ON SS. PAMPHILUS AND COMPANIONS.
IN THE YEAR 308.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY. On the various days of cult, and the Acts published by Eusebius of Caesarea.
Pamphilus, Presbyter, Martyr at Caesarea in Palestine (St.) Valens, Deacon, Martyr at Caesarea in Palestine (St.) Paulus, Confessor, Martyr at Caesarea in Palestine (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
Today's tables of the Roman Martyrology, after the name of St. Juventius the Martyr, to whom (as having suffered at Rome) the prerogative of the first place was given, thus continue the series of the other Saints ascribed to this day. At Caesarea in Palestine, of Blessed Pamphilus, Presbyter and Martyr, a man of admirable sanctity and learning, Pamphilus related in today's Roman one, with 2 companions, and munificent toward the poor: who for the faith of Christ, in the persecution of Galerius Maximian, first tortured under Urbanus the President, then again recalled to punishments under Firmilianus, together with others completed his martyrdom. There suffered then also Valens the Deacon and Paulus, and nine others, whose memory is celebrated on other days. Baronius, in his Notes on this day, indicates that of Pamphilus treat Usuard, Ado, and the rest of the Latins, after whom is to be numbered, the one who is first before others called Bede by Baronius, is spurious, and is mostly collected from Ado: for the true Bede on this day has no Saint at all: and this seems to be the only cause why some Martyrologist, I know not who, later than Bede and Florus, but earlier than Ado and Usuard, chose this same day for commemorating annually St. Pamphilus. But he and all who followed him, with the first curators of the Gregorian Martyrology, but alone by the older ones. named the Persecution of Maximinus; because he, declared Caesar by Galerius Maximian, exercised tyranny in Palestine present, which at Rome the Emperor Galerius urged; whom it pleased the curators of the new edition to name, with respect to which Baronius in the Notes is wont to call the former the old Roman Martyrology; although those editions followed one another at an interval of only a few months.
[2] Moreover those older Martyrologists name Pamphilus alone: Most of the Companions are referred to February 16. to whom the Curators of the reformed Martyrology, as I said, joined Valens and Paulus; for these alone of the eleven Companions of martyrdom they had passed over, since on February 16 they had referred seven of them; namely Elias, Jeremias, Esaias, Samuel, and Daniel; Porphyrius, likewise and Seleucus; but on the 17th of the same month Theodulus and Julianus; with no apparent cause of this division. For from their Acts it is established that all on the same day, the 16th of the month of Peritius, that is according to the Romans on the 14th before the Kalends of March, that is February 16, were brought to the tribunal and afflicted with the final punishment. Therefore the Greeks, in their Menaea and all the Synaxaria, refer all together on such a day; as also Galesini following the Greeks; although, wishing then to fit himself to the Latins, he again referred today Pamphilus, but alone, with an ample eulogy; just as the Greeks judged the same Pamphilus to be commemorated again by them in the Menaea, on November 5, namely from Eusebius. He, when, in the book on the Martyrs of Palestine chapter 7, He himself by the Greeks also on November 5, he had narrated that on such a day there suffered at Caesarea Sts. Silvanus and Domninus, and three others condemned to the mines, but others, after most cruel torments, cast into prison; subjoined the first confession of Pamphilus with these words.
[3] Among whom was also Pamphilus, by far the dearest to me of all my companions, on the occasion of his first confession: who before all the Martyrs of our age, for his exceptional virtue, obtained the chief praise. And first Urbanus, Rector of the whole Province of Palestine, wishing by some experiment to know his skill both in the art of speaking and in philosophy, then ordering him to sacrifice; when he saw him refusing and spurning his threats; enraged beyond measure, ordered him to be tortured with the graver torments. After this, the most savage man, all but fed on his flesh by the frequency and persistence of the claws, with which he had furrowed his sides; when from all these he had carried off nothing but disgrace and ignominy, at last joined him to the other Confessors who were in the prison: by no means with impunity, as Eusebius there more fully continues; the second confession of the same, to which the Saint also died, he is about to set forth in chapter 11. To the former meanwhile pertains the Distich related on this day November 5 in the Menaea, Φρουρᾷ δαμασθεὶς καὶ πρὸς τῆς φρουρᾶς ξέσει, Διπλοῦν λάβε σοι Πάμφιλε εἰκότως στέφος.
Subdued by the prison, and before the prison by the claws, Receive, Pamphilus, two crowns by your merit.
