John the Almsgiver

ON ST. JOHN THE ALMSGIVER, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA IN EGYPT.

Year of Christ 616.

Preface

John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria (Saint)

From various sources.

Section I. The Commemoration of St. John in the Sacred Calendars.

[1] Amathus is a very ancient city of Cyprus (from which the island itself was sometimes called Amathusia, as is clear from Pliny, book 5, chapter 31), situated on the southern coast, The homeland and feast of St. John the Almsgiver, November 11. adorned with the episcopal dignity from the very cradle of the Church, two of whose bishops are mentioned below, St. Tychon and Theodore. Here St. John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria, was born; and here he departed this life, on the feast day of St. Mennas the Martyr, who is honored by the Syrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Latins on November 11. On which day the manuscript copy of Bede from the monastery of Richenberg in Bavaria has this: Of John the Almsgiver. The manuscript of the Church of St. Gudula in Brussels: In Cyprus, in the city called Amathus, the deposition of St. John the Almoner, Archbishop of the city of Alexandria, of most holy memory. The manuscript of the monastery of St. Martin at Tournai: On the same day, at Alexandria, the deposition of St. John the Patriarch. The manuscript Florarium: Likewise, of St. John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria. In the Index it is indicated that his feast day is observed on this day. The ancient Roman Martyrology of Bellinus, printed at Paris in the year 1521: On the same day, the passing of St. John the Almsgiver, Bishop of the city of Alexandria. Canisius and the Carthusians of Cologne in their additions to Usuard: According to some, this is the day of John the Almsgiver, who is listed above on the 10th of the Kalends of February.

[2] But it is celebrated on November 12 by the Greeks, But because that day of St. Mennas among the Easterners, and of St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, among the Latins, was dedicated to its own celebration, St. John began to be honored on other days, as suited each Church. The Greeks celebrate him the next day, that is, November 12, with an ecclesiastical office, as is clear from their Menaea and Anthologion, in which, besides odes and hymns, there is an epitome of his life, which Maximus of Cythera also recites, and the Menologion published by Canisius in a somewhat more condensed form. He is also celebrated in the Horologion, the Calendar published by Genebrard, and the Menologion of Christopher Patricius of Mitylene. His life is also recorded under that day in the published works of Metaphrastes.

[3] Not all the Latins honor him on the same day. A certain old manuscript augmented Martyrology of Usuard And by certain Latins. records on the same 12th day of November: At Alexandria, Blessed John, Bishop and Confessor, who is called the Almsgiver. Formerly also at Buda in Hungary, in the royal chapel in the castle, his feast was celebrated on the day immediately following the feast of St. Martin, Bishop and Confessor, as Pelbartus of Temesvvar writes at the end of his Pomerium on the Saints, as below, when the Translation will be treated. On the same day Ferrarius in his general Catalogue of Saints: At Venice, the translation of St. John the Almsgiver; and he notes from the Tables, as he says, of the Venetian Church: His feast day is recalled on the 23rd of January, as in the Roman Martyrology.

[4] But he would rather have written the opposite. For the Translation is celebrated on January 23 in the manuscript Florarium: On the same day, the Translation of St. John, Bishop of Alexandria, Translation on January 23. who on account of his outstanding generosity in Christ merited the name of Almsgiver, in the year of salvation 641. But the Carthusians of Cologne in their additions to Usuard, January 23: On the same day, John, Patriarch of Alexandria, who on account of his excellent mercy toward the poor was called the Almsgiver. Similar entries are in Galesinnius, Ghinius, Felicius, and the Roman and German Martyrologies, in which the reason for the feast is not expressed. Molanus calls it a feast day. Baronius in his Notes on the Martyrology thinks this was the very day of his ordination, which is also customarily called a feast day, and asserts that the Greeks also treat of him on this day, although his death day is the third of February: in both of which assertions it is manifest from what has been said that he is mistaken. The Greeks treat of him on November 12 and are silent on this day. Where Baronius drew the notion that he died on February 3, Rosweyde confesses in his Notes on the Life, number 1, that he does not know. We find this first asserted by Peter de Natali, book 3, chapter 77, where he has an epitome of his life, but one that requires correction in very many places. Commemoration on February 3. Following him, the Carthusians of Cologne in their additions to Usuard again record him on the same day, as do the German Martyrology and Maurolycus; whose words are: Likewise, John, Patriarch of Alexandria, distinguished for the munificence of his almsgiving, in the time of the Emperor Phocas. Felicius asserts that he died on this same January 23. But Baronius in his Annals, volume 8, year of Christ 620, says that the anniversary day of his death is January 23.

[5] And July 13. Finally, he is honored by some on July 13. The ancient manuscript Martyrology of the monastery of St. Riquier, bearing the name of Bede: At Alexandria, St. John the Patriarch, who is called the Almoner. The manuscript of St. Gudula in Brussels: At Alexandria, Blessed John the Patriarch, a man of God most pious in compassion and the largesse of his almsgiving. The Cologne Martyrology and the Addition of the Cologne Carthusians to Usuard have the same, but add that his feast day is observed there. The manuscript Florarium has this: At Alexandria, the deposition of St. John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of the same Church. When he died, his venerable body was placed in a sepulchre where the bodies of two Bishops had been entombed: and behold, those bodies miraculously yielded to St. John and left the aforementioned place vacant for him. He died in the year of salvation 618. In the Index, however, it assigns the Translation to that day. So much for his feast day and the various festivities. We, following the Roman Martyrology and the other writers of his life, retain him under January 23.

Section II. The Writers of his Life.

[6] The life of St. John was first written by John and Sophronius, who are called by Leontius in his Life "worshippers of God, lovers of virtues, champions of piety"; likewise, "mighty in deed and word; wise men, truly good counselors, who, relying on the power of the Holy Spirit, uprooted heresy; on which account St. John honored them greatly"; The life of St. John was written by John Moschus and Sophronius; he obeyed them as fathers without distinction, and gave thanks to them as those who acted firmly and manfully for the faith. And they are more often called by the same Leontius, and by Metaphrastes below in chapter 6, number 31, the most excellent men of those times. That John is commonly surnamed Moschus, or the Gelded. Concerning the pilgrimage of both of them to Egypt and Alexandria, the following is written in the Eulogy of John translated from the Greek by Rosweyde and prefixed to his Spiritual Meadow in book 10 of the Lives of the Fathers: When John saw the Persian nation prevailing, he betook himself to Alexandria, and having traversed the entire wilderness around it (for he had already at the beginning of the reign of Tiberius been sent to Egypt to perform his ministry), and reaching as far as the Oasis and the wilderness adjacent to it, after he had visited the Fathers who were there; and hearing thence again that the holy places had been occupied and the Romans seized with fear, he left Alexandria and sailed to the great city of the Romans, together with his most dear disciple Sophronius. There John died: and Sophronius transferred his relics to the monastery of St. Theodosius at the beginning of the eighth Indiction, in the year of Christ 619 or 620, But this work does not survive: and spent the remainder of his life in the same monastery, as is said in the same eulogy. Whether their account of St. John the Almsgiver survives anywhere is not known: it has certainly never been published. We think it was a single work composed by both, or at any rate attributed to both, as we also judge concerning the Spiritual Meadow, with Rosweyde in Prolegomenon 12 to the Lives of the Fathers; and the very manner of speaking throughout indicates as much, as in chapter 105: "When we were in Alexandria, we went to Abbot Theodore"; and chapter 145: "We went to the monastery called Salama, nine miles from Alexandria"; and chapter 177: "While we were residing at the Nono of Alexandria"; and chapter 184: "We were at the Nono of Alexandria"; etc.

[7] The life of the same St. John the Patriarch was then written by Leontius, Bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus, whose testimony in defense of Christians against the Jews, and concerning the images of the Saints, survives, Another was written by Leontius, published by Heinrich Canisius and inserted in the Library of the Fathers, Cologne edition, in the seventh century; and much is cited from it by St. John Damascene in his third oration on images, and in the Second Council of Nicaea, session 4, where also Constantine, the most holy Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, said: This Father whose work was read shone with the most sacred distinction in one of the cities of Cyprus, and we have many encomia and festal discourses of his; among which is also his sermon on the Transfiguration of our Savior. He also composed the life of St. John, Archbishop of Alexandria, surnamed the Almoner, that is, the Merciful; as well as that of St. Simeon the Simple, and certain other works, and in all his discourses he is seen to be orthodox. He flourished in the times of the Emperor Maurice. From this we gather that Leontius was already a Bishop before St. John was ordained Patriarch, as will be discussed in section 3, and that not long after John's death he conversed with Mennas and others at Alexandria; especially since that beggar, treated of in number 3, had recently been freed from Persian captivity; therefore not long after the victory of Heraclius over the Persians, reported in the year 628. Before Leontius completed the life in its entirety, however, several years had elapsed since John's death; which the anniversary hymnody celebrated a long time after the dormition of the Saint, mentioned in number 99, indicates.

[8] Sigebert, in his work On Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 57, mentions this author. Leontius, he says, Bishop of Neapolis on the island of Cyprus, wrote the life of John, Bishop of Alexandria, who on account of his outstanding mercy toward the poor was surnamed the Almsgiver. The same is attested by Trithemius, Possevinus, Bellarmine in his work On Writers, Molanus, Bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus, not of Constantia, Galesinnius, Baronius in his Notes on the Martyrology and here in volume 8, year of Christ 610, number 7, and year 620, number 2; whom, however, Baronius erroneously calls Bishop of Constantia in year 594, number 30, or at least judged him a different person from this one. Binius in the Library of the Fathers, seventh century, writes that he was Bishop of Constantia or, as some would have it, of Neapolis in Cyprus. Possevinus: Leontius, Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, a holy man, wrote of the tribulations that the Church of God suffered in the time of Pope Gregory the Great and the Emperor Maurice, as is established from session 4 of the Second Council of Nicaea; but it has either perished or lies hidden elsewhere. And shortly thereafter he treats of Leontius, Bishop of Neapolis, as if a different person, from Sigebert and others. Rosweyde here at number 2 judges, with arguments presented on both sides, that that book on the Tribulations was never written, and the reader may consult him. This Leontius, moreover, as Baronius attests in year of Christ 620, number 2, committed to writing the deeds performed by John himself with complete sincerity. He learned them from the God-worshipper Mennas, an eyewitness; From reliable witnesses: whom John himself had made Priest and Vicedominus of the most holy Church of Alexandria, that is, the supreme Steward and director of its administration: and as Mennas narrated, Leontius noted down in order all that was said, as is stated in numbers 3, 4, and 88. For up to that point he recites the deeds of St. John at Alexandria from his account. What he adds in the last two chapters, concerning his death, burial, and miracles in Cyprus, were either well known there to everyone, or he professes that he heard them from certain persons who were worthy of belief, below in chapter 14.

[9] This life was rendered from Greek into Latin by Anastasius the Librarian, a Roman Abbot of the Order of St. Benedict, and Cardinal Priest with the title of St. Marcellus. It was translated into Latin by Anastasius the Librarian. Sigebert mentions him in his work On Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 103: Anastasius, at the command of Pope Nicholas, translated into Latin the life of John the Almsgiver, written in Greek by Bishop Leontius. Nicholas was created Pope on April 24 in the year of Christ 858 and died on November 13 in the year 867. Anastasius's preface to Nicholas is prefixed. This translation is mentioned by Trithemius, Possevinus, Bellarmine in his work On Writers, Molanus, Galesinnius, and Baronius in his Notes on the Martyrology. Miraeus mentions it in his Bibliotheca. This life has been published among the Lives of the Holy Fathers in Italy, Spain, Gaul, It has been published many times. Germany, and Belgium twenty times or even more since the invention of printing. The place and year of each edition has been discussed in the Life of St. Antony, section 11 of the Prolegomena. But most recently it was illuminated with learned annotations by our colleague Heribert Rosweyde, who sets forth the names and book formats of the preceding printers in Prolegomenon 17 to those same Lives of the Holy Fathers; and he had a manuscript of this from the ancient codices of Gembloux, Anchin, Liessies, Cambron, and the Moretian codex which is now at the Professed House of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp: although he collated it mainly with only the first two codices, as he shows in very many places where he cites both codices and scarcely any others. We ourselves, after the death of Rosweyde, We present it collated with manuscripts: have collated, arranged, and illuminated with brief annotations the same text against the manuscripts of St. Maximin, Saint-Omer, Marchiennes, Orval, and other codices of the finest quality cited above.

[10] Another life of the same St. John survives, written either by Simeon Metaphrastes or by some other more ancient Greek author; rendered into Latin by Gentianus Hervetus and published by Aloysius Lipomanus in volume 5 of his Lives of the Saints under November 12: And another by Metaphrastes, which Laurentius Surius inserted in volume 1 of his Lives under this January 23: and we present it here collated with two outstanding ancient Greek manuscript codices, and indeed under the name of Metaphrastes, although these codices contain many lives different from those that Metaphrastes wrote. Molanus thought that Metaphrastes had compiled the life that Leontius had written in a much better order. To Galesinnius the Life is said to have been first written by Leontius of Cyprus and then more correctly arranged in order by Metaphrastes. Baronius wove the same into his Ecclesiastical Annals under the name of Leontius, because he judged that the two differed only in translation. There is found, he says in his Notes on the Martyrology, a twofold edition and translation of the Acts, different from each other; in one of which certain things are found that are lacking in the other. So they write. Leontius states at number 2 that he brings forward concerning the dignity and merit of the studies of St. John what John and Sophronius, the earlier writers, had omitted: and Anastasius states in his preface that he translates into Latin Leontius's account of the remaining life of John, the Bishop of Alexandria. Did Metaphrastes, or another author of those Acts, have the earlier Acts written by John and Sophronius? Certainly very few things omitted by Leontius are brought forward, which are contained only in the first chapter: the rest are either described in full from Leontius, or condensed into an abridgment, or omitted. Having weighed these matters, the reader will perhaps wonder with us that Metaphrastes is preferred to Leontius by Molanus, Galesinnius, and Baronius. But as usually happens, this was judged by them from the opening alone. It is often confused with the former. For if they had more attentively considered both texts to the end, they would not have gone astray in establishing the day of his feast. Baronius, because it is said that St. John, when Alexandria was about to be handed over to the Persians, departed thence by divine providence and migrated to his homeland of Cyprus, to bestow upon it his own body, since it had nourished him: for he had already foreknown that his departure was approaching—Baronius, judging this to be at odds with his own chronology, of which more presently, at year of Christ 620, numbers 5 and 6, asserts without any doubt on his part that these additions were paraphrastically added to the Acts of Leontius by Metaphrastes, as not consistent with the truth. But he had not noticed that this very same passage is read in Leontius, from whom Metaphrastes drew it, after Leontius's account had already been given a Latin version by Anastasius long before.

[11] From Leontius and Metaphrastes, many more recent writers have transcribed the deeds of St. John: Other lives of St. John. Ribadeneira, Villegas, Henricus Adriani, Fabricius, Guilielmus Gazaeus, Doubletius, Haraeus, Jacobus de Voragine, Claudius Rota, and others.

Section III. The Time of his Death. The Years of his Patriarchate.

[12] Leontius, a contemporary of St. John and himself a Cypriot, relates that he fled to Cyprus when Alexandria was about to be handed over to the Persians, St. John fled and died before the Persian capture of Alexandria; and that he died not long afterward at Amathus on the feast day of St. Mennas the Martyr, November 11, as has been said. Leontius is followed by Metaphrastes, chapter 13, Theophanes, book 18, chapter 5, and Cedrenus, both in the same words: In the sixth year of the reign of Heraclius, they say, the Persians captured all Egypt and Alexandria and Libya, and as far as Ethiopia; and having taken much plunder from the abundant spoils and moneys, they returned home. Nicephorus the Patriarch also supports this, not obscurely, in his Breviary of History, Which happened in the year of Christ 616. where he says: Chosroes sent enormous forces against the Romans, placing the commander Shahin at their head. He, having landed at Alexandria and seized the city by force, reduced all Egypt to servitude, and from there devastated the entire East, carrying off most as captives and cruelly killing the rest without any mercy. When these things had been accomplished, he then marched with all his forces to Chalcedon and besieged it with a prolonged siege. He then subjoins the conversation of the commander Shaes with the Emperor Heraclius, and the legates sent by the latter to Persia. These last events are found in the Alexandrian Chronicle as having occurred in the sixth year of Heraclius, in the fourth Indiction, as Petavius shows should be read in his Chronological Notes on the Breviary of Nicephorus, since the Kalends of March are said to have fallen on a Monday at that time, which occurred in the year of Christ 616, with the Dominical Letter C, not in the year 615, the fifth year of Heraclius, in the third Indiction, as the heading erroneously stated.

[13] Baronius, year of Christ 616, number 4, silently passes over Theophanes's account of the capture of Alexandria as follows: As for what pertains to the affairs of the Eastern Empire, the Annals render that year truly calamitous, namely that the Persians had advanced so far that they came through Libya to Carthage, and having besieged it for a long time, finally captured it. So great did the power of Chosroes grow that, having depopulated all Asia, he invaded not only Egypt but also Africa with no obstacle set against him. So writes Baronius. But we have said, together with our colleague Petavius, in the Life of St. Anastasius the Persian on January 22, that after capturing Alexandria, the Persian army marched not to Carthage, called Καρχηδόνα by the Greeks, but to Chalcedon, or Χαλκηδόνα. The same Baronius, year of Christ 620, number 6, says: It is certain from what has been said above that the Persian incursion into Egypt happened long before: at which time John by no means abandoned his Church, although he could have sought hiding places to avoid being led away captive. But to where, then, did John depart from Alexandria? Nicetas the Patrician, he says, numbers 2, 3, 4, Others hold different views, not solidly. was sent to Alexandria to redirect the ecclesiastical funds to the imperial treasury, and wished to bring the most holy man to Constantinople: but he died on the journey. But since in the sixth year of Heraclius, the year of Christ 616, the Persians had gained possession of Alexandria and Egypt and held them in subjection, and therefore, as Nicephorus attests in his Breviary of History, since grain was no longer being conveyed from Egypt, a bitter famine ensued at Constantinople: how did Nicetas collect money at Alexandria five years later? As our colleague Petavius also shrewdly reasons in his Chronological Notes on the Breviary of Nicephorus and in book 11 of On the Doctrine of Times, chapter 49, where he establishes that St. John died in the sixth year of Heraclius, the year of Christ 616. Indeed, Rosweyde here in his Annotations, number 38, demonstrates that Baronius is at odds with himself. But with all due respect to Baronius, these things do not square with the age and history of John. For Paul the Deacon places that exaction of money in the twelfth year of Heraclius, while Baronius places it in the eleventh year of the same Emperor. But, even according to Baronius's own testimony in the same passage, John died in the eleventh year of Heraclius. Furthermore, both Leontius and Metaphrastes assert in the Life of John that after this dispute between John and Nicetas over money, they lived as friends with one another, to such a degree that John afterwards became his godfather: did he lift his children from the sacred font? And the very narrative of Leontius and Metaphrastes sufficiently indicates that this dispute occurred not in John's last year, but long before.

[14] A second point in Baronius seems difficult to us, namely that he establishes St. John the Patriarch as having been consecrated in the year of Christ 610, and as having lived in this dignity for ten years. Leontius produces nothing from which this could be concluded, although he is adduced in favor of that opinion by Baronius, Petavius, and others. For these words: He was created Patriarch in the year 606. "Heraclius then held the scepter of the Romans" are reported by Metaphrastes in number 3, who, in conforming the Lives of the Saints to his own chronology, went astray more than once. Certainly Sigebert, in his Chronicle under the seventh year of Phocas, writes this about John, already long since a Patriarch, as he supposes: At Alexandria, John the Bishop flourished, who on account of his outstanding generosity in Christ merited the name of the Almsgiver. Pelbartus, cited below, writes the same. Nor does the time of the preceding Patriarchs prevent John from having been elected in the year of Christ 606 and dying, after ten years (which will be discussed presently), that is, in the year 616. Paul was Patriarch in the tenth year of the Emperor Justinian, as attested by Liberatus, a writer of that time, in his Breviary on the Nestorian and Eutychian controversy, chapter 23. This is clear from the time of his predecessors, But soon, when through imprudence he fell under the suspicion of homicide, he was driven into exile and had as his successor Zoilus, whose beginning Baronius assigns to the year of Christ 537, number 15, which perhaps belongs to the following year. Nicephorus in his Chronicle assigns two years to Paul and seven to Zoilus; whom afterwards, says Liberatus, the Emperor deposed and ordained Apollinaris, who is now the Prelate of that same Church of Alexandria. He presided, according to Nicephorus, for nineteen years, and so he and Zoilus together must be said to have governed that See for twenty-six years, from the year of Christ 538 to 564 or the following year. Apollinaris attended the Fifth Ecumenical Council held at Constantinople in the year of Christ 553. John succeeded Apollinaris; after him, after eleven years, around the year 576, St. Eulogius succeeded, who had great familiarity and exchange of correspondence with St. Gregory the Great, who was created Roman Pontiff on September 3 of the year 590 and died on March 12 of the year 604; before whom, perhaps by about half a year, St. Eulogius departed on September 13 (which will be examined more exactly in its place), in the year 603. After he had sat for twenty-seven years, Theodore Scribon succeeded him, and after a period of two years, St. John the Almsgiver succeeded Theodore, around the beginning perhaps of the year 606, and therefore died in 616, after having administered the Patriarchal dignity for ten years; so that it was not incorrectly said by Peter de Natali that he flourished under Phocas. And these dates have been arranged according to the Chronicle of Nicephorus, which Sigebert and Pelbartus followed, and which Baronius himself repeatedly cites.

[15] To confirm the dates of the See from the succeeding Patriarchs, let the following be added: George succeeded St. John, And of the successors. to whom Nicephorus assigns fourteen years. But Baronius is forced to correct this, when he writes in the year of Christ 630, number 13, that Cyrus was substituted from among the Bishops of the Lazi in place of George, who had sat for ten years. Whoever finds this reckoning of time less convincing may, together with Petavius, assign only six years to the patriarchate of John, and may decide that it is Nicephorus whom Baronius corrects in the case of the successor, rather to be emended here: and thus St. John would be said to have been elected Bishop under the reign of Heraclius, as Metaphrastes holds.

LIFE

BY LEONTIUS THE BISHOP,

translated by Anastasius, Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, from the Lives of the Fathers of Heribert Rosweyde, and from manuscripts.

John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria (Saint)

BHL Number: 4388

By Leontius the Bishop.

PREFACE OF THE TRANSLATOR TO THE LORD POPE NICHOLAS.

[1] As I was considering, and for a long time silently and anxiously weighing within myself, what I might more usefully and worthily accomplish in the house of God—lest, that is, I should presume upon those things that have not been entrusted to me by my office, nor again seize upon those that exceed the powers of my humble intellect, according to that saying of Solomon: "Have you found honey? Eat what suffices you, lest, being satiated, you vomit it up"; and elsewhere: "Seek not the things that are too high for you, and search not into things above your strength"—behold, suddenly certain energetic and studious men wished to urge me to translate into Latin Leontius's account of the remaining life of John, the Bishop of Alexandria, whom the Greeks, on account of the manifold compassion At the request of many, that he possessed toward all, deservedly and absolutely call Eleemon, that is, the Merciful: so that so great a man might be of profit and advantage not only to those skilled in the Greek language, but also to those accomplished in the Latin tongue. Prov. 25:16; Ecclus. 3:22.

[2] Wherefore, since I perceived myself to be by no means worthy or fit for so great a work, I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence my help would come: and so, employing the comfort and prayers of the Fathers, I did not suffer so profitable a man to remain hidden from the Latins. Under the protection of the Pontiff, But although I had cut the parchments and prepared the sheets, I did not dare to compile this codex until I merited to obtain permission from Your Lordship, O thousand times blessed. For it is not right that anything should be completed or published without the Vicar of God, without the key-bearer of heaven, without the chariot and charioteer of spiritual Israel, without the Pontiff of the whole world, without the sole Pope, without the singular Shepherd, without the special Father, without you, the arbiter of all. For you hold the keys of David, you have received the keys of knowledge. In the ark indeed of your breast rest the tablets of the Covenant and the manna of heavenly savor. For what you bind, no one looses; what you loose, no one binds; you open, and no one shuts; you shut, and no one opens. For you hold the place of God upon earth.

[3] When I translated this Blessed one into the Latin tongue, I could not and should not follow the Greek idioms or their word order. For I have not excerpted word for word, He translates this life into Latin, but sense for sense. But neither have I been careful to preserve the Latin rules throughout, so long as my aim tended to that from which profit would arise for the readers. Wherefore, O co-angelic Lord, looking not upon the person of my littleness, not investigating my cunning, not demanding the ornaments of words, but rather foreseeing with the pious eye of your heart the profit of the readers, so that so great a man may be an exemplar and mirror for all, strengthen this translation by Your Apostolic authority, if it pleases your judgment: if it displeases, correct it: provided only that the Latin tongue does not grieve to be deprived of so great a savor in which Greece rejoices to be most excellently seasoned.

[4] And Anastasius dedicates it to the Pontiff. Receive therefore a Saint translated by a sinner, and do not attend to by whom it was translated, but to what was translated. For you do not despise the clearest water on account of the leaden pipe; nor do you scorn the rose that is produced on account of the thorns that produce it. In short, your Guardian and Lover, when He willed, showed dreams to Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, wicked kings, by which future things might be foreknown: and through the impious Caiaphas He declared what was expedient: and indeed when He willed, He permitted an ass to speak with articulate voice.

Hail, beloved Prelate of God, hail through the ages, And blessed Pope of the whole world, farewell.

Annotations

PROEM OF THE AUTHOR.

[1] Our intention is indeed one with that of the studious and holy men who preceded us, regarding the present narrative of the life of this memorable man: that is, that from this there may arise for all a pious imitation and profit, while glory and magnificence may be rendered to the holy and adorable Trinity: and in this, The Saints are to be praised, as in all things, who always in generation after generation displays His own luminaries, to illuminate those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and sin. Since, however, the friends of Christ do not greatly admire those men who lived before our generation in a manner of life pleasing to God, but concerning the work of the devil we always say those words to one another, that under the men who were before us the iniquity of mankind was not so multiplied as it is now, as the divine Scripture foretold: "Because iniquity has abounded, Who among the wicked the charity of many grows cold"; therefore we are not able to rise to their merit; for this reason we have come in part to the present narrative of this Saint's life, Flourished in the last times. to show that even in our days those who are willing and who compel their resolution can be shown to be more excellent than we, and can walk the narrow and strait way, and can stop the mouth of those who speak iniquity and thoughts harmful to the soul. Matt. 24:12.

[2] Already indeed others before us have philosophized concerning this admirable man and supreme priest John, producing works that are both excellent and most outstanding, John and Sophronius wrote the life of St. John the Almsgiver, being mighty in deed and in word. I mean John and Sophronius, worshippers of God and lovers of virtues and champions of piety: nevertheless, although they were such men, they too omitted some things concerning the dignity and merit of this man's zeal, and suffered the same thing as certain diligent farmers who harvest a rich and fruitful vineyard: for they leave behind some fruit as a blessing, even unwillingly, for the needy gleaners who follow behind them—among whom we too are the least. For all these Saints, although with all their strength they strove with the zeal of God to harvest this fruitful olive tree, which is planted in the house of God, as the Psalmist says, on account of the abundant olives that truly are on it; nevertheless, much fruit of the olive remained hidden from them, And after them Leontius: why? by the Lord's dispensation, who also received our poor and cold eagerness, as He did the two coins of the widow. Ps. 51:10. For it is not by detracting from them, nor as those who could imitate their God-given wisdom, that we have hastened to commit the deeds of the Righteous to writing; but firstly, because we understand it is not right to conceal by silence things that can bring profit to the hearers, lest we too fall under the judgment of that servant who hid his talent in the earth; and secondly, so that in this narrative of ours, more accurate and delightful histories may be written that were not written by those excellent men in the praises of the truly most holy and most blessed John. And then, because those wise and powerful men of eloquence were lovers of history, they painted the subject wisely and loftily: which especially and more greatly aroused us to the present effort, so that we might narrate in our pedestrian, unadorned, and humble style, so that even the uneducated and unlettered person might profit from what is said.

CHAPTER I.

Leontius's acquaintance with the disciples of St. John. John's first exercises in the Patriarchate.

[3] When I, unworthy as I am, had arrived at Alexandria to embrace the holy and victorious Martyrs Cyrus and John, Leontius converses with the disciples of St. John: and was enjoying the refreshment of their delightful feasts, and certain venerable and Christ-loving men were gathering and conversing there, and we were discussing the Scriptures and the instruction of the soul; a certain stranger came to us asking for alms: for he said he had recently been freed from Persian captivity. It happened, therefore, that none of those who were sitting there was found to have money or a coin. One of those sitting there, however, had a hired servant standing nearby, a cunning giver, who received only three coins per year and had a wife and two children. When the one who had asked departed, he followed him cleverly, and took from himself a small silver cross that he was carrying, and gave it to him, saying that he had nothing else in his life, He marvels at the liberality of one man toward the poor, not even a single siliqua. I therefore, moved by what had happened—or rather by what I had seen done (for by the grace of God I was reflecting on what he had done)—immediately related it to the one sitting near me, a man named Mennas, a diligent man who feared God, who was also the director of the administration of the most holy Church under the noble and most blessed Patriarch John. He, when he had observed me admiring and praising the one who had given the alms, said to me: Do not marvel, because he became a performer of this kind of action from the tradition and teaching he received. And when I said to him: How so? For charity's sake, enlighten me—he answered and said: He served our most holy, thrice-blessed Patriarch John and remained with him, and as a true son he received the training of his father; for the Saint said to him: Humble Zacharias, be merciful; and you have a word from God through my unworthiness, that neither in my life nor after my death will God fail you. Which he observes to this day. For God sends him many blessings, but he does not let anything remain, but immediately gives it to the poor, virtually stripping and reducing his house to nothing. Many times, moreover, some have found him in exultation, saying to God: So so, either You sending or I distributing; Competing in giving away with God who gives: we shall see who wins. For it is clear that You, O Lord, are rich and the provider of our life. Sometimes, however, it happens that he does not at that moment have anything to give to one who asks of him; and in his sadness he says to the shopkeeper or the merchant: Give me one tremissis, and I will serve you for one month or two, as you wish and wherever you wish, since those in my house are very hungry. And taking it, he gives it to the needy, asking that he tell no one.

[4] When therefore the same worshipper of God, Mennas, perceived me listening to him as to the Gospel, he says to me with compunction: Do you marvel at this, my lord? If only you had encountered the holy Patriarch, He learns from Mennas the deeds of St. John, what then? I say to him: What more would I have seen? Then he said to me: Believe me, by the mercy of God. He himself made me Priest and Vicedominus of the most holy Church, and I saw in him works that surpass almost the whole of nature. And if you will deign to sanctify us by coming to my humble home today, I will narrate to you the deeds that I myself, having become an eyewitness of them, beheld. When he had said this, I took his hand and raised him up; and taking me by the hand, he led me to his God-preserved house. When he wished to deign to set a table before us, I said to him: It is not right, O my lord, that we, leaving aside the food of the soul, should refresh the body before the soul: but rather let us first take the food that does not perish, and afterward attend to the necessity of the body. When therefore he had begun to recite the life of the Saint without falsehood, he said: His first and principal good quality was And notes them down. that he never took an oath in any manner. I therefore asked for paper and an inkwell, and I noted down in order what was being said.

[5] Having been promoted, therefore, and sitting on the throne in the great city of Alexandria, beloved of Christ, St. John elected Patriarch, by a truly divine decree and not from men nor through men, he demonstrated this first deed and prize to all. For immediately sending his stewards and the one who was called the Superintendent of Peace, he says before all to them in the honorable council chamber: It is not right, brethren, that we should have care for anyone else before Christ. When the entire multitude that had gathered heard the word, they were moved to compunction and waited expectantly, and the Blessed one said again: Go therefore throughout the whole city, He calls the poor his Lords; and write down for me, to the very last one, all my Lords. When they did not understand who these were, but asked him to say, and marveled who the Lords of the Patriarch might be, that angelic mouth answered again and said: Those whom you call the needy and the beggars, those I proclaim my Lords and helpers. For they truly are able both to help us and to bestow upon us the kingdom of heaven. And when this imitator of Christ had seen this done with great speed, he ordered daily stipends to be given to them, and through his own steward he provided them with sufficient necessities: and there were He feeds 7,500 of them: more than seven thousand five hundred. Then, like a true shepherd and not a hireling, going with his sacred flock and with the holy Bishops who had gathered to the holy church, he was consecrated by divine judgment. He is consecrated.

[6] It is also right not to set aside this good deed among his acts. For on the following day, again sending throughout the whole city the same friends of God—the stewards and chancellors and the rest to whom the administration of the city had been entrusted—He prescribes just weights and measures: he did not allow any kind of measure, or weight, small or great, in the entire city: but he solemnly declared that all things should be bought and sold with a single balance scale, a single bushel, and a single artabe, writing in his own hand a decree throughout every district, having this form: John, humble and insignificant servant of the servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, to all living under our poverty and entrusted by the same Lord and God to our governance, these words: Since the excellent Blessed Paul, through Christ who spoke in him, commanding and laying down a law for all, said: "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch over you as those who will give an account for your souls" Heb. 13:17; my littleness believes that you, obedient to the divine word, will receive our petitions as from God and not from man: whence, knowing this, I admonish your charity that no such transgression should appear in any of you. In short, as the divine Scripture says: "A large and a small weight God holds in abomination" Prov. 11:1. He imposes a fine on transgressors. If, moreover, anyone shall be found after the present decree of our subscription to have incurred this crime, he shall, unwillingly and without recompense, assign all his possessions to the poor. Therefore, as something worthy of memory, we have hastened to set forth here this very public decree.

Annotations

Hail, beloved Prelate of God, hail through the ages, And blessed Pope of the whole world, farewell.

Annotations

PROEM OF THE AUTHOR.

[2] Already indeed others before us have philosophized concerning this admirable man and supreme priest John, producing works that are both excellent and most outstanding, John and Sophronius wrote the life of St. John the Almsgiver, being mighty in deed and in word. I mean John and Sophronius, worshippers of God and lovers of virtues and champions of piety: nevertheless, although they were such men, they too omitted some things concerning the dignity and merit of this man's zeal, and suffered the same thing as certain diligent farmers who harvest a rich and fruitful vineyard: for they leave behind some fruit as a blessing, even unwillingly, for the needy gleaners who follow behind them---among whom we too are the least. For all these Saints, although with all their strength they strove with the zeal of God to harvest this fruitful olive tree, which is planted in the house of God, as the Psalmist says, on account of the abundant olives that truly are on it; nevertheless, much fruit of the olive remained hidden from them, And after them Leontius: why? by the Lord's dispensation, who also received our poor and cold eagerness, as He did the two coins of the widow. Ps. 51:10. For it is not by detracting from them, nor as those who could imitate their God-given wisdom, that we have hastened to commit the deeds of the Righteous to writing; but firstly, because we understand it is not right to conceal by silence things that can bring profit to the hearers, lest we too fall under the judgment of that servant who hid his talent in the earth; and secondly, so that in this narrative of ours, more accurate and delightful histories may be written that were not written by those excellent men in the praises of the truly most holy and most blessed John. And then, because those wise and powerful men of eloquence were lovers of history, they painted the subject wisely and loftily: which especially and more greatly aroused us to the present effort, so that we might narrate in our pedestrian, unadorned, and humble style, so that even the uneducated and unlettered person might profit from what is said.

CHAPTER I.

Leontius's acquaintance with the disciples of St. John. John's first exercises in the Patriarchate.

