Страдание святых 42 мучеников

The Greek Emperor Theophilus 1743, the son of Emperor Michael, nicknamed Valvos, or Travlos and a native of Amorea 1744, waged frequent wars with the Arabs, sometimes defeating them, and sometimes being defeated by them. Once, having set out on a campaign with a large army against the Hagarians, Theophilus besieged a city called Sozopetra and the former homeland of the Saracen prince Amirmumna, and wanted to take this city. The Hagaryan prince Amirmumna (aka Avisak) was at that time in another place; He sent ambassadors to King Theophilus, earnestly asking him to retreat from the city of Sozopetra and not to destroy his beloved hometown. But Theophilus did not listen to his request, took the city, completely destroyed it and returned home with great booty. Amirmumna, greatly grieving over the destruction of his hometown, became very angry and began to hire soldiers everywhere for a lot of money - in Babylon, in Phenicia, in Palestine, in Kelesyria and in far Africa. After some time, he, having gathered his entire army in Tarsus 1745, decided to go to the beautiful city of Amorea, in Phrygia, which city was the birthplace of King Michael Travlos, the father of Emperor Theophilus, in order to avenge his hometown of Sozopetra, destroyed by Theophilus. Hearing about this, the Greek king Theophilus also gathered a large army from the east, from the west and from Persia and, setting off to war against the enemy, arrived in the Phrygian city of Dorileus, three days' journey from the city of Ammorea. Many of the king’s close associates, having learned reliably that the Saracen army was much more numerous than the Greek one, advised the king not to enter into battle with the army of the prince of Hagaryan, but to withdraw the inhabitants of Ammorea and settle them in other fortified cities. But Theophilus said that it was a shame to shy away from battle and leave the beautiful city of Ammorea empty. He began to prepare the army for battle and sent part of it to defend Ammorea. Along with the army were the following commanders: Constantine, nicknamed Drungarius 1746, who had the rank of patrician 1747, Aetius, also a patrician, Theophilus, also a patrician, Theodore, nicknamed Kratir 1748, who had the rank of protospatharius 1749, Milissen and Callistus, nicknamed Turmarch 1750, Vasoi and many other generals and noble men. After a little time, the troops of Theophilus and Amirmumna met, a great battle took place and many people were killed on both sides. At first the Greeks defeated the Hagarians, then, by God’s permission, the battle changed, for the Lord Christ, angry with Theophilus for his iconoclasm, deprived the Greeks of courage; The Hagarians recovered and began to defeat the Greeks. Suddenly the entire Greek army fled, leaving their king, who was defended only by one Persian army, hired by him for money. Undoubtedly, King Theophilus would have been killed here if night had not fallen. But the Heavenly King, Who “is not completely angry and is not forever indignant” (Ps. 102:9), had mercy on the Christians and suddenly sent heavy rain on the Hagaryan regiments, so that their bows weakened and they stopped pursuing the fleeing King Theophilus and the defeated Greek soldiers. After this cruel slaughter, the Hagaryan prince Amirmumna immediately approached the city of Ammore and besieged it, digging a deep ditch all around it. For a long time he besieged it from all sides, intending to take it. The Greek king Theophilus fled in shame to Dorilei; from there he sent envoys to Prince Amirmumna with many and expensive gifts, asking the prince to retreat from the city of Ammorea. But this latter, very angry for his devastated city of Sozopetra, was implacable. Having laughed at the king's request and his gifts, calling him a coward and a fugitive, the prince ordered the king's envoys to be kept in chains awaiting the end of the matter, and over the course of many subsequent days he ordered strong attacks on the city. Those in the city strongly resisted, and many Hagaryan troops and noble military leaders were killed from the city walls. Doubting the possibility of taking the city, Prince Amirmumna already wanted to leave it and go to his fatherland. And this would certainly have happened if there had not been an insidious betrayal of one of the Amorite commanders, named Vaditzis. This latter, having quarreled with the governor, planned to betray the city into the hands of enemies. He shot an arrow with a paper tied to it towards the Hagarians, who were already about to leave the city walls; on paper he wrote the following: - Why, after spending so much time here and using such efforts, are you leaving here without victory? Dare, be brave, attack that side of the city wall where there is a pillar with a marble image of a lion, and at the top of the pillar an image of a date palm made of stone; here I am and guard this side; I will help you, and you will easily take the city, for there is no wall here. You yourself decide how to honor me for my service to you. When this note, tied to an arrow, was found and brought to the Hagaryan prince Amirmumna, he read it and was very happy. He immediately ordered his entire army to approach the indicated wall and, with the assistance of the insidious Vaditzis, the entire Hagaryan army entered the city, in which a great massacre took place, so that Christian blood flowed like a river through the city streets, the city was destroyed not only by sword, but also by fire, for it was immediately set on fire from all sides, and this was the Lord’s punishment for the people who had multiplied at that time among the Greeks heresies. Of the inhabitants of this city, almost no one survived the Hagaryan sword or fire, and those who remained unharmed at that time did not subsequently escape killing, and others were captured. When the beating of the inhabitants stopped, the above-mentioned commanders, sent by the king to defend the city, were captured: Constantine, Aetius, Theophilus, Theodore, Milissen, Callistus, Vasoi and other senior military leaders, of which there were forty-two people. The surviving men and women, boys and girls were taken captive, and the prince of Hagaryan ordered to separate the men from the women, boys and girls, and there were about seventy thousand men, and countless women, girls and boys. The prince ordered all the men to be beheaded with a sword, leaving only the above-mentioned governors and military leaders alive, and the women and children were divided among his soldiers. So this beautiful city of Ammore died in one day from sword and fire, for the sins of the wicked Tsar Theophilus, who took away icons from churches and cruelly tortured many holy confessors for worshiping icons. After this, the tormentor Amirmumna ordered the people sent by Theophilus, who had seen all the destruction of the city, to be released from their shackles, and sent them to the king to tell him about everything they had seen. Having received such news, the king fell into great sadness. Then he sent ambassadors to Amirmumna, wanting to ransom his governors and military leaders for two hundred centenaries 1751. But this latter did not want to return the captives at such a price, saying that he had spent a thousand centenaries on collecting an army; Having laughed at the royal message and at the envoys, the prince released them with dishonor. Then Theophilus became sick from great sadness and after a short time died from that illness. The captives were taken to Syria. The military leader Vaditzis, who betrayed the city to the enemies, rejected Christ and, becoming an apostate, accepted the Hagaryan faith, for which he received great honors and gifts from the prince. Prince Amirmumna, having brought the captive Greek commanders with their retinue, forty-two in number, to his country, ordered them to be imprisoned in chains in a dark dungeon, where they were put in stocks on their feet and starved with hunger and thirst. So the saints remained in great distress, suffering not so much from the Hagarians, but from the above-mentioned apostate Vaditzis, who was very angry against them. After some time, the wicked Hagarians, at the instigation of their prince, began to seduce the holy prisoners into their Hagaryan faith, because this wicked prince considered it a merit for himself to capture the souls of those whose bodies he had captured. One day, certain people entered the prison to the saints and, as if having mercy on them, gave them a small alms, and advised the saints to spare themselves and free themselves from the heavy imprisonment - this liberation will happen when they convert to the Mohammedan faith. But the saints did not want to listen to these crafty words, wanting better to endure hard poverty and imprisonment all the days of their lives, and even accept the most cruel death, than to renounce Christ and convert to the wicked Mohammedan faith. With such deception, these crafty seducers did not come to the saints just once, but many times. However, they achieved nothing, although they promised the saints in the name of their prince not only freedom, but also honors and great gifts. One day, some of the noblest men, having come and given alms to the prisoners, sat down near them and, feigning tears, began to cry, as if regretting them, who had been kept in prison for such a long time, and said to each other: – How much suffering results from disbelief in the great prophet Mohammed! These whom we now see in heavy chains are not noble men, honored by their king, brave in war and glorified among their people. Did they not have under their command more than seventy thousand soldiers and the strongly fortified city of Amorite? But now they are delivered into the hands of our proto-symbol of 1752 (as they called their