ign with his weak hand to comfort her. She exhorted him to persevere to
the end, and, fortified by the Holy Ghost, took him up, and put him with
her own hands into the wagon with the rest of the martyrs, not only
without shedding a tear, but with a countenance full of joy, saying,
courageously: "Go, go, son, proceed to the end of this happy journey
with thy companions, that thou mayest not be the last of them that shall
present themselves before God." Nothing can be more inflamed or more
pathetic than the discourse which St. Ephrem puts into her mouth, by
which he expresses her contempt of life and all earthly things, and her
ardent love and desire of eternal life. This holy father earnestly
entreats her to conjure this whole troop of martyrs to join in imploring
the divine mercy in favor of his sinful soul.[3] Their bodies were
burned, and their ashes thrown into the river; but the Christians
secretly carried off, or purchased part of them with money. Some of
these precious relies were kept at Caesarea, and St. Basil says of them:
"Like bulwarks, they are our protection against the inroads of
enemies."[4] He adds, that every one implored their succor, and that
they raised up those that had fallen, strengthened the weak, and
invigorated the fervor of the saints. SS. Basil and Emmelia, the holy
parents of St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Peter of
Sebaste, and St. Macrina, procured a great share of these relics.[5] St.
Emmelia put some of them in the church she built near Anneses, the
village where they resided. The solemnity with which they were received
was extraordinary, and they were honored by miracles, as St. Gregory
relates. One of these was a miraculous cure wrought on a lame soldier,
the truth of which he attests from his own knowledge, both of the fact
and the person, who published it everywhere. He adds: "I buried the
bodies of my parents by the relics of these holy martyrs, that in the
resurrection they may rise with the encouragers of their faith; for I
know they have great power with God, of which I have seen clear proofs
and undoubted testimonies." St. Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia, writes in
his sermon on these martyrs: "God gave me a share of these venerable
relics and granted me to found this church in their honor."[6] He says,
that the two nieces of St. Basil, both abbesses, gave them to him as
{563} he passed by Caesarea, in a journey to Jerusalem; which venerable
treasure they had received