Theodoulus and Companions

ON THE HOLY MONK-MARTYRS: THEODULUS THE PRIEST, PAUL, JOHN, PROCLUS, HYPATIUS, ISAAC, MACARIUS, MARK, BENJAMIN, ELIAS, AND OTHERS, NEAR MOUNT SINAI IN ARABIA.

Fifth Century.

Theodulus the Priest, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Benjamin, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Elias, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Other Monk-Martyrs in Arabia Hypatius, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) John, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Isaac, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Macarius, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Mark, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Paul, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Proclus, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.)

[1] We have mentioned above that thirty-eight monks were slain by barbarians at the beginning of the fourth century on Mount Sinai, or at its base. On the same day on which their slaughter had either been committed or their celebration was customarily held, The feast of these Saints. others were massacred in the same place a century later—whom the Roman Martyrology and others confused with the former, as we said; Baronius distinguished them in his Notes. Galesinius, writing of the later ones (as is clear from his Notes) and of the Raithu Martyrs, writes thus: "In Greece, of the holy monks who, inhabiting Mount Sinai and the region of Raithu, constantly devoted to prayer and exercising themselves in all piety, were killed for religion." The German Martyrology has the same, but on January 13.

[2] Their contest was described by St. Nilus the monk, witnessed by him with his own eyes. The Acts written by St. Nilus the monk. Nilus had used the great Chrysostom as his teacher in both kinds of philosophy, as Nicephorus Callistus testifies, book 14, chapter 53; who in the following chapter writes of him thus: "The admirable Nilus's homeland was Constantinople, and because of his outstanding nobility of birth he had been its Prefect. Though abounding in power and wealth, he preferred the ascetic life to these, since, following the example of the divine David, he chose to be cast down in the house of God rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners. And since he was endowed with the power of eloquence and strengthened by the sinews of divine grace, he left behind various writings which instruct the practice of monastic life, so composed in words and ideas as to refresh the reader's mind with incredible grace. He also wrote of the death—or rather, the martyrdom—of the divine Fathers on Mount Sinai, with such eloquence and feeling that one may readily gather from it how outstanding that man was in both learning and virtue; where he also briefly mentions his own affairs and those of his sons, setting forth their captivity most pitifully, as in a tragedy, when the barbarian Blemmyes in their raid wrought great slaughter. This little work he left as a kind of spiritual delight for the studious." So Nicephorus. St. Nilus is honored on November 12, when we shall treat of his other writings, some of which survive in volume 5, part 2, of the Bibliotheca Patrum. The Menaea of the Greeks and the Anthologion record nearly the same things as Nicephorus here: "These men, out of desire for the religious life, having bidden farewell to all worldly things, inhabited the desert. With them also the blessed Nilus dwelt, who had been Prefect of the city of Constantinople; who, illustrious in eloquence and powerful in the grace of the Holy Spirit, published most noble books pertaining to the practice of the religious life, and described the manner of life, the captivity, and the slaughter of these holy Fathers. For they were killed by Barbarians called Blemmyes, who ravaged the wilderness from Arabia all the way to Egypt and the Red Sea."

[3] Baronius also, in his Notes to the Martyrology, when he treats of the Raithu Martyrs, confuses the Blemmyes and the Saracens: They were killed not by the Blemmyes, but by the Saracens. "They were slain," he says, "during an incursion of the Saracens who are called Blemmyes." But it is clear from Vopiscus that the Blemmyes are different from the Saracens; for in his Life of Aurelian he writes: "Besides the captives of barbarian nations—Blemmyes, Axomites, Arabs of Arabia Felix, Indians, Bactrians, Iberians, Saracens, Persians—each with their own gifts." And a little later: "Saracens, Blemmyes, Axomites, Bactrians," etc., "venerated him almost as a present god." Ammianus too writes that the Saracens, taken in the broadest sense, extend to the cataracts of the Nile and the borders of the Blemmyes. But more about the Blemmyes below. That this slaughter of the Saints was perpetrated by those who inhabit Arabia Petraea is clear from St. Nilus himself, below in chapter 4. We have collated his history, formerly published by Lipomanus and then by Surius, with a Greek manuscript.

[4] Zacharias Lippeloo says that this slaughter of the Saints happened in the year 499, The time of the slaughter. the ninth year of Anastasius. Cedrenus writes that in the tenth and eleventh years of Anastasius the Saracens ravaged Phoenicia and Syria; but it is not plausible that St. Nilus, who had been a disciple of Chrysostom (now nearly 100 years dead), could have been so vigorous and fit for travel at that time. The celebration of these holy Fathers and of Theodulus together is held, as will be said below from the Menaea, in the church of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul near the orphanage, where their relics were translated. Relics.

HISTORY BY ST. NILUS THE MONK.

(a)

Theodulus the Priest, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Benjamin, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Elias, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Other Monk-Martyrs in Arabia Hypatius, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) John, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Isaac, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Macarius, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Mark, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Paul, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.) Proclus, Monk-Martyr in Arabia (S.)

By St. Nilus.

CHAPTER I.

St. Nilus in Pharan mourns his son.

[1] After the incursion of the Barbarians, as I wandered, I came to (b) Pharan. Certain people who were there, when they had heard me Praise of the solitary life. praise the eremitic life, themselves also added many praises from their own experience, saying that it was full of tranquillity and free from every disturbance; (c) in that it amplifies by silence and quiet the state of the soul that philosophizes about things unseen, and leading it as it progresses through these, brings it close to the knowledge of God—which indeed all the wise men from the beginning of the world consider, as with one tongue and one mind, to be the ultimate object of desire and the supreme blessedness.

[2] But as I watched them with tearful and downcast eyes, and lamented most pitiably (for I was sitting greatly disturbed on account of the troubles St. Nilus is asked the cause of his grief. that had befallen me, and my very face plainly announced my calamity), after they had seen this, still perhaps wishing to continue the thread of their discourse, they turned aside slightly from the direct path, and at the same time sat down in a circle, and then after a little silence, beginning to speak again, they earnestly and with a certain compassion asked me the reason why I was so disturbed. But when at their request I wept still more bitterly (for their questioning about what had happened stirred up a greater disturbance in my mind, and compelled me once again to contemplate the events as though they were present), they said again: "Surely, old man, it was not something we said that caused you grief? Or, weeping over some error in our judgment, have you found us speaking falsely? For our very countenance and tears of the eyes reveal no small inner sadness." Such were their words. But I said to them:

[3] "O Fathers and brothers, what shall I say to you first? And to what shall I respond, when already a cloud of sorrow casts darkness upon my mind? For I myself am of your opinion, as you see. Knowing, moreover, how great is the profit of solitude, I (d) long ago admired it; and having resolved, out of desire for it, to leave everything—house, homeland, kindred, friends, relatives, possessions—I gave myself entirely to it. But it has destroyed for me the one who was dearest of all; and it has left me alone, as you can see, bereft of every consolation; and therefore the disturbance of my soul does not allow me to praise it at all, since the heavy evil that has befallen me has, as it were, overcome the tyranny of desire. But (oh, folly!) I have gone on to philosophize, having left off lamenting for my son, and my thought has found leisure—a thought which even now has taken up nothing else to think about except the slaughter of (e) Theodulus. For his image remains perpetually in my mind, apprehending in various ways and by diverse modes the manner in which his killing was done; He mourns his son Theodulus. and I seem to hear a pitiful voice, and I behold him rolling himself recklessly on the ground from the blow, grasping with my mind those things which it was fitting to have learned by sight when present. Alas, my pitiable son, whether you still live or are dead! O bitter servitude, if you have escaped death! O unburied burial, Or mourns him as wretchedly enslaved. if the barbaric sword has finished you! Shall I lament the servitude? Shall I weep for the death? For if you survive (which probability does not allow me to believe—for when was the barbaric hand not ready to kill, serving its rage, always thirsting for human blood?), how is it with you now? Surely daily beatings, and utterly inhuman commands, and threats without pardon, and violence. To these are added the heaviest labors, exceeding your strength, and a custody from which there is no escape, and absolutely no hope of freedom: indeed also a daily fear of death, which keeps the sword near; for the barbarian knows how to measure his anger so that he uses not whips or switches for beatings, but imposes one punishment for both small and great offenses—death. Indeed, even without any sin, whether raging in drunkenness or yielding to a reckless impulse and thoughtless appetite, he has easily learned by habit to make sport of others' destruction."

[4] But if you are dead, where did you receive the slaying of your body? Whence did the streams of your blood flow? or slain. How did you quiver, bespattered with black gore, and dance the death-bringing dance on your wretched feet? How did you supplicate the barbarian who was killing you, seeking to soften his cruelty with pitiful gestures? For neither of you understood the other's language—in which one might aptly and harmoniously compose a prayer and often bend an angry soul to mercy. What place received your body? What wild beasts tore apart your limbs? What birds were sated with your flesh? What star, rising, beheld the hidden parts of your belly and looked upon your spilled entrails? What overcame the savage teeth of beasts—whether because something remained after their satiety, or because on account of its hardness it was left unconsumed? And that thing indeed lies exposed to the open sun, and on account of the solitude has obtained no burial at all. If someone had brought this to me and given it, or had led me and set me beside it, I would have at least some small consolation of grief, as if addressing a living and sentient member left behind—whether it were bone, or flesh, or hair, whatever might be seen. For those whose adversities are moderate in their calamities have a great advantage even amid their misfortunes, and truly fill themselves with a kind of secondary pleasure, while they tend those who belong to them through a long illness, and receive by length of time their fill of seeing them, and sit beside them as they fail and give up the ghost, and hear their last words, and follow them as they are carried out, and see the final seal placed upon the sepulchre. All of which things indeed bring great consolation to the one who mourns—the funeral procession, I say, and the burial, and the sympathy of friends, lightening the sorrow of the soul.

