Tact

Theonas was bishop of Alexandria from about 282 to 300, following Maximus. His term covered the last long stretch of peace the Egyptian church would have before the Great…

Sextus Julius Africanus was a man of affairs before he was a scholar. He served in the Roman army, traveled in Egypt and the East, and knew the imperial court well enough to be…

Zephyrinus was bishop of Rome from about 199 to 217 — eighteen years, one of the longest terms of the early church, and one of the most contested. He took the chair as the…

Philastrius was bishop of Brescia in northern Italy in the second half of the fourth century. He died before 397, since in that year his successor Gaudentius preached the…

Sahdona — the Syriac name means roughly the same as the Greek Martyrius, and he is known by both — came from Halmon in the region of Beth Nuhadra, in what is now northern Iraq…