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Handout #31 |
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The martyrs of Lyons (177 A.D.) |
| To every question Sanctus replied in Latin: 'I
am a Christian.' This he confessed again and again, instead of name and
city and race and all else, and no other word did the heathen hear from
his lips ... When nothing else was left to inflict upon him they applied
red-hot brazen plates to the most tender parts of his body. And though
these were burning, Sanctus himself remained unbending and unyielding, and
firm in his confession: for he was bedewed and strengthened by the
heavenly fountain of the water of life which issues from the side of
Christ. His poor body was a witness to what he had undergone - one whole
wound and bruise, contracted, having lost the outward form of a man in
which body Christ suffered and accomplished mighty wonders, bringing the
adversary to naught and showing for the example of those that remained
that nothing is to be feared where the love of the Father is, nothing is
painful where there is the glory of Christ ...
Now the blessed Pothinus, to whom had been committed the ministry of the episcopate at Lyons, was above ninety years of age and very frail in body. He breathed with difficulty because of the bodily weakness which was laid upon him, but the earnest desire for martyrdom filled him with that renewed strength which a willing spirit supplies. He too was taken off to the tribunal, and though his body was weakened both by age and disease, his life was preserved within him, that through it Christ might triumph. He was conveyed to the tribunal by the soldiers, escorted by the city authorities and the whole multitude, who gave utterance to all sorts of cries, as if he were Christ himself, and so he gave the good witness. Being examined by the governor as to who the God of the Christians was, he replied, 'If you are worthy, you will know.' Blandina, suspended on a stake, was exposed as food to wild beasts which were let loose against her. Even to look on her, as she hung cross-wise in earnest prayer, fortified those who were also contending, for in their conflict they beheld with their outward eyes, through their sister, him who was crucified for them, that he might persuade those who believe in him that all who suffer for the glory of Christ have unbroken fellowship with the living God ... The blessed Blandina, last of all, having, like a highborn mother, exhorted her children and sent them forth victorious to the King, traveled herself along the same path of conflicts as they did, and hastened to them, rejoicing and exulting at her departure, like one bidden to a marriage supper, rather than cast to the wild beasts. And after the scourging, after the wild beasts, after the frying pan, she was at last thrown into a basket and presented to a bull. For a time the animal tossed her, but she had now lost all perception of what was happening, thanks to the hope she cherished, the grasp of the objects of her faith, and her converse with Christ. Then she too was sacrificed and even the heathens themselves acknowledged that never in their experience had a woman endured so many and terrible sufferings. Letter from the Christians of Lyons and Vienne, preserved in Eusebius, Church History V,1. |
