Phosterius

ON ST. PHOSTERIUS, ABBOT.

Phosterius, Abbot (St.)

From the Menaea.

[1] The Menaea on January 5 celebrate St. Phosterius, who is unknown to the other authors I have seen, in the following manner:

[2] "This holy Father of ours, Phosterius, shining forth from the East like a sun, illuminated the West with his splendor. St. Phosterius lives austerely on a cliff. For having ascended a lofty cliff, remote from all noise, he worshiped God with the purest prayers, and by abstinence from food, sleeplessness, sleeping on the ground, and other bodily afflictions, tormenting himself, he truly seemed a star, and with a name matching the reality, he filled the whole world with the radiance of his light.

[3] He excels in chastity. He consecrated his body, kept spotless in chastity, and his mind in holiness, and by guarding the expressed likeness of God in his soul, as he was capable of it, he made himself a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. He is renowned for miracles. Augmented and adorned by God with miracles as well, he drove away all diseases and infirmities of every kind from every condition of men by his prayers; and he received bread from heaven, He receives bread from an Angel. as once the prophet Elijah did: but Elijah received it through a raven, while this man received it by the hand of a heavenly being. It was an Angel, therefore, who each day set aside bread for him in a certain place, with a certain dispensation. And if one, or two, or three or more religious brothers arrived from abroad, just so many loaves were found by themselves in the same place.

[4] Who has ever seen so extraordinary a miracle with his own eyes, or received it by report? But since our prayer can accomplish nothing without God, this gift of God was not granted to him all the way to the end of his life. To the Prophet, indeed, it was given for only some days; but to this blessed man for not a few years, as long, that is, as he pursued the solitary and destitute life. He builds a monastery. But after he erected a cenobium by the help of the Deity and dedicated many monks therein to God, he no longer received his sustenance from heaven as before, but from the daily labor of his hands he provided necessities for all -- not because God could not do this (away with the impious thought! For how could he who fed so many thousands of ungrateful Hebrews in the desert not be able to feed his most faithful and most grateful worshipers and children? The matter is clear). Nor again did God spurn the prayers of the holy man -- far from it! Indeed he never prayed for the withdrawn provision. Matthew 6:33 For Christ says: 'Seek the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added to you.' Nor again is it pleasing to God to nourish our idleness. Hence God commanded his servant Phosterius not to receive anything from another, but to procure everything for himself and his own by the work of his hands. He lives by the labor of his hands. For he accepted nothing from anyone, and from that time he taught his disciples not only by word how they should be occupied in work and how they should devote themselves to the study of prayer and reading, but he showed it to them in reality and by his deeds.

[5] He attends a synod. Moreover, when at that time heresy was raging in the Church of God and many Fathers were assembled and he too was summoned, he did not refuse to come, and having managed the matter well, he aroused the greatest admiration of himself among all, and led many from many sects of errors to the truth. He converts many. By his exhortations he attracted many to the discipline of the monastic life, and he performed many miracles both while living and after death. He died on the fifth of January toward evening."