[3] When I, unworthy as I am, had arrived at Alexandria to embrace the holy and victorious Martyrs Cyrus and John, Leontius converses with the disciples of St. John: and was enjoying the refreshment of their delightful feasts, and certain venerable and Christ-loving men were gathering and conversing there, and we were discussing the Scriptures and the instruction of the soul; a certain stranger came to us asking for alms: for he said he had recently been freed from Persian captivity. It happened, therefore, that none of those who were sitting there was found to have money or a coin. One of those sitting there, however, had a hired servant standing nearby, a cunning giver, who received only three coins per year and had a wife and two children. When the one who had asked departed, he followed him cleverly, and took from himself a small silver cross that he was carrying, and gave it to him, saying that he had nothing else in his life, He marvels at the liberality of one man toward the poor, not even a single siliqua. I therefore, moved by what had happened---or rather by what I had seen done (for by the grace of God I was reflecting on what he had done)---immediately related it to the one sitting near me, a man named Mennas, a diligent man who feared God, who was also the director of the administration of the most holy Church under the noble and most blessed Patriarch John. He, when he had observed me admiring and praising the one who had given the alms, said to me: Do not marvel, because he became a performer of this kind of action from the tradition and teaching he received. And when I said to him: How so? For charity's sake, enlighten me---he answered and said: He served our most holy, thrice-blessed Patriarch John and remained with him, and as a true son he received the training of his father; for the Saint said to him: Humble Zacharias, be merciful; and you have a word from God through my unworthiness, that neither in my life nor after my death will God fail you. Which he observes to this day. For God sends him many blessings, but he does not let anything remain, but immediately gives it to the poor, virtually stripping and reducing his house to nothing. Many times, moreover, some have found him in exultation, saying to God: So so, either You sending or I distributing; Competing in giving away with God who gives: we shall see who wins. For it is clear that You, O Lord, are rich and the provider of our life. Sometimes, however, it happens that he does not at that moment have anything to give to one who asks of him; and in his sadness he says to the shopkeeper or the merchant: Give me one tremissis, and I will serve you for one month or two, as you wish and wherever you wish, since those in my house are very hungry. And taking it, he gives it to the needy, asking that he tell no one.

[6] It is also right not to set aside this good deed among his acts. For on the following day, again sending throughout the whole city the same friends of God---the stewards and chancellors and the rest to whom the administration of the city had been entrusted---He prescribes just weights and measures: he did not allow any kind of measure, or weight, small or great, in the entire city: but he solemnly declared that all things should be bought and sold with a single balance scale, a single bushel, and a single artabe, writing in his own hand a decree throughout every district, having this form: John, humble and insignificant servant of the servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, to all living under our poverty and entrusted by the same Lord and God to our governance, these words: Since the excellent Blessed Paul, through Christ who spoke in him, commanding and laying down a law for all, said: "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch over you as those who will give an account for your souls" Heb. 13:17; my littleness believes that you, obedient to the divine word, will receive our petitions as from God and not from man: whence, knowing this, I admonish your charity that no such transgression should appear in any of you. In short, as the divine Scripture says: "A large and a small weight God holds in abomination" Prov. 11:1. He imposes a fine on transgressors. If, moreover, anyone shall be found after the present decree of our subscription to have incurred this crime, he shall, unwillingly and without recompense, assign all his possessions to the poor. Therefore, as something worthy of memory, we have hastened to set forth here this very public decree.

Annotations

CHAPTER II.

Various Works of Mercy.

[7] It was reported to this man who had been granted divine wisdom that the administrators of the Church, corrupted by gifts, were showing partiality in the disposition of affairs concerning captives. Having summoned them, he overlooked nothing, and without at all exasperating anyone, He prohibits his officials from accepting gifts: he increased the wages that had previously been given to them, setting down a rule that they should by no means accept gifts from anyone: For fire, he said, will consume the houses of those who accept gifts. From that time, therefore, by the grace of God their households prospered, so that some of them even declined the amount of the wage that had been added for them.

[8] Learning moreover on another occasion, that thrice-rich man, that certain persons were suffering injury from their adversaries, and that those wishing to approach him were prevented by the fear of the Chancellors and the Defenders of the Church and those who attended upon him, he devised a plan for a business pleasing to God: and on the fourth and sixth days of the week, publicly setting out his chair and two benches, he sat before the church, He grants a public audience to the people twice each week: conversing with certain energetic men or holding the holy Gospels in his hands, allowing no one of such great retinue to approach him except one Defender of the Church, hastening to give permission and confidence to those wishing to approach him; and for these he immediately had what was fitting done through the Defenders of the Church. And he used to command that none of them should eat until they had settled the matter. And to those who listened he would say: If we who are human beings always have permission to enter the house of God for our petitions, and to make our petitions known to Him, that is, to the unapproachable One who is above all creation, and we strive that our prayers be fulfilled, and moreover we ask Him not to delay, but immediately cry out that word of the Prophet: "Quickly let Your mercy anticipate us, O Lord" Ps. 78:8; how, do you think, ought we to carry out with all haste the petitions of our fellow servants, remembering the Lord who says: "In the measure with which you measure, it shall be measured back to you" Matt. 7:2; and the Prophet again attesting: "As you have done, so shall it be done to you"?

[9] On one of those days, therefore, this admirable man went out in his usual manner and sat in his accustomed place until the fifth hour, and when no one came, He weeps because no one afflicted has come to him: he withdrew sad and in tears. Since no one dared to ask him the cause of his sorrow, St. Sophronius said to him privately (for he was there at that time): What is the cause, O steward of God, that holds your holy mind in sadness? For you have suddenly troubled us all. He said to him in a gentle voice: Today the humble John has not received any reward from anyone, nor has he offered anything to Christ for his innumerable sins, as indeed never. To which St. Sophronius, divinely inspired, replied (for he immediately understood the cause for which the same Patriarch was saddened): Today indeed you should rejoice and be glad, O Most Blessed One: for you are truly most blessed, so pacifying the flock entrusted to you by Christ that no one has any lawsuit or dispute against his neighbor, but you have made men to be like Angels, without quarrel and without judgment. But that truly meek shepherd, believing that what was said was true, raised his eyes to heaven and said: I give You thanks, O God, that You have deigned both that my unworthy faintheartedness should serve in the priesthood, and that I, insignificant and a sinner, should be called Your priest and should feed a rational flock. Then, having set aside all faintheartedness, great joy came to him in humility. And in this (as some say) he was also imitated by Constantine, who was Emperor after Heraclius, and was also his son.

[10] In the time of this holy Patriarch, the Persians went up and captured and plundered Syria. He kindly receives exiles fleeing from the Persians. And so nearly all who escaped the hands of the Persians hastened to the name of this thrice-blessed man as to a harbor without waves, requesting to enjoy from him both assistance and reception. This Blessed one received them with hospitality and consoled them not as captives, but as if they were truly his brothers by nature. He tends the wounded and the sick: Immediately, therefore, he had the wounded and the sick placed in hostels and hospitals, commanding that care and medicine be provided for them without charge, and that they should depart only when each of them wished of his own will. For those, however, who came healthy but destitute to the distribution, he gave to the men one siliqua each; but to the women and girls, as the weaker members, two each. He forbids alms to be denied to those adorned with gold. When, moreover, certain people came dressed in golden ornaments and bracelets and sought alms, those to whom the distribution had been entrusted reported them to the Patriarch. To whom the Blessed one, using a fierce eye and stern voice, although he was gentle and cheerful of face, said: If you wish to be stewards of the humble John---rather, of Christ---obey the divine commandment without cunning, which says: "Give to everyone who asks of you" Luke 6:30. But if you investigate the comers with curiosity, God has no need of prying ministers, nor does the humble John. For if the things that are given were mine and had been born with me, perhaps I would rightly be tenacious of my own. But since the things given are God's, He certainly wishes His own commandment to be kept with what is His. But if out of unbelief or little faith you fear that perhaps the quantity of what is given might exceed the income of the revenues, I will not be made a partner of your feeble faith. He is full of trust in God: For indeed if it has been done by the good pleasure of God that I, unworthy, should be the steward of His gifts, even if the whole world gathered in Alexandria needing alms, they will not diminish the immense treasures of God, nor the holy Church.

[11] When he had dismissed these, cutting away all the failure of spirit and little faith that had surrounded them, he spoke to those who were sitting with him; He sees Almsgiving in the form of a Maiden; and they marveled at the compassion given him by God: When I was still a youth in Cyprus, he said, about fifteen years of age, I saw one night in a dream a certain maiden whose beauty shone above the sun, adorned beyond all human understanding: who came and stood before my bed and struck me in the side. Awakening, indeed, I saw her in truth standing there, and I thought her to be a woman: He signs himself with the sign of the Cross, having therefore signed myself with the figure of the Cross, I said to her: Who are you? And how did you dare to enter upon me while I was sleeping? She also had a crown of olive branches upon her head. Then she, with a cheerful face and smiling lips, says to me: I am the first of the daughters of the King. When I had heard this, I immediately worshipped her. Then she says to me: If you gain me as a friend, I will lead you into the presence of the Emperor. For no one has power with him as I do. He recognizes her: For I am the one who caused him to become a man on earth and to save mankind. And saying these things, she disappeared. And I, returning to myself, understood the vision and said: I believe it is Compassion and Almsgiving, and therefore she has a crown of olive leaves upon her head. For truly compassion and kindness toward mankind caused God to clothe Himself in flesh.

[12] He gives a poor man his own garment: Immediately therefore I dressed myself, and rousing no one in my house, I went off to the church. For it was already dawn. And as I was going I met a brother who was suffering from the cold; I stripped off my goatskin garment and gave it to him, and I said within myself: Behold, by this I shall know whether the vision I saw is indeed true, or demonic. And in truth, I had not yet reached the church when someone suddenly meeting me, dressed in white garments, He receives 100 coins: gave me a purse of a hundred coins, saying: Take these, brother, and spend them as you wish. I, receiving them at once with great joy, turned back, wishing to return that purse to him, as one who needed nothing: but I no longer saw anyone. Then I said to myself: Truly it was no phantom. From that hour, therefore, I often gave something to the brethren and would say: Let me see if God will send me, as He said, a hundredfold. He tests God's promise of a hundredfold: And when I had tested the Lord, doing wrong, and had been satisfied in various ways through those things, I said: Cease, miserable soul, from tempting the One who cannot be tempted. Since my humble soul therefore had so many assurances from God, these faithless men came today, perhaps, and were urging me to fall with them into distrust.

[13] While that same multitude of people was still in the city, a certain pilgrim, seeing his great compassion, wished to test him: and having put on old garments, He visits the sick two or three times a week: he approached him as he was going to visit those who lay in the hospital. For he went there two or three times a week. And he says to him: Have mercy on me, for I am a captive. He says to the distributor: Give him six coins. Then, when he had received these, he goes and changes his clothing, and meets him from another direction, and falls before him, saying: Have mercy on me, for I am in distress. The Patriarch again says to the distributor: Give him six gold coins. When he had gone, that distributor whispered in the Patriarch's ear: By your prayers, my lord, the same man received a second time. But the Patriarch made himself as though he did not know. He came therefore a third time again to receive, and the one who was carrying the gold touched the Patriarch, signaling that it was the same man. He recognizes Christ in the poor man. Then the friend of God, that truly merciful one, answered him: Give him twelve coins, lest perhaps he be my Christ, and is testing me.

Annotations

CHAPTER III.

Relief given to a poor shipmaster and to a nobleman.

[14] He gives alms to a shipmaster, A certain foreign shipmaster had suffered losses: and approaching this blessed man, he begged with many tears that he might show compassion toward him, as he did toward all others. And he ordered that he be given five pounds of gold. When he had received these and departed, he bought a cargo and loaded it onto his ship. But it soon happened that he suffered a shipwreck beyond the Pharos: though he did not lose the ship itself. He approached him again, presuming upon his goodwill, and said: Have mercy on me, as God has had mercy on the world. Because the money was mixed with money ill-gotten, and so perished, To whom the Patriarch said: Believe me, brother, if you had not mixed with the moneys of the Church those moneys that had remained to you, you would by no means have suffered shipwreck. For you had those from evil sources, and they were lost together with the good ones. Nevertheless, he again ordered that ten pounds of gold be given to him, warning him not to mix other moneys with them. Moreover, having bought a cargo and sailing for one day, with a strong wind blowing, he was cast upon the land: and he lost everything, even the ship itself, He doubles the new alms; and only the lives were saved. That same shipmaster, therefore, out of confusion and anguish, wished to kill himself: but God, who always provides for the salvation of mankind, revealed this to the blessed Patriarch. And when he had heard what had happened to him, And when these again perished, he sent word to him to come to him without any doubt whatsoever. Then he sprinkled himself with dust and, tearing his tunic, he came to him in a disheveled state. When the Saint saw him in such a condition, he rebuked him and said: May the Lord, the blessed God, have mercy on you. I trust Him that from this day forward you will by no means suffer shipwreck until you die. This happened to you, Together with a ship unjustly acquired, because that very ship of yours had been acquired through injustice.

[15] He therefore immediately ordered that one of the great ships belonging to the most holy Church, laden with twenty thousand modii of grain, be delivered to him. He hands over to him a ship of the Church full of grain, Receiving it, he departed from Alexandria: and the shipmaster himself affirmed and declared: For twenty days and nights we sailed with a violent wind, unable to know at all where we were going, neither by the stars nor by the landmarks, except that the helmsman saw that Patriarch himself holding the tiller with him and saying to him: Do not be afraid, And guides him though absent you are sailing well. To Britain: Therefore, after the twentieth day we appeared at the islands of Britain: and when we disembarked, we found a great famine there. When therefore we told the chief man of the city that we were carrying grain in the ship, he said: God has brought you here well. Choose whatever you wish: either one coin per modius, or receive an equal weight of tin. We chose therefore half one way and half the other. But the narrative goes on to tell something that, to those inexperienced in the gifts of God, is indeed incredible and without faith, but to those who have experience of His miracle, credible and acceptable.

[16] Moreover, when the ship had returned joyfully to Alexandria, we rested at Pentapolis: and the shipmaster brought some of that tin to sell it. For he had an old business partner there who was requesting some of the same tin. He gives him in a sack about fifty pounds. He converts tin into silver. But that man, wishing to test the quality to see if it was good, melted it in the fire and found it to be pure silver. He thought he was being tested and returned the sack to him, saying: God forgive you. Did you find me a cheat toward you, that to test me you gave me silver instead of tin? But the shipmaster, amazed at these words, says: Believe me, I hold that as tin. But if He who made wine from water also made tin into silver through the prayers of the Patriarch, it is nothing strange. And so that you may be satisfied, come to the ship and you will see the rest of this metal, the companion of what you received. Going up therefore, they found the tin had been made into the finest silver. And this is no strange miracle, O lovers of Christ. For He who multiplied the five loaves, and again changed the water of Egypt into blood, and transformed a rod into a serpent, and turned flame into dew, more easily worked this most glorious miracle also, both to enrich His servant and to bestow His mercy upon the shipmaster.

[17] When this most holy man was going down to the church one Lord's Day, a man who had possessed great wealth approached him: and thieves, having entered his house, had stripped him down to his bedding. He orders fifteen pounds of gold to be given to a noble poor man: And when a great investigation had been conducted and he had not found the perpetrators, he was compelled by his extreme poverty to entreat that most holy Patriarch with great reverence, telling him of his calamity. Taking great pity on him, therefore (for he had been among the most illustrious and great Princes), he whispered to the one entrusted with the gold to give him fifteen pounds of gold. But his servants give only five. But when that man went to deliver these, he was swayed by the counsel of the accountant and the steward: and through the devil's work, envying him, they gave him only five pounds. When therefore that most honorable Archbishop was returning from the collection, a widow woman who had an only son placed in his hand a written note containing a gift of five hundred pounds of gold. When he had received this and dismissed the honorable council, he summoned the stewards and said to them: How many pounds did you give to the one who approached me? He receives from a widow an alms of 500 pounds, They said: My lord, as your most sacred Holiness commanded, fifteen pounds. But when he had perceived through the grace dwelling in him that they had lied, he brought the one who had received the money and asked him what he had received. When he said five pounds, From whom, had the fraud of his servants not intervened, the Saint, drawing from his honorable hand the note that had been given to him, said to them: May God require from you those other ten hundred pounds as well: for if you had given fifteen pounds, as my humility said, the one who brought the five hundred would have given fifteen hundred. And so that I may convince you, I will send and fetch the one who brought these.

[18] And sending two venerable men to summon the reverent woman who had handed him the note at the baptistry, He would have received 1,500. he also indicated to her, saying: Bringing with you the blessing that God put in your heart to offer Him, come to my humility. She, rising in haste, followed in the footsteps of the Saint together with the quantity of gold. When therefore the Patriarch had received the offering and had prayed sufficiently over it and over her son, he says to her: I beg you, Nonna, did you wish to give only this much to Christ, or something else as well? When she perceived that the God-bearing man had known what she had done, seized with trembling, she said: By the holy prayers of my lord, and by my holy Mennas, I had written fifteen hundred in the note: and one hour before, when I was standing in the assembly to give this to you, my lord, undoing the note, I read it out of order. For I, your unworthy handmaid, had written this with my own hand, and I found ten hundred erased by itself. Then, astonished within myself, I said: Surely it is not the will of God that I give more than five. When the Patriarch had dismissed that reverent woman, the stewards who had transgressed his will fell at his feet, seeking pardon and affirming that they would never do anything of the sort again.

Annotations

CHAPTER IV.

Relief given to John himself in his need.

[19] When the Patrician Nicetas observed the magnanimity of this man full of virtues, and his hand stretched out without parsimony and constantly bestowing upon all as from a fountain, He does not resist the Patrician Nicetas who takes his treasury, at the instigation of certain people who imitated the devil, he came up to the Saint and said to him: The Empire is straitened and is in need of money. Since the moneys that are brought to you are distributed without restraint, give them to the Empire, give them to the public treasury. But the Saint, remaining undisturbed by what had been said, says to him: It is not right, as I judge, Lord Patrician, to give to an earthly king what has been offered to the King above the heavens. But if indeed you have decided upon anything of the sort, believe me, the humble John will not give you a single coin from them: but behold, under my humble bed is the storehouse of Christ; do as you wish. Immediately, therefore, the Patrician rose, called some of his men to carry them, and loaded upon them all the moneys, leaving of them not more than one hundred pounds.

[20] By God's providence he receives other moneys, And as those who were carrying this money were going down, certain others were coming up carrying small flasks containing moneys sent to the Patriarch from Africa, some inscribed BEST HONEY, and others HONEY WITHOUT SMOKE. When therefore the Patrician, descending, read the inscriptions on the flasks, he informed the Patriarch to send him some of such honey for his own use. For he knew the Patriarch bore no grudge. When the man who had been entrusted with the flasks had gone up, given the responses, and indicated that the flasks contained money rather than honey, the truly gentle Pastor immediately sent him one flask He sends part of it to Nicetas; inscribed "Best Honey," also making him a note containing this: The Lord who said "I will not forsake you nor abandon you" is without falsehood, and is the true God: therefore corruptible man cannot constrain God, who provides food and life for all. Heb. 13:5; Josh. 1:5. Farewell. He commanded those who went bearing the flask to tell Nicetas to have it opened in his presence; and to tell him that all the flasks he had seen carried were filled with money in place of honey. It happened therefore that as he was sitting at table, it was announced that those carrying the flask and the Patriarch's note were present. When they came up, the Patrician, seeing only one flask, said to them: Tell him: I believe, my lord, you harbor great anger against me, for you would not send me only a single one. When the same note was delivered, and they broke the seal and poured out the money before everyone, he recognized that the rest of the flasks he had seen were likewise full.

[21] When therefore he had read that corruptible man cannot constrain God, he was moved to compunction by the words, From whom he receives back the stolen and received moneys with interest, and said: As the Lord lives, neither shall Nicetas constrain Him: for he too is a man, a sinner and corruptible. And immediately leaving his meal, and taking with him all the moneys he had taken from the honorable Father, and the flask that had been sent by him, and three hundred pounds of his own, he seized the honorable man's feet, taking nothing in attendance upon himself: but ascending with great humility, he begged, as though moved by the accusations of others, that the Patriarch would implore pardon from God for him; assuring him that even if he imposed a penance upon him, he would readily accept and observe it. The Archbishop, admiring the man's swift conversion, made no complaint about what had been done, but rather consoled him with comforting words. He becomes his godfather. And such a friendship between them was from then on confirmed by God that he became the godfather of the aforesaid Patrician.

[22] He who tested Abraham in what was expedient, so that the whole world, learning of his faith known to God alone, might imitate it, also tested this memorable John. The manner of that testing proved to be a model of benefit for his holy Churches. And the model is this: He suffers want, When an incalculable multitude of those fleeing from the Persians, as has already been said, arrived at Alexandria, and a great scarcity of food occurred because the river Nile did not rise according to its custom, and all the gold he possessed had been distributed, the Patriarch sent and borrowed from many Christ-loving persons about ten hundred pounds. And when these too had been consumed, and the famine still continued, From a lack of credit, and no one was willing to lend him anything further, since all feared the persistence of the famine, and those who were fed by him were hard-pressed by necessity, and the Blessed one persevered in much care and prayer, a certain inhabitant of the city perceived the dryness and utter destitution that had surrounded that most holy man: He is tested by gifts offered being a man twice married, he desired to be made a Deacon of the holy Church. And through the necessity that surrounded the Saint on every side, he wished to persuade him to consecrate him; and he made a petition to him, containing this (for he did not dare to say such a thing to his face): To the most holy and thrice-blessed Father of Fathers John, Vicar of Christ, By a twice-married man seeking the diaconate, a petition and request from Cosmas, the unworthy servant of the servants of Your Holiness. Having learned, most holy lord, of the scarcity of food that afflicts your honorable head by God's permission, or rather on account of our sins, I, your servant, did not think it right to live in abundance while my lord remains in poverty. Your unworthy servant therefore has two hundred thousand modii of grain and one hundred and eighty pounds of gold, which I ask to be given to Christ through you, my lord: only let me, unworthy, be deemed worthy to enjoy the ministry of your diaconate, so that through such a ministry with you, my lord, at the holy altar, I may be cleansed from the filthiness of my sins. For the holy Apostle, the true preacher of God, says truly that of necessity there is also a change of the law. Heb. 7:12.

[23] Receiving this, the divinely wise man summoned the man and said to him: Are you the one who sent us a petition through your secretary and son? He does not acquiesce in his simony: When he said: Yes, my lord, the blessed and most merciful one sent everyone out, not wishing to shame him before all, and began to say to him: Your offering is indeed great and timely, but it is spotted: and you know that in the Law a sheep, whether small or great, unless it was spotless, was not offered in sacrifice: and therefore God did not look upon the sacrifice of Cain. Since, however, you have said, brother, that of necessity there is also a change of the law, the Apostle says this concerning the old Law: for how does the brother of the Lord, James, say that whoever keeps the whole law but offends in one point has become guilty of all? James 2:10. As for my needy brethren and the holy Church, the God who nourished them before you and I were born will nourish them now also; if only we keep His words inviolate. For He who then multiplied the five loaves can also bless the ten modii of my granary. Acts 8:21. Wherefore I say to you, my son, what is said in the Acts of the Apostles: You have neither part nor lot in this matter.

[24] And soon an abundance of grain arrives for him. When he had dismissed this man, sad and without success, it was announced to him that two of the Church's great ships had been brought to shore, which he had sent to Sicily for grain. Hearing this, the Blessed one fell to the ground and gave thanks to Almighty God, saying: I give You thanks, O Lord, that You did not permit Your servant to sell Your grace for money. Truly those who seek You, Lord, and keep the rules of Your holy Church, shall not lack any good thing.

Annotations

CHAPTER V.

Moderation of Spirit and Gentleness.

[25] He excommunicates clerics who come to blows: When two certain clerics fell into fault, that is, laid hands upon one another, he excommunicated them canonically for some days. One of them gladly accepted the rebuke and acknowledged his fault: but the other, being of a malicious disposition, accepted the decree with joy. For the wretch was seeking an occasion not to enter the church, but to have license to persevere in his unspeakable deeds. He bore anger against the holy Patriarch and, as far as lay in him, threatened to do him harm. Some said that he was the very one who had betrayed the Church's moneys to the Patrician Nicetas, who also seized them by force, as was described above. It was reported, therefore, that this man, bearing malice, was harboring wickedness and did not have a right will toward the Blessed one. But that true pastor, mindful of the saying: "Who is weak and I am not weak?" and again: "You who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak," 2 Cor. 11:29; Gal. 6:1; Rom. 15:1 wished to summon him and decently admonish him and release him from the excommunication; for he saw the wolf attempting to snatch the sheep. But by God's dispensation, so that the Patriarch's spirit, that bore no malice, might be made known to all, he forgot to summon him and to release him from the excommunication.

[26] He pauses in the sacrifice, not yet reconciled with the cleric, When therefore the holy Lord's Day had arrived and he had stood at the holy altar to offer the bloodless sacrifice, with the Deacon already almost completing the general prayer and about to raise the holy veil, the thought came to the mind of that man who bore no malice: and immediately recalling the divine commandment, which says: "If you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there," etc. Matt. 5:23, he informed the Deacon who was offering the prayer that the Deacon was accustomed to offer, that he should begin again from the beginning; and if it were completed, he should repeat it again until the consecration should arrive. For he pretended as if bodily necessity had compelled him. And coming into the honorable vestry, he immediately sent nearly twenty hebdomadarii to seek the aforesaid cleric of evil ways. For the intention of the pastor was to rescue the sheep from the lion's mouth. But God, who fulfills the will of those who fear Him, caused the cleric to be found close at hand. And when he came, Whom he brings back by his humility, and bore witness to the truth, the Patriarch was the first to bend his knee, saying: Forgive me, brother. He therefore, in awe of that honorable pontifical dignity and of the presence of those who were there, but even more fearing the judgment of God and shuddering lest perhaps fire might descend from heaven at that very hour and consume him who saw that honorable hoary head lying on the ground, he too bent his knee, asking for pardon and mercy. And he completes the sacrifice. And when the Patriarch said: May God forgive us all, they rose and both entered the church: and then with great joy and gladness he stood at the holy altar, able with a pure conscience to say to God: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. And that reader was so healed and compunctly minded from that time on that he merited to be deemed worthy of ordination to the priesthood.

[27] Certain God-bearing holy Fathers have said: It belongs to Angels never to quarrel at all, but to abide in complete and perpetual peace; to human beings, however, to quarrel but to be reconciled immediately; but to demons, to quarrel and to pass the whole day unreconciled. We have prefaced this, O lovers of Christ, on account of the present narrative. It once pleased this noble man, together with the aforesaid Patrician Nicetas, to quarrel about a certain public matter. He quarrels with the Patrician Nicetas in favor of the poor, The manner of the dispute was as follows (for it is necessary to tell, since it is profitable for the soul): the Patrician wished to arrange the market for the sake of public revenues, but the Patriarch would not allow it, seeking in this the welfare of the poor. Having therefore contended much against one another in private and remaining unbending, they both departed from each other angry and unreconciled. It was the fifth hour; and indeed the Patriarch's opposition and bitterness was on account of God's commandment, while the Patrician's was on account of monetary gains. Nevertheless, that just man said: Neither for a reasonable nor for an unreasonable occasion ought a man to be angry. He reconciles the Patrician to himself by his prudence; When therefore the eleventh hour arrived, the Patriarch sent through his Archpriest together with the clergy to the Patrician this word worthy of memory: My lord, the sun approaches its setting. When the Patrician heard this word, unable to bear the ardor of his heart, but as if inflamed by divine fire, he was moved to compunction by the Saint's words, and, drenched in tears, was immediately entirely changed: and rising, he came to this Blessed one. When he saw him, he said: Welcome, son of the Church, obedient to her voice. When therefore both had made a metanoia and embraced each other, they sat down. And the Patriarch, opening his mouth, said: Believe me, my lord, were it not that I saw you greatly troubled about this, I would not have been slow to come myself to your excellency. For our Lord and God Himself went about the cities and towns and houses, visiting men.

[28] When all had been edified by the humility of the supreme priest and were full of admiration, the Patrician answered him: Believe me, Father, for henceforth my ears will not receive the words of those who suggest contentious matters to me. Then the wise Teacher said to him: And he teaches that one's ears should not be given to whisperers, Believe me, my son and brother, if we are willing to believe all these people, we shall be masters of many sins, especially in this time when many men have become haters of one another. For often those who suggested to me the arrangement of affairs attempted to persuade me: and when I often came to a conclusion, as I had been misled, afterwards others suggested to me that I had been deceived in the matter. When therefore I had suffered this a second and a third time, I set a rule for myself, without either party, that I would not render a judgment in another matter. And that a punishment should be imposed on unjust informers. But if those who suggested things to me were lying, they themselves would pay the penalty that the accused would bear if the charge had been truly brought against him. And from that day forward no one has dared to suggest anything whatsoever imprudently against anyone to me: which I ask and urge your great distinction, my son, likewise to do. For often even unjust killings are committed by those who hold entrusted authority, if they are moved by persuasive words and if they decide without examination the cases that come to them. And the Patrician, as if commanded by God, pledged to keep his commandment inviolate for all time.

[29] This memorable man had a certain nephew, named George. One day, when this nephew was having a quarrel with one of the city's shopkeepers, He prudently consoles his nephew, who had been attacked with insults by someone, he was severely assailed with insults by him. Bitterly grieved, not only because it had happened publicly but also because he had been dishonored by a person of lower rank, and especially because he was the nephew of the Patriarch, he went up to him in his chamber, while he was dwelling in his private quarters, weeping violently. When the most gentle Patriarch saw him thus agitated and weeping, he asked the cause of the anxiety that held him, wishing to know it. And when George could not express his words on account of the bitterness that surrounded him, those who had been present when he was dishonored by the merchant began to relate the cause to the Archbishop: It should not have happened, they said, that Your Holiness should be so despised as to allow your own relatives and kinsmen to be dishonored by contemptible people. But that man, truly a physician, wishing first to cure his nephew's fury with a sort of plaster, as it were, and then, as with a surgeon's knife, to bring about the incision and liberation from the passion through his most wise mouth, began to extinguish the disease with these words and to say: And has someone actually dared to open his mouth and contradict you? Believe me, my son, your father will today do such a thing to him that the whole of Alexandria will marvel. And when he saw that the nephew had received the remedy and had cast off all sadness, thinking, namely, that the Patriarch would take action against the one who had insulted him and would have him flogged by the one who was set over the marketplace, and dishonored with various public shames, he said to him, kissing his breast: My son, if you are truly the nephew of my humility, prepare yourself both to be flogged and to suffer insults from every person. For true kinship is recognized not from blood and flesh but from the virtue of the mind. Immediately therefore he summoned the one who was set over the shopkeepers and commanded him to accept from that shopkeeper neither his customary dues nor his public taxes, And he benefits the one who insulted him. nor the rent for his shop. For the man too belonged to the most holy Church. And all, astonished at his immovable long-suffering, understood that this was what he had said: "I will do such a thing to him that the whole of Alexandria will marvel"---namely, that he not only did not return the injury but even bestowed help in return for vengeance.

[30] It was reported to this Blessed one on a certain occasion that one of the Clerics was harboring malice in his heart against someone and remaining unreconciled with him. He therefore sought to know the man's name and rank. On the following Lord's Day, therefore, he learned that the man was named Damian and was a Deacon by office. He therefore commanded the Archdeacon to point him out to him when the same Damian came to the church. When therefore on the following Lord's Day the station was being held, the Deacon also came to the station: and the Archdeacon, seeing him, pointed him out to the Patriarch. For only on account of that very dispute was the Bishop then standing at the holy altar: but what he intended to do he entrusted to no one. When therefore the Deacon Damian came He denies communion to the Deacon Damian unless he is reconciled, to receive the holy Communion from him according to his proper rank, the Saint held his hand and said: Go first and be reconciled with your brother; and then, coming, receive worthily, without malice, the spotless mysteries of Christ. Since he was ashamed to contradict him in the presence of so great a multitude of clergy, especially in such a place and at such a dread hour, he pledged to do this: and then the Patriarch gave him of the holy mysteries. From that time on, therefore, all the clergy and laity guarded themselves lest they should retain malice among themselves, fearing lest he might shame them also, and triumph over them as he had over that Deacon.

Annotations

CHAPTER VI.

Domestic Discipline and Outward Manner of Life.

[31] This most holy man indeed possessed knowledge of the divine Scriptures: not, however, in wisdom of speech, reciting them from memory as if from vainglory, He mingles discourse from the Holy Fathers, Scripture, etc. but through the very practice of works and observance of the commandments. And in the privacy of his daily council no idle word was heard, unless the arrangement of civil affairs should require it; rather, there were accounts of the holy Fathers, or scriptural questions, or dogmatic problems, on account of the multitude of heretics too numerous even to name, He hates and excludes detractors. who had surrounded the region. If, however, anyone began to detract from another, the Patriarch would cleverly divert him by means of another conversation, like a wise man. And if the person persisted, he said nothing to him; but noting him down, he commanded the hebdomadarius not to allow him to enter any longer with those who were being received, so that through this one he might restrain and instruct the rest.

[32] Moreover, it is not right to pass over another resolution that this Saint adopted. Having heard that after an Emperor is crowned, no one from the whole Senate and the armies standing by announces any ancient memorial, From the custom of a crowned Emperor, but immediately those who are called builders of monuments take four or five small fragments of marble of various colors and come before him and say: "Lord, in what material does your Empire command your monument to be made?" -- thereby intimating to him that, as a corruptible and transitory man, he should have care for his own soul, and govern the kingdom piously -- this Blessed one also truly imitated this praiseworthy tradition, and commanded that a monument be built for him, where also the rest of his predecessor Patriarchs lay; but that it should remain unfinished until his death, He has a sepulcher built for himself, so that, while it remained unfinished, on a solemn feast day, with the clergy standing by, those who were called "the workmen" would come in and say to him: "Lord, your monument is unfinished; command therefore that it be completed, since you know not at what hour the thief comes." That it not be completed. This Saint did this so that it would be done in this manner, wishing to leave a good example also for the Patriarchs who would come after him.

[33] The Lord permitting it on account of the multitude of our sins, He sends gifts for the church at Jerusalem. His own temples, which were in Jerusalem, were burned by the God-smitten Persians. This most holy Patriarch, learning that the holy Modestus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, was in great want for their relief and rebuilding, sends him a thousand gold coins, and a thousand sacks full of wheat, and a thousand measures of legumes, a thousand pounds of iron, a thousand strings of dried fish, which are called menomenae, a thousand vessels of wine, and a thousand Egyptian workmen, writing to him by letter: "Grant me pardon, O true worker of Christ, for sending nothing worthy of the temples of Christ. I could wish indeed, believe me, if it were fitting, to come myself in person and to labor myself in the house of the holy Resurrection of Christ. Nevertheless, I ask your honored head that you in no way attribute this to the lowly name of my insignificance; but rather that you ask Christ for this, that He may enroll me there where the blessed enrollment truly abides."

[34] That Saint also seized upon this good practice, I mean, of reclining on the lowest bed and using cheap coverings in his cell. He uses a cheap bed. When a certain one of the city's landowners heard of this, going up to him and seeing that he was covered with a torn woolen blanket, he sent him a coverlet worth thirty-six gold coins, earnestly requesting him to cover himself with it "in memory," he said, "of the sender." He accepted it, because of the man's great entreaty, and covered himself with it for one night. When a costly one is offered, he covers himself only one night. Throughout almost the entire night he said to himself, as his chamberlains reported: "Who would say that humble John (for he always had this phrase on his lips) should be covered with a blanket of thirty-six gold coins, while the brethren of Christ are being killed by the cold? How many are there now who gnash their teeth with the frost? How many are there now who have a reed mat, half under them and half over them, and cannot stretch out their feet, but sleep curled up like a ball, trembling? How many slept on the mountain without supper and without a lamp, having a double affliction from both cold and hunger? Confused by meditation on the poverty of the destitute. How many long to be filled with the leaves of vegetables that are thrown out from my kitchen? How many would wish to dip their bread in the broth that my cooks throw away? How many desire even to smell the wine that is poured out in my cellar? How many are there in this city at this hour, strangers having nowhere to lodge, and they lie in the marketplace, perhaps soaked by the rain? How many, do you think, have gone a whole month, or even two, without tasting oil? How many are there who do not have one garment for summer and another for winter, and are so afflicted with miseries? And you, expecting also to attain eternal happiness, both drink wine and devour immense fish and linger in your chambers; and now, along with all your other evils, you warm yourself with a blanket of thirty-six gold coins? Truly, living thus and dwelling in such indulgence, you shall not expect to enjoy the joys prepared there, but you shall certainly hear what that rich man also heard: 'You received good things in your life, and the poor likewise evil things; but now they are consoled, while you are tormented.' Luke 16. Blessed be God, humble John will not cover himself with that another night. For it is just, and well pleasing to God, that a hundred and forty-four of your brothers and lords should rather be covered than you, wretch." For four small blankets were sold for one gold coin.

