Page 97 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

84 THE BLESSING OF JESUS AND THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY
and he brought them up from that pit. And they carried Shmona, because he was not
able to walk on his right foot, on which that iron buckle had been fastened, and had
sprained his knee joint; but Gurya, though he was walking on bis feet, was held by two
soldiers, one on his right and one on his left, first on account of the affliction of his
imprisonment and secondly because of his age.

The Governor offered to allow them to return home and rejoin their
families and relations and recover their property, if they would do obeisance
to the sun. Shmona replied that they worshipped the Creator of the sun. The
Governor said that he did not wish them to die at his hand; Shmona re-
torted that they were dying for the name of Jesus, in order to be delivered
from the second death which lasts for ever. Again the Governor pleaded with
them to save themselves, but they rejoiced at the prospect of death.
[The Governor] had commanded the executioner to take with him ten soldiers and
go forth and take them outside the city far away, because of the city folk, that no one in
the city should be grieved on their account. And when the executioner had received the
command of the Governor . . ., he went forth by night hurriedly by the West gate of the
city; and behold, a cart happened to be going forth and he made them both sit in the cart,
before the city folk were awake. And he carried them off to a hill to the north of Edessa
to a certain height called Beth Alah Qiqla,1 which is to the south-west2 of the fountain
of water that goes into the city.

They were glad that the moment of 'crowning' had arrived, and asked the
executioner to let them pray, and both he and the Roman soldiers begged
them to pray for them also. The martyrs asked that their spirits should be
received in peace and their bodies gathered at the Resurrection. Both Shmona
and Gurya looked towards the East, knelt and asked the executioner to do
his duty; he slew each of them with one blow of the sword. The soldiers left
their bodies there side by side and went into the city.
And as they were coming in, large crowds met the soldiers because day had dawned
and they had gone forth to inquire where they had carried off the holy ones, and they were
asking the soldiers, 'Where have ye carried off the Confessors?' They said to them,
'Beth Alah Qiqla.' And many were the folk that had gone forth to search for the holy
martyrs. Now there was with the first crowd that had gone forth the daughter of Shmona
the Confessor; and folk from all the city had gone forth, men and women, and they had
laid out their bodies and gathered the dust on which their blood was sprinkled. And
many of them had brought fine garments and many cloths and perfumes and spices and
much balm. . ., and they wrapped them in clean cloths and in those garments and with
the balm and with the spices and with grave bands; and they laid them in one coffin and
one grave which was there, saying over them psalms and anthems and hymns and
litanies.

The sad scene was repeated less than a year later, and again the narrator is
said to be the same Theophilus, who witnessed the death of Shmona and

1 See p. 182 below. 2 This is probably an error for 'north-west'; see p. 182 below.

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