A composition of laudatory speeches, and that the glory, grace, and renown of the holy martyrs who have conquered for the sake of piety far excel that embellishment which is gathered from the rhetorical arts and the sophistic arts of sonorous phrasing. And I believe that even those who are highly skilled in such sciences, and who have spent their entire lives and consumed their efforts in such studies and exercises, would be struck with wonder and at a loss before the greatness of the subject—to say nothing of those of us who are unlearned and inexperienced, who have not even tasted, as they say, with the tip of a finger, such experience, technical skill, and logical thought. But we should not on this account be so completely dizzied by the undertaking of this discourse, or so constrained by fear and hesitation, that we leave ourselves, and the present audience B eager to learn, deprived of the profit that, as is fitting, arises from the wondrous variety of such struggles. Come, then, let us invoke the impulse and assistance from above from Christ, the overseer and judge of such contests, and let us describe in discourse, as best we are able, and bring as if before your eyes, the one we now deservedly praise; let us, as if in a summary, propose the specimen of the struggle of the glorious martyr Barbara, whose festival we are celebrating today with a gathering of the people: so that by considering the power by which the martyrs were invisibly confirmed and strengthened, we may derive no small utility and improvement thence—not looking to extol the struggles with the eloquent speech and fine rhetoric of the tongue (for they have no need of such assistance as eloquence provides), but C as we relate the events in a simple and naked narrative.
2. But now, raise yourselves up for me, O assembly devoted to Christ and to the martyrs, and, gathering and contracting your minds so they do not wander toward exterior things, listen carefully to what is to be said. For it is truly absurd to run eagerly to worldly spectacles—I mean horse races, or wrestling matches, or any other such athletic games—and to desire to see the contest of the struggle and the collision of the adversaries, and not to depart before the end, even if countless things distract one, until one sees the victor carrying off the prize, and having received the palm, and been crowned, even though we derive no benefit from it. But here, where a soul-profiting and spiritual spectacle D is set before us—having as its overseer and judge, not one of the kings of the earth, but the King of all things, visible and invisible, Christ our God; and as spectators, the thousands and tens of thousands of heavenly hosts and powers; and as the contestant, the celebrated and most beloved crown-bearer and martyr of Christ, Barbara; and as adversaries, not one or two, but the chief ones, just as the Apostle says: "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places, that is, for the sake of the heavenly A things. Furthermore, the most chaste sheep of Christ, Barbara, found as her own antagonists both the carnal spirit and the world-rulers, magistrates, and princes, having engaged a host of enemies both visible and invisible.
3. Since such a spectacle of contests is proposed to us, shall we not hasten to see these things, so that we may contemplate the battles, the turning points, and the grappling of both parties, and behold the triumph of our own holy victor, crowned and garlanded? And indeed, to see the hateful demons overcome, falling in great shame, while the hosts of angels acclaim them with joyful shouting and adorn the illustrious victor with applause for the victory; and finally, even Christ Himself, as the president of the contests, rising from His royal throne, just as He did for Stephen the protomartyr, and reaching out the crowns, and receiving the victor, flowing with sweat, escorted and surrounded by the retinue of angels, and embracing her, and bringing her to rest in the heavenly chambers and bridal B suites? What is more delightful, or sweeter, or more profitable to those who love to look upon such a spectacle? "Proclaim those blessed," says Basil, the holy teacher of the Church, "who have truly been sanctified in martyrdom, so that you may become a martyr in intention, and escape without bloodshed, lashes, and tortures." Is there any other inspection or business which brings greater profit and more abundant wealth? I truly do not think so.
But what has come over me, most beloved? Before we have even struck at the beginning of the struggles, our discourse has hurried us to the end. Come then, recalling it, let us now set foot onto the threshold of the martyrdom and begin to narrate everything in order.
4. When the all-good and merciful God, the Word, looked upon His own creature, which He had created from the beginning in His own image and to which He had entrusted C the sovereignty of earthly things, having been cast out from the comforts of paradise by the wiles of the spiritual serpent through the operation of the visible serpent; and when He saw it enslaved and, with all its progeny, given over not only to the destruction of death, but also led into the most diverse errors and shameful passions, and its mental eyes so darkened by the gloom of impiety that it had abandoned Him who is truly God and offered worship to gods fashioned from wood and stone and insensate matter, and by the wicked and apostate demon pushed and cast down into the D lowest pit of hell and impiety; He did not endure the insult of the avenging tyrant, nor the desperate ruin of the deceived human race. Wherefore, in order to assist His own creature, from a maiden ignorant of nuptial union, the good Shepherd assumed the fleece
by which He ensnared the adversary, and, having vanquished him by the cross, justly cast him out of his tyranny, inasmuch as he had unjustly armed death against Him whom the law of sin could not touch. For he was in no way subject to the penalties and punishments of death, who had never tasted of sin. B
5. Therefore, since he had slain man unjustly, he would himself, by right, have to be slain, and would be deprived of the riches he had acquired. For his destruction is the loss and casting away of his power; for the demonic race was created by the Creator as immortal. And the Lord Himself, at the time of His passion, said: "The prince of this world comes, and in me he will find nothing" 22; that is, no cultivation of his seeds, nor any trace of sin, nor odor, nor shadow of an indication. For, as I may speak with the prophet: "Sin he did not commit, nor was deceit found in his mouth" 23. Wherefore He said again: "Now is the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out" 24; that is, he will fall from his tyranny and be driven away. By His own resurrection, therefore, having restored and renewed the human mass, He sent forth the holy apostles to the ends of the whole world, that they might announce the saving proclamation to men, and lead them back to their own Maker, and dissolve the darkness of impiety with the flashes of the Spirit, and exterminate error, and teach the truth. From this, just as fire, having seized upon a very large and abundant pile of wood, rises most quickly into a towering flame, and consumes one thing after another near it, and cannot hide the power of its light in a corner, but makes it visible even to those furthest away; so that divine fire, which the Lord, who descended from above to the earth, came to cast upon the earth 25—the fire, I say, which consumes all sin and wicked and earthly habit and affection—passing through the apostles and their successors into the minds of men, C adorned those who were gentle and apt for reformation, and who were looking for their own Maker and Redeemer from the captivity to which they were addicted, and having immediately wiped away the filth of sins and cleansed them, He fashioned them into divine, luminous, and bright beings. But those who had deeply received the quality of impiety, and, like bats, could not bear to have the light shining—which shines even when the sun is not visible—brought before their very eyes, but preferred to live perpetually in darkness and to wallow in the mire, He consigned to the final fire of Gehenna, as those who had willingly desired to be incurably sick.
6. But such was not the most sacred and most pure soul of the martyr Barbara. Rather, having received the splendor of the faith, and having compared the light with the darkness, and having seen how incomparably superior it was, and having possessed the divine knowledge against the error and darkness of abominations, she straightway, like good and fertile earth, D
having received the heavenly seed and diligently cultivated it by the practice of the commandments, brought forth fruit—thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold—placing ascents in her heart and advancing toward the perfection of the virtues. Thus, the prophetic oracle was finally fulfilled, which says, "And the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covering the seas" A (the prophetic grace figuratively calling the gatherings of the nations "seas"). But the enemy of good, that most wicked demon, could not bear to see the number of those being saved increasing daily. For he who from the beginning had envied Adam and his spouse their mode of life in Paradise, much less could he endure—when he beheld such innumerable myriads ascending, not into a visible and earthly paradise, but into heaven, from which he himself had been cast out like a block of iron—ascending through faith in Christ. Therefore, the tempter demands the trial; for he has no power over anyone unless he receives it. But just as of old, when he had heard God boasting of His servant and saying, "Hast thou considered in thy mind my servant Job, that there B is none like him on the earth, blameless, just, truthful, God-fearing, abstaining from every evil thing?"—that creature, immediately struck with envy, replied, "Does Job reverence the Lord for nothing?" and what follows; "but send me, that I may touch his flesh, unless he blesses thee to thy face." Then God, wishing to demonstrate His own servant to all, and that he was firm and unassailable even in the final dangers, grants the request to him, so that the boasting might not seem to have been spoken without cause. So also then, the most wicked one, having heard the Lord speaking of the Church with encomiastic praise, "And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (calling the gates of Hades C every kind of torture of various sorts that pushes and precipitates one into Hades and death), again shamelessly demands the trial. And having received the authority, he selected as instruments those who were full of every impiety and equivalent to him in the cruelty of their character, and he established them as governors and princes. Through them he ratified this universal edict: that the worship of Christ should cease, that sacrifices should be offered to idols, and that those who gainsaid this should, without any indulgence, perish by every kind of torture. Hence, every age and rank, both male and female, who had purposed to keep the faith of Christ inviolable until death, were mown down without mercy, no differently D than hay.
7. At that time, therefore, while the impious Maximian was reigning, and Marcian was governor, there was someone set over the region, Dioscorus by name, very wealthy, but madly devoted to the worship of inanimate idols. He had a only daughter, named Barbara, of exceptional beauty, and in the dignity of her character...
A shining. He built a high tower and shut the virgin up in it, so that she might not be seen by men, on account of the distinct and brilliant radiance and splendor of her beauty. Living there, aloof from the tumults of the world outside, she occupied her mind with pious thoughts, cultivating and nourishing them; for it is known that solitude is the mother of subtle and magnificent ideas. She abhorred the error and worship of idols as a snare leading down to hell, but she cherished and embraced the true faith of the Christians and the holy and consubstantial confession of the Trinity, as something that leads up to the heavens. She pondered in her mind the teachings concerning the immortality of the soul, the kingdom of heaven, the enjoyment of those things that are undefiled, and concerning hell and the never-ending punishment B therein; furthermore, she depicted and revolved in her mind the unsteady and uncertain instability of the temporary affairs of this world. She constantly imagined the lamp-bearing virgins united to the incorruptible Bridegroom Christ in the heavenly bridechamber, and partaking of the inner and secret delicacies of blessedness. And she longed, desired, and prayed to be deemed worthy of that most blessed lot and inexpressible joy, and of that glory which no speech can describe.
