The Phocaean Charity and the Barbarian Conversion

A law was established for sailors to have a companion. And since it is impossible to be a disembodied fellowship and a participant in the table, see how a pious calculation devised the impossible. For on each day, the portion of the food is completed by the witness for the sake of an equal distribution among those eating. One of the distributors puts down the silver, and on the next day another and a different one; and this lot of the purchase, having gone around all, gives to the merchant each day of the portion. When the harbor receives them and they arrive on land, the silver is divided among the hungry; and this is the portion of Phoca, a blessing for the poor.

Even kings have established this, the most patient, and they adorn the temple of the visible poor with pious and honorable treasures. But those coming upon it contend to surpass the elders. And it is not wonderful if men, being pious under the Roman hegemony, companions of customs and laws, thus act reverently concerning the servant of Christ, when even the wonder reached the barbarians; and all the wildest Scythians, who dwell near the Euxine Sea, inhabiting the lake of Maiotis and the river Tanais, those who dwell by the Bosporus and extend even to the river Phasis, all these guard the garden; and though they differ from us in all customs and habits, they become unanimous in this alone, being enlightened by the truth against the wildness of their ways.

Indeed, one ruler from there, having laid aside the crown from his head, shining with gold and stones of flowers, and having stripped off the war-armor, possessing the substance of wealth—for the panoply was boastful and shattered by the barbarians—sent both as offerings through the witness to God, through power and dignity, consecrating the beginnings. For it is evident that the crown was a token of kingship, and the breastplate of strength in war. And the blessings constantly occurring through these things, via visions in dreams and via the healings which the suffering enjoy, how could anyone even narrate how the word could suffice to touch upon such an impossible state through the daily activities?

We, therefore, having ended here, shall approach the glory of the Savior God, whose faithful slaves were worthy of such grace, so as to benefit their fellow-slaves in every need and circumstance according to the gift given to them. And these things continue after the arrival here and the separation from the body; the memory of which, along with the work, runs through cities and villages everywhere each day, proclaiming the Benefactor, the Lord, to whom belongs all honor and power, greatness and majesty, now and forever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.