(ABOUT 750.)
[The account of their martyrdom was written by Theosterictus, a
confessor in the same Iconoclastic persecution.]
In the horrible persecution of the orthodox by Constantine Copronymus,
on the subject of the images, concerning which more shall be said
elsewhere, the blessed martyr Stephen the younger, Archimandrite of
Auxentia, was in prison, when a monk, Theosterictus by name,[43] was
admitted to him, with his nose cut off, and his cheeks burnt with pitch;
he came from the monastery of Peleceta, and related to the abbot how, on
the Wednesday in Holy Week, as the unbloody Sacrifice was being offered
in the monastery church, a band of soldiers, by command of the heretical
Emperor, broke into the sacred building and interrupted the mysteries.
Thirty-eight monks were chained, the rest were mutilated, their noses
cut off, and their beards steeped in tar, and then fired. Then the
soldiers set the whole convent in flames. The thirty-eight were carried
off to the borders of Ephesus, and thrust into the furnace of an old
bath; the openings were then closed, and they were suffocated therein.
[Illustration: S. AELRED, ABBOT OF RIEVAULX.
From a Design by A. Welby Pugin.
Jan. 12.]