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To Domitius and Didymus

Dionysius of Alexandria

Section 3

About this work

Author: Dionysius of Alexandria

3. And a little further on, he proceeds thus

:

—

And

they

concealed

themselves

in

the

city

,

and

secretly

visited

the

brethren

.

I

refer

to

the

presbyters

Maximus

,

Dioscorus

,

Demetrius

,

and

Lucius

.

For

Faustinus

and

Aquila

,

who

are

persons

of

greater

prominence

in

the

world

,

are

wandering

about

in

Egypt

.

I

specify

also

the

deacons

who

survived

those

who

died

in

the

sickness

,

viz

.

,

Faustus

,

Eusebius

,

and

Chæremon

.

And

of

Eusebius

I

speak

as

one

whom

the

Lord

strengthened

from

the

beginning

,

and

qualified

for

the

task

of

discharging

energetically

the

services

due

to

the

confessors

who

are

in

prison

,

and

of

executing

the

perilous

office

of

dressing

out

and

burying

the

bodies

of

those

perfected

and

blessed

martyrs

.

For

even

up

to

the

present

day

the

governor

does

not

cease

to

put

to

death

,

in

a

cruel

manner

,

as

I

have

already

said

,

some

of

those

who

are

brought

before

him

;

while

he

wears

others

out

by

torture

,

and

wastes

others

away

with

imprisonment

and

bonds

,

commanding

also

that

no

one

shall

approach

them

and

making

strict

scrutiny

lest

any

one

should

be

seen

to

do

so

.

And

nevertheless

God

imparts

relief

to

the

oppressed

by

the

tender

kindness

and

earnestness

of

the

brethren

.

Notes

6
ἐν τῇ νόσῳ. Rufinus reads νήσῳ, and renders it, “But of the deacons, some died in the island after the pains of confession.” But Dionysius refers to the pestilence which traversed the whole Roman world in the times of Gallus and Volusianus, as Eusebius in his Chroniconand others record. See Aurelius Victor. Dionysius makes mention of this sickness again in the paschal epistle to the Alexandrians, where he also speaks of the deacons who were cut off by that plague.—Vales.
7
περιστολὰς ἐκτελεῖν. Christophorsonus renders it: “to prepare the linen cloths in which the bodies of the blessed martyrs who departed this life might be wrapped.” In this Valesius thinks he errs by looking at the modern method of burial, whereas among the ancient Christians the custom was somewhat different, the bodies being dressed out in full attire, and that often at great cost, as Eusebius shows us in the case of Astyrius, in the Hist. Eccles., vii. 16. Yet Athanasius, in his Life of Antonius, has this sentence: “The Egyptians are accustomed to attend piously to the funerals of the bodies of the dead, and especially those of the holy martyrs, and to wrap them in linen cloths: they are not wont, however, to consign them to the earth, but to place them on couches, and keep them in private apartments.”