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Chapter IV.—The pupils of Origen that became Martyrs.

1. The first of these was Plutarch, who was mentioned just above. 1794 As he was led to death, the man of whom we are speaking being with him at the end of his life, came near being slain by his fellow-citizens, as if he were the cause of his death. But the providence of God preserved him at this time also.

2. After Plutarch, the second martyr among the pupils of Origen was Serenus, 1795 who gave through fire a proof of the faith which he had received.

3. The third martyr from the same school was Heraclides, 1796 and after him the fourth was Hero. 1797 The former of these was as yet a catechumen, and the latter had but recently been baptized. Both of them were beheaded. After them, the fifth from the same school proclaimed as an athlete of piety was another Serenus, who, it is reported, was beheaded, after a long endurance of tortures. And of women, Herais 1798 died while yet a catechumen, receiving baptism by fire, as Origen himself somewhere says.

Footnotes

See the previous chapter, §2. The martyrdom of these disciples of Origen took place under Aquila, and hence the date depends on the date of his rule, which cannot be fixed with exactness, as remarked in note 4 on the previous chapter.

These two persons named Serenus, the first of whom was burned, the second beheaded, are known to us only from this chapter.

Of this Heraclides, we know only what is told us in this chapter. He, with the other martyrs mentioned in this connection, is commemorated in the mediæval martyrologies, but our authentic information is limited to what Eusebius tells us here.

Our authentic information of Hero is likewise limited to this account of Eusebius.

Herais likewise is known to us from this chapter alone. It is interesting to note that Origen’s pupils were not confined to the male sex. His association with female catechumens, which his office of instructor entailed upon him, formed one reason for the act of self-mutilation which he committed (see chap. 8, §2).