Paradise Gained
Oil on canvas 3' x 4'
The details of the following story were first officially recorded by the bishop, Basil of Ceasarea (370-379). I first read about these events in "Glimpse #146", an article in Christian History Magazine, a publication of Christianity Today. Documentation of the events, including a list of the actual names of those martyred and ceremonial feasts in their honor, are kept as a part of the annual fixed cycle of services in the Eastern Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Churches throughout the East.
On a day of blistering cold in the winter of A.D. 320, in the town of Sevaste (present day Sivas,Turkey), a special group of Roman soldiers were on duty. They were known as "The Thundering Legion", some of the very finest soldiers of the Roman military.
It is not recorded how they came to call themselves Christians; but when, in an attempt to route out Christianity, the emperor Licinius ordered all soldiers to offer sacrifices to the gods of Rome, forty of these finest soldiers stepped forward in respectful defiance, on grounds of their faith in Christ. Their commander, Agricola, tried to change their minds, pointing out that he could not let their example pass unpunished. He had them flogged. He lectured them. But his force and his words were met with a confident, respectful attitude and firm resolution: they were not going to renounce their faith in order to obey any man's orders. Frustrated at the thought of losing such good soldiers and angry at them for their insolence, Agricola turned to his superior, Lysias, who ordered them to strip down and march naked out onto the ice of a nearby lake; they were to remain there until they changed their minds. Quietly the forty undressed; then, breaking into song they ran together across the snow and down onto the frozen lake. Huddled against the descending temperatures as the sun set, the forty men broke into prayer: "It pleased God to unite us forty brethren in one communion of faith and warfare; let us not part in life or death. Let us ask God to send us forty to our crowns together." (page 85, Letters to the Martyrs, Helen Walker Homan) As their determination held and the night set in, Lysias encircled the lake with guards to prevent escape. Then he ordered warm baths to be set at the waters' edge, to entice the men to come in and warm themselves and be done with what he saw as foolishness; but their resolve held and they continued to sing and pray in the frosty air. On shore, wrapped in warm furs, the soldiers on guard watched as their comrades slowly froze to death in front of them. At one point, one of the guards looked up and saw a vision: in amazement he cried, "Do you see them? Angels coming with robes and crowns!" But none of the others had seen anything. Soon after this vision, one of the original 40 men came shuffling slowly to shore; he could stay no longer on the ice. The other guards quickly picked him up and placed him gently into a waiting bath of warm water. But the thermal shock was too great; he immediately went into convulsions and died. The guard who had just seen the vision was so moved by it and the faith he had witnessed through the long night, that without a word, he lay down his weapons, removed his heavy fur coat, his armor, his uniform, and walked naked out onto the ice to join the others. The prayer for forty to be sent to their crowns together had been answered. As the sun rose, Agricola ordered the deceased to be removed from the ice and taken elsewhere to be burned, their ashes scattered in the river. As the soldiers worked to load the frozen bodies onto a waiting wagon, they were surprised to find one of the forty was still alive. His name was Milito, and he was the youngest of the forty. In the bitter morning air, Milito's mother was standing on the shore, watching all that was going on; she was among many who stood vigil, quietly supportive, praying during their sons' last hours. The soldiers who found Milito alive approached his mother, thinking to entrust him to her, as perhaps she could revive him. But they found in her the same steadfast resolution that had kept her son out on the lake all night long. As they encouraged her to take Milito home, she said (and I quote here from Christian History Magazine): "'Would you cheat him of his crown? I'll never let that happen!' As the wagon began to roll away, she lifted her son with her peasant's strength, hoisting him in with the others. 'Go, Son,' she cried. 'Go to the end of this happy journey with your comrades so that you won't be the last to present yourself before God.'" |
I have been touched by the remarkable faith of these forty men; but I have been even more deeply moved by this mother's eternal perspective. What she saw by faith–what lay beyond natural sight–far outweighed the very present pain and torment that faced her son. She transcended a mother's natural protective tendencies and supernaturally helped her son finish the race she knew God had marked out for him.
May God grant us such real faith and vision and the supernatural courage to assist our children in their walk of faith and the individual callings God places on their lives.
This illustration was made during a conference on prophetic creativity held in Maui, Hawaii. When one visits Hawaii, it is customary upon arrival to be given a circle of flowers called a "lay" around your neck; this circle is the customary way to welcome a visitor to Hawaii's paradise.
In this painting, entitled Paradise Gained, I have encircled Milito with a lay that frames the whole setting. This lay is made up of thirty-eight smaller individual lays, each wrapped around the helmet and uniform of one of his original soldier friends who joined him out on the lake. A final lay and encircled helmet in the top right corner represents the last soldier to join the group. Thus all forty martyrs are wrapped in symbolic welcome to the real Paradise.
May God grant us such real faith and vision and the supernatural courage to assist our children in their walk of faith and the individual callings God places on their lives.
This illustration was made during a conference on prophetic creativity held in Maui, Hawaii. When one visits Hawaii, it is customary upon arrival to be given a circle of flowers called a "lay" around your neck; this circle is the customary way to welcome a visitor to Hawaii's paradise.
In this painting, entitled Paradise Gained, I have encircled Milito with a lay that frames the whole setting. This lay is made up of thirty-eight smaller individual lays, each wrapped around the helmet and uniform of one of his original soldier friends who joined him out on the lake. A final lay and encircled helmet in the top right corner represents the last soldier to join the group. Thus all forty martyrs are wrapped in symbolic welcome to the real Paradise.
Peculiar Graces: Paradise Gained. The 40 Christian military soldiers of this story were given a grace to endure much physical pain. After having been flogged, they were able to face freezing to death. What uncommon strength!