Porphyry of Gaza
Encyclopedia
Saint Porphyry (Greek
: Πορφύριος, Porphyrios; ; Slavonic: Порфирий, Porfiriy) (ca. 347–420), Bishop
of Gaza
395–420, known from the account in his Life for Christianizing
the recalcitrant pagan city of Gaza, and demolishing its temples
.
Porphyry of Gaza is known to us only from the vivid biography by Mark the Deacon
. The Vita Porphyrii appears to be a contemporary account of Porphyry that chronicles in some detail the end of paganism in Gaza in the early fifth century. However the text has been identified in the 20th century as hagiography
rather than history and some elements of it are certainly examples of the stereotyped events characteristic of this form of fiction. On the other hand the author was certainly intimately familiar with Gaza in late Antiquity, and his statements are of interest at least as reflecting attitudes in the 5th century. A street in the village of Zejtun
, Malta
bears his name.
s. Several had been martyred there in the persecution of Diocletian, and the brief pagan revival under Julian
had been the signal to burn the Christian basilica and put various Christians to death.
The people of Gaza were so hostile to the Christians that the Christian church had been 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 then scarcely numbered 200 in Gaza, according to the vita
of St. Porphyry, and the community-at-large resisted the closing of temples and destruction of pagan images which was under way in more Christianized regions.
According to the vita, St. Porphyry 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 the thing to the coming of the blessed man, saying that 'It was revealed unto us by Marnas that the feet of Porphyry bring bad luck to the city'." (Vita 19-20) Further harassment followed (Vita 21, 25) with the support of local officials.
In response St. Porphyry sent Marcus, his deacon and chronicler, to Constantinople
in 398, to obtain an order to close the pagan temples of Gaza. An official named Hilarius was duly sent 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. Porphyry then went himself to Constantinople during the winter of 401-402, accompanied by the bishop of Caesarea Palaestina
, and together they convinced the Empress Eudoxia
, who was the dominant force at the court of Arcadius
, 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
, Hecate
, the Sun, Apollo
, Kore (Persephone)
, Tyche
(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, the temple sacred to Zeus Marnas
, who was the local Hellenistic incarnation of Dagon
, the patron of agriculture, a god who had been worshipped in the Levant since the third millennium BCE, 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
, who visited Gaza; it was 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. For the temple is first represented on the coins of Hadrian
himself. The ' Olympian ' Emperor who founded the great temple of Zeus on the sacred mountain Gerizim of the Samaritans would not be slow to recognize the claims of the Cretan Zeus of the Gazaeans. It is said that after the suppression of a revolt of the Jews in 119 AD, Hadrian selected Gaza as the place at which to sell his Jewish captives.
Directly upon the ruins of the Marneion was erected, at the expense of the empress, a large church called the Eudoxiana in her honor, which was dedicated April 14, 407. Thus with approved violence, paganism officially ceased to exist in Gaza.
Also interesting is the portrayal in the Vita of Manichaeism as a normal and responsible part of the community.
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 Porphyry 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 in the fact is to be found in that 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
of 444, e.g. for the Proemium and deleted in particular each mention of John II, Bishop of Jerusalem, replacing it with the name of Praylius, his successor as bishop of Jerusalem in the time of Porphyrius".
Paul Peeters (1941) published the Georgian texts and showed that they depended on a lost Syriac original that must have been written in the later fifth or sixth century.
Head wrote, "The textual problems can be resolved if we assume that the Life of St Porphyry 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 Porphyry is otherwise undocumented in the historical record, and that the text contains the "usual stereotypes" of hagiography
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 Porphyry 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
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).
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
: Πορφύριος, Porphyrios; ; Slavonic: Порфирий, Porfiriy) (ca. 347–420), Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
395–420, known from the account in his Life for Christianizing
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
the recalcitrant pagan city of Gaza, and demolishing its temples
Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...
.
Porphyry of Gaza is known to us only from the vivid biography by Mark the Deacon
Mark the Deacon
Mark the Deacon was a monk in the Egyptian desert of Scetes who became the biographer of Saint Porphyrius in the 5th century. He was, at a later date, made deacon of his church...
. The Vita Porphyrii appears to be a contemporary account of Porphyry that chronicles in some detail the end of paganism in Gaza in the early fifth century. However the text has been identified in the 20th century as hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
rather than history and some elements of it are certainly examples of the stereotyped events characteristic of this form of fiction. On the other hand the author was certainly intimately familiar with Gaza in late Antiquity, and his statements are of interest at least as reflecting attitudes in the 5th century. A street in the village of Zejtun
Zejtun
Żejtun is a medium sized town in the south of Malta. Żejtun holds the title of Città Beland, which was bestowed by Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim, Grandmaster of Knights of Malta in 1797, Beland being his mother's surname....
, Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
bears his name.
The Account in Vita Pophyrii
Gaza had a history as a place hostile to the ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s. Several had been martyred there in the persecution of Diocletian, and the brief pagan revival under Julian
Julian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
had been the signal to burn the Christian basilica and put various Christians to death.
The people of Gaza were so hostile to the Christians that the Christian church had been 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 then scarcely numbered 200 in Gaza, according to the vita
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of St. Porphyry, and the community-at-large resisted the closing of temples and destruction of pagan images which was under way in more Christianized regions.
According to the vita, St. Porphyry 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 the thing to the coming of the blessed man, saying that 'It was revealed unto us by Marnas that the feet of Porphyry bring bad luck to the city'." (Vita 19-20) Further harassment followed (Vita 21, 25) with the support of local officials.
In response St. Porphyry sent Marcus, his deacon and chronicler, to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
in 398, to obtain an order to close the pagan temples of Gaza. An official named Hilarius was duly sent 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. Porphyry then went himself to Constantinople during the winter of 401-402, accompanied by the bishop of Caesarea Palaestina
Caesarea Palaestina
Caesarea Maritima , Caesarea Palaestina from 133 CE onwards, was a city and harbor built by Herod the Great about 25–13 BC. Today, its ruins lie on the Mediterranean coast of Israel about halfway between the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, on the site of Pyrgos Stratonos . Caesarea Maritima was...
, and together they convinced the Empress Eudoxia
Aelia Eudoxia
Aelia Eudoxia was the Empress consort of the Byzantine Emperor Arcadius.-Family:She was a daughter of Flavius Bauto, a Romanised Frank who served as magister militum in the Western Roman army during the 380s. The identity of her father is mentioned by Philostorgius...
, who was the dominant force at the court of Arcadius
Arcadius
Arcadius was the Byzantine Emperor from 395 to his death. He was the eldest son of Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the Western Emperor Honorius...
, 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
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
, Hecate
Hecate
Hecate or Hekate is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony...
, the Sun, Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
, Kore (Persephone)
Persephone
In Greek mythology, Persephone , also called Kore , is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest-goddess Demeter, and queen of the underworld; she was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the underworld....
, Tyche
Tyche
In ancient Greek city cults, Tyche was the presiding tutelary deity that governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny....
(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"
Book burning
Book burning, biblioclasm or libricide is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...
.
The Marneion, the temple sacred to Zeus Marnas
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
, who was the local Hellenistic incarnation of Dagon
Dagon
Dagon was originally an Assyro-Babylonian fertility god who evolved into a major northwest Semitic god, reportedly of grain and fish and/or fishing...
, the patron of agriculture, a god who had been worshipped in the Levant since the third millennium BCE, 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
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
, who visited Gaza; it was 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. For the temple is first represented on the coins of Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
himself. The ' Olympian ' Emperor who founded the great temple of Zeus on the sacred mountain Gerizim of the Samaritans would not be slow to recognize the claims of the Cretan Zeus of the Gazaeans. It is said that after the suppression of a revolt of the Jews in 119 AD, Hadrian selected Gaza as the place at which to sell his Jewish captives.
Directly upon the ruins of the Marneion was erected, at the expense of the empress, a large church called the Eudoxiana in her honor, which was dedicated April 14, 407. Thus with approved violence, paganism officially ceased to exist in Gaza.
Also interesting is the portrayal in the Vita of Manichaeism as a normal and responsible part of the community.
The modern reputation of the Vita Porphyrii
The text has come down to us 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 Porphyry 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 in the fact is to be found in that 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
Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus was an influential author, theologian, and Christian bishop of Cyrrhus, Syria . He played a pivotal role in many early Byzantine church controversies that led to various ecumenical acts and schisms...
of 444, e.g. for the Proemium and deleted in particular each mention of John II, Bishop of Jerusalem, replacing it with the name of Praylius, his successor as bishop of Jerusalem in the time of Porphyrius".
Paul Peeters (1941) published the Georgian texts and showed that they depended on a lost Syriac original that must have been written in the later fifth or sixth century.
Head wrote, "The textual problems can be resolved if we assume that the Life of St Porphyry 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 Porphyry is otherwise undocumented in the historical record, and that the text contains the "usual stereotypes" of hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
documented by Hippolyte Delehaye
Hippolyte Delehaye
Hippolyte Delehaye was a Belgian Jesuit who was a hagiographic scholar and an outstanding member of the Bollandists, who established critical editions of texts relating to the Christian saints and martyrs that were based on applying the critical method of sound archaeological and documentary...
.
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 Porphyry 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
Ramsay MacMullen is an Emeritus Professor of history at Yale University, where he taught from 1967 to his retirement in 1993 as Dunham Professor of History and Classics...
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).
Prayer to St. Porphyrius
Hear our prayers, we beseech Thee, O Lord, offered by us on the feast of Blessed Porphyrius, Thy Confessor and Bishop; and by the interceding merits of him who was found worthy to serve Thee, free us from all sin. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.External links
- Medieval Sourcebook: G.F. Hill, 1913. Translator and editor, Mark the Deacon, Life of Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza (e-text, in English)
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Gaza
- Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Porphyry
- Philip Schaff, editor The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: St. Porphyry
- Prologue From Ochrid - February 26: Saint Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza