Abramius the Hermit and Saint Mary His Niece. in the Hellespont

ON SAINT ABRAMIUS THE HERMIT AND SAINT MARY HIS NIECE. IN THE HELLESPONT.

SIXTH CENTURY

Preliminary Commentary.

Abramius the Hermit, in the Hellespont (S.)

Mary his Niece, in the Hellespont (S.)

Section I. The ecclesiastical veneration of both, and the Office among the Greeks on the 29th of October.

[1] The Carthusian Fathers of Cologne, after publishing in the year 1490 the Martyrology of Usuard according to a certain manuscript of their library, not without augmentation collected from various Martyrologies, again brought it to light in a more augmented form in the year 1521, and in this more augmented edition first mentioned Abraham the Priest and Anchorite and Mary the daughter of his brother, the penitent. This day is from Molanus, following a single authority, John Molanus repeated the same words in his Additions to Usuard published in the year 1568, and noted in the margin: Concerning these, Ephrem, volume 2. That is, of Aloysius Lipomani, folio 391, where he presents their Acts from the Lives of the Holy Fathers printed at Cologne and from a Veronese manuscript; which our Herbert Rosweyde published again, and also left them collated with the manuscript of Ghislenghien, to be compared with the Soissons manuscript of Saint Mary, having long ago been translated from Greek into Latin. To that ancient version, however, perhaps many centuries earlier, we have preferred the new one of Gerard Voss: because, having obtained the Greek text itself from Codex 727 of the Vatican Library, we saw that the later interpretation adhered more closely to it: and whatever diversity, sometimes of no small importance, occurs in both, the reader will find it carefully described in the annotations, to be appended after each chapter in our usual manner.

[2] Moreover, the aforesaid Molanus, when in the year 1575 he was reprinting those Additions of his, and the second edition retracting what he had written, having obtained some knowledge of the Greek Menologion from the Horologion printed at Venice, as he says, in the thirty-second year of the century, believed it safer to follow the most expressly stated custom of the Greek Church in the book of public prayers, rather than a small addition made only in the last edition of the Cologne Fathers; and having deleted what he had written under March, he replaced it at the twenty-ninth of October with only this: On the twenty-ninth day, of the holy Father Abramius: which title, with the name of Mary omitted, was prefixed to the Acts composed by Simeon Metaphrastes under that day's date, and rendered into Latin at the care of Aloysius Lipomano. Meanwhile Cardinal Baronius followed the first edition of Molanus in compiling the Roman Martyrology, and closed the day with these words: In Syria, of Saint Abraham the Hermit, whose deeds Blessed Ephrem the Deacon recorded.

[3] An authority resting on so slight a foundation would not persuade us to place their Acts on a day other than that on which they are venerated among the Greeks: it passed into the Roman Martyrology. but because the Roman Church is free to assign whatever day it wishes to Saints whose veneration it accepts; and this Church, in receiving the Martyrology thus revised and prescribing it for the use of churches, is to be considered to have chosen this day, we also prefer this same day: even though we do not for that reason cease to wonder why Baronius followed Molanus rather than what he himself saw and cites in his Notes, the Greek Menologion. In this, moreover, the memorial of Saint Abramius is made in exactly as many words as Molanus used in his second edition, with the name of Mary likewise omitted: since the Greeks venerate these saints on October 29 which seems to have been the reason for Baronius to likewise omit her, as also do the other Menologia or Synaxaria in manuscripts that we have seen. The great Menaea alone, printed at Venice, bear the name of Mary in the title, and honor her equally with her holy uncle with a special couplet: for after they sang about Saint Abramius:

O Abramius, having mortified every delight of the flesh, In death you dwell with the bodiless Angels.

after, I say, they sang this of Abramius, they order the following to be sung for his niece:

Leaving behind the lovers of the flesh, O Mary, You are mystically embraced by the lover of souls.

[4] Their encomium from the Menologia There follows a common encomium for both, which Petrus Arcudius of Corfu translated into Latin from the Menologion of the Emperor Basil, a most beautiful treasure of the Vatican Library, in the work of Ferdinando Ughelli, volume 6 of Sacred Italy. Abramius, born of Christian parents, having dismissed the wife whom he had married unwillingly, for the sake of Christ, out of love for solitude, shut himself up in a very narrow cell: where he remained for ten years and was promoted to the Priesthood: and when his brother had died, leaving a girl who had entered her seventh year, the Saint took her with him and enclosed her in another cell near his own. When she was in her twentieth year, by the devil's doing she not only fell into fornication; but even bidding farewell to the holy way of life, indulging in fornication in a public inn, she was plunging headlong into every vice. When the Saint learned of this, having put on a military cloak and mounted a horse, he found his niece and brought her back to her former way of life: and she, having atoned for her sins through penance, made such progress in virtue that, distinguished by miracles, she persisted in her holy resolution until death. Abramius, however, fell asleep in the Lord in extreme old age.

[5] The same encomium we found at Milan in three manuscripts of the Ambrosian library, marked 103, 364, and 393; at Florence in the manuscript of the Dominican convent of Saint Mark, and at Paris in the Mazarin and our Clermont manuscripts: in the last the closing statement about the death of Abramius is absent, Distribution of the years they lived. which in the printed Menaea reads thus: Blessed Abramius rested on the twenty-ninth day of October: and she likewise a little later. That is, after five years, as the Acts state: and fifteen years after the resumption of her penitential life, from which she had strayed for two years, after she had lived with her uncle for twenty years, having been brought to him at the age of seven by relatives, not summoned of her own accord: so that in all she lived forty-four years, and her uncle seventy in all. For he left the world at the age of twenty, and twelve years after losing his parents was consecrated as a Priest for the conversion of the pagans, as the original Acts, and from them Metaphrastes and all their versions agree: from which you may correct the author of the encomium, who handled the numbers with too light a hand. He then spent four years in his apostolic mission: and returning from it, not very long after, that is in the thirty-eighth year of his age, he received his orphaned niece to be nurtured in the pursuit of piety. We have thought it good to reckon this chronology here, so that what we are about to discuss concerning the homeland of Abramius may be more easily grasped, and an accurate distinction of places and times may serve as eyes for this otherwise obscure history.

[6] Office arranged in the ninth century We have from the very ancient Typicon of Friedrich Lindenbrog an accurate transcript, in which there is no mention of this Abramius, as there is none of very many others, nor of Saint Anastasia the Roman Martyr, to whom the day of October 29 is now so dedicated in common with Blessed Abraham that the Office of that day is fully adapted to both, while of other Saints only a commemoration is made through the encomium: accordingly, we believe the aforesaid Typicon to be the Hierosolymitan one of Saint Sabas, not augmented by any later additions, and we judge all Offices not found in it to have been added by those whose names the titles of the sacred odes bear, or whose acrostics express. Therefore, in the ninth century, the Office for the said day was instituted, or at least, as far as Abramius and Mary are concerned, was received from the Hellespontians and arranged for the use of the Church of Constantinople, with hymns composed: for all its canons express the name of Joseph, who flourished in that century, in both ways. And what the Constantinopolitan Church received may have gradually passed to the Eastern Churches: for the Coptic Synaxarion, a manuscript of our Maronite College in Rome, has a long encomium of Abraham the Hermit on the last day of the month of Babe, which roughly corresponds to our September.

[7] In the Office already mentioned, those canons which concern Abramius are prefaced with this acrostic poem:

Your brilliant life, O Blessed one, I sing. Joseph.

As many letters as you read here, so many stanzas does the hymn contain, distributed into eight parts: which at its very beginning prays that the Blessed one, shining with divine splendors, may free by his prayers from the corruption of passions those celebrating his light-bearing feast: Hymn composed by S. Joseph then, commending his outstanding zeal for taming the flesh and the ardor of his charity, he wishes that those who, in the desire of imitating him, celebrate his venerable falling-asleep in a festive gathering, may arrive at the end of their labors with equal happiness. He furthermore extols the grace of curing diseases and driving out spirits given to him

as to a most true servant of God, as well as his manifold victory over the most wicked serpent, and he exalts the church built for God, and proclaims the dispelling of the shadows of pagan infidelity: and finally, because as a true imitator of the pastor he sought and brought back the lost sheep to the folds of penitence, he testifies that the Saint was both in life and after death a physician of the sick: and concluding in the acrostics of the name Joseph, he again congratulates that the Church on this day of gladness joyfully celebrates his holy falling-asleep, honoring his manner of life. Whichever of the two holy Josephs may be the author of these (for there are two, as Simon Wagnereck teaches in his prolegomena to the Marian Piety of the Greeks; one the brother of Saint Theodore the Studite, the other forty years younger; whose Acts we shall give on the third of April, and of the former we shall treat on the fourteenth of July), they were nevertheless composed in the ninth century.

