Comments to: David
Woods
Last Updated: April 2000
|
Calahorra, a city in Spain, embraces the martyrs Emeterius and Chelidonius. In order to witness miracles from the power of the saints the city often receives cures for various illnesses. These martyrs were captured by the persecutor and bound over for punishment. After they suffered various tortures on account of their confession of the divine name, they welcomed the sentence of the final penalty and were led out to be beheaded. When the executioner cut off their heads, a great miracle appeared to the people. For the ring of one martyr and the handkerchief of the other were taken up into a cloud and brought to heaven. Everyone who was present saw this, and so far as the sight of eyes could follow, the people watched the gleam of the gold ring and the brighness of the linen with an astonished gaze. Aurelius Clemens [Prudentius] offers a witness for this event in these verses from his book entitled The Crown. He wrote:
|
| "This honor is not hidden and does not grow old with time, how the gifts that they sent up flew through the air and demonstrate by their gleam that the road to heaven lies open. The ring that represented the faith of one was carried up in a cloud; the other, as they say, gave a handkerchief as the pledge of his lips. These gifts were seized by a celestial breeze and entered the depths of light. The gleam of gold disappeared in the vault of the clear heavens; the white fabric escaped the eye that for long followed it. The gifts were carried all the way to the stars and were seen no more." |