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On the Theophania
Eusebius of Caesarea, tr. Lee, 1843
Man alone shews of what kind the superiority of (his) intellectual and incorporeal being …
Man alone shews of what kind the superiority of (his) intellectual and incorporeal being is, and establishes (the fact) that (this) his power is impervious either to subjugation or deterioration by calamity. For, he will prepare his body for the fire, the sword, the fierce beasts, (and) the depths of the sea; and he will approach every species of torment. He knows too, this his nature, that it is perishable and fleeting, transient and dissoluble. But that which resides within, is unyielding; and, that this is different from that which perishes, he proved who cried out, “Bruise, bruise the form; but me thou wilt not bruise.” And again another, proclaiming with freedom of speech: “Burn or roast the body, and be satisfied with me when thou hast drunk my blackened blood; but, before the stars descend to the earth, and the earth ascends to the heavens, I will present to thee no one conciliating perturbed expression.” One of the friends of God moreover, when suffering evils, put forth these words: “What shall separate me from the love of God? (shall) tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or cold, or the sword?” I myself too have seen, in these times, some whose eyes were digged out; others, who were deprived of their legs by the cautery; and others who were crucified; their whole bodies hastening to dissolution, and their mortal nature subject to rebuke; while the conscious mind residing within them, attached to God, was immoveable, impervious to subjection, and unyielding to these hardships; clearly proving to those of sound minds, that their faculty of excellence was a thing altogether different from that which was perishable.