E02817: Four bishops of the province of Euphratensis (north-east Syria) in 434 address a letter to the empresses Eudocia and Pulcheria, complaining about the illegal appropriation of the shrine of the martyr *Sergios (soldier and martyr of Rusafa, S00023) by the Patriarch of Antioch John I. Probably written in Greek in Hierapolis-Bambyke; preserved in Latin translation in the 6th-century Synodicon of Rusticus.

Acts of the First Council of Ephesus (Rusticus the Deacon, Synodicon)

Letter by Alexander, Theodoretus, Abbibus, Helias, Mara, David, and Acylinus, bishops of Euphratensis, to the empresses, which they wrote reporting about the various wrongs committed against them by the bishop of Antioch.

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Peruasit uero et martyrium sancti et boni uictoris Sergii martyris, quod sub Hierapolitana erat ecclesia, et nouiter illic contra morem ordinauit episcopum, cuius nec latet iniquitas, sed omnibus nota est. ob hoc compulsi sumus deo amicissimos clericos ac monachos destinare cum praesentibus litteris, per quas uestram quaesumus pietatem ne despiciatis ecclesias dei, sed edoceatis de his quae contra nos fiunt iniquitatibus piissimum et amicum Christi principem nostrum, suadatis uero ut iubeat eius imperium iniquas ordinationes uacare, episcopos uero nostrae prouinciae secundum sanctorum beatorumque partum regulas ordinationes celebrare, basilicam uero sancti et boni uictoris Sergii martyris secundum pristinum morem sub ecclesia eius esse metropolis, ad quam et magnum id ipsum templum fabricatum est et illi altissimi muri et alia intra eandem munitionem aedificia. decet enim pietatem uestram et hanc iniquitatem remouere et sanctorum beatissimorum partum regulas roborare, quorum orationibus uestrum munitur imperium.

‘[……] But he [John, Patriarch of Antioch] also took over the shrine of the holy and good victor Sergius the martyr, which was under the Church of Hierapolis, and he recently ordained a bishop there, against custom, whose injustice cannot be hidden but is known to all. Because of this, we were compelled to send these clerics and monks, most dear to God, with the present letter by which we beseech your piety not to overlook the Churches of God, but to inform our most pious and God-loving sovereign of the injustices committed against us, and urge his imperial majesty to order that unjust ordinations be invalidated and that the bishops of our province celebrate ordinations according to the rules of the holy and most blessed Fathers; and that the basilica of the holy and good victor Sergius the martyr be, according to the original usage, under the church of this metropolis, by which both the great shrine itself was built and also those very high walls and the other buildings within the same enclosure. It indeed befits your piety both to remove this injustice and to corroborate the rules of the most blessed Fathers, by whose prayers may your imperial majesty be protected.’

Text: Schwartz, ACO 1.4.1, pp. 162-163.
Translation: Efthymios Rizos.