THE LIFE OF ABBA JULIAN, THE BISHOP OF BOSTRA
This same father of ours, George the archimandrite, also told us about Abba Julian, who became bishop of Bostra. After he left the community and became bishop of Bostra, certain affluent citizens who were enemies of Christ wanted to do away with him by poison. They corrupted his butler with money and gave him some poison to drop into the cup when he poured a drink for the metropolitan bishop. The servant did as they told him.
When he had given the poisoned cup to the godly Julian, the bishop received it, but by divine inspiration, he knew of the conspiracy and of those who had perpetrated it. So he took the cup and set it down in front of himself without saying a word to the servant. He sent and summoned all the chief citizens, amongst whom were those who had engineered this conspiracy against him.
Now, the godly Julian did not wish to make a public disgrace of the guilty ones. He said to them all in a gentle voice, “If you thought you could destroy the humble Julian with poisons, look; I will drink this in full view of you all.” He made the sign of the cross three times over the cup with his finger and, with the words, “I drink this cup in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,” drank it down before them all—and remained unharmed. When they saw this, they cast themselves down before him in an act of repentance.