Commentaria in II Machabaeorum
This, then, was the glorious triumph of martyrdom of the seven Maccabees under their mother as leader, which the Fathers everywhere celebrate with wonderful praises, as St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 22, which is wholly about the Maccabees; St. Ambrose, in the places cited; St. Augustine, in various places; St. Cyprian, Book IV, epistle 6; St. Chrysostom, homily On the Nativity of the Seven Maccabees; Prudentius, in the hymn On the martyr Romanus; Gaudentius of Brescia, tract On the Maccabees; St. Leo, sermon on the Nativity of the Maccabees; St. Ephrem, sermon On Death; Victorinus Afer, in the poem On the Maccabees; St. Prosper, part II, Predictions, chapter xv; St. Bernard, epistle 98; Theophilus of Alexandria, Paschal epistle 3, whom hear: “Why should I recall the famous victories of the Maccabees, who, that they might not eat unlawful meats and touch common foods, offered their bodies to torments, and are proclaimed with praises in the Churches of Christ throughout the whole world, stronger than their pains, more ardent than the fires in which they were burned? In them all the devices of cruelty were conquered, and whatever the persecutor’s wrath had invented the fortitude of the sufferers overcame; amid their punishments they were mindful rather of the paternal law than of their pains. Their entrails were torn, their limbs ran with corruption and gore, and yet their resolve persevered unmoved; the mind was free, and present evils were despised through hope of things to come. The tormentors grew weary, and faith did not grow weary; bones were broken, and on the revolving wheel the whole joining of sinews and limbs was undone, and flames breathing death rose to a vast height; the pans were full of boiling oil, and resounded with incredible terror for the frying of the bodies of the saints, and yet amid all these things, walking in spirit in paradise, they felt not what they suffered, but what they desired to see. For the mind fenced round with the fear of God overcomes the flames, scorns the various pains of torments; and when it has once given itself up to virtue, it tramples on and despises whatever adversity befalls. Such was Paul, writing: In all these things we overcome, through him that hath loved us.” Hear again St. Ambrose, Book II On Jacob and the Happy Life, chapter xii: “Such is this fight that he conquered more gloriously who was more cruelly slain. And so no one feared, no one trembled, none of so many brothers was slower to death, but all ran through bitter torments to death as to the way of immortality. And the mother, beholding the harmonious ranks of her sons, offered in her sons the members of her own body like a pious soul, and through her own limbs seemed to herself to undergo the torments.” And Book XI, epistle 7: “I do not deny the contest of Abraham’s children and of the Maccabee boys, of whom some sang amid the flames, others when they were being burned did not ask to be spared, but railed at the persecutor that he might be the more inflamed.” St. Cyprian, moreover, in his Exhortation to Martyrdom to Fortunatus, magnifies the fortitude of the Maccabees from the fact that they insulted the tyrant Antiochus so nobly. “What a relief,” he says, “was that to the martyr, how great a solace, in his tortures not to think of his own torments, but to proclaim the punishments of his tormentor!” Of the mother he adds: “Admirable also the mother, who, neither broken by the weakness of her sex nor moved by manifold bereavement, looked willingly on her dying children, and reckoned not those punishments of her pledges but their glories, offering to God as great a martyrdom by the virtue of her eyes as her sons had offered in the torments and suffering of their limbs.” Tropologically, St. Chrysostom, in the homily on the Maccabees, teaches that we ought to imitate the Maccabees in strength, so that when any temptation assails us we may say with them resolutely: “I will not do it,” I will not violate the law, I will not offend my God: “As great patience as they showed in bodily dangers, so great continence let us show in irrational passions; that is, against anger and avarice and the desire of vainglory, resisting the senses, warned by divine fear, and destroying in ourselves the counsels of the devil. For if we conquer the fires of desires, as they conquered the fire of tyranny, we shall be able, established in like glory, to be reckoned like them and their mother.” Finally, these Maccabee martyrs, one by one threatening and foretelling to Antiochus the impending judgment and punishment of God, were true prophets. For Antiochus, after three years, afflicted with grievous and shameful diseases, perished, as we shall hear in chapter ix, and his son Eupator reigned scarcely two years, killed by Demetrius his cousin, who seized the kingdom due to himself by right; and the whole family of Antiochus was extinguished. Their relics were translated to Rome and laid up in the church of St. Peter in Chains. It is no wonder that some in Serarius contend that they were translated to Cologne, where there is a church of these Maccabees, which I have often seen and visited, unless one say that part is at Rome, part at Cologne; for the distribution of the relics of many Saints has been thus made.
Moreover, these Maccabees are inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints in the Roman Martyrology on the first day of August, where we read thus: “At Antioch, the passion of the holy seven brothers Maccabees with their mother, who suffered under King Antiochus Epiphanes;”
CHAPTER VIII. Judas Maccabeus, with six thousand men, having called upon God, wonderfully routs the Gentiles. Then, verse 16, in an earnest speech he exhorts his few followers to fight Nicanor with courage, and to hope for a sure victory from God. Encouraged, therefore, they join battle and lay low Nicanor, who, fleeing to Antioch, everywhere proclaims the might of the God of Israel. In the second part, verse 30, he overthrows Timothy and Bacchides, and burns the impious Callisthenes.
1. But Judas Maccabeus, and they that were with him, went privately into the towns, and calling together their kinsmen and friends, and taking such as continued in the Jews’ religion, they assembled about six thousand men. 2. And they called upon the Lord, that he would look down upon his people that was trodden down by all, and have pity on the temple that was profaned by wicked men; 3. And that he would have pity also on the city that was destroyed, and ready to be made even with the ground, and hear the voice of the blood that cried to him; 4. And remember also the most unjust slaughter of innocent children, and the blasphemies offered to his name, and would show his hatred of wickedness. 5. Now when Maccabeus had gathered a multitude, he could not be withstood by the Gentiles: for the wrath of the Lord was turned into mercy. 6. And coming upon towns and cities unawares, he set them on fire: and taking possession of the most commodious places, he made no small slaughter of the enemies: 7. But especially in the nights he went about in such attempts, and the fame of his valour was spread abroad everywhere. 8. And Philip seeing that the man increased by little and little, and that things prospered with him for the most part, wrote to Ptolemee, the governor of Celesyria and Phenice, to yield aid to the king’s affairs. 9. And he forthwith chose Nicanor the son of Patroclus, one of his special friends, and sent him, giving him no fewer than twenty thousand men of divers nations, to root out the whole nation of the Jews: and with him he joined Gorgias also, a man skilful in the practice of war. 10. And Nicanor undertook to make so much money of the captive Jews, as should pay the tribute of two thousand talents, which the king was to pay to the Romans. 11. And immediately he sent to the cities on the sea coast, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves, promising that he would sell them ninety slaves for a talent, not expecting the vengeance that was to follow him from the Almighty. 12. Now when Judas had notice of Nicanor’s coming, he imparted to the Jews that were with him that the army was at hand. 13. Some of them being afraid, and distrusting the justice of God, ran away: 14. Others sold all that they had left, and withal besought the Lord to deliver them from the wicked Nicanor, who had sold them before he came near: 15. And if not for their own sakes, yet for the covenant which he had made with their fathers, and for the sake of his holy and glorious name which was invoked upon them. 16. But Maccabeus having assembled seven thousand, that were with him, exhorted them not to be reconciled to the enemies, nor to fear the multitude of the Gentiles, who came wrongfully against them, but to fight manfully: 17. Setting before their eyes the injury that they had unjustly done to the holy place, and the injury done to the city which was abused, and moreover the old ordinances of their forefathers set aside. 18. For they, saith he, trust in their arms, but our confidence is in the Almighty Lord, who at a beck can utterly destroy both them that come against us, and the whole world. 19. Moreover he put them in mind of the helps their fathers had received, and how under Sennacherib a hundred and eighty-five thousand perished. 20. And of the battle that they had against the Galatians in Babylonia, how they came all to the field, eight thousand in all, with four thousand Macedonians; and when the Macedonians were at a stand, the eight thousand destroyed a hundred and twenty thousand, because of the help they had from heaven, and for this they received many benefits. 21. And when he had by these words made them cheerful, and ready to die for the laws and the country, he divided his army into four parts: 22. And he made his brothers captains over each band, Simon, and Joseph, and Jonathan, giving to each one fifteen hundred men. 23. Moreover also, when Esdras had read the holy book to them, and had given them for a watchword, The help of God; himself leading the first band, he joined battle with Nicanor. 24. And the Almighty being their helper, they slew above nine thousand men, and wounded and disabled the greater part of Nicanor’s army, and so put them all to flight. 25. And they took the money of them that came to buy them as slaves, and pursued them on every side: 26. But coming back for want of time they were hindered. For it was the day before the sabbath, and therefore they did not continue the pursuit. 27. And when they had gathered together their arms and spoils, they kept the sabbath, blessing the Lord, who had delivered them that day, distilling the beginning of mercy upon them. 28. And after the sabbath they gave part of the spoils to the weak, and to the orphans and the widows; and the rest they kept for themselves and their servants. 29. And when this was done, and they had all made a common supplication, they begged of the merciful Lord to be reconciled to his servants for ever. 30. They also that were with Timothy and Bacchides, fighting against them, slew above twenty thousand, and easily made themselves masters of high strong holds, and divided very many spoils, giving to the maimed, to the orphans, to the widows, yea, and to the aged also, an equal portion. 31. And when they had diligently gathered their arms together, they laid them up all in convenient places, and the remnant of the spoils they carried to Jerusalem. 32. They also slew Philarches, a wicked man, that was with Timothy, and had done much mischief to the Jews. 33. And when they kept the feast of the victory at Jerusalem, they burnt Callisthenes, who had set fire to the holy gates, and who had fled into a little house; and so he received a worthy reward of his wickedness. 34. But that most wicked man Nicanor, who had brought a thousand merchants to buy the Jews, 35. Being, through the help of the Lord, brought down by them whom he had made no account of, laid aside his garment of glory, and fleeing through the midland, came alone to Antioch, being rendered most unhappy by the loss of his army. 36. And he that had undertaken to make good the tribute of the Romans by the captivity of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, proclaimed that the Jews had God for their protector, and therefore they could not be hurt, because they followed the laws appointed by him.