By an Uncertain Author (Hilary? Valerius of Cimiez?), A Poem on the Martyrdom of the Maccabees (c. 5th century A.D.). Antiochus was once a most wealthy king of Syria, in whose realm there were, as report tells, a mother and seven sons, born of the holy nation, whom a constant care bade remember their lineage and to serve the law that had been given them: for thus, willingly, of God's better people, they kept His ordinances. The king, eager to change the faith, to change the fear of the righteous, willed it, that he might mingle them with the wicked people. He promises rewards to the mother, promises gold also, and whatever he could gather throughout the whole kingdom, if only she would change her ways and her former resolve, and compel her sons to fashion other ways for themselves. She refuses, and presses down the silent grief beneath her heart.
After no plunder could move her, he first tried to overcome her with savage torments; she endured grievous groans and did not fear the king's harsh scourgings. When he saw himself defeated, he cried: "Alas, what shall I do, that a woman conquers the king? Yet you shall not escape; there is something more, hard woman, over which you will grieve: I will rage against your sons; though you persist, shameless one, by this means at least I shall heal my own pain." She lifted up her hands and looked upon high heaven; she uttered groans and spoke such words: "Though you should hand over treasures, tyrant, and even kingdoms, we are not captured by the gifts of kings, nor shall presents snatch from the saints the promises of God. That hope is more certain, which promises us life for a long age:
this I follow, this I have learned: not to touch deceitful gifts. To take up riches and lose life is easy. But though after savage wounds you threaten me even with flames, you can change nothing of what we began in our earliest years. With the virtue and the law given to me, I am resolved to conquer in this. What now, cruel one, do you command? What, hard man, do you threaten against my sons? By this grief alone can you trouble the mother. For God is my hope, and I have care for my own, through whom indeed I trust that you can conquer none. Heaven, I pray, be favorable, O divine power, for we ask what is just." King Antiochus rages; troubled, he beats his heart with turmoil and shows savage looks in his eyes, and long he marvels that a woman can do so much. "Come, soldier, obey!" he says; "obey the king also, servant! You attendants, obey me!
Inflict torments fit for this raging womanly evil; this furious woman compels me to rage: and what is more, a woman conquers her own king's commands! But she has not spoken with impunity: limb by limb I will destroy the seven sons whom the faithless woman keeps within her. Let him who is reckoned first perish first; thus may you destroy them all in order, so that the now harsh mother may herself behold her own sons laid upon hurdles and burned by fires set beneath. This penalty awaits her; the servants must be swift." Meanwhile the fruitful mother now stood with her hair unbound and, as if exhorting, now baring her breast and stretching forth her bosom, the nourishment of her sons, undismayed she bares it; and when she saw her son advance to the fire with a steadfast step and brave, she said:
"You, my offspring, you first look upon your mother. You surely are mine: now, my son, remember us! You I first bore; you now imitate your parent: take up my ways and conquer the king by keeping silent. You will be able to endure long, if you conquer the times. Let not the faithless violence of the king prevail over the holy ones. Use your mother's counsel, and you will not fear losses. Be stronger than bronze and mightier than the very rock; advance as a young man, patiently conquer your pains." He turns his face now toward his mother, now lifts it on high, and while he is silent and silently entreats the One he ought, and prays, he did not feel the swift fires set beneath the hurdles. His emptied body melts away; the mother rejoiced in her grief and said: "I have conquered; I pray I may conquer thus more often;
let the virtue of my sons endure, unknown to the king, but now known to God, who knows the hearts of His people." The fruitful mother had ended her grief over her firstborn, but with fear remaining she was anxious for the many more; yet she dissembles, lest joys should touch the king. King Antiochus is astonished and does not believe that those who follow can prevail against such a kind of punishment with the same resolve. He orders what was begun to be carried through; the mother remained unterrified. But when she saw her son standing pale beside her, turning these things over within herself she is now in some part relieved: "Behold, the second age of my offspring is brought forth: how like to his brother in form! If you are hard in heart and follow the footsteps of our firstborn, you can be mine, you can recover that salvation which your brother already has, having followed his mother's precepts.
Put away fears and despise the threats of the raging king and the kingdoms, by which only fleeting times are given. After these things that king will not be able to harm you; but after these you, my son, will be able to harm the king. Behold, you are compelled to mount the fires of a brief moment! There is room for valor: put away faltering fear. Be mindful of us, if the feeling of your race clings to you. He who holds the scepter, who rages cruelly in this kingdom, spends an empty time and will be bereft of his kingdom and his life, and, condemned and guilty, will feel the eternal fires: but you will be secure, with the throng of the godly attending you. Look, my son, upon my face and gaze upon heaven and upon God the Author, through whom life is prepared for you. Do better and tread in your brother's footsteps:
hear not what this man commands, but what God enjoins." Just as he had been admonished to look upon his mother and upon heaven, he stood firm and, with a cheerful face, began to despise the king and, as if laughing, rushed into the burning fires, and, sinking down and lying still, he rested as his soul prevailed. When the mother saw this, with a stern face she spoke thus: "In some part I am blessed: already, already you cannot, savage tyrant, conquer all my sons by torturing them. A heavier punishment soon awaits you, cruel one, in the fire, than the one you make me suffer for a brief time: for God beholds all these things." Now two, untroubled, despising the king, remained, and the mother's hope was now better: now the third place of punishment presses on; behold, if to conquer the king is a penalty, and to serve God: it is praise, not the penalty of the raging one.
The third youth is dragged forward as the tyrant gnashes his teeth, one not yet sated; fury within and wrath raged alike, because he had seen the brave hearts of the brothers fearlessly overcome the king's fury. The youth stood before his feet, in the flower of his years, excellent in form, worthy to hold kingdoms, more worthy than Antiochus, and thus, by God's will, following better kingdoms; to him his mother speaks such words: "Receive, my son, untroubled, the words of your parent; receive them, lest, slothful, you lose the honors of valor. You have already brothers abiding in the seat of piety, now in a better place than the falling kingdoms of the king. If you touch their very feelings with your heart, you will be borne as victor among the peoples for having overcome the king, just as fame has already sent forth your brothers into all things. Join these, I pray;
these are the most fitting gifts: to have despised wickedness and to abandon the laws of the unbridled king, for whom after these things no pleasure remains." But the youth was sending forth his words in a silent murmur; like one praying, he stretched out his palms on high, and with bended knee he hung upon his mother's mouth, as far as he was permitted by sight, though the crowd pressed upon his body. As soon as he was admonished, he mounted the hurdle, and in the fire, fearless and with sure faith, he placed his limbs; the flames sank down, leaving the embers warm, and the opened earth received his unharmed body, and his holy soul, inviolate, withdrew to the heavens above. But the mother, doubting whether to take up groans or joys, hesitates and spoke thus in plaintive speech: "What now, dreadful one, do you prepare? We will all obey your commands.
But count my offspring, lest the keeper should withdraw any one! And even though you yourself should wish it, I will not allow, tyrant, that all my sons should not perish in this contest. This horrid punishment of your time you may change, and the same sentence is hard upon my condemned sons. If you think of heavier things, if there are heavier things, threaten them! And because you see my countenance, are you seized with horror? We rejoice alike, as often as you decree against these." But the king himself burns the more, stirred by raging anger, and thinks he is being tested, lest the rest of the band of brothers should likewise bear their punishments, and he perceives that the mother seeks this. He persists unto destruction and soon wished to condemn a fourth son to punishment; and now the wearied servants could bear neither the king's furies nor the king himself. O shame!
The son blushed to show his face to his mother and, with mind astonished, began to be confounded. After she saw him standing with downcast eyes, she approaches him with such words to admonish the fearful one: "You are the fourth offspring born to me from the first, the fourth babe also. What words can I now say to you, my son, except this: that endurance and might be alike with you, O author of holy lineage? To Him we owe whatever we deny to the king; He gave us Abraham with his holy seed, through whom nobility, through whom every race is proven, which abides holy in the Lord; for Isaac is born then, when old age could no longer of itself hope for any child, since Sarah remained barren.
She nevertheless bore a child, and by the propagation of the line, beyond all hope, grandsons remain to you, Sarah: Esau and Jacob, drawn from his father's stock, whom we know Rebecca bore as twins at one birth. From these we are, from these we spring; this race, my son, you must seek. Open the way for yourself, draw near to the begetter of the men of old, whose offspring, scattered through the whole world, suffers envy because alone with righteous mind it worships the mighty Lord, and does not join the unjust throng. Why do you stand with sorrowful face? Why do you keep your eyes fixed on the ground? Behold rather the heaven and the Parent of heaven! Do not doubt: your mother shows you what is prosperous, whatever there is.
Approach patiently, my son, join valiantly my throng, and exhort the number that follows." Thus the beloved parent, mingling mourning and joy, had ended her glorious admonitions. Then he himself lifts the orbs of his eyes and began to fix them upon his mother, now bearing nothing sad, and by bearing and countenance he confesses that he feared nothing except the sad wounds of his mother divided among her offspring. And so, slipping from the hands of those who held him, he hastened at a run into the fires. I shall tell of a marvel: the flame touched not his hair, nor his face; when his lifeless body had overcome the flames and the fires, with mouth open yet silent, by the way the spirit went, whence it had been received, together with his blood it fled.
