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between the two great empires, Persian and Byzantine.1 Simeon uses
graphic imagery to depict a group of faithful willing to die for their beliefs;
however, Simeon also includes a level of detail which strongly suggests that
he intends these depictions of violent events to be read and understood in
relation to Christian sacramental and liturgical practice. This study analyzes Simeons narrative descriptions of the bodily experiences of Elizabeth the Deaconess, Tahna and her companions, and Ruhm, using Susan
Ashbrook Harveys work on the late antique Christian sensing body as a
theoretical framework.2 It subsequently argues that Simeons presentation
of these experiences transforms them from tragedy into sacramental events
that may encourage and inspire, rather than horrify and discourage, the
Christians under Simeons charge.
The Second Letter of Simeon of Beth Arsham is one of three Syriac documents which provide an account of the deaths of many Christians in the
town of Najran, the other two being Simeons First Letter, and the so-called
Book of the Himyarites, the latest of the three sources.3 Simeon, a sixthcentury Syrian Orthodox bishop, is the likely author of all three.4 Brock
and Harvey characterize these three Syriac sources as having a very close
connection . . . with frequent agreement between them.5 For purposes
of this brief examination, focus will be given to Simeons Second Letter.
PREVIOUS STUDIES AND PRESENT OBJECTIVES
Much of the scholarship on the women martyrs of Najran has focused on
historiographical and textual analysis. Irfan Shahids commentary, in addition to situating the text in a historical context, also incorporates stylistic
1. Sebastian P. Brock and Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Holy Women of the Syrian
Orient, The Transformation of the Classical Heritage (Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 1987), 100.
2. Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination, The Transformation of the Classical Heritage (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006).
3. For an overview of these three texts, see Brock and Harvey, Holy Women,
100104. The critical edition of the Syriac text may be found in Irfan Shahid, The
Martyrs of Najrn: New Documents, Subsidia Hagiographica (Bruxelles: Socit des
Bollandistes, 1971), iiixxxii. Shahid also provides a translation; for sake of convenience, English text given here will prefer Brock and Harveys translation for the narrative of the women martyrs and Shahids for all other references.
4. The authorship of the two letters is not presently in dispute; for a discussion of
authorship of the Book of the Himyarites, see Shahid, Martyrs of Najrn, 13235.
John of Ephesus gives a biography of Simeon in Lives of the Eastern Saints, no. 10
(PO 17:13758).
5. Brock and Harvey, Holy Women, 102.
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food and drink. This is the wine that gladdens the heart of man. Blessed is
he who has drunk from this wine.19
Here, Isaac highlights one of the key premises for the present study; that
is, the manner in which ritual practices mold the perception of sensory
experiences.
For the purposes of the present study, then, Simeons Second Letter will
be examined for narrative details that may be illuminated by a ritual context using Harvey as an interpretive framework. The Second Letter is of
particular interest due to a number of unique features. As a late antique
martyrdom account written for a Syriac Christian audience, Simeons letter falls within Harveys rubric, and seeing how certain details match up
with known liturgical texts and practices either from or in close proximity
to the period and region in question will help clarify exactly how Simeon
is choosing to communicate the particulars of this event to his audience.
From a historiographical perspective, this will also provide an alternative understanding of some of the more graphic details to one presuming
a radical spirit-body dualism. While such a reading is tempting, particularly in narratives where it appears to be a vital point that a martyr or
an ascetic is denying the body or deliberately injuring the flesh, Harvey
makes a compelling case that such a view is anachronistic and does not
sufficiently take ascetic and devotional writings from late antiquity on
their own terms. Rather, the fundamental relationship of sensory experience to epistemology is assumed to include an understanding of God, and
this sensory experience in late antiquity is constructed through the bodily
experience of liturgy. Thus, to see sensory details as informed by common,
normative liturgical experience makes better sense of these sources as they
would have been received.20
THE MARTYRDOM ACCOUNTS
IN SIMEONS SECOND LETTER
Simeons Second Letter is unique due to a particular emphasis on women
martyrs.21 Shahid suggests that Simeon is intentionally attempting to shame
his male audience,22 noting Simeons own words: If women also have persevered heroically in their contests for the sake of Christ, how much more
19.
20.
21.
22.
Isaac, Myst. treat., 43.31617 (ed. and trans. Wensinck and Bedjan, 21112).
Harvey, Scenting Salvation, 171.
As noted in Shahid, Martyrs of Najrn, 127.
Shahid, Martyrs of Najrn, 127.
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In this way, Simeon establishes that this is an event happening to a Christian community, not merely to individuals on their own.
In addition, sensory experience is noted as an important element of this
martyrdom of the community by those who are voluntarily participating
in it: Come, friends, that we may take pleasure in the fragrant offerings of the priests.27 While this is in and of itself not a new point and
is prefigured by earlier martyrs lives such as that of Polycarp (as will be
seen), the martyrdom experience is located in a context of worship as a
community, framing the experience liturgically and sacramentally. It also
establishes the disconnect between physical and spiritual experience that
is prevalent throughout.
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She is captured by the Himyarites, who tie her up and begin to torture
her. First she is given a mock crown: Then they produced some clay and
fashioned something resembling a crown; this they placed on her head,
saying to her in mockery, Receive your crown, servant of the carpenters
son!30
Elizabeth is then burned with hot oil: Next they modeled the clay into
the shape a basin on top and heated up some oil in a pan; this they poured
onto the top of her head when it was on the boil. At her request, it is
then poured on her a second time: When her entire head was scalded,
the Jews said to her, Perhaps it is too cool for you? Would you like us to
heat it up again? The blessed woman was unable to speak for pain, but
she did manage to make a sign to them, softly indicating to them, Yes,
I would.31
Finally, barely alive, she is tied to a camel and dragged violently out
into the desert, and Simeon concludes, This is how the blessed Elizabeth
was crowned.32
To look at Elizabeth the Deaconess with an eye towards the question of
ritual detail and spiritual senses, recalls her statement of purpose: I shall
go to Christ with you, my brother, with you my brother and with all the
rest of you . . . I have come from outside [the church] in order to enter it
and to be burnt along with the bones of my brother and with the priests
his companions. She is expressly seeking to participate in the common
experience of the Christian community to which she belongs; that is, she
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
Sim.
Sim.
Sim.
Sim.
Sim.
Ep.
Ep.
Ep.
Ep.
Ep.
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33. Sebastian P. Brock, Studies in the Early History of the Syrian Orthodox Baptismal Liturgy, JTS n.s. 23 (1972): 25ff.
34. Giuseppe Assemani, Codex Liturgicus Ecclesiae Universae in XV. Libros Distributus in Quo Continentur Libri Rituales, Missales, Pontificales, Officia, Dyptichia
& C. Ecclesiarum Occidentis, & Orientis (Cod. Lit.), 4 vols. (Rome: Ex Typographia
Komaruk, 1749; reprint, Gregg International Publishers Ltd., 1968), 1:248.
35. T. Thompson, The Offices of Baptism and Confirmation (Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1914), 60.
36. Assemani, Codex Liturgicus, 3:23437. See discussion in Sebastian P. Brock,
The Holy Spirit in the Syrian Baptismal Tradition, ed. J. Vellian, Syrian Churches
Series, 2nd ed. (Pune, India: Anita Printers, 1998), 9:73.
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102
catechumen is armed with [the oil] against every working of the adversary.47 Brock notes that anointing the baptisand is discussed in the liturgical text as the preparation of athletes for spiritual combat, with the
oil having the function of dazzling Satan.48
The martyrdom of Elizabeth the Deaconess, therefore, is presented
by Simeon as having been experienced as a baptism, using language and
images with which the Syrian Christian audience would have been able
to identify it as such.
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her by the hand, and the three of them entered the church and were burnt
to death along with the priests.51 The concept of the fragrance of the
priests is important enough for Simeon to repeat, and it functions on at
least two different levels. Devotional use of incense during liturgy in Syrian practice can be substantiated as early as the late fourth century, with
incense being referenced as being at the altar in the Syrian Apostolic Constitutions, canon 3;52 Harvey notes that by the late fifth century, incense
was a staple of Christian prayer practice, public and private, wherever
the church was found.53 As well, a fifth-century Syriac commentary on
the Divine Liturgy says, The censer which the deacon takes around the
whole nave indicates the care of God over all, and the abasement and sweet
fragrance that is in Christ.54 The significance of incense in particular, per
Harvey, is epistemological; sense perception in a liturgical context is a
primarybut of course by no means the solemeans by which religious
knowledge is acquired in late antiquity.55
It may also function as being evocative of martyrdom accounts where
the burning flesh of the saint is described as having a sweet odor, such as
Polycarp: For we took part of a particularly sweet smell, like a blowing
censer or some other precious aromatic spices (
, ).56
As well, Ephrem the Syrian provides relevant imagery in a fourth-century
homily: Come, let us make our love a great, common censer. Let us offer
up our songs and prayers like incense to the One Who made His cross a
censer to the Divinity, and offered His blood on behalf of us all.57 Ephrems
words liken Christ himself as a sacrificial offering of incense and encourage Christians to follow his example.58
Since Simeons text explicitly mentions the fragrance of the priests in
51. Sim. Ep. 2.10 (trans. Brock and Harvey, Holy Women, 107).
52. Const. App., 8.47.3. Edited by Marcel Metzger, Les constitutions apostoliques,
Sources chrtiennes 336 (Paris: ditions du Cerf, 1987), 3:274.
53. Harvey, Scenting Salvation, 77.
54. Sebastian P. Brock, An Early Syriac Commentary on the Liturgy, JTS n.s.
37:2 (1986): 393.
55. Harvey, Scenting Salvation, 77.
56. M. Polyc., 15.2 Edited by Michael W. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek
Texts and English Translation, 3rd edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,
2007), 322.
57. Ephr., Homily on our Lord 8.3. Translated by Edward G. Mathews, Jr. and
Joseph P. Amar, St. Ephrem the Syrian: Selected Prose Works, ed. Kathleen McVey,
The Fathers of the Church 91 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America
Press, 1994), 285.
58. See discussion in Harvey, Scenting Salvation, 79.
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Ruhm
Simeon then recounts the martyrdom of Harith and the leaders of the city
in front of the Himyarite king. After a handful of other incidents, he turns
to Ruhm, Hariths wife. The particulars of the martyrdom of Ruhm, as
noted earlier, are specific to Simeons Second Letter. The account of Ruhms
death in the First Letter is significantly abbreviated:
As I realized that [Ruhm] would not renounce Christ in any way, in order
to terrorize the rest of the Christians, I gave order to throw her down on
the ground; her daughters were slaughtered and their blood ran down to
her mouth, and then her head was severed.67
In the account of the Second Letter, the level of detail is far more intriguing. Ruhm is initially spared by the king, who hopes to claim her for his
own, and she grieves that she has not been granted a martyrdom. Following a public proclamation of faith in which she announces her intent to
be martyred,68 Ruhm is brought along with her daughter and her granddaughter before the king, all dressed up as for a wedding feast.69 Ruhm
tells the king, Cut off our heads, so that we may go and join our brothers
and my daughters father.70 Her granddaughter refuses to deny Christ, at
which point both daughter and granddaughter are killed and their blood
poured into Ruhms mouth.
Then they got her to stand up again, and the king asked her, How did
your daughters blood taste to you? She replied, Like a pure spotless
offering; that is what it tasted like in my mouth and in my soul. The king
gave orders at once that she be executed. [ . . . ] The blessed Ruhm . . .
together with her granddaughters Ummah and Ruhm, were crowned on
Sunday, 20 November.71
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of the Tree of Life.72 In her speech to the town, Ruhm even refers to her
life up until that point as having been spent in a temporary tabernacle
(mashkna dzabna), with this being the term used for the container on the
altar that contains the consecrated bread and wine.73
Ruhms description of the taste reinforces this: Like a pure spotless
offering; that is what it tasted like in my mouth and in my soul. Christ,
of course, is understood as the pure spotless offering,74 at once confirming the Eucharistic image as well as giving Christological overtones to her
daughters deaths.
It is also significant that Simeon describes Ruhm and her daughters as
being dressed up for a wedding feast, a wedding being another communal, liturgical event at which the participants would have received crowns,
this practice in Syria going back at least to the fourth century, attested to
by Gregory of Nazianzus75 and John Chrysostom.76 This can be understood as corresponding to the parable of the wedding garment;77 another
possible scriptural reference is the wedding in Cana, which in late antique
Christian exegesis is frequently treated as having Eucharistic overtones,78
Ephrem of Syria being one exegetical example.79
Ruhms sensory experience in this matter is informed by her spiritual
senses, and this is made explicit by the identification of her soul as the
source of sensory information. The Syriac sources explicitly tie the Eucharist to an experience of the senses, with the reception of Communiona
sensory experience of taste via the bread and winebeing also the reception of a vision of Christ, a sensory experience of sight.80 Ruhms martyrdom, therefore, is presented as having been experienced as a partaking of
the Eucharist, and Simeon uses language that would have made this clear
to his audience.
