Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/326

312 312 ST. FEBRONIA " The gods know that my late brother AnthimuB, the father of Lysimachus, and I arranged to marry Lysimachos to a very rich maiden of noble family ; bnt I hereby annnl the engagement, and choose yon to be the wife of my nephew Lysimachus, who is sitting at my right hand, and whom yon can see to be as beautiful as yourself. Listen to me as to your father, and be not ashamed of your poverty, for I have neither wife nor children, and I will adopt you and give you all my property as a dowry when you marry Lysimachus ; and when he is prsafect you will be raised to the highest rank, all women will envy you, and the emperor will take you into favour. So now choose ; accept the destiny I offer you, or else I swear by my gods that you have not three hours to Uve." But Febronia answered, "I have a bridal palace not made with hands; I have the whole kingdom of heaven for • my dowry ; I have an immortal Bride- groom, and I will have no earthly husband. Therefore, O judge, neither promises will tempt me nor threats terrify me." Selenus was very angry, and said to the soldiers, " Take off her clothes and gird her about with rags, that she may be vile and contemptible in the sight of all the people." The soldiers tore off her clothes, and giving her a little cape for a girdle, set her naked before the eyes of them all. Then a very strange thing happened. This girl, who had grown up in the seclusion of a monastery, and had never seen the face of a man until the day the soldiers broke into her house, felt no shame and showed no embarrassment at finding herself unclothed in presence of her cruel judge and all the multitude. Selenus at first thought, or affected to think, her self-possession was the result of impudence and vanity, and that the consciousness of her extreme beauty gave her courage to meet the gaze of the people. But her answers to his insulting speeches showed that her con- duct was owing to her perfect innocence, and to her being prepared to suffer all things for her Master's sake. The tortures by which she was slowly pot to death exceed in horror anything that can be imagined. They can be read in detail, by the curious, in her Acts in the BoUandist collection. The crowd who stood by remonstrated several times against the brutality of the orders given by Selenus, and interfered to prevent his bringing Hieria to trial alao for openly expressing her sympathy with the saint. Hieria said, "Perhaps Fe- bronia's Ood will accept me also, a poor heathen, with my teacher ? " At last L3rsimachus rose from his seat, and said to Selenus, " Come, let us go. How long will you go on torturing this girl? It is dinner-time." Bnt Selenus swore by his gods that he would not go till Febronia was dead, and as she still seemed to have life in her body, he ordered her to be beheaded. When this was done, the judges rose to go to dinner. Lysimachus wept, and the people cried out, "Cursed be Dio- cletian and his gods I " The bystanders wanted to carry away the body of Febronia; but Lysimachus placed a guard around it, and ordered them to let no one touch her. Instead of sitting down to dinner with his uncle, he went and shut himself up in his room, and there he abandoned himself to g^ef and horror at the. scene in which he had taken part. Selenus, hearing that he was so overcome, could not eat, but rose from the table and walked abont the hall of the prsBtorium, and was suddenly seized with great melancholy, whi(^ deprived him of his senses; he went about groaning, ran his head violently against a pillar, and fell dead. When this was told to Lysimachus, he said, "Great is the God of the Christians I " He then called his faith- ful attendant Primus, and bade him immediately get a coffin of precious incorruptible wood for Febronia, and have it proclaimed by criers that all Christians who wished to pay the last honours to the martyr might come with- out fear, as Selenus was dead. No one was to be allowed to take away any relic of Febronia, nor was any dog or unclean beast to touch the earth that was saturated with her blood. That