Baring-Gould’s sources: Some of these martyrs are commemorated in ancient Latin Martyrologies on April 29th, the rest on April 30th. The Acts were written by a contemporary, a friend, at the request of two of the martyrs, and himself an eye-witness of their passion.] The writer of the acts of the martyrdom of these saints was a friend and a relation of Marian and James, and he April 3*.

…wrote his account at their request, ‘ ‘not to celebrate their victory as vain boasting, but to leave an example to the people of God, to justify their faith.” The writer with Marian and James were travelling in Numidia when they came to Muguas, a place where persecution was then raging, and where they saw two bishops, Agapius and Secundinus, martyred A large party of confessors were then carried in chains to Cirta, followed by Marian and James, who encouraged them to resist unto death. Thereupon they were also taken and tortured James was a deacon and had been a confessor [in old usage, a saint who was not martyred, or who suffered for the faith without being killed] in the persecution of Decius [Roman emperor 249–251, who ordered everyone to sacrifice to the gods]; Marian was a reader. The latter was hung up by his thumbs with weights attached to his feet, and his body thus extended was tom till the bowels were exposed and his sinews broken. Then he was taken back to prison, where he was comforted with a dream, in which he saw S. Cyprian in a bright and pleasant land full of flowers and woods of cypress and pine, and broad rich meadows, who dipped a bowl into a fountain and gave the martyr to drink thereof James had been cheered with a vision the day before as he fell asleep in the chariot. He had seen a youth in dazzling white robe cast to him two purple belts and say, “ Follow me, one of these girdles is for thee, the other for Marian." With them in prison was iEmilian, a knight of fifty years of age, who had ever kept himself in purity of body. In a dream he saw a pagan friend approach him and ask if all the martyrs would enjoy an equality of glory in heaven. To him ^Emilian answered, “ Look up at the sky and see the stars with various brightness, so will it be with the saints, as is their merit so will be their splendour.” The martyrs were then sent to Lambessa, where were extensive prisons, and the number of confessors was immense. Every day the blood of some was shed, but still the prisons were crowded. Amongst the martyrs was Apnl 30.J 6 *. Donatus.

a mother with her twin boys. One night James saw in vision the bishop Agapius and the mother with her twin sons. One of these little ones wore a necklace of roses, and bore in his hand a palm of shining green. The child I came smiling towards him and said, “To-morrow thou I shalt sup with us.” At length all the martyrs were ordered ' out to execution, and were placed near a stream in a green | valley, in a long row, and the executioners struck off their i heads one after another, so that their blood ran down into I and mingled with the stream.