The Arians and the Consecrated Virgins

The Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, became man for our sake, destroyed death, and set our race free from the bondage of corruption. In addition to all his other benefits, he gave us this one too: that on earth we should possess, in the state of virginity, a picture of the holiness of angels. Accordingly, the catholic church has been accustomed to call those who have attained this virtue the brides of Christ. And the pagans who see them admire them as temples of the Word. For indeed this holy and heavenly profession is established nowhere but among us Christians, and it is a very strong argument that the genuine and true religion is to be found with us. Your most religious father, Constantine Augustus, of blessed memory, honored the virgins above all others, and your Piety, in several letters, has given them the titles of honorable and holy women. [a]

But now these worthy Arians, who have slandered me and who have formed conspiracies against most of the bishops, obtained the consent and cooperation of the magistrates. They first stripped the virgins, then had them hung up on what are called the Hermetaries, and scourged them on the ribs so severely, three separate times, that not even real criminals have ever suffered the like. Pilate, to please the Jews of old, pierced one of our Savior’s sides with a spear. These men have outdone the madness of Pilate, for they have scourged not one but both his sides; for the limbs of the virgins are in a special way the Savior’s own.

Everyone shudders just to hear such deeds told. These men alone not only did not fear to strip and scourge those undefiled limbs, which the virgins had dedicated to our Savior Christ alone, but, what is worst of all, when everyone reproached them for such extreme cruelty, instead of showing any shame they claimed it had been commanded by your Piety. So utterly presumptuous are they, and full of wicked thoughts and purposes. Such a deed as this was never heard of in past persecutions. Or, supposing it did happen before, surely it was not fitting either that virginity should suffer such outrage and dishonor in the time of your Majesty, a Christian, or that these men should lay their own cruelty to the charge of your Piety. Such wickedness belongs only to heretics: to blaspheme the Son of God and to do violence to his holy virgins.