Peter

ON SAINT PETER,

ANCHORITE ON MOUNT ATHOS.

BEFORE THE 8th CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Peter, Anchorite on Mount Athos (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR C. J.

§. I. Sacred cult. The arena, Mount Athos. The time spent in it. The Roman journey.

We have treated on this very 12th day of S. Onuphrius, who in a certain solitude of Egypt prolonged his life alone and unknown to all for a very long time, Peter is joined to S. Onuphrius a little before his death divinely found by someone, and after death buried, when he had related to his finder the series of the things he had done before. The Typicon of S. Sabas, printed at Venice in the year 1602, joins to Onuphrius on the same day (I would believe on account of the similarity of the anchoretic life) Peter, called the Athonite from Mount Athos, which he inhabited for a very long time: and it joins both in these words: "On the 12th, of our holy Father Onuphrius, and of our holy Father Peter the Athonite." That is: On the 12th of June. Of our holy Father Onuphrius; and of our holy Father Peter the Athonite. The Greek Horologium agrees, which reports the same in just as many words: and Molanus, the only one, that I know, among the Latin Martyrologists in the Auctarium of Molanus, who makes mention of him. But since he sets forth in Latin altogether the same things which the Menaea and Horologium do in Greek, he must have translated his from one or the other of those. The Martyrology of the Muscovites too mentions Onuphrius and Peter together, and on the same day and in one tablet sets forth both, figured in altogether the same way, that is, standing erect, with hairs not very long, an ample beard flowing down over the breast to the knees, girt about the private parts with leaves, but otherwise naked: in the Calendar of the Muscovites, as may be seen in the Calendar of the Muscovites, before the first volume of May. Add, that Peter was honored with a temple built by the faithful, celebrated with an annual feast and a concourse of people, and was also illustrious for miracles both in life and after death, as is established from the Life, n. 49.

[2] Moved by these things, we too set forth Peter on this very day, and indeed joined closely to Onuphrius (although he must be much younger than him): Hence we too join the two because while nothing certain is established for us concerning the time in which he lived; to whom should we rather join him, than to one to whose institute of life he was very similar, and therefore was also joined, as we have seen, by the ritual books? Yet from this similarity of life and conjunction of Authors, no suspicion ought to arise in anyone, as though equal credit too should be given to the Acts of both. For the arguments why we said that the Acts of Onuphrius are less to be approved by us in every respect, do not for the most part hold here. For the author of the life of Peter is known, a learned man and an Archbishop, preferring to the Onuphrian life who also testifies that he had seen and had another Life formerly written: the place of the anchoresis is known, Mount Athos: nothing in the Life is said or written too boldly or too strangely: nothing unusual or unheard of: nothing patched together from various sources: nothing contrary to another, unless perhaps something of the kind be found in a number by error. This life indeed agrees with the life of S. Onuphrius, of whom just now; and of S. Mary of Egypt, of whom we treated on the 2nd of April; in that all rest on the authority and report of one man only: this life of Peter, for many reasons. but the Onuphrian one yields much in credit to the other two; because these have more certain circumstances, and more certain authors, than that. Because Mary and Peter were found twice at different times, once alive, again dead, and Peter indeed already dead by four witnesses; not so Onuphrius. Because their Relics are read to have been anciently translated, and honorably laid away in certain places: which is less established concerning the Onuphrian ones.

[3] Mount Athos in the borders of Macedonia Most famous both formerly was and now is Mount Athos, the arena of the holy man, situated in the borders of Macedonia, where between the Strymonic gulf to the North, and the Singitic to the South, it stands forth not as a promontory, as others say, but wholly, and proceeds far into the sea with its whole ridge, as Mela says, joined to the continent by an isthmus of a few stadia; which also being once cut through by Xerxes, when he was making war on the Greeks; "Athos was sailed through," as Juvenal sings, it forms a peninsula, and the mountain was for a while made an island out of a peninsula. The same Athos is described in the Menaea on the 5th of July, where concerning S. Athanasius: "A high and very long mountain, extending far into the sea, like a narrow neck." That is: A mountain high and exceedingly great, stretched out a long way into the sea, like a narrow neck, namely on the part where it joins the continent.

[4] Concerning the same mountain and its religious inhabitants Innocent the Pope III, at the beginning of the 13th century, mentions many things laudably, writing to the Abbots and Monks of S. Athanasius (of whose name the chief monastery is there) and the rest of the Holy Mountain or Athos, and receiving them under the protection of blessed Peter and his own, and confirming their privileges. For thus says Epistle 168 of book 16: It has been declared to our Apostolate by the report of illustrious and great men, praised by Pope Alexander 3 that he who is the mountain of the house of the Lord, prepared on the top of the mountains, that all nations may flow to it, namely the Holy of Holies, who placed the foundations of the Church on the holy mountains; has chosen beforehand your mountain, situated upon the sea, to be inhabited by his faithful, which, having the effect of its name in itself, although it be dry and rough, and destitute of the grace of fertility, is nevertheless among the other mountains of the world wonderfully made fruitful with the greatest abundance of spiritual things. For since it is adorned with three hundred monasteries and a glorious multitude of Religious men, leading a narrow and poor life; it has hitherto reflourished with such great excellence of honesty, has shone with such great brightness of distinguished religion, and adorned with privileges by various. that of it one could rightly say with Jacob, marveling; Truly this place is holy; for here is the house of God, and as it were a certain gate of heaven; where the multitude of the heavenly host, like an army of camps drawn up and ready to rouse Leviathan, victoriously fights continually with the dragon, singing wisely to the Lord. Wherefore since now for some time the fame of your name, which had been poured out like oil round about, has drawn many peoples to itself in the odor of your ointments, making them run from afar; the Prelates of the Churches and the Emperors of Constantinople and many secular Princes, through their many privileges, once endowed you with the preeminence of such great liberty, that after God, whom you wished to serve freely, you should never be subject to anyone's jurisdiction. So the Pontiff, then pursuing other things concerning a violent robber, who disturbed the quiet of the Monks, plundered the churches, and even cruelly slew some; and also receiving both the monks and the mountain itself under his and S. Peter's protection.

[5] Another aspect of the mountain appeared in the following times, especially with the number of monasteries, perhaps as a punishment of the schism, incredibly diminished. For he who in the past century walked through the mountain, accurately surveying everything and describing many things, Pierre Belon, says in his book 1, chapter 10, that it extends three days' journey in length, but half a day in breadth: that it is inhabited by Calogeri alone (these are celibate Monks among the Greeks): that there are counted twenty-three or four, not more, monasteries, situated in various places. That the monasteries themselves have in the temples adjoined to them sacred Relics, and that there is a frequent concourse to them. That the temples too are excellently adorned and built, by Calogeri alone and that there the Calogeri sing liturgies each day, setting forth everything in the Greek tongue. But concerning the Calogeri, who are said to dwell there to the number of six thousand, as also concerning other things pertaining to this, see Belon himself: inhabited by 6000 in number, and what John Lange notes on book 11 of Nicephorus, chapter 38, thus: Today on Mount Athos there are 22 notable monasteries of Greek Monks of the order of S. Basil, which by way of tribute pay each year to the tyrant of the Turks from their vineyards and olive groves 6 thousand Turkish obols. and paying tribute to the Turks. That mountain is called by the Christians ἅγιον ὄρος, that is, the Holy Mountain, by the Russians Suvata hora.

[6] The aforesaid name Ἅγιον ὄρος (Holy Mountain) Belon thinks adhered to Athos from that assembly of religious men and their holy exercises; whereas it should rather be ascribed to the holiness of Peter, and was given to it by the Mother of God herself, It is called Athos, the Holy Mountain;

as is read at n. 11 in the Life: But when it began thus to be called, that will be able to be established when it is established at what time Peter was converted. There flourished on that mountain, besides our Peter, one Athanasius known to us for sanctity of life, by homeland a man of Trebizond, well instructed in letters at Constantinople, also cultivated by S. Athanasius of Trebizond first a sacred ascetic of Mount Cyminas in Asia, then of Athos in Macedonia: who at last withdrew into its interior by divine revelation, and there, asked by Nicephorus Phocas—distinguished both in war and at home in the palace of the Emperor, and already familiarly known to the Saint himself and joined by the bond of friendship—and adorned with a monastery and laura: built a truly magnificent temple to the Mother of God, and raised from the foundations very many and very large cells for the use and habitation of the Brothers; and finally, having constructed a Laura capable of holding many, departed to the Lord, as the Menaea say on the 5th of July.

[7] Furthermore, from the age of the aforesaid Nicephorus, who began his reign in the year 963, about the year 950, you will gather that that Athanasius flourished on Mount Athos about the year 950; and that therefore others had already before led the solitary life there, since he too is read in the Menaea in the place cited to have given himself as a disciple to an older Anchorite there. Yet it may be that from the times of Athanasius that mountain became more celebrated and more frequented; both on account of the sanctity of Athanasius himself, and on account of the authority of Nicephorus, a wealthy man, afterward Emperor, from whom the place became more celebrated: and also on account of the monastery and laura constructed by the aid of both. Which laura if I shall say still exists, and is the same which Belon describes, book 1, chapter 37; perhaps there will be one who, considering Belon's words, will agree with me. The monastery, says he, called Agia Laura, easily obtains the chief place among the rest of the monasteries of the whole mountain, and is situated at the roots of the loftiest ridge (which is the true Mount Athos), on the part which faces Lemnos. For this monastery alone, among all enumerated by Belon, bears the name Laura: to which could then have been added Ἁγία or Holy, either from the sanctity of the founder Athanasius, or from the holiness of the monastery itself, which both is more venerable than others by its particular situation, and to which perhaps all the others owe their origin and even their veneration. the Laura probably persevering up to now. Besides, this monastery is, like that of Athanasius, in the interior part of the mountain, and higher than the rest, which are situated almost on the shores or not far removed from them, as Belon testifies.

[8] But let us return to Peter, who must altogether have inhabited Athos before Athanasius. For in what way, for nearly fifty years, Peter seems to have been on Athos before Athanasius. which he is said to have spent there, could he have escaped the eyes of all, if the mountain had then been as frequented by inhabitants as it began to be after Athanasius? What too does it mean, that Peter dwelt there as the first Athlete, as the Prologue says; and that the Mother of God established that place for Peter, as chosen by her for the monastic institute, as the Life itself narrates at n. 11? Certainly these things plainly teach that Peter inhabited Athos before Athanasius: and would that they also taught the intervening time! But that is not to be hoped from this, the Acts providing no indication and that he remained 53 years whence one could come to a knowledge of the century in which Peter flourished. Indeed, not even can it be known with sufficient certainty, how long he lived on Athos, from the Acts, which speak now one way, now another. For at n. 5 they assign to his anchoresis on the mountain more than fifty years; which at n. 42 are extended to 53 years: but at n. 36, only 46 years being spent in the desert, he is said to have been found by a hunter, or 47. alive; and one year after, dead, so that he completed only 47 there. But since the two former numbers agree not badly with each other, it is fair that the single later one yield to them: and it must be said, either that an error crept into the number, or that a longer space than a year (which nevertheless the Acts deny) flowed between the departure of the hunter from the mountain and his return. It could perhaps also be maintained that the Saint lived determinately 47 years on the mountain: but the six which are added on are to be understood, according to the mind of the first Writer of the Life, of those years which from the beginning of his conversion flowed in the going, the stay, and the Roman return, up to the beginning of his mountain habitation; so that the whole space of his better life is to be numbered 53 years.

[9] Nothing more certain do the Acts hand down to us concerning Peter's native place, His homeland unknown, than concerning the century in which he lived. At n. 6 it is read that a war was stirred up in his homeland against the Arabs; which could indeed be an indication that Peter was born somewhere on their borders; but which? the Western or the Northern, or others? Palestine is bordering on Arabia: perhaps it is Palestine or Syria. in part of itself Syria touches the same: the incursions of the Arabs Asia Minor too sometimes felt. Let us suspect therefore that Peter was sprung from some one of those regions, and especially from one or the other of the two first, until perhaps from elsewhere a clearer light shines at some time. A war being stirred up (as we said), He goes to Rome Peter went forth into the field with others, and being captured is led away into Arabia, and consigned to prison. But thence divinely rescued, he set out on a journey to Rome; and entering it, he is clothed by the Pontiff with the monastic habit and taught the institute. not the new, Would that the Author here had expressed the name of the Pontiff! We would have obtained from it more certain indications of time; and would have more certainly distinguished whether Peter set out to new Rome, or to old. Although without that indication I would dare to assert that Rome is here to be understood as old, but the old; and this I show from the very course of the navigation.

[10] For when he meditates departure from Rome, about to seek a place opportune for the institute proposed to himself; he comes upon sailors, as is clear from the manner of the journey now ready to depart from the city, and not long after to set sail from the port, and to make sail through Crete into Asia, as is narrated at n. 10. That these words may be conveniently understood, the port must here be separated from the city, and some space lying between the two must be conceived: undertaken through Crete, which cannot suit new Rome or Constantinople, where the port is part of the city; but it can suit old Rome, whose port is removed nearly twelve thousand paces from the city, whether by it the Tiber-mouth of Ostia, or the Port of Augustus, also called the Roman, be understood. Again, those setting sail thence into Asia can take their route directly through Crete; and leaving Athos on the left. not so those setting sail from Constantinople, separated from Asia only by the Thracian Bosphorus. Finally at n. 15, when the ship, Crete being left, continued its course, and unexpectedly stood still immovable, it is bidden to turn to the left toward Mount Athos. But Athos is on the left side for those sailing from Rome into Asia, while for those sailing from Constantinople it is necessarily left on the right.

§. II. The author of the Life, the finder, our new translation, with the Letter of P. François Combefis.

[11] From the fact that Peter set out to old Rome, as we have seen, and there received the monastic habit; he is exempted from all suspicion of schism, which anyone could object; although he was schismatic and heretic who adorned with his paraphrase the Life which we publish. And this is Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, famous in the 14th century by his writing, a Life by a Schismatic, which he published against Beccus, Patriarch of Constantinople, strongly defending with the Latins that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son together; and also more famous by that one, by which he himself was afterward confuted by Cardinal Bessarion, the distinguished defender of Beccus and of the Catholic doctrine on the procession of the Holy Spirit. But Palamas himself too seems to have inhabited Mount Athos, before he was created Archbishop; probably written on Mount Athos; and there to have written this Life, and to have delivered it before an assembly to the Monks dwelling there. This is gathered from the Prologue, where he calls Athos "this mountain"; and Peter "our countryman and native," who dwelt here on earth, namely on this Mount Athos, and there first erected a trophy over the conquered demon. But that Peter may be the more exempted from suspicion of Schism, it must be noted that he himself, having set out from Rome, worked miracles in Crete, and conversed thereafter with no one, except the passengers, up to the penultimate year of his life; and so dealt with no one who could draw him to schism. To say nothing of the fact that the Monks inhabiting the same Mountain as containing many things proper to Catholics, were still united to the Roman Church in the 13th century; when they humbly supplicated Pope Innocent III, to confirm to them their liberties, and to deign to receive them under the protection of blessed Peter and his own as Pope: as was also done by the rescript of the same Pontiff, inserted in book 16 of his Letters, Epistle 168. But if afterward those Monks became schismatic, as Palamas himself was; many things also repugnant to the Schism. what does that do, that Peter too should be judged to have been schismatic, who died so long before; since nothing at all that savors of schism is found in this Life? indeed, since there are found also things which plainly oppose the schism, such as are, the Roman journey, the reverence toward the supreme and universal Pontiff, the monastic habit received from him, the miracles performed. To say nothing of the fact that Palamas is not the first author of the life; but only the adorner and amplifier of one long ago written by a Catholic (as the Acts can persuade) in few words; as is gathered from n. 4.