But from the title, by which it is said, Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ ὁ ἅγ. Πάμφιλος ξεεσθεὶς καὶ φυλακισθεὶς τελειοῦται, that is, yet you may doubt whether as a different one. On the same day St. Pamphilus, mangled with claws, and macerated by the prison, is put to death; you may doubt, whether the Author of the commemoration to be made on this day, or at least the composer of that Distich, did not feign for themselves some Pamphilus, crowned with the aforesaid on November 5, different from the one who is commemorated on February 16.
[4] The Acts from Eusebius on February 16 given in Latin My Master Godefridus Henschenius, according to that necessity which Bollandus had prescribed, of following where he could the Roman Martyrology of today; on the aforesaid February 16 and 17 first treated of the seven, then of the two Companions of St. Pamphilus thus; that from the book of Eusebius on the Martyrs chapter 11 he gave what precisely pertains to them; reserving the whole Acts of all from Metaphrastes (as he was named by Lipomanus and Surius) to this June 1, on which all the Latins named St. Pamphilus: but on no foundation that we can know other than arbitrary choice. Although I do not greatly approve this being done, and would have preferred the whole matter to have been treated in the month of February; yet here I am compelled to follow; that at least now I may supply what is lacking there. But the Acts which are imputed to Metaphrastes by those, I will give, such as he inserted into his Collection, not as composed by himself, but as by Eusebius; in which way also we received the Greek from the Medicean Manuscript of the King of France under this title. Ἄθλησις τῶν ἁγίων καὶ ἐνδόξων τοῦ Χριστοῦ Μαρτύρων, Παμφίλου, Οὐάλεντος, Παύλου, Σιλεύκου, Πορφυρίου, Θεοδόλου, Ἰουλιανοῦ, Αἰγυπτίων, συνγραφεῖσα παρὰ τοῦ Εὐσεβίου τοῦ Παμφίλου. now given in Greek-Latin from a Manuscript, The Contest of the holy and glorious Martyrs of Christ, Valens, Paulus, Seleucus, (there seem to have fallen out the names Θεοδόλου, Ἠλία, Ἱερεμίου, Ἠσαίου, Σαμουὴλ καὶ Δανιήλ, of Theodulus, Elias, Jeremias, Isaias, Samuel, and Daniel) of the Egyptians (since the last five alone were such) written by Eusebius of Pamphilus: for this surname, in memory of his dear friend, Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, and writer of this history, took up and always used.
[5] The same had written three books about Pamphilus, And this Eusebius indeed, about to insert into the aforesaid book on the Martyrs of Palestine also the Martyrdom of Pamphilus and his Companions, after a brief opening of chapter 11, Pamphilus being briefly praised; thus speaks: The remaining virtues and illustrious deeds of this man, which require a more extended discourse, we have already long since embraced in three books, in a special work which we wrote about his life. Hence, when Jerome, in the book on writers, had numbered among the writings of Eusebius, three books on the Life of Pamphilus; that older Martyrologist, who preluded Usuard and Ado, dictated these words to be received by both: Whose, or this man's, life Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea comprised in three books. And would that these now existed! Meanwhile there exists (as I at least think) their last and chief Chapter, namely the last confession of the holy Martyr and his companions; which then Eusebius himself, the rhetorical ornament omitted, with most other words otherwise the same, inserted into his History, or book on the Martyrs (as I said). Indeed I cannot here assent to Valesius, the most learned interpreter of Eusebius, whence this last chapter seems taken. thinking in the Notes that this is not a part of that greater work; but that Metaphrastes, having obtained a fuller copy of the aforesaid History than we now have, could also write such things, which are not now read in the same History. Far be it that we should say the History of Eusebius was so notably mutilated, as we now have it; by the same argument about to bring also its other parts into suspicion of similar mutilation. Let it rather be said, that Eusebius, having used his earlier writings in the later lucubration, the less necessary things omitted, transcribed the rest thence with the same or nearly the same words as before. And that this may become more probable, receive the former Greek-Latin text, collated with the text which is in the history, not indeed as to single words (for to those wishing to compare these among themselves, the twin edition of Christophorson and Valesius will be at hand) but as to the points more worthy of note.
[6] But first hear from the Menaea, what, on the common and proper day to all twelve Martyrs, February 16, the Greeks sing about them. They begin the similar Verses in this manner, Ἀποστόλων ἰσάριθμοι, ἀθλοφόροι γενόμενοι, The twelvefold number of these Martyrs λογισμὸν ὁμόζηλον ἀνελάβετε. Equal in number to the Apostles, having advanced into the contest, you took up a mind seething with equal zeal; then they set forth a Canon, distinguished into Odes in the accustomed manner; of which this is the Acrostic:
Δῆμον δωδεκάριθμον ἀθλοφόρων ἀναμέλπω.