[35] Immediately therefore he sent it the next day to be sold. And the one who had offered it, seeing it, He has the costly covering sold. bought it for thirty-six gold coins and again offered it to the Patriarch. When on the next day he saw it again, he likewise bought it and again offered it to the Patriarch, entreating him to cover himself with it. When he had done this a third time, that joyful Saint said to him: "We shall see who gives out first, I or you." For the man was very wealthy, and that Saint was pleasantly, as it were, harvesting him, gradually taking much from him. And he always said that one could, with the intention of giving to the poor, strip the rich, and even kindly take the very undergarment from them, and not sin; He teaches a method of harvesting the rich. especially if some are unmerciful and avaricious. For such a person gains two things: first, because he saves their souls; and second, because he himself receives no small reward from this. He also brought forward for the credibility of the saying a truthful testimony concerning what occurred between St. Epiphanius and John, Bishop of Jerusalem: how St. Epiphanius by a stratagem took the silver of the Patriarch, namely of that same John, and gave it to the needy.

Annotations

p A weight of silver amounting to about fifteen hundred pounds. So the Life of St. Epiphanius.

CHAPTER VII.

The Story of St. Peter the Tax-Collector.

a [36] Once this Saint, in a manner worthy of and fitting to the foregoing chapter, narrated before all, saying: "I had," he said, "a certain servant in my storeroom in Cyprus, very faithful and a virgin until his death. He therefore told me that while I was in Africa, a thing of this sort took place: 'For I was staying,' he said, 'with a certain tax-collector, exceedingly rich and unmerciful. Once, therefore, while paupers were sitting in winter in the sun, warming themselves, they began each to praise the houses of the charitable and to pray for them one by one; likewise also to censure the houses of those who gave no alms. St. Peter is harsh toward the poor. Among these things the name of my master the tax-collector also came into their midst, and they began each to ask his neighbor: Truly, brother, have you ever received any blessing from that house? And when all had asked one another, no one was found who had ever received anything from his house. Then one of them said: What will you give me, and I will receive a blessing from him today? And when they had made a pact with him, he came and stood outside the gate of the house, waiting for when the tax-collector would return home. Indignantly he strikes a beggar with bread. By God's dispensation they arrived at the same time, he entering the gate and a beast carrying fine wheat bread from the bakery, for the man's dinner. Seeing the pauper therefore, and finding no stone, he seized in fury a loaf of fine bread from the pack-saddle and hurled it in his face. The beggar took it and went away to satisfy his fellow beggars that he had received it from those very hands.'"

[37] Falling ill, he is carried in a dream to God's judgment. "And so after two days, the same tax-collector fell sick with an illness unto death, and he saw in a dream that he was rendering an account and that all his deeds were being weighed upon a balance: on one side certain dark-skinned Moors of hideous appearance were gathering; but the other side belonged to certain others, white-robed and terrible in aspect. They, finding nothing good He sees many evil deeds being weighed. that they too might place on their side against the evil deeds that had been collected by the Moors on their side, were exceedingly troubled and sorrowful, and were dismayed among themselves, and said: 'Have we then nothing here?' Then one of them said: 'Truly we have nothing, Only the thrown bread is placed as a counterweight. except one loaf of fine bread, which he gave two days ago to Christ, and that not willingly.' And when they placed the loaf, an equilibrium was reached. Then those who had appeared to him in white said to the tax-collector: 'Go, and add to this loaf; for truly these Moors will seize you.' Waking therefore, he recognized that what had been shown to him was no falsehood, but truth. All the things he had committed from his youth, and which he himself had forgotten, he saw those Ethiopians gathering and carrying to the scale, and he said: 'Alas! If one loaf of fine bread that I hurled in anger was so profitable, He then becomes a notable almsgiver. from how many evils does he free himself who gives in his simplicity good things to the needy!' And from that time he became so moderate and prudent and so great an almsgiver that he did not even spare his own body."

[38] "For it happened once that, according to his custom, he was going out at dawn to the tax office, and a sailor met him who had escaped naked as the day he was born from a shipwreck. The sailor fell before him, begging to obtain his protection. He therefore, thinking the man was a pauper, stripped off his own outer garment, which was his finest, and gave it to him; He bestows his outer garment on a pauper. and he asked him to clothe himself in it. But the sailor, going away and being ashamed to wear it, gave it to a vendor to be sold. And when the tax-collector came back and saw it hanging up, he was deeply grieved; and going up to his house, he would not allow himself to taste anything; but shutting the door of his chamber, he sat weeping and reflecting: 'Because I was not worthy,' he said, 'that a beggar should keep any memory of me.' While he was in distress, he fell asleep; and behold, he saw someone radiant as the sun, bearing a cross upon his head, and wearing the outer garment that he had given to the sailor, standing beside him and saying: 'Why do you weep, Lord Peter?' He sees Christ clothed in it. For that was his name. And he said, as if arguing with God: 'Because, Lord, from what You bestow upon us, we give to someone, and the recipients turn it to base profit.' Then He said to him: 'Do you recognize this?' And He showed him that He was inwardly clothed in his outer garment. He said to him: 'Behold, I wear it, since you gave it to me; and I give thanks for your good will, because I was afflicted by the cold and you covered me.' He recognizes Him in the poor. Coming therefore to himself, he was amazed; and he began to bless the poor and to say: 'As the Lord lives, if the poor are my Christ, I shall not die, but I shall become as one of them.'"

[39] "Summoning therefore his secretary, whom he had also purchased, he says to him: 'I wish to entrust a secret to you; and believe me, if you reveal it, I will sell you to barbarians, or if you do not obey me.' He then gives him ten pounds of gold and says to him: 'Go, and buy yourself a business; and take me, and lead me to the holy city, and sell me to any Christian, and give the price to the poor.' When the secretary refused, he says to him again: 'Since if you do not sell me, I will sell you to the barbarians, He orders himself to be sold and the price given to the poor. as I told you.' The secretary therefore obeyed him; and when they had arrived at the holy places, the same secretary found a dear friend of his, a silversmith, who had fallen on hard times. When therefore the two had come to talk, the secretary says to him: 'Listen to me, Zoilus, and buy a slave that I have, for he is so good that a man would say he is a Patrician.' And the silversmith, hearing that he had a slave, was astonished and says to him: 'Believe me, I do not possess the means to buy one.' The secretary says to him again: 'Borrow the money and buy him, for he is very good, and God will bless you through him.' He agreed therefore, and bought him, dressed in filthy garments, for thirty gold coins. The secretary then left him and went to Constantinople, satisfied that he would reveal this to no one, and that he would retain nothing of the price for himself, but would give it all to the poor."

[40] He performs servile duties and pious works. "So sometimes the same Peter cooked for his master, and sometimes washed his clothes, never having been accustomed to any of these things. He afflicted himself also with much fasting. When his master saw himself blessed beyond all blessing, he said to him, ashamed at his extraordinary virtue and humility: 'I wish, humble Peter, to set you free, and that henceforth you may be as my brother.' But he refused. His master had seen him frequently enduring abuse and being struck by his fellow servants. They regarded him as a madman, He is regarded as a madman. so that they even gave him the name 'Madman.' Whenever therefore his fellow servants afflicted him and he slept in his tribulation, the one who had appeared to him in Africa appeared to him, clothed in his outer garment, holding also those thirty coins in his hand, He is comforted by Christ. saying to him: 'Do not be sorrowful, brother Peter; I have received also the price paid for you, but endure until you are recognized.'"

[41] "After some time, certain silver merchants came from his homeland to pray at the holy places; and the master of Lord Peter invited them to dinner. And when Peter was serving, they immediately recognized him. But while they were dining, they began to study his features and to whisper to one another: 'How much this boy resembles Lord Peter the tax-collector.' He, however, concealed his face as much as he could. He is recognized by his countrymen. Again, as they were eating, they began to say to the one who had invited them: 'Truly we think a great thing has come your way, Lord Zoilus; for, unless we are mistaken, you have a public personage in your service.' For they did not know more certainly, because his face was changed from cooking and fasting. After they had looked at him for a long time, one of them said: 'Truly it is Lord Peter; I will rise and take hold of him. For the Emperor, having heard, is greatly distressed about him, because he has long since disappeared.'"

[42] "Standing outside, he heard these things; and setting down the dish, Fleeing, he obtains hearing and speech for a deaf-mute. he did not enter, but ran in a straight course to the gate. Now the doorkeeper of the man who then owned him was mute and deaf from birth, who opened and closed only by gesture. The servant of God therefore, hastening to go out, says to the deaf-mute: 'I say to you, in the name of Christ.' And he heard immediately and said: 'Yes, Lord.' And he said again to him: 'Open.' The mute and deaf man answered a second time: 'I will, Lord.' Immediately therefore he rose and opened for him. And as he went out, the doorkeeper went up and cried out before all, rejoicing and exulting, that he had heard and spoken: 'Lord, Lord!' Moreover, all who were of that household were terrified, because they heard him speaking. And again the formerly mute man said: 'The one who did the cooking went out running; but see to it, lest he has escaped by flight, for he is a great servant of God. When he was leaving, he said to me: I say to you, in the name of the Lord. And immediately I saw a flame going forth from his mouth and touching my ears; and at once I heard and spoke.' And all leaped up and followed him, but they saw him no more. Then all who were in that house did penance -- his very master who had bought Peter, because they had humiliated him with such dishonor -- and especially those who had called him 'Madman.'"

Annotations

CHAPTER VIII.

Imitation of Another's Virtue.

[43] These are the narratives of the most blessed and God-honored Patriarch John. For he was not content to edify one who wished to make progress only from his own life, but also from the true and God-pleasing accounts that he told. St. John is spurred by the examples of others. And he always said these things to his listeners: "If certain men did not spare their own blood, but gave it into the hands of their brethren, nay rather of Christ, how much, do you think, ought we with cheerfulness and humility to give of our possessions to Christ and to the needy and poor, so that we may receive recompense from the just and reward-giving God, on that fearful and dreadful day of retribution? He who now sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he who sows in blessings, that is, generously and magnanimously, shall reap abundantly; that is, he shall inherit those good things which surpass every mind." Adorned therefore with all upright ways, this Saint also did not lack this quality: Especially by the examples of the holy Fathers and practitioners of almsgiving. for he greatly loved to speak of the deeds of the holy Fathers and of those who had been practitioners of almsgiving.

[44] Whence, when one day he was reading from the Life of St. Serapion, who was called Sindonius, and found that he (as it is reported) had given his garment to a pauper, and then, having gone on a little further, had met someone suffering from cold The example of St. Serapion Sindonites giving his garments to a pauper, and had given him his tunic, and that he sat naked, holding the holy Gospel; and when someone asked: "Who stripped you, Abba?" pointing to the holy Gospel, he said: "This did." And at another time he had sold this same Gospel and given the proceeds as alms; and when his disciple said to him: "Abba, where is the Gospel?" he said to him: "Believe me, son, this which said to me, 'Sell what you have and give to the poor' -- I sold it itself and gave to them, His book of the Gospel, so that on the day of judgment we may have more abundant confidence before God." Matt. 19:21. And that at another time again, when a widow woman had asked alms of the same St. Serapion, because her children were starving, And selling himself. and he had nothing at all, he handed himself over to her, to sell him to Greek entertainers, whom he also made Christians in a few days. Reading these things about St. Serapion, the Saint was struck with wonder and amazement at the Saint's industry, and, entirely bathed in tears, he summoned all his own stewards, read to them everything about St. Serapion, and said to them: "Alas, O lovers of Christ, what does it profit a man speaking of the deeds of the holy Fathers? Believe me, until today I thought that I was doing something, giving what money I could manage to possess; but I did not know that they even sold themselves, overcome by a certain compassion."

[45] This Saint always honored the monastic habit, and revered and had compassion on those who wore it, especially wherever he beheld a monk pressed by bodily privations. He also had this quality above many others, that he would accept no accusation whatsoever, whether false or true, against anyone clothed in the monastic habit. For once it happened, at the instigation of certain slanderers, that he allowed himself something of this kind: A monk rashly accused. A certain monk was going about the city with a young girl, begging alms for some days. Certain people who saw this, being scandalized and supposing that the woman was his, brought complaints against him to the Patriarch, saying: "Why, O God-honored one, does such a person bring disgrace upon the angelic schema of the monastic life, having a certain girl as his woman?" Immediately therefore the servant of God, thinking to put a stop to sins committed against God, as though he had been appointed for this by Him, commanded the woman to be beaten with whips and separated from him; but the monk himself to be scourged and locked away in a secret prison. He orders him to be scourged. While therefore the order of the Saint was being carried out with all speed, there appeared to him in the night in a vision the monk, showing him his back, putrefied (for the Defenders of the Church had struck him without mercy), saying to him: By whom he is rebuked in a dream. "Does this please you, Lord Patriarch? This one time you have erred as a man. Believe me, life and death are close at hand." And saying these things, he departed from him.

[46] But when morning came, that Blessed one remembered the vision of the night; and he sat on his bed in sorrow. He sends immediately and through his Chancellor summons the monk from the place where he was confined, He has him brought to himself. the blessed Patriarch thinking within himself whether the monk would be like the one who had appeared to him in the night. When therefore the monk had come with great difficulty (for he could not move because of the blows), and the Patriarch had seen his face, he remained motionless without a voice, unable to speak; only with his hand did he motion for him to sit near him on his bed. Coming to himself and crossing himself, he asked the monk, who was girded with a linen cloth, to strip without shame, so that he might see his back, to determine whether it was as he had seen it in his dream. With difficulty persuaded to do so, the monk stripped. When he stripped to show his back to the holy man, by a wondrous counsel of God the garment he was wearing came loose and fell to the ground; and all saw that he was a eunuch. But since the wound was fresh, this had been evident to no one. When all saw him, and the holy Pontiff, and especially the pernicious blows on his back, He discovers him to be a eunuch. the Patriarch immediately sent and set apart those who had treated him so thoughtlessly. To the most venerable monk he said many reasonable things, declaring that he had sinned against him in ignorance, and against the true God. And in this the Saint admonished him: "It is not right, O son," he said, "for those who are clothed in your holy angelic garment to go about in cities so carelessly, and especially to lead a woman about, to the scandal of others who see it."

[47] Then the monk with all humility gave account to the Saint, And a holy man, saying: "Believe me, Lord, I will not lie. A few days ago I was at Gaza; and as I was going out of the city to go and greet the holy Abba Cyrus, this apparently respectable girl met me outside the gate, as evening was falling. And running to my feet, she begged to walk with me. For she said she was a Hebrew and wished to become a Christian; and she began to reproach me with terrible words, lest I should let her perish. Fearing therefore the judgment of God, Who was caring for the salvation of a Hebrew girl, I took her, thinking that Satan would not put temptation upon eunuchs. But I did not know that he spares no one. Therefore, most holy Father, when we had come and completed prayer, I baptized her at the shrine of the holy Abba Cyrus, and I was going about with her in simplicity of heart, seeking a modest sum, so that I might place her in a monastery." When the Patriarch had heard these things, he said: "Amazing! How many hidden servants God has, and we wretches do not know!" And he narrated to those present the vision he had seen in the night concerning the monk. And the Patriarch brought out a hundred gold coins from his hand, to give to him. And one who spurned the coins offered. But that friend of God, a truly faithful monk, would not suffer to accept any of them, and spoke a word worthy of remembrance to the Patriarch, saying: "I do not ask for this, Lord; for if a monk has faith, he has no need of such things. But if he needs such things, he has no faith." This more than anything satisfied all who heard that this servant of God was a true monk. He therefore bowed the knee to the Patriarch and departed in peace. He builds a hospice for monks. From that time, therefore, he honored and received monks with hospitality all the more -- both those thought good and those thought bad -- and immediately built a hospice apart, and called it "The Refuge of All Monks."

[48] When a plague once seized the city, the Saint himself would go to see the funeral rites (for he said this was very profitable) and the examination of sepulchers. He gladly attends funeral rites and visits the dying. Many times he also sat with those who, being about to die, were suffering the agony at the departure of the soul. And he closed their eyes with his own hands, wishing to have an everlasting remembrance from this, and a concern for his own passing. He also commanded that the commemorations for the dead be performed diligently and without hesitation.

[49] For he used to say that a short time before, a certain man had been led captive to the Persians, and going down into Persia, was thrown into a prison which was called Lethe, that is, By the example of a captive frequently released from his chains. Oblivion. Certain men therefore fleeing from that place and coming to Cyprus, when questioned by the parents of that man, whether perchance they had seen him, answered and told them: "We buried him with our own hands." But this was not the man about whom they were asking, but another who closely resembled him. They told them also the month and day of his death. Those relatives therefore, as for one dead, performed three commemorations for him every year. After four years, however, he came to Cyprus, having escaped from the Persians. His people therefore said to him: "Truly, brother, we heard that you were dead, and we were making your memorial three times a year." When therefore he had heard that three times a year they made his memorial, he asked them on what day and in what month they celebrated this. And when they said, at the holy Theophany, and on the holy Lord's Day, and at holy Pentecost, He teaches that sacrifices profit the dead. he said: "At those three times of the year someone clothed in white like the sun used to come and loose me from my iron chains and from custody; and I would move about walking all day, and no one recognized me; and the next day I was found bearing iron chains." The holy Bishop therefore used to say that from this we learn that the departed have rest when we perform commemorations for them.

Annotations

CHAPTER IX.

Almsgiving Rewarded by God.

[50] What we have heard done in the Acts of the Apostles, this frequently happened also to this most compassionate man. Acts 4. For many, seeing his unceasing and unfathomable compassion toward the peoples, were often moved to sell many things from their possessions; and bringing the proceeds, He receives seven and a half pounds of gold to be distributed to the poor. they offered them to the devout minister of God. Whence a certain man came one day and offered him seven and a half pounds of gold, assuring the Saint that he possessed nothing else in gold. He asked him, with many genuflections, to pray that the Lord God would save his son. For he had one only son, about fifteen years old, to bring back his ship safely from Africa, for the son had gone there. The high Priest therefore, receiving the amount of gold from his hand, admired his magnanimity in offering the entire amount of gold he possessed. He prayed for him in person at length, and so dismissed him. Nevertheless, on account of the man's great faith, He prays for the one who had given, and for his son. the Patriarch placed the pouch of gold beneath the holy table in the oratory of his chamber, and immediately performed a complete service over it for the one who had offered it, praying God abundantly and sufficiently that He would both save his son and bring back the ship safely, as he had been requested by that man. Before thirty days had passed, the son of the man who had offered the seven and a half pounds to the Patriarch died. On account of his death and the shipwreck of the ship. And on the third day after the boy's death, his ship came back from Africa, in which was also his own brother, a creditor of the same man. And coming near the Pharos, the brother related how the ship had suffered shipwreck and had lost everything with which it was laden, and that nothing was saved except the souls and one empty skiff. When therefore the owner of the ship and father of the boy had learned that this misfortune too had befallen him, according to the word of the Prophet, his soul nearly dwelt in the netherworld. Psalm 93:17. For the grief of his son had not yet been extinguished when the disaster of the ship also seized him.

[51] All these things that had happened to him were reported to the Patriarch; and he remained in sorrow almost more than the man who had suffered these things, He grieves with the father. especially on account of his only son. Not knowing therefore what to do, he begged the most merciful God to console the man with His immense goodness. For the Saint was ashamed to summon him and console him face to face. Nevertheless he sent him word that he should in no way despair; for God does nothing without just judgment, but all things in that which is expedient, though we do not know it. Therefore, lest the man lose the reward he had made with the seven and a half pounds of gold and the faith he possessed toward the holy Patriarch -- and indeed also so that we too, in the temptations that befall us when we have done something good, may remain untroubled and giving thanks to God -- the aforesaid Christ-loving man saw in a dream on the following night someone, And appearing in dreams, he teaches that the son was preserved from evil. as if in the garb of the most holy Patriarch, saying to him: "Why are you troubled, brother, and dissolved with grief? Did you not ask me to petition God that your son might be saved? Behold, he has been saved. Believe me, if he had lived, he would have become a depraved and impure man. And as for your ship, truly, had God not been appeased by the good you did for my insignificance, the sentence had been given that the whole ship, as it was, should go into the deep with all the souls, and you would lose your brother. But arise and glorify God, who gave him to you and saved your son, pure, from this vain world." Waking therefore, the man found his heart consoled and all his sorrow cast out; and putting on his garments, he came running to the most honorable Patriarch and threw himself at his feet, giving thanks to God and to him, and narrating the vision he had seen. When that most just man heard it, he said: "Glory to You, O benign and merciful God, who also hear the prayers of sinners." And again he said to the man: "By no means, O son, ascribe this grace to my prayer, but to God and to your faith; for this was able to obtain all these things." For the Saint was of very humble mind, in words as well as in prudence.

[52] He visits the poor. This Blessed one was going once to visit the poor, in the place called the Caesareum; for there he had made for them something like extended vaulted shelters, with the floor paved with wooden planks for their rest, together with mats and cloths throughout the whole winter. He was accompanied by one of the Bishops among those who were with him, a lover of money, beset in a passionate way. He induces Bishop Troilus to give alms of thirty pounds of gold. And the blessed Patriarch said to him: "Love and honor, brother Troilus, the brethren of Christ" -- for that was his name. For certain people had reported to the Patriarch that the household servant of that same Bishop Troilus was carrying thirty pounds of gold at that very hour to buy a kind of embossed silver for his table. The Bishop, however, as if shamed by the Patriarch's words, or rather warmed for the moment, ordered single gold coins to be given to all the brethren by the one who was carrying those thirty pounds. Quickly therefore such a quantity of gold was distributed.

[53] When therefore both had departed -- the Patriarch, that is, and the Bishop Troilus who had given alms unwillingly, so to speak -- to their respective residences, a kind of mad and soul-endangering thought assailed the Bishop To whom, therefore, when feverish, on account of the giving away of the money. A product of horror and love of money and cruelty and negligence followed him, mixed with an unnatural fever; on account of which he fell sick and unwillingly took to his bed. When therefore a hebdomadarius came to him from the most holy Patriarch and invited him to the Patriarch's table, he refused; for he said he was afflicted by chills and fever on account of a certain matter. When therefore the Patriarch heard this, he immediately recognized the cause: that the unwilling almsgiver had fallen ill on account of the departure of the thirty pounds. For he was (as was said) very unmerciful He returns the money, and at the same time restores health. and a lover of money. That truly humble Blessed one therefore, not able to bear that he himself should take his meal at table while the other was cruelly tormented on his bed, came quickly to him and said to him with a cheerful countenance: "Do me a kindness, son Troilus. Do you think that I truly told you to give to such brethren? Believe me, I said it to you in jest. For I myself wished to give them each a coin for the holy feast day; but since my distributor did not have a sufficient amount with him, for this reason you lent it to me, and behold, I have brought you back those thirty pounds." When the Bishop saw the amount in the honorable hand of the wise physician and pastor, the fever immediately disappeared, the chills also receded, and strength and color of body returned to him; so that from this it could not be hidden that this was the cause of the sudden change that had seized him.

[54] Receiving therefore the gold from the honorable hands of the Patriarch, and making no objection at all, the Patriarch awaited from him a written renunciation of the reward for the thirty pounds of gold that had been given. Bishop Troilus did this gladly, He receives a document of the eternal reward transcribed to himself by Troilus. writing with his own hands thus: "God, grant to my Lord John, most blessed Patriarch of this great city of the Alexandrians, the reward of the thirty pounds that have been given to you, since I have received back my own." The Saint therefore, receiving this document, took with him also the same Bishop to dinner. For, as has already been said, Troilus was immediately restored to health. The God who rewards merits, wishing to correct him, and at the same time to rouse him to compassion for the afflicted, showed him on the same day, while he slept after dinner at the Patriarch's residence, in a dream, what a reward he had been deprived of. For he saw (as he said) a house whose beauty and magnificence the skill of men cannot imitate, and its door entirely golden, and upon the door a title inscribed: ETERNAL DWELLING AND RESTING PLACE OF BISHOP TROILUS. "When therefore I had read this," he said, "I rejoiced; for I knew that the enjoyment of such a house would be given to me by the Emperor. But I had not yet finished reading the inscription of this title, when behold, a certain royal chamberlain, having with him also other attendants of the divine service, came to the door of that resplendent house A vision immediately shown to him. and said to his own officials: 'Take down this title for me.' And when they had taken it down, he said again: 'Change it, and put up the one which the King of all the world has sent.' And they brought and affixed another while I watched, inscribed thus: ETERNAL DWELLING AND RESTING PLACE OF JOHN, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, PURCHASED FOR THIRTY POUNDS." And when he had seen this, he rose from sleep; and he narrated to the great and supreme Pastor what he had seen in his dreams. Profiting from this, Bishop Troilus became from that time a magnificent almsgiver.

[55] The Lord who at one time took away the riches of the blessed Job, did a similar thing also to this man full of every goodness, the holy Patriarch John. For when the ships of the most holy Church encountered a violent storm in the place called the Adriatic, they cast overboard all that the ships were carrying. Now all the ships were together. He loses the cargo of thirteen ships of the Alexandrian Church in a shipwreck. The total value of their cargoes was very great indeed; for they carried clothing, silver, and other costly goods, so that the weight that went to perdition was reckoned at thirty-four hundredweight. For there were more than thirteen ships, each carrying ten thousand measures. When the survivors came to Alexandria and proceeded, He orders the sailors to be at ease. immediately the remaining creditors and the chief sailors took refuge in the church. But the Saint, hearing this and the reason for which they had fled, sent them a message written in his own hand, having these words: "The Lord gave, brethren; the Lord, as He willed, has taken away. As it pleased the Lord, so has it been done. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Go forth, my sons, fearing nothing from this; for the Lord will be solicitous for the morrow."

[56] Almost half the city therefore went up to the vestry; and on the following day, wishing to console this noble man, He ascribes the blame to himself. he himself, anticipating them, began to say to all: "By no means, O sons and brethren, be saddened on account of the ships' misfortune; for humble John, believe me, has been found culpable. For if I had not been haughty, in no way would I have suffered this. But because I was puffed up in the things that were God's, and thought that I was doing great works, giving what belonged to men, this happened to me. God therefore, wishing me to understand this, permitted these things. For almsgiving often lifts the unwary into pride; but an involuntary fall humbles the one who endures it. For the divine Scripture says: 'Poverty humbles a man.' Psalm 118. And again David, knowing this, said: 'It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I might learn your ordinances.' For since I have become liable to evils, because I was losing my giving through vainglory, and since through my fault so much money has been lost, I now bear the judgment of the souls that are in distress. He trusts in God. But, most beloved, the God who was with that just man Job at that time is the same even now: who, not on account of my poverty but on account of the need of the destitute, will not forsake us. For He Himself said: 'I will not leave you, nor forsake you.' And again: 'Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added to you.' Heb. 13:5. The inhabitants of the city, therefore, wishing to console him, as has been said, themselves found, on the contrary, that they had received consolation from his blessedness. Matt. 6:33. And he receives double. A very short time therefore passed, and God restored double to our new Job his possessions; and again he was magnanimous in mercy, and perhaps even more devout than he had been before."

Annotations

CHAPTER X.

Benefits Bestowed on Various People.

[57] To a certain one of his household servants who had come to extreme poverty, He gives two pounds of gold to his needy servant. this Saint gave with his own hand, so that no one would know, two pounds of gold. And hearing from the recipient: "Having received these, Lord, I shall no longer have the face to look upon your honorable and angelic countenance," that wise man spoke a word truly worthy of praise: "I have not yet," he said, "shed my blood for you, brother, as my Lord and the Christ and God of all has commanded me." John 10:11.

[58] A certain man, being pressed by those who demanded tribute, when he had nothing to give (for the region was in great difficulty, because the river Nile had not irrigated the land with water according to its custom), went himself and entreated a certain Duke among the magnates to lend him fifty pounds of gold; and he said he would give double pledges, if the Duke wished. The Duke therefore promised to give it to him, but for the present delayed. When therefore the tax-collectors were pressing him, he went, as does everyone, to the port from which all are received, namely to the most gentle and admirable Patriarch. He most readily makes a loan. And he had scarcely even narrated his need to him when the Saint said to him: "I will give, my son, if you wish, even the garment I am wearing." For indeed, among his admirable virtues, he possessed this also: that he could not see anyone weeping because of hardships without immediately being drenched in his own tears. Whence he immediately fulfilled the request of the one who wished to borrow from him. And on the following night, the Duke saw in a dream that someone was standing upon an altar, to whom many were offering oblations; and for each one that they placed, they received a hundred in return from the altar. The Patriarch was also standing behind him. One oblation therefore lay before them on a bench, and someone said to the Duke: Therefore he was seen to have received a hundredfold reward. "Go, Lord Duke, take that oblation and offer it at the altar, and take a hundred for it." But while he was being slow, the Patriarch ran, though he was standing behind him, and took it before him and offered it; and he received, like all the others, a hundred from the altar. Waking therefore, the Duke could not interpret the dream. He sent and summoned the man who wished to borrow, in order to lend to him. And when the man came, the Duke said to him: "Take the loan you asked for." The man answered him: "The Lord Patriarch has already taken your reward. For when you, Lord, delayed me, I was compelled to take refuge with him as in a harbor; for great was the force of the collectors' harassment." When therefore the Duke heard this, he immediately remembered the dream and said: "Truly you have spoken well, 'He already took your reward.' For he took it first, and woe to him who wishes to do good and delays." And he narrated to him and to all the dream he had seen.

[59] When the Saint was once going to the church of the holy victorious Martyrs Cyrus and John, on their glorious feast day, for the purpose of prayer, a woman, as he was leaving the gate of the city, accosted him, falling down and saying: "Vindicate me, for I am suffering injustice from my son-in-law." He promptly helps a woman harassed by her son-in-law. When certain of his attendants, who had confidence before him, said: "When you have returned, you will see to her case," the most wise man answered: "And how will God receive our prayer, if I put this woman off? Who has promised me that I shall live until tomorrow? And I will go to Christ, to render account for her?" And he did not move from that place until he caused to be done what was sufficient for her.

[60] According to the desire of this memorable man, which was entirely in God, God sent him wise and ever-memorable men, John and Sophronius. He honors John and Sophronius as counselors. For they were truly good counselors, whom he obeyed as Fathers without reserve, and to whom he gave thanks as men standing most firmly and acting manfully as soldiers for the cause of religion. For relying upon the power of the Holy Spirit, and waging war and conflict with the Severianists and the other unclean heretics existing throughout the region through their wisdom and disputations, they strove to snatch many fortresses, On account of their combat against the heretics. and many churches, and likewise monasteries, from the mouth of such beasts, as good shepherds. On account of which that truly most holy man also especially honored these Saints.

[61] If this Blessed one perceived anywhere someone harsh and inhuman and violent toward his own servants, he would first summon this person and with great gentleness entreat him, saying: "My son, it has come to my sinful ears He corrects with gentleness one who treated servants too harshly. that, by the working of the enemy, you conduct yourself somewhat too harshly toward your own servants. But I ask you, give place to anger. For God gave them to us not that we might beat them, but that they might serve us. And perhaps not even for this reason, but that they might be sustained by us from what God has provided us. For tell me, what has a man given, that he should buy one who was created and honored in the image and likeness of God? Do you, his master, possess anything more than he in your own body -- a hand, or a foot, or hearing, or a soul? Is he not in all things like you? Hear that glorious light, Paul, saying: 'As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.' Gal. 3:27. 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free; He expounds how much a man is worth before God. for you are all one in Christ.' If therefore before Christ we are equal, let us also become equal toward one another. For Christ Himself took the form of a servant, teaching us not to be proud against our servants. For there is one Lord of all, dwelling in the heavens and looking upon the lowly; He did not say 'the lofty,' but 'the lowly.' Psalm 112:6. How much gold have we given, in order to subject to our servitude one who is honored and purchased together with us by the divine and Lordly blood? For his sake the heaven, for his sake the earth, for his sake the stars, for his sake the sun, for his sake the sea and all that is in it. It is true also that Angels minister to him. For his sake Christ washed the feet of servants; for his sake He was crucified, and all other things He suffered for his sake. But you dishonor one whom God honors, and as though you were not of the same nature, you do not spare him when you strike him? Tell me, I pray, would you wish that whenever you commit a fault, God should immediately repay you? By no means. Tell me, how do you pray daily, saying: 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors'?" With these and similar words the Blessed one, from the treasure dwelling within him, admonished this person and released him. And if he had not learned that the man had amended, he would prepare and instruct the afflicted servant He buys the servant and grants him freedom. to take flight and to petition for sale; and buying this man, the Just one would immediately set him free.

[62] Hearing once that a certain orphan boy of an almsgiver had been left behind, his parents having died, and that he was living in great poverty -- for those who were found as witnesses in his father's testament said that his father had not left him even a single gold coin at his death, but having ten pounds of gold, summoned the boy at the very hour when the testament was being written and said to him: "Keep these ten pounds, my son. What do you wish -- shall I leave you these, or Our Lady the Mother of God as your guardian and provider?" An orphan who, instead of money, chose the Mother of God as his Guardian. The boy chose the holy Mother of God, and the father commanded everything to be given to the poor. "And behold," they said, "Most Holy One, the boy lives in great want, day and night never leaving the house of Our Lady." When therefore this Saint had heard these things from those who knew them, he said nothing to anyone, but summoned a certain notary; and he told him the matter, giving him instructions that he should not disclose to anyone the arrangement he commanded him to make, saying to him: "Go, and on old papers write a testament of one named Theopentus; and make in the same document myself and the boy's father first cousins, and go and say to the young man: 'Do you know, brother, that being a kinsman of the Patriarch, you ought not to be living in such poverty?' And show him the document and say: 'If you are ashamed, I will arrange your case before the Patriarch,' and see what he says to you." He enriches him by wonderful ingenuity. When therefore the notary had done everything commanded by the Patriarch, he came to him saying: "The boy has agreed with me that I should plead his case before my Lord, and he was giving me great thanks." The Saint therefore said: "Go and tell him: 'I have spoken to the Patriarch.' And he said: 'I too know that my cousin had a son, but I do not recognize him by face. You do well therefore to bring him to me. Bring him therefore, and carry the document with you.'" When therefore they had come, that Just one took the boy aside and began to kiss him and say: "Welcome, son of my cousin." He therefore enriched him, gave him in marriage in Alexandria, and bestowed on him a house and everything he needed, hastening to demonstrate that the Lord does not forsake those who hope in Him.

[63] This admirable man also took unfailing care of that commandment which sets the law: "From him who wishes to borrow from you, never turn away"; he forbade no one who sought such aid from him. Deut. 15; Luke 6. Whence a certain malicious man and impostor asked him to lend him twenty pounds of gold. He was one of those who are called "Gallodromi." Despising the Saint therefore, as he did many others, He did not allow the impostor to be punished for abusing alms. he would say: "He gave me nothing." The pastors and administrators of the Church therefore sought to throw him into prison and to confiscate his property. But the imitator of Him who says: "Be merciful, as your Father is merciful," who "makes His sun rise upon the good and the bad, and sends rain upon the just and the unjust," by no means consented that they should afflict him. Luke 6:36. When those who were upset against him -- inasmuch as he had mocked the Patriarch -- said to the same Saint: "It is not just, Lord, that what the poor would receive, this libertine should receive," that thrice-blessed man answered in turn, saying: "Believe me, brethren, if you were to take anything from him against his will, you would transgress two commandments; and you would fulfill only one, when such an amount is given to the poor. One, because you would appear impatient about a loss and would become a bad example for others; the other, because you would not be obedient to the Lord God who says: 'From him who takes away your things, do not demand them back.' Luke 6:29. It is better, therefore, O sons, that we become for all an example of patience. For the Apostle says: 'Why do you not rather suffer injustice? Why do you not rather endure fraud?' 1 Cor. 6:7. And it is truly good, brethren, to give to everyone who asks; but more excellent and more honorable is it to give also to one who does not ask; and to him who takes away our garment without our consent, to give also the tunic -- this is truly an imitation of the angelic nature, nay rather of the divine. For the Lord commanded us to do good to our neighbor from what we have: 'You shall do good,' He says, 'to your brother, according to what your hand possesses' -- not from what is taken away through strife and contention from one who has been wronged."

Annotations

CHAPTER XI.

The Story of St. Vitalis the Monk.

a [64] A certain great elder, about sixty years old, hearing such things about the Blessed one, wished to test him, whether he could be persuaded by words, and easily inclined to scandal, and whether, as it happened, he would condemn anyone. Having previously lived in the monastery of Abba Seridon, he went out and came to Alexandria; and he took up a manner of life reprehensible to men, but pleasing to God, who gives (as David says) to each according to his heart. Psalm 19:5. Entering therefore the city, he wrote down all the known prostitutes, and began to work at manual labor and to receive one siliqua per day. When therefore the sun was setting, he would eat lupines worth one bronze coin, and would go in to one of the prostitutes St. Vitalis saves women from prostitution by paying them. and give her bronze coins and say to her: "Grant me this night, and do not fornicate." And he would remain beside her that night, watching over her lest she should fornicate. He would stand therefore from evening in one corner of the room where the woman slept, chanting psalms and praying for her, and making genuflections until dawn. And going out, he would receive a promise from her that she would tell no one of his practice.

[65] He prays that one who reveals his secret be vexed by a demon. He continued to act thus until one of the women disclosed his manner of life -- that he did not enter to them for fornication, but to save them. The elder prayed, and the woman began to be vexed by a demon, so that through her the others would be afraid and would not reveal him for the entire duration of his life. Certain people therefore said to the woman who was vexed by the demon: "What happened?" "God has repaid you because you lied. For this wretched man enters for fornication, and there is nothing else to it." For St. Vitalis (for this was his name), wishing to flee the glory of men and to call souls back from darkness, would say in the hearing of all, when he had finished his work and received his pay in the evening: "Let us go now; Lady So-and-So is waiting for us." What then was his standing? He suffers calumny from many. When many therefore accused and mocked him, he would say: "Do I not wear a body like everyone else? Or is God angry only with monks? Truly, they too are human beings like everyone." Certain people therefore said to him: "Take yourself a wife, Abba, and change your garment, so that God may not be blasphemed through you, and you will have to answer for the souls that are scandalized." But he answered them again, and spoke as if showing himself angry: "Truly I will not listen to you; go away from me. Now I will do nothing else to keep you from being scandalized, except take a wife, so that I may have care of a household and lead a wretched life. Let whoever wants to be scandalized be scandalized; let him beat his forehead against a wall. What do you want of me? Have you been set as judges over me by God? Go, take care of yourselves; you will not render account for me. There is one Judge, and the holy day of judgment, who will render to each according to his works." He said these things with a loud voice.

[66] Certain Defenders of the Church therefore, hearing these things from him many times, reported to the Patriarch what was happening. But God, knowing that the Saint would not wish to offend Abba Vitalis, hardened his heart so that he would not believe them. For he remembered the aforesaid eunuch. He is accused before St. John. He rebuked vehemently those who brought an accusation against Abba Vitalis, saying to them: "Cease accusing monks. Or do you not know what happened around the time of the holy Emperor Constantine of blessed memory, By the example of Constantine the Great, as the writings that are read concerning him relate? For," he said, "certain men who did not fear God, when the holy Council was being held in Nicaea, began to hand to that blessed Emperor written shameful accusations against one another -- some being clerics, some monks. And the holy man of God Constantine, bringing accuser and accused face to face, heard both sides. And when he found many of the accusations of such slanderers to be true, bringing a burning candle, he set fire to all the written slanders that had been handed to him, Who did not believe informers. saying: 'Truly, if I had seen with my own eyes a Priest of God, or any of those who are clothed in the monastic habit, sinning, I would spread out my cloak and cover him, so that he would not be seen by anyone.' For concerning that servant of God, the eunuch, you thought the same, and you led me astray, and I committed a great sin against my soul." Putting them greatly to shame therefore, he dismissed them.

[67] But the servant of God Vitalis did not cease from his practice. He prayed therefore that God would reveal to certain people after his death, in dreams, that it should not be imputed as sin to those who had been scandalized by him; because they called the matter he was doing full of scandal; and that no person should bear the judgment of sin from it, whatever he might have said. He converts many prostitutes. Many of these women therefore were brought to compunction by his practice; and especially when they saw him at night stretching out his hands and praying for each one of them. On account of which some of them ceased from fornication, while others took husbands and lived chastely; and still others, abandoning the world by every means, led a solitary life. No one knew, however, until his falling asleep, that it was by his admonition and prayer that the impure women ceased from fornication.

[68] Whence one day, when he was leaving one of these women at dawn, a certain impure man, entering to fornicate with her, met him; He is struck on the face by a fornicator. and seeing St. Vitalis coming out from her, gave him a slap on the face, saying to him: "How long, you wretched mocker of Christ, will you not amend yourself from these villanies of yours?" He said to him: "Believe me, you shall receive a slap from humble me, such that all Alexandria will gather at your cries." After a brief time, St. Vitalis fell asleep in peace in his cell, with absolutely no one knowing. For he had a very tiny cell He dies. above the place called the Gate of the Sun. Whence also very often, when a service was being held in the church of the Metra near his cell, certain of these women would gather and say to one another: "Let us go, let us go; Abba Vitalis is having a service again." And when they came, he would cure them. When therefore he had fallen asleep, as was said, in his own cell, and no one knew, immediately a certain demon like a hideous Ethiopian The demon strikes his assailant with a slap, and the man becomes possessed. stood before the one who had given the slap to Abba Vitalis, and gave him a slap, saying: "Receive the slap that Abba Vitalis sends you." And falling, he immediately began to foam. Almost all of Alexandria therefore gathered, according to the prophecy of Vitalis, at the violence he suffered from the demon; and especially because some heard the sound of the slap given to him, as if at the distance of one arrow's flight. After some hours, when the one who was suffering came to his senses, he tore the garments on his breast and ran to the cell, crying out and saying: "I have sinned against you, servant of God Vitalis; have mercy on me." All who heard ran with him. He is healed. When he reached the cell of the Saint, the demon went out again, throwing him down in the sight of all. And when those who had run with him entered, they found the Saint standing on his knees, praying, and surrendering his soul to the Lord, and an inscription of this kind on the floor: MEN OF ALEXANDRIA, DO NOT JUDGE ANYTHING BEFORE THE TIME, UNTIL THE LORD COMES. The man who was vexed by the demon also confessed what he had done to the Saint, and what the Saint had said to him.

[69] All these things that had happened concerning St. Vitalis were reported to the most blessed Patriarch John; His body is visited by St. John. and descending with the clergy, he came to the body of St. Vitalis. And when he saw the inscription, he said: "Truly, humble John escaped this through God. For the slap that the afflicted man received, I would have received." Then all the former prostitutes, and those of them who had renounced the world and had taken husbands, went before him with candles and lamps, weeping and saying: "We have lost our salvation and our teacher." For they now narrated his manner of life to all, He is honorably buried. saying: "He did not enter to us for any shameful purpose; and we never once saw him sleeping on his side, or touching any one of us with his hand." And when some rebuked them, saying: "Why did you not tell all this to everyone, instead of letting the whole city be scandalized by him?" they now related the episode of what had happened to the woman who suffered vexation from the demon, "and because we feared this, we kept silent." When therefore he had been buried with much honor, the man who had been corrected and healed by him continued to make his memorial. Afterwards he also renounced the world, entering the monastery of Abba Seridon in Gaza, and according to his faith took the cell of Abba Vitalis, and remained in it until his death.

[70] And the most holy Patriarch gave many thanks to God, because He had not permitted him to sin against His servant Vitalis. Many in Alexandria from that time greatly profited themselves and received monks with hospitality; and they were admonished that no one should be condemned by them, as had happened. The honorable name of St. Vitalis also wrought healings after death through divine grace; He is famous for miracles; invoked by Leontius. by whose prayers may the Lord grant us a good manner of life, and mercy on the day when He shall reveal the hidden things of men, and lay bare the counsels of hearts. 1 Cor. 4.

Annotations

CHAPTER XII.

Salutary Admonitions Given to Many.

[71] When he once ordered ten bronze coins to be given to a certain man who was asking for alms, that Blessed one was atrociously assailed with abuse to his face, because he had not given him as many as he wished. He orders alms to be given to a reviling pauper at the man's own discretion. When those of his retinue sought to beat the man who was reviling him, the Patriarch rebuked them vehemently, saying: "Leave him, brethren. I have been blaspheming Christ by my deeds for sixty years; and shall I not bear one insult from this man?" And he ordered the distributor to open the purse and let the pauper take as much as he wished.

[72] If ever the most wise man heard that someone was an almsgiver, he would bring him aside cheerfully and say to him: "How did you become an almsgiver? Naturally, or by forcing yourself?" He consults almsgivers about how they acquired that virtue. Some of those whom he questioned, out of modesty, concealed it; but others told him. One man, when questioned by the Saint, answered thus: "Believe me, Lord, I give and do nothing good; nevertheless, what I do give and provide, from what God and your prayers bestow, I have grown accustomed to doing in this way. I was previously very unmerciful and cruel; and once I suffered losses and fell into poverty. My thoughts began to say to me: 'Truly, if you had been an almsgiver, God would not have abandoned you.' I resolved therefore to give five bronze coins each day to the poor. And when I began to give, immediately Satan would hinder me, saying: 'Truly, those five coins would suffice for the household, for vegetables or for the bath.' And immediately, as if I were depriving my children by taking it from their very mouths, [A certain man, even giving unwillingly, and through a servant who stole from him,] I gave nothing. When therefore I saw that I was being overcome by this vice, I said to my servant: 'Each day steal five coins from me without my knowledge and give them as alms. For I am a money-changer, Lord.' He, however, doing me a kindness, began to steal ten. There were times when he stole even a siliqua. When therefore he saw that we were being blessed and abounding in riches, he began to steal tremisses also, and to give them away. He is enriched by God. Once, therefore, marveling at God's blessings, I said to him: 'Truly, my son, those five coins have profited greatly; I wish therefore that you give ten.' Then the servant said to me, with a smile: 'Go, pray for my thefts. For truly, today we would not have bread to eat. But if there is a just thief, I am he.' Then he told me that he had been giving tremisses and also siliquae, and from his faithfulness I have become accustomed, Lord, to giving from the heart." The Saint therefore, greatly edified, said to him: "Believe me, I have read many accounts of the Fathers' ways of life; but something like this I have never heard."

[73] Hearing that a certain illustrious man was harboring malice against another Prince, this great John admonished him often and urged him to concord; but he could not turn him to peace. Once therefore the Saint sends for him and brings him, as if for a matter of public business; and he has a Mass celebrated in his oratory, having no one present except his own attendant. When therefore the Patriarch had blessed the holy elements and begun the Lord's Prayer, the three of them alone began to say "Our Father." John brings the one harboring anger to reconciliation. And when they reached the verse that says "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors," the Patriarch signaled to his attendant to be silent. The Patriarch therefore also fell silent; and the Prince was left alone saying the verse: "Forgive us as we also forgive." And immediately the Saint turned and said to him in a gentle voice: "See at what a terrible hour you say to God: 'As I forgive, so also do You forgive me.'" As if being burned by fire at that very moment, the aforesaid Prince fell on his face at the feet of the Saint, saying: "Whatever you command, Lord, your servant will do." And he was reconciled with his enemy from that time on in all truth.

[74] If the Blessed one saw anyone who was proud, he would not rebuke him to his face; but when he saw him sitting in his private quarters, he would bring forward discourses on humility, so that by such teaching he might gradually strike the proud man and make him modest, He heals the proud by a discourse on humility. saying thus: "I marvel, my lords, how the wretched soul of mine does not remember the humility which the Son of God displayed to us by appearing on earth; but I swell up and exalt myself over my brother, if I happen to be a little handsomer than he, or richer, or more glorious, or hold the rank of any office whatsoever; not understanding the divine voice which says: 'Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls'; nor considering the voices of the Saints, since some called themselves earth, some ashes, some a worm and not a man, and some men of slow and halting speech; and since Isaiah, when he was deemed worthy to see God, as far as a man may, then declared that he had unclean lips. Matt. 11:29. For what indeed am I, the humble one? Am I not fashioned of clay, from which bricks also are made? Does not all the glory I think I have wither like the flower of grass?" With these and similar and many other words, the most wise man, speaking as if about himself, would burn with a cautery the one who had the sickness of inflation and pride, and profit his soul. For the one who had the wound understood that the Patriarch was intimating these things about him.

[75] And this the God-honored man also frequently brought forward for the argument of humility, saying: "If we had considered and reflected upon the mercy and goodness of God toward us, we would not lift our eyes even to the heavens, but would always abide in a humble disposition and prudence. For, to pass over how He who fashioned us brought us forth from non-existence into existence, He sets forth the goodness of God. and when we were deceived by sin and disobedience, again gave us life and redeemed us from death by His own blood, and subjected the whole earth and heaven itself to the service of men; but even now, how He does not destroy us when we sin, but rather that immutable nature and that patient eye long-sufferingly waits; and while we often blaspheme, He Himself consoles and soothes us through His compassion, bestowing rains from above for our life. How many evil workers, going out to kill or to steal, does He cover and not hand over, lest they be captured and punished? How many who are on ships at sea, intending to plunder the ships they meet and to kill those aboard, does He not permit to be swallowed up in the deep, but commands the sea not to engulf them, awaiting the conversion of their malice? How many swear false oaths upon His most holy body and blood; and He endures and is long-suffering, not rendering them any harsh punishment here? How many who lie in ambush on the roads does He not hand over as food to the wild beasts they encounter? How many who go into the hollows of the earth and work seditions on the roads does He protect, so that they are not consumed by guard dogs or even by men? And meanwhile, when I am either lying with a prostitute, And the ingratitude of men, by contrast. or associating with drunkards, or with those who speak foul things, or entangled in any other sin of this world -- the bee goes about and visits the valleys and hives, seeking to gather fruit to make sweet the palate that pronounces foul and wicked things; and the grape hastens through the heat to ripen, to fill the mouth and gladden the heart that has transgressed against its Maker. Flowers vie with one another to delight the eyes that wink at fornications and other men's wives for lust. The fig tree labors to arrive at the point of filling the hand by its size and the mouth by its sweetness -- the hand that holds and kisses another man's wife."

[76] "Doing such deeds therefore," he said, "brethren, and receiving such rewards from a benign God, what prudence ought we to have had, considering our last and dreadful hour?" For that Blessed one always discoursed greatly about the memory of death and the departure of the soul, He inculcates the thought of death. so that frequently certain people would enter his presence with a proud bearing, a laughing face, and a heedless eye, and would leave in a humble manner, with a contrite face and tearful eyes. On account of which he also said: "As I, the humble one, judge, it suffices for salvation to think constantly and sorrowfully and to have concern about death; since no one in that hour will have compassion on us or accompany us from this life except our good works. And how the soul is troubled when the Angels come and hasten, if it is not found prepared! How it begs that a little time of life be added to it, and it will hear: 'What then? The time you have lived, did you spend it well?'"

[77] And again he would say, as if about himself: "How shall you, humble John, be able to pass the beasts of the reed-thicket, when the exactors meet you? Psalm 67. Woe, what fear and trembling seizes the soul then, rendering account to such examiners, so bitter and unmerciful! And the terrors of the judgment on account of the demons who accuse. For this Saint always kept in memory what was made known to St. Simeon, who stood on pillars, by revelation: 'For' (as he said) 'when the soul departs from the body, as it ascends from earth to heaven, choirs of demons meet it, each in their own order. On this matter, the warning of St. Simeon Stylites. The choir of the demons of pride meets it and investigates whether it has their works. The choir of the spirits of detraction meets it; they look to see whether it ever spoke ill and did not repent. Again, higher up, the demons of fornication meet it; they examine whether they recognize in it their own pleasures. And when the wretched soul, from earth to heaven, has arrived at the rendering of its account, the holy Angels will stand apart from it and will not help it unless its own good deeds help it.'"

[78] The example of St. Hilarion. Considering these things, this noble man was terrified and made anxious for that hour, bearing in memory also the saying of St. Hilarion: that when he was about to depart this life, he was afraid, and said to his soul: "For eighty years, O humble soul, you have been serving Christ, and you fear to go forth? Go forth, for He is merciful." And the Patriarch said to himself: "If he who served Christ for eighty years, and raised the dead, and worked signs, feared that bitter hour, what have you, humble John, to say or to do when those cruel and unmerciful exactors and inquisitors meet you face to face? To how many will you be able to render account -- to those who exact about lying, to those about detraction, to those about cruelty, to those about avarice, to those about the memory of evil, to those about hatred, to those who exact about perjury?" And beside himself, he would say: "O God, rebuke them; for all the strength of men is not able to resist them. Do You, Lord, give us as guides holy Angels, who may guard and govern us; for great is their madness against us, great the trembling, great the fear, great the peril of the sea of this air. For if when we walk from city to city upon the earth, we entreat those who are our guides not to let us fall over precipices, or into the haunts of wild beasts, or into impassable rivers, or over inaccessible and trackless mountains, or into the hands of robbers, or into the incomprehensible or waterless desert, lest we perish -- how many strong guides and divine guardians do we need when we travel this long and eternal road, namely the departure from the body and the ascent to heaven?" These are the teachings of the Blessed one, full of wisdom, addressed to himself and to all; these are his daily cares and meditations.

Annotations

CHAPTER XIII.

Zeal for Ecclesiastical Discipline and Piety. Rash Judgments to Be Avoided.

[79] He also had great care and showed great solicitude for the holy station. For on a certain day, wishing to cut short the practice of many who would leave the church after the reading of the holy Gospel and occupy themselves with idle talk instead of prayer, He deftly corrects those who leave before Mass is finished. what did he do? Immediately after the holy Gospel had been read, he left the church; and he himself went out and sat with the crowd. When all were astonished, the Just one said to them: "Little children, where the sheep are, there also is the shepherd. Either go inside, and I shall enter; or stay here, and I shall stay here. I come down to the holy church for your sake; for I could celebrate the Mass for myself in the episcopal residence." Once and twice therefore that Blessed one performed this same device. He also educated the people splendidly in this matter and corrected them; for they feared lest that ever-memorable man should do the same thing to them again.

[80] But he absolutely did not permit anyone to talk in the sanctuary; rather, he would send the person out in the sight of all, He forbids conversation in church. saying: "If indeed you came here to pray, desire that your mind and mouth be occupied with this. But if for the sake of conversation, it is written: 'The house of God shall be called a house of prayer.' Do not make it, therefore, a den of thieves." Matt. 21:13.

[81] This was the more admirable quality of this most holy Patriarch: that although he had not led the monastic life, nor served in the clergy in the church, He is a strict guardian of ecclesiastical discipline. but had even been legitimately joined to a wife long ago, he maintained the vigor of the Church from the very beginning of his consecration as Patriarch; and he was exalted to such a height that he surpassed many of the hermits and those living in the strict life.

[82] Wishing, moreover, not to be without this good thing either -- namely, to be numbered among the monastic life -- He supports two orders of monks. he devised such a plan: Gathering two orders of holy monks, he arranged for every provision to be given to them from his estates in his city. And making cells for them in two oratories, of Our Lady the holy Mother of God and of St. John, which he himself had built from the foundations, he said to those monks most beloved of God: "I, after God, will provide for your bodily needs; but you must have care for my spiritual salvation. The evening and nightly vigil shall be credited to me before God; but whatever office you perform in your cells, let it be for your own souls." He did this, wishing to make the friends of God, the monks, more zealous. Whence this constitution of orders, pleasing to God, endured; and the city almost lives like a monastery on account of these, offering sleepless hymns to God in various places.

[83] And this Blessed one thus taught and solemnly declared to all, saying: "Never at any time participate in the communion -- or rather, the defilement -- of heretics, He warns that the communion of heretics must be avoided. even if throughout your entire life, by some impulse or necessity, you should not find the communion of the Catholic Church and should remain without communion. For if," he said, "we who legitimately possess a bodily wife, dwelling for a long time in some distant land without her, are forbidden by God and the laws to leave her and be joined to another; and if we do this, we are punished -- how much more, do you think, when we are joined to God through the right faith and the Catholic Church (as the Apostle says: 'I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ'), if you adulterate the orthodox and holy faith through communion with heretics, shall we not in the future age be made partakers of the torment that awaits heretics? 2 Cor. 11:2. For communion," he said, "is so called because it makes common, and confirms the communicant in that with which he communicates. Therefore, I beseech you, O sons, do not resort to such oratories."

[84] Among all his virtues, this Blessed one also possessed this: that (as has been said) he would not condemn his neighbor, He condemns no one, nor receives those who condemn. nor receive those who did. I shall relate his teaching on this matter, which is profitable for all. A young man, having abducted a nun, fled to Constantinople. When the Just one learned of this, he was grieved even unto death. After some time had passed, while he was sitting one day in the honorable cimeliarchium with certain Clerics and raising a discourse profitable for the soul, the memory of the young man who had abducted the handmaid of God also came into the conversation, and those who were sitting with the Saint began to anathematize such a youth, as one who had destroyed two souls -- his own, namely, and that of the consecrated woman. Even public sins. The Blessed one therefore restrained and silenced them, saying: "Not so, my sons, not so; for I shall show you that you too commit two sins. First, because you transgress the commandment of Him who says: 'Do not judge, that you may not be judged.' And second, because you do not know for certain whether they continue to sin up to this day, and have not repented." Matt. 7:1.

[85] "For I have read a Life of a Father containing something of this sort: In a certain city two monks went out on an errand. And when one passed through a place, a prostitute cried out to him, saying: 'Save me, Father, as Christ saved the harlot.' He, caring nothing at all for human shame, said to her: 'Follow me.' And taking her by the hand, he went out publicly from the city, with all looking on. A rumor therefore arose An Abba converts the Tyrian prostitute Porphyria. that the Abba had taken a woman, Lady Porphyria; for that was the woman's name. As they were going to place her in a monastery, the woman found in a certain church a baby cast on the ground, and she took it up to nurse. And so after a year certain people came to the homeland where the Abba and Porphyria, the former prostitute, were; and seeing her with a little boy, they said to her: 'Truly, you have borne a fine chick for the Abba.' For she had not yet received the holy habit. Those who had seen her therefore went to Tyre (for the Abba had taken her from there) and spread the rumor: 'Porphyria has borne a child by the Abba, and we saw the little boy with our own eyes, resembling him.' When therefore the Abba knew from God that his death was near, he said to the Nun Pelagia (for thus he had changed her name And he gives her the name Pelagia. when he gave her the holy habit): 'Let us go to Tyre, for I have a matter to settle there, and I wish you to come with me.' She, unable to refuse him, followed him; and they both came, having also the child, now seven years old. When therefore the Abba fell sick with an illness unto death, up to a hundred souls from the city came up to visit him. And he said: 'Bring coals.' When therefore a censer full of coals had come, [He clears himself of the suspicion of wrongdoing and scandal, carrying fire in his garment unburned.] he took them and poured them into his garment and said: 'Believe, brethren, that just as God kept the bush unconsumed by fire, so also these coals have not burned my garment; and so neither have I known the sin of woman since I was born.' And all marveled at how the garment did not burn from the fire; and they glorified God, who has hidden servants. And on account of the Nun Pelagia, formerly a prostitute, other prostitutes followed her, renouncing the world and going with her to her monastery. For the servant of God, the monk who had tonsured her, after he had satisfied all, surrendered his spirit to God in peace."

[86] Rash judgment is to be avoided. "Therefore, I say to you, my sons, do not be hasty to condemn and judge the affairs of others. For often we have seen someone commit the sin of fornication; but the penance he has done in secret, we have not beheld. And it happens that we have seen someone committing theft; but the sighs and tears he has poured out before God, we do not know. And we indeed regard him as we have seen him -- a thief, or a fornicator, or a perjurer -- but before God his secret confession and penance have been received, and he is precious in God's sight." All therefore marveled at the teaching of this industrious Pastor and teacher.

[87] Two Clerics who were shoemakers were working side by side. One indeed had many children, and a wife, and a father and mother; he attended the Church without intermission, and supported all of them, after God, by his craft. The other, although he was more skilled than him, because he did not attend the Church but worked even on the Lord's Days, could not support even himself. He therefore envied his neighbor; and once, not being able to bear the envy, he said to him angrily: "How did you become so rich? [A Cleric shoemaker who attends church becomes richer than another who works constantly.] For I, devoting myself to my craft more than you, have fallen into poverty." The other said to him, wishing to make him attend the Church: "I find money in the ground, and from that I have gradually become rich; but if you wish, I shall always call you, and come with me; and whatever we find, you shall have half." When therefore the man agreed and followed him going to the church, God blessed him without ceasing and made him rich. Then that good counselor said to him: "Did you see, brother, how one lie told for God's sake profited your soul and your substance? Believe me, I never found anything in the ground, as you supposed, for the sake of money; but because the Lord said, 'Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added to you,' I contrived the occasion solely to entice you; and behold, I have not labored without cause, but you have found, and found more than you expected." Matt. 6:33. When therefore the holy Patriarch learned of this, he made that good counselor a Presbyter, as one worthy of it; for he was a Reader.

Annotations

CHAPTER XIV.

Flight to Cyprus. Death.

[88] And indeed, thus far the aforementioned servant of God Mennas, who had been the Vicedominus of the most holy Church of the great city of the Alexandrians, narrated to us. What follows, however, my lowliness has set down; From whom the Writer drew the remaining material. some things indeed I heard from certain persons who are worthy of belief. Since, then, we said in the foregoing, in a certain chapter, that the Patriarch and the Patrician Nicetas were bound to one another with much spiritual affection, the present chapter provides a worthy indication of such a display.

[89] When, by God's permission on account of our sins, it was about to come to pass that Alexandria would be handed over to the godless Persians, the Pastor, remembering the saying: "When they persecute you in this city, flee to another," John flees to Cyprus. took flight to his own homeland, namely to Cyprus, to his own city. Matt. 10:23. Whence the aforesaid Patrician Nicetas, taking the occasion, said to the Saint: "I beseech you, if I have found favor before you, do not disdain to trouble yourself as far as the queen city, and to bestow your well-pleasing prayers upon the most pious Emperors." The Saint, consenting to the request of the man of great faith, He sails toward Constantinople. became obedient to God and to His will in this; and the Patrician wished to show how great was the honor given by him toward the Blessed one. When therefore the ship in which the Saint was with the Patrician had been greatly tossed by the force of the winds and was about to be sent into the deep, the oft-mentioned Patrician and the nobles who were with him saw, on one night in which the storm arose, the Patriarch now running about with the poor everywhere through the ship, now again extending his hands with them toward heaven and drawing help from on high. And when, ascending, they had arrived at Rhodes, At Rhodes he is called to God by an Angel. the God-summoned man saw, upon waking, a certain eunuch of brilliant form, holding a golden scepter in his right hand, standing beside him and saying: "Come, if you please; the King of kings seeks you." Without delay therefore, he summoned the Patrician Nicetas and said to him with many tears: "You indeed, my lord, called me to an earthly Emperor; but the heavenly One, anticipating you, has first summoned my insignificance." And he related to him the vision of the eunuch -- or rather, of the Angel -- that had appeared to him. That most glorious man therefore, both glad and sad, could not prevent the Saint. He returns to Cyprus. Amply therefore filled with his holy prayers, and carrying these to the Emperors, with much honor he bade him return to Cyprus.

[90] When therefore he had arrived in his own city, which was called Amathus, he commanded his servants to write his own testament quickly. About to make his testament. When they presented paper and pen swiftly and without delay, that sacred mouth commanded to write thus: "John, a servant, but by reason of the dignity of the priesthood imposed upon me, by the grace of God a free man. I give thanks to You, God, He finds only a tremissis from eighty hundredweight of gold and infinite gifts. because You have heard my miserable prayer to Your goodness, that there should not be found upon me at my death more than a single tremissis. For when I came to the honorable episcopal residence of the most holy Church of the great city of the Alexandrians, which I received by the mercy of God when I was consecrated Bishop in it, I found about eighty hundredweight of gold; and what came to me from the friends of Christ almost exceeds human reckoning. Gathering my mind within itself, and knowing all these things to belong to the Lord of all, I hastened to give what was God's to God. Whence what remains to me, this tremissis -- being itself also God's -- I command to be given to those who are God's."

[91] O glorious thing! O devotion of the Saint! He did not look to his own, as he should have done -- which many do who are in riches, who hoard the gifts of God, or money collected by injustice, as their own, as if they could carry it with them, and do not generously give to the needy. Rather, he sought those things which always remain and are never diminished. Whence without falsehood he was not defrauded of the promises which assure, in the person of God, that "those who glorify me, I will glorify." For truly the Lord, who is always glorified in His own good things, gloriously glorified this Saint. 1 Sam. 2. For this noble man, not able to bear that the holy and praiseworthy good works should rest content with his temporal life, what did he do? Building hospices, homes for the elderly, He builds hospices, homes for the elderly, and monasteries. and monasteries from the foundations, and establishing choirs of holy monks, he possesses an unceasing memorial of true justice, through the good works that are celebrated in them. For what the divinely inspired Apostle says about those who do evil and leave behind successors of their own evils after death in this life: "The sins of some men are manifest beforehand, going before them to judgment; but some they also follow after" 1 Tim. 5:24 -- this, on the contrary, must be said of this Blessed one: "The righteous deeds of some are manifest, going before them into the kingdom of heaven; but some also follow after" -- of which number he was one.

[92] And since what has been said is not a fable, nor spoken for flattery, let the prodigy that occurred at his precious falling asleep clearly bear witness to us. For when he was committing and commending his own soul into the hand of the Lord, as the sacred Scripture says somewhere: "The souls of the just are in the hand of God" He dies. -- and was offering it to Him as an immolated sacrifice -- when his honorable body was to be honorably laid to rest, with the rite befitting Bishops, in a certain oratory of the holy miracle-worker Tychon, there occurred a certain glorious sign. Wisdom 3:1.

[93] He is buried. There lay in a certain tomb, where this Just man was also to be placed, the truly holy bodies of two former Bishops who had fallen asleep before him; and these, though remaining in their lifeless state, as if they were truly alive, paid equal honor to the Saint. For when the body of the Blessed one was to be placed between those two, The bodies of two Bishops make room for him in the middle. the Pastors honoring the supreme Pastor, and reverencing his great confidence before God, and at the same time marveling, by God's command, separating their bodies as if alive, they received this sacred man in the middle, they too offering him honor by God's command, as to one honored by God -- and immediately showing to all the glory and sublimity that had been bestowed on him by God. This greatest and most glorious miracle was seen not by one, nor by ten, nor by a hundred, but by the whole crowd that had assembled for his precious burial.

Annotations

Side Note* number 21.

CHAPTER XV.

Miracles after Death.

[94] The discourse will now attempt to commemorate another, yet more glorious miracle of his, which he indeed began while still living in the flesh, but completed after he had departed to God. A certain woman from the city that had brought forth the Saint, having heard that he had come from Rhodes and that an Angel had appeared to him there A woman seeks pardon through St. John for a grave sin. and had announced to him his call to the common Lord, recognizing in herself a most grievous sin which she affirmed could not enter the hearing of men, taking up an unwavering faith, she came running to the Saint. And seizing his feet, she cried out with many tears, saying secretly to the Saint: "I have a sin, O thrice-blessed one, which, wretch that I am, cannot come to the ears of men. And I know that, if you will, you can pardon it to me; for the Lord said to you: 'Whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven; and whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whose sins you remit, they are remitted to them; and whose you retain, they are retained.'" Matt. 18:18; John 20:23. The Saint, hearing these words from the woman and fearing that, if he refused her petition, he would become liable for her torment when she could be freed from her sin through the faith she had in him, said to her humbly: "If indeed you believe, O woman, that through my wretchedness your crime of which you speak may be forgiven you, confess it to me." She said: "I cannot, Lord, speak it; for the hearing of men cannot bear it." The Saint said to her again: "And if you are ashamed, go and write it, She confesses it in writing, given to him. if you know letters, and bring it to me." She answered again: "Truly, Lord, I cannot." Waiting therefore, keeping a brief silence, he said to her: "Can you not write it and seal it, and bring it to me?" Then she said to him: "I can, Lord; this I shall do, beseeching your honorable and co-angelic soul that the note should never be opened or in any way found by anyone." Receiving the promise therefore from the God-honored man that no human being would open or read her note, she went away and wrote the sin with her own hand, and sealing it, brought it to the Blessed one.

[95] The Saint therefore, having received the note, departed to the Lord five days later, neither arranging nor indicating anything to anyone about this note. The woman, as it happened -- or rather, by God's dispensation -- was not present in the city on the day on which the Patriarch was translated in peace from this world to the other; God wishing to demonstrate also in this how great a confidence his own servant possessed before Him. But arriving one day after the burial of his precious remains, when she heard of his falling asleep, she became nearly beside herself and out of her mind, imagining that the note she had given had been left behind in the episcopal residence, and would make her guilt manifest to all. Quickly therefore recovering herself, She fears its revelation after his death. and resuming her former unwavering faith upon her soul, she grasped the tomb of the God-honored man; and just as she had truly spoken to him when he was alive, so in her distress she declared: "Man of God, I could not tell you this sin, because it was beyond measure grievous; and behold, now perhaps it has been made manifest and known to all. Would that I had never revealed my affair to you! Alas, alas for me! Thinking to find absolution from my shame, I have become a shame to all; instead of a remedy, I have received blasphemy. What need had I to lay bare to you the secret of my soul? Nevertheless, I shall not fail nor despair, nor shall I remove my tears from the tomb until I have received satisfaction concerning my petition. For you are not dead, O Saint of God, but you live. For it is written: 'The just shall live forever.'" Wisdom 5:16. And again taking up the same words, she would say: "I ask nothing of you, O man of God, except that you make my heart certain as to what has become of the note I gave you."

[96] God therefore, who once said to the Canaanite woman: "Your faith has saved you," Himself also made this woman certain. Matt. 15:28. For persevering for three days at the tomb of the Saint, and tasting neither food nor drink at all, on the third night, She perseveres for three days at his sepulcher. as she was again speaking the same harsh yet faithful words to the most Blessed one with tears, behold, the servant of God came forth from his tomb, appearing visibly with the two Bishops who lay with him, one on this side and the other on that, looking on, and said to her: "How long, woman, will you disturb those who are here, and not allow them to rest? For your tears have soaked our vestments." And saying this, he gives her her own note, still sealed, saying: "Take it; do you recognize this? Open it and look." And coming to herself from the vision, she saw the Saints entering again into their own place; and opening the note, she found her writing erased and a subscription beneath it, reading thus: He rises from the sepulcher and returns the document to her. FOR THE SAKE OF JOHN MY SERVANT, YOUR SIN HAS BEEN ERASED. Who shall speak the mighty deeds of the Lord, O friends and brethren? Who is so merciful and so loving of mankind, fulfilling the will of those who fear Him, and glorifying those who glorify Him, and magnifying them through the working of miracles? Not in this place alone, in which his precious falling asleep occurred, was the grace he had before God made manifest, but it shone forth everywhere far and wide.

[97] For on the same day on which the Blessed one departed from this life to God, a certain one of those who follow the angelic life and the monastic habit, an admirable and industrious man named Sabinus, living in Alexandria, saw, as if in an ecstasy of mind, the divinely honored John going forth from his own episcopal residence with all the clergy, carrying tapers, [Sabinus, absent, perceives the soul of St. John the Almsgiver being led to heaven on the very day he died.] and going to the Emperor, as if a certain eunuch chamberlain (as Sabinus himself said) were calling him, after he had gone out through the door of the episcopal residence -- which signifies the separation from his own body -- and a certain maiden bright as the sun receiving him and holding him by the hand, and wearing around her head a crown woven from olive branches. St. Sabinus therefore immediately recognized that the Patriarch's departure to the Lord had taken place at that very hour. Wherefore, noting indeed the month and day -- for it was a celebrated feast, namely that of the holy Martyr Mennas -- certain people dwelling in Alexandria, making inquiry of some who came from Cyprus about the departure of the holy Patriarch, recognized that the vision had been true: because it had occurred at the same hour in which the Blessed one died, and especially because of the maiden who held him by the hand. For the Saint had received promises from her, as we have said in the preceding words of the Life: "If you possess me as your friend, I shall introduce you before the Emperor" -- which she truly did. Number 11.

[98] Not from this alone did all receive assurance Another sees the accompanying poor with olive branches. that Almsgiving and Mercy, which he had practiced toward the needy, led him into the kingdom of heaven; but because another of those who dwelt in the city of Alexandria, a God-fearing man, saw on that same night as St. Sabinus all the poor and orphans and widows bearing olive branches and going in the Patriarch's funeral cortege, and proceeding to the church. Not only two, or ten, or a hundred confirmations are there by which we clearly know that this memorable man merited to be numbered among the Saints; but behold, there are also others, which the following account reveals.

[99] For when the annual hymn was celebrated long after the falling asleep of the Saint, in the church of the above-mentioned St. Tychon, where the precious remains of the most blessed Patriarch John were laid to rest (it was the sacred vigil hymn of the annual commemoration of St. Tychon the miracle-worker that was being celebrated), the Lord of miracles, His relics exude ointment. wishing to show to all with what honor He had deemed His servant St. John worthy, was pleased to cause a health-giving fragrance of ointment to flow from his honorable remains. By this all, in joyful confidence, rendered glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit -- to our true God, that is, who glorifies His own Saints with infinite glory. And let no one, O friends of Christ, be incredulous of so great a miracle. For even to this day it can be seen in the Christ-loving island of Cyprus, As in Cyprus, the remains of many Saints. that such a grace of God operates in various Saints, and that the fragrance of ointments flows as from fountains from their precious remains, to the glory of that same goodness, and to the honor of His Saints, and to the encouragement and good zeal of men who shall come after -- so that, living in imitation of them, we too may be deemed worthy of the same honors by God, the just rewarder of merits.