[12] The Life itself, which existed in Greek in the library of His Eminence Cardinal Mazarin, the Life from the library of Cardinal Mazarin in Greek was long ago sent to our predecessors in Latin by P. François Combefis, most well-known by his published books. The same afterward, at our request in Greek, the successor of Combefis, P. Jacques Quetif, kindly supplied: from which we have prepared a new translation, about to publish the same with the Greek text presently, after we have set forth the title of the Life, and the letter of Combefis, given at Paris on the 10th of July in the year 1655 to PP. Bolland and Henschenius. to be published with our translation, The title prefixed to the Life is this: "An Oration of our Father among the saints Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, on the admirable and angel-equaling life of our holy and God-bearing Father Peter, who practiced asceticism on the holy mountain Athos." That is: An Oration of our holy Father Gregory, Archbishop of Thessalonica, on the admirable life, equal to the angelic, of our holy and divine Father Peter; who lived as an anchorite on the holy mount Athos. There follows the Letter of Combefis.

[13] To the very Reverend Fathers John Bolland and Godefrid Henschenius, of the Society of Jesus, Brother François Combefis of the Order of the Friars Preachers, Greeting.

Your undertaking, the Letter of Combefis, of adorning and bringing forth the genuine Acts of the Saints, by which they both earned the favor of God,

and helped the Church, and went before posterity by their example, I so greatly approve and praise, that I esteem even a small contribution to it praising this Work on the Saints as nothing small for myself. Animated therefore by this zeal, while I unroll and read through the thick codex of homilies for the whole year, under the name of S. Gregory of Thessalonica, belonging to the most Eminent Cardinal Mazarin, to see whether anything occurs in it which could be an ornament to my preacher's Library; I find Gregory Palamas, not holy, except by the suffrage of a few schismatic Palamite Prelates of the See of Constantinople; but rather such as the learned man and friend Leo Allatius described, in his work on the perpetual concord of the Greek and Latin Church; so that, except for the unsound dogma about the Thaboric light, brilliantly expressed in two treatises on the Transfiguration, nothing seemed sufficiently elegant and polished, which I might carry over from him into that immense work of mine of treatises collected for the use of the sacred pulpit.

[14] and of helping it by sending the Life of S. Peter the Athonite One thing pleased me most especially, the praise of Peter the Athonite, inscribed indeed to the same Gregory, "of the same author" (τοῦ αὐτοῦ): but certainly of such a kind that it surpasses all the other treatises contained in that codex by infinite degrees: and unless my opinion deceives me, in it even the rude Translator that I am will be recognized. I would conjecture that it is not so much the lucubration of Palamas, as of that Elder, whom he himself testifies had previously consigned the deeds of Peter to writing. adorned by Palamas. Or at least Palamas was very much aided by his labor, himself striving with greater diligence to adorn the distinguished memory of so great a patron of Ascetics. However it be, all is plain, learned, sound, pious, and such as are of great help especially to those professing asceticism and the solitary kind of life for Christ's sake. Nowhere are the contests which they are wont to sweat at more beautifully arranged. Certain laudable things are narrated from it, Rare, amid such a great heap of divine favor and merits, is the modesty: by which one indication especially the Angel of light rejoices. To be approved is Peter's devotion toward the Roman See, and its most holy Prelate, and his inauguration as a Monk at Rome by a divine oracle. Which would that the later Greeks for the most part, and Palamas himself indeed, had preferred to follow the piety of their predecessors! they would not so, driven by various errors, but constant in the faith of Peter (on which whatever there is anywhere of the Ecclesiastical edifice must necessarily rest) have remained. A notable favor, finally, is this of S. Mary, both toward Peter, and toward the very kind of Monks, devoting the Mountain to herself on that account, to which she wishes an appellation celebrated for holiness.

[15] Peter's very liberation from prison through the patronage of the Saints, akin to that by which the great prince of the Apostles himself was once liberated by an Angel, and a recent history is added concerning a heretic soldier, wonderfully refreshed me; while it sets before me, as new to the eyes, a recent miracle, namely of the past year. It was thus done in a Calvinist young man, my fellow townsman of Bordeaux, named Isaac Berigean. He, on the first Sunday of November, or October (for I do not so accurately remember, having inquired about this least matter), a garrison soldier for two years, unwillingly, in the town of Hesdin in Artois, when the citizens were flocking together to the solemn supplication according to the institute of the most holy Rosary; first mocking the matter with a companion, likewise a Calvinist of Olonne near the borders of Saintonge, named Tabo; then, the former thinking with himself whether the miracles of S. Mary that were spread by report were true, and putting that thought to his companion, who is restored to liberty by the help of the B. Virgin, and persuading a transition to the camp of the Catholic Church, that by her aid and protection they might escape safe, and rejoice in the desired liberty; suddenly a certain light stupor being sent upon them, and emerging from it, and being fully released in their senses, they see themselves transported to the votive little shrine of the Mother of God, celebrated for miracles outside the garrison; the triple, not infrequent, wedge of the soldiers guarding being overcome, by a manner unknown to them. They give thanks to their liberatrix, throw away their swords, lest they be summoned for deserted military service; they slip away through trackless places, live a few days on apples…

[16] Hence my man of Bordeaux, having set out first to Beauvais, then to Paris, desiring to satisfy his vow, and instructed in Catholic faith by Combefis himself and to redeem his pledge, who would instruct himself in the Catholic faith, seeks with a simple mind. He is offered to me: I gladly devote my effort to instructing him; I find him easy to faith from the miracle; he detests his former error, and the hatred against Catholics that proceeded from it; and eagerly approaches the Church: by Apostolic authority I take care that he be absolved from the guilt of heresy by anathema, I hear him laying down his sins by the sacred rite of confession, I impart the Eucharist to him devoutly desiring it, I send him to Orléans to be confirmed by the Episcopal overshadowing of hands and unction. Thus new miracles consonant with the ancient, He joined the Roman Church. and those of the middle age, the one cause everywhere of piety and the salvation of men exhibited by God. But to return to Peter, since his name does not occur in the Menaea, nor the day on which he is venerated by the Greeks (as neither are reported in it very many names of Saints, who in various particular Churches among the Greeks themselves are held most celebrated) I deemed it worth the effort, to entrust so illustrious a monument of his life to your fidelity. … Farewell, most industrious little bees of Christ, and store up honey begun and food, for many long years, from those flowers of the Saints. At Paris on the 6th day before the Ides of July in the year 1655.

ENCOMIUM

By the Author Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, from a Greek Manuscript, formerly of Cardinal Mazarin, now Royal.

TRANSLATED BY P. CONRADUS JANNINGUS.

Peter, Anchorite on Mount Athos (S.)

BY GREGORY PALAMAS

PROLOGUE.

[1] It is not just, as it seems to me, that those who in another part of the earth have done something worthy of memory should be eagerly praised by us, who hear the writings about them, brought forth at once with accuracy and beauty, and instilling into the soul the greatest exhortation to the taking up of virtue; but the example which we have at home of every good thing, namely the life of Peter, should be in some way negligently regarded, and that though it falls short of almost none of those celebrated for virtue from all eternity. You all know whom I mean, unless anyone is ignorant of this renowned Athos, and of his eponymous Peter, our countryman and native and first champion, who, dwelling here on earth, threw down the adversary of all the earth, and here first set up a trophy over that one's madness against us, and cast the seed of good into the earth at the right time, since it has both sprung up and been nourished and borne fruit, as now from the things seen anyone can perceive.

[2] That, therefore, such a great founder, and a guide for us to such things, should obtain the recompense which comes from praises, if anyone does, all would agree to be just; but for me to declare all the things of the man, and to render to each of these according to its worth, is near to the wholly impossible. For his contest, as it seems, was to offer beforehand, for the recompenses promised by God to the just, a certain proportionate excess of life, that is, greater than both speech and hearing. But not on this account does it seem to me that I should abandon it, having practiced silence on all things. For neither do we abstain from those parts of the land and the sea in which we are able to walk and travel, because not everything is navigable or passable farther on through all; nor have all things been omitted by those who have recorded about them, because they could not declare all things with accuracy; but it seemed fitting to them too to set forth, as many of these things, and as far as, was possible.

[3] In the same way, then, I too must now undertake the task, and not overlook it, because the things of the subject are unsurpassable by speech; and not only by me indeed, but also by all who have a share of speech: for thus perhaps there would come from all, as it were, a common contribution, befitting the greatness of the subject. And this being so, all who, casting in their mind the catalogue of the eloquent, will readily grant me pardon; for they too will surely need this, the debt being common, and all in common, one by one, falling short. But I, O sacred assembly, and of everyone whosoever, have entrusted also the help that comes from you through prayers: for if the contest set before me is difficult, yet by your invocations God, having now graciously looked upon us from above—may it be? having helped to compose; he who also has aided the one set over the supernatural life—setting every obstacle out of the way, and giving a passage in things impassable to the one composing the discourse.

[1] It is not indeed, as my opinion holds, fitting, Before foreigners, that those who in another part of the earth did something worthy of memory should be magnificently praised by us, when we hear their writings, edited at once accurately and elegantly, and instilling into the soul the highest ardor for embracing virtue; but that which we have at home, the exemplar of all honesty, namely the life of Peter, yielding to none of the ancients in the praise of deeds, to none celebrated in all past ages for fame of virtues, should be negligently regarded. You all know whom I mean; native Saints are to be praised, unless perhaps this most famous Athos is unknown to someone, and he who took his surname from it, Peter. Peter, I say, that countryman of ours, native, first athlete, who dwelling here on earth, routed the adversary of all the earth; and his fury, with which he raged against us, being bridled, first there erected a trophy over him, as Peter, the first Ascetic on Mount Athos: and committed the seeds of virtues to the earth at the opportune time: since they both sprang up, and grew, and brought forth abundant fruits; as now to anyone, from those things which he beholds with his eyes, is manifest.

[2] Wherefore all, I think, will have agreed and judged it fair, that so great a man, who leads us to such sublime things, should obtain the reward which flows from praise, if any other does. and although all his deeds cannot be narrated, But that I should pursue all the things which commend him, and set forth each as they deserve, can scarcely or not even scarcely be done (For his striving all tended thither, as is fitting, that before he obtained the reward promised to the just by God, he might confer there a certain as it were befitting excellence of life, and that one greater than anyone can express in words or perceive by hearing): not on that account, however, yet the Author thinks they are not altogether to be passed over in silence, do I think I should at once abstain from praise, or wrap all things in silence. For neither do we think those spaces of land and sea, in which we walk and sail, are not to be approached, because the land is not everywhere passable, the sea not everywhere navigable: nor do those who have undertaken to describe such things, because they cannot most accurately set forth everything, pass over everything; but they deem it worth the effort to narrate, as much as their strength and talent permitted.

[3] In like manner this work is now to be undertaken by me; but not altogether to be neglected, because the excellence of the argument cannot, not only by me, but also by any most eloquent man, but to be begun, relying on the prayers of the hearers and the help of God, be explained by speech: for thus perhaps it will come about, that from all

a collection may be made, befitting the greatness of the argument. These things therefore being so, all who recall to mind the series of his illustrious deeds will easily pardon our slenderness, of which they themselves would surely have need; since this debt is common, and in common, one by one, we all here fall short. But I, O sacred Hearers, undertake the matter, relying both on the aid of any other and on yours and on your prayers. For if I commit myself to a perilous arena; moved by your supplications, God, now graciously looking upon us from heaven, who also led the man of whom we treat to such sublime sanctity of life, will remove every impediment far off, and open a way for our discourse through the trackless places.

CHAPTER I.

Peter's homeland, military service, captivity, vow, liberation.

[4] The parents, then, and the homeland of his childhood of this great and admirable Father—and one whose fitting homeland is the tabernacle of the heavenly ones—time has, doing well, consigned to the abyss of oblivion: for those things which the noble man, while still living, overlooked, as unworthy of his own virtue, of these reasonably even those who first wrote his deeds did not think they ought to make mention. But that to which he, bearing himself, or rather borne by God, settled, and where he accomplished his divine contests, and whence he flew up to heaven, this renowned and venerable place I mean, the hearth of virtues, the dwelling of every good thing, the counterpart and not-made-by-hands tabernacle of the heavenly ones, free from every pollution and superior to every defiling passion, the mountain fittingly named from holiness; this is in the place of a homeland to the man before us, and with this he is spoken of together and heard of together, and from this he is recognized, and bears the distinction from those of the same name, being rightly called the Athonite.

[5] For if at Athens, after a three-year residence, it was the custom that proselytes should use the city in place of a homeland; how does the Saint not rightly lay claim to the mountain, having accomplished here more than fifty cycles of years, and that so full of contest? But if too a homeland is to each that in which one prospers (as one of the outside wise men declared), who anywhere among all could have done, or be about to do, better than the man's good fortune here; who met with God and attained the divine vision—or rather, that I may say the whole in brief, who, having transcended human nature, and being truly altered with the divine alteration (what discourse would suffice to set forth the wonder?), was remolded to the supernatural worth by the right hand of the Most High. But nevertheless he overlooked his homeland, and ran to this mountain, the procurer of the homeland above, where indeed he accomplished both the many-yeared life, and the way of living invisible to men.

[6] And consider the resourcelessness of the divine wisdom, and the excess of God's solicitude toward men, and the unsurpassable longing beyond saving. War is kindled in the homeland of this admirable father against the Arabs; and he, being (as it seems) not unpracticed in soldiering with comrades, fights together with his countrymen; he is captured by the foreigners; far from his native land he is carried off captive; into the interior of the alien and hostile land he advances on foot unwillingly; he is shut up in inescapable strongholds; he is bound at the foot with fetters, oppressed by want of food, suffers many of the unbearable things, is in utter perplexity, despairs of his own life, at last takes refuge in God, promises to live for him alone, if only he should see free light, and be delivered from the dreadful things that hold him. What then does the swift and at the same time provident God do? He defers meanwhile his swiftness, and by delaying allows the pains to be intensified; providing surely that he will have the suppliant more secure, since men are wont, after the removal of that which oppresses, easily to disregard the compacts made in it, unless they accurately strengthen these.

[7] What follows? Through dreams he confirms to him the things of the promise, and sends to him in a dream that great one among the hierarchs and holy fathers, Nicholas, whom he himself also more fervently invoked, having both experienced his boldness toward God, and being led by him through a miracle, having already before used many miracles on his behalf. Who indeed, having appeared not once, but already even twice, much reproached the man's want of counsel, since often indeed even before he had vowed flight from the world, but had set out in no way to render the vow in deed. For this very reason justly just now he said, neither are you yourself heard, nor am I able at all to persuade, making an embassy to God on behalf of the things that are to profit you. But indeed, if you obey me, invoke also some other of those who have great power with God as helper, so that he, joining his effort, I may profit you the more, doing the greatest possible zeal on your behalf.

[8] But Peter objecting, And who then is able to help more than you? he said, Simeon. That Simeon, who long ago at some time submitted his very aged arms, and held up for forty days that God who existed before created men. But he, after the suggestion, departing went away; but Peter at once shaking off sleep, had Simeon much on his mouth; and crying out he did not cease, beseeching he did not give in, until he persuaded. For on the next day Nicholas again stood by him, and bids him raise his eyes toward Simeon. And he, quickly turned, sees a delightful sight; a man as venerable as possible and hoary, clad in pontifical fashion according to the old custom, decorously leaning on a golden staff, and looking upon him with something gracious and gentle, and announcing the release, if indeed he is eager to bring into deed his compacts with God. And Peter agreeing eagerly, that one fearlessly directs him to walk wherever he wishes, going out of the prison. But he, again showing the bond about his feet, and maintaining that the command was altogether of the impossible, the God-receiver, gently raising that staff beautifully flashing, touches with its tip the bonds, and with the gold cuts the iron, as (they say) a spider's web, without toil: and Peter at once finds himself, not only freed from those fetters, but also outside every enclosure (O the wonder!) in an instant of time, and sees Nicholas alone accompanying him, and persuading that the liberty given was no longer in a dream, but in reality; and besides showing him a supply of provisions, namely a certain garden flourishing with trees of many kinds, and laden with many of the edibles. Among these, he, scrupling to steal, would not endure to touch those fruits even with the tip of his finger, as the saying goes. But Nicholas again emboldens him, and fearlessly commands him to pluck: then leading him forth onto the dear journey, and reminding him of those promises, vanishes from the eyes of the man, and seemed to have left him, although invisibly he was always with him.

[4] Peter's homeland unknown: What parents, what homeland this great and admirable Father had as an infant—one to whom it befitted that the homeland be the heavenly tabernacle—time has not incongruously buried in the deep abyss of oblivion. For those things which he, living, despised as unworthy of his virtue; the same too they who first committed his deeds to writing rightly judged ought not to be commemorated by them. But that place of habitation into which he himself passed, or rather was transferred by the divine will, where he fought his contests worthily for God, and whence at last he flew up into the heavens; this, I say, most celebrated and venerable place; this, the seat of virtues; this, the dwelling of all honesty; but it can be deemed Mount Athos, which he inhabited, this, the not-made-by-hand tabernacle, like the heavenly ones; this, pure of all crime, superior to every execrable affection of the mind, fittingly named "mountain" from its sanctity; this, that man had in place of a homeland: of whom no mention is made anywhere unless the mountain too be made; no deeds are heard, unless the mountain too be understood; hence called the Athonite; from which namely he himself is recognized, and distinguished from others of the same name; since he is deservedly called the Athonite.

[5] For if at Athens it was received by law, that newcomers after a three-year stay should have the city as their homeland, and be reckoned enrolled into it; since the right of homeland by long how does the holy man not deservedly claim this mountain for himself, as his own, where he spent more than fifty years, and that in such great striving to acquire virtue? Besides, if that is to be held each man's homeland, and happy habitation is acquired. where one leads a happy life (as a certain Wise man of the gentiles pronounced), who, I ask, anywhere either led a happier life at any time, or will hereafter lead, than this man on this mountain? where he frequently conversed with God, and was deemed worthy of the divine vision; indeed (to say the whole in brief) where, having transgressed human nature, and being changed into the truly divine (but what force of eloquence could so express the miracle!) he acquired an excellence more than natural, the right hand of the Most High cooperating. His homeland therefore being spurned, he ascended this mountain, convenient for procuring the heavenly homeland; and there both led the age of many years, and followed an institute of living which lay hidden from human eyes.

[6] Indeed I would wish you to consider the incomprehensible excellence of the divine wisdom, Having set out to war, the excess of the same providence toward men, and the insatiable desire of promoting their salvation. There is stirred up in the homeland of this admirable Father a war against the Arabs. He himself, not altogether unskilled in the art of war, as it seems, advances into the field with his peoples; is captured by the enemies; and is led away captive far from his homeland: he is compelled to enter the interior of the alien and hostile land, he is captured, and consigned to prison: he is consigned to a narrow prison, stocks are placed on his feet, he himself is macerated by abstinence from food, suffers many intolerable things, despairs in mind, despairs of life; at last he takes refuge in God, and promises that hereafter he will live for him alone, if only it should befall him to behold a freer air at some time, he utters a vow for liberty in vain, and to escape the evils by which he is pressed. What then here does God, swift to hear, and provident to consult for the wretched, do? He weaves delays meanwhile, and by lingering permits his miseries to be somewhat longer protracted; and this most prudently, that thus namely the liberty might be safer for the suppliant: since it is so arranged with men, that after they are freed from those adversities by which they were pressed, they easily neglect the vows made before, unless they have well confirmed them.

[7] What further? Through sleep God ratifies his promises, S. Nicholas reproaching him, a vision being set before him, which should represent to him the great Bishop and Father, S. Nicholas; whom too he fervently invoked, as having experienced his intercession with God; and the same as having already long worked many marvelous things in him, he held in place of a miracle. Nor indeed only once, but also again did the Saint show himself to be seen by the man, because he had not fulfilled what he formerly uttered, much rebuking his rashness, that he had already long often vowed flight from the world, and had taken no care to fulfill his vow in deed

itself. Wherefore, he said, deservedly neither are you now heard; nor can I, who intercede with God for the things that are to profit you, obtain. Nevertheless, if you hear me, invoke also another from the number of those who have great power with God, as helper and patron, that, he joining his effort to mine, I may profit you more.

[8] But Peter objecting; Pray, who can help more powerfully than you? and bidding him invoke also S. Simeon: Simeon, says the Saint. Namely that Simeon; who long ago at some time submitted his very aged arms, and with them received, forty days born, the same who existed before created men, God. And Nicholas indeed, with these words departing, vanished. But Peter, soon shaking off sleep, had Simeon frequently on his mouth, by whom he is refreshed with the hope of liberty, and incessantly cried out, nor ceased to insist, until he obtained what he sought. For on the next day Nicholas, again standing by him, bids him fix his eyes on Simeon. And he, soon turned thither, beholds a delightful spectacle, namely an old man as venerable as possible and hoary, clad in the manner of a Pontiff after the custom of the ancients, decently leaning on a golden staff, and gazing on him with a gracious and gentle countenance, and announcing that he would shortly obtain liberty, provided he gave effected with ready mind the things he had vowed to God: and Peter assenting most readily that he would give it, Simeon sweetly commands him, going out of the prison, to depart wherever he wishes. And when he again, showing the chains by which he was bound, said that what was commanded could not possibly be done; the holy receiver of the Man of God, Simeon, gently raising the beautifully radiant staff which he held, and he is sent out of the prison, touches the bonds with its tip; and with the gold cuts the iron, as a spider's web, as the saying is, without any trouble: and at once Peter marvels to find himself not only freed from his bonds, but even led plainly outside the enclosures (O miracle!) in a moment of time, and sees Nicholas alone present as his companion, and easily persuading that liberty was now granted not through a dream, but in reality. To this too he shows him an opportune route, namely an orchard planted with trees of various kinds, and among them many bearing fruits fit for human eating, S. Nicholas going before on the way, But amid all these Peter not only scrupled to pluck anything of them, but did not even dare to touch those fruits with the very tip of his finger, as they say. But Nicholas, again adding courage to him, fear being laid aside, commands him to gather fruits; then leading him to the desired way, the memory of the deeds promised being renewed, withdrew himself from his eyes; and so seemed to have left him, although in an invisible manner he was constantly present to him as he went.

CHAPTER II.

The journey to Rome, thence to Crete. The miracles performed there.

[9] But thus then Peter, having beheld free light beyond expectation, at once looking to the great Paul as to an archetype, did not himself either resolve to consult flesh and blood; but doing well, he becomes wholly of the God who by a greater providence had administered the things concerning him, and who had so wondrously called him; with admirable eagerness he follows behind, not enduring to stand apart even a little, nor to depart from his footsteps. For as if one, having fixed his eyes intently on the sun, then should look at the things below, sees everything simply as darkness; so that man, having fixed the eye of his soul—the mind—unbending toward heaven, easily overlooked all things, home, homeland, parents, those joined by blood, those by any fellowship whatever; and bidding all farewell, or rather not even bidding farewell, becomes of one thing, the conduct according to God, and one study superior to all his occupation, to hold fast to the divine will, and thus to become all things to Christ, and to have Christ in place of all, according to that divine sentence of his.

[10] And thus wounded by the divine dart, he took the road leading to Rome, deferring nothing; there to be more perfectly consecrated, and to put on the monastic habit openly, and to render his vow. But the great Nicholas again invisibly escorted him; and indeed, having gone ahead, and standing beforehand at the city, he meets mentally with the Pope: for that one was seated at that time, as it seems, on the high throne, a man lofty as concerns himself, and not without a share of mental visions. He therefore introduces to him, even before the sight, Peter, and narrates the things concerning him, and bids him, when he should have arrived to him, perform upon him as many things as are deemed proper for those who have chosen the unwed life to take up; adding signs too, from which he might recognize the one spoken of, and uttering the name besides. He indeed gives an end to the meeting; but Peter was now entering the city, knowing nothing of the things done by the one presiding, and seeming to go straight to the metropolitan church. He indeed was now approaching the sacred gates, and bending the knee, continued giving veneration to the divine images. But the Pope at once sends for him, and initiates him into the solitary mode of life, and clothes him in the robe befitting that mode of life; and as if astonished at what had happened (for how not?) he confessed thanks to God, and lifting up grateful hands sent up voices of thanksgiving. Nor only, but also he added to his good and noble eagerness, and with fervent spirit sought a place that would help his purpose. Going down therefore to the shore, he meets sailors, namely by the providence of God, now prepared to depart from the city, and not long after about to put out from the port, and having chosen to sail off through Crete toward Asia. With these therefore he too embarks; about to attain perhaps somewhere the things according to his mind, through this long voyage; or rather having trusted God even in this, who alone accomplishes everything that is profitable for men.

[11] Thus then being in hope, he sees in a dream the ever-virgin Mother of God; and beside her his protector Nicholas standing in the form of a servant, and, Where will Peter lodge, O Lady? speaking to her with a gentle voice; and she, taking it up cheerfully and decorously, answering: There is a mountain in Europe, most beautiful and at the same time greatest, turned toward Libya, and going far within the sea; this, having chosen out of all the earth, I have resolved to allot as a lodging befitting the monastic life; for this reason indeed I have consecrated this also as a most special dwelling to myself, and it will henceforth be called holy; and for those upon it who take up the contest against the common enemy of men, I will fight in front through their whole life, and will altogether be to these an unconquerable ally; an instructor of the things to be done, an interpreter of the things not to be done, a guardian, a physician, a nurse, what nourishment and what healing you wish, both that which tends to the body, and supports it and profits it, and that which raises up and strengthens the spirit; and does not allow them to fall away from the good; and I will commend also to my son and God those to whom it may be granted well to end this life here, having requested from him perfect remission of the things sinned by them.

[12] I know that the discourse has reasonably instilled pleasure in all, in that it announces without dispute the salvation, longed-for by us and by all the right-minded, according to the soul; for when the Mother of God, who has made even the impossible possible, promises to help, and not here only, nor in the present, but also in the age to come, and not in small things, but procuring deliverance from those unspeakable accounts, and the enjoyment of the undefiled goods, who, having a mind, would not exceedingly rejoice? But one must go on to what follows; the Mother of God having discoursed these things about the mountain, and added at the end, that Peter too would live there, he is released from sleeping, and rouses himself to prayer, graceful if ever, and as it were winged in soul, as is likely for one deemed worthy of such sights and such hearings.

[13] A little while, and the ship sailing along Crete, for those who needed food and drink (for not even for him, who from the very beginning provided to make his flesh subject to ashes, and passing the day without food, but drinking of the sea, and that most moderately)—those, then, who needed of the necessities, resolved that they must put in to the harbor; and disembarking, take pains for barley-meal and drinkable waters; and so, this being decided and done, since one of the natives was very familiar with the helmsman, dwelling somewhere there near the harbor and not far off, as he went to him he too disembarked; who, having unexpectedly seen his comrade bedridden, and his wife and children sitting beside him, and contriving consolation as far as possible for the sick man, but themselves too long wrestling with disease, and by their sitting beside intensifying the dread, taking to mind the conduct of Peter (for he was skillful, as it seems, to judge a man's virtue from little); A remedy has been found by me, O dear comrade, for that which oppresses your whole household, he said to the sick man; and at once he leaped back out of the house. And as fast as his feet could carry him, returning to the ship, he asks Peter—obedient to all for Christ's sake—to follow him; and he at once obeys, God surely mentally urging him on.

[14] He comes therefore to that house worn down by sickness, and faster than word raises it up and strengthens it. For as soon as that man held by grave disease came into the sight of this admirable father, he was both relieved, and recovered, and rose, and falling at the feet of his healer, became strong; then so, quickly rising thence, he moved Peter toward his children and his wife, and bearing health as it were in his very hands, dispensed it abundantly to all. For straightway all, free of the disease, and stronger than the dreadful things that held them, were raised up, and had nothing they could do, nothing they could say to Peter, sufficient for the great size of the benefit; whom indeed his exceeding lack of love of glory urged toward departure, being altogether unmoved at their applause, and referring to God the cause of what had happened; to whom indeed, when they offered money after his return to the ship, he himself did not accept it, saying to them that it was not right, for the goods bestowed on them by God, to confess the thanks to a man, but to attend to that one through a pure and temperate life and free manners, and to live according to God, overlooking nothing of his wishes, nor ever at all becoming of the things displeasing to him; for thus you, he says, will not even need healing any longer, with God, inasmuch as from the beginning, falling into no disease.

[9] For indeed, when Peter in this manner beyond expectation had beheld the free sky; Now, free, he resolves to serve God, at once turning his eyes to the great Paul, as to an image; neither did he himself think it should be committed to himself, to acquiesce in flesh and blood; but better things

following, he gives himself wholly to God, by whose better providence his affairs had been so disposed; and the one by whom he was so wondrously called, he follows behind with admirable readiness, not enduring to be separated even a little from him, or to turn aside from his footsteps. For just as, all things being left, if anyone has gazed at the sun with fixed eyes, as soon as he has turned them to lower things, he beholds everything obscure and dark: so he, when he had directed the eye of the soul, the intellect I mean, unturned toward the heavens, not unwillingly looked down upon all other things, home, homeland, parents, kinsmen and intimates whoever they were; and all things being bidden farewell, or rather not even bidden farewell, he applied himself to this one thing, to institute his life according to God; and to deem it preferable to all other occupations; whereby he might meditate the full execution in every way of the divine will, and thus become all things to Christ, and have Christ in place of all things, according to the divine sentence of the Apostle.

