sion she was left unmolested; and the sight
of her, hanging from the stake and thus reminding them of the Master
they served, as well as the prayers she continually offered, so
heartened her comrades that they were the better enabled to meet their
death with a good courage.

The memory of Blandina has justly been preserved through all these
centuries as one of the bravest and best in the noble "army of martyrs."
No doctor of theology ever bore more effective testimony to the faith;
no Christian soldier ever contended more earnestly for the cause; no
philosopher ever advanced a stronger argument in evidence of the truth
of religion than this poor slave woman who thus suffered in the bloody
arena where Christianity fought and conquered seventeen centuries ago.
Women were not allowed by the law of the Church to teach in the
assembly; but Blandina, from her rostrum of pain which was set up in the
amphitheatre at Lyons, by her faith which could enable her to forget her
own misery in the desire to cheer other sufferers, preached such a
sermon as sentences of polished eloquence can never emulate.

We cannot better finish our account of this great martyr than by quoting
the description of her end as it is given in the letter mentioned above.
"On the last day of the contests, Blandina was again brought in, with
Ponticus, a boy about fifteen years old. They had been brought every day
to witness the sufferings of the others, and had been pressed to swear
by the idols. But because they remained steadfast and despised them, the
multitude became furious, so that they had no compassion for the youth
of the boy nor respect for the sex of the woman. Therefore, they exposed
them to all the terrible sufferings and took them through the entire
round of torture, repeatedly urging them to swear, but being unable to
effect this; for Ponticus, encouraged by his sister so that even the
heathen could see that she was confirming and strengthening him, having
nobly endured every torture, gave up the ghost. But the blessed
Blandina, last of all, having, as a noble mother, encouraged her
children and sent them before her victorious to the King, endured
herself all their conflicts and hastened after them, glad and rejoicing
in her departure as if called to a marriage supper; rather than cast to
wild beasts. And, after the scourging, after the wild beasts, after the
roasting seat, she was finally enclosed in a net, and thrown before a
bull. And after