new tortures, the most bitter and most agonizing, might be wrought
on them, as though they could never have enough of pain.
But, wretches that we are! Oh! Unhappy sinners! What excuse, what excuse,
I ask, shall we find before the Lord in the terrible day of His judgment,
we who with no horrors of persecution to endure, no torments to confront,
have held God's grace and our own salvation of so small account as to
choose to pass all our life in a mere torpor of indolent sleep? What
excuse shall we plead, when the very pillars of the heavens shall tremble
— when all the nations of the earth shall cry aloud — when the most
noble army of Christ's blessed martyrs, standing up before the throne
of glory in great joy and confidence, shall display the scars of their
wounds shining out upon their bodies and surpassing the sun's splendor
with their brightness? What shall we then have to show? — What merits
to bring forward? What plea shall we have to make? — God's grace and
word inviolable? Renunciation of all earthly joys, alms, fasting, and
mortification of the flesh? Pity, patience, and gentle compunction?
Peace of heart, holy, calm, and prayerful watchfulness? Blessed indeed
they, and thrice happy, which shall possess such shields to guard them!
They shall be made companions of the Holy Martyrs, and sharers and partakers
in their glory!
So we beg and beseech you, and entreat you earnestly with endless prayer,
Oh! Martyrs most blessed, who for God's sake and by His holy grace,
endured torments willingly and with a cheerfully, and for that cause
are now made one with Him in sweet accord and loving blessedness, we
entreat you to plead with God for us miserable sinners, weighed down
under the most grievous offences and degraded by the most sordid sins
of negligence — that loving Him with all our heart and all our strength
in this vale of tears, we may hereafter be found worthy on that dreadful
day when all secrets shall be made manifest, to obtain mercy and salvation
everlasting.
And above all, I beseech you, most glorious soldiers of Almighty God,
forget not me, the author of this book, who am the most abject of sinners.
It is by your intercession, and that only, I hope and aspire, with all
the unction and eager desire of my heart, to win everlasting felicity,
and with you to be fulfilled of the abundant waters of God's bliss,
and intoxicated with the unspeakable riches of the mansions of His house.
END
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