[5] But with which of these shall I console my grief, who do not even know how he died, nor possess a likeness of the dead man expressed in a vision, such as he was at the end? For those whose features memory has not committed to its keeping have forms that are unstable and indeterminate, expressed now in one way and now in another, tormenting the mind that is deceived by the variety of images. O uncertainty of evils! O uncertain calamity! I know not what to bewail first; what to lament, I am ignorant. Shall I mourn the dead, or the living? The bound, or him entirely removed from our midst? Him enduring bitter servitude, or him slain by a wretched slaughter? For a captive is subject and exposed to every insult, and is unwillingly subjected to punishments and torments, inasmuch as it is in the power of his master to pronounce whatever sentence he wishes. O you who until this present day were my companion in all the things of life, and alone you have experienced the danger of captive servitude! You were a companion of my long pilgrimage, you felt with me the hardships in a foreign land, you shared in the affliction of solitude. He wishes himself joined to him. Isaac, in those things which seemed good to our father, you imitated his obedience. How then have you now alone undergone the ultimate calamity, and alone do you endure the evils of captivity? Why then, on account of mercy, did I escape the danger of the sword? Why did not the cruel hand add me to the other dead? But I was spared, perhaps to experience still greater evils; and because my brief deliverance was begrudged me, so that I might now feel long grief for you. But great sorrow of soul furnishes me these things to say. Since, however, I see that you too are touched with compassion along with me, and are no differently affected than he who suffered (and the proof of what I say is both your intense listening and your continual sighing), I shall narrate to you all my affairs one by one, as they stand—and especially if you will grant me a brief leisure for listening, and no pressing matter calls you to your own affairs. For you yourselves also know that a narrative is burdensome if the mind is distracted, and indeed produces weariness and annoyance.

a The title in the Greek manuscript was: Νείλου μοναχοῦ, εἰς τὴν ἀναίρεσιν τῶν ἐν Σινᾷ καὶ Ραϊθοῦ ἁγίων πατέρων ἀναιρεθέντων. Κε εὐλόγησον. "Of Nilus the monk, on the slaughter of the holy Fathers killed in Sinai and Raithu. Lord, give the blessing." This title appears to have been added by another hand, for St. Nilus does not treat of the Raithu Fathers.

b Pharan, or Faran, is a city near the Saracens according to Eusebius and St. Jerome, distant a three-day journey from Aila—not from the Court of Pharaoh, as our Bonfrerius reads and interprets. The desert of Pharan is also mentioned in Sacred Scripture, but more remote from the Arabian Gulf, near which Ptolemy places the town of Phara in table 4 of Asia, in Arabia Petraea.

c The Greek reads: ὡς ἐμφιλοσοφοῦσαν τοῖς ὁρωμένοις, πλατύνων ἡσυχίᾳ τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν κατάστασιν, καὶ διὰ τούτων ὁδῷ προβαίνουσαν, ἐγγὺς ἄγων τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ θεοῦ. "So as to broaden, by the tranquillity of the soul, the state of one philosophizing upon visible things, and through these advancing by the way, drawing near to the knowledge of God."

d Hence, and from what is said in the following chapter, and from the age of St. Theodulus, already mature enough for the priesthood, it can be conjectured that Nilus had spent at least several years in solitude before these events occurred.

e Surius has "Theodosij," erroneously.

CHAPTER II.

With his son, his wife consenting, he seeks the desert.

[6] When they had heard these things, showing both by countenance and voice that they would gladly do what I asked: "What other leisure," they said, "is more excellent than to care for an anguished heart and to drain the sorrow of a soul that is afflicted? For the soul is lightened of its distress when, through the narration of painful things, the sorrow of the mind is, as it were, emptied out—not unlike some cloud from which drops of rain distill— He is asked to set forth his misfortunes. inasmuch as the gloom is gradually purged away. Just as, conversely, it festers in silence, as if some moist pus were continually flowing and spreading in a wound, with no means of being drained." They seemed therefore to speak reasonably. When they had so spoken, I begin to fulfill my promise, speaking thus:

[7] I, poor wretch, O friends, had two sons—this one who has now been the occasion of my grief, and another who remained with his mother. After receiving them, I dissolved the marital bond with my wife, Having begotten sons, he abstained from his wife: judging that these were sufficient either for the continuation of the family or for the service of my old age. A certain vehement desire drew me to come here, and I was wholly intent in my soul upon quiet and silence, nor could I think of or look upon anything other than this. For when the desire of any thing has invaded the soul, it forcibly draws it away from all things—even from good things and those to which one's zeal ought to be directed—and carries it toward the thing desired, ceasing from pursuit on account of no labor or fatigue. When therefore it commanded me to go abroad, and it was not permitted to resist one who thus commands tyrannically, I took my sons (they were still quite small) and brought them to their mother; and one I delivered to her, but the other I kept with me. And I declared what I had resolved, and firmly asserted that I would by no means be turned from this decision.

[8] She, however, who had been trained beforehand not to contradict, and seeing at that time my countenance which would not brook entreaty, she consenting, he departs with his son to the wilderness, unable to resist, and altogether unable to restrain her tears, permits me to go abroad, yielding rather to necessity than consenting by her will. For when she saw my firm and steadfast judgment, and considered within herself the pain of separation—disregarding what might be distressing to her, she looked to what would be pleasing to me, preferring to yield in those matters in which, even if she wished, she could not prevail. You know surely how great a thing is the separation of those who have been united by the bond of lawful marriage, and who have become one body by the mysterious counsel of Him who joined them. For in such cases the pain of separation is no less than if a sword were cutting the body. I, however, admired the strength of desire, when I saw that it had conquered both nature and long-standing habit; for I measured how great it was from the fact that it loosed insoluble bonds, which only death knows how to loose, and which—because sensation ceases—brings it about that distress is no longer felt. But in the living, sensation sends a more vehement and indeed intolerable grief—as it recalls both the habits of life and natural affection. Of this I, on account of my desire for a greater good, took no account, as one who was hastening more ardently toward the goal of retirement. This made me a lover of this quiet and silence, He lives long in quiet there. and led me to the longed-for solitude; and it brought it about that I lived joyfully for a long time, enjoying great tranquillity, sailing with a favorable wind toward my goal—until a tempest, which I know not whence or how it blew, brought in that storm which harassed the innumerable hosts of holy bodies, even though it did not plunge them into the deep. For it only battered the vessel, and yet inflicted no loss of cargo upon them. For when the helmsmen had taken the whole burden upon themselves, and had turned their prows from the sea toward heaven, leaving to the pirates those planks that were loosened, they put in to the port of God.

a Surius has "to bear it ill." The Greek words argue against this: ὄψοι τε καὶ φωνῇ τὸ πρὸς τὴν ἐρώτησιν εὐειδὲς ἐνδειξάμενοι.

b He does not mean that she consented unwillingly to continence, but that she did not dare resist her husband's pilgrimage.

c So the Greek manuscript. Surius has "soluit" he loosed.

CHAPTER III.

Divine providence sometimes dissimulates offenses for a time.

[9] They, taking up the discourse again, said: "And in what manner, O brother, were the Saints slain? And how were those who served God without reproach delivered to impious and wicked men, and became the sport of a barbarous right hand? And did the power of providence stand idle, looking on at such a deed, neither undertaking to prevent the assault, nor again striking the shameless with blindness—or even drying up those iniquitous hands which were raised against the pious—such things as the Scriptures relate were often done for blessed men? For the Babylonians," they said, "who once unjustly made war against Hezekiah, returned with their purpose unaccomplished; and not only were they unable to harm those whom they were plundering, but moreover they lost many of their own forces, The slaughter of Sennacherib's forces. inasmuch as they had all been put to sleep together with the entire army, while only a small number were found alive in the morning—for there were one hundred and eighty-five thousand slain. But how they had been slain, or who had slain them, they could not at all say; but in a single night, by the work of a single Angel, so great a slaughter was made in silence, and all lay there and were thought to be sleeping rather than dead—for they bore no sword-wound, and their souls had been taken from them all at once: truly dead, yet bearing no mark of killing, they long left what had happened in doubt. 4 Kings 19; Isaiah 37. For each person nearby pricked the next to wake him from sleep, but he was utterly immobile; called out, and he remained mute; searched his body, and it was unwounded; sought the breath in his nostrils, and it was bereft of what was sought—until the morning sun, shining forth, showed what had happened, the color of those who had been slain displaying the signs of death.

[10] And again the Assyrians who had attacked Elisha and were seeking the Saint for slaughter; and the Sodomites who were besieging Lot—Other examples of divine protection. were struck with blindness by Angels in the house, given over to the mockery and derision of those they sought, since they wished to do them injury altogether. 4 Kings 6; Genesis 19. For the one group, groping with their hands, sought the door; while the others did not know where they were going, perhaps having close by the one who was sought, yet unable to approach him. And one unarmed man was followed by so great a captive multitude of enemies, who could easily have been destroyed by ditches and precipices, had the one who led them so wished; and they were finally saved only when, by the Prophet's providence, they received their sight and could see the road that led them to their own land. Nor indeed these things alone: but also when the Prophet once rebuked the impious King for his iniquity, since, moved by irrational anger, he had armed his hand for the Prophet's slaughter—thus by the will of God his hand remained altogether raised and completely immobile, as if it belonged to a statue rather than a man; for no other reason than that the Prophet's body might remain unharmed. 3 Kings 13. How then did those who were recently put to death die without aid, and the will of their killers easily accomplished the deed, with nothing grave opposing from any quarter?"

[11] I, beginning again to speak, said: "But why is it necessary for you to raise the subject of providence? Who is capable of comprehending the secret judgments of God, so as to demonstrate the equity of the Lord's dispensation amid such difficulty of affairs? For human reasoning is feeble for scrutinizing these things, and falls defeated, because no path lies open to comprehension—since it finds no reason consonant with logic to accommodate to the things that happen. For many such things have often occurred, and the plots of the wicked have reached their end, while justice has passed over the punishment of what was perpetrated in silence and restrained vengeance—since it entirely reserves the examination of such matters for the day of judgment. For how did Cain, moved by envy, slay Abel, to whom God had given the testimony of piety—Cain who first caused grief to his parents, since they had never seen a dead man nor had any experience of death at all? How then did he pass without punishment, who so provoked God to anger by the first murder perpetrated, and in the new creation diminished the race that had only just begun to grow, God often does not punish the wicked here. and neither as a brother pitied him who had been his companion in birth and upbringing, and who in so vast an expanse of land was going to live together with his parents and take from them the misery of solitude? How moreover did the wickedly-acting Jezebel order Naboth to be stoned, because he had not yielded to her the possession of his vineyard? How moreover did three hundred and sixty priests fall by the single sword of Doeg? Or again, how was an infinite multitude of the just cut off in Jerusalem, and exposed to be devoured by beasts and birds? Of whom also the Psalmist, weaving his lamentations, says: 'They have laid the dead bodies of your servants as food for the birds of heaven, the flesh of your Saints for the beasts of the earth. Psalm 78:3. They have poured out their blood like water around Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.' How moreover did the companies of Prophets and Apostles die by violent and unjust hands—sawn asunder, killed, stoned—who not only had done nothing worthy of death, but many of them had even conferred benefits upon those who killed them? For I pass over speaking of the age of infants, who had not experienced evil: how some were drowned in the waters of the river by Pharaoh's command, while others cruelly perished by the sword at Herod's command—who, before they had tasted the pleasant things of life, experienced the trial of mortal pain, lest perchance that King, whom he suspected, should grow up undetected."

