1

In Romanum martyrem

TO THE HOLY MARTYR ROMANUS. Oration 2.

50.611 αʹ. Wrestling-schools indeed grant courage to bodies, and knowledge of athletic skill; but the memorials of martyrs arm souls with skills against demons, and train them for holds against them. For by proclaiming the athletic vigor and the unyielding struggle against the whips, they rouse 50.612 piety to courage, as if setting forth in the wrestling-pits, through the narratives of their sufferings, a double-course run by every martyr. Such is the memorial of the athlete crowned today. For who would not dare the contests against the devil, having trained his soul with the martyr's struggles, whom such a multitude of dangers did not shake? For a great 50.613 tyranny of impiety was then raging in the world, and life imitated a sea shaken from its depths, and the great waves of the deep moved to the land, and the strong vessel of piety was drenched by the surge of impiety, in which many pilots everywhere were dead, and no small number of sailors were submerged; and everything was full of bitter fears and shipwrecks.

Kings were breathing more fiercely than a tempest, tyrants were bringing on terrible waves, the thrones of rulers were shaken, judges were proclaiming denial of Christ, lawgivers were threatening bitter punishments, men were seized for the sacrifices of demons, women were dragged to the abomination of the altars; virgins too were hauled to this madness, priests were given over to exile and slaughter, the faithful were driven from the sacred precincts. Against so great a battle the martyr armed himself, and set his will against so many dangers, laughing at the battle-line as if it were shadow-boxing, and as if in the wrestling-pits, sprinkling the judges with faith instead of dust, thus he fanned the flame of the then-judging one's mind, having stopped the course he was plotting against the Church. Wherefore, indeed, the noble one was swiftly seized for punishment, and many varieties of tortures were brought forward; but the martyr was like a lyre, moved to sound by the plectrum of the torments; the executioners standing around were shattering his body, but he, like some bronze instrument, being struck, sounded the melody of piety; hanging him on the wood they tore his flesh, but he embraced the wood as the tree of life; they mangled the cheeks of the just one as if they were his sides, but he, as if receiving more mouths, spoke eloquently, and shamed the adversary with a new kind of fall. For when he saw the judge calling him to the zeal of the demons, he asks for a child to be brought from the marketplace, intending to make it the judge of the matters being investigated by the judge; and to the child who was brought forward he put the question concerning the matters at hand. "Child," he says, "is it right to worship God, or the gods so-called by these men?"

Great is the abundance of the martyr's wisdom; he makes the child a judge of the judge. And it quickly cast its vote for Christ, so that it might be shown that even children are wiser than impious judges, or rather, that the martyr might be revealed not only as a martyr, but also as an anointer of martyrs. But not even this, however, tripped up the judicial madness, but straightway the martyr was seized with the child onto the wood, and prison succeeded the punishment of the wood, and that a sentence dividing various tortures for the athletes; for it condemned the child to death, and the martyr to the cutting out of his tongue. Who has heard of such a manner of judgment? judges scourge

1

In Romanum martyrem

ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΓΙΟΝ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΑ ΡΩΜΑΝΟΝ. Λόγος βʹ.

50.611 αʹ. Παλαῖστραι μὲν σώμασιν ἀνδρείαν χαρίζονται, καὶ τέχνης ἀθλητικῆς ἐπιστήμας· μαρτύρων δὲ μνῆμαι ταῖς τῶν δαιμόνων τὰς ψυχὰς ἀνθοπλίζουσι τέχναις, καὶ πρὸς τὰς κατ' ἐκείνων παιδοτριβοῦσι λαβάς. Τὸν γὰρ ἀθλητικὸν δημοσιεύουσαι τόνον καὶ τὴν ἀνένδοτον πρὸς τὰς μάστιγας πάλην, ἐγείρουσιν εἰς 50.612 θάρσος τὴν εὐσέβειαν, ὥσπερ ἐν σκάμμασι ταῖς τῶν παθῶν διηγήσεσιν ὑπὸ μάρτυρος παντὸς τεταμένον προθεῖσαι δίαυλον. Τοιαύτη ἡ τοῦ σήμερον στεφανω θέντος ἀθλητοῦ μνήμη. Τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν τὰ κατὰ τοῦ διαβόλου θαῤῥήσειε σκάμματα τοῖς τοῦ μάρτυρος τὴν ψυχὴν παιδοτριβήσας παλαίσμασιν, ὃν τοσούτων κιν δύνων οὐ κατέσεισε πλῆθος; Πολλὴ γάρ τις τῷ κόσμῳ 50.613 τῆς ἀσεβείας τότε τυραννὶς ἐνωρχεῖτο, καὶ θάλασσαν ἐκ βυθῶν ἐμιμεῖτο σειομένην ὁ βίος, καὶ τοῦ πελάγους εἰς τὴν γῆν αἱ τρικυμίαι μετέστησαν, καὶ σφοδρὸν τὸ τῆς εὐσεβείας σκάφος δυσσεβείας περιήντλει κλυ δώνιον, ἐν ᾧ πολλοὶ μὲν νεκροὶ πανταχοῦ κυβερνῆται, ναυτῶν δὲ οὐκ ὀλίγος ἀριθμὸς ὑποβρύχιος· πάντα δὲ ἦν φόβων πικρῶν καὶ ναυαγίων ἀνάμεστα.

