Maura’s Baptism
I asked a Japanese pastor once why he chose his wife instead of all the other women he could have married. He said what gave him the most confidence in choosing her was that he knew she loved Christ so much that she would certainly consider it a joy to suffer for Him. Since then, I know they have greatly suffered together — joyfully.
“Christian Grave: Christians who were captured during the early Meiji era, and were placed under the custody of ____’s domain, and who subsequently died.”
— EGYPT 286AD —
Young Timothy was a lector in a church in Antinoe, on the east bank of the Nile in northern Egypt. He was in charge of watching over and preserving scriptures and ancient texts and would constantly be reading them alone or out loud so their contents would be preserved. The significance of this job to the church in those days was the equivalent to being a google search engine. He was a man who kept God’s word in the physical sense by guarding the texts in the church building, in an academic/religious sense by memorizing, reading and studying the text with the church body, and in a spiritual sense by personally trusting in the truth of God’s Word.
His job security was through the roof and he had just gotten married, when a request was made by the government for the church to hand over some of its scriptures to be permanently confiscated. When Timothy, the ‘reader’ responsible, refused to relinquish scriptures, knowing many would be burned, he was accused of not offering mandatory sacrifices to the gods of the Roman Emperor.
He was arrested and, since he was a Christian, of course he was guilty. Governor Arianus, the ruling magistrate at the time, however, decided all should be forgiven if Timothy would give an apology and obey Diocletian’s decree by offering a sacrifice to the Roman gods.
The Christian refused to honor any god except the true and living God and so Arianus ordered that hot iron rods be driven into both of Timothy’s ears. When Timothy was hung upside down by his ankles, he had to be gagged in order to be kept from singing hymns during his torture.
Governor Arianus then had a conversation with Timothy’s bride, Maura. Timothy had married her 20 days earlier and, like so many others, in the face of troubles, she was not concerned with maintaining an identity in Christ. Arianus encouraged her to share her reasonableness and respect for the law with her husband in an attempt to convince him to meet the government’s demands. She went and pleaded with him not to leave her a widow, to apologize, and give a sacrifice to the Roman gods so that he could come home with her.
She was strongly rebuked by Timothy, who told her she had “conspired with the devil.” He explained to her that it would be better to die and live with Christ than to betray Christ for any happiness they could share in a life without Him.
Maura repented, confessed her faith in Christ, and begged the governor to allow her to also be tortured beside him. Arianus had her hair pulled out, any fingers wearing rigs were cut off, and a pool of boiling water was prepared. She was thrown in it but when she began to sing as her husband had, praising God from within the steaming cauldron.
After seeing that the water was hot enough to peel the skin from a man’s hand, the governor was even more enraged at Maura’s miraculous protection. Rather than dying, she emerged with extacy as though she had been resureced from the dead. The governor’s heart grew even more hardened toward them and he ordered that her mouth be filled by burning coals and she be burned with wooden torches.
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In the end, Timothy and Maura were crucified facing each other. Reinforced by ropes, they hung for 9–10 days before dying.
Maura’s mother met her on the way to the cross, pleading, “Maura, my child, I have been searching for you! Why are you forsaking your mother? Daughter, if you die, who will inherit your gold and silver jewelry and fine clothes?”
In response, Timothy and Maura spent the next nine days taking turns preaching to the crowds, guards, and other witnesses about the eternal crowns that awaited those who remained faithful.
Their families and many other witnesses watching said they preached, prayed, and sang together. At one point, to encourage Timothy, Maura recited what an angel told her while she was on the cross. By not turning her back on her husband and her faith in God, Timothy had become her guide to an assurance of eternal salvation.
They were married for 30 days. One-third of their marriage was spent being tortured together because they refused to separate themselves from the Truth.
They were said to have died simultaneously on the tenth day. After which, governor Arianus, having seen so many saints die without showing any hatred toward him, broke his allegiance to Emperor Diocletian’s decrees, converted to Christianity, and himself died a martyr.
Littel brother,
Do not be afraid to suffer. For Christ’s name sake, be an example and do not cower from the pain that a sinless life leads to. Be prepared to lead others in what it means not to love this life unto death —knowing that only those who lose their life for Christ’s sake will find it.
Christ is your Savior and Lord; your God and your redeemer; your joy, and the love of your life. Do not let a secure job, a young lover, or a comfortable community give you the illusion of having value apart from your ability to leave it all to share a cross with Christ.
And if you’re going to give up your singlehood for a woman, at the very least, do so for a woman who wouldn’t let you die alone.
Little sister,
If he’s ‘too good to be true’ and his name isn’t Jesus Christ, he is. If you must marry a man in such evil days as these, pray that he be a man who, if given the opportunity, wouldn’t let you choose the security of his home over the assurance of heaven’s.
