And there presided at that time over the community of the faithful there a man most renowned for his learning, Pantaenus by name—a school of the sacred studies having from an ancient custom been established among them, which continues even down to our own time, and which we have received as being constituted of men powerful in eloquence and in zeal for divine things. And especially at that period the aforesaid man is reported to have been pre-eminent, as one who had set out from the philosophical training of those called Stoics.
They say, then, that he displayed such eagerness, with a most ardent disposition, concerning the divine word, that he was even appointed a herald of the gospel of Christ to the nations in the East, and went forth as far as the land of the Indians. For there were, there were still at that time, many evangelists of the word, taking care to contribute a godly zeal of apostolic imitation toward the increase and building up of the divine word.
Of whom Pantaenus too having become one, he is said also to have come to the Indians, where the report is that he found, having anticipated his coming, the Gospel according to Matthew among certain there who had come to know Christ—to whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached, and had left them the writing of Matthew in the very letters of the Hebrews, which also was preserved down to the time indicated.
Pantaenus, however, after many achievements, presides at the end over the school in Alexandria, expounding the treasures of the divine doctrines both by the living voice and through written works.