As Nonnus addressed a church council in Antioch, the town's most famous courtesanMargarita ("Pearl") passed by. Observing her beauty, Nonnus chastised the members of the assembly for taking less care of their souls than she did of her body.[9] She appeared at his next Sundaysermon and Nonnus's sermon on hell prompted her to repent.[9] She wrote him a letter and was permitted to see him with other witnesses; convinced of her sincerity, he took her confession and baptized her by her birth name Pelagia.[9] After being pursued by the devil for a few days, she donated the property from her former employment to the church and lived with the deaconess Romana before departing for Jerusalem to disguise herself as a male hermit under the name Pelagius.[9] The story significantly omits dates and (on 8 occasions) the name of the archbishop under whom Nonnus served.[11][n 3]
The mention of a meeting of the Syrian bishops is unhelpful for dating, as more than thirty Synods of Antioch were conducted in late antiquity. John of Ephesus records a persecution of Baalbek's pagans as late as 580[8] and no record apart from copies of Pelagia's hagiography lists a Nonnus as a bishop of Heliopolis,[21] although his story is sometimes conflated[n 5] with the Nonnus known to have been a bishop of Edessa in Mesopotamia and who attended the 451 Council of Chalcedon.[22][n 6] This Nonnus has been further conflated with the contemporary poet Nonnus of Panopolis, but this is probably a mistake.[27] Another Nonnus present at Chalcedon was the bishop of Zerabenna in Arabia, which lay under the jurisdiction of Antioch.[28]
^It is conventional to date Nonnus and Pelagia to the 5th century—Bunson & al. date his death to c. AD 458[1]—but a form of the story was already appearing in John Chrysostom's sermons in Antioch in 390[2] so, to the extent that the story reflects historical events, its figures date to the late 4th century.[3]
^This is per one of the Georgian versions, with the others leaving it ambiguous where in Syria Nonnus's seat lay.[8]
^One Greek account[12] refers to the archbishop as Flavianus (r. 381–404), although Cameron dismisses its testimony.[4]
^A third St Pelagia of Antioch was St Margaret, whose name derives from its earlier form "Margarita".
^Vossius[23] and Gams[24] argue in favor of Nonnus of Edessa having served as bishop of Heliopolis on the theory that he might have been translated there at the time of the restoration of Bishop Ibas in the early 450s. Tillemont argued against the idea.[25][26]