8. As the prudent and chaste virgin was thus filling her soul with such contemplations, her father arrived. Since many noblemen were expressing their interest and valuing her marriage and union, he commanded her to consent to their proposals. But she, spurning such talk as nonsense and a nuisance, looked at her father with an angry countenance; she utterly rejected this soul-destroying exhortation C and admonished him never to suggest such a matter to her again. For the virgin considered it ridiculous and full of all absurdity, having once pledged and united herself to the heavenly and immortal Christ, to yield to those who, like worms, wallowed in the muddy marshes of pagan filth. Her father, therefore, being busy with the construction of a bath, and having ordered the workmen to construct two windows towards the south, through which light might be brought in, left for a certain region. Barbara, the handmaiden and bride of the Trinity, having inspected the building, compelled the workmen to fit three windows to the structure. Then, having returned, and the beautiful virgin having withdrawn again into her tower, she saw the statues which her father worshipped, D devoid of soul and sense. Immediately filled with the Holy Spirit, and taking up a divine and fervent zeal, she spat upon their despicable faces, opportunely using that melody of the prophet David: "Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them." O truly blessed and religious soul! O maiden fervent in faith, adorned with faith! O young woman who, with divine sense and prudence, mocked the madness and insanity of her father! O daughter who with firm mind called back [her parent] from the folly of Eve...
and her deception! She, having received the mere suggestion of the enemy, was immediately overturned; but this one not only sternly beat back his allurements, but even spat in his very face by means of the idols. For she extended the insult of her spit against the author of evil who was acting and deceiving through them, and she sent it away, and struck him down.
B 9. When her father had returned from the journey he had undertaken, and was angry and indignant at the builders because they had changed his command and added a third window, they referred the cause to the order of his daughter. And he asked her for the reason for the triple window; but the all-praised one, having seized the opportune pretext, explicitly theologized about the glory of the Trinity, urging the unbeliever toward the saving faith: "Indeed," she says, "for the Trinity illuminates every man coming into the world [John 1, 9]. For this sensible light is a creature and a work, and a very dim and dark image and shadow, of that light which is understood and worshipped in the conjunction of three suns." He, however, raised in impiety and an advocate of darkness, as if struck by the lightning of the thrice-luminous divinity through the clear and unveiled confession of the all-glorious maiden, and darkened all the more by the brilliance of that shining beam, became full of madness; and boiling over with rage, he drew his sword and rushed to slaughter his only-begotten daughter, having stepped beyond the bounds of both piety and nature, because she had pointed out to him the path of life. Truly, not only does a beautiful and most fragrant rose grow from a flowering plant, but also from an impious root, the fruit of piety often appears. C And Abraham the patriarch is witness, and for this reason he was called the father of the nations who emulated his faith, being the first to depart from paternal polytheism and atheism. Truly, the divine prediction of our Savior Jesus Christ is fulfilled in this as well, setting a daughter and daughter-in-law against father, mother, and mother-in-law [Matt. 10, 32], and setting the new and recent against the old and senseless, and cutting off the worse from the better.
10. What then, most glorious Barbara? Seeing the all-defiled assault of her father, or rather, feeling pity for him in his savagery, having opened by prayer a vast rock that was nearby, she passed through the middle of it to the other side of the mountain. O the miracle! The cleft rock receives the lamb into its bosom, and the father, harder than the stones, and the persecutor, hardened all the more in his stupidity, was being changed into a stony hardness. And not even the strangeness of the miracle was able to soften the hardness and inhumanity of his soul; D but rather, having crossed the mountain, he sought her through questioning. And indeed having found her, and having struck her, dragging her by the hair, and dragging her from the mountain, again he...