I sing the victorious cohort of the twelve champions.
But this Canon, after the sixth Ode, and two Contacia of the same argument, is interpolated by a reading of the Synaxarium, containing an epitome of the Acts, after Distichs of this kind fitted to each of its Martyrs, with frequent allusion to the names.
Ὑπὲρ τὸ πᾶν σε Πάμφιλος φιλῶν, Λόγε, Καὶ τὴν τομὴν ἡγεῖτο τῆς κάρας φίλην. they are praised in verses among the Greeks on February 16.
Loving thee, O Christ, above all things, Pamphilus reckoned the loss of his head a thing dear.
Παῦλον Σέλευκος, καὶ Σέλευκον Οὐάλης, Βλέπων τομῇ χαίροντα, τὴν τομὴν φέρει.
Paulus by Seleucus, and Seleucus by Valens, seeing him ready to be cut, bore the cutting.
Ἥλαντο πρὸς πῦρ Μάρτυρες θεῖοι δύο, Θείου πόθου πῦρ ἦν τρέφοντες οἱ δύο.
The two divine Martyrs leap to the fire, both nourishing one fire of divine longing.
Σταυροῦσι δοῦλοι τῆς πλάνης ἐπὶ ξύλου, Καὶ Θεοδοῦλον, δοῦλον Ἐσταυρομένου.
The slaves of error fix on the wood Theodulus too, who professed himself a slave of the Crucified.
Κλήσεις Προφητῶν, καὶ τελευτὰς Μαρτύρων, Λαχοῦσι πέντε Μάρτυρες, τετμημένοι.
The prophetic names and the martyric ends, the five Martyrs obtain, beheaded.
[7] with an epitome of the Acts More fully the individual things will be understood from the Acts soon to be given, of which meanwhile in the Menaea and Synaxaria this is the Epitome. Οὗτοι ἅγιοι Μάρτυρες, ἐν τῷ ἕκτω ἔτει τοῦ κατὰ Διοκλητιανὸν διωγμοῦ, εἰς τὸ μαρτύριον ἤχθησαν· ἐκ διαφόρων πόλεων, καὶ ἐπιτηδευμάτων, καὶ ἀξιωμάτων, εἰς μιὰν τὴν ἐν Χριστῷ πίστιν συνενωθέντες· ὁ δὲ τρόπος τῆς συλλήψεως γέγονεν οὗτος. Ἐν τῷ μέλλειν αὐτοὺς τάς πύλας τῆς πόλεως Καισαρείας παριέναι, τῶν φυλάκων πυνθανομένων τίνες τε εἶεν καὶ ὅθεν ὥρμηνται, Χριστιανοὺς ἑαυτοὺς ἀπεκάλεσαν, καὶ πατρίδα τὴν ἄνω ἔχειν Ἱερουσαλήμ· ὅθεν κατασχεθέντες Φιρμιλιανῷ τῷ Ἡγεμόνι παρέστησαν. Καὶ ὁ μὲν Ἡλίας, καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ τέσσαρες Αἰγύπτιοι, μετὰ πολλοὺς βασάνους τὴν διὰ ξίφους ἀπόφασιν ἔλαβον, συναποτμηθέντων Παμφίλου καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν. Ὁ δὲ Πορφύριος, τοῦ κυρίου αὐτοῦ Παμφίλου τὸ σῶμα ἐπιζητῶν, κατεσχέθη καὶ παρεδόθη πυρί· ὡσαὺτῶς δὲ καὶ Ἰουλιανὸς, τὰ τῶν Ἁγίων ἀσπαζόμενος σώματα, τῇ φλογὶ ὑπεβλήθη· ὁ δὲ Θεόδουλος, ἐπὶ ξύλου σταυρωθεὶς, διένυσε τὸ μαρτύριον. Τελεῖται δὲ ἡ αὐτῶν σύναξις εν τῇ ἁγιωτάτῃ μεγάλῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ. in the Menaea. These holy Martyrs, in the sixth year of the Persecution stirred up by Diocletian, were led to martyrdom; from diverse cities, professions, and conditions, united in the one faith of Christ: but the manner of their seizure was such. When they were about to enter the gates of Caesarea, the guards asking who they were and whence they came, they named themselves Christians, and said they had the supernal Jerusalem as their fatherland: wherefore they were brought to Firmilianus the Proconsul. And Elias indeed, and his four Egyptian companions, after various tortures, received the capital sentence by the sword; and beheaded with them were Pamphilus and the rest. Porphyrius, moreover, seeking the body of his lord Pamphilus, was seized and given over to the fire; likewise also Julianus, kissing the bodies of the Saints, was cast into the pyre; but Theodulus, driven onto a cross, completed his martyrdom. Their synaxis is celebrated in the most holy great church.
