Poems & Letters 179 part 2/2

He indeed endured a master, when, falsely charged with having willed the crime — the shameful wrong which he had shunned — he bore, enduring, the prison-house, the bonds, the chains, while the sun, unrolling its span, had joined two years together. Now he had forgotten the light; now his hair, nourished in leanness with flowing lock, touched his back. But, with God quickening it, his mind, shut in by no darkness, foresees the mystery — whatever the outcome afterward fulfils. At last, when he is brought forth, glory, not merely pardon, is eagerly conferred; and then, himself entreated with prayers that he might willingly set the diadem upon his captive head, he exchanges exile for a kingdom, a slave for a prince. Thus does he receive the rewards of a heart kept pure.

After him, who could ever extol Susanna with worthy praises, who once in her tender years overcame the wicked desires of the elders and their conspiring frenzies? At first the same cause seized them man by man in separate counsel, and each alone promised himself the hope of the sin; but the base fire burning in their hearts fused their minds together in the furnace of the two men's crime. They come together, for so it chanced on one day, so that with feigned departure they might return from different directions. And they came at once into the grove, and, revealed by turns, the pleasure blazing in each heart is laid bare in exchange. Straightway, deceiving the unwary girl by fraud, they assailed her together;

they demand that she consent before ever the report of disgrace should be moved against the rebellious woman, and threaten that soon, unless she yields, the crime is to be turned back upon herself. Having confessed their ardour, they alike bring forth their prearranged lies, and lay open the snares which they wished to weave. Doubtful, she long struggles within herself, and, wavering, is tossed as to where the weights of her uncertain mind incline: the law forbids to sin, and again infamy terrifies. Hence again she attempts to soften their harsh furies with entreaties, and to quench the obscene flames with tears. But after that the kindred lust had overcome the elders, unmoved and bound fast by no prayers or warnings —

the woman, her mind kindled with illustrious modesty, then resolved to die chaste, lest by so great a crime the traffic of the flesh should surround her wretched life. She calls heaven to witness and refuses empty repute, content with her own judgement, while she commends her knowing heart to the faith of the Most High and keeps it for the things to come. Yet He, the searcher of the secret, chose rather to furnish an open trial on the spot, and to unlock the hidden crime, and to bring forth the frauds set as snares. That boy, the younger one, was watching the city stirred with vain weeping — he himself destined afterward to be companion to the three youths, whom the Chaldean wrath, hotter than the flames, cast into the surging fire when its command was despised. As the drawn-in heat grew alike, here raged fury, there faith, while the fire, made gentler, served the saints, and the coal enclosed them with a tepid glow;

until the satrap, marvelling, commanded the fires to cease, and the throng of flames girt those standing round. Equalling these in merits, the neighbouring virtue of Daniel curbed the dreadful mouths of the gnashing lions, while they, though first kindled by the goads of hunger and rage, and at once, with their jaws bridled, laying their bodies low, lick him unharmed amid their fasting — while yet he takes the food which the prophet, hanging by the crown of his head, balanced by an angelic hand and sped through the void, treading the airs beneath with unmoved steps, brought in, himself borne in, a burden with a burden. Daniel received the meal sent down from above. The steaming dishes migrate from far-off lands and preserve their flavours in a foreign abode.

There, then, the beardless boy chanced to see Susanna hurried off to torments, whom the crowd, ignorant of the truth, had before condemned unheard, and all together strove to behold the guilty death of the innocent woman; when suddenly the youth rushes into the midst of the throng, chastising the kindled uproar with a tender voice: why in so great an assembly does no one judge the case, and he cries aloud that, being free, he will not run to an unjust death? Straightway, at the boy's word, the compliant crowd, deeply moved, restrained its passions; he himself is appointed judge and interrogator of the elders, through whom the true way might come to light. He questions them apart, what the order of the crime is; but while each gives a discordant answer, they confess the joint deed with divided voice. Then fear seizes them all alike:

on every side a shout is raised, and all the people overwhelm the authors of the crime. And God is praised, who never forsakes the prayers of the good and shows his help in due season. And yet prior to these is she who, in chaste virginity, offers her untouched body to everlasting vows. For if a girl marrying by earthly law, to have kept her marriage-bed and known one couch alone, is praised only by a mortal judging assembly, reckon then how much is laid up there for virgins, whither Christ calls them hence by their merits, where from his heavenly seat the Arbiter of the world shall part the human race into portions. Lifting the lambs on his right hand, that he may despise those on the left as goats, the angelic choirs shall stand marvelling at the deeds of the good and praising them: to all in common shall the merit of the flesh, its course run out, be laid open;

no fraud shall be able to hide anything in the darkness, or to spirit away the faults that are marked. There let a well-known life, standing firm, be sought for you, where the just Judge enriches you, dispensing rewards. Once it was tersely said by the Master's mouth, while the busy diligence of Martha, serving in her duty, flourishes, and holds her sister attentive by the power of the word — that her care was better than food, she who was worthy of the everlasting feeding. Then Martha, uttering empty complaints to the Lord: 'O teacher,' she says, 'do you not see that I alone am harried with the preparation, and this my sister lends no relief?' To whom Christ perhaps thus replies: 'There are many things which hold you bound, but the cause of rest is better, and the best part, chosen by Mary, shall not be able to be taken from her.' So, sister, while the ages blaze with their own cares, cease not to keep for yourself the chosen part.

The whole kindred has earned you as its foremost patroness. Now we follow you as standard-bearer, and, as you bear Christ's banners onward, the lineage of our forebears marches after them; though the world had endowed them with ancient honour and displays them by titles ever springing from a noble origin, yet the divine emblem more adorned those who wore it, in that by their own order they earned holy sees. I will not now recount for you your ancestors and forefathers, whom an illustrious life rendered worthy priests: look rather upon your father, taken up as a bishop for holy things. And while your father and your uncle, great on every side, are pleased to take up, after their secular offices, the burden of the peoples, receive those humble ones whom the Church, binding them by brotherhood, has joined, alike in office, to the fellowship of the fathers.

For whom let it not weary you to pay unceasing thanks to Christ, or to pour forth tears; that none of the number of your brothers may be lacking to you when you receive the rewards worthy of your deeds, and, made a mother of your forebears, as victrix you shall be joined, rejoicing, to the virgin's crown.