CONCERNING ST. ISIDORE, MONK AND PRIEST, OF ALEXANDRIA.
Year of Christ 404.
CommentaryIsidorus, Monk and Priest of Alexandria (St.)
From various sources.
Section I. Various Isidores. His feast day.
[1] Nearly all the ancient Martyrologies assign St. Isidore as a companion to Abbot Macarius, whose Acts we have already given, on this day. The ancient Roman Martyrology edited by Rosweyde: St. Isidore, companion of St. Macarius, "Of Macarius the Abbot, disciple of Anthony, and Isidore." Likewise the ancient Roman Martyrology of Bellini of Padua: "In Egypt, of Blessed Macarius the Abbot, disciple of Blessed Anthony, most celebrated for his life and miracles. Likewise of St. Isidore, illustrious in holiness of life, faith, and miracles." The modern Roman Martyrology agrees; so do Usuard, the Vulgate Bede, Rabanus, Ado, and Notker; and the manuscripts of Centula, St. Lambert of Liege, St. Mary of Utrecht, St. Gudula of Brussels, and others: in all of which they are joined together and celebrated in nearly the same words.
[2] Rufinus, book 2 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 4, lists the disciples of St. Anthony as follows: "The fathers of the monks, by merit of life and antiquity — Macarius and Isidore, and another Macarius, and Heraclides, a disciple of St. Anthony; and Pambus, disciples of Anthony — were especially esteemed in the desert parts of Nitria as men who were believed to have fellowship of life and deeds not with other mortals, but with the Angels above." And in chapter 8: "Those whom we ourselves saw, and by whose hands we merited to be blessed, are these: Macarius of the upper desert, another Macarius of the lower, Isidore in Scetis, Pambus in the Cells," etc. And in Invective 2: "To come to the masters of the desert, whom we attended both more attentively and more frequently: Macarius the disciple of Anthony, and another Macarius, and Isidore, and Pambus — all friends of God, who taught us those things which they themselves learned from God." Thus Rufinus. He places Isidore between the two Macarii — the Egyptian and the Alexandrian — and reckons him among the disciples of St. Anthony, concerning whom we shall treat in the Prolegomena to the Life of Anthony, section 6. That Isidore had dealings with St. Anthony is attested by Palladius in the Lausiac History, or book 8 of the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 3: "The blessed Isidore, therefore," he says, "the xenodochus, who had visited Blessed Anthony, narrated to me that he had heard from him a thing worthy to be committed to writing"; and he subjoins the martyrdom of St. Potamiaena, and begins his own history from her life, which we shall give in the following section.
[3] Different from this Isidore is St. Isidore, Bishop of Hermopolis and Confessor, distinct from St. Isidore, Bishop of Hermopolis, praised by St. Jerome in the Life of St. Paula, and in the Life of Melania in Palladius, chapter 117. But he was confused with this one by Laurentius Barrensis, and we have recorded him with the Roman Martyrology under January 2. There was also another Isidore in the Thebaid, the father of a thousand monks, and from another Isidore, the Origenist; in Rufinus, book 2 of the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 17, and in Palladius, chapter 71, who is numbered among the Origenists by St. Jerome, whom we shall cite presently. Nevertheless, certain more recent authors supposed that this was the one venerated on this day, or perhaps confused him with Isidore the Priest. Maurolycus: "Likewise of St. Isidore, celebrated for the holiness of his life and for his miracles, and an Abbot in the Thebaid, Father of more than a thousand monks." Galesinius: "On the same day, of St. Isidore, likewise an Abbot, illustrious for his faith and life, as well as for his piously and divinely performed deeds, under whose care more than a thousand monks were governed." Felicius and the author of the German Martyrology write the same. For this reason Baronius annotated this day in the Martyrology: "Consider this one to be far different from that Isidore whom Socrates praises in book 6, chapter 9, Sozomen in book 8, chapters 12 and 13, Rufinus in book 2, chapter 4, and Evagrius Ponticus (Rufinus as rendered by Heribertus) in the Lives of the Fathers: for that one defected to the Origenists and was found to be their leader, as St. Jerome writes of him in epistle 61 to Pammachius, and in his work against the Pelagians addressed to Ctesiphon. This one, however, seems to have lived elsewhere rather than in Egypt, for another Egyptian Isidore was treated above on January 2."
[4] But the third Isidore whom Baronius was unaware of in this passage, he later acknowledged in volume 3, at the year of Christ 340, no. 50: "As for what pertains," he says, he came to Rome with St. Athanasius: "to the arrival of Athanasius at Rome, we find that he brought with him among others that Isidore of whom Palladius speaks at length, and whom he wonderfully commends." Indeed, because he is said below to have been known to the wives of Roman nobles, he seems to be one of those whom St. Jerome praises in the Life of St. Marcella: "She," he says, "first from the Alexandrian priests and Pope Athanasius, and later from Peter — who, fleeing the persecution of the Arian heresy, had taken refuge in Rome as the safest port of their communion — learned the life of Blessed Anthony, who was still then living, and the discipline of the monasteries in the Thebaid under Pachomius, and of the Virgins and widows." He is certainly called illustrious in faith in the Martyrologies, and presently in the Acts, and was known to St. Anthony, or even his disciple. For the passages in Rufinus, book 2 of the Ecclesiastical History, treat of him, not of the Origenist — as the associated companions, who were saints and orthodox, persuade us — and the passages of the Annals of Baronius, noted in the Annotations to the Martyrology, confirm this in the posthumous edition.
[5] Socrates reports this apophthegm pronounced by St. Isidore in book 4, chapter 18, when he had treated of Pior, a disciple of St. Anthony: "Isidore said that forty years for forty years he resisted temptation: had already passed since he first felt sin in his mind, and that he had never consented either to desire or to anger." From Isidore, Socrates passes to Pambo, and therefore we judge that he is treating of Isidore the Priest. Laurentius Barrensis and Rosweyde in his Annotations to Palladius, no. 1, supposed that besides Socrates already cited, Sozomen in book 6, chapter 28, and Nicephorus in book 11, chapter 34, also treat of the same, which is not sufficiently proved to us. More certainly St. Jerome treats of him in epistle 22 to Eustochium, on the Preservation of Virginity: "A certain one of the Brothers of Nitria," he says, "more frugal than avaricious, and not knowing that the Lord was sold for thirty pieces of silver, left behind at his death a hundred solidi which he had acquired by weaving linen. He condemns a proprietor monk: A council was held among the monks (for about five thousand dwelt in that same place in separate cells) as to what should be done: some said the money should be distributed to the poor, others that it should be given to the Church, and some that it should be sent back to his parents. But Macarius and Pambo and Isidore and the rest whom they call Fathers, the Holy Spirit speaking in them, decreed that it should be buried with him, saying: 'May your money perish with you.'" This Macarius is the Alexandrian, who had perhaps been summoned from the Cells or had come of his own accord, for he also had a cell on the mountain, as did St. Isidore. When Melania had come from Rome to Alexandria, Blessed Isidore the Priest and Xenodochus led her to Abbot Pambo in the solitude, as Palladius writes from the mouth of Isidore himself in chapter 10, and from him Baronius in volume 4, at the year of Christ 388, no. 34. He leads Melania into the solitude. This also is attributed to this St. Isidore in the new citations to the Martyrology.
Section II. He is visited by Palladius. From the Lausiac History of Palladius, chapters 1 and 2.
[6] When therefore I first came to the city of Alexandria, in the second Consulship of Theodosius the Great, the Emperor who, on account of his right faith in Christ, now dwells with the Angels, in that very city I came upon a certain admirable man, adorned in every respect in speech, known to Palladius, manners, and learning — namely Isidore, who was both a Priest and b the Xenodochus of the Alexandrian Church. He was said to have completed the struggles of his ascetic training in his early youth while living in the solitude. I also saw his c cell on the mountain of Nitria; and I found him an old man of seventy years, who, having lived another d fifteen years, departed in peace. This holy man, until the hour of his death, wore nothing e of linen except a headband; austere toward himself, he never used a bath, never touched meat, and never left the table filled to satiety. His body was, however, so well tempered by the grace of God that all who were ignorant of his manner of diet were persuaded that he lived sumptuously and lavishly. If I wished to narrate his virtues of soul one by one, time would fail the narrator. He was so gentle, kind, and peaceable that even f the unbelievers, his enemies on account of his right faith in Christ, revered even his shadow because of the man's remarkable goodness. Kind toward others;
[7] He had such great spiritual grace and knowledge of the holy Scriptures and comprehension of divine doctrines accustomed to be rapt in ecstasy while eating, that even at the banquet itself, at the customary hour of the Brothers' meal, this Saint would fall into an ecstasy of mind and become mute and stupefied; and when asked to narrate what had happened during his ecstasy, he would say: "My mind was carried away on a journey by some contemplation." I know that he often wept at table; or to dissolve into tears. and when asked the reason for his tears, I heard him say: "I am ashamed to partake of food that is foreign to reason, when I am endowed with reason and ought to be dwelling in a paradise of delights, to be filled with the nourishment of ambrosia, by reason of the power given to us by the Lord." He was known g at Rome to the entire Senate and to the wives of the nobles, at the time when he had first withdrawn with Blessed Athanasius the Bishop, and then with h St. Demetrius the Bishop. Though he abounded in wealth and the things necessary for use, he wrote no testament when dying, left behind no i money and no possessions to his sisters, who were Virgins; but he commended them to Christ, saying: "God who created you will also provide sustenance for you, as he has also done for me." Now the community k of Virgins who were with his sisters numbered seventy.
[8] When I came to him l as a young man and asked to be admitted to the monastic life, he hands Palladius over to the discipline of a certain anchorite, since my age was still given to wantonness and I needed not sermons but labors to subdue the flesh, and a hard and rough way of living to restrain the body, he — I say — like a good tamer of colts, led me outside the city m to what are called the eremitic Cells, about five miles from the city. And he handed me over to a certain n Dorotheus, a Theban ascetic in his sixtieth year who lived in a cave, and bade me spend three years with him for the taming of the passions of the soul (for he knew the old man led a very hard and austere life); and after I had completed the number of years, he commanded me to return to him again for the remaining spiritual instruction. But since I was unable to complete the three years with him, because I fell into a severe illness, I departed from him before the appointed time.
Annotationsa This was the year of Christ 388, when Theodosius, in the tenth year of his reign, held the second Consulship with Cynegius.
b In the Paradise of Heraclides: "the receiver and provider for the poor Brothers."
c Likewise Macarius the Alexandrian had a cell on the mountain of Nitria, although he dwelt in the Cells, as Palladius reports in chapter 20, and as we noted on January 2 in his Life, no. 8.
d From this it is gathered that he lived to about the year 404.
e In the Paradise of Heraclides: "he did not use linen, except that with which he covered his head." In Greek, in the Venetian manuscript in Rosweyde, it reads ἐκτὸς φακιολίου; in the Royal and Palatine manuscripts, the latter published by Meursius and the former by Fronto Ducaeus, ἐκτὸς φακιαλίου. The former signifies a headband or head covering, according to Suidas, Photius, and John Moschus; the latter is thought to be derived from the Latin faciale, and means a linen cloth with which a sweating face is wiped. So Rosweyde in his Onomasticon.
f In the Paradise of Heraclides: "most obstinate enemies." The Old Translator: "His enemies and the unbelieving pagans." In Greek: ὡς καὶ ἀυτοὺς τοὺς ἀπίσους ἐχθροὺς ἀυτοῦ διὰ τὴν ἐις Χρισὸν ὀρθὴν ἀυτοῦ πίσιν αἰδεῖθαι — by which words heretics are also indicated.
g In the Paradise of Heraclides: "Known to the Roman Senate and to the leading women." The Old Translator: "Since he was known to the Roman Senate and to all the wives of the magnificent and illustrious men." In Greek: Γνωρίμως ἦν πάσῃ κατὰ Ρὥμην συγκλήτῳ, ταῖστε γυναιξὶ τῶν μεγισάνων.
h This Demetrius seems to be the Metropolitan of Pessinus in Galatia Secunda, who was present at the Synod of Constantinople on behalf of St. John Chrysostom together with 40 other Bishops, and thence as legate to the Pseudo-Synod of Chalcedon, suffered greatly at the hands of Theophilus of Alexandria — at the time when the Nitrian monks expelled by Theophilus were present at Constantinople, of whom we shall speak in the following section. After Chrysostom was sent into exile, the same Demetrius went to Rome and pleaded John's case before Pope Innocent. The remaining deeds of Demetrius, his exiles and scourgings, are interspersed in the Acts of St. Chrysostom. Whether he is venerated, and on what day, we have not yet discovered.
i In Greek: νόμισμα. The Old Translator: "a coin." In the Paradise of Heraclides: "a solidus."
k Thus also the sisters of Saints Anthony and Pachomius consecrated their virginity to God ἐν παρθενῶνι, in a convent of virgins.
l He was twenty years old, as is gathered from his Epistle to Lausus the Prefect.
m In Greek: ἐις τὰ λεγόμενα ἐρημικὰ — "to the places called solitary," as Heraclides renders it; or "more secluded places," as the Old Translator has it. These Cells are different from those famous Cells of Libya, or the Cellia, of which we treated in the Prolegomena to the Life of St. Macarius.
n Sozomen in book 6, chapter 29, and from him Cassiodorus in the Tripartite History, book 8, chapter 1, and Nicephorus in book 11, chapter 25, mention this Dorotheus.
Section III. He is persecuted by Theophilus of Alexandria. From the Acts of St. John Chrysostom.
[9] Many things are reported about this same Isidore in the Acts of St. Chrysostom. Where George describes him thus: "In those times there was a certain man at Alexandria named Isidore, ordained a Priest by the blessed and truly great Athanasius, in his eightieth year of age, whom very many Romans knew well, on account of his handling and management of ecclesiastical affairs — for he had gone to Rome from long ago — and who was the receiver of strangers and guests at Alexandria." George took this from the dialogue of Palladius. Once destined by Theophilus for the See of Constantinople; All the details agree, for he who was seventy years old in the Lausiac History in the year of Christ 388, necessarily was in his eightieth year in the year of Christ 397 or the following year (for it is of those times that the above treats). At first Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, loved this same man exceedingly, and when Nectarius died, he endeavored to confer the See of Constantinople upon him, as Sozomen teaches in book 8, chapters 3 and 12. George of Alexandria narrates this in the Life of St. John Chrysostom: "Theophilus," he says, "Bishop of Alexandria, applied much effort to undermine his (John's) glory with his persecutions." After relating these things, he continues: "Added to this, since he had a certain Isidore under his authority, he strove greatly to put him in charge and to promote him to the episcopate by his own vote. For Theophilus loved him exceedingly, because Isidore had once undertaken on his behalf an affair full of danger. What that was I must explain. When the Emperor Theodosius was engaging and contending in battle against the tyrant Maximus, previously sent by him to the victor with gifts, Theophilus, sending certain gifts to the Emperor through this Isidore, entrusted to Isidore's hands duplicate letters, ordering him to offer both gifts and letters to whichever party gained the victory. When Isidore was carrying out these duties and had arrived at Rome, he watched for every opportunity to learn to whom the victory would incline. But the matter did not remain hidden for long; for when the one who had stolen the letters read them in his very presence, Isidore, seized with fear on this account, returned to Alexandria. This was the reason why Theophilus was inclined toward him with greater zeal and favor."
[10] Socrates narrates in book 6, chapter 9, how he incurred the hatred of Theophilus: "Isidore," he says, "who had long been most friendly with Theophilus, then became his bitterest enemy, and for this reason: Theophilus, inflamed with the most grievous hatred against a certain Peter, a chief Priest of the Alexandrian Church, planned to expel him from the Church. He charged him with this crime: that he had previously admitted a Manichaean woman to the sacred mysteries before he had turned her from the error of the Manichaeans. But when Peter showed that he had converted the woman from that sect and had received her into the Church with Theophilus's approval, Theophilus took it badly, as if he had been attacked with calumnies by Peter. For he said that he had been entirely ignorant of the matter. Therefore Peter called Isidore as a witness that Bishop Theophilus had not been ignorant of what had been done regarding the woman. He reconciles Flavian of Antioch with Pope St. Damasus: At the same time Isidore was residing in the chief city of Rome, having been sent by Theophilus to Damasus, Bishop of Rome, in order to reconcile Flavian, Bishop of Antioch, with him. For all who favored Meletius had quarreled with Flavian on account of the oath, as I have explained above. Isidore, therefore, having returned from Rome and being called by Peter to give testimony, affirmed that the Manichaean woman had been received into the Church with the approval of Bishop Theophilus, and that he himself had administered the mysteries to her. And so Theophilus, blazing with anger, in his fury drove both of them from the Church."
[11] Sozomen, George, and Metaphrastes narrate the same in the Life of St. Chrysostom. He incurs the hatred of Theophilus: Another cause of the hatred is added in the dialogue of Palladius: "You yourself know the man," he says, "when, having gone with Acacius, he brought the communion of Flavian to Theophilus, which had been separated for twenty years, through the good offices of Blessed Evagrius, who endured many struggles in ecclesiastical labors. Now a certain widow, one of the principal women of the city, gave this Isidore a thousand gold pieces, adjuring him before the venerable altar to buy garments and clothe the poor women of Alexandria, without the knowledge of Theophilus, lest — if he knew — he should spend the money on purchasing stones; for a certain madness for building, like that of Pharaoh, had seized him, not at all necessary for the Church. But I pass over these things; rather, attend to what presses more regarding Isidore. Isidore spent the money he had received on the poor and on widows. When Theophilus learned this (for nothing escaped his notice of what was done or said anywhere, since he had investigators of affairs and deeds, to put it no other way), he summoned Isidore, somewhat disturbed, and inquired whether the matter was so. Isidore, without any hesitation, laid open the sequence of events. When Theophilus heard this, he changed his demeanor, and he who a little before had seemed modest and gentle in his questioning, soon after swelled up entirely upon receiving Isidore's answer, and altered his expression."
