Страдание святых мучеников Спевсиппа, Елевсиппа и Мелевсиппа, бабки их Леониллы и других с ними

Saint Polycarp, a disciple of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, wishing, through the action of the Holy Spirit, to multiply the verbal flock of believers in Christ, sent his disciples to various countries so that they would fearlessly preach the word of God everywhere. Having learned that in Gaul 621 there was a persecution of Christians everywhere under the royal decree, by which they were all sentenced to death, Saint Polycarp sent there two priests of God - Andochius and Venignus and a third - Deacon Thirsus. These were truly virtuous people, devoted to God, zealous in their deeds, always ready with love to go to evangelistic work, whether by land or sea, who thirsted more than feared torture and death for Christ. Having received orders from their bishop, they immediately boarded the ship. Dismissing them, holy Bishop Polycarp admonished them with these words: - Go, valiant men, and with the gracious help of Christ, stand strong for Him. Through the holy confession of the most holy name of Christ you will gain many companions and, rejoicing with them in victory, you will achieve glory and eternal honors. May the abundant fruits of your labors multiply and may joy increase in the heavenly dwellings of the righteous at the sight of your holy acquisitions! Encouraged by these and many other blessings of Saint Polycarp, they boarded the ship and soon, by the special instructions of God, arrived at the Massilian shores 622; having descended to earth, they immediately set off on their journey, and the Angel of God walked ahead of them. Arriving in a city called Eduya 623, they met, by God's providence for them, Senator Faustus, a most noble man, who showed them hospitality with honor and love. When he learned that the guests were elders, he began to earnestly ask them to bring his family, relatives and friends to Christ through holy baptism; he himself was already a Christian, only in secret due to the persecution of Christianity. He brought to them his son, the young man Symphorian; Subsequently, this young man, according to the teaching of the saints, and mainly according to God’s predestination, suffered for Christ when circumstances required it. Presenting the young man to the priests, Favst begged Saint Venignus to baptize him, and Saint Andochius to be his successor, and the servants of God fulfilled the pious desire of his father. Then, remembering his sister and her grandchildren, Favst said: – I have a sister named Leonilla, who lives in one of the Lingonian 624 cities. She has three grandchildren - the children of her son, twins by birth. Although they received an excellent education, following the example of their fathers, they remain in paganism, worshiping idols. Their grandmother, and my sister, would like to make her grandchildren soldiers of Christ and dedicate them to serving Him. I beg you, priests of God, help her and complete the work begun: enlighten the entire noble house. Hearing this, the saints decided to separate to preach: Andochius went with Firs to the Augustodonian village 625, where, after converting many to the Christian faith, he later died a martyr’s death. Favst sent Saint Venignus to the Lingonian city to his sister. Leonilla, Faustus's sister, met Saint Venignus, as if manna had fallen from heaven, with great joy. On this day, her grandchildren were in a village called Pasmasia to make unclean sacrifices to the idol of the goddess Nemesis 626, and, returning home, they brought their grandmother the remains of the sacrificial meat. But she, abhorring the vile pagan sacrifices, threw out this meat for the dogs to eat, and addressed her grandchildren in the presence of the holy presbyter Venigna with the following words: - My dear grandchildren! Know our Lord Jesus Christ, the true and living God, to whom the Angels and all creatures give due worship, who created the whole world with His word, stretched out the heights of heaven by His command, spread the breadth of the earth, gathered the abysses of the sea and fenced them with sand, decorated the sky with stars, established two great luminaries on it so that they would illuminate with their rays everything He created, populated the waters with fish, clothed the earth trees and grass and created on it, according to His will, all kinds of animals. Then He deigned to create man in His image and likeness and adorned him with the special gift of wisdom, knowledge and reason, so that he would diligently seek the Lord - the Lord of all creatures and not show disrespect for Him through neglecting the knowledge of Him, so that he would know good and learn to distinguish it from evil, so that not only would he not give any respect to insensitive idols, invented by the devil to deceive people, but rejected them as unclean and avoided all communication with them, since these idols appeared in the world through the cunning of the devil, who deceived the first man in paradise. Dearest grandchildren! Leave all unclean idols and firmly believe in the Creator of all things - our Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, by the grace of God, this holy man, whom you see before you, was sent to you from a distant country. Listen