2. We look with glad countenances upon confessors illustrious with the heraldry of a good name, and glorious with the praises of virtue and of faith; clinging to them with holy kisses, we embrace them long desired with insatiable eagerness.  The white-robed cohort of Christ’s soldiers is here, who in the fierce conflict have broken the ferocious turbulence of an urgent persecution, having been prepared for the suffering of the dungeon, armed for the endurance of death. Bravely you have resisted the world: you have afforded a glorious spectacle in the sight of God; you have been an example to your brethren that shall follow you. That religious voice has named the name of Christ, in whom it has once confessed that it believed; those illustrious hands, which had only been accustomed to divine works, have resisted the sacrilegious sacrifices; those lips, sanctified by heavenly food after the body and blood of the Lord, have rejected the profane contacts and the leavings of the idols. Your head has remained free from the impious and wicked veil2    The veiled head was the sign of Roman worship.—Oxford trans. [This helps to interpret 1 Cor. xi. 4 which was equally against the Jewish practice.] with which the captive heads of those who sacrificed were there veiled; your brow, pure with the sign of God, could not bear the crown of the devil, but reserved itself for the Lord’s crown. How joyously does your Mother Church receive you in her bosom, as you return from the battle! How blissfully, how gladly, does she open her gates, that in united bands you may enter, bearing the trophies from a prostrate enemy! With the triumphing men come women also, who, while contending with the world, have also overcome their sex; and virgins also come with the double glory of their warfare, and boys transcending their years with their virtues.3    Some read, with very uncertain authority, “with the virtues of continency.”  Moreover, also, the rest of the multitude of those who stand fast follow your glory, and accompany your footsteps with the insignia of praise, very near to, and almost joined with, your own. In them also is the same sincerity of heart, the same soundness of a tenacious faith. Resting on the unshaken roots of the heavenly precepts, and strengthened by the evangelical traditions, the prescribed banishment, the destined tortures, the loss of property, the bodily punishments, have not terrified them. The days for proving their faith were limited beforehand; but he who remembers that he has renounced the world knows no day of worldly appointment, neither does he who hopes for eternity from God calculate the seasons of earth any more.

II. Confessores, praeconio boni nominis claros et virtutis ac fidei laudibus gloriosos, laetis conspectibus intuemur, sanctis osculis adhaerentes, desideratos diu inexplebili cupiditate complectimur. Adest militum Christi cohors candida, qui persecutionis urgentus ferociam turbulentam stabili congressione fregerunt, parati ad patientiam carceris, armati ad tolerantiam mortis. Repugnastis fortiter saeculo, spectaculum gloriosum praebuistis Deo , secuturis fratribus fuistis 0466B exemplo. Religiosa vox Christum locuta est, in quem se semel credidisse confessa est. Illustres manus, quae non nisi divinis operibus assueverant, sacrificiis sacrilegis restiterunt. Sanctificata ora coelestibus cibis, post corpus et sanguinem Domini, profana contagia et idolorum reliquias respuerunt. Ab impio sceleratoque velamine, quo illic velabantur sacrificantium capita captiva, caput vestrum liberum mansit. Frons cum signo Dei pura, diaboli coronam ferre non potuit, coronae se Domini reservavit. Quam vos laete sinu suo excipit mater Ecclesia de praelio revertentes! quam beata, quam gaudens portas suas aperit, ut adunatis agminibus intretis, de hoste prostrato trophaea referentes! Cum triumphantibus viris et feminae veniunt, quae cum saeculo dimicantes , 0466C sexum quoque vicerunt. Veniunt et geminata militiae suae gloria virgines, et pueri annos suos virtutibus transeuntes. Necnon et caetera stantium multitudo 0467A vestram gloriam sequitur, proximis et pene conjunctis laudis insignibus vestigia vestra comitatur. Eadem et in illis sinceritas cordis, eadem fidei tenacis integritas. Inconcussis praeceptorum coelestium radicibus nixos et evangelicis traditionibus roboratos, non praescripta exilia, non destinata tormenta, non rei familiaris damna, non corporis supplicia terruerunt. Explorandae fidei praefiniebantur dies. Sed qui saeculo renuntiasse se meminit, nullum saeculi diem novit; nec tempora terrena jam computat qui aeternitatem de Deo sperat.