Pamphilus the Presbyter

Pamphilus the presbyter, the patron of Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, was so on fire with love for sacred literature that he copied out with his own hand the greater part of the works of Origen, and these are still kept in the library at Caesarea. I have twenty-five volumes of Origen’s Commentaries on the Twelve Prophets, written in his hand, which I hug and guard with such joy that I count myself as having the wealth of Croesus. And if it is such a joy to have a single letter of a martyr, how much more to have so many thousands of lines, which seem to me to be traced in his blood! He wrote an Apology for Origen before Eusebius had written his, and he was put to death at Caesarea in Palestine in the persecution of Maximinus. [a]