Martyrs and Witnesses

'Et vidimus, et testes.' Forte aliqui fratrum nesciunt, qui graece non norunt, quid sint testes graece: et usitatum nomen est omnibus et religiosum; quos enim testes latine dicimus, graece martyres sunt. Quis autem non audivit martyres, aut in cuius christiani ore non quotidie habitat nomen martyrum? Atque utinam sic habitet et in corde, ut passiones martyrum imitemur, non eos calcibus persequamur. Ergo hoc dixit: Vidimus, et testes sumus: Vidimus, et martyres sumus. Testimonium enim dicendo ex eo quod viderunt, et testimonium dicendo ex eo quod audierunt ab his qui viderunt, cum displiceret ipsum testimonium hominibus adversus quos dicebatur, passi sunt omnia quae passi sunt martyres. Testes Dei sunt martyres. Deus testes habere voluit homines, ut et homines habeant testem Deum. Vidimus, inquit, et testes sumus. Ubi viderunt? In manifestatione. Quid est, in manifestatione? In sole, id est in hac luce. Unde autem potuit videri in sole qui fecit solem, nisi quia in sole posuit tabernaculum suum, et ipse tamquam sponsus procedens de thalamo suo, exsultavit ut gigas ad currendam viam ? Ille ante solem qui fecit solem, ille ante luciferum, ante omnia sidera, ante omnes Angelos, verus creator - quia omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil -, ut videretur oculis carneis qui solem vident; ipsum tabernaculum suum in sole posuit, id est carnem suam in manifestatione huius lucis ostendit: et illius sponsi thalamus fuit uterus Virginis, quia in illo utero virginali coniuncti sunt duo, sponsus et sponsa, sponsus Verbum et sponsa caro; quia scriptum est: Et erunt duo in carne una; et Dominus dicit in Evangelio: Igitur iam non duo, sed una caro. Et Isaias optime meminit unum esse ipsos duos: loquitur enim ex persona Christi, et dicit: Sicut sponso imposuit mihi mitram, et sicut sponsam ornavit me ornamento. Unus videtur loqui, et sponsum se fecit et sponsam se fecit; quia non duo, sed una caro: quia Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. Illi carni adiungitur Ecclesia, et fit Christus totus, caput et corpus. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, In Epistolam Ioannis ad Parthos, Tractatus I

'And we have seen and are witnesses.' 1  Perhaps some of the brethren who do not know Greek are not aware that the word witnesses is in Greek, and yet it is a term much used by all, and religious, for what in the Latin tongue we call witnesses, in Greek are martyrs. Where indeed is the man that has not heard of martyrs, or in which Christian mouth does not the name of martyrs daily dwell? And I would that it so dwelt in the heart also that we might imitate the sufferings of the martyrs and not distress them with our drinking! Well then, 'We have seen and are witnesses,' is as much as to say, We have seen and are martyrs. For it was for bearing witness of that which they had seen, and bearing witness of that which they had heard from them who had seen, that, while their testimony itself displeased the men against whom it was delivered, the martyrs suffered all that they suffered. The martyrs are God's witnesses. It pleased God to have men for His witnesses, that men also may have God to be their witness. 'We have seen,' he says, 'and are witnesses.' Where have they seen? In the manifestation. What does this mean, in the manifestation? In the sun, that is, in the light. And how should He be seen in the sun who made the sun, except as "in the sun He has set His tabernacle; and Himself as a bridegroom going forth from his chamber, exulted as a great one to run His course?" 2 He before the sun, who made the sun, He before the day-star, before all the stars, before all angels, the true Creator, 'for all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made,'3 that He might be seen by the corporeal  eyes of which see the sun, set His very tabernacle in the sun, that is, showed His flesh in manifestation of this light of day, and that Bridegroom's chamber was the Virgin's womb, because in that virginal womb were joined the two, the Bridegroom and the bride, the Bridegroom the Word, and the bride the flesh, because it is written, 'And two shall be one flesh.'4 And the Lord says in the Gospel, Therefore they are no more two but one flesh.5 And Isaiah remembers well that one are two, for speaking in the person of Christ, he says, 'As upon a bridegroom He has set a mitre upon me, and adorned me with ornament like a bride.'6 One seems to speak, yet makes Himself  Bridegroom and Bride; because 'not two, but one flesh:' because "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."7 To that flesh the Church is joined, and so there is made the whole Christ, Head and body. Saint Augustine of Hippo, On The First Letter of John, First Homily 1 1 Jn 1:2 2 Ps 18.6  3 Jn 1.3  4 Gen 2:24  5 Mt 19:6  6 Is 61.10  7 Jn 1.14