The Passion of Marian and James · §2 · Acts of the Martyrs

The road into persecution at Cirta

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The narrator, a close friend of Marian and James, tells how they traveled together into Numidia and reached Muguas near Cirta as persecution was swelling.

We were traveling into Numidia together, as we had always traveled before, companions sharing one road in equal fellowship. That road was leading us toward the longed-for service of faith and devotion, and it was already leading them toward heaven. We had come to a place called Muguas, lying close beside the suburbs of the colony of Cirta. In that city especially the blind rage of the pagans was then swelling like the waves of this world through the action of soldiers, and the raging devil who attacked us was gaping with greedy jaws to test the faith of the righteous.

There the blessed martyrs Marian and James grasped with full certainty the long-desired signs of divine gracious favor at work in themselves. They had been brought into the very district where the storm of persecution raged most fiercely, and with their hour now ripening they understood that Christ was guiding their steps straight to the place of the crown. For the bloody fury of the blinded governor was hunting down all those beloved by God through the hands of soldiers with hostile and aggressive intent. Nor did the madness of cruelty spend itself only on those who had lived freely for God and stood unshaken through earlier persecutions. The insatiable devil was also reaching out his hand against those whom the fierce madness of the governor had removed into exile long ago and had crowned, though not yet in blood, already martyrs in mind.

Latin

Nam pergebamus in Numidiam simul, ut semper antea, socio parique comitatu ingressi uiam, quae nos ad exoptatum fidei ac religionis obsequium, illos iam ducebat ad caelum. Et ueneramus ad locum qui appellatur Muguas, cui est Cirtensis coloniae suburbana uicinitas, in qua tunc maxime ciuitate gentilium caeco furore et officiis militaribus persecutionis impetus quasi fluctus saeculi tumescebant, et auidis faucibus ad tentandam iustorum fidem rabies diaboli infestantis inhiabat. Unde Marianus et Iacobus beatissimi martyres certissime exoptata diuinae in se dignationis signa tenuerunt, qui in ea regione, in qua persecutionis tempestas turbulentius fureret, hora iam maturante deducti intellegebant sua Christo gubernante ad ipsum coronae locum directa uestigia. Namque omnes dilectos dei cruenti et caecati praesidis furor per militares manus infensis et infestantibus animis requirebat. Nec in hos solos crudelitatis exercebatur insania, qui superioribus persecutionibus inconcussi libere deo uiuerent, sed in illos quoque manum diabolus insatiabilem porrigebat, quos iamdudum in exilia submotos, etsi nondum sanguine, mente iam martyras, ferox praesidis amentia coronarat.

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About this text

A friend who shared their road tells how Marian, a reader, and James, a deacon, were arrested near Cirta in Numidia, tortured, strengthened by visions in prison at Lambaesis, and beheaded by a river with many others.

The writer, who does not give his name, was a close companion of the martyrs, arrested with them but later released, writing to Christian brethren as the fraternity and people of God during the persecution under Emperor Valerian in Numidia. At Marian and James's own request he records their contest not to boast of their crown on earth but so the people may be armed by their example for faith.

Bishops Agapius and Secundinus suffered first after calling at the writer's house, and Marian and James were then arrested near Cirta, confessed Christ and their offices, suffered hanging torture, and endured prison with prayer. In prison they and fellow prisoner Aemilianus report their own visions in their own quoted words, with a tribunal voice and Cyprian heard and seen in Marian's account, a shining youth in James's, a rose crowned boy promising a heavenly meal in another, and a pagan blood brother whose questions in Aemilianus's dream are quoted and answered. After delay while many lay Christians were executed, the clerics were condemned by the governor at Cirta and beheaded together by a river outside the city, with light, white horsemen, Marian prophesying coming judgments, and Marian's mother rejoicing over his body, alongside Tertulla and Antonia, Mary the mother, Secundinus, and a twin boy with his mother.

A reader needs only a few renderings used here. Governor is the Roman provincial governor, reader is the lower clerical office Marian avows and deacon is the office James avows, confession of faith is the open avowal I am a Christian, crown is heavenly reward, execution platform is the high stepped place of display and death, official report is the written charge and confession sent with prisoners, and love feast is the heavenly meal after death. Cyprian is the dead bishop martyred at Carthage who appears to welcome them, the Decian persecution is the earlier persecution James had already survived, the only formal scriptural sentence is the camel through the needle's eye cited as Matthew 19:24 with parallels in Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25, and the closing joy points to 2 Maccabees 7.

Printed text used

Translated from Oscar von Gebhardt, Acta martyrum selecta (Berlin: A. Duncker, 1902) (Latin)

This work has passed our source check. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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