[100] Let us therefore, most beloved, also become fulfillers of the aforementioned righteous deeds of this most holy Father of ours, John; and as sojourners and pilgrims in this life, The Writer's Epilogue. let us store up treasure for the eternal future through the generous gift that is given to the needy. For according to the divinely inspired Apostle, he who sows in blessings shall also reap from blessings; and for corruptible things, incorruptible; for temporal things, eternal -- "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." May we all obtain these things through the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ our Lord, with whom there is to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, glory and honor and dominion, now and always, unto ages of ages. Amen. 2 Cor. 9:6.

Annotations

ANOTHER LIFE

BY SIMEON METAPHRASTES,

TRANSLATED BY GENTIAN HERVET.

John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria (St.)

from Metaphrastes.

CHAPTER I.

Birth, Marriage, Patriarchate. Almsgiving.

a [1] To commit to writing the deeds of good men, and to hand down their memory to posterity, brings great profit to life. John, called the Almsgiver. For the narration of what they have rightly done sends a certain spur of zeal into the souls of the devout and exhorts them to do similar things. One such is also that Life which is now set before us to narrate -- of the good John, I say, whose name befits his conduct; for he is called Eleemon, that is, "the Merciful," on account of his great propensity and supreme goodness in this regard.

[2] Born of noble family in Cyprus. The island of Cyprus bore him and nourished him as a plant flowering and luxuriant with virtues; and illustrious Alexandria received him as its Pontiff and Patron of the city. His father was a distinguished man, named Epiphanius, whose excellence of virtue also caused the governance of that island to be entrusted to him. His mother was an honorable woman, fitting for such a husband, as one who shone with the beauty of both body and soul. Since such were the parents who fell to John's lot, he did not bring disgrace upon his family, but rather strove to adorn it -- so much so that the tree was made known by its fruit, and he did not receive his distinction from them, but rather they gloried in their son, when they were recognized as the parents of such a child.

[3] When, having been rightly educated, he reached the measure of age, he was joined, even against his will, by his parents to a wife in marriage; having consented to live with her in obedience to his parents, He marries a wife unwillingly. he shrank from the union, embracing temperance and continence even in matrimony. But the great insistence of his father-in-law compelled the great John to yield to the laws of nature, from which he indeed became a father of children. But to be called a father was quickly taken from him, his children being snatched away by untimely death. She and the children having died. After the common enemy of the race cut down the root together with the branches and took from him the companion of his life, he gave thanks for all things with a grateful and mindful soul to God, who had both given and taken away; and he made that circumstance the material for virtue. Having reckoned their loss to be the laying down of cares, he thereafter sat so close to God that he could not be torn away; and to one who constantly knocked at Christ's door, the bowels of divine benevolence were opened. He generously aids the poor. And so he himself, imitating those things as far as he was able, opened his bowels and all his doors and his hand to the needy, not grudgingly dispensing some drops of mercy, but sending forth showers of benevolence and pouring out riches upon the poor with both hands.

[4] Hence he became known to all -- not only to private persons and to rulers, but even to the Emperor himself. Heraclius at that time held the scepter of the Romans. He becomes Patriarch of Alexandria, long resisting. When therefore the city of Alexandria was at that time bereaved of a Patriarch, it strove with all its desire for this man, and petitioned the Emperor that it might not miss its mark, but that its Church might be pastored by him as Pontiff. The Emperor forthwith summoned that great man and endeavored by every means to persuade him to ascend to the See. He, however, stoutly resisted, saying that he feared the magnitude of the office and could not sustain so great a dignity. But when Nicetas, a Patrician by rank, who at that time had great influence with the Emperor, and was a brother in spirit to the Blessed John, and was most excellently bound to him by the bonds of friendship, and who moreover rightly knew his incomparable virtue and recognized that he, if anyone, was worthy of that See, pressed the Emperor earnestly, saying that he should not send him back, but should raise him to the See even against his will -- the Emperor, urging with greater force and spirit, persuaded John to accept the pontificate, since he reckoned that so great a commotion of the Alexandrian people and the Emperor's insistence were not without God's direction. He became therefore the successor of the See of Mark -- in time, I know not at what remove after him, but not far removed from his life and virtue; as those things can show which were rightly done by him immediately after he assumed his governance.

[5] He eradicates the heresy of Peter the Fuller. For after he ascended the See, this above all other things he strove for: to renew the preaching of Mark and the faith of the Fathers who had preceded him, and to root out utterly the tares of heretics that had sprung up. For since Peter the Fuller had dared to insert a certain blasphemous addition to the divinity into the Trisagion hymn, and to what reads "Holy Immortal" had added "Who was crucified for us," that divine man, having removed this blasphemy, asserted by his doctrine the impassible and immortal Godhead, and taught his flock to hold this belief. Having found only seven orthodox oratories, he made them ten times as many, establishing seventy. Then he devoted all his zeal to converting to piety those who had been captured by every kind of heresy. His zeal was also most vehement in ordinations, that they should be pure from profits and gifts, and that none should be made without examination. Furthermore, he applied the greatest diligence in defending those to whom injustice was being done, and that judges should not betray justice by showing favor to persons, but should weigh their judgments in the balance of justice, looking neither to favor nor to hatred.

[6] He removes simony and injustice. But what was greatest and most proper to him was his mercy toward the poor, and an insatiable and irrepressible readiness to care for the needy; and he spared money not at all, to the point that he often reached the very bottom. And so, in addition to his other benefactions, having built hospices, hospitals, and poorhouses, He assists the poor of every kind. he assigned to them a daily provision of grain. And so great was his care of these that he even allocated seven houses in various parts of the city for poor women who had no dwellings in which to give birth, nor any of the things suitable for their care, and provided that there should be beds and bedding and a supply of food to relieve the needs of the women in childbirth. Besides this, he also provided for poor Clerics, and to each of them an annual stipend was given. Not to these alone, but also to Bishops whose income was insufficient for their livelihood. But what are these things compared to the great sea of his generous will, and that vast ocean of benevolence? For he was another Nile with the copious stream of his almsgiving, watering not only Egypt, as the Nile does, but -- to say it at once -- flowing around the whole earth. For who among those who came from everywhere, lacking sustenance, if he approached him, returned with a sad face and empty hands, and did not abundantly receive his kindness? Indeed, to which of those who were in poverty, wherever in the world he heard of them, did he not provide what was sufficient for their needs? Even to foreigners. For when the Persians had at that time ravaged all of Syria, those who could escape their hands -- both laymen, those who held office and private citizens, and Clergy with their Bishops -- took refuge in Alexandria. To all of whom that rich and by no means stingy host supplied daily what was necessary for their use, not looking at the multitude of the needy in order to do something that would befit a sordid and illiberal mind, but looking to Him who opens His hand and fills every living thing with blessing. When moreover Rasmiszus, the general of Chosroes' army, Especially to exiles. had devastated and laid waste the venerable places of Jerusalem, after this man of God heard this, and that all holy things had been given over to fire, he lamented what had been done, no less than Jeremiah. His compassion, however, did not stop there, but he also sent a certain Ctesippus, a pious man, entrusting to him much gold, grain and other provisions and clothing, and very many beasts of burden to carry them -- both to view the devastation and to sufficiently refresh, through the things mentioned, those who remained from the captivity. Furthermore, he also sent Theodore, Bishop of Amathus, and Anastasius, Prefect of the great mountain of Anthony, and Gregory, Bishop of Rhinocorura, to receive those And to captives. who had been led away into captivity, providing a nearly innumerable amount of gold.

Annotations

CHAPTER II.

Various Works of Mercy Performed.

[7] How could anyone pass this over in silence, and not rather gratify merciful ears with this very thing, to show more clearly how extremely diligent and earnest he was in almsgiving? For when the pontificate had first been entrusted to his faith, He calls the poor his lords and feeds 7,500. he summoned those to whom the distribution of Church resources had been committed, and with those of his privy council also listening, he said: "It is not right, O brethren and fellow ministers, to have care of any other thing before Christ. Go therefore through the whole city, and register individually my lords." When they, after he had said this, were uncertain, and asked who might be the lords of the Patriarch, he said: "Those whom you are accustomed to call poor and beggars, these I name my lords and helpers. For they can bring me aid lest I be excluded from the kingdom of Christ." After what he had commanded was quickly done, he learned that all who had been counted came to seven thousand five hundred, and he ordered each of them to be given a daily allowance.

[8] After this he turned his attention to ensuring that those who sold in the city used just weights and measures. This the just man indeed accomplished admirably, He abolishes unjust weights. publishing edicts publicly. Moreover, this too was done by him, because he had great care for those who were suffering injustice. For when he learned that many who intended to come to him and petition about the injustices done to them were being kept away by his attendants, what did he do? Appointing two days of the week -- the fourth day, I mean, and the day of preparation -- he sat in the porticos of the church and made himself accessible to anyone who wished to approach, having with him some of those who were distinguished for virtue, in whom he confided. To these he often used to repeat that saying He grants a public audience twice each week. worthy of being committed to writing and memory: "If we," he said, "who are men, are permitted to approach God at all without any intercessor, and to ask Him concerning whatever we wish, how is it that we ourselves have not also opened our doors without any impediment to our fellow servants, and given a kindly ear to whoever has need? For we know that in whatever measure we have measured, with the same measure it will be measured to us in return."

[9] Once, however, when he had presided as was his custom, and no one had come, He is grieved when nothing is asked of him by anyone. he rose in the evening and departed sad and weeping. No one dared to ask the reason why he was sad, until the divinely-inspired Sophronius, who was present, said: "What is it, O divine man, that has brought you distress and filled your good soul with sorrow?" He, however, in a mild and gentle voice, said: "Today, wretched John has received no reward from anyone, nor has he been able to offer Christ any piaculum, however small, for his many and great offenses -- as indeed never at any other time." What is this less than -- or rather, should we not say it is even greater than -- what is told of a certain Emperor of the Romans, who said: "Today we have not reigned, since we have bestowed a benefit on no one"? When therefore the most holy Sophronius understood the meaning of what he had said, he replied: "You ought rather to rejoice and not be sad, O most blessed Lord, that you have caused the flock entrusted to you to live in such peace that no one has a dispute with his neighbor about anything; but like angels, men live on earth without any litigation or contention." When the most gentle man found that what he had said was true, he was immediately led to gladness of spirit, and gave thanks to God for it. They say that Constantine, who succeeded Heraclius in the empire and who was also the spiritual son of this divine man, also imitated this practice.

[10] But let the narrative pursue what has been set forth and deliver to the ears things worthy of hearing and most useful. At that time, when those to whom the distribution of alms had been committed came to the Blessed John He wishes no one asking to be excluded from alms. and announced something of this sort -- namely, that certain girls, well adorned and wearing necklaces about their necks, were also coming to share in what was given to the poor, and they asked whether they too should be provided for -- the most gentle John, looking sternly at them, said: "If you wish to be ministers and distributors of humble and lowly John -- or rather of Christ Himself -- obey the divine command which orders us to give to whoever asks. Luke 6. But if you say you are servants of someone else who commands you to examine the life and condition of beggars, know that neither Christ Himself nor humble John has need of nosy ministers. With the greatest trust in God. For if what is given were our own property, and had been brought by us into the world, perhaps some pardon should be given to one who used them sparingly. But if all things are God's, they must be kept for Him. But if fear has come upon you from unbelief, lest perhaps the multitude of expenditures exceed the Church's revenues, I shall not bear to be even a tiny bit the partner of your little faith. For I am persuaded that even if it should happen that the whole world came to Alexandria at once, in need of beneficence, it would by no means reduce these treasures of God to straits."

[11] After he had cured their unbelief with admonitions and sent them away, while those who were sitting with him were astonished at his munificent spirit, He sees Mercy, the daughter of the great King. he told this story, saying: "When I was fifteen years old and was living in Cyprus, one night a maiden of extraordinary beauty appeared to me in a dream, whose beauty cannot be expressed in words; she was splendidly dressed, and an olive crown adorned her head. When she had stood near me and prodded my side with her hand, she woke me, startled, from sleep, and straightway it was no longer a dream, but the apparition was really present. I asked her who she was, whence she came, and how she had dared to approach me while I slept. She, however, with a smiling and cheerful face, looking upon me with gracious and peaceful gaze, said: 'I am the first among the daughters of the great King. If you gain me as your friend, I shall be able to make you familiar with Him. For no one has greater confidence with Him than I; since I persuaded Him to descend from heaven to earth and to take on human flesh.' She said this and immediately departed. When I came to myself and turned over in my mind what I had seen, I judged her to be Mercy. For on her account God did not disdain to come to earth and to be seen in the likeness of men."

[12] He gives a garment to a pauper. "Immediately therefore, rising, I went alone to the church, for morning was already dawning; and I met a poor man who was naked and greatly afflicted by the cold. Having stripped off the garment I was wearing, I gave it to him, saying to myself: 'I shall know whether what I saw is true and not a deception.' He receives a hundredfold many times over. And before I had come to the church, a man in white approached me and handed me a hundred gold coins tied up, saying: 'Take these, O friend.' Although I gladly accepted them, I was moved by repentance, and immediately turning around, I thought to return them to the one who had given them; for I was not in need. But the one who had given them had immediately vanished. Then I understood that the vision was not a phantom, but a true vision. From that time, whenever I had given anything, I would say: 'Let me see whether, in keeping with His promise, Christ will return to me a hundredfold.' Having done this a thousand times, and learned by experience from the very facts that it was so, I said to myself: 'Cease; how long will you test Him who cannot be tested?' Since I," he said, "had received such evident proofs, these men, who are sordid and illiberal, came to seize me and make me a partner of their unbelief, and to call me to mercilessness."

[13] A certain stranger, having considered his exceeding generosity, thought to test him -- He visits the hospital two or three times each week. him who was above all temptation. Having therefore dressed himself in rags, he approached him as he was going to visit those who were in the hospital (for he was accustomed to do this two or three times a week) and with mournful words said: "Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am a captive." He ordered the distributor to give him six coins. He, however, accepting them and changing his garment, approached again by another way, making a similar request. The Blessed one again ordered six coins to be given to him. But the distributor, approaching the great man, signified in his ear that this was the same man who had received the other six shortly before. When, however, he came a third time, feigning, to receive, the distributor nodded to the Patriarch, signifying again that it was the same person. He, however, said and did that remarkable thing again: He gives repeatedly to the same petitioner. "Give him twelve coins," he said. "For it is my Lord Himself who is testing me." But so much for this. The narrative wishes also to treat many other things that show what sort of man he was in the matter of generosity.

Annotations

CHAPTER III.

Aid Given to a Poor Merchant and to a Nobleman.

[14] A certain merchant, possessing his own ship, when his trade had gone most unfortunately, was pressed by severe poverty. When therefore he came to the Blessed one and asked for some help, He assists a shipwrecked merchant three times. the Patriarch ordered five pounds of gold to be given to him. Having received these and purchased what he needed, he set sail. But when he was near the Pharos, tossed by the violence of the winds, he lost what he was carrying, but saved only the empty vessel. He therefore approached the Patriarch again, at once tragically bewailing what had happened and calling him to greater compassion. The Patriarch, when he heard, He indicates that the calamity befell him on account of injustice. encouraged him not to lose heart, but openly added, saying: "Had you not joined the Church's money with what remained to you from your wrongdoing, this would not have befallen you." Again therefore he ordered ten pounds of gold to be given to him, commanding that he should not mix them with other funds. The merchant therefore set sail as quickly as possible, and it happened that he suffered a shipwreck worse than the first, losing both the cargo and the ship. When therefore he had fallen into the utmost desperation, was overcome by anguish of mind, could not restrain even the slightest motion of his feelings, and was already about to lay hands on himself -- when the Patriarch learned again what had happened, he summoned him. He came with his garment torn, his hair pulled out, his head sprinkled with ashes, pitiable in appearance, but more pitiable by the gravity of his calamity, and drawing many tears by his own tears. When this great man saw him, he said: "May God be gracious to you. Why, on account of a pusillanimous and abject spirit, have you been so afflicted? I trust in my God that henceforth your ship will suffer no shipwreck. But know that this befell you for no other reason than that this ship had not been acquired by you justly or honestly."

[15] He gives him a ship and grain. Having said these things, he ordered that one of the Church's ships be given to him, loaded with twenty thousand measures of grain. Having received this, he set sail from Alexandria; and making use of a favorable wind, having entrusted himself to it as it carried him, he was borne along knowing nothing of where he was. It directs its course to Britain. For after the ship had run thus for twenty days and as many nights, neither he himself nor any other of those on the ship could discern from the stars or from the features of the land where they were, except that the Patriarch alone appeared to the helmsman, directing the rudder with him. When the twentieth day had passed, they arrived at the British Isles. Having put in at that place, they found a most cruel famine -- a famine that was wretchedly consuming the people of that region. When they had met their ruler, and it had been learned by the people that they were bringing grain, the whole city was filled with great joy, and they received them with great gladness, reckoning that their arrival was not without God's direction. When the islanders had bought all the grain -- paying gold for half, and tin for the rest (for so it had been agreed between them) -- and the merchant was now returning, a thing happened which is worthy, if any is, to be committed to memory and writing; but to accept and believe it, except with the most faithful ears, is by no means easy.

[16] For when the voyagers had now reached the Decapolis, the shipmaster went down from the ship, and having met a certain friend and acquaintance, a goldsmith by trade, he gave him fifty pounds of tin from what he had received and took payment for it. The tin is changed into silver by his merits. The goldsmith, however, wishing to test it by fire to know its quality, found it to be pure and most refined silver. Thinking therefore that the shipmaster was doing this more to test him than because he believed it to be true, he approached and reproached him, saying: "What is this you have done? Is not the time up to this day sufficient to prove that we deal without deceit in our transactions? But now you, as if to test me, have deposited silver in place of tin." The shipmaster, immediately astonished at what had been said, replied: "By truth itself, O friend, nothing have we done to test you; but I know that I openly gave you tin. If, however, it has been changed into silver by the Patriarch's prayers, this is nothing new or extraordinary. For he is able to do these things who changed water into wine, and again at another time changed it into blood." "But so that you may believe even from this," he said, "go up into the ship and learn the nature of all of it." The goldsmith, going aboard, openly found it to be, as it was, the purest silver. The shipmaster, having explained everything from beginning to end, for the glory of God and the praise of the Patriarch who had been gracious to him, called everyone to hear. But let us proceed to the following narrative.

[17] When the great man was once going to church, a certain nobleman approached him, from whom thieves had plundered all his possessions, and who had thus been reduced to the most extreme poverty. Pitying the poverty that had befallen him in so short a time, he ordered fifteen pounds of gold to be given to him. He orders fifteen pounds to be given to a poor nobleman. The one who had been ordered to give, however, partly yielding to disobedience, and partly to the suggestions of those who administered the Church's goods -- namely, that not much remained, inasmuch as the great John did not know how to store up treasure -- gave only five to the one who had asked. When the Blessed John was leaving the church, a certain exceedingly wealthy widow handed him a document in which was written a gift of five hundred pounds. When he read it, he understood, from the grace that dwelt in him, what had not been done as he had ordered -- namely, the reduction of the fifteen pounds of gold. Having summoned those who had done this, he questioned them about it. When they tried to lie about what had been done, and were not only wrongful in their deed but also mendacious in their speech, having summoned the very man who had asked and learned that he had received only five pounds of gold, he showed them the widow's document, saying: The servants give five. "The Lord will exact another thousand from you. For if you had given fifteen pounds, as had been decreed by us, to the man who asked, the woman would have given God one thousand five hundred. But so that what is incredible to you may be believed by the evidence of deeds, summon for me," he said, "this pious woman."

[18] When she had come and brought the promised gold, the Patriarch said: "Tell me, A widow who was going to give him 1,500 miraculously gives only 500. did you resolve from the beginning to offer so much money to God?" She, however, perceiving that what had been done privately had not escaped his notice, was seized with great fear and disclosed the entire secret, saying: "In truth, Lord, I had written one thousand five hundred pounds in the document given to you. But a few days later, when I unrolled it, I found one thousand erased, somehow of their own accord. From this I judged that it was not at all pleasing to God that I should offer more than five hundred pounds." These things struck great fear into those who heard them; and falling together at the feet of the great John, they asked that the sin of disobedience be forgiven them. To that Christ-loving widow, the Blessed John wished much blessing from God, and dismissed her to go in peace.

Annotations

CHAPTER IV.

Abundantly Supplied with What He Might Give to the Poor.

[19] The malicious demon, envying this generous spirit and hand, suggested to the Patrician Nicetas, The Patrician Nicetas takes the sacred gold. whom we said earlier was his friend and intimate, that he should think and say something unworthy of his virtue. Approaching therefore the Blessed one, he said: "The hand of the Emperor needs much money, which he may spend daily on the necessary uses of the state. For you yourself see into what straits the state has been reduced. It is necessary therefore that what is rashly and uselessly consumed by you should be carried to the public treasury." The Patriarch, however, not at all disturbed by this, said: "It is not right that what has been consecrated to the heavenly King should be betrayed to an earthly King. This is plainly sacrilege and no small sin against God. But if it has seemed good to you to do so, behold, whatever belongs to the Church, take it and do as you wish, if indeed no consideration draws you from this opinion; for of my own will I shall not release even an obol of what has been stored up." The admirable man, somehow in no way deterred, called those who attended him and immediately ordered the money to be taken, leaving the Patriarch nothing but a mere hundred pounds of gold.

[20] In the meanwhile, however, as those carrying the money were descending, they met others coming up to the Patriarch, who were bringing amphoras of honey to him, on some of which was inscribed "Prime Quality," and on others "Smokeless." When therefore the Patrician saw these and recognized the inscription, he signified to the Patriarch that one of the amphoras should be sent to him. When, however, the one to whose trust these had been committed had tested them as is customary, and then had found that a miracle had been wrought in them, and had told the Blessed John that they were all full of gold, But with the honey changed into gold. he immediately sent one to the Patrician, the one inscribed "Prime Honey." He also sent a letter to him, the purport of which was this: "The Lord who said, 'I will not leave you, nor forsake you,' Himself renders other money in place of what your Excellency has now taken. Heb. 13:5; Josh. 1:5. This the amphora now sent to you, which is one of them, will make clear to you. Know therefore that God, who supplies spirit and food to all, can in no way be reduced to straits by a man who is subject to death." Furthermore, he also instructed those who were carrying the amphora that it should be opened in the presence of the Patrician before their eyes, and that they should report to him that all the others he had seen were likewise full of gold. When therefore they found him at dinner, they delivered the letter and showed the amphora as well. When he saw it, he said: "My lord is certainly angry with me; for he would not have sent me just one." Moved to compunction, he returns everything and adds much of his own. Those who were carrying it, as they had been commanded, opened the amphora in his presence, poured out the money, and reported that the rest were similarly filled with gold. When, reading through the letter, he found that man cannot reduce God to straits, coming afterwards to himself and filled with fear (for a noble soul that loves virtue is quickly moved to repentance for things not rightly done), he exclaimed: "The Lord lives! Nor shall humble Nicetas endure to try to reduce Him to straits."

[21] Immediately therefore he rose, and having taken again whatever money he had removed from the church, and the amphora itself that had been sent, Henceforth a friend to John. and having added from his own resources three hundred pounds, he went up to the Patriarch, asking pardon for his ill-considered plan. The Patriarch, however, receiving him gladly, neither reproached him nor spoke anything that would cause him distress; rather, with words that consoled his spirit and with spiritual admonitions, he confirmed him and sent him away. From that time they were so bound to one another by the bond of friendship that the Patriarch even became the godfather of his children. But so that not only through a more abundant and relaxed manner of living might his incomparable spirit and good hope of faith in God be known, but also through a more straitened one, through which he had been proven, it might be evident (for it is clear that both are perilous: prosperity, which enervates and softens and drives out the remembrance of God; and adversity again, which confines, and makes the spirit pusillanimous and abject) -- therefore God provided that he should fall into poverty. In what manner this was provided, I shall tell.

[22] When a great multitude of those who had escaped the Persian hand He borrows money to aid the poor. had taken refuge in Alexandria, and there was a great scarcity of food -- especially since at that time the Nile had not risen as it was accustomed to do -- and the money of the Church had been exhausted, that great man was compelled to borrow a thousand pounds of gold from certain people. When he had consumed these also, he was agitated with great anxiety and prayed to God's goodness to devise some way in his difficult circumstances. But even though he had been reduced to such poverty, he was not overcome by the calamity, did not bring shame upon the divine laws and sacred constitutions, and did not cease to govern accurately the flock entrusted to him. And so, when a certain Cleric, one of those who had contracted a second marriage, [He is offered money by a man twice married so that the man might be made a Deacon.] abounding in riches, wished to attain the rank of Deacon, and had learned of the Patriarch's straits, and had seized the moment as an opportune one -- thinking that if he relieved his want with money, he would obtain what he desired -- he handed a document to the Blessed John which read thus: "Having learned of the straits to which the generous right hand of my Lord has been reduced, I did not think it right that I should live in luxury and abundance of goods while my Lord was reduced to straits. I have at my disposal many thousands of grain, and a hundred and fifty pounds of gold: these I would give to Christ through you, if only I should be judged worthy of His Diaconate through your holy ordination. For it has been found somewhere that a certain statement was made by the Apostle, that of necessity there also comes a translation of the law." Heb. 7:12.

[23] The Patriarch therefore summoned him aside, not wishing to put him to shame in the presence of many, and said to him: "Your offering, O son, is great and necessary for this time. But it is defective, He rejects it. and for that very reason not admissible. For you are not unaware that the sheep which were offered under the law, if they were not without blemish, even though they were large, could not be admitted to the sacrifice. For which reason neither were the gifts of Cain acceptable to God. As for the saying, 'Of necessity there also comes a translation of the law,' we know that this was said by the Apostle about the old law. What, however, do you make of what is set down by James, the brother of the Lord? James 2:10. For it reads thus: 'He who fulfills the whole law but stumbles in one point is guilty of all.' As for our brethren the poor, even if we are in poverty, the God who has fed them until today will Himself also take care of them henceforth, if only we keep His commandments immovable. For what is there that He cannot do? Or what is difficult for Him who once multiplied five loaves in the desert -- if He blesses the ten measures that are in my granary, to increase them to a great multitude? Wherefore, O son, what was said to Simon in Acts is fitting for you: 'You have neither part nor lot in this matter.'" Acts 8:21.

[24] The man had not yet been dismissed and gone home with his suit denied, when it was reported to the great John that two ships of the Church had put into port, And at the same time two of his ships arrive laden with grain. bringing from Sicily many thousands of grain. When he heard this, falling on his knees, he gave thanks to God, saying: "Those who seek You, Lord, and keep Your commandments, shall not be diminished in any good thing. Wherefore I magnify Your most holy name, because You have not permitted Your servant to sell Your grace for money." Thus indeed, in his straits, this illustrious man was enlarged, and did not betray, for the use of necessary things, the careful observance of the rule.

Annotations

CHAPTER V.

Gentleness of Spirit.

[25] It is fitting also to speak of the sign of the great tolerance he possessed, and to narrate how perfectly he conducted himself in this commandment. Two certain of his Clerics He excommunicates Clerics who came to blows. who had quarreled violently with one another, this admirable man had subjected to excommunication. Of these, one had willingly submitted to the penalty; but the other, having found it to be a pretext for his own laziness, had no care whatsoever for prayers or assemblies, but devoted himself entirely to his own desires. He then even threatened to circumvent that great man's supreme and most holy simplicity by some cunning. Some say that this was also the man who had suggested to the Patrician Nicetas that he should take the money of the Church, thinking that he would thereby cause distress to the Patriarch. When therefore the great Patriarch learned of this, fearing lest the man should be consumed by the devil, he was about to summon him and deem him worthy of compassion. But by a better providence, what he was planning in his mind was consigned to forgetfulness, so that his supreme humility might become evident through a greater act of compassion.

[26] For when the chief of all days had come, and he was standing at the altar offering the bloodless sacrifice, at that very hour in which the sacred veil was removed from the holy gifts, he remembered the one who had conceived hatred against him, and mindful of the Lord's commandment which orders that the gift be left before the altar and that one go first to be reconciled with his brother and then offer the gift, he signified to the Deacon to take up again the connected petition and to repeat it often until he returned. Matt. 5:25. He himself, however, making his stomach the excuse, went out from the altar and sent with great speed, summoning that Cleric to himself. The Cleric was present at once. The Saint fell at his feet, in no way shunning the eyes of those present, He himself asks pardon of the one who had sinned. asking for forgiveness. Then he who had previously been foolish, seeing this most sacred head cast down at his feet, was immediately broken in spirit, fearing fire from heaven and the thunderbolts sent from there. He too fell prostrate and asked his forgiveness. The Blessed John said: "May God forgive us both, my son." Then, taking him along with himself, and entering the sanctuary with joy and with a pleasure that cannot be expressed, he then dared to say to God with confidence: "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." After this, the Cleric became so modest and moderate that he was judged worthy to be ordained a Presbyter. But this, as we have said, is a sign of his great tolerance and moderation.

[27] I shall narrate another, which is not very different from what preceded. "It belongs to Angels," a certain one of the Fathers has said, "never to quarrel, but to be in perpetual peace; to demons, to carry on irreconcilable enmities throughout their whole life; but to wise men, to be angry briefly perhaps, but quickly and shortly afterward to hasten to reconciliation." When therefore it happened that this great John was somewhat stirred by anger against the man we have often mentioned, the Patrician -- the Patrician defending an unjust cause for the sake of gain, and John not tolerating it because of his zeal for justice -- when now the eleventh hour had arrived, the Patriarch through a messenger, the first among the Presbyters, signified to him, He has a brief disagreement with the Patrician Nicetas. saying: "The sun is now at its setting, O most venerable sir." The Patrician, stung in spirit by this word as by a goad, immediately rose and came to the Saint. When the Patriarch gladly received and embraced him, he said: "Believe me, had I not been assured that I had caused you distress, perhaps without hesitation or scruple I would have come myself to your Magnificence. For what of it, since our common Lord also did not disdain to visit cities and villages for the sake of profit and healing?"

[28] When all who were present admired his supreme moderation, He reconciles the Patrician to himself. the Patrician said: "No longer, Lord, shall my ears receive the reports of those who bring accusations." He admonishes not to believe informers rashly. To whom the wise Teacher said: "Let it be settled in your mind, O most faithful son, that if we were simply and without examination to lend our ears to everyone, we would be preparing for ourselves an accounting for ten thousand sins -- and especially now, in such a time, when charity has grown cold in all men. For I know that because I had trusted certain people to whom the governance of the city had fallen, and had been led by their words alone, I often caused distress to some when it was by no means fitting. Whence I have since repented of not a few things. Therefore, having once, twice, and often fallen into the deceit of those who bring accusations, I resolved for myself henceforth no longer to pronounce anything against anyone until I had heard the case of both parties. And I threatened those who brought matters to me that, if they were hereafter caught bringing empty trifles to my ears through calumny, they would suffer the same penalties as one who is truly a calumniator. From that day, therefore, every calumny of informers was cut off. Wherefore I also ask your Magnificence not to admit so simply and so easily the slanders of malicious men, but first to examine them diligently. For from these arise no small evils: but confiscations of the goods of good men, and beatings, and murders -- through falsehood, many innocent people have often endured these, and by such men almost the entire life of humanity has been overturned." When the Patrician had received these admonitions as if from God, he pledged to keep them forever.

[29] Let another thing be added to what has been said, which can sufficiently express his gentleness and patience. A kinsman of the great John, named George, was his cousin. He consoles his nephew who had been insulted. Having been assailed with insults by a certain shopkeeper of the city, he was deeply stung, and bore it most grievously. For the great disparity between them made it all the worse -- namely, his kinship with the great man, and the extreme lowliness and meanness of the one who had done the injury. The young man therefore came to the Blessed John privately, deploring the injury with tears and heartfelt grief. When the Patriarch saw him thus overcome by every kind of disturbance, wishing to soothe and, as it were, refresh him, he said: "Has someone actually dared to open his mouth against you, and to insult one who is most dear to me? Blessed be the Lord, I will do such a thing to him that all Alexandria will marvel." After he saw that the young man, because of what he had said, had somewhat relaxed from his anguish of mind, he said: "My most dear son, if you truly wish to be and to be called the cousin of my lowliness, prepare yourself not only for insults, but, if something more must be said, even for blows themselves. For true nobility takes its form and character not from blood and flesh, but from the virtue of the soul." Immediately therefore, summoning the chief of the shopkeepers, he declared to him that he should no longer accept the customary tax from the one who had insulted his cousin, He frees the author of the insult from taxes. nor anything of what was customarily given by him to the Church. On account of which, all admiring his incomparable patience, all understood that this was the punishment which all Alexandria was going to marvel at.

[30] But perhaps in the case of those who belonged to his own circle, he was thus diligent in guarding against the memory of a received injury, while he neglected others in such matters. By no means. For when he learned that a certain Deacon named Damian hated a kinsman, He orders one who harbors injuries to be reconciled first. as one who remembered a received injury, he directed the Archdeacon to point out to him, at the time of the reception of the Sacraments, the one who was mindful of the injury. When therefore he had identified him, taking him by the hand, he said to him: "Go, and be reconciled first with your brother, as the commandment requires, and then you shall receive the Sacraments of Christ, who does not remember received injuries." He, however, put to shame in the presence of all, promised that he would do this, and then the Patriarch gave him the holy things. From that time, therefore, a fear seized not only the Clergy but also the laity, and they took care lest they should hate anyone or be mindful of received injuries, fearing lest they should be put to shame in the same way before many. But indeed so careful and exact was his life, both as it pertained to himself and as it pertained to those who were pastored by him.

Annotation

CHAPTER VI.

Domestic Discipline and Outward Manner of Life.

[31] He studies the Scriptures. In addition to his other virtues, he had labored supremely in the knowledge of the sacred Scriptures and meditated on them very much, not without delight and the keenest zeal. It was therefore possible to see daily, in the conference that took place in private, that he spoke or inquired of scarcely anything else than the accounts of the Fathers of great renown, and dogmatic problems and questions pertaining to Scripture. And this was especially because at that time the multitude of heretics abounded, for whose overthrow he had enlisted those who were the most excellent in those times -- John, I mean, and Sophronius.

[32] Furthermore, he was also zealous to keep his council free from all detraction and every vain word. If one of those who sat with him brought up something of that sort, He does not tolerate detractions and idle talk. he would ingeniously and aptly deflect it, introducing some good question profitable for the soul. But if the person were obtuse and common, and would not desist from what was habitual, he did not mistreat him in his presence or conduct himself angrily and harshly toward him; he would, however, give orders that the man not be allowed to be part of the council any longer, so that through that one person the others would become more cautious and diligent.

[33] In order to impress deeply upon his thought the remembrance of death He orders the remembrance of death to be inculcated upon himself. and to have it perpetually present and before his eyes, what does he do? He orders a monument to be built for himself; but that no end be put to it -- rather, it should be left unfinished, half-completed. Then, when there was some notable feast, those who were in charge of the work were to approach in the sight of all who were seated and say openly: "Your monument is still unfinished to this day, Lord. Command therefore that it receive completion. For it is uncertain at what hour the thief may enter -- namely, death."

[34] Frugal in food, dress, and bedding. But who could rightly describe the meagerness of his diet, and the cheapness and modesty that marked his clothing and bedding? For among his other virtues, he did not neglect this one either, to such a degree that in these things he was not surpassed even by the common people and those who are despised. A certain inhabitant of the city, who was more closely acquainted with him, having learned how matters stood, sent to the Blessed one a coverlet purchased for thirty-six coins, earnestly begging him not to refuse it but to clothe himself with it. Since he wished to do this both on account of the man's faithfulness and the intensity and fervor of his entreaties, he nonetheless did not cease lamenting all night (as those who sat with him finally reported), saying: "Who He uses the coverlet given to him. would not condemn wretched John, if I am permitted to be covered with a blanket worth thirty-six coins, while my brethren (alas!) according to Christ dwell perpetually in the open air, frozen with cold, and have not even the smallest and cheapest rag? The majority of them lie down on an empty stomach, without supper, and desire even the crumbs (woe is me!) that fall from my table, like poor Lazarus. Alas, alas! How many strangers and pilgrims have come now to this city, who have nowhere to lay their head, and lie hungry and thirsty in the middle of the marketplace! I, however, delicately filling myself with every kind of good thing, in addition to other luxuries am now also clothed in this costly blanket. What therefore do I expect to hear on that day? What else but: 'You received your good things in your life, and the poor evil things; and therefore they now receive consolation, while you are tormented for your deserts'? But blessed be God -- humble John shall no longer be covered with it, but the poor shall be clothed with its price."

