The Passion of Marian and James · §9 · Acts of the Martyrs

Sent to the governor with one more companion gained

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The narrator goes on after the prison visions as the prisoners are moved in public from Cirta toward the governor.

After 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.

Latin

Post has ostensiones in carcere etiam diebus paucis commorati, producuntur in publicum, ut eos Cirtensium magistratus elogio fortissimae confessionis honoratos transmitterent cum parte iam damnationis ad praesidem. Et ecce unus e circumstantibus fratribus nostris omnium in se gentilium conuertit oculos, quod iam per gratiam proximae passionis Christus in eius ore et facie relucebat. Cumque ex eo turbulentis et furentibus animis quaereretur an eiusdem et ipse esset religionis et nominis, rapuit tam dulcem promptissima confessione comitatum. Elogiis suis beati martyres plures dei testes, dum ipsi ad martyrium parantur, adquirunt; et iam transmissi ad praesidem, negotiosum ac difficile iter cum uoluntate properabant. Tunc eos praesidi admotos iterum Lambesitanus carcer accepit. Haec enim sola apud gentiles hospitia iustorum.

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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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