Life of Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza 52–80

We spent the rest of the winter there, and having kept the holy days of Pascha and the day of the Resurrection, we made ready to sail. We asked the admirable Amantius to announce us to the sovereign lady, so that we might take leave of her. On hearing it he was grieved that we were about to sail; for he loved us so much that he begged the sovereign lady to release him, so that he might go to pray at the holy and august places. But the sovereign lady was afraid to let him go, lest when he went down there he should become a monk and remain there; for she knew the man's way of life. For he was truly blameless, giving many alms, fasting continually, receiving many strangers and assisting in works of piety. So much about the God-loving Amantius. He announced us to the sovereign lady and we went in to her, and she says to the most holy bishops: "When, with God, do you sail?" They said: "This is why we have come in, to take leave of your majesty." She said: "Remember me always, and my child." At once she ordered money to be brought, and

when it had been brought she said to my lord bishop Porphyry: "Take, father, these two centenaria, and build the holy church in the middle of Gaza that I promised to build; and let me know if you need more money, and I will send it at once. Build also a hostel, so that you may receive the brothers who come to stay in your city, and supply them their expenses for three days." She also gave the most holy John a thousand gold pieces, and precious vessels to both, and for expenses she gave each of them a hundred gold pieces. The aforementioned most holy John, bishop of Caesarea, also obtained whatever privileges he wished for his own church. Having made a prayer and blessed much both the sovereign lady and

her son and the emperor, they went out. They asked to go in to the emperor too; and the emperor asked them whether they had been fully satisfied and whether the Augusta had granted them anything, and they said: "We have been fully satisfied, with the help of your piety and of your most God-loving consort and of your God-guarded child, and many and great are the things granted to us." At once the emperor ordered the prefects to assign to each of them twenty pounds of gold from the public funds of Palestine. He himself also gave each a handful for expenses, which was found to come to fifty coins each. They blessed him much too and went out. We spent another three days in the city until we received the assignment of the forty pounds, and three days later we embarked and sailed on the twenty-third of Xanthicus by the Gazan reckoning; at the same time Cynegius set out after us, using the public post. We reached Rhodes in five days. We had

an eagerness to go to Procopius the anchorite, now among the saints; and though we begged the ship's master earnestly to give us three hours, he would not grant it, saying: "I cannot find another wind so suitable." We said to him: "The prayers of the holy man can both save us and give us a suitable wind." But the ship's master hardened himself and did not accept our request; we took on water and put to sea. We were very grieved at missing such a meeting. So we asked him in prayer to forgive us and to pray for us, that we might be saved and complete the work entrusted to us. Having sailed from Rhodes

and having had a good voyage for two days in fair weather, suddenly a storm arises, winds and lightnings and thunders and huge seas; the waves crested and became like high mountains, and the ship was lifted so high that we thought we were reaching the clouds. There were cries and tears and petitions to God, and we called on the prayers of the holy Procopius the anchorite. When evening came and the storm had not abated, we stayed awake that whole night. Toward dawn the most holy bishops, from great distress, slept a little, and my lord Porphyry sees in his sleep Procopius the anchorite, now among the saints, saying to them: "Instruct the ship's master and seal him anew (for he is of the foul heresy of Arius), and prepare him to anathematize Arius and his false belief, and at once this great surge will cease. For because he is of that heresy he did not allow you to come to me. Still, instruct him; for he

will receive the correct doctrine from you." On hearing this our holy Porphyry woke up, and calling us he told what he had seen in his sleep. At once we called the ship's master and said to him: "Do you wish your ship to be saved, and all of us, and above all your own soul?" He said: "There is no need to ask that." The bishops said to him: "Deny your false belief and believe in the right faith, and you will be saved, and the ship, and all of us." The ship's master says to them: "Since I see that you have foreknowledge (for you have perceived what is in my heart without anyone telling you), behold, I tell you: I believe as you believe, and I deny the heresy of Arius and Arius himself. But I ask you to enlighten me at leisure in the right faith from the holy Scriptures." The holy bishops took him and sealed him anew, making a prayer over him, and they also gave him a share of the divine mysteries. At that moment the surge ceased and the wind turned to the west, and we sailed favorably; and having spent another four days at sea, on the fifth at dawn we put in at the coastal part of Gaza, which they call Maiuma. When we disembarked, the Christians there, learning of it,

received us with psalm-singing; likewise those from the city, when they heard of it, came to meet us, carrying the sign of the precious cross and themselves singing psalms. The people of the two places mingled and became no small crowd; for those from the coast were the more numerous, because it had many Egyptian wine merchants. The adherents of idol-madness, seeing what was happening, were vexed, but they dared do nothing, since they had heard how much honor the most holy bishops had from the emperors and that the idols were going to be destroyed; and they were in great anxiety and despondency. When we entered the city,

at the place called the Tetramphodon a marble statue stood, which they said was of Aphrodite; it stood on a stone altar, and the form of the statue was that of a naked woman with all her shame exposed. All the people of the city honored the statue, especially the women, lighting lamps and burning incense … the said idol of Aphrodite (the Christians were carrying the precious wood of Christ, that is, the figure of the cross), the demon dwelling in the statue, seeing it and not bearing to look on the sign that was carried, came out of the marble with great disorder, threw down the statue itself and broke it into many pieces. Two men of the idolaters happened to be standing by the altar on which the statue stood, and as it fell it split the head of one and broke the shoulder and wrist of the other; for both were standing there mocking the holy people. Many of the pagans, seeing

the sign that had happened, believed, and mingling with the laity they went in with them into the holy church called Irene. There was great joy for the Christians on that day for three reasons: first, because they had received back their priest in health and having succeeded as they wished; second, because the gods of the nations were shattered and became like dust scattered from a summer threshing floor, and those like them, who trusted in them, were broken along with them; and third, greater than the others, because wandering souls were saved and added to the flock of Christ. The bishop sealed them and dismissed them in peace, charging them to attend the holy prayers. They numbered thirty-two men and seven women. The archbishop John spent two more days in Gaza and went off to Caesarea, all the Christians and the holy bishop escorting him for two miles.

On the tenth day the admirable Cynegius arrived, bringing with him the consular governor and the duke and a great military and civil force. Many of the idolaters learned of it beforehand and left the city, some for villages, others for other cities; most of them were among the rich of the city. The said Cynegius quartered men in the houses of those who had fled. The next day, summoning the people of the city in the presence of the duke and the consular, he showed them the imperial letter ordering the idols and the idol temples to be destroyed and given to the fire. As soon as they heard it, the idolaters wailed with a loud voice, so that the officials were angered and with threats sent soldiers against them, who struck them with rods and clubs. The Christians with great joy acclaimed the emperors [64] and the officials. At once they set out with the officials and the troops and destroyed the idol temples of Gaza. There were in the city eight public temples of idols: those of the Sun, of Aphrodite, of Apollo, of Kore, of Hecate, the so-called Heroeion, that of the Fortune of the city, which they called the Tychaeon, and the Marneion, which they said belonged to Cretan-born Zeus and which they held to be more glorious than all the temples anywhere. There were also very many other idols in the houses and in the villages, past anyone's counting; for the demons, seizing on the disposition of the Gazans, since they are easily led, filled their whole city and the surrounding country with error. They suffer this from great simplicity; and so, when they are brought over to the holy faith, they become zealous Christians. So much about the Gazans. Given permission, the soldiers set out with the Christians of the city and of its coastal part against the idols; and wishing first to destroy the Marneion, they were repulsed. For the priests of that idol, having heard beforehand, had barricaded the doors of the inner temple from within with large stones; and having taken down into the so-called adyta whatever precious vessels the temple had, and moreover the very images of their gods, they hid them there and fled through those adyta by other passages; for they said that these adyta had many passages leading to various places. Repulsed, then, as I said, they turned to the other idol temples, destroying some and giving others to the fire, and seizing all the precious vessels in them. Porphyry, now among the saints, had anathematized in the church every Christian citizen who took anything at all from the idol temples for his own gain; so none of the faithful citizens took anything, but only the soldiers and the strangers who were there. Devout men of the clergy went about with the laity, and the holy bishop Porphyry himself, restraining them from appropriating anything. [66] They spent ten days pulling down the temples of the idols. After those days they deliberated about the Marneion too, how they should deal with it. Some said it should be razed, others burned, others that the place should be cleansed and consecrated as a church of God; and there was much deliberation about it. Finally the bishop, now among the saints, proclaims a fast and prayer for the people, that the Lord might reveal to them how they ought to deal with it; and having fasted that day and prayed to God about it, in the evening they celebrated the holy synaxis. While the synaxis was being celebrated, a child about seven years old, standing with his mother, suddenly cried out: "Burn the inner temple to the ground; for many terrible things have been done in it, especially human sacrifices. Burn it in this way: bring liquid pitch and sulphur and pig's fat, mix the three and smear the bronze doors, and set fire to them, and so the whole temple will burn; otherwise it is not possible. Leave the outer temple with its enclosure. And after it has burned, cleanse the place and build a holy church there." He also said this: "I testify to you before God, let it not be done otherwise; for it is not I who speak, but Christ who is in me." He said this in the Syrian language. When they all heard it they marveled and glorified God. This wonder came

