Part I, Chapter 14, 2

The report of these miracles, once set on foot, continued for many years, and increased and grew more general. Chrysostom, in his second Oration on St. Babylas, twenty years after the silencing of the Oracle of Apollo Daphnæus as above, namely A.C. 382, says of the miracles done by the Saints and their reliques³: Nulla est nostri hujus Orbis seu regio, seu gens, seu urbs, ubi nova & inopinata miracula hæc non decantentur; quæ quidem si figmenta fuissent, prorsus in tantam hominum admirationem non venissent. And a little after: Abunde orationi nostræ fidem faciunt quæ quotidiana à martyribus miracula eduntur, magna affatim ad illa hominum multitudine affluente. And in his 66th Homily, describing how the Devils were tormented and cast out by the bones of the Martyrs, he adds: Ob eam causam multi plerumque Reges peregrè profecti sunt, ut hoc spectaculo fruerentur. Siquidem sanctorum martyrum templa futuri judicii vestigia & signa exhibent, dum nimirum Dæmones flagris cæduntur, hominesque torquentur & liberantur. Vide quæ sanctorum vitâ functorum vis sit? And Jerome in his Epitaph on Paula, thus⁴ mentions the same things. Paula vidit Samariam: ibi siti sunt Elisæus & Abdias prophetæ, & Joannes Baptista, ubi multis intremuit consternata miraculis. Nam cernebat variis dæmones rugire cruciatibus, & ante sepulchra sanctorum ululare, homines more luporum vocibus latrare canum, fremere leonum, sibilare serpentum, mugire taurorum, alios rotare caput & post tergum terram vertice tangere, suspensisque pede fæminis vestes non defluere in faciem. This was about the year 384: and Chrysostom in his Oration on the Egyptian Martyrs seems to make Egypt the ringleader in these matters, saying⁵: Benedictus Deus quandoquidem ex Ægypto prodeunt martyres, ex Ægypto illa cum Deo pugnante ac insanissima, & unde impia ora, unde linguæ blasphemæ; ex Ægypto martyres habentur; non in Ægypto tantum, nec in finitima vicinaque regione, sed UBIQUE TERRARUM. Et quemadmodum in annonæ summa ubertate, cum viderunt urbium incolæ majorem quam usus habitatorum postulat esse proventum, ad peregrinas etiam urbes transmittunt: cum & suam comitatem & liberalitatem ostendant, tum ut præter horum abundantiam cum facilitate res quibus indigent rursus ab illis sibi comparent: sic & Ægyptii, quod attinet ad religionis athletas, fecerunt. Cum apud se multam eorum Dei benignitate copiam cernerent, nequaquam ingens Dei munus sua civitate concluserunt, sed in OMNES TERRÆ PARTES bonorum thesauros effuderunt: cum ut suum in fratres amorem ostenderent, tum ut communem omnium dominum honore afficerent, ac civitati suæ gloriam apud omnes compararent, totiusque terrarum ORBIS esse METROPOLIN declararent.—Sanctorum enim illorum corpora quovis adamantino & inexpugnabili muro tutiùs nobis urbem communiunt, & tanquam excelsi quidam scopuli undique prominentes, non horum qui sub sensus cadunt & oculis cernuntur hostium impetus propulsant tantùm, sed etiam invisibilium dæmonum insidias, omnesque diaboli fraudes subvertunt ac dissipant.—Neque vero tantùm adversus hominum insidias aut adversus fallacias dæmonum utilis nobis est hæc possessio, sed si nobis communis dominus ob peccatorum multitudinem irascatur, his objectis corporibus continuo poterimus eum propitium reddere civitati. This Oration was written at Antioch, while Alexandria was yet the Metropolis of the East, that is, before the year 381, in which Constantinople became the Metropolis; and it was a work of some years for the Egyptians to have distributed the miracle-working reliques of their Martyrs over all the world, as they had done before that year. Egypt abounded most with the reliques of Saints and Martyrs, the Egyptians keeping them embalmed upon beds even in their private houses; and Alexandria was eminent above all other cities for dispersing them, so as on that account to acquire glory with all men, and to manifest herself to be the Metropolis of the world. Antioch followed the example of Egypt, in dispersing the reliques of the forty Martyrs; and the examples of Egypt and Syria were soon followed by the rest of the world.

