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| Translator's Biographical Notice.
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Phileas.
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Translator’s Biographical
Notice.
[a.d. 307.] From
Jerome1310
| 1310 De
vir. illustr., chap. 78. | we learn that this
Phileas belonged to Thmuis, a town of Lower Egypt, the modern
Tmai, which was situated between the Tanite and Mendesian
branches of the Nile, an episcopal seat, and in the time of Valentinian
and Theodosius the Great a place of considerable consequence, enjoying
a separate government of its own. Eusebius1311
| 1311
Hist. Eccles., viii. 9 and 10. | speaks of him as a man not less
distinguished for his services to his country than for his eminence in
philosophical studies and his proficiency in foreign literature and
science. He tells us further, that, along with another person of
considerable importance, by name Philoromus, being brought to trial for
his faith, he
withstood the threats and insults of the judge, and all the entreaties
of relatives and friends, to compromise his Christian belief, and was
condemned to lose his head. Jerome also, in the passage already
referred to, names him a true philosopher, and, at the same time, a
godly martyr; and states, that on assuming the bishopric of his
native district, he wrote a very, elegant book in praise of the
martyrs. Of this book certain fragments are preserved for us
in Eusebius. In addition to these we have also an epistle which
the same Phileas seems to have written in the name of three other
bishops, as well as himself, to Meletius, the bishop of Lycopolis, and
founder of the Meletian schism. This epistle appears to have been
written in Greek; but we possess only a Latin version, which, however,
from its abrupt style, is believed to be very ancient. The four
bishops whose names stand at the head of the Epistle—viz.,
Hesychius, Pachomius, Theodorus, and Phileas, are also mentioned by
Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., viii. 13) as distinguished martyrs.
This epistle was written evidently when those bishops were in prison,
and its date is determined by the mention of Peter as the then bishop
of Alexandria. The martyrdom of Phileas is fixed with much
probability as happening at Alexandria, under Maximus, about the year
307 a.d.1312
| 1312 [His
diocese belonged to the region over which Alexandria had the primacy by
the “ancient usages.”] | [But see Neale,
Patriarchate of Alex., i. pp. 97–101, for his view of two
bearing this name.]E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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