Simeon Salos

ON ST. SIMEON SALOS, THE FOOL IN CHRIST

In the 6th Century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Symeon Salos, near Emesa in Syria (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. P.

§ I. Whence St. Symeon is called Salos. His sacred cult celebrated on one day among the Latins, on another among the Greeks.

While I undertake to speak of the things done by St. Symeon, I begin a history altogether marvelous, and of which in the Ecclesiastical Tables certainly very few, not to say most rare, are to be found. For I seem to represent in our one Symeon a twin philosopher, St. Symeon namely Democritus and Heraclitus, but Christians by profession. For no one more wisely showed, that the world is foolish, no one more learnedly either by weeping laughed, or by laughing wept at its insanity, than Symeon, while, to speak with the Apostle, he seemed to wish to destroy the wisdom of the wise, and to reprove the prudence of the prudent; while, as the Roman Martyrology declares of him, he was made a fool for Christ; but his deep wisdom God declared by great miracles. 1 Cor. 1:19 This is the cause that the cognomen Salos was given to him, of whose etymon I briefly subjoin a few things. It pleased venerable antiquity to address besides by the same cognomen other Saints, about whom on February 25, and also on May 24 and 26. Furthermore this cognomen was given to them from the Syriac word σαλός, which denotes the same as simple, foolish, silly, with a nomenclature fitting the thing signified; because those Saints under an affected veil of folly hid their heavenly wisdom. Of this etymology I adduce as witness Palladius in the Lausiac History chapter 42, where it is said: Ὑμεῖς ἐστε σαλαί. Which the old interpreter renders into Latin: You are FOOLISH. More expressly the Apophthegms of the Fathers in Ammon no. 9: But the old man was simulating folly: and lo a certain woman stood near him, and said: οὗτος ὁ γέρων σαλός ἐστι. That old man is a FOOL. See Du Cange.

[2] whence called Salos. This cognomen, though abject and vile, this our Saint held in love and in delight. For that he might more certainly repress the painted wisdom of ambition and elation, and more safely shun the pomp of the world and the celebrity of name, which is wont to follow virtue as the shadow the body, prompt to do anything and to suffer it, he bore himself such, as antiquity recorded in most illustrious monuments testifies, such as posterity admiringly beholds, and scarcely believes, simple, silly for Christ, and mad. And truly the contempt of honor had so deeply adhered to the inmost senses of his soul, that he put every disgrace to gain, and hunted after, as far as he could, every occasion of catching infamy. In this part he was ingenious and gracious, elsewhere you would have called him a blockhead, leaden, a log, and bereft of mind. To such a degree was he wholly in imitating Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a scandal, but to the gentiles folly. 1 Cor. 1:23 Therefore it was not enough for Symeon to hide himself in the abstruse and utterly remote-from-human-society hiding places of Syria, and to exchange all his wealth and resources for mendicity and squalor; but by the impulse of the divine spirit, from shadow and solitude into the sun and dust he felt himself called to fight the battles of the Lord; for he conquered the Origenists, overcame the Acephali, repressed the Jews, warred down the magicians. About which matter the Life next to be illustrated by us, can give you more in detail in more than one place.

[3] Sacred cult among the Greeks Those things which pertain to his cult, thus briefly I dispatch. In the printed Menaea of the Greeks, in their Menology in Sirleto, published by Canisius among the ancient lessons, as also in the Menology of Grottaferrata, edited by command of the Emperor Basil; finally in the Horologion struck in type, his anniversary feast day is celebrated on the twenty-first of the month of July. It would suffice to have produced one passage for many from the Menaea, in which the aforesaid day is most plainly marked by this little verse: Ἐικάδι δὲ πρώτῃ Συμεὼν ἔθανεν πυκινόφρων. On the twice-tenth and first, the provident Symeon dies. We have a Slavo-Russian Menology or perpetual Calendar of the whole Muscovite year, which the most noble and generous Lord Johan Gabriel baron of Sparwenfeld communicated to us, when he had previously translated that very one verbatim from the Slavonic Language into Latin in the year 1688; which same Menology is collated with various codices both manuscript and edited at various times, in which our Saint is thus announced on the aforesaid day July 21: SS. our Fathers John the hermit and Simeon, fools for Christ. About John there will be treatment on the 21st of this month, on which day also he is read inserted in the Latin Fasti. The Reverend Father George David, a priest of our Society from the province of Bohemia, and Missionary, residing at Moscow in the aforesaid year, having labored most excellently for our affairs and most outstandingly deserving of us, communicated another Synaxarion of the Ruthenians with Father Papebroch, rendered into Latin by himself; where on the said day of the month of July are read the following: V. our Father Simeon Salos. And so, we see the anniversary memory of St. Symeon in the Greek tables recalled everywhere on the same day, and far and wide spread even to the foreign and far-distant regions of the Muscovites and Ruthenians. The Latins do otherwise. For these everywhere with the Roman Martyrology recall the feast of Symeon on the Kalends of July. Have the whole and entire (for part of it we have already given above) announcement, as it is had in the Roman Martyrology. At Emesa, of St. Simeon Confessor, by cognomen Salos, who was made a fool for Christ. But his deep wisdom God declared by great miracles.

[4] It might now be asked, whence arose the diversity of the Greek Church from the Latin in the day of cult of this Saint. and among the Latins on different days. Heribert Rosweyde manifestly indicates this to us, when on these words, expressed by Baronius in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology, on July 1, "the Greeks treat of him on this day in the Menology," he left a note in a Ms., printed in the recent edition of Usuard, by which he skillfully detected the difference of the Latin church in this point from the Greek church, thus speaking: Indeed rather, the Menology as also the Menaea, set Symeon Salos on July 21. I think Baronius placed Symeon on July 1 in the Martyrology, because Aloysius and Surius among the Lives of the Saints exhibit him on that day, who seem to have taken that opinion from the end of the Life, where it is said that he died on July 1. But the Greek text must be consulted, and it must be seen whether there is had there ά, whence the interpreter expressed July 1; or rather κά, which is July 21, as the Menaea and Menology represent. Since therefore the festival of St. Symeon in the Menaea, Menology, and Horologion cited above is marked not ά, that is on the first day, but κά, that is on the 21st, on which day also it is clearly and expressly noted in the Ms. Life next to be illustrated by us, it is now perspicuous, that Surius and Lipomanus, and after them Baronius, having slipped perhaps rather by another's error than their own, erred in assigning the genuine day of cult among the Greeks, which thence crept into the Latin Fasti. But if it pleases to inquire further into the first origin of the slip, that could easily have arisen from this, that in the copies, which they had before their eyes, the κ was eaten away or worn off; unless you prefer to say, that by the negligence of copyists it was omitted, which is equally ready. But we, having followed the order of the Roman Martyrology, treat of St. Symeon on the Kalends of July, although on a day not his own, on which day also in the preliminary commentary of St. Symeon Stylites the Younger on May 24 he had been promised. I forbear to speak of the miracles, which the reader will find narrated here and there in the Life.

§ II. On the age of St. Symeon.

Symeon lived in the 6th century. That Symeon flourished in the 6th century of the common era, I think is more certainly established, than that it needs to be established with more words. But it comes besides to be investigated, in what year of the said century he came forth into the light, and thence the whole series of his life, if it can be done, is to be defined by years in order. About the year of his birth Leontius the author of the Life produces nothing certain. A little more light is supplied by the Sparwenfeldian Menology, about which above, when it says: Our holy Father John the hermit, Simeon the fool for Christ, and St. Father Ezechiel: of whom the two former were in the year 522 under Justin. Since Symeon is set there in the said year only as "having been," and not as "born," there is not determined for us a certain time for the natal year. Nor have we anything more determinate from the Menology, collected by command of the Emperor Basil, which records the Saint to have flourished ἐπι τῆς βασιλείας Ἰουστίνου, Justin reigning. The Greek Menaea involve the matter rather than explain it, when they fix his birth under Justin the Younger, wrongly, as I at least judge, and it will be evident from what is to be said, the particle νέου (the Younger) being added, perhaps by the work of interpolators, or by the error of copyists intruded here. However it is, the aforesaid writer of the Life Leontius supplies us in the Life two characteristic notes of time; one very indeterminate, the other somewhat more determinate. The first is drawn from the Jerusalem pilgrimage, which he narrates Symeon to have made under the Emperor Justinian. But since he is recorded to have prolonged the empire to fully 39 years with some months, the series of time remains equally obscure and undecided as to several years at least; especially because the author nowhere indicates, in what year of his own life or of Justinian's, Symeon undertook this pilgrimage.

[6] Inquiry is made into the year Another note, and that more accommodated to defining some certain point of time, is assigned by the already said and to-be-said-more-often Leontius, and is sought from the Antiochene earthquake, which happened under the Emperor Maurice, at which time the same writer relates in the Life chapter 6 that the Saint miraculously stayed the columns. It is fitting therefore to remember that a triple earthquake existed at Antioch at different times. Of which in order the former is said to have happened in the year of the Lord 525; the latter in the year 528. About these two there was treatment in the preliminary Commentary of St. Symeon Stylites the Younger on May 24. The third is handed down to memory in Evagrius, with these words: In the year, he says, of the city of Antioch six hundred thirty-seven, after one and sixtieth year from the last earthquake, on the last day of the month Hyperberetaeus, while I was taking a virgin spouse, and the whole city was keeping holiday…. about the third hour of the night, an earthquake rushing in with crash and sound, shook the whole city. Take away from the year 637 Antiochene the years 48, by which the Antiochene era precedes the Christian, now the year 637 Antiochene will concur with the year of Christ 588 or 589, begun. These premised, thus indeed I establish. Since it is established from the life, that our Symeon made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the times of the Emperor Justinian; since thence also it is established that he survived even to the times of the Emperor Maurice, now there flows of its own accord this first conclusion, indissolubly connected with the foregoing positions; namely that he lived under four continuous Emperors, Justinian, Justin the Younger, Tiberius II, and Maurice, indeed even under Justin the elder (who should have been named in the first place) if the said Sparwenfeldian Menology says the truth, in which it is distinctly stated that he was in the year 522 under the aforesaid Justin.

[7] The other conclusion is thus instituted by me, and the whole series of our Symeon's life through years continuously succeeding one another is deduced in this manner. The series of the life chronologically deduced He may have begun to live about the year of the common era 522 under Justin the elder. After 30 years spent in his paternal home, he may have made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to visit the sacred places, to which pilgrimage, as also to the withdrawal to the monastery of the Abbot Gerasimus (consult the Life chapter 1) assign 1 year; thence departing, in the wilderness, situated not far from the Dead Sea, he may have spent twenty-nine years, as the Life testifies he in fact spent; now the first year, in which, the solitude being left, he came forth into the public, and feigned folly at Emesa, will be his 60th of age, and will concur with the year of Christ 582, which is counted the first of the Emperor Maurice; which agrees with the Life, in which it is asserted that he came from solitude to Emesa in the times of the aforesaid Emperor Maurice. But now put 6 or 7 years passed at Emesa before the earthquake, and you will easily come to the year of Christ 588 or 589 begun; and it will correspond to the 66th or 67th year of St. Symeon's age begun. But how long beyond this he lived, I have nothing ascertained; since I have nowhere seen the year of his death expressed, which also I do not believe can easily be found expressed anywhere. And let these things, which about the order of St. Symeon's time have been set forth, suffice for the learned reader, that he may by probable conjecture establish and define the chronotaxy of his life and death conformably to the Life, to be illustrated by us.

[8] But to the calculation of years now begun much trouble is caused by a passage, does it agree with the calculation of Evagrius? drawn from Evagrius's ecclesiastical history. Thus he himself writes about our Symeon in book 4 chapter 34: When that earthquake was imminent, by which maritime Phoenicia was shaken, and by which Berytus and Byblus and Tripolis were vexed before the other cities, a scourge being lifted on high, he began to whip most of the columns which were in the forum, crying out with these words: Stand, you must dance. And since nothing was done by him rashly or unadvisedly, those who were present diligently noted, the columns, which he passing by had by no means whipped. Which indeed not long after collapsed, overturned by the earthquake. On which passage hear Valois commenting in the Annotations to the just-cited Author: This earthquake happened in the twenty-fourth year of Justinian, as Cedrenus writes in the Chronicle, and Theophanes. Who since he began to reign in the year 527, the beginning of his reign being drawn from the Kalends of April, now that earthquake according to what is said, happened toward the year 550, at which very time I find it indicated by a more recent Author in the Life of Symeon Salos edited in French. And so between the present computation of time from Evagrius, and the foregoing from Leontius, there intervenes an interval of about 38 or 39 years, and the same diversity of years between one and the other epoch, according to those things which were established and defined by us above, about which discrepancy it suffices to have warned the reader in passing. Evagrius is held, and in fact is, an accurate and great-named historian, and was contemporary with Symeon; but since he sampled only a few little points summarily about his deeds, as it were incidentally, as they say, I do not see what compels a departure from the calculation of Leontius; since that Author by design followed the things done by Symeon from the beginning of his better life, even to the end, with a continuous thread, of which most, if not all, he testifies that he received from the mouth of John the deacon of Emesa, an eyewitness, who deacon lived most familiarly and most closely with Symeon; to whom Symeon was wont to entrust himself and all his affairs, and with whom to act seriously, and, the mask of simulation and folly being laid aside, candidly, sincerely, and openly, to communicate the wondrous institute of his life, as it will be given to see in the course. Now that greater authority may be conciliated to the life, in many things wondrous almost beyond faith, and incredible, I have thought a few things should be subjoined about the merits, sincerity, and truthfulness of the very-often-mentioned Leontius, who transmitted this, described by himself, to posterity.

§. III. On the Author of the Life.

Although other testimonies, which would lead us to the knowledge of the Author of the Life, Leontius the writer of the Life, were not present, even from the sole title of the Life, written by himself and prefixed, it would become sufficiently known. The inscription is of this tenor: βίος καὶ πολιτεία τοῦ ἀββᾶ Συμεὼν, τοῦ διὰ Χριστοῦ ἐπινομασθέντος Σαλοῦ, συγγραφεὶς ὑπὸ Λεοντίου τοῦ ὁσιωτάτου ἐπισκόπου Νεαπόλεως τῆς Κυπρίων νήσου, ἐν ἑξήκοντα καὶ τρισὶ κεφαλαίοις διαλαμβάνων πάντα τὰ κατ᾽ αὐτὸν, καὶ τὰ κατὰ ὅσιον Ἰωάννην. The Life and conversation of the Abbot Symeon, who was surnamed the fool for Christ, written by Leontius, the most holy Bishop of Neapolis in the island of Cyprus, embracing in sixty-three chapters whatever pertains both to him, and to St. John. But it must besides be discerned, by what praises especially the merits of the Man can be lauded and celebrated. For the narration of things, especially of those which seem to surpass all faith, and to exceed human grasp, of which kind in the course of Symeon's Life there occur not infrequently, unless confirmed by the trustworthiness and sincerity of the author, are wont to have little weight and moment with the reader. For just as the value of coin stands both from its weight and from its figure, so the worth of a history is sought not from bulk alone, or antiquity, but also from the author.

[10] what kind he was. But every treatment which can be instituted about the Author of the Life, seems able to be accomplished chiefly under three heads. First if it be said what kind he was; then in what time he lived; finally from what source he drew the narration of things so unheard-of and wonderful. I begin from the first. The Second Council of Nicaea, celebrated in the year of Christ 787, thus pronounces about Leontius in Action 4: Peter and Peter, presbyters dear to God, and holding the place of Hadrian the Pope of elder Rome, said: We have at hand a book of blessed Leontius Bishop of Neapolis of Cyprus, and we ask that it be read. But Leontius's apology for the cult of the sacred images being read, which is had inserted in the council there, Constantius the most holy Bishop of Constantia of Cyprus said: This man, who was read, Father, in one of the cities of Cyprus shone with most sacred dignity: and we have many praises and festive sermons of his, with which there is also his sermon, on the transfiguration of our Savior. He wrote moreover the Life of St. John Archbishop of Alexandria, by cognomen Eleemon, that is the merciful: indeed also of St. Symeon the Simple, and some other things; and in all his sermons he is seen orthodox. Vossius much hallucinates, which I would wish to be observed here in passing by the reader, when about the place, in which the praised Leontius held the episcopate, he speaks to this effect, on the Greek Historians book 2 chapter 38: In Action IV of the Second Synod of Nicaea, the name of the city is passed over. For it is simply said, that this Leontius was Bishop, ἐν μιᾷ τῶν πόλεων Κύπρου, in one of the cities of Cyprus.

[11] But the aforesaid Author, the cited passage of the Synod, either did not at all inspect, Not at Constantia or at least did not read through entire. Tell me, I pray, how in Action IV of the said Synod could the name of the city be indicated more plainly and more luminously, in which Leontius bore the sacred fillets, to have been Neapolis of Cyprus, commonly Lemissus or Nemosia, than when both Peters the presbyters said in express words: We have at hand a book of blessed Leontius, ἐπισκόπου Νεαπόλεως τῆς Κύπρου, Bishop of Neapolis of Cyprus. And since we have now fallen into this discussion, that Leontius administered the episcopate not at Constantia, but at Neapolis in Cyprus, Bolland solidly proves in the preliminary commentary on the Life of St. John the Almsgiver on January 23, with these words: Sigebert mentions this author Leontius in On Ecclesiastical Writers chapter 57. "Leontius," he says, "Bishop of Neapolis of the island of the Cypriots, wrote the Life of John Bishop of Alexandria, who on account of his exceptional mercy toward the poor, is surnamed the Almsgiver." The same is testified by Trithemius, Possevinus, Bellarmine on Writers, Molanus, Galesinius, Baronius in the Notes to the Martyrology. And this man in volume 8 in the year of Christ 610 number 7; and in the year 620 no. 2: whom however he wrongly calls Bishop of Constantia at the year 594 number 30, or certainly judged him another than this one. Binius in the Library of the Fathers in the seventh century; writes that he was Bishop of Constantia or, as they wish, of Neapolis in Cyprus. Possevinus: "Leontius Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, a holy Man, wrote the tribulations, which the church of God suffered in the time of Gregory the Great supreme Pontiff and the Emperor Maurice, as is established from Action IV of the Second Nicene Council; but it either has perished, or lies hidden elsewhere." And soon about Leontius Bishop of Neapolis, as if a different one, he treats from Sigebert and others. Thus Bolland.

[12] To the purpose serve those things which Rosweyde diligently collected in the Notations to the Lives of the Fathers, but he was Bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus. where in notation 2 to the Life of St. John the Almsgiver he observes these things: Anastasius the Librarian in his version of the VII Synod, after Symeon, adds, that he wrote the disturbances for Christ, made in the Church around those times, which here is lacking in the Greek. Wherefore either he himself obtained a more perfect Greek copy, or certainly τοῦ σαλοῦ, which is the epithet of Symeon, by which the simple and foolish is designated by the Syrians, he himself metaphrastically explains from the Greek τοῦ σάλου. For σάλος to the Greeks is tossing, disturbance. Wherefore perhaps nothing is lacking to the Greek text; but Anastasius may have slipped by the ambiguity of the word σαλοῦ and σάλου. Which matter to Baronius volume VIII in the year of Christ 614 and in the year 620 may have afforded an occasion of slipping, so that he thought this Leontius wrote a history of his own time, beginning to narrate from Maurice those disturbances which were in the Church. The same things our Possevinus has in the Apparatus sacer. Wherefore that book perhaps did not perish, nor lie hidden anywhere, because perhaps it was never written. Nor is Leontius rightly called in the former place in Baronius and Possevinus Bishop of Constantia. Indeed he was of Neapolis. See the Onomasticon under Neapolis. Thus far Rosweyde, the more recent writers everywhere, whom indeed I was permitted to see, favoring his calculation. Let it therefore be admitted as certain and undoubted, that Leontius was prelate not at Constantia, or Salamis, which in modern speech is also called Famagusta, but at Neapolis in Cyprus, commonly Lemissus or Nemosia. Besides, that it be here said in passing, that the book, in which Leontius wrote the tribulations which the Church of God suffered in the time of Gregory the Great, supreme Pontiff, and the Emperor Maurice, nowhere perished, or lies hidden elsewhere, but probably never was in the nature of things, unless it be proved by other arguments, and that this hallucination arose from the wrongly accented and consequently wrongly understood word σάλος, for σαλός. And so from Action 4 of the Second Nicene Council the contrary does not seem to be proved, much less established.

[13] His eulogies from Baronius and the Second Council of Nicaea But now let us excerpt the praises about Leontius interspersed by Cardinal Baronius in the Ecclesiastical Annals. In the notes of the Roman Martyrology on July 1 he thus speaks: The most approved author Leontius, Bishop in Cyprus, wrote his Symeon's deeds, exceeding human grasp. Then a few things interposed, he brings forth a passage from the Council of Nicaea: This man, Father, who was read etc. Which we too have cited above. The same purpled Father, in praise and commendation of the very-often-praised and named Leontius, in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver, thus declares at the year of Christ 620 no. 2: With all sincerity he committed to writing the things done by John himself. They are of such a kind, that they bring the reader into great admiration, so that, unless they had been produced by a most weighty writer of his time, they would scarcely find faith with anyone. To these from the aforesaid IV Council of Nicaea we learn other lucubrations of Leontius, namely: Many laudations and panegyric orations; and together with them also the transfiguration of our Savior. Besides an Apology for the Christians against the Jews, from which St. John Damascene excerpted some things in oration III on the images, by the testimony of Vossius. All these things being maturely weighed and pondered, I do not regard a certain modern writer, who in the critical table of Authors, which he prefixes every month to the Lives of the Saints edited in French by himself, after he had said with truth: Leontius was strong in learning and probity, and was praised by the Second Ecumenical Council of Nicaea on account of his writings, which were there declared orthodox; adds, more roundly than solidly, as it were from the tripod, no author being cited: But he was good and credulous. Such he seemed to be to that immoderately critical man, whereas by other writers, about whom above, of greater note and authority than he himself is, he is represented to the world far otherwise.

[14] In what age he lived. Those things which pertain to the person of Leontius being run through, it remains, that the age in which he lived be briefly treated. Although about the year of his birth nothing certain is clear, it is established however that he flourished in the times of the Emperor Maurice. And this is proved from the words of the Second Synod of Nicaea action IV, where from Constantius, Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, it is asserted in distinct terms, ἤκμασε δὲ κατὰ τοὺς χρόνους Μαυρικίου τοῦ βασιλέως. But he flourished in the times of the Emperor Maurice. But now since Maurice began to reign in the year of the common era 582, and, the debt of human vicissitude being paid, ceased to reign in the year 602; besides since St. John the Almsgiver, whose Life we proved above to have been transmitted to posterity by Leontius, departed from mortal life in the year 616, it is now consequent first, that he prolonged his life to about the year 20 of the same century, or even longer, and lived under the Emperors Maurice, Phocas, and Heraclius. Secondly, that he lived for some time with St. Symeon Salos, according to the calculation deduced at length from the epoch of the aforesaid Leontius. Consult Bolland in the preliminary commentary on the Life of St. John the Almsgiver on January 23, the Doctrina temporum of Dionysius Petavius book 3 chapter 49, the Historico-chronological Critique of Pagi at the year 616.

[15] Next about the source, from which Leontius drew the History of the Life, From what source as at the beginning of this paragraph I had proposed to myself to speak, so I pronounce from chapter I of the Life of St. Symeon, where the author himself discloses it, and describes it in these words: But all these things Symeon, excelling in virtue, at Emesa, where he also feigned himself a fool, narrated to a certain deacon of the holy Catholic Church, of that same city of the Emesenes, a wondrous man, and conspicuous for virtues, who also by the divine grace in which he was strong, understood the working of the Old Man; upon whom this same blessed Symeon conferred a stupendous miracle, of which miracle we shall make mention in its place. That same one therefore, the aforesaid God-loving John, a deacon distinguished by virtue, expounded to us almost the whole life of the most wise Symeon; calling God as witness of the things which he said, and that he was so far from contaminating its truth by adding anything to the narration, that rather he had forgotten very much by the lapse of time.

[16] The first source therefore, from which Leontius irrigated his garden, from which he drew his History. was John deacon of the church of Emesa, notable for piety and virtue, not only contemporary with Symeon, but an eyewitness and observer of many of his actions, a guest, friend, and familiar. Which circumstances are diligently to be observed, because they marvelously serve to conciliate faith to the life and the things done by Symeon, however wondrous and almost incredible they appear, inasmuch as they are understood to have been propagated to posterity from such beginnings. The same Leontius confesses at the end of the Life, this source not yet being disclosed, that he had only composed a certain compendium about St. Symeon Salos, which I have nowhere seen to exist. Furthermore whether the waters of the shown source always remained equally clear and limpid, so that by the work of interpolators, they were never infected with any little stain, I would not dare to guarantee or promise. Especially since it does not seem able to be doubted, that the Life first passed through the hands of the Metaphrast, before it came to us. Meanwhile, I have no cause indeed, why I should fear that a notable change, and one pertaining to the substance of things, intervened by adding or taking away. If any interpolation was employed, it was of lighter moment, the argument of historical truth being left safe. The Life published by Surius savors of the same source as ours, since it scarcely differs from ours, if you except some minutiae of lighter moment, about which in the annotations.

§ IV. On the Author's style, division, and our interpretation, a little admonition to the Reader.