prince); who took away their strength and firmness from them? Has it only made them powerless that they reject the great prophet Mohammed, whose slaves, believing in him, won such a glorious victory? But it is not surprising that they do not yet believe in him, for they have not yet known him, since they were not taught by anyone; those who do not know and sin only out of ignorance can easily receive forgiveness. Then, turning to the saints, the courtiers said to them: “You, men, about whom we are now talking and whom we regret, listen to us, who advise you well: get away from that narrow path that the Son of Mary commands you to walk, and follow the path that is extensive both in this and in the next century and which the great prophet shows us. Is our prophet talking about incredible things when he teaches that God has the power to reward those who obey Him with all sorts of blessings here, and in the next world to make them heirs of paradise? Does God lack gold or lack any things? Retreat from the unbelief of ignorant people, for it is contrary to common sense to abhor the gifts of God given both here and in the next world. Or do you want to be the distributors of Divine gifts yourself, accepting them not when God sends them, but when you yourself wish? You do this out of strong pride, despising God’s goodness and turning His mercy into anger, for you yourself, if you give something to your slaves, and they refuse your gifts and turn away from you, will you not be angry with them and, since you are greatly offended by them, will you not impose punishment on them instead of gifts? If mortal people do this, then how much less will the immortal God do this to you? Accept the teaching of our prophet; then you will be freed from real disasters and will enjoy the Divine gifts given to you while you are still alive, and promised after death. For, being very merciful, God, seeing that a person who wanted to implement the difficult law of Jesus in life was exhausted, sent his prophet Mohammed to free people from this labor and from all inconveniences, promising after all the joys of this life and in the next world bliss and teaching that those who listen to him can be saved by faith alone, without doing good deeds. Having listened to these wicked speeches of the Hagarians, the wise men looked at each other and meekly smiled. Then they said together with the psalmist: “The proud have dug a pit for me, contrary to Your law. All Your commandments are truth” (Ps. 119:85–86). Looking at the Hagarians, they answered them: “Is this really the teaching of your prophet?” And do you really believe that it is truly righteous and pleasing to God when the flesh is overcome by all sorts of lusts, unclean and passionate lusts, and our mind is so submissive to the passions that it never even comes to the thought of recovering from evil carnal deeds through abstinence? What difference will there be between a person living like this and a mindless animal? No, guys, no! We do not want to be like that and will not deviate from the virtuous and pure Christian law, for we are disciples of those who cried out to God: we will not depart from You, for “for Your sake they kill us every day, counting us as sheep [doomed] to the slaughter” (Rom. 8:36). “Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39). Having heard such an answer from the saints, the Hagarites left them without winning them over to their faith. After some time, the seducers sent by the prince, called gymnosophists, came again to the saints in prison, like the first ones. They also, having given alms to the prisoners and kissed each of them, sat down and asked the saints: – What is impossible for God? “Nothing,” answered the saints, “everything is possible for Him, for this is characteristic of the nature of God.” “If everything is possible for God,” continued the gymnosophists, “then let us see to whom, with His omnipotence, He is showing mercy at the present time—the Greeks or the Ishmaelites?” To whom did God give the most fertile and beautiful countries of the earth - you or us? Whose army is God increasing? And whose shelves are they destroying like hay? Is God really unfair? If He had not seen that we were keeping His commandments, He would not have shown us such great benefits, and on the contrary, if He had not known that you did not believe in the prophet Mohammed whom He sent, He would not have subjugated you to us and would not have given you into captivity. Having listened to the speeches of the gymnosophists, the saints answered them: – If you believed the prophetic testimonies, you would know that your speculations are false, for what you say can be confirmed by Divine Scripture? Never. And everything that does not have evidence is false. Answer our next question: if two people happened to argue for the possession of one field and one of them, having no witnesses, shouted and said that this field was his, and the other, without dispute or quarrel, presented many witnesses, honest and trustworthy, who would say that the field was his, and not the other one (the first one), what would you, Saracens, think, to whom would you award this field? They answered: “Verily, the field belongs to the one who has witnesses.” “You judged fairly,” said the saints. “We talk in exactly the same way about Mohammed, your teacher, and about the Only Begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ, having come into the world and becoming a man born of the Most Pure Virgin, about which, just as we have heard and you have often said, had about Himself the testimony of all the most ancient holy prophets who foreshadowed His coming into the world. Your great prophet and legislator Mohammed, whom you call sent from God, also came, and so what? Would it not be fitting for him to have testimony from two prophets, or at least from one, so that it would be clear that he was truly sent from God? These speeches of the saints brought shame to the gymnosophists, who saw themselves defeated after these words. Then Saint Vasoy spoke, smiling: “The Saracen legislator,” he said, “also has a glorious and true prophet who prophesied about him, Saint Isaiah; and if I had not saddened these wise men (i.e., the gymnosophists), I would have told them this prophecy. “We will not be sad at all,” they said, “for we know how to forgive those who sin foolishly, even if they say something bad about our prophet.” “Aren’t you saying,” continued the saint, “that the prophet Mohammed is the last of the prophets?” “Yes, that’s true,” they answered. Then Saint Vasoi said: – Isaiah, whom you also confess as a prophet of God, says in one of his prophecies: “The Lord will cut off the head and tail of Israel” (Is. 9:14). At the same time, Isaiah himself explains his words further, meaning by the head those who look at the faces, that is, those who commit unrighteous judgment, and by the tail he means the prophet, “and the prophet-false teacher is the tail” (Isaiah 9:15). Do not be angry, men, - is your prophet not a “tail”, like the very last (according to your own word) of the prophets? And does he not teach you lawless deeds? For is it not iniquity that your prophet has laid down a law for you, for example, if a husband, having hated his wife, rejects her, then he can again take her to himself not before she is taken by another man. Let us remain silent about other lawless decrees of the Mohammedan Law; What has been said is enough to understand the prophecy of Isaiah, that he prophesied not about anyone else, but only about your prophet Mohammed, saying: “And the leaders of this people will lead them astray, and those led by them will perish” (Is. 9:16). “We also know how to philosophize,” said the Gymnosophists, but since God so desires, who are we to resist His will? But Mohammed has no need for human testimony, for he was appointed by God, from Whom he accepted such laws. “Did he really bring you such a law from God that you have many wives and with them, during your fasts, spend whole nights before sunrise in gluttony and bodily pleasures?” – asked Saint Vasoy. Then the other saints said: – We also need to answer your first question, according to which those who have greater courage in war and victory seem to have better faith. If you derive your faith from military strength, then remember the ancient strength of the Persians, who conquered many countries and subjugated almost the entire universe; after them came the dominance of the Greeks, when Alexander the Great defeated the Persians; then Rome conquered the entire universe. What then? Did they all really have true faith, because they were strong in war? Not at all. All of them were strongly devoted to idolatry, not knowing the True God, the Creator of everything. How can you say that your faith is true, because you (by God’s permission for our sins) recently defeated us with the strength of your army? After all, it often happens to us, Christians who truly confess God, with His help, to have victory over our enemies and win. When we, having angered Christ our Lord, do not repent, then He brings wicked people against us, taking vengeance on us for our sins. Nevertheless, we, even those being punished, do not renounce our Master, but ask for His mercy, believe and have hope that He will have mercy on us. We do not respect your teacher, who has no testimony from the prophets and is even contrary to the holy prophets, but completely rejects him. After this conversation, the gymnosophists, disgraced and angry, returned to their prince. Meanwhile, seven years have already passed since the saints suffered, imprisoned in chains in that cramped and gloomy prison. Day and night they remained in prayer, constantly chanting the psalms of David and thanking God for all His providence for them: for He cleansed with this imprisonment