[8] The eulogy of Pamphilus from St. Jerome. Thus far the Greeks, but the more recent ones: now let us hear one Latin from the older ones, Jerome, who, numbering Pamphilus among the ecclesiastical Writers, in chapter 75 thus speaks of him: Pamphilus the Presbyter, intimate of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea, burned with so great a love of the divine library, that he wrote out with his own hand the greatest part of the volumes of Origen, which to this day are held in the Caesarean library. But also on the twelve Prophets I found twenty-five volumes of the commentaries (ἐξηγήσεων) of Origen, written by his hand: which I embrace and keep with so great joy, that I believe I have the riches of Croesus. For if it is a gladness to have one letter of a Martyr, how much more so many thousands of verses, who first attributed to him the Apology for Origen: through which he seems to me to have marked the traces of his own blood? He wrote, before Eusebius of Caesarea wrote, an Apology for Origen, and suffered at Caesarea of Palestine under the persecution of Maximinus. So he in the book on Writers; but as to the Apology of Origen, as written by Pamphilus, he first indeed in the letter to Pammachius and Oceanus tries to extricate himself from the authority of Pamphilus the Martyr objected to him; and shows how it is not probable, that a learned man dedicated the first fruits of his wit to questions and infamy: but afterward doubted about this, but even this granted, he denies that such a writing must be approved on the ground that it is a Martyr's, unless we also wish to defend sins, because those who afterward were Martyrs, were first sinners. But afterward in the Apology against Rufinus, after he had shown why he formerly praised Origen in certain things; he charges him, that making Latin six books of Eusebius for Origen, he translated the first under the name of Pamphilus, and so did a calumny to the Martyr; [but afterward absolutely denied it, and proved it foisted by the fraud of Rufinus.] and at last by an evident argument proves that Pamphilus the Martyr composed no work at all. For Eusebius himself, says he, the lover and herald and companion of Pamphilus, wrote three most elegant books, containing the life of Pamphilus; in which when he proclaimed the rest with wondrous praises, and bore his humility to heaven, he added also this in the third book: Who of the studious was not a friend of Pamphilus? If he saw any lacking the necessities of life, he gave largely what he could. The holy Scriptures too, not only for reading but also for keeping, he gave most readily; not only to men, but also to women, whom he had seen given to reading: whence also he prepared many codices, that, when necessity demanded, he might give to those wishing. And he himself indeed wrote nothing at all of his own work; except the Letters, which perhaps he sent to friends; so much had he cast himself down in humility; but the treatises of the old Writers he read most studiously, and continually was engaged in their meditation.
THE ACTS OF THE PASSION. From the books of Eusebius of Caesarea on the Life of Pamphilus: According to the Medicean Manuscript of the Most Christian King.
BY THE AUTHOR EUSEBIUS.
FIRST PART. Comprising the praises of all twelve and especially of Pamphilus.
[1] The time now warns to open before all that great and most famous theater of the holy Martyr Pamphilus, Eusebius praising this Martyrdom above the rest, and of the admirable men who finished their life with him, and were led about through various contests for piety. For although very many of us, at the time of the persecution published against us, conducted ourselves strenuously; yet of these, of whom now is the discourse, we have written the most rare contest known to us, for this reason rather; because in it there will at once appear, as under one view, every kind both of bodily age, and of spiritual condition, and a great diversity of life and pursuits; but above all a variety of torments, in it he wonders at the variety of ages, and thence according to the consummation of each one's martyrdom of the crowns prepared for each. For one will be able to see, some of the Egyptians a who were among them younger and altogether boys; but others of ours (among whom also was Porphyrius) robust at once in bodily strength and in prudence of mind; namely those who were reckoned with my most beloved one, Paulus of Jamnia b, and Seleucus and Julianus, both brought hither from the region of the Cappadocians. There were also among them some adorned with sacred grey hair and deep old age; namely Valens, Deacon of the Church of Jerusalem, and Theodulus c verifying his own name.
