The Passion of Marian and James · §5 · Acts of the Martyrs

Hanging torture endured and defeated in prison triumph

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Marian and James have been dragged to Cirta and put in prison, and the narrator now describes their examination by torture.

Then 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.

Latin

Tunc attentantur numerosis durisque cruciatibus per stationarium militem, iustorum piorumque carnificem, adhibitis in auxilium crudelitatis eius centurione et Cirtensium magistratibus. Hoc est diaboli sacerdotibus, tanquam membrorum laceratione frangeretur fides, cui cura corporis uilis est. Et Iacobus quidem, sicuti erat in uirtute fidei semper austerior, qui et infestationes iam semel Decianae persecutionis euicerat, affectauit se non Christianum tantum, sed et diaconum confiteri. Marianum autem tormentis fecit obnoxium, quod se lectorem tantum, sicuti fuerat, fatebatur. Quaenam illa tormenta! Quam noua, quam diaboli uenenato sensu et deiciendi artibus exquisita supplicia! Pependit Marianus ad uulnera, eoque martyri etiam in ipsis lacerationibus suis affuit gratia, sic torsus est, ut illum exaltaret et poena. Nexus autem qui pendentem gerebant, non manus, sed summos apices pollicum uinxerant, scilicet ut digitorum tenuis exilitas plus in ferendis membris ceteris laboraret. Addita etiam pedibus iniusta pondera, ut dum discordantibus poenis utrimque distracta et uiscerum conuulsione resoluta, de neruis suis totius corporis compago penderet. Nihil egisti iuxta dei templum, iuxta Christi coheredem, nequitia gentilis. Suspenderis licet membra, concusseris latera, diuulseris uiscera, Marianus noster in deum fidens, quantum corpore, tantum et mente crescebat. Uicta denique feritate torquentium, rursus in carcerem de triumpho suo multum laetatus includitur. Ibi cum Iacobo et ceteris fratribus gaudium uictoriae dominicae frequenti oratione celebrauit.

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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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