[35] As soon therefore as day broke, he sends the coverlet to the marketplace to be sold; He soon sells it to give the price to the poor. which when the man who had offered it saw, he again bought it and brought it to him. He, however, accepts it, but again sends it to the marketplace. When this had been done twice and often, the great John signifies to the one who was offering it, saying: "Let us see which of us will tire first -- I selling it, And that repeatedly. or you buying and offering it." For the man was very rich. Wherefore the great John purposely wished to profit from him, so that his goods might flow to the poor. He also said something of this sort: that if anyone could, by some skill and method, take away the very tunics of these luxurious and wealthy people -- and especially those who are unmerciful -- in order to do good to the needy, he would in no way deviate from what is fitting. For thus he would accomplish two most beautiful things: one, that he would procure salvation for their souls; the other, that from others' goods he would prepare for himself no small or light reward. As testimony of what he said, he adduced also what the great Epiphanius had done, who brought it about that the money of John, Bishop of Jerusalem, was by a certain pious means and method distributed to the poor.

Annotation

CHAPTER VII.

The Story of St. Peter the Tax-Collector.

[36] He would add also another story, which he said he had heard from a certain faithful and truth-loving man in Cyprus, who narrated what he told, Peter the Tax-Collector hurls bread at a pauper. confirming it with an oath. "When I was in Africa," he said, "I was living with a certain tax-collector, very rich indeed, but exceedingly unmerciful and poor when it comes to mercy. It happened that in winter, when the sun was shining rather warmly, paupers gathered together and were enjoying the warmth. As usually happens among them, they were counting off the houses -- blessing those that belonged to merciful men who shared their goods, and calling wretched and cursing those that were owned by the stingy who gave nothing. 'Among which,' he said, 'they also numbered my master.' So they asked one another whether anyone had ever received any alms from there. When no one among them all affirmed that he had received anything, one of them said: 'What will you give me if today I go away from there having obtained some mercy?' When they had made agreements about this among themselves, the pauper stood opposite the vestibule of the tax-collector and found at that very hour a baker leading a mule laden with bread, and the tax-collector himself coming along the road that leads to his house. When therefore the tax-collector saw the pauper standing opposite, provoked to pity by his sad appearance alone (for the man did not dare even to utter a single word, lest he irritate a man averse to mercy), even so, seized with fury, snatching up one loaf and using it as a stone, he hurled it at the pauper. The man at once took it and, going away, showed it to the others, affirming that he had received it from the very hands of the tax-collector."

[37] Two days had not yet passed before the tax-collector was seized by a mortal illness, and falling into an ecstasy of mind, he saw an accounting of his deeds being exacted from him. Then there seemed also to be present a balance, with each side distinguishing: on the left pan he saw dark figures gathered, depositing his many shameful deeds in the pan. He sees himself weighed in the balance, and against his many sins is set. On the right, however, men in white, terrible in form, stood by, but finding nothing good that they could set in the pan on the other side; and they were mournful and sad, saying: "We have nothing else to set against it except that bread which two days ago -- and not even of his own will -- he gave to a certain pauper." When they had placed it in the other pan, they caused the balance to hang evenly on both sides. Then those men in white said to the tax-collector: "Go away and add to this bread, and do good works. For those dark ones you see are going to seize you." When therefore he had immediately awakened and come to himself, he recognized that what he had seen was true. For whatever had been done by him from his earliest age, things he had already forgotten, he saw those Ethiopians gathering and placing in the scale. Wherefore, often struck with amazement, he would say: "Amazing! How great is the power of almsgiving! For if a single loaf, and that hurled in anger at a pauper, had such power, from how many evils will he be able to free himself who cheerfully shares his goods with the poor!" He becomes generous to the needy. He therefore used almsgiving so liberally, so abundantly pouring out with both hands, as the saying goes, into the bellies of the poor, that after he had lavished everything, he did not spare even his own body, but fed the poor with that too, having sold his freedom, as we shall show more clearly a little further on.

[38] He gives his garment to a sailor. For as he was going to the tax office, a sailor met him, naked from a shipwreck. When he saw him, immediately stripping off his garment, which was fine and costly, he gave it to the sailor, earnestly begging him to wear it always. The sailor, however, partly ashamed to use so magnificent a garment, and partly in need of other things as well, put it up for sale in the marketplace. When the tax-collector, returning, saw it hanging there, he was seized with great grief and was sad, reflecting that it had not been permitted him to leave the pauper any memorial of his mercy. While he was thinking these things, sleep stole upon him. In his dreams a certain distinguished man came to him, more radiant than the sun in appearance, having a cross upon his head, and clad in the garment he himself had given to the sailor. When he had drawn near, he said: "Why, dear Peter" (for this was the tax-collector's name) "are you distressed and tormented?" He, however, as if knowing who it was that spoke, He sees Christ clothed in it. said: "Because, Lord, what You abundantly provide for us, we often share with some, and we do not see those who receive making right use of what has been given, on account of base profit." The speaker had not yet finished his sentence when the one who had appeared, showing him the garment, said: "Do you recognize this?" When he affirmed that he did, the other said again: "Behold, since you gave it to me, I am perpetually clothed in it."

[39] After sleep released him, turning these things over in his mind, he said: "Blessed be the Lord: if Christ appears to be one of the needy, I shall not cease until I too become one of those least ones." Immediately therefore, summoning the steward of his house, who had been purchased by him, he said: "I wish to entrust to you a certain secret, which if you divulge, or if you do not carry out what I wish, you shall go far from my sight and be sold in a barbarian land." Having said these things, He orders himself to be sold through his steward. he handed him ten pounds of gold, which were to be paid him for his business. Then he said: "Take me also to this business" (for this was the secret), "and when you have led me away to the region of the holy city, sell me there to some Christian as a slave. Whatever price then comes to you from it, however much it may be, let it be given to the poor." When, after long insistence, he had at last barely persuaded him, he came with him to Jerusalem. There, when the steward had met a certain friend, a goldsmith by trade (his name was Zoilus, who on account of some misfortune had been reduced to poverty), he said: "I have a very good slave; if you listen to me and buy him, there will be nothing to prevent you from returning to your former prosperity. He is sold for thirty coins. For he is not only of good character, but also supremely skilled in working gold" -- for Peter had also been supremely devoted to this craft. The goldsmith, however, immediately pleading the poverty with which he was struggling, said he could not buy him. But persuaded by his friend's words, and having borrowed money, he bought the zealous Peter for thirty coins. When the steward had received these, he went to Constantinople.

[40] He serves the goldsmith, and God blesses the master on his account. It was therefore possible to see the one who had undertaken voluntary servitude for Christ's sake, serving his master most diligently in all things pertaining to the use of the household, and devoting himself to fasting and vigils -- which caused his master's affairs to increase, so that his latter days were blessed, as with Job, more than his former. Job 42. The master, also venerating his supreme virtue, was thinking of manumitting him, even though Peter would by no means allow it, preferring to endure servitude for Christ's sake rather than to rest in freedom. But who could possibly describe the afflictions inflicted on him by the malicious one? For all who were of the household, He suffers much. regarding him as someone out of his mind, sometimes mocked him, sometimes struck him with slaps, and did not cease to cause him distress in every way. Whenever, however, it happened that, having been insulted by his fellow servants, he fell asleep with anguish of mind, Christ consoles him in his dreams. the one who had been seen by him in Africa would stand by him in his dreams, bearing his garment and holding the price of thirty gold pieces in his hands, and would say: "Do not be sad, brother Peter. For I have also received your price, as I previously received your garment."

[41] Some time intervened, and certain men of the same region as Peter, goldsmiths by trade, came to the venerable places for the purpose of fulfilling a vow and worship. His master, since they were of the same craft, brought them home and received them with every kindness. When Peter was serving them and recognized the men, he concealed himself as best he could and tried by every means to remain hidden. They, however, as if tracing him by the shape of his body, recognized him. And at first they whispered among themselves, for the resemblance raised doubt in their minds. He is recognized by his countrymen. After they had openly recognized that it was he himself, they immediately addressed in common the one who had invited them: "What does this mean," they said, "that such a man serves you, who is a member of the senatorial order and second to none in splendor? For he who now serves us at table is Peter the Tax-Collector, on whose account the Emperor is greatly grieved, and the Senate too, since he has vanished."

[42] He flees. When Peter heard them saying these words, he immediately cast to the ground the dish he had in his hands and ran down to the vestibule, at which stood a certain young man, deaf and mute from birth, who could close and open only by gesture. To him Peter said: "I say to you, who are deaf and mute: In the name of Christ our God, hear me and open." He answered: "As you command," and immediately opened. Peter, running, at once went out. Then the doorkeeper, ascending joyfully, narrated the miracle that had been wrought upon him. Having obtained voice and hearing for one deaf and mute. For he said he had seen a flame of fire proceeding from the mouth of the great Peter and reaching his ears. "Which," he said, "when it had shone all around me, suddenly made me hear and speak." While the formerly deaf and mute man was narrating these things, astonishment and wonder seized everyone, and they immediately set out to pursue him with all the speed they could muster. But though they searched everywhere, they could not apprehend the one they sought. Wherefore great repentance came upon them, and they lamented that they had not paid more attention, by which it had come about that they had subjected a man of God to such insults, beating and mocking and daily deriding him.

CHAPTER VIII.

Imitation of Another's Virtue.

[43] What sort of things John would read or speak of. Such were the narratives of the merciful and clement John's kind and humane soul. For the most part, whatever things incited to compassion and love for the poor, these he wished to say and to hear. He was constantly searching out the lives of those Fathers who had been celebrated for almsgiving, and in this he placed great zeal throughout his whole life, as one who wished to walk by the same road as they.

[44] Serapion Sindonius was most liberal toward the poor. When therefore he once came upon the Life of the divine Serapion Sindonius, he did not cease to admire that man and to narrate his deeds -- how, when he once encountered a needy pauper, he stripped off his cloak and gave it to him; then, having met another who was suffering from cold, he likewise gave him his tunic; and thereafter sat naked, holding only the Gospel in his arms. Palladius, chapter 83. Then, when asked by someone who had stripped him, he said, pointing to the Gospel: "This did." Matt. 19:21. When he had sold even that and distributed the price received for it to the poor, and a certain disciple asked him: "Where is the little Gospel, Father?" he said: "Believe me, son, obeying Him who said, 'Sell what you have and give to the poor,' I resolved not to spare even the book itself in which this was written."

[45] He orders a monk traveling with a girl to be beaten. Let this also be added to what has been said, bringing no small profit to the hearers. A certain monk at that time, leading a comely maiden, was going about the city. When certain men of the Church saw him leading her about, to the offense of many, they brought him before the Blessed John. He, however, led by their words, thinking that they had admonished him out of divine zeal, ordered both the monk and the girl to be beaten severely, and then to be locked in separate prisons. When what he had ordered had been done, and the prisons had received them, and night had already come, the monk appeared to him in his dreams, showing his back marked with welts and scars, and saying to him simply and gently: "Does this indeed please you, Lord? Believe me, this one time you have been deceived, as a man."

[46] Awakened from sleep, he immediately summoned the monk, bringing him out of custody, barely able to walk because of the blows. Then, casting his eyes upon his face, he recognized him as the one who had been seen by him in the dream. He learns of his innocence. Wishing to know whether he had received as many blows as he had appeared to have in the dream, he ordered him to loosen the linen cloth girded about him and to uncover his back. When by divine providence the linen was loosened, the hidden parts were revealed, and the monk was seen to be nearly a eunuch, mutilated of his manhood, even though on account of the bloom of his youth he had not previously been free from suspicion. Immediately therefore he removed from their ranks those who had reported them and barred them from communion for three years. To the pious monk he excused himself, as was fitting, and asked him to pardon the sin committed through ignorance. He punishes the informers. But this alone he said he did not commend: that without any companion he should go about cities, being a monk and appearing so young, and dragging a woman with him, and being the cause of offense to many.

[47] The monk, with the reverence and modesty that were fitting, said: "Blessed be the Lord, I do not lie, my Lord. Not many days ago, when I was at Gaza and was hastening from there to worship Saints Cyrus and John, this maiden met me in the evening and fell at my feet, begging to travel with me, because she wished to become a Christian -- for she was a Hebrew. I, however, fearing the judgment of God, who said that we should not despise any of these little ones, in obedience took her as a companion for the journey, trusting especially that, since my members were so affected, it would not be easy for the enemy to contrive a temptation against me. He offers him money, which the monk refuses. When I had arrived there, however, and fulfilled my vows, I had her instructed in the catechism and baptized; and from then on I have been taking her about in simplicity of heart, begging and feeding her, endeavoring to place her in some monastery of virgins, if I can." When the Blessed one had heard these things, he said: "Amazing! How many hidden servants God has, even though they are unknown to us!" When he offered the monk a hundred coins, the monk would not accept them, saying: "If a monk has faith, he has no need of money; but if he loves money at all, he is entirely deficient in faith." Having said these things and made his reverence, he departed.

[48] John is present with the dying. How great was the zeal the Blessed one placed on remembering death, and how highly he valued ensuring that the recollection of it not be erased, has been said before and will be said now as well. For when a deadly plague had once invaded the city, his greatest concern was to go to the visitation of the sick and the burial of those who died. Often also he sat with those who were breathing forth their souls, and covered their eyes with his own hands. He also commanded that services be celebrated for those who had fallen asleep, asserting and affirming that the commemorations and sacred rites performed for the dead are of great benefit to them.

[49] He urges that sacred rites be performed for the dead. To lend credibility to what he said, he would also narrate something of this sort, which had occurred not very long before. He said that a certain man, having been carried off captive by the Persians, was kept in chains in a prison called Lethe. Now it was the law among the Persians that those who were cast into that prison were never recalled; and for this reason it is reasonable that it was called Lethe, that is, "Oblivion." When certain men were able to escape from there and come to Cyprus, they affirmed to the young man's parents that he had died in custody. They, however, celebrated three services each year, as though he were dead. Four years had passed when their son, having escaped from there, By the example of a captive released whenever a sacrifice was offered for him. returned home. When his parents beheld him, not as one who had escaped from prison but as one who had risen from the dead, they were struck with great amazement and filled with unspeakable joy; and they both did and said such things as a soul would do and say upon seeing such a sight. They told him how they had performed for him, as for one already dead, the rites that are performed for the dead, and they informed him which days they were -- namely, the day of the holy Theophany, the day of the saving Easter, and the day of holy Pentecost. When he had heard these things and called them to memory, he affirmed to his parents that on those very days he was released from his chains by the coming of someone bearing a lamp, and enjoyed complete security; but on the following days he was held in chains as before.

CHAPTER IX.

The Power of Almsgiving before God.

[50] By using such deeds and narratives, he became an occasion of salvation for many. Many give much to the Saint for distribution to the poor. For this reason very many also, imitating what had happened in the time of the Apostles, selling what they had and bringing the price, laid it in his hands, wishing it to be distributed by him to the poor. Among these, a certain man came and offered seven and a half pounds of gold, affirming that nothing more of gold remained in his possession. He asked of him two favors: namely, that his son should be saved by his prayers, and that his ship, which had been sent to Africa, should be brought back without any danger. When thirty days had passed after the prayers, the son died; and on the third day after his death, the ship returning from Africa, when it was opposite the Pharos, A certain man, though giving generously, still loses his son and his goods. ran into a grave shipwreck, so severe that the entire cargo perished, and only the ship itself was saved with its passengers. When, the previous news about the son still in force and the disturbance of mind still vigorous, the sorrow about the ship was added, it utterly overwhelmed him.

[51] When the Patriarch learned of this, it brought him no less anguish of mind. He therefore prayed to God that He would invisibly touch the man's soul, and rebuke the tempest of his grief, and change it into tranquility. In his dreams, therefore, on the following night, a man appeared to him, similar in form and features to the Patriarch, saying to him: "Why are you so overcome by sorrow on account of what has happened? Did you not ask me to request these things of God by prayer -- namely, that your son should be saved? But he is refreshed by divine consolation. And behold, by His grace he is saved, inasmuch as he has been dismissed from the evils of life unharmed. For had he lived longer, he would have turned out not good but wicked, and unworthy of his Creator. As for the ship, do not doubt that, had God not been moved by prayer through our insignificance, it was to be sent into the deep with the men themselves, and you would have lost not only the cargo but your brother and the others as well. One should not therefore be sad, but rather for this very reason bear what has happened with a grateful spirit. For nothing that occurs happens without God's judgment, even though many of His judgments are unknown to us." When sleep released him, he felt that his heart had received considerable consolation. And immediately setting out, he fell at the feet of the blessed man, giving him great thanks and narrating the vision he had seen during the night. The Patriarch, however, urged him to attribute his gratitude not to himself but to God, who orders all things for our benefit.

[52] John induces the avaricious Bishop Troilus to give thirty pounds to the poor. But how he deemed worthy of his blessing and reception not only those who offered to Christ and, as the divine Apostle says, sowed in blessing, but also how he strove by prudent means to induce even those who were stingy and illiberal toward him to practice almsgiving, many other things indeed show; but so too will what was done in the case of Bishop Troilus. For since Troilus was most avaricious and most stingy, John resolved to lead him to the love of almsgiving in this manner: Going to the poorhouse that he himself had built, as was his custom, he took Troilus along with him. When he learned that Troilus's companion had thirty pounds of gold in his bosom, he said: "It is you who must tend today, most holy Troilus, to our brethren in Christ." Troilus, however, as if moved by shame at the remark, and wishing not to be thought grasping and sordid but rather generous and liberal, ordered the one to whom the money had been entrusted to give one coin to each of the poor who were there.

[53] When all the gold had now been consumed, and the adventitious and unaffectionate ardor for almsgiving had cooled, a heavy grief and great repentance seized the involuntary benefactor. Returning home therefore, seized by a sudden horror and fever, he lay in bed. When therefore the bishop fell ill, John heals him by returning the gold. When it was already the dinner hour, the Patriarch invited him to the banquet. When he learned how matters stood, and was not ignorant of the cause of his illness, he could not bear to look down on the man while he was so vexed and suffering, and himself enter upon a feast. Rather, rising immediately, he came to him and said with a smile: "Do not think, O fellow minister, that I truly told you to give to the brethren according to God from your own house; but since my companion did not then have gold at hand, I borrowed from you. Now, however, I am here," he said, "bringing you the thirty pounds, which I also return safe to your virtue." As soon as he merely saw the gold in the Patriarch's hands, the horror was conquered, the wretched fever departed, his strength returned, and he was seen to have a cheerful and lively countenance -- so that from this it became manifest that the gold returned dissolved the illness, just as the gold first taken away had summoned it when it was not there.

[54] A written renunciation received. When therefore the Patriarch had placed the gold in his hands, he asked that Troilus cede the reward to him by a written document. He gladly wrote a bond in his own hand, which read thus: "O God of mercy and clemency, render the very reward of thirty pounds of gold, which have been distributed by me to the poor, to John, my lord and Patriarch of Alexandria. For I have received back my own." The Patriarch therefore, having received the bond, also took him along to share his table. When he had eaten and fallen asleep, God, wishing to rouse him from the heavy sleep of avarice, and to make him know how great a reward he had been deprived of, and to teach him generosity, sent upon him a kind of ecstasy. He seemed to see a certain house, most beautiful and most splendid, whose elegance and magnificence were beyond comparison. Above the vestibule a title was inscribed in golden letters: ETERNAL DWELLING AND RESTING PLACE OF BISHOP TROILUS. He sees the reward prepared for himself assigned to John. After he had read these words and rejoiced, thinking the house had been given to him by the Emperor, a certain distinguished man approached, who seemed to be one of the Senate, in appearance like a Chamberlain, having others walking before him. When he had drawn near to the vestibule, looking at his attendants, he commanded the title to be taken down at once, and another put in its place: "which," he said, "the Lord of the earth commands." Immediately another was set up, bearing this inscription: ETERNAL DWELLING AND RESTING PLACE OF JOHN, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, PURCHASED FOR THIRTY POUNDS OF GOLD. He becomes generous. Rising therefore from his dream, astonished, he related the vision to the Patriarch; and he himself recognized his fault and changed his ways, and ardently undertook to give alms, and instead of being as before stingy and grasping, he had a hand most ready to give.

[55] 3,300 pounds of gold are lost to John. But God, who permitted the riches of Job to be scattered and emptied out as a trial of his virtue, also permits similar things to befall this blessed Patriarch. For there were thirteen ships of his Church which, having been loaded while in the Adriatic Sea, all fell into shipwreck at the same time, and the entire cargo perished, which amounted to three thousand three hundred pounds of gold. Those to whom the ships had been entrusted therefore, bringing them back empty, put into the port of Alexandria; and they themselves took refuge in the church. When the Patriarch learned of this, he gave thanks to God for this also; and he sent them a letter of release, saying only what Job had said: "The Lord gave, brethren; the Lord has taken away. Go forth therefore, fearing no danger on this account. For the Lord will be solicitous for the morrow."

[56] He gives thanks to God, humbles himself, When many of the citizens came to console him, he himself was the first to say to them: "It is not right for you, O brethren, to be saddened on account of the loss of the ships, for which I myself alone am the cause. For had I not taken on great and haughty spirits on account of the distribution of others' goods -- or rather, God's own goods -- this would never have happened. God therefore, wishing to suppress my swelling, permits this calamity to befall me. For almsgiving is often a cause of pride to one who does not take heed. Poverty, however, as it is written, And consoles those who would console him. renders a man humble. I am therefore the cause of two evils: first, that I have been deprived of the reward of almsgiving on account of vainglory; and second, that on account of it I have procured the loss of so much money; and now I draw upon myself the whole judgment of souls who are reduced to straits. But God, if not for my sake, yet for the care He has of those who are in need, will supply what is necessary for their use. Heb. 13:5. For He said: 'I will not leave you, nor forsake you'; and He who promised is faithful." Josh. 1:5. Thus those who had come to console the Saint were themselves rather sent away having received consolation from him.

[57] Not much time had passed before God doubled the possessions of the new Job, and he was more generous and munificent toward the needy than before -- showing compassion not only in abundance toward the needy, but also toward those who were suffering injustice. He immediately renders justice to a poor woman. For when he was once going to pray at the shrine of the divine Martyrs Cyrus and John, a certain poor woman approached him, saying that she had been gravely wronged by her son-in-law, and that she needed his help. When those who were his companions on the road advised him to attend to and consider the matters pertaining to her during his visit, that Merciful one could not bear it, saying: "But how will God heed my prayers if I defer her supplication? Who has guaranteed that I shall live until tomorrow, and that, if I die before helping her, I shall not be inexcusable before God on account of her supplication?" Having said these things, he by no means moved from the place until he had rendered just judgment to the woman.

[58] The son of a generous man, commended by his father to the Blessed Virgin. This man, who had the utmost care for the needy, having heard about the son of a merciful man, that when his father had died, the boy was laboring under great poverty -- because his father had willingly spent whatever he had on the poor, and had commended his son solely to Mary, the Mother of God, to whose temple the boy was devoted night and day -- he summoned a certain jurist and secretly ordered him to write, on an old document, the testament of a certain man named Theopemptus, saying: "Let it show that I and this boy's father were true and full cousins; and show the boy the copy of the testament, so that, having been made certain of the kinship that exists between him and me, he may have no fear, but may boldly come to my humility." All things were done as he had decided, and the jurist came to the Patriarch with the young man. The written testament was shown. He enriches him by a pious stratagem. The great man acknowledged the kinship, embraced the young man as the truest son of a full cousin. He gave him money, properties, and many other resources, joined him in marriage to a distinguished woman of Alexandria, and in a short time made him from obscure, noble; from abject, distinguished; from poor, rich -- striving to show that the divine word is most true which says that he has not seen the just man forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread. Psalm 36:25.

Annotations

CHAPTER X.

The Story of St. Vitalis the Monk.

[59] [The monk Vitalis pays prostitutes so that they might keep themselves continent for even one night.] A certain other elderly monk, who led a perfect life, named Vitalis, wishing to test the great John as to whether, besides his other good qualities, he was not even easy to condemn, left the quiet and silence of the monastery of the great Seridon and came to Alexandria. Having come there, he practiced a manner of life which among men is very shameful and subject to censure, and which could bring offense to many; but to God it was very pleasing. For the old man, having entered the city, now more than sixty years old, devoted his effort to listing all the prostitutes who were in the brothels. Furthermore, he also began to work for hire, having made an agreement to receive twelve obols each day, of which he bought lupines with one and ate them after sunset; the rest he gave in one night, going to one of the prostitutes, saying: "Take these, and preserve yourself for me this night undefiled."

[60] He compels them by an oath not to divulge it. When he did this, he would stand all night in a corner of that woman's room, kneeling and constantly exercising his tongue in psalms and stretching out suppliant hands to God for her. Going out in the morning, he would compel her by oath that she would tell no one of it. One woman, therefore, who had dared to hold the oath in contempt and to reveal the secret, the old man caused by his prayers to be possessed by a demon, so that no one thereafter dared to make known his manner of life. He himself, wishing to flee glory from men One who made it public is seized by the devil. and to lead souls out of sins, whenever he was someone's hired servant and received what had been given, when he was about to depart, he would pretend to say to himself, with all listening: "Let us go now, wretched old man. For you know that she is waiting for you" -- indicating the one to whom he was going to turn. To those who mocked him and assailed him with reproaches and curses, he excused himself, as if for the evil conduct that was indeed happening, saying: "What of it? Am I not also among those who bear flesh and yield to its laws? Is it forbidden only to monks to remain outside the pleasures of the body? Are they not also partakers of natural affections, just like others?" Then, when certain people advised and said: "At least take one wife, change your garment, and do not be an offense to so many -- so that God may not be blasphemed through you, nor the precious monastic habit be put to shame, and you draw the judgment of all upon your head" -- when many were saying these things to him, he, pretending to be angry and take it ill, said: "But I shall not listen to you," he cried with a loud voice. "What does it matter to me if you are offended, as you say? Go away from me. What business do you have with me? Shall I, at your advice, join myself in marriage with a woman and throw myself into innumerable cares and anxieties about livelihood? Cease mocking and accusing me. For you are not my judges; let my affairs be my concern. For there is another who will judge the world, who will also render to each according to his work."

[61] Many therefore, hearing these words spoken with bitterness and vehemence, some ceased to reprove him, fearing his shamelessness and boldness; but others tried to accuse him before the Saint. His virtue was divinely made known. But the Patriarch, as one who had learned from God what sort of virtue the old man possessed, paid no attention to what was said by them, since he always had before his eyes the precedent of the mutilated monk. He counseled them to avoid entirely the accusations that were made against monks, having on his lips that famous saying of the Emperor Constantine, who at the Council of Nicaea did not accept the written accusations brought against certain Bishops, saying: "If I had come upon a Bishop or a monk fornicating, I would have lifted my cloak and placed it over him, so that he would not be seen by any eye" -- since he rightly knew that the offenses of such men, if they are made known to many, not only cause things worthy of honor and reverence to be despised, but also provide great incitement and occasion for vice.

[62] He does not admit accusations against him. But thus did that great man repel the calumnies that were directed against the great old man. He, however, did not cease from this practice; but even though he was assailed with reproach and shame by many, he himself looked to one thing alone -- namely, the salvation of souls. For those who moved their tongues against him, he prayed that their sin might be pardoned. That this zeal was not fruitless and useless to him, but brought salvation to many, is evident from this: the women, seeing his vigil through the night, and his tongue perpetually singing divine praises, and his constant prayer for their conversion and salvation, ceased from their evil deeds and took up the practice of temperance. Many were converted through Vitalis. Some entered into lawful marriage; others remained as they were, desisting from their shameful deeds; and still others, perfectly renouncing the world, chose the monastic life. But no one knew his hidden life from God as long as he was alive; nor how, by feigning wickedness, he had turned evil women from evil ways.

[63] When therefore he was once leaving the dwelling of the woman who held the first place among the prostitutes, a certain lustful man met him, who was entering for the very purpose of paying money to satisfy his lust. He struck the Saint with a blow, saying: "How long, He foretells punishment to a certain man. O mocker of Christ, will you not desist from your evil deeds?" To this that admirable man replied: "Wretch, a blow is to be struck upon you too, so that nearly all Alexandria will gather at your cries." Not much time intervened before that divine man departed to the Lord, being in a certain small cell which he had built in the place called the Gate of the Sun, in which, having a small oratory, he held many services. In that place also a multitude of unchaste women would gather, who received healing from him, so much so that those who led a lustful and voluptuous life were angry and indignant at him, as if they envied him for an evil purpose, saying: "How can it be that this impostor has attracted so many to himself?"

[64] He dies. When therefore he had fallen asleep, as was said, and no one had noticed, there suddenly approached a hideous Ethiopian to the lustful man who had struck him with a blow, and dealt his cheeks a heavy and powerful slap, so loud that its sound was heard at a very great distance. He then said to him: "Receive this blow, A certain man who struck him, seized by a demon, is freed through him. which the monk Vitalis sends you, as he foretold." Immediately therefore the wretch was thrown about, seized by a demon, and nearly all Alexandria gathered to him, just as that just man had predicted. When at last, with great difficulty, after a long time he had come to himself, he tore his garments and, rising, ran to the Saint's little dwelling, crying: "Have mercy on me, servant of God Vitalis, for I have sinned greatly against God and against you." In the sight of all who were present, when he had approached the old man's dwelling, the demon, throwing and tearing him, released him.

[65] When therefore they had seen this and entered the little dwelling, they found the Saint, who had knelt and through prayer commended his soul and sent it forth to God. Then looking at the ground, they saw an inscription that read thus: MEN OF ALEXANDRIA, His piety is made public. DO NOT JUDGE ANYTHING BEFORE THE TIME, UNTIL THE LORD COMES. He who had been freed from the demon therefore confessed before all who were present the evils he had done to the Saint, and what he had heard prophetically spoken by him, and what he had also suffered. These things were therefore immediately reported to the Patriarch, and he himself, coming together with the entire clergy, when he read the inscription on the ground, said shortly after: "Had I been led by the words of those who were slandering, that blow would have been struck upon me."

[66] Then also the entire company of the former prostitutes gathered to pay their last respects to the venerable body. They bore him out with spices and lamps, deeply lamenting the loss of his teaching, from which great benefit had flowed to them; and they then set forth his manner of life, lending credibility to what was said in every way: that he did not enter to them for any evil purpose, and that he was never seen by any of them even to have laid a hand upon one, or to have reclined on his side at all. To those He is famous for miracles. who reproached their silence and said that they had been a cause of offense to many, they adduced his command as their excuse, and the blow inflicted by the demon as a discipline upon the one who had not obeyed. He, however, who had given and in turn received the blow, never ceased, after the demon had left him, to sit at the tomb of the Blessed one -- which became a treasury of many miracles -- and to perform the commemoration in the customary way with psalms. His attacker becomes a monk. Then, a few years later, he was received into the monastery of the monk Seridon; and when the cell of the Blessed Vitalis was given to him on account of his great faith in him, he there spent his life in perpetual quiet and silence, until he reached the end of the present life. Furthermore, the Patriarch too gave great thanks to God that He had not permitted him to say or think anything unworthy of that blessed and glorious soul. Besides, many of those who dwelt in Alexandria also became better -- those who had been inclined to condemn and had learned this bad habit. But such was that holy man, and his affairs stood in this manner.

Annotations

CHAPTER XI.

Rash Judgments to Be Avoided.

[67] What is about to be said will also suffice to attest how slow that admirable man was to condemn. A certain shameless youth, going about the city of Alexandria, having led astray a certain virgin from among those who had embraced the monastic life, and having then made her the object of his lust and intemperance, shortly afterwards fled with her to Byzantium. When the divine man learned of this, he was greatly pained and, as the saying goes, left no stone unturned, striving to recall them from their fall. After some time had intervened, it happened that when the Blessed one was narrating to certain members of the clergy a story that could bring profit to their souls, mention was also made of that young man who had recently done these things; and those who were present immediately condemned and rejected him, all saying as with one mouth that he had destroyed not only two souls, as it seemed, but also many others, for whom this evil had been set forth as an example. The great man therefore, reproving their excessively easy condemnation, He admonishes his own people not to judge even public sins. said: "Do not, O sons, do not be so ready of tongue to detract from your neighbor. For thus it will surely happen that you will fall into two evils: one, transgressing the commandment of Him who orders not to judge before the time; the other, that in ignorance of what has happened up to now, you constitute yourselves judges with great ease. 1 Cor. 4:5. For it is entirely uncertain whether they have persisted in sin up to now, or have changed for the better. For I," he said, "once, while reading the Life of a certain great one among the Fathers, came upon such a narrative, full of profit. It was as follows:"

[68] "Two monks had come to the city of Tyre on some errand. When one of them had come to a certain place, a certain prostitute, whose name was Porphyria, followed him, crying out: 'Venerable Father, save me, as once Jesus Christ saved the harlot.' He, considering nothing of human affairs, taking her by the hand, went out through the middle of the city in the sight of many. A rumor therefore spread in all directions By the example of a monk leading about a penitent prostitute. that the monk had taken Porphyria as his wife. The prostitute, going about with him through cities and villages, came upon an infant lying on the ground. Having kindly taken the child up, she carried it with her to nurse it. When, after some time, certain Tyrians came to the place where they were staying, and saw the former prostitute holding an infant in her arms, as if in mockery and derision of this excellent man, they said to her: 'Truly, you have not missed the mark! A fine son has been born to you from the monk.' Returning to Tyre, they also spread the report everywhere that she had borne a son from the monk, who preserved the very likeness of his father. So prone are men to believe suspicions -- and especially those who are evil and wicked, and have received from themselves the occasion for believing. For immediately, as if from nearby, taking themselves as witnesses, they easily accuse others; wishing at the same time to fill themselves with the delight of such thoughts and words, and desiring others to be similarly wicked, and thus striving to avoid the blows inflicted on them by their conscience. The monk, however, having tonsured Porphyria and given her the monastic habit, called her Pelagia and granted her leave to practice silence in a monastery of virgins."

[69] "When, however, he foresaw the day of his death, taking her also, he returned to Tyre. And the boy followed her too, now seven years old. He proves his innocence by a miracle. The report of their arrival reached everyone -- namely, that Porphyria was returning with her husband the monk. Then, when the monk fell ill and was already approaching death, very many of the inhabitants came to visit him. In their presence, having ordered a censer full of glowing coals to be brought, he took those coals and poured them into the fold of his garment, and said in the hearing of all: 'Blessed be the Lord who once kept the bush unconsumed. Let Him be a faithful witness to me that, just as the burning power of this fire has not touched my garments, so neither have I touched a woman in all the time of my life.' Hearing these things, all were astonished, giving glory to God, who knows how to glorify openly those who worship Him in secret. Having done and said these things, the monk placed his soul in the hands of God. For this reason I counsel you all, O spiritual sons, as I have also said before, not to be ready to condemn. For it sometimes happens that we openly know the sin of one who has fornicated or committed some other offense; but we are ignorant of the repentance done in secret. Matt. 7:2. We ought also to fear the Lord's voice, which says: 'In what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.'"

CHAPTER XII.

Commendation of Piety and the Divine Mysteries.

[70] He did not only urge them to avoid this offense; but wishing also to correct the laziness of those who neglect the divine precepts, he did something worthy of being committed to memory. He requires constancy, attention, and modesty in the Sacred Rites. For when he learned that many, being rather negligent, were leaving the church after the reading of the divine Gospels and occupying themselves with vain and idle talk, on a certain solemn day he too left the sacrifice and went out of the church, and sat with the whole multitude. When all were astonished at this, he said: "It should not be a matter of wonder. For where the sheep are, there the shepherd must certainly be. For since we are accustomed to celebrate the services on account of you and your benefit, if you, however, spend your time outside, it happens that our labor is taken in vain. I resolved to go out together with you when you go out, and again to enter when you enter." This corrected many, and led them away from their bad custom.

[71] He did not strive to correct only those who occupied themselves with idle talk outside the congregation; but also those who unreasonably conversed among themselves inside, and especially those who were of the sanctuary. If, however, he saw that someone could by no means be corrected after one and another admonition, he immediately expelled him, Especially among the Clergy. citing to them the Lord's saying: "The house of God must be a house of prayer." Matt. 21:13. Conversely, however, the piety of those who were more zealous in attending the divine assemblies was pleasing to him, and he both praised them and promoted them to higher ranks. This will be shown more clearly by what is now to be said.

[72] Two Clerics of his Church, who practiced the art of cutting leather, were neighbors. One of them, joined to a wife in marriage, A cobbler who hears Mass daily becomes rich. having children and a father and mother living with him, all of whom he fed by his own hands, nevertheless did not neglect the divine assemblies. The other, however, although he was alone, and more skilled in the craft, and more diligent in working, could not provide even for himself alone the things necessary for life. Envying therefore the one of the same trade, and no longer able to bear the envy he had conceived in his mind, once confronting him alone, he said: "I adjure you by God, do not hide this from me, but reveal to me how it is that you are always rich, and that though you are negligent in your work; while to me, who am diligent and industrious, the opposite has happened, so that I have been reduced to the utmost poverty." The other, however, wishing to make more diligent the one who was negligent in attending the assemblies held for the sake of the sacred rites, said: "For me too, O brother, He persuades the same to his companion. things had been reduced to the greatest straits. But from the time I persuaded myself to attend the divine assemblies, sometimes when I go there I find gold on the road, by which it has come about that all the abundance you see has been gathered for me. But if you listen to me, you yourself also follow me as I go, and from this you will have no ordinary consolation." He obeyed his words, and coming frequently with him to each divine service, he felt the blessing of God upon his house and gave thanks to the good counselor. The other, however, soon dropping the pretense, plainly told his companion that he had never found gold on the road: "But wishing," He becomes a Priest. he said, "to rouse you to come to the divine assemblies, I invented this discovery of gold." When this came to the ears of the most blessed Patriarch, he both commended his good purpose and ordained him a Presbyter.

Annotation

CHAPTER XIII.

The Flight of St. John. His Death.

[73] This truly good shepherd -- the divine Patriarch, I say -- trusting in the chief Shepherd Christ, who commands that if they persecute you in one city, you should flee to another, when Alexandria was about to be handed over into the hands of the Persians, Foreseeing his death and the barbarian invasion, he departs for Cyprus. withdrew from there by divine providence and migrated to his homeland of Cyprus, to bestow upon it his body, since it had nourished him; for he had already foreseen that his death was drawing near. Matt. 10:23. The Patrician Nicetas, whom we have often mentioned, taking the occasion from the Persian invasion, besought the divine man to come to the imperial city, to bestow his prayers and blessing upon the Emperor. He, however, knowing the faith of the most illustrious man, agreed to the request. But while both were being carried by ship and were already in the middle of the sea, they fell into a severe storm. He repels the danger of shipwreck by his prayers. When the ship was being shaken so violently by the waves and was about to be sent into the deep, it was seen that on the night in which the storm had been raised, the Patrician saw in his dreams the Patriarch with the poor, sometimes running about through the whole ship, and sometimes stretching out his hands with them and seeking help from heaven. When they had now arrived at the island of Rhodes, He understands that he will die soon. the Patriarch himself, after sleep had left him, truly saw -- and not in a dream -- a brilliant man resembling a eunuch, having a golden scepter in his hands and approaching him, saying: "The King of kings calls you." Immediately therefore, summoning the Patrician, when he had told him what sort of vision he had had, he said: "You indeed, He returns from Rhodes to Cyprus. O most illustrious man, endeavored to lead us to the one who reigns on earth; but He who holds heaven and earth and all things in His dominion has summoned us to Himself first." The Patrician, saddened and filled with grief at these words, could not detain him. But having gladly received the fruit of his venerable prayers, he dismissed him to Cyprus as honorably as he could.

[74] When he had arrived in his own city, Amathus, he ordered his secretaries to write a testament, which read as follows: "John, a humble servant of the servants of God, but on account of the dignity of the Pontificate laid upon me, His testament. free by the grace of Christ. I give thanks to You, Lord my God, that You have deemed me worthy to offer You Your own things, and that of the goods of this world nothing else remains to me except a third part of a coin; which I also command to be given to the poor, who are my brethren in Christ. For when by God's permission I was made Bishop of Alexandria, I found in my episcopate about eight thousand pounds of gold; and from the offerings of the devout I collected moneys many times more numerous than these; which, knowing them to be Christ's, I also wished to give to Christ, He dies. to whom I now also commit my soul." When that great man of God had made this testament, he laid down his spirit in the hands of the living God.

[75] At his burial a miracle occurred that yields to none of the wonders that have ever been wrought. He is buried between two Bishops who voluntarily make room. For when he was to be laid to rest in the oratory chapel of Tychon, the worker of admirable deeds, in a certain casket in which two bodies of Bishops had been interred, it was possible to see these dead bodies, as if they were living, paying homage to the blessed body. For having separated from each other, they received it in the middle. And this, which happened at his burial, was seen by the eyes of many; but the following narrative will show something else no less remarkable.

Annotation

CHAPTER XIV.

Miracles Wrought after His Death.

[76] For a certain woman, born in the town that had brought forth the Patriarch, after she learned that he was about to depart to the Lord, conscious to herself of a great and grave sin, ran to the Blessed one; and pouring forth hot tears, touching his feet, she asked for absolution of that sin. He, however, said: "If you believe that through my prayers you are to be absolved from this sin, [A woman, shrinking from confession, writes her sin on a note and gives it to him.] it is entirely necessary that you first confess it." When she said she could not utter it with her lips, he ordered her to signify it in writing. When he saw that she bore this with difficulty, he commanded that she herself should write it, seal it with her own seal, and thus deliver the note to him. When this had been done and the sealed note had been delivered into his hands, the woman begged and besought him that nothing of what was contained in it should come to anyone's knowledge.

[77] Five days from then had passed, and that great man, departing this life, migrated to the tabernacles of the just, having said nothing to anyone about the matter. When the woman, by what was perhaps divine providence, had not been present on the day he departed this life, she came to the burial, and fearing lest the note that had been entrusted to his faith, neglected and left behind in the episcopal residence, might be discovered by all, she was seized with grief and nearly beside herself. But gathering herself again with the most ardent faith, she came with all possible speed to his casket; and as if he were alive, she cried out: "What have you done to me, O divine man, to me a sinner, that I should now be assailed by all with reproach and shame? For what I could not reveal even to you, because of my extraordinary fall, this will be made known to all. Would that I had never thought of approaching you about this matter! For thinking to escape through you the future punishments, I have not achieved even this; and what results from it, I have brought disgrace upon myself. Nevertheless, I shall not depart from your tomb, nor shall I rise from here at all, unless you make me certain about the things I have requested. For I am persuaded that you are not dead, but that you live in God, and that you are able to do before Him whatever you wish."

[78] The Saint rises from the sepulcher and returns the note to her. Saying these things and others similar, she sat by his venerable casket for three days and as many nights; and -- O miracles of God! -- on the last night, that admirable man comes forth from the casket together with the Bishops who lay with him (for such was the appearance of what was seen) and said to her: "How long, O woman, will you cry out and be a nuisance to those who are here? For your tears, flowing like a river, have already soaked our vestments." Having said these things, he delivered the note to her, sealed as it was by her. Then he said: "Do you recognize this, O woman? Take it therefore, and now opening it, see the admirable works of God." When she had risen and come to herself, she saw the Saints entering their casket again; and having the note in her hands, with the seal still intact, The sin divinely erased. when she opened it, she found the former writing erased, and saw a different inscription placed beneath, which read thus: FOR THE SAKE OF JOHN MY SERVANT, YOUR GREAT SIN HAS BEEN ERASED. What is now to be said about him will also declare how great was the man's virtue and how great a blessedness he attained from it.

[79] For a certain man named Sabinus, living very temperately and virtuously, practicing the monastic life withdrawn from business in Alexandria, at the hour when the Blessed John departed, thought that, being in an ecstasy, he saw him going forth from the episcopal residence with the whole clergy, having a lamp in his hand, Sabinus sees John going to heaven. and setting out on his journey to the King, with a certain most brilliant man in the garb of a Chamberlain summoning him; and a certain most beautiful maiden -- so much so that one might say even the sun yielded to her the first place in beauty -- whose head was crowned with a wreath of olive, now going before him, and now also touching his hand and walking alongside him. When the one who had seen this noted the day (it was the memorial of Mennas the great Martyr), and then certain people came from Cyprus, he learned from them that on that very day on which these things were seen, the illustrious John had departed from this world.

[80] A certain other Alexandrian man, who was himself also among those distinguished for piety, saw on that very night a swarm of the poor and a multitude of orphans and widows, too many to be counted, holding branches of olive in their hands and going before the Patriarch as he proceeded to the service. These testimonies suffice of the great John's supreme confidence before God. Another sees him escorted by the poor. But what is the greatest and beyond all doubt: the anniversary of the great Tychon, worker of admirable deeds, was being celebrated. When the hymn was being performed as was customary, and at the same time a multitude of the people had gathered, the God of wonders, wishing to make manifest how great a glory John -- I mean the one who received his surname from mercy -- had obtained with Him, who had been, as far as possible, an imitator of His benevolence, willed that from his divine relics copious ointments should flow forth, emitting a sweet-smelling fragrance of healings. Those who happened upon these Healing ointment flows from his sepulcher. and enjoyed them together glorified with grateful lips God, who so glorifies far more abundantly those who glorify Him. To whom we too ought to offer fitting glorification, glorifying the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one Godhead and power in three Persons, now and always and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Annotation

ON THE TRANSLATION OF ST. JOHN THE ALMSGIVER.

John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria (St.)

[1] The body of the most holy Patriarch John the Almsgiver was laid to rest at Amathus in Cyprus. The body of St. John the Almsgiver was translated to Constantinople. It was afterwards translated to Constantinople, thence to Buda, and finally to Pressburg. When, how, or for what reason the First Translation was carried out, we have nowhere found recorded. Concerning the Second, there exists the testimony of Pelbartus of Temesvar, of the Order of St. Francis, at the end of his Pomerium de Sanctis, Then to Buda. where he reviews the history of St. John, with this title prefixed: "The Life of St. John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria, whose body, translated, is held at Buda in the royal chapel in the castle; and his feast is celebrated there on the day immediately following the feast of St. Martin, Bishop and Confessor." And at the end of the Life: "He flourished around the year of the Lord 605, in the time of the Emperor Phocas. His body remains incorrupt to this day; it was sent as a gift from Constantinople by the Turkish Sultan to Matthias, King of Hungary; Where it has been famous for miracles. and it is now reverently kept in the royal chapel of the castle of Buda, where at his invocation frequent miracles shine forth; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and glory through eternal ages. Amen."

[2] Matthias reigned in Hungary from January 22 of the year 1458 until April 5, 1490, when he died of apoplexy. In what year he received that noble gift from the Turkish tyrant, we have nowhere found expressed. The Turks had taken Constantinople in 1453, on May 29. Drascouitius, below, reports that the sacred treasure was brought to Buda on November 12 (although Pelbartus, It was brought there on November 12. whom he cites, does not assert this) -- whether this happened by chance, or whether the celebration of the Translation was deliberately deferred to that day on which it was customarily venerated by the Greeks, as seems likely.

[3] The Third Translation occurred in the year 1530, the third year of Ferdinand I (who afterwards succeeded his brother Charles V in the Empire), Then carried to Pressburg. on the feast of Pentecost, the Nones of June, as will shortly be clear. The Fourth was carried out through the zeal and at the expense of Peter Pazmany, Cardinal of Esztergom, when the body was placed in a silver casket There afterwards more honorably enshrined. and raised into a new and magnificent mausoleum. The account of these events was compiled by George Drascouitius, Bishop of Pecs and Provost of Pressburg, who was present and promoted the work, in a booklet that was published at Vienna in the same year by the press of Michael Riccius.

[4] Before this, however, some fragments of relics had been removed from the body; Some of his relics are in Austria. for at Wiener Neustadt in Austria, among the Hermits of St. Paul, there exists the bone of one arm; the whole left arm is also absent from the rest of the body, and some part of the right. A finger was once given as a gift to the Emperor Matthias at his request, and left by him to the professed house of the Society of Jesus at Vienna. A particle of the skin of this most sacred finger was sent in the year 1631 to that holy man Anthony Winghe, Abbot of Liessies, by the Reverend Father Florentius Montmorency, Visitor of our Society in Austria and Bohemia. And in Belgium. I came on October 14 of that year to Maubeuge (a town of Hainaut in Belgium), to which Winghe had betaken himself, to the college of our Society, of which he was the principal patron and, as it were, father. I found him exulting with an unusual delight of spirit; for on that very day that excellent and truly divine gift had been brought from Vienna, which I then venerated in his presence.

[5] It seemed good to append here the letter itself of the Reverend Father Visitor, which reads thus:

Most Reverend Lord,

At Pressburg in Hungary I saw, to my great consolation, Testimony of the Reverend Father Florentius Montmorency concerning these things. the still entire body of St. John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria, magnificently enclosed in a silver casket the length of his stature. The skin is still intact in most places, and all the bones are firm. Only one part of an arm is missing, and several fingers of one hand, one of which we have here in our professed house at Vienna. And because I know that your Lordship honors the sacred relics of the Saints, and particularly imitates that Saint, I send enclosed herewith a part of the skin of that finger, given to me by the Reverend Father Provost of this house, as your Lordship will be able to see from his testimony appended.

And of the Reverend Nicholas Jagnietovius. Copy of the testimony of the Father Provost of the Professed House. Nicholas Jagnietovius, Provost of the Professed House of the Society of Jesus at Vienna, to all into whose hands these letters may come, eternal greeting in the Lord. Since we have given a certain fragment of the skin of the finger of St. John the Almsgiver -- which the Most August Emperor Matthias had caused to be taken from Pressburg, where his entire body is preserved, and left to this Professed House -- at the instance of the Reverend Father Florentius de Montmorency, Visitor of the Society of Jesus in Austria, to the Most Reverend Lord Anthony de Winghe, Abbot of Liessies, in order that this might be known to all, and lest such sacred relics be defrauded of due honor, we attest the foregoing by these letters subscribed by our hand and sealed with our seal. Vienna in Austria, September 24, in the year 1631.

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION

By George Drascouitius, Bishop.

John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria (St.)

By George Drascouitius, Bishop.

To the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord, Lord Peter, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Pazmany, Archbishop of Esztergom, Primate of Hungary, Extraordinary Legate of His Imperial Majesty Ferdinand II to the Supreme Pontiff Urban VIII, George Drascouitius, Bishop of Pecs, Provost of Pressburg, wishes prosperity.

Author's Preface.

[1] By the more divine will of some higher counsel, it has pleased me, Most Eminent Cardinal, to accompany you as you depart for the City, with the body of the divine John the Almsgiver, with the reverence I owe: I wished, I say, to dedicate to your name, and to send along as a companion for the journey, a brief and compendious account of the translation of his sacred body, most recently carried out. For firstly, that distinguished veneration and pomp applied to the sacred relics of the divine Almsgiver was entirely your doing, concluded to the great admiration and applause of all; so that it rightly seems to deserve being inscribed to its author. Secondly, the journey you are undertaking, Most Eminent Cardinal, is so long and difficult, and the matters you will handle are so weighty and arduous, that the companionship and auspices of so great a Saint are entirely necessary to you, so that you may have both a safe road and a successful cause. Finally, because some hold the opinion that the sacred treasure of the divine John the Almsgiver is not possessed by Hungary, I have resolved to refute them by this clear narrative, consonant with the truth. Accept, Most Eminent Cardinal, this small token of a mind ever devoted to your name, and hold dear this companion given for your journey.

[2] It is the hundredth year since the venerable body of the divine John the Almsgiver was brought into the sacristy of the Chapter of Pressburg, The body of St. John the Almsgiver still intact. enclosed in a double wooden chest and placed upon an altar, and has been reverently preserved -- plainly incorrupt and, if you except the particles granted to piety, entirely intact. Throughout this whole century, by the concourse of Emperors and Kings of the kingdom of Hungary, Bishops, leading men, and the Christian people, the veneration of so holy a body has always been the greatest. On the day on which Pelbartus of Temesvar -- a man no less distinguished for piety than for learning -- records that its Translation was celebrated at Buda, that is, on November 12, the Clergy of the Church of Pressburg, with the festive harmony of the divine offices, performed the solemn commemoration of St. John the Almsgiver each year, the sacred pledge having been reverently carried on priestly shoulders to the high altar.

[3] Moreover, the manner in which Hungary, and Buda, that once-august seat of kings, first came into possession of so great a treasure, we have received as follows. Pelbartus of Temesvar, at the end of his Summer Pomerium de Sanctis, published at Hagenau in the year 1501, records the event, which took place in his own time, in these words: "St. John the Almsgiver flourished around the year of the Lord 605, in the time of the Emperor Phocas. His body remains incorrupt to this day. The Turkish Sultan sent it as a gift from Constantinople to King Matthias. And it is now reverently kept in the royal chapel of the castle of Buda, where at his invocation frequent miracles shine forth. His feast is celebrated on the day immediately following the feast of St. Martin, Bishop and Confessor." It was famous for miracles at Buda. To this attestation of Pelbartus, Surius concurs, recording the same thing on the twenty-second day of February, in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver. Finally, Abraham, Archbishop of Prima Justiniana of Ohrid, having undertaken a journey to Pressburg for the veneration of the sacred body, attested in a clear document in his own hand that he had received from the Grand Logothete of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, a man of ninety years, the information that the body of St. John had been sent as a gift to the King of Hungary.

[4] Furthermore, two handwritten books record the translation of the holy body from Buda to Pressburg; of which the one is preserved at Lepoglava in Slavonia, among the Religious of St. Paul the First Hermit, with this inscription: "Acts of the Brothers of Our Order, and Miseries during the Desolation of the City of Buda." The other is held in the Library of the Fathers of the Order of St. Augustine at Rome, with this heading: "A Brief Treatise on the Loss of the Most Flourishing Kingdom of Hungary." The substance of the matter is this: It is transferred from Buda to Pressburg. The intact body of St. John the Almsgiver, carried away from Buda by John Szalonkemenyi (later a monk), John Banssi, and Father Lucas, Provincial of Hungary, was placed in the cloister of the Blessed Virgin in the valley of Tall, near Pressburg, in the year 1530; and thence translated to the principal basilica of the city of Pressburg. An old handwritten inventory agrees excellently with this, concerning the possessions of St. John the Almsgiver, which by the command of King Ferdinand I, John Szalai de Kerechen, Count of Pressburg, assigned to the care and hands of the Chapter of the Church of Pressburg. The unblemished antiquity of this inventory exists in the Chapter at Pressburg, where, after enumerating four silver images; after noting silver crosses and precious furnishings enclosed in four chests, which were once given by pious mortals Gifts once offered to him. in honor of the divine John the Almsgiver, one reads these very words: "On the holy day of Pentecost, the Body of St. John the Almsgiver was assigned to the hands of the said Chapter of Pressburg. 1530."

[5] And lest we pass over in silence the particular parts of so holy a body: the entire left arm has been removed; the lower part of the right arm, together with the palm, Certain parts of the body. is held in the sleeve of the garment; the upper part from the shoulder to the elbow is missing. It is established that the bone of one arm is honorably preserved at Wiener Neustadt in Austria, among the Hermits of St. Paul. In the inventory mentioned above, I find that a certain part of the hand of St. John, enclosed in a gilded silver reliquary, can still be seen today in the church at Pressburg. The sacred body is clothed in a black wavy garment, or of camlet How the body is clothed. as they call it; with a small cap of black cloth; with a mantle made of fine material, also black, and a very similar belt. Two gold rings are found thrown into the chest. On the sacred vestment, which they commonly call a chasuble, and also on the scapular, in the Illyrian language and in Cyrillic characters formed by a weaving of the tiniest gems, these words are read, which we have also rendered in Latin letters:

STI IOANE MILOSTIVI POMILVI RAVSI DESPMINV ANRRE LINV IYE DAEE.

JESUS CHRIST CONQUERS.

[6] One who cuts something from it is deprived of the use of his mind. A thing most worthy of admiration and belief is what I here commit to writing. Twenty years before, the Archbishop of Esztergom had granted one joint of a toe from this very holy body, at the request of King Matthias II; yet no one from the number of Canons dared to detach that particle, because they said it had been handed down from their forebears that whoever should mutilate the venerable body would lose his mind. And so a devout Priest, having first offered the sacrifice at the tomb of the sacred pledge, detached the joint from the rest of the parts -- and (astonishing to relate!) he was at last, before the end of his life, cast down from soundness of mind. That the matter was so carried out, many eyewitnesses, men of the greatest gravity, solemnly attest.

[7] The body more honorably enshrined. Furthermore, the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Peter, Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church Pazmany, Archbishop of Esztergom and Primate of Hungary, among other splendid monuments of his works, resolved to place so precious relics of so holy a Bishop in a nobler location. Wherefore he procured a silver casket, remarkable in size and elegance, and with pious devotion placed within it the sacred body, clothed as it was; and setting a cushion beneath the venerable head, he covered the whole with a coverlet elegantly woven of gold. Since, however, the inconveniences of the high altar left no place for the casket, A new mausoleum erected for it. he raised a most distinguished mausoleum at its left side, and fortified the top with gilded iron gratings, so that the sacred deposit might be enclosed both securely and fittingly. He also hung a large silver lamp of fine workmanship, and assigned a perpetual endowment for the purchase of olive oil, so that the lamp might shine with perpetual fire to the glory of God and the honor of the Saint.

[8] When all things had been prepared for the pomp of the coming Translation, Translated. the Most Eminent Cardinal summoned the neighboring Bishops and the colleges of Canons by letter to Pressburg for the twenty-second of January. They appeared on the appointed day with great readiness of spirit, and at the third hour after noon escorted the Most Eminent Cardinal to the church dedicated to the holy Bishop Martin. After they had reached the inner part of the sacristy, where this sacred treasure was preserved, the Cardinal, together with the Bishops, Clergy, and Religious families, all vested in sacred vestments, having sung on bended knee the hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus," with the sound of trumpets and drums interspersed, began the Translation of the sacred body, with the nobility, citizens, and a very great throng of people in attendance. And so that the veneration of so great a pledge might be increased in the souls of those present, the Most Eminent Cardinal himself carried the casket, heavy with silver and venerable with the holiness of its deposit, to the high altar, with the Bishops assisting, bright with frequent torches in long procession. There, after the barriers of the silver casket had been removed, solemn Vespers were begun, Shown to the people. and the opportunity of beholding the holy body was freely granted to the vast multitude. So great, however, was the concourse even of non-Catholics, and the desire to see, that on that day the casket was sealed, the people were restrained, and the following day they had to be admitted to the sacred spectacle. Meanwhile, the Canons with the Religious families, stationed before the sacred relics throughout the entire night, spent it in prayers, and on the following day prolonged with singular piety the veneration begun to great effect. A memorial of the praises of the divine John the Almsgiver was also delivered from the pulpit to the multitude present, in both the Hungarian and the Slavonic language, with great movement of souls.

[9] Finally, when the divine service had been solemnly performed by the Most Eminent Cardinal, a German preacher also played his part and delivered an oration before an audience composed also of innumerable non-Catholics. And then scarlet banners, noble with the image of the divine John, began to be unfurled; A procession instituted. which, first arranged in order, the company of studious youth followed; behind them, the ranks of citizens and noblemen with gleaming torches were closely joined; these were followed at close step by the musical ensemble; then the assemblies of Religious followed, conspicuous in priestly vestments; finally, the colleges of Canons, all equipped with sacred vestments, preceded the canopy, woven of gold and carried by the foremost men; under which, while the sacred body was carried about through the region of the cemetery by the Cardinal himself and the Bishops, distinguished by their episcopal mitres, all paid veneration to so holy a body with devout offices of service. From there they returned to the high altar, where a platform covered with Persian tapestries rose from the base of the altar to that part of the mausoleum in which the sacred deposit was to rest. When the casket was finally brought reverently into the prepared station of the mausoleum and enclosed by the gilded iron gratings, and the hymn "Te Deum laudamus" was sung with sweet melody and the festive sound of trumpets and drums, by the paternal decision of the Most Eminent Cardinal, a grant of forty days' indulgence was proclaimed, and with a solemn blessing pronounced by him upon the people, the celebration of the instituted solemnity was concluded. All things were carried out with singular devotion, the greatest splendor, and magnificent display; to which no small ornament was added by the elegant painting of learned emblems Emblems hung up. by the college of the Society of Jesus at Pressburg, and verses in Greek and Hebrew mixed with Latin, by which not only were the walls of the church seen to be illuminated, but the minds of the beholders also seemed to be wonderfully inflamed with devotion to the divine John.

[10] Moreover, the mausoleum, in whose bosom the sacred bones of John the Almsgiver are laid to rest for the veneration of the faithful, The form of the mausoleum. is seen to be constructed of red and white marble, in exquisite workmanship. Below, a base of red marble begins the mass, upon which a square tablet of white marble rises above, The inscription. conspicuous with the image of the historical inscription that I insert here.

THE INTACT BODY OF ST. JOHN THE ALMSGIVER, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, WAS SENT FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO KING MATTHIAS CORVINUS BY THE SULTAN OF THE TURKS. PRESERVED IN THE ROYAL CHAPEL OF BUDA, IT SHONE WITH MIRACLES. PELBARTUS, A WRITER OF THAT AGE, ATTESTS THIS IN HIS POMERIUM, AND AFTER HIM SURIUS ON THE TWENTY-THIRD OF FEBRUARY.

HANDWRITTEN BOOKS ON THE FALL OF BUDA, ONE AT LEPOGLAVA IN SLAVONIA, THE OTHER AT ROME IN THE LIBRARY OF THE AUGUSTINIANS, RECORD HOW, WHEN BUDA WAS LOST, THE VENERABLE BODY WAS TRANSLATED BY HERMITS OF THE ORDER OF ST. PAUL TO THE VALLEY OF TALL NEAR PRESSBURG.

AN OLD DOCUMENT PRESERVED IN THE CHAPTER OF PRESSBURG, IN FULL FIDELITY, RECORDS THAT IN THE YEAR 1530, ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST, BY THE COMMAND OF THE EMPEROR FERDINAND I, THROUGH JOHN SZALAI, COUNT OF PRESSBURG, THE BODY OF ST. JOHN, TOGETHER WITH ITS SACRED TREASURES OF GREAT PRICE, WAS ASSIGNED TO THE CHAPTER OF PRESSBURG.

IN THIS YEAR 1632, THE MOST EMINENT AND MOST REVEREND CARDINAL, ARCHBISHOP OF ESZTERGOM, PETER PAZMANY, FROM THE HUMBLE PLACE OF ITS REPOSITORY, HAVING ENDOWED THE SACRED BODY WITH A SILVER CASKET, PLACED IT IN THIS MAUSOLEUM AND ADORNED IT WITH A PERPETUAL LAMP, TO INCREASE THE GLORY OF GOD IN HIS SAINTS AND TO OBTAIN THE PATRONAGE OF ST. JOHN.

[11] On the sides of the tablet, columns of red mixed with white stand in comely position and slightly projecting outward, adorned with white bases and architraves; the casket, The remaining decoration. enriched with gilded gratings and a scarlet curtain, with standards affixed on either side, supports the mass; in which, as an everlasting monument of perpetual memory, we have deposited the sacred relics of the divine Almsgiver. From here the mass ascends to a pediment, and the Cardinal's arms, expertly carved in white marble, present themselves to view; above, a carved cross crowns the summit of the mausoleum; pyramids collected into spheres at the sides display elegance.

[12] With the fulfillment of my vow, I put an end to the present narrative, and from the inmost depths of my mind I entreat Almighty God The Author's prayer. that Hungary may continue to possess this great treasure until the end of the ages, and that it may embrace the Most Eminent Cardinal, the author of so pious and so splendid a work, returned safe and sound from Rome.

Annotations

ORDER OF THE HOSPITALLERS

under the patronage of St. John the Almsgiver.

John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria (St.)

From various sources.

[1] What has happened to many congregations of religious men -- namely, that they venerate as Patron and protector some one from the number of the Saints, and are called by his name, though they were not originally established by him, but either because their principal church was dedicated to his honor, Whence the Hospitallers are called Johannites. or because they professed with particular zeal to imitate his virtues and manner of life -- this also befell the Hospitallers, or Knights of Jerusalem, who were afterwards called the Knights of Rhodes and are now called the Knights of Malta: that they were called Johannites, or Knights of St. John, because the chapel of the first hospital, or hospice, at Jerusalem was dedicated to the name of St. John the Almsgiver.

[2] And at first they served pilgrims visiting the Sepulcher of Christ, especially Europeans, They serve pilgrims. with great charity. Then they also took on the care of military affairs, to protect those same pilgrims against the ambushes of the Saracens. This zeal was so approved by the people Now they take up arms. that through the munificence of Princes and peoples they were enriched with immense resources -- even then without intermitting the care of the poor and the sick, or the exercise of piety and the other virtues. Wherefore our Calendar will record several who were deemed worthy of heavenly honors. They were also adorned with many privileges by the Roman Pontiffs, particularly by Anastasius IV and Urban VIII. But since entire books have been written about their institution and achievements -- by Pantaleon, Bosio, and Boyssato -- our purpose here is to treat only of their origin and name.

[3] We shall give the account of William, Archbishop of Tyre, a most grave writer close to their beginnings, from book 18 of his sacred history, where he gives the reason for the name as we have described. With him agrees James de Vitry, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, in chapter 64 of his History of Jerusalem, Their first chapel was dedicated to St. John the Almsgiver. and St. Antoninus, Archbishop, part 2, title 16, chapter 9, section 2. But our own John Azorius, in book 13, chapter 6, of his Moral Institutes, writes thus: "In that hospital a chapel was built sacred to St. John the Baptist, and not, as others think, to St. John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria; who are indeed mistaken, as is clear from the formula by which the knights make their profession of religion." The same is written by Polydore Vergil in book 7, chapter 5, of De Inventoribus Rerum: "They also placed nearby a hospital, Not to St. John the Baptist. which they consecrated to St. John the Baptist, prompted by the memory of Zacharias his father, because in that place he often used to come together for meditation." "There are, however, those who write that it was dedicated to John the Almsgiver, who under the Emperor Phocas was Patriarch of Alexandria, so called on account of the frequent alms he gave to the poor." The same is written by Pantaleon. That detail about Zacharias is also reported by Sylvester Maurolycus in book 3 of the Ocean of Religions. But to us it seems trivial. For by whom among the ancients was it committed to writing? Or who anywhere at all mentions it? As to which John the chapel was dedicated to, which party could know more certainly in the end -- William of Tyre and James de Vitry, who examined it with their own eyes? Or the more recent authors, who conclude it by reasoning alone, and some of whom are doubtful in their opinion?

[4] That the Patron of the Order is now St. John the Baptist, we would by no means deny, since James Bosio, who examined the laws and statutes of the Order with the greatest diligence, affirms it He is, however, now the Patron of the Order. -- at least in the booklet he wrote in Italian about the Saints and Blessed of the same congregation. And it is clear from the Missal of the same Order, which we have, printed in the year 1505, where not even the name of St. John the Almsgiver is read; but of St. John the Baptist, not only the Nativity but also the Beheading has an Octave; and his Conception is also celebrated on September 24, with an Office of nine lessons. Furthermore, from Epiphany until Septuagesima, and from the Sunday after the Octave of Pentecost until Advent, if any day from Monday to Thursday is free of its own office, the office of St. John the Baptist is performed at the rite of a feast of nine lessons. It is probable that Raymond du Puy, who was the first Master, or supreme Prefect, of the Order after the Hospitallers began to bear arms, adopted him as Patron of the Order, as one more commonly known and more famous, when he prescribed statutes and laws for his fellow soldiers and ordered a white cross to be sewn upon their black garments -- which rite Gerard, the earlier curator of the same hospice, a holy man, had previously observed. Aubert Miraeus, a distinguished scholar, also treats of the same Order briefly and accurately in his Origins of the Knightly Orders, chapter 2, and others.

FIRST ORIGIN OF THE HOSPITALLERS

from book 18 of the sacred history of William, Archbishop of Tyre.

John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria (St.)

From William of Tyre.

[1] When the Kingdom of Jerusalem, together with all of Syria and Egypt and the adjacent provinces, had fallen -- as the ancient histories relate, our sins requiring it -- into the hands of the enemies of the Christian name and faith (which is known to have happened in the time of the Emperor Heraclius of the Romans, as the peoples of Arabia prevailed against him), there were not lacking many from the West who visited the holy places from time to time, even though they had been reduced to the power of the enemies, whether for the sake of devotion or of trade, or both. Among those, however, who under the pretext of trade attempted to reach the aforementioned places from the West during those centuries, there were men from Italy who, from the city they inhabit, are called Amalfitans. Now Amalfi is a city situated between the sea and very lofty mountains, having to the east the most noble city of Salerno, Amalfitans trading in the East. scarcely seven miles distant from it by sea journey; to the west, Sorrento and Vergilian Naples; to the south, Sicily, more or less two hundred miles away, with the Tyrrhenian Sea lying between. The inhabitants of this region, as we said, were the first to attempt to introduce foreign merchandise, which the East had not previously known, into the aforementioned regions for the sake of profit. Whence they also earned, with the rulers of those regions, excellent terms for the necessary goods they imported, easy access, and moreover the favor of the people.

[2] In those days the Egyptian Prince possessed all the maritime regions from the city of Gabala, situated on the seashore near Laodicea in Syria, all the way to Alexandria, which is the last city of Egypt. And through governors appointed for each city, he made his rule widely fearsome. The aforementioned Amalfitans, however, Favored by the Saracen King of Egypt. having the full favor of both the King and his princes, could go about all the places with confidence, as traders and dealers in useful goods, as if carrying merchandise. Whence also, not unmindful of paternal traditions and the Christian faith, they visited the holy places as often as the opportunity was given. Not having, however, a familiar dwelling in that same city where they could make some stay, as they had in the maritime cities, they gathered from their own people as many as they could convene for the planned undertaking, approached the Caliph of Egypt, and having obtained the favor of his intimates, Having obtained permission from him. submitted their petition in writing, and received the grant in accordance with their wishes. An order is therefore written to the Governor of Jerusalem, that for the Amalfitan men, friends and importers of useful goods, a very ample place should be designated in Jerusalem, in that part which the Christians inhabit, according to their desire, for building there whatever dwelling they wished.

[3] The city was, as it also is today, divided almost equally into four parts, of which only the fourth, in which the Lord's Sepulcher is situated, was granted to the faithful for habitation; the remaining parts, along with the Temple of the Lord, belonged solely to the infidels. A place is therefore designated for them, by the command of the Prince, They build a monastery at Jerusalem. which seemed sufficient for constructing the necessary buildings; and having collected money from the merchants, as it were by contribution, at a distance of barely a stone's throw from the door of the Church of the Lord's Resurrection, they raise a monastery in honor of the holy and glorious Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary, together with those workshops that could provide some convenience for the use of the monks and the reception of guests of their nation. This done, transferring from their own lands both monks and an Abbot, And establish Latin monks in it. they regularly institute the place and render it pleasing to the Lord by their holy way of life. And because the men who had founded the place and those who maintained it in religious life were Latins, from that day until the present the place is called "the monastery of the Latins."

[4] During those same times, moreover, holy widows and continent women also came to kiss the venerable places, women who, forgetful of feminine fear and heedless of the many dangers that presented themselves. Since for those arriving there was no place within the walls of the monastery And likewise another for consecrated women. where they could be decently collected, sufficient and fitting provision was made by those same holy men who had founded the place, so that devout women arriving should not lack a separate oratory, a familiar house, and a place in the inn. And at length, with divine clemency favoring, a small monastery was established there in honor of the pious sinner, namely Mary Magdalene; and Sisters under a fixed number were appointed for the service of women who came.

