The Church in the world is like a scribe to men; and she teaches and makes them wise, and binds up the sores of all who come to her. And from her teaching the soul draws light, that she may overcome the darkness of death when it meets her. Come, enter, ye foolish, that were stained with lusts, and furbish your lives with the doctrine of the daughter of lights. Be not impatient to be gone from the supper which the bride of the whole world has made, that we should delight therein. Go not forth as soon as the consecration is (begun) in the sanctuary; for thou art a son of the household, not a stranger, that thou shouldst depart. When thou hearest: “Whoso has not received the sign, let him depart”; do not thou depart, who art signed, yea, and brought near. Be thou one of the household at the hour of these Mysteries; do not thou get up and go forth and become as one of the externs. Thou art signed with the sign, thou art stamped with the stamp, among the brethren thou art written: why shouldst thou go forth with the unsigned, as one that cometh short? “Him who is not baptised” the priest drives out when he is about to consecrate, not thee does he drive out, who art one baptized in the Divinity. Baptism, daughter of lights, is the King’s sign, and thou hast put on the great sign: why shouldst thou go forth? With the oil they have signed thee, with the cross of light thy face is signed: it is to “him that is not signed” as thou art signed that they say, “Let him go forth.” The sign of life has made thee a brother of the Only-begotten and a son of His Father; and thou art in the household: thou shouldst not go forth. Remain within the door, and cry, “Abba, our Father”; for thou, being a son, it is permitted to thee to cry, “Our Father.” “Whoso is not baptized” — for this reason do they drive him out when the consecration is (begun), that it is not permitted to him to call the Heavenly One “our Father.” And “whoso is not baptized,” his number is not set among the sons; and if he should call the Father “our Father” it is a lie. And for this cause they say, “Whoso has not received the sign, let him depart,” that a lie may not be uttered among them that are true. Forth they drive him if he is not born with the second birth, lest he should dare to cry, “Our Father,” with the many, and make use of a word that is full of lying in the pure congregation, which daily sings those things that are true. Wherefore, when they drive out that unbaptized one, do thou enter in, for it is easy for thee to cry, “Our Father.” Thou art born with the second, the spiritual birth: it is fitting for thee to cry, “Our Father”: stay and cry it.

Life flows from the service of the house of God; ye lovers of life, refuse not the profit that comes thereof. The soul of man is receptive of impressions, and in whatsoever she meditates, she is dyed withal and becomes (the colour) of the same. When she hears the dirges of the wailing women, she overflows with grief and pours out tears over the departed; and when again she hears the songs and jests of the actors she waxes wanton, that with a loud voice she may pour forth laughter. When she hears evil reports, dread comes upon her; but if she hears good tidings, she is glad. And every wind that blows towards her moves her; and in whatsoever direction it be, each time she turns. When, then, she hears the sound of the service of God’s house, spiritually she is moved with love towards God; and as it were she despises the evil world and its affairs, and comes in and mingles with these godly meditations; and she cleaves to and loves that spiritual conversation. She contemns the world and its affairs and its doings; and she is steeped in these voices of holiness, and all carnal thoughts depart from her. And the soul contemns the love of the world and its pleasures, and thoughts of wantonness and remissness. And when she hears these voices that are sung to her, she is chaste and lowly and full of hope and moderation. Wherefore it is right that he who enters in to give himself to prayer should be long in God’s house.

O thou penitent, be insistent; and whatever thou dost ask, thou shalt receive it from the Giver of all things good. Why art thou impatient to be gone about thy business? Why art thou disquieted to depart and go about thine affairs? Why runnest thou after the world which may not be kept fast? Why hast thou spent thy days in vanity? Why are the hours of the Church esteemed by thee as idleness? Why is not the service accounted by thee as a banquet? Why art thou diligent when thou doest thine own work, but here remiss and cold and slack in asking?

Mercy hath brought thee in to this house that is full of profit; think it not loss if thou remain long herein. Be patient and listen to the sound of the Psalms which the finger of prophecy played to the words of David. Hearken to the Hymns sung by chaste women with voices of praise, which the wisdom of the Highest has given to the congregations. Hear the Prophets who, as it were through pipes of choice gold, pour forth from their mouths life into the ears of men. Hearken to the Apostles who, like the channels of rivers, are opened and water the King’s garden with lofty streams. Bend thine ear to the pulpit of the Godhead, and receive from it precious pearls. Learn and give assent to the (two) Testaments, rivers both which hold for thee life unending. Hear the New, and hearken to the Old; and see that in both one truth is spoken unto thee. Lo, thou hearest from the Old of the four rivers which flowed from the blessed source of Eden; and again in the New (thou hast) the Apostles like four rivers, who went forth into the four corners (of the world) and watered them.

