Theodore the Confessor

Julian could not bear the shame these doings brought on him, and the next day he ordered the leaders of the singing procession to be arrested. Sallustius was prefect at that time. He was a servant of wickedness, but even so he was anxious to persuade the ruler not to let the Christians, who were eager for glory, reach the goal they longed for. But when he saw that the emperor could not master his rage, he arrested a young man, adorned with the graces of a holy zeal, as he was walking in the Forum. He hung him up on the stocks in front of everyone, tore his back with whips, and gouged his sides with clawlike instruments of torture. He did this all day long, from dawn until the day was over. Then he put iron chains on him and ordered him to be kept under guard. The next morning he told Julian what had been done. He reported the young man’s steadfastness, and added that the affair was a defeat for themselves and a triumph for the Christians. Convinced that this was true, God’s enemy allowed no one else to be treated this way, and ordered Theodore to be let out of prison; for that was the name of this young and glorious fighter in the battle for truth. When he was asked whether he had felt any pain while undergoing those most bitter and most savage tortures, he answered that at first he had felt a little pain. But then someone had appeared to him who kept wiping the sweat from his face with a cool, soft cloth and told him to take courage. “So,” he said, “when the executioners stopped, I was not glad but sorry, because the one who brought refreshment to my soul went away with them.” [a]

But the demon of lying divination at once both increased the martyr’s glory and exposed his own falsehood. A thunderbolt sent down from heaven burned the whole shrine and turned the very statue of the Pythian god into fine dust, for it was made of wood and gilded on the surface. Julian, the emperor’s uncle and prefect of the East, learned of this during the night. He rode at full speed to Daphne, eager to bring help to the god he worshiped. But when he saw the so-called god turned to powder, he had the temple keepers whipped, for he guessed that some Christian had started the fire. But they, mistreated as they were, could not bring themselves to tell a lie, and they kept saying that the fire had started not from below but from above. Some of the country people from nearby also came forward and declared that they had seen the thunderbolt come rushing down from heaven.