The Holy Barses and the Exiles of Edessa

The fame of Barses is great now, not only in his own city of Edessa and in the neighboring towns, but also in Phoenicia, in Egypt and in the Thebaid, through all of which he had traveled, winning a high reputation by his great virtue. Valens had banished him to the island of Aradus. But when the emperor learned that countless crowds were streaming there, because Barses was full of the apostles’ grace and drove out sicknesses with a word, he sent him to Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. There too his fame drew everyone to him, and so the old man, worthy of heaven, was led away to a remote fort called Phaeno, near the country of the barbarians of that region. It is said that his bed has been kept in Aradus to this day, and is held there in very great honor; for many sick people lie down on it and recover by means of their faith. [a]