Sts Barses and Eulogius, Bishops of Edessa, and Protogenes, Bishop of Carrhae, Confessors (IV)
Saints Barses and Eulogius, Bishops of Edessa, and Protogenes, Bishop of Carrhae, confessors, died in the second half of the fourth century. The Emperor Valens (364–378), who strove to spread the Arian heresy, began a cruel persecution of the Orthodox. In the city of Edessa he drove from his see the hierarch Barses, who fought for the purity of the faith, and sent him to prison on the island of Aradus. The Orthodox population received the exiled hierarch with great honour. He was moved further away, to the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, but there too he was received in the same way. Then the hierarch was exiled to the city of Phenon, on the border of the empire, where, worn out by suffering, he commended his soul to the Lord (+378).
In Edessa the Emperor Valens unlawfully enthroned on the episcopal throne the Arian false bishop Lupus (which means wolf), who justified his name by his deeds. The Orthodox population of Edessa, clergy and faithful alike, stopped going to the churches seized by the heretics. They gathered outside the city and celebrated the divine services under the open sky.
When the emperor learned of this, he ordered the eparch Modestus to kill all the Christians who appeared there. The eparch pitied the people and warned the faithful beforehand not to go to the service. But they did the opposite: burning with the desire to suffer for Christ, they gathered without exception to offer prayer. The eparch Modestus, according to his orders, set out for the place with armed soldiers. On the way he saw a woman who was going with a child to the place of torture to receive the martyr’s crown. Stunned by this, Modestus turned back with his soldiers. Appearing at court, he persuaded the emperor to change the order to slaughter all the Orthodox and apply it only to the clergy.
The clergy, led by the eldest priest, Eulogius, were brought to the emperor. The godless ruler tried to persuade them to enter into communion with the false bishop Lupus, but he could not bring a single one of them to agree. After this eighty clerics were sent in chains to prison in Thrace. On the way the faithful met the holy confessors with great honour and supplied them with what they needed. The enraged emperor ordered them to be divided two by two and scattered in various places.
The holy presbyters Eulogius and Protogenes were sent to the city of Antinoe in the Thebaid, where by their preaching they converted and baptised many idol-worshippers. When the Emperor Valens perished, the pious King Theodosius (379–395), who ascended the throne, brought back from exile the confessors who had survived the persecution.
In place of the holy Bishop Barses, who had died, the presbyter Eulogius was consecrated hierarch of Edessa, and Saint Protogenes was consecrated Bishop of the Mesopotamian city of Carrhae. The saints governed their flocks wisely until, at the end of the fourth century, they departed this world in peace.
