Basil the Younger

ON ST. BASIL THE YOUNGER, ANCHORITE AT CONSTANTINOPLE,

AROUND THE YEAR 952.

Preliminary Commentary.

Basil the Younger, anchorite at Constantinople (St.)

[1] When in the eighth century of Christ a fierce war had arisen in the East against the sacred images of Christ and the Saints under the Iconoclast Emperors, and had been often renewed in the following century, very many Bishops of the Eastern Churches shone forth, illustrious for learning, religion, and piety: whose footsteps, after the sincere veneration of sacred images was established, others afterwards followed, Various Saints flourish in the East, and are frequently mentioned throughout this entire work of ours. Pre-eminent above the rest in the royal city of Constantinople, before the very eyes of the impious Emperors, were the defenders of the true faith, and after the heresy was conquered, other lovers of a holier life, whom it would be lengthy to enumerate. Among the Patriarchs of Constantinople, inscribed in the tables of the Roman Martyrology, are St. Germanus on May 12, especially at Constantinople, St. Tarasius on February 25, St. Nicephorus on March 13, St. Methodius on June 14, St. Ignatius, son of the Emperor Michael, on October 23, St. Antonius Cauleas on February 12. To these the Greeks add St. Stephen, son of the Emperor Basil the Macedonian and predecessor of the said St. Antonius, on May 17, then St. Nicholas on the 15th, others the 16th of May, and St. Polyeuctus, whose Acts we illustrated on February 5. In the same times some Empresses eminent for sanctity flourished: Theodora, wife of the Iconoclast Theophilus, whose Acts we illustrated on February 11, then Sts. Irene and Theophanon, recorded by the Greeks on August 13 and December 16.

[2] In the same time flourished St. Basil the Younger, eminent for holiness of life

and the power of miracles, who died at Constantinople in extreme old age, among these St. Basil the Younger, as his Acts record, written by his disciple Gregory, a pious, prudent, and circumspect man, who divides his writing into two parts, as it were: the first of which contains the deeds of St. Basil before Gregory came to know him, and who testifies in number 26 that he received those things from trustworthy men who called upon God as witness of the truth of what they said. The second part of the Life contains those things which Gregory, having become his disciple, learned and saw as wondrous things done before his eyes. Life written by the disciple Gregory: This Life exists in the Greek codex of Cardinal Mazarin, on cotton paper, of considerable antiquity, which the Reverend Father Francis Combefis of the Order of Friars Preachers of the Congregation of St. Louis, most well known to the world through his many published books, discovered by Francis Combefis, from a Greek manuscript, having unearthed it from there, transmitted it to us on account of his singular affection for the Lives of the Saints, and calls it in the accompanying letter an excellent monument not only for fostering piety but also by which much historical light accrues to the Emperor Basil the Macedonian and his posterity and successors: Leo, Alexander, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and his father-in-law Romanus Lecapenus with his sons. Furthermore, he recognizes that the author Gregory of this Life wrote with such faith that, within the limits of human faith, scarcely a greater can be found: who, although he himself was not a monk (indeed he also possessed his own estate in Thrace), nevertheless imitated as best he could the continence and abstinence of monks, having been taught the first rudiments of a more religious life by a monk, as he writes in number 26, and constantly practicing celibacy, and accustomed to spend the whole of Lent alone amid prayers and continuous bodily mortifications. The same, in number 55, suggests that he wrote another book about the marvels of this his holy Father: which perhaps still lies hidden somewhere, and seems to have been far more extensive, containing many things here passed over for the sake of brevity.

[3] There exist, as the same Combefis noted and we ourselves saw in Paris, in the same manuscript codex, the clearly illustrious Acts of Andrew the Fool for Christ, and they are most extensive, composed for the use of some church: with Nicephorus, Priest of the Great Church, as author and master and guide of the same Andrew's way of life, during the reigns of the Emperor Leo the Great and then of Zeno Augustus. The said Andrew was also the pious instructor and spiritual Father, as it were, of the then young Epiphanius, Grand Archbishop of Constantinople. There also exists the Life of St. Paisius, written by his brother St. Colobus, who was also in part his companion in asceticism. There are also other outstanding portents of true sanctity in that codex, which therefore will rightly be reckoned among ecclesiastical books, having been written perhaps for the use of some monastery, and most suitable for inciting those who exercise themselves in piety by the examples of such heroes. These and other things the said Combefis provided from his singular friendship. The aforesaid Andrew the Fool is venerated on May 28, whose Acts we have also found in the Vatican Library, Codex 1574, and have had them copied for us, to be published on that day.

[4] Moreover, Gregory did not come to the knowledge of the aforesaid St. Basil except after the death of Christophorus, son of Romanus Lecapenus, it seems St. Basil died in the year 952 or 944. who died in the month of August, Indiction IV, in the year 931. Basil then survived, though old, for many more years (as the context of events confirms), and died (as the Acts have in number 54) on the twenty-sixth day of March, after the feast of the Lord's Annunciation had been celebrated, with half of Lent already passed, which temporal marker leads us to a probable conjecture about the year of his death. For the Greeks, who have a Lent of seven full weeks, the midpoint of their Lent falls on the Wednesday of the week which is our third, their fourth. The Easter to be sought must therefore fall within the 19th of April: so that this death should not have preceded the midpoint of Lent; and so that it should not have followed too long after, the date cannot be pushed higher than April 14 in seeking Easter. But given this, hardly any year can be more conveniently assigned to this death than the year 952, which had Easter on the 18th of April, and the midpoint of Lent two days before the 26th of March. But if you take the half of Lent more broadly for that entire week which is the middle one among the seven weeks, the year 944 would not be incongruent, when Easter falling on April 14, the death of the Saint would have followed on the second day after the said week was completed. Other years that can be found (such as 939, likewise showing Easter on April 14, or 955 or 957, the said feast having on the former the 15th, on the latter the 19th) either do not leave a sufficient span of years for the events done after the above-mentioned Christophorus's death, or make the Saint too long-lived: since, having been brought to Constantinople as a man of middle age in the 10th year of the Emperors Leo and Alexander, that is, in the year of Christ 896, he would have to have been close to a centenarian in the year 952, so that his life cannot be supposed to be much longer.

LIFE

written by the disciple Gregory

From the Greek manuscript of Cardinal Julius Mazarin, discovered by the R.P. Francis Combefis of the Order of Preachers.

Basil the Younger, anchorite at Constantinople (St.)

BY THE DISCIPLE GREGORY.

PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR.

[1] The just man shall be in everlasting remembrance, says the most divine and among the Prophets most illustrious David: indicating, that is, that the marks of the virtues by which the Just have shone remain forever, if they have been set forth for the common benefit by those who, instructed in the knowledge of divine things, exist in each age. Ps. 111:7 But they rightly write such things, having obtained the grace of speech: but I, The author excuses his inadequacy. a tiny drop, a dry spring, a muddy lake, a man of no worth, how shall I dare to open my mouth and speak the awesome prodigies and miracles of such and so great a Father? I am therefore confounded, uncertain in mind, and do not know what to do. Indeed I wish to be silent: but I dread the judgment of my Lord, unless I deposit with you as excellent bankers the talent entrusted to me as a faithful servant, to be multiplied by the very consummation of the work; and I truly fear lest what happened to that wicked and lazy servant should befall me, if through silence I bury it in the ground. But again, if I begin to speak, I rightly fear that I may thereby incur blame for myself, undertaking such great things for which I am utterly unworthy. For if there are, as Solomon says, those who call wise and prudent men useless, what will they say to me, the most contemptible of all? Prov. 1:7 Nevertheless, since I know for certain that whoever loves God from the heart will forgive me, and will not charge me either with rusticity or temerity in that which I undertake compelled by the Father's command, since the Lord readily pardons those who attempt something; I shall immediately enter upon the narrative itself, relying on your prayers and the favor of the Lord, to whom what is done with all one's might is acceptable: otherwise not even the tongue of Rhetors could accomplish all that pertains to him, much less I who am utterly uneloquent and unskilled.

And indeed the things that concern his birth, whence he was sprung and by whom nurtured, The lineage and homeland of the Saint are unknown. or how he became a monk, I neither have to say nor have I found anyone to tell me: nor did he himself ever reveal anything of the sort about himself, always rightly striving to conceal his good deeds, as one who was rich in true humility. Yet even so disposed he could not entirely escape notice, since God makes manifest His intimate servant, according to him who said prophetically in God's name: Whoever shall glorify me, I will glorify him. 1 Kings 2:32 The narrative must therefore begin from here.

