ON SAINT PUBLIUS.
AMONG THE GREEKS.
CommentaryPublius, among the Greeks (S.)
G. H.
In the Menologium of Cardinal Sirlet, on the fourth day of April, these things are read joined together: "The commemoration of Publius and of Plato Abbot of the Studite monastery," so that Publius seems as it were to belong to the Studites. Therefore Ferrarius in the General Catalogue added, "of Abbots." But in the printed Menaea and in Maximus of Cythera the memory of our holy father Publius is plainly celebrated separately: The sacred memory of Saint Publius the manuscript Menaea report only his name, and relate that he rested in peace. In the printed Menaea this distich is read:
Ἐν οὐρανοῖς Πούπλιε μισθός σου μέγας, Πρὸς οὓς ἀπαίρων χαῖρε καὶ κρότει μέγα.
Great, O Publius, is thy reward in the heavens, To whom departing, rejoice and resound with great applause.
And this is all we find concerning Saint Publius. Our Rosweyd, in note 28 to book 9 on the Lives of the Fathers, another Saint Publius Abbot in Syria, distinct from him which is Philotheus
of Theodoret, remains doubtful whether the Greeks on this day commemorate Publius, who is there set forth in chapter 5 as Abbot at Zeugma in Syria. But he is the one whom with the Greeks we celebrated on January 25, from whom we think this one rather to be another: and just as very many among the Martyrs are found called Publius, so also among the holy monks there were some distinguished by this name. Matthew Rader turned his eyes upon a certain Publius, concerning whom John, Deacon of the Holy Roman Church, from an unknown Greek author in book 6 of the Lives of the Fathers, book 2, number 12, narrates the following story: "In the times of Julian the Apostate, when he was going down into Persia, did this one stop a demon by prayer a demon was sent by the same Julian, to go swiftly into the West and bring him back some response from there. But when that demon had come to a certain place where a certain monk was dwelling, he stood there for ten days immovable, because he could not proceed further, for that monk did not cease from prayer night or day. And he returned without effect to him who had sent him. Julian said to him: 'Why have you delayed?' The demon replied to him and said: 'I both tarried and returned without action: for I endured for ten days the monk Publius, in the time of Julian the Apostate if perchance he had ceased from prayer, so that I might pass; and he did not cease, and I was prevented from passing, and I returned having done nothing.' Then the most impious Julian, indignant, said: 'When I have returned, I will take vengeance upon him.' And within a few days he was slain by the providence of God. And straightway one of the Prefects who were with him, going, sold all that he had and gave to the poor, and coming to that elder, became a great monk, and so rested in the Lord." So far he; from which, if the Greeks were perhaps treating of that Publius, it would be established that he flourished in the fourth century of Christ: and lived on for some years after the death of Julian.