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from time to time have arisen at the hands of imperial procurators and governors with insults and dishonors and tortures, and besides these, the ambitions for office of the many, the unjudged and unlawful ordinations, and the schisms among the confessors themselves, and all that the new and factious men eagerly contrived against the remnants of the church, adding new innovations to new ones and unsparingly rubbing it in with the calamities of the persecution and piling evil upon evil, all these things I think I will pass over, judging it unsuitable for myself who am declining and avoiding, as indeed was said by me at the beginning, the narration concerning these things, but rather whatever is honorable and of good repute according to the sacred word, and if there is any virtue and any praise, these things I consider it most fitting to speak and to write and to present to faithful ears for the history of the wonderful martyrs. And with the peace that appeared to us from heaven after this, I think I will adorn the account of the whole story. The seventh year of the conflict against us was being completed, and when our affairs had somehow quietly and calmly found relief and had passed into the eighth year, at the copper mines in Palestine, when a not inconsiderable multitude of confessors had been gathered and were exercising great boldness, so as even to build houses for churches, the governor of the province, being a certain terrible and wicked man, as his actions against the martyrs proved him to be, visited the place, and having learned of their way of life there, he communicated with the emperor, writing down, as it seems, a slanderous report, 13.2 Then the one in charge of the mines came, and as if by imperial command, he divided the multitude of the confessors, assigning to some to live in Cyprus, and to others in Lebanon, and scattering others to other places in Palestine, he commanded them all to be wearied with various labors. 13.3 Then having selected four of those who seemed to be their chief leaders, he sends them to the commander of the troops there; they were Peleus and Nilus, Egyptian bishops, and another presbyter, and besides these, Patermuthius, who was most well-known to all on account of his zeal for all; whom the commander of the army, having asked for a denial of their piety and not obtaining it, delivered to perfection by fire. 13.4 And others again happened to have been allotted to live there in a separate place by themselves, as many of the confessors as had been released from the service of labors, either on account of old age or mutilations or other bodily infirmities; of whom the leader was Silvanus, a bishop from the city of the Gazaeans, a reverent man and bearing a genuine example of Christianity. 13.5 This man, so to speak, having been distinguished in various contests of confession from the first day of the persecution and through all the time, was kept for that moment, so that he might become the final seal of the entire contest in Palestine. 13.6 And with him were many from Egypt, among whom was also John, who surpassed all among us in the virtue of memory. Indeed, this man had previously been deprived of his sight, but nevertheless, in the confessions in which he was distinguished, having his foot destroyed by cauterization just like the others, he had received the same cauterization of fire against his non-functioning sight, the executioners stretching the savage and inhuman character of their disposition to the merciless and unsympathetic. 13.7 Being such a man of philosophic character and life, what would one not admire, not appearing so extraordinary, as much as his virtue in memory, having whole books of the divine scriptures not on tablets of stone as the divine apostle says, nor on skins of animals or on papers corrupted by moths and time, but truly written on fleshly tablets of the heart and with a translucent soul and with the purest eye of the mind, so that he would bring forth, whenever he wished, from his mouth as from some treasury of words, at one time the Law and the Prophets, at another the historical books, and at other times the Gospels and the Epistles. 13.8

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κατὰ καιροὺς βασιλικῶν ἐπιτρόπων τε καὶ ἀρχόντων ἐν ὕβρεσι καὶ ἀτιμίαις καὶ βασάνοις ἀνατετλήκασι, τάς τε ἐπὶ τούτοις τῶν πολλῶν φιλαρχίας ἀκρίτους τε καὶ ἐκθέσμους χειροτονίας καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς ὁμολογηταῖς σχίσματα, ὅσα τε οἱ νέοι στασιώδεις κατὰ τῶν τῆς ἐκκλησίας λειψάνων διὰ σπουδῆς ἐμηχανήσαντο, καινότερα καινοῖς ἐπινεωτερίζοντες καὶ ἀφειδῶς ταῖς τοῦ διωγμοῦ συμφοραῖς ἐπεντρίβοντες καὶ κακὰ κακοῖς ἐπιτειχίζοντες, ταῦτα πάντα παρήσειν μοι δοκῶ, ἀνοίκειον ἐμαυτῷ κρίνας παραιτουμένῳ τε καὶ ἀποφεύγοντι, ὡς δ' οὖν καὶ ἀρχομένῳ μοι εἴρηται, τὴν περὶ τούτων διήγησιν, ἀλλὰ γὰρ ὅσα σεμνὰ καὶ εὔφημα κατὰ τὸν ἱερὸν λόγον καὶ εἴ τις ἀρετὴ καὶ ἔπαινος, ταῦτα λέγειν τε καὶ γράφειν καὶ πισταῖς ἀκοαῖς παρέχεσθαι οἰκειότατον ἡγούμενος τῇ τῶν θαυμαστῶν μαρτύρων ἱστορίᾳ. καὶ τῇ μετὰ ταύτην οὐρανόθεν ἡμῖν ἐπιφανείσῃ εἰρήνῃ κοσμήσειν μοι δοκῶ τοῦ παντὸς λόγου τὴν περιγραφήν. Ἕβδομον ἔτος τοῦ καθ' ἡμῶν ἀγῶνος ἠνύετο, καί πως ἠρέμα τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς ἡσυχῇ τὸ ἀπερίεργον εἰληφότων εἰς ὄγδοόν τε διαγενομένων ἔτος, ἀμφὶ τὰ ἐν Παλαιστίνῃ χαλκοῦ μέταλλα οὐκ ὀλίγης ὁμολογητῶν συγκεκροτημένης πληθύος πολλῇ τε τῇ παρρησίᾳ χρωμένων, ὡς καὶ οἴκους εἰς ἐκκλησίας δείμασθαι, ὁ τῆς ἐπαρχίας ἄρχων, δεινός τις ὢν καὶ πονηρὸς καὶ οἷον αὐτὸν τὰ κατὰ τῶν μαρτύρων δρασθέντα συνέστησεν, ἐπιδημήσας αὐτόθι καὶ τὴν τῶν ἐκεῖσε διαγωγὴν πυθόμενος, βασιλεῖ κοινοῦται, ὅσα δοκεῖν, εἰς διαβολὴν καταγράφων, 13.2 εἶτ' ἐπιστὰς ὁ τοῖς μετάλλοις ἐπιτεταγμένος, ὡς ἂν ἐκ βασιλικοῦ νεύματος διελὼν τὴν τῶν ὁμολογητῶν πληθύν, τοῖς μὲν Κύπρον, τοῖς δὲ τὸν Λίβανον οἰκεῖν ἔνειμεν, ἄλλους τε ἄλλαις κατὰ Παλαιστίνην χώραις κατασπείρας, τοὺς πάντας διαφόροις πονεῖσθαί τισιν ἔργοις ἐπικελεύεται. 13.3 εἶτα τέσσαρας τοὺς μάλιστα δοκοῦντας αὐτῶν κορυφαίους ἐπιλεξάμενος ἐπὶ τὸν ἐφεστῶτα τοῖς αὐτόθι στρατεύμασι παραπέμπεται· Πηλεὺς ἦν καὶ Νεῖλος, ἐπίσκοποι Αἰγυπτίων, καὶ πρεσβύτερος ἄλλος, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις ὁ τοῖς πᾶσι διὰ τὴν περὶ πάντας σπουδὴν γνωριμώτατος Πατερμούθιος· οὓς ὁ στρατοπεδάρχης, ἄρνησιν τῆς θεοσεβείας αἰτήσας καὶ μὴ τυχών, τῇ διὰ πυρὸς τελειώσει παραδίδωσιν. 13.4 ἄλλοι δ' αὖ πάλιν ἐτύγχανον ἐκεῖσε ἐφ' ἑαυτοῖς ἰδίαν χώραν οἰκεῖν λαχόντες, ὅσοι τῶν ὁμολογητῶν ἤτοι διὰ γῆρας ἢ διὰ πηρώσεις ἢ ἄλλας σωμάτων ἀσθενείας τῆς ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις ἀπολέλυντο λειτουργίας· ὧν ἡγεῖτο ἐκ τῆς Γαζαίων ἐπίσκοπος ὁρμώμενος Σιλβανός, εὐλαβές τι χρῆμα καὶ γνήσιον ὑπόδειγμα Χριστιανισμοῦ φέρων. 13.5 οὗτος δή, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης ἡμέρας τοῦ διωγμοῦ καὶ διὰ παντὸς τοῦ χρόνου παντοίοις ἀγῶσιν ὁμολογιῶν διαπρέψας, εἰς ἐκεῖνο τοῦ καιροῦ τετήρητο, ὡς ἂν ὕστατον γένοιτο παντὸς τοῦ κατὰ Παλαιστίνην ἀγῶνος ἐπισφράγισμα. 13.6 τούτῳ δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀπ' Αἰγύπτου συνῆσαν πλείους, ἐν οἷς ἦν καὶ Ἰωάννης, ὃς τῇ περὶ μνήμας ἀρετῇ τοὺς καθ' ἡμᾶς ὑπερεβάλετο πάντας. τῶν μὲν οὖν ὄψεων καὶ πρότερον οὗτος ἐστέρητο, ὅμως δὲ καὶ ἐφ' αἷς διέπρεψεν ὁμολογίαις, ὁμοίως τοῖς ἄλλοις καυτῆρσιν ἀφανισθεὶς τὸν πόδα, κατὰ τῆς μὴ ἐνεργούσης ὁράσεως τὸν αὐτὸν τοῦ πυρὸς καυτῆρα εἰλήφει, τῶν δημίων ἐπὶ τὸ ἀνηλεὲς καὶ ἀσυμπαθὲς τὸ τοῦ τρόπου ὠμὸν καὶ ἀπάνθρωπον ἐπιτεινόντων. 13.7 τοιοῦτον δὴ ὄντα ἤθους μὲν καὶ βίου φιλοσόφου τί ἄν τις ἀποθαυμάσειεν, οὐχ οὕτως ἀναφανέντος παραδόξου, ὅσον τῆς ἐν μνήμαις ἀρετῆς, ὅλας βίβλους τῶν θείων γραφῶν οὐκ ἐν πλαξὶ λιθίναις ᾗ φησιν ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ἐν ζῴων δοραῖς ἢ χάρταις ὑπὸ σητῶν καὶ χρόνου διαφθειρομένοις, ἀλλ' ἐν πλαξὶν ὡς ἀληθῶς καρδίας σαρκίναις ψυχῇ τε διαυγεῖ καὶ καθαρωτάτῳ διανοίας ὄμματι καταγεγραμμένου, ὡς προφέρειν γε, ὅτε καὶ βούλοιτο, διὰ στόματος ὥσπερ ἀπό τινος λόγων θησαυροῦ τοτὲ μὲν νομικὴν καὶ προφητικὴν γραφήν, τοτὲ δὲ ἱστορικήν, εὐαγγελικήν τε ἄλλοτε καὶ ἀποστολικήν. 13.8