also to the ears of the holy bishop, and stretching out his hands to heaven he glorified God and said: "Glory to you, holy Father, because you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to infants." He directed that the child and his mother be found at the bishop's house after the dismissal of the church; and taking the child aside he said to the woman: "I adjure you by the Son of the living God, tell me whether it was at your prompting, or at someone else's with your knowledge, that your child uttered what he said about the Marneion." The woman said: "I give myself over to the fearful and dread judgment seat of Christ, if I knew beforehand anything at all of what my son uttered today. But if you please, here is the child: take him and examine him with threats, whether he said these things at anyone's prompting …" … so it is to be burned. So they brought the liquid pitch and the sulphur and the pig's fat, mixed the three and smeared the inner doors, and having made a prayer they set fire to them; at once the whole temple caught fire and burned. Those of the soldiers and strangers who could snatched from the fire whatever they found, whether gold or

silver or iron or lead. There was a man there, one of the officers of the soldiers whom they call a tribune, in charge of the burning of the temple; he was a Christian in appearance, but in secret, unknown to most, an idolater. Standing by and seeing the burning and the plundering by the soldiers, he was vexed, and on the pretext of keeping them in order he flogged unsparingly anyone he found carrying any of the spoils. While this was going on and the walls were being destroyed by the fire, suddenly a burning beam falls on the tribune and brings on him a double death; for it split his head and burned the rest of his body. At once the faithful soldiers and those of the Christ-loving people, knowing about him that he inclined toward the idols, glorified God and said the psalm that says: "Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man, in lawlessness? All day long your tongue has devised injustice. Like a sharpened razor

you have worked deceit. You loved evil more than goodness, injustice more than speaking righteousness. You loved all words of destruction, a deceitful tongue. Therefore God will destroy you forever, pluck you out and remove you from your dwelling, and your root from the land of the living," and the rest of the psalm. The fire kept burning for a great many days. After this the houses were searched as well (for there were idols in very many courtyards), and what was found was partly given to the fire and partly thrown into the sewer. Books full of sorcery were also found, which they called sacred, from which the adherents of idol-madness performed their rites and their other lawless acts; and these too suffered the same as their gods. Many ran to the holy faith, some

from fear, others condemning their former way of life; and the holy church opened its doors to all; for it remembered the holy Scripture that says: "To him who knocks it will be opened, and he who seeks finds," and again: "Whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed." Some of the faithful said to the holy bishop that those who came out of fear ought not to be received, but only those who came with a good resolve. The holy bishop said

to those who said this: "There are also virtues that come to people from circumstances. For just as someone who has an ungrateful household slave first admonishes him continually to be grateful and to serve with a simple heart, but when he finds him in no way obedient to admonition, then at length brings on him by necessity fear and blows and bonds and other such things, not wishing to destroy him but to save him and make him recognize what is right, so you should think of God too: he is long-suffering toward our ingratitude and often exhorts us to what is profitable through the Scriptures and through other holy men; but when we do not obey, he, as a good Master and lover of mankind, wishing by all means to win us and not to reject us, brings his fear and discipline upon us, calling us by necessity to recognize what we ought. Therefore the divine Scripture says: 'When he slew them, then they sought him and turned and rose early to God.' And again it says, on account of those who kick away and stiffen their necks against God: 'With bit and bridle you will curb the jaws of those who do not come near to you.' There is need then, my children, for mankind to be reminded through fears and threats and discipline. Therefore again it says: 'It is good for me that you humbled me, so that I might learn your statutes.' I have said this on account of those who wish to come over to our holy faith. For even if they come doubting, time too can soften them, Christ consenting. And to tell you something else as well: even if they do not prove worthy of the faith, having already grown up in the habit of evil, those born of them can be saved by being brought up together with what is good." Having said this and persuaded

the brothers, he received all who wished to be enlightened, instructing them for many days, not only before baptism but also afterwards; for he continually taught the people, not speaking in boastful speech to show off, but teaching in simple language and explaining everything from Scripture. There were added to Christ's flock in that year about three hundred persons, and from then on the cause of the Christians grew every year. When the Marneion had been completely burned and the city