[5] During those perilous times certain men also flocked from other nations, both nobles and men of the second rank; and since there was no access to the holy city except through the lands of the enemies, when they had reached the city nothing at all remained of their travel provisions. Rather, the wretched and destitute were obliged to wait before the gate of the city for a long time with the greatest hardship, Then for receiving other pilgrims. hunger, thirst, and nakedness, until, upon payment of a gold coin, they were permitted to enter the city. After entering, however, and visiting the holy places in order, there was for them not even the hope of refreshment for a single day, except what was fraternally provided to them from the aforementioned monastery; for all the other inhabitants of the city were Saracens and infidels, except for the Lord Patriarch and the Clergy and the wretched little people of the Syrians, who were daily harassed by so many exactions, requisitions, and performances of base services that, living in the utmost poverty and in continual fear of death, they could scarcely breathe. For our wretched pilgrims, therefore, afflicted and needy in the extreme, when there was no one to provide them shelter, provision was made by the most blessed men who inhabited the Latin monastery: that, mercifully depriving themselves of food and clothing, they should raise a hospice for such people within the area designated for them, where they might collect the sick and the well alike, lest they be slaughtered in the streets by night; A hospice. and in that same place, from the remnants and fragments gathered from both monasteries, of men and of women, some provision, however humble, should be furnished for their daily sustenance.

[6] They also raised in the same place an altar in honor of Blessed John Eleimon. This man, pleasing to God and commendable in all things, was a Cypriot by nation. Its altar was dedicated to St. John the Almsgiver. At length, with his merits supporting him, he became Patriarch of Alexandria, a man singularly excellent in works of piety, whose pious zeal and generous alms the whole Church of the Saints will recount forever. Whence also he was called by the holy Fathers Eleimon, which is interpreted "Merciful."

[7] This venerable place, however, which thus charitably extended itself to men, had neither revenues They were supported by the alms of the Amalfitans. nor possessions; but the aforementioned Amalfitans each year -- both those who were at home and those who followed their trade -- having collected money among themselves, as it were by contribution, offered it through those who were traveling to Jerusalem to the Abbot who was there at the time, so that from it provision might be made for the Brothers and Sisters for food and clothing, and from the remainder some mercy might be shown in the hospice to arriving Christians.

[8] So therefore, through the course of many years, until it pleased the supreme Creator of all things to purge from the superstitions of the Gentiles that city which He had cleansed with His own blood, this place remained under these conditions. Agnes the Abbess. For when the Christian people and the God-protected Princes came, to whom the Savior willed to deliver that kingdom, there was found in the monastery of women, fulfilling the office of Abbess, a certain devout and holy woman, Agnes by name, noble according to the flesh, a Roman by nation; who also lived for some years after the city was restored to the Christian faith. Gerard, the caretaker of pilgrims in the hospital, a holy man. And in the hospice there was likewise found a certain Gerard, a man of proven conduct, who had devotedly served the poor in that same place for a long time during the period of hostility, by the command of the Abbot and monks; to whom afterwards succeeded Raymond.

Annotations

ON THE SANCTITY OF THE FIRST HOSPITALLERS,

from the History of Jerusalem by James de Vitry.

John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria (St.)

From James de Vitry.

[1] After it pleased Divine Piety that the city of our redemption should be freed, through Duke Godfrey and other faithful of Christ, Gerard, having taken the Cross, professes a Religious life. from the dominion of the ungodly, and restored to Christian worship, a certain man of holy life and proven religion, named Gerard, who had for a long time devotedly ministered to the poor in the aforementioned hospital by the command of the Abbot, having joined to himself certain honorable and religious men, assumed the regular habit; and affixing a white cross outwardly on the breast of his garments, having made his profession solemnly of a salutary rule and honorable institutions, As also Agnes. he bound himself. To whom also a certain woman, Agnes by name, Roman by nation, noble of flesh but nobler in holiness, who in the monastery of women had acted as Abbess, having joined herself to the ministry of the poor, willingly took up the same rule and the habit of humility.

[2] The Hospitallers devote themselves to works of mercy. The aforementioned Brothers therefore, humbly and devoutly serving the Lord and diligently ministering to the sick poor from their own poverty, buried their dead in the field called Aceldama. This is that Potter's Field which was bought by the Jews for the burial of strangers, from the thirty silver coins which Judas cast down in the Temple. To the Abbot of St. Mary de Latina, who had been the originator of the aforementioned Hospital, and who had long sustained both themselves and their sick from his own table, they did not deny obedience and reverence as long as they were poor. They most devoutly venerated as the first patron and helper of their poverty, and the protector of their place before the Lord, Blessed John Eleemon, They venerate St. John the Almsgiver as Patron. confessing him as their Lord and advocate. Also devoutly obedient to the Lord Patriarch of Jerusalem, they rendered tithes of their goods without contradiction, according to the sacred Canons and the precepts of both Testaments.

[3] Devoted to prayer, They live piously and austerely. afflicting themselves with vigils and fasting, abounding in works of mercy, they were sparing and austere toward themselves, but generous and merciful toward the poor and the sick, whom they called their Lords. They gave loaves of pure fine flour to the sick, Kind to the sick. but reserved the remainder with the bran for their own use. If, however, anyone among them transgressed in anything, it was by no means left unpunished, lest the ease of pardon should provide an incentive for transgressing. Severe toward offenders. For according as the guilt of the offense required, some, with the sign of the Cross torn from their garments, were cast out entirely as putrid members; others they consigned to chains and prison; still others they decreed should take their meager food at the feet of the brethren on the ground, until they had made fitting satisfaction.

[4] And since God was with them, they were loved by all. Whence it came about that through all the land of Christians their fame went forth, and to the ends of the earth the pattern of their holiness. Widely celebrated. And since from every nation, tribe, and tongue, after the liberation of the Holy Land, the faithful of Christ flocked to Jerusalem to visit the Sepulcher of the Lord, through the generosity of Princes and the alms of the faithful they were in a short time so enriched They become very wealthy. that, collecting copious revenues from all the Western provinces and acquiring for themselves estates and towns, like Princes of the land, they subjected them to their dominion.

Notes

a. This inscription is absent from the printed editions. Rosweyde. And from certain manuscripts.

b. Outstanding and true encomia of the Roman Pontiff.

a. We shall treat of them on January 31. Below in number 59, their church is mentioned.

a. This inscription is absent from the printed editions. Rosweyde. And from certain manuscripts.

b. Outstanding and true encomia of the Roman Pontiff.

a. We shall treat of them on January 31. Below in number 59, their church is mentioned.

b. Thus Rosweyde correctly emended, since it is repeated below in numbers 22 and 44; and here it was erroneously read as philosophis in some editions. The Latin translation amatores Christi (lovers of Christ) is found at number 27.

c. Examples of those who wore the Cross from the neck are given by our colleague Gretserus, book 1, On the Cross, chapter 34, and book 2, chapter 27, and elsewhere.

d. [Siliqua.] A siliqua is the twenty-fourth part of a solidus, taking its name from the seed of a tree. Isidore, book 16 of the Etymologies, chapter 24.

e. The supreme Steward, or Vicedominus, as he is called shortly after in number 4; concerning which dignity we shall treat on February 4 in the life and conversion of St. Theophilus the Vicedominus.

f. [Tremissis.] Isidore, as above: They therefore called the third part of a solidus a tremissis, because when sent three times it makes a solidus. Below: tremissia.

g. What is meant is the one who before the Sacred Liturgy pronounced the eirenike (prayers for peace) (concerning which formulas the Greek Euchologion should be consulted), whether he was a Deacon, as Rosweyde notes, or some more honored Priest.

h. Metaphrastes: Ἀκουόντων ὁμοῦ καὶ τῶν τοῦ σεκρέτου. With those of the secretariat also hearing at the same time.

i. Thus also the Knights of St. John were accustomed to call the poor and pilgrims, as we shall say below, following the example of their patron.

k. [Chancellor.] This was an ecclesiastical office. It is repeated below in numbers 8 and 45. Hincmar, epistle 3, chapter 16: The apocrisiarius, moreover, whom our countrymen call the Chaplain or the Keeper of the Palace, governed all the clergy of the Palace under his care and direction; to whom was associated the supreme Chancellor, who was formerly called the secretary.

l. [The Campana balance,] Isidore, book 16 of the Etymologies, chapter 24: The Campana takes its name from a region of Italy, where its use was first discovered. It does not have two pans; but it is a rod marked with pounds and ounces, and measured with a sliding weight: and for each weight there is a fixed standard, designated by its own names. The old editions had here, as Rosweyde notes: on a single Campana, that is, a just and equal balance.

m. Isidore, ibid., chapter 25: The artabe is a measure among the Egyptians of 72 sextarii, composed from the number on account of the 72 nations or languages that filled the world. The Anchin manuscript, as noted by Rosweyde at number 21, had written in the margin: [Artabe.] The artabe, that is, a measure containing three modii and a third part of a modius; which was thus inserted into the Life itself in some editions: a modius and artabe, that is, a measure, etc.

a. Ἔκδικος in the Council of Chalcedon, canon 2. He is called Defensor, and in canon 23 the Defensor of the Church of Constantinople. [Defensor.] Pope Urban in the chapter Saluator, On Simony, teaches that under the name of Defenders of the Church in the cited Council are to be understood Advocates, Stewards, and Judges. Ἔκδικος σχολαστικός, in the Code of Canons of the African Church, canon 117, means Defensor scholasticus, that is, Advocate. Concerning the Defensores of the Palace, consult Codinus, On the Offices of the Court of Constantinople.

b. Constantine, son of Heraclius by Eudocia, was born on May 3, a Wednesday, in the 15th Indiction, in the second year of Heraclius, the year of Christ 612; and on December 22, in the 1st Indiction, in the third year of Heraclius, he was inaugurated as Emperor by his Father Heraclius, crowned and acclaimed by the Senate, [Constantine III, Catholic Emperor.] and saluted by the people: and from January 22 of the year of Christ 613, his years of imperial reign together with his parent began to be counted, as can be seen in the Alexandrian Chronicle. When Heraclius died on March 11, in the year of Christ 641, Constantine alone reigned for only four months, having been removed by poison by his stepmother Martina. Theophanes, book 18, chapter 70; Cedrenus; and Zonaras, who adds that he was the heir of his father's empire, not of his perverted opinions, because he did not adhere to the Monothelites.

c. These words seem to have been added by the translator or someone else for the sake of explanation; for we do not think Leontius wrote this after the death of Constantine, since he was already a Bishop from the time of Maurice.

d. [Jerusalem captured by Chosroes.] In the year of Christ 614, the fourth of Heraclius, after his third post-consulate, in the second Indiction, in the month of June, Jerusalem was captured, the Cross of Christ was carried away, and the Patriarch Zacharias was led into Persia. The Alexandrian Chronicle relates this at greater length. Theophanes refers it to the fifth year of Heraclius, beginning in the following October.

e. Roga: a stipend, a donative, as stated in the Life of St. Anastasius on January 22.

f. Thus to Blessed Lawrence Justinian divine Wisdom appeared in the form of a Virgin, as was said in his Life on January 8, number 8. Various such apparitions are related by our colleague Peter Thyraeus in his book On the Impersonal Apparitions of Christ, chapter 3.

g. Recognize the ancient pious custom of men.

h. It is customary, says Rosweyde at number 26, for writers of this age to use similar words in this way, e.g., tribulantes (the ones afflicting) for tribulati (the ones afflicted).

a. In the Saint-Omer manuscript it is added in the margin: A chest, repository, or storehouse, or money, or wealth. Cassian, book 4, Institutes, chapter 14: [Entheca.] And he considers the entire entheca of the monastery to be his own substance. Pope Gelasius uses this word in Gratian, distinction 12, question 2, chapter Vobis enim.

b. Metaphrastes: τῷ πρώτῳ τούτων. Hervetus translates it as Prince.

c. England abounds in the finest tin, especially the province of the Dumnonii, which is now called Cornwall [English Tin.] or Cornubia, stretching mainly to the west.

d. Metaphrastes reads Decapolis. The anchorage of Alexandria: perhaps established by so many cities trading there. [Decapolis.]

e. The manuscripts of St. Maximin, Saint-Omer, and Marchiennes read primum.

f. The Logothete presides over the investigation and recording of matters pertaining both to the people [Logothete.] and to the principal orders of the Church. So Codinus, On the Offices of the Court of Constantinople and the Great Church. In the Saint-Omer manuscript was added: of one who arranges cases or statements, or a reckoner, or a counselor. Different from this was the Palatine Logothete, for which consult Meursius's Glossary.

g. Rosweyde in his Onomasticon: We learn from the Life of John the Almsgiver that the Logothete also discharged the office of the Ecclesiastical Steward. But to us he seems entirely different from the latter: whether the supreme Steward was Mennas, who is called Vicedominus above and directed the administration of the holy Church, or whether it was one of the lesser stewards.

h. The Anchin codex had written above: that is, distributions to the poor.

i. A pittacium, as immediately follows.

k. Others read pyctacium. It signifies a small piece of cloth, and metaphorically a parchment or paper note. [Pittacium] Rosweyde treats of this at greater length in his Onomasticon, and we do so elsewhere.

l. In the Cologne edition of Theodoricus de Loher, nonne is read. Nor wrongly, although Rosweyde disapproves. Concerning Nonna, see below at number 85.

m. Rosweyde thinks that Mennas the Steward is meant, who was perhaps standing nearby and had previously given the advice that only five pounds of gold should be given. It is far more likely that St. Mennas the Martyr is to be understood.

a. The Patrician Nicetas, son of Gregora, Subpraetor of Africa, is mentioned by Theophanes in the sixth year of Phocas, [Nicetas the Patrician.] book 17, chapter 58; and from there through Egypt and Pentapolis he conspired with Heraclius in the assassination of Phocas, book 18, chapter 1. Cedrenus writes that he was Heraclius's legate in the second year of Heraclius, the year of Christ 612. He was Comes excubitorum, substituted in place of Crispus, the son-in-law of Phocas. What is narrated here Baronius considers to have occurred in the twelfth year of Heraclius: but he has been refuted above in Rosweyde's words.

b. Metaphrastes writes that the flasks were filled with honey, which was divinely changed into money: but we agree rather with Mennas and Leontius.

c. The manuscripts of Saint-Omer and Anchin write above as an explanation: that is, [Bulla, bullare.] a seal. So below, number 94: "Can you not write, and seal, and bring it to me?" and number 96: "He gives him his own sealed note." Amphilochius in the Life of St. Basil, as translated by Ursus: "He sealed the document with lead."

d. "Was he lifting his children from the sacred font?" asks Rosweyde. Metaphrastes: ὡς καὶ ἀνάδοχον τῶν αὐτοῦ παίδων γενέσθαι τὸν Πατριάρχην. "So that the Patriarch became the godfather of his children"; which is everywhere understood as sponsorship at the sacred font.

e. That is, poverty and destitution, add some editions. Below at number 72 it is again taken in the same sense.

f. St. Gregory the Great had already earlier urged St. Eulogius to extirpate this stain of simony from the Church of Alexandria, as will be discussed in his Life on September 13.

a. Metaphrastes: κατ᾽ αὐτὴν τὴν ὥραν, ἐν ᾗ τὸ ἱερὸν καταπέτασμα τῶν θείων ἀφαιρεῖται δώρων. At that very hour in which the holy veil is removed from the sacred gifts. Which in the Latin rite occurs at the Offertory of the Mass. Concerning this rite, and the prayers then customarily recited by the Deacon, one may consult the ancient Rituals, Liturgies, and Euchologia of the Greeks and Easterners.

b. It is explained in the MSS. of St. Omer and Aquicinctum, and in the printed editions, as meaning "the general vestry." Elsewhere they are called the treasures of the vestry-wardrobe, [Cimelium.] [Cimeliarchium.] or the gifts and ornaments of the Church. So too Anastasius in the Lives of the Pontiffs, chapter 72, under Severinus: "They sealed the entire vestry of the Church, that is, the treasures of the episcopate, which various most Christian Emperors, as well as Patricians and Consuls, had bequeathed to the Blessed Apostle Peter for the redemption of their souls." Hence cimeliarcheion, the archive of treasures. It occurs again below at number 84.

c. MS. Aquicinctum reads "before the vestry." MS. Gembloux reads "bitterly against one another." Some printed editions read "before the vestry."

d. Below at number 64: "and casting genuflections." In Greek, ballein metanoian, which in the Life of St. Basil is explained by some as "to genuflect," by others as "to make a metanoia"; that is, to cast oneself at someone's feet for the sake of honor, and to prostrate oneself with a reverent spirit, and to ask for a blessing. The printed editions here add by way of explanation: "that is, an act of penance, or acknowledgment."

e. Baronius, under the year of Christ 620, number 10, thinks that this George was appointed Patriarch of Alexandria in place of the deceased St. John. He adds the reason for his conjecture at number 11: that in ancient times it was the custom of the Church of Alexandria that, when those Bishops who had been most distinguished and had brought luster to that Church died, one of their kinsmen was chosen as successor; as we have seen in the case of Cyril, nephew of Theophilus, who was appointed in his place. But that had happened two hundred years previously, and is not observed to have occurred more often. Furthermore, George could not at that time have been of such an age as to be capable of fulfilling the office of Patriarch, since Metaphrastes calls him ho neos, "a youth," and here he weeps like a child, as Rosweyde observed.

a. Rosweyde, a man of vast learning, denies having observed this custom elsewhere. But he relates the notable example of Maximilian I, who carried his sarcophagus with him on all his expeditions.

b. Metaphrastes: hoi epi to ergo tetagmenoi, "those who were set over the work."

c. These are absent in Metaphrastes, as are very many passages below.

d. Concerning him, see above, January 22, in the Life of St. Anastasius the Persian, where he is called only a Presbyter and Vicar of the Apostolic See.

e. Rosweyde thinks that from the word "reste" (string), on which dried fish and garlic are strung, comes the common German expression "een rist" or "rest buckingh," "een rist aiuyn."

f. Rosweyde thinks the menomenae are the same as those called maenae by Pliny, book 32, chapter 11.

g. Antiochus, a monk of the Laura of Abba Sabas, who lived at this time, in his epistle to Eustathius, Superior of the monastery of Datalene in the city of Ancyra in Galatia, in volume 1 of the Greek-Latin Library of the Fathers, writes thus of St. Modestus: "He raises to a lofty height all the temples of our Savior Jesus Christ altogether worthy of veneration, which had been consumed by barbarian fire, namely the church of holy Calvary and of the holy Resurrection," etc. -- which he did especially after the death of St. John, having already been urged by him. A Presbyter of the Resurrection named Elias is mentioned in the Life of St. Anastasius, number 11.

h. That is, a mat. It is glossed in MS. Aquicinctum. Hesychius: [Psiathus.] psiathos he chameune, kai to phyton ex hou pleketai psiathos. "Psiathus: a bed spread on the ground, and the plant from which a psiathus is woven." In the Life of St. Pachomius: "to weave psiathi," "to work psiathi." The diminutive psiathion, [Psiathium.] which is read in the Lives of St. Abraham the Hermit and his niece Mary, of Euphrosyne, etc. On this, see further Cassian, book 4 of the Institutes, chapter 13, and Conference 1, chapter 23.

i. In the MSS. of St. Omer and Aquicinctum: "like a ball, trembling." In MS. St. Maximin: "in globes trembling" -- or perhaps "in colobi"? On these, see elsewhere. But it is more pleasing to read "like a ball," as if they tremble, contracted like a ball of yarn, from the cold.

k. That is, the waste water in which meats are cooked, or with leaven or dregs. So it is added in MS. Aquicinctum. Zeo: "I boil, I bubble." Hence epizema, "boiling at the top of a pot that is seething." St. Jerome, book 3, on Hosea: "For 'foam' Symmachus put epizema, wishing to indicate the upper waters of a boiling pot, rising into foam and bubbles."

l. [Rachanella.] That is, small cloths. So the MSS. read. Rachanae are named below at number 52.

m. That is, a garment worn beneath the shirt. So the MSS. of St. Omer and Aquicinctum in the margin.

n. Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, whose Life, and in it this story, we shall illustrate on May 12.

o. [John, Bishop of Jerusalem.] He had lived with St. Epiphanius in the monastery of St. Hilarion. He was afterwards joined in friendship with Palladius and Rufinus, who were tainted with the error of the Origenists. Others speak at greater length about him and in defense of his sanctity.

a. The Greeks celebrate him on January 20, where we have given a summary of his Life from the Greek Menaea, [St. Peter the Tax-Collector] drawn principally from this source. He is said there to have governed all of Africa under Justinian, who began to reign in the year of Christ 527. He recovered Africa after the capture of Gelimer, King of the Vandals, in 534; he died in 565.

b. [Siligo.] Siligo here is used for bread made of fine wheat flour. Metaphrastes: heuren ton artopoion helkonta hemionon artois pephortisamenen, "he found the baker leading a mule loaded with bread." Pliny, book 18, chapter 9: "From fine wheat flour," he says, "the most praised bread is made, and the most praised works of the bakeries." And chapter 8: "Fine wheat I would almost call the luxury of wheat."

c. [Mancipium.] [Manceps.] That is, from the bakery. Suidas: Artopoleion to mankipeion, en ho hoi artoi genontai. "The bakery, that is, the mancipium, in which breads are made." Socrates, book 5, chapter 18: "The Prefects of bread mankipes te Romaion glosse kalountai, are called mancipes in the Roman language."

d. Rosweyde conjectures "the pan of the balance," because the Greek word phalanx signifies both a scale-beam and a battle-line. Hence aginari and acinari, from the arm of a balance. Festus: "Agina is the part into which the beam of the balance is inserted, that is, the hole in which the balance turns; whence aginatores are said to be those who are moved by small gain."

e. Some read Veue, others Pape.

f. MS. St. Omer in the margin: "an inner garment, which by Martin is called in Latin an interola, [Esophorium.] or a garment that is fastened to the neck with a clasp." The Cambrai Glossary, MS.: "Esephorium: an inner garment, that is, a shirt, which by Marcian (namely Capella) is called an interula." Esophorion or eisophorion, "that which is worn underneath." Metaphrastes: to himation abrontimon, "a fine and costly garment."

g. In the Menaea cited above, he is said to have fled to Constantinople and to have died there.

a. He is venerated on May 21. Palladius treats of him in the Lausiac History, chapter 83. But we gather from this that some fuller narrative of his Life existed.

b. Palladius calls him Sindonites, for he never wore anything except a linen sheet. We have said, in the Life of St. Anthony on January 17, section 15, in the Prolegomena, that Egyptian monks had three garments: [Garments of monks.] the colobion, the melotes, and the pallium, which here seem to be called the sindon, the tunic, and the outer garment.

c. That is, clothed only in the sindon, or colobion.

d. Palladius: "illiterate, he recited all the Scriptures by heart." Nevertheless he had a copy of the Gospel, so that he might learn by another's reading aloud.

e. Metaphrastes: "to worship Saints Cyrus and John." We shall treat of them on January 31.

f. Under the Emperor Maurice, Theophanes, book 17, chapter 17, relates that Christian captives were held in Lethe. "In Persia," he says, "there is a prison [The prison Lethe among the Persians.] called Lethe. And the King of Persia confined many from various nations in it, together with captives from the city of Dara. But those in despair rose up against their guards, and having killed Marusa, they brought his head to Byzantium. And the Emperor received them with great joy." Procopius, book 1 of the Persian War, relates the origin of this name: that the law did not permit the memory of anyone cast into it to survive among them; but the calamity itself was as death to the one condemned. He adds from the history of the Armenians that by the law of the prison of Lethe, the power of the Persians was once dissolved.

g. That is, on the feast of Easter, as it is in Metaphrastes. St. Gregory the Great has a similar example in Homily 37 on the Gospels.

a. That is, he prayed for him. So below at number 72: "go, pray for my thefts."

b. In Palladius, chapter 8: "St. Amon made for himself on Mount Nitria two vaulted cells." And chapter 43: [Tholus.] "Having made for himself three vaulted cells on the summit of the mountain, John from the city of Lycopolis entered and walled himself in. And there one vaulted cell was for the necessities of the body, rest and refreshment; one where he worked, and another where he prayed." Where separate buildings are understood. These, constructed from bricks with rounded roofs, are described in the Etymologicum Magnum. See also Phavorinus in the Lexicon.

c. MS. St. Omer: "with beds and cloths." And in the margin is added: that is, [Rachana.] "beds and coverlets." Rachanae, from which comes the diminutive rachanella, above at number 34. It seems derived from the Greek rhake or rhache. Hesychius: Rhake: "cast-offs, scraps, garments." Likewise: Rhache: "rags and fragments." So also in Ennodius, book 9, epistle 17, to Apodemia, rachana is joined with laena, which is a cheap garment: "Send me quickly," he says, "a laena and rachanae of whatever color you wish, red or brown." Rhakos in St. Gregory Nazianzen, in the praises of St. Basil, is a cheap monastic cloak, as will be discussed in its place.

d. MSS. St. Omer and St. Maximin read "warmth" [calor].

e. So below at number 62: "hearing" [audiens] for "I heard" [audiui].

a. He means the Acephali, who arose from Severus, Bishop of Antioch. When the Emperor Justin had decreed that the Council of Chalcedon be promulgated by all Bishops, on pain of losing their Sees, [Severus, author of the Acephali.] Severus fled by night, secretly from all, from Antioch to Alexandria to Bishop Timothy, his colleague in impiety -- where Julian, Bishop of Halicarnassus, had already betaken himself for the same reason. See Liberatus in the Breviarium, chapter 19, and from him Baronius, volume 7, year of Christ 519, numbers 146 and 147.

b. These arose from Severus and Julian in Egypt: the Theodosians, [Various heretics in Egypt.] Phantasiasts or Aphthartodocetists, Gaianites, Agnoetae or Themistians, Tritheists, Monophysites, Jacobites, Barsanians, and others, whose errors are distinguished by our own James Gualterius in his Chronographic Table under the sixth century.

c. He is called Theopemptus by Metaphrastes.

d. MS. St. Maximin adds: "that is, impostors." MS. Aquicinctum and some printed editions: "traffickers who go about and deceive by fraud." So in Palladius, chapters 15 and 16, there is spanodromos, but which they translate as "a merchant trading in Spain."

a. His feast is celebrated by the Greeks with the Menaea on January 11, and we have illustrated this chapter there.

b. MS. St. Omer: "lupines worth one bronze coin." MS. Gembloux: "lupines worth the price of one bronze coin."

c. Besides Theodoret and Sozomen cited by Rosweyde, Rufinus, book 1, chapter 2; St. Gregory the Pope, book 4, epistle 75, to the Emperor Maurice; and Pope Nicholas in his epistle to the Emperor Michael, as found in Baronius, volume 3, year of Christ 325, number 43, also report this.

a. "Behold the practice of celebrating private Masses in the Church," says Rosweyde.

b. MS. St. Maximin reads "they had lost" [perdiderant]. The Cologne edition: "They unworthily receive the body." An old edition: "they had sought the body." But other MSS. read "they had sworn falsely" [peierant].

c. So the MSS. and the printed editions; but MS. Gembloux reads "it is beaten" [tunditur].

d. We have given the Life of St. Simeon Stylites the Elder on January 5, in which, however, this admonition of his is not found.

e. In the Life of St. Hilarion by St. Jerome, which we shall give on October 21, the text reads: "For nearly seventy years you have served Christ, and do you fear death?"

a. His wife having died long before, he was elected and consecrated Patriarch, as Metaphrastes clearly states.

b. Under Justinian, the sacred relics of St. Anthony were translated to the church of St. John the Baptist, as stated above.

c. Whether this treatise from the Lives of the Fathers, in which these illustrious examples are found, still exists, we do not know.

d. St. Jerome, epistle 22 to Eustochium on the preservation of virginity: "Because [Nonna.] those who have experienced the domination of husbands prefer the freedom of widowhood, they are called Chaste Women and Nuns." Nevertheless St. Mary of Egypt, already a penitent, is also called Nonna, as Pelagia is here.

e. This is a different person from St. Pelagia the Penitent, whom St. Nonnus, Bishop of Edessa, converted from prostitution, who is venerated on October 8. Perhaps Porphyria assumed the name Pelagia in memory of her.

f. Amphilochius narrates a similar example of chastity in the Life of St. Basil.

g. He means a pious fraud, as he explains immediately: "I contrived the occasion to entice you" -- although lying is never by any reasoning to be permitted.

a. MS. Gembloux omits "if you please." MS. St. Maximin: "Come, the King of kings commands you." In the printed editions: "You are bidden to come." Similarly above, in the Life of St. Epiphanius, January 21: "If you please, you are requested."

b. So names were formed at that time: thus elsewhere Persida, Thebaida.

c. The memorial of St. Tychon is found in the ecclesiastical calendars on June 16.

a. The printed editions read "Arbodus," very badly. MS. St. Maximin: "Archadus."

b. So MS. St. Omer. Rosweyde, from MS. Aquicinctum: "looking on" [aspitantibus]; in other printed editions: "standing by" [assistentibus]. MS. St. Maximin: "leading him by the hands."

a. This first chapter does not appear in Leontius.

b. Leontius mentions his marriage at number 81.

c. These matters have been examined above. Perhaps Metaphrastes added these words; certainly John could not have been known for long to Heraclius as Emperor, since he was either created Patriarch immediately, or rather some years before, as has been proved.

d. In Greek: to chrono men pollostos met' ekeinon, "in time indeed far removed from him."

e. [Peter the Fuller, heretic.] Peter the Fuller, or Cnapheus, under the Emperor Leo, by the favor of Zeno, Duke of the East (who afterward succeeded Leo in 474), having stirred up the populace against Martyrius, the orthodox Bishop of Antioch, invaded that See and restored the heresy of the Theopaschites, about which we shall treat more fully on February 25, in the Life of St. Felix III, Pope. Leontius at number 60 mentions Severianists, or Acephali, and other heretics, not Peter the Fuller.

f. In the Greek the words "burning, inflamed" are added.

g. MS. Greek: Rhasmiozus; another MS. Greek: Rasmozus. This Persian expedition is described in the Alexandrian Chronicle under the fourth year of Heraclius; by Theophanes, book 18, chapter 5, without naming the general of the army; but in chapter 55 he is called Sarbarazan. Cedrenus follows Theophanes; in neither is there any mention of Rasmiszus.

h. Surius calls him Cresippus; Baronius, year 614, number 15, calls him Chrysippus.

i. In Greek: Anastasion ton tou orous tou megalou kathegoumenon Antoniou. On the location of this mountain, see January 17, in the Life of St. Anthony, section 2 in the prolegomena. On the first successors and Abbots or Prefects of the monastery, section 5.

k. [Rhinocorura.] Rhinocorura, or Rhinocolura, a city on the border of Egypt and Syria, as has been discussed more fully on January 16, in the Life of St. Melas, or Melanis, Bishop of that same city.

a. This was Titus, of whom Suetonius writes in chapter 8: "And having recalled at dinner that he had bestowed nothing on anyone the entire day, he uttered that memorable and truly praiseworthy saying: 'Friends, I have lost a day.'"

b. In Greek: apodesmon chrysion, "a bundle, or packet, of gold."

a. In Greek: emporos. Leontius says "shipmaster" [Nauclerus], which is what is said below here.

b. So Gentian translates; but the MSS. refer this to the ruler alone of that place, whom they call proton.

c. So the Greek MSS. read; but Leontius has Pentapolis.

d. Gentian has it as if wine was changed into blood. The MSS. have water itself changed into blood, which is what is narrated in Exodus 7.

a. Leontius writes that small vessels containing money were sent, not honey; nor does he recognize here any miracle of honey changed into money, but acknowledges Divine Providence in these gifts sent at such a time.

b. In Greek: endoxotes, "gloriousness."

a. Hervet had translated "tribunal"; incorrectly. In Greek, to bemati parastas, which in sacred usage, as is clear here from the context, is taken to mean "the altar."

a. Hervet translated "Cilicium." In Greek: sisyran, a barbaric coverlet of shaggy skins.

a. But Leontius says that this ship too was lost, with only a single skiff saved.

b. Gentian translates "doors." In the Greek it is doryphorois, "bodyguards."

a. A Greek MS. adds: tou en basileusin aoidimou, "most celebrated among Emperors."

b. Both Greek MSS. read Heliopolis; but Hervet reads Heliopylus, "Gate of the Sun," with which the other Life by Leontius agrees.

a. In Greek: kai malista de tous tou bematos, "and especially the ministers of the altar."

a. In Greek: myropalasia touton synegagon chremata, "I collected moneys a thousandfold greater than these."

a. The Greek adds: "nor shall I cease to beseech you."

a. A noted city of Hungary, now for nearly a hundred years groaning under Turkish servitude.

b. Ferrarius in his General Catalogue of Saints, November 12: "At Venice, the Translation of St. John the Almsgiver." Baronius in the Notes to the Martyrology: "They say that his body was translated to Venice." But who says this?

c. Possevinus, Gesner, and Willot report that Pelbartus Oswald of Temesvar flourished around the year 1490, when King Matthias died.

d. This accords with what we have established above.

e. Rather, January. The words of Surius are at the end of the Life by Metaphrastes: "The body of the most holy man, still incorrupt, was sent as a gift by the Turkish tyrant to Matthias, King of the Hungarians, and is honorably preserved in the royal chapel of the castle of Buda, shining with many miracles there, as Brother Pelbartus of Temesvar testifies in his sermons on the Saints." But the body had already been translated to Pressburg when Surius was writing these things.

f. Ohrida, or Acrida, the birthplace of Justinian, hence called Justiniana Prima, the metropolis of Bulgaria.

g. We have already pointed out that this is an error; "January" should be restored.

h. Who indeed was created King of the Romans in the following year; and finally in the year 1555, his brother ceding, he undertook the administration of the Empire; but at that time he was only King of Bohemia and Hungary.

a. Heraclius reigned, as was said above, from the year 610 to 641. In the year 628, Muhammad obtained from him a territory for dwelling with his Saracens; and they, after his death in 631, subjugated Palestine, Syria, and Egypt while Heraclius was still living, and Persia in the year 640.

b. Amalfi, or as it is here called Amalphia, is situated in the territory of the Picentini, between the promontory of Minerva and Salerno. [Amalfi.] The entire tract, as Leander testifies, is called the Amalfitan Coast, or "Costa." The city itself, as the same author writes, is most noble and most prosperous. He states that the first mention of this city found in the records of writers falls in the time of the Emperor Lothair, in the year of Christ 1125. Yet long before, as is clear from here, it was a celebrated and powerful city.

c. This refers to that passage in the Georgics, book 4: "At that time sweet Parthenope was nourishing me, Vergil, flourishing in the pursuits of inglorious leisure."

d. Concerning Amalfi, Leander, already cited: "How splendid and powerful it once was can be understood from its most ample and most costly buildings, and likewise from the multitude of ships, with which we read that the Amalfitans traded very widely. Indeed, as Rassanus writes, the memorials of this Amalfitan name still attest at Messina, Syracuse, [The Amalfitans celebrated for navigation and trade.] and many other places in Sicily, where they were accustomed to trade most frequently, and held their own buildings and certain assigned places, which were called 'the Amalfitans' quarters.' Of this kind, among others called 'the Weavers' quarter,' there still survives to this day the church of St. Andrew at Palermo, built by the Amalfitans and dedicated by the Bishop for their sacred assemblies. They are also said to have discovered the use of the magnet, familiar and indeed necessary to sailors by day and by night -- a most outstanding invention, whoever its author may have been." So he writes. But an even greater glory belongs to that city: that they established these monasteries at Jerusalem, from which very great benefit flowed to the entire Church.

e. This city is called Gabala by Ptolemy and Stephanus. It is not far from Laodicea in Syria, as is clear from here and from Ptolemy, situated on the seacoast.

f. Sylvester Maurolycus writes that these monks were summoned from the Cassinese monastery.

g. James de Vitry: "Whence to this day" (he died in the year 1244) "the aforementioned church is called the Church of St. Mary de Latina. For they established in it a Latin Abbot and monks celebrating the divine offices in the Latin manner."

h. De Vitry says "a chapel."

i. De Vitry and others call him Gerard. Bosio speaks of him at greater length, and also displays his image with a rayed head, and proclaims him Blessed.

ON ST. JOHN THE ALMSGIVER, PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA IN EGYPT.

LIFE

BY LEONTIUS THE BISHOP,

BHL Number: 4388

PREFACE OF THE TRANSLATOR TO THE LORD POPE NICHOLAS.

PROEM OF THE AUTHOR.

CHAPTER I.

PROEM OF THE AUTHOR.

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

ANOTHER LIFE

BY SIMEON METAPHRASTES,

TRANSLATED BY GENTIAN HERVET.

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

ON THE TRANSLATION OF ST. JOHN THE ALMSGIVER.

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION

STI IOANE MILOSTIVI POMILVI RAVSI DESPMINV ANRRE LINV IYE DAEE.

JESUS CHRIST CONQUERS.

ORDER OF THE HOSPITALLERS

FIRST ORIGIN OF THE HOSPITALLERS

ON THE SANCTITY OF THE FIRST HOSPITALLERS,

Notes

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