by
1. Saint Sophia
“An
official named Antiochus denounced them to the emperor Hadrian … who ordered
that they be brought to Rome. Realizing that they would be taken before the
emperor, the holy virgins prayed fervently to the Lord Jesus Christ, asking
that He give them the strength not to fear torture and death. When the holy
virgins and their mother came before the emperor, everyone present was amazed
at their composure. They looked as though they had been brought to some happy
festival, rather than to torture”.
This story bears
remarkable parallels to that of the widow-martyr, Hannah, in 2 Maccabees,
especially in my revised context according to which Antiochus IV ‘Epiphanes’
was Hadrian:
Antiochus
'Epiphanes' and Emperor Hadrian. Part One: "… a mirror image"
and:
For one,
an “Antiochus” denounces the mother and her daughters to the emperor Hadrian.
In 2 Maccabees 7 it is Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’ who
tortures the victims, but who is named in Jewish legends, “Hadrian”.
In the Christian tale the mother has only
daughters.
In the Maccabean account the mother has only sons.
St. Sophia is, as Hannah is (according to Jewish
tradition), a widow.
In both
tales the children remain composed even whilst being tortured.
In both tales the pious mother, who encourages her
children, outlives them all, but soon dies (St. Sophia 3 days later).
Here is my account of the Jewish widow-martyr,
according to my revised history, with the Herodian and Maccabean ages now
contemporary, and Hannah tentatively suggested as the New Testament widow, Anna
the prophetess:
A
New Timetable for the Nativity of Jesus Christ
Anna
was a widow - and, appropriately, the woman-martyr in Maccabees has no husband
with her but only sons. Soon we shall read that she was, according to rabbinic
tradition, “a widow”.
And
she was indeed very wise and prophetic, as would befit an Anna the prophetess.
Moreover,
Anna had had the inestimable privilege of witnessing the future hope of Israel
and she accordingly “gave thanks to God and spoke about the Child to all who
were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).
If
Anna were also the woman of Maccabees, then her experience of meeting the Holy
Family would have greatly fortified her in her worthy task of urging her seven
sons not to apostatise. Her hope had become their hope.
And
so the youngest of the sons can hopefully proclaim to the king (2 Maccabees
7:32-35):
‘It
is true that our living Lord is angry with us and is making us suffer because
of our sins, in order to correct and discipline us. But this will last only a
short while, for we are still his servants, and he will forgive us.
But
you are the cruelest and most disgusting thing that ever lived. So don’t fool
yourself with illusions of greatness while you punish God’s people.
There
is no way for you to escape punishment at the hands of the almighty and
all-seeing God’.
Hannah’s (Anna’s) martyrdom, along with her seven sons, we estimate to have
occurred very soon after the Presentation. The Holy Family was now safe from
“the king”, in Egypt.
Now, a traditional Jewish
interpretation of this dramatic account of martyrdom may have great import for
our revised Maccabean-Herodian history and for the ‘shaving off’ of Romans.
Very early in this article we
followed up our question about the relationship of Antiochus to Herod with: And who is Caesar Augustus?
… whilst Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’
was the king present during the martyrdom of the woman and her seven sons,
there are accounts in the Jewish Talmud and
Midrash according to which the king
in the story was “Caesar” (e.g. Talmud, Gittin
57b and Midrash Eicha Rabba 1:50).
Even more shockingly (in standard historical terms) the cruel king overseeing
the martyrdom is sometimes named “Hadrian”. Stephen D.
Moore, in The Bible in Theory: Critical and Postcritical Essays, p. 196,
when discussing the famous incident in the Maccabees of the mother and her
seven martyred sons, adds this intriguing footnote (51) according to which
Antiochus was replaced in rabbinic tradition by Hadrian:
Nameless in 4 Maccabees, the mother
is dubbed … Hannah … in the rabbinic tradition …. The tyrant in the
rabbinic versions, however, is not Antiochus Epiphanes but
Hadrian: “Hadrian
came and seized upon a widow …” (S. Eliyahu Rab. 30); “In the days of
the shemad [the Hadrianic persecutions]…” (Pesiq. R. 43). ….
As said, this is ‘shocking’ in a
conventional context which would have Antiochus (c. 170 BC) separated in time
from the reign of the emperor Hadrian (c. 117-138 AD) by some three centuries.
But it accords perfectly with the descriptions of Hadrian as “a second
Antiochus” and “a mirror-image of Antiochus”.
[End of quote]
Now, here is the story of the Christian
saint and her daughters - all so marvellously named:
Martyr Love with her mother and sisters at Rome
The Holy
Martyrs Saint Sophia and her Daughters Faith, Hope and Love were born in Italy.
Their mother was a pious Christian widow who named her daughters for the three
Christian virtues. Faith was twelve, Hope was ten, and Love was nine. Saint
Sophia raised them in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Saint Sophia and her
daughters did not hide their faith in Christ, but openly confessed it before
everyone.
An official
named Antiochus denounced them to the emperor Hadrian … who ordered that they
be brought to Rome. Realizing that they would be taken before the emperor, the
holy virgins prayed fervently to the Lord Jesus Christ, asking that He give
them the strength not to fear torture and death. When the holy virgins and their
mother came before the emperor, everyone present was amazed at their composure.
They looked as though they had been brought to some happy festival, rather than
to torture. Summoning each of the sisters in turn, Hadrian urged them to offer
sacrifice to the goddess Artemis. The young girls remained unyielding.
Then the
emperor ordered them to be tortured. They burned the holy virgins over an iron
grating, then threw them into a red-hot oven, and finally into a cauldron with
boiling tar, but the Lord preserved them.
The youngest
child, Love, was tied to a wheel and they beat her with rods until her body was
covered all over with bloody welts. After undergoing unspeakable torments, the
holy virgins glorified their Heavenly Bridegroom and remained steadfast in the
Faith.
They
subjected Saint Sophia to another grievous torture: the mother was forced to
watch the suffering of her daughters. She displayed adamant courage, and urged
her daughters to endure their torments for the sake of the Heavenly Bridegroom.
All three maidens were beheaded, and joyfully bent their necks beneath the
sword.
In order to
intensify Saint Sophia’s inner suffering, the emperor permitted her to take the
bodies of her daughters. She placed their remains in coffins and loaded them on
a wagon. She drove beyond the city limits and reverently buried them on a high
hill. Saint Sophia sat there by the graves of her daughters for three days, and
finally she gave up her soul to the Lord. Even though she did not suffer for
Christ in the flesh, she was not deprived of a martyr’s crown. Instead, she
suffered in her heart. Believers buried her body there beside her daughters. ….
2. Saint Symphorosa
“St. Symphorosa set
not before the eyes of her children the advantages of their riches and birth,
or of their father’s honourable employments and great exploits; but those of
his piety and the triumph of his martyrdom”.
This story, too,
bears remarkable parallels to that of the widow-martyr in 2 Maccabees.
Now, here is the story of the
Christian saint, Symphorosa, her seven sons, and Hadrian:
TRAJAN’S persecution in some degree continued during
the first year of Adrian’s [Hadrian’s] reign …..
This God was pleased to permit, that his afflicted
Church might enjoy some respite. It was, however, again involved in the
disgrace which the Jews (with whom the Pagans at these times in some degree
confounded the Christians) drew upon themselves by their rebellion, which
gave occasion to the last entire destruction of Jerusalem in 134 [sic]. Then,
as St. Paulinus informs us … Adrian caused a statue of Jupiter to be erected
on the place where Christ rose from the dead, and a marble Venus on the place
of his crucifixion; and at Bethlehem … a grotto consecrated in honour of
Adonis or Thammuz, to whom he also dedicated the cave where Christ was born.
This prince towards the end of his reign abandoned himself more than ever to
acts of cruelty, and being awakened by a fit of superstition he again drew
his sword against the innocent flock of Christ. He built a magnificent
country palace at Tibur, now Tivoli, sixteen miles from Rome, upon the most
agreeable banks of the river Anio, now called Teverone. Here he placed
whatever could be procured most curious out of all the provinces. Having
finished the building he intended to dedicate it by heathenish ceremonies
which he began by offering sacrifices, in order to induce the idols to
deliver their oracles. The demons answered: “The widow Symphorosa and her
seven sons daily torment us by invoking their God; if they sacrifice, we
promise to be favourable to your vows.”
| |
This lady lived with her seven sons upon
a plentiful estate which they enjoyed at Tivoli, and she liberally expended
her treasures in assisting the poor, especially in relieving the Christians
who suffered for the faith. She was widow of St. Getulius or Zoticus, who had
been crowned with martyrdom with his brother Amantius. They were both
tribunes of legions or colonels in the army, and are honoured among the
martyrs on the 10th of June. Symphorosa had buried their bodies in her own
farm, and sighing to see her sons and herself united with them in immortal
bliss, she prepared herself to follow them by the most fervent exercise of
all good works.
|
|
Adrian, whose
superstition was alarmed at this answer of his gods or their priests, ordered
her and her sons to be seized, and brought before him. She came with joy in
her countenance, praying all the way for herself and her children, that God
would grant them the grace to confess his holy name with constancy. The
emperor exhorted them at first in mild terms to sacrifice. Symphorosa
answered: “My husband Getulius and his brother Amantius, being your tribunes,
have suffered divers torments for the name of Jesus Christ rather than
sacrifice to idols; and they have vanquished your demons by their death,
choosing to be beheaded rather than to be overcome. The death they suffered
drew upon them ignominy among men, but glory among the angels; and they now
enjoy eternal life in heaven.” The emperor changing his voice, said to her in
an angry tone: “Either sacrifice to the most powerful gods, with thy sons, or
thou thyself shalt be offered up as a sacrifice together with them.”
Symphorosa answered: “Your gods cannot receive me as a sacrifice; but if I am
burnt for the name of Jesus Christ my death will increase the torment which
your devils endure in their flames. But can I hope for so great a happiness
as to be offered with my children a sacrifice to the true and living God?”
Adrian said: “Either sacrifice to my gods, or you shall all miserably
perish.” Symphorosa said: “Do not imagine that fear will make me change; I am
desirous to be at rest with my husband whom you put to death for the name of
Jesus Christ.” The emperor then ordered her to be carried to the temple of
Hercules, where she was first buffeted on the cheeks, and afterwards hung up
by the hair of her head. When no torments were able to shake her invincible
soul, the emperor gave orders that she should be thrown into the river with a
great stone fastened about her neck. Her brother Eugenius, who was one of the
chief of the council of Tibur, took up her body, and buried it on the road
near that town.
|
|
The next day the
emperor sent for her seven sons all together, and exhorted them to sacrifice
and not imitate the obstinacy of their mother. He added the severest threats,
but finding all to be in vain, he ordered seven stakes with engines and
pullies to be planted round the temple of Hercules, and the pious youths to
be bound upon them; their limbs were in this posture tortured and stretched
in such a manner that the bones were disjointed in all parts of their bodies.
The young noblemen, far from yielding under the violence of their tortures,
were encouraged by each other’s example, and seemed more eager to suffer than
the executioners were to torment. At length the emperor commanded them to be
put to death, in the same place where they were, different ways. The eldest
called Crescens had his throat cut; the second called Julian was stabbed in
the breast; Nemesius the third was pierced with a lance in his heart;
Primativus received his wound in the belly, Justin in the back, Stacteus on
his sides, and Eugenius the youngest died by his body being cleft asunder
into two parts across his breast from the head downwards. The emperor came
the next day to the temple of Hercules, and gave orders for a deep hole to be
dug, and all the bodies of these martyrs to be thrown into it. The place was
called by the heathen priest, The seven Biothanati; which word
signifieth in Greek and in the style of art magic, such as die by a violent
death, particularly such as were put to the torture. After this, a stop was
put to the persecution for about eighteen months. 4 During which interval of peace the
Christians took up the remains of these martyrs, and interred them with
honour on the Tiburtin road, in the midway between Tivoli and Rome, where
still are seen some remains of a church erected in memory of them in a place
called to this day, The seven Brothers. 5 Their bodies were translated by a pope
called Stephen, into the church of the Holy Angel in the fish-market in Rome,
where they were found in the pontificate of Pius IV. with an inscription on a
plate which mentioned this translation. 6
|
|
St. Symphorosa
set not before the eyes of her children the advantages of their riches and
birth, or of their father’s honourable employments and great exploits; but
those of his piety and the triumph of his martyrdom. She continually
entertained them on the glory of heaven, and the happiness of treading in the
steps of our Divine Redeemer, by the practice of humility, patience,
resignation, and charity, which virtues are best learned in the path of
humiliations and sufferings. In these a Christian finds his solid treasure,
and his unalterable peace and joy both in life and death. The honours,
riches, applause, and pleasures with which the worldly sinner is sometimes
surrounded, can never satiate his desires; often they do not even reach his
heart, which under this gorgeous show bleeds as it were inwardly, while
silent grief, like a worm at the core, preys upon his vitals. Death at last
always draws aside the curtain, and shows them to have been no better than
mere dreams and shadows which passed in a moment, but have left a cruel sting
behind them, which fills the mind with horror, dread, remorse, and despair,
and racks the whole soul with confusion, perplexities, and alarms.
|
3. Saint Felicity
The story of the
widow-martyr Saint Felicity, and her seven martyred sons, also bears an uncanny
resemblance to that of the widow-martyr, Hannah, in 2 Maccabees.
Here is the story of this
Christian saint and her seven sons:
https://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_felicity_and_her_seven_sons.html
Saint Felicity and her Seven Sons
Saint Felicity was a noble Roman
matron, distinguished above all for her virtue. This mother of seven children
raised her sons in the fear of the Lord, and after the death of her husband,
served God in continence, concerning herself only with good works. Her good
examples and those of her children brought a number of pagans to renounce their
superstitions, and also encouraged the Christians to show themselves worthy of
their vocation. The pagan priests, furious at seeing their gods abandoned,
denounced her. She appeared with her pious sons before the prefect of Rome, who
exhorted her to sacrifice to idols, but in reply heard a generous confession of
faith.
Wretched woman, he said to her,
how can you be so barbarous as to expose your children to torments and death?
Have pity on these tender creatures, who are in the flower of their age and can
aspire to the highest positions in the Empire! Felicity replied, My children
will live eternally with Jesus Christ, if they are faithful; they will have
only eternal torments to await, if they sacrifice to idols. Your apparent pity
is but a cruel impiety. Then, turning to her children, she said: Look towards
heaven, where Jesus Christ is waiting for you with His Saints! Be faithful in
His love, and fight courageously for your souls.
The Judge, taking the children
one by one, tried to overcome their constancy. He began with Januarius, but
received for his answer: What you advise me to do is contrary to reason; Jesus,
the Saviour, will preserve me, I hope, from such impiety. Felix, the second,
was then brought in. When they urged him to sacrifice, he answered: There is
only one God, and it is to Him that we must offer the sacrifice of our hearts. Use
all artifices, every refinement of cruelty, you will not make us betray our
faith! The other brothers, when questioned, answered with the same firmness.
Martial, the youngest, who spoke last, said: All those who do not confess that
Jesus Christ is the true God, will be cast into a fire which will never be
extinguished.
When the interrogation was
finished, the Saints underwent the penalty of the lash and then were taken to
prison. Soon they completed their sacrifice in various ways: Januarius was
beaten until he died by leather straps capped with lead; Felix and Philip were
killed with bludgeons; Sylvanus was thrown headfirst from a cliff; Alexander,
Vitalis and Martial were beheaded. Felicity, the mother of these new Maccabees,
was the last to suffer martyrdom.
1 comment:
You made some decent factors there. I seemed on the web for the issue and located most individuals will go along with together with your website. real money casino
Post a Comment