St. Dionysius of Alexandria: Letters and Treatises

To Domitius and Didymus (Eus., H. E. Vii. 11) (Part of an Easter Letter)

(1) It is superfluous to mention by name the many members of our body, who are unknown to you: but you should know that men and women, young and old, soldiers¹¹⁴ and civilians, every class and age, some by the scourge and fire and some by the sword have conquered in the fight and carried off their crowns, while with some even a very long period did not prove sufficient to show them acceptable to the Lord (as martyrs), as in fact seems to be the case even now with me.¹¹⁵ Wherefore I have been put off until a time which He Himself knows to be the right one by Him who saith: “In a time acceptable I heard thee, and in the day of salvation I succoured thee.”¹¹⁶ For since you inquire and wish to be informed how we fare, by all means hear our experiences: how that when we were being led away prisoners by a centurion and duumviri¹¹⁷ with their soldiers and servants, viz. myself and Gaius, Faustus, Peter and Paul, certain of the inhabitants of the Mareotis came upon us, and with violence dragged us off against our will and in spite of our protests.¹¹⁸ And now I with Gaius and Peter only, deprived of the company of the other brethren,¹¹⁹ am shut in a desolate and dreary part of Libya, three days’ journey from Parætonium.¹²⁰

And further on he says—

(2) In the city there have concealed themselves, secretly looking after the brethren, from among the presbyters Maximus,¹²¹ Dioscorus, Demetrius and Lucius (for Faustinus and Aquila, who were better known in the world, are wandering in other parts of Egypt), and of the deacons Faustus, Eusebius and Chæremon, who survived those who perished in the pestilence.¹²² Eusebius was he whom from the beginning God strengthened and inspired to perform many services for the confessors in prison with all energy, and to carry out at no small risk the last offices for the perfect¹²³ and blessed martyrs in decking out their bodies (for burial). For up till now the Prefect does not cease from cruelly slaying some of those who are brought before him, as I have already said, and from tearing others in pieces with instruments of torture, while he crushes the spirits of others again with chains and imprisonment, forbidding any to visit them and making search lest any should be found doing so. Nevertheless, God gives them some respite from their miseries through the zeal and steadfast efforts of the brethren.