The Two Letters of Vigilius of Trent

A new guest of charity would not otherwise apply himself to holy ears, nor would he, unprovoked, urge upon them the modesty of a first approach, nor as a stranger imbue them with his address, unless a reward also provoked him. From an apostolic man, therefore, dearest brother, the tenor of the present letter and its fullness shall begin, so that by an easy connection you may understand that the praises of the martyrs follow. For James, a man faithful to heavenly desires, being about to lay down his office among the companions of Christ, sought the relics of the recent saints, still smoking with their fervor. I said "about to lay down," because that dignity which is heaped up before the Lord cannot be laid aside. To him I, quite timid and not a little wary of the matter, wrestling with myself over the arrangement, since I was scarcely a fitting distributor, almost, out of fear, refused: for I had always reckoned that whoever lends must take account.

I confess; I feared greatly, with a private fear, the private loss of many, had I not looked to James, who was about to hand them over to holy John through certain nourishments of reverence, so that, by a delegated love conveyed through the religious names of the martyrs, kinship not foreign might again be joined by blood. Gladly accepting this opinion of faith also, among other things, which smiled well upon my sorrow, I only delayed, I did not refuse. I delayed, so that my slowness might again be openly shown, I who had scarcely deserved to follow my companions. I confess, I desired it: but the crown of righteousness does not lie in desire alone. Now, however, if a fitting order will not be burdensome to thirsting ears, I will begin from the situation of the region and of the journey; following without distaste the chief traces of the events, so that the flood of merits may more readily pour forth, if you come with a capacious love to the source of the fountain. II.

There is a place (whose native name is Anagnia), situated twenty-five stadia from the city, shut in by narrow defiles both by treachery and by nature, opened by almost a single approach (you might call it the path of the three martyrs), which, lying supine with a soft slope, with a rampart settling on every side, with fortresses placed all around in a crown, and neighbors conspiring together in treachery, presents a kind of spectacle, a stage of nature. The place lacked no cause: but Christ was cause enough, that the game of the devil might furnish pomp for martyrdom. Let not the account of the place be odious to the hearer's ear. For it was always to itself an ill companion, that hollow place resounding among the mountains: to which, when the soldiery of Christ had first ascended, savage paganism, often roused by trumpets, was inflamed with rival fury and the clangor of war.

But the one kind of warfare of the saints was perfect: to endure all things, to yield when provoked, to bear patiently, to restrain by private gentleness the public fury of those about to suffer, to conquer by refusing to fight: but the predestined glory, with its ripe outcome, pressed on toward its titles, which the due order had brought forth. For, passing over the windings and cutting short the long circuits (only I will not be silent on this), by which the virtue of the martyrs was nourished, lest I diminish their praise by an abridgment. III. When the name of the Lord was still a stranger in the aforesaid region, and there was no sign that displayed the seal of faith, there were then, singular in number, now singular in merit, foreigners as much by religion as by race, by whom God, though unknown, was not undeservedly proclaimed, settled by a long time's quiet manner of life, while no advantage of faith stirred them.

But now, if the cause of the hatred rising against the Lord be sought, it was the title of peace violated; because one of these, named Sisinnius, more advanced in years than the other two, in whom there was at least venerable old age, raised a church at his own expense. Richer in faith than in fortune, wealthy in spirit, poor in wealth, he handed over the sheepfold to the shepherd. He who was its founder became its watchman: but the fold was hateful to the wolves. The devil's ruin envied the height that had been raised. This was the first lot of martyrdom, that the sheep, while pursuing the lamb, should be slain.

Added to this was, as it were, a sacrifice, a cause more just before God: that when they wished to lead the lustral evil about the borders of the fields with a funereal display, and to trample and defile the growing crops as much as to insult the sprouting shoots of Christ, crowned with mournful ornaments, howling the song of the devil, with banners of various flocks raised in pomp against the Lord's temple, they sought to compel one recently converted from their own people to give sacrifices to the works of darkness. When the ministers of the Lord could scarcely see this done without their own guilt, because, standing by, they too seemed to share in the confused works; on that day the bodies of the saints were pledged to a deadly slaughter, though the palm of victory was deferred. IV.

