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It is said that when Julian, the uncle of the emperor, was intent
upon removing the votive gifts of the church of Antioch, which were
many and costly, and placing them in the imperial treasury, and also
closing the places of prayer, all the clergy fled. One presbyter, by
name Theodoritus, alone did not leave the city; Julian seized him,
as the keeper of the treasures, and as capable of giving information
concerning them, and maltreated him terribly; finally he ordered him
to be slain with the sword, after he had responded bravely under every
torture and had been well approved by his doctrinal confessions. When
Julian had made a booty of the sacred vessels, he flung them upon the
ground and began to mock; after blaspheming Christ as much as he
wished, he sat upon the vessels and augmented his insulting acts.
Immediately his genitals and rectum were corrupted; their flesh became
putrescent, and was changed into worms. The disease was beyond the
skill of the physicians. However, from reverence and fear for the
emperor, they resorted to experiments with all manner of drugs, and
the most costly and the fattest birds were slain, and their fat was
applied to the corrupted parts, in the hope that the worms might be
thereby attracted to the surface, but this was of no effect; for being
deep buried, they crept into the living flesh, and did not cease their
gnawing until they put an end to his life. It seemed that this
calamity was an infliction of Divine wrath, because the keeper of the
imperial treasures, and other of the chief officers of the court who
had made sport of the Church, died in an extraordinary and dreadful
manner, as if condemned by Divine wrath.
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