A CRY AGAINST CRUELTY
St. Telemachus (St. Almachius)
was a saintly ascetic of Asia Minor in present day Turkey. Once, during his
prayer, he received a divine inspiration to travel to Rome and preach the
Gospel. When he reached Rome, the citizens of Rome were celebrating the victory
of Rome over the Goths. Moving along with the marching crowd, he reached the
Colosseum in Rome on 1st January, 404 A.D. He remembered the
countless Christian martyrs who were killed and eaten by hungry lions in the
Colosseum during the period of religious persecution in Rome. The Colosseum
remained as a place for the public exhibition of cruel duels. Gladiatorial
fights were common in the Roman amphitheatre.
The
gladiators’ fight to amuse the crowd was about to begin. Two armed gladiators
bowed before Emperor Honorius. They vowed to fight till one of them died. They
approached each other for the fierce combat. Seeing the gruesome scene,
Telemachus stood up from his seat in the gallery and cried aloud, “In the name
of Christ, stop this killing.” The people laughed at him and said he was mad. But
he jumped over the wall and sprang down into the arena. He stood between the
combatant gladiators and repeated his request at the top of his voice. The
audience became violent and threw stones at Telemachus, cursing him for
interrupting their savage entertainment. The stones rained upon the saint from
the furious spectators. He was stabbed to death by one of the gladiators.
There was a solemn silence as the
audience witnessed the tragic death. The scene opened the eyes of the
spectators and turned their hearts. They realised the cruelty of their conduct
and left the gallery silently, one by one. The last words of Telemachus echoed
in the Collosseum. The emperor, Honorius was greatly moved and left his seat in
silence. The gladiators saw the empty gallery and stopped the fight.
Influenced by the Saint’s sacrifice, the
Emperor soon issued a proclamation banning all gladiatorial fights and cruel entertainments
involving murder of men. That was the end of killing in the Roman Colosseum.
But Telemachus had to sacrifice his life to achieve this great victory.
Telemachus was canonised as a Saint for his
heroic stance and sacrifice for protecting the dignity of life
“Happy
are those who work for peace; God will call them His children” {Matthew 5:
7}. Jesus taught
us, “My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. The
greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them”
{John 15: 12, 13}.
St. John reminds us, “My
children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love,
which shows itself in action” {1 John 3:18}.
………………………………………………………………..
© By: Prof. Dr. Babu Philip, Former
Professor, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue,
Kochi-682016, Kerala, India, Prof. Mrs. Rajamma Babu,
Former Professor, St. Dominic's College, Kanjirappally, Leo. S. John, St. Antony's Public
School, Anakkal, Kanjirappally and Neil John, Alfeen Public
School, Kanjirappally, Kerala, India. For more moral stories, parables and
anecdotes for students, catechists, teachers and preachers, kindly visit
our web-sites:
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