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and strange to human hearing. 61. And the saint was in the midst of the rocks, being straitened and squeezed, calling upon Christ and saying: You have set me high upon a rock, you have guided me, for you have become my hope; a tower of strength from the face of the enemy; you have set my feet upon a rock, and you have directed my steps. Receive then, Only-Begotten, my spirit, you who know my distress, and do not shut me up into the hands of enemies. For all his inward parts were ruptured, and the whole frame of his bones was crushed, and the bulbs of his eyes had leaped out of their sockets; but even so the noble athlete of Christ was persevering, like an unbeaten anvil, or a hard stone, and stronger than any adamant. Therefore when the saint had spent a day and a night in the midst of the rocks, the lawless Julian ordered the rocks to be separated, 96.1309 expecting that he would be found ruptured and crushed and dead; but when the rocks were opened, the saint came out walking, having his eyes leaped out, and having left their proper places, being a dreadful sight and a strange tale of human nature, a naked man, with his bones shattered and his joints crushed, showing the economy of human nature had departed from the containing body, he walked about and spoke, and answered the tyrant. 62. When the all-polluted Julian saw him, he was utterly astonished, and spoke to those present: Do you see, he said, a strange sight and a tale foreign to human nature? Is this man not by nature a sorcerer and a magician? Is this not some phantom and proof of deceitful demons? Now I am persuaded that Euripides is wise and has knowledge of many things, having philosophized thus in Orestes: There is no horror one could speak of thus, Nor suffering, nor god-sent calamity, Whose weight a man's nature could not bear. By the immortal and invincible gods, I did not expect, men, this polluter and sinner to still be numbered among the living. But now, even with his entrails having burst and his entire frame dissolved, he moves and speaks. But the gods have preserved this man for the chastening of many people, so that he may be a bugbear to those who do not worship their super-cosmic power. And he says to the martyr: Behold, wretched one, you have been deprived of your eyes, and all your limbs have been rendered useless; what hope then is left for you in him in whom you have hoped in vain? But call upon the benevolence of the gods; perhaps they will be merciful to you, and not deliver you to the punishments in Hades. 63. But the martyr of Christ, hearing of punishment, smiled; and says to the unsympathetic and relentless tyrant: Your gods will deliver me to punishments? And how will they, all-polluted one, not having escaped their own punishment, be able to help others? For them the eternal fire has been prepared, for them Tartarus and the worms, and the gnashing of teeth that never ceases; with whom you yourself will also be delivered to the eternal and unending fire, to be punished for eternity; because you have trampled upon the cross of God, and the precious blood which he shed for us, you have considered common, having insulted the Spirit of grace by whom you were sanctified, obeying destructive demons. But to me, for this little labor and the insignificant punishment which you have brought upon me, many prizes will be given in return and crowns of victory, which I shall bind on, reclining with Christ in the undefiled bridal chamber, and the Lord Christ will adorn my head with a diadem beyond the ephemeral crown which you wear. But what are these things to do with you, the impious and avenging tyrant? depart from me, most lawless and of all men

