Acts of Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius (complete)

When Valerian and Gallienus were emperors, and Aemilianus and Bassus consuls, on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of February, a Sunday, Fructuosus the bishop was arrested, with Augurius and Eulogius, deacons. While Fructuosus the bishop had retired to his bedroom, the beneficiarii, namely Aurelius, Festucius, Aelius, Pollentius, Donatus, and Maximus, made for his house. When he heard their footsteps, he rose at once and went out to them in his sandals. The soldiers said to him, “Come. The governor summons you with your deacons.” Fructuosus the bishop said to them, “Let us go. Or, if you wish, let me put on my shoes.” The soldiers said to him, “Put them on as you please.” As soon as they arrived, they were taken into prison. But Fructuosus, sure of the crown of the Lord to which he had been called, and rejoicing over it, prayed without ceasing. The brotherhood too was with him, comforting him and asking him to keep them in mind.

On the next day he baptized in prison our brother, Rogatianus by name. They spent six days in prison, and on the twelfth day before the Kalends of February, a Friday, they were brought out and heard. Aemilianus the governor said, “Bring in Fructuosus the bishop, Augurius, and Eulogius.” The staff said, “They are here.” Aemilianus the governor said to Fructuosus the bishop, “Have you heard what the emperors have commanded?” Fructuosus the bishop said, “I do not know what they have commanded. But I am a Christian.” Aemilianus the governor said, “They have commanded that the gods be worshiped.” Fructuosus the bishop said, “I worship one God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them.” Aemilianus said, “Do you know that there are gods?” Fructuosus the bishop said, “I do not know.” Aemilianus said, “You will know later.” Fructuosus the bishop looked up to the Lord and began to pray within himself. Aemilianus the governor said, “Who are listened to, who are feared, who are adored, if the gods are not worshiped and the images of the emperors are not adored?” Aemilianus the governor said to Augurius the deacon, “Do not listen to the words of Fructuosus.” Augurius the deacon said, “I worship God almighty.” Aemilianus the governor said to Eulogius the deacon, “Do you too worship Fructuosus?” Eulogius the deacon said, “I do not worship Fructuosus; but I worship him whom Fructuosus also worships.” Aemilianus the governor said to Fructuosus the bishop, “Are you a bishop?” Fructuosus the bishop said, “I am.” Aemilianus said, “You were.” And by his sentence he ordered them to be burned alive.

And as Fructuosus the bishop was being led with his deacons to the amphitheater, the people began to grieve for Fructuosus the bishop, because he was so loved not only by the brothers but even by the heathen. For he was such a man as the Holy Spirit, through the blessed apostle Paul, the vessel of election, the teacher of the Gentiles, declared that a bishop ought to be. For this reason the brothers too, who knew that he was going on to so great a glory, rejoiced rather than grieved. And when many, out of brotherly love, offered them a cup of spiced mixed wine to drink, he said, “It is not yet the hour for breaking the fast.” For it was the fourth hour of the day. Indeed, in prison they had solemnly kept the station fast on the Wednesday. So on the Friday, glad and untroubled, he was hastening to break the station fast with the martyrs and prophets in paradise, which the Lord has prepared for those who love him. And when he had reached the amphitheater, there came to him at once a man named Augustalis, his reader, begging him with tears that he might take off his shoes for him. The blessed martyr answered him, “Let it be, my son; I take off my own shoes, strong and rejoicing and sure of the Lord's promise.” When he had taken off his shoes, our brother Felix, a fellow soldier, came up to him and took his right hand, asking him to remember him. Holy Fructuosus answered him in a clear voice, in the hearing of all, “I must keep in mind the catholic church, spread abroad from east to west.”

So, having been placed in the open space of the amphitheater, when he was now on the point of entering on an unfading crown rather than a punishment, though the beneficiarii whose names are given above were watching from their post, so that our brothers heard it, the Holy Spirit at once prompting and speaking, Fructuosus the bishop said, “Now you will not lack a shepherd, nor can the love and the promise of the Lord fail, here as in the time to come. For this that you see seems the weakness of one hour.” Having thus comforted the brotherhood, they entered into salvation: worthy, and happy in their very martyrdom, men who were to taste, according to the promise, the fruit of the saving Scriptures. They were like Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, so that in them too the divine Trinity might be seen: for when each of them had been placed in the fire, the Father was not absent, and the Son came to their aid, and the Holy Spirit walked in the midst of the fire. And when the bands with which their hands had been tied had burned through, mindful of divine prayer and of their usual custom, rejoicing, on their knees, secure of the resurrection, and set in the sign of the Lord's trophy, they prayed to the Lord until together they gave up their souls.

After this the Lord's accustomed wonders were not lacking, and heaven was opened, as our brothers Babylas and Mygdonius, of the household of Aemilianus the governor, saw; and they also showed to the daughter of that same Aemilianus, their mistress according to the flesh, holy Fructuosus the bishop with his deacons, while the stakes to which they had been bound still stood, ascending into heaven crowned. And they called Aemilianus, saying, “Come and see those whom you condemned today, how they have been restored to heaven and to their hope.” But when Aemilianus came, he was not worthy to see them.

The brothers, grieving as if left without a shepherd, were full of anxiety: not that they mourned for Fructuosus, but rather that they missed him, mindful of the faith and the contest of each. When night came on, they hurried to the amphitheater with wine to quench the half-burned bodies. When this was done, each claimed for himself, as he could, the collected ashes of those martyrs. But in this too the wonders of our Lord and Savior were not lacking, so that faith might be increased in believers and an example shown to the little ones. For it was fitting that Fructuosus the martyr should afterwards prove in his own passion and in the resurrection of the flesh what in this world, by the mercy of God, he had promised in his teaching in our Lord and Savior. So after his passion he appeared to the brothers and warned them that whatever each had taken out of love from the ashes they should give back without delay, and see that they were buried together in one place.

To Aemilianus too, who had condemned them, Fructuosus showed himself together with his deacons in the robes of the promise, rebuking and mocking him, that it had profited him nothing that he believed those to be stripped of the body and lying in the earth whom he saw to be in glory. O blessed martyrs, who were tried by fire like precious gold, clothed with the breastplate of faith and the helmet of salvation; who were crowned with a diadem and an unfading crown, because they trampled on the devil's head! O blessed martyrs, who have earned a worthy dwelling in heaven, standing at the right hand of Christ, blessing God the Father almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ his Son! The Lord received his martyrs in peace through their good confession; to him be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.