CHAPTER I

St. Basil's captivity, torments, liberation: then his first lodging and miracles in the city.

[2] The Emperor Basil, surnamed the Macedonian, begot four sons: Constantine, Leo, Stephen, and Alexander. Of these, Constantine was taken from the living while still very young: Stephen, created Archbishop of Constantinople, was a man conspicuous for every praise of virtue. But he too was cut short in a brief time, receiving from his physicians continuous purgatives on account of a troublesome burning, by the use of which his stomach was excessively cooled; and having fallen into an inexplicable disease, During the reign of Leo and Alexander he was consumed by death. And his father Basil, who had killed his predecessor Michael and thus obtained the scepter, when he was at the point of death, saw the same Michael crying out to him and saying: What did I do or in what did I harm you, that you so cruelly wished to kill me? And he himself, having thus published these words, made an end of living, leaving his sons Leo and Alexander in the kingdom. In the tenth year of their reign, certain Magistriani sent to Asia for some administrative purpose, holding their way through certain pathless mountains, fell upon the Saint, who was then dwelling there, Basil captured as a spy, clad in a mean garment and of rustic appearance, as one who had been raised in the mountains. Thinking him to be a spy, they dismounted from their horses, brought to Constantinople: and having seized him, they brought him with them as they returned to the royal city. And when report had been made to the Emperors concerning him, he was handed over to a certain Samonas the Agarene, a Patrician in rank, to be examined: who he was, whence he came, and what he was called by name.

[3] Samonas therefore, having received him into his house, sitting with great pomp as at a tribunal (being a lover of novelties and full of pride, puffed up by the abundance of his riches), ordered him to be brought before him immediately. where, being asked by Samonas who he is and whence, But the Saint, standing fearlessly in spirit, not being willing to bend his knee or address the one calling him, as is the custom with Princes; Samonas, greatly indignant, gnashed his teeth and said: Answer us, who and whence you are, and what your name is. But the Saint said absolutely nothing in reply: but stood quietly, looking at him with calm eyes. Then Samonas again said: Tell us who you are; for those who brought you here say you are a spy. But you, the Saint replied, who are you yourself and whence? We, said Samonas, are questioning you to answer us: but who I am, let that not be your concern. and answering nothing, If, however, you also wish to learn this, I am Samonas the Patrician, the Paracoemomenus of those who now hold the scepters of Empire. Tell us then, who and whence you are, and what your way of life is. The Saint said to him: I too am a stranger, one of those who dwell on the earth. Rightly then, Samonas infers, they say about you that you are a spy and have come to learn the state of the Roman republic. At this the Saint was silent, and however much he was pressed by those standing by to say who he was, he stood in silence.

[4] Then Samonas ordered green chestnut rods and dry bullhide whips and other instruments of torture to be made ready, he is ordered to be flogged once, hoping that, seeing these, he might conceive fear and tell his questioner who he was. And when even so he remained unmoved,

he ordered him to be stretched out by hands and feet and savagely flogged with bullhide whips, with a herald crying out: Tell who you are and you will be freed from the blows. But he uttered no voice, and bravely endured until his vital strength failed. Thus left, now believed about to die, carrying him as an inanimate trunk, they threw him into prison. On the following day, that cruel beast, sitting upon his lofty throne, ordered him, if he still lived, to be brought and presented. Those who were sent were therefore astonished when they saw him standing before the doors of the prison, with the locks of the doors intact, and indeed healthy: and they asked him how he had come out. But the Saint, saying nothing to them, went with them to be presented to the Prince. When some, running ahead, narrated to him what had happened, and again, he too was astonished at hearing this: nevertheless, both he and all who were present thinking him a magician, he said to him: I will quickly refute your magical arts; and ordered him to be stretched out on the ground and beaten without mercy with rods, until he should tell who he was or whence. But the Saint in no way cared to respond, although he was beaten to such a degree that he was already entirely bruised by the blows of the rods. And so, while all were even more astonished at the incredible constancy of his maintaining silence, the Paracoemomenus said: He has reason to boast, saying that he conquered them by his silence; but by the salvation of the Emperors I will not allow him to mock us.

[5] then for an entire week: He therefore orders him to be beaten with three hundred lashes and as many rods for the whole week, as he bravely endured such tribulation and concealed the power of his virtue. For, accustomed to spend his whole life in deserted places, in rags and barefoot, feeding there on herbs alone, and by that exercise raised to the highest moderation of bodily passions, he did not wish to reveal his virtue, on account of Him who said: Let not your left hand know what your right hand does. Matt. 6:3 For he who so displays his virtue receives his reward and loses eternal glory: but he who seeks the latter conceals himself and, even when flogged, is silent about who he is, and so is counted a Martyr, whoever is of this kind. and nevertheless continuing to be silent, After that week had passed, in which the Saint, having been beaten, had patiently endured his pains, again that accursed one, sitting down, ordered him to be brought. Turning his truculent eyes upon the one present, he said: Most wicked of men, how long will you conceal the fraud in your heart? Tell now at least who you are and whence. The Blessed one replied: Those who secretly practice the works of Sodom, as you do, are rightly called most wicked. He said this because Samonas was a eunuch and handsome of face. he is suspended by one foot head downward: Therefore, confused before those standing by and kindled with anger, he commanded straps to be brought, and with his hands tied behind his back and a rope twisted around his sides and right foot, he ordered the Saint to be suspended head downward from a beam, until he should say who he was and whence: and sealing the door of the place where he left him thus inhumanly suspended with his signet ring, he departed; while all were indignant and secretly murmuring at what was being done.

[6] After three days had passed in this manner, Samonas returned and opened the door of the prison, then after three days found healthy and finding the Saint just as he had left him, with a cheerful face (as if he had suffered nothing unpleasant), he was astonished; and approaching closer, he said: Now at last tell who and whence you are, and I will release you from this torment. Then, since the Saint was unwilling to say anything in reply, the cruel man reluctantly permitted him to be taken down. When he was released, he stood healthy through the grace of Christ and appeared entirely unharmed and sound. All were amazed and marveled who were present: Samonas alone said: Did we not say well that this man is a magician? For behold, not even his foot has weakened in the slightest. But now I will confute his spells: call me the master of beasts. When this man was present, Samonas said: thrown to a lion, Prepare the fiercest lion for tomorrow, and do not give him his usual food this day: and we shall see whether he will overcome the lion also. With many people gathering the next day at the spectacle, and the beast roaring with hunger, the Saint was thrown to it to be devoured. But the lion, on seeing him, began to tremble, and approaching gently rolled itself before his feet like a lamb. The crowd, present at the admirable spectacle, cried Kyrie eleison and demanded the Saint be released, nor is he harmed by it; since he had been brought to trial without cause. But that wicked and miserable man could not even then understand that this was a man dear to God: but hardened his heart against him; although, even as he watched, the Saint stroked the lion and, seizing it by the ears, showed it to the people, saying: Behold the lamb, behold the lamb.

[7] He therefore ordered the Saint to be thrown headlong into the sea that same night: finally cast into the sea which was done by the servants in the third watch of the night. But He who said cannot deceive: When you pass through water I will be with you, and rivers shall not overwhelm you; and: The Lord guards those who love Him. Immediately Is. 44:2; Ps. 144:20 restored to shore by dolphins. two dolphins, coming together, received him upon their backs and, conveying him to the shore of the Seventh Quarter, they withdrew. He, with the bonds on his feet and hands loosed by the invisible command of God, raised himself and proceeded toward the city in the morning. The Golden Gate was not yet open: he therefore sat down before it to sleep a little; and at the same time a man arriving who was suffering from a fever also lay down, to rest a little near the man of God, trembling and burning from the violence of the disease. The Saint, seeing him in such distress and moved by compassion toward him, laid his hand upon him, and waiting at the city gate heals a man with fever and having prayed, healed him. The healed man, astonished at so great a miracle, fell before the feet of the Saint and begged that he would not disdain to come to his house, although he was himself unworthy of such a guest, being indeed a man of humble and by no means splendid condition.

