Saint Pamphilus, Presbyter and Martyr of the Church of Caesarea

CIRCA ANNUM DOMINI CCXC. S. PAMPHILUS ECCLESIAE CAESARIENSIS PRESBYTER ET MARTYR NOTITIA

(GALLARD., Vel. Patr. Biblioth., t. IV, Proleg., p. III.)

I. Who and how great a man was Pamphilus, disciple of Pierius the Alexandrian. Presbyter and ornament of the Church of Caesarea. Most blessed martyr. II. Most studious of sacred letters. Founder of the Caesarean library. Whether he wrote anything of his own work. Examination of the passage of Eusebius. III. Exposition of the chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, whether it should be ascribed to Euthalius. It is claimed for Pamphilus. IV. He is also held to be the author of Origen’s Apology, according to the testimony of the ancients. V. In that work, the blessed martyr is proven to be the most eminent defender of the divinity of Christ. The reliability of the interpreter Rufinus is established. The most recent and clear Parisian edition of the same Apology is presented. The Acts of the passion of S. Pamphilus are added from the Medicean manuscript.

^A I. Pamphilus, by race a Phoenician from the region of the Berytians, born of a noble family, was also illustrious for the offices held publicly in his native land. But, leaving behind secular cares, he betook himself to Alexandria; where, as Photius writes, he had Pierius, the presbyter of that Church, an excellent man, as his master in the study of sacred letters. Afterwards, proceeding to Caesarea in Palestine, and having been elevated to the rank of the presbyterate, he became an ornament of the Caesarean Church; and there he was most distinguished, at the time when Agapius held that episcopal chair after Theotecnus. Eusebius calls our Pamphilus a most eloquent man, and in his conduct and deeds a true philosopher, *ἑλλογιμώτατον αὐτῷ τε βίῳ φιλόσοφον ἀληθῆ*—which also, as he writes, included everything pertaining to his life and the school instituted by him; and various struggles of his confessions endured during the time of persecution; and finally the martyrdom by which he was crowned, are said to have been embraced in a special work: which, however, has been lost, to be lamented with good reason. He suffered at Caesarea in Palestine under the persecution of Maximinus, as Jerome bears witness, at the beginning of the year 309.

II. So far as concerns the monuments of sacred literature, there is no mention here of the edition of the Seventy, which the holy martyr transcribed together with Eusebius, just as it had been supplemented by Origen with asterisks and marked with obeli: which edition, commonly called the "Palestinian," is found to have been so highly approved that, as Saint Jerome testifies, it was adopted for common use among the Churches midway between Egypt and Antioch. We also send what the same great doctor, following Eusebius, recounts elsewhere about Pamphilus himself: namely, that when he wished to equal Demetrius of Phaleron and Pisistratus in the study of the sacred library, and was searching the whole world for the images of true geniuses and eternal monuments, ^B at that time he most especially and zealously pursued the books of Origen, and dedicated them to the Caesarean Church; and, moreover, most studiously built up the Caesarean library.

And these things surely sufficiently reveal the devotion of the blessed martyr, especially to the cultivation of sacred letters. Yet he himself, says Eusebius in Jerome, wrote absolutely nothing of his own work, except for the Epistles which he perhaps sent to his friends: to such a degree had he humbled himself.

Nevertheless, the testimony of such a bishop of Caesarea does not prevent us from rightly considering that Pamphilus wrote two small works which still survive, namely, the Exposition of the chapters of the Acts of the Apostles and Origen’s Apology. For, as the most learned Fontaninus rightly perceived, Eusebius certainly did not say that Pamphilus wrote nothing of *work*, but that he wrote nothing at all of *his own* work: or, if you prefer, with Jerome himself as interpreter, that he composed nothing at all of *his own discourse*. Yet in writing the former small work, Pamphilus, nothing of his own work

or discourse is found to be possessed: inasmuch as, as the learned man says, the blessed martyr, against the evil doctrine objected to Origen, opposes his true doctrine, expressed in Origen's own words; so that from the difference of both, when compared, it may be clearly proved that Origen's writings had been corrupted by heretics; since he handles this one question, whether or not Origen's books were corrupted: which, truly, is not composing anything of his own work.