returns, and shut her up in a small dwelling. A And having informed the governor about her, he hands her over to be tortured, having adjured him by the gods to consume her with bitter torments. The governor, therefore, having taken his seat upon the tribunal, ordered the martyr to be brought before him. But having looked upon the flourishing beauty of her face, he was amazed, and wondered at the brightness of her expression; and he began to test her with blandishments, striving to persuade her, and to win her over with flatteries. For this is the first snare of the devil. For he attempts to soothe and soften a person either with pleasures and the allurements of praise, or to terrify and overwhelm them with threats and torments. When, therefore, he saw that he had emptied his entire previous quiver, and saw the athlete of Christ spurning worldly attractions, and regarding all earthly glory and pleasure as the flower of grass that easily perishes and fades, and hating his enticements and sorceries just as the venom and horrendous poisons of a serpent, he immediately turned his mind to another kind of temptation. But when he saw her mocking also his threats, full of rage, as if having failed his mark, he addressed her: "What then do you wish, girl? To sacrifice to the gods, or to be consumed and perish by bitter torments?" To whom the martyr, with a constant mind and confident boldness, in a few words clearly confessed her pious faith, and exposed the madness and impiety of the God-hating tyrants. B And with what words? "I am prepared," she says, "to offer sacrifice to my Lord Jesus Christ, who made the heaven and the earth, and the sea, and all things that exist in them. But as for your gods, the Prophet has worthily mocked them: They have a mouth, and will not speak; they have eyes, and will not see; they have ears, and will not hear; they have noses, and will not smell; they have hands, and will not touch; they have feet, and will not walk; they shall not cry out in their throat. May those who make them be like them, and all who trust in them. C For just as the venerable name of God is falsely applied to them by you, they are devoid of and utterly lacking in vital energy." 11. At these things, the most wicked and most savage governor, stupefied, with hissing rage, orders the naked virgin's flesh to be torn mercilessly with ox-sinews, and the inflicted wounds to be rubbed with haircloth, so that the whole body might be stained with blood. Oh, your venerable and holy confession, D O glorious victor, martyr of Christ Barbara, which by the author of the Holy Spirit, in the sight of all, you confessed fearlessly and unhesitatingly, and you theologized for the hearing of men, and of angels who were gazing upon your contest, and of demons who, in an invisible phalanx along with the visible cohort of adversaries, were warring against you; which the Lord inscribed in the heavens, and before the Father—the divine fountain of light and life—he confessed, and again out of his heart he will confess and proclaim! Oh, that noble...
A Oh, the greatness of your most noble patience and endurance! By which you struck with terror the devil and his apostate demons, and moved the holy angels to wonder and praise; by which you dissolved the error of idols like a spider's web, and firmly established and confirmed the true faith!
12. The judge, therefore, seeing the immovable and enduring constancy of the holy woman, commands her to be thrown into prison for the time being, until he might meditate upon what crueler tortures to inflict upon her. But in the middle of that night, a most brilliant light shone around her, B in which the Lord of glory appeared, soothing her dejection and sorrow with his manifestation, and with encouraging words urging her on toward the struggles to come. «Take courage, Barbara,» he said, «for there will be great joy in heaven and on earth regarding your struggle. Do not fear or dread the threats of the tyrant. For I am with you, and I will deliver you from all the blows brought upon you.» And immediately the wounds vanished from her body. And having said these things, the Lord of the heavens returned again to the heavens. The true martyr and handmaid of Christ was greatly exultant, and became full of cheerfulness, joy, and exultation at the encouragement of Christ. And rightly, O thrice-blessed maiden, did you exult! For the cause of joy is the only true cheerfulness, and is a delight both unchangeable and inviolable. O truly blessed are your eyes, that were deemed worthy to look upon the Lord of glory, C upon whom the Cherubim and the many-eyed orders in heaven do not dare to fix their gaze! O thrice-blessed ears, that have received the sound of the words of God! O soul most admirable and thrice-happy, that was comforted by the exhortations of the very mouth of Him who is the Lord of things celestial, terrestrial, and infernal, and the God of all consolation! For you, even while still bearing flesh, received the earnest of the kingdom of heaven, O bride of Christ, as a token of your entire dowry. Therefore, you considered and accounted the pains inflicted upon you like the arrows of infants, or the bites of fleas; but, charmed by the love of the One who appeared to you and strengthened in your soul, you said: "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or persecution? Or stripes? Or perils? For I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor angel, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of Christ."
13. Morning therefore having come, the martyr was led to the tribunal, the ruler having ordered it. And seeing the wounds upon her body vanished, and that her body was whole and inviolate, not even having the slightest scratch, D the witless and demented man says, «Do you see how the gods take an interest in you, and love you, for they have even healed your wounds?» But the martyr, laughing at his madness, astonishment, and distraction, answered him: «Your gods are like you, deaf and blind and senseless;
and how could they heal me, who are themselves destroying the vanity of the people who are led astray by them? But He who has healed me is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, whom you are not worthy to behold with your profane eyes and darkened soul.» A Then that most wicked man, inflamed with wrath like a beast, ordered the sides of the virgin to be severely raked, and torches of fire to be brought to her sides, and her head to be struck with a hammer as if upon an anvil. But she, fixing her eyes upon heaven, said: «You know, O Lord, who searches the hearts, that I have come to you out of desire for you; do not abandon me until the end.» This torture also the valiant martyr of Christ endured courageously, for she had risen above not only feminine weakness and cowardice, but even above human nature itself. For how could she have endured so many and such great stripes, and such cruel and painful punishments, had she not surpassed the body of humility, B being strengthened and confirmed by the invisible power of the divine Spirit?
14. But not even when these things were happening did the minister and advocate of the devil take his fill of madness; rather, he turned his mind, which was a fountain of wickedness, to another species of torture, having within him the author of all malice, the father and inventor of evil, that serpent who is a manslayer and hater of mankind from the beginning. He ordered, therefore, the governor said, that the breasts of the martyr should be cut off with a sword. While they were being cut off, the lamb of Christ, looking up to heaven, said: «Cast me not away from your presence, O Lord, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.» And this blow, too, the martyr accepted bravely and with thanksgiving. C Is there, O most wicked demon, another invention of malice more cruel than this stored up in the depths of your soul? Is there another kind of torture more bitter to the female sex either devised or remaining? Is your ingenuity not yet tired of finding punishments with which to rage against the martyr? Add, if you wish, others still: you will find an adamant, or rather, an unbreakable soul, firmer than the adamant itself, an hardened anvil to bear the blows of your hammers: «It is hard for you to kick against the goad.» For as much as you heap up punishments, so much do you, even against your will, increase the crowns and procure the triumphal palms for the martyrs and the most glorious young maiden. As for you, however, who are conquered and fall in every struggle and encounter, and are thrown down upon your back, you bring upon yourself manifold shame; D and you heap up more and eternal punishments, and the coals of unquenchable fire, upon your own most wicked head.
15. But it also comes to my mind to marvel at the inhumanity and bestial nature of the blessed maiden’s father according to the flesh, being so alien to the godly mind according to the Spirit and so far removed from paternal affection. Truly, O pitiless father, you have surpassed even the brute beasts themselves in cruelty and inhumanity. For, while...
but as for those who own those limbs, they fight for them even unto death. Yet you, seeing your own and only daughter, as if in a butcher's shop, cruelly having her milk-producing members of her womanhood amputated by the blade, were not even moved by the outrage against nature, nor were you softened by such great wounds, being as heartless and senseless as stone.» But why do we wonder, brothers, that those who are drunk on the error of impiety also rave with the fury of Satan? For just as the glorious martyrs, filled with the divine Spirit, having conquered and overcome nature, have transcended nature and become beings beyond nature, so too, those who persecute Christ and His own, filled with the most wicked spirit, having delivered themselves into the service of the apostate power, have themselves wandered outside the bounds of nature—not, however, into that which is better, but falling instead into that which is worse. B And just as those were elevated above the human condition, so these were plunged below it, and have become like the man-killing demons; and that, quite deservedly. For those who approach Christ become, through that same virtue, imitators of Christ; but those who have yoked themselves to the harness of the devil, they become in turn his exact likeness and peers. But let us see what the adversary and rival plots and contrives once again C through his own satellites against the chaste and modest Virgin.
16. For when he saw that she courageously endures and undergoes the tortures of the body, he prepares a torment for her soul that is unbearable and, as he supposes, worthy of shame. And it is indeed of such a kind, and more grievous than the former ones. But to suffer for Christ, even if it seems to have something reproachful and unsightly, is nevertheless more honorable, more becoming, and more orderly than any outward adornment. For the governor orders, it is said, that she be paraded naked throughout that entire region and be beaten with unbearable scourges. You know perfectly well, beloved, how much shame and modesty this situation brings to virgins, and especially to those who imitate this holy girl, whom not even the sun, so to speak, had previously been able to enjoy to its fill. And he compelled her to go around not only one marketplace and square, but to pass through villages, towns, cities, and peoples. "Throughout that entire region," he says. Truly, beyond all burning and the pain of scourges, this temptation is more grievous and burdensome for modest and chaste girls. But she endured even this shame D because of the love and desire for Christ, who for our sake endured the cross, having despised the shame. For the virgin had already put off the old man together with his passions—among which is that shame regarding garments—and for this reason she did not consider it a disgrace. But just as the first-created parents in paradise were naked before the passions of sin, and were not ashamed, but when, through disobedience, the passions were stirred up within them, they considered [the rest of the text on this page is cut off; the subsequent Latin rendering concludes:] ...they considered their nakedness to be shameful, unless they covered it with fig leaves.
A Likewise also this virgin, having returned to that state of innocence which existed before the transgression and sin, had cast off the sense of shame along with the other passions. But, nevertheless, so that those impure men, B by gazing upon her all-holy and uncovered body as they hovered around, might not think to mock, she looked up to heaven and said: “O Lord God, who coverest the heaven with clouds, shield my body, which has been stripped bare for Thy sake, so that it may not be seen by these impious men.” When she had said this, the Lord sent an angel, who covered her with a white robe; and she walked about as a bride, adorned and beautified, hastening from her father’s house to the well-prepared bridal chamber, led around and escorted and paraded about, wreathed with the martyr’s crown and the athletic marks imprinted upon her for Christ’s sake, honored with the purple of her blood, and shining more brightly than the splendor of pearls, emeralds, hyacinths, precious stones, and golden necklaces. O the miracle! The lustful, the filthy, and the shameless, and most brazen of men, were exposing the martyrs whom they had stripped naked of their bodies, in order that they might, as they supposed, lead them in a triumph, and at the same time feed their own licentious eyes with a sumptuous banquet of lust; but Christ, covering His own athlete entirely with the garment of grace, closed the spectacle C to the lewd, the salacious, and the wicked, and, rendering that device of theirs empty, frustrated their expectation.
