Church History 5.1.18

Summary: Blandina, though a frail slave, endured a whole day of torture until her torturers admitted defeat.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:187

ἡμῶν γὰρ πάντων δεδιό- ‘των, καὶ τῆς σαρκίνης δεσποίνης αὐτῆς, ἥτις ἦν καὶ αὐτὴ τῶν μαρτύρων μία ἀγωνίστρια, ἀγωνιώσης “μὴ οὐδὲ τὴν ὁμολογίαν δυνήσεται παρρησιάσασθαι διὰ τὸ ἀσθενὲς τοῦ σώματος, ἡ Βλανδῖνα τοσαύτης “ἐπληρώθη δυνάμεως ὥστε ἐκλυθῆναι καὶ παρεθῆ- “ναι τοὺς κατὰ διαδοχὰς παντὶ τρόπῳ βασανίζοντας “αὐτὴν ἀπὸ ἑωθινῆς ἕως ἑσπέρας, καὶ αὐτοὺς ὁμολογοῦντας ὅτι νενίκηνται, μηδὲν ἔχοντες μηκέτι ὃ ῾ποιήσουσιν αὐτῇ, καὶ θαυμάζειν ἐπὶ τῷ παραμένειν ‘ἔμπνουν αὐτὴν, παντὸς τοῦ σώματος διερρωγότος καὶ ἠνεῳγμένου, καὶ μαρτυρεῖν ὅτι ἓν εἶδος στρεβλώσεως ἱκανὸν ἠν πρὸς τὸ ἐξαγαγεῖν τὴν ψυχὴν, οὐχ ὅτι γε τοιαῦτα καὶ τοσαῦτα.

English · Claude translation

For while we were all afraid, and her mistress according to the flesh, who was herself also one of the contending martyrs, was in agony lest she should not be able even to make her confession boldly because of her bodily weakness, Blandina was filled with such power that those who tortured her in relays in every way from morning until evening grew weary and gave up. They confessed that they were beaten, having nothing more they could do to her, and marvelled that she remained alive when her whole body was broken and laid open, and testified that a single kind of torture was enough to drive out the soul, let alone so many and such tortures.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:187 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Extrabiblical texts

Ep. Lugd. (Letter of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Martyrdom

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.1.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/1/18/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.1.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/1/18/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:187

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage