Library › Martyrdom of Sts Shmona and Guria, Confessors of Edessa

Martyrdom of Sts Shmona and Guria, Confessors of Edessa

tr. Burkitt, 1913

sg

In the year 618 of the kingdom of Alexander the Macedonian King, [and that is the 14th year of the reign of Diocletian who reigned 19 years, it being his 8th Consulship and the 6th of Mysianus], in the magistracy of Abba and of Abgar son of Zoᶜora, in the days of Ḳonna, Bishop of Edessa, the wicked Diocletian had made a persecution great and severe for all the churches of the Messiah that were in every region of his dominion in such wise that priests and deacons were being tormented with bitter burdens, and Daughters of the Covenant were standing in bitter exposure, and Christians were all in afflictions and anguish, and there was no peace for any one going out or coming in, from the rage of the oppressors who were compelling them to offer sacrifices to the Gods. For the imperial command pressed fiercely on many, and fear and trembling rested on many, alarmed lest because of bodily afflictions any of them should deny faith in the Messiah. Because this was the endeavour of the persecutors with regard to the persecuted, that they should deny Jesus the Messiah and confess Zeus the dumb idol, and every one buying and selling¹ was to burn spices and incense before Zeus according to the command of the Emperor Diocletian.

Now Guria the hallowed from Sargai-[Ḳeṭma] and Shmona his companion from Gannada were accused before the Judge of the country that men had heard about them how they took care and pains about the worshippers of the Messiah and about the believers in the villages around them, encouraging them and saying to them “Beware, brethren, of your belief, and do not be afraid of the threats of persecutors, and do not deny the Messiah, in whose hands are your spirits, and He gives you power and might and heroism over the wretched persecutors, whose spirit goes forth and they return to their earth, and in that day all their evil thoughts against you perish”.²

And as the Governor heard these things about them, he sent and brought them before him and imprisoned them with many others with them. And some of them had been scourged and gone out from prison, and some of them had been combed with combs of iron and had departed and gone to their homes, — and those who were not scourged and whose bodies were not combed, they took their money and their property and their riches and released them — and others those persecutors had relaxed their hold of and let them go, and they went to their own places; and Guria and Shmona his companion had remained by themselves in prison, and their minds and their thoughts were being strengthened by having heard how they had companions and fellows in confession and in martyrdom in other countries[, such as Epiphanius and Peter and Pamphilus with many others in Caesarea of Palestine, Timotheus in Gaza of Palestine, Paul in Alexandria, Hesychius in Nicomedia, Peter in Meletine, Hermes and his companions, Roman soldiers in Nisibis on the eastern frontiers, who had been crowned through Heraclianus the Dux who was in command at that place].

Mysianus the Governor who was in Edessa City had commanded that they should bring before him Guria and Shmona the holy martyrs who were in prison, and he began to say to them thus: “Our Lords the mighty Emperors have commanded us that ye should sacrifice to the image called Zeus and cast incense on the altar placed before it, and that ye should deliver yourselves from the Christianity in which ye stand, because ye err indeed in not confessing that there are many Gods”.

Shmona answered and said: “As for us, we do not err indeed, because we stand in the truth, and our belief is the Christian belief, and it is our life in the Messiah; and far be it from us that we should leave the Messiah our God! And to this image of wood made by carpenters and fastened with blacksmiths’ nails we will not bring spices, and to a dumb idol we will do no obeisance, which is a deed of error leading to perdition; and the one God, Lord of all, who is in Heaven, we will not call false, nor exchange Him for an image made by men’s hands. We do obeisance to God the Messiah, who by His grace has delivered us from this error, and He is our Light and our Physician and our Life”.

The Governor said: “The Emperors have commanded thus, that the Gods be honoured, and it is necessary that the will of the Emperors be done zealously”.

Guria answered and said to him: “Thou hast heard from us that we will not leave our belief, and do the will of sons of flesh like ourselves, but we do the will of our Father in heaven, God the Father, and of His beloved Son Jesus the Messiah, who said ‘Every one that shall confess Me before men I will confess him before my Father in heaven, and every one that shall deny Me before men, I will deny him before my Father and before His angels’ ”.³

The Governor said: “It is not then set in your mind to do the will of the Emperors?” And Shmona and Guria answered and say: “The will of the King of Kings in Heaven we will do”.

The Governor says: “If in this mind, lo, ye remain, ye will die and not be left in life”. Shmona answered and said: “Not indeed die, as thou dost suppose, but live indeed, according to what we believe, when we do the good will of our Creator”.

And when the Governor heard these things, he had them brought and put in prison in a Caravanserai with priests and deacons their companions who were there, soldiers guarding them, both them and all the prisoners that were there.

Now after a few days the Emperor [Diocletian] had sent for Mysianus the Governor of Edessa and he had gone to him to the city of Antioch, and he commanded him how he should judge the priests and the deacons of the Christians who were not persuaded by him to sacrifice.

And when †Mysianus† came back from the Emperor to the city of Edessa, he had sent and brought Guria and Shmona from the Caravanserai in which they were imprisoned, with the Roman soldiers who were guarding them there; and when the two had entered and had stood before the Judge, he had begun to say to them thus: “Our Lords the Emperors have commanded that ye should sacrifice to the images, and cast incense on this burnt-offering, and pour a libation of wine before Zeus — this one that ye see; and he that will not put incense and cast spices and pour a libation of wine on the burnt-offering before Zeus, on a gridiron red-hot in the fire I am commanded to set him and on hooks made red-hot in the fierceness of the flame of the fire will I burn him, and with the knout it is commanded me to scourge you until your flesh drops off before you, — and indeed I will comb your sides until your lungs are visible, — and leaden balls I am commanded to heat and place under your armpits until your insides are lacerated, and I am commanded further to hang you by your arms until your shoulder blades are dislocated and with an iron fetter to shackle each of your feet, and I will hang you by the same foot that the fetter is fastened on. Other sentences I am commanded to inflict on you, until the will of the Emperors, however unwillingly, ye do”.

Shmona the victorious answered and said to him: “As for us, the sentences which for a short time thou makest us suffer, and then they pass away as if they had not been, we are not afraid of at all; but of Gehenna that is kept for pagans and apostates we are terrified and frightened. And our God, for whose Name’s sake before thee, lo, we are being tortured now, He will give us strength to endure them, sentences that are fierce for a little and afterwards cease and do not continue: until the spirit goes forth from the body they shew their strength, and afterwards are powerless and fade. And therefore it is right for us to endure for a little time these threats of sentences that [thou hast] said, so that thereby we may be delivered from those who deny Him, those whose worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched”.⁴

The Governor said: “Depart from this error, as I said to you, because ye cannot find strength to endure the hard and bitter sentences that I am commanded to pronounce against you, until ye do the will of the Emperors”.

Guria answered and said: “As for us, it is not in darkness we walk, like the worshippers of idols, because we are the sons of the light, and Jesus the true Light do we worship; and unto the end in our belief do we stand, and it witnesses about us that we are true. And we are with Him and are the sheep of the pasture of that good and true Shepherd who gave Himself for us and delivered us from the authority of Satan, who now, lo, is stirring you up against us, so that he may manifest his will in the endeavour of your threats against us, as those did his will who were obedient to him of old. But for us it is written that we should not be afraid of those that kill the body but the soul they are not able to kill⁵; we are to be afraid of him that has an authority that torments soul and body in Gehenna, even the Messiah our God, who is in authority above and below”.

The Governor says: “All this patience I have had with you was not that ye should repeat your books before me and explain them to me, but I have had patience so that ye might do the will of the Emperors and escape troubles and go in peace to your homes”.

Shmona and Guria say: “We hope in our true God, as thou hast said, that from this Court of Justice of thine we go to our true home, to where Abraham is, with Lazarus the poor man lying in his bosom⁶, who is the father of our Confession; and to our temporal habitations it is not set in our mind again to return or to enter them, but we go to the trysting-place of all the living”.

