An eyewitness recorded his final words, in which he committed himself into the hands of a good and gracious God:
I see clearly that which they seek, and I am ready steadfastly to suffer that death which I have never feared and which for a long time past I have pictured to myself. I consider myself happy in feeling the approach of death and in being ready to die in God, by whose grace I hope for the life everlasting. I have no further need of human succor. Go then from this place, my friends, as quickly as you may, for fear lest you shall be involved in my misfortune, and that some day your wives shall curse me as the author of your loss. For me it is enough that God is here, to whose goodness I commend my soul, which is so soon to issue from my body.
I pray that when I face death I'll do it with the same trust in God and concern for the good of others.
1 comment:
Why do all those (ok, maybe not all) old martyrs leave such majestic words? Content of it, sure, but that aside, I'm talking about the way they spoke. Is it just my perception of it because they are an old way of speech, but that was in fact considered common and normal? Or did these words sound as noble and grand to their contemporaries as they do now to me?
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