With much hope, dearly beloved, is the soul kindled unto eternal salvation whenever the deeds of the several martyrs are called to mind: but with joy in some manner multiplied the soul rouses itself to the love and favour of the Lord as often as the memory of the mother of the Maccabees comes before it, who by her exhortation clothed a sevenfold number with the crown of martyrdom in a single day, so much the braver in faith as she was seen to have been the more fruitful in childbearing. In her the proofs of the virtues were as great as were the pledges of her offspring. For she delivered to almighty God on a single day as many martyrs as she, their mother, had gained sons at the diverse turns of time.
Blessed among all mothers, and happier by her very bereavement, on whom faith conferred so much that in a single day she passed over to the glory of the heavenly kingdom together with the whole fruitfulness of her womb. Herein consider that evangelical sentence which says that to our Christ neither parents nor children are to be preferred (Matt. 10:37). Among some it may perhaps be counted glorious, and worthy to be brought forward as a wholesome example, that a man offered one son to God as a victim. She surpassed every virtue and vow of souls: so that in the pain of the raging punishment no affection of a mother's tenderness excepted any of her children. See, moreover, through how many steps of the virtues her precious faith increased:
whereas to have yielded but once might be enough, she seven times chastised her maternal tenderness by voluntary bereavement for the love of the Lord; well conscious in herself, knowing that all the fruit of her womb consisted in that eternity of life, according to that sentence which says: 'He that loveth his soul shall lose it; and he that hateth his soul shall find it unto life eternal' (John 12:25). The reading of the Old Testament teaches that our father Abraham offered his only son Isaac to be immolated as a sacrifice to God. And this stands as a memorable proof of faith throughout the whole world.
And although no blood bathed the altars, yet there was victory in the will, because with the Lord to will this is the same as to do it; to whom, as we read, the angel cried out: 'Abraham, Abraham, lay not thy hands upon the boy; it is enough that I have known that thou lovest the Lord thy God' (Gen. 22:11-12). If then our father Abraham offered one son as a sacrifice, and it was pleasing; how much more this woman, who at one time immolated seven with their consenting vows, offering her own self as a victim to God in the eighth place; so that she who had been, for the incitement of heavenly glory, the mistress and teacher of so many most valiant men, might herself also become an example of surpassing virtue?
But if it please you, dearly beloved, let us recall the order of the battle itself, that parents may learn to love their children, and children to obey their parents: with the love of our Christ set foremost, who for the victors that strive in a lawful contest weaves the crown of life with heavenly bloom, the Lord thus saying: 'He that shall overcome, to him will I give the crown of life' (Rev. 2:10). Behold, dearly beloved, how much the faith of the deed sets forth: a battle is set up for the ancestral laws between the ministers of almighty God and of the devil, furnished with many and innumerable torments;
with which the author of iniquity, thus armed, is wont to ply the poisons of his wickedness. But although the hostile wrath rages with many terrors against the ministers of righteousness, the conflict is joined without trembling. In this place the contriver of crimes and enemy of the good assails their hearts with deeper counsel. He therefore devises the weapons of his impiety against each one, and, as is his manner, by a certain penal contrivance he arranges single combat, while he believes that the brotherhood, divided among the sons under adversities, can easily be thrown into confusion and not with difficulty be conquered, if he has consumed with punishment each one set upon interrogation.
And so the first-born by birth is brought forward first, while on every side stand and rage, with all the apparatus of death, the officers of impiety, the persecutor not idly conducting the business, who supposed that, with the head of the conspired virtue removed, the whole war could be ended. But the counsels, overmuch instructed by the wretched schooling of cruelty, deceived him. For the enemy is conquered so much the more foully, as the greater throng of the tyrant's satellites is at the service against one righteous man. But it is the greatest token of cowardice that, amid the massed bands of the enemy, one man should carry off the palm of victory. And so, when the enemy's fury was wounded, to which the diverse kinds of torments were subservient, the bloody hand of the executioner runs from one to another; and behold,
to strike in the fear of death, he carries a brother's blood to each one, testing by the dread of death the testimonies of his cruelty. But while he contrives victory over one, he confesses himself vanquished by another. Yet in all of them the faith stood unshaken, the strength of its own men quickened by the tortures. The second comes forward into the battle-line; and after no long interval the third also advances; and when these were crowned, the fourth undertakes the fight; nor did dread death frighten off the fifth or the sixth. Finally, in them all there is one faith, one virtue, one conscience; so that you would think them all one, and believe them all to be one, and yet the injury tore each of them apart in turn. Thus the brotherhood, quickened by the fellowship of victory, while it served the ancestral laws, carried off the insignia of manifold virtue.
Amid so many funeral pomps, then, the mother runs to and fro, thunderstruck, and anxious with cares, and terrified with fear and dread. But let this thing deceive no one; she trembles indeed, yet at the outcome of the victory, not at the death of her sons. At each interrogation the mother stands solicitous, lest faith should deceive any of them, lest human frailty should sever any of them from the company of holiness. For against the enemy's bloody threats she follows up each one with her sole exhortation, that he should wish to be nothing other than a brother. Each one indeed suffers: but she suffers with each one, and with each one she alone is racked in soul. She therefore carries off the palm of her own virtue in the love of almighty God.
But if you consider the several things which the mother's assiduity endured, with all her sons she obtained her portion of martyrdom. After so many countless palms of the virtues, behold, one comes at last whose age had given the enemy hope of gaining the victory, and who had seen that around the stronger men beforehand the threatening inquest of his speech had profited little; so he assails the boyish spirit, thinking to coax it with the address of soft exhortation, and finally by every path of crafty persuasion. This one he judges worthy of riches and honour, and thinks that the mother is to be flattered by the release of one son. But the spirit, already wholly directed toward heaven, does not easily receive counsel from the earthly side: the intrepid spirit of infancy is rather kindled to the summit of virtue by the exhorting mother.
O new and wondrous example of virtue! The mother exults in her own bereavement: and whence tenderness suffers loss, thence she reaps gain. Having sent ahead this son also, whom she loved more tenderly, she herself too enters upon the way of a glorious death: and vexed not long with countless torments, having followed her sons in triumph, she rushed away to the heavenly and eternal things, this temporal light despised. Whoever, then, dearly beloved, has care for the pledges of her womb, let her imitate the examples of this mother, so numerous, so strong. And whoever bends herself with zeal for conquering toward her, undoubtedly advances rewarded with the honour of manifold glory. Whatever mother there be, therefore, let her judge her sons worthy of this honour:
and under that exhortation which you have learned let her teach them, that they may learn to keep the ordinances of the heavenly laws. And let those who serve our Christ imitate the battles of those most valiant men. That mother proves that she loves her sons who, this error by which the world strives being driven off, delivers of the fruit of her womb a victim to God, and gladly offers herself and hers to be immolated daily to the Lord. But that we may the more easily obtain the insignia of that heavenly virtue, the gifts and honours of this world must be despised, which deceive human eyes at the prompting of vanity. And this stands as an acceptable sacrifice with the Lord, if, heavenly honour set foremost, you have begun to despise the world.