to him, because through his mouth God Himself proclaims His commandments to you, and learn from Him what can contribute to your salvation. When blessed Leonilla, together with Saint Wenign, admonished her grandchildren in this way, the grace of God penetrated invisibly into their hearts. The young men listened to their grandmother’s words with surprise, looking at each other and thinking, and then they all answered her in one voice: “Why have you been silent until now in front of us about a matter of such great importance?” Why did she hide the path of truth and the radiant light from us for such a long time? Raising her gaze and reverently raising her hands to the sky, Leonilla thanked God that her grandchildren were beginning to learn the truth, and lovingly told them: “My son, and your father, who has now descended into the underworld, not distinguished by either intelligence or wisdom, was so hardened in heart and immersed in the darkness of wickedness that he did not want not only to believe in Christ God, but even to pronounce His holy name. What benefit could the word of God bring to one whose heart was completely possessed by the malice of unbelief, so that, blinded by idolatry, he could not see the light of truth? It was only for his sake that I remained silent and did not tell you about what was for your benefit: I was afraid that with his harmful influence he would forever deviate you from the right path. But since now, by the will of God, he is no longer in the world, all obstacles have disappeared for you. The favorable time has come - open and turn your bodily eyes and hearts to heaven and, with the help of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, eradicate from your souls every inclination to idolatry, so that through this you will be filled with unceasing joy. Blessed Leonilla and the holy presbyter told the young men many other things, and under the influence of their speeches the young men remembered the dreams they had seen the previous night, which foreshadowed their conversion to the faith of Christ, and began to tell each other. “I saw,” said the eldest, Speusippus, “as if he fell to the breast of our grandmother and sucked the breasts overflowing with milk, but she affectionately told me: drink, Speusippus, the saving milk, so that, having strengthened yourself with it, you can resist your enemies and get a glorious victory.” “And I saw,” said Eleusippus, “some man sitting on a heavenly throne and shining with inexpressible glory, from the brilliance of which my eyes darkened, and horror and fear seized me all over.” He, turning his radiant face to me, said: do not be afraid, because you will be worthy to receive the crown of victory! The third brother Meleusippus began to talk about the dream he had: - I saw - and I don’t know which one - the Great King, in whose hands there was a scepter. He accepted all three of us together into His army, placing military belts on us and ransoming us from the shackles of captivity at a dear price, ordaining eternal freedom for us in golden words, and He said to me: “Meleusippus! I have appointed you, three brothers, to be My close ones and crown you with eternal rewards, because your grandmother continuously - day and night - prays to Me for your salvation, so that you will be directed along the true path of life and, having freed yourself from the deceptions of the evil spirit, be worthy to see the light of truth and inherit life instead of death.” Marvelous were these visions of the three brothers, which equally signified their appeal to God! Impressed by these visions and influenced by the admonitions of Leonilla and the presbyter, the brothers finally turned to their blessed grandmother with these words: - Tell me, what should we do so that your preaching can lead us to salvation, freeing us from previous errors? Saint Leonilla and the presbyter of God rejoiced and, with gratitude to the Lord in their souls, answered: - Keep all the commandments of God, firmly believe in the King of kings - Christ God and, having rejected unclean idols, devote yourself entirely to serving your Creator - God. After this, the holy presbyter Venignus, having carefully taught the young men the truths of the Christian faith, baptized them and finally confirmed them in the confession of Christ, and he himself retired to one of the 627 cities of Dibion, where, having converted many to Christ in a short time, he died a martyr. The three holy twin brothers, immediately upon their confirmation in the Christian faith, sent their servants with orders to break the above-mentioned idol of the goddess Nemesis, and they themselves destroyed the twelve idols that were in their house. Immediately a rumor spread throughout the entire Lingonian country that the grandchildren of Leonilla, such noble young men by birth, believed in Christ and destroyed the idols. The people became embittered against them, the authorities rebelled, the judges and pagan priests were inflamed with anger. The leaders gathered from all sides began to interrogate the holy youths: -Where did madness come over you so suddenly? Who inspired you to reject the veneration of the gods that your ancestors served from ancient times? Are you really so easily ready to reject the king’s command and consider Christ crucified by the Jews to be God? Filled with the Holy Spirit, the young men answered: – O blind at heart, enveloped in eternal darkness, obsessive in sins and doomed to eternal torment and death! Why do you yourselves, deceived by the devil, persuade us to worship a stone or some other object that has been given the likeness of a person? After all, these are the products of human hands: they are soulless, insensitive and insignificant - and yet you, in your madness, consider them to be gods. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the living God, coequal, according to the teachings of our faith, with the other Persons of the Holy Trinity - the Father and the Holy Spirit, God from God, Light from Light, Radiance from Radiance, Who always was, is and will be, the Creator of everything in the world. Such words of the holy brothers infuriated the pagans, especially their priests and leaders. One of them, named Square, could not stand it and struck Speusippus and Eleusippus on the cheeks, because only these two young men spoke against the pagans. Meleusippus, seeing the beatings inflicted on the brothers, exclaimed: - Why don’t you beat me like your brothers? Why are you depriving me of such a benefit? Now they have already begun to endure the suffering that we all so desire, but you do not allow me to endure holy suffering, as if you consider me an unbeliever in Christ and your like-minded person. We all equally firmly believe in Christ, equally despise your pagan wickedness and hope to receive the same reward from Christ. “For dishonor to our gods,” said Square, “we will now subject you to various torments.” “The more torments you prepare for us, the more you strengthen us in the grace of God.” “If you don’t cut out their tongues by the roots,” said another wicked chief, Palmat, “they will not stop dishonoring us and our gods.” “If you, in your cruelty, cut off our bodily tongues, then with the inner tongues of our souls we will glorify the greatness of God, and your malice will never force us to renounce our holy faith in Christ. - Damned ones! - Palmat and the third chief Hermogenes exclaimed, “you are all preparing yourselves together for the death penalty.” “We consider dying for Christ,” answered Speusippus, “as happiness for ourselves, because in this way we will sooner pass into eternal life, where there is no sorrow, but only unceasing joy.” Then the Lingonian judges, Palmatus, Quadratus and Hermogenes, seeing the unshakable firmness of the holy youths in the Christian faith, began to consult among themselves about what kind of most cruel torment, for the fear of others, they should be subjected to and what kind of most cruel execution would be used to kill them. Initially, however, they decided to call the respected Leonilla to their place in order to try, through her, to deviate the young men from the Christian faith and again convert them to paganism. “If you want to save your grandchildren from torment and save them from death, then go and convince them to rebuild the gods they destroyed, bow down and make decent sacrifices to them.” To these and other similar admonitions of the judges, Leonilla responded: “I’ll go and try to convince them to take care of their salvation.” When she came to her holy grandchildren and learned about their firmness in the holy faith, she was very happy. She lovingly kissed each of them, crying with joy and thanking Christ God, and after a long prayer to Him she told her grandchildren: “There was not a single person in your family nobler, richer, better, more pleasing to God than you; By confessing the faith of Christ you enlighten your entire family, and although you are young, you have surpassed in wisdom all the elders of your family. By becoming soldiers of Christ, you have acquired for yourself a huge and priceless treasure. Be adamant and firm in the holy law of Christ and, armed with faith in Christ, do not be afraid of threats and torment. The visible kingdoms of this world, together with all real life, are insignificant, and they will soon end. The invisible Kingdom of God is eternal, and to desire it and strive for it is characteristic of true wisdom; for short-term exploits you can receive it and through fleeting suffering you can enter into the possession of eternal joys. Seeing the young men filled with the grace of God and firm in the faith, she, with these words, entrusted them to Christ and, reassured, left. Soon after, the judges called the saints and asked if they agreed to worship the gods and loudly declare this before all the assembled people. But the young men openly confessed before everyone their faith in the One True God and their complete readiness to go out of love for Him to all kinds of torture and death, and at the same time renounced the false and insignificant pagan gods. Then the holy brothers were tied hand and foot, hung on one tree and stretched, like strings on a harp, so tightly that the bones in their bodies began to come out of their joints. But, strengthened by the grace-filled power of Christ, they patiently endured terrible suffering and laughed at their tormentors - the judges. Saint Meleusippus told them: – Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was nailed to the Cross to atone for our sins, from which holy tree we received the sign of the cross to help and protect ourselves. We, His three servants, hanging on this one tree, become martyrs for His name. Happy is the fruit of the tree that holds the three martyrs sacrificed to the Most Holy Trinity. The judges, seeing that the holy young men not only did not weaken in spirit amid the torment, but seemed to be strengthened even more, said to them: “You will not die on this tree as you want, but you will die in fire.” “Our bliss will be even greater,” Meleusippus answered again, “if we present ourselves to God after we are cleansed by fire and through the flame of fire we pass from darkness to eternal light.” Then the judges ordered to gather wood, brushwood and other flammable items and lit a huge fire, into which they threw the three holy brothers bound. But the saints, with the help of their Savior - Christ, remained unharmed among the fire; the ropes with which they were bound burned out and fell apart, and they, like the three ancient Babylonian youths, walked among the flames and praised God. The wicked began to kindle the fire more strongly, wanting to burn Christ's servants; but the more the fire intensified, the more obvious the glory of the saints became, and when, finally, after a long time, the fire went out, it turned out that the saints were alive, unharmed and not even scorched at all. They just laughed at the tormentors and said: – We have been given the power to move to Christ our God only when we ourselves want; but we decided to laugh at your madness in this life, although we will not hesitate to appear at the heavenly feast. Finally, the three holy twin brothers, seeing before them a host of holy Angels ready to accompany their souls to the Kingdom of Heaven, bowed their knees to the ground and, having prayed all together, gave up their holy souls to God. Their honorable bodies were buried at a distance of two fields 628 from the city, in a village named Urvat, where a church was subsequently built in their honor, where miracles were performed and the sick received healings. After the death of the holy martyrs, one woman named Jovilla, inflamed with Divine jealousy and neglecting her husband and her only young son, exclaimed among the unbelieving pagans: “And I am the servant of Christ, and I unshakably confess Christ, the living and true God, but I reject your unclean and worthless idols.” They immediately grabbed her, hung her by the hair and began to subject her to all sorts of tortures. When she, despite this, did not want to renounce Christ, they brought her together with Saint Leonilla, the grandmother of the holy youths, to the aforementioned village of Urvat and there they beheaded them both with the sword. A certain Neon, who witnessed the exploits of the saints and described their suffering, handed his manuscript to Turvon, and he himself openly confessed his faith in Christ and was beaten until he died a martyr, betraying his soul to the Lord. And Turvon himself, imitating the example of the holy sufferers, passed through martyrdom into eternal life. All this happened on the 16th day of the month of January during the reign of Aurelius Verus, otherwise Antoninus 629, or more precisely, when our Lord Jesus Christ reigned over the world, to Whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit is honor and glory, now and always and unto the ages of ages, amen. Gaul is present-day France. Massilia, a seaside city in southern Gaul, with an excellent fortified harbor, is one of the most important centers of Roman learning in southern Gaul; now – Marseille, the main city of the French department of the “Rhone Mouths”, the first maritime trading city of France with a population of more than 300,000 people; lies between the mouth of the Rhone and Toulon, at the eastern bay of the Gulf of Lyon, at the foot of the rocky spurs of the Provençal Alps. From here, in ancient times, Christianity spread throughout southern Gaul. Eduya is an ancient city in Gaul, southeast of Paris, between the Loire and Saône rivers. The Lingons are an ancient Celtic people, in the country of the Belgae between the upper Saone and the region of the sources of the Marne and Seine; their capital was the city of Andematun, which is here and of course - now - Langres - a city and first-class fortress in the French department of the upper Marne. Augustodon is the main city of the Aedui (Celtic people of Gaul): now Autun in the department of Loire and Saone. According to the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, Nemesis was a goddess who distributes to people according to their merits a share, happiness and misfortune, assigns a reward or punishment according to moral judgment for committed deeds, especially takes revenge and punishes arrogant people, humbles their pride, assigns to those to whom fate has given too much happiness, loss and misfortune, so that a fair measure is again restored and a person does not forget about his human lot. The Dibionian country was located in the east of Gaul. The field is a measure of distances: it was equal to our 690 fathoms. Two fields thus amounted to 1380 fathoms (a little more than 2.5 versts). Marcus Aurelius (otherwise known as Antoninus) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 161 to 180. You might be interested in: