39

A supplication from Berenice, a woman of rank of the city of Paneas. Justice and love for mankind and the rest of the virtues crown your highness. Wherefore I, knowing this, <have come> with good hopes of obtaining all things; which is the foundation of the present preface; for as my speech proceeds it will teach you. Having been afflicted from childhood with the suffering of a flow of blood, having spent my living and wealth on physicians, I found no cure. But having heard of the healings of the wondrous Christ, how he raises the dead, bringing them again to the light, and driving demons out of mortals, and healing with a word all those wasting away in sickness, I too ran to him as to a god. And having come near to the crowd surrounding him, being afraid, lest, turning away from the defilement of my affliction, he be angry with me and a greater plague of the disease come upon me, I reasoned with myself that, if I could touch the hem of his garment, I will be saved. And having touched it, and the fountain of my blood having been stopped, I immediately became well. But he, rather as one who foreknew the counsels of my heart, cried out: "Who touched me? Power has gone out from me." I therefore, having turned pale and groaning, thinking the disease was turning back upon me more fiercely, falling down before him I filled the ground with tears, confessing my boldness. But he, as a good man, having compassion on me, sealed my healing, saying: "Take heart, daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace." So also you, august ones, grant the worthy petition to her who petitions." But King Herod, having heard these things through the petition, was astonished at the wonder and having feared the mystery of the healing said: "The healing that happened to you, O woman, is worthy of a greater monument. Go, therefore, and whatever kind you wish, erect a monument to him, glorifying the one who healed you." And immediately Berenice herself, the one formerly suffering from a flow of blood, in the midst of her own city of Paneas erected to the Lord and God a bronze monument of cast bronze, having mixed in gold and silver. Which monument remains in the city of Paneas until now, not long ago having been moved from where it stood in the midst of the city to a holy place, to a house of prayer. Which memorandum was found in the same city of Paneas in the possession of a certain Bassus, a Jew who had become a Christian, in which was the life of all the kings of the land of Judea. From the seventh book of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Pamphilus concerning the woman with the flow of blood of Paneas; Since we have made mention of this city, I do not think it right to pass over a narrative which is worthy of being remembered by those after us. For the woman with the flow of blood, whom we have learned from the holy gospels found deliverance from her suffering from our Savior, was said to originate from here, and her house is pointed out in the city and wonderful trophies of the Savior’s benefit to her remain. For there stood on a high stone, at the gates of her house, a bronze effigy of a woman, kneeling on one knee and like one supplicating with hands outstretched forward, opposite which was another standing figure of a man of the same material, decently clad in a double cloak and extending his hand to her there, at whose feet on this same monument a strange kind of herb grows, which rises up to the hem of the bronze double cloak, and is an antidote for all sorts of diseases. And they said that this statue bore the likeness of the Lord Jesus, and it has remained even to our own day, so that we also saw it with our own eyes when we visited the city. And it is not at all surprising that those of old from the Gentiles who were benefited by our Savior should have done such things, since we have also seen the images of his apostles, Peter and Paul, and of the Savior himself, preserved in colored paintings, as is likely, by the ancients without reservation, as of a gentile

39

ἱκεσία παρὰ Βερνίκης ἀξιωματικῆς πόλεως Πανεάδος. ∆ικαιοσύνη καὶ φιλανθρωπία καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν ἀρετῶν περιστέφουσι τὴν ὑμετέραν κορυφήν. Ὅθεν κἀγὼ τοῦτο εἰδυῖα <ἧκον> σὺν ἀγαθαῖς ταῖς ἐλπίσι πάντων τῶν τευξομένων· ἥτις ἡ τοῦ παρόντος προοιμίου κρηπίς· προϊὼν γάρ σε ὁ λόγος διδάξει. Ἐκ παίδων ληφθεῖσα πάθη αἱμορροίας ὀχετῶν εἰς ἰατροὺς ἀναλώσασά μου τὸν βίον καὶ πλοῦτον ἴασιν οὐχ εὗρον. Ἀκηκουῖα δὲ τοῦ θαυμαζομένου Χριστοῦ τὰ ἰάματα, ὡς νεκροὺς ἐξανίστησι, πάλιν εἰς φῶς ἕλκων καὶ δαίμονας ἐκ βροτῶν ἀπελαύνων καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἐν νόσῳ μαραινομένους λόγῳ θεραπεύων, κἀγὼ πρὸς αὐτὸν ὡς πρὸς θεὸν ἔδραμον. Καὶ προσεσχηκυῖα τῷ περιέχοντι αὐτὸν πλήθει, δειλιάσασα, μὴ τὸν ἐκ τοῦ πάθους μολυσμὸν ἀποστρεφόμενος ὀργισθῇ κατ' ἐμοῦ καὶ πλείων μοι ἐπέλθῃ ἡ πληγὴ τῆς νόσου, καθ' ἑαυτὴν ἐλογισάμην, ὅτι, ἐὰν δυνηθείην ἅψασθαι τοῦ κρασπέδου τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ, σωθήσομαι. Οὗ καὶ ἁψαμένη καὶ σταθείσης μου τῆς πηγῆς τοῦ αἵματος γέγονα παραχρῆμα ὑγιής. Αὐτὸς δὲ μᾶλλον ὡς προγνοὺς τῆς ἐμῆς καρδίας τὰ βουλεύματα ἀνέκραξε· «Τίς μου ἥψατο; ∆ύναμις ἀπ' ἐμοῦ ἐξῆλθεν.» Ἐγὼ οὖν ὠχριάσασα καὶ στένουσα, τὴν νόσον θρασυτέραν ἀποστρέφειν ἐπ' ἐμὲ λογιζομένη, προσπεσοῦσα αὐτῷ τὴν γῆν ἐπλήρωσα δακρύων, τὴν τόλμαν ἐξειποῦσα. Αὐτὸς δὲ ὡς ἀγαθὸς σπλαγχνισθεὶς ἐπ' ἐμοὶ ἐπεσφράγιζέ μου τὴν ἴασιν εἰρηκώς· «Θάρσει, θύγατερ, ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέ σε· πορεύου εἰς εἰρήνην.» Οὕτω καὶ ὑμεῖς, σεβαστοί, τὴν δέησιν τῇ δεομένῃ ἀξίαν παράσχετε.» Ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς Ἡρῴδης ἀκηκοὼς ταῦτα διὰ τῆς δεήσεως ἐξεπλάγη τὸ θαῦμα καὶ φοβηθεὶς τὸ μυστήριον τῆς ἰάσεως εἶπεν· «Ἡ εἰς σὲ γενομένη ἴασις, ὦ γύναι, μείζονος στήλης ἐστὶν ἀξία. Πορευθεῖσα τοίνυν, οἵαν βούλει, ἀνάστησον αὐτῷ στήλην δοξάζουσα τὸν ἰασάμενον.» Καὶ εὐθέως αὐτὴ Βερνίκη ἡ πρῴην αἱμορροοῦσα ἐν μέσῳ τῆς ἰδίας αὐτῆς πόλεως Πανεάδος ἀνέστησε τῷ κυρίῳ καὶ θεῷ στήλην χαλκῆν ἐκ χαλκοῦ θερμηλάτου μίξασα χρυσὸν καὶ ἄργυρον. Ἥτις στήλη μένει ἐν Πανεάδι τῇ πόλει ἕως νῦν, οὐ πρὸ πολλοῦ χρόνου μετενεχθεῖσα, ἀφ' οὗ ἵστατο, ἐν μέσῳ τῆς πόλεως εἰς ἅγιον τόπον, εἰς οἶκον εὐκτήριον. Ὅπερ ὑπόμνημα εὑρέθη ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ πόλει Πανεάδι παρὰ Βάσσῳ τινί, γενομένῳ ἀπὸ Ἰουδαίων χριστιανῷ, ἐν ᾧ ὑπῆρχεν ὁ βίος τῶν βασιλευσάντων πάντων τῆς Ἰουδαϊκῆς χώρας. Τῆς ἑβδόμης βίβλου τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς ἱστορίας Εὐσεβίου τοῦ Παμφίλου περὶ τῆς αἱμορροούσης Πανεάδος· Ἐπειδὴ τῆσδε τῆς πόλεως ἐμνήσθημεν, οὐκ ἄξιον ἡγοῦμαι διήγησιν παρελθεῖν καὶ τοῖς μεθ' ἡμᾶς μνημονεύεσθαι ἀξίαν. Τὴν γὰρ αἱμορροοῦσαν, ἣν ἐκ τῶν ἱερῶν εὐαγγελίων παρὰ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν τοῦ πάθους ἀπαλλαγὴν εὑρέσθαι μεμαθήκαμεν, ἐνθένδε ἐλέγετο ὁρμᾶσθαι τόν τε οἶκον αὐτῆς ἐπὶ τῆς πόλεως δείκνυσθαι καὶ τῆς ὑπὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος εἰς αὐτὴν εὐεργεσίας θαυμαστὰ τρόπαια παραμένειν. Ἑστάναι γὰρ ἐφ' ὑψηλοῦ λίθου πρὸς μὲν ταῖς πύλαις τοῦ αὐτῆς οἴκου γυναικὸς ἐκτύπωμα χάλκεον, ἐπὶ γόνυ κεκλιμένον καὶ τεταμέναις ἐπὶ τοὔμπροσθεν ταῖς χερσὶν ἱκετευούσῃ ἐοικός, οὗ ἀντικρὺ ἄλλο τῆς αὐτῆς ὕλης ἀνδρὸς ὄρθιον σχῆμα διπλοΐδα κοσμίως βεβλημένον καὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτῇ ἐκεῖ προτεῖνον, οὗ παρὰ τοῖς ποσὶν ἐπὶ τῆς στήλης ταύτης ξένον τι βοτάνης εἶδος φύειν, ὡς μέχρι τοῦ κρασπέδου τῆς τοῦ χαλκοῦ διπλοΐδος ἀνιόν, ἀλεξιφάρμακον πάντων τῶν νοσημάτων τυγχάνειν. Τοῦτον δὲ τὸν ἀνδριάντα εἰκόνα τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ φέρειν ἔλεγον, ἔμεινε δὲ καὶ εἰς ἡμᾶς, ὡς καὶ ὄψει παραλαβεῖν ἐπιδημήσαντα τῇ πόλει. Καὶ θαυμαστὸν οὐδὲν τοὺς πάλαι ἐξ ἐθνῶν εὐεργετηθέντας παρὰ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν τοιαῦτα πεποιηκέναι, ὁπότε καὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων αὐτῶν τὰς εἰκόνας, Πέτρου καὶ Παύλου, καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ σωτῆρος διαχρωματιζομένας ἱστορήσαμεν, ὡς εἰκός, τῶν παλαιῶν ἀπαραφυλάκτως, οἷα ἐθνικῆς