Library › Mark the Deacon › Life of St Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza

Life of St Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza

Mark the Deacon, tr. Hill, 1913

Chapter 20

So the holy man was persuaded, and having proclaimed a fast he bade them all to be gathered together at even in the holy church, that we might keep the vigil there. And we made through the whole night thirty prayers and as many bendings of the knee, besides singing and the readings. And when it was morning, taking the sign of the precious Cross¹ to go before us, we went out with hymns to the ancient church that is in the west of the city, which they say was founded by the most holy and blessed Asclepas,² the bishop, who suffered many persecutions for the true faith; whose life and works are written in the Paradise of delight.³ So when we had come to the said church, we made as many prayers there also, and departing thence we went to the holy shrine of the glorious martyr Timotheus,⁴ wherein are laid also other relics of Maiour the martyr and Theë the confessor, and having there made as many prayers and bendings of the knee we returned again unto the city, having made on the way three prayers and three bendings of the knee. But coming nigh unto the city we found it shut (it was the ninth hour)⁵; for the idol-madmen did this, desiring to scatter the people abroad, in order that we might not fulfil our supplication. But when we had abode two hours⁶ before the gate, and there was none to open to us, God seeing the patience of the people and the groans and the untold tears, especially of the holy man, is moved with compassion, as in the time of the mighty Elias the prophet,⁷ and stirreth up a south wind, and the heaven is covered with clouds, and lightnings and thunders begin with the going down of the sun,⁸ and a great rain descendeth, so that it seemeth to be not drops of water but hail descending from heaven. But we for our much joy scarce felt it; for we had fallen upon each other’s necks.

Notes

sign of the precious Cross, σημεῖον. Mark is careful to use this word or ἐκτύπωμα (c. 77), in order to distinguish the object from the true Cross. …
Asclepas. Also called Asclepius. See Introduction, p. xxv.
the Paradise of delight. Gen. iii. 23. Compare the ‘paradise of delights’ in Saint John Chrysostom’s prayer for the faithful departed in the Syro-Jacobite liturgy (J. M. Neale, Liturgies of St. Mark, &c., 1869, p. 253); ‘the garden of delight’ (Marquess of Bute, The Coptic Morning Service, 1882, p. 98); and the inverted phrase in the liturgy of Saint James and in various forms of the Greek burial service (ἐν τρυφῇ Παραδείσου κατασκήνωσον).
Timotheus. See Introduction, p. xx.
ninth hour. About 2.30 p.m.
two hours. That is, until about 4.10 p.m.
1 [3] Kings xviii. 45.
going down of the sun. About 5 p.m.