Глава I. О мучениках: Прокопии, Алфее и Закхее

According to the force of this injunction, Procopius is the first martyr in Palestine. Having not yet experienced imprisonment, he appeared before the proconsular court and immediately, at his first appearance, having heard the order to make a sacrifice to the so-called gods, he answered that he knew only one to whom he should make a sacrifice, as He himself wanted. And when he was ordered to make a libation to the four kings, he uttered the following words of the poet, which they did not like: Let there be one master, the only king. and having uttered them, he was beheaded. This happened on the eighth day of the month Decia, or, as the Romans say, seven days before the Kalends of June, on the fourth day of Saturday. This is how the first martyrdom took place in Caesarea in Palestine. After this, in the same city, many bishops of that region willingly endured cruel torment and the spectators were shown examples of great feats; on the contrary, others, numb in their souls from fear, immediately, at the first attack, weakened. Of the others, each was successively subjected to various types of torture: either he endured countless blows with whips, or he endured wheeling and planing of ribs, or he was tied with unbearable bonds, from which others could no longer control their hands. Despite this, however, they all reached an end consistent with the ineffable judgment of God. One was released as if he had made a sacrifice, while strangers, grabbing him by the hands and leading him to the altar, forcibly thrust a vile and unclean sacrifice into his right hand. The other did not even touch her, but those who were there testified to his sacrifice - and he silently left. The one taken half dead was thrown out as a dead man and, counted among those who made the sacrifice, was freed from his shackles. This one shouted and testified that he did not agree to the sacrifice: but he was beaten on the mouth; the crowd assigned to this forced him to remain silent and pushed him out, although he did not make a sacrifice. It was so important for them to obtain (from Christians) one ghost of a sacrifice. Thus, of the great number (ascetics), only Alpheus and Zacchaeus were worthy to receive the crown of holy martyrs. After scourging and planing, after the heaviest bonds and the resulting pain, after other various tortures and stretching of the legs on a wooden instrument of execution to the fourth degree for 24 hours, they did not cease to confess the one God and the one Christ King Jesus, and for this, recognized as blasphemers, like the first martyr, they were beheaded. This happened on the seventeenth day of the month Diya, or, according to the Roman calendar, fifteen days before the December calendar. You might be interested in: