Venerable Patermuthius and Copres (IV)

The Venerable Patermuthius and Copres. Patermuthius was at first a pagan and a robber, who did not shrink even from robbing graves, but later he washed his soul, soiled with sin, in baptism, and withdrew into the desert. The venerable father took upon himself the care of the sick and the burial of the dead; by his tireless zeal he pleased the Lord and was granted by Him the grace of wonderworking.

The life and miracles of Patermuthius were described for us by the presbyter Copres, an eyewitness of his labours. And of Copres himself Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis, told us in the book called the Lausiac History. Once the holy father entered into a dispute with a Manichaean heretic, but he soon became convinced that it was impossible to heal the one gone astray of his spiritual sickness by words, and he proposed to the heretic that they light a fire, go into it together, and leave it to the Lord to decide whose faith was true. The Manichaean refused to go into the fire first, while the blessed Copres, trusting in the almighty and all-merciful Lord, went into the fire without fear and remained completely unharmed. The eyewitnesses glorified God and threw the heretic into the fire. The scorched heretic sprang out of the flames and tried to flee, but the people seized him and turned him back. The holy father managed to calm the agitated crowd and set the Manichaean free.