Biblias of Lyon

Holy Martyr Biblias of Lyon was one of the Christian women who suffered in Lyon, in Gaul, in the year 177, in the persecution of Marcus Aurelius. At first wavering, she confessed Christ under torture and refused to accuse the Christians. Her name is not included in the present calendar of the Russian Church. The company of the martyrs of Lyon, in which Bishop Pothinus, the martyr Pontikos, the martyr Blandina and others are remembered, is commemorated on 7 August.

The persecution

In 177, in the midst of the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the Christians of Lyon and Vienne, important cities of Gaul, were seized. The pagans would not let them into houses, baths or the market, and the crowd beat them in the streets. After enduring many insults they were brought to trial and questioned by the tribune and the magistrates of Lyon. The Christians confessed their faith firmly and were imprisoned until the governor's return. Some, ten in number, did not find enough faith and yielded to threats. Each day brought new arrests, and among those seized were the most active members of the Churches. Pagan servants of the Christians, frightened by the tortures, falsely accused their masters of dreadful deeds, and this stirred the anger of the crowd still more. Biblias, who earlier had not been firm, confessed Christ under torture and refused to accuse the Christians.

The martyrs

The anger of the crowd, of the governor and of the soldiers turned especially on Sanctus, the deacon of Vienne, on Maturus, newly baptised but already a brave soldier of Christ, on Attalus of Pergamum, a pillar of the Christians of Lyon, and on the young slave Blandina. All feared that she, because of her youth and womanly weakness, would not endure. But she had such strength that the tormenters, taking turns from morning till evening, admitted themselves defeated. It was enough for her to say that she was a Christian for her not to feel the pain. Sanctus, tormented with red-⁠hot bronze plates on the most sensitive parts, answered all questions in Latin: I am a Christian. It was his name, his city and his race. Shut afterwards in narrow prisons, many died, among them the bishop of Lyon, Pothinus, an old man of over ninety, who, though frail, had come himself to the judge, had been beaten and stoned by the crowd and died in prison after two days.

Then Maturus and Sanctus were led into the amphitheatre: scourged, given to the beasts, set on red-⁠hot iron chairs. Blandina, tied to a stake, was not touched by the beasts and was led back to prison. Attalus, as a Roman citizen, awaited the judgment of Caesar. Caesar's answer was that the confessors be tortured and those who denied be released. The Roman citizens were beheaded, the others were given to the beasts. The Phrygian physician Alexander also confessed. Pontikos, a boy of fifteen, was tormented with Blandina and gave up his soul. Blandina died last: she was scourged, given to the beasts, set on a red-⁠hot grid, then put into a wicker basket and thrown to a bull; at the end her throat was cut. The pagans admitted that none of their own women would have endured so many torments.

After death

After this slaughter, in which forty-⁠eight people suffered, according to other accounts forty-⁠three, the anger of the persecutors was not appeased. They threw to the dogs the bodies of those who had died in prison and forbade the faithful to bury them. The bodies of those in the amphitheatre lay six days in the open air, then were burned, and the ashes thrown into the Rhône. The martyrs of Lyon did not call themselves martyrs and forbade others to call them so, saying that the true Martyr is Christ and that they were only humble confessors. They prayed for their tormentors, like the first martyr Stephen, and did not exalt themselves over the lapsed, but prayed for them. The letter of the Churches of Lyon and Vienne to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia, preserved by Eusebius, attributed to Saint Irenaeus, the successor of Pothinus, is the first written witness to Christianity on the territory of present-⁠day France.