[10] Thus wounded by the dart of divine love, Peter at once takes the road toward Rome; there to live a more perfect life, under the monastic habit, even to be borne openly, and thus to fulfill his vows. Meanwhile the great Nicholas again goes before him on the way in an invisible manner; going to Rome and outstripping him, comes first to the city, and addresses the Lord Pope with an intelligible voice: for he was seated, as was then the custom, on a lofty throne, himself too a man shining with lofty gifts, and not unaccustomed to spiritual visions: To him therefore the Saint commends Peter, not yet beheld by his eyes; and the series of his affairs being narrated, bids him, when he should arrive, perform for him whatever is wont to be performed for men who have chosen the celibate life; he is commended to the Pontiff by S. Nicholas, and indeed he adds signs, whereby he might recognize the designated man, and indicates the name. While Nicholas was putting an end to this conversation; Peter had entered the city, knowing nothing at all of the things which had been done by the holy Patron, and is clothed as a Monk by him, and at once thought he should go to the metropolitan church. And when he now drew near to the sacred gates, and on bended knees adored the divine images; unexpectedly he is summoned by the Pope, marveling at the divine providence. is taught the monastic institute, and is clothed in the garment befitting the institute. Hence, like one astonished at the novelty of the matter (what else indeed?) he renders thanks to God, and with hands raised on high, sends forth voices indicative of gratitude. Nor is this the end: but he also intensifies his laudable and beautiful alacrity; To a ship setting sail from Rome into Asia and burning with the fervent love of the Holy Spirit, he inquires after a place favoring his holy purpose. Going down therefore to the seashore, he comes—God namely so providently disposing—upon sailors, now ready to depart from the city, and not long after about to set sail from the port, and to make sail through Crete into Asia. he commits himself: With these therefore he too sets sail, about to see whether perhaps in so long a navigation a place might occur somewhere which would be according to his mind's wish: but rather in this too he trusted God, who alone perfects whatever is useful for men.

[11] from the Mother of God he understands Relying on this hope, he has in his sleep a sight of the Mother of God ever virgin, and standing beside her in the appearance of a servant S. Nicholas, his provident guardian; who to the Mother of God with a gentle voice; Where at last, O Lady, shall Peter dwell? And she, answering kindly and modestly, subjoins: There is in Europe a most beautiful and at the same time highest mountain, that he is to dwell on a high mountain, which toward Libya runs far into the sea. This I have chosen out of the whole world, and have decreed to be made a fitting and apt habitation for the monastic institute: indeed I have consecrated it as my own dwelling, and henceforth it will be called Holy. chosen for this by herself As many as there take up the contest against the common enemy of men, I will fight on their behalf as long as they live, and will altogether show myself to them an invincible helper; what is to be done, and endowed with privileges. I will teach; what is to be omitted, I will set forth; I will act as their guardian, physician, nurse; providing them with every kind of food and medicine, whether it pertain to the body and consolidate and strengthen it; or whether it rouse the Spirit, and confirm it, and prevent it from being despoiled of virtue. I will commend them moreover to my son and God, those to whom it shall befall to set an end to their life there; and from him I will entreat for them remission of their sins in every way.

[12] This discourse, I know, has brought pleasure to all, and not undeservedly; since it promises without ambiguity the salvation of the soul, most greatly to be desired, not by us alone, but by all right-thinking men. One must rejoice at such kindness of the Mother of God For when the Mother of God, who makes effective what cannot be done, devotes her aid; and not only now and in the present age, but also in the future; and not only provides in small things, but also frees her own from those secret punishments, and endows them with the pleasure of eternal goods; who, I ask, of sound mind would not rejoice beyond measure? and power, But we must proceed to what remains. When the Mother of God had spoken such things about the mountain; and at last had subjoined, that Peter too would lead his life in that place; he wakes from sleep; as Peter rejoiced; and betakes himself to prayer, glad if ever, and with his whole soul (you would say wings had been added to him) flies up: as it is fitting that he should do, who merited to see such sights and hear such discourses.

[13] Meanwhile the ship was approaching Crete, and those passengers who had need of food and drink (for not Peter, who, having put in to Crete, who from the very beginning had prudently subjected his flesh to reason, and passed whole days without food, but drank seawater and that in moderation, needed those things) those passengers, I say, judged that they must enter the harbor, and that, disembarking onto land, they should carefully provide food and drinkable water. When therefore they had judged that this must be done, and had actually done it; the helmsman too, who had someone there very familiar to him, and dwelling not far from the harbor, in order to meet him, himself too disembarked from the ship. But behold, unexpectedly he catches sight of his friend lying sick of a disease, with neither wife nor children sitting beside the bed, and summoned to the sick household, or bringing comfort to the sick man according to their strength; but rather they too, struggling with a long illness, and lying near him, increased his pains. Wherefore the helmsman, recalling to mind Peter's manner of living (for he was suited to conjecture a man's virtue from little intercourse) addresses the sick man: and, I have found, he says, dearest of friends, a remedy by which I will dispel the evil that oppresses you and yours. And soon going out of the house, with all the speed he could he returns to the ship; he readily follows, and asks Peter, most obedient to all for Christ's sake, to follow him. And he at once obeys, stirred by an inner motion from God.

[14] and by his presence alone heals the whole household at once, He betakes himself therefore to that house, afflicted by the infirmity of its inhabitants, and quicker than the word raises it up and strengthens it. For when the father of the family, held by grave disease, first beheld this admirable Father; at once he had it more gently, returned to himself, rose, fell at the feet of his physician, and became whole: soon thence rising as quickly as possible, he led Peter to his children and wife; to all of whom he most completely restored health, as if he really bore it in his hands. commanding that they give praise to God, For straightway all, freed from the disease and pains which they suffered, rose up unharmed; not knowing what they should do, or what they should say to Peter, by which they might sufficiently compensate so great a benefit. But he, as most averse as possible from his own praise, urged his return; and not at all moved by their applause, referred whatever had been done to God as author. And when too they brought money to the Saint, now returned to the ship, and rightly institute their life. he admitted nothing whatever: It is not fair, he said, that for benefits bestowed on them by God, they should give thanks to a man; but let them cleave to God himself by a chaste and temperate life and approved manners, institute their life according to God, despise none of the things he wishes to be done, perpetrate nowhere anything that displeases him. For thus it will come about, he says, that with God's help you will no longer, as a little before, need medicine, indeed you will not fall into disease again.

CHAPTER III.

The journey to Mount Athos, and the life there led harshly and holily.

[15] Thus he, having well disposed also the inner man in them, permitted them to return home, but himself put out to sea with his fellow voyagers, who also ascribed their own prosperous voyage to the virtue of the man, for they had with a favorable wind through every day and night accomplished the voyage thus far, and were confident concerning what was to come. But indeed, while they were so disposed and thinking, from the utterly unexpected, the wind still being favorable and blowing brightly at the stern, the ship was loosed from going forward, and remained motionless. And though they moved every rope, as the proverb says, the immobility in no way gave way. And indeed the sailors being perplexed, and nearly partaking of the same immobility, partly from astonishment, and partly from having nothing to do. The matter being thus in a difficult position, the divine Peter, rising from his quiet seat, and looking around, asks the name of the mountain that appeared; and learning that it was Athos, both understood and announced what held the ship motionless: In this, he says, it is in the will of God, that I should accomplish the remainder of my life; and to the one sitting at the rudder he commands to direct the ship straight toward the left to the land; and he, as having had no care, accomplished what was commanded, the ship was loosed from its bonds, and at once changed to easy movement.

[16] Does not astonishment arise upon all these things? How the navigable nature, the easily-flowing property of the sea, on the one hand withdraws and gives passage to the ship, driven by the impact of the winds; on the other hand, having denied its nature, takes on resistance, and like dry land holds the ship to the place? And how also the easily-diffusible nature of the wind is in part contracted, and does not snatch it away by the conspicuousness of its rush, no stronger body being set against it? For the wind by ease of motion surpasses the water. And of the appearing of the dry land at the bottom of the sea when it parted, that the flowing surface of the sea became solid as also dry land, carries a glory not less of a miracle: therefore this too is to be added to the ancient marvels, and to be narrated no less than those, and for it God is to be hymned, to whom nothing of what he wishes is at all unaccomplishable.

[17] But thus the company sailing with Peter, having drawn near to the land, disembark the noble man at the foot of the mountain, not without tears; who also raised up them, already fallen down from folly, foretelling to them both that the voyage would be without danger, and that they would have their purpose accomplished. They

therefore set out with good hopes; but he, by force indeed, yet nevertheless mounted the trackless places, and went up the mountain, and entered the inmost recesses, entrusting the things concerning himself to God alone, for whom alone too he was eager and resolved to live, which also he zealously brought to its end, being not only almost without food—of all that is wont to sustain the nature of men, and being in this part a little less than the angels—but also with cold and heat and frost and snow and rains, naked and under the open sky, O the endurance! suffering hardship. For that man, if any, having a mind, and understanding the nature of this earthly composition, how it weighs down the mind itself, and dragging it toward the earth, does not allow it to have its citizenship in the heavens, through all things; and partaking of the herbs present very moderately, terribly melted away his flesh; and wrought in his mind a notable vigor, and made his heart simply a divine chariot, and another heaven, and a dwelling dearer to God than heaven, by the exact, quiet purgation; and this is, to speak in brief, the turning of the mind to itself and its convergence; or rather, of all the powers of the soul, though it be a marvel to say, the turning toward the mind, and the activity according to it and toward God.

[18] But to declare the things from here with accuracy is impossible; for when the mind rises up from all that is sensible, and emerges from the flood of the tumult about these things, and surveys the inner man, then indeed, having seen the ugly mask that has accrued from the lower wandering, it hastens to wash this off through mourning; and when it has stripped off this ill-formed covering, then indeed, then, the soul no longer being basely torn apart by the various dispositions, it scarcely keeps peace, and lays hold of the true quiet, and knows, so far as is possible, God, through whom it is. When also it surpasses its own nature, and is deified by participation, ever advancing toward the better, only if it be fenced well on every side, and have no entrance anywhere whatsoever for the one who from the beginning practices wickedness, lest he slip in, and finding it swept, remain with his followers in the soul, and make it, alas, a camp of his own wicked phalanx, and the last things of that man become worse than the first, according to that evangelical saying.

[19] But this indeed be utterly far off; but when the mind, as the discourse has already shown by anticipating, having destroyed every passion dwelling within, procures dispassion for the soul, and not only itself toward itself, but having wholly turned the other powers of the soul also, sets out of the way everything acquired—first indeed whatever is of the wicked stamp, but advancing toward the more perfect, or rather the most perfect, and the things of the better portion—not only having passed beyond the material dyad, but also having risen above the intelligible and the not-imageless thoughts, and having laid aside all things at once in a God-loving and God-pleasing way, deaf and speechless, according to what is written, may stand before God; then it holds a relation of matter, and is molded with the upper molding in all security, since none of the passions is knocking at the door, the grace from outside remolding the whole toward the better; and the mind that has been well-portioned with these things conveys also to the joined body many tokens of the divine beauty; mediating between the divine grace and the thickness of the flesh, and setting power in things impossible.

[20] Hence the God-formed and unrivaled habit according to virtue, and the wholly unmovable or hardly-movable disposition toward wickedness, and the working of miracles, and to see through and to foresee, and to discourse about things happening far off as though under the eyes; and the greatest thing, that not even toward these does the aim of those blessed ones tend; but just as if one should look toward a sunbeam, and perceive also the atoms in the air; even if this be not the aim of the one looking; so for those who purely commune with those divine beams, to which by nature belongs the revelation of all things, not only of things that are or have come to be, but also of things that will be hereafter, the knowledge of these accrues truly as a by-product of the way. But their aim is the more-than-final perfection according to monks, the true quiet, or rather the fruit of the true quiet, which we have mentioned; the thing hard to discern and hard to express and hard to attain, even if the surpassing nature of the subject, and concerning things above us, has stirred me to indicate briefly just now.

[15] Thence the ship having set sail When Peter with such words had also rightly composed the minds of those men, he bade them return home; but he himself put out from the port with the rest of the passengers, who also ascribed their prosperous navigation to the virtues of the holy man. For during the whole time thus far, day and night, they had sailed with a favorable wind; and they confidently hoped that the same would breathe upon them hereafter too. But while they were so disposed and thinking, behold, by a plainly unexpected event, the favorable wind still persevering and vehemently bearing on the stern, the vessel ceased to advance further, and stood immovable in its place. and borne with a favorable wind. But while they moved every rope, as it is said, nothing whatever was accomplished: but the sailors, bereft of mind, stuck fast with almost equal immobility as the ship, partly from astonishment of mind, partly because they knew not what counsel to take. it suddenly stands still immovable: When the matter was in so bad a position, the divine Peter, rising from the seat where he was resting, and casting his eyes about, asks the name of the mountain which chanced to fall under his gaze: which when he learned was called Athos; at once he both understood and taught the others the cause why the ship, unable to move, thus stood still. the mountain to be inhabited by him being seen thence. On this mountain, he said, God willing, the remainder of my life must be passed by me: and he commands the one holding the helm to direct the ship straight to the left toward the land: which when he, delaying nothing, accomplished; at once the ship, its bonds being loosed, began most easily to move as before.

[16] The greatness of the miracle is weighed Would not admiration hence have arisen in all the passengers; in what way the navigable element, the fluid property of the sea, now yields and offers a way to the ship, driven by the force of the winds; now, having in some way put off its own nature, takes on the contrary, and holds the ship fixed in the same place like land? In what way likewise the wind, of most fluid nature, is contracted in part of itself, and does not snatch away the ship by its manifest impetus, and is compared with the ancient ones. no stronger body resisting it; for the wind by ease of motion goes before the water. Nor indeed has it the glory of a lesser miracle, that the fluid surface of the sea was made firm like the continent; than that, the waters being divided, the continent appeared at some time at the bottom of the sea. Wherefore this too is to be numbered among the ancient ones, and is to be made known no less than those, a miracle: and in it God, who so easily perfects whatever he pleases, ought especially to be praised.

[17] Peter set ashore on the coast, And so the passengers who sailed with Peter, the ship being brought to land, dismissed the noble man at the foot of the mountain not without tears: whom he himself, falling in spirit from sadness, kindly raised up; foretelling that hereafter they would sail safely, and reach their destination happily. he prays well for the passengers, They therefore, full of good hope, pursue the journey begun: but he, with great labor indeed, yet strove through the trackless places, ascended the mountain, penetrated the inaccessible parts, committing himself and his affairs to God alone; and ascends the mountain for whom equally alone he greatly desired to live, and had promised to live. And this very thing he zealously brought to its end, not only abstaining from almost all foods, which are accustomed to sustain human nature, made in this part a little inferior to the Angels; and institutes a harsh life, but also bearing cold, heat, ice, snows, and rains naked, in the open air (O endurance!) constantly. For he was a man, if any other, perspicacious; and understood how the nature of this earthly composition weighs down the mind, and pressing it to the earth, does not allow it to have its conversation in heaven. These things, I say, well understanding, both by other means, and by a very moderate use of the herbs at hand, he wonderfully macerated his little body, brought excellent vigor to his mind, and made his heart a truly divine vehicle, understanding the spiritual life. and another heaven, indeed a dwelling for God dearer than heaven, by a diligent zeal of preserving quiet. And this, to say it in brief, consists in the inclination of the mind and its conversion into itself, or rather in the conversion of all the faculties of the soul (though it be marvelous to say) into the mind, and in the constant execution of those things which reason and God dictate.

[18] The soul being purged of vices, But the things which were here done by him cannot at all be explained according to their merit. For when the mind has come out superior to all things falling under the senses; and has emerged from the sea of the disturbances which such things are wont to bring; and has well perceived the inner man; the foul mask by which the errors of mortals are wont to be covered being first considered; he hastens to remove this by the help of grief: but after he has removed this foul covering; then plainly, when the soul is no longer distracted in an unseemly manner by various affections, he scarcely at last obtains peace, he knows God and puts him on, and attains true quiet; and knows God, on account of whom he exists, as far as it can be done. Then too he surpasses his own nature, and by a certain participation puts on the divine, and ever advances to better things; if only he be well fortified on every side, and offer no entrance whatever from any part to the old artificer of evils, by which he may creep in; and finding the soul cleansed with brooms, dwell there with his followers, and, alas! measure out a camp for his worst legion; and so, according to that evangelical sentence, the last things of that man become worse than the first. Matt. 12:44

[19] But this indeed be utterly far from him. But when the mind, as the discourse has now begun to explain, he lives in quiet, has eliminated all the affections seated in the soul, and has brought it into that supreme tranquillity; and now not only has turned itself, but also the other faculties of the soul wholly into itself, and has removed from itself whatever is masked—first indeed whatever is of the worse stamp, then proceeding to that which is more perfect, indeed which is most perfect, and pertains to the higher part of the soul—he comes forth as it were heavenly, not only passing the two material powers, but also transcending to the spiritual intelligences and those free of illusion, and referring all things piously and at the same time religiously to God, having stood before God deaf and mute, as it is written: then he restrains the condition of matter, and expresses in himself the heavenly form with the highest tranquillity, inasmuch as struck by no depraved affection, but wholly changed for the better through infused grace. Such a mind therefore endowed transmits also to the joined

body to itself indications of the divine beauty, interposed between his grace and the mass of the flesh, and grants it the faculty of effecting things which otherwise cannot be done.

[20] and he is filled with divine gifts of every kind. Hence it comes about that a certain divine habit of virtue, working without resistance, is born; that the mind is inclined to evil either in no way at all, or not easily; that the power of performing miracles is acquired; that one perceives present things, and foresees future ones; and discourses about things that happen in places far removed, not otherwise than if they were done before his eyes; and, which is the chief thing, those Blessed do not direct their gaze upon those things; but just as if one should turn his gaze upon the sun's rays, he also detects the atoms in the air, although he who looks did not intend it; so those, who are accustomed to be clearly illumined by the divine rays, which by their nature reveal all things, reckon the knowledge of things not only that now are and that have been, but also that are to be, as refuse, as indeed they truly are: but they have for their aim the absolute perfection of the monastic state, that is, the true quiet of the mind, or rather the very fruit of true quiet, which we have mentioned; a thing certainly difficult to grasp, more difficult to express, most difficult to acquire; although the excellence of the argument has stirred us to set forth now in a few words even those things which exceed our strength.

CHAPTER IV.

Once and again tempted by the demon, he comes out superior through prayer.

[21] But this truly great-minded Peter, understanding to what he had been called, advanced thither, as the proverb has it, with his whole foot. But this was not the abundance of the charisms; far from it; for never was the great man enticed by greed of these, since (as the discourse has shown) such things are not to be greatly esteemed by those who have resolved to take up the quiet life; but he hastened thither in order to be able to give place to grace, to repair the inner man, and according to his prototype rightly to make blossom again that ancient and resourceless beauty of the soul. But he, thus impelled, set ascents in his heart, as the Psalmist says. But what does the father of envy, the fullness of guile, the self-chosen fugitive from every good, the worker or patron of every evil, or rather both at once; the first apostate, and the one who made the first man apostatize from God, what does he contrive? and how does he use himself against the soul of the just man? maliciously indeed, yet nevertheless fairly, worthily of himself. For seeing the great man become, as they say, out of range of the darts, by his flight from the world and the pleasures in it, by which that malign one is wont to plunder the more ignoble souls; and thence having been deemed worthy not only in dreams through the imaginative spirit (which philosophy calls the vehicle of the rational soul) of more divine sights, and advanced toward the better, but having now also risen above imagination itself, and purely approaching by the touch of the immaterial, and wondrously illumined, as David says, from the eternal mountains, and imparting to this mountain the radiance of the light, and thus making the darkness banished, which he himself was directly, he was not able to bear; deeming it of the unbearable, that from there whence he himself flowed away by evil counsel, Peter, raised up from below, and still bearing the drag of the body, had laid hold of the upper and better portion, but to him not even the lowest was conceded.

[22] Thus disposed by envy, he attempted to frighten and to drive him out by his insults. And the first of the insults, how laughable, or rather ridiculous! For against one man, and that one deprived not only of weapons, but even of the necessary coverings, and worn down by the long abstinence, and having undergone in every limb a terrible wasting from the various hardships, against one man naked, unarmed, weakened, he himself, putting around himself the form and figure of a general, and as it were dragging along a multitude of archers, using commands and shouts, advanced boldly; and into the cave, which then held the Saint dwelling, he entered, calling him out to grapple; but outside, resounding all things with a din, and dashing against one another the great stones lying about, and tearing up some of the trees, and breaking others, that vain phalanx of followers set all things, as it were, in motion against the cave.

[23] But when that great man, somewhat dismayed, ran in his soul through prayer to God, and held up the unbending eye of his mind toward him; the wicked one, not able to remain even a little longer, at once became invisible. But not long after again, changing with his whole army into serpents, he himself led, creeping in front, not being or appearing like the others, but supernatural in size and terrible to see (for he simply resembled a dragon) he rose up from the ground, and bearing his neck aloft, seemed to flash sparks from his eye, and puffing his cheeks breathed fire openly, and moved a murderous tongue stretching far out beyond the jaws, and being or seeming full of death-bearing venom; and going straight against Peter, he threatened from afar, as it were by the rush of his breath, that he would snatch away and plunder that fearless man.

[24] But he, deeming it worthy not even to turn at all to the sight, but holding his hands stretched unbending toward heaven, the spiritual Amalek again was defeated and driven off, and was swifter in withdrawing than in advancing; and repentance took hold of the accursed one, accomplishing everything the contrary of what he had intended; for ever considering the deeds of the noble man, and trying to slacken the intense and lofty manner of his prayer, and to take from there any hold whatever, he himself rather wrought in him a sharper zeal, and unwillingly procured for him the fairest crowns. So that to me, now considering the man's steadfastness, it has persuaded me to deem him in no way inferior to those who underwent the contests of martyrs. For they, in order not to renounce the worship of God, bore all things of necessity: but he, no less than they in endurance, in order not even for a moment to remove his mind from God, eagerly endured every assault. But he, having resolved that for lesser causes the great contests had to be undergone; what would he not gladly have suffered, if matters of greater moment had been brought into danger?

[21] Truly therefore this magnanimous Peter, understanding to what he was called, with hands and feet, Peter striving after perfection as the proverb has it, hastened thither. But this was not the magnitude of the gifts; far from it; for the great man was never captured by desire of these; since such things are not to be greatly esteemed by those who have resolved to undertake the solitary life, as there is no need to declare by our discourse: but he hastened thither, to give place to grace, to polish the inner man, to form rightly according to his prototype that ancient and scarcely-reparable beauty of the soul. Indeed, thus incited, he disposed ascents, according to the Psalmist's saying, in his heart. Ps. 83:6 But what does the parent of envy, full of guile, the voluntary deserter of all good, the artificer or patron of all evil, indeed both at once; that first deserter of God, and the one who was author to the first man, that he too should desert God, by the demon, not bearing his progress, what does he machinate? How does he bear himself against the soul of the just man? Maliciously indeed; but nevertheless using a moderation worthy of himself. For seeing the man placed out of range of the dart, as we say, by his flight from the world and the pleasures that are in the world, by which that malign one is wont to enervate degenerate souls, he had abandoned; and hence having been deemed worthy not only in dreams through imaginary spirits (which Philosophy calls the vehicle of the rational soul) of divine visions, and to have advanced by them to illustrious virtue: but having now also surpassed the very faculty of imagining, to have come to a clear understanding of those things which consist of no matter; and wondrously illumined from the eternal mountains, as David says, to have imparted to this mountain too the splendor of light, the darkness, which he himself had previously been, being driven off thence; these things, I say, the malign demon beholding, could not bear; deeming it intolerable, that Peter, still weighed down by the burden of the body, had been raised from the depths to that place whence he himself had fallen by the malignity of his counsel: that Peter had attained the upper and better part, but to him not even the lowest was permitted. Ps. 75:5

[22] Thus he, seething with envy, violently attempts to terrify and drive the Saint from his place. And the first assault indeed, how ridiculous, indeed how inept! he suffers temptation For against one man, and that one destitute not only of arms, but also of the necessary garments, worn out by long abstinence, and through various afflictions miserably wasting away in all his limbs; against one, I say, naked, unarmed, weak, he himself, clad in the form and habit of a general, invaded by a whole legion of demons, seeming to drag with him a troop of archers, resounding with disordered shoutings and clamors, fiercely makes his attack; and into the cave, where then the Saint dwelt, he carries himself, and provokes him to join hands with him: but outside, the masked cohort of his companions filled all things far around with crashing, dashed against one another the very great rocks that lay around; the trees too, some indeed they tore up by the roots, others they broke; all things finally they devised, as it were, against the cave.

[23] which he dispels by prayer: But when that great man, terrified by such things, turned himself to God from his soul through prayer, and fixed the eyes of his mind intent upon him; that wicked one, not able to persist there even a moment longer, at once disappeared. Not long after, however, he again turned himself with his whole army into serpents; and to these he himself, going before by creeping, presented himself as leader, in no way like the others, again assailed by it under the form of serpents, either being so in reality, or appearing so, but immense in size and terrible to see (for he resembled in every part a dragon) he rose from the ground; and erecting his neck on high, seemed to dart sparks from his eyes; and with puffed cheeks everywhere breathed flames, moving a bloody tongue, stretched far beyond the chin, and either swarming with present venom or seen to swarm. But when he prepared to engage with Peter, he threatened from afar that, by the rush of his breath, he would snatch away the fearless man as prey for himself.

[24] Meanwhile Peter did not even deem the adversary worthy of a glance; he comes out superior through prayer, and with his hands untiringly raised to heaven, again overcame and expelled the spiritual Amalek, withdrawing more swiftly than he had approached. Repentance too took hold of the most wicked head, since all things turned out otherwise than he had planned. For ever considering the deeds of the noble fighter, and trying to slacken his intense and lofty manner of praying; some occasion being taken from his virtues, he rather sharpened the same man's diligence, and unwillingly prepared for him the fairest crowns. But to me, to be compared with the martyrs themselves. now considering the man's steadfastness, it is persuaded that he showed himself no less than those who underwent the contest of martyrdom

they undertook. For these men, lest they should fail in any way of the divine worship, of necessity bore all things: but our man, yielding nothing to them in constancy, sustained all violence eager and glad, that he might not separate his mind even the very least from God. He who for lesser causes believed that great contests must be undergone by him, what would he not gladly have suffered, if matters of greater moment had been brought into danger?

CHAPTER V.

He is assailed a third time by the demon, who feigns to be his servant and persuades him to return to his homeland.

[25] But he in this way, by his assiduity in prayer, contended in a small degree with those tireless hymners of God, whether he led a quiet life or one infested by temptations. But the indefatigable adversary of virtue, vexed at having failed in his attempt, yet stung by the sharper goads of envy (for jealousy is wont, when it has failed of its wish, rather to grow), rouses himself again more vehemently to vengeance; yet, having been rejected even in open combat, he resolved to turn to wiles. And indeed he plans to set an ambush for the noble man, from which he had once known himself to have great power against men, and by his deception of the forefathers had, alas! as it were uprooted the whole race from the root and cast it down. But since now there was no Eve to encounter first—since the one against whom the war was waged had once for all renounced the sight of woman—neither does he himself, having entered into a serpent, creep up, fawning and charming, and thus prolonging his counsel that leads to evil destruction; but feigning himself one of the household servants of the man in his former life, that the drama might have some credit, he comes lamenting, and bringing to remembrance parents and brothers, and all the system of his kindred, and the best of friends, and as many neighbors as were familiar, weaving from every kind of age the lament for him that held the homeland—such a one as that excellent scoundrel, most skilled at fabricating such things.

[26] Naming, he says, his companions of like age and all the elders: neither did you escape notice, nor will you escape it, you who were the occasion of all good cheer, and the image of every good thing set before us, when you were together with these; but now, through this long absence, you have become the ground of unending dejection. And as for the children, surely it not unreasonably grieves them grievously that they have in no wise come to enjoy your nobility, and this especially because you have not left behind for them, when they inquire, anyone flourishing equally with you in virtue throughout life. What then, he says, are you also doing, dear master, that you have become such a lover of solitude, and having fled men without turning back, prefer a dwelling among wild beasts, and roam about the friendless thickets, and go beneath these disease-breeding caves, and dwell near holes, and lodge together with venomous creatures? Is it that you say you live according to God? And how did Abraham accomplish his life among men in a way pleasing to God? And what of those descended from him and after him? And, if you will, those before him too, who preferred living according to God to living according to pleasure—did life among men corrupt them? No; and even then they lifted up many by the sight of them to virtue, and taking as witnesses of their noble struggles, they remained unconquered through the length of time, instilling in all the desire of the good, and by zeal toward them being made young again through the ages, by immortal successions daily, remaining here ageless and immortal. But you will end your life here without witness, and your endeavors will come to nothing very useful for you, none of them being of profit either to those now or to those hereafter. For everyone who has accomplished any of the noblest things, and has not brought it into the light according to that divine saying, Let your light shine before men, just as if he had not accomplished it, profits nothing; nor does he rouse anyone to zeal, and he damages those who would hereafter become better, and he will surely pay a fitting penalty in the world to come.

[27] But if you seem to yield to the ordinances of the new grace, and perhaps relying on these you refuse the return; I will bring forward for you from these too what is profitable, and will show the advantage of the opinion I have just come to propose, inasmuch as I am not recently lodged in your house, but from your forefathers reckoned among the most faithful of your servants, and—how should one say it?—ardently loving you and caring for you. Come then, tell me, O master, to whom of all do you give pleasure here?

[25] And thus indeed he by his assiduity in praying scarcely, or not even scarcely, yielded to those indefatigable praisers of God, whether he led a quiet life He is assailed a third time by the demon, or one infested by temptations. But the indefatigable assailant of virtue, because he had failed of his wish, was indeed afflicted with grave grief; yet agitated by the sharper goads of envy (for emulation is wont, when it has not been made master of its wish, to be increased the more), rises up again more vehemently to vengeance. Yet, repulsed in open war, he thought he must take refuge in wiles, and plainly resolved to construct snares for the noble champion, by which he had once known himself to have done great harm to the human race; and that race, the first parents being deluded, he had, alas! in a manner uprooted and crushed the whole from the root. But since now in the first place he could not deceive Eve, since he who was assailed shunned the sight of every woman whatsoever; nor does he himself, clothed in a serpent, creep up, by soothing and flattering feigning his pernicious counsel: feigning to be his servant, but, the person of one of the servants whom Peter had employed in the world being assumed, that the tale might find some credit, he approaches the Saint, in plainly mournful guise; and recalling to his memory his parents, brothers, and all the throng of those joined by blood, and the best of his friends, and as many of the neighbors as had been more familiar to him of every age (as he is signally wicked, and most subtle at contriving such things), he feigns that all the homeland still mourns on his account; thus addressing him:

[26] Neither have your companions of like age and all your elders forgotten, nor will they ever forget, and persuading him to return to his homeland that, when you dwelt among them, you were to all the cause of joy and the example of all honor: but now to these same, through this long absence of yours, you are the matter of unceasing sadness. And those younger in age are not undeservedly afflicted with the greatest grief, that it is in no way permitted them to enjoy the splendid exercise of your virtues; and they are afflicted the more, with specious arguments, because they understand that no one shining with equal virtues will survive among the living after you. What further, O excellent master, of usefulness has it brought you to have so ardently loved solitude? to have fled men, the return to them being forbidden you? to have preferred to them a life spent among wild beasts? to have wandered the inhospitable glades? to have entered these caves harmful to health? to have inhabited the lairs of beasts and dwelt together with venomous serpents? Will you say? That I may live religiously according to God. not only from the old But how did Abraham institute his life religiously among men? And what of his grandsons and posterity? what too, if you will, of his ancestors, who preferred an honorable life to a voluptuous one; did life passed among men corrupt them? Did they not even then allure many to virtue by the spectacle of themselves? Did they not, having wrought splendid deeds before witnesses, nevertheless persist unconquered for the longest time, instilling the desire of honor into the minds of all, and by their zeal flourishing among them through the ages, by an immortal succession even now, subdued neither by old age nor by death, enduring perpetually? But you will end your life here without witnesses, your exercises bringing scarcely anything of advantage to yourself, and nothing at all to others, whether now living or to live hereafter. For whoever works anything splendid, and does not bring it into the light, according to the evangelical saying, Let your light shine before men; just as if he had not worked it, profits nothing, rouses no one to imitation; but he afflicts with loss posterity who would live honorably, and on that account will one day pay, as is fitting, the due penalties. Matt. 5:16

[27] But if you should think that you live conformably to the law of the new grace; but also drawn from the new law: and perhaps confirmed by this in your purpose, you forbid yourself the return; I will from this law too bring forward into the open what is expedient for you, and will show the usefulness of the opinion just now set forth; inasmuch as I have not recently been admitted into your house, but from the times of your forefathers serve among your most faithful servants, and ardently love you, and am watchful over your affairs. Come then, my master, tell me, to whom of yours does this manner of living of yours give pleasure?

how are you not to be judged to despise that commandment, Let each one please his neighbor? In what way too do you persuade yourself that you here render pleasing service to God, you who here seek the things that are yours alone, unmindful of that saying, Let no one seek what is his own, but what is another's? And what excuse will you bring forward, in that you make no account, not only of the salvation which you could confer on others, but also of that which thence would return to you as it were in a circle, according to what is written: He who brings forth the precious from the vile shall be as my mouth. Rom. 15:2, 1 Cor. 10:24, Jer. 15:19 And, He who shall have caused a sinner to be converted from his error shall cover a multitude of sins. James 5:20

[28] Thus far indeed that malignant one, inasmuch as he is also skilled in the Scriptures, but the fraud being detected, the malignant one is put to flight; fortifying himself on every side with so long a speech, seemed even now to point out to the noble champion the tree of good and evil, and maliciously attempted to drive him out of the paradise of his quiet. But to the champion himself, who had caught the wile lurking beneath his words, and had thoroughly perceived its apparatus and malice, a brief speech sufficed, by which he repelled the adversary's force with force. For raising his voice against the architect of the wile, he calls upon the cause of our return to a better state, the Mother of God, I mean: and straightway that one, when he saw himself recognized, vanishes; stripped of his masked person, and (as was fitting) full of confusion. For whoever fears to engage in open war, and tries to procure victory for himself secretly by wile; when afterward, being detected, he is conquered at the very first encounter; unwilling, with disgrace, he withdraws from the arena, and by his flight erects a trophy for his adversaries, who carry off an easy victory over him by prudence alone.

[29] So Peter, master of mind and intellect, in a short time compelled the wicked adversary to learn by experience Prudence shining forth in the Saint, that he was not ignorant of his cunning devices; and in a single contest gave a splendid specimen of all the virtues. For that he detected the snares, and was in no way deluded by the appearance of malice, as it was set forth in fair show, manifestly shows that he, if any other, was endowed with prudence. And that, since the allurements here set before the holy man were as it were compounded out of the pleasures of this world, and could soften the harsh institute of the eremitical life and call forth to worldly felicity; thence the Saint appeared their excellent despiser, Temperance, Fortitude, but preferred to them a laborious and wretched life; this is an indication that he both excelled in temperance and shone in fortitude of mind. And that finally he repelled the most wicked one, wickedly trying to suggest to him an impious mind; and rendered himself obedient to God, and Justice. whom all nature proclaims Lord and Creator; to him he not undeservedly attributes the praise of justice.

CHAPTER VI.

The fourth temptation of the demon, who feigns to be an Angel, he conquers by humility; and is heaped with heavenly gifts.

[30] But not even so did he who is perpetually and implacably disposed against whatever is good think he ought to rest; O folly! who not even as a child, as they say, learned by suffering; or rather, O madness! For this, when it is convicted by the outcomes, is puffed up with empty hopes, dreaming of the victory to come hereafter. But not so the servant of God Peter, who appeared crowned with such great virtues and trophies; but referring all things to God, he confidently called forth the help from thence for things to come. And thus, propped up by humility, he was in no way harmed in his reasoning by the victory that had come to him; but using a hope that does not put to shame, he stripped for the contest that was being brought on; whence indeed he is shown far superior to this too, as the discourse has come to make clear.

[31] For he who is more many-formed than Proteus, the many-headed hydra, who is resourceful beyond resource at leading astray, partly having despaired of every other kind of injury, partly having beheld the man's conduct through every virtue, and the exactness of his way of life, and its especially lofty and exceptional quality, hence hoped to plunder that inviolable treasure of his. He therefore who was alienated from the heavenly light, and had wretchedly changed over to darkness, in order to fasten upon Peter a reproach like his own, takes on the form of light, and feigns himself an angel of light, and approaches the Saint, with the light falsely his own, attempting to extinguish the lamp truly kindled from the true and first light. And indeed, having approached, he declines conversation face to face, dreading that most critical countenance; but standing outside at the cave, through the little window he conversed, trusting in the fair appearance of his words. Thence therefore, having greeted the holy man, he addressed him: Be a man and be strong, Peter. But when he had considered and asked who he might be, and whence came the one who gave the greeting; that one at once replied: I am the commander-in-chief, he says, of the Lord of glory; and I have come to declare to you the reward stored up in the heavens for the labors borne until today; and at the same time to teach you what henceforth you must do. [32] Know well therefore that, by ascetic exercise and endurance, having surpassed all who were before you, you will fittingly obtain greater prizes. For Elias indeed fasts, but for a period of about forty days; but you, drawing out here your seventh year, continue untasting human food. Daniel dwelt wondrously with wild beasts; but with a few, and for a short while; you, however, both for long and with many. And if anyone should admire the endurance of Job too, yet his affliction was involuntary; but you, willingly sojourning among the homeless for so long, falling into manifold and more varied temptations, have not given up. One thing now remains for you: that, joining with men, you make them better, and plucking them from the earth, show them citizens of the heavens, looking to the example, from whom I too have just now flown down, Christ, who after that contest-filled sojourn on the mountain, returning, joined with the multitude of men, setting forth saving laws. But if you suspect my presence as having come about without God, I will show you a clear proof of having been sent by God. For David, the expounder of his marvels, says to God himself: You dried up the rivers of Ethan, namely the ever-flowing ones, and not those recently brought forth after the manner of a torrent. And elsewhere in the Psalms: He set fountains of waters into a desert, and outlets of waters into thirst, because of the wickedness of those dwelling in them. And you therefore—since it is no longer pleasing to God for you to dwell here—the water flowing past, at his command through me, has forsaken. This was that superfluous one the demon, having beforehand checked back such designs through another evil spirit.

[33] Yet not so: but although the sophist of malice was an unwilling praiser of virtue, and most persuasively advanced his speech, mingling, so to speak, much honey with the poison, and showed a sign to produce belief, the fountain that seemed to withdraw to non-being; yet, who he was in no way escaped the great man. By no means: nor will bronze, smeared over with the flower of a gold-like hue, then applied to the Lydian stone, escape notice; for the divine Peter had as an exact touchstone the eye of his soul, purified by its inclination toward God. And so, perceiving the drama, by his moderation he quickly cast down that puffed-up one, and with few words sent the impostor far away: I am unworthy, he said, of an angelic vision; how could it be otherwise? he says, I who on this very account both fled men and will flee them to the end, knowing myself unworthy of a dwelling with them, as being more worthless than they are, and, to use the Prophet's word, not a man. [34] He then, having pride, that most peculiar judgment, as the Apostle says, by no means bearing the moderation of the Saint most contrary to himself, with what speed he had, was transformed and ran away. But God, who gives grace to the humble, measured out to Peter abundant grace, not storing it up for him in the world to come alone, but also here showing as it were a pledge and earnest of what was laid up; for from then on the great man rightly accomplished his life unmolested. For just as the summits of the highest mountains are less blown upon by the winds, the air around them being moved together with the revolution of heaven, which, reaching even to them through continuity, is shown stronger than the impulse and origin of the winds below; in the very same way too, when Peter had now run up to the unseen lookout, as it were, of all virtue, namely humility, and was being breathed upon and breathed around by the grace of the highest Spirit, the phalanx of evil spirits is fittingly cast down somewhere below, and is driven away, their wings, as wax melts, being dissolved by the divine fire, just as they say also that by the hotter assaults of the sun the contrivance of Icarus, according to the myths, was melted.

[35] But indeed the inspiration of the divine Spirit, having repelled the malicious powers, brings in their stead the beneficent ministers, and feeds with bread him who, while on the earth, was no less than the ministers above, it being brought by an Angel at fixed intervals of days. For to Elias a raven, the creature that hates its young, ministered, a symbol, they say, of its lack of sympathy toward its own kind; but to Peter, the man of angelic conversation, the bearer was an Angel, plainly an Angel; who also exhibits to the noble man the manna, a self-grown and at the same time many-formed food, inasmuch as, according to the appetite of the partaker, it ever furnished a changeable quality of taste. Thus the great man lived as in paradise, and in a place lifted up from the earth, bearing some small symbols of communion with things below and the earth; leading a life without equipment, without care, without business, and—the greatest thing—without imagination; delighting and rejoicing daily by the simple applications of the mind, in intellectual sights.

[30] The demon is indignant at his defeat He, who pursues with implacable hatred whatever is honorable, did not think he should cease even after these things. O madness! who not even as a boy, as they say, was taught by evil; or rather, O insolence! For this, when it is frustrated of the wished-for outcome of its affairs, swelling with empty hope, vainly imagines a victory to come to it next. Not so the servant of God Peter, who, conspicuous with the crowns of so many virtues and victories, referred all his own things to God; and the Saint is raised up by new hope, and hence confidently implored his aid for the future. And so it came about that, propped up by humility, he suffered no detriment of mind from the victory he had won: but raised up by the hope that does not confound, he girded himself for the temptation that was further imminent; and appeared far superior to it, as the following discourse will make plain.

[31] For that wicked one, more many-formed than Proteus, that many-headed hydra, that one prompt to seduce even those things which cannot be seduced; partly because he despaired that all his other arts of harming would avail, partly because who is tempted a fourth time by him, he beheld

the holy man's institute joined with every kind of virtue, and his exquisite manner of living, and the humility lowered in the highest perfection; hence he conceived the hope of carrying off his inviolable treasure. He therefore, who had long since departed, driven from the light, and had been miserably changed into darkness, that he might drag Peter into a like calamity, takes on the appearance of light, feigning an angel of light; and so approaches the Saint, in the assumed appearance of an Angel, with his lying light intending to extinguish the lamp kindled from the participation of the true and first light. But coming thither, he does not dare to address him to his face, dreading his most grave countenance: but standing outside the cave, through the little door he sends his voice within, trusting in his bland discourse. Thence therefore, saluting the Saint; Act manfully, he said, and be comforted, Peter. But when he considered this and indeed asked, Who was that there, and whence he came speaking such things? that one straightway subjoined, I am the Prince of the army of the Lord of glory: and I come to signify how great a reward you have laid up for yourself in heaven for the labors borne thus far; and at the same time to teach what remains for you to do henceforth.

[32] Know therefore, I would have you, that by holy exercise and tolerance you excel all who have hitherto been, praising him before Elias, and that indeed greater rewards rightly await you. Elias indeed fasts, but only for the course of forty days: but you, now passing here your seventh year, persist without the foods proper to human life. Daniel dwelt marvelously with wild beasts; than Daniel, yet with a few, and for no long time: but you both for a long time and with many cohabit. and preferring him to Job, If anyone also admires the tolerance of Job; let him consider that he did not of his own accord sustain the incursion of evils: but you voluntarily inhabit inhospitable places for so long a time, harassed by temptations of various kind and more numerous; and you have not yet despaired in mind. One thing now is wanting, that you make men better by your conversation, and, drawing them away from earthly things, transfer them into the number of heavenly citizens, persuading him to return to men, looking to the example, which is Christ; by whom I too am now sent and present in swift flight. He, after that athletic delay on the mountain, returned, frequently met with men, and prescribed to them salutary laws. But if you should also suspect and confirming his words by a prodigy. that I came hither not from the divine power: I will prove to you by a manifest argument that I was sent by God. For David, the herald of the divine marvels, thus addresses God himself: You dried up the rivers of Ethan; those rivers, namely, which flowed perpetually, not those which after the manner of a torrent recently broke forth. Ps. 73:15, Ps. 106:33 And in another place of the Psalms: He set fountains of waters into a desert, and outlets of waters into thirst, from the malice of those dwelling in them. Wherefore, as a sign that you too can no longer, God being propitious, abide here, the water that flowed past, at his command through me, has failed. But that fertile contriver of such inventions had, through another wicked spirit, beforehand caused that water to be driven back.

[33] But truly indeed, although the artificer of evils was, even unwillingly, a praiser of virtue, and brought forth a speech as apt as possible for persuading, Peter, recognizing his fraud, mixing much honey, so to speak, with the poison, and besides added a sign to produce belief, by causing the fountain to seem to have vanished; did the great man on that account fail to perceive who he was? By no means: nor indeed could brass escape notice, smeared over with the bloom of gold, after it has been applied to the Lydian stone: for the divine Peter had a most excellent Lydian stone, the eye of the mind, purged by right intention toward God. easily drives off the proud one by his humility: Understanding therefore the tale, by his modesty he suddenly confounds that proud one, and with few words sends the impostor far off; I am unworthy, he said, of an angelic vision (for how could it be otherwise?), I who have even fled the sight of men and will never cease to flee it: since I know myself unworthy of their conversation, as being meaner than the human condition, and (to speak in the Prophet's words) not a man. Ps. 21:7

[34] He therefore, who has pride, that most peculiar judgment, as the Apostle says; in no way bearing the modesty of the holy man contrary to himself, with what speed he could, the mask laid aside, took to flight. But God, and on that account is heaped with many gifts by God. who gives grace to the humble, conferred an abundant measure of it on Peter, not only laid up in the world to come, but granting him in this world, as it were an earnest, the security of what was there laid up. For from that time, free from diabolical insults, the great man passed his life justly and perfectly. For just as the summits of the highest mountains are less exposed to the winds, because the air poured around them is moved together with the circuit of heaven; (and that circuit, by its continuation reaching to the very summits, is manifestly stronger than the impulse of the winds arising below) in plainly the same manner, when Peter had now escaped to the invisible lookout, so to speak, of all virtues, namely humility, and had been breathed upon and breathed around by the grace of the heavenly spirit; the wicked cohort of spirits was deservedly dismissed and driven away to some lower place, their wings dissolved by the divine fire, just as wax melts; and, as the fables relate, the feathers of Icarus were dissolved by the hotter rays of the sun.