The reliques of the forty Martyrs at Antioch were distributed among the Churches before the year 373; for Athanasius, who died in that year, wrote an Oration upon them. This Oration is not yet published, but Gerard Vossius saw it in manuscript in the Library of Cardinal Ascanius in Italy, as he says in his commentary upon the Oration of Ephræm Syrus on the same forty Martyrs. Now since the Monks of Alexandria sent the reliques of the Martyrs of Egypt into all parts of the earth, and by that acquired glory to their city, and declared her in these matters the Metropolis of the whole world, as we have observed out of Chrysostom, it may be concluded that before Alexandria received the forty Martyrs from Antioch, she began to send out the reliques of her own Martyrs into all parts, setting the first example to other cities. This practice therefore began in Egypt some years before the death of Athanasius. It began when the miracle-working bones of John the Baptist were carried into Egypt, and hid in the wall of a Church, that they might be profitable to future generations. It was restrained in the reign of Julian the Apostate; and then it spread from Egypt into all the Empire, Alexandria being, according to Chrysostom, the Metropolis of the whole world for propagating this sort of devotion, and Antioch and other cities soon following her example.

In propagating these superstitions, the ringleaders were the Monks, and Antony was at the head of them: for at the end of the life of Antony, Athanasius relates that these were his dying words to his disciples who then attended him: "Do you take care," said Antony, "to adhere to Christ in the first place, and then to the Saints, so that after death they may receive you as friends and acquaintances into the everlasting tabernacles. Think upon these things, perceive these things; and if you have any regard to me, remember me as a father." This being given in charge to the Monks by Antony at his death, A.C. 356, could not but inflame their whole body with devotion toward the Saints, as the ready way to be received by them into the eternal Tabernacles after death. Hence came that noise about the miracles done by the reliques of the Saints in the time of Constantius; hence came the dispersion of the miracle-working reliques into all the Empire, Alexandria setting the example and being renowned for it above all other cities. Hence it came to pass in the days of Julian, A.C. 362, that Athanasius by a prophetic spirit, as Ruffinus tells us, hid the bones of John the Baptist from the Heathens, not in the ground to be forgotten, but in the hollow wall of a Church before proper witnesses, that they might be profitable to future generations. Hence also came the invocation of the Saints for doing such miracles, and for assisting men in their devotions, and mediating with God. For Athanasius, even from his youth, looked upon the dead Saints and Martyrs as mediators of our prayers: in his Epistle to Marcellinus, written in the days of Constantine the great, he says that the words of the Psalms are not to be transposed or in any way changed, but to be recited and sung without any artifice, as they are written, that the holy men who delivered them, knowing them to be their own words, may pray with us; or rather, that the Holy Ghost who spoke in the holy men, seeing his own words with which he inspired them, may join with them in assisting us.

While Egypt abounded with Monks above any other country, the veneration of the Saints began sooner, and spread faster there than in other places. Palladius, going into Egypt in the year 388 to visit the Monasteries and the sepulchres of Apollonius and other Martyrs of Thebais who had suffered under Maximinus, says of them: Iis omnibus Christiani fecerunt ædem unam, ubi nunc multæ virtutes peraguntur. Tanta autem fuit viri gratia, ut de iis quæ esset precatus statim exaudiretur, eum sic honorante servatore: quem etiam nos in martyrio precati vidimus, cum iis qui cum ipso fuerunt martyrio affecti; & Deum adorantes, eorum corpora salutavimus. Eunapius also, a heathen, yet a competent witness of what was done in his own times, relating how the soldiers delivered the temples of Egypt into the hands of the Monks, which was done in the year 389, rails in this impious manner at the Martyrs, as succeeding in place of the old Gods of Egypt: Illi ipsi, milites, Monachos Canobi quoque collocârunt, ut pro Diis qui animo cernuntur, servos & quidem flagitiosos divinis honoribus percolerent, hominum mentibus ad cultum ceremoniasque obligatis. Ii namque condita & salita eorum capita, qui ob scelerum multitudinem à judicibus extremo judicio fuerant affecti, pro Divis ostentabant; iis genua submittebant, eos in Deorum numerum receptabant, ad illorum sepulchra pulvere sordibusque conspurcati. Martyres igitur vocabantur, & ministri quidem & legati arbitrique precum apud Deos; cum fuerint servilia infida & flagris pessimè subacta, quæ cicatrices scelerum ac nequitiæ vestigia corporibus circumferunt; ejusmodi tamen Deos fert tellus. By these instances we may understand that the invocation of Saints had now been of some standing in Egypt, and that it was already generally received and practiced there by the common people.

