ON ST. POTAMON THE MARTYR
BISHOP OF HERACLEA IN EGYPT.
ABOUT THE YEAR CCCXLI.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
The Acts of his Life & Martyrdom from SS. Epiphanius & Athanasius: the recent cult.
Potamion, Bishop in Egypt, Martyr (St.)
D. P.
[1] Upper Egypt, the Thebaid being passed, the Nile flowing through, before it descends to the Lower, to be unrolled by seven mouths into the sea, with a sinus divided on each side embraces an ample island, which by itself constitutes the Nome Heracleote, so called from Heraclea, He was present at the Nicene Council as a Confessor, a noble city on the Nile. Over this as Bishop presided St. Potamon in the year CCCXXV, when at Nicaea in Bithynia was held the first general Synod, of CCCXVIII Bishops, convoked from everywhere out of the whole Roman Empire; he himself indeed among the rest stood out by the marks of an excellent Confession, one of those, whom, as in book 11 chapter 4 says Rufinus, with their right eyes dug out & their left ham cut, to the mines Maximinus had condemned.
[2] The same one then in the year CCCXXXV, with forty-eight other Bishops, from Egypt followed St. Athanasius, at Tyre about the objected crimes to be judged: just as with the highest praise of him Epiphanius narrates, heresy 68. The words of Epiphanius, from the better version of our Petavius, then at Tyre in the year 335 are these. At Tyre in Phoenicia to convoke a Synod, the Emperor Constantine, ordered, & over that judgment to preside with some others Eusebius of Caesarea, who all were more inclined to the most empty dogma of the Arians. With these from the Catholic Church of Egypt & subject to Athanasius certain Bishops were called, altogether primary & excellent men, & endowed with excellent holiness of life & religion; among whom of happy memory that great Potamon was, Bishop & Confessor of Heraclea. There were present also the Meletians, where Eusebius of Caesarea, especially the accusers of Athanasius. But Blessed Potamon, with the ardor of truth & right faith boiling, a man of the highest liberty of speaking, who of no person ever had had regard, & for the confession of the truth had lost one eye in the persecution; seeing Eusebius sitting & judging, but standing Athanasius; consumed with grief & weeping, as is wont to happen to sincere minds, with a great voice inveighed against Eusebius:
[3] And, Do you, he said, Eusebius, sit, & the innocent Athanasius be judged by you? Who could endure these things? Tell me, pray, were you not with me in the time of persecution in custody? with excellent liberty he reproaches in defense of St. Athanasius. And I indeed lost an eye for the truth: you are mutilated in no part of body, nor have you undergone martyrdom, but living & whole you stand. By what means did you fly out of custody? unless that to our persecutors a nefarious crime you promised to commit, or even committed? Eusebius hearing these things, greatly grieved; & suddenly rising, dismissed the Council, & thus spoke: If coming hither you dare so greatly to contradict us, it is true indeed what your accusers object: for since in this place a certain tyranny you exercise, much more do you do it in your fatherland.
[4] These things Epiphanius: whom if speaking in Greek he had been able to understand Baronius, Wrongly is he called into the communion of the Meletian schism, he would not have written in his notes on the Roman Martyrology, that this St. Potamon at some time adhered to Meletius in the schism, whence at length drawing back his foot for the Catholic faith against the Arians he excellently contended. It seems Baronius was deceived by the author of the old Basel version Cornarius, obscurely between the points, in this manner: And there were called the Bishops of Egypt… Among whom was Blessed Potamon, that great Bishop of Heraclea & Confessor, but also of the Meletian parts, these who accused Athanasius. But under a better punctuation a clear sense even the words of Cornarius will have, if thus they be read. And there were called the Bishops of Egypt … (among whom was Blessed Potamon …) but also of the Meletian parts, these who Athanasius accused, namely, were called. Certainly at the time of the Nicene Council Potamon was by no means numbered among those, who adhered to Meletius. Indeed Meletius there on that condition received with his own to the Catholic communion, that he should ordain no more Bishops; but the names should deliver, of those whom he had adhering to himself; thus I say received Meletius, not only did he not number among his partisans Saint Potamon, but expressly set down Peter τῆς Ἡρακλοῦς, that is, of Heraclea or Heracleopolis; namely there ordained against Patamon for his faction, just as elsewhere he had ordained others for the same faction, against the Bishops of the Catholic part; & this teaches the very Breviary of Meletius the Pope, given to Alexander the Bishop, which is exhibited in the Syllogos of Athanasius, or, to speak with the common, in the second Apology.
[5] & crushed with blows by the Arians The same Athanasius, in the Epistle to the Solitaries, the illustrious end of Potamon, & consonant with the first Confession & the rest of his life thus narrates: Serapammon the Bishop & Confessor they drove into exile (Philagrius the Prefect & Gregory the Pseudo-bishop) but Potamon, who as a Confessor himself also had lost an eye in the persecution, cutting him with blows dealt to his neck, he dies a Martyr, did not before rest than they believed the man to be dead. Then namely cast off by them, & with difficulty after some hours treated & revived, he resumed his spirit; God granting him life, but very brief. For after a little time, from the pain of the blows, he died, having in Christ the glory of a second martyrdom.
[6] after the Pasch of the year 341, These things are thus narrated in this epistle by Athanasius, as if in the year CCCXLI immediately from the coming of Philagrius & Gregory into Egypt done. But there ought at least to be interposed that whole tragedy of the invaded church, whence Athanasius himself with difficulty by flight withdrew, which in the Commentary on his Life we exhibited chapter 13 from his epistle to the Orthodox. Now that was done, in the time of the Pasch, which fell on the IX day of April: nor then were the Bishops at Alexandria, each in his own diocese on account of the feast most occupied. in an uncertain month. But neither is it established that the deed was done at Alexandria, & that thither the Bishops were summoned: for the persecution could be carried around through Egypt, Philagrius the Prefect going about it & Balacius the Duke, for the churches to be delivered to the Arians: it could also in the following year have been done, & therefore the vexation of two so illustrious Confessors have been passed over, in that epistle which I said to the Orthodox.
[7] on an unknown day. Much less can we define anything certain about the day on which St. Potamon died. In today's Roman Martyrology, on this XVIII of May, thus is read: In Egypt of St. Potamion the Bishop, who first under Maximinus a Confessor, then under Constantius the Emperor & Philagrius the Arian Governor, was crowned with martyrdom: but by no older Martyrology's example are we taught so to read. The name in today's Roman: but whence? There is cited in the Notes Bede, the supposititious namely: but this one, as above we saw, has nothing else, than from the class of the older Alexandrian Martyrs rashly received Potamion, after two companions taken from the same place: who although by the consensus of several MSS. is better called Potamon, & so also everywhere is called in Athanasius & Epiphanius this our one, Bishop & Martyr, yet by no verisimilitude will it be presumed, that this one is he of whom treat the most ancient copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology; into which the Martyrs who are inserted, can be believed all to have suffered under heathen Emperors.