About the Author's style, division, The style not altogether unpolished, and our interpretation it seemed good briefly to admonish the reader. In the style occur the following, here to be insinuated. It is plain and perspicuous, which is the first endowment of speech. Nor is it altogether polished, nor altogether neglected. There occur here and there some words, savoring of barbarism, and by no means accommodated to the primitive use of the Greek school. For who would reckon among Attic charm these words; παλάτιον, palace; κουβαλλέριος, knight; στράθα, street; ὀσπίτιον, words here and there barbarous, lodging; ὀψίκιον, retinue; σάσσειν, to dance; κύρις, for κύριος, lord; ποτήρι, for ποτήριον, cup, and the rest of the kind? Add, that in several places the manner of writing does not agree with legitimate and genuine orthography. What, if these faults crept in by the fault of copyists, scribal errors. not well and correctly knowing the primitive laws of orthography? Which could easily happen, if the words were taken down and transcribed from the mouth of the one dictating according to the modern pronunciation of the Greeks, in which it is ready, to confuse many vowels with diphthongs. However the matter stands, it suffices for the purpose, to have observed these few things, and to have indicated to the reader, that all things have been exacted to the rules of grammar and corrected by me. You have heard a few things about the author's style, The Author's partition, now understand about the partition or division. From the title of the Life, which we produced above §3, you saw that this history was divided into sixty-three chapters; but which you might with better right call numbers, both because they are distant from one another by a small interval, and because they are read written in the margin without a title, and consist in mere alphabetic letters, which the Greeks use for numeral marks. and ours. We after our manner have distributed the whole matter into fewer and longer chapters, each with its own title prefixed for greater distinction and perspicuity of the matter.

[18] The manner of interpretation. That I may add something about the Latin interpretation. This is the manner observed by me. The pronouns οὗτος, αὐτός, "this," "that," the conjunctive particle καί, "and," and also the adverb οὖν, "therefore," "and so," very often repeated in the Greek text, knowingly and willingly in many places I have suppressed in Latin, lest I cause the reader nausea by so frequent and insipid a repetition of those same particles, which to be so often resung the Latins scarcely bear without spitting. Add to this, that certain verbs expressed in the present tense, I have rendered by the future in those places, in which this openly the construction seemed to demand. Nor indeed was I so scrupulous, as to render word for word scrupulously. Each language has its own propriety of speaking and writing. For one is the manner of construction to the Greeks, another to the Latins: the phrase, energy, symmetry of one language is exceedingly different from the other. While anyone affects to be too faithful an interpreter, it can scarcely happen, that he be not at the same time gaping, insipid, ungrateful, not to say barbarous and faulty. In the Latin version, published by Surius, there seem to occur not a few things, which a Reader skilled in both languages would wish perhaps otherwise expressed; about which in the annotations. About my interpretation finally have it thus. The genuine and original sense of the Author, as far as was permitted with the idioms of Latin speech safe, I have tried to follow; but whether I have attained it, I would prefer that to be decided rather by another's judgment, than by mine. It is supreme, that I briefly admonish the Reader about the Life now to be given.

[19] If our lucubrations were contained within such narrow limits, The deeds of Symeon to be admired rather than imitated. that they bestowed labor only in illustrating the Lives of those, whose memory is as clear for veneration, as accommodated to imitation; I would have spared the labor, nor would it ever have come into mind, to publish in type the Life of St. Symeon Salos given to Latinity, and illustrated with notes. For toward the end of that same Life so many things occur, inept, stolid, absurd, that to the unlearned they may be a stumbling-block, but to the learned, and those wise above the common crowd, they may seem worthy of laughter rather than of faith. But a wholly other and far better face of things will there be, if you measure Symeon's deeds not by a precipitate dictate of reason, but maturely and ponderingly weigh them, and with eyes purged from earthly concretion look more deeply within; whereby you will obtain this good, that you praise God, revere Him, and proclaim Him wonderful in His Saints, and especially in our Symeon, when, fashioning them at His own nod, He reaches from end to end, and strongly and sweetly disposes and orders the whole manner of life, however abhorrent from the common sense of men; and leads one thus, another otherwise, by paths different as the whole heaven, to the mansions, which in the Father's house are many and various. More to the present purpose the Prologue of the author supplies, which do you inspect. To what do these things pertain? That very many things, which you will read in the course of the life of St. Symeon, you may know how to admire, but not presume to imitate. Yet his heroic self-contempt, contempt of fleeting things, zeal for prayer, love of God and neighbor, and the rest of this kind, as far as you can, follow and emulate with unoffended foot.

[20] Meanwhile to those things, which we have just said, by way of conclusion it helps to set the elegant and eloquent epiphonema of the most eminent Cardinal Baronius, His eulogy from Baronius. at the year 548 speaking thus: You see plainly in these things, how vehemently you should admire the providence of God, when at the time at which the wisdom of the Greeks could seem to have become infatuated, since now the East rendered wholly sterile, had ceased to bear those most learned and most holy men, who, as before, would illuminate the world with knowledge, and fight against the enemies of the Christian faith and overcome them, He raises up a man, who, feigning himself a fool, would be shown wisest of all, and at the same time, by a certain sport, would conquer the heretics, Jews, and magicians opposing the Christian religion, so that one may plainly exclaim with the Apostle: Where is the wise, where the scribe, where the inquirer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Thus gravely and aptly in his manner Baronius.

§ V. A compendium of the life of St. Symeon Salos from the Greek Menology and the Menaea; and also some memorable things from the Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus, book 4.

The Menology collected by command of the Emperor Basil, already above by us, and in six hundred other places in this work mentioned, Compendia of the life of St. Symeon from the Menology. touches in a brief compendium some deeds of our Symeon. The same is done in the Menaea, the same in Evagrius. And to begin from the said Menology, I render into Latin, what it announces about the Saint and his Companion on July 21: The memory of SS. the Fathers Symeon, fool for Christ, and John. Then it proceeds thus: These, sprung from the city of Edessa, shone under the reign of Justin. After they had departed to the Holy City, and adored the life-giving Cross, they no longer returned to their own homes; but having gone away to the monastery of St. Gerasimus, they embraced the monastic institute; and having gone out from the monastery, they went into solitude, enduring every exercise and austerity for forty years. Afterwards John remained in solitude; but Symeon betook himself to the Holy City, and feigning folly, wrought many miracles in this simulation. But when he had passed his last day and was being carried to the sepulcher by two poor men; a certain Hebrew heard very much Angelic symphony, and looking out from his house, sees only two, who were carrying his body. And he understood that he, who had no men singing, had Angels singing. But John too departed from life. In the Basilian Menology about the deeds of Symeon there is only this much.

[22] The Menaea of the Greeks, struck in type, and the Menaea exhibit a somewhat more prolix synopsis of the life of St. Symeon on the same day July 21, which from the Greek I make into Latin. These Symeon and John from the city of Edessa, which lies in Syria, were born in the time of Justin the Younger (Whether St. Symeon was born in the time of Justin the Younger, we have said enough in the preliminary Commentary, §2.) and kindled with divine desire, they went to the Holy City, and the life-giving wood being adored, betook themselves to the monastery of St. Gerasimus. And after they had received the holy habit from St. Nicon, having gone out from the monastery, not yet seven days being passed there, they sought solitude, in which they persevered forty years, the course of every exercise and austerity being run through. Perhaps here only the fortieth year begun is marked, and it can thus be reconciled with the Life, which marks only 39 years. But thereafter John remained in solitude. But blessed Symeon returned to the Holy City, and having prayed, that he might lie hidden from men, and folly being simulated, he went to the city of Emesa, in which under the appearance of folly, many miracles being wrought, he rested in the Lord. In the Greek Menaea, translated into Latin by our Matthew Rader, whose Ms. we have, I read thus: And folly being simulated, he went to Edessa his fatherland, in which under the appearance of folly he wrought many miracles. Here is a manifest error: for our Symeon did not simulate folly, and work so many wonders at Edessa, but at Emesa, as Leontius in the Life, Evagrius, the Menology of the Emperor Basil, and the printed Menaea plainly assert. Whence this slip crept in, let him himself see. Indeed the same Author in the Viridarium of the Saints, which he published, wrote from Evagrius that the theater of Symeon, of which here is treatment, was not Edessa, but Emesa: But at Emesa was Symeon. He had so put off the garment of vainglory, that to those who did not know he seemed to be foolish etc. The rest will be given below, Valois interpreting. Now let us return to the Menaea.

[23] And only after his death was he recognized, one narrating one, another another, of his miracles. But certain of the miracles, among others, which he wrought, were not permitted to come to knowledge. It is therefore necessary to review another, and that the last. While two men were carrying him out, neglected, unwashed, destitute of perfume and chant, and bearing him to some cemetery, and were passing the house of a certain Hebrew, so great a frequency of psalmody appeared, and so great a throng of men singing melody now accompanying and going before, that the Hebrew looking out, and seeing the Saint carried out by only two poor men, said: Blessed are you, O Salos! because, you who have no singing men, have obtained the heavenly virtues, who honor you with hymns. The Hebrew therefore descending, embracing him with his own hands, committed him to the earth. And after some days his friend and fellow-ascetic John coming found that he had already migrated to the Lord. From the Menaea I come to Evagrius.

[24] The authority of Evagrius Scholasticus is too well known to lovers of history, and from Evagrius Scholasticus for his trustworthiness, sincerity, and accuracy to need to be commended with more words in this place. I would wish only one thing to be noted by the Reader, or rather recalled to memory, that which we have just now premised, that Evagrius was contemporary with our Symeon. To these, at the time at which this one was working things so wondrous at Emesa, Evagrius was dwelling at Antioch. Whereby it comes about, that the same time of both lives, and the same tract of region, although they dwelt in places not so near to one another, render more undoubted the faith of those things, which from his Ecclesiastical History I sample, according to the interpretation of Henri de Valois; lest anything, which pertains to Symeon, should seem to have been neglected: St. Symeon a hater of glory, There was also in the city of the Emesenes Symeon, who had so put off all pomp of vainglory, that by all, to whom he was unknown, he was held for foolish, although he abounded in every kind of wisdom, and in divine grace. Furthermore this Symeon dwelt apart from others for the most part, allowing no mortal at all to know, when, or in what manner he prayed to God, nor at what time at home he either fasted or took food. Sometimes also acting in the public ways or in the forum, he seemed thrown out of his state of mind, nor to bear before him anything of prudence and shrewdness. Sometimes creeping into a tavern, he used the foods at hand, while he was hungry. But if anyone with inclined head had greeted him, he himself angered immediately fled away, fearing lest his virtue be detected by the crowd. And in this manner indeed Symeon bore himself in the forum. There were however certain familiars of his, with whom he was wont to associate without any simulation. And that intimate to Symeon was John deacon of Emesa, to whom he was wont both to open his heart, and with whom to act, all simulation of folly laid aside, is narrated below in the Life chapter 1, 4, 6, and 8; and we have just now noted it above.

[25] Of these one is said to have had a maidservant, who when, debauched by I know not whom, was pregnant, and was compelled by her masters to name the author of this disgrace, said that Symeon had secretly had relations with her, and that from him she was pregnant; and that she would swear, that the matter was so, and, if there were need, would even convict him. Which when Symeon had heard, he assented, saying that he bore flesh, a thing very fragile and weak. And when the fame of this matter had been everywhere divulged, and Symeon, as indeed seemed, had been sprinkled with grave ignominy, he began to withdraw himself from the midst, simulating that he was suffused with shame.

[26] He foretells future things and works a miracle: After therefore the day of bringing forth had come, and the woman after the manner of those bringing forth sat on the bed, the parturition indeed bringing immense and intolerable pains, had brought the woman into the extreme crisis of life: but the birth was by no means advancing. When therefore Symeon had designedly come thither, asked by those who were present, that he would make a prayer; he affirmed before all, that the woman would not bring forth before she had confessed, who was the father of the infant, which she bore in her womb. Which when she had done, and had named the true father of the infant, immediately the infant burst forth, the truth itself as it were acting as midwife. This same deed is narrated below by Leontius in chapter 5.

[27] He relieves the hunger of a harlot: The same was once seen to enter into the chamber of a harlot: and when he had shut the door, alone with her alone he stayed. The door then being unbarred, when he had snatched himself away in flight, looking around everywhere, whether anyone saw him, he the more increased the suspicion. So that those, who had seen him, brought the woman, and inquired from her, what Symeon's entrance to her, and the delay of so long a time, meant. But she swore that for three days, before he came, on account of the penury of necessary things, she had tasted nothing except water; but that Symeon had brought provisions and foods and a vessel of wine to her, and the doors being barred had set the table, and ordered that she should sup, and sate herself with the viands, since she was sufficiently afflicted with hunger. At the same time she brought forth the remains of the foods, which had been brought. This indeed I do not find expressly narrated in the Life by Leontius; there occur however in it not a few things, which on account of affinity could persuade that this truly happened.

[28] In the earthquake he bids the columns stand. The same moreover, when that earthquake was imminent, by which maritime Phoenicia was shaken, and by which Berytus and Byblus and Tripolis were vexed before the other cities, a scourge being lifted on high, began to whip most of the columns, which were in the forum, crying out with these words: Stand, you must dance. And since nothing was done by him rashly or unadvisedly, those who were present diligently noted the columns, which he passing by had by no means whipped. Which indeed not long after collapsed, overturned by the earthquake. But also very many other things were done by him, which require a peculiar work. That peculiar work Leontius composed, taught many things by John deacon of Emesa, as above again we have insinuated; since before he had not written except a compendium; as he himself confesses toward the end of the Life, which he wrote. About the earthquake there is treatment in Leontius chapter 5, as also about its time, in the preliminary Commentary. But now these things premised let us subjoin the more prolix Life.

LIFE. By the Author Leontius, Bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus, contemporary with the Saint. From the Vatican codex, marked no. 819, collated with that which is in Surius, Vol. 3 page 1.

Symeon Salos, near Emesa in Syria (S.)

By Leontius. From the MSS.

PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR.

[1] Those who are eager to pursue among one another the dignity of teaching, ought from their own life to show forth the teaching of others, according to the divine voice, which says: So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven. Lest, while they are eager to admonish, instruct, and lead others into the way, before they have taught and purged themselves through the practice of the divine commandments, they unawares neglect to weep their own dead, being occupied about another's, and there be fulfilled upon them the unlying and fitting saying, which declares: Whoever shall not do and teach, this one shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. And again: Hypocrite, cast out first the beam from your eye, and then you shall see, and the rest. Therefore also the wise writer of the Acts of the Apostles speaks thus about our great and true God and master: Which Jesus began to do and to teach; for this too Paul, the great vessel of the Church, rebuking the Romans, wrote, thus saying: You then who teach another, do you not teach yourself? and the rest. Since therefore from our own life we are unable to set forth an image and figure of the teaching and practice which is according to virtue, carrying about everywhere in ourselves the affections of sin; come, let us at least from the practice of others, and from the sweats which have been drained by others, reveal to you today a nourishment which does not perish, but leads our souls into eternal life.

[2] For bread indeed strengthens the body, but the divine word zealously arouses the soul to virtue, and especially of those who are more sluggish, and negligently disposed toward the execution of the divine commandments; for to the diligent, and those clinging to God in thought, the conscience suffices for the foundation of teaching, which counsels all good things, and turns away from all wicked things. But those who are still lowlier than these have need of the precept and argument of the written law. But if anyone shall repel the first and the second mode of the way which leads to virtue, it is necessary that this one too be aroused by divine desire even from the zeal and care of others, which comes to him both by his eyes and through hearing and narration, and shake off from himself the sleep of the soul, and walk the narrow and afflicted way, and thereafter make a beginning of eternal life. For it is in our power, and lies within our authority, by desire of things to come to despise things present as passing away; or again by desire and lust of things present to fail of the boundless goods. And that what is said is true, all men from of old convince us, who have pleased God, being themselves also of the same nature with us, but especially those who in our generation were shown forth as lights; of whom one is this most wise Symeon, and far more venerable than the many, because he ran up to so great a height of purity and impassibility, that through those things which seem to the more passionate and more carnal to bring pollution and harm and impediment to the life according to virtue, through these, I say, this most pure one, like a pearl, passed unstained through the mire. I mean indeed through his dwelling in the city, and his converse with women, and the rest of the deception of life, hastening truly to show to the more slothful and those pleading inability for the life according to virtue, the power supplied by God to those who genuinely from all their soul minister to Him, against the spirits of wickedness.

[3] But I ask all, who hear or read the narration set before us about his angelic manner of life, to attend to what is said with the fear of the Lord, and with the fitting, true, and unwavering faith of Christians. For we know that to the more foolish and the scorners, we shall seem to speak things both incredible and worthy of laughter. But if they heard him who said: Whoever wishes to be wise in this age, let him become foolish, that he may become wise; and again: We are fools for Christ; and again: that the foolish thing of God is wiser than men, they would not attend to the things wrought by this truly an athlete as to laughable things. But rather and more than those who have gone through the other manners of life of virtue, they would marvel. For not while still untrained, needing one to set over him, did he go forth into the world; but just as we see happening in military arrays, when the whole army stands together with one mind, those who trust in the power of God, and in the military arms laid upon them, and in their varied and long-standing military experience, these and these alone leap out from the multitude to single combat against the adversaries; so too he himself does, when he had well and lawfully fought the good fight. When he saw himself armed with the power of the spirit, when he received the power against him, to tread upon serpents and scorpions, when he quenched the burning of the flesh with the dew of the Holy Spirit, when he spat upon all the luxury and glory of his life, as upon a spider's web.

[4] And what need is there to say more? when he had drawn to himself impassibility as a garment within and without through humility, and was deemed worthy of adoption, according to the voice spoken in the Song of Songs about the pure and impassible soul: For she is wholly beautiful, says Christ to the soul, wholly beautiful is my neighbor, and there is no blemish in her. Then he too, chosen by God, leaped out into the world, as to single combat, from the wilderness against the devil; for he did not think it just that one so honored and exalted by God should despise the salvation of his fellow-kind, but remembering him who said: You shall love your neighbor as yourself, who also did not disdain to put on unchangeably the form of a servant, for the salvation of the servant. He too imitates his own Master, truly laying down his own soul and body, that he might save some. But it is necessary before all things to narrate to you the manner of his coming into the world from the wilderness. Then thus his marvelous deeds, worthy of wonder. Symeon.

Those who are eager to be of authority in teaching among others, ought from their own life to show the doctrine, Teachers of others which they teach others, according to the oracle of the divine voice: So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven. Matt. 5. Lest while they are eager first to admonish, instruct, and lead others into the way, before they have taught and purged themselves through the observation of the divine commandments, they forget to weep their own dead before they labor about another's, and there be fulfilled in them this true saying, and congruent with them, which says: He who shall not do and teach, this one shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 7. And again; Hypocrite, cast out first the beam from your eye, and then you shall see: etc. Therefore also the wise writer of the Acts of the Apostles speaks thus about our great and true God and master: Which Jesus began to do and to teach. For this too Paul, the great vessel of the Church, rebuking the Romans, wrote, thus saying: You who teach another, do you not teach yourself? Acts 1; Rom. 2. etc. Since therefore from our life we cannot set forth an image and figure of the teaching and practice, which is according to virtue, what kind they ought to be. carrying about everywhere in us the affections of sin; come, let us reveal, at least from the practice of others, and from the sweats which have been drained by others, a nourishment, which may not perish to you today, but lead our souls into eternal life.

[2] For bread indeed strengthens the body, but the divine word arouses the soul to virtue, The divine word especially of those, who are more negligent, and sluggishly incline to the execution of the divine commandments. For to the diligent, and those clinging to God in thought, the conscience suffices, for laying the foundation of teaching, which conciliates all good things, and turns away from all evils. the food of the soul. But those, who are baser than these, need the declaration and argument of the written law. But if anyone shall repel the first and the second mode of the way, which leads to virtue; it is necessary, that this one be aroused by divine desire even from the zeal also of others and the care, which through hearing and narration shall come to him, that he shake off the sleep of the soul from himself, walk the narrow and trodden way, and auspicate eternal life thereafter. That the use of creatures, or the abuse, For it is in our power, and placed in our authority, by desire of things to come, to despise things present, as passing through; or contrariwise by desire and lust of things present, to be frustrated of the goods never to be ended. And that this is true, which has been said, all men convince us, is free to us who are from of old, who have been eager to please God, although they were partakers of the same nature with us; but especially those who in our age appeared as luminaries. Of whom one was this most wise Symeon, more venerable than many before many. In that he ascended to so great a summit of purity and impassibility, that through those things, which in the way of virtue seem to bring expiation, harm, and impediment to those, who are more bound to depraved affections and to the flesh, through these, I say, that most pure Symeon, like a pearl, passed unpolluted. It is proved by the example of Symeon. I speak indeed of his dwelling in the city, his converse with women, and the rest of the deception of his life; hastening truly to show, to the more slothful, and those pleading inability to pass life with virtue, that strength is supplied by God, to those sincerely from all their soul ministering to Him, against the spirits of wickedness.

[3] His deeds to be admired. But I ask all, who hear or read about the narration of his angelic manner of life, which is at hand, that with the fear of the Lord they attend to those things which are said, and with a true faith, which befits Christians, and unshaken. For we know it will come about, that to those who labor under madness and contempt, we shall seem to say things incredible, and worthy of laughter. But if they heard him who said: He who wishes to be wise in this age, let him become foolish, that he may be wise. 1 Cor. 3. And again: We are fools for Christ. And again: That what is foolish of God, is wiser than men; let them not attend to the things done by that true pugilist, as to laughable things; but rather and more let them marvel, than at those, who have been versed in the course of the other virtues. 1 Cor. 4; 1 Cor. 1. For not while still unexercised and needing a superior, did he come into the world; but just as we see done in warlike ranks, when the whole army stands together; some trust in their own, or rather in God's, virtue, and in the warlike arms, which are at hand, and in their varied and long-standing experience in warlike matters; these alone leap out from the multitude to single combat against the adversaries. So too he did, when well and lawfully he had fought the fair fight; when he saw himself clothed with the virtue of the spirit as with a breastplate; when he received virtue from Him to tread upon serpents and scorpions; when he extinguished the inflammation of the flesh with the dew of the Holy Spirit; when he despised all the delights and glory of this life, like a spider's web.

[4] And what need is there of words? when he had drawn impassibility to himself, as a garment within and without through humility, and had obtained the dignity of an adoptive son, according to the voice, which in the Song of Songs, was said about the pure and passion-free soul: For wholly beautiful, says Christ to the soul, wholly beautiful is she who is near me, and there is no stain in her. Cant. 4. Then he, into the world as into single combat, leaped out from solitude against the devil, chosen by God. For he did not think it just, that he who was thus honored and exalted by God, should neglect the salvation of his neighbor; but mindful of him who said: You shall love your neighbor as yourself; who also did not disdain to put on unchangeably the form of a servant, for the salvation of the servant; he too imitates his own Lord, truly laying down his own soul and body, that he might have those whom he might save. Matt. 5, 19, 22. But it is necessary, before all things, to narrate to you, in what manner he came forth from solitude into the public: afterwards about the things done by him, which surpass opinion, and are worthy of admiration, I shall have discourse.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I. The pilgrimage of Symeon and John to the holy places, the occasion of a better life.

In the times of the reign of Justinian the Emperor, who is among the saints, the lovers of Christ coming together, and being eager to adore the holy places of Christ, which are in the holy city, according to custom, at the exaltation of the precious and life-giving Cross. But all know, who are wont to come there at this holy and all-praised feast, that almost from the whole inhabited world there run together the cross-loving and Christ-bearing multitudes of the peoples. At this same renowned feast it happened, that two certain younger men, being from Syria, met one another by the dispensation of God. The name to the one was John, and the name to the other Symeon. When therefore they had spent there a few days, and the holy feast of God being completed, each thereafter departed to his own city. Since by the good pleasure of the man-loving God these two younger men had the meeting and the love with one another, they were no longer separated from one another. Wherefore also to depart to their own homes, they journeyed with one mind together with their parents too. For John had an old father, but not a mother; and he was also joined to a wife at that same time. For he was about 22 years old. But Symeon had no father, but only an old mother of about 80 years, and he had no one else at all; all therefore were one company, and as they came down the descent of Jericho, and passed the city, John beholds the monasteries which are around the Jordan, and says in Syriac to Symeon: Do you know who dwell in those lodgings opposite us? That one says to him: Who? And John says: Angels of God. Symeon says to him, as if marveling: Can we then see them? That one says to him: If we become as some of them, yes. These two therefore were sitting on horses, for their parents were exceedingly rich; Coming down immediately from the horses, they gave them to their servants, saying: Go before us; for they pretended to sit down on the spot. But by chance they were found above the road which branches off, and which leads to the holy Jordan.

[6] Both therefore stood, and John says, showing with his finger to Symeon: Behold the road which leads to the way of the holy Jordan, and behold the road which leads to death, showing him the public road, by which their parents had gone before. Come therefore, let us pray, and let each of us stand at one of them, and cast lots, and to whomever the lot falls, that road let us go. Bending the knee therefore, and groaning, they said: O God, O God, O God, who willest to save the whole world, do Thou Thyself manifest Thy will to Thy servants. And when they cast lots, the lot from John fell to Symeon ten times; but he stood on the road which leads to the holy Jordan. Then becoming exceedingly glad, of all their possessions, and of their parents, as of a dream forgetting, they embraced and kissed each other. And they were learned to the utmost in Greek letters, and adorned with much prudence. But all these things Symeon, excelling in virtue, narrated to someone in Emesa, where also he feigned himself a fool, a deacon of the holy Catholic Church of that same city of the Emesenes, a wondrous and virtuous man, who also from the divine grace that was in him, understood the working of the old man, upon whom this blessed Symeon worked a fearful miracle, of which miracle we shall make mention in its own place. This same aforesaid God-loving John, the virtuous deacon, himself expounded to us almost the whole life of the most wise one, putting forward the Lord as witness of the things said, that he added nothing by way of addition to the narration, but rather forgot very much through the lapse of time.