and sorrow the past years of their lives, spent in pleasures and comforts, strengthened them for such a long patience, which they could not even imagine before. When they were suffering in this way, the above-mentioned apostate Vaditzis, who had betrayed the city of Ammorea to the barbarians and rejected Christ, came on the fifth day of the month of March to the prison, when the sun was already setting, and, calling through the hole one of the prisoners, who had previously been a notary 1754 for his master Constantine the patrician and was also called Constantine, said to him secretly: - Find out, wise husband, what love I have had for your master Constantine the patrician for many years and even now. Now I have reliably learned that the prince is planning to kill all of you tomorrow if you do not accept his faith, and I have come to inform you about this. Advise your master to get rid of death by feigning consent to accept the Saracen faith and do the same yourself - and in your thoughts do not deviate in the least from the Christian faith, but for the sake of the disaster that has happened, pretend to please the prince, and your Christ will not be angry with you for this. But this God-loving man, making the sign of the cross with his right hand, answered the apostate: “Get away from us, worker of lawlessness,” and Vaditzis left him. Mr. Constantine the patrician asked Constantine the notary: – Who called you to the end of the prison and for what? He, not wanting to tell him about this in front of his entire squad, so that someone, fearing death, would not grieve and waver in thoughts, stepped aside with Mr. Constantine and told him what Vaditzis had announced. Patrician Constantine, thanking God, said: - May the Will of the Lord be done. Then, turning to his squad, he said: - Let us remain, brothers, all this night in prayer. Everyone got up and prayed, singing the psalms of David until dawn. The next day, early in the morning, the cruel commander sent by the prince came to the prison with armed soldiers and, having taken the forty-two holy martyrs out of the inner prison and ordered the doors of the outer fence to be closed, he began to interrogate them: – How many years have you been in this prison? – he asked. – Why are you asking about what you know? - answered the saints. “It’s already the seventh year that we’ve been imprisoned here.” “For such a long time,” said the governor, “have you not learned what kindness our most just prince shows you?” For he has spared you for so many years, even though he could have put you to death long ago. For such mercy shown to you, you should be grateful to him, pray for him and love him with all your heart. “Our law commands us to pray for our enemies and those who oppress and insult us, so we pray to God for your prince. But we cannot love him with all our hearts, for we are forbidden to do so by the holy prophet David, who calls out to God like this: “Should I not hate those who hate You, Lord, and not be disgusted by those who rebel against You?” (Ps. 139:21). - How can it be that someone prays for someone they hate? Truly you are lying when you say that you are praying for the prince whom you hate. “We say the truth that we pray to God for him, so that God will enlighten the eyes of his soul, darkened by unbelief, so that he may know the path of truth and reverence God piously, accepting the true faith (Christian) instead of the false one that he now has and which he thinks is true. If your prince knew and accepted the true faith, then we would not only love him with all our hearts, but would also give him due respect, according to the words of the prophet David: “I was greatly honored by Your friends, O God.” – Aren’t the Greek and Roman princes crazy if they think that our people, so free, courageous and strong, could be brought together without Divine providence? If we were hated by God and He did not have any providence for us, we would not have multiplied and would not have been what we are now, as you can see for yourself. – We are not saying that you live without Divine providence, for no one is deprived of His providence. Even if someone does not know God, if someone offends Him with wicked deeds, nevertheless he lives on earth and moves not without Divine providence. We only say that you incorrectly believe in the true God, for, confessing Him as the Creator of all visible and invisible creation, you laugh at Him, claiming that He is the Creator and Author of both all good and all evil, truth and falsehood, right and wrong, humility and pride, meekness and anger, chastity and intemperate fornication, and other virtues and vices contrary to them, which are not detailed here needs to be listed. If what you say about God were true, then we would say that you have the correct concept of God. But in view of the fact that, just as darkness differs from light, so your confession differs from the truth, we cannot help but accuse you of having true knowledge of God, since in fact you do not have it. It would not be at all surprising if God were angry with you, although you are protected by His providence. – What then? Or do you claim that there is another God, the Creator of all evil and all sin? How can there be two Gods - one good, the other evil? How can the world survive when two Gods are at enmity with each other? “We are not saying that there is another God, a creator of evil, different from God, the Creator of all good things, no, this is not the case, but we are telling you that there was one of the Angels who, by his voluntary decision, chose for himself what was harmful, contrary to good, and, having loved this, first hated his Creator God, and then man. Then he was allowed to tempt our good will - whether it strives for God, or obeys his tempting instigation; you are led astray by him, and therefore you falsely attribute his wickedness to a completely sinless and unchangeable God. “Nevertheless,” the governor objected, “our prophet Mohammed teaches that the omnipotent God is the author of every evil human deed, as well as good.” – Apparently, he falsely invented another God, just as the Greeks once invented the Agathodemon 1755, and forces you to worship such a God, which never was and never will be. But we know the true God and confess Him, about whom it was preached in the Old Testament by the holy prophets, and in the New Testament by the holy Apostles of Christ, the Creator of all good things; We don’t know any other God. – Would you like today, together with the most just prince, the proto-symbol, to pray to God according to the custom of our faith? For this is why I was sent to you. I know that some of you agree to this. Those who disagree, when they see these rewarded with gifts, will regret their reckless persistence. To this all the saints unanimously answered: “We pray to the One True God, so that not only the proto-symbol, your prince, but also the entire Saracen people will retreat from the wicked Mohammedan error and give due honor and worship to the One God preached by the prophets and Apostles of Christ. We cannot leave the light and voluntarily go into darkness. “Be careful what you say, so as not to repent later,” said the governor, “for you will not escape severe punishment for your resistance.” – We entrust our souls to the Immortal and Righteous God and trust in Him until our last breath; We will not retreat from the faith in Him that we maintain. Then the governor again began to convince the saints, saying: - On the Day of the Last Judgment, the orphanhood of your children and the widowhood of your wives will testify against you, for you are now deprived of them, since you do not fulfill the wishes of the prince and reject his faith; otherwise, our Grand Duke could have commanded your current king, a young youth, to release your wives and children here to you. But even now, if you agree to listen to us and confess the Prophet Mohammed, then, as I told you, you will soon see all your household, and when you see them you will rejoice greatly. Your wife Theodora and her young son Michael now reign in your Greek country, and she will not be able to resist the command of our great proto-symbol. Do not worry about wealth and property, for the tribute from the Egyptians, the use of which for one year our most gracious prince will allow you, as his friends, will enrich you so much that a large property will remain for your descendants up to the tenth generation. At this speech the governors’ saints seemed to cry out with their lips alone: - May Mohammed and all those who profess him a prophet be cursed. When the saints uttered these words with great courage and boldness about God, the angry governor immediately ordered the armed soldiers, taking each of the saints, tying their hands back and leading them like sheep to the place of execution. Countless numbers of Saracen people and Christians living among the Saracens began to gather for this spectacle, wanting to see the killing of the holy martyrs. When the martyrs had already approached the Euphrates River, the governor, calling to him one of the marching martyrs, Saint Theodore, nicknamed “kratir,” that is, strong or brave, said to him: “You were previously a cleric (as we heard about you) and, leaving the priestly rank, you took a spear, put on military armor and shed human blood in battles. Now you hypocritically confess yourself to be a Christian, convicted by your conscience for the Christian faith you have long rejected; Isn’t it better for you to turn to the teachings of the prophet and messenger of God Mohammed and receive from him help and deliverance from death, especially since you cannot have any hope and boldness in Christ, from whom you voluntarily rejected even earlier. But the courageous martyr of Christ Theodore firmly answered the governor: “You are telling a lie, governor, that I have rejected Christ God; I just left the sacred clergy for the sake of my unworthiness, why now I must especially shed my blood for the faith of Christ and die for the love of Christ, so that my gracious Master will now forgive me for what I have previously sinned against Him. After all, if your slave had run away from you, and then returned to you and for your sake would not have even spared his life, would he not then have received forgiveness from you for his previous flight, for the sake of the devotion shown afterwards? “Let your will be done,” said the governor, “I offered you only that by which you could avoid death.” When the Saracen executioners drew their swords and, having taken the holy martyrs, took each one separately for beheading, then Saint Theodore the Cratyr happened to become a patrician next to Constantine. Theodore was afraid that Constantine, having seen his death, would hesitate and be afraid of death, and therefore began to admonish him, saying: “Listen, my lord, since you surpass all of us in the height of your rank and virtues, it is fitting that you be the first of us to become a martyr, before all of us bowing your head under the sword for your Lord, and the first to receive the crown from Jesus Christ, the Heavenly King, just as you were preferably awarded honors from the earthly king.” But Saint Constantine answered him: “It is much more fitting for you, so courageous, to do this and be the first to lay down your life for Christ; you will have me and our other friends as your followers. Then Saint Theodore said a prayer and, entrusting his soul to God, approached the executioner and joyfully accepted a glorious martyr’s death from the sword. After him, other saints, in order and according to the rank of their former dignities, as if called to a royal feast, one after another went under the sword, not showing any fear of death, nor timidity or cowardice, so that the governor was greatly surprised to see that the martyrs were going to their death with such joy. So the holy forty-two martyrs ended their lives with a courageous death for their Lord, on the sixth day of the month of March. After the murder of the holy martyrs, the Saracen prince ordered the above-mentioned apostate Vaditzis to be killed with the sword, saying: - If he were a true Christian, then it would not be appropriate for him to renounce his faith, and if he did not retain faith in his Christ, how can he maintain faith in our Mohammed? If he became an enemy of his Christians, betraying them into our hands, then if a time of trouble happens for us, he can also become our traitor. Having been unfaithful to his own, will he be faithful to strangers? Not at all. And they cut off the head of this accursed traitor with a sword, and thus he accepted worthy retribution from the Saracens for his friendship towards them, when he betrayed the glorious and beautiful Christian city of Ammoraea into their hands. The next day, by order of the prince, the bodies of the holy forty-two martyrs were thrown into the Euphrates River. The corpse of the murdered apostate was also thrown there. After a little time, the bodies of the holy martyrs were found on the bank on the other side of the river intact, with the head of each attached to his body, and all the bodies lay side by side in splendor. The corpse of the apostate was found far from the saints, and his head was at a great distance from the corpse. The honorable bodies of the saints were taken by the believers and buried with honor, but the corpse and head of the wicked traitor were torn to pieces and eaten by crocodiles. For all this, be glory to Christ our God, worshiped with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen. On the earth of Christ, for the sake of your suffering, having appeared, crowned with piety, heaven accepted to live in joy: for you have overthrown all the machinations of the enemy with the diseases and blood of your ulcers, to those who praise from above, you give permission for sins. The newly-minted stars of faith, who diligently suffered for Christ, are crowned with laudable crowns by all who pray to Christ for us, as they are the pillars and guardians of the Christian authorities. Theophilus, Byzantine emperor, reigned from 829 to 842. Ammorea is a city in Phrygia, in Asia Minor. Tarsus is the main city of Cilicia, a region in Asia Minor The chiefs of warships were actually called Drungaria. Kratir (khratis) – powerful, strong. Protospatharius - the first of the swordsmen, - an honorary title at the court of the Byzantine emperors Turmarchs, the same as Drungaria. Centenary is a type of gold coin of great value. The protosymbol is the first advisor. Gymnosophists were philosophers who refused to enjoy all the blessings of life and walked naked. Those. God is the author of both good and evil. You might be interested in: