The Fugitives and the Fallen

“A great many others, in cities and villages, were torn apart by the pagans. I will mention one of them as an example. Ischyrion was the hired steward of one of the magistrates. His employer ordered him to sacrifice. When he would not obey, he insulted him; when he stood firm, he heaped abuse on him; and when he held out, he took a huge stick, drove it through his bowels and vital organs, and killed him. [a] Why speak of the multitude who wandered in deserts and mountains and were destroyed by hunger and thirst, cold and sickness, robbers and wild beasts? Those of them who survived are witnesses to the others’ election and victory. I will set out one deed of theirs too, to make it plain. Chaeremon was a very old man, bishop of the city called Nilus. He fled with his wife to the Arabian mountain and did not come back. And though the brothers searched a great deal, they could never see either them or their bodies again. [b] Many in that same Arabian mountain were carried off into slavery by the barbarian Saracens. Some of them were ransomed, barely, for large sums of money; others have not been to this day. I have gone through these things, my brother, not for nothing, but so that you may know how many and how great were the terrors that came upon us. Those who have experienced more of them would know more.” [d]

Then, a little further on, he adds this: “These divine martyrs among us, then, who now sit beside Christ as his assessors, share in his kingdom, take part in his judgment and judge together with him, welcomed some of the brothers who had fallen away and become liable to the charge of sacrificing. Seeing that their turning back and repentance could be acceptable to him who does not at all desire the death of the sinner, but rather his repentance, they tested them and then received them in, gathered them, stood with them, and shared with them in prayers and meals. [e] What, then, do you advise us, brothers, about these people? What are we to do? Shall we take our stand with the martyrs, voting and thinking as they did, keep their judgment and their favor, and be kind to those they had mercy on? Or shall we make their judgment unjust, set ourselves up as examiners of their opinion, grieve their kindness, and overturn order?” [g]

Dionysius had good reason to set these words down, as he was raising the question of those who had grown weak at the time of the persecution.