Library › Acts of Sts Fructuosus and His Deacons
Acts of Sts Fructuosus and His Deacons
tr. Owen, 1927
fructuosus
I.
DURING the reign of Valerian and Gallienus, in the consulship of Aemilian and Bassus on Sunday the 16th of January Fructuosus the bishop and the deacons Augurius and Eulogius were arrested. Fructuosus the bishop having retired to his bedchamber, certain orderlies,1 Aurelius, Festucius, Aelius, Pollentius, Donatus, and Maximus made their way to his house. When he heard the sound of their feet,2 he at once arose, and went out to meet them in his slippers.3 The soldiers said to him: ‘Come, the governor summons you and your deacons.’
Fructuosus the bishop said: ‘Let us go. If you do not mind, I will put on my shoes.’
The soldiers answered: ‘Put on your shoes, and welcome.’
Soon after their arrival, they were lodged in prison. Fructuosus resolute, rejoicing in the crown of the Lord, to which he had been called, prayed without ceasing. With him were the brethren, cheering him and beseeching him to keep them in mind.
II.
On the next day he baptized our brother, called Rogatian, in prison. They spent six days in prison, and on Friday the 21st of January they were produced in court and given audience. Aemilian the governor said: ‘Admit Fructuosus the bishop, and Augurius and Eulogius.’
The officials said: ‘They are in court.’
Aemilian the governor said to Fructuosus the bishop: ‘Have you heard what the Emperors have ordered?’
Fructuosus the bishop answered: ‘I do not know what they have ordered. I however am a Christian.’
Aemilian the governor said: ‘They have ordered that the gods be worshipped.’
Fructuosus the bishop said: ‘I worship one God, who “made heaven4 and earth, the sea and all that in them is”.’
Aemilian said: ‘Do you know that there are gods?’
Fructuosus the bishop answered: ‘I know no such thing.’
Aemilian said: ‘You shall know later.’
Fructuosus the bishop looked unto the Lord, and began to pray within himself.
Aemilian the governor said: ‘Who are obeyed, who are feared, who are adored, if the gods are not worshipped, nor the countenances of the Emperors adored?’
Aemilian the governor said to Augurius the deacon: ‘Pay no heed to the words of Fructuosus.’
Augurius the deacon answered: ‘I worship God the Almighty.’
Aemilian the governor said to Eulogius the deacon: ‘Do you worship Fructuosus also?’
Eulogius the deacon answered: ‘I do not worship5 Fructuosus; but I worship Him whom Fructuosus also worships.’
Aemilian the governor said to Fructuosus the bishop: ‘Are you a bishop?’
Fructuosus the bishop answered: ‘I am.’
Aemilian said: ‘You were.’6 And he gave sentence that they should be burnt alive.
III.
When Fructuosus the bishop was being led with his deacons to the amphitheatre, the people began to condole with Fructuosus the bishop, for he was greatly beloved not only by the brethren but by the heathen also. For he was such a man as the Holy Spirit by the mouth of Blessed Paul the Apostle, the vessel of election, the teacher of the Gentiles declared a bishop ought to be. Wherefore also the brethren, who knew him to be on his way to so great glory, rejoiced rather than grieved. And when many out of brotherly love offered them a cup of drugged wine7 to drink, he said: ‘The hour for breaking our fast is not yet come.’ For the day was in its fourth hour. Now on Wednesday they had solemnly held a fast8 in the prison. So on Friday he hastened joyful and free from care, that he might break his fast with the Martyrs and the Prophets in the Paradise which the Lord has prepared for them that love Him.9
When he reached the amphitheatre, immediately there came to him one called Augustalis, his Reader,10 beseeching him with tears to be allowed to loose his shoes.11 The blessed martyr answered him: ‘Let that be, my son: I will loose my shoes myself, bold and joyful and assured of the promise of the Lord.’
When he had loosed his shoes, then came to him our brother and fellow-soldier, Felix by name, and clasped his right hand, beseeching him to be mindful of him. To whom the holy Fructuosus answered in a loud voice in all men’s hearing: ‘I must have in mind12 the Catholic Church, which is dispersed from the East even unto the West.’
IV.
And so being set in the gate13 of the amphitheatre, he was now on the point of approach to what was less an agony than an unfading crown. The orderlies of the court, whose names are given above, were on the watch; yet in a voice that our brethren themselves could hear Fructuosus the bishop said, under the guidance and indeed in the words of the Holy Spirit: ‘Ye shall not long lack a shepherd, nor shall the love and promise of the Lord fail you either here or hereafter. For this on which ye look seems the infirmity of an hour.’ So when he had comforted the brethren, they entered on the way of salvation, being worthy and fortunate in their very martyrdom that they enjoyed the fruit of the Holy Scriptures according to promise. For they were like Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, so that in them also the Divine Trinity was visible;14 to each at his station in the fire the Father was present, the Son gave succour, for each the Holy Spirit walked in the midst of the fire.15 And when the bands were burnt, with which their hands had been fastened, mindful of the Divine prayer16 and of their usual custom, they fell on their knees, rejoicing and assured of resurrection, and, extending their arms as a symbol of the Lord’s victory,17 prayed to the Lord till they gave up their souls together.
V.
Thereafter the usual wonderful acts of the Lord were not wanting, and the heaven opened before the eyes of Babylas and Mygdonius our brethren, who were members of the household of Aemilian the governor. These also showed to the daughter of the same Aemilian, their mistress according to the flesh,18 holy Fructuosus the bishop with his deacons, the stakes still left to which they had been bound, ascending to Heaven crowned. And they summoned Aemilian saying: ‘Come and behold those whom you have to-day condemned how they have been restored to heaven and to their hope.’ But, when Aemilian came, he was not worthy to behold them.
VI.
