The encomium of Phoebammon on St Colluthus
There are two long encomia / eulogies on St Colluthus. The first of these exists in English already. The second, by Bishop Phoebammon or Phoibamon, acting as
The encomium of Phoebammon on St Colluthus
Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, information access, and more
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So why should we edit Coptic martyrdoms anyway? The CSCO editor replies.
I’ve started to look at the modern critical edition of the texts around St Colluthus. This was printed a decade ago in 2013 in the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (CSCO) volume 650, edited by Gesa Schenke. The texts were printed properly – in place of the half-assed hand-written texts in the editiones principales. The translation […]
The Martyrdom of St Colluthus – Second Version
St Colluthus was a Coptic physician who was tried and executed in 314 AD. This was part of the great persecution of Christians ordered by the emperor Diocletian. The original court record survives, more or less, preserved as a martyrdom text, and this I posted a few days ago here. This has been referenced in […]
An English translation of Harnack’s reconstruction of Marcion’s gospel
An interesting email this morning from W. C. Muenchow IV of truetestament.org: I’m writing to let you know about … the first complete English translation of Adolf von Harnack’s textual reconstruction of Marcion’s Bible, built largely from close analysis of Tertullian’s five books against Marcion, together with Epiphanius and the Dialogue of Adamantius. Harnack’s reconstruction […]
Open-access edition and translation of Galen’s “Peri Alupias” (On grief) and “On my own opinions”
I’ve written before about the discovery of a fascinating work by the 2nd century physician, Galen, describing the loss of libraries and his own research collection in a fire in Rome. Now an edition of it, with English translation, plus another work, has come online, open-access: Galen,, Polemis, Ioannis and Xenophontos, Sophia. ›On Avoiding Distress‹ […]
A letter of Peter of Alexandria to a bishop who apostasised in the persecution under Diocletian
In the Acts of St Colluthus, which record events in May 304 AD, the persecutor Arianus attempts to get Colluthus the physician to apostasise by sacrificing to the gods. Not that Arianus, nor the emperor Diocletian who set him to work, actually believed in the gods. The demand was made precisely because it was known […]
A few musings on Colluthus and Coptic and copyright infringement
I’m still pottering around in the Coptic martyrology area, especially with regard to the Great Persecution of the church under Diocletian. I have a translation of another version of the Acts of St Colluthus to upload, although a valueless one. I’ve been looking for the other texts about the same saint – two encomiums – […]
The trial of St Colluthus ca. 304 AD – a literal transcription of the court proceedings
St Colluthus was tried and executed in the Great Persecution ordered by the emperor Diocletian, in May 304. Unusually we have a near-exact transcript of his appearance before the Roman provincial governor. This was Satyrus Arianus, whose activity against the church is recorded in a number of papyri. The opening and closing paragraphs are clearly […]
From my diary
A book arrived through the post yesterday: E.A.E. Reymond & J.W.B. Barns, Four Martyrdoms from the Pierpont Morgan Coptic Codices, Oxford (1973). This contains the martyrdom of St Colluthus, plus an English translation. I did try to order it by ILL, but something went wrong, and I gave up. Needless to say they have now […]
Two miracle stories of St Colluthus from the White Monastery
As I wrote earlier, the first pages – parchment – to arrive in Europe from the library White Monastery at Sohag in Egypt were leaves of a life of the incredibly obscure St Colluthus (or Coluthus), containing two stories of miracles that took place at his shrine. These were published by Francesco Borgia in 1781; […]