Meditations on the Virtues of the Martyrs
Meditations on the Virtues of the Martyrs
Tomorrow, God willing, is the Feast of Nayrouz, or the Feast of the Martyrs, and the beginning of a new year in our Coptic calendar. It is important for us to pause for a few moments to meditate on the lives of our holy fathers, the martyrs.
The Church places the martyrs in a rank greater than all the saints:
Greater than the patriarchal and episcopal fathers, and greater than the fathers of monasticism—that is, greater than the fathers who labor in the life of service, and greater than the fathers who live the contemplative life.
Thus, the martyrs are greater than the saints of contemplation and the saints of service.
This is because they attained self-offering springing from the depth of love, as the Scripture says: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
They loved God more than everything, and accepted to part from everything and everyone for the sake of His love.
In their acceptance of death, there is a form of complete asceticism. For if there had been in their hearts a desire for anything, they would not have accepted death, lest death deprive them of their desires. Therefore, they were in the depth of asceticism.
Truly, the saying of the Scripture applies to them: that they do not love the world nor the things in the world. At the hour of death, no doubt their hearts had died to all the desires of the world. They no longer had in the world any desire they clung to or that drew them to earthly life.
They were in the depth of asceticism, and they were also at the summit of courage.
They did not fear death, nor torture, nor pain, nor trials, nor were they disturbed by insults. Nothing at all terrified them. Rather, they advanced toward all this with rare courage that astonished rulers and amazed people.
When they were cast into prisons, they filled the prisons with praise, hymns, rejoicing, and prayer, as though they were in festivities.
The jailers marveled at them. What was this joy with which they met death—no disturbance, no anxiety, no fatigue, no annoyance—but rather rejoicing in death more than in life.
Saint Abba Pham, when he went to martyrdom, rejoiced greatly, put on his finest garments, and said: “This is the day of my wedding.”
Some of the martyrs would kiss the chains with which they were bound.
They were filled with confidence; therefore, they met death with joy and gladness. They gave their lives, as the Scripture says: “God loves a cheerful giver.”
The greatest gift a person can offer is to offer his life. And they offered this life without hesitation, without regret, with all joy, with all courage.
Kings and governors marveled at their courage, firmness, and steadfastness.
They did not dread any means of torture but met them with bravery and composure. All kinds of pains could not shake their faith. Nor did they negotiate even for a moment with any forms of strange temptations.
Their wondrous faith, courage, and steadfastness amazed the unbelieving onlookers, who then believed and came forward for martyrdom.
Those who were martyred before their baptism had their martyrdom counted as baptism.
For baptism is death with Christ. These died with Christ an actual death, like the right-hand thief, and were counted as baptized with the baptism of blood. Among these also were those who were martyred while still among the catechumens.
How wondrous was the courage of the martyrs—not only men, but also women and children, such as Cyriacus the child, and the holy saints Demiana, Rebecca, and mother Dolagy.
They were martyrs, and they bore witness to the Lord. They testified to His divinity, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. They confessed the faith and were a cause for the faith of many.
Therefore, we consider the martyrs among the heroes of faith, who preserved it with their blood.
They sold everything for the sake of their faith, which to them was everything.
They never feared death; not only this, but they were even seeking it.
In the height of periods of persecution, they would go out into the streets praising the Lord, crying out before the processions of governors and rulers, “We are Christians, we are Christians.” They would go to the courts where Christians were tried and shout, “We are Christians,” encouraging their brethren. They also went to the prisons, caring for their brethren and declaring their Christianity.
We say this so that those who deny their religion—perhaps for trivial reasons—may be ashamed.
How strange is the one who leaves his religion for the sake of a woman, or a job, or money, or any worldly purpose. How can such a one be among the sons of the martyrs?
But the martyrs paid no attention to any temptation or torture. They were stronger than the Roman Empire with all its weapons and power. They were greater than the cruelty of the tormentors and the instruments of torture. They were greater than pain; they conquered it without being conquered by it.
They were men of faith: they believed in Christ, in eternity, and in their sojourning on earth. They did not fear death, for they believed in the life after death and loved it.
