Church History 8.7.4 · Sophia Scriptura

Greek text · Dindorf 4:358

καταπλαγῆναι δʼ ἦν τὴν ἐπὶ τούτοις ἀπτόητον τῶν ἱερῶν ἐκείνων καρτερίαν, καὶ τὴν ἐν σώμασι νέοις βεβηκυῖαν καὶ ἀδιάτρεπτον ἔνστασιν. ἑώρας γοῦν ἡλικίαν οὐδʼ ὅλων ἐτῶν εἴκοσι δίχα δεσμῶν ἑστῶτος νέου, καὶ τὰς μὲν χεῖρας ἐφαπλοῦντος εἰς σταυροῦ τύπον, ἀκαταπλήκτῳ δὲ καὶ ἀτρεμεῖ διανοίᾳ ταῖς πρὸς τὸ θεῖον σχολαίτατα τεταμένου λιταῖς, μηδʼ ὅλως τε μεθισταμένου μηδʼ ἀποκλίνοντός ποι τοῦ ἔνθα εἱστήκει τόπου, ἄρκτων καὶ παρδάλεων θυμοῦ καὶ θανάτου πνεόντων σχεδὸν αὐτῆς καθαπτομένων αὐτοῦ τῆς σαρκὸς, ἀλλʼ οὐκ οἶδʼ ὅπως θείᾳ καὶ ἀπορρήτῳ δυνάμει μονονουχὶ φραττομένων τὸ στόμα, καὶ αὖθις παλινδρομούντων εἰς τοὐπίσω. καὶ οὗτος μὲν οὖν τοιοῦτός τις ἦν.

English · Claude translation

One could be astonished at the fearless endurance of those holy men in these circumstances, and at the firm and unmoved steadfastness in young bodies. You might have seen a youth not fully twenty years old standing unbound, stretching out his hands in the form of a cross, and with unterrified and untrembling mind intent on the most unhurried prayers to God, not moving or turning aside at all from the place where he stood, while bears and leopards, breathing fury and death, all but touched his very flesh, yet, I know not how, had their mouths all but stopped by a divine and secret power and ran back again. Such a one was he.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:358 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Martyrdom, Prayer

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (wrong accent and breathing in the digital text; wrong accent in the digital text): τις ἢν. → τις ἦν.; μὲν οὑν τοιοῦτός → μὲν οὖν τοιοῦτός.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.7.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/7/4/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 8.7.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/8/7/4/).