3
The lions surrounding Daniel were not so savage, nor was the raging fiery furnace of Mishael so intensely hot, as was her innate parental love, inflamed as she saw her seven sons tortured in such varied ways.
4
But the mother quenched so many and such great emotions by devout reason.
5
Consider this also: If this woman, though a mother, had been fainthearted, she would have mourned over them and perhaps spoken as follows:
6
"O how wretched am I and many times unhappy! After bearing seven children, I am now the mother of none!
7
O seven childbirths all in vain, seven profitless pregnancies, fruitless nurturings and wretched nursings!
8
In vain, my sons, I endured many birth pangs for you, and the more grievous anxieties of your upbringing.
9
Alas for my children, some unmarried, others married and without offspring. I shall not see your children or have the happiness of being called grandmother.
10
Alas, I who had so many and beautiful children am a widow and alone, with many sorrows.
11
And when I die, I shall have none of my sons to bury me."
12
Yet that holy and God-fearing mother did not wail with such a lament for any of them, nor did she dissuade any of them from dying, nor did she grieve as they were dying.
13
On the contrary, as though having a mind like adamant and giving rebirth for immortality to the whole number of her sons, she implored them and urged them on to death for the sake of religion.