ON ST. THALELAEUS, ANCHORITE IN SYRIA,
AROUND THE YEAR 460.
Preliminary Commentary.
Thalelaeus, anchorite in Syria (St.)
Author G. H.
[1] Gabala was an episcopal city of Syria under the metropolis of Laodicea, between Antioch and Tripoli, on the Syrian sea opposite the island of Cyprus -- called "the city of the Gabalites" below in the Acts of St. Thalelaeus in Theodoret and in the Menaea of the Greeks: from which the dwelling of St. Thalelaeus was twenty stadia distant. The Greeks celebrate his feast day on the 27th of February in their Menaea and in the Lives of Saints published by Maximus Cytheraeus, with this eulogy: On the same day, the memory of our Holy Father Thalelaeus, Confessor. A Cilician by nation, having embraced the ascetic life, he came to the city of the Gabalites: from which he occupied a certain hill, twenty stadia distant, on which there was a shrine of demons. Having set up there a very small hut, he admirably exercised himself in religious labors, emaciated by fastings, vigils, and other mortifications of the body. Whence the demons dwelling in the said shrine disturbed him with many terrors, but he dismissed them shamefully confounded, their weakness having been derided. Then, desiring greater labors, having left this dwelling, he built an exceedingly narrow cell, not corresponding to the size of his body: entering which, he kept his forehead pressed to his knees, and having spent ten years there in piety and holiness, he fell asleep in peace. So far that passage. The following couplet is added in the Menaea:
"Thalelaeus, resplendent, approaches heaven, Crowned with virtues, as with olive branches."
[2] St. Thalelaeus lived in the fifth century of Christ as a contemporary of Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus in the same Syria, who wrote his Life in chapter 28 of the Philotheus, published in the Lives of the Fathers, book 9, and in Greek and Latin in volume 3 of the works of Theodoret with the new translation of Sirmond. Theodoret asserts, moreover, that he narrates what he himself observed with his own eyes. But St. Thalelaeus had not yet died when Theodoret published this religious history before the year 450, since he does not seem to have lived long after the Council of Chalcedon, at which he was present as a very old man.
[3] The Life of Abbot Thalelaeus the Cilician is narrated by John Moschus in chapter 59 of the Spiritual Meadow, or book 10 of the Lives of the Fathers, in these words: Abbot Peter, Presbyter of the same monastery of our Holy Father Sabbas, narrated to us concerning Abbot Thalelaeus the Cilician, that he had spent sixty years in monastic life, never ceasing to weep, and continually saying: "This time has been granted to us for penance, and it will be severely required of us if we have neglected it." On which passage Rosweyde notes that it seems more probable that this is the same person as the Thalelaeus of Theodoret, because both are Cilician and share the same saying about penance. Theodoret saw him, and Moschus heard an account narrated from Peter: thus the times can agree. Add that Peter is not said to have told what he saw: and he could have narrated these things from the reports of others, or from selected passages of the Religious History of Theodoret. John Moschus flourished in the 6th and 7th centuries, and Leontius testifies in the Acts of St. John the Almoner, on the 23rd of January, that Moschus wrote the Life of that saint, who died in the year 616. More fitting to the account of Moschus -- considering both the time and the type of exercise, better known among the religious ascetics of the monastery of St. Sabbas -- would be the identification (if it were to be made) of the Thalelaeus indicated by Moschus as the one whom Cyril mentions in the Life of St. Euthymius the Great, Abbot, January 20, chapter 11, page 313, number 70, in these words: "Those things also must be narrated which John -- the Silentiary, I mean, and Bishop -- and Thalelaeus the Presbyter (both of whom are still present, exercising themselves in the Laura of Blessed Sabbas) have told me." So far Cyril, in that Life written around the year 554: at which time Leontius was Hegumen of the monastery of St. Euthymius, who was succeeded in the year 556 by Gerontius of Medaba, who narrated to John Moschus and Sophronius the Sophist the killing of an anchorite slain in his sight by a Saracen, and the vengeance soon taken by a bird. These things Moschus relates in chapter 21, and we have recounted them on the 19th of February, page 134, number 8, on account of the holy Martyrs who were killed by Saracens in Palestine and are venerated on that day. So much for those anchorites called by the name Thalelaeus, whether each is a different person or they are held to be one and the same.
