st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

2 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
advances with scorn. Thus baffled, Dioscorus de
parts, after leaving orders for a chamber to be con
structed for her, having two windows. She directs
the workmen to make three in it, with a religious
symbolism that can easily be divined. Her father,
on his return, at once observes the change, and
demands the reason of it. She openly avows her
motive, and seeks to convince him of the truth of
the Christian faith.
Then, transported with fury, he
rushes upon her with drawn sword to slay her. But
lo ! a neighbouring rock, less stony-hearted than this
unnatural sire, opens
its bosom to receive her. She
passes out, through the way thus provided, to the
other side of the mountain. But even here her
relentless father pursues her, unmoved by the
miracle displayed. Having secured his victim, he
has her imprisoned yet more strictly than before,
and applies to Marcianus, the presiding governor of
his province, to use torture, or any means he thinks
fit, to quell the spirit of the Christian maiden. The
reader of martyrologies can now anticipate the
course of the story. At first
Marcianus, struck by
her beauty, tries to ingratiate himself with her.
When
his advances are rejected with contempt, his admira
tion turns to hate, and he tries threats and then
tortures. She is scourged, and her lacerated flesh
rubbed with horse-hair cloth, till she is one mass of
blood. But when brought again before his tribunal,
on the following day, her wounds have been healed,
and not a scar is to be seen ! The governor only
hardens his heart at the sight, and still more dreadful
tortures follow. The recital of them all, and of her