[7] As they were going down, I say, the road which truly led them to life, one could see them rejoicing and running, as Peter and John to the life-giving tomb of the Lord, and rousing one another by their eagerness, and making one another eager. For John feared, lest the compassion for his mother should cut Symeon back. But the other again doubted, lest the affection for his newly-wed wife, like a magnet stone, should turn John back to herself. And thereupon from this the one to the other used admonishing and consoling words; and the one said: Be not at all slothful, brother Symeon; for we hope in God, that on this present day we have been reborn; for what could those vain affairs of life, and wealth, profit us in the day of judgment, but rather even harm us? Nor again does youth, and the beauty set before our body, remain unfading to the end. But either by old age in time, or by temporal death it perishes. And as these and many more things John said to Symeon, again that one answered back, and entreated the like, and said: I indeed, brother John, have neither father nor brothers nor sisters, except that lowly old woman, who bore me; but I do not reckon so much labor about myself, as I fear for your heart, lest the mixture of the newly-wed wife should tear you away from this good road. As therefore these and more than these things they disputed with one another, they come to a monastery called that of the Abbot Gerasimus. For they had prayed this: O Lord God, in whatever monastery Thou commandest us to renounce the world, may we find the door open, which also happened. There was therefore in this monastery a wondrous man by name Nicon, a man truly according to his name, having acquired also the manner of life. For he was Nicon "Conqueror", illuminating every demonic array with wonders and signs, and honored by God with the dignity of prophecy, who also foreknew the coming of these blessed ones, for he says that he saw, in his sleep on the day on which they came, someone saying to him: Rise and open the door of the flock, that my sheep may enter, which also he did.

[8] When therefore, having come, they found the door opened, and the abbot sitting, and awaiting them; John said to Symeon: A good sign, brother, behold the door open, and the doorkeeper seated; when therefore they drew near, the superior says to them: Welcome, the sheep of Christ; he says therefore immediately to Symeon: Welcome, Salos, truly your ten from the Abbot John. For your ten await you; and he said it on account of the perfection of the life according to virtue. Receiving them therefore as sent by God, he gave them rest. And on the next day he began to say to them, before they told him, as if from the Lord: Good, good, and worthy is your love toward God, only, if you do not by relaxing let it be quenched by the adversary of our salvation. Good is your course, but yield not while running, until you be crowned. Good is your purpose, but do not slumber, lest the fire which burns around your hearts today grow lukewarm. Well have you preferred the abiding things to those that perish. Good indeed are your parents according to the flesh, and good is it to serve them; but incomparably better is it to please the heavenly Father; good are bodily brothers, but spiritual ones are more profitable. Good are the friends, who [are] for Christ, whom you have in the world; but better is it to have the saints as friends, and well-disposed toward the Master. Good are the patrons, whom you have in need before the powerful; but they are not so, as to have the holy angels supplicating on our behalf. Good and praiseworthy is the imparting of goods to the well-off, and the piety toward the poor, and the doing of good; but God seeks no offering from us so much, as to offer to Him our own souls. Sweet indeed is the enjoyment of the good things of life; but it is not equal to the delight of paradise. Pleasant indeed is wealth and desirable to the many of men; but it is not equal to those things which the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, and which have not come up upon the heart of man.

[9] Pleasant is the beauty of youth; but nothing is as that of the heavenly Christ; for David says: Beautiful in beauty beyond the sons of men. Great is it to soldier for the earthly king; but temporal is such soldiering, and dangerous. With these and such things the holy man admonishing them, would not cease from admonition, beholding from their eyes fountains of tears pouring out; for as if they had never heard the divine word, they truly attended to the things said. Again therefore turning to Symeon, he says: Be not afflicted, nor weep for the gray hairs of your lady mother; for far more than your face can God comfort her, being entreated by your struggles. For even if you persevered with her until her death, yet it is uncertain, whether you would depart from life before her, being destitute of virtues, and would go away not having one able to rescue you from the evils to come. For neither the love of mother or father, nor the multitude of brothers, nor wealth, nor glory, nor the bond of a wife, nor the affection of children can entreat the Judge, but the virtuous manner of life, and the labors and toils according to God. Again therefore to John he said: Let not the enemy of our souls, child, suggest to you: Who then will tend my parents in old age? Who will comfort my consort? Who will stay their tears? For if you had abandoned them to another god, and were departing to serve another, you would rightly be anxious, whether he cares for them and comforts them, or not. But now, having run to Him, to whom you abandoned them, and having consecrated yourselves, you must take courage, and reckon this too: that if, while we were in this world, and serving the worldly life, the goodness of God made provision for all, how much more will He not now care for our households, when we have entered to serve Him, and to please Him with our whole soul.

[10] Therefore, O children, remembering the Lord who said to him who said, Permit me to return first, and bury my father: Let the dead bury their own dead; with an unturning mind and an unrepenting heart run after Him. For what then? If even this earthly and corruptible king had exhorted you, wishing while you live, to rule as patricians, or chamberlains of his earthly palace, which passes away, and like a shadow and a dream vanishes, would you not have despised all your possessions, and zealously and unhindered come to him, desiring to enjoy his honors, and his sight and free access, and would you not have chosen to endure every labor, and toil, and death, only that you might be deemed worthy to see that day, on which the king is about to receive, and enlist, and honor you before the whole senate? And when they said it was so, the great Nicon said: How much more then, children, with greater zeal, and compunction, ought we, the grateful servants, to run to and follow the incorruptible and eternal King of those who reign, remembering the love which God showed toward us, so that He did not spare His only-begotten Son for us, but delivered Him up for us all? So that even if we poured out our own blood for Him, we who by His blood were redeemed from corruption and death, and were adopted into the order of genuine sons, not even thus would we have offered Him anything worthy; for it is not the same to pour out royal blood and servile blood, brothers.

At the time when the holy ^a Emperor Justinian reigned, the worshippers of Christ coming together, and desiring to adore the holy places of Christ, which are in the Holy city, The Jerusalem pilgrimage according to custom, at the ^b exaltation of the precious and life-giving Cross (But all know, who are wont to come together there at this holy and most famous feast, that almost from the whole world there run together the throngs of peoples, to whom the cross and Christ are in their loves). At this same famous feast it happened that two certain younger men, ^c sprung from Syria, met one another mutually, God so disposing. The name to the one was John, and the name to the other Symeon. A few days being spent there, and the holy feast of God being finished, each thereafter withdrew to his own city. From which time, according to the good pleasure of the benign God, these two younger men began to act familiarly, and to love one another, and were no longer separated from one another mutually. Therefore while they returned to their own homes, they returned at the same time with their parents too. For John indeed had a father, but not a mother; and he was joined to a wife at that time. For he was about twenty-two years old. But Symeon indeed had no father, but only an aged mother, about eighty years old; and his companion John but had no one else at all. All therefore were of one company, and after they descended into the valley of Jericho, ^d and had passed the city, John contemplates the monasteries which lie all around the Jordan, and says in Syriac to Symeon: Do you know who dwell in those lodgings opposite us? That one says to him: Who? But John says: Angels of God. Symeon says to him, as if marveling: Is it permitted to see them? That one says to him: If we become as some of them, it is permitted. These two therefore were sitting on horses, for their parents were exceedingly rich. When therefore they had immediately come down from the horses, they gave them to their servants, saying: Go before us: for they pretended to sit down on the spot. But by chance they were found on the road, which deviates, ^e and which leads to the holy ^f Jordan.

[6] Both therefore stood, and John says, showing with his finger to Symeon: the occasion of a holier life. Behold the road, which leads to the way of the holy Jordan, and behold the road which leads to death, showing him the public road, by which their parents had gone before. Come therefore, let us pray, and let us each stand at one of them, and cast lots, and let us enter this road, which shall fall by lot. The knee therefore being bent, and sighs being uttered, they said: O God, O God, O God, who willest to save the whole world, do Thou Thyself manifest Thy will to Thy servants. And while they cast lots, Symeon by chance won ten from John. But he stood on the road, which leads to the holy Jordan. Then becoming glad, of all their possessions, and of their parents, as if they were a dream, forgetting, they embraced and kissed one another. But they were excellently instructed in Greek letters, and adorned with much prudence. But all these things Symeon, excelling in virtue, narrated to someone in the city of Emesa ^g (where also he simulated himself a fool), a deacon of the holy Catholic Church of that same city of the Emesenes, a wondrous man and conspicuous for virtue, who also from the divine grace, in which he was strong, understood the working of Symeon, upon whom this same blessed Symeon conferred a stupendous miracle, of which miracle we shall make mention in its place. ^h Whence the author drew this History. The same therefore aforesaid, God-loving, and virtue-distinguished John the deacon, expounded to us almost the whole life of the most wise Symeon; calling God to witness about the things which he said, and that he was so far from contaminating its truth by adding anything to the narration; that rather he had forgotten many things by the lapse of time.

[7] Of Symeon and his companion While therefore (as I was saying) they entered the road which truly led them to life, one could see them exulting and running (just like Peter and John to the life-giving sepulcher of the Lord) and mutually they roused one another with desire and alacrity. For John feared lest affection for his mother should retard Symeon. He again clung in doubt, whether the inclination toward his new bride, like a magnet stone, had not turned John back to herself. And thereafter from that time, holy conversations, they used admonitory and consolatory speeches between themselves. And this one indeed said: By no means be torpid, brother Symeon; for we hope in God, that on this present day we have been regenerated. For what could those foolish affairs of life, and riches, profit us in the day of judgment; indeed rather what could they do but harm? Nor again does youth, nor beauty, inhering in our body, remain unfading unto the end; but either in time through old age or by untimely death it perishes. And while John had said these and many more things to Symeon; this one again answered, and feared the like, and said: I indeed, brother John, have neither father, nor brothers, nor sisters, except that lowly old woman, who bore me. Nor do I labor about this matter so much, as I fear lest desire for the new bride draw your heart away from this good road. These things therefore and more than these conferring amicably between themselves, they come to a monastery, which is called that of the Abbot Gerasimus. ⁱ For they had prayed this too: Lord God, prayers; in whatever monastery Thou commandest us to be placed, may we find the door open; which also was done. There was therefore in this monastery a wondrous Man, by name Nicon, a man to whom a name truly congruous ^k to his manner of life had been given. For he conquered every diabolical legion, shone with miracles and signs, and was honored by God with the dignity of prophecy; who also, blessed, foreknew that these would be present. For he said he saw in sleep, on the day on which they came, someone, who said to him: Rise and open the door of the flock, that my sheep may enter; which also he did.

[8] the entrance to Nicon the Abbot. After therefore they had come, they found the door open, and the Abbot sitting, and awaiting them. John said to Symeon: A good sign, brother, behold the door open, and the doorkeeper seated. While therefore they had approached, the Hegumen ^l says to them: Welcome, the sheep of Christ. He says immediately to Symeon: Welcome, Salos; truly your ten ^m from the Abbot John. For your ten await you. But he said it on account of the perfection of the life to be led with virtue. After therefore he had received them as sent by God, he made them rest. divinely forewarned. And on the following day he began to say to them, before they spoke to him, indeed in the Lord: Good, good and worthy is your love toward God. If only you do not permit it to be extinguished by the adversary of your salvation. Good is your course; but do not fail while running, until you be crowned. Good is your purpose; but do not slumber, that the fire, which today burns your hearts, grow not lukewarm. Well have you preferred those things which abide to those which perish. Good indeed are your parents according to the flesh, and good is it to serve them: but without comparison it is better, His exhortation to virtue, to have pleased the heavenly Father. Good are brothers in body: but brothers in spirit are more profitable. Good are friends for Christ, whom you have in the world: but it is better to have the saints as friends and benevolent before the Lord. Good are patrons, whom you have in necessity against those who have power: but they are not of so great worth, as it is to have the holy angels supplicating for us. Good and praiseworthy is the distribution of money by the rich man, and piety toward the poor and beneficence: but by no means does God seek so much another offering from us, as of our souls. Sweet indeed is the enjoyment of the good things of life: but it cannot be equaled to the delights of paradise. Pleasant indeed are riches, and desirable to many men; but they are not equal to those things which the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor have come up into the heart of man. 1 Cor. 2.

[9] Delightful is the beauty of youth: but nothing is similar to the beauty of Christ, the heavenly spouse. Ps. 44. For David says: Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men. with more words Great is it to soldier for the earthly king: but such soldiering is for a time, and dangerous. With these and such things admonishing them, the Saint was unwilling to cease from admonition, beholding from their eyes fountains of tears flowing out. And as if they had not before heard the divine word, so they attended to those things which then were said. Again therefore turning to Symeon, he says: Do not afflict yourself, nor weep for the gray hairs of your lady mother. For much more can God console her, entreated by your struggles, than your sight. For even if with her, even to her death, you persevered, it is uncertain indeed, whether you would not depart from life before her, destitute of virtues; and you would depart, not having one, who could free you from the evils to come. For neither the love of mother, nor of father, nor a throng of brothers, nor riches, nor glory, nor the conjugal bond, nor affection for children, can placate the judge; but a life consonant with virtue, and labors and troubles undertaken for God. Again therefore to John he said: Let not the enemy of our souls suggest to you, son: Who will feed my parents' old age? Who will console the consort of life? Who will stay their tears? For if you had left them to the care of another God, and had come to serve another; you would rightly be anxious, whether anyone bears their care, and consoles them, or not. But now, after you have run to Him, to whom you left them, and consecrated yourselves, you must trust, and consider this; that if, while we are in this world, and serve the worldly life, the goodness of God bore the care of all; how much more will it now care for our households, when, about to serve Him, and to please Him, we have gone forth from our whole soul.

[10] Therefore, sons, mindful of the Lord, who said to him, continued. Matt. 8. who said, Permit me to return first and bury my father; Let the dead bury their own dead, put on a mind, which cannot be changed, nor repent of running behind Him. For what? If some earthly king and subject to corruption summoned you, wishing to clothe you with the belt, that, enrolled in the order of patricians and chamberlains, you should preside over his earthly palace, which passes away, and like a shadow and a dream vanishes; would you not despise all your possessions and diligently and without impediment approach him, desiring to enjoy the honors which are from him, and his sight, and converse? Would you not prefer to endure every labor, and trouble, and death, for this alone, that you might be worthy of seeing that day, on which it would come to pass, that the king with all his senate should receive you and on which you should be enlisted and affected with honors? But when they said it was so; the great Nicon said: How much more therefore, sons, with greater diligence and compunction ought we to run to and follow the incorruptible and everlasting king of those who reign, if we wish to be grateful servants, recalling to memory the love which God showed toward us, so that He did not spare His only-begotten son for our cause, but delivered Him for us all? And so even if each of us should pour out his blood for Him, we who by His blood were redeemed from destruction and death and enrolled in the order of genuine sons, we should render Him nothing so worthy. For that royal blood be poured out, brothers; and the blood of a servant, differs exceedingly how much.

ANNOTATIONS.

* βράσμα.

CHAPTER II. The monastic life, apparitions

But all these things and more than these the God-bearer suggested to them, having foreknown and been assured by God of the contest and course set before them, I mean the eremitic and altogether homeless and anchoretic life. For he supposed it to be no ordinary thing, this, nor as it chanced accomplished by the many, and blamelessly fulfilled, especially seeing soft bodies, and clothed in soft garments, and youth nourished from a luxurious life, and accustomed to all ease and deception. Whence the wise physician and teacher, by the divine knowledge and experience that was in him, having armed these men with such examples and precepts, says again to both: Do you wish to shear off the hair of your head, or for a little time to remain in the lay habit which is upon you today? But as if from one deliberation, or rather from one Holy Spirit, both fell at the feet of the superior, asking him, immediately and without delay to tonsure them. And Symeon said, that if he would not do this with great speed, they would immediately depart to another monastery; for he was guileless and without malice; but John was wiser, and possessing more knowledge. The holy Nicon therefore immediately took each of them apart, wishing to test the fervent renunciation of both, that which is toward God, and he said to him certain things, trying to cut him back, that he should not be tonsured on that very day, nor at all entirely; but neither of them consenting, he came to the other, and said to him: Behold I have persuaded your brother to remain for one year still, as he is a layman. Immediately therefore he answered him, to whom he said this: If that one wishes to remain, let him remain, truly, father, I do not endure it. And this too Symeon said to him, when he spoke to him apart: Hasten, father, for the Lord's sake, for my heart trembles much for brother John, because a year ago he was joined to a wife, very wealthy and beautiful, lest again the desire toward her snatch him, and he fall away from the desire toward God.

[12] But again John said this privately to the same virtuous man with much supplication and tears; for he possessed these things affections before his eyes naturally more than brother Symeon: Father, may I not lose my brother through you, for he had a mother only, and such was the desire of each for the other, that he could not be two hours away from her, but until today both slept together, both his mother and he, not even by night able to be separated; which especially burns and gnaws me, until I see him tonsured, and am completely free of care about him. The great one therefore heard from both their care for one another, and being assured, that God does not put to shame, nor overlook, those who run to Him with their whole soul and without doubt, having brought the little scissors, and with the fitting order, having placed them upon the holy altar, he tonsured them, and having stripped off their garments, clothed them, in pitiable indeed, yet holy garments, the wise and most compassionate one having mercy on them, on account of the softness of their body, and their unaccustomed hardship. But while they were being tonsured, John wept much; but Symeon nudged him to cease, not at all understanding why he wept; for he thought that he wept from grief for his parents, and love of his wife. After therefore they were tonsured, and the holy synaxis was completed, the superior again sat down, admonishing them through almost the whole day. For he knew that they would not stay long with him, God having dispensed this too. On the morrow therefore he wished, it being a holy Lord's day, to give them also the holy habit. When therefore some of the brothers said to them, Blessed are you, because tomorrow you are reborn, and become pure as you were born from all sin, as if on that very day you were baptized, they were astonished, and both ran to the divine Nicon, late on the Sabbath, and fell at his feet saying: We beseech you, father, do not baptize us, for we are Christians and of Christian parents. But he, not knowing what they had heard from the fathers of the community, said to them: For who, children, wishes to baptize you? But they said, our lords our masters, the fathers of the monastery, say to us, that tomorrow you are rebaptized. Then the superior understood, that they had spoken to them about the holy habit. And he says to them: They spoke well, O children, for, the Lord being well-pleased, tomorrow we wish to clothe you with the holy and angelic habit. When the guileless children of Christ understood, that nothing was lacking to them of the monastic garment, they say to the abbot: For what, father, anything else do we need, that we may put on that angelic habit, which you speak of?

[13] But this great one in the preceding week, in which also was the exaltation of the precious Cross, had given to one of the younger brothers the holy habit, and he had not yet completed the seven days, but still wore everything, as is the rule, whom the great one ordered immediately to be brought into the midst. When therefore he came, both behold him, and immediately fell at the feet of the abbot, and said to him, We beseech you, if you are about thus to clothe us, and to deem us worthy of such honor and glory, do it from the evening, lest somehow, being men, through the night the human weakness overtake us, and we depart having missed such glory and joy, and such an escort and crown; when therefore the superior heard them having said that they would miss such an escort and crown, he understood that they had seen a vision upon the one wearing the holy habit, and he turned [him] to go away to his own place, where he was since he had put on the holy habit. This one therefore having departed, the children of Christ were greatly grieved, and say to the superior, for the Lord's sake, father, rise, make us as that one, because in your whole monastery there is no man in such honor, as that one. The abbot says to them: In what honor? Then they said, by Him who deems us worthy, father, of his habit and honor, blessed are we too, if by so great a multitude of monks with candles we are escorted, and shall wear such a bright crown shining upon our head. For they thought that the superior too saw the things seen by them. Therefore knowing this, he did not even say to them, that he himself saw nothing, but kept silence, and was astounded at the great integrity and purity, but especially of Symeon.

[14] But this the great one most graciously said to them, that tomorrow we clothe you too with the grace of the Holy Spirit. After therefore they received the holy habit, as the most holy deacon affirmed, the unlying Symeon strongly asserted, that we beheld the faces of one another by night as in day, and likewise we saw, of the one beheld before by them, a crown upon the head of the other, the one seeing it on the other. But in such joy, I say, was our soul, that we did not even wish easily to partake of food or drink. After therefore two days from their receiving the holy garment, they behold the one who had received this seven days before, upon whom they had also beheld the crown and the escorts, and he wore a sackcloth garment, and performed service. And thereafter he had no longer either the crown placed about him, nor again the monks escorting with candles, and they marveled. And Symeon says to John: Believe, brother, if we too complete the same seven days, we shall no longer have this comeliness and grace. And John says: And what do you wish to happen, brother? He says to him again, if you hearken to me, that just as we left and renounced worldly things, let us renounce completely from every breath of man. For I behold another life and strange things in this habit. For from the time that the servant of God clothed us with it, my inward parts burn, I know not whence, and my soul seeks to behold no one, nor to speak, nor to hear anyone. John says to him, And what do we eat, brother? Symeon says to him, Whatever the grazing hermits who hearken eat, about whom yesterday the lord Nicon spoke to us? For perhaps he too, wishing that we should lead such a life, narrated to us how they live, and how they sleep, and all things concerning them. Then John says, And how? for we have learned neither to chant, nor the rule.

[15] Then God opened the heart of the Abbot Symeon, and he said: He who saved those who before David pleased Him, saves us too. But if we become worthy, He teaches us too, as He taught David, while he was with the sheep in the wilderness, do not wish to cut back my eagerness, brother. But rather, since we have given ourselves to this matter, let us not destroy it. Then the lord John said: As you wish, we shall do. But how do we go out, since the door is shut by night? Symeon says to him: He who opened to us by day, He opens also by night. When therefore they had fixed the resolution, immediately, night coming on, the Hegumen beholds someone in sleep opening the door of the monastery, and saying: Go out, sealed sheep of Christ, to your pasture. And awakening, immediately he goes down to the gateway, and found it open, and thinking that he had gone out thence, he sat sorrowful, groaning and saying: That I the sinner was not deemed worthy to receive the blessing of my fathers. Truly these were my fathers and masters, and teachers, and on this account I missed their commendation. Alas, how precious stones, as the Scripture says, lie hidden rolling upon the earth, seen by many, but apprehended by few. As therefore he reasoned these things to himself in distress, behold the pure bridegrooms of Christ coming to go out, before whom the most pure superior Nicon beheld certain eunuchs bearing lamps, and others holding scepters in one hand.

Other admonitions of Nicon. All these things, and more than these the God-bearing Man suggested to them, foreknowing by divine warning and made certain that a contest and course was imminent for them, namely the solitary, wholly home-lacking, and anchoretic life. For he did not reckon this kind of life to be lightly, nor in the common manner of the many, to be embraced and perfected; especially when he saw tender bodies, and clothed in soft garments, and youth nourished in delights, and subject to all relaxation and deception. Whence the wise physician and teacher, by the divine notion which was in him, and by experience, having fortified them with examples of this kind and admonitions, again addresses both: Do you wish the hair of your head to be shorn, or for a little while to persevere in the lay ^a habit, with which you are clothed today? As if by one counsel, or rather driven by one Holy Spirit, both fell at the feet of the Hegumen, asking him, to tonsure them soon and without procrastination. And Symeon said: unless he did this with much haste, the testing. they would immediately depart to another monastery. For he was simple and innocuous; but John excelled in greater wisdom and knowledge of things. Without delay: holy Nicon takes each of them apart, wishing to make a test, with how fervent a withdrawal ^b from things concreted of matter they came to God. And he said certain things to him, trying to interject delay, that he should not be tonsured on that day, but with no fruit of effort, neither of them consenting. He went therefore to the other, and said: Behold I have persuaded your brother that, a layman, as he is, he should remain up to one year. Immediately therefore answered him, he to whom he had said this: If that one wishes to remain, let him remain; truly, Father, Symeon's this I do not endure. And this Symeon said to him, when he had spoken apart with him: Hasten, Father, by the Lord I beg for my heart trembles much for John my brother, lest, since a year ago he took a wife very rich and beautiful, he be again snatched by desire for her, and fall away from the divine love.

[12] John again apart with much prayer and tears (as one who had these things affections much more vividly before his eyes, and John's fervor, than brother Symeon) said this to the same man of proven virtue: Do not permit, Father, that I lose my brother on account of you. For he has only a mother, but they loved each other so intensely, that he could not pass two hours without her; but until today they slept together, both his mother, and he; nor could they be separated by night. Which especially burns and consumes me, until I see him tonsured, and at last labor no more about him. The great man heard the care of the one for the other, and certain that God does not confound, nor despise those, who from their whole heart and with unhesitating faith flee to Him, the scissors being brought, and in that order tonsure, which is fitting, the scissors being placed upon the altar, he tonsured them, and their garments being taken off, clothed them in others fitted indeed to commiseration, but at the same time to holiness. The wise man and full of commiseration had compassion on them on account of the tender constitution of their body, and the trouble, to which they were not accustomed. After they were tonsured, John wept abundantly. But Symeon nodded that he should cease, altogether ignorant why he wept. For he thought that he wept from grief toward his parents, and love of his spouse. The tonsure and synaxis being completed, the Hegumen sat down again, admonishing them through almost the whole day. For he knew that they would not stay long with him, God so dispensing this too. On the following day therefore, which was the holy Lord's day, he wished to give them the holy habit. simplicity While some of the brothers said to them: Blessed are you, because tomorrow you will be regenerated, and cleansed from all sin, as you were cleansed on the same day, on which you were baptized: both, disturbed, ran to the divine Nicon, on the evening of the Sabbath, and fell at his feet, saying: We ask you, father, do not baptize us; for we are Christians, and born of Christian parents. He, ignorant what they had heard from the fathers of the monastery, said to them: Who wishes to baptize you, sons? They said: Our lords and masters, the fathers of the monastery, say to us: Tomorrow you will be rebaptized. Then the Hegumen understood that they had spoken to them about the holy habit. And he said to them: They spoke rightly, sons; for tomorrow with the holy and angelic ^d habit, if it seem good to God, we wish to clothe you. When the innocuous children of Christ understood, that nothing was lacking in them, that they might put on the monastic garment, they say to the Abbot: but with what other thing do we need, Father, that we may be clothed with that angelic habit, which you speak of?

