According to the testimony of Eusebius of Alexandria, the Christians also shared in the worship of the rising sun, which lasted into the fifth century:
οὐαῖ τοῖς προσκυνοῦσι τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην καὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας. Πολλοῦς γὰρ οἶδα τοὺς προσκυνοῦντασ καὶ εὐχομένους εἰς τὸν ἥλιον. Ἤδη γὰρ άνατείλαντος τοῦ ἡλίου, προσεύχονται καὶ λέγουσιν "Ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς" καὶ οὐ μόνον Ἡλιογνώσται καὶ αἱρετικοὶ τοῦτο ποιοῦσιν ἀλλὰ καὶ χριστιανοὶ καὶ ἀφέντες τὴν πίστιν τοῖς αἱρετικοῖς συναμίγνυνται.[1]
Augustine preached emphatically to the Christians:
"Non est Dominus Sol factus sed per quem Sol factus est—ne quis carnaliter sapiens Solem istum (Christum) intelligendum putaret."
Art has preserved much of the remnants of sunworship,58 thus the nimbus around the head of Christ and the halo of the saints in general. The Christian legends also attribute many fire and light symbols to the saints.59 The twelve apostles, for example, are likened to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and are represented, therefore, with a star over the head.60
It is not to be wondered at that the heathen, as Tertullian avows, considered the sun as the Christian God.
- ↑ Ah! woe to the worshippers of the sun and the moon and the stars. For I know many worshippers and prayer sayers to the sun. For now at the rising of the sun, they worship and say, 'Have mercy on us,' and not only the sun-gnostics and the heretics do this, but also Christians who leave their faith and mix with the heretics."
the sun; he himself is the sun of righteousness, concerning whom Malachi, the prophet, spoke: 'The Lord is the author of light and of darkness, he is the judge spoken of by the prophet as the Sun of righteousness.'"