17. And when they had led her around throughout that whole region, they brought her to a certain town where they also found the governor. The governor, perplexed as to what he should do next (since whatever he had devised had proven futile and useless, and had turned out contrary to his expectations), issued a decree that the glorious martyr should end her life through the penalty of a capital sentence, after having undergone a manifold contest. Then her father, filled with great fury and satanic zeal, and carrying in his heart the devil—who is a murderer from the beginning—so that he might seem to offer perfect worship to the idols and abominations to which he was addicted D (or rather, to the evil spirits and demons that operate through them), drew his sword and caught her up [to take her] to the mountain, desiring and longing to be himself the author and executor of the bloodshed. But the beautiful and perfect dove, welcoming the slaughter for Christ’s sake with joy, turned herself to prayer and supplication. For she was hastening toward the prize of her high calling, and was eager for her heavenly ascent. But nothing prevents us from hearing the very words of the martyr’s prayer, so that we may learn holiness of hearing from them: “O Eternal One, O crown of martyrs woven by no human hand, Lord Jesus Christ, who didst stretch out the heaven and found the earth; who didst enclose the abysses and hedge in the sea as if with a wall; who didst command the clouds heavy with rain to rain upon the good and the evil; who upon the sea, as if upon the ground, didst walk without wetting Thy feet; who didst rebuke...
C the wind and the sea, and didst change them into a calm! For all things, my Lord Jesus Christ, obey Thy command, because they are Thy creatures. Grant me, O Lord, this petition, and give Thy handmaid grace, that whoever shall remember me in Thy holy name, and shall keep the memorial of the days of my martyrdom, do Thou, O Lord, not remember his sins in the day of judgment, but be propitious to him. For Thou knowest, O Lord, that we are flesh and blood, the work of Thy immaculate hands." And having sent up the Amen, she prayed again, saying: "O Lord God of hosts, Creator of every breath and of flesh, who hast healed every disease and every infirmity, grant Thy handmaid grace, and whosoever shall come to the place where my relics are laid, and where there are waters made salutary by holiness, grant them, by Thy indulgence, the healing of soul and body, that in these things also Thy most holy name may be glorified, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit." And having sent up the Amen, a voice came from heaven, saying: "Come, my holy victorious athlete, rest in the chambers of my Father who is in heaven. And all that thou askest, has been granted to thee by me." And hearing these things, the blessed martyr of Christ came to the place, and was beheaded by the sword of her father, together with holy Juliana in the same place. And as Dioscorus, her father, was descending from the mountain, fire fell from heaven and consumed him, so that not even an ash appeared or was found.
18 18. The martyr put, in truth, an excellent end to her contest. For having brought prayers to these struggles in the tower, she set upon them prayer as a crowning finish. And what is the power of that prayer? She asked her own Bridegroom, Christ, to be propitious to those keeping her memorial, to grant the remission of transgressions and the healing of diseases. And He, having received the entreaty, promises to bring the desire to completion, and through His own voice confirms this and provides the assurance. And she indeed stretched out her neck to the sword with a ready soul; but the father, the slayer of his child, struck the blow without mercy. And she, indeed, was being escorted with pomp to the heavenly mansions and the prepared rest, but he was being led down to the Tartarean pits of hades, and to dark storehouses, and to prepared punishment. D And she had joyful angels as guides to the ascent, but he had grim and terrible demons dragging him unwillingly to the descent. O how could anyone mourn thee worthily, most wretched and miserable man! How didst thou not shudder to cut off the holy head of the martyr! How did thy hand not tremble, so as to bring a lethal strike upon thine own daughter? But thou didst indeed most quickly reap the rewards of thy merciless inhumanity, and thou didst harvest bundles worse than the evil seeds; and the righteous vengeance of the traitor Judas pursued thee. For a thunderbolt sent from heaven reduced thy small body to ashes and the
A flame of hell shall receive thee there. For thou wert not worthy to remain alive, lest, being pointed at with the finger, thou shouldst be called the father of a martyr. Thy house no longer suffers to receive thee, from which thou hast driven out the virgin, and most glorious one.