[13] apparition But the past week, in which was celebrated the exaltation of the precious Cross, this great man had given to a certain younger one of the brothers the holy habit, and at that time had not yet completed the seven days, but still bore all things, which the rule demanded. Whom the great man permitted to be brought into the midst. When therefore he came, both contemplate him, and immediately fell at the feet of the Abbot, and said to him: We pray you, if it is fixed in mind thus to clothe us, and to deem us worthy of such honor and glory, do it from this evening, lest perhaps, since we are men, something human befall us through the night, and we depart frustrated of such glory and joy, and of such service and crown. After therefore the Hegumen had heard them say about the privation of such service and crown, he understood that they had seen an apparition upon him, who bore the holy habit, and permitted him to go to his own place, where he was, from the time he had put on the holy habit. After he had departed, the children of Christ greatly grieved, and say to the Hegumen: For the Lord's sake, Father, rise, and make us such, as that one is; for no one in the whole monastery is a man, whom he does not surpass in honor. The Abbot says to them: In what honor? Then they said: By Him, Father, who deems us worthy of this habit and honor, blessed are we too, if by such a multitude of monks, bearing candles, we be surrounded, and shall bear such a crown, splendidly shining, on our head. For they thought that the Hegumen too had seen those things, which they themselves had beheld. This being known, he did not say to them that he had seen nothing, but kept silence, and was astounded at the great simplicity and purity, especially of Symeon.

[14] the monastic habit. But this most graciously the great Man said to them: Tomorrow we shall clothe you too with the holy habit, the grace of the Holy Spirit inspiring. Which being assumed, as the most holy deacon affirmed, the innocuous Symeon asserted, that we saw the faces of one another by night, as in day, and similar to that one, who had appeared before, the one [saw] on the head of the other a crown. But our mind, he said, was affected with so great joy, that it pleased [us] to taste neither food nor drink. And so two days being passed from the assumed holy habit, they contemplate him, who seven days before had assumed it, whom also they had beheld crowned and accompanied (this one bore a napkin and ministered; but no longer thereafter had the crown placed on his head, nor again the monks accompanying with candles) and they marveled. And Symeon says to John: Believe, brother, although we too should complete these seven days, we shall no longer have that elegance and grace. And John says: What do you wish to happen, brother? To whom that one again: If you hear me, that as we have left the secular things, and bid them farewell, let us perfectly with all effort of mind bid them farewell. For I contemplate another life and new things in this habit. For from the time that the servant of God clothed us with it, my inward parts burn, I know not whence, and my soul seeks to see no one, nor to address, nor to hear. John says to him: And what shall we eat, brother? To whom Symeon: Do they eat, who are called the grazing hermits, ^e about whom yesterday Lord Nicon had discourse to us too? For perhaps he too, wishing that we should embrace a life of this kind, expounded to us what manner of life they keep, how they sleep, ^f and whatever pertains to them. Then John says; and how? For we have learned neither the chant, nor their institute.

[15] Then God opened the heart of the abbot ^g Symeon, who said: He who saved those, who before David pleased God, will save us too; and, if we become worthy, He will likewise teach us, just as He taught David, when in solitude he fed the sheep. Do not, brother, retard my desire. As for the rest, let us not make void the thing, to which we have set our mind. Then the lord John said: a new kind of life. We shall do, as you wish. But how shall we go out? For by night the door is shut. Symeon says to him: He who opened it to us by day, that same one will open by night. The counsel therefore being established, immediately, when night came, the Hegumen sees someone in sleep, opening the door of the monastery, and saying: Go out, sealed sheep of Christ, to your pastures. Roused from sleep, he immediately came to the door, which when he had found open, thinking them gone out thence; he sat sad, groaning and saying: I the sinner was not worthy, to receive the prayers of my fathers. They indeed were my fathers, and lords, and masters: Therefore the goal, which they fixed for themselves, I have not attained. Alas! How precious stones, as the Scripture says, lie hidden rolling upon the earth; which are seen indeed by many, but apprehended by few. While he was agitating these things sadly with himself, behold the pure spouses of Christ come to go out, before whom the most pure hegumen Nicon contemplated some eunuchs, of whom some bore lamps, others held scepters in hand.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III. The withdrawal into solitude, the machination of Satan.

When therefore he beheld these, he became exceedingly glad, because he had not failed of his desire; whom beholding, the blessed ones wished to turn back, not understanding that it was the superior. The holy Nicon therefore ran and called them to himself. When therefore they knew that it was the superior, they too became exceedingly glad, especially beholding also the gateway open, for they understood that God had again revealed this too to him. They wished therefore to make a prostration, and he hindered them saying, that it was permitted to them to do no such thing, on account of the honor of the angelic habit placed about them. They say therefore to him immediately, We give you thanks, father, and what to offer to God and to your honored head we know not. Who hoped that we should be deemed worthy of such gifts? What king could honor us with such a dignity, what earthly treasures could make us thus suddenly rich? What baths could cleanse our soul to enjoy thus? What parents could thus love and save? What strange gifts could so quickly bring us the remission of our sins, as you, our honored father, and instead of all our forebears and parents, you are our father after Christ and mother. You [are] master, you fellow-laborer, you guide of the hand, you leader, and whatever the tongue is not strong enough to say. Through you we have acquired the most precious pearl, we have learned truly the power of baptism, of which the holy fathers foretold to us. We have known indeed the burning up of our sins from the fire which burns around our hearts, which also not bearing, thus flaming our inward parts.

[17] We ask your blessedness, father, to make a prayer earnestly, and to release your servants, to serve genuinely and with whole soul Him to whom we consecrated ourselves, God, beseeching [you] never to make forgetfulness of your worthless children, in the time of the extension of your honored hands. Yes, yes, beseeching by the strangers, holy one. Make remembrance of their orphanhood. And taking hold of the knees of the Holy one, they said again: Remember, father, your lowly sheep, whom you offered as a holocaust to Christ; Remember the strange plants, which you hastened to plant in the fair garden of paradise. Do not forget the sluggish workers, whom about the eleventh hour you hired into the vineyard for Christ. But the shepherd marveled and was astounded, beholding those who two days before were laymen, thus suddenly made wise through the putting on of the divine habit. When therefore both had wept for a sufficient hour, the holy Nicon bending the knee, and placing Symeon on the right, and John on the left, rose up. And stretching his hands to heaven, he said: O God who art just, and praiseworthy. O God, great and strong. O God before the ages, hearken to a sinful man in this hour. Hear me, O God, hear me in strength. Do not remember in this my prayer the always and forever disobediences of my worthlessness. Hear me, Lord, hear me in the fire of prayer, as once that of your prophet, and through his intercessions, burn up my iniquities, and cleanse my sins. Yes, O God of the holy powers. Yes, Maker of the incorporeal ones. Yes, who said: Ask, and you shall receive. Do not abhor me clothed with unclean lips and held fast in sins. Hear me, who promised to hear those who in truth call upon you, and direct the steps of your servants, and their feet into the way of peace. Have compassion on the guileless children being in a strange land, who said: Become innocent as the doves. I have cried to you with my whole heart, O God, O God, hear me, the hope of all the ends of the earth, and of those far off in a strange land.

[18] Rebuke all the unclean spirits from before the face of your children. Take hold of weapon and shield, and rise up to their help. Pour out the sword and shut the way against those who pursue them. Say, O Lord, to their soul: I am your salvation. Let there depart from their mind the spirit of cowardice, of accidie, of pride, and of all wickedness, and let all their burning and movement, composed of diabolical operation, be quenched. Let their body, and soul, and spirit be enlightened with the light of your knowledge, that having come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the holy and adorable Trinity, into a perfect man, into the measure of stature, they may glorify you unto age of age, and please you the Lord, because all-public is your protecting name, of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. But grant to them with all good things, O Lord, also to have the words of this my pitiable and unworthy supplication in their heart through all, unto the doxology, and hymn of your goodness. But again to them with many tears he said: The God, whom you chose, good children, and to whom you ran, He will send forth His angel before your face, and will prepare His way before your feet. The angel, as the great Jacob says, who delivers me from all the opposing powers, He goes before your paths. He who delivered His own prophet from the mouth of lions, He will deliver you too from the hands of the lion. The God who chose you, He will keep my sacrifice unconfounded. And when these and more than these he prayed over them, the God-bearer embraced their necks and said: Save, O God, save those who with their whole heart have loved your name, for you are not unjust, O Lord, to overlook and abandon those who have left the vain affairs of life.

[19] Then again to them: See, children, you have given yourselves to a fearful and unseen war. But do not fear, for God is powerful, who will not let you be tempted, beyond what you can bear. Strive, children, not to be overcome by him, but stand nobly, having the weapon of the holy habit against him, remember him who said, no one putting his hand to the plow, and turning back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven. And again about the building of the tower: Do not, having begun the perfect way, of the manner of life according to God, grow slack, and there be fulfilled upon you, that they began to build, and had not power, and eagerness for the completion of the foundation. Make yourselves secure, children, small is the war, but great is the crown, temporal the labor, but eternal the rest. The hour therefore having advanced, and now thereafter the wood semantron sounding, as they were about to go out of the gateway, Symeon took the superior apart, and said to him, for God's sake, father, pray, that God may scatter the memory of the wife of my brother John, lest somehow from the evil one He let me perish, and I be destroyed by his grief, and the destruction and the separation. Pray, I beg, for the Lord's sake, that God may comfort also his parents, that they may not be anxious for him.

[20] But the old man marveling at the affection, which he has toward his brother, answered him nothing. But again in the same manner the abbot John took him, and entreated apart. For God's sake, father, do not neglect my brother, praying that he may not flee me on account of his mother, having compassion on her, and I be found in the harbor enduring shipwreck. When therefore, as has been said, astounded at the love of both toward one another, he says to them completely: Go, children, for I bring you good news, that He who opened to you here, has opened to you also the things there. And signing their foreheads and breasts, and the whole body, he released them. When therefore they were released, and went out, they said this: O God of your great servant, guide us, the strangers, and unprovided ones, for we know neither the places, nor the country. But coming to you, we have given ourselves to death, into the sea of this wilderness. John therefore says to Symeon: What is it now? Where do we go? That one answered him, let us take to the right, for all the things on the right are good. And coming they came to the Dead Sea, as to the place called Arnonas.

[21] And God disposing, and never abandoning those who believe in Him with their whole soul, they found a place, where a certain old man dwelt, who a few days before had died, in which there were also small utensils, and tender herbs for them to eat, of which the old man who lay there used to eat. The renowned ones therefore seeing the place, rejoiced, as if they had found some treasure. For they knew that it had been prepared by God, and sent to them, and they began to give thanks to God, and to the great old man. For they said, Believe, by his prayers we have been prospered. When therefore they had remained a few days, the enemy of our souls, the devil, not bearing the virtue of the servants of Christ, began to war against them, John indeed toward his own wife, but Symeon toward the great love of his own mother. When therefore one of them saw himself afflicted, immediately he said to the other: Rise, brother, let us pray. And they prayed the prayer of the great old man; for he had prayed: Grant them, Lord, the words of this prayer in their heart. And immediately the two were found, knowing it by heart, and they prayed it always at every temptation, and at every request of theirs to God. For there was a time when the devil inflamed them, as the God-bearing Salos related, as if they ate meat and wine, and again he suggested to them at the beginnings cowardice, and accidie toward the ascetic discipline, so that variously they sought to return to the monastery from the wilderness, and again to behold things in sleep. And there was a time when the many-formed serpent prepared in fantasy their own kindred, some weeping, others feasting, and many other things, which it is not possible even to narrate, unless someone comes into experience of these temptations. But whenever they remembered the crowns, which they had beheld upon one another, and the teaching, and the tears of the old man, as with holy oil their heart was soothed, and consoled.

Therefore beholding them, ^a he rejoiced solidly; because he had not been frustrated of his desire. to Abbot Nicon After the Blessed ones had seen him, they wished to return, not thinking that it was the Hegumen. S. Nicon therefore ran, and called them to himself. As soon as the Hegumen became known to them; they too greatly rejoiced; especially when they saw the door open. For that God had again revealed this to him, they thought. And now they wished to make penitence, ^b but he forbade them, saying, that it was permitted them to do no such thing on account of the angelic habit, with which they were clothed. Soon they say: We give thanks to you, O Father, and what we are to repay to God and to your venerable head, we know not. Who would have hoped that we should be heaped with gifts of this kind? thanks being given What king could honor us with such a dignity? What earthly treasures could so suddenly render us rich? The use of what baths could so cleanse our soul? What parents could so love and save? What gifts could so quickly bring us the remission of our sins? As you do, our venerable father? You in the place of all forebears and parents are to us, after Christ, father and mother. You [are] Lord, you instructor, you leader of the hand, you guide of the way, and whatever else, for relating which the tongue does not suffice. Through you we have obtained the most precious pearl, and have experienced truly the power of baptism, of which the holy fathers were our heralds. We have known truly the burning up of our sins from the fire, which burns our hearts; which to endure we are unequal, so it inflames our inward parts.

[17] and his prayers being asked We beseech your blessedness, O father, that you pray earnestly for us; and that you let your servants depart, that we may sincerely and strenuously serve God, to whom we have consecrated ourselves. Let yourself be entreated, that you never forget your useless sons, at that time, when you stretch out your venerable hands. Indeed, indeed, holy man, let yourself be entreated by the foreigners: be mindful of their orphanhood. Then having embraced the knees of the holy man, again they said: Father, be mindful of your lowly sheep, which you have immolated to Christ as holocausts. Remember the foreign plants, which you have been zealous to insert into the fair garden of paradise. Do not forget the inert workers, whom about the eleventh hour you hired for wages in the vineyard of Christ. But the prelate marveled and was astounded, when he saw those, who two days before had been ignorant and rude, so suddenly turned out wise, from the fact that they had assumed the divine habit. While therefore each had wept long enough, S. Nicon bent the knee, and Symeon being placed on the right and John on the left, he rose, and with hands stretched to heaven, said; O God just and praiseworthy, O God great and strong, O God who art before the ages, hear a sinful man in this hour: hear me, O God, hear me in strength. Be unmindful at this time, in which I pour out prayers, of the prevarications, proceeding from my vileness again and again. Hear me, Lord, hear me in the fire of prayer, as once your prophet; and by his intervention burn up my iniquities, and purge my sins. So be it, O God of the holy powers! so be it, O creator of incorporeal things! so be it! who said: Ask and you shall receive. Do not abominate me, who am of impure lips, and cling in sins. Hear me, who promised, that you would hear those, who call upon you in truth; direct the steps of your servants, and their feet into the way of peace. Have compassion on the innocuous children, existing in a foreign land, who said: Be simple as doves. Matt. 10. I have cried to you with my whole heart; O God, O God, hear me, hope of all the ends of the earth, and of those who are far off in a foreign land.

[18] Rebuke all the unclean spirits from the face of your children: and these being obtained take hold of arms and shield, and rise up to their aid: pour out the sword and shut the way against those who pursue them: say, O Lord, to their soul; I am your salvation. Let there depart from their mind the spirit of fear, of accidie, of pride, and of all malice, and let there be extinguished in them every flame and motion, which arises by the operation of the devil. Let their body and soul and spirit be illuminated by the rays of your knowledge, that meeting in the unity of the faith, and the recognition of the holy and adorable Trinity, into a perfect man, into the measure of stature, they may glorify you unto age of age, and conform themselves to your good pleasure, who are Lord. For the protection of all peoples is your name, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Grant them, Lord, with the heap of all good things, that they may assiduously engrave on their heart the words of this my miserable and unworthy prayer, to the glory and praise of your goodness. Again with many tears to them he said: The God, whom you chose, good sons, and to whom you ran, God himself will send forth his angel before your face, and will prepare his way before your feet The Angel, who, as the great Jacob says, frees me from all contrary powers, he will go before your ways. He who freed his prophet from the mouth of lions, he will free you too from the hands of the lion. The God who chose you, he will vindicate my sacrifice from ignominy. These and more things having prayed, the God-bearing man pressed their necks, and said: Save, O God, save those who with their whole heart love your name: for you are not unjust, O Lord, to despise and abandon those, who have left the foolish affairs of this life.

[19] Afterwards again he turned his discourse to them: Attend, sons, you have given yourselves to a terrible and hidden war; but drive away fear: Symeon and John are incited to constancy, for God is powerful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you can endure. Strive, sons, that you be not overcome. But stand with erect spirit, opposing to the enemy the armature of the holy habit. Recall to memory the words of him, who says: No one putting his hand to the plow, and turning back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven. Luke 9. And again about the building of the tower: lest, beginning the perfect way, you be slothful in the service of God; and there be fulfilled in you, that they began to build, and had not enough strength and spirit to consummate the work. Stand secure, O sons: small is the war, but great the crown; temporal the labor, but eternal the rest. And so when the time advanced, and now thereafter the wood ^c was sounding; and they were about to go out from the door, the Hegumen being taken apart, Symeon said: For God's sake, my Father, pray, that God may delete from the soul of my brother John the memory of his spouse, lest, the malign spirit machinating, he desert me, and I perish from grief, on account of his ruin and departure. Pray, I beseech, for the Lord's sake, that God may console also his parents, lest they labor about him.

[20] But indeed the Old man, marveling at the fraternal affection, answered him nothing. but confirmed in hope, Again Abbot John took Nicon in the same manner and called him apart, thus speaking: For God's sake I beseech you, O Father, do not lay aside the care of my brother; but pray, lest, pitying the grief of his mother, he flee me, and I be found shipwrecked in the harbor. When these things were said; astounded at the alternate vicissitude of mutual love, Nicon at last subjoined: Go, sons, for I announce to you, that the same one, who opened to you here, has now opened those things which are there: and after he had signed their foreheads, breasts, and the whole body, he dismissed them. Dismissed therefore and gone out, they used this: O God of this your great servant, be a guide of the way to us foreigners and lacking help; for we know neither the places, nor the region. But coming to you, we have committed ourselves to death, and to the sea of this solitude. Then John thus addresses Symeon: What is it now? Whither do we tend? To whom that one: Let us go to the right: for whatever is on the right, is good. And now they had traversed so much of the way, that they came to the Dead Sea ^d toward the river, whose name is Arnon. ^e

[21] they withdraw into the wilderness. But God dispensing, and never deserting those, who with their whole soul trust in Him, they found a place (which a certain old man had previously inhabited, but who already a few days before had met death) in which there was a modest furnishing, and also herbs pleasant and delicate for eating, with which that old man, who lay there, had also nourished his life. Beholding the place, they rejoiced no otherwise, than if they had found a treasure. Therefore those men, to be celebrated with every praise (for they knew it to have been prepared divinely, and offered), began to give thanks to God and to that great old man. For, they said, by the protection of his prayer this journey has happily succeeded for us. A few days being passed there, They are tempted by the devil: the enemy of our souls, the devil, not bearing the virtue of the servants of Christ, began to impugn them, John indeed by affection for his wife, but Symeon by great affection toward his mother. When therefore one of them saw himself afflicted, immediately he said to the other: Rise, brother, let us pray. And they used the prayer of the great Old man. For he had prayed: Grant them, Lord, that they may engrave on their heart the words of this prayer. And the outcome immediately taught, that both knew this by ready memory. And they employed it, as often as a temptation pressed, or they asked something from God. On a certain occasion the devil instigated them, as the God-bearing Salos related, to the use of flesh and wine; and at the beginning suggested fear, and torpor in the ascetic life: so that in various ways he tried to recall them from the wilderness into the monastery. Now again he represented certain things in sleep; now the wily and tortuous serpent formed in bodily image some of their friends, these indeed weeping, those indulging their genius, and very many other things, which no one is able to review, except him, who has experienced such temptations. But when they recalled the crowns, which they had contemplated upon one another, and the instructions and tears of the Old man; their heart, as if anointed with some holy oil, was refreshed.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV. Apparitions, prayers, the going out of Symeon from the wilderness into the public from zeal for souls, his hidden actions.

But there appeared to them in a dream also the lord Nicon, now admonishing them, now praying for them. And there is a time when teaching them psalms too, and they awoke reciting by heart whatever in their sleep he taught them, and they had great joy at this. For they knew that the old man labored for them, and they were assured from the things themselves. For before every request, both having asked this before all things from God, Symeon, that the heart of his mother might be consoled, and assured; but John, that God might take to Himself his consort, so that her attachment might be cut off from his thought, God heard both, who said He would do the will of those who fear Him. And two years having passed, the lord Symeon was assured from God, that his mother was without grief about him, and that He appeared to her by night, and consoled her, and said to her in the dialect of the Syrians: Ladechre, lichem, which is, Do not grieve, mother, for both I and the lord John are well, and are in health, and we have been enlisted into the palace of the king, and behold we wear crowns, which the king put on us, and seemly robes. But console also the parents of brother John, for he is enlisted with me. But do not at all grieve. And the abbot John saw that someone clothed in white said to him: Behold I have made your father without grief, but your wife in these days I take to myself.

[23] They narrated therefore to one another what both had beheld and rejoiced, and their heart was made glad. And meanwhile from the thought of their parents immediately God lightened them. And thereafter they were in ease, not at all grieving about them. But without toil, and without sloth they accomplished the course of asceticism and quietude through all, day and night, except the undistracted temptation, and the careless care, I mean of unceasing prayer, through which also the unslothful workers progressed in a short time, so that in a few years they were deemed worthy of divine visions, and assurances and wonders. For a short time having passed, and both being in quietude, as at a stone's throw from one another. For they had also arranged this for themselves, that is, to withdraw apart, when each of them wished to pray alone. But when thoughts or accidie came to him, he should come to the other and in common entreat God to be delivered from the temptation. On one of the days therefore Symeon sitting in his accustomed place, beholds himself in an ecstasy, as if to be present with his own mother who was sick in Edessa, for he was from there, and says to her in the Syrian voice: How are you, mother? And she saying, Well, child. He says to her again, Go to the king, do not fear, for I have entreated him, and he has prepared for you a good place, and when he wishes, I reach you there.

[24] But coming to himself, he knew that at that very hour his mother died, and running to brother John, says to him, Rise, lord, let us make a prayer. But he being troubled, for he thought that some temptation had befallen Symeon, Symeon says to him. Do not be troubled at all, brother, for I have nothing evil, through God. Again therefore John says to him: And what is the cause of so great a running of yours, father Symeon? For he greatly honored, and revered him, just as also that one. Then his eyes being suffused with tears, and beginning to come down like pearls upon his breast, he says to John, just now the Lord takes to Himself my good and blessed mother, and he narrated to him the vision, and bending their knees, they prayed. And one could hear Symeon saying to God words truly pitiable, and entreating, for his inward parts writhed and were troubled, moved by nature, and he cried: O God, who received the sacrifice of Abraham, who looked upon the holocaust of Jephthah, who did not abhor the gifts of Abel, who through Samuel, your servant, showed forth Anna as prophetess, do you yourself, my Lord, Lord, for the sake of me your servant receive the soul of my good mother. Remember, Lord, her labors, and toils, which she labored for me. Remember, Lord, her tears, and groans, which she poured out, when I fled from her to you. Remember, Lord, the breasts, with which she suckled me the lowly one, that she might enjoy my youth, and did not enjoy it. Do not forget, Master, that she could not be separated from me even for an hour, and was separated from me the whole time. Remember, Master, you who know all things, that, when she wished to rejoice in me, then I deprived her of myself for your name's sake. Do not forget, just one, the tearings of her inward parts, which she had on the day, when I fled to you.

[25] You know, Lord, how much sleeplessness she gained every night remembering my youth, since I left her. You know, Master, how many nights she passed sleepless, seeking the sheep that slept with her. Do not forget, lover of mankind, what kind of pain encompassed her heart, when, beholding my garments, she stood, because her pearl who wore them was no more. Remember, Master, that I deprived her of the consolation, and joy, and exultation from me, that I might serve you, my God and hers, and Master of all. Give her angels saving her soul from the spirits and beasts of this air, the wicked and unmerciful ones, who attempt to swallow up all who pass through them. Send to her, Lord, Lord, strong guardians rebuking every disordered power. May it meet her both without grief and without torment. My God, command her soul to be separated from the body, and if as a woman she has sinned in deed or word in this life, forgive her soul, for the sake of the sacrifice, which she bore, and offered to you, Master, me your unworthy servant, yes Lord my God, the just judge and lover of mankind. Do not bring her from affliction into affliction, and from pain into pain, from groans into groans, but instead of the grief, with which she grieved for her only-begotten, into joy, instead of tears into the exultation prepared for your saints, O God, my God, unto the ages. Amen.

[26] After the same prayer, brother John began to console him and to say: Behold, brother Symeon, God has assured you, and heard your prayer, and taken your mother to Himself. But now labor together with me, and let us both pray, for the Lord's sake, that God may do His mercy also with the woman who, by God's indulgence, was called my wife, that God may bring her too to the thought of the monastic habit, or do His mercy, and take her. And when they had prayed for a little time, on one night the abbot John beholds the mother of Symeon coming, and taking the hand of his wife, and saying to her: Rise, sister, come near me, for the king who enlisted my son into his service has bestowed on me a fair house. But change your garments, and put on clean ones. And she rose, he says, immediately, and followed her, and he knew that she too had died, and that the two were in a good place, and he rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And so they persevered in the wilderness, exercising themselves in every exercise, and hardship, and cold, and burning heat, for twenty-nine years, enduring many and unspeakable temptations from the devil, and conquering him, especially Symeon, by the guilelessness and purity that was in him. For he perceived himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, fearing neither suffering, nor cold, nor hunger, nor burning heat, but having become almost beyond the measures of human nature.

