Church History 5.1.20

Summary: Sanctus answered every question, even about his name, only with “I am a Christian.”

Greek text · Dindorf 4:187–188

ὁ δὲ Σάγκτος καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπερβεβλημένως καὶ ὑπὲρ πάντα ἄνθρωπον πάσας τὰς ἐξ ἀνθρώπων αἰκίας γενναίως ὑπομένων, τῶν ἀνόμων ἐλπιζόντων διὰ τὴν ἐπιμονὴν καὶ τὸ μέγεθος τῶν βασάνων ἀκούσεσθαί τι παρʼ αὐτοῦ τῶν μὴ δεόντων, τοσαύτῃ ὑποστάσει ἀντιπαρετάξατο αὐτοῖς ὥστε μηδὲ τὸ ἴδιον κατειπεῖν “ὄνομα, μήτε ἔθνους, μήτε πόλεως ὅθεν ἦν, μήτε εἰ “δοῦλος ἢ ἐλεύθερος εἴη, ἀλλὰ πρὸς πάντα τὰ ἐπε- “ρωτώμενα ἀπεκρίνατο τῇ ῾Ρωμαϊκῇ φωνῇ ῾Χριστια- “νός εἰμι.᾿ τοῦτο καὶ ἀντὶ ὀνόματος καὶ ἀντὶ πό- “λεως καὶ ἀντὶ γένους καὶ ἀντὶ παντὸς ἐπαλλήλως “ὡμολόγει, ἄλλην δὲ φωνὴν οὐκ ἤκουσαν αὐτοῦ τὰ “ἔθνη.

English · Claude translation

Sanctus also nobly endured, beyond measure and beyond all human strength, all the outrages men could inflict. While the lawless hoped that through the persistence and severity of the tortures they would hear from him something improper, he opposed them with such firmness that he did not even state his own name, nor his nation, nor the city he came from, nor whether he was slave or free; to every question he answered in Latin, “I am a Christian.” This he confessed again and again in place of name, city, race, and everything else, and the Gentiles heard no other word from him.

About this passage

Source

Dindorf 4:187–188 · 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)

Extrabiblical texts

Ep. Lugd. (Letter of the Churches of Vienne and Lyons) · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Martyrdom

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.1.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/1/20/).

Plain text

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 5.1.20 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/5/1/20/).

Greek text · Dindorf 4:187–188

English · Claude translation

About this passage

Notes

Translation notes

Cite this passage