Ennathas and the Unburied Dead

After such noble deeds by the distinguished martyrs of Christ, the flame of persecution died down, quenched, as it were, by their holy blood. Relief and freedom were granted to those who were laboring in the mines of the Thebaid for Christ’s sake, and for a little while we were beginning to breathe pure air. But by some new impulse, I do not know what, the one who had the power to persecute was stirred up against the Christians again. At once letters from Maximin against us were published everywhere, in every province. The governors, and the officer appointed to command the armies, pressed the magistrates, the generals and the city clerks in every city, by edicts, letters and public orders, to carry out the imperial decree. It ordered that the altars of the idols be rebuilt with all speed; that all men, women and children, even babies at the breast, should sacrifice and make offerings; that they should be made, with care and diligence, to taste the accursed offerings; that the goods for sale in the market should be polluted with libations from the sacrifices; and that guards should be posted in front of the baths, to defile with the abominable sacrifices those who went to wash there. [a] As these orders were being carried out, our people, as was natural, were at first greatly distressed; and even the unbelieving pagans blamed the harshness and the gross absurdity of what was being done, for these things seemed to them excessive and burdensome.

As the heaviest storm hung over everyone everywhere, the divine power of our Savior again breathed such boldness into its athletes that, without being drawn on or dragged forward by anyone, they trampled on the threats. Three of the faithful banded together and rushed at the governor as he was sacrificing to the idols, shouting to him to stop his error, since there is no other God than the Maker and Creator of the universe. When he asked who they were, they boldly confessed that they were Christians. [b] At that Firmilian, greatly enraged, sentenced them to death without torturing them first. The eldest of them was named Antoninus; the next, Zebinas, a native of Eleutheropolis; and the third, Germanus. This took place on the thirteenth day of the month Dius, the Ides of November. [c]

On the same day Ennathas, a woman from Scythopolis, who wore the garland of virginity, was joined to them. She had not done as they did, but was dragged by force and brought before the judge. She endured scourgings and cruel insults, which Maxys, a tribune of a neighboring district, dared to inflict on her without the knowledge of the higher authority. He was a man worse than his name: bloodthirsty in other ways as well, exceedingly harsh, altogether cruel, and condemned by everyone who knew him. This man stripped the blessed woman of all her clothing, so that she was covered only from her waist to her feet and the rest of her body was bare. He led her through the whole city of Caesarea, and thought it a fine thing to have her beaten with straps as she was dragged through all the marketplaces. [d] After such treatment she showed the noblest constancy at the governor’s own judgment seat, and the judge condemned her to be burned alive. He also carried his rage against the godly to the most inhuman lengths and broke the laws of nature, not ashamed even to refuse burial to the lifeless bodies of the holy men.

So he ordered the dead to be left out in the open as food for wild beasts, and to be watched carefully night and day. For many days a large number of men attended to this savage and barbarous order. They kept watch from their post, as if it were something worth caring about, to make sure the bodies were not stolen. And wild beasts and dogs and birds of prey scattered the human limbs here and there, and the whole city was strewn with human entrails and bones, so that nothing had ever seemed more dreadful and horrible, even to those who had once hated us. Yet they lamented not so much the calamity of those to whom this was done as the outrage against themselves and against the nature that all people share. For near the gates there was a sight beyond all description and tragic telling. Human flesh was devoured not in one place only but scattered everywhere, so that some said limbs and lumps of flesh and pieces of entrails were to be seen even inside the gates.

After this had gone on for many days, a wonderful thing happened. The air was clear and bright, and the sky most serene. Suddenly, throughout the city, many drops fell like tears from the pillars that held up the public colonnades, and the marketplaces and streets, though there was no mist in the air, were wet as if sprinkled with water, from where I do not know. At once word went around everywhere that the earth, unable to bear the abomination of these things, had shed tears in some mysterious way, and that, as a rebuke to the relentless and unfeeling nature of men, stones and lifeless wood had wept over what had happened. I know well that this account may seem idle and a fable to those who come after us, but not to those to whom the truth was confirmed at the time.