Violence at Gregory’s Arrival

This, then, is how the Arians brought about this remarkable appointment of Gregory, and such was its beginning. What outrages he committed on his entry into Alexandria, and how great the evils that event has caused, you can learn both from our letters and by asking those who are staying among you. The people were offended at such an unusual proceeding, and so they gathered in the churches to keep the impiety of the Arians from mixing itself with the faith of the church. Then Philagrius stepped in. He has long been a persecutor of the church and her virgins, and is now prefect of Egypt. He is already an apostate, a fellow countryman of Gregory, a man of no respectable character besides, and backed by Eusebius and his party, and so full of zeal against the church. By promises, which he afterward kept, this man won over the pagan mob, together with the Jews and disorderly people. Having stirred up their passions, he sent them in a body, with swords and clubs, into the churches to attack the people. [a]

What followed is by no means easy to describe. It is not possible to give you a true picture of what happened; no one could even tell a small part of it without tears and lamentation. Were such deeds ever made the subject of tragedy among the ancients? Has the like ever happened before, in time of persecution or of war? The church and the holy baptistery were set on fire. At once groans, shrieks and lamentations were heard through the city, while the citizens, angry at these enormities, cried shame on the governor and protested against the violence done to them. For holy and undefiled virgins were being stripped naked and suffering treatment that cannot be named, and if they resisted, their lives were in danger. Monks were being trampled underfoot and dying. Some were hurled headlong; others were killed with swords and clubs; others were wounded and beaten. [d]

And oh, what deeds of impiety and wickedness were committed at the holy table! They were offering birds and pine cones in sacrifice, singing the praises of their idols, and blaspheming in the very churches our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. They were burning the books of Holy Scripture that they found in the church. The Jews, the murderers of our Lord, and the godless pagans entered the holy baptistery without reverence (what strange audacity!), stripped themselves naked, and behaved so disgracefully, in word and deed, that one is ashamed even to tell it. Certain impious men also, following the example set in the bitterest persecutions, were seizing the virgins and ascetics by the hands and dragging them along. As they hauled them off, they tried to make them blaspheme and deny the Lord, and when they refused, they beat them violently and trampled them underfoot.