They confessed that they were strangers on earth and did not cling to anything in their land of sojourning, but looked to “the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” As they confessed their sojourning, they desired to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.
Christ for them was a goal and not a means—indeed, the only goal.
There are people in the world who love the Lord because He is the source of goodness and blessing, and because He is the Giver who has not left them in need of anything in the works of His honor. But these received from Christ nothing but pain, toil, distress, persecution, torture, imprisonment, death, and defamation.
Although they received from Him nothing but pain, they loved Him and loved pain for His sake. In His love, they found even torture sweet.
Many, when they encounter distress in the way of the Lord, doubt His love, murmur, and say, “Where is the Lord our God?” and may even blaspheme.
But the martyrs never doubted God’s love at all, despite the torments they suffered. Their goal was God, not comfort.
The Lord had already told us about the narrow gate and the difficult way, and said, “In the world you will have tribulation.” If tribulation is the way that leads to Him, then welcome this tribulation. How beautiful is the gate through which we enter to God, no matter how painful.
When Gideon said to the Angel of the Lord, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor,” he answered, “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” (Judges 6:13). But the martyrs saw the Lord in sufferings and did not need to repeat Gideon’s question.
Had the Lord not been with them in their sufferings, they would not have endured them.
The torments were beyond human capacity, but God who was with them granted them strength beyond human strength by which they were able to endure. He also gave them signs and wonders to confirm their faith and the faith of the people.
How beautiful it is to taste the sweetness of the Lord in the time of pain.
Then you sing and say, “The Lord is at my right hand; I shall not be moved.” Thus were the martyrs. In the periods of their sufferings, the Lord was with them, and His angels and the spirits of His saints granted them consolation, patience, courage, and steadfastness.
The Church delivered lectures and sermons to the faithful on “exhortation to martyrdom,” until martyrdom became a desire in hearts.
The mother encouraged her children to martyrdom. The child grew up loving death in order to meet Christ, without fear or dread. The family raised its children to hold fast to the faith and defend it unto death. Thus, in the Church arose a strong generation, ready for testimony, ready for the Kingdom, and ready to meet the Lord at any time.
Those who were ready for death were undoubtedly repentant and pure, preparing for their eternity with the purity and holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
The generation of the martyrs, characterized by asceticism, courage, and faith, and which prepared for eternity with purity and holiness, was a generation that loved virginity and asceticism, loved worship and quietness. It was a generation of prayer and contemplation. It died to the world and its desires; therefore, martyrdom was easy for it.
It was a prepared generation that left the world in heart before leaving it in body. The world had gone out of their hearts before they went out of the world.
Are we like them in their readiness? Has the Church, and has the family, been able to train its children for martyrdom?
Martyrdom was not merely the acceptance of death to preserve the faith, but it was the summit of a group of virtues that prepared for the acceptance of martyrdom, among them asceticism, monastic discipline, courage, sojourning, faith, holiness, and the desire to depart, and the love of God that surpasses every love, and the love of eternity and the Kingdom.
A believer once directed a question to Saint Augustine:
Are we deprived of the crowns of the martyrs if we live in an age without martyrdom?
The saint answered that martyrdom is a readiness in the heart before meeting death.
If you have the spirit of a martyr and his readiness of heart, you are counted among the martyrs even if your blood is not shed.
The spirit of the martyrs was the mark of that generation; therefore, martyrdom was sometimes collective, in which entire cities were martyred, as happened in Esna and in Akhmim and other lands.
These martyrs have a favor upon us, for they preserved the faith for us pure and handed it down to us. Therefore, we celebrate them today.
The day of a saint’s martyrdom is a feast day celebrated by the Church and mentioned in the Synaxarion, for by it he concluded his life in holiness, deserved the crown, and the fatherly bosoms were opened to him.
We remember them, and we remember their virtues, and we train ourselves to have what they had of spirit and readiness, and to raise our generation in the spirit of martyrdom—not merely in boasting that we are the sons of the martyrs.
Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Seventh Year (Issue Thirty-Eight) – 17-9-1976.
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