The Persecution at Edessa, and Eulogius and Protogenes

Valens had robbed the flock of its shepherd, and now, a second time, he set a wolf over them in his place. When he arrived at Edessa, the whole population had left the city and gathered outside the town. He gave orders to the prefect, whose name was Modestus, to assemble the troops under his command who usually collected the tribute, to take all the armed men on hand, and to break up the crowd by beating them with sticks and clubs, and with their other weapons of war if need be. Early in the morning, while the prefect was carrying out this order, he was passing through the Forum when he saw a woman hurrying along at great speed with a baby in her arms. She had paid no attention to the troops and had forced her way through their ranks. For a soul on fire with divine zeal has no fear of men, and treats terrors of this kind as a laughable game. When the prefect saw her and understood what was happening, he ordered her to be brought before him, and asked her where she was going. “I have heard,” she said, “that attacks are being planned against the servants of the Lord. I want to join my friends in the faith, so that I may share with them the slaughter you are going to inflict.” “But the baby,” said the prefect, “why in the world are you carrying it?” “So that it may share with me,” she said, “the death I long for.” [a]

When the prefect heard this from the woman, and learned through her the zeal that filled the whole people, he reported it to the emperor and pointed out that the planned massacre would be useless. “We will only reap a harvest of disgrace from the deed,” he said, “and we will not put out these people’s spirit.” So he would not let the crowd suffer the tortures they had expected. Instead he ordered their leaders, by which I mean the priests and deacons, to be brought before him, and gave them a choice: either persuade the flock to join in communion with the wolf, or be banished from the town to some remote region. Then he summoned the mass of the people before him and tried with gentle words to persuade them to submit to the imperial decrees. He urged that it was sheer madness for a handful of men, who could soon be counted, to stand against the ruler of so vast an empire. The crowd stood speechless. Then the prefect turned to their leader Eulogius, an excellent man, and said: “Why do you give no answer to what you have heard me say?” “I did not think,” said Eulogius, “that I had to answer when I had not been asked a question.” “But,” said the prefect, “I have used many arguments to urge you toward a course that is to your own advantage.” Eulogius replied that these pleas had been addressed to the whole crowd, and that he thought it absurd to push himself forward and answer. “But if you ask me my own opinion,” he went on, “I will give it to you.” “Well, then,” said the prefect, “be in communion with the emperor.” With playful irony Eulogius replied, “Has he then received the priesthood along with the empire?” The prefect saw that he was not speaking seriously and took it badly. He heaped abuse on the old man, and added: “That is not what I said, you fool. I urged you to be in communion with those the emperor is in communion with.” To this the old man replied that they had a shepherd and followed his directions. So eighty of them were arrested and exiled to Thrace. On their way there they were received everywhere with the greatest possible honor. Cities and villages came out to meet them and honored them as victorious athletes. But envy armed their opponents to report to the emperor that what had been counted a disgrace had in fact brought these men great honor. At this Valens ordered them to be split up into pairs and sent off in different directions, some to Thrace, some to the farthest regions of Arabia, and others to the towns of the Thebaid. People said that those whom nature had joined together savage men had put apart, and had divided brother from brother. Eulogius their leader, together with Protogenes, who was next to him in rank, was banished to Antinoe. [b]

I will not let the virtue of these men, either, fall into forgetfulness. They found that the bishop of the city was of one mind with them, and so they took part in the gatherings of the church. But when they saw how very small the congregations were, and learned on asking that the people of the city were pagans, they were grieved, as was natural, and mourned their unbelief. Yet they did not think it enough to grieve. They set themselves, as far as they were able, to making these people whole. The divine Eulogius shut himself up in a little room and spent day and night offering petitions to the God of the universe. The admirable Protogenes, who had received a good education and was practiced in shorthand, picked out a suitable spot, made it into a boys’ school, and set himself up as a schoolmaster. He taught his pupils not only the art of rapid writing but also the divine oracles. He taught them the psalms of David and had them learn the most important points of the apostles’ teaching. One of the boys fell sick. Protogenes went to his home, took the sufferer by the hand, and drove the illness away by prayer. When the parents of the other boys heard this, they brought him to their own houses and begged him to help the sick. But he refused to ask God to drive out the illness until the sick had received the gift of baptism. Urged on by their longing for their children’s health, the parents readily agreed, and so in the end they won salvation for both body and soul. Whenever he persuaded anyone who was in good health to receive the divine grace, he took him off to Eulogius, knocked at the door, and begged him to open it and put the seal of the Lord on the catch. When Eulogius was annoyed at having his prayer interrupted, Protogenes would say that it was far more necessary to rescue those who were straying. For this, all who saw what he did admired him. He was doing such wonderful works, bringing the light of divine knowledge to so many, and all the while giving the first place to another and bringing his prizes to Eulogius. They rightly guessed that the virtue of Eulogius was by far the greater and higher. [d]

When the storm had died down and complete calm was restored, they were ordered to return home. The whole people escorted them on their way, wailing and weeping, and above all the bishop of the church, who was now losing the men who had tilled his field. When they reached home, the great Barses had passed to the life that knows no pain, and the divine Eulogius was entrusted with the helm of the church that Barses had steered. To the excellent Protogenes was given the tilling of Carrhae, a barren place, full of the thorns of paganism and needing much labor. But these events happened after peace had been restored to the churches. [f]