The Church in the world is a great harbour, full of peace; whoso toileth, let him come in and rest at her table, Her doors are open, and her eye is good, and her heart is wide. Her table is full, and sweet is her mingled (cup) to them that are worthy. Ye lovers of the world, come in from wandering in the evil world, and rest in the inn that is full of comfort to him that enters it. Thou weary labourer, that strivest to enrich thyself by vexatious toilings, why runnest thou after riches that cannot be held fast. O thou rich, that goest astray with thy riches, possess God, and hate the wealth that after a little while shall not be thine. O thou unquiet soul, that cleavest after gold, woe to thee for that which spendeth thee with thy toiling after it! O thou that art greedy of mammon, incline thine ear hither, and cast from thee that grievous load which profiteth thee not.

Come to prayer, and bring with thee thy whole self. Let not thy mind remain in the market about thy business. If thou art here, let also thine inner man be here within the doors of the crowned (bride). Why is thy thought gone forth and distracted after affairs, so that when thou art here thou art not here, but there? Without amid the markets thy mind is wandering, (taken up) with reckonings and profits; fetch it, that it may come in and ask for its Life. Stand not with one half of thee within and one half without, lest when thou art divided thy prayer lose itself betwixt the two parts. Stand at prayer a united and complete and true man, and all whatsoever thou askest thou canst obtain from God. Why art thou impatient to be off when He has not given to thee? Stay long and knock at the Physician, and beseech Him, and bring the tears of repentance and besprinkle His doorstep; entreat much; and if for love He give not to thee, yet to importunity He will not be able to deny all her requests. Be insistent at the Physician’s door, and give not over; for if thou be backward He will not bind thee up. Why standest thou still? Importunity knows how to obtain mercy of Him; and unless He give to her she will not suffer Him to depart.

Then, on another day, the Emperor Adrian ordered all her seven sons to be brought before him in company; and when he had challenged them to sacrifice to idols, and perceived that they yielded by no means to his threats and terrors, he ordered seven stakes to be fixed around the temple of Hercules, and commanded them to be stretched on the blocks there. And he ordered Crescens, the first, to be transfixed in the throat; and Julian, the second, to be stabbed in the breast; and Nemesius, the third, to be struck through the heart; and Primitivus, the fourth, to be wounded in the navel; and Justin, the fifth, to be struck through in the back with a sword; and Stracteus, the sixth, to be wounded in the side; and Eugenius, the seventh, to be cleft in twain from the head downwards.

The next day again the Emperor Adrian came to the temple of Hercules, and ordered their bodies to be carried off together, and cast into a deep pit; and the pontiffs gave to that place the name, To the Seven Biothanati. After these things the persecution ceased for a year and a half, in which period the holy bodies of all the martyrs were honoured, and consigned with all care to tumuli erected for that purpose, and their names are written in the book of life. The natal day, moreover, of the holy martyrs of Christ, the blessed Symphorosa and her seven sons, Crescens, Julian, Nemesius, Primitivus, Justin, Stracteus, and Eugenius, is held on the 18th July. Their bodies rest on the Tiburtine road, at the eighth mile-stone from the city, under the kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. — Para. 3 and 4.

When Adrian had built a palace, and wished to dedicate it by that wicked ceremonial, and began to seek responses by sacrifices to idols, and to the demons that dwell in idols, they replied, and said: —The widow Symphorosa, with her seven sons, wounds us day by day in invoking her God. If she therefore, together with her sons, shall offer sacrifice, we promise to make good all that you ask.— Then Adrian ordered her to be seized, along with her sons, and advised them in courteous terms to consent to offer sacrifice to the idols. To him, however, the blessed Symphorosa answered: —My husband Getulius, together with his brother Amantius, when they were tribunes in thy service, suffered different punishments for the name of Christ, rather than consent to sacrifice to idols, and, like good athletes, they overcame thy demons in death. For, rather than be prevailed on, they chose to be beheaded, and suffered death: which death, being endured for the name of Christ, gained them temporal ignominy indeed among men of this earth, but everlasting honour and glory among the angels; and moving now among them, and exhibiting trophies of their sufferings, they enjoy eternal life with the King eternal in the heavens.—

The Emperor Adrian said to the holy Symphorosa: —Either sacrifice thou along with thy sons to the omnipotent gods, or else I shall cause thee to be sacrificed thyself, together with thy sons.— The blessed Symphorosa answered: —And whence is this great good to me, that I should be deemed worthy along with my sons to be offered as an oblation to God?— The Emperor Adrian said: —I shall cause thee to be sacrificed to my gods.— The blessed Symphorosa replied: —Thy gods cannot take me in sacrifice; but if I am burned for the name of Christ, my God, I shall rather consume those demons of thine.— The Emperor Adrian said: —Choose thou one of these alternatives: either sacrifice to my gods, or perish by an evil death.— The blessed Symphorosa replied: —Thou thinkest that my mind can be altered by some kind of terror; whereas I long to rest with my husband Getulius, whom thou didst put to death for Christ’s name.— Then the Emperor Adrian ordered her to be led away to the temple of Hercules, and there first to be beaten with blows on the cheek, and afterwards to be suspended by the hair. But when by no argument and by no terror could he divert her from her good resolution, he ordered her to be thrown into the river with a large stone fastened to her neck. And her brother Eugenius, principal of the district of Tiber, picked up her body, and buried it in a suburb of the same city. — Para. 1 and 2.