Outrages on Good Friday

On top of all this, after such a remarkable and glorious entry into the city, the Arian Gregory, who took pleasure in these calamities, handed the church over to be plundered, as though he wanted to give the pagans and Jews, and those who had brought these evils on us, a prize and payment for their wicked success. Given this free rein for wickedness and disorder, they behaved worse than in time of war and more cruelly than robbers. Some plundered whatever came their way; others divided among themselves the sums that some people had deposited there. The wine, of which there was a large quantity, they either drank, poured out or carried off. They plundered the store of oil, and each took the doors and the chancel rails as his spoil. The candlesticks they promptly set aside in the wall, and they lit the church’s candles before their idols. In a word, robbery and death filled the church. [a]

And the impious Arians, so far from feeling shame that such things were done, added still further outrages and cruelty. Presbyters and laymen had their flesh torn. Virgins were stripped of their veils, led away to the governor’s court, and then thrown into prison. Others had their goods confiscated and were flogged. The bread for the ministers and the virgins was cut off. And these things were done even during the holy season of Lent, around Easter, a time when the brothers and sisters were keeping the fast. Meanwhile this remarkable Gregory showed the spirit of a Caiaphas, and together with Pilate the governor raged furiously against the devout worshipers of Christ. On the day of Preparation he went into one of the churches with the governor and the pagan mob. When he saw that the people looked with horror on his forced entry among them, he had the governor, that most cruel man, publicly flog thirty-four virgins, married women and men of rank within one hour, and throw them into prison. Among them was one virgin, a lover of study, who had the book of Psalms in her hands when he had her publicly flogged. The officers tore the book to pieces, and the virgin herself was shut up in prison.