Section II. The Homeland of Abramius, His Age, and His Acts.

But where and at what time shall we say the Saint himself flourished? Baronius boldly names Syria, and makes Blessed Ephrem the Deacon the author of the life, Abramius was a contemporary of S. Ephrem of Edessa, following Lipomanus and Molanus: and lest anyone should doubt that he means the famous Syrian doctor, the sun of the Edessene Church, he adds in the annotations that Ephrem himself mentioned Abraham in the booklet which is inscribed The Testament of Ephrem, with a new and more palpable anachronism. For even if these Saints had lived familiarly in the same region (which all those who, without the matter having been examined, understood the more commonly known Ephrem of Edessa here, must maintain) indeed Abramius was wrongly believed to be a disciple Saint Ephrem could not, when on the point of death, as is recorded in that booklet, bless the same Abraham whose Acts he had written describing one who had died five years or much longer before, as those authors maintain. Our Rosweyde stumbled on the same rock when in his notes on this Life of Abraham he cited Sozomen and Nicephorus; as if they had mentioned him among the disciples of Saint Ephrem: for they treat of that Abramius whom Ephrem of Edessa, as we have indicated, blessed on his deathbed, together with others named at the same time. Gerard Voss too did not hesitate to attribute these Acts to the Edessene, perhaps deceived not only in this, when he believed that whatever he found signed with the name of Saint Ephrem should be ascribed to him.

[9] First then, as regards the place, it is established from the Acts that, deserting his bride on the seventh day of the wedding, he lived he found a cell two miles (stadia, says Metaphrastes) from the city, where at last on the seventeenth day he was found by relatives searching for him, and in the eighteenth year afterwards received the niece brought by the same relatives: for it is not credible that they would have taken a seven-year-old girl on a journey of many days or weeks to her uncle. But he, having then returned from a four-year apostolate, was again inhabiting his first cell: which cell, as we know from the Acts, was neither very far from the village he had converted, and was necessarily close to the city whose Bishop had imposed that mission on him. Therefore, if we know what that village was and what the aforesaid city, we shall infallibly know what was the homeland of Saint Abramius and the arena of his ascetic life and penance. Let us therefore hear Metaphrastes, speaking most distinctly and without circumlocution, about both:

[10] At Lampsacus, which is a town on the Hellespont, there was a certain large and populous village called Taenia: near Lampsacus in the Hellespont, since those who lived in that village were held fast by the grave error of the pagans, a great multitude of Priests and Deacons was indeed sent to them by the Bishop; very many also of those who had adopted the monastic life were appointed by him as teachers of the village: but no one could convert them from error; indeed, they rather inflicted torments and punishments on the pious... When therefore the Bishop was in doubt as to what should be done, and communicated the matter to his people... It came to my mind, he said, to initiate him (Abraham) with the chrism of the Priesthood and hand over to him the village which is on the Hellespont... He said this and immediately rising from his chair, he goes to Abramius with all his Clergy.

[11] Thus far Metaphrastes; for whom, living and writing at Byzantium, according to Metaphrastes; the places surrounding the Propontis, among which is Lampsacus, could and should have been very well known, so that credence should absolutely be given to one supplying from private diligence and knowledge the names of places lacking in the original Acts: Metaphrastes, I say: for the encomium whose beginning is "The life of virtuous men" was truly his, in the judgment of Leo Allatius, the most distinguished custodian of the Vatican Library and the most severe critic of those works commonly attributed to Metaphrastes: for among the one hundred and twenty Lives which, from an almost infinite mass of Lives partly attributed to their proper authors and partly recognized by other indications as not being by Metaphrastes, he carefully separated as being so clearly marked with Metaphrastes' own style that no one could doubt them; and by comparing which with others that are not by Metaphrastes, it would be easy for anyone, provided he were not a child, to distinguish the spurious from the genuine: among those few, I say, the aforesaid Allatius placed this one, in his Diatribe on the writings of the Simeons, page 124; which Life we have in Greek, transcribed from the manuscript of the King of France and collated with another manuscript of the Queen of Sweden: and then found in the Venetian and Vatican manuscripts.

[12] far from Syria. Therefore, he who lived so near to the Bishop of Lampsacus that the Bishop, rising to ordain him, immediately took with him as companions the Clerics whom he had consulted; he himself was either a native of Lampsacus or of another city so near to Lampsacus that he was not far distant either from Lampsacus or from Taenia, a village of the diocese of Lampsacus on the Hellespont: but was found by the Bishop almost in its suburbs, and having been sent thence to the Gentiles, returned after four years to the same place: for he returned to his former cell... upon learning which, the inhabitants of that village... came to him to be taught and enlightened. But an immense expanse of territory separates the Hellespont from Syria, so that Ephrem the Syrian, who spent almost his entire life in Syria alone and was therefore inexperienced in the Greek language, could not for this reason alone have been the companion and intimate of Abraham, who never departed far from the shores of the Hellespont. Philip Ferrarius in his General Catalogue subscribes to our opinion about Lampsacus, having received light from Metaphrastes, as far as one may conjecture, speaking at this day thus: At Lampsacus, of Saint Mary the niece of Saint Abites the Hermit: he meant to write Abraham: but he did not list him here among the Saints, because he treats only of those who are not in the Roman Martyrology. He adds that he writes these things from the Greek Menologion, which records that she lived at Lampsacus, C. A. in Mysia on the Hellespont, formerly a most famous city between Parium and Abydos, and led her life there: but finding nothing in any Greek Menologion, whether printed or manuscript, at this or any other day, we fear he did not himself see any of them, and we suspect that he combined what he had read in Baronius with what he had read in Lipomanus, so that no new authority accrues from this to confirm the ancient veneration of the sixteenth day, as dedicated to him or his niece. In the very ancient Martyrology of Tamlacht, written in the Irish language, a certain Mary is named on this day: but nothing is added that would suggest she is the one about whom we are treating.

[13] The city also to which Mary fled and threw herself into the abyss of prostituting her chastity, Mary prostituted herself at Assos in the Troad. the aforesaid Metaphrastes says was two days' journey away: Aesus by name, as Francis Zinus read, the translator employed by Lipomanus: our transcript of the Medicean Codex, collated with the Queen's manuscript, has "a certain city Iason." But either a journey of more days should have been said; for in recent miles Iassus, a city of Caria on the Myrtoan Sea according to Ptolemy, is distant from Lampsacus; or according to the more accurate measurements of the Geographers, at least two hundred and fifty. Or one should write Assos, a city of the Troad, a hundred miles indeed from Lampsacus, but which an equipped horseman could easily cover within two days, the road being direct and with few rivers, and no intervening bays of the sea; such as this route appears to us on the maps. Both the reading of the Vatican Codex, in which Lipomanus's translator seems to have read Asos, and the smallness of the money taken by Abramius as travel funds and for supper, favor this latter and more probable opinion.

