Baring-Gould’s sources: The Menology of the Emperor Basil and the Greek Mensea; also the Russian Kalendar. The modern Roman Martyrology. Authority The Greek Acts. “ Quid sentiam de Actis pauds intellige. Non sincera ilia esse, sed episodio plus uno adomata, dramaticeque oomposita, indubitatum mihi videtur. Spirat enimvero in illis ingenium Metaphrastes, vel saltern alterius cujusvlam ei non absimilis, trogoedi sacri potius quam sinceri historici nomen promeriti." This is the judgment of Pinius the Bollandist. He suspects that the whole romance is made out of the martyrdom of XXXVI. at Alexandria (the names of several in each group being identical), commemorated the same day in the Martyrology of S. Jerome. 4 *0026 homonymia suspidonem fortasse nonnulli praebere potent, hie aeque, ac alibi, plus semel, induct ae alicujus confusionis, una fortasse Marty rum turma in duas distracta, vel, si hoc non vis, alterius in alteram nominibus derivatis.” The title Theotokos given in the Acts to the Blessed Virgin Mary, perhaps indicates a date posterior to the Council of Ephesus, a.d. 431, though the term was used before. I am not disposed to regard the Acts as wholly fabulous, as there are here and there natural touches in them, such as do not occur in purely apocryphal Acts. But if there be a foundation of truth in them, they have been woefully disfigured by re-writing and amplification.] The Emperor Licinius is said by the Acts to have issued an edict of persecution against the Christians in the East, caused, he asserted, by their violence in dashing over the images of the gods in the night-time. He therefore ordered that thenceforth the Christians should be denied the use of the baths and of the public buildings. 1 It is in accordance with authentic history, that about this time Licinius did begin to expel his Christian subjects from offices of honour, and to exercise open persecution, so that the Roman world, in the language of Eusebius, was divided into two regions, those of day and night, the former basking in the sunshine of the rule of Constantine, the latter brooded over by the darkness of disbelieving Licinius.
1 The edict in the Acts Is not so improbable as one might suspect from Its position. 258 Lives 0/ the Saints \ cj«iy». Licinius [Roman emperor in the East 308–324] proceeded to purge his household troops of those whose devotion to himself he might, not without reason, mistrust; none were permitted to retain their rank who refused to sacrifice, and he even proceeded to harsher extremities with the more obstinate. The greatest stress of persecution was felt in Pontus [a region on the Black Sea coast of Turkey], and the adjoining province of Armenia Minor. Lysias, the general in command in Armenia Minor, at once proceeded to test the soldiers in the legion under his command.
In that legion were Leontius, Maurice, Daniel, and other Christian soldiers. On their refusal to sacrifice, their faces were beaten with stones, and they were imprisoned in the north tower of the walls of Nicopolis, and committed to the custody of two Egyptian soldiers named Meneas and Belerad.
In the night, Leontius encouraged his fellow confessors by relating to them the heroic acts of the slavegirl Potamiaena (June 7th), 1 which he said he had heard of a man lately come from Egypt, who had received the story from the lips of S. Anthony the great abbot (d. The weather was intolerably hot, and the martyrs suffered acutely from thirst A good woman, moved with compassion, brought them a pitcher of water under her long cloak (mafortio) without attracting the notice of the guard, who were perhaps disposed to be indulgent to fellow-soldiers.
Next day, the prisoners were again brought before Lysias f and he ordered them to the rack, and that their 1 See |une 7, p. 68. The place of her martyrdom was Helenopolis* Palladius relates the same story.
side of Lysias, and says, *' Get up out of bed. I am Esculapius by whom you swore yesterday. And now, go, and subdue those men.’* Then the god enters into details of the tortures to which he is to subject them. sides should be torn with rakes and hooks. There was present a Christian, named Herod, who, however, did not proclaim his belief, and remained on good terms with the general He sent his secretary, named Philinus, to the martyrs, as they were being taken away, to ask what he could do for them. “ Obtain that we may be killed outright instead of being longer tortured,” said Leontius bluntly. Herod was asked by Lysias to sup with him that evening. “ I cannot,” said Herod, “ray stomach is turned with the sight of the bleeding flesh and protruding bowels. I could not eat a bit Let those fellows be put out of their misery. If they will not obey the emperor, kill them, do not torment them.” “Well, well” said Lysias; “they shall be burned to-morrow.” That evening the charitable woman again came to the gates bringing water under her cloak; but was refused admission. “Give us water; we are perishing of thirst!” said Leontius in Armenian, as the guards were Egyptian and did not understand that tongue. The woman went round to a little slit in the wall, which admitted some light and air, and managed to convey water to them through it In the meantime, the two Egyptians who had charge of the prisoners were discontented, and complained to one another in their own language. “I have always been a friend of the Christians,” said Meneas; “ they are harmless folk, and I have seen their hermits in Egypt fast and work miracles.”
“ I only wish,” answered Belerad, “ that some general ” — he alluded to Constantine — “ would come and force our governor to die for his gods Esculapius and Apollo. But he's too fond of his life to die for them, I promise you; all he cares for is to curtail our wages and stint us of our rations. If these men hope to gain eternal rewards from their God, so that they are ready to die for him, better throw in our lot with them than with Licinius and Lysias.” 1 They entered the prison, and were embraced by the confessors, who thereupon declared to them the way of God more perfectly.
On the morrow, the whole company, including the two Egyptians, five and forty in all, appeared before Lysias, who ordered their hands and feet to be cut off, and that then they should be cast into a fire, and their ashes strewn in the river Lycus.
They were thrown down on the ground, and their hands and feet hewn off with a pole-axe. When Anicetus, the first of the sufferers, saw his one foot not wholly amputated, but mangled, he said, “ See, my brethren, this fruit-bearing axe 1” and they all rejoiced with him. The author of the Acts goes on to say that another, Sisinnius, lying on the ground, fevered with pain, in the broiling sun, cried to God, and prayed that his thirst might be miraculously allayed. Then he turned his mouth towards a rock heated by the glare, and there was immediately a sound as of waters, and the rock was rent, and a limpid stream gushed out, “as may be seen even unto this day.”
This may, however, be only a legend added by the writer from popular report And when all had lost their hands and feet, some already dead were cast on a fire, others dying were heaped on the pyre, and their blood nearly extinguished the flames, for they were five and forty in all. But the lictors missed one. It was Sisinnius. And when he saw that they had omitted to cast him into the flames, he cried to them, “ I am here ! 1 It may be seen from this conrersation, which certainly has an air of truth about it, that there was a brooding discontent among the troops of Licinius. 1 hat emperor could not fail to be aware that before long he and Constantine would be opposed to one another, and this accounts for his determination to weed his army of Christian soldiers, who might desert his eagles for the Labaram. July xo.J Etto.
lam here!” So they took him up, and he perished in the flames with his brethren. Then, when all were dead, Lysias ordered their burned bodies to be flung into the river.
