Romanus was a native of Palestine, a deacon and exorcist in the parish of Caesarea. He was martyred at Antioch, probably in the year 304, during the persecution of Diocletian.
The earliest extant account of Romanus is by Eusebius, also of Caesarea, who himself lived through the Diocletian persecution. It is included in his work on the "Martyrs of Palestine," published about the year 325. In addition, St. John Chrysostom preached two sermons on St. Romanus between the years 387 and 398. Finally, Aurelius Prudentius Clemens composed the poem, "Discourse of the Martyr St. Romanus Against the Pagans," which was published in 405. The details of the passion as recounted by Prudentius are for the most part those related by Eusebius and St. John Chrysostom. The present article is based on the writings of Eusebius and Prudentius.
Eusebius opens his history of the martyrs of Palestine as follows. "In the nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian, ... letters were published everywhere, commanding that the churches be leveled to the ground and the Scriptures be destroyed by fire, and ordering that those who held places of honor be degraded, and that the household servants, if they persisted in the profession of Christianity, be deprived of freedom. Such was the force of the first edict against us. But not long after other letters were issued, commanding that all the bishops of the churches everywhere be first thrown into prison, and afterward, by every artifice, be compelled to sacrifice."
He later relates: "Romanus, being present at the destruction of the churches, beheld many men, with women and children, going up in crowds to the idols and sacrificing. But, through his great zeal for religion, he could not endure the sight, and rebuked them with a loud voice."
Not surprisingly, Romanus was arrested. In Prudentius' account, Romanus rallied the Christians and they were persuaded "not to yield before the storm." Their spirits became bold and resolute and they were resolved "to bear firm witness to the faith or for it die."
The soldiers, driven back, inform the magistrate That of the stubborn band Romanus is the chief, And that all burn with resolution obdurate To meet the charge unflinchingly with throats laid bare And die a glorious death with holy fortitude.
Command is given that Romanus now be seized And brought to trial to answer for the scornful mob, As firebrand that alone inflamed and led them all. He goes without resistance, asking to be bound, And gladly turns his willing hands behind his back.
Romanus was brought before the prefect, Asclepiades, who rebuked him as a disturber of the city, as one who swayed the minds of others, and as one who urged the ignorant rabble to despise the laws of Rome. The prefect proposed that it was only just and fair that Romanus, being an instigator, should be the first to receive the tortures he persuaded others to endure.
To this tirade Romanus boldly made reply: 'With joy unshrinking I embrace your sentence, judge, That for the faithful people I alone shall die, A victim meet, in my esteem, to suffer all The torments your inhuman malice may devise.'
Asclepiades ordered "that the body of the saint be hung upon the rack and torn and stretched with hooks and cords."
But his attendants mentioned to the irate chief That the accused was of a long and noble line And worthy, as a citizen, of highest praise. He bade them take away the instrument of death, Lest he condemn a peer to vulgar punishment.
'Let him be flogged with ceaseless blows upon his back,' He cried, 'and let his shoulders swell with leaden thrusts. Each person must receive appropriate penalties, And whether he be slave or lord is of import; The prisoner's rank decides the form the tortures take.'
After the hail of blows, Romanus stubbornly proclaimed that his true nobility came from Christ and that he would not renounce his beliefs for the foolishness of the pagans.
While thus the martyr reasoned, Asclepiades Had burned within with sullen rage he scarce could hide, And as in silence he had swallowed mounting ire, His indignation grew deep-buried in his breast; He now gave vent to all the force of pent-up wrath: ...
'Prepare, most wicked man, whoever you may be, To beg the gods with us according to our rites, To give our emperor long life and happiness, Or as a common traitor you must shed your blood: To spurn the temple is to scorn the prince himself.'
Romanus remained defiant.
'How can you stand there, slaves?' the prefect loudly cries, 'Do you stand still and hold in check avenging hands? Why do you not dismember him and carve his flesh, Pluck out the spirit that lies hid within the man, Whence comes these impious words against the emperor?'
With cleaving sword the wicked soldiers tear both sides Of that undaunted saint as in the air he hangs, And slowly trace upon his members furrowed wounds That cross each other as they pierce his trembling frame, Till soon his breast is white where all the bones are bare.