[14] We have therefore the diocese of Lampsacus, and the same as the birthplace of Abramius: now let us inquire about the time at which he lived. at the time of Theodosius the Aeliote John Moschus, who died at Rome in the year 620, as we showed on the eleventh of March in the Life of Saint Sophronius, his companion in travels and studies, at number 23, will provide it for us in his Spiritual Meadow. For he narrates in chapter 68, Concerning the Abbot Theodosius: that when Abramius, the Leader of Saint Mary-the-New, had heard that he did not have a cloak to wear in winter, he bought one for him. Who would doubt that, in respect of the Egyptian one, nearly a whole century earlier and celebrated throughout all the Churches of the whole world, that one of which Abramius was the leader and master of penance is called new? And with things so well agreeing among themselves, who, reading the same names of master and pupil, would not immediately think of this uncle and niece about whom we treat? But Theodosius, with whom this Abramius is read to have been contemporary, before he retired into the solitude, had led the monastic life in the monastery of the Aeliotes (whose location we have not yet ascertained, about the middle of the sixth century. but from this very congruence we suspect it was not far from Lampsacus), and in it had as a disciple Cyriacus the Abbot, from whose mouth Moschus narrates that he received what he writes about the aforesaid Theodosius, and this around the year 616, as is understood from the time when Moschus and Sophronius left Egypt. Therefore, Saint Ephrem of Edessa having been taken from the living around the year 378, as we showed in the Prolegomena to his Acts on the first of February, Abramius must be reckoned nearly two centuries younger and should be referred to the middle of the sixth century.

[15] Who, moreover, the Ephrem was who was his companion in life and, as the title of the Acts bears, his eulogist after death, There are many Ephrems who are also writers. and why he is distinguished by the appellation of Saint, we shall confess we do not know, until light is brought from some other source. We know various Saints of this name, and have already mentioned some in earlier volumes: those who belong more closely to these centuries are Saint Ephrem, Bishop of Mylasa in Caria, whose name recurs among the authors of canticles several times in the Menaea, specifically on the ninth day of September, who seems to have flourished in the fifth century, mentioned by us on the fourteenth of January: then Ephrem the Patriarch of Antioch, in the time of Pope Agapitus I, in the year of Christ 535: but this one his location, and that one, indeed perhaps both, the time, excludes from this composition, although we know that the Antiochene wrote many things and praiseworthy ones, in which he excellently extolled the virtue of Saint Theodosius the Archimandrite, to say nothing of our eulogist of Abramius, who himself also wrote many things

could have written. So much so that, with three writers of the same name now discovered, perhaps not everything that has been circulated until now under the name of Ephrem of Edessa is his; which we have now demonstrated at least concerning this Life: just as not everything has yet come to light which is established to have been formerly published by the Edessene in the Syriac language.

[16] That these Acts were written in the Greek language there is now no reason to doubt; Whether the Epilogue of the Acts was rightly rejected by Voss? if Saint Abramius lived so close to Constantinople. Now, however, with greater right than before, it may seem possible to doubt whether that epilogue is genuine, which we find indeed in the printed and manuscript Latin Acts: but Voss testifies that it is absent from the Vatican and other exemplars: and on that account too he believed it should be omitted, because from various other passages of our Holy Father Ephrem it seemed to have been compiled here by Metaphrastes and to be found scattered elsewhere in the author, and to have nothing to do with Abraham. Nevertheless, the judgment of Voss displeases us, and our Rosweyde is more convincing, who denies that there is anything in that epilogue on account of which it should be denied to the author: for although similar things may perhaps occur somewhere in the works of Saint Ephrem, they are nonetheless not so identical that they can be proved to have been taken from there: and as for what Voss suspects concerning Metaphrastes, it is clear to all who read the encomium written by him in Surius or Lipomanus that nothing similar is found there.

[17] Whether the ancient version was interpolated from Metaphrastes? Nor was the ancient version noted with much less rashness by the same author, as if it contained not a few things mixed in from Metaphrastes: for we found only two clauses missing from the Greek, and that entirely at the end, and so necessary to the subject matter that they should not seem to have been taken from Metaphrastes, but to have come into the old translator's version from an original more complete than the one which Metaphrastes himself and we have followed: and for that reason we have the more carefully annotated the diversity of both versions, especially where something is either lacking or superfluous in either. The rest, as well as the encomium of Metaphrastes itself, which is truly weighty and by far the most elegant, we are content to have read in Lipomanus, lest we needlessly increase the bulk of the work: the epilogue, however, we have not thought should be omitted, because although it does not contribute much to the subject of Abramius, it does much to reveal the author's character and remarkable humility of soul: and that it is absent from the Greek manuscripts may be suspected to have been done by the transcribers for the sake of brevity.

ACTS

By Ephrem, a Contemporary

Translated by Gerard Voss, collated with the Vatican Greek MS.

Abramius the Hermit, in the Hellespont (S.)

Mary his Niece, in the Hellespont (S.)

BY EPHREM

PROLOGUE

[1] My beloved brothers, I wish to narrate to you the beautiful and perfect manner of life of the admirable man Abramius: The author excuses his own slenderness which indeed he so began and completed that after its consummation he merited eternal glory. However, I am afraid to weave an illustrious and admirable testimony of his image of virtue, acceptable to God: for indeed the life and conduct of the man is good and perfect; but I am weak and unskilled. For the image of his virtue is brilliant and admirable; but the colors with which I must paint it are very dull and rough. Nevertheless, although I am weak and unskilled in speech, compared to the highest virtues of the Saint. and cannot worthily comprehend his perfection, I shall try at least in part to narrate, such as I am, and to discourse, although insufficiently, about the life and character of the same man, that is, of Abramius, a second Abraham: for he was of our own times, and led an angelic and heavenly life on earth; and he possessed patience, like that of the hardest adamant, through which he merited to obtain heavenly grace. And since from his youth he showed himself chaste and modest, he was made a temple of the Holy Spirit and a holy vessel: so that in him who had called him, God might have His lodging and dwelling.

CHAPTER I

The solitary life of S. Abraham; his rare patience over three years among the pagans.

[2] This blessed Abramius, then, had parents who were very wealthy: He unwillingly accepts a bride, who, loving him beyond the measure of human affection and nature, betrothed a girl to him while he was still a boy, expecting that he would thereby be advanced to some secular dignity. But he, thinking far differently, from his very youthful age began to frequent churches: and whenever he heard the sacred Scriptures read there, he gladly lent his ears and diligently exercised and meditated on them. But his parents, judging that the time of the wedding was now approaching, were compelling him, however much he resisted, to be bound by the bonds of matrimony: against which, although he had previously opposed and rejected marriage, at last, too much troubled by them and overcome by modesty and shame, he was absolutely compelled to acquiesce and consent. Therefore, on the seventh day, when the wedding was celebrated and he was already sitting in the bridal chamber with his bride, suddenly like a light the divine grace shone in his heart; and having deserted her, he flees to a certain cell: which, having found and followed as a guide of his vow and desire, he immediately leapt from the house and departed from the city. About two miles distant from there he found a certain empty cell, into which entering, he fixed his dwelling there, glorifying God with the joy and gladness of his heart.

[3] At which deed of his, both his parents and his neighbors and relatives were seized with the greatest astonishment: who went out and searched everywhere for the blessed man, and after seventeen days found him in the aforesaid cell, pouring forth prayers to God; at whose sight they were greatly amazed. But the blessed man said to them: Why, where, found by friends, he asks not to be further troubled, he said, do you wonder? Rather look up to the most gracious God, who has snatched me from the mire of my iniquities, and pray for me, that to the very end of life I may be able to bear this most sweet yoke (which the Lord willed me, though unworthy, to take up), and to order my life in all things acceptably according to His will. And when all, hearing his words, had responded Amen: he exhorted and begged them not to bring him trouble more frequently under the pretext of visiting. When they had already departed, he blocked up the door of his cell and shut himself inside, leaving only a very small window through which he might receive necessary food at the proper time. and perfectly orders his life. And his mind was illuminated by divine grace, by which he daily advanced in the best manner of life; and he possessed great self-control, and devoted himself to vigils and prayers, to lamentation and humility and charity. And since the fame of his holiness was spreading in every place, all who heard flocked to him from everywhere, to visit him and to be spiritually helped and edified by him. For the word of wisdom and understanding was given to him by God: and the opinion and fame about him was shining forth among his neighbors, like a most luminous beacon.

[4] It happened, however, after ten years from the time of his renunciation, that his parents departed from this life: When his parents died, he distributes his inheritance to the poor and since much money and wealth had been left to him by them, he asked a certain friend, faithful and dear to him, to distribute everything that had come to him among the poor and orphans: lest he be called away and hindered from his prayers by those things. With these matters thus arranged, he remained with a secure mind and tranquil spirit. For this was the care of the blessed man, that he should have his mind bound by no earthly things: and therefore he possessed nothing on earth except one cloak and one tunic of haircloth, which he wore, and one small bowl, from which he was accustomed to eat and drink. But with all these things poor in spirit, he claimed humility beyond measure and charity toward all equally. He did not prefer the rich to the poor in honor, nor the prince to the subject, nor the noble to the ignoble: but he loved and honored all equally, without respect of persons. Nor did he at any time rebuke anyone more harshly or insolently: but his speech was seasoned with the salt of charity and gentleness. For who, hearing his most beautiful responses, could ever be satisfied with the sweetness of his words? Or who, beholding his venerable face and angelic appearance, was not more inflamed to see him more often?

[5] Throughout the whole time of his renunciation, moreover, the rule once undertaken he never changed: and constant in his purpose. but for a space of fifty years he zealously exercised himself in the religious way of life. But on account of his exceeding love and desire for Christ, he counted all the time of that period as but a few days, and could never be seized by any satiety with his religious manner of life. Now not far from that city there was a very large and spacious village, in which all the inhabitants without exception were very fierce pagans, from the least to the greatest: whom no one at all could turn from idolatry, For the conversion of obstinate pagans, but all who attempted it departed from them without success and without any fruit of their salvation; nor could they endure the distress of the affliction with which they were oppressed by them: since they not only did not allow themselves to be admonished for their salvation, but even stirred up persecutions and seditions against those by whom they were admonished. And although crowds of monks had once and again tried to go to them and deal with them, they accomplished nothing at all toward their conversion.

[6] One day then, the Bishop, sitting with his Clerics, the Bishop judges him suitable, mindful of this most blessed man, said to them: Such a man I have not known in all my days, nor seen one so perfect in every good work and adorned with all the virtues in which God delights, as we now have in Lord Abramius. The Clerics replied, affirming that he was truly a servant of God and a perfect monk. To whom the Bishop said: I wish to ordain him Priest in this village of the pagans: for by his great patience and charity he will be able to convert them to God. And rising at once with the Clergy, he made his way to the cell of the holy man: and though he refuses out of humility and when they had arrived there together and greeted him, the Bishop at once began to discuss with him the pagans of that village, and to exhort and ask him to go there for their salvation. Hearing this, the Saint was greatly saddened and said to the Bishop: Permit me, I beg, holy Father, to bewail my iniquities and sins: and do not impose such a task upon me, a base and weak man.

[7] he compels him by the precept of obedience, To whom the Bishop again said: By the benefit and grace of God you are fit: therefore I would not have you be hesitant in this holy obedience. To whom the blessed man again replied, saying: I beg your holiness to have mercy on my littleness and baseness, and to allow me to lament my own evils. And the Bishop said to him:

Behold, he said, you have left all things and have hated the world and all that is in it, and have crucified yourself to the world: yet although you have rightly accomplished all these things, you still lack obedience. When he heard this, he wept bitterly and said: Who am I, a dead dog? And what is my life, that you have judged such things of me? To whom the Bishop again said: Behold, sitting here, you care only for your own salvation: but there, with the help of divine grace, you will be able to save many and convert them to God. Consider therefore within yourself, from which you can gain a greater reward, He admits him to the Priesthood. from here or from there? Whether if you have saved yourself alone, or if you have led many others with you to salvation? But that blessed man of God then said weeping: May the will of God be done; but for the sake of obedience, I will go from here wherever you command. And leading him forthwith out of his cell, he immediately brought him into the city, and there by the laying on of hands ordained him Priest: and straightway arranged for him to be led, with the Clerics accompanying him with joy, to the village of the pagans.

[8] While blessed Abramius made his way there, he prayed to God on the road, Having set out for the village of the pagans saying: Most gracious and best Lord, look upon my weakness, and send Your grace to my aid, that Your holy name may be glorified. Arriving at the village, he beheld that all there were violently held by the madness of idolatry; wherefore, sighing, he wept bitterly, and lifting his eyes to heaven, he said: You, Lord, who alone are without all sin, who alone are merciful, who alone are clement and gracious, do not despise the works of Your hands. And hastily he sent a messenger toward the city to a certain friend very dear to him, there he builds a church, to send him the money remaining from his patrimony: and when he had received it, within a few days he built a church, in which he continually offered prayers to God, and thus with many tears he prayed and said: Gather, O Lord, Your scattered people, and bring them into this Your temple: and enlighten the eyes of their mind, he overturns the idols, that, having repudiated the worship of images, they may know You alone as the true God. When this prayer was completed, he immediately went out from the church and made his way to the temple of the Gentiles, where he destroyed their abominations, and with his own hands pulled down and overturned the altars with their images. Seeing which, those pagans rushed upon him like wild beasts, and having lacerated him with many blows, they drove him from the village.

[9] But he himself, returning there secretly at night, again took refuge in the church, beaten and driven out where, resting and not caring for the lacerations of his wounds, with weeping and groaning he prayed to the Lord for them, only that they might be saved. But when morning had come, the pagans arriving found there the man of God praying: whereupon, struck with great astonishment, they became as if stupefied. And so they came to the church daily, not indeed for the sake of prayer: but to feast their eyes on the beauty of the building and the ornament of the church. On a certain day, then, the holy man began to ask them to acknowledge the true God. But they, becoming more fierce, he urges the faith on the pagans coming to him: beat him with clubs as if he were some lifeless stone: and afterwards, having tied his feet with a rope, they dragged him outside the village and overwhelmed him with stones: and thinking him dead, they departed, leaving him half-dead there.

[10] But at midnight, coming to himself, he groaned and wept violently, and said: left by them for dead, Why have You despised my humility, O Lord, and why do You turn Your face from me? And why do You repel my soul, and despise the works of Your hands? And now therefore, most gracious Lord, look upon Your servants, and grant them that they may know You: for You alone are Lord, and besides You there is no other God. He prays to God for them, After the prayer, rising, he entered the village, and going into the church, he chanted psalms to the Lord. And when dawn came, the pagans arriving again beheld him there, and astonished and driven to madness, like fierce men void of all mercy, and again he is dragged away, they cruelly spent him with dreadful torments; and again, as before, having bound him with ropes, they dragged him outside the village.

CHAPTER II

The conversion of the pagans happily accomplished by Abraham.

[11] Having spent three whole years amid savage persecutions, Enduring these things for three years, like a true adamant he bravely persevered: nor did he ever yield to so many and such great tribulations and hardships: but when he was struck and insulted, when he was dragged, when he was afflicted and oppressed, when he was overwhelmed with stones, when he was spent with hunger and thirst; in all these things which befell him, he never turned away from them, nor was he angered or moved, never broken by any faintheartedness or wearied by tedium: but while he endured the harshest things from them, his charity and invincible patience, his charity toward them increased more and more; and as though it were a blazing fire, he extinguished their wrath by his moderation and gentleness. For sometimes he would beseech them, sometimes gently admonish them, sometimes soothe them with the blandishments of sweet words: and indeed the elders he would ask as fathers; the young men as brothers; and the boys as sons: although meanwhile on the other side he himself was mocked and derided by them, and afflicted with many injuries and reproaches.

[12] The pagans are moved On one of those days, moreover, the inhabitants of that village, gathered together from the least to the greatest, and greatly astonished, began to say to one another: Do you see, they said, the great patience of the man, and his unspeakable love and charity toward us: because in so many tribulations and evils inflicted on him by us, he has in no way departed from here, nor spoken any evil word to any of us, nor become more distant from us: but with great joy he has most patiently endured all these things. Unless surely the living God were with him, as he says, and the kingdom and paradise, punishment and retribution; they recognize the truth of the Christian faith, he would certainly not endure these things from us: for he alone has broken and overturned all our gods, and in nothing could they offend or harm him. Truly this man is a servant of God, and whatever has been said by him is divine and true. Come therefore, let us believe in the God whom he preaches. And when they said these things among themselves, they all together hastened to him in the church, crying out and saying: Glory to the heavenly God, who sent His servant here to free and save us from error.

