Глава XIII. О Сильване, Иоанне и других тридцати девяти мучениках

The seventh year of our exploits had already expired, and the affairs of Christians, little by little taking on the significance of ordinary phenomena, moved into the eighth year. At this time, a considerable society of confessors gathered near the Palestinian mines, who had so much boldness that they rebuilt houses into churches. The ruler of that region, as can be seen from his actions with the martyrs, was a cruel and crafty man. Arriving there and learning about the lifestyle of the settlers there, he reported them to the king and slandered whatever he wanted. Soon afterwards, the caretaker of the ore copies, as if by the will of the king, divided the society of confessors, sending some to the island of Cyprus, others to Lebanon, and scattering others to different districts of Palestine - and burdened everyone with various labors. Moreover, having chosen four of them, whom they especially respected and considered chief, he sent them to the commander of the troops stationed there. These were the Egyptian bishops, Pyleus and Nilus, one presbyter, and Patermufius, the most famous to everyone, for his care for everyone. The military leader demanded that they renounce their faith, but without receiving consent, he put them to death by fire. Others again had to stay in the same place and live on their own, in a separate village: these were those confessors who, due to old age, or due to cauterization of compounds, or other bodily illnesses, had already been dismissed from work. Among them was Silvanus, one of the bishops of Gaza, who showed a true example of Christian piety. From the first, so to speak, day of the persecution and all the time glorified by various exploits of the confession, it was observed even until the incident described, in order to finally seal with his death all the exploits of the Palestinian martyrs. There were also quite a lot of Egyptians with him, among whom was John, who surpassed all of us in the perfection of his memory. Although he had already lost his sight before; However, having become famous for his confession along with others, he lost the use of his leg from cauterizations, like them, and, not having the ability to see, nevertheless suffered the same cauterization of his eye. The executioners' temper had reached such insensitivity and savagery, such cruelty and inhumanity! But with all that, who would be surprised at anything in his character and wise life? This seemed not so surprising about him as it was the perfection of his memory that amazed everyone. All the books of Holy Scripture were inscribed with him “not on tablets of stone,” as the divine apostle says (2 Cor. 3:3), not even on animal skin or paper, which are eaten away by worms and time, but, in truth, “on tablets of the heart of flesh,” in a bright soul, in the purest eye of the mind. From here, as from the treasury of the word, at will, he transferred into his mouth every scripture, sometimes legal and prophetic, sometimes historical, evangelical and apostolic. I confess that I was greatly amazed when I saw this man for the first time, and when, standing among a large crowd of the Church, he explained some passages of divine Scripture. While I could only hear his voice, I thought that someone was reading, as they usually read in church meetings; but when I came closer and found out what the matter was, seeing, that is, that although everyone else stood around him with sound bodily eyes, he, using only the eye of the mind, preached - just like a prophet, and far surpassed people with a strong body - seeing this, I could not help but glorify God and marvel at His goodness. In fact, a clear and solid proof was revealed to me that the so-called true man does not actually consist of a visible body, but of a soul and mind; for the soul even in an offended body produces great manifestations of its own power. Living in the middle of a secluded desert, the men mentioned spent their time in ordinary prayers, fasting and other deeds - and God himself, extending his hand to help them quickly, honored them with a saving death. But the vigilant enemy could not watch with indifference that, armed with prayers to God, they were always ready to fight, and as people intolerable to himself, he planned to kill and exterminate from the earth. God allowed this enterprise of his to be fulfilled - of course, so that he would not be limited in his arbitrary wickedness, and they would receive rewards for their various exploits. So, by the will of the most wicked Maximin, thirty-nine of them were cut off on the same day. Such and such martyrdoms took place in Palestine during all eight years, and such was the persecution against us. Having begun with the destruction of churches, it was, at times, brought to a high degree by the uprising of the rulers. In those days, in many different and diverse fields of struggle for piety, countless hosts of martyrs appeared throughout the diocese and labored all the way from the borders of Libya throughout Egypt and Syria, and from the east - all the way to Illyricum; for further areas, such as: all of Italy and Sicily, Gaul and the West, that is, Spain, Mauritania and Africa, without suffering from the war and for a full two years, very soon received God's attention and peace. Heavenly providence spared those Christians for their simplicity and faith. Moreover, in our times, beyond all hope, an event occurred for the first time that had not been heard of since the very foundation of the Roman Empire. In the midst of the persecution against us, the kingdom was divided into two parts, and the brothers who lived in one of them, the above-mentioned one, enjoyed peace, while those who lived on the other side of the universe suffered countless torments in countless places. When did divine grace look upon us with a meek and merciful eye; It was then that our rulers, even those who had once waged war against us, amazingly changed their way of thinking and began to act differently, with kind decrees and meek decisions towards us, they extinguished the fires that had been lit for us. So it is necessary to describe the change that has taken place in them. You might be interested in: