E05739: John Malalas in his Chronographia mentions a propitiatory procession to the shrine of *Diomedes (physician and martyr of Nicaea, S02161) in Constantinople, after the ominous prophecies of a woman in 541/2. Written in Greek at Antioch (Syria) or Constantinople, in the mid-6th c.

John Malalas, Chronographia, 18.90

Ἰνδικτιῶνος εʹ συνέβη γενέσθαι τοιοῦτον πρᾶγμα. γυνή τις καταμένουσα πλησίον τῆς λεγομένης Χρυσῆς πόρτας χρηματισθεῖσα ἐν μιᾷ νυκτὶ ἐφλυάρησε πολλά, ὥστε συνδραμεῖν τὰ πλήθη Κωνσταντινουπόλεως καὶ ἀπελθεῖν λιτανεύοντα εἰς τὸν ἅγιον Διομήδην εἰς Ἱερουσαλὴμ καὶ καταγαγεῖν τὴν γυναῖκα ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου αὐτῆς καὶ εἰσαγαγεῖν εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ ἁγίου Διομήδους· ἔλεγε γάρ, ὅτι μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας ἀνέρχεται ἡ θάλασσα καὶ πάντας λαμβάνει. καὶ πάντων λιτανευόντων καὶ κραζόντων τὸ ‘κύριε ἐλέησον·’ ἠκούετο γάρ, ὅτι καὶ πόλεις πολλαὶ κατεπόθησαν. τότε δὲ καὶ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ θνῆσις ἀνθρώπων γέγονεν. ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς βασιλεὺς πέμψας Ναρσῆν τὸν κουβικουλάριον μετὰ δρομώνων καὶ ἄλλους τινὰς μαθεῖν τὰ γενόμενα, καὶ ἀπελθόντων τῶν παίδων Ναρσοῦ κατ’ ἐπιτροπὴν αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν ἅγιον Διομήδην καὶ μαθόντων παρὰ τοῦ συναχθέντος ὄχλου τὰ λεγόμενα ὑπὸ τῆς γυναικός, ἐλθόντες ἀπήγγειλαν Ναρσῇ τὰ γενόμενα ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, καὶ ὅτι ἤκουσαν ἀπὸ τῆς γυναικὸς τῆς χρηματισθείσης, ὅτι μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας ἀνέρχεται ἡ θάλασσα καὶ κατακλύζει πάντας. καὶ ἀκούσαντες οἱ ὄχλοι τῶν λεγομένων παρ’ αὐτῆς ἀνεχώρουν πτοούμενοι.

‘In the 5th indiction the following incident took place. A woman living near what is known as the Golden Gate went into ecstasy one night and spoke a lot of nonsense, so that the people of Constantinople came running up and went off in a procession of prayer to Saint Diomedes-in-Jerusalem. They brought the woman out of her house and took her to the church of Saint Diomedes, for she was saying that in three days' time the sea would rise and take everybody. Everybody went in procession of prayer and chanted, "Lord, have mercy", for reports were circulating that many cities had been swallowed up. It was then that men died of a plague in Egypt, including Alexandria. The emperor sent Narses, the cubicularius, and others in fast ships to learn what had happened. When Narses' servants had gone off on his instructions to Saint Diomedes' and learnt from the crowd gathered there what was being said by the woman, they came and reported to Narses what had happened in the church, and also that they had heard from the woman who was in ecstasy that in three days' time the sea would rise and submerge everybody. On hearing what was said by her, the crowds went away in alarm.’

Text: Thurn 2000. Translation: Jeffreys, Jeffreys, and Scott 1986.