The Martyrs of the Thebaid

No words can match the outrages and agonies that the martyrs of the Thebaid endured. They were scraped over the whole body with potsherds instead of iron claws until their life left them. Women were tied by one foot and hoisted high into the air head downward by machines, their bodies wholly naked and uncovered: the most shameful, the cruelest and the most inhuman sight of all, offered to everyone who watched. [a] Others again died bound to trees and tree trunks. With machines they drew the stoutest branches together, stretched out the martyrs’ legs to each of them, and then let the branches spring back to their natural place, contriving in this way to tear apart at one stroke the limbs of those they dealt with. [c] And all this went on, not for a few days or some short time, but over a long stretch of years. Sometimes more than ten were killed, sometimes over twenty, at other times no fewer than thirty, and now nearly sixty; and again, at other times, a hundred men were killed in a single day, together with very young children and women, condemned to various and ever-changing punishments.

We ourselves, being on the spot, saw many put to death all at once on a single day, some beheaded, others punished by fire, so that the murderous sword grew blunt and, weakened, broke in pieces, and the executioners themselves grew weary and took turns relieving one another. Then too we saw the most wonderful eagerness, and a truly divine power and zeal, in those who had put their faith in the Christ of God. As soon as sentence was passed on the first, others from every side would leap up to the judge’s tribunal and confess themselves Christians. They cared nothing for the horrors or for the many kinds of torture, but spoke out boldly and fearlessly for godliness toward the God of the universe. They received the final sentence of death with joy and laughter and gladness, so that they sang psalms and sent up hymns and thanksgivings to the God of the universe to their very last breath.

These were wonderful, but more wonderful still were those who were distinguished by wealth, noble birth and reputation, and by learning and philosophy, and yet counted everything second to true godliness and to faith in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. One such was Philoromus, who had been entrusted with no ordinary office in the imperial administration at Alexandria, and who heard cases every day attended by a guard of soldiers, as befitted his rank and Roman dignity. Another was Phileas, bishop of the church of Thmuis, a man distinguished for the public offices and services he had carried out in his own city, and for his learning in philosophy. [d] Countless relatives and other friends begged them, and officials of high rank as well, and even the judge himself urged them to take pity on themselves and to spare their children and wives. Yet none of all this could bring them to choose love of life and to despise our Savior’s ordinances about confessing and denying him. With a manly and philosophic mind, or rather with a devout and God-loving soul, they stood firm against all the judge’s threats and insults, and both were beheaded.