.—Concerning St. Hilarion and the Virgins in Heliopolis who were destroyed by Swine. Strange Martyrdom of Mark, Bishop of Arethusa.
the same period the
inhabitants of Gaza sought for the monk Hilarion; but he had fled to
Sicily.
Here he employed himself in collecting wood in the deserts and on the
mountains, which he carried on his shoulders for sale in the cities, and, by these means, obtained sufficient food for the support of the body. But as he was at length recognized by a man of quality whom he had dispossessed of a demon, he retired to Dalmatia, where, by the power of God, he performed numerous miracles, and through prayer, repressed an inundation of the sea and restored the waves to their proper bounds, and again departed, for it was no joy to him to live among those who praised him; but when he changed his place of abode, he was desirous of being unobserved and by frequent migrations to be rid of the fame which prevailed about him. Eventually he sailed for the island of Cyprus, but touched at Paphos, and, at the entreaty of the bishop of Cyprus, he loved the life there and practiced philosophy at a place called Charburis.
Here he only escaped martyrdom by flight; for he fled in
compliance with the Divine precept which commands us not to expose
ourselves to persecution; but that if we fall into the hands of
persecutors, to overcome by our own fortitude the violence of our
oppressors.
The inhabitants of Gaza and of Alexandria were not the
only citizens who exercised such atrocities against the Christians as
those I have described. The inhabitants of Heliopolis, near Mount
Libanus, and of Arethusa in Syria, seem to have surpassed them in
excess of cruelty.
The former were guilty of an act of barbarity which could scarcely be
credited, had it not been corroborated by the testimony of those who
witnessed it. They stripped the holy virgins, who had never been looked
upon by the multitude, of their garments, and exposed them in a state
of nudity as a public spectacle and objects of insult. After numerous
other inflictions they at last shaved them, ripped them open, and
concealed in their viscera the food usually given to pigs; and since
the swine could not distinguish, but were impelled by the need of their
customary food, they also tore in pieces the human flesh.
I am convinced that the citizens of Heliopolis
perpetrated this barbarity against the holy virgins on account of the
prohibition of the ancient custom of yielding up virgins to
prostitution with any chance comer before being united in marriage to
their betrothed. This custom was prohibited by a law enacted by
Constantine, after he had destroyed the temple of Venus at Heliopolis, and erected a church upon its ruins.
Mark, bishop of Arethusa,