CONCERNING SAINT HESYCHIUS THE WONDER-WORKER IN GALATIA OR BITHYNIA.
AROUND THE YEAR 790.
PrefaceHesychius the Wonder-Worker in Bithynia (Saint)
[1] The sacred memory of Saint Hesychius the Wonder-Worker is inscribed at the 6th day of March in the Great Menaia of the Greeks, and in the Lives of Saints collected from them by Maximus, Bishop of Cythera. The same, with the title "the ascetic" (τοῦ ἀσκητοῦ), is found on March 5 in the manuscript Menaia of the Ambrosian Library in Milan and of the Mazarin Library in Paris, Memory in the Calendars: as well as in the Menologion of Basil Porphyrogenitus, which is in the monastery of Grottaferrata. Indeed, also in the Syriac or Chaldaic Calendar sent to us from Rome, and in the Coptic Martyrology of the Maronite College in Rome, his commemoration is made on the 4th: but in all of these, besides the bare name, you will find nothing, except that certain printed and manuscript copies have these additional verses about him:
"Having given yourself, Hesychius, to a quiet life (Δοὺς σύχῳ ἑαυτὸν Ἡσύχιε Βίῳ), when the end arrived, you depart quietly from life (Τέλους φθάσαντος ἡσυχάζεις ἐκ βίου)."
[2] That the surname of Wonder-Worker was not without substance is shown by the miracles, the name of Wonder-Worker: some of which are narrated in the eulogy that we give here, to relieve the desire for a longer Life, which we believe once existed and perhaps still lies hidden somewhere. From this we also learn that Hesychius's homeland was Andrapena, a small district of Pontic Galatia, named after Andrapa or Antrapa of Ptolemy (Ortelius in his Thesaurus calls it Neoclaudiopolim), lying at nearly equal distance from Ancyra, homeland Andrapena: the city of Galatia, and Amasea: whose Bishop, named Theophylactus, successor of that Daniel who is read to have subscribed his name several times to the sixth ecumenical synod, more fittingly placed the sacred body of Hesychius beside the altar in the year of the Christian era 808. Whether in his own city of Amasea, or in the city of Adrania near which he lived, or in the royal city of Constantinople itself, from which the Menaia were generally received — who could say? For the eulogy is silent about the place of death and burial; and it only says that his body, wrapped by those present and placed in a stone coffin, was deposited "near the lordly gate" (πλησίον τῆς δεσποτικῆς πύλης).
[3] The "lordly gate" (Πύλη δεσποτική) signifies to me that gate which in Greek churches, having screens on either side from the sanctuary or inner areas designated solely for the sacrifice, the Lordly Gate at which he was buried: led into the solea and the front part of the temple, called by the more common term "holy" (ἁγία), because through it "the holy things" (τὰ ἅγια) were brought out to the people, arranged in orderly fashion at the step of the solea to receive the communion of the Eucharist: and sometimes "royal" (βασιλική), says Goar on the Euchologion — why not also "lordly" (δεσποτική) for the same reason? — because through it, namely, the King of kings and Lord of lords has his passage. From this place, however, to which people of both sexes — at least those about to communicate — were permitted to enter, Theophylactus transferred the sacred treasure to a more sacred place, forbidden to all laypeople and even to consecrated women, and placed it at the right side of the altar itself: not within the tribune or apse constructed around the altar (as I think), but at the wall between it and the sacristy (σκευοφυλάκιον).
[4] Adrania, the city near which he dwelt: Moreover, Adrania, near which Hesychius had his oratory, is a city of Bithynia not far from Prusa, says Leunclavius in Ortelius — called Edrenos by the Turks: which you should take care not to confuse with Adrane, a city of Thrace: for each is accurately distinguished in the above-cited Council, and the Bishops of each — Nicephorus of the latter and Sisinnius of the former — are found to have subscribed at various sessions of it. But the mountain called Maio, which is said to have been near this city and which afforded Saint Hesychius the convenience of desired solitude and quiet, the eulogy from the manuscript, and a suitable place for building an oratory — we have read its name nowhere else: and therefore we owe all knowledge of it and everything else pertaining to Saint Hesychius to the source from which we received the eulogy: a manuscript six-month synaxarion, certainly most accurate and supplying countless gaps of the Great Menaia, both in versicles and eulogies: which we deemed a great treasure to have found at Dijon in the possession of our Pierre-François Chifflet of the Society of Jesus, after the pages, separated from one another as far as was permitted, allowed us to discover of what merit and quality it was.
[5] For what is praised of Saint Ephrem for doing by a most wise stratagem in the books of Apollinaris — received in a marvelous manner, rendering them useless by gluing their pages together — this had happened to this most unfortunate codex by unhappy chance, so that it was not so much a book to those handling it as a mass of leaves firmly glued to one another: for the water which had once soaked the entire book, dissolving the gummy consistency of the thick and very old paper, after it evaporated and dried, had left the pages so fixed to each other that from them, barely separated with much tearing and damage, it was a wonder that any coherent text could be obtained. But this was next to miraculous, and doubtless to be ascribed to the honor of the Saints who favor their own cause: that having begun the transcription with the plan of excerpting only what seemed to be missing from the printed Menaia, we found either entirely intact, or healable by prudent conjecture, everything that contained the name or eulogy of a Saint not to be found elsewhere. One would have said that the leaves had not been torn apart hastily and indiscriminately, but that greater care and caution had been exercised with those that concealed something useful: for the rest, although they could nowhere be read in their entirety, nevertheless displayed enough of themselves that, by comparison with other copies, it could be clearly discerned what they had contained about whom. We judged that this could not unfittingly be related here, to the commendation of this Saint, whom we present first from that codex.
LIFE
From the Manuscript Greek Synaxarion of Pierre-François Chifflet, S.J.
Hesychius the Wonder-Worker in Bithynia (Saint)
[1] This celebrated and great servant of God, Hesychius, Hesychius, a native of Andrapena, properly instructed from his very cradle, and having scorned earthly comforts, became a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit, aspiring to the enjoyment of the heavenly Sion: wherefore, a voluntary exile from his homeland, he sought the solitary places. For, born in the region of the Andrapenians, he betook himself to the sea that washes Adrania, according to the command of the God who called him, despite the resistance of demons, where, when he had ascended the mountain called Maio, the demons inhabiting the place, suspecting that this man would be their destruction, attempted by fraud to lead the Saint away from those borders to another place. For they used John and Hilarion as instruments suited to the task: through them they inquired of him what desire for a place had drawn him to come. But when he unhesitatingly pointed out the same place, those malevolent ones, contradicting him, said: "Surely, O man, being ignorant of the wretched state of this place, you are heading toward your present death: for it is a resort of wild beasts and robbers, and whoever has dared to approach it until now has not enjoyed the use of this light for even a single day's space."
[2] The Father collected his thoughts at these words in meditation, and marking his ear, taught inwardly by the Spirit, he recognized He fixes his seat on Mount Maio: that it was not a natural voice, but that of demons speaking through their mouths: and by the power of the Cross of Christ he drove the incorporeal tenants from those bodies. Then indeed, following God as his guide, he withdrew to a certain part of the mountain, and establishing a right rule of living, he began to devote himself as far as he could to the cultivation of the land itself, and no less to check and repel the violent impulses of nature. It happened once that birds, bursting into that place, sought food for themselves from the plants sown there: Birds infesting his garden are killed or driven away by a miracle. and immediately present punishment followed; for as soon as they tasted them, as if they had taken poison, the birds were seen prostrate on the ground: and so when on another occasion the Father saw other birds exposing themselves to the same danger in a similar way, knowing for certain the destruction of the harmful ones, he raised his eyes to heaven and groaned within himself, as it were: "Go away," he said, "having learned henceforth to respect the labors of monks." And they, as if soothed by the Father's voice, lifting themselves on their wings into the air, departed from the place; nor did they ever afterwards presume to fly into it again.
[3] Moreover, having found water on a certain small slope, He builds an oratory of Saint Andrew: he erected there a chapel venerable to the Apostle Andrew: in which, while he was conversing quietly with his God, certain persons came leading a girl vexed by an unclean demon, and asking that he command her to be free and well: to whom he, without hesitation and aided by the power of the chief of the Apostles, immediately restored the girl free of all evil, and addressed both parents in this manner: He heals a woman possessed by a demon: "This," he said, "the Holy Spirit dictates to me — that after my death this house shall become a convent of women consecrated to God: whose efficacious prayers will put to flight all the hosts of demons from this place": and the fulfillment followed the prediction not long after that time.
[4] He raises up an ox depressed by a demon: The same our holy Father Hesychius, going forth from his cell one day by a certain divine providence, saw a certain rustic driving oxen pulling a load upon a cart: one of which, its feet somehow entangled, happened to fall miserably to the ground. The rustic immediately rushed to the spot and, making a great effort to lift the beast, accomplished no more than if it had been turned to stone. Therefore, his strength exhausted by excessive labor and exceedingly distressed by the immobility of his ox, the rustic was entirely bathed in tears, bewailing himself as wretched; Hesychius was moved by the sight with a feeling of deep compassion, and at the same time ran to the fallen ox and, stroking and observing its neck with his hand, said to it: "Get up, lazy one, and complete the rest of the journey; do not let the enemy make you a useless instrument of his wickedness." And forming the sign of the Cross over it, he caused it to rise, and it pulled the cart very gently and swiftly. The rustic was astonished beyond what can be said at these things, and giving thanks to the Saint, cheerfully held his way homeward.
[5] Always stretching himself forward toward what lay ahead, He dies piously, and subjecting the worse part to the better, this Saint was also found worthy to enjoy angelic conversation: for his departure from this life was revealed to him by an Angel of the Lord thirty days beforehand. Receiving this message with immense joy of spirit, he summoned those who dwelt with him, and impressed upon them his final instructions: among which, setting hell before their eyes as a fearsome and fiery furnace, as though he himself then feared it, he terrified all who had assembled. But as he prolonged his exhortation until midnight, a light slipping down from heaven shone upon him, and having spoken his last words, "Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," He is buried, he passed to the heavenly mansions. Those who were present wrapped his venerable body, honorable even to the Angels themselves, and deposited it in a stone coffin, He is translated, and placed it near the principal gate; while Constantine held the scepters of Empire together with his mother Irene.^a In the year six thousand three hundred,^b Theophylactus, governing the bishopric of Amasea, translated the sacred treasure of the most blessed Hesychius to the right side of the altar, where it is shown to all to be reverently honored to the present day.
Annotations^a Therefore between the years 780 and 797, when, having reduced her son to order, Irene began to reign alone in her own right.
^b According to the Alexandrian computation, which all the sacred writers of that age use: this year corresponds to the year of Christ 800 according to the Alexandrians, but to the year 808 according to the common Era which we follow. On this difference see more in the Acts of the Sabaite Martyrs, March 20.