[12] "And in all these things the Judge remained at rest, allowing the insolence of murderers to proceed unpunished Many things are reserved for the day of judgment. and without any hindrance. For He has set the day of judgment as the appointed time for recompensing the things that have been done. And therefore He is meanwhile patient, as one who reserves the transgression of laws and the account of life lived for that time."

[13] "But these matters are neither for the present occasion nor within my capacity for speech, as I said before, and they require much time and understanding so that they may be duly measured by divine justice. But the things that press me to speak of what happened to me, those I shall now relate; and perhaps I shall feel somewhat lighter, my pain being a little abated. For I cannot bear the memory of what I actually saw; for I do not know how I survived the experience of that thing whose very recollection I can scarcely endure. Indeed I am almost angry even at my own eyes, which were the cause of the images at which, while I am compelled to gaze, I have a perpetually stinging pain—by night indeed in dreams, and by day tormenting me with thoughts. For care does not at all release me when I sleep, nor does it allow me to sleep without anxiety. But then too a certain vision of the things that were done disturbs me, and shows images of one recently slain and quivering; and as if on account of the recent calamity, it renews my grief once more. It is necessary therefore, since the sequence of the narrative demands it, first to describe the life of the Saints who were in those places, and to set forth the way of life of the barbarians who invaded—so that the body of the history, fittingly composed as is proper, may be complete, with nothing omitted of those things which the studious ought to know."

a Elsewhere too you will find Assyrians used to denote those who are Syrians; and conversely Syrians for those who are commonly called Assyrians.

b So the manuscript; but Surius has six hundred and thirty-six. 1 Kings 22:18 records only eighty-five slain by Doeg.

CHAPTER IV.

The customs of the Saracens.

[14] Now the nation in question inhabits the wilderness which extends from Arabia all the way to Egypt, bounded on either side by the Red Sea and the Jordan; which never practices any art, nor commerce, nor agriculture, but has only the sword to provide its sustenance. For either they live by hunting the wild beasts of the wilderness and feeding on their flesh; or by plundering those who fall upon the roads which they beset, The sustenance of Arabian brigands, they somehow procure for themselves what is necessary for use. When, however, both of these fail them and they suffer want of necessities, then they use their beasts of burden (which are dromedary camels) for food, choosing altogether a bestial and bloodthirsty life. For by clans or by companies they slaughter one, and softening the toughness of the flesh with a little heat of fire, just enough that it yields to their teeth, they are fed (to say it once) like dogs.

[15] Not knowing God—neither the one apprehended by the intellect, nor one fashioned by hands—they worship the morning star, and sacrifice to it at its rising those things they judge best from their spoils, deity, whenever from a raid undertaken for plunder something suitable for slaughter has come to them. To offer boys is a great zeal among those who excel both in beauty victims, and in the vigor of youth. Upon certain heaps of stones they sacrifice them in the morning. This indeed, O friends, greatly disturbs and distresses me—lest perchance the beauty of the boy, having something that might move the wicked and entice them to perform their impious worship according to custom, should have seemed useful for that purpose; and the body of a chaste soul should have been offered by the impure as a sacrifice to cruel demons who delight in slaughter—since those who offer these sacrifices are accustomed to be moved by no pity for the boys who are slain, even if they do everything, even if they lament in supplication with the voices of Sirens. The rite and time of sacrifice, But whenever they lack a body for such a sacrifice, they take a white and unblemished camel, and making it kneel, they go around the prostrate beast three times with the whole multitude of the people going in a circle. And one of the Kings, or one of the priests venerable for their age, leads both the procession and the chant which they perform to the star. After the third circuit, while the people have not yet finished the chant and still have the final part of the hymn upon their lips, he strikes its neck mightily with a drawn sword, and is the first to taste the blood with great eagerness; and thus the rest, running up with swords, some cut off some small piece of skin with the hair; others, snatching whatever they can, cut portions from the flesh; still others proceed even to the entrails and intestines, leaving no part of the victim unconsumed that could afterward be seen by the appearing sun. For they do not refrain even from the bones and marrow, overcoming hardness by persistence and at last conquering resistance by perseverance. Change of habitation. And this indeed is the barbarians' manner of life and religion; and living thus in the wilderness, they exchange one place for another, making camp wherever they find pasture for their beasts and abundant water.

a Arabia Petraea is bounded on the west by part of Egypt, on the north by Palestine, on the south by Arabia Felix, and on the east by Arabia Deserta. From the inlet of the Red Sea near Pharan, the Melanes or Black Mountains The Saracens. extend almost as far as Judaea, as Ptolemy records. To the west of these mountains, toward Egypt, the Saracens dwell—who are also called Ishmaelites. But they called themselves Saracens, as George Cedrenus writes, since they resented being called Hagarenes in servile fashion, after Hagar the mother of Ishmael. Salmasius rejects this derivation and prefers to derive it from Saraca, a city of Arabia. The same people were called Scenite Arabs because they dwelt under tents, and Nomads because they changed their pastures, being wanderers and unstable—though there were other Scenites and Nomads in the same Arabia and beyond the Red Sea, all of whom seem to have been subsequently called Saracens. For Ammianus Marcellinus, book 14, writes that the Saracens' origin extends from the Assyrians to the cataracts of the Nile and the borders of the Blemmyes. The same author, book 22, concerning Egypt: "On the side which faces the east, it stretches beyond the cities of Elephantine and Meroe of the Ethiopians, the cataracts, the Red Sea, and the Scenite Arabs, whom we now call Saracens."

b Ammianus writes similar things about the Saracens in book 14, and calls them a pernicious nation.

c That is, runners, so named from their swiftness; of this kind are those which have long legs, Dromedaries. slender and lean bodies. They are also called dromidae and dromedae.

d In the third life of St. Simeon Stylites by Metaphrastes, January 5, no. 20, many Ishmaelites are said to have renounced the rites of Venus (who was their goddess); where we said from Evagrius that a golden statue of Venus was melted down by one of their chieftains and distributed to the poor. And in the life of St. Hilarion: "The Eluseni worship Venus on account of Lucifer, to whose cult the Saracen nation is devoted."

CHAPTER V.

The holy life of the Sinaite Fathers.

[16] Those who practice the solitary and quiet life, having chosen certain places in the wilderness The admirable abstinence of the hermits. where they can somehow satisfy the body's needs with an abundance of water—some with fixed huts, others hidden in caves and grottoes—live in this manner, pursuing virtue. A few know nourishment from grain, namely whoever can compel the barren wilderness by effort and diligence to produce wheat; they work a small amount of poor soil with a small hoe, and only as much as necessity requires for living in poverty. But many eat raw vegetables and berries, embracing a table that is artless and furnished with no seasonings, bidding a hearty farewell to the fastidiousness of those who prepare delicacies and bake bread—lest, if they spent much time in tending the body, they should be negligent in that which it is rather proper to persevere in; but rather that they might worship God with a pure mind, having their thoughts unburdened by the heaviness of meats, nor flattering the pleasure of the belly with a variety of foods. For they not only renounced every quality of pleasant things, but also, on account of a certain overflowing abstinence, extended their contest further even to quantity, taking only so much of the most necessary things as sufficed for living, lest dying a violent death they be deprived of the reward of their good and honorable labors. Therefore some take food on the Lord's Day, remaining fasting for all seven days; others halve the time, remembering nourishment twice in the week; still others every other day. And all of these, through this practice of abstinence, show that they love that which needs nothing, and almost vie with the life of Angels; yet they serve the laws of nature and yield to the body's necessities—but scarcely at last, when they have felt their strength exhausted by the great labors of virtue.

[17] Generosity, Among them the coin of Caesar is not known even by hearsay. For they know neither selling nor buying. Each one freely provides to everyone what is needed; freely receiving in turn what he himself lacks. Charity, The fruits of vegetables and berries, and a rare loaf of bread, constitute their mutual generosity, which from what is at hand shows signs of charity and abundantly indicates their munificence of soul even in these small gifts. Nor has envy, Humility. which is accustomed especially to pursue good works, ever found a place there; nor has the excellence of one who shone more brightly provoked to jealousy him who was less abounding in goods. Just as neither did arrogance puff up the one against the other, seducing him to a glorious opinion of himself, so that his accomplishments might make him proud. For he who excelled in virtue, ascribing all things not to his own labors but to the power of God, was able to conduct himself with moderation—as one persuaded that he was not by himself the maker of good and honorable things, but was an instrument of the grace working in him. And he who in turn was inferior in these things, perhaps on account of bodily weakness, willingly humbled himself, attributing his shortcoming to the sluggishness of his soul, not to the weakness of nature. Thus each was more moderate than the other, and all more moderate than all, striving to excel not in a grand opinion of themselves and in great pride, but in the riches of virtue. For this reason, fleeing the inhabited land, they dwell in the wilderness, wishing to display their good deeds not to men but to God—from whom they also hope for the recompense of the things they rightly do. For to make manifest before men the actions that proceed from God simultaneously destroys both the ready zeal of the soul and the reward: the former being weakened by arrogance, the latter diminished by the praises that come from men. For he who seeks human glory on account of what he does, having received the reward he sought, falls from the true one—as one overcome by human glory, and therefore deprived of the real.

[18] They make their dwellings not close to one another, but at a considerable distance apart, The interval between cells, being twenty stadia and more distant from one another—not on account of hatred (for how could those who are so disposed toward one another, as has been described?) but because they wish to form and mold their characters in great quiet and silence to what is pleasing to God, and strive to maintain an undivided communion with God. Which indeed is either difficult to accomplish rightly in a crowd and tumult, or cannot be accomplished at all. On the Lord's Days, however, they come to one church The Sunday assembly, and meet one another after one week—lest a perfect separation sunder the bond of concord, gradually inducing forgetfulness of their mutual duties. For an excessively intense solitude tends to produce ungracious and uncouth manners, which through long habit unlearn the fellowship and communion of charity.

[19] Accordingly they share in the divine sacraments, and entertain one another with a feast of discourse on appropriate exercises, Mutual exhortations, and instruct one another with exhortations pertaining to conduct. For the life devoted to virtue has the greatest need of these things for its contests, publishing the hidden stratagems of adversaries—lest anyone be captured by them who is ignorant of the method of fighting. For those for whom the materials and images of things are absent, in their case sin is indeed idle as regards action. But all the warfare consists in the mind. Here death is for the most part easy and uncertain to those who observe what is external—since it consists in the assent of the will, which lacks witnesses. Therefore those who are well trained for the contest admirably instruct the inexperienced and those who are now approaching the struggle for the first time, counseling through abstinence to resist firmly the vice of gluttony. For he who has given himself over to the pleasure of food is easily overthrown by the vice that lies beneath the belly, in that, being conquered by the lesser, Especially to guard against gluttony, he promises a greater fall. And these things, as we said, those who are already advanced, and who through long time and practice have acquired sufficient experience of these matters, urge upon those who are still beginners.