The Governor said: “I do not wish that that which ye see should come to you at my hands; therefore I have patience with you, that ye may be persuaded by me and do the will of the Emperors. I could, according to the authority that I have over you and is commanded me from the Emperors, have hurried on your tortures and the torments of your bodies”.

Shmona answered and said: “Once and twice thou hast heard from us that our word is true, because our belief is sincere and the truth is plain; because also it is commanded us that our word shall be ‘Yea, yea’ and ‘Nay, nay’⁷”.

And when the Governor saw that they were not being persuaded to sacrifice to the images, he had commanded Leontius the jailor to hang them both, Guria and Shmona, the holy Martyrs, by their arms above and that they should be stretched out by their feet below. And they hanged them both according to the command of the judge, and they had stretched them out exceedingly, and they remained hanging from the third hour to the ninth hour, and they were saying nothing but were in silence, while being dragged this way and that way and scourged bitterly.

And when the Governor released them he was marvelling at the strength of their endurance. And he had commanded the jailor to ask them while yet they were hanging that if they would do the will of the Emperors he would take them down and release them from their afflictions.

And that jailor came near to them and asked them and said to them in a loud voice: “Have ye been persuaded to do the will of the Emperors?” But they, the holy Martyrs, because they were not able to speak from the grievousness of the afflictions and tortures they were having and from the dislocation of their arms and their shoulder-blades and from the breaking of their bones, were making a sign with their heads that they were not persuaded. And when they delayed long in their afflictions, until it wearied those who were standing by, the Governor had commanded the jailor to take them down from where they were hanging and to carry them off and to put them both in the prison which was called the Dark Hole, and to put their feet into the stocks in the prison until the morning.

And the jailor carried them off and fettered their feet in the stocks and put them in the Dark Hole, and they stopped up the doors and windows before them that they should not see the light at all; and they were three days in the month of August in the summer, and no one brought them bread and they drank no water. And after three days and three nights that they did not see the light, they had opened the door of the Hole before them. And they were imprisoned there in the prison in that Dark Hole† all the month of August and all September and all October to the middle of November. And the Governor had sent and brought them before him and said to them: “Wretched men, do the will of the Emperors and I will give you great gifts”.

Shmona and Guria the victorious answered and said to him: “We have said to thee that our belief and our word is one, and we are not changing it. And thou, what thou art commanded by the Emperor do quickly: over our bodies thou hast authority, over our spirits thou hast not authority!”

And the Governor commanded to hang them each by one foot, with their head downwards. And they had put an iron fetter on the right foot of Shmona and had bent his knee† like a camel’s, and they had inserted an iron buckle under his knee-joint above the fetter, and lifted and hanged Shmona by the leg on which was put the fetter, with his head downwards. But as for Guria, because they had seen that his strength was little and he was weak in body and useless, they did not hang him at that time. And Shmona remained hanging by his one leg from the second hour to the fifth hour. And the Roman soldiers were saying to him, those who were guarding him and standing by: “Wretched man, how long wilt thou endure thus these grievous and bitter afflictions? Do the will of the Emperors, and they will give thee refreshment from these pains thou art hanging in”.

But †he† had not spared †his† own body, and he did not promise them, no, not one word by the lips.

Now Shmona, while he was hanging head downwards, was praying and saying: “Thou art the Adorable, God, Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, without whom no sparrow falls into a snare⁸; Thou art He that gavest the strength in Abraham Thy friend to endure his temptations, and in Joseph the victorious and so he was delivered from his mistress, and in Moses to endure the stings of the rabid people, and in Jephthah who had killed his only daughter, and in David whom King Saul had persecuted, and in Daniel and in the youths with Ananias in the midst of Babylon, and in Simon Kephas and in Paul the Apostle and in Stephen the Martyr and in all the Confessors who had given their bodies for killing in confession, and conquered the Enemy who was fighting with them and had gone forth in good martyrdom from this world; Thou, my Lord and my God, give in me strength to endure the afflictions because of thy holy Name; and Thou knowest how much the enemy has afflicted me in pain of this body that I may promise and give my mouth and he may cast me down, so that I may depart from the truth of my belief in Thee, and my torch be quenched that is alight with the oil of Thy Messiah, Jesus Thy Son adorable and holy”.

