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 23
But when they of the idol-madness saw him being carried, supposing him to be a corpse, they fell into a frenzy, because it was accounted pollution to bring a corpse into the city; and snatching him from the shoulders of them who bare him, they begin to beat the deacon Cornelius, beloved of God, and the two Christians; and fastening a rope to the foot of the blessed Barochas they dragged him along. In the meanwhile certain of the brethren come and tell the blessed bishop, and he being troubled calleth me and other three brethren who are present with him, and saith unto us: ‘Take courage, Brethren, and run; for the occasion to bear witness is at hand.’ Now when we had come to the place where they had bound the blessed man, the multitude ran together, and some spake despitefully of the most holy bishop; but others, seeing his patience, how, when men spake despitefully of him, he waxed not wroth, but did on the contrary exhort every man, saying that they should not thus defile and insult a body of like nature to their own, these others come over to our side; and so they turn against each other, even to blows. But we, seeing that there was much confusion, took up Barochas, beloved of God, and went back into the holy church. And seeing that there was still breath in him, we gave him tendance.