nourishing the souls of those who have been zealous to follow in the footsteps of the saints.
B 2. Having received your divine writings and having paid great attention to your command, and having taken into my hands with diligent zeal the martyrdom of the holy Cyricus and his mother Julitta, and having read it with great precision, I have found you, most holy of Fathers and most distinguished of priests, to be most zealous for the truth. For one might rightly call those other accounts the croaking of frogs and jackdaws; for they are, I believe, the fabrications of Manichaeans or other such heretics, who mock and hold in derision the great mystery of piety. But since, by inquiring and investigating as much as I could, I questioned accurately the men of this land who were already close to death, I also asked those who boast that they are descended from the first families of the Isaurian people, that I might be able to discover some thread of ancestral tradition which would reveal to me the struggle of the holy martyrs.
3. Marcianus, therefore, a man who loved Christ, who had been a tribune-notary and chancellor of the Emperor Justinian when he held the military command, and Zeno, the most wise man who was also his colleague at that time, related these things concerning the saints, having heard them through ancestral tradition from their forebears: namely, that the memorable martyr Julitta had been a kinswoman of theirs, being of the first blood of Lycaonia, and had led an irreproachable life and worshiped Christ faithfully, so that they celebrated her memory every year, especially those of that region who did so because of their kinship.
C 4. She, being of royal lineage, when a persecution against Christians broke out under the Count Domitian, who was greedy for the shedding of martyrs' blood, took flight with two maidservants and a three-year-old boy—I mean the glorious martyr Cyricus—from the city of the Iconians, from which she originated. Leaving behind her sufficiently ample wealth, she went to Seleucia; but finding there a greater persecution of Christians under a certain Alexander, who had been appointed prefect of the city of Seleucia under the impious Emperor Diocletian, and who had recently received an imperial edict ordering that those who would not sacrifice to the idols—which they styled gods, while they were not gods—should be punished in every way, that blessed woman, reflecting on what is said in Holy Scripture: *Give place unto wrath*, that you might not be exposed to dangers, fled from there and went to Tarsus, which is the metropolis of the first province of Cilicia.
D 5. But as if by some decree, when that cruel and most savage Alexander—who far surpassed Domitian in wickedness—was transferred to that city, the illustrious martyr Julitta was seized, holding her own son, still a small child, in her arms. When, however,
her attendants had been detained by the executioners, her handmaids abandoned her and fled; but standing outside, they became witnesses of the things that were done to her. Then, it is said, she was brought A before the tribunal of Alexander, and he asked her to tell her name, her status, and her native land. But she, speaking boldly to the judge, confessed the name of the Lord Christ, saying, "I am a Christian."
4. Alexander, having become enraged, ordered the child, Cyricus, to be taken from her and brought to him—being as he was a handsome boy, and knowing nothing of what was being purposed—and he ordered that she, having been stripped and stretched out, should be brutally beaten with raw ox-hide lashes. As the executioners were forcibly tearing the child from his mother’s arms, they led him, weeping, to the governor; he kept his eyes fixed upon his mother, calling out her name, while the executioners, according to their orders, were mercilessly beating the martyr with the ox-hide lashes. She, as if she were some unfeeling statue being mangled by blows, uttered nothing else but that noble cry, constantly shouting, "I am a Christian, and I do not sacrifice to demons."
B 7. The governor, therefore, taking the child in his hands, tried with blandishments to persuade him not to weep, and set him on his own knees, and attempted to kiss him. But he, looking fixedly at his mother, kept warding off the governor, drawing back his head; and struggling with his hands and feet, he struck the face of the governor with his own fingernails. And as the nestling of the chaste turtle-dove, the holy Cyricus himself, was voicing the infantile, stammering cry which he had learned from his mother, whom he had heard shouting, "I also am a Christian." Thus, he too was calling upon the name of Christ, and kicking the judge in C the side—for the childlike nature is often wont to be moved in such ways—and so he stirred that wild beast to anger. For one should not call him a man, who was unwilling to show mercy to such an undaunted act. Therefore, taking hold of the illustrious child, he threw him down from the height of the tribunal onto the ground. The skull of the glorious martyr was smashed against the corner of the steps by such a confession, and being crushed by the sharp and hard steps, the area around the tribunal was filled with blood, and the divinely-fashioned infant yielded up his spirit into the hands of God; for the souls of the just are in the hand of God.
8. Seeing this, the holy Julitta, filled with joy, said, "I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast deemed my son worthy to be perfected before me, that he might obtain the unfading crown." D The judge, having become incensed also at this, ordered her to be suspended and severely scourged by a herdsman, and at his command, boiling pitch was ladled out of a cauldron and poured upon her feet. He also ordered a herald to stand over her and say, "Julitta, have pity on yourself, and sacrifice to the gods, and deliver yourself from these torments, so that you do not perish miserably, just as your son." But the noble martyr, enduring the torments courageously, exclaimed
saying: "I do not sacrifice to demons, but I worship Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, through whom the Father made all things; and I ardently yearn to attain unto my son, so that with him I may be deemed worthy of the kingdom of heaven." When the cruel judge, who in his rage surpassed all men, saw the firm constancy of the martyr, he pronounced sentence against her, ordering that her head be cut off with a sword, and that her body and that of her son be cast into the place reserved for the condemned.
