Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

God in whom I have trusted. For I have heard that you are inferior to few in cruelty. This
is why I have chosen this time in order to carry out my wishes.” With these words he kindled
the wrath of the governor like a fire, and roused all his fury against himself. The order was
given, “Call the lictors; where are the plates of lead? Where are the scourges? Let him be
stretched upon a wheel; let him be wrenched upon the rack; let the instruments of torture
be brought in; make ready the beasts, the fire, the sword, the cross. What a good thing for
the villain that he can die only once!” 690 “Nay,” replied Gordius. “What a bad thing for
me that I cannot die for Christ again and again!”…
. . . . . . . . . . .
All the town crowded to the spot where the martyrdom was to be consummated. Gordius
uttered his last words. Death is the common lot of man. As we must all die, let us
through death win life. Make the necessary voluntary. Exchange the earthly for the heavenly.
He then crossed himself, he stepped forward for the fatal blow, without changing colour or
losing his cheerful mien. It seemed as though he were not going to meet an executioner,
but to yield himself into the hands of angels. 691
Homily XIX. is on the Forty Soldier Martyrs of Sebaste, who were ordered by the officers
of Licinius, a.d. 320, to offer sacrifice to the heathen idols, and, at their refusal, were plunged
for a whole night into a frozen pond in the city, in sight of a hot bath on the brink. One
man’s faith and fortitude failed him. He rushed to the relief of the shore, plunged into the
hot water, and died on the spot. One of the executioners had stood warming himself and
watching the strange scene. He had seemed to see angels coming down from heaven and
distributing gifts to all the band but one. When the sacred number of forty was for the
moment broken the officer flung off his clothes, and sprang into the freezing pond with the
cry, “I am a Christian.” Judas departed. Matthias took his place.…
. . . . . . . . . . .
What trouble wouldst thou not have taken to find one to pray for thee to the Lord!
Here are forty, praying with one voice. Where two or three are gathered together in the
name of the Lord, there is He in the midst. Who doubts His presence in the midst of forty?
The afflicted flees to the Forty; the joyous hurries to them; the former, that he may find relief
from his troubles; the latter, that his blessings may be preserved. Here a pious woman is
found beseeching for her children; she begs for the return of her absent husband, or for his
690 ἀλλὰ γὰρ οἷα κερδαίνει, φησὶν, ἅπαξ μόνον ἀποθνήσκων. Garnier seems to have completely missed the
force of this exclamation in the explanation in a note, “Judex hoc dicere volebat, quem fructum referet ex sua
pertinacia, si semel mortuus fuerit; neque enim in hanc vitam rursus redibit, ejus ut gaudiis perfruatur, neque
tamen ulla alia vita est.”
691 For the tortures and modes of execution enumerated, Du Duc compares Aristoph., Pax. 452, Chrysost.,
De Luciano Martyre, and Nicephorus vi. 14.
Homiletical.
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