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Saint Porphyrius ( la, Porphyrius; grc-gre, Πορφύριος, ''Porphyrios''; Slavonic: Порфирий, ''Porfiriy''; –420) was
bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...
of Gaza from 395 to 420, known, from the account in his ''Life'', for
Christianizing Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...
the recalcitrant
pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. I ...
city of Gaza, and demolishing its temples. Porphyrius of Gaza is known only from a vivid biography by
Mark the Deacon Mark the Deacon ( la, Marcus Diaconus) was a Roman Christian hagiographer. A native of the province of Asia, he was the companion of Bishop Porphyrius of Gaza from 395 until 420, a deacon in his church and his biographer. Mark worked as a callig ...
and from a reference made by
John II, Bishop of Jerusalem John II (c. 356 – 10 January 417) was bishop of Jerusalem from AD 387 to AD 417. John II succeeded to the episcopal throne of Jerusalem on the death of Cyril in 386 (or 387). He was the author, according to an increasing number of modern ...
. The ''Vita Porphyrii'' appears to be a contemporary account of Porphyrius that chronicles in some detail the end of paganism in Gaza in the early fifth century. However, the text has been viewed by some in the 20th century as
hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...
rather than history, and some elements of it are examples of the stereotyped fictional events characteristic of this literary form. On the other hand, the author was certainly intimately familiar with Gaza in late Antiquity, and his statements are of interest for reflecting 5th century attitudes. The saint's body is said to be buried in Saint Porphyrius' Church, in
Gaza City Gaza (;''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (1998), , p. 761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory in Palestine, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza...". ar, غَزَّة ', ), also referred to as Gaza City, i ...
, in the
State of Palestine Palestine ( ar, فلسطين, Filasṭīn), officially the State of Palestine ( ar, دولة فلسطين, Dawlat Filasṭīn, label=none), is a state located in Western Asia. Officially governed by the Palestine Liberation Organization ( ...
. A street in Zejtun,
Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, bears the saint's name.


The account in ''Vita Porphyrii''

Gaza had a history as a place hostile to the early
Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ� ...
. Several had suffered
martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
there in the
persecution of Diocletian The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. In 303, the emperors Diocletian, Maximian, Galerius, and Constantius issued a series of edicts rescinding Christians' legal rights ...
(303-313), and the brief pagan revival under Julian (362-363) had seen the burning of the Christian basilica and various Christians put to death. The people of Gaza were so hostile to Christians that the Christian church had to be built outside the walls, at a safe distance, and the Christian bishops of the 4th century were specifically termed "bishops of the churches about Gaza". The Christian community in Gaza then scarcely numbered 280, according to the ''
vita Vita or VITA (plural vitae) is Latin for "life", and may refer to: * ''Vita'', the usual start to the title of a biography in Latin, by which (in a known context) the work is often referred to; frequently of a saint, then called hagiography * Vita ...
'' of St. Porphyrius, and the community-at-large resisted the closing of temples and destruction of pagan images which had started in more Christianized regions. According to the ''vita'', St. Porphyrius was appointed bishop at the age of 45. He arrived in the city without incident, but a drought followed the same year, and the pagans "imputed
elated Elation is an emotion of happiness. Elation may also refer to: *''Carnival Elation'', cruise ship * A type of ''collineation'' in perspective geometry where the center lies on the axis * ''Elation'' (album), a 2012 studio album by the band Great ...
the thing to the coming of the blessed man, saying that 'It was revealed unto us by Marnas that the feet of Porphyrius bring bad luck to the city'." (Vita 19–20) Further harassment followed (Vita 21, 25) with the support of local officials. In response, St. Porphyrius sent Marcus, his deacon and chronicler, to
Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
in 398 to obtain an order to close the pagan temples of Gaza. An official named Hilarius duly arrived with soldiers to close the temples, but the Marneion remained open because Hilarius was bribed with a large sum of money (''Vita'' 27). There was no great change, however, in the attitude of the people, who refused to allow Christians "to hold any civil office, but entreated them as naughty slaves" (''Vita'' 32). St. Porphyrius then went to Constantinople during the winter of 401–402, accompanied by the bishop of
Caesarea Palaestina Caesarea Maritima (; Greek: ''Parálios Kaisáreia''), formerly Strato's Tower, also known as Caesarea Palestinae, was an ancient city in the Sharon plain on the coast of the Mediterranean, now in ruins and included in an Israeli national p ...
, and together they convinced the Empress Eudoxia, who was the dominant force at the court of
Arcadius Arcadius ( grc-gre, Ἀρκάδιος ; 377 – 1 May 408) was Roman emperor from 383 to 408. He was the eldest son of the ''Augustus'' Theodosius I () and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius (). Arcadius ruled the ...
, to prevail upon the Emperor and obtain from him a decree for the destruction of the pagan temples at Gaza. Cynegius, a special imperial envoy, executed the decree in May, 402. Eight temples, those of
Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols incl ...
,
Hecate Hecate or Hekate, , ; grc-dor, Ἑκάτᾱ, Hekátā, ; la, Hecatē or . is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depict ...
, the Sun,
Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
, Kore (Persephone),
Tyche Tyche (; Ancient Greek: Τύχη ''Túkhē'', 'Luck', , ; Roman equivalent: Fortuna) was the presiding tutelary deity who governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny. In Classical Greek mythology, she is the daughter of Aphrod ...
(''Tychaion''), the shrine of a hero (''Heroeion''), and even the Marneion, were either pulled down or burnt. "And there were also other very many idols in the houses and in the villages," Marcus relates, but the upper class who had such things had fled from the city in advance. Simultaneously soldiers, who were billeted in the vacated houses visited every house, seizing and burning the idols and private libraries as "books of magic". The Marneion, a temple sacred to Zeus Marnas, who was the local
Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
incarnation of Dagon, the patron of agriculture, a god who had been worshipped in the Levant since the
third millennium BCE The 3rd millennium BC spanned the years 3000 through 2001 BC. This period of time corresponds to the Early to Middle Bronze Age, characterized by the early empires in the Ancient Near East. In Ancient Egypt, the Early Dynastic Period is followe ...
, was set afire with pitch, sulfur and fat; it continued to burn for many days; stones of the Marneion were triumphantly reused for paving the streets. This temple had been rebuilt under the direction of
Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania ...
(ruled 117–138), who visited Gaza; it was first represented on the Gaza coins of Hadrian himself. To one of Hadrian's visits, also, we may conjecturally assign the foundation of the great temple of the god Marnas, which the ''Vita'' describes with a mixture of pride and abhorrence. it was believed that the 'Olympian' Emperor who founded the great temple of Zeus on the sacred mountain
Gerizim Mount Gerizim (; Samaritan Hebrew: ''ʾĀ̊rgā̊rīzēm''; Hebrew: ''Har Gərīzīm''; ar, جَبَل جَرِزِيم ''Jabal Jarizīm'' or جَبَلُ ٱلطُّورِ ''Jabal at-Ṭūr'') is one of two mountains in the immediate vicinit ...
of the
Samaritans Samaritans (; ; he, שומרונים, translit=Šōmrōnīm, lit=; ar, السامريون, translit=as-Sāmiriyyūn) are an ethnoreligious group who originate from the ancient Israelites. They are native to the Levant and adhere to Samarit ...
would not be slow to recognize the claims of the ''Cretan Zeus'' of the Gazaeans. After the suppression of a revolt of the
Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
in 119 AD, Hadrian allegedly selected Gaza as the place at which to sell his Jewish captives. Directly upon the ruins of the Marneion, at the expense of the empress, a large church called the ''Eudoxiana'' was erected in her honor and dedicated on 14 April 407. Thus with approved violence, paganism officially ceased to exist in Gaza.


Modern assessment of the ''Vita Porphyrii''

The text exists in a Greek and a Georgian recension. Grégoire and Kugener (1930), the editors of the ''Vita Porphyrii'', reviewed the challenges to the integrity of the work and summarized the previous scholarship. These included the lack of other attestation to major figures, including Porphyrius himself, in an otherwise well-documented period of history. But they concluded that the text had a historical basis and "that the solution of most problems is to be found in the fact that the text of the ''Vita'' transmitted to us represents a revision of the sixth century, which borrowed from the church history of
Theodoret of Cyrrhus Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus ( grc-gre, Θεοδώρητος Κύρρου; AD 393 –  458/466) was an influential theologian of the School of Antioch, biblical commentator, and Christian bishop of Cyrrhus (423–457). He played a pivo ...
of 444, e.g. for the Proemium, and deleted in particular each mention of
John II, Bishop of Jerusalem John II (c. 356 – 10 January 417) was bishop of Jerusalem from AD 387 to AD 417. John II succeeded to the episcopal throne of Jerusalem on the death of Cyril in 386 (or 387). He was the author, according to an increasing number of modern ...
, replacing it with the name of Praylius, his successor as bishop of Jerusalem in the time of Porphyrius". Paul Peeters (1941)Paul Peeters, "La vie géorgienne de Porphyre de Gaza", ''Analecta Bollandiana'' 59 (1941), 65-216, noted by MacMullen 1984. published the Georgian texts and showed that they depended on a lost Syriac original that must have been written in the later fifth or the sixth century. Head wrote, "The textual problems can be resolved if we assume that the ''Life of St Porphyrius'' was composed in two successive stages: the original notes by a contemporary and eyewitness (whom we may call 'Mark') were later, perhaps in the 450's, given their final shape and put into circulation by another author who does not appear in the text." (Head 2001:55). He adds that "the text abounds with such convincing historical detail and shows such an intimate knowledge of the region of Gaza in late antiquity, that at the very least the general storyline merits our confidence." (2001:56) But he acknowledges that Porphyrius is otherwise undocumented in the historical record, and that the text contains the "usual stereotypes" of
hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...
documented by Hippolyte Delehaye. Other scholars are more dismissive. "Richly detailed glimpses of imperial circles and great names in Constantinople are all fake; specific important people—an archbishop, a governor, and others—are all fake; and Mark and Porphyrius themselves may never have existed at all," is MacMullen's conclusion (1984:87). "The ''vita'' "comes to be routinely cited as real history by all sorts of fine scholars" writes
Ramsay MacMullen Ramsay MacMullen (March 3, 1928 – November 28, 2022) was an American historian who was Emeritus Professor of History at Yale University, where he taught from 1967 to his retirement in 1993 as Dunham Professor of History and Classics. His scholar ...
in ''Christianizing the Roman Empire'', 1984, p 86. "There is a strong temptation to use it because it is so full, specific and vivid." He concludes that "it should be possible, then, to learn about the general way things happened in well-known and recurring situations around the turn of the fourth century, even as they appear in a manifestly deceptive text" (MacMullen 1984:87).


Notes


References

*Thomas F. Head, ''Medieval Hagiography: an anthology'', (Routledge) 2001. *
Ramsay MacMullen Ramsay MacMullen (March 3, 1928 – November 28, 2022) was an American historian who was Emeritus Professor of History at Yale University, where he taught from 1967 to his retirement in 1993 as Dunham Professor of History and Classics. His scholar ...
, ''Christianizing the Roman Empire'', (Yale University Press) 1984. *


External links


Medieval Sourcebook:
G.F. Hill, 1913. Translator and editor, Mark the Deacon, ''Life of Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza'' (e-text, in English)





* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070928014855/http://www.westsrbdio.org/prolog/my.html?month=February&day=26&Go.x=8&Go.y=12 ''Prologue From Ochrid'' - February 26:Saint Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza * Asmaa al-Ghoul.
Gaza's Orthodox Church Celebrates 1,606 Years
'' Al-Monitor. March 11, 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Porphyry Of Gaza 347 births 420 deaths 5th-century Christian saints Byzantine saints People from Gaza City Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire Saints from the Holy Land Saints of Roman Thessalonica