The number of the slain that were found in Jerusalem.⁵⁸

Hear, my beloved brethren, the number of the slain who were found in Jerusalem after the invasion of the Persians, and the massacre of the population, and their taking into captivity ; and by what sort of death the flocks of Christ our God were destroyed. In Jerusalem there was a certain one by name Thomas. He, blessed one, was armed with the might of Christ. He resembled Nicodemus who buried the body of the Lord, and his wife Mary Magdalene. For they accomplished good deeds, for which they are worthy to be remembered ; and it is our duty to mention them. He who wishes to inform himself of what happened to those of Jerusalem, let him ask them. For these blessed ones displayed divine zeal. They were on the spot when the Persians came ; and they knew in detail everything which was done by them, and in every deed shewed true zeal in God's service.

When the Persians withdrew, they began to search for all the dead that had fallen at the hands of the Persians in the city and in its environs, in all the alleys and public places. Those whom they found they collected in great haste and with much zeal, and buried them in the grotto of Mamel, and in other grottos they collected and buried them. And from these blessed persons we learnt about the terrible massacre of the faithful people, and some people we ourselves saw destroyed by similar wounds. For some were lying cloven asunder from head to breast; others lay with fissures from shoulder to belly ; some lay transfixed with the sword and cut in bits like grass ; some lay cut in twain. Some had their belly cloven asunder with the sword and their entrails gushing out, and others lay cut into pieces, limb by limb, like the carcasses in a butcher's shop. But above all it was piteous and deplorable to think of, how some wallowed ^[515] in the streets mixed up with the soil; others with clay and mud, besmirched with impurities ; while others wallowed in the churches and houses imbrued in blood. Some had fled into the Holy of Holies, where they lay cut up like grass. And some were found of the slain who had in their hands the glorious and life-giving body of Christ, and in the act of receiving it had been butchered like sheep. Others were clasping the horns of the altars ; others the holy Cross, and the slain were heaped on them. Others had fled to the Baptistery and lay covered with wounds on the edge of the font.⁵⁹ Others were massacred as they hid under the holy table,⁶⁰ and were offered victims to Christ.

Listen, and I will acquaint you with the number of all the slain, for the blessed Thomas informed us of the following : After the departure of the Persians, he said, I remained in Jerusalem, and began to search out the corpses of the slain that had died by the hands of the evil foe. And I found in the church of the holy martyr George, which is outside the town, and I began from this spot to search for corpses and to bury them in the grottos. We found at the altar of the holy church seven persons lying. The Lord and Saint George gave us strength and we buried them. Next we set about to seek for all the dead and to bury them. Some we collected in the grottos, others we buried in sepulchres and graves.⁶¹ And we found them as follows :—

For we found in the court of the government⁶² 28 (18) persons. In the cisterns we found of the slain 275 (250) persons. In front of the gates of Holy Sion we found 2270 persons.⁶³ At the altar of the Holy New ⁶⁴ we found 600 (290) souls. In the church of St. Sophia we found 477 (369) souls. In the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian we found 2212 (2112) souls. In the Book room⁶⁵ of Holy New 70 souls. And we found in the monastery of Holy Anastasis 212 souls. And we found in the market place 38 souls. In front of the Samaritan temple ⁶⁶ we found 919 (723) souls. In the lane of St. Kiriakos we found 1449 (1409) souls. And we found on the western side of Holy Sion 196 (197) souls. At the gate Probatike we found 2107 souls. In the passage of St. Jacob we found 308 (1700) souls. In the flesher's row we found 921 souls.⁶⁷ And we found at the spring of Siloam 2818 (2318) souls. And we found in the cistern⁶⁸ of Mamel 24,518 souls. In the Gerakomia of the patriarch we found 318 souls. In the place called the Golden City 1202 souls. In the monastery of Saint John we found 4219 (4250) souls. In the imperial Gerakomia 780 (167) souls. We found on the Mount of Olives 1207 souls. On the steps⁶⁹ of the Anastasis we found 300 (83) souls. In the place of Little Assembly we found 202 (102) souls. In the place of Large Assembly we found 317 (417) souls. In the church of Saint Serapion we found 338 souls. We found in front of Holy Golgotha 80 souls. We found in the grottos, fosses, cisterns, gardens, 6917 (6907) souls. At the Tower of David we found 2210. Within the city we found 265 souls. Just where ^[516] the enemy overthrew the wall of the city we found 9809 (1800) souls. And in Jerusalem we buried many others in addition that were massacred by the Persians beside these saints. The total number of all was 66,509 souls. . . .⁷⁰