Thus Basil a Monk, who was made Bishop of Cæsarea in the year 369, and died in the year 378, in his Oration on the Martyr Mamas, says: "Be mindful of the Martyr; as many of you as have enjoyed him in your dreams, as many as in this place have been assisted by him in prayer, as many of you as upon invoking him by name have had him present in your works, as many as he has brought back into the way from wandering, as many as he has restored to health, as many as have had their dead children restored by him to life, as many as have had their lives prolonged by him." A little after, he thus expresses the universality of this superstition in the regions of Cappadocia and Bithynia: "At the memory of the Martyr," says he, "the whole region is moved; at his festival the whole city is transported with joy. Nor do the kindred of the rich turn aside to the sepulchres of their ancestors, but all go to the place of devotion." Again, at the end of the Homily he prays that God would preserve the Church, thus fortified with the great towers of the Martyrs; and in his Oration on the forty Martyrs: "These are they," says he, "who, obtaining our country, like certain towers, afford us safety against our enemies. Neither are they shut up in one place only, but being distributed are sent into many regions, and adorn many countries. You have often endeavored, you have often labored to find one who might pray for you: here are forty, sending forth one voice of prayer. He who is in affliction flies to these, he who rejoices has recourse to these: the first, that he may be freed from evil, the last, that he may continue in happiness. Here a woman praying for her children is heard; she obtains a safe return for her husband from abroad, and health for him in his sickness. O you common keepers of mankind, the best companions of our cares, suffragans and coadjutors of our prayers, most powerful ambassadors to God, etc." By all which it is manifest that before the year 378, the Orations and Sermons upon the Saints went much beyond the bounds of mere oratorical flourishes, and that the common people in the East were already generally corrupted by the Monks with Saint-worship.

Gregory Nazianzen a Monk, in his sixth Oration written A.C. 373, when he was newly made Bishop of Sasima, says: "Let us purify ourselves to the Martyrs, or rather to the God of the Martyrs"; and a little after he calls the Martyrs mediators of obtaining an ascension or divinity. The same year, at the end of his Oration upon Athanasius then newly dead, he thus invokes him: "Look down upon us with favor, and govern this people, as perfect adorers of the perfect Trinity, which in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is contemplated and worshiped: if there shall be peace, preserve me, and feed my flock with me; but if war, bring me home, place me beside yourself, and beside those who are like you; however great my request." And at the end of the funeral Oration upon Basil, written A.C. 378, he addresses him thus: "But you, O divine and sacred Head, look down upon us from heaven; and by your prayers either take away that thorn of the flesh which is given us by God for exercise, or obtain that we may bear it with courage, and direct all our life to that which is most fitting for us. When we depart this life, receive us there in your Tabernacles, that, living together and looking the holy and blessed Trinity more purely and perfectly, of which we have now but an imperfect view, we may there come to the end of our desires, and receive this reward of the wars which we have waged or suffered." And in his Oration upon Cyprian, not the Bishop of Carthage, but a Greek, he invokes him in the same manner; and tells us also how a pious Virgin named Justina was protected by invoking the Virgin Mary, and how miracles were done by the ashes of Cyprian.

The report of these miracles, once started, continued for many years, and increased and grew more general. Chrysostom, in his second Oration on St. Babylas, twenty years after the silencing of the Oracle of Apollo Daphnæus as above, that is, A.C. 382, says this of the miracles done by the Saints and their relics³: "There is no part of this world of ours, whether region, people, or city, where these new and unexpected miracles are not celebrated; and if they had been fictions, they would never have won such great wonder from men." And a little later: "The miracles worked daily by the martyrs give abundant credit to our prayer, great crowds of people flocking to them in full measure." And in his 66th Homily, describing how the Devils were tortured and cast out by the bones of the Martyrs, he adds: "For this reason many Kings have often traveled abroad, so that they might enjoy this sight. For the temples of the holy martyrs show the traces and signs of the future judgment, while demons are beaten with whips, and men are tortured and set free. See what power the saints who have left this life have?" And Jerom, in his Epitaph on Paula, mentions the same things in this way⁴: "Paula saw Samaria: there are buried Elisha and Obadiah the prophets, and John the Baptist, where she stood trembling, overcome by many miracles. For she saw demons groaning in various tortures, and howling before the tombs of the saints; men barking with the voices of dogs like wolves, roaring like lions, hissing like serpents, bellowing like bulls; others spinning the head around and touching the ground behind their backs with the crown; and women with suspended feet, whose clothes did not fall down over their faces." This was about the year 384; and Chrysostom, in his Oration on the Egyptian Martyrs, seems to make Egypt the ringleader in these matters, saying⁵: "Blessed is God, since from Egypt come martyrs; from Egypt, that country which fought against God and was the most mad, and from where come impious mouths and blasphemous tongues; from Egypt come martyrs, not in Egypt only, nor in the neighboring region around it, but everywhere in the world. And as when the inhabitants of cities see, in a great plenty of grain, a supply greater than the use of the inhabitants requires, they send it to foreign cities as well: both showing their own courtesy and generosity, and so that beyond their own abundance they may easily get back from those cities the things they need; so have the Egyptians also done, in regard to the athletes of religion. When they saw among themselves a great supply of them by God's goodness, they did not at all shut God's great gift within their own city, but poured out these treasuries of good men into all parts of the earth: both to show their love for their brothers, and to honor the common master of all, and to gain glory for their city in the sight of all, and to declare her to be the chief city of the whole world. For the bodies of those saints fortify our city more safely than any adamantine and unconquerable wall; and like certain high rocks standing out on every side, they drive off not only the attacks of the enemies that come under our senses and are seen with our eyes, but also the plots of the invisible demons and all the frauds of the devil, overturning and scattering them. And this possession is useful to us not only against the plots of men or the deceptions of demons, but if our common master grows angry with us because of the multitude of our sins, by setting these bodies before him we can at once make him favorable to the city." This Oration was written at Antioch, while Alexandria was still the chief city of the East, that is, before the year 381, in which Constantinople became the chief city; and it took the Egyptians several years to spread the miracle-working relics of their Martyrs over all the world, as they had done before that year. Egypt had the greatest supply of the relics of Saints and Martyrs, the Egyptians keeping them embalmed on beds even in their private houses; and Alexandria was outstanding above all other cities for spreading them, so that on that account she gained glory in the sight of all, and showed herself to be the chief city of the world. Antioch followed the example of Egypt in spreading the relics of the forty Martyrs; and the examples of Egypt and Syria were soon followed by the rest of the world.

The relics of the forty Martyrs at Antioch were distributed among the Churches before the year 373; for Athanasius, who died in that year, wrote an Oration about them. This Oration has not yet been published, but Gerard Vossius saw it in manuscript in the Library of Cardinal Ascanius in Italy, as he says in his commentary upon the Oration of Ephræm Syrus on the same forty Martyrs. Now since the Monks of Alexandria sent the relics of the Martyrs of Egypt into all parts of the earth, and by that gained glory for their city, and declared her in these matters the chief city of the whole world, as we have noted from Chrysostom; it can be concluded that before Alexandria received the forty Martyrs from Antioch, she began to send out the relics of her own Martyrs into all parts, setting the first example to other cities. This practice therefore began in Egypt some years before the death of Athanasius. It began when the miracle-working bones of John the Baptist were carried into Egypt, and hidden in the wall of a Church, so that they might be useful to future generations. It was stopped in the reign of Julian the Apostate; and then it spread from Egypt into all the Empire, Alexandria being the chief city of the whole world, according to Chrysostom, for spreading this kind of devotion, and Antioch and other cities soon following her example.

In spreading these superstitions, the ringleaders were the Monks, and Antony was at the head of them; for at the end of the life of Antony, Athanasius relates that these were his dying words to his disciples who were then attending him. "Take care," said Antony, "to cling to Christ first, and then to the Saints, so that after death they may receive you as friends and acquaintances into the everlasting tabernacles. Think on these things, grasp these things; and if you have any regard for me, remember me as a father." This, given as a charge to the Monks by Antony at his death, A.C. 356, could not fail to set the whole body on fire with devotion toward the Saints, as the ready way to be received by them into the eternal Tabernacles after death. From this came the noise about the miracles done by the relics of the Saints in the time of Constantius; from this came the spreading of the miracle-working relics into all the Empire, Alexandria setting the example, and being famous for it above all other cities. From this it came about in the days of Julian, A.C. 362, that Athanasius, by a prophetic spirit, as Ruffinus tells us, hid the bones of John the Baptist from the Heathens; not in the ground to be forgotten, but in the hollow wall of a Church before proper witnesses, so that they might be useful to future generations. From this also came the invocation of the Saints to do such miracles, and to assist men in their devotions, and to mediate with God. For Athanasius, even from his youth, looked on the dead Saints and Martyrs as mediators of our prayers: in his Epistle to Marcellinus, written in the days of Constantine the Great, he says that the words of the Psalms are not to be transposed or changed in any way, but to be recited and sung without any artifice, as they are written, so that the holy men who handed them down, knowing them to be their own words, may pray with us; or rather, so that the Holy Spirit who spoke in the holy men, seeing his own words with which he inspired them, may join with them in assisting us.

