The Bread That Turned to Stone

John governed the church of Constantinople with exemplary prudence, and he brought many of the pagans and the heretics over to his side. Crowds came to him every day, some to be built up by hearing his sermons, others to test him. Yet he pleased and won people of every kind, and led them to take up the same religious beliefs as himself. The people pressed around him and could not get enough of his words. They were shoved this way and that and crushed against one another, and they were in danger, as each forced his way forward to stand near enough to hear more exactly what John was saying. So John placed himself in the middle of them on the readers’ platform, sat down, and taught the crowd from there. [a]

It seems to me that this is a fitting place in my history to tell of a miracle that took place during John’s lifetime. A certain man of the Macedonian heresy lived with a wife of the same belief. He happened to hear John speaking about what one ought to believe concerning the divine nature. He was convinced by the argument he heard, and tried to persuade his wife to take up the same beliefs. Her old habits of mind, and the talk of other women she knew, kept her from doing as he wished. When he found that all his efforts to convince her were useless, he told her that unless she was of one mind with him on divine things, she could not go on living with him. So the woman promised to do as he required. But at the same time she told the matter to one of her maidservants, whose loyalty she trusted, and used her as her tool to deceive her husband. At the time of the celebration of the mysteries (the initiated will understand what I mean), this woman kept hold of what was given to her and bowed her head as if she were praying. Her servant, standing behind her, put into her hand a piece of bread she had brought with her. But as soon as the woman put it between her teeth, it turned to stone.

Since such a divine thing had happened to her, she was terrified that some worse calamity might befall her. She ran to the bishop and confessed what she had done. She showed him the stone, which bore the marks of her teeth. It was made of some unknown substance and had a very strange color. She begged forgiveness with tears, and ever afterward she held the same religious beliefs as her husband. If anyone thinks this story incredible, he can inspect the stone for himself, for it is still kept in the treasury of the church of Constantinople.