By this very thing the parent rejoiced, that he who but now had stood with a sorrowful face soon, trusting with his whole heart, had obeyed the admonitions and despised the king's wrath. Yet thus she began, while the king hesitated over those who remained, and the godly throng gave groans to the servants, cursing the king, complaining in silent speech: "Bring him forth! Why do you hesitate? You now owe sparing to none, nor can you, though you should wish it: do not break the decree. I appeal to the King who governs the whole world, whom the sea, whom the heaven, whom the stars of heaven obey, and unless you bring him forth, there is cause for fear. Now you cling sluggishly, now you perceive what kingdoms, what glory remains for us on either side, if now you should refuse to spare.
For whomever you have commanded to depart from your kingdom, accompanied by savagery, they have conquered your fury—yes, indeed your own—and they remain in joy in the seat of the godly. Perhaps, raging tyrant, you may believe this to be death: it is a life longer and mightier than this kingdom of yours, which you rule and on whose furthest edge you linger. If you fear even these: there remain still younger ones; and at once, despising them, I have conquered your kingdoms, proud man. But carry through your command, and do not divide my offspring: give these also to the flames, and use the powers of your kingdom; yet you are mortal, and you will not hold your kingdom forever." Antiochus conceives furies, and the savage tyrant boils and rolls groans within his breast. Grief consents with his mind, and sadly he lifts his burdened countenance and speaks such words:
"This liberty of yours and the harsh power of your tongue, and this stiffness which you carry on your swollen neck, shall feel what the times of an angry king can do. If you are not yet sated with evils and try to feign gladness, and turn your mournings into joys, I will not change the death: rejoice, be glad, triumph, provided you so conquer that you be the last of your own: thus, frenzied in spirit, rejoice over the death of your sons! These too I give to the flames; and this no power can change; the decrees stand—rejoice, surviving, bereft of your sons. And lest my commands be delayed, let order run its courses. Bring forth the son, lest the fires perish in vain or the king be able to seem doubtful.
Surely I have no fear of any woman." "You are brought forth as the foremost of your race, O boy marvelous in face and beauty, in whose breast firm valor abides (and already from this you could even conquer the king)." To him the mother spoke thus with peaceful speech: "If it were permitted you to give your mother embraces, my son, I confess, after the wounds I would have given them to you alone, my son; but the harsh and grievous power of the king forbids me. Let him deny embraces, so long as our voice is free, and we are permitted to remember God and to keep the law not given by the king, but the one which God the Judge of the world delivered, and the Ruler of the world, and which Moses, having sought it, received and gave to the people, whose highest praise it is to know God, to whom we owe the honor we deserve. Only do you not hesitate to obey your parent's admonitions!
Let there be vigor and valor, and let a mind now full of God abide deep within your whole breast; let your age be stronger than it was to hope to overcome the king who commands. Oh how great is valor, how great is the confidence of the strong! But now do not hesitate to conquer through the midst of the flames! You will be victor, believe me, boy, and as victor you will return. Sinews will mingle bodies with strong bones, and will restore the preserved souls again into new flesh. But lest perhaps the swift fire terrify you: take up the spirits of your brothers and call upon the eternal Name." He does what is commanded, and silently calls God to witness and prays with such murmur as he could. His age does not hinder the boy; he did not fear the hurdle set out, and he obeyed his willing mother and rushed upon the fires quicker than the word was spoken.
The flames yielded, all pain yielded, and body and fire were one: the body had overcome the fire, though the spirit had earlier overcome the gentle airs. The joyful mother grieves silently, and with her grief suppressed she turns her sorrow and mournings into joys. Meanwhile she trembles and turns cares over in her heart, not about things past, but about the boyish years that remain, lest perhaps they should deny, lest perhaps they conceive fear in their soul and prefer to give heed to the king. The lesser the age, the greater the fear; anxious within herself, alas, she carries cares: and now hope and fear together struggle and run through the bowels of the pious mother. Yet the hope is the better, when she saw her son advance, and exulting from afar: "I see what hope can confer upon me in this one;
this one too ought to recognize our countenance and obey the number of his own brothers. Perhaps boyish hearts touch this one alone, and he bears it indignantly that he is thus given up like a victim. I will address him and try to say in a few words that he should be mindful rather of his lineage than of this present time: If nobility moves you, if the origin of your race touches you, look, my son, to your own; look also to Israel, my son. Do not number your years, boy; begin to bear God with a brave heart. Ages will hand down to ages this, that your brave age may give examples to times to come. Give, my son, I pray, and what is more than this: consider what you flee and how much better things are sought.
