ON ST. ATHANASIUS THE CONFESSOR
ON MOUNT ATHOS.
LIKEWISE ON SS. LAMPADUS OR LAMPADIUS, AND ANOTHER ATHANASIUS,
CALLED "IN THE TREE."
Tenth Century.
A Historical Collection.
Athanasius the Confessor, on Mount Athos (S.)
Lampadus or Lampadius, among the Greeks (S.)
Athanasius, called "in the tree," among the Greeks (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
Mount Athos in Macedonia, the memorable nourisher of many holy men of old, cultivated also the most holy confessor of Christ Athanasius with the discipline of ascetic matters, and rendered him conspicuous to the world by his sanctity. The sacred cult, Ferrari announces him together with St. Lampadus on the fifth of July. Galesinius commemorates Athanasius alone on the sixth of the same month, the other being passed over. Molanus also mentions him in his additions to the Martyrology of Usuard. The Greek Horologium, the Chifflet Menaeum, Maximus bishop of Cythera, report the memory of both. But the Epitome of the Menology mentions Athanasius alone, as also the Typicum of St. Sabas; but the Menaea of the Ambrosian Library express the name of Lampadius alone. The Menology of Sirletus marks the festal day of Athanasius in these words: On the same day the fifth of July, the birthday of the holy father Athanasius of Mount Athos, who had for his fatherland Trebizond, born of noble parents, in the city of Constantinople not moderately instructed in the disciplines: who, from love of solitude and quiet, having become a monk, was called Athanasius; for before he was called Abramius, who, famous for many virtues, passed to the Lord. In the Slavo-Russian Menology are read the following: Of the most blessed our Father Athanasius the Athonite. Concerning St. Lampadus there is deep silence.
[2] the age in which he lived; For the rest, Athanasius is there added to have lived in the year 988 under Basil the Younger, emperor of the East, and Constantine Porphyrogenitus, brother of Basil. If the designation of the aforesaid date holds, it is a wonder that nothing is had of Athanasius in the famous Menology in our possession, collected by order of the aforesaid Basil; unless perhaps he had not then yet died. In the Greek-Muscovite Ephemerides, volume 1 of May, there is a notice of St. Athanasius expressed in the following Greek-Latin verse:
Πέμπτῃ δ᾽ ΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΟΝ ἄγον νόες ἄστυ Θεοῖο.
The Angels lead Athanasius to the stars on the fifth.
[3] Nowhere more plainly is the public cult of St. Athanasius exhibited than in the printed Menaea of the Greeks; verses after whose announcement, and the verses subjoined to it, an elogium moreover, not scanty, is composed for him. The announcement consists of these words: In the same month of July, on the fifth, of our holy and God-bearing father Athanasius on Mount Athos. The verses are of the following tenor:
Ἀθενασίῳ καὶ μαθητῶν ἑξάδι Ναοὶ λύονται σωμάτων ναοῦ λύσει. Μέγας μὲν Ἀντωνίος ἀρχὴ πατέρων, Θεῖος δ᾽ Ἀθανάσιος ἔνθεον τέλος. Κᾂν ἦν Ἀθανάσιος ὕστερος χρόνοις, Αλλ᾽ ὑπερέσχε καὶ παλαιοὺς τοῖς πόνοις.
For Athanasius, with twice three companions, the ruin of the temple loosed the temples of their bodies. The great Antony taught the Fathers to begin, Athanasius teaches how to close the last day. Though Athanasius was later in time, yet by his labor he surpassed the ancients.
A manuscript Supplement to the printed Greek Menaea, consisting of the Synaxary of Father Sirmond and the manuscript of Chifflet, exhibits the memory of the holy Father Athanasius the Athonite, and his six disciples, the temple having fallen upon them. There follow two little verses, which coincide with the first two among the six already reported. I subjoin an elogium translated from the Greek into the Latin tongue, embracing the chief points of the things done by him, and the marks of his virtues, which in the said Menaea sounds thus.
[4] Athanasius, the illustrious star of the whole world, had for his fatherland Trebizond in Lazica, and the elogium but for parents noble and God-loving people. And his father indeed drew his race from Antioch, and his mother likewise was a nursling of the Antiochene soil. Having obtained beginnings of this kind as a boy, and begotten of so illustrious a stock, he brings forth rich fruits of instruction, and is delivered to the disciplines of sacred letters. Of which, as he received a taste, he began to burn with desire of striving to the highest summit of erudition. Then, having entered the chief city of Constantinople, he immoderately filled himself with letters, partly himself instructed by others, partly also himself made the instructor of many; so that, very young in age, he already bore before him the sense of the gray-haired and senile prudence. He was intensely zealous of temperance, and even then seemed uniquely to bend himself to ascetic perfection. Since he had it fixed to attain to the summit of that, he ascended Cyminas. Now this mountain Cyminas is in Asia, high and almost impassable; on which was a monastery, over which presided Michael, surnamed Malinus, a holy man, and a most practiced cultivator of the monastic institution, and who directed his subjects to the heavenly institution of life. Enrolled among these, the holy Man received the name of Athanasius, for before he was called Abramius, and in a very short time surpassed all his fellow-soldiers in laborious exercises, reducing his flesh to servitude and afflicting it, and having before his eyes only the enjoyment of heavenly conversation. But thence, because on account of his virtue he was held in honor by all, he passed to Athos, a mountain in Macedonia high and extended, which like a somewhat narrow ridge runs out a long space into the sea.
