# Ælfric's Lives of Saints/Of Crisantus and Daria

XXXV.
NOV. 29. PASSION OF CHRYSANTHUS AND HIS WIFE DARIA.
At the time when the Emperor Numerianus
was reigning, there went a certain nobleman
from the city of Alexandria to the city of Rome,
called Polemius, who was an idolater;
and he had a son called Chrysanthus.
Then the emperor received him with great worship,
and the Roman senators honoured him exceedingly.
Then he straightway set his son to the learning
of worldly wisdom, that he might become a philosopher;
because in those days no one could be distinguished
unless he had learned heathen books,
and knew the arts which emperors then loved.
So Chrysanthus learned with quick intelligence
and with skilful mind the grammatical art,
and the heathen books, until the holy gospels
came into his hand. Then said he to himself;
'thus long have I learned faithless books
filled with darkness, until I suddenly came
to the light of truth, and I shall not be wise
if I turn to darkness from the true light.
Let us hold fast that fair treasure;
I will not lose it now that I have laboured so long;
in vain have I lived if I now let it go.'
Then began he earnestly to seek out the Christians
until he found out a venerable mass-priest
living far off, and he rejoiced thereat.
He was thereupon baptized by the aforesaid priest,
and learned his faith with that holy teacher,
so that he knew the Christian religion in its fullness,
and began boldly to preach the Saviour.
​Then his friends stood beside his father and said:
'to the peril of thy possessions and of thine own head
preacheth this thy boy so boldly concerning Christ;
if it become known to the emperor, thou canst not save thyself.'
Then the father swelled with anger, and brought his son
into a lightless prison and locked him therein;
and in the evening always sent him food,
little and meagre, and he thus continued there.
Then said the kinsmen to the father again:
'if thou desire to entice thy son from Christ,
then must thou flatter him, and offer him dainties,
and make him to wive; then will he forget
after he is a husband, that he was a Christian.
These oppressions and these swart darknesses
which thou givest him for punishment, these Christians turn
to their own glory, and not to punishment.'
Thereupon the father bade fetch out of the foul prison
the oppressed youth, and quickly clothed him
with costly raiment, and bade them fit up his bower
worthily with cloths and with curtains for the youth.
Also he soon found five maidens for him,
fair and blooming, to dwell with him;
and bade that they should turn by their foolish sport
his thoughts from Christ, and said that they themselves
should pay for it, if they did not bend his mind.
He sent him also frequently meats and delicacies,
but the youth despised the meats and drinks,
and abhorred the maidens even as one doth adders.
He lay in prayers and refused their kisses,
and besought the Saviour that He would preserve his chastity,
even as He preserved Joseph's in the land of Egypt.
He also confessed God. with all his heart, and said;
'I pray Thee, Lord, that thou will cause these adders
all to fall asleep now in my sight,
that they may not arouse with their foolish sport
​any lust in me, because I trust in Thee.'
While Chrysanthus was speaking these words to God,
the maidens slept so heavy a sleep
that one could not arouse them except by casting them
out of the bower of the youth who loved chastity.
Outside the bower they ate and kept awake,
and as quickly as they went in they fell asleep.
Then this was soon told to the father,
and he bewept his son as if he were dead.
Then said a certain counsellor, that Chrysanthus had learnt
magic from the Christians, and had overcome therewith
the innocent maidens in the bower thus easily;
and urged the father to find some maiden
educated in arts, who could answer him.
There was a certain maiden, wonderfully skilled,
in the same city, of noble parentage,
called Daria, living in heathenism,
fair in stature and wise in philosophy.
Then straightway Polemius sent his friends
to the maiden Daria, and greatly besought her
that she would entice Chrysanthus from Christ by speech,
and that she should have him for a husband afterward.
Then at last it befell him that she consented to do so,
and thus came to the youth, adorned with gold
and shining gem-stones, suddenly, like a sunbeam,
and comforted him with her fair words.
Then spoke Chrysanthus thus to her with pure mind:
'much hast thou adorned thyself with gold
that thou, with thy beauty, mightest frustrate my will;
but thou mightest have the Saviour for bridegroom
if thou wouldst love Him, and keep thyself chaste
in unspotted virginity, and if thou wouldst be as fair
within, in your mind, as thou art without.'
Daria answered him ' I did it not for wantonness,
that I, thus adorned, came in unto thee;
​but I wished to still thy father's weeping
that thou mayst not be lost to him, or, at any rate, to the gods.'
Then Chrysanthus asked, amongst other speeches:
'What goodness had your god Saturn
who devoured his sons when they were born,
even as his worshippers have written in their books;
or what goodness had the horrible Jove,
who lived in the world in foul fornication,
and chose him his own sister to wife,
and committed many manslaughters and deeds of murder,
and raised up sorcery to deceive the unwary?
Or what holiness was in the hateful Hercules,
the immense giant, who killed all
his neighbours, and wholly burnt himself
alive in the fire, after he had killed
men and the lion and the great serpent?
What can the lesser gods be to believe in,
since the foremost gods lived so foully?'
