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Life of St Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza
Mark the Deacon, tr. Hill, 1913
Chapter 78
And they said other psalms also until they came unto the Marneion. Now Saint Porphyry, the bishop, had persuaded a certain Rufinus, an architect of Antioch, a believer and well skilled, by whom the whole of the building was accomplished. He taking gypsum1 marked out the fashion2 of the holy church according to the form of the plan which was sent by the Augusta Eudoxia, most beloved of God. And when the most holy bishop had made a prayer and bending of the knee, he bade the people dig. And straightway all with one mind and with the same zeal began to dig, crying: ‘Christ hath conquered.’ And there was no difference to be seen between man and woman, or old man or child, but their zeal gave unto all of them the same strength, and some digged and others carried away, so that in a few days all the places were digged and cleared out.
Notes
- gypsum. On this method of making plans, see Haupt in Hermes, iv (1869), p. 29. The plan of Alexandria was similarly marked out with flour.
- fashion. θέσις here means the actual plan on the site, as distinct from the plan on paper (σκάριφον).