76 When he returned to his house
not many days later, he again saw the Lord, saying to him,
77 ‘Aberkios, the time has drawn
near for you to rest from your many labours.’
He awoke and explained to the
brethren what had been in his vision. Realizing that the Lord had informed him
of his own [coming] death, he prepared a tomb for himself, an equal-sided
square, and he placed the altar, which the demon had brought from Rome at his
command, above the tomb, engraving on it a divinely inspired epitaph (θεόπνευστον
ἐπίγραμμα), informative and helpful to those who are worthy of Christ, but
not understandable by the faithless; and, word for word, it went as follows:
‘Citizen of a chosen city, I
constructed this tomb while still living, in order that I might have here a
splendid resting-place for my body. My name is Abercius, disciple of the holy
shepherd, who pastures his flock of sheep on the mountains and plains, and
whose eyes are great and all-seeing. It was he who taught me trustworthy
knowledge, and it was he who sent me to Rome, to see the queen of cities, and
to see a Queen with golden robes and golden shoes. And I saw there a people
with a shining seal; I saw, too, the plain of Syria and all its cities, even
Nisibis, beyond the Euphrates. I found brothers everywhere, with Paul beside me
on my wagon. Everywhere Faith led the way; everywhere it nourished me with the
fish from the spring, great and pure, caught by a holy maiden. Everywhere she
gave the fish to her dear ones to eat, with good wine, handing it to us mixed
with bread. I, Abercius, stood by and dictated this, having reached my
seventy-second year in all truth. Let all who understand and approve these words
pray for Abercius. No one shall bury another in my grave; if he does, he shall
pay 2000 denarii in gold to the Roman fisc and 1000 denarii in gold to my good
homeland of Hierapolis.’ (“Appendix 1–Vita Abercii,” in Paul McKechnie, Christianizing
Asia Minor: Conversion, Communities, and Social Change in the Pre-Constantinian
Era [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019], 286)