Thus Chrysanthus for a long while urged Daria
to the true faith with words, until she turned to God
by forsaking the error of the worship of devils.
Then they were steadfast, and lived together
in the appearance of marriage, their chastity being preserved,
until Daria received baptism in God,
and learnt God's books from the well-taught youth,
and strengthened her mind, continuing in virginity.
Then after a time many men were converted
by their manner of life from the devil's worship
to belief in Christ and to pure living.
The youths were converted through Chrysanthus' teaching,
and maidens through Daria's, many to the Lord;
renouncing marriage and pleasant desires,
until some men stirred up an accusation about this,
and they were accused before the cruel prefect
who at that time governed the wide-spread city of Rome.
​Then the heathen prefect bade men seize Chrysanthus
and Daria together for their faith in the Lord,
and commanded men to punish them with divers torments unto death,
if they would not sacrifice to the venerable gods.
Chrysanthus was delivered to seventy soldiers,
and they bound him very harshly indeed;
but the bonds burst asunder as soon as he was bound.
They bound him again, oft and repeatedly,
but the bonds slipped off so quickly from him
that one could not perceive whether they had been knit.
Then the soldiers became irate against the Christian youth,
and set him then in a hard stock,
and fastened his legs in the fetters,
insulting with words the holy man;
but the fetters turned wonderfully to rottenness (?),
and all to dust through the Lord's might.
Then the soldiers supposed that he knew sorcery,
and drenched him all over with old urine,
thinking that the urine might frustrate
all his magic; but they toiled in vain;
because the urine through God's might
became straightway turned to a sweet smell.
Then they quickly skinned an ox in their fury,
and sewed up Chrysanthus with the hide
next to his naked body, and placed him facing the sun.
He lay thus all day in the overpowering heat,
but the hide could not harden about him,
nor hurt the saint in the liot sun.
Then they tied his neck strongly with chains,
and his hands together with hard iron,
and his feet together with cruel intention,
and cast him so bound into a blind prison.
Then the bonds on his neck and hands slipped asunder,
and there shone a great light, as if of many lamps.
Then the soldiers made that known to Claudius their officer,
​and he himself came thereto, and saw the light,
and bade him come out, and began to question him:
' What is the great power of thy criminal arts
that thou performest such things through fiendly magic?
Very often have I conquered the resolute sorcerers,
and every witchcraft I easily overcame;
and the Chaldean magicians and the serpent-charmers
I could ever subdue unto my will;
and I never found such stubborn sorcery;
I desire now nevertheless that thou turn thyself
from thy Christianity and please our gods
by worthy offerings.' Then Chrysanthus answered him;
' thou mightest understand, if thou knewest any god,
that I did not these things by sorcery,
but God Himself aided me with divine power;
thy gods see not nor truly hear,
but are senseless, fastened with lead.'
Then Claudius bade men scourge him fiercely
with great rods for his insults to the gods.
Then the rods became wondrously softened
suddenly in their hands, as it were feathers.
When men held them, they were hard and rough (?);
when men struck, immediately they softened.
Then Claudius commanded them to let go the saint,
and to clothe him again, and he himself cried:
'this might is not of men, but is God's greatness
Who hath overcome all these tortures so easily.
What will we longer do, except all lie down
at his venerable knees and humbly pray
that he intercede for us to such a God,
Who maketh His worshippers so mighty in fight? '
Then fell they all with fear at his knees,
and Claudius said to him, ' I acknowledge of a truth
that thy God is true God, and I myself now pray
that thou wilt entreat for me how I may become His worshipper.'
​Chrysanthus answered him; ' Thou needst not ran on thy feet
but walk by faith, in order to know God;
He is so much the more present to each man
as he the more seeketh Him with true faith.'
Then Chrysanthus instructed them until they believed in God,
namely, Claudius and his wife, called Hilaria,
and their two sons, Nason and Maurus;
and many of their kinsmen consented to baptism,
and the seventy soldiers, whom Claudius had charge of,
were baptized with their friends that day.
Then they all continued glorifying their Lord,
and diligently learned their faith from Chrysanthus,
and wished that they might suffer torment for Christ.
It will be too long to write the wonders which they performed,
all in order, because we will hasten quickly
to tell you men how they were martyred.
Numerianus, the emperor, the persecutor of the Christians,
when it became known to him that Claudius believed,
and all the soldiers had become Christians;
then he commanded to take Claudius and lead him to the sea,
and throw him out bound to a hewn stone;
he bade them afterwards behead the seventy soldiers
unless any of them would relinquish his faith;
but they all hastened with constancy to death,
and Claudius' two sons said that they had been
baptized unto Christ, and would undergo death
together with the soldiers, for faith in Christ.
So they were slain together for Christ's sake;
and the blessed Hilaria was also conducted
to her martyrdom from the wicked prefect.
Then she begged the executioners who were leading her to death
that she might first of all pray in haste;
and she did so, and received the Lord's body,
and in her prayers departed from the world to Christ.