19. But thou art for me, O lamb of Christ, and dove, and bride, and whatever good, and graceful, and precious name may be, hail, thou who hast valiantly run the course of the struggles. Hail, thou who hast received the rewards worthy of the contests. Hail, thou to whom many prizes are owed for many struggles. Hail, thou who hast governed the impulsive stirrings B of the flesh with a prudent mind. Hail, thou who hast trained the senses of the body in the youth of thine age with the gravity and wisdom of an elder. Hail, thou who hast promised to preserve thy virginity for Christ, even before the martyrdom, pure and undefiled. Hail, thou who hast not stained thy bodily beauty with passions, but hast dedicated and presented it untouched to the Creator. Hail, thou who, in the tower as in a secure fortress, and in the oratory of virgins, didst offer frequent and sincere prayers, and, rising by the contemplation of things to the Author, didst enjoy the delights of the only truly good and lovable one without satiety. Hail, thou who, in the bath prepared for the cleansing of bodily filth, didst symbolically represent the Holy Trinity through the triple illumination of the windows, and didst sketch out the mystical and saving baptism through the triple illumination of souls. Hail, thou who didst without delay confess the faith of the consubstantial Trinity in a theological manner. Hail, thou who didst proclaim one of the holy Trinity to have become man for our salvation. Hail, thou who didst reject riches, and delights, and woven garments of silk, with all bodily adornment and beauty, and the enjoyment of earthly pleasures, and hast exchanged these for eternal and immortal goods, which surpass the sight of the eyes, the hearing of the ears, and every sense and understanding. Hail, thou who didst strengthen thy delicate age and feminine weakness valiantly and manfully with a resolute mind. Hail, thou who didst not fear the disgrace of tortures, but rather didst offer thyself boldly C to all kinds of punishments and torments. Hail, thou who, dwelling in the flesh, didst merit to see the glory of Christ, no differently than the chief disciples on the mount; for because they beheld it with Elijah and Moses, they were rightly called blessed. Hail, thou who, for Christ’s sake, didst endure the tortures of lashes, and the scrapings of iron, and the friction of the roughest hair-cloths, and rivers of flowing blood, and the devouring flames of fire, and the cutting off of limbs, and public stripping, and the removal of the head and life, that thou mightest henceforth receive an immortal body, shining with the rays of incorruption, and having donned a robe of glory which no power of speech could explain or narrate. D
20. Men have rightly marveled at thy constancy: and the angels have, as is fitting, applauded thy struggle.
And the demons shuddered at thy hymn-singing and thy steadfastness, and clothed themselves in shame and eternal reproach. A How the feminine and womanly sex is adorned, and is glorified, and is emboldened toward manly courage by thy contests, and is anointed! In thee, the first mother rightly glories and rejoices, having gained a daughter who again wrestled with and overthrew the adversary—the dragon who had once defeated her—and, having reclaimed the victory, she has raised up brilliant trophies over him. Thee, the Holy of Holies, the Theotokos and first mother, the Virgin and Mother of God, who first and alone glorified the female sex—and who reigns over all men and women, celestials and terrestrials, as having been designated mother of Him who rules over all—thee, having seen that in a womanly and virginal body thou hadst overthrown and powerfully trampled underfoot him B who boasted boundlessly and, swelling with pride, jactated that he would both lay waste the sea and seize the whole world as if it were a nest, she, even she, delighted by the light of thy virtues, embracing thee in her arms, set thee close beside her, and, having endowed thee with supreme honor and favor, presented and set thee before the royal throne.
21. Therefore every laudatory discourse regarding thee, however eloquent and elaborate, is seized with dizziness, and, fearing to approach, shrinks back. For it is faint in its attempt to sing, O much-sung and most praiseworthy one, of the supernatural excellences of thy admirable virtues. For the art of rhetorical eloquence, by means of a versatile composition of words, and a polished and fluent persuasiveness, praises bodily beauty, and fleshly comeliness, which is composed of the symmetry of limbs with the sweetness of color. C Furthermore, it often praises strength, and good health, and the majesty of mortal nobility, and often, too, illustrious dignity and the fame of one’s country, and the abundance of wealth that flows and slips away and easily turns to ruin. That these things, all running together, should be subjected to the discourse intended for praise is difficult and quite arduous; yet all these things, as many as the discourse has distinguished and enumerated according to their kind, are like the flower of the grass that withers and decays, and like the deceitful and spectral appearance of good dreams, which appears and passes by all at once, in a moment, and sometimes is destroyed and altered by time, and together with itself, it appropriately and consequently destroys the carefully wrought harmony and combination of the praises. D But in thee, O chaste and prudent virgin, and triumphant and invincible martyr, the discourse will find these things, which have now been recounted, and which men marvel at, call blessed, and deem worthy of light, most easily prepared and heaped up and accumulated; yet they are not such that they perish and dissolve, and make praises depart in vain into the air. For the virtue of thy divine soul, and thy intimacy with the Creator, has bound to thee and preserved the good things with which thou art adorned—and the worldly things themselves—and has caused them not to be forgotten in memory, but has made them to endure throughout all time.
