ST. ANASTASIUS was a trophy of the holy cross of Christ, when it was
carried away into Persia by Chosroes, in the year 614, after he had
taken and plundered Jerusalem. The martyr was a Persian, son of a
Magian, instructed in the sciences of that sect, and a young soldier in
the Persian troops. Upon hearing the news of the taking of the cross by
his king, he became very inquisitive concerning the Christian religion:
and its sublime truths made such an impression on his mind, that being
returned into Persia from an expedition into the Roman empire, he left
the army with his brother, who also served in it, and retired to
Hierapolis. In that city he lodged with a devout Persian Christian, a
silversmith, with whom he went often to prayer. The holy pictures which
he saw, moved him exceedingly, and gave him occasion to inquire daily
more into our faith, and to admire the courage of the martyrs whose
glorious sufferings were painted in the churches. At length, desirous of
baptism, he left Hierapolis, which city was subject to the Persians, and
went to Jerusalem, where he received that sacrament by the hands of
Modestus who governed that church as vicar during the absence {197} of
the patriarch Zachary, whom Chosroes had led away captive into Persia.
In baptism he changed his Persian name Magundat, into that of
Anastasius, meaning, according to the signification of that Greek word,
that he was risen from death to a new and spiritual life. He had
prepared himself with wonderful devotion for that sacrament while a
catechumen, and he spent in no less fervor the several days after it,
which persons baptized passed in white garments, in prayer, and in
receiving more perfect instructions in the faith. At the end of this
term, Anastasius, the more easily and more perfectly to keep inviolably
his sacred baptismal vows and obligations, desired to become a monk in a
monastery five miles distant from Jerusalem. Justin, the abbot, made him
first learn the Greek tongue and the psalter; then cutting off his hair,
gave him the monastic habit, in the year 621.
Anastasius was always the first at all spiritual duties, especially in
assisting at the celebration of the divine mysteries. His attention to
pious discourse testified the earnest thirst of his soul; nor was he
less fervent in practice. He never read the triumphs of the martyrs
without abundance of tears, and burned with an ardent desire of the like
happiness. Being molested beyond measure with blasphemous thoughts of
magic and superstitions, which his father had taught him, he was
delivered from that troublesome temptation by discovering it to his
director, and by his advice and prayers. After seven years spent in
great perfection in this monastery, his desire of martyrdom daily
increasing, and having been assured by a revelation, that his prayers
for that grace were heard, he left that house, and visited the places of
devotion in Palestine, at Diospolis, Garizim, and our Lady's church at
Caesarea, where he stayed two days. This city, with the greatest part of
Syria, was then subject to the Persians. The saint seeing certain
Persian soothsayers of the garrison occupied in their abominable
superstitions in the streets, boldly spoke to them, remonstrating
against the impiety of such practices. The Persian magistrates
apprehended him as a suspected spy; but he informed them that he once
enjoyed the dignity of Magian with them, and had renounced it to become
a humble follower of Christ. Upon this confession he was thrown into a
dungeon, where he lay three days without eating of drinking, till the
return of Marzabanes, the governor, to the city. Being interrogated by
him, he confessed his conversion to the faith, and equally despised his
offers of great preferments, and his threats of crucifying him.
Marzabanes commanded him to be chained by the foot to another criminal,
and his neck and one foot to be also linked together by a heavy chain,
and condemned him in this condition to carry stones. The Persians,
especially those of his own province of Rasech, and his former
acquaintance, upbraided him as the disgrace of his country, kicked and
beat him, plucked his beard, and loaded him with burdens above his
strength. The governor sent for him a second time, but could by no means
prevail with him to pronounce the impious words which the Magians used
in their superstitions: he said, "That the wilful calling them to
remembrance would defile the heart." The judge then threatened he would
write immediately to the king against him, if he did not comply. "Write
what you please," said the saint, "I am a Christian: I repeat it again,
I am a Christian." Marzabanes commanded him to be forthwith beaten with
knotty clubs. The executioners were preparing themselves to bind him
fast on the ground; but the saint told him it was unnecessary, for he
had courage enough to lie down under the punishment without moving, and
he regarded it as his greatest happiness and pleasure to suffer for
Christ. He only begged leave to put off his monk's habit, lest it should
be treated with contempt, which only his body deserved. He therefore
laid it aside in a respectful manner, and then stretched himself on the
ground, and without {198} being bound did not stir all the time of the
cruel torment, bearing it without changing his posture. The governor
again threatened him to acquaint the king of his obstinacy: "Whom ought
we rather to fear," said Anastasius, "a mortal man, or God, who made all
things out of nothing?" The judge pressed him to sacrifice to fire, and
to the sun and moon. The saint answered, he could never acknowledge as
gods, creatures which God had made only for our use; upon which he was
remanded to prison.