Let not the deceit of the foolish king trouble you, but let these things now grow into their opposite." The victorious spirit extinguished the flames; then the body, summoned, which it had given, the opened earth received, and the holy soul, which survives, withdrew inviolate. Although the parent was weary, and victorious through her own wounds also, she fell upon her face likewise, and with hands upturned she had these words and spoke thus: "You who hold the dominion of heaven and earth and sea, who give the stars to heaven, who give living things to the lands, fish to the waters, who govern the airs for the birds:
to You, great One, the confidence of my mind arises—You who divide the boundless chaos, mingled with blind darkness, into parts, and give both night and day, and the moon and the sun, which at varying times, by night and by day, You command always to furnish light throughout the world. After these You give man, from whose seed the world is filled, the mortal race, whose tongue speaks discordantly among the nations; yet the taste is one for all. But what may have changed both the merit and the speech of men, it is a long delay to relate: I am resolved to press on with what I have begun.
We confess that You held the divided sea with a rod, while the people crossed the waters on dry foot, fleeing the deaths of Egypt and king Pharaoh, who commanded the number of the saints to serve him; whom Your Majesty, with Moses as leader, carried over the river, and, kept safe by Your power, parted it in safety. The land gave its fruits, which it bore at Your compelling, and water for refreshment was sought in hidden places for the thirst. There was no moisture: all, complaining with an outcry, demanded of Moses that he should give waters to the thirsting. To them he spoke thus in brief speech: "Believe that God can give whatever you shall ask of Him, who is able with this rod to pour forth a river from the rock, that fountains may come, denied to the whole region." And at once he struck:
swifter than the word, the rock sent forth fountains of the first sweetness. I confess, since the whole world is debtor to You, that whatever the nations can do, You alone can do all things, and what the nations cannot grasp, You alone grasp all. You both burden and lighten the mortal race with cares: I pray You, with my mind astonished, strengthen the fearful one, lest my lowest babe be lacking from the number of the brothers, ignorant of himself; whom now, behold, from afar I behold being held with a frequent crowd surrounding him. For his sake alone his age moves tears in me; for one alone remains, over whom I have the greatest care, lest the tender one should not know of what race he was created. If I could take this one aside in secret alone, I would caress him and teach him his father's race and his homeland:
but whatever I can, I will yet send him comforts: O little boy, dearer to me than your tender years (you are dearer than a kingdom, dearer even than life itself), you can render your mother wholly victorious. You, the end of my childbearing and the future end of evils, if care for me touches you, if with pious mind you keep your mother's honor, however dear you are and an infant, all the more with eager ear attend to your parent's words. First learn, boy, what you shall be after these things, if you are patient (which deeds of your brothers show me you will be, dear one): you shall abide in the portion of the saints and shall be secure in rest, while the savage ages run their courses. When the long time is finished, seeking again this light, you shall behold the eternal kingdoms, not stained with evils, but there shall be concord among the saints;
nor shall there be any place for death, nor shall wars be joined with swift horses, but eternal peace shall abide. Believe your mother, who desires you to be of salvation. Alas for me, why do you repel my words with a sorrowful face? Why do you flee? Have mercy on me, have mercy on yourself! If it were permitted, I would wish to go first: behold, it is forbidden! But I will go then, when I shall have seen you, my son, victor over evils. What do you bid me hope? Do you alone delay my words? Do you alone, my son, even now recall grief to me? Do you assent, or do you condemn both me and your brothers and your race? Lest perhaps you should wish this, I beseech and entreat you. Hear! With these breasts, my son, I nursed you small. By these I pray, and shed tears for your sake, my son, that you not wish to remain: you will remain alone and bereft; no brother is now left to you.
Who will give you the comforts of life? Alas, you alone try to confound your mother and your race and your homeland, if you refuse such words. O how much better will you preserve your life forever, if you do before God whatever your forebears did! Boldly lay aside fears, lay aside dread: conceive God in your mind; He will give manly strength." While the mother does these things, the boy looks to his parent's precepts, and when he sees himself left alone, he lifted his face to heaven and his upturned palms, and thus, entreating with his voice, he adores the eternal Godhead; whom together, with his thought and his nod alike, he was asking that he might conquer the king, that he might conquer the savage fires.
And so, not sluggish nor as befits boyish years, he leaps forth fearless, sinking down into the midst of the fires, and fights, until the victorious spirit returned on high and sought the secret places of his elder brothers. While the boy does these things, joys dissolved the mother: and now, weary as she was with evils, with her voice now failing, she breathes exulting, and, collapsing among the hands of her own, she fell lifeless, and her loosened limbs found rest. Thus she herself, and her sons, was received into the portion of the saints.