Disputation at Bizya 1 part 10/10

when they realized that the holy man was not turning even in the slightest toward their arguments—he who had loudly cried out this above all else, that 'All the power of the heavens will not persuade me to do what you propose'—

'For what,' he said, 'shall I say in my defense—I do not mean before God, but before my own conscience—if, for the sake of human glory, which has no real existence, I should now forswear the faith that saves me?' 33.

When, therefore, they perceived that he was so disposed, and especially that he was reproaching Theodosius, who had put forth his words and oaths so vainly and to his own detriment—then these men, rising up in haste, did what was their own to do, such things as such men would do.

For some struck him with their fists—O unholy hands!

They tormented him, inciting also the attendants who followed them to [such] audacity;

others struck him with slaps and shoves;

and others spat into his face, just as the soldiers and the lawless mob [did] to my Jesus—

these truly loathsome men did not cease heaping spittle upon him, until they had filled his entire face with spittle, and drenched even his garments with it—

so that, from the abundance of the spittle poured down upon him, an unbearable stench arose—

a stench which no one else, but only those foul-smelling and abominable men themselves, would have deserved to smell.

And these most shameless men would not have ceased acting so, had not Theodosius of Caesarea restrained their impulses and made them turn to other matters.

And these men, as though they had done nothing wrong—more brazen, how shall I put it, even than dogs—after a short while again brought to the saint questions and inquiries, and other such idle nonsense;

but when they saw that their efforts were fruitless and unavailing, laboring in vain and to no purpose, having poured out upon him insults not even fit to be spoken, and having taken from him whatever necessary and needful things he happened to possess, these ill-tempered men then withdrew from there.

And after some time had elapsed, they brought him into Constantinople, bringing in with him also his disciple Anastasius—

and besides, also the other Anastasius, whom we have called the apocrisiarius.

And these accursed and execrable men, having invoked curses against them, and having subjected them to anathema—not them alone, but all the Orthodox, both the living and those who had departed—then handed them over to those appointed to inflict punishment, so that the sentences pronounced against them might be carried out;

not entirely taking away their life, so that there might seem to be some semblance of humanity even in these inhuman men, but rather devising punishments more bitter than death itself.

For the eparch of the city, having taken charge of them and led them into the praetorium, first stretched out the divine Maximus by his four limbs, and ordered him to be beaten with hardened thongs—

this vile man having no pity for his old age, nor for the shriveled limbs of his flesh, nor for that body wasted away by fasting and toils—

but lacerated him so savagely that, from the abundance of blood flowing down, the whole ground beneath was reddened, and all his flesh was consumed, and not even a small part of his limbs remained sound.

Then this brutish man proceeded also against his disciple;

and next also against the one who shared his master's name, inflicting many blows upon them as well, and leaving them covered with bruises—

and he set heralds over them, who cried out these words as they were being scourged:

'Those who disobey the imperial decrees, and remain unyielding, deserve to suffer thus.' These men, then, barely breathing, they carried off and cast into prison.

And next they present the holy man together with his disciple, wholly marked with bruises, wholly swollen, wholly inflamed with wounds—

and though he was in such agony, they nevertheless did not refrain from doing even worse things to him, having utterly cast off all [human] nature.

For that theologian's tongue, which had poured forth words more abundant than rivers, they unlawfully cut out from within, from the throat, together with the adjoining epiglottis—

so that, with the organ of speech removed, both discourse and teaching might be taken away from him along with it.

But you were not going to be silent, O good Maximus, even while your tongue was being cut out;

nor to cease singing forth those most sweet words;

but he who fashions the tongue of infants, and made the mute and the deaf to speak, he himself, contrary to expectation, made you also to utter sound, and to speak, and to put forth your words more clearly articulated than before.

And since they did the same also to the disciple Anastasius, cutting out his tongue from within as well, that same grace was strengthening him too;

giving him speech apart from the organ that produces sound — speech that was, paradoxically, abundant and unstinting.

At this the polluted men, struck with yet greater envy, inflicted upon the noble sufferers another, newer torment;

as though they thought they were doing wrong if they did not set in motion against them every trial of terrors;

whom it would have been far better to remove by death — as indeed those men were themselves minded to do — than to hand them over thus to such punishments.

For binding the blessed man with thin cords, and pressing him on every side with the rack, they cut off his right hand with knife and mallet, and threw it upon the ground;

then, just as they were, they proceeded also against his fellow-contestant Anastasius;

exacting from him too the same punishment, so that he might altogether have his share also of the same glory.

And having cast them, now tongueless and handless, out of the praetorium, they dragged them and led them about through the marketplace, making a spectacle of the severed members, and uttering inarticulate cries;

and pelting them with mockeries and jeers.

After which, following that dishonorable parading about, they handed them over to a most lengthy exile;

together with the apocrisiarius Anastasius as well;

the accursed men doing this one thing well concerning the saints — separating them off from themselves.

But indeed divine justice was not neglectful, although for the most part long-suffering;

rather, after a little while it exacted punishment from the emperor who had transgressed the law;

removing him far away, and causing him to carry off a most pitiable death in Syracuse, in Sicily.

For, on account of what he had done, he was hated by the Byzantines — worthy of hatred — and had become utterly detestable to them;

fearing lest he should suffer some evil at their hands, he went there together with his wife and children;

and as he entered a bath-house to wash, one of those serving him, dealing him a fatal blow to the head, shattered his whole skull, and thereby took away the wretched man's life.

Now when his son, who was called Constantine, together with his brothers Heraclius and Tiberius, was established upon the sceptre, he judged that he himself ought not to walk the same path as his father, lest he too should meet with the same fate;

wherefore, having gathered together the Fathers from everywhere, and having convened a great council — which is also called the sixth of the ecumenical councils —

he accomplished in it many other things worthy of remembrance, and proclaimed more clearly the twofold volitions and operations of Christ, according to the two natures;

subjecting to curse and anathema those who introduced and championed that monothelite dogma.

This the president of that see, Agatho — who was established upon the throne after Martin — had already done previously in Rome, being moved by the divine Spirit;

he too having declared those who had done such unlawful things to be accursed and spat out of the Church.

Now when, as the narrative said, they carried the divine Maximus off into exile, it befell him to suffer many things along the way, and to endure many pains, since he was able to sit neither upon a beast of burden nor in a litter;

being altogether worn out by his toils, and exhausted by countless anguishes.

Accordingly, placing him in a kind of wicker frame woven of branches, and carrying him along with difficulty and toil, they led him away on that long journey;

and confining him in one of the fortresses in Alania, called Schimaris, they left him utterly uncared-for.

And since they also drove the good disciple, together with his namesake, along the same road, they separated the two of them from the teacher;

and they separated them also from one another;

each one alone passing through many places, and being led away far off, somewhere in the land of the Abasgians;

as a result of which one of them, worn out by the great suffering, let go even his very breath, which alone still remained to him;

and not even the very day on which he departed from things here was known with precision, as his namesake had said;

I mean the apocrisiarius Anastasius.

But indeed, to the divine Maximus, now confined in the fortress in Alania, a certain divine vision came from above;

revealing to him the day of his death, and summoning him to the tabernacles beyond;

And when that day arrived;

and it was the thirteenth of the month of August, he let go the things here, and hastened up to the heavens — he who was truly worthy of the heavens and of the dwelling there.

And in the place where his sacred body was laid, three shining lights, on one night of each period, have shone forth over the tomb ever since;

sending forth a wondrous radiance, and producing, as is fitting, an even more wondrous astonishment in those who beheld it, and manifesting the most abundant grace of the greatly-giving God toward his own servant.

But far greater, and most exalted, is his lot and heavenly portion there;

as one standing beside the great Light, and receiving in himself the whole radiance of the blessed and light-originating Trinity;

and beholding God — the most paradoxical thing of all — having himself too, by union, become god, and being wholly deified according to participation, and undergoing an ineffable deification.

Having attained such glory, then, grant abundant help also from yourself to us who are still swimming through present things, and sailing across this long and most perilous life;

so that, under you as pilot and guide, having sailed lightly across the unstable sea, we may find anchorage in the waveless and eternal harbors;

where there is the blessed way of life and the most tranquil rest.

This is our discourse to you, O best of fathers and most loving toward your children — falling short altogether, as I myself know, of your deeds, yet, I think, inferior to none in longing.

And the cause and instigator of this discourse is, altogether, the hierarch devoted to you;

who has been enriched also with the namesake and the like disposition of the chief shepherd of Myra;

this man ever marvelously loving your words, and longing for you exceedingly;

and making your most sweet name the delight of his tongue.

To him may you grant in return companionship and dwelling together with yourself;

since, as you see, he too has set forth great struggle on behalf of the good, and offers up his very soul, if only he might accomplish something better in these matters;

in Christ himself our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.