[20] Among themselves the more perfect mutually forbid vainglory and pride, And vainglory. bidding each to beware of them no less than of rocks that lie hidden in the sea near the harbor—which, after a long voyage, bring to a final and grievous peril those who, in the greatest waves of vices and the tempest of impure thoughts, did not wreck their ship. For many who had never been broken by the assaults of temptations, but had completed their whole course unharmed, having often after their victory trusted in the habit of their good deeds, or having exalted themselves against those who seemed to conduct themselves more negligently, fell with a most lamentable fall. For vainglory deprives of those rewards which are given for labor, and renders the work useless to those who toil. And arrogance and pride bring loss and know how to create great danger, inasmuch as they deny that God is the co-worker of honorable deeds, and attribute to themselves the power of the things rightly accomplished. And of those the Prophet thus says: "He who gathers wages gathers them into a bag with holes"—so that what is not yet put in already flows out; what does not long remain in the vessel, but soon runs through the vessel. Haggai 1:6. For such is vainglory: it has destruction concurrent with gain, inasmuch as in the very work it destroys what comes from it. But of others, the author of Proverbs says: "The Lord resists the proud," exhibiting as an implacable enemy Him who was despised, against those who despised Him. Proverbs 3:34, according to the LXX.

[21] And therefore, meditating in their minds upon the citizens of that wilderness—Moses, I say, and Elijah—they strive with great zeal to practice their freedom from pride and arrogance, deeming it right that they should also imitate the virtue of those whose region they inhabit. For the greatness of his command did not puff up Moses with arrogance; Imitators of Moses and Elijah. nor did the miracle of the sacrifice make Elijah swell with pride. They always remained preserving the same state at all times, not changing their spirits along with the changes of circumstances. Moses indeed, in this wilderness, fleeing the plots of the Egyptians, while he pastured the sheep of Jethro, was the spectator of that admirable vision: for he then learned that the bush was more powerful than the devouring fire, and saw the green shoot flourishing in the midst of the flame. On this mountain was he appointed as lawgiver—then indeed of the Jewish nation alone, but now of all peoples—when through natural kinship the grace had pervaded the whole race. For the laws of life's conduct, set upon the candlestick, shone forth, even though they had been hidden for a time under the bushel of their wording, before they were expounded. Moreover, the renowned Elijah also came hither, fleeing Jezebel; and when he had slept in this land, on waking he found bread baked under ashes and a vessel of water. He inhabited this cave, his body clothed in a sheepskin, the ancient garment of his forefathers; and here he saw God in a gentle breeze, and heard a voice declaring the things that had been seen. And this is the last and first proof of the men's fortitude. They inhabit throughout their whole lives that wilderness through which the Israelites, having merely passed, murmured—though they were nourished with divine sustenance prepared from heaven—and, complaining about the table, those men did not endure forty days without the one who governed them; nor indeed did they know how to rightly manage their own free will, but immediately fell away, abusing their liberty unto impiety. These men philosophize in the wilderness their whole lives, lacking necessities, and are their own teachers of piety.

CHAPTER VI.

The Fathers slain. The monastery plundered.

[22] The barbarians invade and plunder the monastery. But what need is there to say more? While they were thus disposed and thus worshipping God, suddenly, like an unexpected storm, a barbaric phalanx burst upon them from somewhere, and at earliest dawn—when they had just a little before ceased singing hymns—the impious invaded the pious. I too was present there at that time with my son; for I had come down from the holy mountain to visit the Saints who were at the bush, as I had long been accustomed to do. And immediately, rushing in like rabid dogs, they filled the air with confused and meaningless cries, and seized whatever had been prepared for the Saints as food for the winter. For they dry whatever fruits are useful and can be preserved, and with them they satisfy the necessities of nature. When therefore they had made us bring out these things ourselves, they lead all out of the church; and having stripped them of their garments, they arrange in a line, naked for slaughter, those who were advanced in age. Then, surrounding them, they draw their swords; and having filled their eyes with rage, and turning their burning gaze obliquely about, they ordered the Priest of the holy place to stretch out his neck first. They deal the blows—not both at once (for there were two around him), but one after the other—driving their swords from either side into his back, while he neither cried out from pain, nor turned his face, nor showed even the slightest sign of suffering; but only crossed himself and said with a whisper of his lips: "Blessed be the Lord." They kill the Priest of the monastery. And one blow passed from the back through to the jaw, having gone through the ear; the other reached from the shoulder to the breast. And thus the divine man, turning slowly, fell with propriety and grace, showing nothing unseemly either in his slaying or in his nakedness. Upon his body a certain grace bloomed, covering the unseemliness of nakedness. And this very evening the admirable man had virtually foretold these things both by deeds and words, addressing those who were present at supper more kindly than was his custom and saying: "For what do we know? Whether a table and a meal will again bring us together before death?"

[23] Then after him they seize and slay the one who had dwelt with the old man, who was himself also aged in years and greatly worn by the labors of his ascetic discipline; Likewise another elder, and a boy. and again the boy who ministered to them. Now this was the manner of the killing: one of the barbarians was ordering him to gather some of the fruits that had been scattered. He, as pleased the one who commanded, attentively sat upon the ground, opened the fold of his garment, drawing with his hands what had been placed before him—so that he might seem useful for service to the one who had commanded, and his life might therefore be spared. But nothing availed, nor did this soften the barbarian ferocity. For another, standing behind him, secretly drew his sword from its scabbard. He, whether feeling it being drawn, or else foreseeing the slaughter in any case, turned his face back a little as if frightened. The one standing behind terrified him both with a barbarous shout and with contorted eyes. And so, when the other had thrust the straight sword into his throat, he drove it with great force from the liver to the chest. He fell dead before the sword could be withdrawn, Some are allowed to depart. either having perished from terror alone, or because of the certainty and precision of the wound he had not arrived at the knowledge of death, which quickly drew the soul from the vessels of the body and suddenly freed it from the bonds from which it reluctantly departs, being bound by the violent bonds of the Creator. The rest of us, impelled by I know not what, they drive away, Sinai inaccessible to the barbarians. permitting us to flee with a gesture of the hand—in which they still held their blood-stained swords. And some were running through the valleys, hastening to reach the mountain. For they had no access to it, on account of the glory of God's having stood upon it and having once answered the people.

CHAPTER VII.

St. Nilus mourns and buries the slain.

[24] But I had stood utterly dumbfounded, as one held back by a lack of counsel, Nilus escapes to the mountain, continually looking back at Theodulus. bound by my heart to the young man, neither able at all to withdraw nor willing at all to be saved, constrained by the firm bond of nature—until the boy, nodding with his eyes and signaling me to depart (alas!), barely persuaded me to go. And my feet indeed moved forward, and my body somehow followed them as it was carried along; but my heart refused to leave, continually turning my face toward the boy, unable to collect the cast of my eyes, which was not attentive to the journey to be undertaken but was miserably turned backward. I proceeded therefore, I too, to the mountain, following those who went before, and from a lookout I gazed upon the unhappy boy who was being led away, who himself too looked around not freely, but with a secret turning furtively deceived those who were leading him away. For such is the bond of nature: it is not dissolved by the separation of bodies, but is intensified all the more—as one can observe the same thing happening similarly in brute animals. A cow that is being led away moos pitifully and frequently, continually turning toward the calf that has been taken from her, showing by the look in her eyes the magnitude of her grief. Even a horse, deprived of the one with whom it pastured, since it lacks speech, expresses its grief by neighing, frequently calling back its companion.

[25] When I had somehow reached the summit of the mountain—though I did not have a mind that walked together with my body—wishing to see my son as from a lookout, I could no longer behold him, since on account of the great distance he had been hidden from my eyes. There remained to me henceforth a perplexed and uncertain mind, and words were uttered from me to God, both lamenting the captive son and vehemently mourning the slain Saints: "O blessed," I said, "and thrice blessed, where now at last are the labors of your abstinence? Where are the endurances of your patience? Have you received the crown of your many contests? Are these the rewards laid up for you from your long struggle? He bewails the slaughter of the Saints. Is the course of righteousness in vain? Is the suffering undertaken for virtue without purpose, since providence left you to be killed without aid? Justice did not resist the killers, but the iniquitous hand had power against holy bodies, and iniquity boasts that it has obtained the victory over piety, utterly exulting and triumphing as over a vanquished truth! How did the bush not kindle now too its ancient flame? How did it not consume by fire the wicked who approached? How moreover did the gaping earth not receive them, as once it devoured the entire synagogue of Korah together with their tents and kindred? How moreover were the prodigious terrors of Mount Sinai silent—not terrifying the impious with the crash of thunder and the sadness of darkness and innumerable flashes of lightning? But the avenging power was idle, neither rightly punishing with thunderbolts and tempests those who committed the injury, nor delivering with a mighty hand those to whom the injury was done—so that, having been taught at last by experience, they might have perceived the force of miracles and recognized the admirable strength of unconquerable power. But in the very bush and on the mountain where the law was given, the pious fell without any aid, just as irrational sacrificial victims. Where at last was the power that drowned the Egyptians in the sea and made the deep their sepulchre? Where was the power that struck with hailstones the foreigners who waged war against the Israelites, and gave victory to its people without bloodshed or labor—and which again once struck terror into them when they attacked the holy land, and turned them to fight against one another unknowing, since, being in darkness, they killed their own companions and could not recognize those of their own side who were being slain? Where at last did it conceal its aid, not protecting those against whom ambushes were laid? Though it once restrained the fury of fierce lions against those who had been cast before them, and the unconquerable power of fire, causing them to show reverence and demonstrating that those men were renowned for piety—how then did it make doubtful the virtue of these men, leaving them bereft of all aid and causing them to be thought altogether unworthy of assistance?"

[26] But perhaps grief and pain of soul persuaded me to say these things and drove me from what was fitting. Pardon must be given to grief, which persuades one in distress to say many things beyond his true conviction, Reverence for divine providence. having been perhaps overcome by the magnitude of adversities. For divine assistance has often left the just, delivering them to tyrants to be tortured with various torments and put to an impious death—so that the proven excellence of the contestants' virtue might be displayed, and their faith might shine forth like a torch, yielding nothing of its confidence even unto death, but by its endurance proving that all the madness of tyrants was vain. For even those Saints who now remain do not wish to withdraw from the wilderness, preferring death to the life lived promiscuously and without distinction in the cities. The same also was the judgment of those who were slain: that they would rather die than endure the vice that dwells in the inhabited part of the world. For they knew that the death of the soul is graver than the death of the body, and that death in sin is manifestly more dangerous than that brought by the sword—since the latter has a small pain, lasting only for a time, while the former brings long punishment that never ceases. And I indeed said these things.