9. The executioners, therefore, having bound a cloth over her mouth, led her away to the accustomed place to fulfill what had been commanded. Julitta, however, begged the executioners to pause a little while, until she might pray to the only good God; and when they consented and granted her a little time, she knelt down and prayed, saying: "I give thanks to You, O Lord, who have called my son before me, and have granted him, for the sake of Your holy and fearful name, to forsake this present and vain life, and to be joined with Your saints in eternal life. Make also me, Your unworthy handmaid, a partaker of this great good, that I may be counted among the wise virgins who were deemed worthy to enter into Your eternal and immaculate bridal chamber; and may my spirit bless Your Father, the almighty Creator of all things, and You, His only-begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages. Amen." When the saint had finished saying "Amen," the executioner sharpened his sword and severed her noble neck outside the city. He cast her body into the place of the condemned, according to the command of the impious judge; there also the body of the victorious martyr Cyricus, her son, had been deposited.
10. The athlete-martyr Julitta and her glorious son Cyricus were perfected by the grace and power of Christ on the fifteenth day of the month of July. On the following day, her two handmaids took up the bodies by night, carried them far away, and buried them, hiding them in a certain cave in the region bordering Tarsus. Until the time of the pious Emperor Constantine, one of the handmaids remained alive; when the truth was brought to light and the churches of God received liberty through his grace, she revealed the place. Every one of the faithful, running thither, hastened to take something from those venerable relics, for the protection and preservation of his own life, and for the glory of our good God.
11. Therefore, I have revealed to your God-loving soul these things as they were truly acted out; set them before faithful men, who shall be capable of teaching and persuading others, not adorning them with openly fabulous inventions, but persuading them by the truth itself, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, honor, and power, now and ever, and unto the ages.
ANNO DOMINI MVI.
THE PROLOGUE OF LEO THE PRESBYTER TO THE PASSION OF THE HOLY MARTYRS RUFUS AND RESPICIUS.
(Mai, Spicileg. Rom. vol. IV, p. 290.)
A For we are not attempting to weaken the distinguished titles of the ancient Fathers, nor do we strive to disparage their noble monuments; rather, we praise them, and in praising them, we strengthen them. But those things which seem corrupted by the carelessness and rashness of simple writers, we strive to amend, as far as the lot of Divine Providence allows, lest the truth of the deeds should be cheapened by corruption itself in the eyes of sober readers seasoned with grammatical salt, and the pious labor of the pious be judged as deserving of the spittle of all. There is, moreover, another cause, and not a minor one, for this renovation, which compels us to reform so aged and neglected a work: because the subject of the following work is ambiguous, lacking an author’s title, and therefore it is to be feared that it might rightly be reckoned among apocryphal writings. Since, therefore, it ought to go forth to public ears for the edification of many, it is necessary that it be purified beforehand by the sieve of grammatical diligence from every tare of error. For Isidore said, “Scrape away the title, so that the page may be mute.” Therefore, lest an opportunity for such great calumny should in any way ensnare our insignificance, the healer of the work that is to be cured and remedied must be produced, so that when he has come to the attention of all in a verified person, no one of the faithful may be permitted to refute his little works—which are supported by divine truth—but rather that the power of divine protection may be proven to defend them well against all rivals. For this is indeed that Theodoricus, a monk and a foreign priest, and one afflicted for a long time by internal torments, who some years ago composed the life of the blessed Pope Martin most pleasantly, and also wrote other little works more diligently while living in this city of Rome; he, since at the request of the brethren he had written something worthy to be commended, not utilizing any color of speech or trappings of precious words, but with a most humble genre of narration, which the Greeks call *tapeinosis*, pursued his style in a rustic manner for the common benefit of auditors and readers. He also wrote, as the authority of many attests, a most elegant speech concerning the forty holy martyrs, and one worthy of all veneration. He compiled, moreover, the passion of the blessed martyrs Anthimus and his companions, interspersed with hexameter verses. He also published a description—recently, and by no means to be disparaged—of how the exquisite head of the martyr Damian was brought to the Romans. It does not seem superfluous to add to these B that he also revealed in rustic speech a translation of the holy athletes of Christ, Basilides, Tripus, and Magdal. I also, Leo, although less worthy, yet by the favor of supernal clemency a presbyter and priest, began to love the aforementioned monk more ardently for Christ’s sake—not only because he seemed learned, but rather because he had a good testimony from all, in that he was an enemy of this age, and the world was crucified to him. For, having compassion for his infirmity, I was the first of all of us to receive him into my hospitality, and I rejoiced to be assiduously present at his disputations. And when it was discovered by him that I was also the daily titular guardian of the blessed triumphant of Christ, Respicius, and his tireless servant, he began to inquire of me whether the blessed martyr was distinguished by accounts of his passion, or whether it lacked them, since the history of the world, destined to perish, would—with chroniclers failing—be lost in the hands of the ignorant. When I answered that the blessed pugilist of Christ had his own proper titles, “I would like,” he said, “to see them, for the sake of evaluating the style.” And when he had quickly run through the pages of the first sheet, “We have found,” he said, “an occasion whereby it may be permitted to us to make palatable food out of rustic and insipid broth. For let us cast aside the most bitter colocynths, and plant mellifluous herbs in their place, so that just as unlearned writers made evil out of good, so we may strive to make good out of evil, supported by His relief, without whom we can do nothing.”
Explicit prologue, here begins the passion.
Often divine clemency is accustomed to [act] in tender and still youthful age, etc.