A.D. 540. AURELIANUS, a successor, perhaps, of Marcianus. A.D. 553. The Bishops of Gaza and Mayoumas Gazæ each signed synodical letters inserted in the Acts of the Second Council of Constantinople.[23] II.--BISHOPS OF MAYOUMAS (OR CONSTANTIA)[24] _c_. A.D. 400. ZENO, brother of Aias, the Bishop of Botolion (Bethulia), and personally known to the historian Sozimus. A.D. 431. PAULINUS, mentioned in the Minutes of the Council of Ephesus. A.D. 449. PAULUS, the supporter of Dioscorus in the Robber Council of Ephesus, A.D. 449. A.D. 505. PETER, the Iberian, Bishop of Gaza and Mayoumas. An Eutychian, appointed by the Alexandrian faction. During this Episcopate, Severus, the Monophysite Patriarch of Antioch, had been expelled from a convent lying between Gaza and Mayoumas as an heretical blasphemer. Coming to the Emperor Anastasius Dicorus, who was infected with the same heresy, he was appointed a noble, and by the use of flatteries, and false accusations, he advanced so far that by the command of Dicorus he banished the Patriarch of Antioch, Flavian II, from the throne, sent him into exile to Petra, and ascended the throne by violence. He excited a great tumult in Antioch.[25] A.D. 516. PROCOPIUS. His signature appears in the Letter of John of Jerusalem. A.D. 700-760. ST. COSMAS, Hymnologist, surnamed Μελωδός. He acquired the appellation of Hagiopolites, on account of his proficiency in polite literature. Having been captured by the Saracens, he was carried to Damascus, and had the honour to be preceptor of St. John Damascene, his foster-brother. St. Cosmas, like his friend, St. John Damascene. became a monk of St. Sabas, and against his will was consecrated Bishop of Mayoumas, by John, Patriarch of Jerusalem, the same who ordained St. John Damascene, priest. Dr. Neale considers him the most learned of Greek Church poets. After ministering his diocese with great holiness, he departed this life in a good old age, and is commemorated on October 14. FOOTNOTES: [21] Also called Asclepius. He was on the side of St. Athanasius. [22] Meyer's _History of the City of Gaza_, p. 64. [23] "Till A.D. 536 the names of the Bishops of Gaza were preserved in the records of the Council of Jerusalem" (Meyer, p. 67). According to Meyer, p. 69, from the sixth to the twelfth centuries, Gaza was an Episcopal See of the Latin Church. In the sixth century, reference is made by Theodosius to a Bishop Suffragan of Gaza. The Archimandrite Metaxakis states that in the Kalendar of the Abyssinian Saints there is a Feast of St. John, Bishop of Gaza, on April 6, but the Ethiopic Kalendar, according to Neale (_History of the Holy Eastern Church_, vol. ii), does not include this name. Conder (_Quarterly Statement_ P. E. F., July 1875, p. 10), asserts that the Bishop of Gaza bears the additional title of Mâr Jîryîs to the present day. Sophronius is the titular Archbishop of Gaza in 1913. He is non-resident.