[27] Nilus with his companions goes to bury the slain. The barbarians, however, after they had slain many others and had ravaged through the wilderness, covered a considerable distance; and when the day had declined and night had given us the power to walk without fear, we descended from the mountain and turned to burying the bodies. Some we found long since dead; but the holy Theodulus was still breathing and could still speak after a fashion. Sitting beside him therefore, and lamenting what had happened, we passed the night; the elder urging us not to consider these things foreign to our lot. For it is Satan's way, he said, to demand from God those who are being tested. "How many," he said, "from Job's household did he slay—some by fire, Theodulus, having admirably consoled them, dies. others by the sword, still others by the collapse of the house? But let not the things that are happening disturb you," he said. "For the Master of the games knows by what judgment He delivers His athletes to the adversary—He who has set forth splendid prizes and rewards for those who bear their blows with equanimity, and such as the great Job displayed, who received all things double that had seemed to have perished—or rather, far greater things, which surpass all comparison. For 'the things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man,' these God has prepared for those who have fought on His behalf, and who have gloriously crowned their lives with the prizes of piety. For thus it befitted God in His munificence to surpass labors with recompenses, to surpass contests with crowns, and to provide for His athletes those things which were neither hoped for nor expected by those who receive what is given—so that He might both render the reward that is owed and make His recompense a gift, on account of the exceptional honor." These things he said, and he greeted those present with a kiss, as long as his strength permitted him to speak and move his tongue. And we, having followed the dead man with many tears, committed him to the earth together with the others; and when darkness still made our approach to you uncertain, we were able to come here.

[28] Of those who were slain, two were called Paul and John; the Priest was Theodulus. They died, having completed their course, on the seventh day after Theophany, which is the fourteenth day of the month of January. For indeed to pious and religious men, even the knowledge of the time and the names is worthy of great attention, for those who wish to be participants in the remembrance of the Saints. Other Martyrs are honored on the same day. Others also were killed at earlier times, and their commemoration too, on account of the length of the journey and the multitude of those who gather, they celebrate on the same day.

CHAPTER VIII.

The slaughter of certain laypeople.

[29] While we were still speaking of these things, a certain man was reported to have escaped safely from the camp; A man about to be sacrificed the next day flees from the barbarians. and shortly afterward he came to us, the traces of fear not yet removed from his eyes, nor yet able to restrain the agitation of his soul, still panting and disturbed from his great running and anguish of mind—as if they were nearby and those pursuing were about to overtake him. Then, when asked how he had escaped, he said: "Me and your son, while we spoke at supper, they announced that at dawn they would sacrifice to the star; and they erected an altar and placed wood upon it, while we were ignorant of why these things were being done. But one of my fellow captives, who understood their language, told me this secretly. I then informed him of the barbarians' plan, and that unless we secured our safety by flight, the sun would not rise on us alive in the morning. But he, fearing lest he be caught, remained, saying: 'Whatever is God's will, wherever one may be, no one shall escape it, even if he hides in the innermost sanctuary.' I, however, in the darkness, when I saw them all weighed down with sleep (for excessive drunkenness had stupefied them), first crawled along the ground on my belly, lest, if anyone were awake, the upright shadow of my body should betray me; then, having moved a little distance from the camp, I ran at full speed toward this goal, borne swiftly by the wings of fear, reckoning that I would either escape by flight the slaughter appointed for me, or even if I were caught, I would suffer nothing worse than the death already ordained—and in any case preferring an uncertain hope to a certain evil. For since, had I remained, it was absolutely impossible to escape danger, it was probable that I could get away if I entrusted my safety to the aid of my feet. For I have learned that many have often obtained more help from their feet than from a great many defenders. Behold then, my expectation did not deceive me, but I was saved by those in whom, after God, I placed my trust, and I am present among you, as you see, unharmed."

[30] "But the terror of the barbarians' cruelty still clings to my eyes, The barbarians cut down certain laypeople, and their wicked deeds strike me with stupor, and I am filled with horror on account of what they have done. For when they had encountered my master together with the Governor, on his way back to you while performing a public duty, in the wilderness, they carried him off with all their possessions; and the one who had resisted, together with his servants, they tore limb from limb. But my master, together with his son (who was, as you know, quite young), they led away as he followed. When the sun approached the western horizon, they pitched their tents where evening overtook them; and having made a great feast from our spoils, they invited him and his son to the banquet, bidding him be of good cheer and fear nothing. 'For you shall return home safe and unharmed with your son,' they said, 'since others suffice to be the ransom for two souls.' Others by deceit, And they seemed about to fulfill their promise shortly, by allowing them to return to their own; and they ordered water to be brought and bread for provisions, so that the scheme might seem plausible—so that the hope of life from the provisions might lend their fraud credibility, and the barbarous deception and pretense might seem to be genuine concern for their welfare. They sent two young men along with them, ostensibly to ensure their safe passage, to escort them. To these they secretly ordered that, when they had moved a little distance from the camp, they should cut them down. When therefore those who were escorting them in the manner described had surrounded them, immediately those who seemed to be their protectors—and who, had others attacked, would properly have been their defenders—those very ones, against all expectation, became their killers. And they slaughtered the son before the father, so that by seeing the death of his son and experiencing his own death, they might double his grief. Then immediately they killed him too with many wounds, A boy most cruelly. as he loudly bewailed their treachery and ambush. For I heard the one weeping pitifully, and the other crying out mightily, and at every blow groaning heavily, and as it were yielding to the labors so that they might measure out the blows. And he himself, thus deceived by fair promises, suffered a pitiable end. For he ought to have divined his own fate from the misfortunes of others—namely, that death could not at all be avoided, but was rather to be borne with patience when expected. For an evil that comes unexpectedly utterly confounds when it arrives. But what is expected, finding reason prepared for the experience, is thought lighter—as something already contemplated, which makes its arrival by no means novel and strange.

[31] For in the evening at supper, during which they were plying him with cups and kind words, wishing to play their customary and pleasing game (and what was done for amusement was the killing of a man), they send one of his sons a cup to drink, having slaughtered the other a little before. He barely accepted it unwillingly, since his appetite had died of fear before his body. Yet he accepted it in fear. For while drinking, he showed by signs that he was doing so under compulsion, demonstrating by violent sounds that it was done against his will. For the drink did not pass quietly through his throat, but somehow pooling in his cheeks, it barely penetrated the chest at the chin, as at some rough cliff, with the greatest noise of swallowing. When, therefore, he had at last received the drink by force, they send someone to kill him. He was a youth—for they entrust killings to youths as well, inciting them to cruelty from their earliest age. He, a boy most cruelly. driven to a Bacchic frenzy by drunkenness, rushed to so inhuman a task with great eagerness, indicating by his laughter the pleasure he took in the deed; and approaching the one lying on the ground, he first struck him on the vertebrae of the neck; and since on account of the hardness of the bones he had cut only a little, he immediately withdrew the sword from there and thrust it through the side of the one lying down. Then, having struck again at the original cut in the vertebra with more certainty and precision, he sprang back, waving the sword in the air with his hand. The boy, however, quivered and convulsed for a long time in pain, and wailing, rolled in his blood. At last, when he had coiled himself into a spiral, bowed his head to his belly and drawn his feet up to it—as if wishing to rise by that turning—he rolled toward the burning coals nearby. When, as is natural, he felt greater pain from the fire, again with feet and hands necessarily, like a fish, he leapt up, repeatedly raising the part that was being scorched. When he could no longer help himself, since his strength had been lost along with his blood, he was consumed on the pyre and perished, afflicted by two torments at once: the sword and the fire.

[32] They arrive at a spring. On the following day, after they had done this, traveling through the wilderness—not by a direct road, but wandering, traversing rough and difficult places, now here, now there, going around high and steep mountains, and entering on foot through unbeaten, rocky, and nearly impassable valleys—at a great distance they see a place gradually becoming green. Conjecturing from the verdure that the place was suitable for resting, or even supposing that some monks dwelt there, they turned their course toward it, directing their beasts as from the sea to a harbor. When they had arrived, they found the place no worse than they had supposed, nor had a deceptive vision disappointed their hope. For there was abundant water, which even before tasting delighted the eye with its purity. When brought to the mouth, it proved the pleasure of sight to be small compared with the pleasure of taste; and there was fodder suitable for pasturing the animals. When therefore they had unloaded the camels, they set them free to graze, while they themselves immediately ran to the water, drinking it, splashing themselves, washing, and not knowing how to simply make use of that generous and copious abundance of water.

CHAPTER IX.

Other monks slain.

[33] While they were dancing around it and praising the spring with songs, They slay a hermit with stones: they see on the side of the mountain some small trace of a dwelling, and they all run toward it with one impulse, each striving to outrun the other in their race. When they had approached, they surrounded the cave. It had been built up at its entrance with a few stones, lest, if the opening were too large, it should afford easy entry to wild beasts. Then, when a few had rushed inside one by one (for it could not hold many), they brought out a man venerable in appearance and attire; and they led him dragging him, though he was not at all disturbed, and who had neither turned pale nor displayed or uttered anything ignoble or sorrowful. When they had placed him upon a certain rock, the wretches killed him with stones (for they did not have swords), laughing and chanting a paean in their own tongue.

[34] Then, having proceeded a little further, they seized another young man, Likewise another, who rejoiced. pale, emaciated, and who by his appearance openly bore the marks of abstinence; and they killed him likewise with stones, while he uttered many words of thanksgiving and confessed that he was indebted to them for having led him from life while he was still pursuing virtue. For he said that he feared not a little the uncertainty of the end, lest perhaps a lapse of the mind, or some external necessity, might change the constancy of his free will, persuaded or compelled to think otherwise than what is certain before God and beyond dispute.

[35] They had not gone far from there; and behold, a certain grassy place appeared, The admirable constancy of a young hermit, thick with many trees. And again the barbarians ran to it with the greatest speed they could. When they had approached, they came upon a small dwelling in which a young man was practicing the ascetic life, whose great and lofty spirit was deemed worthy of admiration even by the barbarians themselves. For he refused to reveal to them certain hidden monasteries and in that way escape death—for the barbarians had promised him this. Nor did he obey in this: neither to come out of the house, nor to strip off his tunic at all. To reveal those who could lie hidden, he said, was betrayal; and to obey in everything by compulsion, he said, was the mark of a pusillanimous and abject soul. For he said that those who practice the ascetic life ought to have a great and lofty soul, and that it is not right to yield either to fear or to threats, even if it should seem to involve great danger. For habit becomes the path to greater things; and timidity, which has once learned to dominate, commands one to despise even great goods, Chastity, and indeed ultimately to betray piety itself, when fear of evils finds a soul broken by timidity. "For if now," he said, "I readily betray the free judgment of my soul, fearing a brief death, how shall I not easily desert to impiety if tortures are proposed and threats of torments are made, since I have accustomed myself to prefer freedom from pain to what is beneficial? Wherefore, since what you hope to obtain is plainly refused you, do not hesitate to do what you wish. For I shall not reveal the places where pious men dwell, even if I know them; nor shall I go outside the door at your command; nor shall I strip off my garment, so that anyone might see me naked while I am still conscious and in possession of my free will, and gaze upon a body Chastity, which until this present day has not been seen even by my own eyes. After death, let each do whatever he wishes to me, who will then be without feeling. For the reproach belongs to the cruelty of those who do it, not to the soul of him who suffers it. I shall die inside, clothed as I have determined, nor shall I do anything against my resolve, betraying myself like a slave; and in this stadium in which I have fought, I shall rather be killed; and this little dwelling shall be my sepulchre, which before received the sweat of my virtue, and now receives the blood of my valor and integrity."