[2] This therefore was the variety of ages among them: but they were also distinguished by the exercise of the mind; of learning, since some were ruder, like boys, using a simpler understanding still; others had a formed and solid custom of living. Indeed there were found among them not inexperienced in the diviner disciplines. To all, however, equally there was congenital a certain excellent fortitude of mind supported by virtue. But before all, as before scintillating stars a greater luminary, there shone forth in their midst my Lord; nor is it any longer lawful for me to d call the venerable and truly most blessed Pamphilus a Companion. For having obtained no moderate skill in the disciplines esteemed by the Gentiles; in the divine doctrines and the heavenly-inspired scriptures, he appeared more versed (I say it boldly, but yet truly) than all who were with him; and besides he was strong in a prerogative, namely of his own, or rather of the God-given, intelligence and wisdom.
[3] Thus, each being constituted as to the soul, there was still a greater difference of conditions. of lineage, For Pamphilus indeed, sprung from a noble lineage according to the flesh, was also distinguished by offices publicly held in his country: but Seleucus had been decorated with chief honors in the military; while others were of nearly middle condition. But neither in that chorus was the servile class lacking, since from a Proconsular family there was joined to them the servant Porphyrius; in appearance only a slave of Pamphilus, but in fact differing nothing from a brother, or rather a genuine son, and nowhere failing in imitation of his Lord. And what then? If anyone should say that they comprised in their number every form of ecclesiastical ordination, he would say nothing outside the truth; since with the dignity of the Presbyterate Pamphilus was adorned, Valens raised to the grade of the Diaconate, and of Order, others were accustomed to perform the office of Lectors before the people; but Seleucus, even before the Martyric end, was decorated with a noble confession through generous endurance of scourges, and had bravely suffered also the loss of military dignity; but the rest, as Catechumens or Faithful, represented as it were in a small image the likeness of a numerous Church.
[4] In this manner therefore it is permitted us to contemplate the admirable selection of such and so great Martyrs; as of strings in a cithara, inasmuch as to them, though few in number, yet none of those orders was lacking, which are wont to be found among men. Namely, just as in a lyre of several strings, and those dissimilar among themselves, the high and low, intense and remiss, and middle, are beautifully harmonized through the musical art: so also in these, young men with old, slaves with free, learned and unlearned, noble and, according to the estimation of the common people, ignoble, faithful and catechumens, Deacons and Presbyters; as if the most wise Master of Music, the Word of God, struck them in diverse ways, each showing his virtue through the endurance of torments, sounded most beautiful and well-concordant strains of confession before the tribunals; and finally, by a common end, through the consummation of martyrdom, concluded a most pious and most learned melody to God the creator of all.
[5] But their number too is worthy of singular consideration, representing a Prophetic chorus: for they were in all twelve, as many as also we have received that the Patriarchs, the twelvefold number, Prophets, and Apostles were. Nor would I say that it is the work of any but such men, e the manifold fortitude of each of them, amid the cuttings of the sides, and the rubbings then of the members of the whole mangled body through haircloths of goats' wool, and the intolerable scourges and various and repeatedly changed torments, and the grievous and most savage tortures; which, when at the command of the Judge the lictors stretched with hands and feet, they strove with all violence to compel the Martyrs to do something unlawful.
[6] What further need is there to relate those ever-memorable voices of theirs, generous, the Answers which amid their pains with serene and glad countenance they wisely returned to the interrogations of the judge, generously laughing at his torments, or in a certain gracious manner eluding the questions proposed by him? For when he asked whence they were; instead of answering about their earthly city, they indicated to him their true fatherland, proclaiming themselves to be from Jerusalem; but they meant that heavenly city of God, to which they hastened; and they said other such various things, not intelligible to those inexperienced in sacred matters, and manifest only to the partakers of the divine faith: by which the Judge more exasperated, and seething in mind, the torments endured, and not finding what to do, lest he yield to them, devised whatever engines; and at last, cast down from all hope, assigned to each of them the prize of victory. But in this the manner was as it were varied: for to two of them still Catechumens, their own baptism through fire fell; another being assimilated to the image of the saving passion, but the rest who were with my beloved one shared diverse rewards among themselves.
[7] And these things someone might say, wishing to mention them in general; But before all he praises Pamphilus, but about to proclaim them individually, he would by right deservedly praise first of all the leader of the whole chorus. This was Pamphilus, a man most loving of God, and truly the friend f of all, according to the meaning of his name, the ornament of the Church of Caesarea: for being a Presbyter he glorified the Presbyteral chair, at once adorning and adorned by the sacrifice which is there offered. But also in other things he was truly divine, and a partaker of divine inspiration: since throughout his whole life he was heaped with all virtues, bidding indeed a long farewell to delights and riches, but giving his whole self to the word of God. For renouncing all the substance which had come to him from his parents, and distributing it to the naked, weak, and needy, he himself led a life lacking possessions, and by indefatigable exercise procured for himself the divine philosophy. g [But he was from the city of the people of Berytus, where he spent his early age in the boys' schools that were there: but after his mind matured to manly age, he passed to the study of sacred letters; and took up a form of life altogether divine and prophetic; and proved himself a true Martyr of God, even before the end of his life.]
