Arcadius was a 4th century Christian martyr whose
story does seem to be more than a little far-fetched.
The setting of the story is north-west Africa during one of
the Roman Empire’s periodic persecutions of Christians. Arcadius was a
Christian who, when the soldiers came looking for Christians, left his home and
escaped to the wilderness while the soldiers went around demanding that people
should make sacrifices to the pagan gods or face the consequences of not so
doing.
However, his absence was noted and one of his relatives was
seized and threatened with torture unless he revealed where Arcadius was
hiding. Arcadius got to hear about this and came back to the town to plead for
his relative’s freedom, on the grounds that he was wholly innocent and should
not suffer on his behalf.
Arcadius was then arrested and told that he would be
released if he offered a sacrifice to the gods, which, as might be expected, he
refused to do. He told the judge that he would willingly suffer any torture,
and the judge declared that he would invent some new ones especially for him.
When the time came for Arcadius to be executed the judge
made good his threat. First, his fingers were cut off, one by one, followed by
his hands and arms. Next came his toes, feet and legs. Eventually all that was
left of him was his trunk and head, but Arcadius continued praying.
As he looked at all his severed bodily parts, he declared
that they were blessed because they had been sacrificed to God. He then
addressed his tormenters to tell them that their gods were nothing compared to
the one that he was about to meet, at which point he died.
How much one believes of the story of Arcadius, who
apparently remained conscious and cogent despite suffering such massive injuries,
is a matter for the individual, but some such stories are surely less
believable than others.
The illustration is from “Foxe’s Book of
Martyrs”.
© John Welford
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