The Passion of Marian and James

1Whenever the most blessed martyrs of almighty God and his Christ race toward the promised kingdom of heaven and entrust some charge to their dearest friends, they ask with modesty. They remember the humility that always makes men greater in faith, and the more modestly they ask, the more surely their request is granted.

These noblest witnesses of God have left to me also the task of proclaiming their glory. I mean Marian, one of our dearest brothers, and James. You know how closely they clung to me, not only through our shared life under the solemn pledge but through daily companionship and deep family affection.

They were about to face so great a contest against the crushing pressures of a raging age and pagan attack. They commanded that their battle, which they entered at the prompting of the heavenly Spirit, should come to the knowledge of our brothers and sisters through me. They did not want the glory of their crown proclaimed on earth out of boasting. They wanted the whole congregation, God's people, to be armed for the pattern of faith by the trials that went before them. Our close friendship rightly laid this obedient task upon me. For who could doubt what fellowship was ours in the peace of our life together, when a single season of persecution found us living in undivided love?

2We were traveling into Numidia together, as we had always traveled before, companions sharing one road in equal fellowship. That road was leading us toward the longed-for service of faith and devotion, and it was already leading them toward heaven. We had come to a place called Muguas, lying close beside the suburbs of the colony of Cirta. In that city especially the blind rage of the pagans was then swelling like the waves of this world through the action of soldiers, and the raging devil who attacked us was gaping with greedy jaws to test the faith of the righteous.

There the blessed martyrs Marian and James grasped with full certainty the long-desired signs of divine gracious favor at work in themselves. They had been brought into the very district where the storm of persecution raged most fiercely, and with their hour now ripening they understood that Christ was guiding their steps straight to the place of the crown. For the bloody fury of the blinded governor was hunting down all those beloved by God through the hands of soldiers with hostile and aggressive intent. Nor did the madness of cruelty spend itself only on those who had lived freely for God and stood unshaken through earlier persecutions. The insatiable devil was also reaching out his hand against those whom the fierce madness of the governor had removed into exile long ago and had crowned, though not yet in blood, already martyrs in mind.

3At this point Agapius and Secundinus were led from their own exile to the governor as bishops to be proclaimed. The two were united in spiritual love, and one was marked also by holy continence of the flesh. They were led, I say, not from punishment to punishment, as it looked to pagans, but from glory to glory, from one struggle to another. For they had subdued the ensnaring show of the world in winning Christ's name, so they might also trample the stings of death by the power of a perfected faith. Nor was it right for them to seek victory in earthly wrestling too slowly, when the Lord was already hastening to have them with himself.

And it happened, brothers, that Agapius and Secundinus, glorious martyrs from illustrious priesthood, deigned to enter our lodging while they were passing toward the battle of their blessed passion. They went by the governor's temporal power, yet by Christ's choice. So great a spirit of life-giving and grace dwelt in them that, holy and renowned as these witnesses of God were, it was no longer enough for them to have destined their precious blood for glorious martyrdom. They also made other martyrs by the inspiration of their faith.

So great was their love and affection for the brothers that, although in silence they could have built up the faith of the brotherhood by the example of such devoted and unyielding courage, they looked more widely to the firmness of our endurance and poured into our hearts the dew of salutary discourse. For those who lived by God's word could not keep silent. Nor is it surprising that in those few days their salutary discourse so richly enlivened all our minds, for in them Christ was already shining with flashing grace from their approaching passion.

4Barely two days had passed, and their own palm was seeking our dearest Marian and James. In other places one guard on duty or another does this work. Here a violent band of centurions and a shameless crowd rushed together to the country house that held us, as if to a famous seat of faith. It was a raid we had longed for! O happy trembling, worthy of exultation! For they came to us for this alone, that the righteous blood of Marian and James might fulfill God's gracious favor.

At this point, dearest brothers, we can scarcely curb our heaped joys. Two days earlier we had sent some from our embrace straight to the very end of their passion, and we still had others with us as future martyrs. When the now ripe hour of divine gracious favor seeks them more urgently, it touched even us with some share of brotherly glory, and we were being dragged from Muguis to the colony of Cirta. Those dear to us and chosen for the palm of passion were following us, for both love for us was leading them and Christ's now ripe gracious favor was leading them. So in a wonderful way and with unstained order of march, those who were to go ahead were following behind. Their wait was not long. While they encourage us with still greater exultation, they revealed with still freer joy that they too are Christians. Soon they were questioned, and as they were standing firm in the most brave confession of faith of the Name, they are led into prison.

5Then they were put to many hard tortures by a soldier on station, an executioner of just and holy men, with a centurion and the magistrates of Cirta lending their help to his cruelty. They were the devil's priests, as if tearing limbs could break a faith that holds the body cheap.

James, who had always been sterner in the strength of his faith and had already once lived through the attacks of the Decian persecution, volunteered to confess himself not only a Christian but also a deacon. Marian, because he confessed himself only a reader, as he truly was, was left exposed to the tortures. What tortures those were! How strange they were, how cunningly devised by the devil's poisoned mind to drag men down!

Marian hung to be wounded, and grace stayed with the martyr even amid his torn flesh, so that the twisting lifted him high through pain. The cords that held his hanging body bound not his hands but the very tips of his thumbs, so that the thin slightness of his fingers would labor harder in bearing all the rest. Unjust weights were hung from his feet as well, so that, pulled apart on both sides by clashing pains and loosened by the wrenching of his entrails, the whole frame of his body hung from its sinews. You achieved nothing, pagan wickedness, against God's temple, against Christ's coheir. You may hang his limbs, shake his sides, and tear his entrails; our Marian, trusting in God, grew as much in mind as in body. At last the torturers' savagery was beaten, and he was shut back in prison, rejoicing greatly in his triumph. There with James and the other brothers he celebrated with constant prayer the joy of the victory that belongs to the Lord.

6What now, pagans? Do you believe Christians feel the pains of prison and shudder at earthly darkness when the joy of eternal light awaits them? The Spirit has embraced heaven in its mind, with faithful hope of the grace to come, and is now not concerned with its own punishments. You may search out a hidden and concealed place for torture, the heavy horrors of a dark cave and a house of gloom, but for those who trust in God no filthy place feels foul and no time feels sad. Christ cherishes them by day and by night, those brothers dedicated to God the Father.

After that torment of his body, Marian sank more deeply into calm sleep. When he woke, he told us himself what God's gracious favor had shown him to strengthen his hope of salvation. He said, "Brothers, I was shown the towering top of a lofty tribunal, exceedingly white."

"A judge with a handsome face presided there in the governor's place. An execution platform stood there too, no low stand and no climb of a single step, but set with many steps and rising high to ascend. Single groups of confessors were brought forward, and that judge ordered them led out to the sword. My turn came as well. Then I heard a clear and vast voice saying, 'Bring Marian forward.' I climbed onto that execution platform, and suddenly Cyprian appeared, seated at that judge's right hand. He stretched out his hand and lifted me to a higher place on the execution platform. He smiled and said, 'Come, sit with me.' Other groups were heard while I sat beside him."

"That judge rose, and we escorted him to his headquarters. Our path lay through a place lovely with meadows and clothed with the glad leaves of green groves, shaded by cypresses rising high and pines striking the sky, so that you would have thought the whole circle of the place was crowned with green groves. In the middle a basin was overflowing with a very clear spring, rich in its flow and pure in its waters. Suddenly that judge vanished from our eyes. Then Cyprian seized a bowl lying on the edge of the spring. He filled it from the spring like a thirsty man and drank, and he filled it again and handed it to me, and I drank gladly. As I was giving thanks to God, I woke at the sound of my own voice and rose."

7Then James too remembered that a showing of divine gracious favor had marked out this crown for him. A few days earlier Marianus and James and I were riding together in the same cart. Toward midday, along the rough broken road, James was seized by a deep and wonderful sleep. When we called to him and roused him, he woke and said, "Brothers, I am shaken, but not without joy for me, and you ought to rejoice with me as well. I have seen," James said, "a young man of indescribable and very great stature. His loose robe shone with so white a light that eyes could not look steadily at it. His feet did not touch the ground, and his face stood above the clouds. As he swept past, he threw one purple sash into your fold, Marian, and one into mine, and said, 'Follow me quickly.'"

O sleep stronger than all watching! O sleep in which whoever stays awake in faith sleeps so happily! It had put to sleep only his earthly limbs, for only the spirit could see the Lord.

How exultant and how lifted up the hearts of the martyrs must have been. They were about to suffer in confession of faith of the holy name, yet they were already granted both to hear Christ beforehand and to see Him offering Himself to His own in every place and at every time. The restless jolting of the moving cart was no hindrance, nor was the midday then blazing under a bright sun. They waited for no secrecy of night: with a new kind of grace the Lord chose a new time of vision for His martyr.

8Nor was this gracious favor given to one man or another alone. Aemilianus shared it in prison as well. Though in pagan estimation he was held to be of equestrian rank, he was still one of the brothers there. By continence of the flesh he had come to nearly his fiftieth year as a boy. In prison he kept fast upon fast with doubled fasting and prayers repeated again and again. Through them his devout mind was fed and made ready for another day for the solemn pledge of the Lord. At midday he lay down in sleep. Then, as soon as sleep left him, he opened to us the secrets of his vision.

"When I had been led out of prison," Aemilianus said, "a pagan man met me, that is my own blood brother. He was full of curiosity about our affairs, and he pressed me in a mocking voice. He wanted to know how we were faring in that punishing darkness and in the starvation of prison. I answered him, 'Soldiers of Christ have a most brilliant light even in darkness, and the word of God as satisfying food even in fasting.' When he heard this, he said, 'Know that all of you who are held in prison will face the death penalty if you persist resolutely.'"

"I feared he might be playing a composed lie with deceit," Aemilianus said, "so I wanted to make my hope sure. 'Shall we truly all suffer?' I asked. But he affirmed again, 'Sword and blood are near for you. Yet I would like to know whether all of you who despise this life are repaid with heavenly rewards that are undistinguished and equal.' I answered him, 'I am not fit to pass judgment on so great a matter. Lift your eyes to heaven for a little while. Now you will see a countless crowd of glittering stars. Does every star shine forth with equal honor of light? And yet the light for all is one.' At this he found with still more curiosity another question to ask. 'If there is any distinction,' he said, 'who among you are foremost in earning the will of the Lord by service?' 'Certainly above the rest there are two,' I said, 'whose names must not be told to you and are known to God.'"

"When he still pressed me harder and probed me more importunately," Aemilianus said, "I told him, 'They are those who, the more hardly and slowly they conquer, are crowned more gloriously. And for this it is written: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:24).'"

9After these visions they lingered a few days longer in prison, and then they were brought out in public. The magistrates of Cirta honored them with the official report of their bravest confession of faith, to send them on to the governor with part of their condemnation already decided. One of our brothers standing nearby drew the eyes of all the pagans upon himself, for through the grace of the suffering now close at hand Christ already shone in his face and speech. When they demanded of him in agitated fury whether he too belonged to the same faith and Name, he seized so sweet a companionship with an immediate confession of faith.

By their official reports the blessed martyrs gain many more witnesses to God while they themselves are being made ready for martyrdom. Once handed over to the governor, they hastened willingly along the hard and busy road. When they were presented to the governor, the prison at Lambaesis received them. For among the pagans this alone lodges the righteous.

10Meanwhile, over the course of many days, a great company of our brothers was sent over to the Lord through the outpouring of blood, while the mad rage of the raving governor could not reach its victim in Marian and James and the clergy, because it was still busy with the wounds of so many laymen. For a calculating cruelty had divided the ranks of our religion from one another, supposing that laymen, once separated from the clergy, would yield to the temptations of the world and to its own terrors. So our dearest and most faithful soldiers of Christ and the rest of the clergy began to grow somewhat sorrowful, since the laymen were having fully discharged the praise of their own contest, while so slow and so late a victory was being held back for them.

11Then Agapius had long since fulfilled the solemn pledges of a completed faith by his own martyrdom. He had prayed over and over with frequent prayers for two girls, Tertulla and Antonia, whom he loved most dearly in place of pledges, that they too might become martyrs with him through the gracious favor of God, and he had reported the assurance of his merits in a revelation of this kind. He was told, "Why do you keep asking for what you have already earned with a single prayer?" So this same Agapius appeared in a time of rest to James staying in prison. For at the very blow of suffering, while they waited for the executioner, James says, "It is well that I am going to the banquet of Agapius and the other most blessed martyrs."

James goes on, "Last night, brothers, I saw our Agapius, happier than all the others whom the prison at Cirta had enclosed together with us, celebrating a solemn banquet full of joy. When Marian and I were seized toward it as to a love-feast by a spirit of love and charity, a boy ran to meet us, known to be one of the twins who had suffered with his mother three days before, with a rose crown around his neck and holding a very green palm in his right hand, and he said, 'Why are you hurrying? Rejoice and exult, for tomorrow you yourselves will dine with us.'" O great and glorious gracious favor of God toward his own! O true and fatherly mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord, who both grants such generous benefits to his beloved and declares beforehand the gifts of his mercy that he is about to bestow.

The first day after the vision had dawned, and now the sentence of the governor served the promises of God. By a sentence of punishment it released Marian and James and the other clergy from the pressures of the world, restored with glory to the patriarchs. For they were led to the place of the crown, which lay in the middle valley of a river between the high hills of its banks on either side, and the high height of the embankment on both sides made a spectacle. The channel itself in its middle hollow drank in the blood of their blessed blood. Nor was the kind of each solemn pledge lacking, for they were baptized in their own blood and washed in the river.

12What you would have seen there was strange, with carefully devised shortcuts for raging. A great crowd of the righteous pressed hard upon the executioner's hand and upon the very sword given over to so many necks, so skillful cruelty marched the drawn-up ranks of the column through in order, so that the blow of the sacrilegious striker would fall on holy necks with a kind of rush of fury. Lest that bloody and barbarous work become unmanageable, it found for itself this swift way of getting the crime done. If the striker himself had stood in one place to strike, the heaped pile would have heaped up an immense slaughter of bodies; in the end the riverbed itself, filled with so great a slaughter, would have allowed no room.

Then their eyes were veiled in the usual way for the blow of the iron, yet no darkness closed the gaze of their free minds, but a lavish and measureless splendor of immense light burst forth. Many spoke with the brothers next to them and standing beside them of the wonderful things they still saw, though their eyes were not bodily open to sight: horses gleaming snow-white from above, carrying young men clothed in white. Nor were martyrs lacking from that same company who confirmed their companions' report by what their ears told them, for they recognized the neighing and pounding of the horses when they heard it.

There too Marian, already filled with a prophetic spirit, proclaimed with confidence and courage the coming vengeance for righteous blood, and threatened the varied blows of the world as if already from the height of heaven: pestilence, captivities, famine, earthquakes, and the tormenting poisons of the fly swarm. By that proclamation the martyr's faith not only struck at the pagans but also sounded to the brothers an incentive to match his courage, as it were a trumpet call, so that amid so many blows of the world God's righteous would seize the chance of so good and precious a death.

13When all this was finished, Marian's mother rejoiced with Maccabean joy. His passion was complete, and she was at peace about her son at last. She congratulated not only him but herself too, for bringing such a pledge into the world.

She embraced in her son's body the glory of her own womb, and religious devotion pressed kiss after kiss on the wounds of his neck. O you rightly Mary! O mother, blessed both in your son and in your name! Who could ever think the good fortune of so great a name had missed its mark in her, when she adorned the child of her womb like this?

Truly beyond reckoning is the mercy of almighty God and of his Christ toward his own. He strengthens those who trust in his name not only by gracious favor but also gives them life by redemption through blood. For who could measure his benefits with a worthy measure? With fatherly kindness he is always at work even in this, that what we believe we repay with our own blood is itself bestowed on us by almighty God. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.