Blessed and noble, then, are all the martyrdoms that took place according to the will of God. For we must act with greater reverence and acknowledge that God has authority over all things.
Who would not admire their nobility, endurance, and love for their Master? They were so torn by scourges that the inner structure of their flesh was visible down to the inner veins and arteries; yet they endured, so that even the bystanders pitied and mourned them. Some attained such courage that not one of them uttered a cry or groan. They showed all of us that, in the hour when they were being tortured, Christ’s noble martyrs were absent from the flesh—or rather, that the Lord stood beside them and spoke with them.
By fixing their attention on the grace of Christ, they despised worldly tortures, purchasing eternal life through a single hour. Even the fire of their cruel torturers was cold to them. For they kept before their eyes their escape from the eternal fire that is never extinguished, and with the eyes of their hearts they looked toward the good things reserved for those who endure—things that no ear has heard, no eye has seen, and that have not entered the human heart. But the Lord showed these things to them, for they were no longer human beings but already angels.
Likewise, those condemned to the wild beasts endured dreadful punishments. They were laid upon sharp shells and punished with many other kinds of torture, so that, if possible, the tyrant might turn them to denial through prolonged punishment. For the devil devised many schemes against them.