Silvanus, bishop of Gaza

Silvanus (2), bp. of Gaza, a martyr in the persecution of Maximin, c. 305. He was a presbyter at its outbreak, and from the very beginning he endured many varied sufferings with the greatest fortitude. Not long before his martyrdom, which was one of the last in Palestine, he obtained the episcopate. Eusebius speaks with high admiration of his Christian endurance, saying that he was "reserved to the last to set the seal, as it were, to the conflict in Palestine" (Eus. H. E. viii. 7, 13). He was decapitated, according to the Roman martyrology, on May 4., 308. Theoph. p. 9; Le Quien, Or. Christ. iii. 605.

[E.V.]