Chapter 13 - Athletes of death

Summary

The blood of the martyrs was the vital force, the kinetic energy powering Christian life in Africa. For believers, the blood sacrifice of their noble men and women was the foundation of Christian truth. The blood of the martyrs was collected, remembered, venerated, worshiped. The spilled blood of the Christian witness was liquid soul. Possessing the blood of the martyr was like having the DNA, the code to a higher existence. The sanctified blood of martyrs had been shed by Florus, the praesidial governor of Numidia in the Great Persecution, in 304, when he murdered Christians at Milevis in “the days of turification.” Their gore was taken up, preserved, and carefully distributed to nearby towns, like Mastar, some fifteen miles to the southeast, where it was deposited to mark the place as holy ground made sacred by the martyrs’ blood. The days when the governor came to towns like Milevis with the demand that the Christians turificate – to burn incense to the gods – were traumatic ones. True Christians would have to refuse. In the hearing held by Secundus, the Primate of Numidia, in May 306, concerning the status of the clergy who had ordained the bishop Silvanus at Cirta, the stark division for people in these local communities was between the martyrs who had remained loyal and the traitors who had not.

Secundus to Donatus from Masculula: “It is said that you betrayed.” [i.e. handed scripture to the authorities]

Donatus: “You know how often Florus asked me to turificate [i.e. to burn incense to the gods] and, my brother, God did not betray me into his hands. And since God Himself has released me, I ask you to save me for God's judgment.

Secundus: “In that case, what are we to do with the martyrs? Because they did not betray [i.e. the Word of God], they were crowned.”

Donatus: “Send me before God and I will give a full accounting to Him of my actions.”

If traitors like Donatus were to be excused, the bishop Secundus wondered aloud, then what was to become of the martyrs? After all, it was their blood that had laid down the marker, the standard of courage required of true believers.