ON SAINT PAUL, CONFESSOR, BISHOP OF PLUSIADA IN BITHYNIA.
ABOUT THE YEAR 845.
CommentaryPaul, Bishop of Plusiada in Bithynia (Saint)
[1] To the solemn Office of Theophylact of Nicomedia, the Greek Church is accustomed to join the commemoration of another Confessor from the same Bithynia and in a similar cause, Paul — for no other reason, as it seems to us, than that both were cast into exile at the same time. Paul is joined with Theophylact And so what was said above about the confession of Theophylact being referable to the tyranny of Leo the Armenian, let the reader also apply to Paul. This Bishop was held by Prusa, an ancient city founded by Hannibal beneath Mount Olympus, as Pliny reports in book 5, chapter 32 — namely, driven from Italy, he wished this memorial of his hospitality to endure among posterity, at Prusa in Bithynia and, himself an exile from his own homeland while the Romans demanded him for punishment as the author of the broken treaty, to render eternal in the name of this city the name of King Prusias, under whose protection, in any case, he as a fugitive was preserving his life.
[2] And indeed he achieved not much less than he had intended: the city still exists, then called Bursa its name slightly changed, called Burza by the Turks, the royal seat of the Ottoman Emperors; and it vies, as some assert, with Constantinople itself in size and in the splendor of both public and private buildings, abounding in wealth and inhabitants. I find it called Prusiada in the seventh century; and so Domitius, Bishop of Prusiada, subscribed his name to the twelfth, fourteenth, fifth, sixth, and eighth Sessions of the sixth Ecumenical Council, held at Constantinople. In the following century, however, the custom prevailed and thenceforward obtained otherwise Bishop of Plusiada. that it be called Plusiada. Thus in the second Council of Nicaea, numbered the seventh among the Ecumenical Councils, Theophylus, Bishop of Plusiada, confirmed the first, third, fourth, and seventh Sessions with the subscription of his name. Hence it happens that in the Greek Menaea it is found written now in one way and now in another — which, since Baronius did not notice and read in the Greek Menologium published by Canisius: "On the same day: of our holy Father Paul, Bishop of Plusiada, who lived in those times when the Church itself was attacked by the enemies of the holy images; on account of whose defense, having suffered much, he was sent into exile, and resting in peace commended his spirit to God" — this, I say, when Baronius read it, thinking it a copyist's error, he did not hesitate to correct it and write in the Roman Martyrology "at Pelusium in Egypt, Saint Paul the Bishop, who died in exile for the same cause." And so he gave his French translator occasion to assign Saint Paul to Damietta, a city of new name in almost the same location where Pelusium once stood.
[3] And these all have Paul on March 7, as do the manuscript Synaxaria of the Claremontane College of the Society of Jesus, most assign him to March 7. and of the Mazarin Library, as well as of the monastery of Grotta Ferrata in Latium, written by order of the Emperor Basil; on which same day those sources also have the above-named Theophylact. The Menaea have March 8 and 9. We follow the great Greek Menaea printed at Venice, although the same Menaea repeat the eulogy of the same Paul also on the ninth day in nearly the same words which they use on this day — except that today they prefix these twin versicles:
"That trumpet, Paul of Plusiada, falls silent, Henceforth awaiting the sound of the last trumpet."
The eulogy from the Synaxarium of Grotta Ferrata, eulogy from the Synaxarium, somewhat more extensive than in other sources, is as follows: "This man, being Bishop of the Church in Prusa in the time of the impious Iconoclasts, and seeing the sacrilegious raging against the temples consecrated to Christ, overturning all observance of ecclesiastical laws, and destroying the forms and representations of the holy images — indeed utterly exterminating them from the inner sanctuaries of sacred buildings, and substituting in their place painted images of wild beasts, birds, and serpents, disregarding the traditions of the Fathers — this invincible champion of God did not cease to assail them with divine words as with javelins, joyfully enduring persecutions, exiles, and most grievous hardships for the venerable images of Christ our God and of his most holy and immaculate mother, our glorious Lady, the Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, and of the God-bearing Angels and all the Saints. Therefore, enduring the greatest vexation over the course of many years, and fighting nobly to the last breath of life, he departed to the Lord." So it reads there; and what is read elsewhere, both printed and handwritten, is largely consonant.