The Martyrs as Teachers of Endurance

It seems that the greatest benefits have come even from the most hostile and unyielding enemies; and this is shown both by the experience of life and by the things being completed perfectly.

For if the devil had not persecuted Christians and waged war against the church, we would not have had martyrs; and if there were no martyrs, our life would have become gloomy and without vigor. For what is comparable to these celebrations? And what is so solemn and beautiful as to see the whole city walking about free from idleness, and occupying a holy place to perform pure mysteries with true piety?

True piety is to worship God and to honor those who, through Him, endured sufferings and arrayed themselves against the final danger of death, of whom those who lead us today are the foremost and leaders; men who became immortal through a beautiful death, living forever through despising life, having exchanged the kingdom of blood and rejected the predatory flesh as a benefit to the soul.

Thus, a good choice, when it acts like a bridle on a man, subdues all impulses and movements and, as a bridle holds the reins, keeping the thoughts attentive, softening sluggishness and restraining immeasurable sharpness, is not able to make the course of life disordered or dangerous.

We have, therefore, the martyrs of Christ not only as teachers of a good way of life, but also as accusers of sin. How could a martyr who accuses come to be? Listen. If he conquered the flame of fire through endurance, how do you not restrain fornication with temperance? If the martyr did not pity the wealth he gave away, why do you not despise a little silver for righteousness? If the martyr did not honor the race of God, but shunned woman, children, and dear ones, how do you not slaughter...

Does he, through accidental familiarity with your person, reason away justice and the fear of God as if they were insignificant? If the martyr surrendered his body through God, how can you himself despise a small tunic as if it were a covering for the naked? These things, when examined against one another, expose our own misfortune.

Therefore, should we respect the saints as teachers, or fear them as accusers? Let us show our own lives to those who punish us by following them; and let us ourselves be persuaded by God, just as the saints were persuaded by the commandments and firmly hoped in the promises. For the hope of spiritual goods is a very good teacher of courage and endurance, which, being inherently reliable and a secure earnest deposited in our thoughts, exhorts us to see every danger unshakeable and to bear it bravely in the trial; and this follows accordingly. For by nature we humans are somewhat prone to be softened and to yield to the winds of toil, but to take hold powerfully against them of those things for which contests and honors are the end.

Therefore, all the martyrs, paying attention with their minds to the evangelical letter, in which the Lord, exhorting the holy athletes and those eager for good, says: 'If anyone confesses me before men, I will confess him before my Father' Matt 10:32, endured iron set against them through irrational thoughts and climbed upon pyres, and providing their bodies to be cast into the mouths of beasts, and each one submitted his back to flogging and the sharp edges of nails, and their sides were scattered, and they endured iron bonds and brought forth dark cries from the dungeons; they were attacked by hunger and thirst and were dried up, and they presented their faces like stones to those striking them, they heard the insolent as if they were deaf, they remained silent toward those insulting and reviling as if they were mute, and they were paraded to the crowds and the theaters.