Room 4 - Church Fathers

Post date: Sep 15, 2011 4:7:13 AM

Before Reformation was needed, there were men who played the important role of bridging the gap between those first believers, who actually saw the risen Christ, and the centuries that would follow. These were the men who gave their lives in terrible times of public disapproval, while hammering out the interpretations of the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures in a day of rampant heresies. 

One of the focal people in this room is Polycarp, a Bishop of Smyrna. We see excerpts from The Martyrdom of Polycarp, a letter written just after his martyrdom. It tells us how the local arena crowd cried for his arrest and death. He was an old man, and his friends hid him away on a farm, but the authorities tortured two boys and obtained directions to the old pastor.  He made no attempt to run. 

At the arena, the proconsul tried to persuade him to deny Christ, asking him to say "Away with the atheists." Then Polycarp with solemn countenance looked upon the whole multitude of lawless heathen that were in the stadium, and waved his hand to them; and groaning and looking up to heaven he said,

 "Away with the atheists."

The magistrate pressed him hard to recant, but Polycarp said,

"Eighty-six years have I been His servant, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?"

The proconsul warned him of wild beasts.  But Polycarp told him,

"Call for them,..."

Then they warned him that he might be burned to death. But Polycarp said:

"You threaten that fire which burns for a season and after a little while is quenched: for you are ignorant of the fire of the future judgment and eternal punishment, which is reserved for the ungodly. But why do you delay? Come, do what you will."

The letter goes on to describe the death of Polycarp, and its affect on those who were there.  The display of Polycarp in the corner of the room, being burned, brings the cruelty of the story home to us.  But we are caught up by the sight of the map of the Roman catacombs and the entry to the catacomb display.  

Catacombs ...

From a Newsletter Article: 

When we start thinking about people to highlight for our All-Saints’ Museum, we look for someone who has made a difference, taken a stand, ...  One of those stories is about a twenty-two year-old young woman by the name of Vibia Perpetua.  She was executed in the arena in Carthage on 7 March 203.  Her story is just one of what may be thousands, but much of it was written in Latin by Perpetua herself before her death, which makes it one of the earliest pieces of writing by a Christian woman.

"With them also was Vibia Perpetua, nobly born, reared in a liberal manner, wedded honorably; having a father and mother and two brothers, one of them a catechumen likewise, and a son, a child at the breast; ..."

Perpetua and her friends were imprisoned for their faith.  Her father tried everything to get her to recant her faith and make an offering to Caesar as a god.  Fellow Christians purchased a few hours of better accommodations for her, and time to suckle her child.  She was able to speak to her mother and brother and commend her son to them.  That night she received a vision.   When she awoke, she interpreted it to mean that she should be martyred;

“and we began to have no hope any longer in this world.”

Her father returned to plead with her after word came that a trial was set. 

"Have pity, daughter, on my grey hairs; have pity on your father, if I am worthy to be, called father by you; if with these hands I have brought you unto this flower of youth- and I-have preferred you before all your brothers; give me not over to the reproach of men. Look upon your brothers; look upon your mother and mother's sister; look upon your son, who will not endure to live after you. Give up your resolution; do not destroy us all together; for none of us will speak openly against men again if you suffer aught."

And again at the trial with her son:

"Perform the Sacrifice; have mercy on the child." 

The procurator also begged her,

"Spare your father's grey hairs; spare the infancy of the boy. Make sacrifice for the Emperors' prosperity. And I answered: I am a Christian. And when my father stood by me yet to cast down my faith, he was bidden by Hilarian to be cast down and was smitten with a rod. And I sorrowed for my father's harm as though I had been smitten myself; so sorrowed I for his unhappy old age. Then Hilarian passed sentence upon us all and condemned us to the beasts."

The day before the games, she saw herself  in a vision fighting with an Egyptian gladiator.  She was told:

"The Egyptian, if shall conquer this woman, shall slay her with the sword; and if she shall conquer him, she shall receive this branch.  She defeated the gladiator and heard, Daughter, peace be with you. And I began to go with glory to the gate called the Gate of Life."

She understood that her fight was not with beasts but against the devil.  She would have victory over her foe.

A narrator takes up the story in the arena and tells us that they planned to dress the men as priests of Saturn and the women as priestesses of Ceres, but Perpetua stood her ground and the tribune permitted them to remain dressed as they were.  How could they both be dressed as priests and priestesses and be killed for refusing to worship these other gods? 

You’ll have to visit the museum to hear about the others, but

“for the women the devil had made ready a most savage cow, ...  They were stripped therefore and made to put on nets; and so they were brought forth. The people shuddered, ... So they were called back and clothed in loose robes."

"Perpetua was first thrown ... And when she had sat upright, her robe being rent at the side, she drew it over to cover her thigh, mindful rather of modesty than of pain. Next, looking for a pin, she likewise pinned up her dishevelled hair; for it was not meet that a martyr should suffer with hair dishevelled, lest she should seem to grieve in her glory. ..."

Afterward, the rest were killed by the sword.

"But Perpetua, that she might have some taste of pain, was pierced between the bones and shrieked out; and when the swordsman's hand wandered still (for he was a novice), herself set it upon her own neck. Perchance so great a woman could not else have been slain (being feared of the unclean spirit) had she not herself so willed it."

See You Sunday!  Bro. Bill