Listed 17 sub titles with search on: Religious figures biography for destination: "GAZA Town PALESTINE".
d.c. 307, feastday: December 19
d. 362, feastday: September 8 (Catholic). Youthful martyr in Gaza. Tortured during the reign of Emperor Julian the Apostate, he was in such frightful condition at the time he was taken to the place of execution that the crowd demanded he be allowed to die at the roadside. Nestor died in the home of a Christian.
d. 304-306, feastday: August 19
Barsanuphius (Barsanouphios), a monk of Gaza, about 548 A. D., was the author of some works on aceticism, which are preserved in MS. in the imperial library at Vienna and the royal library at Paris. (Cave, Hist. Lit. sub. ann.)
d. 550, feastday: April 11
d.c. 530, feastday: February 23
Commodianus, the Christian composer of a prosaic poem against the Pagan divinities, divided
into eighty sections, and entitled Instructiones adversus Gentium Deos pro Christiana
Disciplina. Of these the first thirty-six are addressed to the Gentiles with the
object of gaining them over to the true faith; in the nine which follow an attempt
is made to bring home conviction to the obstinate ignorance of the Jews; the remainder
are devoted to the instruction of catechumens and penitents. Whatever knowledge
we possess with regard to this author is derived exclusively from his work. The
general style and the peculiar words occasionally employed lead us to infer that
he was of African extraction. It is expressly and repeatedly declared, that for
a long period he was heathen, but was converted by perusing the Scriptures (e.
g. Praef. 5, Instruct. xxvi. 24, lxi. 1); while the epithet Gazaeus, which he
applies to himself, may either indicate that he was connected with the city of
Gaza in Palestine, or, more probably, that he was indebted for support to the
treasury of the church. Doubts have been entertained with regard to the period
when he flourished. Rigaltius concluded, from a conjectural emendation of his
own upon the text of an obscure passage (Instruct. xxxiii. 5), that it contained
an allusion to pope Sylvester (A. D. 314-335), the contemporary of Constantine
the Great; but the careful and accurate researches of Cave and Dodwell have clearly
proved that Commodianus belongs to the third century (comp. Instruct. vi. 6),
and may with tolerable certainty be placed about A. D. 270.
The Instructiones display much devotion and a fervent zeal for the
propagation of the Gospel, but from their harshness, dryness, and total want of
all poetic fire, they present few attractions as literary productions. The versification
is curious, since it exhibits an early specimen of the Versus Politici, in which,
while an attempt is made to imitate the general rhythm of some ancient measure,
the rules of quantity are to a great extent neglected. Thus the following lines
from the Praefatio are intended for dactylic hexameters:
Praefatio nostra viam erranti demonstrat
Respectumque bonum, cum venerit saeculi meta
Aeternum fieri: quod discredunt inscia corda.
The taste for acrostics also is largely developed: the initials of the twenty-six
concluding verses, when read backwards, form the words Commodianus Mendicus Christi,
and in like manner the general subject and contents of each chapter are expressed
by the first letters of the opening lines.
The Instructiones of Commodianus were first published by Rigaltius
at Toul (Tullum Leucorum) 1650. They were subsequently printed at the end of the
edition of Cyprian by Priorius, Paris, 1666; in the Bibliotheca Patrum Lugdun.
vol. xxvii.; in the Bibliotheca Patrum of Galland, vol. iii; and in an independent
form, by Schurzfleisch, Vitemberg. Saxon. 1704.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Marcus of Gaza, the biographer of St. Porphyry of Gaza, lived in the fourth and fifth centuries. He was probably a native of Proconsular Asia, from which country he travelled to visit the scenes of sacred history in the Holy Land, where he met and formed an acquaintance with Porphyry, then at Jerusalem, some time before A. D. 393. Porphyry sent him to Thessalonica to dispose of his property there; and after his return, Marcus appears to have been the almost inseparable companion of Porphyry, by whom he was ordained deacon, and was sent, A. D. 398, to Constantinople, to obtain of the emperor Arcadius an edict for destroying the heathen temples at Gaza. He obtained an edict to close, not destroy them. This, however, was not effectual for putting down heathenism, and Porphyry went in person to Constantinople, taking Marcus with him, and they were there at the time of the birth of the emperor Theodosius the Younger, A. D. 401. They obtained an imperial edict for the destruction both of the idolsof the heathens and their temples; and Marcus returned with Porphyry to Gaza, where he probably remained till his death, of which we have no account. He wrote the life of Porphyry, the original Greek text of which is said to be extant in MS. at Vienna, but has never been published. A Latin version (Vita S. Porphyry, Episcopi Gazensis), was published by Lipomanus, in his Vitae Sanctorum, by Surius, in his De Probatis Sanctorumn Vitis, and by the Bollandists, in the Acta Sanctorum, Februar. vol. iii. p. 643, &c. with a Commentarius Praevius and notes by Henschenius. It is given also in the Bibliotheca Patrum of Galland, vol. ix. p. 259, &c. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 316; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 421, vol. i. p. 403; Oudin, De Scriptor. Eccles. vol. i. col. 999; Galland, Biblioth. Patrum, Proleg. ad Vol. IX. c. 7.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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