The Statue of Christ at Paneas, and Other Wonders

Among the many remarkable things that happened during the reign of Julian, I must not leave out one that gives a sign of the power of Christ and proof of God’s wrath against the emperor. [a] Julian heard that at Caesarea Philippi, also called Paneas, a city of Phoenicia, there was a famous statue of Christ. It had been set up by a woman whom the Lord had healed of a flow of blood. Julian ordered it to be taken down and a statue of himself put up in its place. But a violent fire fell from heaven on his statue and broke it off at the chest. The head and neck were thrown down, and it was driven into the ground face downward at the point where the bust had broken. It has stood that way from that day to this, covered with the rust left by the lightning. The pagans dragged the statue of Christ around the city and mutilated it. But the Christians gathered up the pieces and placed the statue in the church, where it is still kept. Eusebius tells that at the foot of this statue grew a plant unknown to the doctors and folk healers, which could cure every kind of illness. It does not seem astonishing to me that after God had seen fit to live among people, he should stoop to do them good. [b]

It seems that countless other miracles were worked in various cities and villages. Accurate accounts of them have been kept only by the people of those places, because they learned them from the tradition handed down by their ancestors. How true this is I will show at once. There is a city in Palestine now called Nicopolis. It was once only a village, and the divine book of the Gospel mentions it under the name of Emmaus. The Romans gave the place the name Nicopolis after they had conquered Jerusalem and won their victory over the Jews. Just outside the city, where three roads meet, is the spot where Christ, after his resurrection, said farewell to Cleopas and his companion, as though he were going on to another village. Here there is a healing spring, in which people and other living creatures suffering from various diseases wash away their afflictions. For it is said that when Christ and his disciples came to this spring from a journey, they washed their feet in it, and from that time the water became a cure for illnesses. [d] At Hermopolis in the Thebaid there is a tree called Persis. Its branches, its leaves, and even the smallest piece of its bark are said to heal diseases when the sick touch them. For the Egyptians tell that when Joseph fled with Christ and Mary, the holy mother of God, from the wrath of Herod, they went to Hermopolis. As they were entering at the gate, this very large tree, as though it could not bear Christ’s coming, bowed to the ground and worshiped him. I am telling exactly what I have heard from many sources about this tree. I think this event was a sign of the presence of God in the city. Or perhaps, as seems most likely, the tree had been worshiped by the people in the pagan way, and it was shaken because the demon who had been worshiped there started up at the sight of the one who had appeared to bring cleansing from such powers. It moved of its own accord, for at the presence of Christ the idols of Egypt were shaken, just as Isaiah the prophet had foretold. Once the demon was driven out, the tree was allowed to remain as a memorial of what had happened, and it was given the power of healing those who believed. [e] The people of Egypt and of Palestine bear witness to the truth of these events, which took place among them.