[13] The blessed man of God, seeing this, rejoiced with great joy, and his face appeared like a most beautiful flower, and opening his mouth he said to them: Dearest fathers, brothers, and sons, blessed are you who have entered here in the name of the Lord: come with one mind, let us give glory to God, who has enlightened the eyes of your mind so that you might know Him; and instructed by the Saint and receive the seal of life, that you may be purified from the uncleanness of idols; and with your whole heart and soul believe that there is one God, creator of heaven and earth and of all things that are in them, without any beginning, incomprehensible, inexpressible, inseparable, unchangeable, without any end, giver of light, lover and redeemer of men, great and admirable, terrible and strong, sweet and kind: and believe in His only-begotten Son, who is the power of the Father, and the wisdom and splendor of His glory, through whom all things were made: and in His Holy Spirit, consubstantial with Him, who reigns together with Him in boundless and infinite ages, they are baptized, about a thousand souls: and gives life to all things: that believing, you may obtain eternal life. And all responding, they said: So indeed, our Father, so our guide of life: so it shall be as you assert and teach us: so we believe and so we hold. And immediately the Blessed one received them, to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, from the least to the greatest, up to a thousand souls.

[14] And every day he read to them the sacred Scriptures, and discoursed with them about faith, justice, and charity; to instruct them more fully about the resurrection of the dead and the dreadful judgment, about the kingdom of God, about the delights of paradise, and about the punishments of hell. And just as good and well-cultivated soil receives good seed and brings forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold: so they too, receiving his words with great eagerness and most gladly hearing his teaching, brought forth from it most abundant fruits. In their sight he appeared like an Angel of God, and like a firm and beautiful bond of a building: for thus by the bond of charity and love every soul was bound with him in prayer, and their whole mind was illuminated by the consolation of his faith and teaching. The blessed man spent a whole year among them after they had received the faith, teaching and preaching to them unceasingly

the word of God day and night.

[15] after the Saint had spent one year, When, however, he had now perceived their zeal toward God and the firmness of their faith; as well as their great charity, care, honor, and reverence toward him; and fearing that on their account he might be compelled to relax and dissolve the discipline of his religious life, and lest in any way his mind should be bound by cares for earthly things, rising by night, he prayed to God thus: You who alone are God without sin, who alone are Holy, who rest in the Holy ones, having prayed to God for them, who alone are merciful and gracious Lord, who recalled this Your people from darkness and established them in the admirable light of Your knowledge, who released them from the bonds of the adversary and converted them from the errors of images, and granted them faith in You; I beseech You, preserve them to the end, Lord, and succor Your flock, which You willed by Your kindness to possess; and fortify them with Your almighty grace, and always illuminate their hearts: that, performing the things which are pleasing and acceptable to You, they may merit to attain eternal life: and grant also to me, weak as I am, Your help, and let not this matter be reckoned against me as judgment and sin, since I burn with the desire of following You. And when the prayer was completed, he departed, signed the village three times with the sign of the cross, he departs secretly: and secretly withdrew to another place, and hid himself in whatever hiding places he could find.

[16] But when morning came, the crowds gathered at the church as was their custom; but when they did not find him there, in whose fruitless search they were astonished: whence like wandering sheep, they went about various places, seeking their pastor, and with great fear and lamentation calling out his name. But when, after searching for a long time, they could not find him, exceedingly saddened, they immediately the Bishop ordains clergy. went to the Bishop and reported what had happened to them. When he heard this, he too, cast down with grief, at once sent many people with diligence to search for the blessed man, especially on account of the tears and consolation of his flock. And when he was sought everywhere like some precious stone and could not be found, and those who had been appointed to search for him had already returned unsuccessful; the Bishop went with all his clergy to the aforesaid village and gave them a comforting sermon about life, and assuaged the great grief which they had conceived at the departure of the man of God. And because he found them all already very well confirmed in the faith and charity of Christ, he chose the more approved men from among them, whom he designated as Priests and Deacons and Readers.

[17] When Blessed Abramius heard of the increase and advancement of the Clergy and their state, he greatly rejoiced and glorifying God, said: What shall I render to You, most gracious Lord my God, for all that You have rendered to me? Abraham restored to his cell I adore and glorify Your saving dispensation: and thus praying and exulting he returned to his former cell. He made another small cell on the outside, and shut himself up in the inner one with great joy and gladness of heart, having blocked up the doors. Upon learning this, the inhabitants of that village, coming to Blessed Abramius, rejoiced with great joy that they had found him as truly the guide of their life, he is of great edification to all. and they came to him as to a father, to be taught and enlightened. And because they were edified beyond what can be said by his way of life, they counted it the greatest favor if they were permitted at least to see him and to hear words of salvation from him. O miracle, dearest Brothers, truly full of praises and glory is such a man as this: for amid so many tribulations and straits which he endured in the oft-mentioned village, he never broke the rule of his religious life, nor departed from it to the right or to the left. Glory and magnificence to the Lord our God, who granted him such patience, by which he was able both to convert others and to preserve the grace of his way of life.

CHAPTER III

The temptations of the demons bravely overcome.

[18] The demon, provoked by the constancy of Abramius Satan therefore, who from the beginning was the enemy of virtue and honor, seeing that in so many afflictions which he had stirred up against the man of God in that village, he had not been able to harm him, nor drag him into sluggishness and laziness, nor in any way draw his mind from his good purpose; and that, like gold in the furnace, he shone more brightly amid pressures, and advanced more in patience and charity in Christ and in eagerness for the salvation of many: the enemy of virtue, vehemently exasperated and fiercely enraged against Blessed Abramius, came to him with a great phantasm, hoping to strike terror into him in this way at least, and more easily to deceive and mislead him. When therefore the Saint was standing at midnight and chanting psalms, he tempts him with vainglory, suddenly a great light shone in his cell, and a voice as of a great multitude was heard, saying: Blessed are you, Lord Abramius, truly, I say, blessed are you: for no one has been found so perfect in all good deeds as you: nor has anyone so fulfilled all my wishes as you.

[19] and is firmly rejected But the blessed man, immediately recognizing the guile of the evil one, raised his voice and said: Your darkness be with you unto destruction, O one full of guile and deceit: for I am a sinful man. Yet because I have the love of my God, and hope in Him and His help; in nothing do I fear you or your snares, nor do your very many phantasms and apparitions strike terror into me. For as a most fortified and safest wall, the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ serves me, whom I have loved and love; in whose name I rebuke you, most unclean and most wretched dog. When he said these things, the demon immediately vanished from his sight like smoke. And the blessed servant of God with great eagerness and a tranquil spirit blessed God, as one who had seen no phantasm at all.

[20] But again, a few days later, while he was praying at night, Satan, holding an axe, he threatens to tear down the cell; began to overturn his cell. And when he seemed already to have broken through it, he cried out in a great voice, saying: Hasten quickly, O my friends, hasten, and entering, quickly suffocate him. But the blessed man of God said against him: All the nations surrounded me, and in the name of the Lord I took vengeance on them. And he immediately vanished upon hearing this voice: meanwhile the cell of the holy man remained whole and unharmed. another time he presents to him the appearance of fire; And again, with a few more days intervening, while he devoted himself to psalmody at midnight, seeing the mat on which he stood while chanting consumed by a violent flame, treading upon the fire without fear he said: You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample upon the lion and the dragon, and I shall overcome all the power of the enemy, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who helps me. But Satan, fleeing, cried out and said: I will conquer you, wretch, and I will find arts by which to crush you, who now hold me in contempt.

[21] On a certain day, therefore, while the blessed man, as was his custom, was taking food, and is troublesome to him while eating, the enemy demon entered his cell in the form and garb of a young man, and approaching closer, tried to overturn his bowl. But he, recognizing it, held it fast with his hand, and not caring about the demon at all, ate without fear. Then the evil spirit, leaping up, immediately turned to another illusion: and behold, placing as it were a candlestick before him, he even begins to chant psalms: and setting a burning candle upon it, he began to chant in a great voice and say: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Psalm 118:1 And when he had chanted many words from that psalm, the blessed man said nothing to him until he had taken his usual food. And when he had now eaten and risen from the table, arming himself with the sign of the Cross, he said to him: Unclean dog and thrice wretched, most foolish and most cowardly, if you know that the blessed are such, why then do you trouble and disturb them? For truly blessed are all who love God with their whole heart. To which the Devil replied and said: I inflict troubles on them for this reason, that I may overcome them and impede them from every good work. But the blessed man said to him: May you have no good, rebuked and despised, he vanishes. most accursed and most wicked demon, that you should try to impede and overcome any of those who fear God, unless perhaps those who are like you and depart from God of their own will, whom you easily conquer and deceive; since God is not in them: but from those who love God, you fail and vanish like smoke snatched by the wind. For one prayer of theirs mixed with tears so pursues and casts you down, as dust stirred by a whirlwind is scattered. My God lives, who is blessed forever, He is my glory and exultation: therefore I do not fear you, even if you should stand here for all your time, and I care nothing about you, impure dog: but I despise you as one would spurn a little puppy crushed by someone. When the blessed man said these things, the demon immediately vanished again.

