Confessors

ON THE HOLY CONFESSORS

EULOGIUS BISHOP OF EDESSA AND PROTOGENES BISHOP OF CARRHAE.

UNDER THEODOSIUS THE ELDER.

Eulogius of Edessa, Bishop and Confessor (S.)

Protogenes of Carrhae, Bishop and Confessor (S.)

G. H.

[1] These two were together Presbyters of Edessa in Mesopotamia; and under Valens the Emperor, defender of the Arian heresy, they suffered very many things; finally, after peace was given to the Churches, both were made Bishops, S. Eulogius of Edessa successor of S. Barsa, Cult on the 5th and 6th of May. whose Acts we have related on XXX January; S. Protogenes at Carrhae. To Edessa, the metropolis of the Osrhoëne province, is subject the city of Carrhae, sufficiently near, now called Osra, of which we have treated XIV March in the Acts of SS. Eustathius and his fellow Martyrs slain by the Arabs. Both are inscribed in the tables of the Roman Martyrology, Eulogius on this V May with these words; At Edessa in Syria of S. Eulogius, Bishop and Confessor: but on the following VI May, thus is read: At Carrhae in Mesopotamia of S. Protogenes. Acts from Theodoret. The Acts of each were described by Theodoret, book 4 of Ecclesiastical History chapter 15, under this title: On the persecution stirred up at Edessa, and on Eulogius and Protogenes the Edessenian Presbyters: then the Acts are explained thus.

[2] Again Valens, with the Pastor bereft, S. Barses the Bishop being sent into exile, set a wolf as Pastor over the Edessenian flock. And since all, the city being abandoned, were holding meetings outside the city, In the persecution of Valens he himself set out for Edessa; and ordered Modestus, then exercising the Prefecture, that with the soldiers gathered into one, who are wont to exact tributes, and assuming from the armed soldiery those who were present, he should disperse the gathered multitude, beating with rods and staves, and not to spare other warlike weapons if it were necessary. The Prefect, while at first light he was executing the commands, passing through the forum, sees a woman with an infant in her arms hastily hurrying: for, despising the soldiers, she had broken through their first ranks. The Edessenes being constant in the faith, For a mind kindled with divine zeal is not touched by human fear, and holds terrors of this kind for laughter and jest. The Prefect therefore beholding her, and understanding the matter, summoning her asks where she is going. To whom she, I have learned, she said, that snares have been prepared against the servants of God, and I am hastening to the consorts of the faith, desiring with them to undergo the torments which you wish to inflict. But the infant, said the Prefect, why do you carry? That with me, she said, he may be partaker of the desired death. When the Prefect had heard these things from the woman, and had perceived from her the alacrity of all; he reported to the Emperor, and showed that the slaughter would be in vain: For we ourselves, he said, will obtain only infamy, and we shall not extinguish the ardor of those minds. These things being said, he did not permit the multitude to suffer the tortures which they were expecting: but he was ordered to summon their Leaders, the Presbyters and Deacons; and to make one of two, that he should either bring them to the communion of the wolf, or, having driven them from the city, banish them to the farthest shores. Therefore all being convoked, with bland speech he tried to persuade them, that they should obey the laws of the Emperor: for he said it was of extreme dementia, that men of small number should oppose the Prince, who governed so many and so great things.

[3] And since silent and mute all opposed him; turned to Eulogius, the praiseworthy man, who presided over these, the Prefect, Why, he said, do you not respond to those things which have been said by me? And he, I did not think, he said, S. Eulogius responds to the Prefect that I ought to respond, since I was not interrogated. And yet I, said the Prefect, with a long oration have exhorted you to useful things. To whom Eulogius said that those words of his looked to all, and that he had judged it absurd, that he alone, with others excluded, should respond. From me alone, he said, if you ask what I think, I shall not conceal. Then the Prefect: Communicate therefore with the Emperor. But he, dissimulately and facetiously responding, Has he, he said, with the Empire, also obtained the Priesthood? The Prefect sensed the irony, and grievously was incensed, and heaping insults on the aged man, added these things also; This I, stupidly, did not say, but as those with whom the Emperor communicates, I admonished that with the same you should communicate. And when the old man had responded, that he had a Pastor, by whose nods all should obey, eighty

likewise apprehended, he banished into Thrace.