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καὶ ξένον ἀνθρωπίνῃ ἀκοῇ. ξαʹ. Καὶ ἦν ὁ ἅγιος μέσον τῶν πετρῶν στενοχωρούμενος καὶ ἐκπιεζόμενος, ἐπικαλούμενος τὸν Χριστὸν καὶ λέγων· Ἐν πέτρᾳ ὕψωσάς με, ὡδήγησάς με, ὅτι ἐγενήθης ἐλπίς μου· πύργος ἰσχύος ἀπὸ προσώπου ἐχθροῦ· ἔστησας ἐπὶ πέτραν τοὺς πόδας μου, καὶ κατεύθυνας τὰ διαβήματά μου. ∆έξαι τοίνυν, Μονογενές, τὸ πνεῦμά μου, ὁ εἰδὼς τὴν στενοχωρίαν μου, καὶ μὴ συγκλείσῃς με εἰς χεῖρας ἐχθρῶν. Ἦσαν γὰρ πάντα τὰ ἐντὸς αὐτοῦ διεῤῥωγότα, καὶ τῶν ὀστῶν ἡ ἁρμονία πᾶσα συντεθλασμένη, καὶ οἱ βολβοὶ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἐκπεπηδηκότες ἐκ τῶν θυρίδων αὐτῶν· ἀλλὰ καὶ οὕτως ἦν ἐγκαρτερῶν ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ γενναῖος ἀθλητὴς, ὥσπερ ἄκμων ἀνήλατος, ἢ λίθος ἀτέραμνος, καὶ παντὸς ἀδάμαντος ἰσχυρότερος. Ποιήσαντος οὖν τοῦ ἁγίου ἐν μέσῳ τῶν πετρῶν ἡμερονύκτιον, ἐκέλευσεν ὁ παράνομος Ἰουλιανὸς διαζευχθῆναι τὰς πέτρας, 96.1309 προσδοκῶν αὐτὸν διεῤῥωγότα καὶ συντεθραυσμένον καὶ νεκρὸν εὑρεθήσεσθαι· ἀνεῳχθεισῶν δὲ τῶν πετρῶν, ἐξῆλθεν ὁ ἅγιος περιπατῶν, τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἔχων ἐκπεπηδηκότας, καὶ τὰς ἰδίας ἕδρας καταλιπόντας, θέαμα φρικτὸν καὶ διήγημα ξένον τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ὑπάρχων φύσεως, ἄνθρωπος γυμνὸς, κατατεθλασμένων αὐτοῦ τῶν ὀστῶν καὶ τῶν ἁρμονιῶν συντεθραυσμένων, τὴν οἰκονομίαν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ἐκ τοῦ περιέχοντος σώματος ἐξελθοῦσαν παραδεικνὺς, περιεπάτει καὶ διελέγετο, καὶ πρὸς τὸν τύραννον ἀντεφθέγγετο. ξβʹ. Ὃν ἰδὼν ὁ παμμίαρος Ἰουλιανὸς, ἔκθαμβος ὅλος ἐγένετο, καὶ πρὸς τοὺς παρόντας ἐφθέγξατο· Ὁρᾶτε, ἔφη, θέαμα ξένον καὶ διήγημα τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ἀλλότριον φύσεως; ἆρ' οὐκ ἐπῳδὸς καὶ γόης πέφυκ' ὅδε; ἆρα μή τι φάντασμα καὶ δαιμόνων ἀπατηλῶν τοῦτο τεκμήριον; Νῦν πείθομαι τὸν Εὐριπίδην σοφὸν εἶναι καὶ πολλῶν πραγμάτων ἐν ἐπιστήμῃ τυγχάνοντα, ἐν Ὀρέστῃ τάδε φιλοσοφήσαντα· Οὐκ ἔστι δεινὸν ὧδ' εἰπεῖν ἔπος, Οὐδὲ πάθος οὐδὲ ξυμφορὰν θεήλατον, Ἧς οὐκ ἂν ἄρετ' ἄχθος ἀνθρώπου φύσις. Μὰ τοὺς ἀθανάτους καὶ ἀηττήτους θεοὺς, οὐκ ἤλπιζον, ἄνδρες, ἔτι τοῦτον τὸν παλαμναῖον καὶ ἀλιτήριον ἐν τοῖς ζῶσι τετάχθαι. Νῦν δὲ καὶ τῶν ἐνδοσθίων αὐτοῦ ἐκραγέντων, καὶ τῆς ἁρμονίας ἁπάσης διαλυθείσης, κινεῖται καὶ φθέγγεται. Ἀλλ' οἱ θεοὶ τοῦτον ἐταμιεύσαντο εἰς πολλῶν ἀνθρώπων σωφρονισμὸν, ἵν' ᾖ μορμολύκιον τοῖς τὸ κράτος αὐτῶν μὴ προσκυνοῦσι τὸ ὑπερκόσμιον. Καί φησι πρὸς τὸν μάρτυρα· Ἰδοὺ, ταλαίπωρε, καὶ ὀφθαλμῶν ἐστερήθης, καὶ τῶν μελῶν ἁπάντων ἠχρείωσαι· ποία οὖν ἔτι λείπεταί σοι ἐλπὶς πρὸς ὃν μάτην ἤλπισας; Ἀλλὰ τὴν εὐμένειαν τῶν θεῶν ἐπικάλεσαι· ἴσως ἴλεοί σοι γενήσονται, καὶ μή σε ταῖς ἐν ᾅδου κολάσεσι παραδώσουσιν. ξγʹ. Ὁ δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μάρτυς κόλασιν ἀκούσας, ἐμειδίασε· καί φησι πρὸς τὸν ἀσυμπαθῆ καὶ ἀμείλικτον τύραννον· Οἱ σοὶ θεοί με ταῖς κολάσεσιν παραδώσουσιν; καὶ πῶς ἐκεῖνοι, παμμίαρε, τὴν ἰδίαν κόλασιν μὴ ἐκφυγόντες, ἄλλοις βοηθῆσαι δυνήσονται; Ἐκείνοις ἡτοίμασται τὸ πῦρ τὸ αἰώνιον, ἐκείνοις ὁ Τάρταρος καὶ οἱ σκώληκες, καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων ὁ μηδέπω παυόμενος· μεθ' ὧν καὶ αὐτὸς παραδοθήσῃ τῷ αἰωνίῳ καὶ ἀτελευτήτῳ πυρὶ, εἰς αἰῶνα κολασθησόμενος· ὅτι τὸν σταυρὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ κατεπάτησας, καὶ τὸ αἷμα τὸ τίμιον ὃ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐξέχεεν, κοινὸν ἡγήσω, ἐνυβρίσας τὸ Πνεῦμα τῆς χάριτος ἐν ᾧ ἡγιάσθης, δαίμοσιν ὀλεθρίοις πειθόμενος. Ἐμοὶ δὲ ὑπὲρ τούτου τοῦ μικροῦ καμάτου καὶ τῆς εὐτελοῦς τιμωρίας ἧς μοι προσήνεγκας, πολλὰ ἀνταποδοθήσεται ἔπαθλα καὶ στέφανοι νικητήριοι, οὓς ἀναδήσομαι εἰς τὸν ἀκήρατον νυμφῶνα μετὰ Χριστοῦ ἀνακλιθησόμενος, καὶ ταινιώσει μου τὴν κεφαλὴν ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστὸς ὑπὲρ τὸ ἐφήμερον στέφος, ὅπερ σὺ περιδέδεσαι. Ἀλλὰ τί μοι ταῦτα πρὸς σὲ τὸν ἀσεβῆ καὶ ἀλάστορα τύραννον; ἀπόστηθι ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, παρανομώτατε καὶ πάντων