[27] He says to John: What further do we profit, brother, dwelling in this wilderness? But if you hear me, rise, let us depart, let us save others too. For here, except ourselves alone, we profit no one else, and we have no reward from anyone; and he began to say to him certain such things also from the holy Scripture: Let no one seek his own, but that of his neighbor. And again: To all I have become all things, that I might by all means save some. And from the Gospel: that thus let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven. And certain other such things. And the lord John answering, says to him: I think, brother, that Satan has envied our quietude, and suggested to you this thought; on the contrary sit still, and let us complete our course, where we were called by God, in this wilderness. Symeon says to him, Believe, I do not remain, but in the power of Christ I go, mocking the world. His brother says to him again: Do not, good brother, I beseech you for the Lord's sake, do not leave me the lowly one. For I have not yet reached this measure, that I may be able to mock the world. But for the sake of Him, who joined us, do not wish to be unyoked from your brother. You know, that after God I have no one, except you, my brother, but I have renounced all and clung to you, and now you wish, as in a sea, to leave me in this wilderness. Remember that day, when we cast lots, and went down to the lord Nicon, that we agreed, not to be separated from one another. Remember the fearful hour, when we put on the holy habit, and we were the two as one soul, so that all were amazed at our love. Do not forget the words of the great old man, with which he admonished us on the night, on which we went out. Do not, I beseech, lest somehow I perish, and God require my soul from you.

[28] Symeon says to him again: Suppose I had died, would you not have had to take care of yourself being alone? Believe, if indeed you come, well and good, since I do not remain. When therefore brother John saw him persisting, he knew that from God he had been assured to do this. Since nothing separated them, except death, and perhaps not even that. For they had also this often entreated of God, that He would take both together, and they believed that the Lord would hear them in this too, as in all things. He says therefore to him: See, Symeon, lest somehow the devil wish to mock you. But he said to him: Only do not forget me in your prayer, as neither I forget you, and God and your prayers save me. Again therefore his brother began to admonish him and to say: See, make yourself secure, brother Symeon, lest what the wilderness gathered, the world scatter; and what quietude profited, disturbance harm; and what wakefulness brought, you lose through sleep. Make yourself secure, brother, lest the deception of worldly things corrupt the chastity of the monastic life. See lest dwelling with women destroy the fruit of abstinence from women, from whom God has saved you until today. See lest possessing much scatter the poverty, which the anchoretic life procured for you, lest somehow foods fatten the body which fasting made lean.

[29] See, brother, lest somehow you lose your compunction through laughter, and your prayer through your negligence. See, I beseech, lest, your face laughing, your mind be dissolved together with it; lest, your hands feeling, your soul too feel along with them; lest, your mouth eating, your heart too be sweetened together; lest, your feet walking, your inward quietude too dance disorderly along; and to speak briefly, lest whatever the body does outwardly, the soul too do inwardly. But if you have wholly received from God power, brother, that, whatever postures, or words, or deeds the body does, your mind and heart may remain unmoved and untroubled, and in no way be polluted by these, or harmed, truly I rejoice at your salvation, only that you pray to God, that there He may not separate us from one another. Then the abbot Symeon says to him: Do not fear, brother John, for not of myself do I wish to do this, but God commanding me, and in this you shall know, that my work has pleased God through His cooperation, that before I die, I come, and call you, and embrace you, and in a few days you reach me. But rise, and let us make a prayer. And when they had prayed for sufficient hours, and kissed each other's breasts, and wet them with their tears, the abbot John released him; having accompanied him a sufficient distance, for his soul did not allow him to be separated from him, but as the abbot Symeon said to him, Return, brother, as if a sword separated him from his body, so he heard this word, and again entreated him to accompany [him] another little while. When therefore the abbot Symeon constrained him, he returned, wetting the earth with his tears, to his own place.

[30] He went straight to the holy city of Christ our God; for he thirsted greatly, as he said, and burned, longing to come into the enjoyment, after so many years, of the holy places of Christ, and having reached the holy and life-giving tomb of Christ, and the holy and saving and victory-bearing skull Calvary, he fulfilled his longing. And he remained three days in the holy city, sitting. Coming and adoring the all-venerable places of the Lord, and praying. But his whole prayer was that his working might be covered until his departure from life, that he might escape the glory of men, through which there comes to a man pride and self-conceit, which also destroyed angels from heaven. He heard him therefore, who said, the just cried out, and the Lord heard them, for although he wrought so many wonders, and accomplished so many marvels, as is to be learned from what follows, the working of the holy one did not become manifest to men. For his request was as a covering upon the hearts of those who beheld the things wrought by him, until his falling asleep. For how, if this were not, I mean that God covered from men the virtue of the Blessed one, on account of the glory from them, would he not have become manifest to all? Now indeed healing the demoniacs, now again carrying brilliant things in his hand. To some often foretelling things to come, and to others signifying the things spoken about him from afar. From the invisible bringing in food of every delicacy in the wilderness, in a laughable way. And there is a time when he both converted Hebrews, or the ill-believing, to piety, and healed the sick, delivered others from dangers. And often also immodest and harlot women, some he brought playfully to lawful marriage, others he made to be chaste by hunting them with money. And others too he pricked to take up the solitary life through the purity that was in him. And I do not wonder, lovers of Christ, that he who wrought these things before God, remained unknown. For He who often makes the hidden virtues of His servants manifest to all, thus by His dispensation made the virtues of this holy one, which were unknown to all, manifest to all. As therefore has been said above, having spent the three days in the holy places he comes to the city of the Emesenes.

In sleep too the lord Nicon appeared to them; now instructing them, Apparitions, now praying for them. Sometimes too he taught them psalms; and waking they held in memory, whatever in sleep he had taught them. Which was a great joy to them. For they knew that the old man labored for their sake, of which they were made more certain from the things themselves. And indeed since each asked from God before all things, Symeon indeed, that his mother's heart might be refreshed with solace, and confirmed; but John, that God would take his consort, and drive from his mind the grief arisen from her separation; God heard both, who said, that He would do the will of those who fear Him. And now two years being passed, the lord Symeon was made more certain by God, that his mother did not grieve for his sake; that by night He appeared to her, and consoled her, and said in the Syriac speech: Ladechre, Lichem. That is: Do not mourn, mother; for both I and brother John are well, and are in health, and have given our name to the soldiery in the palace of the king. And behold, we wear crowns, with which the king clothed us, and elegant garments. But console also the parents of brother John, because he soldiers together with me. By no means therefore mourn. And John too beheld someone, clothed in white garments, who said: Behold, I have freed your father from grief; but your wife I will take from the living before long.

[23] Therefore, what each had contemplated, the one narrated to the other; consolations, and they rejoiced, and their heart was made glad. And then God immediately lightened them of the care of their parents; and thereafter they laid it aside, grieving nothing at all about them; but without trouble and slothfulness they accomplished the course of exercise and silence every day and night; or rather the temptation, which did not distract, and the solicitude, which by no means made solicitous, of assiduous prayer; by which the unwearied workers so compendiously profited, that in a short time they were honored with divine visions, and confirmed by miracles. For a little while after, while each was at leisure for silence, miracles. they were distant from each other, as it were at a stone's throw. But indeed they had prescribed this too for themselves; that is to withdraw apart, when one wished to pray singly from the other; that, if thoughts fell upon them, or negligence crept in, he might approach the other, and both together invoke God, that they might be freed from the temptation. On a certain day when Symeon sat in his accustomed place, he sees himself in an ecstasy as if present with his mother, sick at Edessa (for there he was), and says to her in the Syriac tongue: How are you, mother? And when she said: Well, son. He again: Go, he says, to the king, do not fear: for I have asked him, and he has prepared a good place for you, and, when you wish, I will follow you thither.

[24] The ecstasy, Returned to himself, he understood that at that very hour his mother had departed from the living; and running with speed to brother John, he said: Rise, Lord, we shall pray. And when he was troubled (for he thought that some temptation had befallen Symeon) Symeon says to him: Do not be troubled, brother; for I have nothing evil, through God. To whom John: And what is the cause of such a running, father Symeon? (For he greatly venerated, and honored Symeon, in which the death of the mother was known by Symeon. just as Symeon honored John) then his eyes suffused with weeping, and tears beginning to run down upon his breast like gems, he says to John: Now the Lord calls to Himself my good and blessed mother. And he narrated to him the vision, and on bent knees they prayed: and Symeon was heard addressing God with truly miserable and suppliant words (for his inward parts were moved and disturbed, moved by natural affection) and he cried: O God, who received the sacrifice of Abraham; who looked upon the victim of Jephthah; who did not turn away from the gifts of Abel; who through Samuel your servant showed Anna to be a prophetess; do you the same, Lord, my Lord, for the sake of me your servant, receive the spirit of my good mother. Remember, Lord, her labors and troubles, which she bore for my sake. Remember, Lord, her tears, and groans, which she emitted, when, having left her, I fled to you. Remember, Lord, the breasts, with which she suckled me the vile one, that she might rejoice in my youth, and did not rejoice. Do not forget, that she could not be separated from me even for an hour, and was separated from me the whole time. Recall, Lord, who know all things, that, when she wished to take delight in me, then I withdrew myself from her on account of your name. Do not forget, just God, the laceration of her inward parts, which she sustained on that day, on which I fled to you.

[25] You know, Lord, how much she watched on each night, recalling to memory my youth, His prayers for her. since I left her. You know, Lord, how many nights she passed sleepless, seeking the sheep, which slept with her. Do not forget, benign God, how great a grief pricked her heart, when in the contemplation of my garments she stood fixed, because nowhere was her pearl, accustomed to be clothed with these. Remember, Lord, that I deprived her of the solace, joy, and exultation, which she hoped from me, that I might serve you, both my, and her God and Lord of all. Give her angels, who may keep her soul from the malign spirits and beasts of this airy region, which without mercy try to devour those who pass through. Lord, Lord, send forth strong guardians, who may rebuke every impure power, which may meet her without pain and torment. O my God! Command her soul to be separated from the body, and if anything as a woman she has sinned in deed or word in this life, pardon her soul, on account of the sacrifice; which she bore, and offered to you, Lord, me your unworthy servant. Indeed Lord my God, who are a just and benign judge. Do not bring her from tribulation into tribulation, from grief into grief, from groans into groans; but from the grief, with which she grieved for her only-begotten son, into joy, from tears into exultation, prepared for your Saints, O God, O my God, unto the ages. Amen.

[26] The death of the wife revealed to John. The prayer being finished, ^d brother John began to console him, and to say: Behold, brother Symeon, God has granted your wishes, has heard your prayer, and assumed your mother. But come now into a part of the labor. Let us pray, for the Lord's sake, both, that God may also do His mercy with her, who, God indulging, was called my wife; that He may bring her too to the institute of the monastic habit, or do His mercy, and assume her. A little time being given to prayers, on a certain night the Abbot John sees the mother of Symeon coming, and holding the hand of his wife, and saying: Rise, sister, come nearer to me; because the king, who enrolled my son in his soldiery and service, has given me a fair house. But change your garments, and put on clean ones. And she rose, he says, immediately, and followed her. And John knew that she too had met death, and that both were in a good place; and he rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And so they persevered in the wilderness exercising themselves in every exercise, endurance, cold, and heat, for twenty-nine years, and sustained many and inexplicable temptations from the devil. And they overcame him, but especially Symeon, by the innocence and integrity of life in which he was strong: for he perceived himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, neither to fear pain, nor cold, nor hunger, nor heat, but to have nearly transcended the very condition of human nature.

[27] He says to John: What further do we profit, brother, dwelling in this solitude? For truly, if you hear me, by zeal for saving souls rise, let us depart, let us render others too safe. For here, except for ourselves, we profit no one, and from no one do we receive a reward. And he began to say to him some such things from the sacred pages: Let no one seek what is his own, but what is his neighbor's. 1 Cor. 10; 1 Cor. 9; Matt. 5. And again: To all I became all things, that I might save all. And from the Gospel: So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven. And certain other things of this kind. And the Lord John answering, says to him: I think, brother, Satan has envied our quiet, and injected this thought into you. Rather do you remain, and let us complete our course, to which we were called by God, in this wilderness. Then Symeon: Believe, I do not remain, but depart in the virtue of Christ, to make sport of the world. To whom again his brother: Symeon goes forth into public. Do not, good brother, I beseech you for the Lord's sake, do not desert me the lowly one; for neither have I come to that degree of virtue, that I can make sport of the world. But for the sake of Him, who joined us, do not be disjoined from your brother. You know, that after God I have no one, except you, my brother; but I have renounced all, that I might cling to you. And now you wish to leave me in this solitude as in a sea. Remember this day, on which we cast lots and heard the Abbot Nicon; that it was agreed among us, not to be mutually separated. Remember the terrible hour, when we put on the holy habit, and were two, as one soul, so that all marveled at our love as a new thing. Do not wish to forget the words of the great old man, with which he admonished us on that night, on which we went out. Do not, I pray, lest somehow I perish, and God require my soul from you.

[28] To whom again Symeon: Suppose me to be dead; would you not have, whereby to take care of yourself, although you were alone? In vain resisting, Believe, if you come, you will do rightly and well; since I do not remain. When brother John saw him persisting, he knew that he did this by divine instinct. For nothing could have separated them except death alone, and perhaps not even that. For they had often asked this too of God, that He would call both at the same time from life, and they believed that they had been heard by the Lord in this matter, as in all things. He says therefore to him John, See, Symeon, lest perhaps the devil wish to lay snares for you. He answered: Only do not forget me in your prayers, as neither shall I forget you; and God, and also your prayers, will save me. Again therefore his brother began to admonish him, and to say: See that you be cautious, brother Symeon, lest, whatever the wilderness gathered, the world disperse; whatever silence advanced, tumult harm; whatever vigils congregated, sleep destroy. Beware, brother, lest the deceit of the world corrupt the moderation of the monastic life. See lest future converse with women destroy the fruit which you have received from the absence of women, from whom God has hitherto preserved you. See lest opulence disperse the poverty, which the solitary life conciliated for you; lest perhaps foods fatten the body, which fasting afflicted.

[29] and John deterring, See, brother, lest you lose compunction through laughter, and prayer through negligence. See, I beseech, lest, while your face laughs, your mind be diffused; lest, while your hands touch, your soul touch along with them; lest, while your mouth eats, your heart at the same time be affected with sweetness; lest, while your feet go, your inner quiet and inner peace leap up at the same time disorderly: and, to embrace all in few words, lest whatever the body does outwardly, the soul also do inwardly. But if you have wholly received from God the power, brother, that, in whatever way the body, or speech, or actions are, your mind and heart may be without motion and disturbance; and may by no means be polluted or harmed by those things; truly I rejoice at your salvation, only that you pray to God, that He may not here separate us one from the other. Then the Abbot Symeon says to him: Do not fear, brother John: for not by my own design do I wish to do this, but God commanding. And in this you shall know, that my work has pleased God, He cooperating; because before I die, I will come to you, and call you, and embrace you, and a few days after you will follow me. But rise, and let us institute a prayer. And after they had prayed long enough, and embracing each other's breasts, had wet them with their tears, the Abbot John dismissed him, having become his companion for a sufficiently long space; for his soul did not suffer to be separated from him. But when brother Symeon said to him: Return, brother: he heard this word no otherwise, than if a sword had separated him from his body. And again he begged him, to permit [him] to accompany [him] another short space. And so, the Abbot Symeon constraining him, he returned to his own place, irrigating the earth with tears.

[30] He comes to Jerusalem. Symeon went straight to the holy city of Christ. For he said that he thirsted vehemently and burned with desire of now at last enjoying the holy places of Christ. And after he had come to the holy and life-giving tomb of Christ, and the holy and salvific and victorious Calvary, he fulfilled his desire. For he stayed three days in the Holy city, approaching and adoring the most venerable places of Christ, and devoting himself to prayers. But his whole prayer was, that his actions might be covered, until he should migrate from this life, that he might flee the glory of men, through which there comes to a man pride and self-esteem, which destroyed even the angels themselves in heaven. He heard him therefore, who said: The just cried out, and the Lord heard them. Ps. 35. For although he wrought such great prodigies, and things so incredible beyond opinion, as is given to be understood from those which follow; the actions of the Saint did not become manifest to men. For his petition was made as it were a covering over the hearts of those who saw the things which he accomplished, and they did not understand. until he fell asleep in the Lord. For how, unless the matter were so; unless, I say, God had concealed the virtue of the blessed Man from men, on account of the glory, He asks and obtains from God, that he may be hidden from men. which he was about to obtain from them, would he not have become known to all? Who now indeed healed demoniacs, now again carried fire ^e in his hand; now indeed often foretold to some things to come, and to others signified those things, which were said about him in a remote place; now brought foods of every kind and delicacies, by hidden virtue, and in a ridiculous manner, into the wilderness; sometimes also converted Hebrews, or those astray from the faith, to piety, healed the sick, and freed others from dangers. Often likewise immodest little women and harlots, partly indeed he brought over to lawful nuptials in a playful manner, partly to thriftiness, enticing them with money; indeed by the piety implanted in him he touched their heart, that they might embrace the solitary life. Nor do I wonder, worshippers of Christ, that he, who wrought these things through God, remained unknown. For [as] He often manifests the virtues of His servants, which lie hidden concealed, so by His dispensation He manifested the virtues of this Saint, unknown to all. The three days therefore, as has been said above, being spent in the holy places, he came to the city of the Emesenes.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V. He simulates folly at Emesa. His service there, beatings, wondrous things, fasts, miracles.

But the manner of his entrance into the city was thus. The renowned one, finding on the dunghill outside the city a dead dog, having loosed the girdle which he wore, woven of cord, and having bound it to the foot of the dog, dragged it running, and entered through the gate, near which is the school of the children. When therefore the children beheld this, they began to cry, Ha, a foolish abbot, and they set to running after him, and cuffing him. On the morrow therefore, it being the Lord's day, he took nuts, and entered into the church at the beginning of the liturgy throwing nuts, and putting out the lamps. When therefore they ran to throw him out, he goes up to the ambo, and from there pelted the women with the nuts. With much labor therefore, having thrown him out, as he was going out, he overturned the tables of the cake-sellers, who gave him blows unto death. When therefore he saw himself crushed, he said to himself: Lowly Symeon, truly thus you will not live one hour in the hands of these men. By the dispensation therefore of God a certain hot-bean-seller beholds him, and did not know that he was feigning folly, and says to him: Do you wish, lord abbot, instead of going around, to stand and sell the lupines? And that one said to him, yes.

[32] When therefore they had stationed him for one day, he began to give out everything to the people, and to eat himself too without limit. For he had not eaten the whole week. The wife of the hot-bean-seller therefore says to her husband: Whence did you bring us this abbot? Truly if he eats thus, there is no need that we sell anything at all, for he has eaten of the lupines at least one pot, by which I have been measuring him. But they did not know that whatever they had and the rest of the little pots, he had given out to the fellow-brothers and the rest, that is, the beans and the lentils and the snacks and everything, but they thought that he had sold them. When therefore they opened the box, and found no coin, they beat him, and dismissed him, plucking out also his beard. Evening therefore coming on, he wished to put on incense, for he did not withdraw from them to depart, but there he slept outside the door. And not finding a potsherd, he put his hand into the hearth, and filled it with burning coals, and offered incense. God wishing also to save the bean-seller, for he was a heretic of the Acephalous Severites, his wife saw him offering incense with his hand, and astonished says: One God, abbot Symeon, do you offer incense on your hand?

[33] When the old man heard this, he pretended to be burned, and shaking the coals from his hand, transferred them into his old cloak, which he wore, saying to her: And if you do not wish me to offer incense on my hand, see, I offer incense on my cloak. And as with the Lord who preserved the bush unburned, and the three children, not even thus did the holy one feel the coals, nor [did] his cloak burn. But in what manner the bean-seller and his wife were saved, will be told in another chapter. The holy one practiced also this, that, whenever he did anything marvelous, he immediately changed that neighborhood, until the thing which he did should be forgotten. And he hastened immediately to feign something unseasonable, that through that he might cover the good deed. But once, giving out hot beans in a tavern, he took his food. But the tavern-keeper was without compassion, so that often he did not even give him his food, although he had much trade through the Salos. For, as in the manner of something elevated, the citizens said to one another: Let us go, let us drink where the Salos is. On one of the days therefore a serpent entered, and drank from one of the wine-jars, and vomited down its venom, and withdrew. But the abbot Symeon was not within, but outside was playing with the people. The holy one therefore coming, beholds the jar inscribed invisibly, "death." Immediately therefore he understood what had happened to it, and lifting a stick, he broke it, as it was full. The master therefore taking the stick from his hand, gave it to him, until he was exhausted, and drove him out. But on the morrow the abbot Symeon came, and hid himself behind the door, and the tavern-keeper seeing him, took the same stick, and behold, again the serpent came to drink; and wishing to kill it, and failing, he struck and broke all the jars and the cups. Then the Salos leaped in, and says to him, What is it, madman, see, I am not the only good-for-nothing. Then therefore the tavern-keeper knew, that for this reason the abbot Symeon had broken the jar, and was edified, and held him a saint.

[34] The holy one therefore, wishing to undo his edification reputation, that he might not triumph over him, on one occasion his wife sleeping alone, and he being out fetching wine, the abbot Symeon went in to her, and pretended to take off his garment. She therefore crying out, her husband entered, and she says to him: Throw out this thrice-accursed one, for he wished to force me, and beating him with fists he threw him out of the workshop into the cold, for it was a great winter and rain, and from then not only did the tavern-keeper hold him deranged, but even if he heard anyone else saying, truly perhaps this Abbot makes himself thus on purpose, immediately he said to him: Truly he is a pure demoniac, no man deceives me, for he wished to commit adultery with my wife, if he had succeeded, and he eats meat as one not having God. For the Just one often ate meat too, not tasting bread the whole week, and his betrothal to God no one understood. But the meat he ate before them for their deception. But he was wholly as if bodiless, and not even regarding the unseemliness, neither that of men, nor that of nature. For often when his belly sought to do its own need, immediately blushing before no one, in the marketplace toward a place he sat down before all, and thence wishing to persuade, that, being out of his natural mind, he did this. For being guarded, as has often been said, by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, he was superior to the burning from the devil, in no way harmed by it.

[35] On one occasion therefore, beholding him wasted from asceticism (for it was after Easter, and he had passed all the holy fasts without food) the aforementioned virtuous John, the God-loving, who also expounded his life to us, and having compassion, and marveling at his unspeakable austerity, although being in a city, and associating with women and men, wishing as in the manner of a joke to restore his body, says to him, Do you come to bathe, Salos? That one says to him saying, yes. Let us go, let us go, and with the word he takes off his garment, and placed it upon his head, binding it to it, like a turban. And the lord John says to him, Put it on, brother, for truly if you walk naked, I do not come with you. The abbot Symeon says to him. Go, madman, I have done work upon work, but if you do not come, behold I go a little before you, and leaving him he went a little before. Now two baths were near to one another, one of men, and one of women. The Salos therefore left that of the men, and rushed willingly into that of the women. The lord John therefore cried out to him: Where do you go, Salos, stay, that is of the women. The wondrous one turning, says to him: Go, you madman, there hot and water [are], and here hot and water. And nothing extra is there either there, or here. And running, he entered into the midst of the women, as in the sight of the Lord of glory. But all rushed against him, and beating him threw him out. The God-loving deacon therefore asked him, when he had told him his whole life, for the Lord's sake, father, how did you feel yourself, when you entered into the bath of the women? He says to him: Believe, child, just as wood with wood, so was I too then; for neither that I bore a body, nor that I entered among bodies, did I feel. But my whole mind was on the work of God, and from it I did not depart. For some of his deeds the Just one accomplished for the salvation and compassion of men, but others that his practices virtues might be covered.

[36] There were once again outside the city boys running a race, of whom one was the son of the lord John the deacon, his friend, who a few days before had committed fornication with a married woman, and as he was going out of her house, was possessed by a demon, no one seeing him. The holy one therefore wished both to chasten and to heal him, and says to those running, truly unless I too play with you, I will not let you run, and he began to throw stones at them. He wished therefore to take him to the part where he was running, whom he was about to heal. But the abbot Symeon seeing this went rather to the opposite part; for he already knew what he was about to do, and as they began to run, the holy one rushes against the boy who was possessed, and overtaking him, no one understanding, strikes him on the jaw, and says, No more commit adultery, lowly one, and the demon does not approach you. Immediately therefore the demon tore him, and all gathered over him. As therefore he lay on the ground foaming, the sufferer beholds the Salos driving from him a black dog, and beating him with a wooden cross. But coming to himself after many hours, he was asked: What have you suffered? and he could not say, except only that someone said to me, No more commit fornication. But the abbot Symeon being perfected in peace, as if he came to himself, and narrated to all in detail the matter.

[37] Mimes were once performing in the theater. And there was one of them, Psephas. The Just one therefore wishing to cut off such an evil. For the said Psephas had certain good works, he did not disdain to go, but went, and stood below on the floor, where the mimes were playing, and as he saw Psephas beginning to do unlawful things, he throws a very small stone, having made on it a cross, and casts it at the right hand of Psephas, and withered it. But no one understood who threw the stone. The holy one therefore appears to him by night in sleep and says to him: Truly I succeeded, and unless you swear that you will no longer practice to do any such thing, you will not be healed. He swore therefore to him by the Mother of God, that I will no longer transgress hereafter through such a play. And rising, he found his hand whole, and narrated all the things seen by him. Except that the Salos was the one who spoke to him in sleep, he could not say, but only this he said, that a certain monk, wearing a crown of palms, said these things to me.

