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a child being slaughtered, the fifth not yet having been killed; nor did the corpse of the sixth overcome her philosophy; there remained then last for the struggles the seventh, who completed the seven-stringed lyre of the martyrs. What then? Was she bent by his untimely age, did she feel pain even for the last of her kin? She herself then urged the child toward death, if not with her hands, then with her counsels. “Do not interrupt,” she says, “O child, the number of the crowns; become a sharer with your brothers in their birth pangs and their achievements; imitate the fellowship of nature with the fellowship of deed; show yourself a brother to those who have been slain, even in the contests. A seventh child you were born to me by nature, a seventh martyr become for me by choice; do not show me, O child, to be called a mother of seven children, but of six martyrs.” Where now are those who do not even bring offerings of money to God? A mother today offered seven tender children to the Lord, and she did not grow numb offering a sacrifice from her own bowels; but many among us are stingy even about an offering of obols in due time. But let us bring to God an offering of souls and of money and of bodies, in all things glorifying Christ, to whom is the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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ἀποσφαττόμενος παῖς, τοῦ πέμπτου μήπω πεφονευμένου· οὐδὲ τοῦ ἕκτου τὸ πτῶμα τὴν φιλοσοφίαν ἐνίκησεν· ἔμενε λοιπὸν τελευταῖος πρὸς τοὺς ἀγῶνας ὁ ἕβδομος ὁ τὴν ἑπτάφθογγον τῶν μαρτύρων συμπληρώσας κιθάραν. Τί οὖν; ἐπεκάμφθη τῷ τῆς ἡλικίας ἀώρῳ, συνήλγησε κἂν τῷ λειψάνῳ τῆς φύσεως; Αὐτὴ μὲν οὖν τὸ παιδίον πρὸς τὸν θάνατον ὤθει, εἰ καὶ μὴ ταῖς χερσὶν, ἀλλὰ ταῖς συμβουλαῖς. Μὴ διακόψῃς, φησὶ, τῶν στεφάνων, ὦ τέκνον, τὸν ἀριθμόν· γενοῦ μετὰ τῶν ὠδίνων καὶ τῶν κατορθωμάτων τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς κοινωνός· μίμησαι τὴν κοινωνίαν τῆς φύσεως τῇ κοινωνίᾳ τῆς πράξεως· δεῖξον σαυτὸν τῶν ἀνῃρημένων καὶ ἐν τοῖς σκάμμασιν ἀδελφόν. Ἕβδομός μοι παῖς ἐτέχθης παρὰ τῆς φύσεως, ἕβδομός μοι μάρτυς γενοῦ παρὰ τῆς προαιρέσεως· μή με δείξῃς, ὦ τέκνον, παίδων με ἑπτὰ, μαρτύρων δὲ ἓξ καλουμένην μητέρα. Ποῦ μοι νῦν οἱ μηδὲ τὰς ἐκ χρημάτων τῷ Θεῷ προσφορὰς προσκομίζοντες; Ἑπτὰ τῷ ∆εσπότῃ σήμερον παῖδας ἁπαλοὺς προσήγαγε μήτηρ, καὶ οὐκ ἐνάρκησεν ἐκ τῶν σπλάγχνων θυσίαν προσφέρουσα· πολλοὶ δὲ ἡμῖν καὶ περὶ ὀβολῶν ἐν καιρῷ μικρολογοῦνται προσκομιδήν. Ἀλλ' ἡμεῖς τῷ Θεῷ καὶ ψυχῶν καὶ χρημάτων καὶ σωμάτων προσκομιδὴν προσαγάγωμεν, ἐπὶ πᾶσι δοξάζοντες Χριστὸν, ᾧ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.