While Egypt had more Monks than any other country, the veneration of the Saints began sooner and spread faster there than in other places. Palladius, going into Egypt in the year 388 to visit the Monasteries, and the tombs of Apollonius and other Martyrs of Thebais who had suffered under Maximinus, says of them: "The Christians made all of them into one temple, where now many miracles are performed. So great was the grace of the man, that whatever he prayed for he was at once heard, the Savior honoring him thus: whom we also saw praying in his martyrdom, together with those who were judged worthy of martyrdom with him; and worshiping God, we greeted their bodies." Eunapius also, a heathen, yet a trustworthy witness of what was done in his own times, relating how the soldiers delivered the temples of Egypt into the hands of the Monks, which was done in the year 389, rails in this impious way at the Martyrs, as taking the place of the old Gods of Egypt: "Those same soldiers set up Monks at Canopus too, so that instead of the Gods that are seen by the mind, they might honor with divine honors slaves, and ones too of the worst crimes, the minds of men being bound to their worship and ceremonies. For they displayed the pickled and salted heads of those who had been condemned by the judges to the extreme penalty for the multitude of their crimes, as those of divine men; they bent the knee to them, they received them into the number of Gods, defiled with dust and dirt at their tombs. And so they were called Martyrs, and indeed ministers and ambassadors and judges of prayer with the Gods; when they have been servile, faithless, and most cruelly beaten with whips, carrying on their bodies the scars of crimes and the traces of wickedness; and yet such Gods the earth produces." By these examples we may understand that the invocation of Saints had by then been established for some time in Egypt, and that it was already generally received and practiced there by the common people.

In this way Basil, a Monk who was made Bishop of Cæsarea in the year 369, and died in the year 378, in his Oration on the Martyr Mamas, says: "Be mindful of the Martyr; as many of you as have enjoyed him in your dreams, as many as in this place have been assisted by him in prayer, as many of you as upon invoking him by name have had him present in your works, as many as he has led back into the way from wandering, as many as he has restored to health, as many as have had their dead children restored to life by him, as many as have had their lives prolonged by him." And a little later he describes how widespread this superstition was in the regions of Cappadocia and Bithynia: "At the memorial of the Martyr," says he, "the whole region is moved; at his festival the whole city is filled with joy. Nor do the kindred of the rich turn aside to the tombs of their ancestors, but all go to the place of devotion." Again, at the end of the Homily he prays that God would preserve the Church, fortified with such great towers of the Martyrs; and in his Oration on the forty Martyrs: "These are they," says he, "who, holding our country like certain towers, give us safety against our enemies. Nor are they shut up in one place only; but being distributed, they are sent into many regions, and adorn many countries. You have often tried, you have often worked, to find one who might pray for you: here are forty, giving out one voice of prayer. He who is in trouble flees to these; he who rejoices turns to these: the one so that he may be freed from evil, the other so that he may continue in happiness. Here a woman praying for her children is heard; she obtains a safe return for her husband from abroad, and health for him in his sickness. O you common keepers of mankind, the best companions of our cares, helpers and partners of our prayers, most powerful ambassadors to God, and so on." All of which makes it clear that before the year 378 the Orations and Sermons upon the Saints went far beyond the bounds of mere oratorical flourishes, and that the common people in the East had already been generally corrupted by the Monks with Saint-worship.

Gregory Nazianzen, a Monk, in his sixth Oration written A.C. 373, when he had just been made Bishop of Sasima, says: "Let us make ourselves pure for the Martyrs, or rather for the God of the Martyrs;" and a little later he calls the Martyrs mediators of obtaining an ascension or divinity. The same year, at the end of his Oration upon Athanasius, then newly dead, he invokes him in this way: "Look down on us with favor, and govern this people, as perfect worshipers of the perfect Trinity, which in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is contemplated and worshiped: if there is to be peace, preserve me, and feed my flock with me; but if war, bring me home, place me by yourself, and by those who are like you; great as my request is." And at the end of the funeral Oration upon Basil, written A.C. 378, he addresses him in this way: "But you, O divine and sacred Head, look down on us from heaven; and by your prayers either take away that thorn of the flesh which is given us by God for our training, or obtain for us that we may bear it with courage, and direct all our life to what is most fitting for us. When we leave this life, receive us there in your Tabernacles; so that living together and looking the holy and blessed Trinity more purely and perfectly, of which we now have but an incomplete view, we may there come to the end of our desires, and receive this reward of the wars we have waged or suffered." And in his Oration upon Cyprian, not the Bishop of Carthage, but a Greek, he invokes him in the same way; and he also tells us how a pious Virgin named Justina was protected by invoking the Virgin Mary, and how miracles were done by the ashes of Cyprian.