But in the very entrance of the city he bore himself thus. When the distinguished Symeon had found on a dunghill, In his actions Symeon which was outside the city, a dead dog, the girdle which he carried, woven of cords, being loosed, and tied to the foot of the dog, he dragged it running, and entered through the gate, near which was the school of the children. This seen, the children began to cry out: Bah! this abbot is a fool. And they set to running after him, and to assail him with cuffs. But on the morrow of this day, which was a Lord's day, he took nuts, and entering the church, at the beginning of the divine office threw the nuts, appearing a fool, he is grievously beaten. and put out the candles. But when they ran up to throw him out, he goes up to the ambo, ^a and thence assailed the women with the nuts. And so while with much labor they threw him out, in the going out he overturned the tables ^b of the cake-sellers, who mulcted him with blows unto death. When therefore he saw himself bruised, he said these things to himself: Lowly Symeon, truly, truly, thus you will not live one hour in their hands. God therefore so ordaining, a certain bean-seller ^c beheld him, and, ignorant that he was simulating folly, says to him: Do you wish, lord abba, ^d you who now go around in circles, to act as stationary vendor, and sell lupines? To whom he: Indeed I wish.

[32] After therefore he had served him in this office for one day, he began to give out everything to men, and to devour himself too insatiably; He carries fire for the whole week he had not eaten. The wife of the bean-seller therefore says to her husband: Whence did you bring us this abbot? Truly if he devours thus, there is no need that we sell anything more. For, from the time that I accurately observed him, he has devoured a whole amphora of lupines; but they did not know, that he had given out to his fellows and the rest whatever vessels he had left, that is beans, lentils and all legumes, but they thought that he had sold them. And so, the cupboard being opened, and neither merchandise nor its price being found, they beat him and dismissed him, plucking out also his beard. The day declining toward evening, he wished to send forth an offering of incense (for neither did he withdraw from them that evening, but slept there outside the gate) and a potsherd not being found, he put his hand into the hearth, and filled it with fire, ^e and gave the offering of incense. But God wishing to make the bean-seller safe (for he followed the heresy of the Acephalous ^f Severians ^g) the wife of the bean-seller saw Symeon sending forth the offering of incense with his hand, and struck with wonder said: One God! Abba Symeon, do you fumigate on your hand?

[33] his hand and cloak unharmed: This heard, the old man feigned that he was being burned, and throwing the fire from his hand, transferred it into his old cloak, which he carried, saying to her; If you do not wish that I do so on my hand, behold I fumigate on my cloak. And so by the virtue of God, who preserved the bush unburned, and the children; neither did the Saint himself feel the fire, nor his cloak. But how the bean-seller and his wife escaped safe, will be said in another chapter. ^h He flees praise, This too the Saint diligently observed, that, whenever he had done something marvelous beyond opinion, he immediately changed that neighborhood, until the thing, which he had done, was buried in oblivion. He was zealous also, that he might display something inept, by which he might cover that, which he had rightly done. It happened once that he, who distributed lupines in a tavern, received his food: but the tavern-keeper was so harsh, that often he did not give him food, although he sold much on account of Symeon. For the citizens, as if held in suspense by the novelty of the thing, said among themselves: Let us go, let us drink, where the Salos is. On a certain day therefore a serpent entered, and drank wine from one flask, ⁱ and vomited up its venom upon it, and went away. The Abbot Symeon was not within, but outside was leading dances with the people. After the Saint had come, having scrutinized hidden things he is badly mulcted. he sees inscribed on the flask, "death"; yet so, that it could not be seen. Immediately therefore he understood, what had happened in it: and a stick being lifted, he broke it, as it was full. And so the master, a stick being snatched from his hands, beat him, until he failed, and pursued him. But the Abbot Symeon came on the morrow, and hid himself behind the door; and behold the serpent returned, to drink; and the tavern-keeper beholding it, snatched the same stick, wishing to kill it; and when he had struck and missed, he broke all the flasks and cups. Then the Salos ran up, and says: What is it, fool? See, I am not the only one inert ^k and less dexterous. Then the tavern-keeper understood that for the same cause the Abbot Symeon had broken the flask, and was edified, and held him for a saint.

[34] And so when the Saint wished to abolish the esteem of himself, lest the master should gloriously proclaim about him; From hatred of vainglory on a certain day, when his wife slept alone, and he himself was selling wine, the Abbot Symeon approached her, and made as if to take off his garments. She crying out, her husband entered. To whom she said, throw out this most wicked man, because he wished to do violence to me; and beating him with fists, he expelled him from the workshop into the ice (for it was a very cold and frosty weather.) And from this time the tavern-keeper not only held him for a man of disturbed mind; but if he heard anyone else saying: he does wondrous things, Truly perhaps that Abbot simulates that he is such; immediately he answered him: Truly he is a pure and unalloyed demoniac; the man does not deceive me: for he wished to do harm to my wife, if he could, and devours meat like an atheist. For the Just Man often devoured meat too, when through the whole week he had not tasted bread, and no one understood his fast. And the meat indeed he devoured before them, that he might deceive them. But he was wholly as if without a body, nor did he care about the disgrace either of men, or of nature. For often, wishing to empty his bowels, blushing on no one's account, he immediately sat down toward some place in the forum before all; and he did this, that even from it he might persuade, that truly he was of a disturbed mind. For fortified by the virtue of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, as has often been said, he overcame the burning of the devil, in no way harmed by it.

[35] On a certain day after he had seen him emaciated from exercise (for Easter had passed, but not to be imitated. and he had spent all the sacred fasts without food) the aforesaid John of proven virtue, the God-loving; that same one, who expounded his life to us, and having pitied and marveled at his ineffable austerity, although he was in the city, and associated equally with women and with vices [men]; wishing as it were by way of a joke to refresh his body, says: Come to bathe, Salos. He subjoined: Indeed yes, let us go, let us go. No sooner said than done; he took off his garment, placed it upon his head, and tied it to it like a band. The Lord John says to him: Put it on, brother; because truly, if you walk naked, I do not come with you. To whom the Abbot Symeon: Away, fool: I have anticipated the work to be done. ^l But if you refuse to come, behold, I go a little before you; and leaving him he went a little before. There were two baths, mutually near to one another, the one of men; the other of women. The Salos left that, which was of men, and betook himself to that, which was of women, of his own accord. The Lord John cried out: Whither do you tend, Salos? Stay; that is of the women. The wondrous man turning: Away, he said, fool; there [is] hot water, ^m and here hot water. What more is there either there, or here? And running, he passed through the midst of the women, as if glorying in the Lord. But all rushed upon him, and beating him threw him out. The God-loving deacon therefore asked him, when he expounded his whole life to him. Tell, for the Lord's sake, Father, how were you affected, after you entered the bath of the women? To whom he: Believe, son, just as wood is with wood, so was I then. For neither that I bore a body, nor that I had entered the place, where there were bodies, did I feel; but my whole mind was in the work of the Lord, and from it I did not desist. For those things, which the Saint did, he effected partly from zeal for salvation, and from commiseration of men, partly that his right deeds might be covered.

[36] Some outside the city were driving a race, called lysoporta. He frees a demoniac Among them was the son of John the deacon, Symeon's friend, who a few days before had had relations with a married woman: and as he was going out of her house, no one seeing him, he was possessed by a demon. The Saint wished both to bring him back to thriftiness, and to heal him, and said to those running: For truly unless I play together with you, I will not let you run: and he began to throw stones at them. They wished therefore to admit him on that part, on which ran he, whom he was about to heal. This seen, the Abbot Symeon rather withdrew to the opposite part. For he knew what he was about to do. And when they began to run, the Saint pursues the youth, whom the demon had invaded, and overtaking him, no one understanding it, beats his jaw, and says: Do not henceforth commit adultery, O unhappy one! and the demon will not approach you. Immediately therefore the demon tore him, and all approached him. And so while he lay on the ground foaming, he, who was suffering, beholds, that the Salos was pursuing a black dog, thrown out of himself, and beating it with a wooden cross. Many hours after, returned to himself, he was asked: What have you suffered? And he could say nothing, except this one thing: Someone said to me: Do not henceforth commit adultery. But the Abbot Symeon being translated to the heavens, he returned to himself, and expounded the matter singly to all.

[37] He heals a withered hand. The mimes were giving attention to the scenic art in the theater. One of them was called Psephas. And so when the Just Man wished to deter him from an evil of this kind (for the aforesaid Psephas had certain good works) he did not disdain to go there: but betook himself thither, and stood below in the floor of the circus, where the mimes were playing. Beholding that Psephas was beginning to do certain nefarious things, he snatched up a very small stone, first marked with a Cross, threw it into the right hand of Psephas, and dried it up. But no one then observed who had thrown the stone. The Saint therefore by night appears to him in sleep, and said: Truly I have hit the mark; and unless you swear that you will no longer follow this manner of life, you will by no means be healed. He swore therefore to him by the Mother of God, that henceforth he would no longer practice such a play. And when he had risen, he found his hand whole, and narrated, whatever he had seen. But, that it was the Salos, who had spoken to him in sleep, he could not assert. He only said: A monk, I know not who, bearing a crown of palms, said these things to me.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VI. Other miracles of Symeon, predictions; conversions of heretics, Jews, and harlots, the putting to flight of a demon, the gift of chastity.

When once a great earthquake was about to come upon the city, when Antioch fell, in the times of Maurice the Emperor, who is among the saints, (for then the holy one came from the wilderness into the inhabited world) he snatched the thong from the cord, and began to strike the columns and to say to each: Your lord said, stand. And when the earthquake came, none of the columns which he struck fell. He came therefore also to one column, and says to it: But you neither fall, nor stand; and it was split from top to bottom, and inclined a little, and so remained. But no one understood what the Blessed one did. But all said, that from derangement he struck the columns; one could glorify, and marvel at God, that through the postures by which some thought him to be living dissolutely, through these he often displayed marvels. For when a pestilence was once about to come upon the city, going through all the schools, he began to embrace the children, saying to each, as in jest, Go well, my good one. But he did not embrace all, but where the grace of God made it known to him. And he said to the teacher of each school: For God's sake, madman, do not flog the children whom I love, because they have a long road to go. But the teacher mocking him, sometimes gave him blows obols?, and sometimes nodded to the children, and they pelted him. But when the pestilence came, not one of those whom the abbot Symeon had embraced remained, but all died.

[39] The holy one had also a custom of going up into the houses of the rich and playing, and often pretending to kiss their maidservants too, among whom on one occasion a certain commoner having got with child a maidservant of one of the notables, and the maidservant being unwilling to reveal him who had fornicated with her, was asked by her mistress who had corrupted her. And she said, the Salos Symeon forced me. He therefore coming according to custom into the house, the mistress of the girl says: Well done, abbot Symeon, that you corrupted and got with child my maidservant. Immediately therefore that one laughing, and bending his head to his right hand, said to her, gathering together his five fingers: Let be, let be, lowly one, now she bears you [one], and you have a little Symeon. Until therefore her day came, the abbot Symeon remained, carrying to her fine bread, and meats and fish, and said: Eat, my wife. But when the time and the hour of her bringing forth came, she was in labor for three days unto death. Her mistress therefore says to the Salos: Pray, abbot Symeon, for your wife cannot bring forth. But he said to her dancing: By Jesus, by Jesus, lowly one, the child does not come forth thence until she says who is its father. When therefore she who was in danger heard this, she said: I lied about him, but it is of the commoner's son. Then therefore immediately she brought forth. And all marveling, they held him, some of the house held him a saint, but others again said: He divines from Satan, since he is a pure madman.

[40] But two certain fathers then in a certain monastery near Emesa, making among themselves an inquiry, and searching out, why then Origen the heretic fell, honored with such judgment and wisdom by God. And the one saying, that the knowledge that was in him was not from God, but a natural advantage, and besides being also of a clever mind, and especially having devoted himself to the reading of the divine Scripture and to the holy fathers, he sharpened his own mind, and from this made the composition of his books. But the other again contradicting, that one cannot speak from a natural advantage words such as he set forth, especially those of his Hexapla. Wherefore even until today the Catholic Church receives them as necessary. But that one again answering, that, believe, there are Greeks pagans who acquired more wisdom than this, and composed more books than he. Why then must we praise these too on account of their much-talking nonsense? They remaining therefore irreconcilable, at last, the one says to the other: We hear from those who come from the holy places, that the wilderness of the Jordan has great monks, let us go, let us learn from them. Coming therefore to the holy places, and having prayed, they come also to the wilderness of the Dead Sea, into which the renowned and ever-memorable John and Symeon had withdrawn. God therefore not making their labor in vain, they found the abbot John, now already, himself too having reached perfect measures, for as he saw them he says: Welcome those who have left the sea, and come to the dry lake to draw water.

[41] Much and God-loving meeting therefore having taken place between them, they tell him for what reasons they had accomplished so great a journey. And he says to them, I have not yet, fathers, received the gift of discernment of the judgments of God, but go to the Salos Symeon, who is in your country, and he can resolve for you both that and all things which you wish, saying to him: Pray also for John, that ten may fall to his lot too. When they came to Emesa, and asked where is there a Salos, called Symeon? all laughed at them, and said: What do you want from that one, fathers? he is a deranged man, and maims and mocks all, but especially the monks. But they seeking him, and finding him in a bean-shop eating lupines like a bear, immediately the one was scandalized, and said in himself, truly we have come to see a great Gnostic, this one has much to tell us. When therefore they drew near, they say to him, bless [us]. That one says to them, badly have you come, and he who sent you is a madman. Taking hold therefore of the ear of the one scandalized, he gives him such a cuff, that for three days it showed, and says, Why do you blame the lupines, they were soaked forty days, but Origen does not eat of them, because he went down too far into the sea, and had not strength to come out, and was drowned in the deep. They being astounded therefore, that he foretold them all things, and this too, that the Salos wishes the ten, but, he is a madman like you; You receive, say, the shin in return, yes, yes, go, and lifting immediately the pot of the hot bean-broth, he burned the two of them on the lips, that they might not be able to speak what he had said to them.

[42] He took, as he was in the bean-shop, on one occasion a pandura lute, and began to play upon it in one narrow lane, where there was an unclean spirit. And he played and said the prayer of the great Nicon, that he might drive the spirit from the place, for it had maimed many. When therefore the demon fled, it passed like an Ethiopian through the bean-shop, and shattered everything. The wondrous one therefore returning, says to his mistress: Who broke these things? And she said, a cursed black one came, and shattered everything. He says to her laughing, short, short? And she says, and truly, Salos. He says to her: Truly I sent him, that he might break everything. When therefore she heard this, she sought to strike him. But he stooping, and lifting refuse, threw it, and the Holy one darkened her eyes, and said: Truly you do not catch me, but either you commune in my church, or the black one will break everything daily. For they were of the Acephalous heretics. When therefore he went away from her, behold on the morrow at that very hour the black one came, and again visibly shattered everything. Being constrained therefore, they became orthodox, holding Symeon a servant of God, daring to say to no one about him, although daily the Salos passed by, and mocked them.

[43] One of the workmen of the city wished to make him public, having known his virtue. For he saw him once bathing, and two angels conversing with him. But the workman was a Hebrew; and blasphemed much against Christ. The holy one therefore appears to him in sleep, saying: Tell no one, what you saw. On the morrow therefore he wished to publish him, and immediately the holy one standing by him, touched his lips, and he was struck dumb, and was not able to speak to anyone. But he came to the Salos, and nodded to him with his hand, that he might make him speak. But the abbot Symeon feigned the fool, and nodded back to him as a madman. But he nodded to him, that he might sign him bless him. And one could see both nodding to one another, a fearful spectacle. The Old man therefore appears to him again in a dream, saying, either you are baptized, or you have this death. Then indeed he did not endure to assent to him. But when at last the abbot Symeon died, and the Jew saw himself constrained, especially also in the translating of his relics, then he was baptized, himself and his house. And when he came up from the holy font, immediately he spoke. And he made the memory of the Salos every year, and called the poor. But to such a measure of purity and impassibility did the Blessed one drive, that often he danced and made dances, holding one theatrical woman on this side, and one on that, and in the midst of all the people he was present and played. So that there was a time when the immodest women put their hands into his bosom, and fondled, and cuffed, and tickled him. But the old man, like pure gold, was in no way polluted by these.

[44] For there was, as he said, when he had the burning and the war in the wilderness, having entreated God, and the great Nicon, that He would lighten him from the great war of fornication, and he beholds once this renowned one having come, and saying to him: How are you, brother? And I said to him, he says, unless you come quickly, badly, because the flesh fondles me, I know not why. Smiling therefore, he says, the wondrous Nicon, took up water from the holy Jordan, and put it under his navel, signing with the figure of the precious cross, and said to him: Behold you have become whole. From then therefore, as he swore, neither in sleep, nor waking, did he perceive bodily burning. Wherefore especially also, taking courage, the Noble one returned into the world, wishing to have compassion on and to save those who were warred against. For there is a time when he said this too to one of the courtesans: Do you wish I have you as a friend, and I give you a hundred gold pieces? Being incited therefore, many trusted him. For he showed them also the little sum, for he had as much as he wished, God invisibly supplying him on account of his divine purpose. And then he demanded an oath from her who received [it], that she would not betray him. But he did all things through foolish and unseemly postures.

[45] But speech cannot show the image of the deeds. For he made himself, now limping, now leaping, now being dragged to the seats, now putting a foot to someone running, and throwing him. And again at the new moon rolling on the ground and kicking it with his feet. And there is a time when he feigned even the one who babbles as if possessed. For he said that more than all the postures this posture fits and contributes to those who feign folly for Christ. For through this he often both reproved, and cut off sins, and sent anger to someone for correction, and foretold some things, and did whatever he wished, only changing his own voice, and his limbs, and whatever he did, they held him as one of the many who babble and prophesy from demons.

The prediction of an earthquake, By a great earthquake, about to invade the city at a certain time, when Antioch ^a fell, in the times of the holy ^b Maurice the Emperor (for then the Saint went out from solitude into the public) he snatched a thong from the cords, and began to strike the columns, and to say to each: Your Lord said, stand. And the earthquake arising, none of all the columns, which he had struck, fell. He came therefore to one column, and said: But you, neither fall, nor stand. and a miracle. And it was split from top to bottom, and was modestly inclined, and so remained. No one understood that which the Saint had done; but all with one mouth said, that he had struck the columns from dementia. God is to be praised and admired, that, through the figures by which they thought Symeon to be conducting himself foolishly, through these he often showed things exceeding the opinion of men. A plague hanging over the city, when he had gone to all the schools, he began to greet the children, saying to each as if in jest; Away well, my good one. Nor did he greet all, but those whom God's grace indicated. And he said to the master of each school: For God's sake, fool, do not torture the children; I love them: for they have a long road to complete. But the master, Another prediction with a miracle. making sport of him, sometimes beat him with a whip, sometimes nodded to the children, and they insolently assailed him. ^c The plague now arising, not even one remained of those, whom the Abbot Symeon had greeted, but all died.

[39] The Saint was wont also to go to the houses of the rich, and to play; Third prediction and not rarely also to simulate that he was kissing their maidservants. When on a certain day some plebeian had impregnated a maidservant of one of the more illustrious, and the maidservant was unwilling to betray the debaucher, she was asked by her Mistress, who had corrupted her. She answered: Symeon the Salos did violence to me. As he was entering the house according to custom, the mistress of the girl says: Excellently, Abba Symeon; because you corrupted and impregnated my maidservant. Therefore he himself laughing, his head bent into his right hand, and his five fingers contracted, said: Let be, let be, O wretched one! She will now bear you a child, and you will have a little Symeon. So until her day came, the Abbot Symeon remained, bringing ^d her wheaten ^e breads, and meats and relishes, and said: Eat, my wife. But when her time and hour was at hand, that she should bring forth, for three days she labored with the cruciation ^f of the womb even unto death. And so her mistress says to the Salos: Pray, Abba Symeon, because your wife cannot bring forth. with a miracle. He answered, capering: By Jesus, by Jesus! O wretched one! the infant will not go forth thence, until she first say who is its Father. This heard, she who was in danger said: This crime I falsely attached to him; not his, but it is the offspring of someone from the common people. Then therefore immediately she brought forth; and all marveling, some of the domestics esteemed him a saint, but others said: By the help of Satan he divines, since he is altogether of a disturbed mind.

[40] When two certain fathers, who then were in some monastery near Emesa, On the fall of Origen sought among themselves, and investigated, what had been the cause, that Origen ^g fell into heresy, who had been honored by God with such genius and wisdom. And when the one said, that the knowledge, in which he was strong, was not from God, but from the natural richness of his genius; furthermore that he had obtained a happy soul, but especially when he devoted himself to the reading of the divine Scripture, and to the holy fathers, he sharpened the force of his genius, and from this thing arose, that he wrote his books. ^h While on the contrary the other said; that one cannot speak such discourses from the natural richness of genius, as he had published, especially those, which are called Hexapla, ⁱ and which therefore even to this present day the Catholic Church admits as necessary. ^k The other again answering: Believe, there are Gentiles, who surpassed him in wisdom, and wrote more books ^l than he. What then? Is it necessary to praise them on account of their wordy trifles? While they disagreed among themselves, at last one says to the other: We hear from those, who come from the holy places, that the solitude of the Jordan has great monks: Let us go, let us learn from them. And so going to the holy places, and praying, they come also to the solitude of the Dead Sea, into which had withdrawn John and Symeon, to be celebrated with perpetual praises. And God bringing it about that they did not take that labor in vain, they found the abbot John, who remained there, and who had come to the summit of perfection. But when he saw them, he said: Welcome, those who, the sea being left, come to the dry marsh to draw water.

[41] consulted A long therefore and religious conversation being held between them back and forth, they told him, why they had undertaken this journey. He answered: Not yet, Fathers, have I received the charism of discerning the judgments of God; but go to Symeon the Salos, who is in your region; and he can resolve both this, and other things whatever you wish, and say to him: Pray for John, that ten too may fall to him by lot. After they had come to Emesa, and inquired, where there was the Salos, who was called Symeon, all derided them, saying: What do you want from him, my Fathers? He is a man of disturbed mind: with all ^m he is angry, derides all, especially the monks. After therefore they had inquired, and found him, like a bear, devouring lupines, at a bean-seller's, immediately one was scandalized, and said with himself: Truly we have come to see a great Gnostic. ⁿ This man indeed has many things, which he may expound to us. After they had approached, they say to him: Bless [us]. ^o To whom he: Badly have you come, and he, who sent you, is a fool. And so the little ear being seized, of him who had been scandalized, he broke a cuff upon him of this kind, that for three days its mark appeared, and said: Why do you reprehend the lupines? what he answered. For forty days they were soaked; but Origen does not eat of them, because he went down into the sea, and could not come out, but in the depth was suffocated. And so they being astounded, in that he had foretold all things, and this very thing, that the Salos wishes the ten, [p] but he is a fool like you. You receive, say, on the shin; [q] indeed, indeed go away; and the pot being soon lifted, in which was hot bean-broth, [r] he burned both of them on the lips, that they might not be able to bring forth, that, which he had said to them.

[42] He converts the Acephali. On a certain day he took a pandura [s] in the bean-shop, [t] and began to play on it in an alley, where there was an unclean spirit. And he played and said the prayer of the great Nicon, that he might drive the spirit from the place. For it had vexed many. After the demon had fled, it passed in the form of an Ethiopian through the bean-shop, and shattered everything. When the wondrous man had returned, he says to his Mistress: Who broke these things? To whom she: A certain Moor, to be devoted to curses, came, and broke everything. Again he smiling. A dwarf, a dwarf? But she says: I speak the truth, Salos. And he again: Truly I sent him, that he might break everything. This heard, she wished to beat him. Who, when he had bent himself, and lifted dust, threw it, and the Saint darkened her eye, Another prediction of his. and said: Certainly you will not catch me; but either commune with me in the church, or the Moor will shatter everything daily. (But they were infected with the heresy of the Acephali.) After therefore he had withdrawn from her, behold on the next day at the same hour the Ethiopian came again, and in their sight the Ethiopian again shattered everything. Reduced therefore to straits, [u] they gave their name to the Christian religion, and held Symeon for a servant of God, no one daring to speak against him, although daily the Salos passed by and derided them.

[43] A certain workman of the city, his virtue being known, He punishes a Jew wished to make him public. For once he saw, while he was bathing, two angels conversing with him. But the workman was a Hebrew, and blasphemed much against Christ. The Saint appeared to him in sleep, saying, that he should betray to no one that which he had seen. In the morning the other wished to make a triumph about him, and soon the Salos standing by him, touched his lips, and compressed them, and he was not able to speak to anyone. He approached therefore the Salos, and gave a sign with his hand, that he should restore his speech. But the Abbot Symeon displayed the fool, and in turn nodded to him after the manner of a madman. But he nodded to him that he should sign himself. And one could see both nodding to each other, presenting a horrible spectacle. Again therefore Symeon appeared to him in sleep, saying: Either be baptized, or you will be mute [x] until death. And then indeed he could not be brought, to give him faith. But at last, when the Abbot Symeon met death, and the Jew saw himself pressed by straits, especially when his body was being translated, then he and his whole house were baptized. and converts him. And going out from the holy laver, immediately he spoke. And he celebrated the memory of the Salos every year, and invited the poor. But to such a height of purity and impassibility had the Saint come, that very often he danced [y] and led dances, holding one scenic woman on this side, another on that, and was in the midst of the people, and played, and sometimes immodest women sent their hands into his bosom, irritated him, drove cuffs, and tickled him. But the old man, no otherwise than pure gold, was in no way contaminated by these things.

[44] There was, as he related, when in solitude he had a war with lust, The gift of chastity, having prayed to God, and the great Nicon, that they would relieve him from the arduous conflict of the voluptuous matter. He contemplated once this most celebrated man coming, and saying to him: How are you, brother? To whom he answering, said: Badly, unless you succor [me]: for the flesh is troublesome to me, I know not why. And so the wondrous Nicon smiling, as Symeon related, took up water from the holy Jordan, and threw it under his navel, the sign of the venerable Cross being made, and said to him: Behold you are made whole. From this time, as he swore, neither in sleep, nor waking, did he feel the flame of the body. Trusting in this thing especially, that generous man returned into the world, wishing to have compassion on and to save those who were assaulted. It happened once, that he said to a certain harlot: Do you wish that I have you as a friend, and give you a hundred gold pieces? [z] Many therefore with willing mind trusted him. For he showed them the sum of money; [aa] for he had as much as he wished; God invisibly supplying him on account of the divine end, which he had set for himself. Furthermore he exacted an oath from her, who had received [it], that she would not make the promise void. But he did all things through foolish and unseemly figures.

[45] affected folly. But speech is not equal to representing the image of things. For now he simulated that he limped, now that he danced, now that he was dragged to the seats, now that he tripped someone running, and threw him; but sometimes at the rising of the moon, that he rolled through the earth, and assailed it with feet and heel: sometimes he simulated that he spoke incoherent things: for he said, that before all others this figure suited and contributed to those, who simulate madness for Christ. For through this he often reproved and repressed sins, and vomited bile against someone, that he might be corrected; he foretold some things, and did, whatever he wished, changing only his voice, and the position of his limbs, and whatever he did, they held him as one of the many, who by the inspiration of a demon speak and prophesy.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Symeon alludes to the words said by John: Pray for John, that ten too may fall to him by lot; of which he also shows himself conscious. See, what we said above in the Annotation to chapter 1.

q. The interpreter in Surius renders: Do you receive, he says, a blow on the shin? I read otherwise in our Ms.; otherwise than he, I have rendered it. Furthermore it seems a disparate expression, and by no means pertaining to the matter. For sometimes he simulated to speak incoherent things; for he said that before all others this figure suited and contributed to those, who simulate madness for Christ, as you have at the end of this chapter.

r. Insipidly the interpreter in Surius: And immediately the pot being lifted, in which was a light bladder. In our Ms. is read ζεστός, hot, boiling, not ξεστός, light. The ignorance of the word φοῦσκα, or at least a knowledge not sufficiently distinct, afforded the said interpreter occasion of error, which besides "bladder" also signifies "pusca" (bean-broth/posca), about which in the annotations to chapter 5 letter c. The circumstances of the matter favor our version. The thing was done at the Bean-seller's, and probably in the bean-shop, that is, in the place, where the bean-broth was cooked; Symeon lifted the pot, burned the lips of the monks. To what does a light bladder pertain here? Especially since Phaemon says in the Cynosophion, on the page, as Du Cange cites, 264: φοῦσκα δὲ ἐστιν ὄξος καὶ ὕδωρ θερμὸν καὶ ὠὰ δύο. But pusca is vinegar and hot water, and two eggs.

s. Πανδοῦρι, pandura, a musical instrument, in Pollux and Athenaeus πανδούρα. Pandurizo, I strike the pandura. Pandurizavit, he made music on the instrument. So Lampridius in Heliogabalus, as it is in the Hierolexicon of Macer.

t. Here it is taken for the place, where the pusca (bean-broth/posca) is made, or the workshop of the bean-seller, and it is evident partly from the prepositive neuter article τό, partly from those things, which follow afterward: ἄνοιξον φουσκάριον ἐφέτος, open the bean-shop every year. There accedes Nicephorus the presbyter in the Manuscript Life of St. Andrew Salos: Εἰσῆλθεν ἐν φουσκαρίῳ. He entered into the bean-shop.

u. The interpreter in Surius has: And so the Christians were confirmed: who undoubtedly read in his copy: στερεωθέντες οὖν ἐγένοντο ὀρθόδοξοι. I prefer our reading. And thus the conversion of the bean-seller and his wife, promised by Leontius elsewhere, is here given. Recall, what was said in the annotations to chapter 5 letter h.

x. πρὸς αὐτήν, I understand τελευτήν. Until death itself.

y. Wrongly the often-said interpreter renders τὸ σάσσειν, "he would sit," about which Du Cange treats, and it is evident from the sense.

z. Du Cange proves that the words ὁλοκοτίνος, ὁλοκοτίνιν, λοκτήνην (our transcript has ὁλοκοτίνα) signify a coin or gold solidus; for which the interpreter just cited has "an as."

aa. That λογάριν and λογάριον signify a sum of money, or a certain quantity of coins, Du Cange affirms in the Glossary.

CHAPTER VII. The scrutiny of secrets, long-lasting fasts, eyes healed, foods brought divinely, a friend freed from an unjust death.

But if ever one of those who were thought to be his friends prevaricated sinned, immediately by the spirit he understood, that she had fornicated, and he said speaking, and opening his mouth and crying out, You have prevaricated. Holy things, holy things give her, and he prayed that infirmity unto death might come to her, or often, if she persisted not being chaste, he sent a demon to her too. From this thereafter he made all those assigned to him to be chaste and not to prevaricate against him. There was a certain headman of a village dwelling near Emesa, and when he heard of his life, he says: Believe, if I see [him], I will find out whether he is pretending, or whether truly he is mad. Coming therefore into the city, by chance he found, that one of those who attended on him was carrying him, and another was beating him with thongs. But immediately the headman was scandalized, and reasoned within himself and said in Syriac: Does Satan himself not believe, that this pseudo-abbot fornicates with them? Leaving them therefore, immediately the Salos comes to the headman who was distant from him about a stone's throw, and gave him a cuff, and stripped off his garments, and said to him dancing: Come here playing, lowly one, here there is no guile. That one therefore knew, that he had understood the things in his heart, and marveling, when he came to tell someone the matter, his tongue was bound, and he could not utter.

[47] He had also the charism of continence above many of the saints. For when the holy fortieth Lent of the holy fasts came, he tasted nothing until the holy Thursday. But immediately from the morning on that holy Thursday he sat in the cookshop eating, so that from this too those who beheld him were scandalized, as that, he says, not even on holy Thursday does he fast. But the lord John the deacon knew that his working was divine. But when he saw him on holy Thursday sitting in the cookshop and eating from morning, he says to him: How much is this, Salos? And that one says to him holding in his hand forty coins, the coin, madman, signifying by this, that for forty days he had been eating. A demon again frequented some other crossroads of the city. On one occasion therefore the holy one saw him passing by, wishing to strike one of those who were passing, and taking stones in his bosom, he began to throw stones here and there in the marketplace, and prevented all who wished to pass. Among these a dog passed, and the demon struck it, and it began to foam. Then the Saint says to all, Now pass, madmen. For the all-wise one knew, that if a man passed, the demon would strike him instead of the dog, therefore he prevented them from passing for a short while. The whole purpose therefore, as has already been said, of this all-wise Symeon, was thus. First indeed to save souls, whether through misfortunes, which he sent them in a laughable, or methodical way, or again through miracles, which he wrought senselessly, or through commands, which playing the fool he said to them. Then that his virtue might not be known, and he receive praise from men and honor.

[48] For when in one street girls were dancing, and counting enumerating them, it seemed good to him to pass through that street. When therefore they saw him, they began to enroll [him] among the abbots. The Just one therefore having prayed, wishing to make them chaste, immediately made them all squint-eyed, and as they began to say to one another the evil that had befallen them, they knew that he had made them squint, and they ran after him weeping and crying: Undo, Salos, undo. For they thought that he had made them squint by an incantation. When therefore they reached him, they held him by force. And they adjured him to undo, he says, what he had bound. He says therefore to them playing: Whoever of you wishes to be healed, I will kiss her squinting eye, and she will be healed. As many therefore as God wished to be healed, says the holy one, accepted; but the rest, who did not accept that he should kiss them, remained thus weeping. After therefore he had withdrawn a little from them, the rest too began to run after him, and to cry, Stay, Salos, stay, for God's sake stay, kiss us too. One could see therefore the Old man running, and the young women after him. And some said that they were playing with him; but others reckoned, that the girls too had been made mad. They remained therefore thus unhealed forever. For the holy one said, unless God had made them squint, they would have surpassed in dissoluteness all the women of Syria. But through the disease of their eyes they yield from many evils. The lord John, his friend, once invited him to dinner, and there hung bacon. The Abbot Symeon began to cut and eat the bacon raw. But the all-wise John, not wishing to say anything to him with a cry, drawing near to his ear, says to him: Truly you do not scandalize me, if you eat it raw from the camel, then do whatever you wish. For he knew the virtue of the Salos, because he himself too was a spiritual man.

[49] There came once some Emesenes at the holy Paschal season to the holy city to celebrate the feast, of whom one went down to the holy Jordan to pray. And going around the fathers, he asked a blessing. It happened therefore that the abbot John the brother of the abbot Symeon also met, by the dispensation of God, the merchant in the wilderness. But when the merchant saw him, he threw himself on the ground, asking a prayer from him. The abbot John says to him: Whence are you? That one says to him, from Emesa, father. Then he answered him, and having there the abbot Symeon called the Salos, what do you seek from me the lowly one? For I too need his prayers, and the whole world. The abbot John therefore took the merchant into his cave, and set before him a rich table. For from God there was found in that dry wilderness pure wheaten bread and fish hot from the pan, and the best wine, and glass jars. When therefore they had eaten and were satisfied, he gives him three hot eulogiae blessed loaves, and these likewise being from God, and says: Give them to the Salos, and say to him from me: For the Lord's sake pray for your brother John. The Lord therefore bearing witness to the truth, as the merchant came to Emesa the abbot Symeon meets him at the gate of the city, saying to him, what is it, madman, how is the Salos like you, John? Did you not eat the eulogiae, which he gave you? Truly, truly, if you ate the three, you digest them badly. That one therefore was astonished, when he heard all things, whatever he wished to say to him. The Salos therefore immediately took him into his hut, and the merchant thus affirmed, that this one too set before me all things without variation just as the abbot John, even to the very size of the jar, which he saw in his cave, and as we ate, I gave him the three eulogiae, and withdrew to my house, ashamed to say anything to anyone about him. Because all were assured that he was a madman.

[50] We have said above, that he wrought a miracle upon the God-loving man, who also expounded his life to us. But the manner of the miracle is thus. Certain malefactors committed a murder, and taking the corpse, threw it through a window into the house of the said most God-loving man. No small disturbance therefore arising, the matter came to the magistrate, and he decreed, that the lord John should be hanged. When therefore he was going to die, he said nothing else to himself, except, O God of the Salos, stand by me in this hour. But the Lord wishing to save him from such a calumny, someone came, and says to the abbot Symeon: Lowly one, that friend of yours the lord John is going to be hanged, and truly if he dies, you die of hunger, because no one cares for you as that one. And he told him also the manner of the framing of the murder. The abbot Symeon therefore making himself a madman, dismissed the one who told him, and withdrew to a hidden place, where he always prayed, which no one knew, except his friend the God-loving John, and bending his knees, entreated God that his servant might be delivered from such a danger. And as those who had brought him out to hang him reached the place where they were about to set up his gibbet, behold horsemen running and saying that the man should be released, because those who had truly committed the murder had been found.

[51] Being released therefore immediately, he went straight to the place, where he knew that the abbot Symeon always prayed, and seeing him from afar stretching his hands to heaven, he was afraid. For he swore that he beheld spheres of fire ascending from him into heaven, and around him as a burning furnace, and him in the midst, so that he did not approach him, until he completed the prayer, and turning he saw me, and seeing [me] immediately says to me: What is it, deacon John? Truly, truly, you drank for him within a hair's breadth, but go, pray. But this temptation befell you because yesterday the two poor men came to you, and being able to give to them, you turned them away; for are they yours, which you give, brother? If you disbelieve him who said, that everyone who gives, though he lacks in the present age, in the world to come will inherit eternal life. If you do not disbelieve, give. But if you do not give, you are manifest that you disbelieve the Lord. Behold the words of a Salos, or rather of a wise holy man. For toward this lord John, since the two were alone, he did nothing of the Salos. But so harmoniously and with compunction he met him, that often a fragrance came forth from his mouth, as this lord John affirmed, so that I almost disbelieved that he was the Salos of an hour before. But toward all others he was disposed otherwise.

If ever one of those, who were thought to be his friends, He scrutinizes hearts, had prevaricated, immediately by the instinct of the spirit he understood that she had fornicated; and he said speaking, and opening his mouth he cried out; You have prevaricated. Holy things, holy things give her; and he prayed that infirmity unto death might befall her, or not rarely, if she persevered indulging lust, he even sent a devil to her. From this time at last he brought it about, that as many as were under him returned to thriftiness, and did not prevaricate. Near Emesa dwelt a certain headman of a village; who when he heard the life of Symeon: Believe, he said, provided I see him, I will find out whether he is a fool in appearance, or whether truly he is of a disturbed mind. And so when he had come to the city, by chance he found, that one, who bore his care, was carrying him, and that another was beating him with thongs. Immediately the headman was scandalized, and thought within himself, and said in Syriac: Will Satan himself believe this feigned abbot to have relations with them? And so those being left, immediately the Salos comes to the headman, who was distant from him about a stone's throw, and gave him a cuff; took off his garments, and said to him dancing: Come now, play, O vile man! Here there is no ^a guile. That one therefore knew, that he scrutinized the things which lay hidden in the heart. And when, marveling at the matter, he came to tell someone that which had happened, his tongue was bound, and he could not speak forth.

[47] He likewise excelled in the grace of abstinence above many Saints. For when the holy Lent of the holy fasts came, he fasts the whole of Lent, he tasted nothing until the holy fifth weekday Thursday. But soon from the first dawn, on that same fifth weekday he sat in the cookshop ^b eating, so that the spectators were scandalized, because not even on the holy fifth weekday did he fast. But John the deacon knew that his working was divine. When therefore on the holy fifth weekday he saw him sit in the cookshop, and eat from first light, he says: How much is this, Salos? To whom he, his hand being seized; This follaris ^c coin, O fool, is worth forty pieces, ^d signifying by this, that after forty days he at last ate. up to the fifth weekday of the holy week. A demon again frequently dwelt in another crossroads of the city: whom on a certain day the Saint saw, passing that way, that he wished to strike one of those who passed by; and stones being snatched into his bosom, he began to throw them here and there at the forum, and impeded all, who wished to pass. Among these a dog was passing; whom when the demon had struck, it began to emit foam. Then the Saint said to all: Now pass, fools. For the most wise man knew, that, if a man had passed, the demon would have struck him instead of the dog; therefore for a little while he prevented them from passing. The whole purpose indeed, as already foretold, of this most wise Symeon was thus, first indeed, that he might make souls safe, whether through reasonings, which he suggested to them ridiculously, or captiously; or through miracles, which he perpetrated, others not noticing; or through promises, which, feigning the fool, he brought forth. Then that his virtue might not become known, and he receive no praise and glory among men.

[48] He prevents the girls by a defect of the eyes For when in a certain village the girls were leading dances, and entering a number enumerating, it seemed good to him to pass through that village. When they beheld him, they began to enroll him among the abbots, while they ^e sported together. The just man therefore, prayers being poured out, wishing to make them thrifty, soon made them all squint-eyed; and while they began to report among themselves the evil, which had befallen them, they knew that their eyes had been distorted by him. And they ran weeping after him and crying: Loose [it], Salos, loose [it]. For they thought that they had been made squint by him through an incantation of words. And so having gone aside to him, others he heals, they held him by force, and adjured [him], that he would loose, what he had bound. He says therefore to them playing: Whichever of you wishes to be healed, I will kiss her squinting eye, and she will be healed. As many therefore as God wished to be healed, said the Saint, accepted the condition; but the rest, who did not permit that he should kiss them, remained thus weeping. others not so, And so while he had gone a little aside from them, the rest too began to run to him, and to cry: Stay, Salos, stay, for God's sake stay, kiss us too. One could see therefore the old man running, and the girls after him. And some indeed said that the girls were playing with him; others thought, that they too were of a disturbed mind. And so forever they remained unhealed. For the Saint said: Unless God had made them squint, it would have come about, and why. that in licentiousness of morals they would surpass all the women of Syria; but through the disease of the eyes they had declined many evils. John, his friend, once invited him to dinner, and there hung bacon larida. The Abbot Symeon therefore began to cut and eat the raw bacon. But the most wise John, not wishing to say anything to him with a cry, approaching his ear, says: I am by no means scandalized at you, although you eat it raw from the chimney. For the rest do what you please; for he knew the virtue of the Salos; because he himself too was a spiritual man.

[49] John There came once some Emesenes at the holy Paschal solemnity, to the holy city to celebrate the feast; one of whom went to the holy Jordan to pray. And going around the fathers, he asked, that they would pray well for him. It happened therefore, that the Abbot John, the brother of the Abbot Symeon, also met, God so disposing, this merchant in the solitude. When the merchant beheld him, he threw himself on the ground, asking prayers from him. To whom Abbot John: Of what place are you? That one subjoined: An Emesene, Father. Then he answered him: You who have there the Abbot Symeon, who is called the Salos, what do you ask from me an abject one? For I too need his prayers, and the whole world. And so Abbot John admitted the merchant into his cave, and set before him a sumptuous table. For by the virtue of God in that arid solitude there were found pure wheaten loaves, and relish cooked in a pot, and the best wine, and glass vessels. After therefore they had eaten and were satisfied, he gives him three warm eulogiae, ^f likewise sent from God, and says: Give them to the Salos, and say to him in my words: For the Lord's sake, pray for your brother John. The Lord therefore bearing testimony to the truth, as soon as the merchant came to Emesa, the Abbot Symeon met him near the gate of the city, and Symeon saying: What is it, fool? How is the fool, John, who is like you? Did you not eat the eulogiae, which he gave you? Truly, truly, if you had eaten these three, you would have digested them badly. That one therefore was astounded, when he heard all things, which he wished to say to him. The Salos therefore immediately received him into his hut; and the merchant thus affirmed, that he set before me all the same things without any change, just as the Abbot John had done, even to the very size of the cup, which he had seen in his cave. fed divinely. And when we had eaten, I gave him, he said, the three eulogiae, and withdrew to my home, ashamed to say anything to anyone about him, because all held for certain that he was a fool.

[50] We have said above, ^g that he wrought some miracle upon the God-loving man, The friend of Symeon who expounded his life to us. But the miracle happened in this manner: Certain malefactors killed a man, and the corpse ^h being snatched up they threw it through a window into the house of the aforesaid most God-loving man. No small crowds therefore being stirred up, the matter was brought to the prefect, who condemned the Lord John to hanging. Going to death, he said nothing else to himself, than this: O God of the Salos, be present to me in this hour. But God wishing to free him from such a calumny, someone came to the Abbot Symeon, and said: Unhappy one! That friend of yours the Lord John is departing, to be put on the gibbet; and truly if he dies, you too will die of hunger; by his prayers for no one cares for you as he does. And he told him how the crime of murder had been framed. The Abbot Symeon, having simulated folly, dismissed him who reported this, and withdrew to a hidden place, where he always prayed, which no one knew, except his friend, the God-loving John, and bending his knees prayed God, that He would free his servant from such a danger. After those, who were leading him, that he might be hanged, had come to the place, where they were about to set up the gibbet; behold horsemen ⁱ run up and say, that they should release the man; that the true authors of the murder had been found.

[51] Being released therefore immediately, he ran straight to the place, where he knew the Abbot Symeon always prayed, and beholding him afar stretching his hands to heaven, he is freed from an unjust hanging. he feared. For he swore that he had seen fiery globes, which burst from him into heaven, and around him as a kindled furnace, and him in the midst, so that he did not approach, until he had finished the prayer. And turning he says he saw me; and after he had seen [me], he says: What is it, deacon John? Truly, truly you drank immoderately for him were close to dying. But go, pray. For this temptation befell you, because the two beggars, who yesterday came to you, you did not relieve, as you could, but rejected. For they are not yours, brother, which you give. Do you not believe him, who said: That everyone, who shall have given, shall receive more in the present age, and in the future an eternal inheritance? If you believe, give. But if you do not give, it is manifest, that you do not believe the Lord. Behold the words not so much of a Salos, or foolish man, as of a holy wise man. For with the Lord John, when the two were acting alone apart, he did nothing of the fool; but so neatly and with such compunction he acted with him, that often a good odor burst forth from his mouth; as the same Lord John affirmed, and it was little wanting, but that he would not believe, that he was the same who a little before was a fool. But with others he bore himself otherwise.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VIII. The remaining miracles are dispatched.

For there is a time, when the holy Lord's day comes, that he took a string of sausages, and wore them as a stole, and held in his left hand mustard, and so dipped and ate from morning. And some too he anointed in their mouth with the mustard, of those who began to play with him. Whence also a certain rustic having come to play with him, having in his two eyes white films, was anointed by him with the mustard in his eyes. And he being stung tormented unto death, he says to him, Go, wash, madman, in vinegar and garlic, and immediately you are healed. But that one, as one thinking to accomplish something, immediately ran to physicians, and was the more blinded. At last therefore from madness he swears in Syriac, By the God of heaven, even if my two eyes should immediately leap out, whatever the Salos told me, I do. And when he had washed as he had told him, immediately his eyes became whole, as if pure from birth, so that he glorified God himself. Then the Salos meeting him says to him: Behold you have become whole, madman, no more steal the little goats of your neighbor. Someone in Emesa was robbed of a little sum, five hundred coins, and as he sought them, the abbot Symeon meets him, and wishing to disguise himself, says to him, Can you do anything, madman, that my gold pieces may be found? That one says to him, if you wish, yes. That one says to him, do it, and if they are found, I give you ten. The Salos says to him, whatever I tell you, do, and you find them in your chest this very night. He agreed therefore with him with oaths that whatever he should tell him, he hears him, only let him say nothing unseasonable. He says to him again: Go, your gold pieces your servant the cupbearer took. But behold, give me your word, that you do not beat him, nor any other of your house, for he used to beat severely. That one therefore thought that on account of the gold pieces he said to him, that he should not beat anyone. But the abbot Symeon, because the servant had never beaten him, said it to him. He gave him therefore his word with fearful oaths, that he would not beat anyone, and going away, he held his servant kindly, and received from him the amount.

[53] There is therefore a time when he came to beat someone from then [on], and could not, but immediately his hand grew numb. And recognizing [it], he said: Truly this I have from the Salos, and he went to him, and said: Loose, Salos, the oath; and immediately that one played the fool, as if he did not know what he was saying to him. When therefore he persisted fondling pressing him, he appears to him in sleep, and says to him, truly I loose the oath, and I loose your little sum, and scatter it all, why do you behave unseemly? Why do you wish to beat your fellow-servants, who go before you in the world to come? When therefore he saw these things, he rested from him. But he had compassion on the demoniacs beyond all nature, so that variously going he made himself as one of them, and dwelling with them, healed many of them through his own prayer, so that some demoniacs babbled and said: O violence, Salos, you mock the whole world, and have you come even near us to fondle us? Withdraw hence, you are not of us. Why do you torment us the whole night and burn [us]? When therefore the holy one was there, he too, as babbling from the Holy Spirit, reproved many, some as having stolen, some as having fornicated, others he blamed crying out, as not communing continually, and others he reproved as perjured, so that even through this device he cut back almost the whole city from sinning. There was at that time a woman, a diviner, and making amulets and incantations. Her the Just one contrived to acquire as a friend, giving her what he gathered from those who gave to him, whether coins, or bits of bread, or even garments. On one occasion therefore he says to her: Do you wish I make you an amulet, that you may never receive harm from an evil eye? That one says to him: Yes, Salos; reckoning that even if he is a Salos, perhaps he succeeds. Going away therefore, he wrote on a tablet in Syriac: May God abolish you and stop you turning men from Him to you. He gave it therefore to her, and she wore it, and could no longer do for anyone, neither divination, nor amulet.

[54] But again once he was sitting with brothers, and warming himself near the furnace of the glassmaker. But the glassmaker was a Hebrew, and he says to the poor playing: Do you wish I make you laugh? Behold, at each cup, which the craftsman makes, I make a cross, and it is broken. When therefore he had broken in order even seven, the poor began to laugh, and told him the matter, and he pursued [him] having burned him. When therefore he was going away, he cried out to him saying, truly bastard, until you make on your forehead a cross, all are shattered, and having broken again another thirteen in order, he was pricked compunct, and makes a cross on his forehead, and broke nothing more. From this manner therefore he departed, and became a Christian. Ten commoners once washing their garments outside the city, the Blessed one coming forth, says to them: Come, madmen, and I make you an elegant dinner. Five therefore of them said: God knows, let us go. But the rest prevented them, saying, yes, from the darkness he is to make you a dinner, he himself stands from door to door, and whence does he have it? But he only wishes to make us idle.

[55] Five therefore believed, and went. And he says to them, stay here. And leaving them, about a bowshot he went away from them, and prayed secretly. They say to themselves: Truly we have been mocked, for I think the abbot Symeon wishes to bring us grass, that we may graze. And behold as they said these things, they behold him nodding to them to come to him, for he was, as has been said before, having prayed, and from God having prepared all things for them. Coming to him therefore, they found, as in the Lord, lying before him wheaten loaves, and cakes, and balls, and fish, and various wines, and pastries, and sweet drink, and simply whatever delicacies life has. And they having eaten he says: Take, lowly ones, also for your wives; and if you become no longer madmen commoners, truly these wheaten loaves will not fail from your houses, until I die. They say among themselves when they had gone: Let us make a test for one week, and if they do not fail, let us no longer go down with our companions into the commons theater?. When therefore they saw that the wheaten loaves did not fail, although daily they consumed of them, they no longer passed to an evil thing. But three of them even became monks, pricked to compunction by the manner of life of the Salos. Except that to tell anyone anything, as long as the Salos lived in the flesh, they were not able.