Now these words, that Shmona the brave and victorious Martyr was saying, the Notary had written them down at the command of the Governor, standing beside him while he was hanging, lest perchance from his bitter affliction he might promise to sacrifice. And when he saw him not promising and that to turn from his position was not set in his mind, the Governor commanded the jailor to take Shmona down from where he was hanging, and to carry them off and imprison them in that Dark Hole where they came from. And the jailor had come near and taken down Shmona from where he was hanging, and indeed soldiers had had to carry him, because he was not able to walk. And they had taken Guria with him, and they went and imprisoned them in that Dark Hole according to the command of the Governor.

On the 15th day of November, in the night that dawns⁹ into the third day of the week, when the cock had crowed twice, the Governor had risen and gone down to his Court of Justice, and with him was all his corps of officials, and there were torches and flambeaux lighted before him.

And when he had sat down on his tribunal in the Basilica by the Winter Baths, at the same time he had sent eight soldiers with the jailor for Guria and Shmona; and he brought them both up from that Hole. And they were carrying Shmona, carrying him, because he was not able to walk on his right foot, on which that iron buckle had been fastened and it had sprained his knee-joint; but Guria, though he was walking on his feet, two soldiers were holding him, one on his right and one on his left, first on account of the afflictions of his imprisonment and secondly because of his age. And they brought them in and set them both before the Judge.

And the Governor answered and said to them: “Have ye taken counsel to do the will of the Emperors, and so live and see this sun and depart and go to your homes, as before I said to you, and see your families and your relations and your property? Or is it chosen by you and preferred by you to die? Because thus have the Emperors commanded me: — ‘He who will not do our will, and do obeisance to the Sun, our Lord, this sun he shall not see’ ”.

Shmona answered and said: “Thou knowest that all men are the sons of Adam and are formed from the earth, and there is decreed for them by the Lord of the Sun the death of nature: how then can men be called Lords of the Sun, or the Sun be called Lord, which is a thing made like them and grows dark and fades at the end like them? For it is the authority of our God that reigns over it both that it should rise from the East and set in the West. So long time then as hath been given us by our Creator and the Creator of this very sun we have walked in this world and have seen the light thereof; and to-day that we are doing the will of our God, this time as long as we have seen it is enough for us. For lo, even were it not so, by a natural death away from this life we should depart, as nature testifies by observation of it”.

The Governor said: “Enough of the many things ye have said and I have said to you. And now in few words I say to you — will ye be persuaded to cast incense and pour a libation of wine on the burnt-offering placed before this Zeus, and will ye go to your homes in peace? or shall I command concerning you that ye go forth and die by the sword, as I am commanded by the Emperors?”

Shmona answered and said to him: “If so be that thou do this that thou hast said, that we go forth and die by the sword, and thou transfer us from this life, a blessed reward from God thou wilt receive if thou do this for us, as we have begged of thee from the beginning”.

The Governor said to him: “This is nothing, Gaffer! But do the will of the Emperors and ye shall not die miserably. For I do not wish you to die at my hands! And therefore I have given you all this extension and have heard every thing that ye have spoken before me, that this which, lo, ye ask from me may not be seen by you”.

Shmona answered and said to him: “We are dying for the name of Jesus our Saviour, so that we may be delivered from the second death which lasts for ever, and that we may become worthy of the life that reigns for ever and ever, in the light of the kingdom and in glory that doth not pass away”.