Ἔπνεον βασιλεῖς καταιγίδος σφοδρότερον, φοβερὰς τύραννοι τρικυμίας ἐπῆγον, ἀρχόντων συγκεκίνηντο θρόνοι, δικασταὶ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν ἐκήρυττον ἄρνησιν, πικρὰς νομοθέται τιμωρίας ἠπείλουν, πρὸς τὰς τῶν δαιμόνων ἄνδρες θυσίας ἡρπάζοντο, πρὸς τὴν τῶν βω μῶν εἵλκοντο βδελυρίαν γυναῖκες· ἐσύροντο πρὸς ταύ την καὶ παρθένοι τὴν λύσσαν, φυγαῖς ἱερεῖς καὶ σφα γαῖς παρεδίδοντο, τῶν ἱερῶν ἠλαύνοντο οἱ πιστοὶ πε ριβόλων. Πρὸς τηλικαύτην ὁ μάρτυς ἐξωπλίζετο μά χην, καὶ τοσούτοις τὴν γνώμην κινδύνοις ἀνθίστησιν, ὥσπερ τινὰ σκιαμαχίαν γελῶν τὴν παράταξιν, καὶ καθάπερ ἐν σκάμμασιν ἀντὶ κόνεως τῇ πίστει τοὺς δικαστὰς καταπάσσων, οὕτω τὴν τοῦ τότε δικάζοντος ἀνεῤῥίπιζε γνώμην, δρόμον αὐτῷ κατὰ τῆς Ἐκ κλησίας μελετώμενον στήσας. ∆ιὸ δὴ πρὸς κόλασιν ὀξέως ὁ γενναῖος ἀνήρπαστο, καὶ πολλαὶ μὲν προσ ήγοντο τιμωριῶν ποικιλίαι· ὁ μάρτυς δὲ προσεῴκει κιθάρᾳ, τῷ τῶν βασάνων πλήκτρῳ πρὸς φθόγγον κι νούμενος· συνέτριβον τὸ σῶμα περιστάντες οἱ δή μιοι, ὁ δὲ, ὡς χαλκός τις, τῆς εὐσεβείας τὸ μέλος ὑπήχει κρουόμενος· κρεμῶντες ἐπὶ ξύλου κατέξαινον, ὁ δὲ ὡς δένδρον ζωῆς τὸ ξύλον ἠσπάζετο· ὡς πλευρὰς τοῦ δικαίου τὰς παρειὰς διεσπάραττον, ὁ δὲ ὡς πλείο να στόματα λαμβάνων ἐῤῥητόρευεν, καὶ καινῷ κατ ῄσχυνε τὸν ἀντίπαλον πτώματι. Ὡς γὰρ εἶδε τὸν δικαστὴν πρὸς τὴν τῶν δαιμόνων σπουδὴν αὐτὸν ἐκκαλούμενον, αἰτεῖ βρέφος ἐξ ἀγορᾶς ἀχθῆναι, ὡς ἐκεῖνο τῶν ζητουμένων παρὰ τοῦ δικα στοῦ κριτὴν ποιησόμενος· καὶ προσαχθέντι τῷ βρέφει τὴν περὶ τῶν προκειμένων προσῆγεν ἐρώτησιν. Τέ κνον, φησὶ, δίκαιόν ἐστι τὸν Θεὸν προσκυνεῖν, ἢ τοὺς θεοὺς τοὺς λεγομένους ὑπὸ τούτων;

Πολλὴ τῆς τοῦ μάρτυρος σοφίας ἡ περιουσία· τοῦ δικαστοῦ δικαστὴν τὸ παιδίον καθίζει· τὸ δὲ ὑπὲρ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ταχέως ἀπεφήνατο ψῆφον, ἵνα δειχθῇ καὶ παιδία δυσσεβούν των δικαστῶν συνετώτερα, μᾶλλον δὲ ἵνα φανῇ μὴ μόνον μάρτυς ὁ μάρτυς, ἀλλὰ καὶ μαρτύρων ἀλεί πτης. Οὐδὲ τοῦτο δὲ ὅμως τὴν δικαστικὴν ὑπεσκέλισε λύσσαν, ἀλλ' εὐθὺς ἐπὶ ξύλου μετὰ τοῦ βρέφους ὁ μάρτυς ἡρπάζετο, καὶ τὴν τοῦ ξύλου κόλασιν εἱρκτὴ διεδέχετο, κἀκείνην ψῆφος ποικίλας τοῖς ἀθληταῖς τὰς τιμωρίας μερίζουσα· τὸ μὲν γὰρ βρέφος θανάτῳ, τὸν δὲ μάρτυρα τῇ τῆς γλώττης ἐκτομῇ κατεδίκασε. Τίς τρόπον κρίσεως τοιοῦτον ἀκήκοε; μαστίζουσι δι κασταὶ