[8] The Saint went with him joyfully: and when both had entered the house and the time for lunch had come, and invited, he turns aside to his house, the man ordered his wife to lay the table: upon which, when the Saint had said a blessing, they ate together and gave thanks to God. Meanwhile the man narrated to his wife how he had been healed by the Saint, by the mere invocation of Christ and the imposition of his hands. The woman, being a lover of God and of monks for God's sake, and being most religious, on hearing these things exulted with joy that the Saint had turned aside to her house: and they both asked him to tell them whence he was and whither he was tending. To whom the Saint replied: Whence I am, I do not now need to say; but what is now happening you will perhaps hear hereafter. I wish to go for prayer to the monastery of the Non-handmade image, he reveals himself to him and his wife, namely, that image which no one fabricated, but the Theotokos herself, as the story goes, being present at the work, formed with her own hand her own likeness, preserved to this day; and therefore many signs of divine power are done there for those who approach with faith. When he had completed this of his own will and returned again to his hosts, they persisted in asking to be permitted to know who he was. The Saint said: I am the one whom Samonas yesterday cast into the sea; but my Lord, whom I have served from my youth, by means known to Himself has preserved me safe. At the same time he explained to them what dire tortures that cruel man had exercised upon him. Having understood these things, the couple marveled (since they had already heard about him beforehand and how Samonas had tortured him, as the story had spread through the whole city) and begged him consenting to stay with them: to be willing to remain with them for the whole time of his life. The holy man assented to their request: and they prepared a lamp for him in a private cell, so that he might serve the Lord as was his custom in supplications and prayers.

[9] Who could suffice to describe the abundance of tears which he constantly poured out, spending the night in prayer; who the innumerable genuflections, he devotes himself to the exercise of virtues, who the continuous vigils to recount? For sleep would have tamed the sleepless stars before it did his eyelids with the necessity of sleeping. He had so divested himself of anger that he seemed nothing other than an immovable and lifeless column: a second Moses and David in meekness, simple as Jacob, innocent as Job, and more beneficent from his poverty than Abraham. Therefore, while he dwelt, as has been said, with John (for that was the man's name), within not many days very many began to come to him with their sick: by the gift of miracles some of whom he healed immediately by prayer alone and the imposition of hands; others he delayed in healing, to first take counsel for their souls: nor were there lacking those who came there for this sole purpose, to profit from his daily admonitions. And since he had also received from God the grace of prophecy, he rebuked not a few for things they had done wrongly: reproving adulterers and fornicators, he called them asses and mules; he provoked the avaricious and stingy to almsgiving with his rebukes; and shines with the spirit of prophecy. he put to flight magicians and soothsayers with the blow of his staff, hoping perhaps by that terror to make them desist from their impiety: whence it came about that all these greatly feared and revered him in amazement. He utterly turned away from unbelievers, held those greedy for vainglory in contempt, and repelling the proud, called them serpents and offspring of vipers. But all good people he honored with special esteem, and received those who came to him with a kind face and honeyed speech, and bade them sit near him. For with a prophetic eye, as they say, he regarded all who came to him and knew what vice held each one captive, and he knew accurately the right deeds of the good: in a word, he knew what state each person was in, having obtained such great grace from God that he was named by all a second Samuel in our days.

calls him Emperor. The author of the Translation of St. Severinus, Apostle of Noricum, in volume 1 of January, page 1098, honors both with the title of Emperor.

CHAPTER II

The disaster of Constantine Ducas foretold by St. Basil.

[10] When Leo, who then wielded the scepters, had departed the living, and his brother Alexander likewise died after a space of one year and a little more, the latter's nephew from his brother Leo, Constantine, succeeded to the Empire, together with his mother Zoë. Since he was still a very young boy, Tutors of Constantine Porphyrogenitus as his tutors and curators there were appointed Archbishop Nicholas of Constantinople and John, surnamed Garidas, the Master of the Palace, and others with them, to preserve the Imperial dignity lest someone might perhaps seize it from the boy. When supreme power was entrusted to these, certain unsuitable things, as it is said, were being done in the Republic, and barbarian nations, taking license, ravaged the surroundings of the city, Constantine Ducas, most illustrious for military glory with no one sufficient to repel them. And so, with the city itself in tumult against Nicholas as not governing rightly, he with his associates took counsel that they should write to Constantine Ducas, then commanding the eastern army, to come and take up the scepters of Empire together with the boy Constantine born in the purple, so that while the boy was being raised in the palace, he himself, as a vigorous man and most experienced in wars, might oppose the foreigners. And indeed the man was most dexterous and renowned for trophies taken from the enemy, and a miracle even to his adversaries themselves; for when asked repeatedly how one man could put them to flight, they responded unwillingly and flushed with shame: When he goes forth into battle, from his arms a fire leaping into our faces, and a like one proceeding from the spirit of his horse and burning us, casts us to the ground. He himself, when asked about this same matter, did not conceal the grace divinely given to him, and said: When I was sleeping once in my youth, a most illustrious lady clad in purple stood by me, and with her a fiery horse, and arms on the horse breathing fire: which she compelled me, even unwilling and terrified, to put on, and to mount the horse, addressing me with these encouraging words: Those who blaspheme God and my Son shall melt like wax before your face. And having said these things, she flew away.

[11] they invite him to share the Empire, And these things about the man himself thus far. When his appointed guardians had written to him about assuming the Empire, he replied that he was by no means equal to so great a task. They wrote again: because the whole Roman Republic demands you as Emperor. But he again, hesitating, wrote back in these words: I ought not to be set up against the Lord's Anointed, even though he is of immature age, and thus sin against my God: moreover I fear that there may be treachery and that you may wish to remove me. When they received these letters, they bound themselves with an oath, giving assurance through the inviolate and life-giving wood that they intended nothing of the sort he suspected; but in simplicity of heart and sincere spirit invited him to the Empire, and persuade the hesitant by oath to come to the city. sending their phylacteries as a pledge. Made more confident by these, and taking his household with him, he set out for the Royal City; and arriving there at sunrise, celebrated with immense praise by his followers, he went to the Palace, received at his very entrance with an unlucky omen and one that presaged future slaughter. he rashly rushes to his doom, For the sun, then most brilliant, as it were distilled a drop of blood upon the earth. But Nicholas and those with him, seeing him enter, changed their plan and closed the entrance to the Emperors. But he pitched a tent in the theater of the Hippodrome, with all the Magnates coming there to him and greeting him as Emperor. Meanwhile all who had any familiarity with the Saint previously foretold by Basil. and had heard from him that the fatal outcome would occur, precisely three months before, remained secluded in their houses, while he himself, from the time he had predicted the event, made no end of weeping, groaning, and lamenting. Then two sons of a certain Magnate, a Protospatharius, came to him, asking whether it would be expedient for them to go and join the guard of the same Ducas. To whom he said: Do not, sons, do not do so; nor take such desperate counsels; otherwise one of you will fall by the sword, and the other, with ears and nose cut off, will barely escape death. Both, being disobedient to the Saint, suffered what he had predicted. Ducas, however, badly counseled, procured a bad result for himself and his people.

[12] For when he could have besieged the faithless in the Palace, For when he should have acted patiently, held all the entrances of the Palace under siege so that nothing could be brought in for food, and thus compelled those pressed by hunger to open the gates as suppliants and receive him within the palace of their own accord, he refused to do so; but resolved with his men to enter through the gate called the Chalke, smashing its hinges with axes: having first bound all his men with terrible execrations not to draw their swords, not to hurl a javelin or spear against anyone, but to enter without bloodshed. If they, he said, should kill us who do nothing against them, we shall contend against them before the dread tribunal of the great God, that they have deceived and murdered us by their oath. Having said these things, together with his companions he proceeded to the gate called, as was said, the Chalke, and began to enter: unarmed, wishing to enter it with his men but those who were in the palace hastily gathered archers and began to hurl missiles from the wall. Therefore those around Ducas, wounded by arrows, crying out to him, demanded that he allow arms to be taken up against the adversaries. But while he forbade those who said such things, one of the most skilled archers, having learned who Ducas was, drawing his bow forcefully, wounded him in the side under his right hand: he is wounded by an arrow from the wall; and he, crying out, Woe is wretched me, we came here badly, immediately sank to the ground. With the rest struck with terror and beginning to fall back, those who were inside, made bolder and drawing their swords, opened the gates and attacked him: and is killed by the armed men who rush out: and first they killed the Protostrator of Ducas, then many others, and afterwards the man himself. Nor did they spare the rest, but cut them down, impeded by flight and fear and pressed into narrow space, like mowing grain.

[13] Some would nevertheless have escaped the slaughter had not those merciless and harsh men immediately sent orders to all the gates, commanding them to be kept carefully shut, his followers are cruelly treated, and so, having made a search for fugitives, they stayed their hand from none of them. For many of the Magistrates and Patricians who were known to have openly sat with Ducas in the Hippodrome, they partly ordered to be slain by the sword, partly to be driven outside the walls onto gallows; others, with their eyes gouged out, to be blinded; others, with their sinews cut, to be disabled, or to be cast into exile: many, who had harmed no one, to be flogged; the property of many to be confiscated; so that one could see the great city suffering what it would not have endured even from barbarians who had taken and conquered it. Moreover, those who had killed Ducas and his son cut off their heads and brought them to Nicholas, and the bodies of the slain are sunk in the sea, or rather Agricola, and his accomplices; who, recognizing them, bestowed no ordinary honors on their bearers. And since even then satiety of the cruelty they had exercised did not seize those wicked men, they ordered the bodies of all the slain to be thrown into the sea, commanding the city Prefect, neither reverencing the communion of faith, nor of nation, nor even of family, so as to allow them to be granted at least sacred burial. But placed on carts, naked, bloody, mutilated, those savage beasts, dragging them through public places, cast them into the sea like dead dogs. Some say, however, that those who gave themselves over to death were more than three thousand, bound by oath not to draw sword or any other weapon. their innocence attested by miracles. Concerning those who hung on gallows, many trustworthy persons testified that they had seen many times a star descending from heaven at night upon each one of them and shining until the time of dawn, with God manifestly showing that such slaughter had been unjustly exercised against the innocent. For indeed, after Ducas was killed, the others should have been spared, who had raised neither hand nor voice. Alas for the wretchedness of those who, perpetrating such things, so mercilessly shed innocent blood! Woe to them on the dreadful day of judgment, when the Lord shall require the blood of their brothers from their hands.

[14] When those execrable men had seen the head of Ducas, as we were just saying, they mocked it and ordered it to be fixed on a pole and carried around through the whole city for display, so that, they said, those who had placed their hopes in him might be confounded, The cruelty of the Patriarch Nicholas rightly execrated. and finally to be thrown into the sea with the rest of the body. And he indeed perished in this manner, but his soul, worthy of eternal memory, the bosom of Abraham received. For he did not, as we said, tyrannically seize the palace, but relied on the sanctity of terrible oaths: and though he could have attacked it with arms or set it on fire and thus avenged himself on those who were inside, he did nothing of the sort, but committing his cause and himself to God, through that tribulation obtained the kingdom of heaven. But this crime was not so much to be imputed to those who were guarding the palace as to the pastor of the rational sheep, whom I would call Hettilaos rather than Nicholas. For with polluted hands expounding the Gospels, he did not hear the One saying to him through them: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep; but appeared entirely contrary to this, slaughtering the same sheep as though he were heir of the sword. John 10:11-12 It would indeed have been better for him if he were heard at least as a hireling in place of a shepherd, according to the evangelical saying: The hireling, who is not the shepherd, sees the wolf coming and abandons the sheep and flees; rather than himself turning from shepherd into wolf and devouring the sheep. But these things have been said, dearest ones, so that it may be manifestly clear how remarkable was the gift of the prophetic spirit with which our holy Father Basil shone, who set forth the future no differently than if they were things already past, to his disciples,

his more intimate ones.

CHAPTER III

Admonitions given to Saronites, the son-in-law of the Emperor Romanus: blows returned: proceedings in the Palace, and with the leading Matrons.

[15] In the days of the Emperor Romanus, Saronites, his son-in-law through the marriage of his daughter, a man of haughty and proud spirit, Divinely taught that Saronites was plotting tyranny was deliberating within himself how he might gain control of the Empire, with those who held power, seven in number and themselves also his relatives, removed from the scene. He directed the greater part of his hatred against Constantine Porphyrogenitus, himself also a son-in-law of Romanus through another of his daughters, the son of the Emperor Leo: although that impure one was hostile not to him alone but to the whole Roman nation, ready to devour them all like a wild beast, if the arm of the protecting Lord had permitted it. When therefore he, deceived and deluded by the noonday demon, was meditating within himself by what means in particular his plot might succeed, our most holy Father, dwelling not far from the very residence of the same Saronites, learned by divine means what he was contriving, and thus spoke to himself: Do you see what counsel that most hostile man turns over, and indeed against the Lord? I will go to the man and convict him: perhaps he will desist from that foolish plot.

[16] Therefore when on a certain day Saronites was entering the palace with great pomp and display, he warns him to withdraw from his wicked intention, the Saint, meeting him, spoke thus: Why does your heart meditate evil against the inheritance of Christ? No part has been granted to you by the Lord, nor a measuring line in the lot of the Empire. Be quiet then and do not labor in vain; lest the Lord become angry with you and you lose this very dignity of Patrician which you now seem to possess. Hearing these things, he, swelling and full of anger, attacked the Saint with his own hand and did not cease striking his face with a riding whip; and having loaded him with many insults, he departed. But the Blessed one, counting these as nothing, the following day again presented himself to Saronites, as the great Isaac once did to Valens, and ordered him to desist from his very bad intention. insulted and beaten, and repeating the same the next day, But he, bearing the repeated admonition most indignantly, ordered his servants to seize the man and take him away and guard him carefully at his home until he returned. Having returned, he ordered thorny rods from a pomegranate tree to be made ready, and when the Saint was brought before him, he said: Come, slanderer, what evil demon drove you to such audacity that you would meet me with such boldness and publicly rave such things against me? Do you not know that as the Emperor's son-in-law I hold the first place in the palace? That the abundance of my riches is as great as the sand on the seashore? he is seized and brought to the house of Saronites, and rebuked by him Do you not know, moreover, what a multitude of servants, of possessions, of flocks and herds I abound with, how infinite the silver and gold, and with these the glory and splendor that flow to me from God, from Kings, and from Nobles? You therefore, who are a most worthless dotard, utterly despicable and contemptible beggar, tell me, before I deliver you to death, how you dared to say such things to me publicly. The Blessed one replied: What? Do you think the fraud you conceal in your heart is hidden? The Lord Himself has revealed to me what you are about to attempt against the Emperors. Put down therefore this evil intention and meditate rebellion no longer: for I testify to you that unless you abandon such a plan, evils are prepared for you by the Lord, and your memory will be blotted out from the earth.

[17] Then that madman, boiling with anger and driven to fury, ordered the Blessed one to be stretched out on the ground and savagely beaten with rods: he is ordered to be cruelly beaten once So that, he said, the spirit of false prophecy that dwells in him may be expelled. But when he was being struck in this manner, he spoke no more than a lifeless piece of wood, and only the noise of the rods was heard outside. At length, though reluctantly, the impure one ordered him to be released and threw him into prison, strictly commanding him to be guarded; and again the following day, after being beaten for a long time with ox-sinews, he said: See that you are not hereafter reckless, not proud, not prone to insults, and do not presume to prophesy what you do not understand. After he had beaten him enough, he again shut him up, and the following day, having eaten and drunk well, he again ordered clubs to be used against him. The door of the house happened to be open, and the pious wife of John, Helena, passing by that way, and again; saw the Saint being so cruelly tortured, and entering the courtyard without the doorkeeper's knowledge, she fell upon the Blessed one with bitter weeping, crying out to those who were striking him: Beat me, a sinner and intemperate woman, not the light, the shepherd, and father; kill me, I beg, in his place, and let this man go. O the injustice you practice against the Lord's chosen one! When that woman most worthy of faith and memory had spoken these things, that bestial man, utterly savage and merciless, said: Beat this one too, since she so desires: for perhaps he is her paramour. and also his hostess who grieves for him: Therefore, seizing her also, they beat her so atrociously that, as her spirit fled, she seemed about to die. Having been thus treated, that most wicked man ordered her to be dragged out by the foot like a most worthless dog: but the Saint he ordered to be hung up high, bound by his privates with straps, and to be beaten longer with bullhide whips: even these torments he gratefully received, and he was undoubtedly strengthened by God, who preserves His servants from faintheartedness of spirit and from the storm. He was not put down and thrust back into prison until he had endured five hundred blows, while that impious man said: I will teach many through you not to presume to do similar things. she dies from the blows Nor was it long after that the pious woman who had likewise been beaten, with the swellings of her wounds inflamed, made an end of living, or rather, if it be permitted to say, departed to the Lord as a Martyr; fulfilling that word in which it is said: Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. John 15:13

[18] While the Saint was in custody, on that very night a vision was presented to Saronites, portending his destruction, of this kind. Saronites corrected in a dream He saw a tall and very leafy oak, on whose very top a crow had settled, keeping chicks in its nest: then he saw two men coming, equipped with axes, to cut down the oak, one of whom said to the other these words: That crow, croaking so much, does not allow the Emperor to sleep peacefully. And the other replied: And it has also treated Basil, beloved of God, most badly. At this they began to cut down the tree: which, having been felled, fell to the ground, and certain persons clothed in rags ran up and threw the severed branches into the fire. He also saw the holy man standing upon the fallen tree, saying: Every tree that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire; he orders Basil to be released, then, turning his speech to him who saw these things: Did I not tell you, he said, Desist from your plotted tyranny; otherwise this very eminence which you possess will be taken from you? The grim spectacle had scarcely receded from his eyes when, awaking, the wretch found himself to be ill, and considering the vision presented to him, he was very much afraid, and immediately sent someone to free the Saint from prison. Matt. 7:19 Yet he could not bring himself to become a suppliant before the Blessed one, and dies. whose prayer would perhaps have dispelled the disease; and thus that madman, most badly advised, was extinguished by that very illness, according to what the Prophet says: I have seen the wicked man superexalted and exalted; and he left two sons as heirs of his estate. Ps. 36:35

[19] The Saint, therefore, having also endured this contest by the grace of God and having been released, returned to the above-mentioned servant of God John, in whose house he was living, and whose most pious wife had been beaten to death on account of the same Saint: The Saint returns to John who, when he saw him and how many welts and bruises his holy body bore, poured his tears upon the ground, mixed with joy and sorrow. His disciples also, after his death from whom it could not be hidden that the Just one had been released and was at John's, came bathed in tears, in his house he stays alone, beneficent to all: and as before enjoyed his honeyed exhortations. After this John, dear to God, also made an end of living and departed to the Lord whom he desired, the Saint remained alone in his house, because John had left neither children nor any heirs at all after him. Therefore those who came there to visit the Saint also ministered to him: for the Lord healed many sick through him, helping some by heavenly power, to others granting health through food or drink—through the very things they brought to him and from which he gave liberally to the poor, anxious about nothing for the morrow, according to the Evangelical law. At whatever hour someone came to him, he would have found a swarm of poor people awaiting relief of mind and body: for my sweetest Father was compassionate beyond measure toward the wretched, was meek and merciful, was without guile and malice, perfectly dead to this wicked world: therefore he never wished anything brought to him to be kept stored away for the morrow.

[20] Moreover, many of the Nobles also came to the Saint, and indeed Priests and chief Priests: and having been favored with his prayers together with monks and the common crowd, they returned home. then asked by Constantine Barbarus Among these was a certain Constantine, commonly surnamed Barbarus, who was most greatly attached to the holy man: who, as soon as he learned that John, who had previously ministered to him, had died, came to him, and having received instruction as was customary, asked him to move into his house. And at first indeed the Saint refused, casting his eyes upon the man's splendor, since he always sought lowly and humble things:

yet at last, when the man, prostrate at his feet, continued to supplicate with tears, he assented to his petition, and rising up went with him: not about to do so, as I think, unless he had foreseen how great a benefit that most religious man's soul would receive from it. he moves into his house, For although many had previously asked the same thing, none of them could persuade him to agree. Now the said house was in the Arcadian quarter. Therefore Constantine, seeing his prayer answered, rejoiced with great joy, and after the example of the Shunammite prepared a bed, a stool, a candlestick, and a table apart from the noise of the household for the new Elisha, and from his household members he assigned to his service an old woman, most proven in virtue and morals, named Theodora: who by her master's command had been married to a certain domestic servant, and had borne from him twin offspring, a boy and a girl; but when her husband had paid his debt to nature, she had from then on led a life of continence. Into this old woman's cell, therefore, our divine Father descended, where he assists the many who come to him, and for relieving the necessities of those who came daily to him, in the evening he ascended to his little cell to devote himself to prayer. And when many of the Princes asked him to come visit their sick at home, they received him into their houses and were not disappointed in their requests. For one could see everywhere, at the imposition of his hands, chills being removed, fevers abating, demons fleeing; in a word, every disease being healed.

[21] The most illustrious Patricia Anastasia, dignified also with the title of Zoste, and dwelling within the same residence as the Saint, frequent visits with Anastasia often summoned him to her, and was taught by him the right manner of leading her life. For he most freely reproved her if she had perchance sinned through some feminine weakness: nor did she disdain the one who admonished her, but gently allowing herself to be corrected by him, she gave many alms and was assiduous in churches. Going moreover to the Empress Helena and narrating to her the wonders of the holy man, she carried her away into admiration and desire to see in person the performer of such great miracles and freely to enjoy the prayers bestowed upon her by him. He was also a frequent visitor in the house of the Patricia Irene: and the Patricia Irene: where, finding many wives of leading men, with that discerning eye of his he distinguished which of them led their lives with propriety, and promoted these more diligently to the summit of virtue; but he turned away from those who conversed indecorously, reproving them and rebuking their vices. And not only women but also men he corrected by admonishing, so that they feared to come even into his presence, and all admired him. Yet by a certain singular miracle it happened that whenever he admonished someone, by his prayer alone the ears of those present were blocked, so that they could not hear the reproof, and from this no shame accrued to the one reproved.

[22] Hearing of such and so great things about the Saint daily, summoned to the Empress Helena, the Empress, astonished at what she heard, at one time sent one of her chamberlains and summoned him to her, that he might bless her. As he approached, she went out to meet him and worshiping him, requested his prayers: to whom the Saint, blessing her and praying over her, said: May God guard the strength of the Empire granted to you from heaven inviolate for many years, and then may the giver and bestower of all good things grant you the kingdom of heaven. Then the Empress said to him: It is long since I desired to see your holiness, holy and venerable Father: and behold, the Lord has fulfilled my desire. Now therefore I beseech your holiness not to cease praying for me your handmaid, that the Lord may be clement and merciful to me on that dread day of eternal retribution. To whom the Saint said: For us indeed, O daughter, it is by no means burdensome to pray for you: he instructs her with good counsels, yet if we pray and you do things contrary to our prayer, it will be of no effect for us; for one building and another destroying, what profit comes to them except labor? Eccles. 34:28 The Lord also says to Jeremiah: Do not pray for this people, because I will not hear you. Jer. 7:16 Do you not see what these people do? We have heard indeed that the prayer of the just man avails much, but rendered effective, that is, aided by the good works of those for whom it is offered. Therefore you must take care, first to keep yourself from evil, then to attend to doing good; so that by your holy works and by the prayer of those who pray for you, you may have double confidence before the common God and Lord.

[23] When the Saint had instructed her with these and many other things, she asked him to remain the whole week in the palace: and promises her male offspring who will reign: and he, complying with her wish, with her still more earnestly beseeching that she might deserve to receive by his prayers to God male offspring, full of the prophetic spirit he said: Once more you will bear a female: but the child that will follow after her will be male, named Romanus. But do not doubt about him: for the boy will grow and reach manhood, and when your relatives who now reign are removed, he himself alone will reign with his own father, with you equally rejoicing and exulting with him. When the Empress heard these things, she was amazed and worshiped, saying: Be it unto me according to your word. Now at that time Romanus, the Empress's father, was ruling with his sons Stephen and Constantine; Christophorus, the firstborn, being already dead, from whom survived a son named Michael, who was indeed not crowned, but was honored with the imperial robe and crimson shoes, also endowed with some power and glorious with a splendid retinue. Helena herself held the first place among the Empresses: for the other wife of her father, Theodora, had departed from life; and Sophia, once married to Christophorus, was, after his death, relegated from the palace. She was the first because she was married to Constantine Porphyrogenitus: who, tracing his lineage from the Emperor Basil, was the son of the orthodox and for the generosity of his almsgiving most commendable Leo.