A Nay, he has even multiplied and increased them A: for the Scripture oracle has declared that the world of riches belongs to the faithful, but not even a single obol to the unfaithful. For the present things, and the things to come, and all things of which thy Spouse, the Lord, is master, have been granted and gifted to thee as a dowry.
22. Since, therefore, thou dost carry off the palm from both sides — both by the brightness of thy secular life and by the splendor of the gifts of thy soul, both of which thou hast illuminated and adorned with the firmness and robust constancy of martyrdom—depart now, rejoicing, to the heavenly tabernacles which resound with frequent hymns, leaving behind those who utter polished speeches from a carnal mouth, and who confess themselves vanquished by thy eloquent voice. For if the approbation of noble deeds is above man, how should the fitting praise of them not exceed the human mind? B Depart, therefore, chaste, venerable, and glorious virgin, that thou mayest attain to rewards superior to the world. Depart, where speech is silent, unable to discourse diffusely upon the glory of those things which exceed the power of speech. Depart to partake of the sincere delights of good things which surpass thought, where all understanding, having gathered knowledge from particular images, is at rest and remains idle, while the mind is eternally intent upon those things which are above nature and intelligible. Depart, where the manifold deception and vertigo of sensible things and of the senses themselves has ceased and been abolished. Receive thy victorious palms and most magnificent rewards. Receive thy rewards and garlands, which are pledged to those who have striven and do strive for the sake of Christ. Enjoy the most joyful appearance and beauty of the Spouse, which can neither be expressed in words nor conceived by the mind. Enjoy the secret and mystical conversation and intimacy in the super-celestial bridal chamber, than which there is truly nothing more happy or more blessed. Nothing of the glorious deeds of the lamp-bearing virgins is wanting to thee for thy splendor, O bride of Christ, inasmuch as thou hast loved Christ the Spouse beyond measure, and hast been captivated by the allurements of His love: for the sake of whom thou hast not only accounted all things as dung, but hast even preferred Him, with yearning for whom thou didst burn, to thine own life and soul. C How lawfully indeed hast thou fought the good fight, and kept the faith unshaken in changeable and dangerous times! How unoffendingly and without obstacle hast thou finished the course of piety! How many bitter and harsh torments, inflicted upon thee for the love of Christ and beyond human capacity, hast thou endured with thy whole soul and with the greatest alacrity! Wherefore a crown of justice is laid up for thee, which, when thou hast worthily woven it, thou hast been crowned in the heavens. But not even here has Christ left thee without reward: for He has said: "I live," but "those who glorify Me, I will glorify." Wherefore, as it has been promised, in thy laver, where also thy relics are, for the faithful who approach them, more abundantly than waters, [He grants cures] for all manner of ailments.
A And those who are suffering from pestilential sores, or another disease, or whose bodies are worn down by other bruises, once they touch the saving waters, are washed clean of the deadly malady all the faster. And for those who live nearby, and for those who have migrated far away, the place is famous and renowned, and much sought after for the healing of those in need. And it is not only in that place that the beauty and the healing grace given to thee have been inscribed, but also for those everywhere in the habitable world who approach thee with fervent faith, and who celebrate thy annual memorial, the pestilential wounds are healed, and the unpleasant affliction and harassment of every age are put to flight, and demonic energies are driven away by thy rebukes; nay, even more, all are delivered from all dangers and calamities who call upon thee as an ally for their defense.
23. B Do not therefore cease, O pure ever-virgin, to look upon those who take refuge in thee with a sympathetic gaze, but also graciously accept the meager and fading little speech that has been addressed to thee in thy praise—though it falls far short of thy surpassing worth, it has been composed with no less a care than what the measure of my small zeal could reach—and, bending down sympathetically and nodding in assent, accept this most trivial gift, just as thy Bridegroom Christ accepted the two mites from the poor widow, having regard not to the quantity of what was given, but to the quality of the mind of the one who offered it. And may I also find thee to be the gentle healer of my own wounds of soul and body, C and a most ready patroness in all trying afflictions. And mayest thou peacefully still the impulses and leaps of my passions, so that, having regulated my life toward what is needful, and having crossed the storm of the world without being weathered, I may, by thy means, upon landing at the harbor of salvation and at a life exempt from old age, obtain from the common and merciful Judge, despite my countless transgressions—who would otherwise justly condemn and pass sentence upon my sloth—the favor of His rather dismissing and forgiving them through thy intercession and entreaty. And for all who love thy name in faith, and honor it, and hold it in veneration, and who flee to the aid of thy intercession, be, O trophy-bearing Barbara, and glorious and illustrious victor, and ever-memorable and most praiseworthy martyr, and most lawful athlete, the broker of the kingdom of heaven, and in every sad event a helper, D and an unashamed intercessor before the all-good Christ our God; with whom, to the beginningless and unbegotten and adorable Father, together with the consubstantial and life-creating Spirit, be glory, honor, and adoration, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.