[36] A most atrocious slaughter. When the wretches could not endure him speaking so freely, but were most bitterly enraged against his noble spirit, they killed him with as many blows as his body could receive. For each one, wishing to demonstrate his anger against him in deed, did not think the swords of those who preceded sufficient for vengeance, unless he too had dipped his own sword with his own hand—only then could he console his indignation. When therefore more had wounded that great and lofty-spirited man after he was dead than while he was alive, they departed thus, their souls grieving that the little body had not sufficed for a greater punishment.

[37] After him three men met us, journeying through the wilderness, The barbarians kill three others, who somewhat calmed their still burning rage, as those who supplied the deficiency of their fury against the former one. For just as wild beasts or hunting dogs, if the prey has only been shown and has escaped, are provoked to greater madness because they did not catch it, and pursue more eagerly what next falls in their path, curing the former disappointment with a second caution—so, running toward those who had appeared, the wretches breathing slaughter, having drawn their swords before they even approached, advanced upon them with as much cruelty as if they had caught the very one who had provoked them.

[38] When they had not yet put their swords into their scabbards, but held them naked in their hands, stained with warm and steaming blood, in the place where they were walking they see two monasteries situated—not directly in the path of their journey, but obliquely to one side. The distance between them was thirty stadia; between them and the place where we were, fifteen—each equidistant as from a center to the lines of a circle on the circumference. Dividing therefore, they proceeded, half going to each, all the plunder they had collected being left in the field with the beasts. How they killed the one who was to the south, Likewise two others. or who he was, I did not learn at all. But the one who was to the north—after they had already drawn near, he who from his long running had heard the weapons rattling in the quivers and had begun to flee—they strung their bows and transfixed him with many arrows. Then, having caught him as he had fallen face down, they did not allow him to die with only those wounds he had already received, though he had enough wounds to suffice for that; but when they had turned him face up while he was still breathing and gasping, they immediately cut him open from the groin to the chest. The entrails, breathing through the incision and spread around the sides, they disturbed with poles on either side, until they had torn even those apart before they departed. After this I fled, as I said before; but what happened to your son I do not know. For I left him alive, but with no good hope of life on account of the death that had been whispered about.

CHAPTER X.

An example of womanly constancy.

[39] When I had heard these things, and the night-time vision was still sounding in my ears— St. Nilus's dream. (for in my sleep I had been reading a letter which had recently been given to me by one of my friends; which, before it was unfolded, bore this inscription on its fold: "To my lord after God and Father, Blessed Theodulus")—in what state, O brothers, must my soul then have been, if indeed I still had a soul? My heart was being cut asunder, my bowels were torn apart, my strength was dissolving; sweat was dripping from absolutely every limb, when I heard the report agree with the dream, which no longer made the suspicion of death doubtful or uncertain for me, but rather confirmed it by two testimonies—the dream, I say, and the indications of the one who had been saved.

[40] What then? When my very voice had already been extinguished and I could neither weep nor lament, A woman's constancy at the death of her son. but only gazed with fixed eyes at the man—until a certain woman from among those who were there, whose son also had been killed by them (he was the one whom the preceding narrative indicated had been remarkable for his great and lofty spirit), revived me and caused me to collect myself from my violent grief. For when she understood that her son had been killed and had strenuously fought against his killers, she too demonstrated her kinship with him by her very action, so that she appeared his true and genuine mother. Having immediately put on a splendid garment and changed her entire attire to one of joy, she stretched out her hands to heaven and uttered these words to God the Savior: "To you, Lord, I commended my son, and he is safe for me now and forever. To you I entrusted the young man, and he has been kept for me truly safe and unwounded. For I do not reckon that he has died, nor how he ended his life; but I consider that he has escaped the danger of all sin. Not that his body has been wounded and endured a bitter death; but that he bore away from there a pure soul akin to no reproach, and commended an immaculate spirit to your hands. I count the wounds as prizes; I reckon the blows to be so many crowns. And would that your body had received more wounds, O son, that from them more rewards might accrue to you! Hereby you have repaid me the reward for having carried you in my womb. Hereby you have recompensed me for the pains I felt in childbirth. Hereby you have given me honor for your upbringing. What then? Will you not also receive me as a participant in your rewards? For the labor was shared by both. You fought, and I too am your partner in the contest. You contended, and I rejoice in your contention. You resisted the rage of barbarians, and I resist the tyranny of nature. You indeed despised death, and I despise my own bowels. You patiently bore the pain of slaughter; I, while my entrails are being torn, endure the torments. My sufferings are equal to yours and not inferior: you surpass in the sharpness of pain, but I surpass in length of time. For even if death brought you very great pain, yet in a single hour death passed. But I endure a long grief, and I bear it with moderation, philosophizing and knowing for certain that you live with God a life into which no destruction falls; and I believe that soon my old age will be healed there, when this earthen vessel of mine shall somehow be broken, and I shall have passed to the life that is there. Blessed am I among mothers, who have presented to God such an athlete. Again also am I blessed: for I truly trust that hereafter I shall glory, since you have been released into Christ, and shall be with Him forever, and shall partake of delights that never cease."

[41] Her example is set before himself by St. Nilus. Hearing these things, I was ashamed that I bore the boy's misfortune so softly and with so faint a heart, and that the virtue of my soul was less than a woman's; and the embarrassment of those present moved me. Then I admired her, but mocked myself, receiving that excellent woman's words as reproaches aimed at me, and judging her moderation to be my madness. For when I had supposed that I could justly complain to God on account of what I had suffered, I then rightly recognized that I had gone astray—since from the woman's example I had learned that the assault of any evil whatsoever is bearable.

CHAPTER XI.

Envoys are sent to the King of the Saracens, and Nilus with them.

[42] Envoys, called Hemerodromi, are sent to the barbarians. It seemed good to the council of the inhabitants of Pharan, after they had heard what had been reported, not to pass over in silence what the barbarians had dared, but to report it to their King. And to him they send two of those who among them are called Hemerodromi, accusing them of having broken the treaties that had been established. These are young men, somewhat older than youths, barely putting forth the first down of their beards, who serve in these matters; and they carry nothing except bows, arrows, javelins, and flints that strike fire—for these are useful to them on the journey for sustaining life: the former providing game, the latter fire for cooking. For they have a great supply of wood and brush everywhere, since no one cuts what grows in the wilderness.

[43] The bodies of the slain found uncorrupted after many days. While those men were making that journey, we went out to carry away the bodies. When we approached, we found that those who had been killed five days before had suffered nothing of what a dead person would likely suffer who had been dead for many days before—neither malodorous, nor putrefied, nor harmed by those creatures whose nature it is to destroy: carnivorous birds, I mean, or wild beasts. That they had been killed that many days before was reported by the servant of Magado (for that was the name of the Senator who had been slain by the barbarians). The one slain in Bethrambe was Proclus; Hypatius was slain in Geth; Isaac in the monastery of Salael; Macarius and Mark were killed in the outer wilderness; Benjamin in the area beyond Aelem. Eusebius was slain in Thola, and Elias in Aze. Moreover, of those two we found one who had many lethal wounds, but was still alive and breathing. We carried him and placed him in a cell, then turned to the burial of the other bodies. When we returned to him, we no longer found him alive, but found him lying dead beside the water jar. For since he was entirely parched with thirst on account of the inflammation of his wounds, after he drank he fell forward on his knees—his soul leaving him dead in this position. When we had performed the funeral rites for him as for the others, we went out to learn what response would come from the chieftain of the barbarians.

[44] The King of the barbarians is prepared to make amends for the injury. As we were already entering Pharan, those who had been sent were there, bringing from him letters which both confirmed the peace and commanded those who had suffered injury to come to him—and especially those who were connected to the captives still living. And if anyone wished to exact punishment for those who had been killed, he said he was prepared to hand over the perpetrators for punishment. He even professed himself willing to restore all the spoils to those from whom the plunder had been taken. For he did not wish to dissolve the laws of peace, since he gladly maintained the alliance with them because he had indeed received benefit from it; for he acknowledged that the commerce between them brought him no small advantage, since in the necessities of their poverty they were openly aided by the others' abundance. When therefore they had prepared gifts and appointed envoys as if to renew the peace that had been broken, they sent them out the following day, and us along with them, who were indeed coming with good hope.

a As if "day-runners." So Aristotle, On the Cosmos, speaking of the Kings of the Persians: ἡμεροδρόμοι τε, καὶ σκοποὶ, καὶ ἀγγελιόφοροι. Budaeus translates: "Day-runners, scouts, and couriers." Petrus Alcyonius: "Those who serve on foot by day, scouts, messengers."

b Surius has "son." The Greek is παῖς, and below οἰκέτης, that is, servant.

c The Greek is Μυγάδωνος, and in the margin Μαγάδωνος, as also below in no. 54. Surius and Lipomanus read Megadonis here, Medagonis below.

d Surius has Bethrabe.

e This is not the Gath of the Philistine satrapy, but a certain valley near Sinai.

f Surius has Eliam. Elim is a place in that region not far from the Raithu monastery, as we shall say below.

g Greek: ἐν θωλᾷ. In the life of St. John Climacus by the monk Daniel, this place is called θολᾶς; in the Menaea, θωλᾶς, and it is said to have been five miles from the basilica of the monastery of Mount Sinai. Climacus dwelt there for forty years.

h Greek: ἐν Ἀζῇ.

CHAPTER XII.

Having endured various dangers, they reach the King.

[45] On the eighth day of walking (for the journey took twelve days), we suffered from a shortage of water, and a great necessity of thirst pressed upon us; Shortage of water in the desert. and death was henceforth expected, which always threatens those in want. Those who had experience of the places said that a spring was near; and this consoled many who were struggling, the expectation of the future curing the present evil. Many therefore ran ahead of the multitude, hastening to find what was sought and desiring to enjoy it securely—each turning this way and that, as hope of finding it led each one. Then, surveying also with their eyes, they gazed into the distance with a firm and fixed stare, searching out with the light of their eyes, as with a lamp, what lay hidden.

