Urbicius had the title of Superintendent of the Empire, acting as Superintendent to seven emperors. He himself crowned the heads of these emperors, removed their crowns, and chastised them. Now there is a stone in a place three miles from the city of Jerusalem which my Lady Mary, the Mother of the Lord, blessed when she dismounted from the ass on her way to Bethlehem and sat down on it. This Superintendent Urbicius cut this stone out, shaped it into an altar, and was about to send it to Constantinople. But when he had brought it as far as Saint Stephen's Gate he could move it no further. A yoke of oxen was dragging the stone. So when they found no way to move it any further it was sent back to the Lord's Tomb. There this stone was made into an altar and used for Communion. It is behind my Lord's Tomb. This Superintendent Urbicius died at Constantinople in the reign of the Emperor Anastasius . . . : the earth would not receive Urbicius, but three times his tomb cast him out.
(transl. Wilkinson)
| Bibliography |
|---|