Flavian and Diodorus Gather the Orthodox in Antioch

Now Flavian and Diodorus, like breakwaters, broke the force of the advancing waves. Meletius, their shepherd, had been forced to live far away. But these two looked after the flock, setting their own courage and skill against the wolves and giving the sheep the care they needed. Driven from their place beneath the cliff, they fed their flocks on the banks of the nearby river. They could not bear to hang their harps on the willows, as the captives in Babylon did, but went on singing hymns to their Maker and Benefactor in every place of his dominion. But even in this spot the enemy would not allow the devout shepherds to hold their gathering of those who blessed the Lord. So once again this excellent pair of shepherds gathered their sheep, this time on the soldiers’ training ground, and there they tried to set their spiritual food before them in secret. Diodorus, in his wisdom and courage, was like a clear and mighty river: he watered his own people and drowned the blasphemies of his opponents. He thought nothing of the splendor of his birth, and gladly bore the sufferings that come with the faith. [a]

The excellent Flavian, who was also of the highest rank, held godliness to be the only nobility. Like a trainer at the games, he anointed the great Diodorus as though he were an athlete entered for all five contests. [c] At that time he did not preach at the services of the church himself. Instead he gave the preachers an abundant supply of arguments and thoughts from Scripture, so that they could aim their shots at the blasphemy of Arius, while he handed them the arrows of his understanding as though from a quiver. Speaking both in private houses and in public, he easily tore apart the heretics’ nets and showed that their defenses were nothing but spiders’ webs. In these contests he had the help of that Aphraates whose life I have written in my Religious History. Aphraates put the welfare of the sheep ahead of his own rest. He left his cell of discipline and retirement and took up the hard toil of a shepherd. Since I have written about these things in another work, I think it unnecessary now to recount the wealth of virtue he gathered. But I will now tell one example of his good deeds, since it especially belongs in this history. [e]