[12] "And keeping himself briefly within silence, like a dog that has been secretly provoked, after two months he assembled the Priests and, in Isidore's presence, produced a document, he is assailed with calumnies, saying: 'This, Isidore, I received against you — it is now eighteen years past. And because I was occupied, I had meanwhile consigned the matter to oblivion. But now, while I was searching for other papers, I found this document about you that had long lain hidden. What then do you answer to it?' It contained the crime of Sodom. To this Isidore replied to Theophilus: 'Let us grant that what you say is true — that you received the document and it slipped your memory — was not the one who submitted the complaint to be summoned?' To this Theophilus replied: 'But the boy was not present, for he was at sea.' And Isidore said: 'He was not present then, as you say, Bishop. Was he not present after the voyage? Was he not present in the second year? Not in the third? And now, if he is present, order the man to stand forth.' Theophilus, overcome by the very evidence of truth, deferred the judgment to the following day, and, having entreated a certain young man, prepared him with many promises to accuse Isidore, giving him, as they say, fifteen gold pieces. The young man reported all this to his mother. His mother by no means approved of it, dissuaded partly by integrity of judgment and partly by fear of the laws. Thinking that perhaps Isidore, having suffered calumny, might appeal to the civil magistrate, she approached and revealed the entire plot to Isidore, also showing him the gold pieces which she said she had received from the sister of Theophilus, as payment, against the innocent man. She paid fitting penalties for these and many other things: she died when a physician attempted to treat her breasts with a surgical instrument. Upon this, Isidore remained at home, beseeching the Lord. The young man, fearing the laws on the one hand, and not unaware on the other that Theophilus would be further provoked, had recourse to the useful wall of the Church and seized hold of the venerable altars."
[13] Thus Theophilus, by an unfounded judgment, expelled Isidore from the Church, pronouncing that he had committed grave offenses expelled from the Alexandrian Church, and putting an honorable face upon injustice. At this Isidore, fearing lest Theophilus, aroused to a more grievous indignation, should also plot against his very safety (for he was accustomed, as they say, to contrive even such things), hastened with rapid course to the mountain of Nitria, returning to the monastic order he returns to the desert; in which he had been nurtured as a young man; and there, residing within his cell, he prayed, beseeching the most patient Lord. Meanwhile Theophilus, conscious of how unseemly his conduct had been, and suspicious of his uncertain victory, sent letters to the neighboring Bishops, commanding that certain leading monks be cast out from the mountain, and that monks be driven from the inner desert. He pursued the persecution inflicted upon the Nitrian monks, because they seemed attached to Isidore, hence expelled with 300 monks, and hatred of Isidore alone was Theophilus's sole motive. Therefore three hundred, taking up their sheepskins at once, withdrew to Palestine and occupied Jerusalem. But when Theophilus pursued them even there, compelled by dire necessity to change their location from day to day, he takes refuge with St. John Chrysostom, they finally reached the imperial city, in which John had been ordained Bishop by the divine hand for the care of the needy. Falling at his knees, they begged him to bring help to souls that had suffered calumny and had been laid waste by the efforts of those who were more accustomed to doing this than to doing good. John stood still when he saw the venerable gray hair of fifty chosen men, stained with sacred labors, and moved, like Joseph, by brotherly affection, he dissolved into tears, asking them what boar from the forest, or what lone wild beast, had attacked this most fruitful and joyful vine...
He assigned them lodgings in the church called Anastasia for their rest. He himself did not supply the necessities of life, but devout women ministered to them, while they also partially supplied their own needs from the work of their hands. Among these women the foremost was St. Olympias, who is venerated on December 17. For this reason, all the more hateful to Theophilus. Hence the hatred of Theophilus toward St. John increased, as St. Isidore of Pelusium testifies, writing to Symmachus about St. Chrysostom in book 1, epistle 152: "Theophilus attacked that pious man," he says, "endowed with the teaching of divine things, having found the hatred and enmity which he bore against the one who bears the same name as I" (in Greek: Τὸν ἐμοὶ ὁμώνυμον) "as a bulwark, as it were, of his wickedness and importunity." From this one may clearly refute Metaphrastes, who attributes all these things to St. Isidore of Pelusium himself — of whom we shall treat on February 4. More will be said about Isidore and the other monks expelled by Theophilus in the Life of St. John Chrysostom.