[24] During that week, therefore, in which the Saint was staying in the Palace, He reproves the avarice and lust of the Emperor Romanus: the Emperors as well as their wives took him daily for the sake of obtaining a blessing: and he asked of each what was appropriate, since with the more subtle eye of his mind he knew what was most especially lacking in each one. It happened, moreover, that they also brought him to Romanus: to whom, after the ceremonies of the most courteous reception, as they conversed more familiarly, the Saint began to reprove him to his face because he was mad with excessive love of gold and women and was debauching the daughters of citizens. But the Emperor, who loved monks, was not only not roused to anger, but meekly receiving the discipline of correction, honored him also with gold as he departed: which he utterly refused to accept. But when the Empress also, as he asked to be dismissed from her, he refuses the gifts offered by the Empress: taking off garments woven with gold, gave them to him, and ordering a purse swollen with much gold to be brought, she adjured him by the holy and life-giving Trinity to take from it as much as he wished. Therefore the Saint, reverencing the solemnity of the adjuration and at the same time marveling at the Empress's faith, took three coins with the tips of his fingers and gave them to the old woman who ministered to him. And when some of those standing around said to him: Give her also others, Father, the Saint replied: We do not need many thorns, sons: for they prick, those hands prick. All therefore were amazed at the Saint's utter indifference to money, and the Empress said to him: Truly, Father, loving Christ alone with your whole heart's affection, you are a stranger to the pleasures of this world: only pray for us, making mention of me in your prayer acceptable to God. And having said these things, she dismissed him with great honor, although this affected him not at all.

[25] Around that time the most illustrious Patricia and Zoste Anastasia fell ill with a continuous illness, the ailing Anastasia from which she also died. Immediately summoning the Saint, she begged him that God, entreated by his prayers, would free her from this disease. But he, knowing the irrevocable will of God and knowing how ready her soul was to present ripe fruits to the Lord, encouraged her with consolatory words to bear God's good pleasure willingly: For, he said, He knows better than we what is expedient for us; and according to the Apostle: Whether we live, we live to the Lord; and whether we die, we die to the Lord. Rom. 14:8 Therefore on a certain day, when all her relatives and in-laws were sitting around her and among them the holy man was also found, he foretells she will die on the third day, they asked him whether perhaps she might still recover from her illness: for the physicians, for the sake of shameful gain, were deceiving them, as if the disease were by no means fatal. But he, taught in spirit that her departure was near, declared the same as in a riddle, bringing forth before all her image and veiling her face, saying: Yet three more days, and she will not be with us. Therefore, sons, make generous mercy toward her: and advises that alms be given for her soul. for nothing profits a soul departing from this life as much as a generous outpouring of alms; for it is written that mercy triumphs over judgment, and Blessed is he who considers the poor and needy; in the evil day the Lord will deliver him. And what day is worse than the hour of death? James 2:13; Ps. 41:1 in which the assembled demons boldly accuse the soul of its transgressions, and if they find much almsgiving done on its behalf, they flee in confusion: for a man's riches are the ransom of his soul; and by faith and almsgiving sins are expiated. Therefore equip the soul of the sick woman with sacrifices and almsgiving for the journey of eternity, and let the physicians rave. When these things had been heard distinctly from the Saint, all who were present were bathed in tears and burst into effusive laments, and they poured forth alms with great generosity, obeying his precept. On the third day, just as the Blessed one had said, the happy Patricia departed to the Lord, with all marveling and glorifying God, who is to be glorified in His Saints.

that the latter was also for men, while the former was appropriate only for women.

CHAPTER IV.

Gregory the writer of the Life begins his acquaintance with St. Basil: who in his presence reproves a false nun.

[26] Up to this point, dearest ones, I have narrated about the Saint not as one who was present at the events from the beginning; Gregory, after his master's death, seeking another, but as having received them from trustworthy men who called upon God as witness of the truth they told. Henceforth I shall relate how I myself first came to know the Saint, and what wonderful things were done by him before my eyes. There is a monastery in this divinely guarded city, called Maximina: in this there was a certain elder named Epiphanius, a eunuch by nature, who, having been given to God from his sixth year of age, was spending his seventy-fourth year there. Since he excelled in experience and in doctrine received from heaven, he was the first from whom I began to know the vanity of the deceitful world, and to whom I gave myself entirely to be governed in those things that pertain to the salvation of the soul. After he ceased to live, I was asking friends and acquaintances, seeking another man of this kind: knowing that many, although unskilled, yet led by the desire of vainglory, thrust themselves into the governing of others' souls; who besides being of no benefit to them, often do great harm, and directed to St. Basil, being themselves subject to their own passions: for if a blind man offers guidance to a blind man, both fall into a pit. Therefore, fearing lest I might fall upon someone less worthy and rush headlong to my destruction, I was seeking, as I said, to find a spiritual Father who, with God's help, might save my wretched soul. John therefore, that former servant of the most honored Patrician Stauracius, now resting in blessed peace, suggested this holy man to me, narrating a part of his miracles and indicating where he lived.

[27] On a certain day therefore, taking from what was at hand some small gifts, I went to him, seized by great terror on the way: and as I approached his house a trembling seized me: whether it was from the adversary power, always opposing good counsels, or from the grace dwelling in him and meeting me and thus manifesting his great virtue, I cannot indeed judge by discernment: this I know, that I lost myself and went back whence I had come. But afterwards, regaining my courage and fortifying myself with the sign of the Cross, I set aside my fear; and approaching the door of the house, meeting the portress herself, I was led inside to the Saint. Who, as soon as he saw me, said: which becomes known to St. Basil, You have come well, my son Gregory: sit here a moment and tell me what it was that frightened you on the way. But I, hearing myself called by name by him whom I had never seen before that time, stood still in astonishment: for I had never until then encountered a man endowed with such grace, having only read in the Lives of the ancient Fathers that some such persons had once existed. And so falling at his feet, I worshiped, and sat on a bench which the old woman who served him had placed; and he, opening his mouth filled with the Spirit of God, set forth to me whatever I carried hidden in my heart and the entire secret of my innermost thought. Thrown into great admiration and amazement by these things, while by chance some others came to him, I requested his prayers and departed.

[28] After one week, wishing to return to the Saint, I took as a companion from among my spiritual Brothers a certain man named Julian: and having entered after the exchange of greetings, when at his bidding we sat down with him, and also the desire to have a belt from him: the blessed man, loosening the girdle from his waist, which was made of cheap cloth, threw it wound up into my lap, and wishing to rise, fell back onto his bed, for he was full of days. Then I said in Julian's ear: I want to ask for the Saint's belt, so that for love of him I may keep it as a phylactery for myself, and bring him another purchased one in return. But he forbade me, because, he said, it is not fitting for us, who do not yet know him well enough, to ask for anything. And so, having received his favorable prayer, we returned. The Saint was then living, as was said, in the Arcadian quarter, near two temples built under the invocation of the holy Archangels by the Emperor Basil, who wished thus to atone for the murder of Michael, son of the Empress Theodora. We, however, were living at the Bull. which Gregory miraculously receives, At the very hour in which we returned, we found the Saint's belt, just as he himself had wound it, lying upon my bed: which, recognizing, and seized simultaneously by fear and joy, we were amazed at that admirable prodigy, and we could not divine who had brought it to us. Then, when we had at last recovered our spirits from our amazement, we took it in our hands and brought it to our eyes and mouth, joyfully kissing the gift, which we divided into parts and deposited in the oratory of the holy Protomartyr Stephen, which is in the vault of the Bull, and we resolved to visit the Saint again together the following day. But by chance, when my brother had departed for the sake of some service, I went alone. I had not yet crossed the Taurus when, behold, I met him coming back, having completed his service: again he visits him with Julian, I therefore compelled him to come with me to the Saint. He excused himself because he did not carry even a single obol to buy something for the Just one: but I replied that what I had was sufficient, and so we went, rejoicing together.

