The Passion of Marian and James · §3 · Acts of the Martyrs

Exiled bishops led to death encourage their hosts

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The narrator tells how Agapius and Secundinus are being brought from exile to the governor and enter the home where Marian and James are staying.

At 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.

Latin

In his ergo ab exilio suo perducebantur ad praesidem Agapius et Secundinus episcopi praedicandi, ambo spiritali dilectione concordes, alter et carnalis continentiae sanctitate. Perducebantur, inquam, non a poena, sicut gentilibus uidebatur, ad poenam, sed a gloria potius ad gloriam, a certamine ad certamen aliud, ut qui captiosas saeculi pompas in obtinendo Christi nomine subegissent, etiam mortis aculeos consummatae fidei uirtute calcarent. Neque enim fas erat ut tardius quaererent in terrena conluctatione uictoriam, quos iam dominus secum habere properabat. Et contigit, fratres, ut Agapius et Secundinus ex inlustri sacerdotio martyres gloriosi, in eo transitu quo ad beatae passionis suae praelium, praesidis quidem temporali potestate, sed Christi electione pergebant, nostrum intrare dignarentur hospitium. Quibus tantus inerat spiritus uiuificationis et gratiae, ut tam sanctis et tam praeclaris dei testibus iam parum esset quod ipsi martyrio glorioso pretiosum sanguinem destinassent, nisi etiam alios martyras fidei suae inspiratione fecissent. Horum tanta in fratres caritas fuit et tanta dilectio, ut licet taciti possent tam deuotae et obstinatae uirtutis exemplis fidem fraternitatis adstruere, tamen ad stabilitatem perseuerantiae latius consulentes, pectoribus nostris rorem tractatus salutaris infunderent; neque enim tacere poterant qui dei sermone uiuebant. Nec mirum si paucis illis diebus tam large nostrum omnium mentes eorum tractatus salubris animauit, in quibus iam Christus micante gratia de proxima passione fulgebat.

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About this text

A friend who shared their road tells how Marian, a reader, and James, a deacon, were arrested near Cirta in Numidia, tortured, strengthened by visions in prison at Lambaesis, and beheaded by a river with many others.

The writer, who does not give his name, was a close companion of the martyrs, arrested with them but later released, writing to Christian brethren as the fraternity and people of God during the persecution under Emperor Valerian in Numidia. At Marian and James's own request he records their contest not to boast of their crown on earth but so the people may be armed by their example for faith.

Bishops Agapius and Secundinus suffered first after calling at the writer's house, and Marian and James were then arrested near Cirta, confessed Christ and their offices, suffered hanging torture, and endured prison with prayer. In prison they and fellow prisoner Aemilianus report their own visions in their own quoted words, with a tribunal voice and Cyprian heard and seen in Marian's account, a shining youth in James's, a rose crowned boy promising a heavenly meal in another, and a pagan blood brother whose questions in Aemilianus's dream are quoted and answered. After delay while many lay Christians were executed, the clerics were condemned by the governor at Cirta and beheaded together by a river outside the city, with light, white horsemen, Marian prophesying coming judgments, and Marian's mother rejoicing over his body, alongside Tertulla and Antonia, Mary the mother, Secundinus, and a twin boy with his mother.

A reader needs only a few renderings used here. Governor is the Roman provincial governor, reader is the lower clerical office Marian avows and deacon is the office James avows, confession of faith is the open avowal I am a Christian, crown is heavenly reward, execution platform is the high stepped place of display and death, official report is the written charge and confession sent with prisoners, and love feast is the heavenly meal after death. Cyprian is the dead bishop martyred at Carthage who appears to welcome them, the Decian persecution is the earlier persecution James had already survived, the only formal scriptural sentence is the camel through the needle's eye cited as Matthew 19:24 with parallels in Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25, and the closing joy points to 2 Maccabees 7.

Printed text used

Translated from Oscar von Gebhardt, Acta martyrum selecta (Berlin: A. Duncker, 1902) (Latin)

This work has passed our source check. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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