The Imagery of Persecutions
Gregory of Tours writes, “Under the emperor Decius many persecutions arose against the name of Christ and there was such a slaughter of believers that they could not be numbered. Babillas, bishop of Antioch with his three little sons, Urban, Prilidan and Epolon, and Xystus, bishop of Rome, Laurentius an archdeacon, and Hyppolitus, were made perfect by the martyrdom because they confessed the name of the Lord.” Manifestly, Decius does not support Christ for it is in his reign that the persecutions are rampant. The martyrs have the options of either denouncing or defending Christ with their lives. They endure the pain of persecution for they are assured that dying for the sake of Christ is worthwhile and divine.
The ‘Devastation of Metz’
Gregory of Tours writes, “Now the Huns left Pannonia and, as certain say, on the very watch-night of holy Easter arrived at the city of Metz, after devastating the country, and gave the city over to burning, slaying the people with the edge of sword and killing the very priest of the Lord before the holy altars. And there remained in the city no place unburned except the oratory of the blessed Stephen, the deacon and the first martyr.” Swords characterize the vehement violence which is applied in the course of wrecking the city. The exemption of the oratory from the destruction is a confirmation of Stephen’s sanctity which he earns after becoming a martyr.