[4] Different is Thalelaeus the Martyr, inscribed in the Greek Menaea on the 20th of May, whose martyrdom having been related in book 1 of the Sacred Garden, our Raderus judged both this Martyr and the anchorites related by both Theodoret and Moschus to be one and the same: but he later determined them all to be different persons in his observations on the Menaea, not yet published; and the Martyr lived under the Emperor Numerian, much earlier than the others. Another was Thalelaeus, Archbishop of Thessalonica, whose detestable death Moschus describes in chapter 43. Another Thalelaeus, related by the same Moschus in chapter 91, was a former sailor turned anchorite, who foreknew his own death. Hence it is clear that the name Thalelaeus was common to many, and the acts of one should not easily be applied to another.
EPITOME OF THE LIFE
from chapter 28 of Theodoret's Philotheus.
Thalelaeus, anchorite in Syria (St.)
Author: Theodoret.
[1] Nor shall I pass over in silence the account of Thalelaeus, for the spectacle is full of wonder. I did not merely hear others narrating, but I myself saw the admirable and unexpected spectacle. For when he had occupied a hill twenty stadia distant from Gabala (which is a small and elegant city), on which there was a shrine dedicated to demons, and which was honored with many sacrifices by those who from ancient times were impious, he set up a small hut. Now those accursed and execrable ones they perpetually worshipped, striving, as they said, to appease their great cruelty with sacrifices. For they brought destruction upon many, both upon those who approached and those who were neighbors: and not only upon human beings, but also upon donkeys, mules, oxen, and sheep -- not waging war against beasts, but through them also laying snares for human beings.
[2] When therefore they saw him arrive, they attempted to terrify him, but could not, since both faith fortified him and grace fought on his behalf. And so, filled with rage and fury, they made an assault upon the trees that were then planted there: for on that hill there were many fig trees and olive trees, which were flourishing. Of these they say that more than five hundred were suddenly uprooted: and I heard several neighboring farmers narrating this, who formerly were indeed held in the darkness of impiety, but through his teaching and miracles received the light of the knowledge of God. But since those pernicious and wicked demons, after having done this, had not expelled the athlete of philosophy, they again prepared other machinations against him. For at night, howling and displaying torches, they attempted to terrify him and to disturb his mind. But when he laughed at all their assaults, they finally abandoned the place and fled.
[3] He then constructed two wheels, which had a diameter of two cubits, with planks not joined together but separated and spaced apart, and he connected both wheels. Then, having sat inside and having fastened those separated boards with wedges and nails, he suspended the wheel in the open air, with three other tall timbers driven into the ground, their upper ends joined by other beams, and the double wheel tied up in their midst and raised aloft. The interior space has indeed a height of two cubits, but a width of one cubit. Sitting in it, or rather suspended, he has now been there for ten continuous years. And since he has a very large body, he cannot even sit with his neck raised, but always sits bent over, with his face pressed against his knees.
[4] When I went to him, I found him drawing profit from the Gospels; and I questioned him, desiring to know the reason for this novel manner of life. He, using the Greek language -- for he was a Cilician by birth -- said: "I, being liable to many sins and believing in the punishments that are threatened, devised this manner of life, acting so that my body might be chastised with moderate pains in order that I might be rescued from the magnitude of those that are expected. For those are more grievous not only in quantity but also in their very quality: for they are involuntary. That which happens to the unwilling is very painful: but that which is voluntary, even if it is laborious, brings less sorrow; for the effort is spontaneous, not compelled. If, therefore," he said, "by these small afflictions I diminish what is expected, I shall reap great profit from this." Having heard these things, I greatly admired the ingenuity of his intellect: that he not only contended beyond the established boundaries, and devised from his own resources other contests; but that he also knew the reasons for them, and could teach others.
[5] The neighboring inhabitants said that many miracles were also performed through his prayers, with not only human beings but also camels, donkeys, and mules obtaining healing through him. Whence that entire people, which had been held in impiety, renounced its ancestral error and received the splendor of divine light. Using these as ministers, he both demolished the shrine of the demons and raised a great temple, distinguished by the trophies of the Martyrs, opposing to those who were falsely called gods the truly divine dead. May it be granted by their intercessions that he may here attain the end of his contests with the same victory, and that we, aided by both these and him, may become ardent lovers of the contests of philosophy.