“For we are not better than the righteous men of old; not better than Simon, who was crucified head downwards; nor than Paul, whose head was taken off by the sword in Rome; nor than Stephen, whom the Jews stoned with stones; nor than James the son of Zebedee, whom King Agrippa killed: nor than James the brother of our Lord, whom the Jews killed with a fuller’s club, nor than John the Baptist, whom divorced Herodias killed, nor than the rest of those many persons who have given their bodies to scourgings and to insult and to killing in confession, on account of the adorable and holy name of Jesus the Messiah”.

The Governor said: “Not that ye should repeat before me the names of your fellow-believers am I silent and quiet, but that ye may sacrifice according to the command of the Emperors, and save yourselves from the death of the sword which, lo, ye look for, from the day that ye first came before me even till now”.

Guria answered and said to him: “We are of less account and more miserable than all men, especially to be accounted to be the associates of those righteous men and to be compared with them. But for us there is encouragement in that which our Teacher said, ‘He that loses his life for my sake will find it’; and it is true for us, that we shall be requited for our persecutions”.

The Governor said: “See that I have not yet been in a hurry to command for you death by the sword, and from the afflictions and tortures that it is commanded me to pronounce upon you by the Emperors I have refrained until now; and now beware that I do not command them for you, and from your afflictions ye promise that ye will do the will of the Emperors, and I have no mercy further upon you, as now”.

Shmona and Guria answered and say to him: “If it had not been set in our intention and in our mind to endure these tortures and combings that thou torturest us with, not thus would we have been returning answer to thee. Because more bitter is the judgement that is about to come on every one that denies God than this, with which, lo, thou art terrifying us now. Lo, therefore, we stand before thee: do whatever is commanded thee about us by the Emperors, as Christians, worshippers of the Messiah whose judgement there is not one of the Emperors will escape from”.

Then, when they had seen the Judge was persuaded to give against them the sentence of death, they rejoiced greatly and were glad, and both of them had given glory (to God) saying: “Glory to Him who hath deemed us worthy of this, for whose sake we have endured according to our strength everything that has come upon us, for the name of Jesus the Messiah”.

And when the Governor had seen their joy in front of the sword he was marvelling greatly that not even with a word had they promised him anything for a moment, and he beat one hand on the other and was silent and still, thinking what he should do to them. And afterwards he answered and said to them: “Ye know that many times I have had patience with you, that this should not be to you which now, lo, I command concerning you, that ye go forth and die by the sword, even as ye have begged of me”. And he had commanded the executioner to take with him ten soldiers and go forth and take them outside of the city far away, because of the city-folk, that there should not be any grief on their account for any one in the city. And when the executioner had received the command of the Governor ⟨and⟩ had taken with him ten soldiers and gone taking them, he went forth by night hurriedly by the Western Gate of the city; and lo, a cart had happened to be going forth and he had made them both sit in the cart, before the city-folk were awake. And he carried them off to a hill on the north of Edessa, to a certain knoll called Beth Alah Ḳiḳla, which is to the south-west of the fountain of water that goes into the city.

And when they had arrived there, he made them both get down from the cart that they were sitting in; and they were glad and rejoicing that the moment of their crowning had arrived.

And they both begged of that executioner that he would leave them for a moment, so that they might both pray. And that executioner was saying to them: “I beg of you, pray even for me, who am sinning against you and dying before God”. And they had prayed both of them together, but the executioner and the Roman soldiers were standing behind the holy ones, and were praying and begging themselves also for mercy.

And when they both had prayed, they had persuaded those who were taking them and were saying to them: “Because it is night, and our brethren and our kinsfolk are not near at this moment, do not let it be a trouble to you to bury our bodies, even to cover our bodies as is the custom in the world”. It was a grief to them and they were sad that there was no one by them of their brothers and sons in our Lord to lay out their corpses and bury them; and they were rejoicing much just as if in that very hour they were meeting the Messiah face to face. And they prayed, and said both of them with one voice: “Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, receive our spirits unto Thyself in peace, and do Thou gather our bodies unto the day of Resurrection and cover them!”

