Martyrs of Palestine (shorter recension)

Contents

Reading pages: 0.1–7.8 · 8.1–12.1 · 13.1–13.14

1. 0.1Eusebius dates the first edict of the Great Persecution (303) and states its provisions.
2. 0.2A second edict ordered the arrest of all church leaders and their forced sacrifice.
3. 1.1Procopius, the first Palestinian martyr, refused to sacrifice to the gods or the four emperors and was beheaded.
4. 1.2The date of Procopius's martyrdom: 7 June, a Wednesday.
5. 1.3Many clergy at Caesarea endured tortures; some gave way at once; others suffered scourging, racking, and crippling bonds.
6. 1.4Officials forced or feigned sacrifices so as to dismiss prisoners as though they had complied.
7. 1.5Of the many tortured, only Alpheus and Zacchaeus were martyred, beheaded on 17 November for confessing one God and Christ as king.
8. 2.1Romanus, a deacon and exorcist of Caesarea, rebuked the crowds sacrificing at Antioch.
9. 2.2Sentenced to burning, Romanus joyfully went to the stake and called for the fire.
10. 2.3Instead of burning, Romanus had his tongue cut out, which he offered willingly.
11. 2.4Kept in prison, Romanus was strangled in the stocks at Diocletian's twentieth anniversary amnesty.
12. 2.5Romanus belongs among the Palestinian martyrs; in the first year only church leaders were targeted.
13. 3.1In the second year a general order to sacrifice was issued; Timothy was burned at Gaza, and Agapius and Thecla were condemned to the beasts.
14. 3.2At a public festival the condemned Christians were expected to be exhibited to the beasts.
15. 3.3Six young men bound their own hands and presented themselves to Urbanus as Christians.
16. 3.4With two companions, Agapius and Dionysius, the eight were beheaded at Caesarea on 24 March.
17. 3.5Diocletian and Maximian abdicated, and the empire began to suffer.
18. 3.6Civil war followed and lasted until peace for the Christians was established.
19. 3.7Peace for the church restored stability to the empire; Eusebius defers the account.
20. 4.1Maximin Daia became Caesar and intensified the persecution.
21. 4.2Eusebius introduces the martyr Apphianus, an example to all Caesarea.
22. 4.3Apphianus, not yet twenty and wealthy, studied at Berytus yet lived chastely and piously.
23. 4.4Eusebius proposes to honour Apphianus's homeland as well.
24. 4.5Apphianus left his non-Christian family at Pagae in Lycia and, trusting God, went to Caesarea.
25. 4.6At Caesarea he lived with Eusebius's circle, studying Scripture and practising discipline.
26. 4.7His deed showed superhuman courage and zeal.
27. 4.8During Maximin's general order to sacrifice, Apphianus seized the governor's hand at a libation and urged him to abandon idols.
28. 4.9His act showed that true Christians not only withstand threats but boldly call their persecutors to the true God.
29. 4.10Apphianus was beaten by the governor's men and imprisoned.
30. 4.11Tortured to force him to sacrifice, he was scraped to the bone and beaten beyond recognition.
31. 4.12His feet were wrapped in oiled linen and burned.
32. 4.13Still unyielding, he was thrown into the sea on the third day.
33. 4.14Eusebius insists on telling the following wonder, witnessed by all Caesarea.
34. 4.15An earthquake shook Caesarea and the sea cast Apphianus's body before the city gates, on Friday 2 April.
35. 5.1Ulpian of Tyre was sewn in an ox-hide with a dog and an asp and drowned.
36. 5.2Aedesius, Apphianus's brother, a learned philosopher, endured many confessions and was sent to the mines.
37. 5.3At Alexandria Aedesius publicly shamed a judge who handed Christian virgins to brothels, and was tortured and drowned.
38. 6.1On 20 November in the fourth year, during Maximin's birthday games at Caesarea, a notable martyrdom took place.
39. 6.2Imperial shows were expected to include extraordinary spectacles.
40. 6.3Agapius, often spared before, was brought before the emperor himself, fulfilling Christ's word that his disciples would stand before kings.
41. 6.4Agapius was brought out with a slave who had murdered his master.
42. 6.5The murderer was pardoned, like Barabbas, to the crowd's applause.
