Anyone who enjoys reading horror stories that involve
ingenious ways in which people can inflict pain on their fellow humans can do
no better than to read accounts of how early Christian martyrs were done to
death. There seems to be an endless variety of terrible things that can be done
to give someone a lingering death, as the following story should make clear.
27th November is the saint’s day of James
Intercisus, the latter name meaning “cut to pieces”, which is apparently how he met his end.
James was a courtier, in the early 5th century,
of the Persian King Yezdigerd. James was a Christian, but when King Yezdigerd
started persecuting Christians, James changed sides and renounced his faith.
This action did not go down well with James’s parents, who
castigated him for being an “apostate”. This shamed him into leaving the royal
court (now presided over by Yezdigerd’s successor Bahram) and turning back to
Christianity.
However, he was now regarded as a turncoat by the new king,
who, after his capture, sentenced James to receive a particularly unpleasant
punishment.
This was that he should be hung from a beam and his body slowly
cut to pieces until he once again recanted his faith. This was done in public
and many Christians in the crowd urged James to save himself. However, having
recanted once before, and been ashamed by his deed, James was determined not to
do so again and the removal of digits and limbs continued, each one being
offered to God by James as a personal sacrifice.
Eventually James’s head was cut off, by which time 28
separate pieces were scattered on the ground. It is a particularly unpleasant
story.
© John Welford
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