[22] Again, after some days, when he had completed his nocturnal psalmody, He threatens new dangers the enemy came to him with another phantasm of a copious crowd and multitude of men, who, as it seemed, casting ropes into the cell and pulling, cried out to one another: Throw that man into a pit. Seeing whom, the blessed man said: They surrounded me like bees around a honeycomb, and blazed like fire among thorns, and in the name of the Lord I took vengeance on them. And then Satan, crying out, said: Woe to me! Woe to me! What I shall do to you next, I do not know. For behold, in all things you have conquered and overcome me, and having despised all my forces, and at last despairs of victory. you have trampled me on every side: yet not even so shall I ever depart from you, until, overcoming you, I have made you humble and subject to me. To which the blessed man said: Anathema,

be upon you and all your forces, most criminal and most impure demon: but glory and honor and adoration to our Lord, the only holy and wise God: who has given you over to us His servants and lovers to be trampled upon, and therefore we mock and scorn all your wiles: know therefore, most wretched and weakest Satan, that we neither fear you nor any of your phantasms.

[23] For a long time, although he had attacked the blessed man with various temptations and illusions and devices of madness, Abramius is made stronger by the temptations, he could not even strike any fear into his mind and thoughts: rather he was stirring him to greater eagerness and charity toward God. For since he loved God with his whole heart and soul, and ordered his life and conduct according to His will, he abundantly merited divine grace: and therefore the devil could harm him in nothing. For he had patiently and perseveringly knocked, that the treasure of the grace of Christ might be opened to him: and when the entrance to it had now been opened, he chose for himself from it three precious stones, faith, hope, and charity: by which the other virtues in him were also adorned. Weaving also a most precious crown from good works, he exercises himself in every virtue, he offered it to the King of kings, from whom he had received the gift. For who so loved God with his whole heart, and his neighbor as himself? Or who so compassionated the suffering and showed the depths of mercy? What monk also, when he perceived to be of good conduct, did he not pray for to the Lord, that he might be preserved free from every snare of the devil, and complete the course of his life blamelessly? Or what sinner or wicked person, when he heard of one, did he not immediately beseech God that he might be saved?

[24] Throughout the whole time of his religious life he never deviated from the rule of his way of life, nor did any day in those times ever pass him without tears. wonderfully austere toward himself He did not easily part his lips in laughter: indeed he did not even smile. Oil never touched his body, nor did he ever wash his face or feet with water. He bore and conducted himself in the contest of his religious life as though he were to die daily. O astounding and glorious miracle in this man, Brothers! For in that admirable abstinence and continence of his, and in his constant vigils and floods of tears, sleeping on the ground as well, and in the emaciation of his body, he never became more relaxed or weaker, nor was he wearied by any sluggishness or tedium: but like someone hungry or thirsty, so his mind, which was nourished by the protection of divine grace, could never be sated with the sweetness of his way of life. and yet always with a full and happy countenance. His appearance was like a rose flower; and his body, as if he had practiced no abstinence, appeared healthy and strong: for he was sustained in all things by divine grace, and enjoyed the delight of spiritual gladness. And at the hour of his falling asleep, his countenance was so fair that he seemed to have been attended by a company of Angels. And another admirable grace of God was seen in him, that in all the fifty years of his abstinence, he never changed the haircloth garment with which he had been clothed: which so perseveringly served him until the end of his life that others afterwards also shared in that same garment, which had already been worn out for him through long use.

CHAPTER IV

The education and fall of the niece Mary: her uncle's solicitude for her.

[25] I wish furthermore, dearest ones, to narrate to your charity another matter most worthy of admiration, Abramius takes in his niece, orphaned of her father, which the blessed man did in his old age: for it is truly an admirable example, full of usefulness and compunction, for intelligent and spiritual men. Blessed Abramius had an only brother, who died leaving an only daughter seven years old. When friends and acquaintances saw her orphaned of her parents, they immediately brought her to her uncle. And he, because he lived shut up in his inner cell, ordered her to be placed in the outer one. Now there was a very small window between the two cells, and he trains her carefully: through which he taught her the psalter and the rest of the Scriptures: for she kept vigil with him in the divine praises and chanted psalms together: and just as he, so also she cultivated abstinence; and eagerly advancing in the pursuit of piety she had undertaken, she strove to fulfill and perfect all the virtues of the soul. For the blessed man frequently entreated God on her behalf, that she might keep her mind fixed on Him and not be entangled in cares for earthly things: because her father, departing this life, had left her a great sum of money, which the man of God at once ordered to be distributed to the poor and orphans.

[26] making excellent progress, She also constantly entreated her uncle, saying: Father, I beg and beseech your holiness to pray to the Lord on my behalf, that I may be delivered from absurd and evil thoughts; and be snatched from all the snares of the enemy and the various traps of the devil: and thus, exercising herself eagerly, she kept the Rule of her way of life. The blessed man rejoiced that he saw her thus happily advancing in the best manner of life and in gentleness and remarkable charity toward God. For twenty years she lived with him in abstinence, like a most chaste dove and an immaculate lamb of Christ. for twenty years When this period of years was completed, the fraudulent and cunning serpent, seeing her excelling in the virtues of the solitary life and contemplating only heavenly things, was wasting away with the vehement fire of envy, and was laying snares to ensnare her: and thus at least to strike the blessed man with sorrow and anxiety, and to tear and separate his mind from God somewhat, through the distress conceived on her account. The envious demon, And just as in the first parents, the malign and cunning beast, inflamed with envy, found the serpent as an instrument fit for deceiving: so that it might cause those who dwelt in happiness to inhabit a thorny and toilsome land, so also here, exploring for some time, it found for itself a vessel prepared for destruction.

[27] procures a false-monk lover for her: For there was a certain man, a monk only in name, who very assiduously, under the pretext of edification and conversation, was accustomed to visit the blessed man. But looking through the little window at the blessed woman, the wretch, blinded in mind, desired rather to converse with her, and laid snares for her for a long time, up to nearly a year: until at length, having found an opportunity, he had completely alienated her from the blessed life of the true paradise: for, already seduced and deceived by the serpent, she opened the door of her cell and went out. For by the fraud of the malign dragon, she fell from the eminent state of pious and religious life and purest virginity. by whom she is corrupted And just as the first parents, when they had tasted the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, knew that they were naked; so also she, after she committed the sin, with her heart trembling in terror, cast herself into the dark fog of despair; and rending the haircloth garment with which she was clothed, she beat her breast and struck her face with her hands, wishing to smother herself with excessive grief and deliver herself to death.

[28] and too late abhorring her crime, For she said within herself, lamenting: I henceforth feel myself dead: for I have completely lost the days of my religious exercise and the fruit of my continence and the labor of my tears, vigils, and prayers: I have provoked my God and have killed myself, and afflicted my holy uncle with the bitterest grief, and have been made a mockery for the devil: what is there that I, wretched and unhappy, should live for any longer! Woe to me! What have I allowed to happen to me? Woe to me! Whence have I fallen? How has my mind been darkened? How have I been deceived by the evil one? I do not understand how I fell, I do not know how I was contaminated. What cloud has covered my heart: so that I cannot even consider what I have done? despairing of pardon, Where shall I hide? Where shall I turn? Or into what pit shall I cast myself? Where are the counsels of my blessed uncle? Where is the teaching of his companion and friend Ephrem? Who used to say to me: Watch over yourself, and keep your soul immaculate for your incorruptible and immortal spouse: for your spouse is holy and jealous. Woe to me! What shall I do? I no longer dare to look up at heaven: for I know that I am already dead in the sight of both God and men; nor am I able any longer to gaze with fixed eyes at that window. For how shall I, a sinner and unclean, dare to speak again with that holy man? And if I should dare, will not fire, bursting through the window, immediately burn me? It will be better, therefore, for me to go away from here to another place, where no one knows me: she takes flight. for I have already died once, and no further hope of salvation remains to me. Rising therefore at once, she went to another city, and having changed her former habit, she established herself there in a certain inn.