[35] and is nourished by bread brought by Angels, Indeed the favors of the divine spirit, the spirits that are contrivers of evils being repulsed, sent in their place beneficent ministers; and nourished the man, even while he dwelt on earth, no less than the heavenly ministers, at certain intervals of days, with bread brought by an Angel. To Elias indeed a raven ministered, a bird which pursues its own young with hatred, which symbol, they say, noted his unmerciful disposition toward his fellow-tribesmen: but to Peter, a man of angelic conversation, an Angel ministers, and indeed manifestly an Angel; who also exhibits to him manna, a food springing up of itself and of various savor, inasmuch as for the various appetite of the eater it ever presented a various kind of savor. Thus the great Peter dwelt, as it were in paradise and in a place higher than the earth, retaining some slight tokens of his communion with lower and earthly things; leading a life void of household affairs, of cares, of business, and (what is the chief thing) of turbid thoughts; and rejoicing daily in the pure motions of the mind and in spiritual visions, and abounding in delights.

CHAPTER VII.

Found by a hunter, he sets forth to him the course of his life; and sends home the man desiring to remain there.

[36] But in these things, having thus happily lived on for six years beyond the forty, living and seeing for God alone, and by him alone both nourished and seen, at last, toward the very setting, as they say, of his life, he became visible to one only of men by a higher providence. A hunter this was; to whom, while hunting, and roaming the thickets and more carefully surveying the wood for prey to seize, before his eyes a hind slipped out, fair to see, and able to charm and to lift up the soul of the hunter to pursuit, being both well-grown and well-fleshed. Such a one therefore, leaping out from somewhere there in the grove, went forward; and by little, always escaping very much on purpose, led on the lover of the hunt, neither coming within hands or weapons, nor so far out as to seem not to be huntable. And thus for a great part of the day she fled, and he pursued; or rather, to speak the truth, she led, and he followed; for she, carrying him along, set the man before the holy man, who, eagerly pressing forward without restraint, had both eye and mind hanging upon the prey. Then suddenly, seeing a man exceedingly gray, squalid, filthy, shriveled, deprived of all covering, he at once turned to flight, having become exceedingly afraid; for an unexpected sight in the wilderness, even if it bear but a small terror, is able to strike a man's soul and enslave it.

[37] As therefore that one, pricked by the goad of fear, was going back turned around, the man of God cried out with a loud voice; I too am a man, he says, O man. Take courage therefore, and leaving off your flight, be eager to return to us; for perhaps God has sent you, who are to be today a hearer of what concerns me. The hunter therefore, having perceived the voice, and first returning to himself, then to the holy man, and accurately examining with supplication the things concerning him, and thus learning from beginning to end, the cause of his impulse toward the better, the outcome of that impulse, the leading and ascent to the mountain, the trials from the wicked one, the trophies over him, the multitude of the gifts from God, having come to the hearing of all things, then thus departing home, imparts also to others this saving narration; which indeed, being transmitted and handed down from fathers to sons, as it were a good inheritance, and now even set down in writing by someone, has already reached even to us, doing good; fresh in memory, and not relaxedly possessing its profitable power, a pattern of every good set before all, and altogether the archetypal image of an unerring life, and the form of every virtue, unmixed with any vice.

[38] But the discourse hastens toward its end; yet I perceive that I have passed over many of the necessary things to be told, of which adding a few, and these of the things accomplished by the marvelous man after his departure to God, I shall make a fitting end to the discourse. A little, then, must again be taken up. For that hunter, having beheld the man of God, and come into conversation, and recognized him as being truly a man of God, or rather, to say it, one above us, and simply an angel of God, and an initiate and beholder of the things above; gave not tithes of his possessions, as Abraham of old when he met Melchisedek; nor did he promise to bring from the treasures stored at home, or to give half of his goods to the poor after the manner of Zacchaeus; but he chose to give his whole self to God, and to the man who lived according to God, deeming the return a loss, and having no thought of separation from him. Hence, This grace I beg of you, he said, my most divine summit, that you receive my dwelling together with you, that, set under you as teacher, henceforth I too may live safely according to God, being able to escape the manifold ambushes of the spirits of wickedness, and to attain to God himself, the common rest of those who have lived well; who also bids all run to him, and graciously receives those who come, and deems them worthy of greater things than their hopes. Become therefore in this too an imitator of the Master, and do not in any way disdain my lowliness; for I can no longer endure to be kept from the sight of you, O man of God; for if I be separated from you, I shall not unreasonably drag out an unlivable life; just as if it were permitted to me to share a treasure, and a treasure more precious than all the earth,

more precious than all the earth, and then I myself willingly led myself away, depriving myself of the good participation.

[39] But, Not so, says this Peter who foresees even things afar off; do not so think now, O you. For there sits a wife for you at home, and kinsmen by race are entrusted to your care, and besides there is a great substance, able to fill the bellies of many poor. Come then, dear child, return and become a helper against want, to those unsparingly oppressed by it, and do not cease aiding them, until you bring yourself into an equal condition. For then perhaps, by doing good, you will put the yoke of Christ upon your neck; for the poor, as he himself said, are evangelized; and attend to yourself, and renouncing as far as in your power earthly pleasures and cares, continue to keep in your heart the remembrance of God, the meditation upon his name, laying it up as it were written in the secret chambers of the soul; and study the divine books and oracles every day and hour. And when in these things you have accomplished a year's time, if you are eager to come to us again, you will know the will of the Lord concerning you more plainly.

[36] When he had in this way happily passed forty-six years, living for God alone, Forty-six years being spent in the desert, and contemplating him alone, and by him alone in turn contemplated and nourished; at last, toward the very setting, as they say, of his life, it befell, by a higher providence, that one only man should see him. A hunter he was, who, while giving heed to hunting, was roaming through the glade; and surveying it far and wide to track his prey more diligently; there came before his eyes a hind, fair to see, and of such great magnitude and plumpness, by a hunter following a hind, that it could allure and indeed draw on to pursuit the desire of the hunter. Such a hind therefore, leaping out from somewhere there from the grove, went forward, and ever fleeing very slowly, as if of set purpose, ran on before the hunter, gaping after the prey; so that it came neither into his hands, nor within the cast of a weapon; nor yet did it withdraw so far that it seemed it could not be caught. In this manner the hind fled until late in the day, the hunter pursued; or, to speak more truly, she led, he followed. For she led the hunter to the Saint, while he, hastening forward in a quickened course, hung with eyes and mind upon the prey. he is found gray and naked; Then, suddenly seeing a man, exceedingly gray, squalid and filthy, wrinkled, and naked of all covering, he straightway cast himself into sudden flight, seized with fear. For an unexpected sight, although it be not very terrifying, is apt to strike down and cast down the soul of a brave man in the desert.

[37] When therefore that man, driven by the goad of fear, was carrying his foot back; the man of God, exclaiming with a loud voice; he comforts the frightened one O man, I too am a man, he says: take heart therefore, and, your flight laid aside, doubt not at all to return to us. For perhaps God has sent you hither today, that you may be a hearer of the things done by me. The hunter, having perceived such a voice, first returned to himself, then to the Saint; and inquiring diligently and suppliantly into his deeds, learned all from head to heel: and narrates to him the course of his life. What cause stirred him to institute a better life, what outcome followed, how he instituted his life on the mountain, how he ascended to perfection, what temptations of the demon he sustained, what trophies he erected when that one was conquered, The life narrated by the hunter, with how many gifts and graces from God he was heaped. When he had heard all these things, and had returned home; he makes others too partakers of this saving narration: which also, from fathers to sons, written down by another, as a splendid inheritance, transmitted, descended; and at length, committed also to letters by someone, not without much profit has reached even to us; and, the memory of him being renewed, containing no little profitable virtue, is here set forth more adorned. it is set before all as an example of every good, the principal image of a life innocent on every side, the form of virtue in every kind, free of every stain.

[38] But our discourse regards its end: though I think that many things, which ought to be said, have been passed over; The hunter, marveling at the man's sanctity, of which, now relating a few, which befell after the marvelous man's passage to the heavenly ones, I shall impose a fitting end on the discourse. Wherefore my discourse must be taken up a little higher. After that hunter had seen the servant of God, had addressed him, and had truly recognized that he was a holy man; or rather seemed to be greater than men, an Angel really of God, a heavenly Priest, and a contemplator of the Deity; he did not bestow the tithes of what he possessed, as Abraham of old meeting Melchisedek; nor did he promise that he would bring the treasures hidden at home, or give half of his goods, after the example of Zacchaeus, to the poor: but he resolved to dedicate himself wholly to God and to the divine man, counting the return a punishment to himself, and altogether thinking he would never be torn from him. he asks that it be permitted him to dwell with him: For which cause I beg this grace of you, he said, most holy man, that you receive me into your society, that, you being my master, I may spend the remainder of my life, free of cares, upon God; that I may beware of the various snares of the malignant spirits; and may attain to God, the common rest of all who have closed their life with a blessed end: God, I say, who bids all come to him, kindly receives those who come, and rewards them with greater prizes than they had hoped for. Make therefore that in this too you imitate your Lord; and do not, I beseech you, repudiate my littleness: for I cannot yet be torn away from your sight, O man of God. But if you should wish me to be torn away altogether, I am about, and not unjustly, to drag out a miserable life hereafter: just as if I had a treasure in my power, and one indeed more excellent than all the riches of the world, of whose possession I should afterward of my own accord strip myself.

[39] Not so, said Peter, who foresaw the future, do not so think now, but about to exercise good works, good man. For there sits a wife for you at home, and kinsmen are committed to your care: there is added that an ample household substance is at your disposal, which can satisfy the growling stomachs of many needy. Come then, beloved son, return, and succor those grievously laboring in want, nor cease to give out to them what you have, until you have been reduced to an equal condition with them. For then perhaps, by doing good, you will merit to put your neck under the yoke of Christ: he is sent home. for the poor, as he himself says, are evangelized. Matt. 11:5 But attend to yourself; renounce, as far as can be, worldly pleasures and cares; keep perpetual in your soul the remembrance of God, inscribing his name as it were by meditating in the secret of your heart; read studiously the sacred pages and the oracles every day and every hour. And when in these things you have spent the space of a year, if it please your mind to return to us, you will more manifestly know what God wishes you to become.

CHAPTER VIII.

The corpse of the dead man expels a demon, and being placed on a ship is carried away.

[40] When the great man had said these things and prayed, he both ceases conversing and parts from the hunter; who, having returned home, the appointed time having now slipped past, having a brother held by an evil demon, taking him along with two certain monks, sets out in a small boat to the holy man; and indeed, having put in opposite to where, within the mountain, he knew he had met the noble man, he disembarks together with those who had shared the voyage; and through the foothill that leads to him he set out. But he, using a more strenuous journey than the others (for a soul driven by the goads of love would scarcely, even if it had wings, have had its fill of swiftness toward the beloved), so that one, with boiling impulse, far outrunning his companions, and standing at the longed-for of places, and casting his eye more keenly, sees the corpse of the great man, lying very decently composed, the spirit having departed, and gone to the Master of spirits.

[41] Struck therefore by that bitter sight, as by some dart, he sent forth bitter cries, beating his breast, weeping, wailing, lamenting; What shall I become, he said, wretched I? I have been cheated of my hopes, I have been bereft of the treasure, I have been deprived of my own salvation, and of the wealth expected for my soul I have utterly, wretchedly fallen short; not yet having learned by experience that even that corpse is no small wealth, nor a small treasure, able to profit those who have obtained it. A little while after, that demoniac too came up with the monks; who indeed was at once raving, and was being whirled about, and his whole body was being convulsed together, and he held out his hands unseemly, and moved his feet in like manner, and turned his eyes terribly and not after the manner of men; and gnashing his teeth against one another, he sent forth an unseemly noise, and a discordant sound; and as his breath, gathered together, could not be breathed out, on account of the disordered commotion of the organs, and from the flux of the phlegms that came about through the confusion in the brain, the spirit pent up being mingled with it, much foam poured forth from his mouth.

[42] But while he was, alas! so pitiably affected, the spirit dwelling in him also uttered words distinctly through him, and conversed with the corpse of the holy man, as if still joined to his blessed soul: You have not yet taken, it said, your fill of trophies over me, O insatiable one? Three and fifty years now you have not ceased striking, pursuing, banishing us unsparingly; but against the manifold shootings of arrows from us, you were disposed, like Peter the rock, an adamant, true to your name; and not even now does it seem to you enough, and this when you have passed from among men, unless you also drive me away from this little man, into which, having cut many roads before, I yet hardly found a passage, and flowing in, I dwell; but I will not in any way be persuaded, nor will I go out, leaving the only well-suited lodging for me.

[43] Upon these things, O the marvel! the corpse that lay there, laying aside before the eyes of the bystanders its death-like and gloomy aspect, and changing its color to the more cheerful, the demon was departing from the demoniac, being carried out through the mouth like smoke; so that one may say, slightly altering David's saying, The righteous one being made glad (for the angel of this was the change of color), the enemy of God vanished like smoke. What is much greater than this, as a matter of marvel, among those now or those ever? Some of the ancients raised the dead already, that Elias, Elisha after him, who through him obtained a double portion of grace; but no one, except Christ, brought himself back to life; to which this man also was nigh, just as in his passionless way of life, so also in marvels was he deemed worthy to come, through the grace of that one; but if anyone should examine those who were benefited, by so much is it more to be prayed for than a return to life, to be rid of a demon, by how much

to be possessed by a demon is more to be deprecated than to be dead.

[44] That hunter then, having changed from mourning to joy, together with his now sound-minded brother, and the pair of monks who accompanied him, took up the bier, and decently placing it on the boat, made the voyage up through the part of the mountain turned toward the north. For a while then the ship was borne by a favorable wind; but having come opposite a certain monastery, no other wind blowing against it, nor the bearing wind failing, nor even slackening, it was as immovable as the rocks. They therefore added their own cooperation to the rush of the wind, with what strength they had, rowing; but he who lay there was superior not only to the wind, but also far surpassing those living men, or rather, he who is Lord of the dead as well as of the living, by whom all things were accomplished supernaturally … that this divine mountain might not be left without a hearer of the contest-filled life of the man of desires according to Daniel, this divine Peter of ours, that is. Despairing then in common, all of them, of going forward, they then struck the stern about, and so, using the now-obedient ship, they put in to that monastery lying opposite, and there, unwillingly, lay up that beloved bier. But to recount the multitude of the miracles done there is alike neither opportune nor possible.

[40] When he had said these things and prayed, he breaks off his discourse, After a year he returns thither with his demoniac brother and withdrew from the hunter. But this man returns home: and now, the appointed time being past, hiring his brother, whom he had possessed by an evil demon, with two Monks, he sets out in a skiff to the Saint: and having put in at the part where he remembered he had advanced by a straight path into the mountain, and had found the Saint in its inner place, he disembarks from the ship together with his fellow passengers, and enters upon the journey which led through the side of the mountain to the holy man, hastening with a quicker step than the others. For a soul which is driven by the goads of love, though it be furnished with wings, would not attain its desires quickly enough. So he, with fervid impulse, far outrunning those ascending with him, and learning that the Saint had died, reaches the longed-for place first; and searching out everything more accurately with his eyes, beholds the corpse of the holy man, lying very decently, since the spirit had departed thence, and flown away to the Lord of spirits.

