medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
One learns about these martyrs' suffering under Galerius in 309 from Eusebius' _De martyribus Palaestinae_ 11. 1-28. Elias, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel, and Daniel were Egyptian Christians; Pamphilus was a learned priest of Caesarea in Palestine, Valens was an elderly deacon in the church of Aelia, and the others were Palestinian laypersons of various stations in life. All were brought before the same magistrate, who interrogated the Egyptians first. These perplexed him by giving the names of Old Testament prophets rather than their birth names and by asserting that Jerusalem was their homeland; when after various tortures he was unable extract from them the anti-Roman secrets they were suspected of harboring he had them executed. Following this the official interrogated the Palestinians singly or in small groups and had them tortured and executed.
Whereas the order of these saints as given in the Subject line for this post follows the order given in the Roman Martyrology (rev. 2001), Pamphilus (whom Eusebius, himself a bishop of Caesarea, mentions at _Mart. Pal._, 5. 4 as the age's most glorious martyr) was clearly the most prominent of the group. In Eastern martyrologies and calendars, starting with the later fourth-century Syrian Martyrology, he usually leads the list, itself somewhat variable, of these martyrs. Relics of Pamphilus and of some of the other Palestinians were among those placed in the first Hagia Sophia in Constantinople at the time of its consecration. In the Latin West, the entry for the group in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology, where Pamphilus also leads the list, is badly garbled, including, among other developments, the transmogrifications of Caesareae into Fissinari and Porphyrius into Perfidus or Perfidius [!] and an increase in the number of the Egyptians from five to five thousand.
The earlier ninth-century martyrologist Florus of Lyon -- followed in this respect by St. Ado of Vienne and by Usuard of Saint-Germain -- was charier in its listing of members of this group than is today's Roman Martyrology: only Julian and the Egyptians were entered under 16. February and Pamphilus was entered separately under 1. June.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Pamphilus of Caesarea and companions:
a) Pamphilus, Valens, and companions as depicted (martyrdom) in the late tenth- or early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. Gr. 1613, p. 404):
http://tinyurl.com/h6qn36s
b) Porphyrius, Julian, and, on the cross, Theodulus as depicted (martyrdom) in the late tenth- or early eleventh-century so-called Menologion of Basil II (Città del Vaticano, BAV, cod. Vat. Gr. 1613, p. 405):
http://tinyurl.com/gtz95xx
A closer view:
http://tinyurl.com/hkrxkur
c) Pamphilus as depicted in the late fourteenth-century frescoes (later 1380s?) in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Ravanica monastery near Ćuprija in central Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/84ye98x
Best,
John Dillon
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