Silvanus of Troas and the Ship That Would Not Move

Silvanus had once been a teacher of rhetoric, trained in the school of Troilus the sophist. But aiming at perfection in the Christian life, he took up the ascetic way of life and laid aside the rhetorician’s cloak. Later Atticus, bishop of Constantinople, took notice of him and ordained him bishop of Philippopolis. He lived three years in Thrace in this way. But he could not bear the cold of that region, for his constitution was delicate and sickly, and so he begged Atticus to appoint someone else in his place, explaining that it was for no other reason than the cold that he was giving up his residence in Thrace. When this had been done, Silvanus lived at Constantinople. There he practiced such severe self-denial that, scorning the luxuries of the age, he often appeared in the crowded streets of that populous city wearing sandals made of hay. Some time later the bishop of Troas died, and so the people of that city came to Atticus about appointing a successor. While he was considering whom he should ordain for them, Silvanus happened to pay him a visit, and that at once relieved him of further anxiety. For he turned to Silvanus and said: “You no longer have any excuse for avoiding the pastoral care of a church, for Troas is not a cold place. So God has taken your bodily weakness into account and provided you with a suitable place to live. Go there, then, my brother, without delay.” So Silvanus moved to that city. [a]

There a miracle was performed through him, which I will now relate. A huge cargo vessel of the kind they call a “float,” built to carry enormous pillars, had recently been constructed on the shore at Troas, and it had to be launched. But though many strong ropes were fastened to it and a vast number of people put their strength to it, the vessel would not move at all. When these attempts had been repeated for several days in a row with the same result, the people began to think that a demon was holding the ship back. So they went to the bishop Silvanus and begged him to come and offer a prayer at that place, for they thought this was the only way it could be launched. He answered, with his usual humility, that he was only a sinner, and that the task belonged to someone righteous, not to him. At last, won over by their continued pleading, he went down to the shore. There, after he had prayed, he took hold of one of the ropes and urged the rest to pull hard; and at the very first pull the ship moved at once and ran swiftly into the sea. This miracle, worked by the hands of Silvanus, stirred the people of the whole province to devotion. But the uncommon worth of Silvanus showed itself in various other ways too. He saw that the clergy were making a profit out of the quarrels of people engaged in lawsuits, so he would never appoint any of the clergy as judge. Instead he had the litigants’ documents handed to himself, called in some devout layman whose integrity he trusted, and committed the judgment of the case to him; and so he soon settled all the litigants’ disputes fairly. By doing this Silvanus won a great reputation among people of every class. [c]

We have indeed wandered rather far from the course of our history in giving this account of Silvanus, but we think it will not be without profit. Now, however, let us return to the point from which we set out. Maximian was ordained on the twenty-fifth of October, in the consulship of Bassus and Antiochus, and the affairs of the church were brought into a better ordered and calmer state. [e]