[41] he dissolves into mourning. Pierced by so bitter a spectacle, as by some arrow, he uttered a mournful cry; struck his breast, poured forth tears, groaned, wailed; What, he said, shall become of wretched me? I have fallen from hope, the treasure has been taken away, I am deprived of salvation, and the riches of the soul which I expected I have utterly, wretchedly lost. So he said, not yet taught by experience that that dead man was no small riches, and was a treasure that could not a little aid its possessors. A little after, that demoniac too arrived along with the Monks. He at once began to cry out, to be contorted, and to be disturbed in his whole body; The demoniac is variously tormented at the sight of the corpse, to stretch out his hands unbecomingly, and to move his feet in like manner; to distort his eyes horribly and not after human fashion, and by gnashing his teeth against each other to emit an unbecoming din and an absurd sound, and finally to thrust forth much foam from his mouth, arising from this, that, often about to breathe out, he could not breathe out, partly on account of the disordered motion of the organs, partly on account of the flux of phlegms, arising from the disturbance of the brain, partly because the lurking spirit mingled itself in too.

[42] In the man so miserably affected, the inhabiting spirit brought forth speech through his mouth, the demon itself expostulating much with Peter, by which it addressed the very corpse of the Saint, as if it were still joined to the blessed soul: Has not satiety yet seized you, it said, of the trophies erected to my disgrace, O insatiable man? Three and fifty years it is, since you have not ceased to cruelly cast at, persecute, and exterminate me. But against my arrows, which I, not of one kind, hurled at you, you, no otherwise than an adamant rock, after the etymology of your name, resisted; and not even now, after you have departed from the living, do you seem to yourself to have done enough, unless you also drive me out of this little man; into whom, after I had first accomplished much of a journey, with an entrance scarcely at last found, I crept and took up dwelling. Yet I will not obey you, I will not depart hence: since this almost alone, suited to my nature, remains as a lodging.

[43] At this, O miracle! the corpse that lay there turned its dead and pallid face toward the bystanders, and clothed it with a more cheerful color: and fleeing from that its lodging. then straightway the demon withdraws from the energumen, borne out through his mouth in the likeness of smoke; so that one may use that saying of David, slightly changed: The just one being glad (for the change of color was the index of gladness) the enemy of God failed like smoke. Ps. 67:3 What greater miracle than this deed can be said to have happened, either in our memory or in that of our forefathers? Some long ago recalled the dead to life, namely Elias and after him Eliseus, who through him obtained even a double grace: but no single one, if you except Christ, restored himself to life. But to Christ, his grace aiding, Peter, as in a life superior to perturbations, so also in the glory of miracles, merited to come nearer. But if anyone should also inquire who experienced his beneficence; let him know that it is by so much more desirable to be freed from a demon than to be raised from the dead, by how much it is sadder than death itself to be vexed by a demon.

[44] The corpse placed on a ship, That hunter, moreover, his mourning turned into joy, together with his brother now restored to him, and two Monks his companions of the way, takes up the corpse, decently places it on the vessel, and sails back toward the northern region from the mountain. And the ship was indeed borne by a favorable wind, until, advanced into the region of a certain monastery, no other wind blowing in the contrary direction, and that favorable one not laying down, which in mid-course sticks fast immovable indeed not even diminishing, it stuck fast immovable in the same place, no otherwise than a rock. The passengers therefore joined their own labor with the impelling wind, leaning on the oars with all effort. But that dead man who lay in the ship surpassed in strength immeasurably not only the winds, but the living men themselves; or rather, he surpassed who is Lord of the dead equally as of the living, by whom all things were accomplished excellently, so that this sacred mountain should not lose the unheard-of memory of the man's laborious life, it is carried to the nearest monastery, of the man of desires, as Daniel says, namely our divine Peter. Despairing therefore all together of further progress, they pushed the stern about; and so, the vessel obeying them, they put in to that monastery which was situated in that region, and there unwillingly lay down the corpse beloved at great cost. where it shines with many miracles. But to enumerate hereafter the multitude of the miracles wrought in that place would be alike importunate and impossible.

CHAPTER IX.

The sacred body, deposited at Photocomis, heals demoniacs, and is honored with a temple and a feast.

[45] But those whom our discourse above indicated had sailed along with the hunter, thinking it in no wise to be borne that they should be torn from that holy bier, feigning, beg indeed to be received and enrolled in the number of those there happily dwelling, themselves too about to end their life there; but after no long stay, carrying off that wonder-working body, they cross by sea into Thrace; where indeed they again lay it down, unwilling to be so. For while they were journeying, the time of the midday meal came upon them; and the place lying then beside them happened to be best for a meal; for a fountain burst forth from there, clear to see and sweet to drink; and around it in a circle a certain soft grass flourished, for the sake of repast and rest; and somewhere too plants had grown along the outflow of the water.

[46] So, hanging the linen high from the branches, the linen which held stored within it the dead man more active than the living, they themselves came beneath its shade, and sitting beside the fountain, set out the foods they had with them, and partook of nourishment; when suddenly a multitude beyond counting, assembled from every age, crying out loud, came driving on, using both rushing and an unseemly whirling of the hands, saying they were being most greatly wronged, and suffering ill from Peter; for he was the whole occasion of the outcry, accused that from many other places, and from there too, he was driving them out.

[47] For beside the fountain there dwelt a village, Photocomis its name; near it therefore there was, from of old, a portico built up. In this a very numerous company of demons dwelt; these, perceiving the presence of Peter, could not remain in the place; for how could they, being simply darkness, endure the passing-by of one who was a partaker of the highest light and a vessel of the grace from thence? For just as that adorable body which had obtained the same substance with the enhypostatic Word, even by the three days' separation of the soul, was in no way separated from the Godhead; so too, in the case of those who in life have obtained the Holy Spirit, then have died, that indwelling divine spirit does not fly away from the dead bodies. This therefore, blowing against them there too at that time through its presence, troubles, thrusting out, the phalanxes of the opposing spirits, which had revelled in a body upon Photocomis, and driving all into frenzy, going about disturbing them; able to gain nothing at all from this more than to make their own flight from defeat manifest.

[48] For that crowd of men frenzied was already changed over to the sound-minded and seemly (and before they came near to the bier of the Father hung up) and indeed straightway transformed their unseemly cries into seemly songs. And being thus easily freed from the madness, they thought life unlivable, if it should befall them to be deprived of this common savior of theirs; reasonably fearing for themselves, lest they should ever undergo something more wretched than the former things, holding back that body that wards off evil; by force indeed, yet having persuaded those bearing monks, they gave the monks money, and themselves, taking up that divine tabernacle, with psalms and spiritual songs, and using a public procession and otherwise most magnificent, escorted it forth and dedicated it to the village, or rather dedicated the village to it.

[49] But what discourse here could enumerate the multitude of the welcoming miracles? For one saw more sharply than a lynx, having before been afflicted in his sight; another had ears receptive of sounds, who yesterday and before that had been deafened; another moved an eloquent tongue, who formerly was almost more voiceless than the fishes; and another, ill in another of his members, straightway all were restored to strength; and there were those whose whole body, in danger of becoming the waste of a dread disease, was changed to health in an instant. And all rejoiced, applauded, sang paeans; and they were contributing each no small portion of their substance, and they consecrated to him the most pleasing portion of land, and building anew a temple, they raised it up

most beautiful and adorned with many precious offerings. And he holds not only that one place, but this region especially, with not a few others, in which he is sung and marveled at, and is honored with yearly rites; for I praise the one who said that the good among the dead are buried in all the earth, in that throughout all the earth the noble deeds accomplished by them are proclaimed.

[50] To others then, I might almost say to all, the doing of noble deeds has died together with them; but this our great one among the Fathers, this Peter, is even after death an immortal doer of noble deeds through the ages; and—what is the greatest of all—not only here is his great renown; nor only over all the earth that is directed by the law of grace, and yields to the ordinances of the evangelical oracles; but in heaven itself too, and among the powers there about God, with which he himself also now dwells. For what belongs to the divine nature alone, namely to be present everywhere, this he obtained according to the grace given him by God, being present with those on earth through good and unforgettable memory, while in heaven remaining numbered among the saints from of old, and unwinding together the unceasing dance with the angels about God.

[51] Thus living, he renounced all things; dying, he inherited all things; and having fled the inhabited world while still alive, he received heaven in dying, or rather joined heaven also to the earth as a possession; and having escaped the perception of all during his life, now, having departed from among men, he both delights and benefits all perception of all. For he lies, one may almost say, upon the tongues of all with marvel, and reaches almost likewise to the hearing of all, and is set forth as an adorable sight, and most profitable through touch; and not only this, but he also reshapes the powers of the soul to the better, teaching all by the examples of his own life where, and how, and how far these are to be used. And thus benefiting all in every way, and being set forth as the common council-hall of all good things, the leader of virtue, the banisher of vice, the manifold provider for all, the resourceful supplier in straits, and, to speak briefly, the readiest helper toward everything anyone might need, or rather, toward every rational nature fittingly transforming himself together with God, being both a pursuer of demons, a benefactor of men, and a fellow-citizen of angels.

[52] But he thus set himself before us as a great treasure, and a medicine sufficient for every kind of healing, and an example of true philosophy for those who have chosen to live according to virtue, and for those mighty in discourse an excellent theme, of a nature to adorn no less than to be adorned. But of us all not one could either imitate him to the end, or praise him according to his worth; but if each, as far as he has power, should emulate and praise him well, he would surely act fittingly; glorifying through him whom we who are right-minded believe to be one in essence, triune in persons, God, who is wonderful in his Saints, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

[45] The body is transferred into Thrace But those who, as our discourse above indicated, had been borne along with the hunter, thinking it in no wise to be borne that they should be torn from that sacred treasure, feigningly indeed ask to be received and numbered among those happily dwelling there, themselves too about to end their life in the same place; but after no long stay, carrying off that thaumaturgic body, they cross over into Thrace, and there again lay it down unwilling. For while they were making their journey, the time of the midday meal pressing, a place, which was then near, seemed by chance most apt to them for preparing it. For a fountain flowed thence, fair in aspect and sweet in taste: and around it soft grass grew green, affording a pleasant reclining and lodging; and there too were not lacking trees, planted along the running of the water.

[46] From the high branches therefore they hang the linen, in which the precious corpse, many demoniacs running together to it, more excellent in vigor than the living themselves, was wrapped; and they themselves go beneath its shade, and sitting by the fountain bring forth the foods they had with them, and eat. When suddenly an innumerable multitude of every age, running together and crying out aloud, and twisting their hands horribly, rush upon them with violence, lamenting that they are being affected with the greatest injury by Peter and badly tormented. And the sum of the lamentation was this, that by Peter they were being expelled both from many other places, and from this very one.

[47] For near to the fountain there was a village, Photocomis by name, in whose vicinity a portico had once been constructed, from the village Photocomis, where a huge multitude of demons dwelt; which, perceiving Peter to be present, could not remain in that place. For in what way could the demons, which are mere darkness, bear the presence of a man full of the heavenly light and of the grace flowing thence? For just as that adorable body of Christ, which had the same person with the subsisting divine Word, even then, when for three days it was separated from the soul, was nevertheless not separated from the Deity; so likewise the bodies of those who, while they lived, obtained the Holy Spirit, are not even after death deserted by the same indwelling divine Spirit. and recovering liberty, The same spirit indeed, which also was present there then, by its coming blowing away the obstacles, terrified and put to flight the bands of the hostile spirits, which had impudently invaded the whole of Photocomis, and had driven and stirred all its inhabitants into frenzy: but they carried off nothing whatever of gain thence, but only that by their open flight they bore witness that they were conquered.

[48] For that crowd of men driven by frenzy, straightway restored to a sound mind and modesty, who also retain the sacred body for themselves, even before they touched the linen of the blessed Father hung up, as we have said, changed their formerly disordered clamors into seemly songs. And in this way quickly restored to themselves, they reckoned that they would henceforth live a wretched life, if it should befall that the common vindicator of their salvation should be torn from them: and deservedly fearing for themselves, lest, he being taken away, something more miserable than the former miseries should be borne; they retained for themselves that body that averts evils; not however by force; but the Monks who had brought the body being induced to it: to whom giving money besides, and bearing off that divine body for themselves with psalms and spiritual songs, and also conducting it with a public and most celebrated procession, they transferred it into their own village, or rather dedicated the village to it.

[49] working many miracles, But what discourse could enumerate the multitude of his miracles, which here grew frequent? For he who before had eyes ill affected saw more sharply than a lynx: he who yesterday and the day before had been deaf, perceived any sound with his ears: another formerly almost more mute than a fish, moved his tongue readily: others, deprived of the use of other members, and soon, a temple being built straightway recovered the same, strengthened. There were those who were so affected in their whole body that they were in danger of life from a grave disease; but in a moment of time they were restored to health, all rejoicing and applauding and singing a paean. Moreover each contributed no small part of their goods, consecrated to him the dearest part of their field, and honored with a yearly feast. and constructed a building of extraordinary beauty, and adorned it with the most precious gifts. But the holy man holds not only that building, but also that region itself as much as possible, with not a few others, where he is extolled with praises, grows famous by miracles, and is venerated with a yearly solemnity. For he pleases me who says that good men, when they have died, obtain a sepulchre everywhere in the earth, because everywhere the deeds splendidly done by them are on the lips of all.

[50] Peter is preferred to other Saints, Others indeed, I am almost on the point of saying all, cease with death to work laudably: but this great Father of ours Peter, even after death, immortal, works marvels through the ages: and—which is the chief of all—not only here and over the whole world, where it is directed by the laws of grace and obeys the decrees of the evangelical oracles, does the highest glory of Peter shine forth; but penetrating heaven itself too, he is in esteem with the angelic Powers, with whom he himself now dwells. For what belongs to the divine nature alone, to be present everywhere; present everywhere after death, that Peter merited to attain through the grace divinely conferred on him: inasmuch as he dwells on earth with men, through the clear and indelible memory of himself; and in heaven, numbered among the Saints who are from of old, with the Angels leads the dances about the throne of God without intermission.

[51] So he, when he lived, renounced all things; when he was dead, attained all things: while life remained, he fled the world; when he closed it by death, he received heaven; or rather joined heaven to the earth to be possessed by himself. In his life formerly he was hidden from the perception of all; now, having departed life, he delights and aids all the senses of all. For the tongues of almost all speak of him with admiration; delighting the senses of all, likewise his praises reach to the hearing of almost all; he himself is set before the eyes, an adorable spectacle, and most profitable in the touching of him. Nor does he affect the senses only, but also rightly composes the faculties of the soul to virtue; teaching all by the examples of his life where, and in what manner, and how much, those faculties are to be used. And thus in every way doing good to all, and instructing minds, he is become the common storehouse of all good things, the master of virtue, the expeller of vices, the provider of every kind of goods, the easy supplier in straitened circumstances; and, to say it in a word, the readiest helper in all necessities. Especially however toward any nature endowed with reason he bore himself conformably to God, the putter-to-flight of demons, the benefactor of men, the tent-fellow of Angels.

[52] So he indeed offered himself to us as a great treasure and a medicine, an excellent example to all. curing excellently diseases of every kind. He likewise offered himself to all wishing to institute their life in holiness, as a model of Christian philosophy; and also to those who excel in the faculty of speaking, an excellent theme, no less apt for the commendation of the praised than of the praiser himself. But of us all not one could either perfectly imitate him, or praise him according to his merits: but if anyone nevertheless be strong in the faculty of imitating and praising, he will surely have done splendidly, glorifying through him, whom we who are right-minded believe to be triune in persons, one in essence, God, who is wonderful in his Saints, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.