CHAPTER XVI

TRANSLATION OF THE REMAINS OF IGNATIUS

AT the same period also took place the translation of the divine Ignatius, as is recorded, with other matters, by John the rhetorician: who, having found a tomb, as he himself desired, in the bowels of the wild beasts, in the amphitheatre of Rome, had, nevertheless, through the preservation of the more solid bones, which were conveyed to Antioch, long reposed in what is called the cemetery: the good God having moved Theodosius to dignify the bearer of the name Theophorus with increased honours, and to dedicate a temple, long ago devoted to the demons, and called by the inhabitants Tychæum, to the victorious martyr. Thus, what was formerly the shrine of Fortune, became a sanctuary and holy precinct for Ignatius, by depositing there his sacred remains, which were conveyed on a ear through the city, attended by a solemn procession. From this event arose the celebration of a public festival, accompanied with rejoicings of the whole population; which has continued to our times, and received increased magnificence at the hands of the prelate Gregory. Such results were brought about by the conspiring agency of friends and foes, while God was decreeing honour to the holy memories of the saints. For the impious Julian, that heaven-detested power, when the Daphnæan Apollo, whose prophetic voice proceeded from the Castalian fount, could give no response to the emperor’s consultation, since the holy Babylas, from his neighbouring resting-place, restrained his utterance; was goaded on to be an unwilling instrument in honouring that saint by a translation; on which occasion was also erected to him, outside the city, a spacious temple, which has remained entire to the present day: the object of the removal being that the demons might no longer be overawed in the pursuit of their own practices, the performance of which, as is said, they had previously promised to Julian. Thus were events disposed by the providence of God, in his design that both the power of those who were dignified by martyrdom should be clearly manifested, and the sacred relies of the holy martyr should be transferred to sacred ground, and be honoured with a noble precinct.