Agapius's banquet promises death tomorrow by the river
James, still in prison at Cirta while the clergy wait after the lay Christians have been executed, reports a night-vision of bishop Agapius celebrating a banquet.
Then 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.
Latin
Tunc Agapius, qui iamdudum martyrio suo consummatae fidei sacramenta perfecerat, qui et ipse, cum pro puellis duabus, Tertulla et Antonia, quas sibi carissimas ad uicem pignerum diligebat, repetitis frequenter precibus oraret ut secum et illae dei dignatione martyres fierent, retulerat meritorum suorum tali reuelatione fiduciam. Cui dictum est: Quid assidue petis quod una oratione meruisti? Is ergo Agapius agenti Iacobo in carcere per tempus quietis apparuit. Nam sub ipso ictu passionis, dum expectatur carnifex, Et bene, inquit Iacobus, ad Agapii ceterorumque martyrum beatissimorum pergo conuiuium. Nam ista nocte, fratres, Agapium nostrum uidebam inter omnes alios laetiorem, quos una nobiscum Cirtensis carcer incluserat, sollemne quoddam et laetitiae plenum celebrare conuiuium. Quo cum ego et Marianus quasi ad agapem spiritu dilectionis et caritatis raperemur, adcucurrit nobis obuius puer, quem constabat esse alterum ex geminis ante triduum cum matre conpassis, corona rosea collo circumdatus et in manu dextera palmam uiridissimam praeferens, et Quid properatis? inquit, gaudete et exultate, cras enim nobiscum et ipsi caenabitis. O dei magna in suos et praeclara dignatio! O uera et paterna pietas in Iesu Christo domino nostro, qui dilectis suis et indulget tam larga beneficia et clementiae suae munera praestaturus ante declarat. Dies a uisione primus inluxerat, et iam promissis dei sententia praesidis seruiebat, quae Marianum et Iacobum et ceteros clericos tandem patriarchis cum gloria redditos, e pressuris saeculi sententia animaduersionis emisit. Nam perducti sunt ad coronae locum, qui riparum collibus hinc et inde sublimibus, media fluminis conualle subsederat; sed et spectaculo erat excelsa utrimque aggeris altitudo. Alueus ipse medio sinu cruorem beati sanguinis hauriebat. Nec deerat utriusque sacramenti genus, cum et baptizarentur suo sanguine et lauarentur in flumine.