Cassian, a Christian Schoolteacher, in the Year 302

It is stated that in this persecution Cassian, Bishop of the church at Brescia, in Italy, was compelled to flee because of the violent persecution, and settled in the city of Forum Cornelii (now called Imola), where he established a school for children. However, the persecution, which broke out there too, did not spare him; for shortly afterward he was denounced as a Christian, and arrested. When the judges asked him what profession or trade he had, he replied that he was a schoolteacher, and taught children to read and write. He was also examined concerning his faith, and since he would not abandon it, or sacrifice to the gods, the judges sentenced him to a very unusual death, for this was his sentence: "Let the scourger, that is, the schoolteacher, be pricked, cut, and stabbed to death by his own scholars, with styles, awls, pens, penknives, and other sharp instruments such as children use in school."

Then Cassian was stripped naked; his hands were tied behind his back, and so he was delivered to his scholars, to be maltreated by them in the manner just described. Some of them then stoned him, some beat him with school boards and wax tablets, others stabbed him with styles, pens, penknives, and other sharp school implements, until, after unspeakable torments, death followed; and having commended his soul to God, he was in this way released from this vale of sorrows. Compare A. Mell., first book, folio 104, columns 3 and 4, with J. Gys., folio 24, column 1, from Prudent., in Hymno; Steph. Hym., 9. Petr. de Nat., book 7. [n249-1]