While they were being transported, with others he is banished, they were everywhere received with the utmost care: for both cities and villages came out to meet them, accompanying the victorious athletes with praises. But envy instigated the adversaries, that they should suggest to the Emperor, that the very thing which was thought to be ignominy, had brought forth supreme honor for these men. Which being heard, Valens orders them to be divided into pairs, and some through Thrace, others through the farthest borders of Arabia, others through the little towns of the Thebaid to be dispersed. In which they say that even those whom nature had joined were torn apart by most savage men, and brothers separated from brothers.

[4] Furthermore Eulogius, who presided over the rest, he and S. Protogenes to Antinoë. and Protogenes second from him, he relegated to Antinoë in the Thebaid. But I shall not consign their virtue to oblivion. For when, having found a Bishop agreeing with them, they took part in the Ecclesiastical assemblies; and when they observed a very small congregation, having inquired the cause, they learned that the inhabitants were Gentiles; they grieved as was fitting, and lamented their infidelity. Nor judging tears to be enough, they turned all their strength to healing them. And the divine Eulogius indeed shut up in his cell, prayed day and night to the God of all. But the admirable Protogenes, both instructed in legitimate letters, and skilled in swift writing, he teaches the boys, having found a suitable place, opened a school of letters, and was made master of boys, both teaching them to write swiftly, and instructing them in the divine eloquences. For he both dictated to them the Davidic songs, and proposed for them to learn by heart from the Apostolic doctrine those things which were most fitting. Moreover, when one of the boys was seized by sickness, he came to his house; and the right hand of the sick one being grasped, he is bright with miracles: he drove off the disease by prayer. Which when this became known to the parents of the other boys, they led him into their houses, and prayed that he would bring help to the sick. But he denied that he would first supplicate God, that He should put the disease to flight; before the infirm one received the gift of baptism. They themselves indeed, the desire of health urging, gladly obeyed; and by the same work received both the health of soul and of body. But if ever he had induced any one when healthy to participate in the Divine grace, he would lead this one to Eulogius, and knocking at the door he prayed that he would open, and impose on him the Lord's seal. And when that one bore it ill that his prayer was interrupted, he said that the salvation of the wandering was more necessary. To all however Protogenes was an admiration, when they saw him, who produced so many miracles, and infused the light of divine knowledge into so many, yet yielded the first place to Eulogius, and led to him those whom he had captured. Rightly therefore they conjectured his virtue to be much greater and more excellent.

[5] But now when, the storm being calmed, and tranquil serenity restored, Returning to their homeland, they are made Bishops. they had been ordered to return from exile; all led them with complaints and tears, and chiefly the Antistes of the Church, who henceforth was to be deprived of their cultivation. After therefore they had arrived in their homeland, the divine Eulogius indeed, the great Barses having passed to a life without grief, took up the helms of the Church which he had governed; but to the admirable Protogenes Carrhae was handed over to be cultivated, an uncultivated city, and stuffed with the thorns of the Gentiles, and needing much labor and zeal. But these things were done after peace was given back to the Churches. Thus Theodoret. The peace indicated occurred after the death of Valens in the year CCCLXXV, and the Empire being offered to Theodosius the elder.

[6] The same Theodoret book 5 chapter 4 describes the Life of S. Eusebius Bishop of Samosata, who is venerated XXI June, and enumerates various Bishops created by him, and then adds: Eulogius, Eulogius by S. Eusebius of Samosata, who had most strongly contended for the Apostolic doctrine, and had been relegated into the town of Antinoë together with Protogenes, they report to have been ordained Bishop of Edessa by him: for that admirable Barses had now departed from the living. Furthermore Eulogius constituted Protogenes, Protogenes, by S. Eulogius, who had been the partner and sharer of his contests, Bishop at Carrhae, constituting a salutary physician for the badly off city. Thus Theodoret. Sozomen book 6 chapter 23 adds that Protogenes governed the Episcopate of Carrhae after Vitus, therefore after the Ecumenical Council held at Constantinople under S. Damasus the Pope in the year CCCLXXXI, to which from the province of Osroëne the said Eulogius of Edessa and Vitus of Carrhae subscribed. But whether before the death of S. Valens, indeed before his exile, S. Eulogius was Bishop of Edessa seems doubtful, [Eulogius seems to have been a Presbyter present at the Council of Antioch in the year 369.] because in the year CCCLXIX under Damasus the Pope at the Council of Antioch, in which the things established that year in the Roman Council are approved, Eulogius Bishop of Edessa is found to have subscribed. But because at that time S. Barses was still living, we judge an error to underlie, and that it should be read, Eulogius Presbyter of Edessa, similarly I believe and have subscribed: or certainly that another σφάλμα has crept in.