Thus does the straw press down the grain of corn; Thus is slain the guard of the vineyard in the vineyard; Thus the general in the camp, the shepherd in the fold, the husbandman in the threshing-floor. Thus the just, slain by the unjust, has changed his house of clay for a heavenly palace. Rachel, weeping, now cease thou to mourn That the flower of the world is bruised by the world. When the slain Thomas is borne to his funeral, A new Abel succeeds to the old. The voice of blood, the voice of his scattered brains, Fills heaven with a marvellous cry. { 210}
But the last words of the martyr, which from the confused clamour could scarcely be distinguished, according to the testimony of those who stood near, were these,--"To God, and the blessed Mary, and Saint Dionysius, and the holy patrons of this Church, I commend myself and the cause of the Church[74]." Moreover, in all the torments which this unvanquished champion of God endured, he sent forth no cry, he uttered no groan, he opposed neither his arm nor his garment to the man who struck him, but held his head, which he had bent towards the swords, unmoved till the consummation came; prostrated as if for prayer, he fell asleep in the Lord. The perpetrators of the crime, returning into the palace of the holy prelate, that they might make the passion of the servant more fully resemble the passion of his Lord, divided among them his garments, the gold and silver and precious vessels, choice horses, and whatever of value they could find, allotting what each should take. These things therefore the soldiers did. Who, without weeping, can relate the rest? So great was the sorrow of all, so great the laments of each, that you would think the prophecy were a second time fulfilled, "A voice is heard in Rama, lamentation and great mourning." Nevertheless the divine mercy, when temptation was multiplied, made a way to escape; and by certain visions, giving as it were a prelude to the future miracles, [declared that] the martyr was thereafter to be glorified by wonders, that joy would return after sorrow, { 211} and a crowd of sick would obtain the grace of benefits.
[Footnote 74: I have already suggested a comparison between this prayer and the commendatory prayer of the Martyr Polycarp, page 92.]