[8] And such indeed was Pamphilus; but second with him there advanced to the contest Valens, then Valens, conspicuous with aged and reverend grey hair, and in his very appearance a venerable old man: but moreover, if anyone else, understanding the divine Scriptures, and having embraced their memory so firmly, that for the use of the sacred promises which he kept stored in it, he did not need the help of literal consequence. and Paulus, But although he was such, yet he was content with the grade of the Diaconate in h the Church of Aelia. Third, finally, was numbered Paulus, in action at once and in spirit most fervent, sprung from the city of Jamnia: who even before martyrdom, by the endurance of glowing iron, had completed the contest of confession.
ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.
The same, from the History of the Martyrs of Eusebius, Chapter 11.
That it may appear how not probable it is that this Passion was taken from another somewhat more prolix text of the Eusebian History than is commonly held; but is a part of another and earlier work, which the author then transferred into another work; it pleases here to subjoin the other text.
The time now is, that I should hand down to the memory of posterity that great and famous spectacle, of those who completed their martyrdom with Pamphilus (whose name is most longed for by me at least). They were all twelve in number, gifted with a certain prophetic or rather apostolic grace, and an equality of number: of whom the chief, Pamphilus, eminent, alone of their number, decorated with the dignity of the Presbyterate at Caesarea; a man throughout his whole life most distinguished in every kind of virtue, whether you consider the flight from and contempt of the world, or the large distribution of his goods to the poor, or the disdain of the secular honors to which he could have aspired, or finally the exercise of a stricter and philosophic life. But before all the men of our age there was eminent in that man a most ardent zeal for the sacred letters, and in those things which he had proposed for himself to accomplish, an indefatigable assiduity and diligence of labor; besides this, a singular beneficence toward his neighbors and all who came to him. The remaining virtues and illustrious deeds of this man, which require a more extended discourse, we have already long since embraced in three books in a special work, which we wrote about his life: if any therefore are held by a desire of knowing these things, content to have referred them thither, in the present we shall continue the begun narration about our Martyrs. Second after Pamphilus descended into the contest, the Deacon of the city of Aelia, Valens, conspicuous with venerable grey hair, and in his very appearance a venerable old man, who knew the divine Scriptures excellently beyond the rest: for he so embraced them with faithful memory, that it made no difference at all whether he read from the codex itself, or recited whole pages of any scripture. Third among them was renowned Paulus, sprung from the town of the people of Jamnia, a man fervid in action and full of ardor of spirit; who before martyrdom, having endured the burnings of glowing iron, had carried off the crown of confession.
LATTER PART. The contests of each of the Saints, and the ends of their martyrdom.
[9] When the aforesaid three Saints had spent two years in a prison, the occasion of martyrdom was offered to them through those Egyptians who were also afflicted with the final punishment together with them. The exiled Egyptians landed at Caesarea, February 15. These were returning home from Cilicia, after they had escorted thither those condemned to the mines b; and at the entrance of the gates of Caesarea, asked c who they were, and whence they came; since they neither dissembled anything of what was the case, and professed themselves to be Christians; like malefactors caught in the very act, they had been seized, five in number: but brought to the President, and having used the same confidence, they were at once put into bonds. But on the next day, which was the 16th day of the month of Perisius, that is according to the Romans the 14th day before the Kalends of March, the same, together with those who were with Pamphilus, are presented to Firmilianus. Who, taking the Egyptians alone to be tested by him with every kind of torment, they are seized and on the next day presented to the judge, ordered the men to be stripped; then, leading into the midst the one who seemed chief among all, he asked who he was and whence. He, when in place of his proper name he had indicated something prophetic to him; the others did the same in place of the names given to them in their country.
[10] Hearing therefore them naming themselves Elias and Jeremias, Isaias and Samuel and Daniel (for thus it had pleased them to display what mind they bore hidden within of a true Jew and Israelite, having taken to themselves prophetic names, not only by works, but also by names d clearly pronounced) the President indeed did not understand the force of the name indicated to him by the Martyr; but went on to ask what was his fatherland: but the Martyr, using the same shortcut, sent forth another voice, saying that Jerusalem was his fatherland, meaning namely that one of which Paul says, The Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us: and elsewhere, You have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Gal. 4:26; Heb. 12:22. Such things therefore the Martyr was thinking; but the President, having his mind fixed on the earth, more studiously inquired what that Jerusalem was, and where on earth it was situated; nay, even applied torments, that they might confess what was true. But the Martyr, having his hands twisted behind his back, and his feet dislocated by certain machines, affirmed that he had spoken the truth. And when nevertheless he was asked again and again, what and where was situated that city Jerusalem which he spoke of; he answered that this was the fatherland of the Christians alone, and that they alone and no others dwelt in it; but that it stood toward the East, near the light and the sun. they profess that Jerusalem is their fatherland, And he indeed again philosophized according to his own sense, in no way changed by the torments standing around, but like one incorporeal did not even seem to feel the pains; but the Judge was distressed, thinking that the Christians were founding some city, a rival of Rome and hostile to himself; and he was much engaged in learning by inquiry where both it and the Eastern region indicated to him were. and are condemned to death, Seeing nevertheless the young man remain still more unchangeable at the scourges, and persevere in his former answers; he at last pronounced against him the capital sentence of death.
[11] And the affairs of this Martyr indeed had such an end, as of a certain drama; together with Pamphilus and his companions. then having stripped the rest of the Egyptians for diverse experiments too, he drove them in the same manner. Then passing over to the Companions of Pamphilus, he learned that they had already long since been tried with various tortures. Wherefore, reckoning it superfluous to subject the men to the same questionings, and that he would labor in vain at them; he asked only whether even now they would allow themselves to be persuaded. But hearing from each the final voice of confession, he bore against them a similar capital sentence, and withdrew.
[12] But not yet was the whole tragedy accomplished. But how was it accomplished? His servant Porphyrius asks for the body of his Lord for burial, A certain youth recalled him from the midst of the crowd standing around the tribunal, leaping forth from the household of Pamphilus; and he recalled him with a loud voice, demanding the bodies for burial. This was the Blessed Porphyrius, a genuine home-born servant of Pamphilus, not yet eighteen years old f, most skilled in writing, in the title of character and wisdom greater than all praises, as one who had exercised himself with such a man: who, when he learned the sentence passed on his Master; crying out from the midst of the crowd, prayed that it might be permitted him to bury the bodies. But the President, not as a man, but as a beast, or if anything is more savage than a beast, neither accepting the equity of the request, nor having any regard for his youth, only because he learned that the youth confessed himself a Christian, ordered the executioners to strain all their strength in torturing him. When therefore that admirable one refused to obey the order to sacrifice; and therefore dreadfully mangled the tyrant ordered his body to be torn by the executioners, not now as human flesh, but as a stone or wood or any other lifeless thing, even to the very bones and inner parts, which being done longer, he recognized at last that it was done in vain. But although the body of the noble Martyr lay without voice and almost without soul, yet the merciless and savage Judge ordered his lacerated flesh and sides g to be rubbed and worn down with bristly cloths; and at last, as if to glut his fury, ordered the Martyr to be consumed by a slow fire placed farther off. So he, before the consummation of Pamphilus, having last advanced to the contest, preceded his Master in the renunciation of the body.
[13] and given over to a slow fire, But it was possible to see Porphyrius, like a sacred athlete the glorious victor of the whole contest, his body cut to pieces, but bright in face, with glad and intrepid mind proceeding to death; surely full of the divine spirit, and as if in philosophic dress, bearing only the instrument cast upon him as a cloak, and despising all things; and contemning this mortal and human life, without any dread of mind he proceeded to the pyre. But when the flame already drew near to him, as if that strong man suffered nothing of trouble; he expires generously. with unshaken and constant sense, he bequeathed his belongings to his friends, even until that time keeping the serenity of his face unchanged. But when he had bidden farewell to his acquaintances at his pleasure, he turned wholly to God: and because the pyre was placed around at an interval, he caught the flames here and there with his mouth, as if urging himself on to the way set before him: but this he did, calling on nothing other than Jesus.