[29] Under the image of a dove devoured by a dragon While this ruin was happening to this woman, a vision in a dream was shown to the blessed man: for he beheld a huge and horrible dragon, most foul in its very appearance and hissing with strength, which, as if going out from its place, came as far as his cell, and finding there a dove, devoured it, and again returned to its own place and lair. The blessed man awoke and was greatly saddened, and wept bitterly, fearing lest some persecution

Satan had stirred up against the Church of God and had turned many from the true faith; or lest some schism or heresy had arisen in the holy Church of God. Wherefore, falling on his knees, he prayed to God, saying: Most gracious God, and after two days restored, who alone are prescient of all things, You alone know what this great vision means. And again after another two days, he saw the same dragon coming forth from its lair and place, and entering his cell, and placing its head under his feet, and being torn apart: and that dove which it had swallowed was found still alive in its belly without any injury.

[30] Abramius learns of his niece's fall Immediately upon awakening from sleep, he called his niece Mary once and again, still thinking that she was present in her cell, and said: Awake, O daughter, why are you growing sluggish and torpid? For it is now two days since you opened your mouth to praise and glorify God. But when he received no reply from her, and for two full days no longer heard her chanting as was her custom, he understood that the vision he had beheld undoubtedly pertained to her. Wherefore, sighing, he wept bitterly, and pouring forth tears, he said: Woe to me! A cruel wolf has snatched my lamb, and my daughter has been made captive. And raising his voice he said: Christ, Savior of the world, restore to me my lamb Mary, and bring her back to the sheepfold of life: that my old age may not descend with sorrow to the grave; and do not despise my prayer, and sorrowful he prays for her. O Lord; but swiftly send Your grace, that You may pluck her safely from the mouth of the dragon.

[31] After two years found in a house of prostitution Those two days, therefore, which were revealed to him through the vision, are terminated in the course of two years, during which his niece, living dissolutely, spent time outside, as it were in the belly of the most savage Dragon. But the holy man, throughout all that time, day and night, never relaxed his spirit from entreating God on her behalf. When two years had now passed, and he had certainly learned where she was and how she was conducting herself, he asked a certain man known and familiar to him to travel there and carefully investigate everything about her; and to note and observe her location and manner of life. The one who was sent therefore went and learned everything with certainty, and truly reported to him how he had seen her and what kind of life she was leading, and indicated the place. he himself decides to go to her in military dress, And he, being made more certain about her and fully informed that it was indeed she, arranged for military garb with a horse for riding to be brought to him. And having now opened the door of his cell, he went out and dressed in the military garb, and placed a long and deep cap upon his head, so that his face would be veiled: and also carrying with him one gold coin, and mounting the horse, he departed in haste. Just as a spy, wishing to explore a country or some city, assumes the dress of that place so as not to be easily recognized by the inhabitants: Comparable to the great Abraham. so also this blessed Abramius traveled in foreign dress, in order to put the invisible enemy to flight. Truly therefore this excellent second Abraham is worthy of admiration: for the first Abraham, going out to the battle of Kings and striking them, brought back Lot his nephew: and this second Abraham likewise went forth to war against the devil, and having overcome him, brought back Mary his niece with him.

m Greek: nomisma.

CHAPTER V

The conversion and penance of the niece Mary. The holy death of both.

[32] Arriving at the inn After he had therefore arrived at the place, he turned into the inn, where with anxious care he looked around here and there, striving to see her. Then when much time had passed and no opportunity of seeing her was given, smiling he said to the innkeeper: I have heard, O friend, that you have a beautiful girl here: whom, if you would allow it, I would gladly see. But the innkeeper, seeing the white hair of his age, reproved him, and then replied to him thus: There is, he said, a certain girl here, and indeed surpassingly beautiful: for this Mary was almost beyond what nature allows, graced with beauty of form. And when the old man asked the name of the girl, the innkeeper replied that she was called Mary. he pretends to be a lover: Then with a cheerful face he said: I beg you, summon her for me, that today I may feast with her and make merry: for I am very much captivated by love for her, even from hearing alone. And when she had been called and was now present, and the holy uncle saw her in wanton finery and the garb of a harlot, he came very close to pouring forth an immense torrent of tears: which however he repressed with wise and brave resolve; lest perhaps the woman, recognizing him, might immediately seize upon a plan of flight.

[33] As they were sitting therefore and drinking, the blessed man began to speak with her, as if he were some lover burning with the unquenchable fire of love: she, having kissed him, is inwardly moved: for thus the Saint, bravely opposing himself to the devil, received her captive and restored her to the bridal chamber of Christ. But while he was conversing with her, she herself rose and, embracing his neck, received him with kisses. And when in the midst of kissing she had breathed in the most sweet fragrance of his body, fragrant with the scent of the angelic way of life, she remembered her former days, in which she had spent her life in the highest abstinence: wherefore, as if struck by some dart in the heart, she groaned deeply, and bursting into tears, said: Woe to me! Woe to miserable me alone!

[34] The innkeeper, noticing this, said to her: What is it, Lady Mary, as the innkeeper wonders, that you groan so heavily? For two years now you have been living here, and I have never heard such sighs or words of yours: but now I would like you to tell me what has happened to you that is sadder than usual? To whom she said: Would that I had died three years ago, and I would count myself happy. And immediately the blessed old man, lest he be detected, said to her as if with a certain severity: the uncle dissembling, Now in my presence, when you should be indulging in merriment, you begin to recall your sins to memory? O admirable clemency of the divine dispensation! Do you not think the girl said in her heart: How the appearance of this man recalls the form of my uncle? But He who alone is the most gracious and wisest God so arranged that she did not recognize him, lest, struck with fear, she might perhaps flee away. Then the blessed old man, bringing forth his gold coin, gave it to the innkeeper, saying to him: Prepare for us, O friend, a good supper, that I may feast and be merry today with this girl: for from a long distance of travel, out of love for her, I have come here.

[35] O wisdom truly according to God! O truly spiritual understanding! O cunning supplanting of the devil, and reconciliation of a soul! O prudence destructive to the dragon and illuminating to the soul! and feasting merrily with her. He who for all the fifty years of his religious exercise and abstinence had not tasted bread, now fearlessly ate meat, in order to recall a soul captive to the devil. The choir of holy Angels greatly marveled at this inconsideration, or rather magnanimity and wise counsel and skill, of this blessed man, that he so eagerly and without any hesitation ate and drank there, himself also reciting that Gospel saying: Today it is fitting to feast and rejoice: because this my daughter was dead and has come to life again, was lost and is found. Luke 15:32 O wisdom of the wise, and understanding of the intelligent! O astounding miracle and matter to be admired! O indiscretion worthy of admiration and more eminent than any careful discretion, which snatched and saved a devoured soul from the venomous teeth of the dragon!

[36] after supper, leading her into the bedroom, he orders the door barred, After they had therefore feasted together, the girl urged him to enter the bedroom for sleep. But he said: Let us enter. And entering, he saw a high bed prepared, and mounting eagerly he sat upon it. How shall I address you, or how shall I name you, O perfect man of Christ, I truly do not know: shall I call you continent or incontinent? Considered or inconsiderate? Wise or foolish? You who for fifty years of your religious life slept upon one small mat: now with what eagerness have you mounted to sit upon a bed? But all these things you did for the glory and praise of your most venerable way of life: for you undertook a long journey of stages, ate meat and drank wine, and turned into an inn, to save a lost soul: but we, because we are fainthearted, if we even want to speak a useful word with our neighbor, we immediately and inopportunely begin to make distinctions about everything.