[46] The gravity of St. Nilus. I too was walking, gradually following those who ran ahead—as others might have said, because on account of the infirmity of old age I could not keep up with those who were stronger; but as I myself say, because I did not wish to do injury to propriety and the gravity of my character by too disorderly a pace. For I was still strong in my powers, necessity driving the impulse of my soul more forcefully toward the pressing matter than nature had implanted it. St. Nilus, seeking the spring, falls among barbarians.

[47] Directly in the path of my journey was a spring situated; but it lay hidden in the middle of a certain hill. Leaving behind those who were scattering on either side of it, I kept to the middle of whatever discovery might occur here or there, conjecturing that I would not be far away. When I had leaned forward a little upon reaching the ridge of the hill, I was the first to see the spring—and many barbarians gathered around it. Having thus fallen upon savage enemies, I was neither disturbed by what had happened unexpectedly nor greatly afraid. But being midway between fear and joy at what had occurred, I consoled myself with this consideration: either, I said, I would find my son among them and with a willing and eager spirit serve alongside him, the pleasure of seeing him lightening the hardship of servitude; or I would certainly be killed and thus freed from the heavy burden that weighed upon me. But they, leaping up, ran toward me in a disorderly mass; and when they had seized me—I who stood like a mute man, being deep in thought—they dragged me inhumanely. Those who had been sent with me to search for water, having spotted them but not yet themselves being fully seen by them, silently turned back, and immediately returned in secret, dragging themselves along the ground face down like serpents, and thus stealing away in flight. I, however, even though I was being bound, dragged, and pulled apart (for what grievous thing did I not suffer?), took no account of any of it and received no sensation; but with my whole mind I was occupied in searching for my son, scanning him with my eyes, looking in every direction to see whether I might catch sight of the one I desired. The barbarians scatter.

[48] While these things were happening, not much time passed before men of war appeared from among our company. When they appeared prominently upon the hilltop, they caused great alarm among the barbarians. For after they signaled their arrival with a military shout, no one remained in place; and the entire spot was suddenly revealed bare, which a little before had been full of bodies. For each man hastened to flee, looking to his own safety, and could take nothing with him. So great a fear of those who appeared rushed upon them from such complete security that they did not even turn at all toward their pursuers, fearing lest they be caught; but they supposed they had those who were constantly following behind them with drawn swords, striking some and having already removed many from their midst, and they thought their own panic was the coming of the enemy—until the long distance of their flight allowed them to catch their breath and gave them the ability to look around and see those who were pursuing. For fear causes things that are near at hand to be thought always greater, and to be apprehended as more than the truth of the matter, exceeding what their strength can bear—timidity, as it were, magnifying things. And so they fled alone, having left behind in that place all their baggage. Those who had arrived, having received great benefit from what they found, spent the rest of the day there.

[49] The envoys reach King Amanes. Then, when on the following day we had begun to walk and had completed a four-day journey, we arrived at the camp. When it was announced that envoys had arrived, they were summoned to meet Amanes—for that was the name of the King of the barbarians. When they had brought him gifts, they received a kind response and were given a tent near him, and were treated kindly and courteously by him—until a diligent and thorough investigation made clear everything pertaining to the raid that had already taken place. And those matters were indeed concluded by them in a short time.

a Diodorus, book 2, concerning the Nabataeans, neighbors of the Saracens: "They inhabit a region partly desert, partly lacking water, and fruitful in only the smallest part. Their life therefore is one of plundering, and they harass their neighbors far and wide with raids, nor are they easily subdued in war. For in the dry region they have wells sunk in convenient places, unknown to foreigners, which provide them safe refuges in flight. For since they know where the hidden waters are, they easily open them and enjoy an abundant drink. But foreigners pursuing them, being destitute of water through ignorance of the springs, partly perish from lack of drink, and partly return home exhausted by many hardships," etc.

CHAPTER XIII.

St. Nilus at last finds his son.

[50] Nilus anxiously inquires about his son. My heart was beating violently, and at every report I was raised up in anxious suspense; and every sound of anything seemed to me to whisper the news of him about whom I was concerned. My ears were alert to the sounds of voices, and my mind attended to them as to messengers, watching to see who would bring me the report of either the life or the death of my son. When they came without particularly cheerful faces, conjecturing from their sadness that a mournful report was being signified, I would say: "There is no need for you to speak. For sight reports the calamity to us, and even before the tongue, the emotion of the soul proclaims by gesture what was to be said by speech. I shall not therefore be deceived by words, nor taken in by speeches crafted for persuasion; for I shall not attend to words that can be entirely shaped for plausibility, when in the very countenance I see the disturbance of the soul. For it is its open image, expressing its inner feeling no differently than a mirror. For that face cannot display joy which has sunk with sorrow and is full of sadness. Either tell me the truth without pretense when I ask, or know that you have already said it with your faces, as I said before. For what is the use of consoling with words for a little while one who is tormented, only to afterward cause greater distress, when the anguishing truth is discovered?"

[51] When therefore they had frequently affirmed with oaths that Theodulus was not dead, but was alive, having been sold to someone in the city of Eluza, they counseled me to go to that city; He sets out for Eluza to seek him. for they said I would find my son there. But not even so did they cure my grief, even a little. "For what," I thought, "if he lives, and the greater fear of death is dissolved, but he serves as a slave sold into bondage, and is prevented from living with me? For necessity does not produce a pure pleasure when it impedes the desire of free will and restrains the soul's liberty by another's will." Nevertheless I afterward set out for the city that had been indicated to me, with two guides they had given me.

[52] On the way a certain young man met us, who was driving animals carrying loads. He had seen me before in the camp and had accurately learned everything pertaining to me. He had been in Eluza and had heard what was said about my son—namely, that he had been brought as a captive by the barbarians—and informed him about me; and having received a letter, he was coming to bring it as good news. On the way he learns that his son lives free. When he saw me from a distance, he began to approach with a smile; and I too recognized the man. When we were close, he addressed me with a cheerful face, and extending his right hand, drew it behind me, and placing his palm on my shoulder, extracted a letter with the tips of his fingers from a quiver, and handed it to me, announcing that my son was alive and encouraging me to be of good heart—not to have a hope devoid of good things as if he were a slave. "For the one who bought him," he said, "is a Priest of Christ's sacraments; and my son has himself also begun to be in holy orders, having been entrusted with the initial duties of sacristan. He shows great promise of future advancement, having in a short time given great proof of his virtue, and by the goodness of his character having caused everyone to think the same." I, being both poor and homeless, addressed him with kind words and wished him many blessings, since I had nothing with which to honor the man's good service; and I committed everything to the providence of God, and with tears I gave thanks for the unexpected joy to Him who, as was likely, had begun to release me from my immense calamity and to restore my former prosperity.

[53] He goes to the temple. After I arrived in the city, I first sought the holy temple as the source of good things, and paid it the honor that was due—watering the ground with tears and filling the house of God with the sounds of my lamentations. From there I was led and came to the house where my son was staying, with many going ahead and eager to announce the happy news of my arrival. For everyone knew from the preceding report that I was the man widely spoken of as the father of the boy who had been sold among them; and there was no one who did not show signs of joy in his face. Each one, having seen as it were one of their own, about whom all hope had perished, He is led to his son. with cheerful face, leaping up, showed that they shared in my feelings. When we had approached the door, and they had called him and told him I had come, they brought him to greet me. When we—he and I—saw one another, we did not at first begin to rejoice or marvel, but both rather to lament, staining our faces with tears and likewise the garments covering our chests. And he ran forward, not fully recognizing me—for I was filthy in hair and clothing, so that I could not easily be recognized. Yet trusting, it seems, more in those who had brought the news than in his eyes, he came with outstretched arms, to throw himself upon me with vehement emotion. They embrace one another. I, however, even though there were many around him, recognized him immediately, since he still had the same features of face which, through my constant meditation upon him, had clearly been imprinted on my memory. Unable to contain my joy, the strength of my body suddenly gave way; and having fallen, I lay on the ground with gaping mouth, thought by some to be dead. For from my long sorrow I differed in absolutely nothing from a dead man, except that I breathed and saw. When he had caught me and embraced me, he barely restored my spirit and caused me to recognize who I was and where I was, and whom I beheld with my eyes. Embracing him in turn, I received him in the same embrace, insatiably satisfying my long desire. Then, turning to speech, I excused myself and tried to persuade him that I had been the author of all the evils he had suffered—having led him out of his homeland and made him dwell in a region that is continually plundered. And truly it was as I said. For when would he have experienced anything to be deprecated, dwelling in the land that had borne him, when from every side he lived in peace and had no such fear of ambush? Away with those who suppose that the things fated are unavoidable and impose necessity from fate upon those who suffer.

a Elusa, or as it is called here Eluza (MS. Ἐλούζη; Stephanus Ἐλοῦσα; Ptolemy Ἔλουσα; in the life of St. Hilarion in Lipomanus, Luza; Greek λούζη), was a city of the Ishmaelites, near Palestine. Stephanus says: "Elusa, a city now of the Third Palestine (in the age of Justinian, when Hermolaus reduced Stephanus's Ethnica to a compendium), formerly of Arabia." In the Council of Chalcedon, Aretas is named as Bishop of Elusa, a city of the Second Palestine. St. Jerome writes in the life of St. Hilarion that the town itself was largely semi-barbarous on account of its location, and that Venus was customarily worshipped there on account of Lucifer, to whose cult the Saracen nation was devoted.

CHAPTER XIV.

How Theodulus escaped death.

[54] Theodulus, when asked, narrates what befell him. After this I asked him to tell me what had happened to him during the time he was among the barbarians. For the narration was no longer painful, since the danger had now passed. For just as health after illness and healing after wounds bring joy without causing distress, so too the narration of sad events after deliverance holds the greatest pleasure, as much pain as the experience formerly held. He, however, having uttered a deep groan from the depths and filled his eyes with tears, said: "What good is it, O father, to recall painful things? For recollection tends to reopen the wounds of one who has suffered, even though it may perhaps soothe the ears of listeners, bringing a certain pleasure from the misfortunes of others. But since I know you will not cease until you have learned what you desire—for you wish to make the admirable outcome of my salvation an argument for glorification, as is your custom in giving thanks to God for all things—listen, filling your spirits with the strength of a great soul, lest at the harsh and difficult turns of what happened, you yourself, pitifully broken in your fatherly heart, should also bend me to mourning and tears, and confound the narrative with wailing laments—since grief often interrupts the voice and does not allow one to narrate freely with the tongue what one wishes. And indeed a great part of the story has been clearly narrated to you all by Magado's servant after his flight. To repeat those things again would be both superfluous and distressing. But what happened after his flight, since you command me, I must relate.