[14] Such was the contest of Porphyrius: but Seleucus, who announced his death to Pamphilus; which Seleucus having announced to Pamphilus, at once became a partaker of the same lot with him. For while he was announcing the end of Porphyrius to Pamphilus, and at the same time kissing the company of the Martyrs, the soldiers seized him, and led him to the Proconsul: who ordered him, as hastening to depart hence together with Porphyrius who had gone before, to be punished with the capital sentence. He had come from Cappadocia, and had become greatly renowned h in military exercises, and had been not moderately promoted among the Romans; already long before scourged for the faith, nay, even in age and bodily strength and greatness of his powers and virtue he surpassed most men: for in his very countenance very notable before all, he bore an appearance everywhere most worthy, by the grace of exceptional beauty. But he had been at the beginning of the persecution numbered among those contending for the confession of the faith through the endurance of scourges; but the military abandoned, having become an emulator of those who exercise themselves for piety, he proved himself a genuine soldier of Christ; to desolate orphans and widows lacking a protector, and to all struggling with want and weakness, having become a provider, in the manner of a father or guardian, and bearing a remedy to the labors and afflictions of all the despairing: wherefore by God, he was beheaded, who is delighted with such things more than with the smoke and blood of victims, he was held worthy of a martyric end. Moreover this tenth athlete completed his contest on one and the same day; and as it is fitting to believe, when by his martyrdom he had unlocked the most ample gate of heaven, at the same time also for Pamphilus himself a spacious entrance to the kingdom of God was opened.
[15] But the footsteps of Seleucus Theodulus followed, a pious and venerable old man, then Theodulus crucified, deemed worthy of the first honor in the Proconsular family, both by the prerogative of character and age, and renowned by the generation of three sons i: who doing the same things as Seleucus, and venerating some of the Martyrs with a kiss, was led to his Master, and rousing him to greater anger than the others, underwent the very passion of the saving confession, delivered to the cross.
[16] After these things, when one still was lacking, there was present one to fill up the twelvefold number, Julianus: who, arriving from abroad at that very hour, and scarcely yet having entered the city; when he had understood what had been done, and had hastened to come to the sight of the Martyrs; when he saw their bodies lying on the ground, surrounding each one, he kissed them all. The ministers of the killings seized him doing this, and finally Julianus is given over to fire. and led him to the President: who, doing things suited to his purpose, gave this one too to a slow fire. So also Julianus, leaping and exulting with joy, and with a loud voice giving thanks to God who had deemed him worthy of such great goods, was received among the choirs of the Martyrs. But this one too had his lineage from Cappadocia; but as for character, he was full of piety and full of faith, a gentle and discreet man, zealous in all things, and redolent with the sweetness of the Holy Spirit, and thereby made worthy of such a crown of the martyric end with the blessed Pamphilus.
[17] The bodies, exposed to beasts for four days, are buried unharmed. Their most holy bodies, by the command of Firmilianus, lay for four days and as many nights, exposed to the teeth of carnivorous beasts. But when no beast, nor bird, nor any dog, by the disposition of God, touched them; left whole and untouched, with fitting honor and care, they were given over to the customary burial, k and laid up in the most beautiful of sacred buildings and in holy oratories, given to the people of God for honor in perpetual memory.
ANNOTATIONS BY D. P.
APPENDIX On the miserable end of those who persecuted St. Pamphilus. From the book of Eusebius on the Martyrs, chapters 7 and 11.
[18] It will be worth while in this place to commemorate, how, The Judge himself afterward beheaded, by the providence of the divine Godhead, those impious Presidents were avenged. For Firmilianus, who had so contumeliously insulted the Martyrs of Christ, with others condemned to the final punishment, was beheaded … But Urbanus, who first raged against St. Pamphilus, with what kind of punishment he is to be afflicted before the most just tribunal of God, for the savagery which he used against the Saints, it is permitted to recognize from the very things which he experienced in this life, as it were preludes. For immediately after those things which he had nefariously committed against Pamphilus, as had befallen also his predecessor, who first persecuted Pamphilus, while he was still administering the Province, divine vengeance seized him: which indeed stripped that man, who the day before, sitting on a lofty tribunal, declared justice, surrounded by an escort of soldiers and rector of all Palestine; and who had been the companion of the tyrant, as the chief of friends, and his table-mate; suddenly, in the space of one night, despoiled, and stripped him of all these dignities; and before those very ones, who lately had honored him as President, had happened. suffused him with shame and ignominy; and abject and cowardly, and pouring forth voices and prayers in a womanly manner, exhibited him to the sight of the whole nation which he had ruled; finally Maximinus himself, by whom that one greatly exalted himself, as being dear to him especially and welcome on account of the things which he cruelly did against ours, set over him an inexorable and most cruel judge in the very city of Caesarea. For after very many reproaches, with which, on account of those crimes of which he was convicted, he was afflicted; at last the Emperor condemned him with a capital sentence.