Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology, Usuardus, Ado, Notker, Ac., all commemorate Procopius as Luior and Martyr, on the 8th July. But the Greeks on this day venerate him with the title of Dike and Martyr. Also the Russian (Calendar. Authority Eusebius in his History of the Martyrs of Palestine, and the very ancient and authentic Acts, published by Ruinart.] The first of the martyrs to suffer in Palestine in the persecution of Diocletian, was a certain lector, or reader, of the church of Scythopolis, Procopius by name. He was a native of Jerusalem, and from an early age had lived in great purity and abstinence, his diet only bread and water, whilst his mind, night and day, meditated on heavenly things. He exercised not only the office of lector, but also that of interpreter of the Syriac sermons, and was moreover an exorcist, engaged in the expulsion of evil spirits.
Having been sent from Scythopolis to Caesarea, he was taken at the gates of the city, and conveyed to the hall of the governor Flavian, who endeavoured to persuade him to sacrifice. But with a loud voice he confessed that there was but one God the maker of all things. The governor admitted that this was true, and that he believed it also, and then urged Procopius to sacrifice to the genius of the emperors. The martyr answered by quoting a line of Homer, “It is not good to have too many masters. There is but one God and one king”
At the command of Flavian, he was taken out of the city and executed with the sword. There can be no doubt but that this account given by Eusebius [Eusebius of Caesarea (d. c. 339), the first historian of the Church], bishop of Caesarea, himself a contemporary of the persecution he describes, is perfectly trustworthy. There exists, however, another Greek version of the Acts S'. Procopius.
of S. Procopius, very lengthy, in which all the incidents of his history are altered, so as scarcely to be recognizable. That these Acts are wholly apocryphal cannot be doubted, yet they were quoted as an authority for the use of images amongst other equally worthless testimony by the Fathers in the Second Council of Nicaea. It is also deserving of note, that these same Acts have done service, word for word, for two other martyr Saints, with merely a change of name and locality, viz., for S. Ephysius(Jan. 15 th), and S. John, the martyr of Constantinople (May 19th). The chronological and other errors in these Acts would be sufficient to make one dispose of them as apocryphal, even if we did not possess a genuine account of the real facts out of which this tissue of lies was spun. An outline of these Acts must be given, and deserves to be given, to show how that, however apocryphal the Acts may be, it is not safe for us, when we possess only Acts which are manifestly apocryphal, to deny the existence of those whose actions they pretend to relate. According to these Acts, there lived a widow in Palestine, named Theodosia, a heathen, who had been married to a Christian husband named Christopher. She was left with one son, Neanias, whom she brought to the emperor Diocletian [Roman emperor 284–305, who began the ‘Great Persecution’ of Christians in 303], desiring him to shew favour to the young man. Then Diocletian, pleased with the nobility of his aspect, made him duke of Alexandria, and bade him go and exterminate the Christians in that place. Neanias, therefore, breathing out threatenings and slaughter, went with a party of soldiers on his way, but suddenly there was an earthquake, and a bright light from heaven, and a voice: “O Neanias, why comest thou against Me?” Then he answered, " Lord, who art thou ?” And there appeared a cross in the heavens, and a voice came from the [July*.
cross, “ I that speak unto thee am Jesus, the crucified. And now lo ! in this sign conquer /’ 1 Now when Neanias had come into the city, he sent for a goldsmith named Mark, and bade him fashion for him a cross of gold such as he had seen, and with his finger he traced the form. Then Mark laboured, and when the cross was well nigh fashioned, there appeared miraculously on the cross the forms engraved of our Lord, S. Michael and S. Gabriel, with the names Emmanuel, Michael, and Gabriel written over them in Hebrew characters. Now when Neanias came in, and saw the cross and the images, he bowed himself down, and worshipped. 2 And he took the cross, and bore it in battle against the Hagarenes, who were wont to swoop down on the city, and to carry off the daughters of the citizens to be their wives. And by virtue of the holy cross Neanias routed the Hagarenes, and slew six thousand men, and not a hair of the heads of his own soldiers was injured. Now when the battle was over, the mother of Neanias declared that the victory was due to the favour of the gods she worshipped, therefore Neanias took a stick and broke all the gods. And she was wrath, and went and denounced him to the governor Ulcian, prefect of Palestine, who sent for him, and when he had tortured him, cast him into prison, where he was visited by Christ in person, who changed his name to Procopius. And when he had converted his jailor and friends, they led him to Leontius, bishop of Caesarea, who baptized him, and after that he went back to prison. But Ulcian was smitten with fever and died, and Flavian was governor of Palestine in his room. And he tortured Procopius in various 1 This scene of conversion is a jumble of the conversion of S. Paul, and the vision of Constantine.
■S’. Disibod. ways, and finally struck off his head. It has been supposed by some that there were two martyrs of the same name at Caesarea in the same persecution, which would account for the difference in the Acts. But this cannot be admitted. Eusebius would not have omitted all mention of so famous a martyr, had there been a duke of Alexandria among the victims of the persecution. The hand of S. Procopius is shown, dried with skin and nerves, in the Church of the Jesuits at Toumai.