His old abbot hearing of his sufferings, sent two monks to assist him,
and ordered prayers for him. The confessor, after carrying stones all
the day, spent the greatest part of the night in prayer, to the surprise
of his companions: one of whom, a Jew, saw and showed him to others at
prayer in the night, shining in brightness and glory like a blessed
spirit, and angels praying with him. As the confessor was chained to a
man condemned for a public crime, he prayed always with his neck bowed
downwards, keeping his chained foot near his companion not to disturb
him. Marzabanes in the mean time having informed Chosroes, and received
his orders, acquainted the martyr by a messenger, without seeing him,
that the king would be satisfied on condition he would only by word of
mouth abjure the Christian faith: after which he might choose whether he
would be an officer in the king's service, or still remain a Christian
and a monk; adding, he might in his heart always adhere to Christ,
provided he would but for once renounce him in words privately, in his
presence, "in which there could be no harm, nor any great injury to his
Christ," as he said. Anastasius answered firmly, that he would never
even seem to dissemble, or to deny his God. Then the governor told him,
that he had orders to send him bound into Persia to the king. "There is
no need of binding me," said the saint: "I go willingly and cheerfully
to suffer for Christ." The governor put on him and on two other
prisoners the mark, and gave orders that they should set out after five
days. In the mean time, on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, the
14th of September, at the request of the Comerciarius, or tax-gatherer
for the king, who was a Christian of distinction, Anastasius had leave
to go to the church and assist at the divine service. His presence and
exhortations encouraged the faithful, excited the tepid to fervor, and
moved all to tears. He dined that day with the Comerciarius, and then
returned with joy to his prison. On the day appointed, the martyr left
Caesarea, in Palestine, with two other Christian prisoners, under a
strict guard, and was followed by one of the monks whom the abbot had
sent to assist and encourage him. The acts of his martyrdom were written
by this monk, or at least from what be related by word of mouth. The
saint received great marks of honor, much against his inclination, from
the Christians wherever he came. This made him fear lest human applause
should rob trim of his crown by infecting his heart with pride. He wrote
from Hierapolis, and again from the river Tigris, to his abbot, begging
the prayers of his brethren.
Being arrived at Barsaloe in Assyria, six miles from Discartha, or
Dastagerde, near the Euphrates, where the king then was, the prisoners
were thrown into a dungeon till his pleasure was known. An officer came
from Chosroes to interrogate the saint, who made answer, with regard to
his magnificent promises, in these words: "My religious habit and poor
clothes show that I despise from my heart the gaudy pomp of the world.
The honors and riches of a king, who must shortly die himself, are no
temptation to me." Next day the officer returned to the prison, and
endeavored to intimidate him by blustering threats and reproaches. But
the saint said calmly: "My lord judge, do not give yourself so much
trouble about me. By the grace of Christ I am not to be moved: so
execute your pleasure without more ado." The officer caused him to be
unmercifully beaten with staves, after {199} the Persian manner,
insulting him all the time, and often repeating, that because he
contemned the king's bounty, he should be treated in that manner every
day as long as he lived. This punishment was inflicted on him three
days; on the third the judge commanded him to be laid on his back, and a
heavy beam pressed down by the weight of two men on his legs, crushing
the flesh to the very bone. The martyr's tranquillity and patience
astonished the officer, who went again to acquaint the king of his
behavior. In his absence the jailer, being a Christian by profession,
though too weak to resign his place rather than detain such a prisoner,
gave every one free access to the martyr. The Christians immediately
filled the prison; every one sought to kiss his feet or chains, and kept
as relics whatever had been sanctified by their touch: they also
overlaid his fetters with wax, in order to receive their impression. The
saint, with confusion and indignation, strove to hinder them, and
expressed how extremely dissatisfied he was with such actions. The
officer returning from the king caused him to be beaten again, which the
confessor bore rather as a statue, than as flesh and blood. Then he was
hung up for two hours by one hand, with a great weight at his feet, and
tampered with by threats and promises. The judge despairing to overcome
him, went back to the king; for his last orders, which were, that he and
all the Christian captives should be put to death. He returned speedily
to put them in execution, and caused Anastasius's two companions, with
threescore and six other Christians, to be strangled one after another
on the banks of the river, before his face, whom the judge all the time
pressed to return to the Persian worship, and to escape so disgraceful a
death, promising, in case of compliance, that he should be made one of
the greatest men in the court. Anastasius, with his eyes lifted up to
heaven, gave thanks to God for bringing his life to so happy a
conclusion; and said he expected that he should have met with a more
cruel death in the torture of all his members: but seeing God granted
him one so easy, he embraced with joy that end of a life which he
otherwise must shortly have lost in a more painful manner. He was
accordingly strangled, and after his death his head was cut off. This
was in the year 628, the seventeenth of the emperor Heraclius, on the
22d of January, on which day both the Latins and Greeks keep his
festival. His body, among the other dead, was exposed to be devoured by
dogs, but it was the only one they left untouched. It was afterwards
redeemed by the Christians, who laid it in the monastery of St. Sergius,
a mile from the place of his triumph, in the city Barsaloe, called
afterwards from that monastery, Sergiopolis. The monk that attended him
brought back his Colobium, or liners tunic without sleeves. The saint's
body was afterwards brought into Palestine. Some years after, it was
removed to Constantinople, and lastly to Rome.
The seventh general council[1] proves the use of pious pictures from the
head of this holy martyr, and his miraculous image, then kept at Rome
with great veneration: where it is still preserved in the church
belonging to the monastery of our Lady ad Aquas Sylvias, which now bears
the name of SS. Vincent and Anastasius.[2] The rest of his relics are
reposited in the holy chapel ad Scalas Sanctas, near St. John Lateran.
See the history of many miracles wrought by them in Bollandus. St.
Anastasius foretold the speedy fall of the tyrant Chosroes: and ten days
after his martyrdom the emperor Heraclius entered Persia.
Footnotes:
1. Act. 4.
2. Mabill. Iter. Ital. p. 141.
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