After this the holy man Chrysauthus
​was taken to prison, as the emperor commanded,
that he, with Daria, for their faith in God,
might be martyred by divers tortures.
The prison was filled with foul filth,
and without any light, stinking horribly;
the blessed Daria was confined apart
from the venerable man; and they then sent her
to a house of harlots, for the sport of the wicked;
but God shielded her against the shameful heathen. '
The fearful prison wherein Chrysanthus was
immediately became wondrously lighted up by God;
and there a winsome breath sweetly steamed.
And a lioness escaped out of the lion's enclosure,
and ran to Daria, by the Lord's sending,
where she lay in prayers, and bowed down to the earth
with outstretched limbs before the faithful maiden.
Then the heathen desired to have her to disgrace her,
and knew not that the lioness lay within beside her.
So one of them went in unto the maiden,
but the lioness seized him and laid him down,
and looked at Daria as if it would ask her
what she would wish to be done with him, as he lay overpowered.
Then Daria spake to the beast thus:
' I adjure thee by Christ that thou hurt not the youth,
but let him, without fear, listen to my speech.'
Then the lioness let go the unbelieving youth,
and stood against the door, that he might speak with Daria,
and that no other man might come in unto them,
Then Daria said to the terrified man:
' behold this cruel lioness honoureth now God,
and thou, a rational man, destroyest thyself,
and thou rejoicest, miserable one, in thy foul lust
through which thou shalt weep and suffer torment.'
Then he advanced towards her, and said with fear:
'let me go out safe, and afterwards I will preach
​to men the Saviour, whom thou magnifiest and worshippest.'
Then Daria bade the beast make way for him out,
and he ran out, extolling God
and the holy maiden, making known her power.
Then the heathen would have attacked the lioness,
but it always caught them, one by one,
and brought them to Daria, through the Lord's might.
Then spake the maiden to the men thus:
' If ye will believe on the living Christ,
then may ye go hence all unmarred;
but if ye will not accept the true faith,
I know not whether your gods can help you.'
Then they all cried as if with one voice: S
' He who will not believe on Christ, let him not come hence alive.'
And thereupon they all went out, crying;
'Oh! ye Roman people, believe ye of a truth
that there is none other god but Christ alone.'
Then the prefect was bitterly enraged,
and bade kindle a fire before the door
where Daria was within, together with the beast,
desiring to burn them both together.
Then the lioness feared exceedingly because of the fire,
but Daria spake to the beast thus:
' be not thou afraid, this fire shall not hurt thee,
neither shalt thou be slain until thou die of thyself;
go thou now securely away, and God will save thee,
Whom thou hast glorified by thy works to-day.'
Then went the lioness freely away,
with bowed head, through the midst of the people;
and those whom it had previously seized were baptized
after they had acknowledged Christ through the lioness.
Then was this soon made known to the emperor,
and he angrily commanded his prefect to take
Chrysanthus and Daria, and kill them by tortures,
if they would not sacrifice to the evil gods.
Then the prefect bade men stretch the holy Chrysanthus
​upon a rack, and with candles burn
both his sides. Then the rack burst asunder
with all its machinery, and the candles were extinguished.
So also the other men who sought to injure
the holy Daria, the Lord prevented them,
so that their sinews shrunk immediately,
whosoever touched her, that they cried out for pain.
Whereupon Celerinus, the vicious prefect,
was seized with terror, and went to the emperor,
and related to him in order the wonderful signs.
Then Numerianus, the wicked emperor,
attributed it to sorcery, not to the Lord's tokens,
and commanded men to bring both the saints together
to a sandpit, and set them therein,
and cast upon them earth and wrought stones.
So they were both buried alive,
as the emperor had commanded, and they with chastity departed
from the world to glory, to dwell with Christ.
There were performed many miracles through God,
and the people reverenced the wonderful saints,
and frequently went thither with faith.
Then it befell after a time, when the people went thither
to the great cave where the martyrs lay,
that the emperor commanded men to build a wall
at the cave's entrance, that they might not come out,
and bade men cast down the rock suddenly upon them,
that they all together gave up the ghost,
crushed by the earth; and they reign with God
in everlasting life, slain for their faith.
We venerate God's saints; but know ye, nevertheless,
that the saints have no need of our praise in this life,
but that which we say concerning them profiteth ourselves;
first, for an example, that we may be the better;
and again, for intercession, when we are in need.
There was a great persecution when they were martyred,
​but there will come yet a harder persecution at Antichrist's coming,
because the martyrs have wrought many wonders through God,
and in Antichrist's time these wonders will fail;
and the devil will then work wonders by his enchantment,
with false illusions, to deceive the faithful.
Great anguish it will be to the venerable saints
that the fiendly persecutor will work many signs,
and they themselves may not do as the martyrs did,
showing wonders in the worst times.
Nevertheless, they shall be preserved through the Saviour's might
if they keep their faith unto the end,
in the troublous persecutions of the wicked devil;
even as the Saviour said in His holy gospel.
He Who shall easily destroy that Antichrist;
to Whom be glory and praise for ever and ever. Amen.