The brethren sad, as those left without a shepherd, were burdened with sorrow; not that they grieved for Fructuosus, but rather missed him, remembering the faith of each, and his contest. On the following night they came with haste to the amphitheatre, bearing wine with which to quench the smouldering bodies. This done each collected the ashes of the same martyrs, as he was able, and claimed them for his own. But neither in this were the wonders of our Lord and Saviour wanting to increase the faith of believers and to give a sign to His little ones. For it behoved Fructuosus the martyr to confirm afterwards in his own passion and bodily resurrection that which in his teaching when in the world he had promised by God’s mercy in our Lord and Saviour. Therefore after his passion he appeared to the brethren, and charged them that what each had taken of the ashes out of love they should restore without delay, and should see to their burial together in one place.
VII.
[To Aemilian also who had condemned them Fructuosus showed himself with his deacons in the robes of promise, chiding and mocking him, and saying that it availed him nought to have vainly believed that they were robbed of their bodies and laid in earth, since he saw them now in glory.]19 O Blessed Martyrs, who were proved in the fire like precious gold, clad in the breastplate of faith and the helmet of salvation, who have been crowned with a diadem and crown that fadeth not away,20 because they trod underfoot21 the head of the devil! O Blessed Martyrs, who have earned a worthy habitation in the Heavens, standing at the right-hand of Christ, blessing God the Father Almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ His Son! The Lord has received His Martyrs in peace for their good confession, to whom belong honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Notes
- orderlies: ‘beneficiarii,’ so called because they owed their position to the favour of the ‘tribunus’ (‘colonel’) of the regiment. They were exempt from menial duties, and were attendants on magistrates, acting as court messengers, ushers, policemen.
- sound of their feet: ‘pedibulum,’ which some interpret of the lictor’s rod (so called, they think, from pedum, a shepherd’s crook).
- slippers: ‘soleis,’ a kind of sandal, consisting of a sole fastened on by a strap across the instep, worn in the house only.
- made heaven, &c.: Exod. xx. 11; Acts iv. 24, xiv. 15.
- I do not worship. S. Augustine says (ib. 5), ‘The names of the Martyrs are recited at Christ’s altar, but they are not worshipped as Christ;’ cf. id. c. Faust. xx. 21 (a very interesting passage).
- You were: ‘fuisti,’ a regular Latin expression for death; cf. Cicero’s saying after the death of Catiline and his fellow conspirators—Vixerunt, ‘They have lived.’ It was misread ‘fustibus’, whence one version states that they were beaten with sticks.
- drugged wine: Gams (die Kirchengeschichte von Spanien i. 267) rejects this translation of ‘conditi permixti’; he regards it as a drink to strengthen, not benumb, and translates ‘spiced wine’ (cf. Matt. xxvii. 34).
- fast: ‘stationem,’ a fast, the same as ‘jejunium (l. 11)’, with this difference that ‘statio’ is properly used of regular fasts such as Advent and Lent, hence the name because they took place ‘statis diebus’ (but S. Ambrose says they are called ‘stationes’ because they are encampments which protect us from the attack of the Devil). Wednesday and Friday were stations, on these days the fast lasted only till the ninth hour (3 p.m.). These days were sacred because the betrayal was planned on Wednesday and the crucifixion accomplished on Friday.
- for them that love Him: 1 Cor. ii. 9.
- Reader: ‘Lector,’ the second of the four minor orders, who in the first centuries read all the lessons in the Liturgy, including the Epistle and Gospel; v. Martyrdom of S. Procopius, i.
- loose his shoes: cf. Mart. Polyc. xiii. 2.
- I must have in mind, &c. Alexander Lesley, Praef. Miss. Mixt. 210 (Migne, Patrol. Lat. lxxxv.), considers (and Gams, Kirch. von Span. i. 275, agrees) that these words of S. Fructuosus refer to a prayer in the Mozarabic Missal (pp. 3 and 224) at the beginning of Low Mass: ‘In our prayers let us have in mind the Holy Catholic Church: that the Lord of His grace may think fit to increase her in faith, hope, and charity.’ If so, this passage is of great interest as a proof of the antiquity of this Rite. S. Augustine, Serm. 273. 2, says finely in reference to these words: ‘If you wish that I should pray for you, do not leave her for whom I pray.’ (Cf. Mart. Polyc. v).
- gate: so Gams; Ruinart has ‘foro’, open space.
- the Divine Trinity was visible. Nothing more apparently is meant than that both the Three Children (Dan. iii. 19-25) and these three martyrs symbolized the Holy Trinity, which was present in the Three Persons to aid on both occasions. So Prudentius, Peristeph., hymn. vi. 4-6, says of these three martyrs, ‘The Almighty Trinity crowns the Spanish citadel with three martyrs.’
- the midst of the fire: Dan. iii. 25. ‘Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God,’ where ‘Son of God’ is variously interpreted of the Second Person of the Trinity, or of an Angel.
- Divine prayer. What is meant by ‘orationis divinae’? Gams translates it ‘Command’ (Gebotes), but can ‘oratio’ mean command? It seems to me that the reference is either to the prayer of our Lord upon the Cross, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ which would fit in with the end of the sentence, or to the Lord’s Prayer, but for this the ordinary equivalent is, of course, oratio Dominica.
- a symbol of the Lord’s victory. They extend their arms on either side of the stake to which they were fastened, recalling our Lord on the Cross. Prudentius, Peristeph., hymn. vi. 106, ‘Punishment dared not bind their hands, that are to be raised in the form of a cross to the Father.’
- according to the flesh: cf. Letter of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons, i. 18 and note.
- [Omitted]
- crown that fadeth not away: 1 Pet. v. 4.
- trod under foot, &c.: cf. Mart. Perp. et Felic., iv.