And Shmona had turned and looked to the East, kneeling on his knees, and he said to that executioner: “Come near and do what is commanded thee concerning me!” And he came near and smote him with one blow of the sword and did not repeat it again.

And then Guria his companion kneeled by his side, and looked to the East and stretched out his neck, and he smote him also with one blow of the sword and did not repeat it again.

And the soldiers laid their bodies near one by the other, and they left them both and had gone into the city.

And as they were coming in, large crowds met the soldiers, because day had dawned and they had gone forth to seek where they had carried off the holy ones, and they were asking the soldiers “where have ye carried off the Confessors?” They say to them “Beth Alah Ḳiḳla”. And much folk it was that had gone forth to the search for the holy martyrs. Now there was with that first crowd that had gone forth the daughter of Shmona the Confessor; and folk from all the city had gone forth, men and women, and they had laid out their bodies and had gathered the dust on which their blood was bespattered. And many of them had brought fine garments and many cloths and perfumes and spices and much balm, and as is the custom those crowds had gathered together the bodies of the holy ones and wrapped them in clean cloths and in those garments and with the balm and with the spices and with grave-bands, and they laid them in one Coffin¹⁰ in one grave which was there, saying over them psalms and anthems and hymns and litanies, and they were glorifying our Lord for the constancy and the endurance of those holy martyrs, in that however many afflictions and torments had passed over them when persecuted, yet from the truth of their belief they did not depart. Because when they¹¹ were hearing about other martyrs who were crowned in various places they were calling them happy that they had become worthy to be martyrs for the Messiah; and that what they hoped for and were thirsting for much was given to them through the mercy of our Lord, who did not withhold from them this which was done and enacted in the days of Ḳonna, Bishop of Arak City, as is written above, and in the days of Hymenaeus, Bishop of Jerusalem, and in the days of Gaius, Bishop of Rome, and in the days of Theonas, Bishop of Alexandria, and in the days of Tyrannus, Bishop of Antioch, with many others, not to multiply speech. Now some of these things were done here in the land of Mesopotamia, and some of them in Cilicia and in Galatia and in Syria and in Phoenicia and in Palestine and in Egypt, with many other lands, both in the Roman dominions and on all sides.

And when I beg of you, my brethren, who are affected by the suffering of this persecution in the pulling down of the churches of the Messiah and in the afflictions of the worshippers of our Lord, that ye pray for Theophilus who took pains and inquired and wrote a copy of these Memoirs, the things which with my eyes I saw while they were being enacted in deed on Shmona and on Guria, the holy martyrs, who renounced the evil inheritance of the paganism of their fathers; — and these same things will be a remembrance for all our brethren and for a good reminder of the glories that are coming after us.

And I have written these things in the month of November, on the 20th, on a Sunday, five days after the crowning of these holy Martyrs, whose murderers even were calling them happy, and in perpetrating their deaths were cherishing and honouring them secretly, while afraid of the imperial authority.

But may the Messiah make salvation for His people through His great mercy and cause peace to reign in His holy Church, that we may no more see or hear of churches pulled down†, or priests killed and deacons slaughtered,† or chaste women exposed and Daughters of the Covenant despised, or believers persecuted and women carried away captive, and Sons of the Covenant made night-watchers in the lanes of the cities, or spears and lances piercing the sides of holy men, or sharpened swords piercing the necks of true believers, or the bodies of precious men eaten by evil beasts, or fire flaming on the bodies of men who love the Messiah, or saints cast into the sea to be food for fishes, or believers with the skin of their heads flayed for not having bowed their heads before sculptured stones, or believers persecuted even unto exile; but may it be accomplished for us in this time of persecution that “Weeping shall endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning”¹², through the prayers of those victorious Martyrs and true and brave Confessors Shmona and Guria†. Mercy be on every one that joins in the day of their commemoration, for ever and ever. Amen.

Here endeth the story of Shmona and Guria. And the writer begs from those of a loving disposition a prayer for forgiveness for the faults which have chanced in the writing; and he that shall forgive shall be forgiven: yea, and amen!

Contents