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CONCLUSION
Through a careful reading informed by the shared liturgical practice of the
time and place, it is possible to see more to such texts than mere graphic,
violent detail intended to shock or otherwise manipulate the intended audience. It should be no particular surprise that Simeon uses liturgy as a point
of reference; he draws heavily upon texts, both biblical and extra-biblical,
he expects his audience to be familiar with, as is well-documented.81
Employing language that evokes familiar communal practices serves the
same rhetorical function. As well, it is typical for martyr accounts from
the Middle East to draw their style and rhetorical approaches from a wide
variety of genres.82 That said, it is clear that there are layers of meaning
in these accounts; crowning in particular is an image functioning on
several different levelsthe crown of martyrdom, the crown of baptism,
the crown of marriage. Recall, however, Harveys observation that sensory experience in late antique Christianity functions as a form of rhetoric
drawing on ascetic and liturgical practice as well as scriptural exegesis,
incorporating individual experience into the shared, ecclesial ritual experience of the worshipping community. Given this, the fact that the express
purpose of all three martyrs examined here is articulated as joining the
Christian community as fully as possible supports a liturgical reading of
Simeons textthat is, Simeon constructs these experiences in the Second
Letter so that they are received and understood in the context of the shared
worship practices of the ecclesial community.
Simeons emphasis on the elements of baptism may well be engaging
the earlier notion of baptism of blood, in which an unbaptized martyr
could nonetheless be said to have received baptism through their martyrdom.83 In this case, the deaths of Elizabeth and Hudayyuh presumably do
not replace a water baptism, but rather the sacramental transformation
of their martyrdoms may be seen as adding to, or perhaps fulfilling, their
previous baptism, completing the fashioning of Christ onto them.84
To return to the matter of gender in Simeons Second Letter and how this
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impacts the present analysis, Stephen Davis argues that the female martyrs
body in the late antique/early medieval Middle East consistently functions
as an icon of resistance that is used to negotiate religious boundaries.85
There is clearly an element of this at work in Simeon, given the religious
nature of the Himyarites aggression and the focus on the bodily experiences of women martyrs in the Second Letter. However, there appears to
be more to it than that. Simeons overt presentation of the women martyrs
as examples to men implies that he is intentionally depicting these martyrdoms in a way that reverses gender expectations. Certainly the women
are far more active in their resistance to the Himyarites than any of the
men; Simeon depicts Harith himself as doing little more than standing
naked and speaking to the Himyarite king, whereas Ruhm, his wife, has
far more agency in her section of the narrative, and is able to change her
own fate. This presentation of the womens deaths as having liturgical
overtones is part of Simeons reversal; their martyrdoms are transformed
sacramentally in a way that does not happen for the men.
Simeon is disseminating these accounts to the greater Christian community so that the martyrs will be commemorated in the liturgy of the
churches in the region.86 He also wishes to glorify the faith of these women
in a way that, leaving their sanctity beyond doubt, will ensure their commemoration by the Church at large, and will to some extent shame his
male fellow believers. In these three particular martyrdom accounts, by
means of language that carries liturgical and sacramental meaning, linking the act of martyrdom and the sensory experience accompanying it, he
accomplishes these goals. As Shahid notes, a church was built in Najran
shortly after these events that was dedicated to the Holy Martyrs, and relics of the martyrs were enshrined in the citys new churches.87 The martyrs
of Najran entered the Synaxarion for the Syrian and Ethiopian churches,
and while the Ethiopian Synaxarion explicitly names Caleb, the Ethiopian
king, as responsible for their cult, Shahid argues that their veneration is
more likely to have been due to Simeons direct suggestion to Caleb.88 These
events are still commemorated liturgically by todays Syrian Christians;
24 October continues to be observed by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate
85. Stephen J. Davis, Variations on an Egyptian Female Martyr Legend: History,
Hagiography, and the Gendered Politics of Medieval Arab Religious Identity, in Writing True Stories: Historians and Hagiographers in the Late Antique and Medieval
Near East, ed. Arietta Papaconstantinou, Muriel Debi, and Hugh Kennedy, Cultural
Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), 20517.
86. See Brock and Harvey, Holy Women, 101.
87. Irfan Shahid, Byzantium in South Arabia, DOP 33 (1979): 29, 41.
88. Shahid, Byzantium in South Arabia, 61.
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89. Sim. Ep. 2.18 (trans. Brock and Harvey, Holy Women, 108).
90. Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Syn. Eccl. Const.), 24 October.
Edited by Hippolyte Delehaye, Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Bruxelles:
Socit des Bollandistes, 1902), 15960.