Syriac Anecdotes, Volumes 3 and 4

Mai L. l. [loco laudato, meaning "in the place cited"], preface pp. XIV–XV. doubts whether our Zacharias was the one from Gaza, in whose honor (and that of the leader of Ascalon, who shared his name) John the Grammarian, his fellow citizen, composed an ode, comparing him to Phoebus [Apollo]. If those things published in this volume on page 341 and following are correctly attributed to Zacharias, a passage on page 343, lines 15–16, seems to support the same opinion, where we read that Theodosius, having died in exile, appeared on the same night to "our blessed father Peter," who was staying in Alexandria at the time. Indeed, Peter the Iberian was a friend of Theodosius and was bishop of Gaza (p. 126; cf. 131, lines 5–6). A similar vision had already occurred to him previously (p. 128); he had left Palestine (ibid.); then we encounter him in a certain monastery that must be sought neither in Alexandria nor in Syria or Palestine (p. 131, lines 8–11). However, it appears sufficiently from the very mention of the city on page 343 that Peter, our "father," did not always live in Alexandria. Finally, it must be considered that for a Monophysite leaving Gaza, there was at that time no refuge closer or more suitable than Egypt, and that Peter the Iberian flourished with such favor among the citizens (p. 126 sq.) that no one could be found more worthy of the title "our father" according to their sentiments. Therefore, I believe that the writer from Gaza is speaking in that narrative about the death of Theodosius, and that the letters of Procopius of Gaza (Mai, Auctorum Classicorum Vol. IV) were addressed to the same Zacharias. Furthermore, Cavaeus, Fabricius, and Gallandus have written about Zacharias; from them, Migne drew his own notes in his edition of Basil of Seleucia and Zacharias, published in Paris in 1864, as did Demetracopulus in Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica Vol. I (Leipzig 1866).