[55] "It had seemed good to the barbarians, as he said (for he certainly did say it), to sacrifice us; and all things pertaining to the sacrifice were already prepared in the evening—the altar, the sword, the libation, the bowl, and the incense. At earliest dawn, therefore, death was certain, unless God was going to prevent it—as indeed He did prevent it. After he fled, not having concealed his flight from me—since both because of the long distance of the journey and the uncertain pursuit it was doubtful whether I could catch him, because not only the time (for it was evening) until morning would be a sufficient advantage for one fleeing, but also the uncertainty of the route would make it impossible for me to know how to pursue him. For who is so excellent an investigator and so gifted in conjecture as to discover, in so vast a breadth of wilderness, the traces of a journey? The captive, watchful and anxious, awaited death. For the whole terrain is rough and full of hollows and shows absolutely no footprint it has received. These things being so, I lay face down, pressing my face to the ground, but raising my mind upward on account of the anguish of my affliction, and thus silently and inwardly praying to the God of all—inasmuch as nothing pertaining to this life could lead or attract me to anything useful, on account of the approaching necessity; but rather caused me to be sober and watchful, attending my mind solely to God and depending on hope in Him.

[56] He fervently prays to God. "Wherefore I said: O Lord and God, who alone are the maker of all creation, both visible and intelligible, you hold in your hand the hearts of those you have made, and you often turn the ferocity of irrational impulse to mercy, when by your just and reasonable judgment you choose to preserve those who are sentenced to death by your power. You who calm the rages of wild beasts that spring forward to devour human bodies; who blunted the power of fire and by your mere nod preserved your children unharmed, and by your hidden and admirable power made their hair and complexion more powerful than the flame—do you also save me, O King Christ, who rely on no hope of help, who am soon to be deprived of life by the judgment of my enemies, who (as is likely) am already dead. And do not permit, O Lord, that my blood be a libation to demons, nor let evil spirits rejoice at the savor of my flesh. They have appointed me to be sacrificed to the morning star, which received its surname from the vice of lust. But do not permit, O Lord, that my body, which until this present day has been kept chaste, be a victim to the demon that takes its surname from intemperance. But change the feral heart of these truly savage beasts to clemency and gentleness—you who changed the anger of Ahasuerus, King of Media, inflamed against Esther, and turned his fierce spirit to mercy. Save the soul that has purposed to serve you. Restore me to my aged father, your servant—a son untried in evils, and one who, as far as my resolve is concerned, will be a pious worshipper of God in the future. For I do not begin this confession now out of fear of danger, so that my promise might seem a payment rendered for salvation. For I anticipated the necessity of the contest by my free thought. Show that faith is swifter than feet for salvation, and that hope in you is safer than any flight. He escaped death who was to be sacrificed with me in the morning, and secured his safety by flight. But I have remained, awaiting what seems good to you, and am in the hands of my enemies, trusting in your aid. He trusted in his own feet; I have trusted in your power. Let the divine expectation for salvation not be weaker than the hope of the body. He was preserved who used the darkness for flight—and rightly was he preserved. The light of day has now reached me. Do you henceforth preserve me by your wisdom, you who grant light to the living for carrying out your commandments.

[57] "While I was praying thus with bitter tears, the twilight overtook me without sleep. When I looked up, I saw the morning star already emerging from the horizon. At the rising of the morning star he prays again to God. Rising from the place where I had lain, I sat with my hands clasped upon my knees and my face inclined upon them, filling the fold of my garment with tears. And again I cried in my heart to Him who could deliver me, with intense force of spirit: 'Show your mercy to me, O Lord,' I said, 'you who alone have power over life and death, as you showed it to the Saints who were once placed in necessity and were delivered from all affliction—so that we may have confidence to call upon you and to trust that we shall be freed from the evils in which we find ourselves, since we have them as an example of your aid. You redeemed Isaac, who lay at the very altar of slaughter, and by the sound of your voice drew back the father who was about to dip his sword in blood. You rescued Joseph from the hand of his brothers, which was contriving murder; and again, when plots had been laid against him, you freed him from unjust bonds and custody, and after long mourning restored him to his father as a ruler. You redeemed this man's father Jacob from dangers—his brother similarly envying him—keeping him safe in Mesopotamia. By the same means you also guarded Moses, who was fleeing Egyptian tyranny. You, when you had raised two dead boys from their beds by the prophetic prayer, presented them to their widowed mothers. You yourself, O Lord, upon whom no change falls, who performed these admirable things by divine power—do you also now hear me, and grant alive to his father the one who, O Most High, took you as his refuge, and dissolve the grief that surpasses all consolation; and grant to those who know your name that they may marvel at the power of your might, O King most worthy of praise.'

[58] The barbarians wake late, and he escapes death. "While I was engaged in these prayers, they arose, full of tumult, since the time for sacrifice had passed—for the sun was already shining upon the earth. When they did not find the other, and did not know what had happened to him, they questioned me. After I replied that I did not know, since I had been with them, they fell silent and neither made threats nor showed any signs of anger. Then my spirit was calm and composed, and I blessed God, who had not despised my humble prayer. From then on boldness and confidence came over me, since God had indeed granted me these things; and when they commanded me to eat impious foods, I refused; and to play with women, I did not obey those who commanded—until we came near inhabited territory. Then, after they had taken some common counsel, they brought me into a village called Subaita and informed those there that they wished to sell me. But when they accomplished nothing and often returned unsuccessful—since no one was willing to give more than two gold coins—at last, when they had led me out and, as was their custom, stationed me naked before the village, they placed a sword on my neck, He is sold. saying they would immediately kill me if no one bought me. I, stretching out my hands to those who came to buy, was supplicating them to pay what the barbarians asked, and not to seem stingy when giving the price of human blood—saying that I would repay the price shortly and would willingly serve the one who bought me, if he wished, confessing him as master even after the price was returned—the one who had bought my life. A certain man, therefore, taking pity on me as I cried out and wept, at long last bought me. And since then I have been here, as you see, purchased—to say much briefly. For I see you are disturbed, and not far from tears, and about to confound our joy with weeping. These things indeed I suffered, father, and having suffered them, I was delivered. It is fitting that you henceforth glorify God for this unhoped-for salvation of mine, which has been restored beyond all hope and expectation."

a For φωσφόρος, ἄστρον Ἀφροδίτης: Lucifer, the star of Venus.

b Lipomanus has "Vbi" where; the Greek is ἔνθα. But Moses was not preserved in Mesopotamia, but among the Midianite Arabs, who dwelt not far from the Red Sea. Perhaps the original read ἐνθάδε here, or ἔνθα was taken in that same sense.

CHAPTER XV.

Nilus and Theodulus are ordained to the priesthood.

[59] "But you indeed, O son," I said, "have endured innumerable dangers and sustained many deaths by expectation, even though by the grace of God you escaped the actual experience thereof. The vow of St. Nilus for his son. For to truly expect death and to learn it by experience are the same—not to mention that the former is even more grievous. For the cutting itself does not bring as much pain as the expectation that precedes it, which extends the sensation of pain by a prolonged fear and causes the dreaded suffering to truly persist. I, however, in the time of that affliction, opened my mouth to the Lord and professed the strict servitude of continence and other endurance of evils, if only I might receive you back alive. And I heard in a dream a voice saying: 'The Lord will establish, will establish the word that went forth from your mouth.' [Theodulus offers himself as a companion to his father in more intense service of God.] It is not fitting, therefore, O son, to transgress the profession, nor to deceive Him who confirmed the promise by a divine response."

[60] "Since the vow has thus received its good fulfillment, I too, O father," said the boy, "will undertake the labor with you with a willing and eager spirit, and I shall be a partner in the promise, since I was also a partaker of the grace and received the greatest fruit of the benefit. For you indeed escaped mourning, while I escaped the danger of death—though the whole thing was done by God for your sake. For if the daughter of Jephthah, who made a vow for the sake of obtaining victory in war, served her father by her own slaughter and sacrifice, giving herself to be a victim for the sake of preserving her father's reputation, who am I if I am not a swift and eager payer of the paternal debt? And that too when I am rendering the debt to God, who knows how to repay the payment with a second grace; and what is returned as a debt He does not accept as a debt, but accepts it as a loan, and confesses Himself to owe the repayment as a reward for the grateful spirit of the debtor—who always pours forth graces and always writes Himself as debtor to those who receive benefits as a loan; and counts their repayment entirely as liberality and magnificence, so that He may always begin to bestow benefits and also give thanks as a debtor. Wherefore, since you have me as a willing partner in making payment, father, begin to repay. Assuredly God, who knows our strength, will exact the debt proportionate to it, and will not demand greater labors than our powers can provide, knowing the weakness of nature." And I prayed with these words also: "O that it may be granted, my son, to bring these things to fulfillment and to demonstrate them in deeds, so that the promise may reach its end, and the vow may be efficacious, and the reward may follow the labors. For this is the end and goal of every work that is done from God: that actions be sealed with recompenses, and that crowns bear testimony to the contest—since the worthy reward given is wont to be the proof that the work is approved, and the prizes are certain testimony of the struggle. But so much for these things."

[61] The truly pious and religious Bishop of that place, after he had cared for us for a long time and had restored us not a little from our previous affliction, earnestly asked that we remain with him, and kindly promised to take care of us in all things. But lest he seem to use force—reflecting on the price paid for my son, or to exact too rigidly by a master's right that we should stay—he permitted us to do whatever seemed right according to our own judgment; exercising tyranny over us in this one thing only: that he imposed upon us the yoke of holy orders even against our will. For we, considering the burden of the ministry, were distressed and wept, since it was beyond our strength and scarcely fitting even for Saints alone, as regards the manner of life required. Both are unwillingly made priests. For to them too it seemed burdensome, and when called they confessed that the dignity was greater than was suitable for them; and they opposed God, putting forward their own unworthiness and declining the ordination, pleading weakness—even though they were more fit for the office than all who now exist, and from the practice of honorable things could have greater confidence in serving the Lord. He, however, said that the office was fitting for their labors, and gave them the dignity, as he thought, as a reward for the endurance of their struggles.

[62] When we wished to depart and set out for home, he sent us off with a generous provision for the journey—since the road was long— The Bishop blesses those who are departing. and prayed that the grace of God might accompany us, which would henceforth secure peace for us; and thus he dismissed us. He had neither boasted arrogantly of his ownership, as perhaps another might, proclaiming his authority over the one he had bought; but he had even lightened what seemed to have been a misfortune with much consolation, and had avoided the appearance of haughtiness through his moderation. Here let my narrative end, where the experience of grave dangers ceased—which, by the grace of God, after much affliction provided the beginning of a happier life. May we all be granted to enjoy this both now and in the age to come, through the power and goodness of the holy and consubstantial Trinity. Amen.