ON S. BARSES, OR BARSUS, BISHOP OF EDESSA, CONFESSOR.
Under Valens.
CommentaryBarses, Bishop of Edessa (S.)
From various sources.
[1] We have already treated several luminaries of the Church of Edessa in Mesopotamia; on this same day, S. Barsimaeus the Bishop. S. Barses held his See two hundred and seventy years later, or Barsas, or Barsus. Theodoret calls him Barsen in the accusative case, S. Barses, or Barsus, and Baronius supposed that the nominative form was Barses, and so inscribed it in the Martyrology. The title of chapter 15 of book 4 of Theodoret's Ecclesiastical History reads: Concerning Barsus the Bishop, etc. And chapter 16: After the great Barsus had departed, etc. He is called Barsus in the Menologium of Henry Canisius; Barsam and Barsaem in the Topography of Ferrarius, but incorrectly; for he cites Theodoret, in whom he had read Barsem written in the accusative case.
[2] S. Barses is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the 30th of January, in these words: Feast on 30 January, At the same place (Edessa), S. Barses the Bishop, illustrious for the grace of healings; who, banished by the Arian Emperor Valens to the remotest shores of that region for the Catholic faith, ended his life. The Greeks celebrate him on the 15th of October; And 15 October; on which day the Menologium reads: On the same day, the commemoration of our holy Father and Confessor Barsus, Bishop of the city of Edessa, who lived under the Emperor Valentinian. He, having performed many miracles, departed to the Lord. The Menaion treats of him at greater length; in it too a correction must be made, since they report that he was banished by Valentinian, whereas Valentinian was an orthodox and devout Emperor. But his brother Valens, who was taken into partnership of the empire by him on 29 March 364, and held the East until 9 August 378, and who, being himself an Arian, savagely harassed the Catholics there, also proscribed Barses.
[3] Whether this is the same Barsas or Barsus who is recorded on the 28th of February in the Menaion, And also 28 February, we do not know. He is there said to have been Bishop of Damascus; perhaps incorrectly written thus for Edessa; the Damascene Barsus is at any rate unknown to us, and the Menaion has only this about him: On the same day, S. Barsas, Bishop of Damascus, ended in peace.
Leaving the games of fleeting life, Barsus partakes of the Angels' feasts.
Theodoret briefly describes the deeds of Barses of Edessa in the passage cited above, and from him Baronius for the year 371, number 109.
[4] Furthermore, Barses, whose name was celebrated even at this time not only in Edessa, which he governed, Acts from Theodoret, and in the neighboring cities, but also in Phoenicia, Egypt, and the Thebaid (for through all these nations his fame had spread on account of the splendor of his virtue), was first ordered by Valens to dwell on the island of Aradus. But when he learned that an infinite multitude of people was flocking to him (for, filled with Apostolic grace, he drove away diseases by his word), he banished him to Oxyrhynchus, a town of Egypt. Miracles, But when his glory attracted throngs from everywhere to that place as well, he had the old man, already fit to be an inhabitant of the heavenly kingdom, deported to a certain fortress situated at the farthest borders, and positioned against the neighboring Barbarians, whose name is Philo. They say that his bed remains on the island of Aradus to this day, Relics; adorned with great honor; for many who are afflicted by diseases, when they have lain upon it, are restored to full health through faith.
[5] These things are from Theodoret, who again mentions him in the following chapter when he treats of S. Eulogius, who was then his Priest and later his successor, who, when summoned by the Prefect Modestus to communicate with those with whom the Emperor also communicated -- namely the heretical Bishop whom Valens had intruded into that See after driving out Barses -- replied that he had a Pastor (namely Barses) A holy successor, and that he followed his will. For this reason he was banished along with Protogenes, who later became Bishop of Carrhae, to Antinous, a city of the Thebaid, where they won very many over to Christ. After the storm of persecution subsided, they returned to their homeland, and the divine Eulogius, after that great Barses had been translated to the blessed life free from all trouble, was placed in charge of the Church which he had governed. We shall treat of Eulogius at greater length on the 5th of May, and of Protogenes on the following day.
[6] The three places of exile of S. Barses were: Aradus, an island of Phoenicia; Oxyrhynchus, a city of Egypt, Places of exile, in which Rufinus, in book 2 of the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 5, writes that he found twenty thousand consecrated Virgins, ten thousand monks, not long after these times, and an admirable charity toward strangers. From Oxyrhynchus he was finally deported to a fortress, or military post, at the uttermost frontier, facing the neighboring Barbarians, whose name is Philo. Baronius in the Roman Martyrology cited above seems to place that fortress in Mesopotamia, or at any rate in Syria, when he says he was banished to the remotest shores of that region. Theodoret seems rather to suggest it was at the borders of the Thebaid or Libya, when he writes "the Barbarians neighboring there"; or, as another reading has it, "neighboring the Barbarians who are there." The word "there" should be referred to Oxyrhynchus, the city of Egypt, of which there had been immediate mention. And Egypt was surrounded on all sides by barbarian peoples alien to civilized society: Saracens, tent-dwelling Arabs, Troglodytes, and the inhabitants of outer Libya. And indeed Ptolemy in book 4, chapter 4, mentions a Village of Philo among the inland places of the Cyrenaican region; and another Village of Philo in Libya, somewhat nearer to Egypt. Nicephorus Callistus in book 11, chapter 22, where he records these same events from Theodoret, writes thus: "He transferred him to a certain extremity, not far from the neighboring Barbarians; Philo was the name of the place."