had been brought to order, the blessed bishop resolved, with the venerable clergy and the Christ-loving people, to build a holy church on the burned site, as had been revealed to him when he was in Constantinople, for which purpose he had also received the money from the most God-loving Eudoxia the empress. He dismissed the officials and the Christ-loving people but kept back part of the force, so that no disturbance should arise after their departure, and not only for this reason but also to help in gathering the materials for the building of the said holy church. Some advised that it be built on the plan of the idol temple; for it was round, surrounded by two colonnades, one within the other, and its middle was a domed canopy raised up to a height, and it had other features that suited the idols and were fitted for the abominable and lawless things done by the idol-maniacs. Some, then, said that the holy church should be built on this plan; others spoke against it, saying that even the memory of its plan ought to be removed; and those who said this persuaded everyone that they had spoken well. The godly bishop said: "This too let us leave to the counsel of God." While the place was being cleared, a magistrianus arrives bringing imperial letters from Eudoxia of ever-blessed memory; the letter contained a greeting and a request for prayers for herself and for the emperors, her husband and her child; and on another sheet, apart from the letter, was the plan of the holy church in the form of a cross, as it is now seen, with God's help; and the letter directed that the holy church be built according to the plan. Porphyry, now among the saints, rejoiced on reading it and seeing the plan; for he knew that this too had come about by divine revelation, and he remembered the Scripture that says: "The heart of the king is in the hand of God." The letter also said that costly columns and marbles were going to be sent. When the

earth had been carried out and all the abominations removed, there remained the debris of the marble paving of the Marneion, which they said was sacred and in a place not to be trodden, especially by women. This the godly bishop decided to have laid as paving in front of the temple, outside in the street, so that it might be trodden not only by men but also by women and dogs and pigs and beasts. This grieved the idolaters more than the burning of the temple. Hence most of them, especially the women, do not step on the marbles to this day. A short time later he proclaims a fast for one day, and when the morning prayers had been dismissed the God-loving bishop ordered every Christ-loving man to carry mattocks and hoes and other such tools. He had announced this from the evening before, so that everyone would be ready in the morning,

and so it was done. When the people had gathered with the said tools in the holy church called Irene, he directed all to go together, singing psalms, to what had once been the Marneion; and he himself followed, carrying the holy gospel, with the venerable clergy around him, truly imitating Christ with his disciples. The ever-memorable Barochas went before the people carrying the figure of the precious cross, and on either side of the people were the soldiers who had been left behind to keep order in the city. As they went they sang psalms, and at each pause of the psalm they said the Alleluia. The psalm they said was: "Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, let us shout to God our Savior. Let us come before his face with thanksgiving and shout to him with psalms; for the Lord is a great God and a great King over all the earth; for in his hand are the ends of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are his; for the sea is his and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and fall down before him and weep before the Lord who made us; for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand."

They said other psalms too until they entered the Marneion. Porphyry the bishop, now among the saints, had sent for an architect named Rufinus from Antioch, a faithful and skilled man, by whom the whole building was completed. Taking gypsum, he marked out the plan of the holy church according to the shape of the plan sent by the most God-loving Augusta Eudoxia. The most holy bishop made a prayer and a genuflection and directed the people to dig. At once all, with one soul and the same eagerness, dug, crying: "Christ has conquered." One could see no difference between man and woman, or old man and child; eagerness gave the same strength to all. Some dug, others carried out the earth, so that within a few days all the places were dug and cleared. When the material had been prepared beforehand,

both huge stones from the hill called Aldioma, east of the city, and other material, Porphyry, now among the saints, again gathered the Christ-loving people; and having made many prayers and psalm-singing on the site, he girded himself and was the first to begin carrying stones and casting them into the foundations; then the God-loving clergy and all the laity, rejoicing and singing psalms with a loud voice, so that they were heard three miles from the city. A great wonder happened on that day. There are wells

outside the enclosure of the temple, one of which is on the west side of what is now the holy church of God, of no small depth. Three boys, being thirsty, went to drink, and drawing near the mouth of the well they leaned over, propping themselves on the wooden beam across the mouth, as boys will do; the beam broke and the three fell into the well. Some who were there went and told the people what had happened. There was no small commotion as everyone ran together to the well. When the most holy Porphyry learned what had happened, he too ran to the place and ordered silence; and when there was silence he began to pray and beseech God with many tears to keep the children alive and unharmed, especially because of the idol-maniacs, so that they might not say: "Where is their God, in whom they hoped?" After spending an hour lying on the ground, he rose and directed someone to go down by the ropes of the buckets to search for the boys. For the people in the crowd kept shouting and calling the children, and no one answered from below, out of the