FEBRUARY 22ND. Martyrdom of the Holy Children, nine in number, who were
spiritual brothers by baptism at the Sacred Font, but were born each of a different
mother.
There was a large village at the source of the great river which is called the
Mtkvari (Kura), in the valley which they call Kola. Most of the people in that village were
idolaters, but a minority were servants of Christ. The Christian and pagan children
used to meet at play, as children will, and frolic together all day. But when it was
time for vespers the priest rang aloud, and the Christian children would go to the
church to say their prayers according to the Christian custom.
The biography of St. Nino shows us that even after Georgia's conversion to
Christianity, there was many a remote corner where pagan beliefs lingered on. The
touching story of the nine infant martyrs of Kola illustrates the conflict between the
Christian message and the faiths of pre-Christian Georgia, and probably goes back
to a period not far removed from the time of St. Nino. There is no reason to question
the authenticity of the tale, which is based on the local traditions of Kola, a locality
in south-western Georgia existing to the present day. The text is translated here
without abridgment from the late Professor N. Y. Marr's edition, based on a 10th
century manuscript preserved on Mount Athos.
Then the pagan children followed them, being nine in number. They were
fond of the Christian children and liked the Christian faith. But when they reached the church floors, the Christians
Would not let them come inside, but said to them, “You are sons of idolaters, and
not fit to be admitted into God's house.” And they went away downcast and
ashamed. This happened to the children many times.
Later on the pagan children came to the Christian church and tried to force
their way in. Then the Christians said, “If you want to come into the church with us,
you must believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized in His name and partake
of His Sacrament and join us Christians.”
So immediately they received with joy the teaching of the Christians, and
promised to fulfill it. Then the Christians hurried to the priest who was the village
pastor, a saintly, worthy and respected man, and told him about the children. And he
remembered the words of the Gospel, uttered by our Lord Jesus Christ, “Whoever
will not leave his father and mother, his sisters and brothers, his wife and children,
and will not take up his cross and follow me, the same is not worthy of me.”
Then the priest went out to the source of the great river, and many Christians
with him. Also with them were the pagan children. It was winter-time, and a frosty
night, for by clay he would not have dared to baptize them for fear of the pagans.
Furthermore our Lord Jesus Christ was also baptized by night by John in the river
Jordan.
At this season the water gave out an icy sharpness, but when the children
stepped down into the stream and the priest baptized them in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and pronounced the following sacramental words:
“The Holy Ghost descended as a dove upon the Jordan when Christ was baptized.
The angels stood by singing hymns—Alleluia, Alleluia”—
then the water gave out great warmth, just like a bath. And by the will of God,
angels brought down white robes from heaven and dressed the newly baptized
children in them, invisibly to man. The Christian children were their godfathers. And
the newly baptized children did not return to their parents, but stayed and lived with
the Christians.
After some time had passed, their parents found out what had occurred, and
with great wrath and anger and foul oaths and curses they forcibly dragged the
children from the Christians' houses. They carried them home, struck them about the
head and beat them black and blue. But the children said in reply to their parents,
“We are Christians, and it is not fit for us to partake of the food and drink which is
offered up to idols.” And the children passed seven days without eating or drinking,
and took no nourishment, but were fed by the Holy Spirit by which they were
imbued at their baptism.
Then their parents promised them all kinds of good things and bright clothes
of many colors, but they repeated the same thing: “We are Christians and need
nothing from you, only set us free to go to the Christians.” Since they Could make
no impression on their steadfast faith, they appeared before the prince who was
ruling at the time, himself a pagan, and told him about the children. Then the prince
said to them, “They are voter sons, and you have the right to do what you like with
them.”
They said to him, “Be so gracious as to come with us, and we will break their
skulls open with stones, so that others may not imitate them and become
Christians.” And they subjected the priest to equally violent persecution: they seized
his property, divided up his goods between themselves, wounded him savagely on
the head, and drove him out of his dwelling.
Then they fixed the clay for the supreme sacrifice of the holy martyrs, and the
prince went out with a countless mob of people and came to the source of the
stream where the holy child en had been baptized, and they dug a very deep hole.
And the parents brought the holy children and threw them into the hole, some of
them being about nine yeals old and Others seven, more or less. They had no
thought to say anything except, “We are Christians and will perish and be killed for
Him in whom we have been baptized.”
After this, their ungodly parents smote their heads and broke open their
skulls. Snakes and adders, vipers and wild beasts know how to be merciful to their
young, but those godless folk had no pity for their own offspring. Many of the
people collected stones, until they had filled up the pit and covered their holy bodies
with the boulders, and they threw in on top the earth that had been dug out. That
place became their sepulchre and a shrine for their holy relics. Then were fulfilled
the words of the Gospel, “Brother shall put brother to death, and the father the son,
and fathers and mothers shall rise up against their children and kill them.”
Their passion was accomplished, and they were counted among the
proto-martyrs, and with them rejoice ill the kingdom of heaven those who are
crowned in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory and honour
and worship, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost, now and for ever and for
all eternity, AMEN.
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