The butchers now are out of breath and drenched with sweat While he on whom they vent their rage remains unmoved. Romanus in the midst of torture freely speaks: 'If you, O cruel prefect, seek to know the truth, The wounds that you inflict on me distress me not.' ...
The fervent martyr scarce had ended this discourse, When Asclepiades in fury cut him short: 'Come, let the executioner transfer his blows To this glib ranter's mouth; let him direct all hands With piercing blade and stinging lash upon his jaws.
'Destroy the organ of his galling verbiage, Transpierce his bloated cheeks, that his loquacity May be deprived of wind that gushes forth in speech, For no restraint avails to stop this flow of sound; The driveler's very words I charge you to torment.'
The impious lictor executes the prefect's words; He draws deep lines upon both cheeks with keen-edged hooks, And traces bleeding furrows on the martyr's face; He tears in shreds the skin with rough unshaven beard, And cleaves his countenance down to the very chin.
Despite the new tortures, Romanus continued to speak, to preach Christ, and to praise the name of God.
'The voice I now send forth finds open crevices, And flowing from these many lips, produces sounds More numerous as it proclaims on every side The lasting glory of the Father and of Christ. As many mouths now utter praise as I have wounds.'
Confounded by such constancy, the angry judge Commands the punishments to cease, and thus he speaks: ...
'A blazing funeral pyre shall be prepared for you On which your body will be burned as it deserves, For it persists in scorning all our ancient rites, Nor is it spent or overcome by pain's fierce darts, But even bolder grows in frightful agonies.'
In Eusebius' testimony, Romanus is also sentenced to die by fire. "Being arrested for his boldness, he proved a most noble witness of the truth, if there ever was one. For when the judge informed him that he was to die by fire, he received the sentence with cheerful countenance and most ready mind, and was led away. When he was bound to the stake, and the wood piled up around him, as they were awaiting the arrival of the emperor before lighting the fire, he cried, 'Where is the fire for me?' Having said this, he was summoned again before the emperor."
Eusebius gives no explanation as to why Romanus' execution was not carried out. However, Prudentius provides the following details.
A grimy overseer on the other side Was building up from dry pinewood a massive pyre And sprinkling with a sable shower of boiling pitch The brushwood laid beneath and withered heaps of grass That fed the crackling flames and made them brightly glow.
And now, Romanus, with his arms bound to the fork, They brought, and as they placed him on the pyre, he cried: 'I know that I shall not be burned upon this wood. This kind of passion is not destined to be mine. A greater miracle is yet to be performed.'
These words of his were followed by a mighty crash Of stormy clouds, from which the rain in torrents fell And with a flood of ebon water quenched the fires. In vain the servants fed the dying brands with oil, For soaking rains had spoiled the sodden kindling wood.
When the magistrate heard that his plans to burn Romanus were frustrated, he devised a new and cruel punishment.
'Bring here a surgeon skilled in use of keen-edged knives, Who can invade the narrow confines of the flesh And sever all the fastenings of the ligaments. Bring hither one who heals the dislocated bones And mends and binds together all the fractured parts.
'First let him pull the vicious tongue out by the roots, Which is by far the body's basest instrument. With shameless wagging it has scorned our mighty gods; It has profaned our holy rites and ancient laws And has not even spared the emperor himself.'
A certain doctor named Aristo now is called. He comes at once and bids the saint put out his tongue. The martyr puts it forth, exposing all his throat. Aristo feels the palate, finds the vocal chords With probing fingers as he seeks a place to stab.
He grasps the tongue and drawing it far from the mouth, He thrusts his scalpel deep into the gaping throat. As one by one the threads of flesh were cut apart, The martyr never closed his mouth or clenched his teeth, Nor swallowed any of the freely flowing blood.
Eusebius gives a less detailed description of this new trial but is no less stinting in his praise of the bravery of the martyr. He notes that Romanus was "subjected to the unusual torture of having his tongue cut out. But he endured this with fortitude and showed to all by his deeds that the Divine Power is present with those who endure any hardship whatever for the sake of religion, lightening their sufferings and strengthening their zeal. When he learned of this strange mode of punishment, the noble man was not terrified, but put out his tongue readily, and offered it with the greatest alacrity to those who cut it off."
After Romanus had his tongue cut out, he was brought back to face the magistrate once again.
The prefect, thinking that he now could force the saint To offer sacrifice, since tongueless he would lack The words to prate against the worship of the gods, Then ordered him to be brought back, now mute and weak, Who once appalled his hearers by his stormy speech.
Again he placed an altar by the judgement seat, Prepared the incense and the glowing coals of fire, The entrails of a bull and belly of a sow. Romanus, coming forward, saw these offerings And breathed on them as if he saw demonic powers.
In better spirits, Asclepiades laughed him to scorn, Then asked: 'Are you as brazen as you used to be, Are you as quick to talk? Say all you have to say, Hold forth at length and let us hear your arguments, I give you length to exercise your voice at will.'
Prudentius then writes of a prodigy not noted by Eusebius.
Romanus, sighing deeply, gave a long-drawn groan Of sad complaint and thus began in ringing voice: 'A tongue has never failed the man who speaks of Christ, Nor need you ask what organ is the source of words, When He is praised who gave us the gift of speech.' ...
The poet has Romanus continuing this oration at some length and then ending it as follows.
'If any dullard thinks these miracles untrue, Or you yourself have deemed them only idle tales You may now witness proof of their veracity: You have just heard him speak whose tongue you have cut out. Yield your assent to this unquestioned miracle.'
With mortal fear the persecutor now is seized. Dismay and wrath have so upset his darkened mind He knows not whether he is dreaming or awake And wonders, dazed, what kind of portent this may be. Dread overcomes him while his anger spurs him on.
Asclepiades, in his wrath, summoned the doctor to the judgement seat and accused him of fraud. It was impossible, he said, "for voice to sound or words to be expressed in mouth deprived of tongue." The doctor insisted that he had faithfully obeyed the orders given him. He asked the prefect to verify for himself and urged him to put his thumb in Romanus' mouth and to look carefully into Romanus' open jaws. However, the angry judge refused to listen and with increased rage demanded to know "whether it was alien blood that stained the hero's breast, or that from his own wound." The martyr responded with his final oration.
Romanus answered him: 'Behold me standing here: The blood you see is truly mine, not that of ox. ...
'No further shall I speak; my destined end is near, The end of all my woes, a glorious martyrdom. No longer wretch, will it be yours as heretofore To torture me, to rend and tear my mortal flesh; You must give up the bitter fight and own defeat.'
'Indeed, the butcher and the torturer will give up,' The prefect threatened, 'but the hangman's cruel hand Will follow after them and quickly strangle you. The tireless voice in that chattering mouth of yours Will not be silent till I break the sounding reed.'
He spoke, and ordered that the saint be dragged from court And cast into the darkness of a prison foul. There with a rope an impious lictor broke his neck. And so the martyr's passion ended, and his soul, Freed from the chains of earth, took flight to heaven above.
Eusebius, after relating the incident in which Romanus had his tongue cut out, writes: "After this punishment he was thrown into prison, and suffered there for a very long time. At last the twentieth anniversary of the emperor being near, when, according to an established gracious custom, liberty was proclaimed everywhere to all who were in bonds, he alone had both his feet stretched over five holes in the stocks, and while he lay there was strangled, and was thus honored with martyrdom, as he desired."
Postscript. The last verse of Prudentius' poem on Romanus is a touching prayer. If you or I should find ourselves among the goats in Matthew's last judgement scene, perhaps this deacon saint can help us still.
It is my wish that He may see me from afar, When on His left I stand among the flock of goats, And at the martyr's prayer this mighty King may say: 'Romanus prays for him; go bring that goat to me And let him stand, a fleecy lamb, on my right hand.'
References
"Martyrs of Palestine" by Eusebius; Chapters I - XIII following chapter XVII of Book 8 of "The Church History of Eusebius." Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers, Series II, Volume 1, edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. See: "The Early Church Fathers" http://ccel.wheaton.edu/fathers/
"The Poems of Prudentius" translated by Sr. M. Clement Eagan, C.C.V.I. "The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 43"; The Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C., 1962.
[© Michael Closs, June 23, 1997]