[56] But what a thing he did to a certain wretched man, or rather a mule-driver, is worthy to be handed to the writing concerning him. For the mule-driver was merciful, and from his earnings he kneaded dough, i.e. shared. On one occasion therefore as he was going out to bring for his house, and for sale, a little wine, the Blessed one meets him, and says to him: Where do you go, madman? For he always had this word on his mouth toward him. That one therefore says to him, for a little wine, Salos. The abbot Symeon answered him: Bring also pennyroyal as you come. The mule-driver therefore taking it as an omen, said to himself, as he went: What Satan then from the morning has sent me this abbot, saying to me: Bring me pennyroyal? Truly this wine becomes ill-footed unlucky, and either it sours, or I know not what. When therefore he returned having brought very good wine, from joy he forgot to bring the pennyroyal. That one says to him again, truly, lowly one, I forgot. The Abbot therefore smiling, says to him: Only go, for your matter is arranged. When therefore he came to change the wineskins, he found them vinegar, so that a man choked even to smell it. Then therefore he understood the matter, and began to say: Truly now and now we go for pennyroyal. He ran therefore and came to the Salos, and entreated him. For he said that just as Psephas makes an eye-deception, so this one too made [it], undo what you did, Salos. That one says to him, what did I do? And he says: I bought good wine, and it was found a little vinegar in two hours; he says to him again: Go, go, it is no concern to you, open this year a bean-shop, and it is profitable for you.

[57] For the purpose and prayer of the Old man was, that his labor might be blessed, because he was merciful, but he did not wish to do anything openly, but all things through plays. The mule-driver therefore was pricked to compunction, and says: Blessed be God, I open a bean-shop, and he having opened [it], God blessed him, and for which things he ought to give thanks to the Salos, he rather was even angry at him, not understanding what he had procured for him. But the whole of the matter was God, covering the purpose of the abbot Symeon. Once one of the magnates of the city fell sick. But the holy one had a custom of going up and playing in his house, and when he was burdened grew worse, he beheld himself in sleep playing at dice with a certain Ethiopian. But this was death. He came therefore and came, he says, the sick man, to throw the dice, and unless he threw three sixes, he was beaten. The abbot Symeon therefore reaches him in sleep, and says: What is it, madman? Truly now this Moor conquers you. But give me your word, that you no longer defile the bed of your wife, and I throw the dice for you, and he does not conquer you. Having sworn therefore, says he who saw these things, and taking from me the dice he threw, and three sixes fell. The sick man therefore being awakened, the Salos went up immediately, and says to him: Good three sixes you threw, vain one. Believe, if you transgress your oath, that Moor strangles you, and having reviled him, and all those of his house, he went down running.

When the holy Lord's day came, it happened, that he took a string ^a of sausages, ^b and wore them as a stole, He heals eyes, and held in his left hand mustard, and so from first light dipped and ate. And of some of those, who had come to play with him, he smeared the mouth with mustard. Hence when a certain rustic had come to play with him, whose each eye labored with a white film, he anointed each of his eyes with mustard. To whom, afflicted even unto death, he says: Go away, fool, wash yourself with garlic and vinegar, and you will be healed at once. But he, as one who thought he would accomplish something, immediately ran to the physicians, and was the more blinded. At last therefore stirred by fury, he swears in Syriac: By the God of heaven, although my two eyes should immediately leap out, whatever the Salos shall tell me, I will do. After he had washed by the prescription of the Salos, soon his eyes were healed, and as cleansed, as on his first natal day, so that he praised God. The Salos meeting him, said: Behold you have been made whole, fool; do not henceforth steal the she-goats of your neighbor. Someone seeking the sum ^c of five hundred coins, stolen at Emesa, the Abbot Symeon meets. And he, wishing to disguise himself, says to Symeon: Can you bring it about, he restores stolen coins fool, that my coins be found? To whom he: I can indeed, if you wish. The other answered: Bring it about, and, if they be found, I will give you ten. Then the Salos: Whatever I tell you, do; and you will find them in your chest ^d this very night. An oath being given, that one received the promise, that, if he should say anything to him, he would hear him, only that he should say nothing untimely to him. He says to him again: Go away, your coins your servant took, who is over your cups ^e cupbearer. But behold, give me your faith that you will not beat him, or anyone of your house (but he used to beat most sharply.) He therefore thought, that it had been said to him, that he should beat no one on account of the coins; but the Abbot Symeon said to him, that he should never beat anyone. He gave him therefore his faith with a most grievous oath, that he would beat no one. And going away, he gently took hold of his servant, and received from him as much as he had lost.

[53] It happened, that when he came from that time, about to beat someone; He punishes the master's severity and perfidy. and he could not; but his hand withered. Aware of the matter, he said: Truly this I receive from the Salos; and he went to him, and said: Loose, Salos, the oath. And immediately he feigned himself a fool, so that he did not know what he was saying to him. When therefore he persisted in being troublesome, he appeared to him in sleep, and said: Truly I will loose the oath; the promises entered upon in words I loose, and altogether render void. Why are you inept? Why do you wish to beat your servants, who will go before you in the world to come. After he saw these things, henceforth he was quiet. What he did for the demoniacs, Symeon had compassion on the demoniacs with the tenderest affection, so that departing, he rendered himself similar to them in various ways, and acting with them, healed many of them by his prayers, and some, possessed by a demon, murmured, and said: O violent Salos! You mock the whole world; you have even come to us, to vex us? Withdraw hence: you are not of our flock. Why do you crucify us through the whole night, and burn [us]? When therefore the Saint was present there, he too, as one speaking by the instinct of the Holy Spirit, reproved many; these indeed, that they had stolen, those, that they had whored; others he reprehended with a cry, that they did not commune assiduously; others he attacked, as perjured, with such success, that by this industry he restrained almost the whole city from sin. what for the diviner woman, There was at that time a woman, a diviner, who gave attention to amulets and incantations. Her the Saint was zealous to win over to himself, giving her those things, which he gathered from the beneficence of others, whether obols, or loaves, or garments. On a certain day he says to her: Do you wish that I make you an amulet, by which you may never ^f receive trouble from an evil eye? She answers: I wish indeed, Salos: thus reckoning: although he be a fool, perhaps he will accomplish it. Going away therefore he wrote on a tablet in Syriac: May God make you desist and cease, that you may not call men away from Him, and turn them to you. He gave it therefore to her, and she wore the tablet, and could no longer divine for anyone, or make an amulet.

[54] On a certain other occasion he sat with the brothers, and warmed himself near the furnace of the glass-maker. ^g what for a Hebrew But the maker was a Hebrew. And Symeon says to the poor, playing. Do you wish, that I move you to laughter? Behold, upon the cup, which the craftsman fashions, I will make a cross, and it will be broken. After therefore he had broken even up to seven in order, the poor began to laugh, and indicated the matter to the craftsman. Who pursued him with a glowing iron. Symeon having departed from him cried out: Truly bastard, ^h until you form a cross on your forehead, all will be shattered. And after he had again broken another thirteen in order, he was pricked to compunction, ⁱ and formed a cross on his forehead, nor did he break anything more. by the sign of the Holy Cross. And so from this time he changed his manners, and embraced the Christian faith. Ten common men washing their garments outside the city, the Saint intervening, said: Come, fools, and I will prepare you a splendid dinner. Five therefore of them said: God knows, let us go. The rest forbade them, saying: Forsooth he will prepare us a dinner out of darkness. He himself begs from door to door, and whence will he have it? But he only wishes, that we should leave off our work.

[55] Five therefore believed, and went: to whom he says: Stay here. And leaving them, about a dart's throw he withdrew, to pray secretly. He obtains for the poor They say among themselves: Truly we have been deluded. Hay, I suppose, the Abbot Symeon wishes to bring us, that we may graze. And behold, when they had said these things, they behold him giving a sign, that they should approach him. For, as has been said above, he had prayed, and by the virtue of God had prepared all things for them. After they had come to him, they found before him, namely placed by the Lord, wheaten loaves, cakes, sweetmeats, fish, wines of diverse kinds, pastries ^k and sweet drink, ^l and, to dispatch in few words, whatever life has of luxury. When they had eaten, he says: a banquet from God. Take, O wretched ones, also for your wives. And if you become no longer a foolish people, truly these wheaten loaves will not fail in your houses, until I die. They say among themselves, Loaves when they had gone, Let us make a test even for one week, and if they do not fail, let us no longer go forth into public with our companions. not consumed. And so when they saw that the loaves did not fail, although daily they consumed of them, they no longer went out, to commit anything evil: but three of them lived the solitary life, pricked to compunction by the manner of life of the Salos. But they could tell anyone nothing, as long as the Salos lived.

[56] He changes wine But what a thing he did for a certain poor little man, or rather a mule-driver, ^m is worthy to be committed to those writings, which treat of him. But the mule-driver was merciful, and from the things which came back to him, he dispersed shared. On a certain day as he was going out, to bring for his house, and to buy wine, the Blessed one meets [him], and says: Where do you take yourself, fool? (For this saying was repeatedly in his mouth toward him.) To whom he: I go to buy wine, Salos. The Abbot Symeon answered him: Bring also pennyroyal, ⁿ when you return. The mule-driver therefore having taken it as an augury, said to himself, when he was going: What Satan from the morning time has sent me this Abbot, who says: into vinegar, Bring me pennyroyal? Truly this wine is bad, and either it sours, or has some fault I know not what. And so when he returned, bringing very good wine, from joy he forgot to bring the pennyroyal. He says again to Symeon: Truly, O wretched man, I forgot. The Abbot smiling at him: Go away now, he says, your matter is administered. When therefore he came, to change the wineskins, he found in them vinegar; altogether so that a man feared even to smell them. Then therefore he understood the matter, and began to say: Truly now indeed we bring pennyroyal. He ran therefore, and came to the Salos, and entreated him (for he said that he had done [it] in the manner of a juggler, who fascinates the eyes) Loose, Salos, what you did. He replied: What did I do? This one says: I bought good wine, and in the time of two hours it was found vinegar. To whom he again: Go away, go away, dismiss this care, open soon a bean-shop, and it will profit you.

[57] and changes vinegar back into wine. For the purpose and prayer of the Old man was, that, because he was merciful, his labor might be blessed. But he wished to do nothing openly, but all things through a play. The mule-driver therefore being pricked to compunction, said: Blessed be God; I will open a bean-shop. Which being opened, God blessed him. But for which things he ought to give thanks to the Salos, he rather was angry at him, not understanding, how well he had deserved of him. But this whole thing happened, that God might cover the purpose of Symeon. Someone of the chief men of the city fell sick (the Saint was wont to go there, and to play in his house), and the sick man sees, He frees a sick man from death himself in sleep playing at dice with a certain Ethiopian. But that one was death. The sick man therefore hastened, and came, to throw the dice, and unless he should throw three sixes, he was conquered. The Abbot Symeon meets him in sleep and says: What is it, fool? Truly now this Moor will conquer you. But give your faith, that you will henceforth not violate the bed of your wife, and in your place I will throw, and he will not conquer you. After I had sworn, as he related, who saw these things, and he had received from me the dice, he threw, and three sixes fell. And so the sick man being awakened, the Salos went up immediately, and says to him: Well three sixes you threw, ^o madman. Believe, and corrects. if you violate your oath, that Moor will suffocate you. And after he had insulted him and all his domestics, he snatched himself from there in a run.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IX. The virtues of Symeon, the prediction of his death, his holy death, the song of the Angels, his burial, his body taken away divinely.

But this truly Wise one possessed nothing in his hut. For he had a hut for sleeping, or rather for keeping vigil at night, except one bundle of vine-twigs. Often therefore passing the night until morning in prayer, and wetting the floor with tears, he went out in the morning, and cut either from an olive, or from herbs, and made himself a crown, and wore [it], and held in his hand one branch, and stood crying, Victory to the king and to the city. But he said, by city meaning the soul, but by king the reason that rules over the passions. And this too the Holy one asked of God, that the hair of his head, or of his beard, might not grow, lest somehow through being tonsured, it should become manifest that he was making himself a Salos. Wherefore also all the time, which he passed in such a manner of life, no one beheld him, that the hair of his head grew, nor when he tonsured it. Much therefore and profitable converse he often had with the lord John the deacon alone, and he threatened, that if he should reveal to anyone his virtuous purpose, he would fall into great torment in the world to come.

[59] But he said to him, when he expounded his whole life to him, that is two days before he departed from life, that today I went to brother John, and found him having greatly profited through God, and I rejoiced. For I saw him wearing his crown, and inscribed: Crown of endurance of the wilderness. And again, says that blessed one, I saw, he says, as you came, someone saying to me: Come, come, Salos, that you may receive not one crown, but the crowns of souls, which you offered to me. But I hold, lord archdeacon, that he saw nothing such in me, but did me a favor. For what reward has a Salos and madman to receive? Again that one: I beseech you, that you never despise any soul, but especially a monk or a poor man, as it chances. For love knows, that among the poor, but especially among the blind, there are men, who like the sun have been cleansed by a cleansing through their endurance and hardship. How many native farmers I have often seen in the city coming in to commune, and being purer than gold, on account of their guilelessness and freedom from curiosity, and because in the sweat of their face they eat their own bread.

[60] But do not blame me at all for the things said to you, master, because I have told you all the negligence of my pitiable life. But know, that the Lord will quickly take you too. But, as much as you are strong and able, take care of your soul, that you may be able without storm to pass through the world-rulers of the darkness of this air. For the Lord knows that I have much solicitude and fear, until I rest free of care from them. For this is the evil day, about which the Apostle and David spoke. Wherefore I beseech you, child and brother John, with all your strength, if it be acceptable, by mercy, and the virtues beyond all may help us then. For he says, Blessed is he who understands over the needy and poor, in the evil day the Lord will deliver him, and never stand at the holy altar having anything against anyone, lest somehow your iniquity make others too unworthy of the visitation of the Holy Spirit.

[61] These things and very many others he charged him, some of which he commanded never to tell to anyone, because not all receive what is said with faith. But be comforted, since through these three days the Lord takes to Himself the least Salos, and the lord John his brother. For I myself going said to him, that, brother, come here, let us go. It is time now, but after two days come to my hut, and see what you find. I wish that you have a memorial of the lowly and sinful Salos. And having said these and more than these to him, going away, he withdrew himself into his hut. But now the time calls, O friends, to narrate to you also his most admirable death, or rather sleep. For this too affords no ordinary profit, but is also more exceptional than all the things aforesaid, which is also a seal and confirmation of his unstained manner of life. For the Great one perceiving the common hour, wishing not even after death to carry off human honor, what does he do? Going in under the bundle of vine-twigs which was in his sacred hut, there sleeping, he delivered his spirit to the Lord in peace. His familiars therefore, as they did not see him for the two days, say: Let us go, let us see, lest somehow the Salos be sick; and they found him lying under the bundle of vine-twigs, dead. Then they say, will all now believe, that this man was beside himself? Behold even his very death is contemptible tossed-about. And two certain ones carrying him, without washing him, and without psalmody, and without candles and incense, going away buried him in the cemetery of strangers.

[62] When therefore they were going through the house of a certain glassmaker of the Hebrews, whom he himself had made a Christian, as we have said above, those carrying him, and going out to bury him, the said one of the Hebrews hears psalmody, such a melody as the lips of men cannot sing, and a multitude which all humanity cannot gather. Astonished therefore at the intense and all-harmonious sound of the angelic sweet-melody, he stoops and beholds the holy one being carried forward by two and only [two] of those carrying his honored body. Then said that one who had heard this invisible melody: Blessed are you, Salos, that not having men singing to you, you have heavenly powers honoring you with hymns; and immediately going down, with his own hands he buried him. And then he narrated to all the songs of the incorporeal ones heard by him. The lord John the deacon too heard this, and came in a run with many others to the place, where he was buried, wishing to take up his precious relics, that he might honorably perform the last rites for him. When therefore they opened the sepulcher, they did not find it; for the Lord, who glorified him, had translated it. Then all as if from sleep came to their senses, and narrated to one another what wonders he had done to each one. And that for God's sake he had feigned himself a Salos.

That truly wise Man possessed nothing at all in his hut (For he had a hut, The poverty of Symeon, where he might sleep, or rather where he might keep vigil at night) except one bundle of vine-shoots. Often therefore prolonging the night in prayer until light, his zeal for prayer, and wetting the earth with tears, he went out in the morning, and cut either from an olive or from herbs, made himself a crown, which he wore, and held in his hand a branch, and stood crying: To the king and to the city, victory! Saying repeatedly that the city was the soul, but the king the reason, which lord over the depraved affections of the mind. his flight from vainglory, But the Saint had asked of God, that the hairs of his head, or his beard, might not grow; lest, while he was tonsured, it should become known, that he simulated himself a fool. Therefore through the whole time, which he spent in this manner of life, no one saw the locks of his head grow, nor be tonsured by him. He likewise used the frequent and useful converse of the Lord John the deacon alone, and threatened, that, if he should manifest to anyone his purpose excelling in virtue, he would fall into great torment in the world to come.

[59] the lowliness of his mind, But he said to him, while he expounded his whole life to him, that is two days before he departed from life: Today I went to brother John, and found him to have greatly profited through God, and I rejoiced. For I saw him wearing his crown, on which was inscribed: Crown of endurance in solitude. And again that blessed man, I saw, he says, someone, who, the love of the poor; when you came, said to me: Come, come Salos, that you may receive not one crown, but the crowns of the souls, which you offered to me. But I hold it persuaded, Lord archdeacon, that he saw nothing such in me, but wished to gratify me. For what reward awaits a foolish man of disturbed mind? That one went on: I beseech you, that no soul, but especially a monk or a poor man, ever grow cheap to you, as ^a it has happened. For charity knows that among the poor, and especially among the blind, are found men, who like the sun, have been cleansed by a purgation through their patience and hardships. How many rustic farmers I have often seen entering the city, to commune there, who were purer than gold, because they lived innocently, and because they ate their bread in the sweat of their face.

[60] But do not reprehend me on account of those things, which have been said to you, Lord; for I have exposed all the negligence of my miserable life. But know, that the Lord will shortly take you too. But, as much as you are strong and able, take care of your soul, that through the princes of the darkness of this air, free of danger you may be able to pass. For the Lord knows that I am affected with great solicitude and fear, until I rest secure from them. Ps. 40; Eph. 5 and 6. For this is the evil day, of which the Apostle and David have spoken. Therefore I ask you, son and brother John, with as much earnestness as you can, exercise mercy; this will then help us more than all virtues. Ps. 40. For he says: Blessed is he who understands over the needy and poor; in the evil day the Lord will free him; and never stand at the altar, having anything against anyone, lest perhaps your iniquity render others too unworthy of the coming of the Holy Spirit.

[61] These and many other things he declared, and forbade, that he should ever tell any of them to anyone, the prediction of his death, and of John's: because not all receive with faith those things, which are said. Let this be a solace to you, that after these three days the Lord will take this least Salos, and the Lord John, his brother. For I myself departing, said to him: Come now brother, let us go. Time yet remains; but after two days come to my hut, and see whether you will find anything. But I wish that you have a memorial of the lowly and sinful Salos. Having said these and more things to him, he departed, and hid himself in his hut. But now the time calls, O friends, that I expose to you also his death most worthy of admiration, or rather his sleep. For this too will afford you no slight utility. Indeed rather, that which is more excellent than all things, which have been foretold, his holy death. it stood as the seal and confirmation of his unstained manner of life. For when the great Man perceived the common hour to be at hand, and wished not even after death to carry off human honor, what does he do? Going in under the bundle of vine-shoots, which was in his sacred hut, sleeping there, he rendered his spirit to the Lord in peace. His familiars, who had not seen him for two days, say: Let us go, let us see, whether perhaps the Salos be sick. And they found him lying under the bundle of vine-shoots, dead. Then they say: Will all now believe, that this man was of sound mind? Behold, even his very death is contemptible at the thole-pins. ^b And two certain ones carried him not washed, without psalmody, without candles and incense, and going away buried him in the tomb of strangers pilgrims.

[62] But when those, who carried him, and had gone away to bury him, The song of the Angels, had advanced even to the house of a certain Hebrew, a maker of glasses, whom the Salos had enrolled in the Christian sacred rites, the aforesaid Hebrew hears psalmody so harmonious, that human lips cannot sing such, and a throng so great, as the human race cannot gather. But he, struck by the ordered and harmonious sound of the angelic harmony, the burial, bending himself, sees the holy man carried out by only two, who bore his venerable body. Then said he, who had heard this not-visible melody: Blessed are you, Salos, because, you who do not have men, who may sing psalms to you, have the heavenly powers, honoring you with hymns; and soon going down, he buried him with his own hands. And then he narrated to all the songs of the angels heard by himself. The Lord John the deacon also heard this, the body carried elsewhere divinely. and ran in haste with many others to the place, where he had been buried, wishing to take up his precious body, that he might honorably pay the last rites to him. And so the sepulcher being opened, he did not find it; for the Lord, who glorified him, had translated it. Then all were as if awakened from sleep, and narrated among themselves, what miracles he had done to each, and that for God's sake he had feigned himself a fool.

ANNOTATIONS.

EPILOGUE.

This is the life and manner of life, O lovers of Christ, of this wondrous Symeon. These are his virtues, few collected from many. This is his truly hidden and heavenly course, which was seen by no one, but to all suddenly was found manifest. This is the new Lot, as that one in Sodom, so this one in the world entered unseen. And his wondrous and much-remembered prizes, as far as it was within our power, who are nothings, to hand to writing, we have been zealous, even if before this life we made another in brief, because the detail of this wondrous narration had not yet come to our knowledge. But to honor him with encomia, is not within our knowledge, but of those, to whom power is present, and to vie with his virtue. For what speech could praise him who was honored above speech, or how could fleshly lips praise him who in flesh appeared fleshless? And how could the wisdom of the tongue proclaim him who made vanish all wisdom and prudence by the folly according to God? Truly man looks to the face, but God to the heart. Truly not as man shall see, so shall the Lord see. Truly no one knows the things of man, except the spirit of man. Truly let us not judge anyone before the time, O lovers of Christ, until the Lord comes, who will also illuminate all things. Who said, lovers of Christ, that Judas was bodily living with the disciples, but in heart was with the Jews? Who thought that Rahab, who was in Jericho in body in the brothel, was in spirit in the Lord? Who hoped that that poor Lazarus, dwelling in such misery of sores, would be in such felicity in the bosom of Abraham?

[64] Seeing these things, O Beloved, let us too be persuaded by him who counsels well: Attend to yourself alone, and neither to your own, nor to the things about you, but to yourself alone. Because each one will bear his own burden, and will receive his own reward from the heavenly king Christ, to whom be glory and might with the Father and the all-holy Spirit unto the ages. Amen. But there rested Symeon, who lived the angelic and most-wondrous life, who for Christ's sake was called Salos, in the month of July on the 21st, greatly flashing forth in his right deeds according to God, and by virtues fixing fast even the supramundane powers of the incorporeal ones, and standing by the ever-flowing throne of God and Father of lights; as having received free access, with unceasing hymns he honors [Him] together with all the heavenly powers. With whom may the Lord grant us to have part and lot with this holy Symeon with all the saints in His ageless kingdom, for His is the glory unto the ages. Amen.

This is the life and conversation, O Christ-loving souls, of this wonderful Symeon. These are his few virtues, collected from many. This is his truly hidden and heavenly course, To the praise of Symeon which was indeed seen by no one, but suddenly became manifest to all. This new Lot, who, as this one entered Sodom, so that one entered the world secretly. And his wonderful and most celebrated contests, as far as was permitted by our slenderness, we have been zealous to commit to writing; since before this life we composed another in compendium, because the individual points of all this wonderful narration had not yet become known to us. But to celebrate him with praises, is not placed in our knowledge, but of those, who have the faculty, to equal his virtue by speaking. But what speech could praise him, no speech is equal. who was carried higher than all speech? Or how could fleshly lips praise him, who in flesh appeared without flesh? How could the wisdom of the tongue proclaim him, who surpassed all wisdom and prudence by an affected folly for God? Truly man looks to the face; but God to the heart. Truly not as man will see, so will the Lord see. Truly no one knows the things which are of man, except the spirit of man. Truly let us not judge anyone before the time, O Christ-loving souls, until the Lord come, who will illuminate all things. Who would have said, that Judas was indeed in body with the disciples, but in heart was with the Jews? Who would have esteemed Rahab, who in Jericho was in body in the brothel, to be in spirit in the Lord? Who would have hoped, that that beggar Lazarus, living in such misery of sores, would be in the bosom of Abraham in such felicity?

[64] Seeing these things, O Beloved, let us too obey him, who counsels rightly: Attend to yourself alone, and neither to your own, nor to the things which are about you, but to yourself alone. Gal. 6:5. Because each one will bear his own burden, and will receive his own reward from the heavenly king Christ; to whom be glory and power with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages. Amen. 1 Cor. 3. But he rested, The day of Symeon's death. after he had led an angelic and most wonderful life, Symeon, called for Christ's sake Salos, on the twenty-first day of the month of July, and in right deeds according to God he greatly coruscated, and by his virtues snatched into admiration even the heavenly powers of the spirits lacking a body; and he stands by the perennial throne of God and Father of lights, as one who has received liberty, to celebrate Him forever with hymns together with all the heavenly powers. And so may the Lord grant us to have part and inheritance with this holy Symeon, and all the Saints, in His kingdom, which cannot grow old. For His is the glory unto the ages. Amen.