III. Having established these things, to support both small works attributed to Pamphilus, the most learned Montfaucon, who first published the former from the Coislinian codex (11), speaks as follows: «That the *Exposition of the chapters of the Acts of the Apostles* is truly Pamphilus the martyr's, there is no reason for us to doubt. For in it the holy martyr wore out almost his entire life, in order to transcribe the books of Holy Scripture with his own hand, to adorn them with titles and scholia, as Jerome teaches in *De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis*. The note of the codex of the RR. PP. Jesuits, which contains all the prophets, also indicates this. Finally, the calligrapher of this most ancient codex of this library (Coislinian), no. 202, who at the end of the Epistles of St. Paul says that he had collated that very codex in the Caesarean library with another codex which had been written by the hand of Pamphilus himself, asserts the same. To these things, indeed, that calligrapher in his note uses the same formula of speech, and that not a common one, which is used at the beginning of the Pamphilian work; namely, *παρ' ὧν ἁπάντων τόλμης συγγνώμην αἰτῶ, εὐχῇ τῇ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τὴν συμπεριφορὰν κομιζόμενος* (from all of whom I ask forgiveness for my boldness, obtaining indulgence through the prayer offered for us); which words he undoubtedly borrowed from Pamphilus himself. Now, this *Exposition*, both on account of the name of its most holy and famous author, and because it is thought not to be without fruit, it seemed good to publish here.»

This *ἔκθεσις* (exposition) was published in the past century under the name of Euthalius, Bishop of Sulci, by the distinguished Zacagni in his collection of *Monumenta vetera*, p. 423. Euthalius himself, p. 515, explicitly testifies, as Fabricius observes (12), that he used the codices from the Caesarean library, which St. Pamphilus had first equipped with great zeal; which Eusebius then and his successors, the Bishops of Caesarea, preserved and increased. Hence, therefore, it seems that Euthalius borrowed the division of chapters such as St. Pamphilus had arranged, even from them; but that he himself added the verses. Furthermore, the same *ἔκθεσις* exists without the author's name before the commentaries of Oecumenius in Acts, and in the better editions of the New Testament of Robert Stephanus, Joannis Henricus Boeclerus, and Joannes Millius; as well as in the *Exercitationes* of Daniel Heinsius on the New Testament. This Fabricius, who himself in the same place also took care to have this *Exposition* of Pamphilus, collated with the Euthalian one, published again. As these things are so, I would consider, indeed, that Wetstein less wisely acknowledges Euthalius as the sole author of such a little work (13); with no argument truly sufficiently firm, to draw us to his opinion, brought into the middle.

IV. But concerning the other small work of Pamphilus, namely the *Apology for Origen*, there is truly no reason why we should speak; for the most learned men have long ago taken up this province: among the more recent, Huetius in particular (14), Tillemont (15), and Fontanini (16); but recently, quite laboriously, the latest Parisian editor of the Origenians (17). But lest we appear totally wanting in our duty, we think it worth the labor to commemorate here only the ancients, and indeed the principal ones, who are known to have asserted the Origenian *Apology* for the blessed martyr. Among them, Eusebius occurs first (18); whom Saint Jerome follows, saying thus (19): *He (Pamphilus) wrote, before Eusebius of Caesarea, an Apology for Origen.* But that greatest Doctor, having subsequently changed his mind, argued variously in assigning the author of the writing. We pass over Socrates (20) and Nicephorus (21), who generally seem to have followed Eusebius. But Photius is not to be omitted (22), who testifies that there were read by him six books of Pamphilus the martyr and Eusebius for Origen; and at the same time he teaches that Pamphilus, while he was being held in prison, had worked out the five previous books of that *Apology*, with Eusebius even present; but that the sixth, after the martyrdom of Pamphilus, had been finished by Eusebius. *Τῶν οἱ μὲν πέντε Παμφίλῳ τὸ δεσμοτήριον οἰκοῦντι, συμπαρόντος καὶ Εὐσεβίου, ἐξεπονήθησαν· ὁ δὲ ἔκτος, ἐπεὶ ὁ μάρτυς ξίφει τοῦ ζῆν ἀποχθείς, ἀνέλυσε πρὸς ὃν ἐπόθει Θεόν, Εὐσεβίῳ λοιπὸν ἀπαρτίζεται.* (Of these, the five were worked out by Pamphilus while dwelling in prison, with Eusebius also being present; but the sixth, since the martyr, having been led away to life by the sword, departed to the God whom he longed for, is left to be completed by Eusebius.) Let these suffice. But whoever desires to know more about this work, let him approach the writers among the more recent ones just praised.

V. But one thing still remains to be added to what has been said thus far; namely, that it is certain, as the words of the most learned men use it (23), that the holy martyr left behind in the adorning of the *Apology for Origen* a preeminent monument of his piety toward Christ. For while he applies himself to that most of all, to show Origen immune from the Arian heresy, and thus disposed in his mind, whatever Adamantius anywhere taught most fluently regarding the Son of God, he diligently collects, and that of his

he most clearly taught, he diligently collects, and he exposes that which his detractors object to him; he plainly made known what he himself also thought concerning this chief head of the catholic truth. Nor is there, finally, as the learned man proceeds, any legitimate suspicion regarding the faith of Rufinus, who translated this Apologetic into Latin. Since, lest the translator commit in this work, while rendering it into Latin letters, that which he thought had been permitted to himself in other lucubrations of that kind, the fear injected by the adversaries of Origen—to whom he saw that he would cause annoyance, even though he was bringing forward not his own judgment, but that of the holy Pamphilus, concerning Origen—must certainly have deterred him: how much more so, if he had dared to insert something of his own, which could have been clearly evinced to be neither written by Origen nor related by the holy Pamphilus? This indeed is clearly evident from the beginning of the Rufinian preface. For thus the translator addressed Macarius: ^A “You enjoin upon me a matter which may confer upon you the grace of recognized truth; yet I do not doubt that it will bring upon me the greatest offense of those who think themselves injured by him who does not think rightly concerning Origen. And although you have not asked for my opinion concerning him, but rather for that of the holy martyr Pamphilus, and have demanded that his book, which is said to have been written in Greek on behalf of Origen, be translated for you into Latin; nevertheless, I do not doubt that there will be those who think themselves injured even in that, if we say anything on his behalf, even in the words of another.” Such, furthermore, is the caution—to conclude with the learned man—that it does not admit the suspicion of excessive license, nor should the name of Rufinus rightly detract anything from the weight of the testimonies. ^B There is also the fact that from the Greek Origenian scraps, woven into their respective places, the credibility of the translator is supported even regarding the other [parts], where they are missing. But we have recently seen to it that a sufficiently clear Parisian edition of this Apologetic be printed. Furthermore, to these works of the blessed Pamphilus, we have added the Acts of his Passion, taken from the books of Eusebius of Caesarea, which the most learned Papebrochius published according to the Medicean manuscript of the most Christian king.

ACTS OF THE PASSION OF THE HOLY MARTYR PAMPHILUS

PART ONE

^{C D} Time now urges us to uncover before everyone that great and most renowned theater of the holy martyr Pamphilus and the admirable men who reached their end with him, and who took upon themselves various contests for piety. For although very many among those of us who suffered in the known persecution behaved themselves bravely, yet this struggle of those who are the subject of our discourse, which we have known and have recorded, is most rare, since it immediately encompasses in itself every kind of physical age and condition of soul, as well as diversity of life and conduct, and is adorned with various kinds of torments and the crowns exchanged according to the perfect martyrdom. For it was possible to see those who were youths, and altogether children—some of the Egyptians who were with them—and ours (among whom was Porphyrius), being in the prime of life both in body and in prudence, and those joined to the name dear to me, and the Jamnite Paul, and Seleucus, and Julian, both sprung from the land of the Cappadocians; and among them were those covered with holy gray hair and the deepest old age, Valens the deacon of the…

church of Jerusalem, and he who verified his name, Theodulus. ^B Such was the variety of ages among them; but they differed in the training of their souls. Some were more simple, like children, still bearing a mind that was quite guileless, while others possessed a character that was exceedingly robust and grave. There were also among them those not unlearned in sacred studies, and in all of them there was naturally inherent an extraordinary and virtuous courage. And as a daily-appearing luminary among sparkling stars, there shone out in their midst my master (for it is no longer permitted to me to call the divine and truly blessed Pamphilus a mere companion); for he had laid hold in no small degree upon the education admired among the Greeks, and as for that which concerns the divine dogmas and the God-inspired Scriptures—if one may say something perhaps more daring, yet true—one could not say that he was held back by either, so that he lacked the other. But he possessed a higher advantage than these: the understanding and wisdom granted to him from home, or rather, from God.

^C And while all were thus constituted as to the soul, there was yet a further difference of condition among them. For Pamphilus was sprung from a noble family according to the flesh, and was illustrious for the offices he had managed in his own country; Seleucus had been adorned with the highest honors in the military, while others were of middle or common upbringing. Nor was their choir lacking in the servile class, for Porphyrius, a servant of a governor’s household, was numbered among them—to all appearances a slave of Pamphilus, but in disposition no different from a brother, or rather a genuine son, and in no way falling short of the imitation of his master in all things. And what is there to say? If one were to say that they comprised within their number the entire form of ecclesiastical order, in a small place, one would not be far from the truth; since Pamphilus was adorned with the dignity of the presbyterate, Valens was raised to the degree of diaconate, and others had obtained the order of those accustomed to read before the multitude. Seleucus, even before his end by martyrdom, had been adorned by a noble confession through the stoic endurance of scourgings, and had quite firmly suffered the loss of his military rank; the rest, as catechumens or faithful, fulfilled in a small image the likeness of a myriad-peopled Church.

^D Thus we have beheld the admirable selection of such and so great martyrs, by which, although they were not many in number, yet nothing was missing of the orders found among men. For just as in a multi-stringed lyre composed of dissimilar strings, one [sounds] after another; and he turns, “it is not lawful for me to call him otherwise.”

high and low, slack and tight, and intermediate notes—all are harmoniously attuned by the musical art: so too in these [martyrs], the young together with the old, slaves together with free, the learned and the unlearned, those considered ignoble by the common masses and those renowned, the faithful and the catechumens, deacons together with priests—all of them, as if struck in diverse ways by that wisest Music-master, the only-begotten Word of God, each having received virtue within himself through the endurance of tortures, and having yielded the most brilliant and melodious, harmonious and consonant notes of confession before the tribunals, at one and the same end, through the consummation of martyrdom, they completed the most pious and all-wise melody to the God of all. ^B

V. It is also worth marveling at the number of the men, as it signifies a prophetic choir: for it happened that they were twelve in all, as many as we have received the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles to have been. ^C And who would not admire the manifold fortitude of each one individually, in the lacerations of their sides, and the scrapings of the lacerated parts of their bodies with goat-hair cloths, and the unbearable scourges, and the various and alternating tortures, and the dreadful and hard-to-endure rackings, which the guards—at the judge’s command—applying with hands and feet, strove by violence to force the martyrs to do something of the forbidden things?

VI. What need is there to speak of the ever-memorable voices of those divine men, in which, having less regard for their pains, with a bright and joyous countenance they replied to the inquiries of the judge, laughing manfully even at the tortures themselves, and with a serious temper eluding his questions with irony? For when asked whither they were from, neglecting to state their city on earth, they revealed their true fatherland, proclaiming themselves to be from Jerusalem—meaning by their understanding the heavenly city of God, to which they were hastening. And they offered other such things, unknown and invisible to those untasted of sacred things, but most manifest to them alone and to those who had been set in motion by divine faith. At these [replies] the judge, becoming most indignant and raging very wrathfully, and being at a loss in his mind—in order that he might not be defeated—devised all sorts of machinations against them; but then, falling from his hope, he conceded to each one the prizes of victory to be carried off. ^D Various also was the manner of their death: two of them, who were catechumens, were perfected by the baptism of fire; another was handed over in the likeness of the saving passion; while the others who were with my beloved name, were crowned with differing prizes.

VII. These things, then, might one say while remembering them in a more general sense; but in going through each one in part, one would deservedly bless the leader of the choir.

^A This Pamphilus was a man truly most beloved by God and indeed a friend to all, according to the meaning of his name, an ornament of the Church of Caesarea: for he himself, being a priest, glorified the priestly chair, adorning and at the same time being adorned by the sacrifice offered there. But he was truly divine in other matters as well, and a participant in divine inspiration: since throughout his whole life he was filled with every virtue, bidding a long farewell indeed to luxuries and riches, and giving himself over entirely to the word of God. For, renouncing the entire substance that had come to him from his parents, and distributing it to the naked, the infirm, and the needy, he himself led a life lacking in possessions, and by tireless exercise acquired for himself divine philosophy. ^B He was from the city of Berytus, where he first passed his age in those schools for boys that were there; but after his talent ripened to manly age, he passed on to the study of the sacred letters; he took up a way of life altogether divine and prophetic; and he proved himself a true martyr of God, even before the end of his life. ^C VIII. And such, indeed, was Pamphilus: but second after him, advancing to the struggle, was Valens, distinguished by old and venerable white hair, a venerable old man in his very appearance: moreover, he was a master of the divine Scriptures, if any other was, and possessed such a firm memory of them that he did not need the assistance of reading material for the use of the sacred promises he kept stored in his mind. Although he was such a man, he was nevertheless content with the grade of deacon in the Church of Aelia. Third, finally, was counted Paul, most fervent in action and spirit, born from the city of Jamnia; who even before his martyrdom had already endured the contest of confession through endurance of red-hot iron.

The same from the History of the Martyrs by Eusebius, chapter 11.

That it may appear how unlikely it is that this Passion was taken from a text of the Eusebian History somewhat longer than what is commonly possessed, but rather that it is a part of another, earlier work, which the author later transferred to another work, it pleases me to append this other context here. Now it is time to relate the great and celebrated spectacle of those who, together with Pamphilus (a name indeed most longed-for by me), brought their martyrdom to completion. They were twelve in number, gifted with a certain prophetic or rather apostolic grace and equality of number: among whom the chief was Pamphilus, alone of that number decorated with the honor of the presbyterate at Caesarea; a man most notable throughout his whole life in every kind of virtue, by his renunciation and disdain for the world, by his sharing of his substance with the needy, by his neglect of worldly hopes, by his philosophical ^D way of life and asceticism. He excelled beyond those of our time in his concern for the divine words…

life and asceticism. More than those of our own time, he excelled in his most genuine zeal for the divine oracles, in the tireless labor he set before himself, and in the beneficence he showed to his kin and to all who approached him. The rest of his virtuous achievements, which require a longer narrative, we have already set forth in three previous treatises specifically concerning his life. But, letting those who are eager to know these things refer to that work, we shall now proceed with our series of the martyrs. ^B Second after Pamphilus to enter the contest was Valens, a deacon from Aelia, honored with a venerable gray beard and, by his very presence, an awesome old man. He was versed in the divine Scriptures more than anyone else; he had memorized them so well that it made no difference whether he read from a book or recited entire pages of any Scripture whatsoever. Third among them shone Paul, a native of the city of Jamnia, a man fervent in action and burning with the Spirit, who, before his own martyrdom, had already endured the struggle of confession through the burning of red-hot irons and had won the crown.

PART TWO.

The contests of each of the saints, and the manner of their martyrdom.

^C IX. When the aforementioned three saints had spent two years in prison, an occasion for martyrdom was offered to them by those who were later also to share their final punishment: the Egyptians. These men had been returning home from Cilicia, after having escorted those who had been condemned to the mines as far as that place; and, as they were questioned by the guards at the gates of Caesarea as to who they were and where they had come from, they concealed nothing of the truth. Having confessed themselves to be Christians, they were seized like criminals caught in the act. They were five in number. When they were brought before the governor and used the same frankness of speech, they were immediately thrown into chains. On the following day, the sixteenth of the month of Peritius—which is, according to the Romans, the fourteenth day before the Kalends of March—they, along with those associated with Pamphilus, were brought before Firmilianus. He, choosing to test only the ^D Egyptians, ordered the men to be stripped and subjected to every kind of torture. Then, leading into their midst the one who appeared to be the leader of them all, he asked who he was and whence he came. He.

^A instead of his own name, attached a prophetic one to himself. This was how the others also acted, in place of the name given to them by their forebears.

X. Hearing, then, Elijah and Jeremiah, Isaiah and Samuel and Daniel calling one another by these names, and showing that they were—not only by their works, but also by the names clearly uttered—Jews in secret and genuine Israelites, the magistrate heard such a name from the martyr; but he did not understand the power of the word. Secondly, he asked what his homeland was. The martyr, using the same brevity, uttered a second word, saying that Jerusalem was his own homeland, meaning that one concerning which it was said by Paul: "But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother"; and elsewhere: ^B "You have approached Mount Sion, and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." Such, then, were the thoughts of the martyr; but the magistrate, having his mind fixed upon the earth, inquired more curiously what this Jerusalem was and where on earth it was situated; indeed, he even applied torments, in order that he might confess what was true. But the martyr, with his hands twisted behind his back and his feet dislocated by certain machines, affirmed that he had spoken the truth. And when he was nevertheless interrogated again and again as to what this city Jerusalem was, which he spoke of, and where it was situated, he replied that this alone was the homeland of the Christians, and that they alone—and no others—dwelt in it, and that it was situated to the east, ^C near the light and the sun. He, for his part, was philosophizing again in accordance with his own sense; not even turning toward the torments that were afflicting him round about, he seemed, as if he were incorporeal and bodiless, not even to perceive the pains. The judge, for his part, was troubled, thinking that the Christians were founding for themselves some city, a rival and enemy to the Romans; and he was much occupied with questioning him so as to learn where both it and the eastern region which was indicated to him might be. Yet, seeing that the youth remained even more unmoved by the blows and persisted in his former responses, he finally pronounced against him the capital sentence of death.

XI. And the affair of this martyr thus took the outcome of a certain drama. He subsequently subjected the rest of the Egyptians also to various kinds of trials, and treated them in the same way. ^D Then, moving on to the companions of Pamphilus, he learned that they had already been tried by various tortures a long time before. Wherefore, judging it superfluous to subject the men to the same interrogations and that he would labor in vain in doing so, he only asked whether they would allow themselves to be persuaded even now. But hearing from each one the final confession of their martyrdom,

^A he pronounced a like sentence of capital punishment upon them, and departed.

XII. But the tragedy was not yet fully played out. For how could it be? A certain youth from the midst of the crowd surrounding the tribunal, one of Pamphilus's household, sprang forth and recalled him; he recalled him with a loud voice, requesting the bodies for burial. This blessed Porphyrius was a true-born slave of Pamphilus, not yet eighteen years of age, highly skilled in calligraphy, and by virtue of his character and wisdom worthy of all praise, as one who had been trained under such a man. When he learned of the sentence passed against his master, he cried out from the middle of the crowd, asking that the bodies be surrendered to the earth. The judge, no man but a beast, and fiercer than any wild animal, neither accepting the reasonableness of the request nor showing any consideration for the youth’s age, decided—simply upon learning that he confessed himself a Christian—to order the executioners to use all their strength in torturing him. When, therefore, this wondrous youth refused to obey the order to sacrifice, the tyrant ordered ^B that his body be mangled not as if it were human flesh, but as if it were stone or wood or any other inanimate object, even down to his bones and deep into his inward parts. After this had gone on for a long time, the judge realized that he was acting in vain. Yet although the noble martyr’s body lay silent and almost lifeless, the cruel and inhuman judge commanded that his torn flesh and sides be scrubbed and rubbed with haircloths; and at last, as if to sate his fury, he ordered the martyr to be consumed by a slow-burning fire placed at a distance. Thus he, the last to advance to the contest before the consummation of Pamphilus, preceded his master by departing from the body.

XIII. It was possible to see Porphyrius like a sacred athlete who has conquered in a total struggle: his body was mangled, but his face was radiant, and he advanced toward death with a bold and proud spirit, truly filled with the divine Spirit. Clad in the garment of a philosopher, wearing only a single, simple covering like a cloak, and looking upward, despising all things and disdaining this mortal and human life, he approached the pyre with a soul unmoved. ^C When the flame began to draw near him, as if he were suffering no pain at all, the hero gave instructions to his acquaintances with an untroubled and sober mind, keeping his face cheerful and unchanged even until then. And when he had adequately taken leave of his friends, he hastened toward God. For the pyre had been set around him at a distance, and from here and there he caught the flames with his mouth, urging himself on toward the path set before him; and this he did, calling upon none other than Jesus.

XIV. Such was the contest of Porphyrius; and Seleucus, who reported his death to Pamphilus, was immediately rewarded by becoming a participant in the same fate with him.

^A For the soldiers, having seized him just as he was announcing to Pamphilus the end of Porphyrius and kissing the band of martyrs, brought him to the governor. He, as though hastening to become a fellow-traveler to the former, ordered him to be beheaded. This man came from the land of Cappadocia; and having distinguished himself most brilliantly in military exercises, he had attained no small status among the Romans. Furthermore, in age and bodily vigor, and in the greatness of his strength and virtue, he surpassed most men. Indeed, he was visually remarkable above all others, presenting an appearance in every way worthy of his exceptional grace of form. At the beginning of the persecution, he had been numbered among those contending for the confession of faith through his endurance of scourging; but having resigned from military service and become an emulator of those who exercise themselves in piety, he proved himself a genuine soldier of Christ. He became a provider—like a father or a guardian—for desolate orphans and widows lacking a protector, and for all those struggling with poverty and infirmity, bringing relief to the labors and distresses of those who were in despair. Wherefore, he was deemed worthy by God—who delights more in such things than in the savor and blood of victims—of a martyr's end. This tenth athlete finished his struggle on one and the same day; and as it is reasonable to believe, having by his martyrdom thrown open to himself the very wide gate of heaven, at the same time a spacious entrance into the kingdom of God was opened for Pamphilus himself.

XV. The Martyrdom of Theodulus

XVI. The Martyrdom of Julianus