Here, brother, I wish to compare with you for a little the titles of these things, lest to anyone the martyrdom seem to have been undertaken in a lowly, pedestrian manner: because every good that is present is thought cheap; whereas it is new and marvelous, raised up without the envy of the age, and so completed that nothing preceded it nor follows it; but it stands alone, closed by its own singular consummation. He who guards a sheep from the robber is, I think, shown to be not a hireling but a disciple of Christ; and he who flees is a hired man; he who does not desert is a shepherd. He who lays down his life, lives; he who saves it, loses it. For what else did the Master and Lord do, but refuse to abandon the deserters; or the Lamb, but defend the ewe, that a pious victim might be consummated for the sheep?

But as I am about to enter the gate of the passions, after setting forth manifold cause, I will not draw to myself borrowed praise, nor will I steal it: because it belongs not to martyrs to desire what is another's, nor to priests to deceive: except that I confess myself unequal, in following after these things by narrating them, and in this least of all, since I am about to say lesser things. V. After the banner of the diabolical lustrations, which, as we have related, was a sign of the glory soon to come, in a single night the delayed ascent to the crown took place.

For in the morning hours, at dawn, with the shadow of heaven suddenly withdrawing, an unexpected but conspiring band gathered, armed with fire-hardened stakes and axes, and whatever weapon the devil's rage had forged for the searching hands; and there, some deacons being caught in the church chanting the morning hymn, a vast devastation, a savage plundering, took place: all things, both secret and divine mysteries, were profaned; religion at last became plunder. Let no one think this was a common contest, when either senseless idols are demolished by sensible beings, or masses of stone are moved along with their movers; so that concerning the worshipper and the object worshipped you may be uncertain which to judge the harder. Christ the Rock was assailed in all, the cornerstone was rejected by the nations, to be approved again; about to build with pure blood a ruin that would rise. Faith had its own spectacle amid these things.

The body of Sisinnius, then a deacon, was held on a couch, pierced and wounded also with earlier wounds, when he was ordered either to call back the sheep to sacrifice, or himself to become a sacrifice, unless he consented to the deadly sacrifices; he was struck with the trumpet by which they sounded the song of the devil—not undeservedly he who had first brought in the sound of faith; struck with axes, he who defended the axe from the barren tree of paganism. And, not to draw this out further, confirmed—as we have said—he is found in the repose of his couch, having confessed, I believe, so that by a private mystery he might come more quickly to the cross, about to loosen the paralyzed people. VI.

By a wooden beam the lector Martyrius also was bound with ropes: a confessor likewise and asserter of his own name; who then first, and now alone in a foreign land, had sung the new song; amid the shouting and horrid pastoral howls, already then, with sweet eloquence, rendering praises to God, as I mentioned above; and had brought medicine or comfort to the deacon Sisinnius, meaning to heal his pains, though he himself was about to receive wounds; recalling with choice draughts the fleeing soul, not to the body, but to the passion. But the saint, his journey to Christ through martyrdom now appointed, refused a drink of water, because he had come to the wine of the passion, which he had mixed with the cup offered from the streams of truer life. Caught thus in this care—he who was always solicitous for the holiness of souls, not born for himself alone, nor certainly to live for himself alone—withdrew into the secret part of the garden that adjoined, that is, he did not withdraw from the church.

For the church, as you know better than I, is a garden, planted with the hedges of the living commandments. He did not thrust forward his body, which he was unwilling to deny; nor did he assume the boldness of rashness, out of confidence born of piety. As is said of the regions of Africa, that those who are armed for a voluntary death, do it without fear, and, swelling with pride, seek it eagerly. The future martyr stood, captured, yet free; fearless, confessing; giving thanks, wounded; wounded in body, secure in mind, his head cut off, washed in his own blood by a private baptism. No one deserved to follow him who was thought to be fleeing; whence it was a vain thing, and like fear, that he withdrew—no, it was devotion: but the just confession of the one seized showed that the other stood only that he might conquer; this one withdrew, that the persecutor too might perish in his glory. From the garden into which he had fled, Martyrius is led forth.

This withdrawal is a kind of mystery, that the purple flower, a native of blooming places, might not undeservedly be dyed as a rose, preceding the new martyr; or that amid the whitening locks of lilies, all watered by baptism and planted by recurring death, the silent will of life might be dictated. Pierced also with stakes, he was led to the idol: but he deserved to be a victim before he reached the altar of the devil.

VII. The third crown also, honoring Alexander, is completed for the Lord. He found a familiar entrance who had kept watch at the doors of Christ; by whose guard the veil of the temple had torn asunder the hidden hearts of the gentiles. Sought eagerly by the multitude, because well known to all for his zeal of faith, he was captured, yet not made captive; he was fear itself, but did not fear. Christ's disciple was often mocked, and in this the greater toil in martial torments made the penalty even more vivid; and thus, to compensate for the dignity by an excess of passion, he deserved by lot that in the three of them nothing should be inferior. For in the others fury did not delay the torments; but for him a slow penalty was kept in the Lord's plan: he felt that he knew what he was enduring, a spectator of his own body: and although the wounds inflicted on the aforesaid deacon-martyr had been delayed, the torments kept this one for themselves as guardian.

For, their bodies joined and bound together and dragged through the public streets in the manner of dogs, though not to return to their vomit, Alexander was led alive among them, his feet entangled, to leave part of his quivering limbs upon the rocks, until he should be brought to the end of the place—of life, I mean. After this they went up to the sacred heights, that is, the lofty temples of God; after the bodies, the roofs were laid low on the ground, a pyre made of consecrated beams, in sight of Saturn, an idol of long-aged antiquity. With his twin and brother bodies sent ahead into the fire, wounded Alexander stood, about to confess once more; to whom the reward of life was proposed, that he might lack life; if he wished to escape the present flame, let him say that he had consented to their darkness.

But he, looking askance and rejecting the gifts of the impious, had before his eyes light against light; fear of the penalty kept away the penalty; the warmth of faith repelled the flame; the order and rank of the passion also kept its reverence. He is looked up to last, but crowned not least among the brethren. It was fulfilled, brothers, in the three ministers—now indeed at the banquet of heavenly joy—the mystery of the Trinity; since others too could have suffered as a living sacrifice, by a like lot, unless all things were completed and increased by the threefold number. For we were among these no small portion by chance: and for their sake we were reproached by the gentiles; nor did we abandon our companions: but rank has its own election.

VIII. Moreover, many things in the days drawing near to the passion were not so much demonstrated as depicted in truth, which we pass over briefly; so that through these few things which were done we may more fully teach the mysteries.

If, however, you will deign to read patiently with me what has been related: from the very cradle of the region, Sisinnius was a Cappadocian by race, or a Greek, once of your own first blood; swift in faith, magnanimous in spirit, prodigal of labor, persevering in all things, closing his goal with a palm not late, destined to come by the seventh lot of the promise, always joined by the bond of charity, agreeing in peace, holding the reins of divine discipline, tamer of so great a yoked people, the index of Christ; at last recognized as the leader of the way for the future flock, or of the brothers of his own blood (as usage, the teacher of things, expresses it), a bold trampler-down of danger and its author, so that the ranks might safely follow behind him.

Thus in our morning index of faith there was a primacy of blood and of leadership: who, after showing the way, led on to life, or led in to glory, a leader into salvation, a knower of truth; the Prophet bearing witness, "And my index in the morning." And that the deeds might the more heap up mysteries, and that his Index might not lack its own indication; when they dragged the lifeless body of holy Sisinnius like an animal, they bound to his neck the hollow ringing of a brazen bell, which the common people call a "tintinnabulum"; insulting the body, reviling death, taunting that Christ was no avenger; and mocking the disciple of the Lord, they fulfilled a saving mystery. For what did that ringing mean, or that sound useful for tracking animals, and fitting also for adornment, hung about his neck? Except that the voice might belch out the name of Christ, crying hoarsely to the deaf; and might approve him as prince, both of the flock and of the nation, in all things.

For he was the first to sound the word of the religious voice, the first to make it resound in the hollow valleys: even now, close to brute beasts, or certainly a shepherd feeding an untouched flock, heard as the ringer of a new sound, a ruminator of the flowering law among the nations.

IX. The order being set forth, he fulfilled the prophecy he held, gaining for himself also the consequent name of Martyrius: he expounded the parable of the name, a true revealer in all things: the name by which he was called pleased him, and he heaped up merits upon it: he established that his birth-name was to come true also, as in his origin, so in his passion. Why should I disclose the secrets of the garden, conscious of penalty? For he betook himself first to that place to which, as a martyr, he entered again—the gate of paradise, meditating upon the pure delight and the venerable true joys proper to himself; a living flower, still clinging ill to the thorn of the world, about to be planted in verdant places; shown forth by a virgin, whose garden it was. Why do you draw me back again to the mysteries accomplished?

That virgin betrayed him who ever wished to keep her own: she wished to let go him whom she had received: she chose as her cultivator him whom she had approved. Now, by the affection of a known love, she held God also invited, as Solomon says in the Canticles, "Let my brother come down into his garden". He came down, and indeed he came down: for he who was loved by that rich will did not wish to go out, even at the time of the passion, so that we may express a thing known in our own times. In the garden, together with the Jews, Iscariot seized the Lord. Let no one find fault with the disciple for such a withdrawal: thus is the Master and Lord found. He was thought to be the gardener, the waterer of the living, the planter of souls. The garden, therefore, is not the refuge of one who flees, but the asylum of one who takes refuge, for those who understand that the garden's deeds have merited paradise.

X. But to Alexander, who fulfilled the whole while living, what could the mystery of death confer, except that the name pleased in accordance with the vice of the nation; so that Alexandria might be thought Anagnia, made religious by its own peculiar portents, teeming with demons, biform with Anubises, manifold with idols half-human, which is to say, mockers of the law; full of the madness of Isis, the flight of Serapis; finally, the fond mother—or rather stepmother—of the crimes of her inhabitants; nursling of a brood of vipers, through the offspring of a poisoned race, which knows not how to be conceived, unless it rejoices in the bereavement of a father; knows not how to grow, unless it be born by death; knows not how to live, unless it fail to know its mother; so that, in the conversion to the faith, the offspring of an evil brood, conceived at the loss of God the Father, born with its head denied, brought forth through the pierced womb of Mother Church, might take the origin of life through the death of the saints; but now it grows, more fruitful for loss, more lively for death, more joyful after sorrow.

For it is plain and fully perceived, what has been disclosed by the dictation of the Scriptures, that all things were shut up under one sin, that all might merit mercy. These are the hundredfold returns of the passion, by which that nation now absolves its own guilt: captivity has made them free, indulgence has loosed the bound. Then heaven agreed into darkness, the light shuddered at the passion, confounded, I believe, by the blindness of a perfidious mind. XI. Believe, brother, the eyes of your brother. A certain shadow of a black cloud covered, or rather wove together, the whole region; lightning cracked close to the earth; a dread roar often thundered; a ruddy flashing fire gleamed forth more brightly: you would have said the sky was conscious of blood. It is no longer possible, after the shadow of that, so to speak, foreign night, to conceal manifest truth beneath a cloud. The day too betrayed the horror of the passion, not merely retreating, but deprived.

For the kindly light of the sixth day had come forth, ever after God the friend of martyrs: still reverently holding a part of the Lord's body, through his holy foster-children it rendered service to the servants of God, envy nevertheless rivaling the lot of religion that was to come. Thus does the Lord assert himself by his works; thus does he show himself a companion in all things, that he might be joined in equality even of time. I confess, I was a witness among these mysteries, and a watcher at the ashes of the saints: what I did not merit to share in, I felt, though I could not attain to it. I saw—scarcely even today credible to myself: the deeds done exceed the reverence of things related in words: whence it will be God's part, brother, to assert what he has chosen, and to bear witness to one who testifies.

Receive now, brother, the gifts of the three boys, or the three boys from the furnace, still all but walking amid the panting fire's flames; and unless the jealous fury of the flame had caught them half-dead, the example of the history would have revived: so did all things almost paint themselves with like honor: Voice, Dew, Number, Furnace. Voice, harmonious faith; Dew, the rain; Furnace, the pyre; Number, the Trinity.