Works 2

There was once a king, Antiochus, the richest in Syria, in whose realm there were, as report tells, a mother and seven sons, sprung of the holy nation. Their abiding care bade them remember their race and to serve the law that had been given them; for thus, willing it, they held their own ordinances belonging to the better people of God. The greedy king wished to change those same men, to change the fear of the righteous, that he might mingle them with the wicked people. He promises rewards to the mother, promises gold too, and whatever he could gather in his whole realm, if only she would change her ways and former thoughts, and compel her sons to feign other manners for themselves. She refuses, and presses down the silent grief beneath her heart. After no spoil could constrain her, he first tried to conquer her with savage torments;

she endured grievous groanings, and feared not the king's sad scourges. When at last he saw himself overcome, he said: 'Alas, what shall I do?' he cried, 'that a woman conquers a king? Yet you shall not escape: there is more, which you, hardened, shall lament. I will rage against your sons; though, shameless, you persist, by this means at least I will heal my grief.' She lifted up her hands and gazed up to the lofty heaven; she sent forth groans and spoke such words: 'Though you should hand over both treasures and kingdoms, tyrant, we are not captured by the gifts of kings, nor shall the promised rewards snatch the holy ones from God. That hope is the surer, which promises us life for a long time: this I follow, this I have learned, not to touch slippery gifts; to take riches is easy, and to lose one's life.

But though after savage scourges you should threaten flames as well, you can change nothing of what we began in our earliest years. By the virtue given me with the law, it is certain I shall conquer this. What now, cruel one, do you command? With what, harsh one, do you threaten my sons? By this grief alone shall you be able to trouble a mother. For God is my hope; the care of my own is mine, through which indeed I hope you can conquer none of them. O power of heaven, I beseech you, be favorable, for we ask what is just.' King Antiochus rages, troubled in heart; he shakes with tumult and bears witness with his eye to his savage looks, and long he marvels that a woman can do so much. 'Come, soldier, obey!' he says; 'minister, obey the king too; you servants, obey me! Give torments worthy of a raging woman's wickedness; a woman compels me, raging, to serve her:

what is more, a woman conquers her king's commands! But she shall not have spoken with impunity: limb by limb I will destroy the seven sons whom, perfidious, she holds within herself; of whom he who is reckoned first, let him first perish; so may you lose them all in order, set upon hurdles and burned by the flames placed beneath, that the mother herself, now bitter, may see her own sons. And this penalty remains; the ministers ought to be swift.' Meanwhile the fruitful parent stood, now with hair loosened, and, like one exhorting, now with bared breast, holding out her paps, the nourishment of her sons, she opens them unashamed; and when she saw her son advancing to the fire, strong, with steadfast step, she said: 'You, my offspring, you the first, look back upon your mother. You at least are mine: now, son, remember us!

You I bore first; do you now imitate your parent: take up my ways, and conquer the king by keeping silence. You will be able to endure long, if you conquer the times, lest the perfidious violence of the king overcome the holy ones. Use your mother's counsel, and you shall not fear losses. Be stronger than bronze and mightier than the very rock; advance as a young man, and patiently conquer pains.' He turns his face now to his mother, now lifts it on high, and while he is silent and silently entreats the one he ought, and prays, he did not feel the rushing fires of the hurdles set beneath. His empty body flows away; the mother rejoiced in the grief. And she said: 'I have conquered: thus may I conquer often, I pray;

'May the unknown virtue of her sons endure, unknown to the king, yet already known to God, who knows the hearts of His people.' The fruitful mother had ended the grief of her first child's death, yet anxious for the many still remaining, with fear abiding; and still she hides it, lest her joys should touch the king. King Antiochus stands amazed and does not believe that those who follow can win through such a kind of punishment with a like resolve. He commands that what was begun be carried out; the mother stood unterrified. Yet when she saw her son standing there pale, turning these things within her she is now in some part eased: 'Behold, a second offspring of my childbearing is brought forth: how like in form he is to his brother! If you are hardened in heart and follow the footsteps of my first child, you can be mine; you can recover the salvation which your brother already holds, by following his mother's precepts.'

'Lay aside your fears, despise the king's raging threats and his kingdoms, in which the fleeting moments are given hastily. After all this that king will not be able to harm you; but you, my son, will after this be able to harm the king. Behold, you are compelled to mount the swift fires! Here is the place for valour: lay aside fainting fear; be mindful of our lineage, if any sense yet clings to you. This man who holds the sceptre, who rages over his realm, in that kingdom spends an empty span of time, and will lose his life, and, condemned and guilty, will feel the eternal fires: you shall be secure, with a throng of the godly attending you. Look, my son, upon my face and look up to heaven and to God the Author, through whom life is prepared for you. Do better, and tread in your brother's footsteps: I obey not what this man commands, but what God ordains.' And thus it was.

He had been admonished to look upon his mother and to heaven; he took his stand and with cheerful countenance began to despise the king, and, as though smiling, rushed into the blazing fires, and, sinking down and lying there, with his soul prevailing he found rest. When the mother saw this, she spoke thus with steadfast lips: 'In some part I am blessed: now, now you cannot overcome all of my sons by torturing them, cruel tyrant. A heavier punishment soon awaits you, cruel and wicked one, which you shall suffer ere long; for God beholds all these things.' Now two were free, the king being despised; the mother's hope was now better: now a third place of punishment presses near. If to conquer the king is a punishment, and to serve God is glory, this is no punishment for the raging one. The third youth is dragged forth as the tyrant gnashes his teeth, who was not yet satisfied.

Madness and wrath alike raged within him, because he had seen that the brave hearts of the brothers had fearlessly overcome the king's fury. Before his feet stood the youth in the flower of his years, of outstanding beauty, worthy to hold a kingdom, more worthy than Antiochus; and so, pursuing a better kingdom, by God's will, the mother spoke to him such words: 'Receive, my son, secure, the words of your parent; receive them, lest in sloth you lose the honours of valour. You already have brothers abiding in the seat of piety, in a better place than the king's tottering realms. If you reach with your heart their very feelings, you shall be reported a victor among the peoples for having overcome the king, even as report has now sent your brothers into all lands. Join them, I pray.'

These are most fitting gifts: to have despised wickedness and to forsake the laws of the unbridled king, for whom no pleasure abides after all this.' But the youth uttered words in silent murmur; like one praying he stretched his palms on high, and resting on bended knee he hung upon his mother's lips, as far as he could in sight, since the crowd pressed upon his body. As soon as he was admonished, he mounted the gridiron, and in the fire, undaunted and with sure faith, he set his own limbs. The flames sank down, with the warm ash remaining, and the opened earth received his unharmed body, while his holy soul, inviolate, withdrew to the heavens above. But the mother, hesitating whether to take up groaning or joy, wavers, and thus spoke with plaintive speech: 'What now, dread one, do you prepare? We shall all obey your commands.'

'But count the children, lest the keeper withdraw any one! And, even should you yourself wish it, I will not suffer, tyrant, that all my sons should not perish in this same contest. This is the horrid punishment of your reign, change it though you may, and the same sentence is for my condemned sons. If you think them heavier, if there be heavier ones, threaten them! And whereas you see my face, are you gripped by horror? We rejoice alike, as often as you decree against these.' But the king himself burns the more, stirred by raging wrath, and thinks himself to be put to the test, lest, like the rest of the throng of brothers, this one too bear the penalties, and he perceives that the mother seeks this. He persists unto destruction, and soon wished to consign the fourth son to punishment; for the wearied servants could endure neither the king's furies nor the king himself. O shame!

The son blushed to show his face to his mother, and with astonished mind began to be confounded. After she saw him standing with lowered eyes, she approaches him with such words to admonish the fearful one: 'You are the fourth offspring born to me from the first, the fourth child. What words now can I speak to you, my son, except this: that hardened might be with you alike, and valour and the Author of our holy origin? To Him we owe whatever we deny the king; He gave us Abraham with the holy seed, through whom nobility, through whom every lineage is approved, which remains holy in the Lord; for Isaac is born then, when old age could no longer of its own accord hope for any child, since Sarah remained barren.'

'Yet she gave birth, and by the propagation of the line, against all hope there remain to you, Sarah, grandsons begun: Esau and Jacob, drawn from the ancestral origin, whom we know Rebecca bore as twins at one birth. From this we are, from this we die; this lineage, my son, must be sought by you. Open the way for yourself unto your Begetter, and yield to your forefathers, whose offspring, scattered throughout the whole world, suffer envy because they alone worship the mighty Lord with their mind, and do not, mingled, join the unrighteous crowd. Why are you sad of face? Why do you keep your eyes fixed on the ground? Rather behold heaven and the Parent of heaven! Do not doubt; your mother shows you prosperous things. Whatever there is, approach it patiently.'

'Accompany my throng manfully, my son, and exhort the number that follows.' Thus the beloved parent, mingling mourning and joys, had ended her clear admonitions: then he himself lifts the orbs of his eyes and began to fix his gaze upon his mother. Bearing nothing sad now in bearing and countenance, he confesses that he had feared nothing save the sad wounds of his mother, divided among her several children. And so, slipping from the hands of those who held him, he sped at a run into the fires. I shall tell a wondrous thing: the flame touched not his hair, nor his face; as a lifeless body he overcame the flames and fires, yet with mouth open though silent, where the spirit might go, whence it had been received, it fled away together with the blood.

In this very thing the parent rejoiced, that he who but now had stood with sad countenance, soon, relying with his whole heart, obeyed the admonitions and despised the king's wraths. Yet thus she began, while the king hesitated against those who remained, and the godly throng gave groans to the ministers, cursing the king, complaining in silent speech: 'Drag him forth; why do you hesitate? You ought now to spare none, nor can you, however much you desire it: do not break the decree. I appeal to the King who governs the whole world, whom the sea, whom heaven, whom the stars of heaven obey, which, unless you bring him forth, is your dread. Already sluggishly you cling, already you perceive what kingdom they seek, what glory abides for us on either side, if now you should be unwilling to spare. For whomever you have commanded to depart from your realm, with savagery attending, they have conquered your fury.'

'Surely your own, and joyful they abide in the seat of the godly. Perhaps you believe this to be death, frenzied tyrant? It is a life longer indeed, and more powerful than that realm which you rule and on whose utmost edge you linger. If you fear these also, there remain still younger ones in age. And, having despised your kingdoms at once, I have conquered them, proud one: but carry out your command and do not divide our children: give these also to the flames and use the strength of your realm. Yet you are mortal, nor will you hold your kingdoms for ever!' Antiochus conceives furies, and the savage tyrant seethes and turns groans within his breast. Grief consents with his mind, and he raises his sad, burdened countenance and utters such words: 'This freedom of yours and harsh power of tongue, and this rigidity which you bear upon your swollen neck.'

'Shall feel what the times of an angry king can do. If you are not yet sated with evils and try to feign gladness and turn your mournings into joys: I will not change the death-sentence; rejoice, be glad, triumph. Provided that you so conquer as to be the last of your own — does she so madly rejoice at the death of her sons? These too I give to the flames; this no power can change; the decrees stand — rejoice, surviving, bereaved of your children. And lest my commands be delayed, let the order pursue its course. Bring forth the child! Let not the fires perish in vain, nor let the king be able to seem doubtful. Surely no woman is any fear to me.' 'You are brought forth, foremost of your race, a boy wondrous in face and beauty, in whose breast firm valour abides. And now you might even have conquered this king.'

To him the mother spoke thus with gentle speech: 'If it were permitted to give an embrace to your mother, my son, I confess, I would have given it to you alone, my son, after your wounds; but the harsh and grim power of the king forbids me. Let him deny the embrace, so long as our voice is free and it be permitted to remember God and to hold the law — not one given by a king, but the one which God, the judge of the world, handed down, and the ruler of the universe; the law which Moses, having sought it, received and gave to the people. Whose highest praise it is to know God, to whom we owe the honour we deserve. Only do not hesitate to obey your parent's admonitions. Let there be vigour and valour, and let your mind, deep in your whole breast, abide now full of God: let your years be stronger than it was to hope to overcome the king who commands. O how great is valour, how great is the confidence in the brave one!'

'But now do not hesitate to win through the midst of the flames: you shall be a victor, believe me, boy, and a victor you shall return. To the strong bones the sinews shall again knit the bodies, and shall render the preserved souls once more into new flesh. But lest perchance the swift fire affright you, take up the spirit of your brothers and invoke the eternal Godhead.' He does as bidden, and silently calls God to witness and prays with such murmur as he could. His age does not hinder the boy; he did not fear the gridiron set out, but obeyed his willing mother, and quicker than the word he rushed upon the fires. The flames gave way, all pain gave way, and body and fire were one: the body had overcome the fire, yet the spirit had earlier overcome the calm breezes. The mother, glad, grieves in silence, and, her grief pressed down, turns her sadness and mourning into joys.

Meanwhile she trembles and turns cares within her heart, not concerning the past, but concerning the boyish years: those who remain, lest perchance they refuse; lest perchance they conceive fear in their soul and prefer to inflame the king. The smaller the age, the greater the fear; anxious she draws cares with her, alas; and now hope and fear alike struggle and run through the bowels of the pious mother. Yet hope is greater, when she saw her son come forward, and exulting from afar: 'I see what hope can confer upon me in this one: this one too ought to recognize our looks and to obey, in the number of his brothers. Perhaps boyish hearts may touch this one alone, and he may bear it ill, that he is thus given like a victim. I will address him and try to speak in few words: let him be mindful rather of his lineage than of this present time.'

'If nobility moves you, if the origin of your race moves you, look back, my son, upon your own, and look back also upon Israel, my son. Do not count your years, boy; begin with a brave heart to bear God. Ages will hand this down to ages, that your brave youth may give examples to future times. Give, my son, I pray, and what is more than this: consider what things you flee, and how much better the things that are sought. Let not the deceit of the foolish king disturb you, but let these things now grow into the contrary.' His victorious spirit quenched the flames; then, when summoned, the body which it had given the opened earth received, and the holy soul which survives, inviolate, withdrew.

Though weary, the parent, victorious through her very wounds, fell prostrate on her face alike, and with hands upturned uttered these words and spoke thus: 'You who hold the dominion of heaven and earth and sea, who set the stars in heaven, who give the living creatures to the lands, the fishes to the waters, who govern the breezes for the birds: to You, great One, the confidence of my mind rises up, You who divide the immense chaos, mingled with blind darkness, into parts, and grant both night and day, the moon and the sun, which by varied turn You ever command, by night and day, to furnish light throughout the world. After these things You give man, from whose seed the mortal race of the world is filled, whose tongue speaks discordantly among the nations; yet for all there is one savour.'

'But to relate at length what changed the merit and the speech of men would be a long delay: it is settled to press on with what I have begun. We confess that You held back the divided sea with a rod, while the people crossed over the strait by dry foot, fleeing the deaths of Egypt and King Pharaoh, who commanded that the number of the holy ones should serve him. Whom Your majesty, with Moses as leader, carried across the river, and, preserved by Your power, parted them safely. The land gave fruits, which at Your compelling it bore, and at the rest-time water was sought, hidden in secret places.' There was no moisture: all, complaining with a cry, demanded of Moses that he should give waters to the thirsty. To whom he spoke thus in brief speech: 'Believe that God can do whatever you shall ask of Him, who is able with this rod to pour forth a river from the rock.'

'So that springs may come, denied throughout the whole region.' And he struck at once: swifter than every word he sent forth from the rock fountains of the first sweetness. I confess, since the whole world is Your debtor, that You, whatever the nations can do, can do all things alone, and what the nations cannot grasp, You alone grasp all things. You burden and relieve the mortal race with cares: I pray You, with astonished mind, strengthen the fearful one. Let not the lowest of my children be lacking from the number of the brothers — my infant, ignorant of himself; whom now, behold, I see far off held by the frequent surrounding crowd. For his sake alone his age stirs my tears; for he alone survives, about whom my greatest care is, lest the tender one know not of what race he was born.

If only I could take this one apart in secret alone, I would coax him, and teach him the fatherly race and the fatherland: yet whatever consolations I shall be able, I will send. 'Little boy, dearer to me than your tender years — dearer than a kingdom, dearer even than life itself — you can render your mother wholly victorious. You, the end of my childbearing and the future end of evils, if care for me touches you, if you retain your mother's honour in a pious mind; although you are dear and an infant, the more for this attend with eager ear to your parent's words. First learn, boy, what you shall be after these things, if you are patient; for what shall be for you, dear one, the deeds teach me. You shall abide in the portion of the holy brothers, and shall be secure in rest, while the ages run their savage courses.'

'When the long time is ended, seeking again this light, you shall behold the eternal kingdoms, not stained with evils, but there shall be concord for the saints; nor shall there be any place for death, nor shall wars be joined with swift horses, but eternal peace shall abide. Trust your mother, who desires you to be of salvation. Alas for me, why with sad countenance do you reject my words? Why do you shrink back? Have pity on me, have pity on yourself! If it were permitted, I would wish to go first: behold, it is forbidden! But I will go then, when I shall have seen you, my son, victor over evils. What do you bid me hope for? You alone delay my words, you alone, my son, even still call back grief to me. Do you consent? Or do you condemn me and your brothers and your race? — which lest perchance you should wish, I beg and beseech you: hear me!'

'With these breasts I nursed you small, my son; by these I pray, and for your sake, my son, I pour out tears, that you should not wish to remain: you will remain alone and bereft; you have no brother now. Who will give you the consolations of life? Alas, you alone try to confound your mother, and your race and fatherland, if you refuse such words. O how much better will you preserve your life unto the age, if you do before God whatever the former ones did! Boldly lay aside your fears, lay aside dread, conceive God in your mind; He will give manly strength.' While the mother does these things, the boy looks toward his parent's precepts, and when he sees himself to be left alone, he lifted his face and upturned palms to heaven, and thus seeking with his voice he adores the eternal Godhead, whom he was entreating with sense and gesture alike together.

That he might conquer the king, that he might conquer the savage fires. And so, not sluggish, nor according to his boyish years, he leaps forth undaunted, plunging into the midst of the fires, and fights as victor, until his spirit returned to the heights and sought the secret places of the brothers who had gone before. While the boy does these things, joys dissolved the mother; and now, weary as she was with evils, now with voice denied her, she breathes exulting; and, sinking down amid the hands of her own, she fell lifeless, and her loosened limbs found rest. Thus she herself too, with her sons, was received into the portion of the holy ones.