[5] There, having become the disciple of a certain old man, modesty being joined to prudence, he embraces obedience, from the Greek Menaea. and is exercised with many sweats of spiritual matters under him. Departing thence, according to a divine admonition, he hid himself in the inner recesses of the aforesaid mountain. And being much asked by Nicephorus Phocas, a man most distinguished in war and at home, with whom he was now joined in the closest intimacy, he built a magnificent temple to the Mother of God, and erected very many cells and great houses, for the life and habitation of the brethren, from the very foundations. Having moreover with great labors constructed a Laura, capable of holding many men, he passed to the Lord. Yet neither did the end of his life lack in some manner the glory of martyrdom. For, as if, like adamant, he were not distracted by the heaviest labors, he was trying to restore an arched portico in the inner shrines. Which, when he ascended to close the work, that portico, bursting apart, buried the venerable Man together with six others. He, as the amply furnished book concerning him narrates, is reported to have been the worker of many other miracles also, adorned with learned discourses, works, and foresights. He healed a certain leper; others sailing with him, and now about to be sunk in the deep of the sea, together with the ship, he snatched from peril. But after his life had been athletically accomplished, a certain man, wrapped in a linen cloth which had been dyed with his blood, recovered from a most grave disease. Very many other things besides, worthy both of narration and of memory, the God of wonders ceases not to work through him from day to day.
[6] Our observations From this brief elogium indeed, in proportion to the merits of our great Anchorite, but honorable nonetheless, we learn certain circumstances, which I would have not idly passed over, but diligently observed by the reader. His fatherland is said to have been Trebizond in Lazica. Which last word, lest it compel anyone to stumble, or cause delay, we ought to remember that those peoples are called Lazi who occupy the middle space between the Euxine Sea and the river Phasis; which tract of land was doubtless called the region of Lazica. As for Michael Malinus, under whose discipline we have seen from the already cited Menaea that St. Athanasius gave his effort to monastic matters; distinct mention of him is made in the manuscript Index to the Typicum of Sabas, which we have, on the twelfth of July. For the rest, from the familiar intimacy which is said to have passed between our Saint and Nicephorus Phocas, it is abundantly declared at what time Athanasius lived; for since the aforesaid Nicephorus is reported to have taken up the helm of the kingdom in the year of salvation 963, and to have lost it in the year 969, slain by conspirators; one will now easily determine concerning the time in which the Saint of whom we treat lived, and it can conveniently be brought into concord with the chronological epoch of Constantine and Basil, assigned above.
Finally, if that book—not of any sort, but ἐνδιάσκευος, or amply furnished, and complete in all its parts, which is handed down to have been written in the Menaea concerning the deeds of Athanasius—should at length emerge from somewhere, I doubt not that a most ample field would be opened to us of expatiating on the praises of the Man, and of plucking and gathering the most graceful flowers of his various virtues, to the glory of the Saint and the imitation of posterity.
[7] Concerning St. Lampadus. These things about Athanasius being collected, let the next labor succeed, that some things be reported concerning St. Lampadus or Lampadius. Besides those which we said at the beginning of this historical Collection, concerning St. Lampadus have the following. The elogium of St. Athanasius having now been given, next in the Menaea is subjoined this announcement of Lampadus: On the same day, of our holy father Lampadus.
Λαμπάδα θείων ἀρεθῶν ἅψας, Μάκαρ, Λαμπάδι χαίρων εἰς χαρὰν νὺν εἰσέδυς.
Lampadus, rejoicing in the kindled lamp of virtues, after death thou enterest the heavenly realms with thy lamp.
His elogium, which holds the place next to the aforesaid verses in the Menaea, and which is also to be read the same in the Anthology of the Greeks, sounds thus in Latin: Lampadus from his very cradle applied his mind to ascetic discipline, and, through abstinence and assiduous prayers, the sense of the flesh being subjected to the spirit, shone like the sun, and enlightened those blinded by diabolical frauds. That Saint, while he still lived among the living, worked stupendous miracles; and after he passed to the Lord, he ceases not continually to bestow them on those who ask them. This the cave testifies, in which his venerable and holy relics are laid and preserved. The elogium of Lampadus in Maximus bishop of Cythera I pass over, because it agrees with what has already been said. Besides these few things which I have taught concerning him, I have nothing that greatly deserves to be referred here, the place and year of his birth, the day of his death, and the rest pertaining to him, being buried in the dark night of oblivion.
[8] and concerning Athanasius called "in the tree." On the occasion of Athanasius, mentioned above, it will be worthwhile to remember the things which in the Greek-Muscovite Ephemerides on the fifth of July are reported concerning another Athanasius, surnamed ἐν τῷ δένδρῳ, that is, "in the tree," who nevertheless, after other illustrious Saints, is written in the same place to be found in the Constantinopolitan Diptych: but his name is nowhere inscribed in any Fasti. So there. But no Athanasius of this kind has thus far occurred to me.