43. 6.6Offered freedom if he denied his faith, Agapius declared that he suffered for God and would bear anything gladly.
44. 6.7Agapius ran to the bear, survived its mauling a day, and was drowned.
45. 7.1On Easter Sunday Theodosia, a young virgin of Tyre, greeted Christian prisoners and asked their prayers.
46. 7.2Theodosia was tortured and drowned; the prisoners were sent to the copper mines of Phaeno.
47. 7.3Silvanus, then a presbyter, later bishop and martyr, and his companions were lamed and sent to the copper mines.
48. 7.4The governor burned Domninus, condemned others to boxing, the beasts, castration and the mines, and imprisoned Pamphilus, Eusebius's dearest friend.
49. 7.5Urbanus tested Pamphilus's learning, then tried to force him to sacrifice, and finally had him tortured.
50. 7.6After scraping his sides, Urbanus put Pamphilus in prison with the confessors.
51. 7.7Divine justice soon overtook Urbanus: stripped of office in one night, he was condemned to death by Maximin himself.
52. 7.8Eusebius defers an account of the persecutors' ends.
53. 8.1Ninety-seven confessors from the porphyry mine of the Thebaid were lamed and blinded in one eye by Firmilian and sent to the mines.
54. 8.2The Palestinians condemned to boxing suffered the same for refusing imperial food and training.
55. 8.3Brought before Maximin, they endured hunger and scourging and suffered the same maiming.
56. 8.4Christians arrested at Gaza while assembled to read Scripture were maimed or tortured.
57. 8.5A woman of Gaza, threatened with prostitution, denounced the emperor and was scourged and racked.
58. 8.6Another virgin cried out from the crowd against the torture of her sister in faith and was arrested.
59. 8.7Dragged to the altar, she kicked it over.
60. 8.8Both women were burned; the second was Valentina of Caesarea.
61. 8.9Paul, condemned with them, asked the executioner for a little time.
62. 8.10Paul prayed for the Christians, the Jews, the Samaritans, the pagans, and the bystanders.
63. 8.11He prayed also for his judge, the rulers, and his executioner, that their sin not be counted against them.
64. 8.12Paul was beheaded on 25 July.
65. 8.13A hundred and thirty Egyptian confessors, maimed likewise, were sent to the mines of Palestine and Cilicia.
66. 9.1Just as persecution eased, Maximin was roused against the Christians again.
67. 9.2Maximin's new edict ordered temples rebuilt, universal sacrifice and eating of sacrificial food, market goods defiled, and guards at the baths.
68. 9.3Even pagans thought the measures excessive, while Christ's power gave his martyrs courage to defy them unbidden.
69. 9.4Three Christians interrupted the governor's sacrifice, urging him to abandon idols.
70. 9.5Firmilian had Antoninus, Zebinas and Germanus beheaded on 13 November.
71. 9.6On the same day Ennathas of Scythopolis, who had been dragged to court, was martyred with them.
72. 9.7The tribune Maxys, without authority, stripped Ennathas and had her whipped through the markets of Caesarea.
73. 9.8Ennathas was burned alive, and the judge denied burial to the martyrs' bodies.
74. 9.9The bodies were guarded in the open to be devoured by beasts and birds.
75. 9.10The city was strewn with human remains, horrifying even enemies of the Christians.
76. 9.11Remains lay scattered by the gates and even inside the city.
77. 9.12On a clear day the city's columns dripped and the streets grew wet, as if the earth wept at the outrage.
78. 9.13Eusebius admits later readers may doubt the wonder, but contemporaries knew it true.
79. 10.1Egyptian Christians on their way to help the Cilician confessors were arrested; some were maimed, and Ares, Promus and Elias were martyred at Ascalon.
80. 10.2Peter Apselamus, an ascetic, refused pleas to spare his youth and was burned on 11 January.
81. 10.3Asclepius, a Marcionite bishop, was burned on the same pyre.
82. 11.1Eusebius introduces the martyrdom of Pamphilus and his eleven companions, twelve like the apostles.
83. 11.2Pamphilus, presbyter of Caesarea, excelled in renunciation, charity, and above all devotion to the Scriptures.
84. 11.3Eusebius refers readers to his three-book Life of Pamphilus.
85. 11.4Valens, an aged deacon of Jerusalem (Aelia), knew the Scriptures by heart.
86. 11.5Paul of Jamnia was the third; after two years' imprisonment the arrival of Egyptian brothers led to their martyrdom.
87. 11.6Five Egyptians returning from Cilicia confessed at the gates of Caesarea and were arrested.
88. 11.7Imprisoned, the Egyptians were brought before the judge with Pamphilus's group on 16 February.
89. 11.8The Egyptians' spokesman gave a prophet's name, as they had all taken biblical names; Firmilian then asked his homeland.
90. 11.9He named Jerusalem as his homeland, meaning the heavenly Jerusalem of Paul.
91. 11.10The judge, thinking of an earthly city, tortured him, but he insisted he had told the truth.
92. 11.11He said it was the homeland of the godly alone, lying toward the sunrise.
93. 11.12The martyr seemed not to feel pain, while the judge feared a Christian city hostile to Rome.
94. 11.13Finding him unshaken, the judge sentenced him and the other Egyptians to death.
95. 11.14Firmilian asked Pamphilus's group once more to obey, and on their confession condemned them likewise.
96. 11.15Porphyry, a young servant of Pamphilus, cried out asking for the martyrs' burial.
97. 11.16The judge, learning the youth was a Christian, ordered him tortured with full force.
98. 11.17Porphyry, refusing to sacrifice, was torn to the bone until he seemed lifeless.
99. 11.18Porphyry was condemned to a slow fire and died before his master Pamphilus.
100. 11.19Porphyry went joyfully to the pyre and died in silence after calling on Jesus the Son of God.
101. 11.20Seleucus, a former soldier, reported Porphyry's death to Pamphilus, kissed a martyr, and was at once beheaded.
102. 11.21Seleucus was a Cappadocian soldier of outstanding size and strength.
103. 11.22After leaving the army Seleucus lived as an ascetic caring for orphans, widows, the poor and sick.
104. 11.23Seleucus was the tenth martyr of that day, which opened the kingdom to many with Pamphilus.
105. 11.24Theodulus, an aged member of Firmilian's household, did as Seleucus and was crucified.
106. 11.25Julian, arriving from a journey, embraced and kissed the martyrs' bodies, completing the twelve.
107. 11.26Julian was burned with a slow fire, thanking God for the honour.
108. 11.27Julian, a devout Cappadocian, completed the company of Pamphilus's fellow martyrs.
109. 11.28The bodies, exposed four days, were untouched by any animal and were then buried.
110. 11.29Adrian and Eubulus, coming from Manganaea, confessed at the gate and were condemned to the beasts.
111. 11.30Adrian died on 5 March and Eubulus on 7 March, the last martyr of Caesarea.
112. 11.31Firmilian himself was later executed by the sword.
113. 12.1Eusebius deliberately passes over the failures of church leaders, ambition, irregular ordinations and schisms, telling only what is praiseworthy.
114. 13.1When the confessors at the Palestinian copper mines built houses for worship, the governor denounced them to the emperor.
115. 13.2The mine overseer dispersed the confessors to Cyprus, Lebanon and parts of Palestine.
116. 13.3Four leaders, the Egyptian bishops Peleus and Nilus, a presbyter, and Patermuthius, refused to deny the faith and were burned.
117. 13.4The aged and maimed confessors lived apart under Silvanus, bishop from Gaza.
118. 13.5Silvanus, a confessor from the beginning, was kept to be the final seal of the Palestinian martyrdoms.
119. 13.6Among them was John, already blind, whose sightless eyes were nonetheless branded.
120. 13.7Blind John knew whole books of Scripture by heart and could recite the Law, Prophets, histories, Gospels and epistles.
121. 13.8Eusebius tells of hearing blind John recite Scripture from memory in church, proof that the true person is the soul and mind.
122. 13.9The confessors lived in fasting and prayer, and the devil, unable to bear them, sought their death.
123. 13.10God allowed it, and thirty-nine confessors were beheaded in one day at Maximin's order.
124. 13.11Eusebius sums up eight years of persecution in Palestine and its countless martyrs from Libya to Illyricum.
125. 13.12In the West the persecution lasted only about two years.
126. 13.13Unprecedentedly, the empire was divided, with peace for Christians in the West while the East suffered.
127. 13.14When God's grace visited the East, the persecutors recanted with favourable decrees, which must be recorded.