[37] As he was sitting therefore upon the bed, the girl said to him: Come and permit me, sir, to remove your shoes. But he said to her: Bar and secure the door well; and then I will allow you to remove them. She endeavored to remove his shoes first: but when he would not permit it, then, having carefully barred the doors,

she came to him. And the old man said to her: Lady and revealing himself Mary, come to me: and when she came to him, he held her firmly by the hand, so that she could not escape from him. Taking also the cap from his head and bursting into tears, he said to her: My daughter Mary, do you not recognize me? Am I not your father Abramius? Do you not know me? Am I not the one who raised you? What has happened to you now, O my daughter? Where is that angelic garment which you formerly had, O dearest daughter? Where is the continence? Where are the tears? Where are the vigils, which were accompanied by such grief of soul and contrition of heart? Where are the sleeping on the ground and the constant genuflections? How have you been cast headlong from the heights of heaven into this abyss of perdition, O my daughter? Why did you not tell me, he invites her to hope for pardon and return, when the storm from hell invaded you? And surely I, with my most beloved Ephrem, would have cried out to Him who is able to save from death. Why have you delivered yourself to the devil as if utterly despairing of your salvation? Why have you so abandoned me and brought me into this intolerable grief? But who among men is without sin, except God alone?

[38] first she is stunned But she, as though utterly terrified, lost her spirit and could not raise her countenance: but like a stone, immovable and as if senseless, she remained in his hands, filled equally with confusion and fear. But the blessed old man again addressed her with tears, saying: Will you not speak to me, my daughter Mary? Was it not on your account that I came here in sorrow? Let this sin be upon me, O daughter. I will answer to God for you on the day of judgment. I will do penance for this sin of yours. And thus until midnight he consoled her and wholesomely admonished her. But when she had taken a little courage, she spoke to him thus: If, she said, and persuaded by many arguments I cannot look at you because of the confusion of my countenance, how shall I dare to invoke the holy and immaculate name of my God, while I am thus contaminated with the filth of impurity? And the blessed man said to her: Let your iniquity be upon me, O daughter: God will require this sin of yours from my hands: only do you hear me and come, let us go together to our place: for behold, our most beloved Ephrem also grieves and weeps for you in turn, and diligently entreats the Lord on your behalf. Wherefore, have mercy on my old age and compassion on my white hairs, my beloved daughter, I beseech you; and now rising, follow me.

[39] And she said to him: If I can still do penance, at last he raises up the suppliant, and God will accept my satisfaction, behold, as you command, I will come with you. I fall down and supplicate your holiness, and I kiss your holy footprints, because you have thus demonstrated the depths of your piety toward me, and have come here to snatch me from the snare of the devil. And placing her head at his feet, she lamented the whole night, saying: What shall I render to You, Lord my God, for all these things which You have granted me? And when dawn had now come, the blessed old man said to her: Rise, daughter, and let us go straight from here to our cell. And she, replying, said to him: I have here a little gold and a few garments, and what do you bid me do with them? And the blessed man replied and said to her: Leave them here: for all these things are the portion of the evil one. And rising immediately, they went out; and placing her on the horse, he went on ahead, rejoicing. And just as a shepherd, when he finds a lost sheep, and takes her with him, with joy lifts it upon his shoulders: so this blessed Abramius, rejoicing in his heart, completed the journey with this niece of his.

[40] she becomes an outstanding model of penance, And when he had arrived at his own place, he enclosed her in the inner cell, in which he had formerly maintained his dwelling: and he himself remained in the outer one. There, clothed in haircloth, she persisted in the greatest humility of spirit and in lamentation and many tears; and she spent herself in constant vigils and the most rigorous labors of abstinence, eagerly pursuing the goal of penance and boldly falling down before God in supplication. For this was truly sincere and true penance: truly the medicine and restoration of the soul. Through such a contest, all ought to confess and give thanks to God. For who is so stony and hard of heart, that when he hears her mournful and lamentable voice, he is not himself also moved to compunction, to praise and glorify God? For our repentance, compared with her penance, is merely a shadow and an image. For with such zeal and patience and solicitude she unceasingly returned to God, asking to be forgiven for what she had sinned; that she even prayed for a sign from heaven, whether her penance had been accepted. Therefore the most gracious and most merciful God, who wishes no one to perish, but all to return to repentance, she is even granted the grace of healings so received her worthy satisfaction and prayers, that He even granted her the gifts of healings as a confirmation of the matter.

[41] Blessed Abramius lived yet another ten years, Abramius aged 70, of solitary life 50, and seeing her sincere and true penance and remarkable eagerness of spirit, he glorified and magnified God: and so in a good old age, this truly holy servant of God rested and completed the course of his life, being seventy years old. Of which he spent fifty in the solitary way of life, with great eagerness and contest and admirable abstinence, in humility and unfeigned charity; not showing respect of persons, as is customary among many, to prefer one in honor and to despise another. And in so great an interval of time he never at all grew torpid in his way of life or acted with less vigor; nor did he change any rule of his most excellent and most religious life: but he was always so disposed, as though he were to die daily.

[42] he happily completes his contests: This was the life and conduct of Blessed Abramius; this the manner of life most acceptable to God; these the contests of his patience and endurance. And like a gazelle from snares, so he departed from this corruptible and mortal life: nor did he ever at all permit his thought and mind, established and strengthened in his good purpose, to be turned backward. And indeed these were the contests and labors of this Blessed man; which we have now here thus written, for the consolation and devotion of all who wish to attain eternal life, to the praise and glory of God: from whom all things opportune and useful are abundantly supplied. The remaining virtues of his we have described elsewhere.

[43] That blessed Mary also lived another five years after the death of her uncle: as also Mary, surviving her uncle by five years: and so she most piously and eagerly ordered the remainder of her life, that night and day without ceasing she did not stop entreating God with lamentation and tears: to such a degree that even those who often passed by that place, hearing the voice of her wailing, were moved with compassion, stopped in their steps, and joined their weeping with hers, and bewailed their own sins. By the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ: to whom be glory and power, now and always, and unto the eternal ages of ages. Amen.

such is now found in the extant works of Saint Ephrem of Edessa: which

it is not surprising, since this Ephrem is different from our author.

EPILOGUE

From MS. and printed editions.

[44] Alas for me, my most beloved ones, since they indeed have fallen asleep, The author laments the languor of his own penance and have come to the Lord with all confidence: whose mind was bound by no worldly affairs whatever, but only to divine charity: but I have remained unready and unprepared in that same will. And behold, the infinite tempest of winter has seized me; and finding me naked and stripped of good works, I wonder within myself, dearest ones, how I daily do penance. For one hour I build, and the next I overturn what was built. At evening I say, comparing it with their fervor, Tomorrow I will repent: but when morning comes, puffed up, I let the day pass. Again at evening I say, At night I will keep vigil, and with tears I will beseech God to be gracious to my sins: but when night has come, I will rather be sated with sleep. Behold those who received money with me strive to trade day and night, that they may gain the praise of commendation and rule over ten cities: but I, because of my laziness, have hidden it in the earth, and my Lord will draw near: and behold my heart trembles, and I bewail the days of my negligence, having no excuses to offer.

[44] Have mercy on me, You who alone are God without sin, and save me, You who alone are kind and merciful: he implores the divine mercy: for besides You, the blessed Father, and Your only-begotten Son, who was incarnate for us, and the Holy Spirit who gives life to all things, I know no other, nor have I believed in any other. And now remember me, O lover of mankind, and lead me out of the prison of my iniquities: for both are Yours, Lord; both when You willed me to enter this world, and when You shall command me to depart from it. Remember me, defenseless, and save me a sinner by Your grace, which has been my help, refuge, and rightful boast in this world. by whose help he has hitherto somehow avoided sins. May You Yourself protect me under Your wings on that dreadful and terrible day: for You know, You who are the searcher of the heart and kidneys, that I have avoided many paths of wickedness and scandal. I abhor the wickedness of scandals, the cunning of depravity, and the defense of heretics. And this not of myself: but by Your grace, by which my mind was illuminated. Look, I beseech You, Holy Lord, save me in Your kingdom, and deign to bless me, together with all who have been pleasing before You: for to You belongs glory, adoration, and magnificence, to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.