HKB
were sent to Athanasius, who hid them in the wall of a Church; foreseeing by a prophetic spirit, as Ruffinus tells us, that they might be profitable to future generations.
The cry of these miracles being once set on foot, continued for many years, and encreased and grew more general. Chrysostom, in his second Oration on St. Babylas, twenty years after the silencing of the Oracle of Apollo Daphnaeus as above, viz. A.C. 382, saith of the miracles done by the Saints and their reliques [3]: Nulla est nostri hujus Orbis seu regio, seu gens, seu urbs, ubi nova & inopinata miracula haec non decantentur; quae quidem si figmenta fuissent, prorsus in tantam hominum admirationem non venissent. And a little after: Abunde orationi nostrae fidem faciunt quae quotidiana a martyribus miracula eduntur, magna affatim ad illa hominum multitudine affluente. And in his 66th Homily, describing how the Devils were tormented and cast out by the bones of the Martyrs, he adds: Ob eam causam multi plerumque Reges peregre profecti sunt, ut hoc spectaculo fruerentur. Siquidem sanctorum martyrum templa futuri judicii vestigia & signa exhibent, dum nimirum Daemones flagris caeduntur, hominesque torquentur & liberantur. Vide quae sanctorum vita functorum vis sit?* And *Jerom in his Epitaph on Paula, thus [4] mentions the same things. Paula vidit Samariam: ibi siti sunt Elisaeus & Abdias prophetae, & Joannes Baptista, ubi multis intremuit consternata miraculis. Nam cernebat variis daemones rugire cruciatibus, & ante sepulchra sanctorum ululare, homines more luporum vocibus latrare canum, fremere leonum, sibilare serpentum, mugire taurorum, alios rotare caput & post tergum terram vertice tangere, suspensisque pede faeminis vestes non defluere in faciem. This was about the year 384: and Chrysostom in his Oration on the Egyptian Martyrs, seems to make Egypt the ringleader in these matters, saying [5]: Benedictus Deus quandoquidem ex AEgypto prodeunt martyres, ex AEgypto illa cum Deo pugnante ac insanissima, & unde impia ora, unde linguae blasphemae; ex AEgypto martyres habentur; non in AEgypto tantum, nec in finitima vicinaque regione, sed UBIQUE TERRARUM. Et quemadmodum in annonae summa ubertate, cum viderunt urbium incolae majorem quam usus habitatorum postulat esse proventum, ad peregrinas etiam urbes transmittunt: cum & suam comitatem & liberalitatem ostendant, tum ut praeter horum abundantiam cum facilitate res quibus indigent rursus ab illis sibi comparent: sic & AEgyptii, quod attinet ad religionis athletas, fecerunt. Cum apud se multam eorum Dei benignitate copiam cernerent, nequaquam ingens Dei munus sua civitate concluserunt, sed in OMNES TERRAE PARTES bonorum thesauros effuderunt: cum ut suum in fratres amorem ostenderent, tum ut communem omnium dominum honore afficerent, ac civitati suae gloriam apud omnes compararent, totiusque terrarum ORBIS esse METROPOLIN declararent.--Sanctorum enim illorum corpora quovis adamantino & inexpugnabili muro tutius nobis urbem communiunt, & tanquam excelsi quidam scopuli undique prominentes, non horum qui sub sensus cadunt & oculis cernuntur hostium impetus propulsant tantum, sed etiam invisibilium daemonum insidias, omnesque diaboli fraudes subvertunt ac dissipant.--Neque vero tantum adversus hominum insidias aut adversus fallacias daemonum utilis nobis est haec possessio, sed si nobis communis dominus ob peccatorum multitudinem irascatur, his objectis corporibus continuo poterimus eum propitium reddere civitati. This Oration was written at Antioch, while Alexandria was yet the Metropolis of the East, that is, before the year 381, in which Constantinople became the Metropolis: and it was a work of some years for the Egyptians to have distributed the miracle-working reliques of their Martyrs over all the world, as they had done before that year. Egypt abounded most with the reliques of Saints and Martyrs, the Egyptians keeping them embalmed upon beds even in their private houses; and Alexandria was eminent above all other cities for dispersing them, so as on that account to acquire glory with all men, and manifest herself to be the Metropolis of the world. Antioch followed the example of Egypt, in dispersing the reliques of the forty Martyrs: and the examples of Egypt and Syria were soon followed by the rest of the world.