[29] When we came to the place, I entered first and cast myself before his holy feet: and he, lifting me up and turning to the venerable old woman, and marvels at the knowledge of secrets in the Saint. said to her: Mother, this young man yesterday stole my belt and, dividing it and perfuming it, placed it in the oratory of the Protomartyr. Hearing these things, I was greatly amazed, not only that the belt had been found at my home by divine power, but also that he declared whatever had been done with it as if he had been present. Meanwhile my Brother also entered, and astonished, worshiped upon the ground and said: Bless me, holy Father, your servant. The Saint, lifting him up, said to the old woman standing by: And this one, meeting Brother Gregory near the Taurus, did not want to come to us because he had nothing with him. And so, as he said these things, we were even more astonished, trembling and terrified, and were utterly unable to fix our eyes upon his face. But he said: Rise, sons, and do not reverence me, but reverence the Lord God of heaven and earth; may He illuminate your spiritual steps and instruct you in the knowledge of Himself, and leading you into every good work, may He at last deem you worthy of His kingdom. And saying these things, he drew from his bosom another belt and gave it to me, saying: Yesterday you deliberated with your Brother whether you should ask me for a belt; but he did not allow you to do so; yet I, on account of the love with which you esteem me, immediately sent it to you. Now therefore receive also this one, my son, so that God, who girds with power those who love Him, may also gird you with spiritual strength, to walk upon the serpent and the scorpion and all the power of the enemy; to escape his manifold machinations, and to arrive at the measure of spiritual maturity.

[30] In the company of a pious matron When he had said these things, I received the venerable belt from his right hand and having kissed it, I sat down at his command. And behold, an old woman clad in dark garments entered to him, behind whom followed a younger woman, who appeared to be a nun. When the old woman had worshiped, she heard from the Saint: May the Holy Spirit of God guard your body and soul without stain. When she was bidden to sit, the other also worshiped: but he, turning away from her, seemed to be very angry. The Saint repels one approaching under a monastic habit, Not knowing the reason for this, we asked that he would bid her also sit down with us and share from what we had brought. But he was angry even at us for pleading on her behalf: and to Theodora, who ministered to him, when she too suggested that the woman was also a handmaid of Christ and wore the monastic habit, he replied in a more agitated spirit, looking sternly: Why, like one of the foolish women, have you spoken, bidding her sit near us? But as I see, her habit has deceived you: otherwise she did not come here in good faith, but only to tempt us. And taking a cup full of wine, he collected crumbs from the table and placed them in it: and stretching out in the air the hand with which he held it, as if wishing to hand it to someone, he said to the one who appeared to be a nun: and convicts her of sorcery and lust: O daughter of the devil, is this how you send your sorceries and incantations into the cup, and with it give drink to foolish souls, to entice them into love of yourself? Did you not yesterday summon the Hegumen and Oeconomus from such a monastery and do the same, immediately persuading them to drink the destruction mixed for them by the demon? How, wretched one, did you put on this habit, to mock through it the crucified Lord? But He, since He is God, does not suffer Himself to be mocked. Tell me then, O miserable one, for what reason did you assume this angelic garment, delighting through it the demon who rejoices in the filth of fornication, and provoking God, who loves us and is merciful, to anger? Woe to you, most unhappy and most shameless, because you have defiled the holy habit and the divine regeneration which you had obtained through it! Was it for this that you renounced the world, so that through the impure incantations of demons you might drag all into the shameful desire of yourself? Indeed I fear God: otherwise at this very hour I would have delivered you to those demons to whom you sacrifice birds and concoct your magical potions, to be tormented and made an example to all people. O how impure you are, indeed most impure!

[31] When the Saint had said these things, rising up, he kicked her out, and said: Depart from me, her simulated repentance, workers of iniquity; and returning, he again sat upon his bed, with all of us turned as it were to stone with fear and persisting in the deepest silence. But that wretched woman, conscious to herself that of the many things she had done and was doing, what the Saint had said was little, seized with fear, stood in the courtyard and cried out tearfully: Indeed, holy man of God, everything you said I have perpetrated, and you were deceived in nothing. Woe to me a sinner, because my iniquities have risen above my head; and the multitude of my sins has become like the number of the sand of the sea. Help me, I beseech, holy man of God, and take care of my soul, that it may not perish and be cast into eternal fire. While she cried out these and more things with a bitter groan, Amma Theodora said to the Saint: My Lord, do you see how she repents? Have mercy, I beseech, and receive the penitent and help her with your prayers: which moved others to mercy; for I know that the Lord will not reject her, with you interceding for her. But the Blessed one said to her: How miserable it is for a person to see nothing with inward eyes! I behold Satan sitting on her shoulders like a little monkey, fat and obese from the delights of his most wicked works: who, as he calls her his mother, so she calls him her dearest son, and they will never be separated from each other forever: for there is no regard in her death nor firmness in her affliction. How then shall I pray, when she herself does not cease from fornication and her magical commerce? At this Theodora, going out, asked her whether she was prepared from then on to desist from her evil work. She replied: Truly, my Lady, I repent from my heart: he himself, unmoved, predicts she will soon return to her crimes: only let this chosen one of God receive me. Theodora, going in, said to the Saint: She, deceived, my Lord, promises repentance. But the Saint said: By no means believe her; for as soon as she returns to the workshop of her wickedness, she will do the same things and worse: therefore let us have no part with her.

[32] Meanwhile the time had grown longer: we therefore rose to depart, Gregory returns home and we asked for his favorable prayer, because the road was long and the women had come from the Hexakionion. And as we went along together, we and the woman clad in dark garments who had received the Saint's blessing along with us (for the other had gone ahead of us, flushed with shame), I inquired who and whence she was, and whether all things were as the Saint had said. She said: Exactly so, my Lord: for her lovers are innumerable, and I have often spoken to her about the Saint, so that moved by shame she might come to her senses: but she laughed at me, saying: Take me to him and I shall see his holiness; and if he is young, I shall make him detest that holiness and love me alone. he inquires into the life of the depraved woman, However much I might urge her to desist from that wicked intention, I never persuaded her: indeed, using her customary shamelessness, she followed me; and if anything adverse happened to her, her lovers would take vengeance on me. Whatever therefore the Saint said about her, Brothers, is true, and rightly he despised her: because she has dragged many souls, not only of laymen but also of monks, into perdition. Indeed I did not cease urging her to make an end of her wickedness: but she, regarding whatever I said as madness, rejected it, and repeated not only her first but even worse deeds. And with these things said between us, we parted from each other, each going on our own way: and afterwards learns she has fallen into worse things but after a short time, again going to the Saint, I found the aforesaid matron there, and asking her about that nun, I learned that she was persisting in even more foul sins, with the number of her former lovers increased: and therefore, marveling at the Saint's prediction, I glorified the Lord, who in these our latter days displayed such a luminary to the world.

CHAPTER V.

Various miracles narrated, performed in the presence and before the eyes of the Writer himself.

[33] I was lying ill one time, detained by sickness, and having called the physician I was accustomed to use, I sought some remedy from him. Gregory, dreading the prescribed purgation, He, having considered all that had befallen me, judged that a purgative potion should be taken. This was most distressing to me, for I had never taken anything of the sort: and when the thought of the Saint occurred to me, I resolved to go to him and do what seemed good to him. It was the dinner hour when I departed, and coming, I fell at his feet until I was told to rise, and sat near him in a place where some poor people, who had come before me, were eating with him at the same time; and he held in his hand green garlic with a piece of bread, as did the others eating together, yet the strong smell of garlic was not noticed. When I marveled at this, he, answering me, said: Did not the physician prescribe a potion for you to take before such and such an hour, because you were somewhat ill? he tastes a portion of garlic offered by the Saint; Therefore take and eat this sprig. Taking it, I ate of what he himself was eating, although I had never eaten garlic, not being able to bear its strong smell: but eating then I felt nothing of the sort, so that I marveled at the change. Then, filling a flask with wine and sealing it three times, he ordered me to drink.

[34] We were in the midst of this when a certain pious man came and offered a pair of kid-skin shoes, which the master of the house, seeing, said: he hears one truly predicting the future: It is not fitting for you, holy Father, to wear such things; but for me, a sinner, they would be most suitable. The Saint replied: Leave them in their place, since I have no others. But he again: God, Father, will provide you with others: for these will not hereafter be taken from my hands. The Saint said to him: Truly, Brother, you have seven pairs of shoes and they are not enough for you, but you have come to take away the one pair of the poor old man. But do you know what will happen to you from this? Because you take these by force, you will lose the best pair of your shoes. He went away with the shoes and despised the words of the Blessed one; but the following day, having entered a bath to wash, he learned by experience itself what the Saint had predicted, and from that time marveled at and revered him the more. For my part, I who had eaten the garlic, as was said, and drained three flasks, as long indeed as I was with him I had peace; and returning home is healed by a loosening of the bowels. but as soon as I returned home I began to be completely disturbed in my bowels, and not being able to bear the smell of garlic returning to my nostrils, I was shaken violently: and so, in the anxiety caused by these contortions of the belly, so copious an evacuation took place that I was like a spider, exhausted and weakened: and within a short time, recovering from the disease, I glorified God, who through His Saint had granted me so easy and so swift a recovery. For from that day neither my head nor any other member has ached in the fifteen years that have now elapsed.

[35] A certain tavern-keeper, familiar with the Saint, seeing his affairs going to ruin, came to him, asking and begging that he would deign to come to his house. The Saint, blessing the casks of an unlucky tavern-keeper, When he had come, the man received him discreetly and fittingly, inviting many poor people to the meal. On the following day he said to the Blessed one: Let not your holiness disdain also to enter my wine-cellar, so that you may bless the vessels and the wine there, but above all, us. With some friends accompanying him, and the man pointing out his casks for the Saint to bless them, he said a prayer and blessed them all: but when he came to one vessel, holding about fifteen measures, he said to the tavern-keeper: Behold, Brother, I have blessed all your casks: but this one I must break. The other said: By no means, venerable Father; bless this one too, so that it may prosper: for I see all my affairs going backward, while I languish under debts, unable to satisfy my creditors, and therefore I fear I may fall into extreme poverty. The Saint replied: I also know all this; nevertheless I must break this cask, in order to free you from great danger, for that is why I came. The tavern-keeper again said: Break my head, so long as this may remain safe.

[36] While he was thus pleading, the Saint, seeing a staff, raised his eyes to heaven, he smashes one of them. and at the same time, striking the vessel with the staff, he broke it, and immediately all the wine poured out from the broken vessel. Those who were present with the tavern-keeper, seeing this, inwardly cursed the Saint. But he, knowing their feelings, from among the reeds that happened to be at hand took one in the sight of all and drew out a serpent about three cubits long, swollen with venom and heavy with an intolerable stench, and said to them: Why, sons, are you angry with me in your hearts, as if I had done something wrong? Behold this great marvel: how many do you think would have died from that? Into what straits and troubles that wretched man would have had to fall because of it! Do you not now think I have done the best thing? knowing there was a serpent in it. And throwing the serpent before their eyes, he went out of the cellar to sit down. They, however, falling at his feet, begged to be forgiven for having murmured against him. Then the Saint said to them: May God, the moderator and knower of all things, grant you remission of this and all your sins: but see that it becomes known to no one until the Lord releases me from the body: for it is He who works such things through me, His unworthy servant, for the salvation of you who believe in Him. From then on that man prospered in his business and paid off all his debts.

[37] At another time, when I had come to the Saint, I found a certain man speaking with him as if in parables: From a madness of believing himself about to rule for his reason had been disturbed by evil demons who deluded him, as if he were about to rule in this God-beloved city, as I understood from the drift of his conversations. The Saint, therefore, wishing to persuade him that his mind's intention was vain and that he should desist from it and cling to the Lord, looked at me, sitting very close to him, whereas before he had kept his eyes continually raised upward, and filled me with a certain divine joy and instilled into my soul the nectar of an unwonted exultation: so that with my mouth soon loosened into words, I began to say to that man not what I knew, but what the inward anointing suggested.

When therefore, in a prolonged speech, I had told him whatever he had done from boyhood, and spoken to him about the Empire which he had imagined for himself—that none was due to him upon earth, his right mind is restored through Gregory; but that it was a diabolical persuasion of this sort, and that it rather befitted him to become a monk and through the exercise of the spirit to gain the kingdom of heaven—When you come here, I said, you should not stand proudly: but you ought, from the very entrance, to cast yourself upon the ground and kiss the venerable footprints of the holy Father, and seek his prayers so that your steps may be directed toward God. While I was saying these and more things, the man, pierced with compunction, groaned deeply and was wholly bathed in tears.

[38] whose tongue, not knowing what it was saying, And when the time now reminded us to return home, as I rose the man followed me as far as the Phiala, and there he asked me to repeat for him what I had previously taught him. But the divine grace having been taken from me, and having forgotten all I had said to him, I could only reply this: Do not be deceived, Lord Brother; I do not know you, nor who you are or whence, nor do I know what I said to you: but our holy Father Basil spoke these things to you through me. For the rest, dearest one, strive to fulfill whatever you have heard, and cling to the Lord with your whole heart, abandoning your vain desires, that it may be well with you both now and in the world to come. the Saint had moved by the same power, And so, bidding farewell, we departed from each other, each going where his path led. But that man, to say this in brief, having become a monk, ascended a certain inaccessible mountain near Nicomedia: and there in a very cramped hut he led a solitary life, coming to the man of God once every three years, and having received his blessing, returning again to his hut, after many thanksgivings which he professed he owed to God and the holy Father and also to me, the most worthless of sinners: and finally, ending his life excellently, he was numbered in the portion of the saved, deemed worthy of the kingdom of heaven, and truly to be called blessed Cosmas.

[39] I had almost forgotten what I now resume and undertake to tell. by which the Saint here exposed the hidden thoughts of a Priest: Once when I was sitting beside the Saint, a certain very old Priest came, bringing an offering of fine flour and fruits; the Priest of the oratory which was built for the holy Martyr Parasceve near Ariobindus. He therefore, having entered to the Saint and placed what he had brought upon the table, stood with his hands joined, observing propriety: and when bidden to sit, we all tasted together the gifts of God. While eating, however, the Priest was calculating in his mind how many obols he had spent on the fruits. To whom the Saint said: What are you meditating, Brother, about the expense on the fruits? Ten obols were spent: do not, I beg, worry about them. The Priest, hearing such things, was certainly amazed, and struck with great fear, he glorified God, who had made manifest such Saints even in our days.

[40] But while we were still sitting, behold, a certain woman, he foretold the future life of an infant who was sick: Theodote by name, carrying a nursing infant in her arms, entered: she was very honorable, devoted to the veneration of the Virgin Mother, who is venerated in the Hodegoi. She, falling at the Saint's feet, gave over the gifts she carried in her hands; and bidden to sit, since her son was ill, she prayed that the Saint would intercede for him, so that the Lord might at least grant her this one: for all the others she had borne had all died at the fourth or fifth year of age. When therefore the child was crying and demanding bread, the Saint, taking a piece of bread, said with a smiling face: What is the name of that boy? I believe he is called Leo. Then, turning to the mother, he said: On account of the great love with which you are affected toward the ever-Virgin Mother of God in the Hodegoi, the Lord grants you this boy healthy henceforth: and you will see him grown, well-educated, a monk and a Cleric, and you will furthermore be blessed with many favors. But whatever other children you bear will suffer the same fate as the former ones. Hearing these things, the woman was amazed and accepted them as from a prophetic mouth; she rose and worshiped: and that all things happened just as he said, the events themselves testify, so that even I, seeing them fulfilled with my own eyes, could glorify the Lord.

[41] At another time, when I was sitting with the Saint, a certain friend of his came to him and requested some blessing, he wishes well to one about to travel and indicates the danger of drowning since he was about to set out on a long journey. But the Saint, foreseeing what would befall him, said: The River Chelidon, I know not why, is ill-disposed toward me: if, however, I shall invoke the Lord through Basil the sinner, the River Chelidon will spare me. Having these words frequently on his lips, he fixed his eyes upon the man. While we were marveling, the man also was amazed (for he did not understand what the Saint meant by those words), received the blessing, and thus departed joyfully on his way, sent to the parts of the East by his lord. Pursuing his way, hitherto unexplored by him, he also came to a certain river which, by its very sight, would cause vertigo in those looking at it, since it was twenty ells wide, and ran with such speed as not even flying birds are borne. Nevertheless, scorning the danger, the traveler boldly entered: but soon feeling himself being carried away, he trembled, and out of fear exclaimed: Lord, through the prayers of our holy Father Basil, help me, a sinner. He had scarcely said this when he saw the Blessed one walking upon the river and commanding the waters: and rescues the one invoking him from it. who then, seizing the horse by the bridle, led the man to the other bank, and immediately vanished from his sight. He glorified God, giving thanks to Him and to His Saint: then, proceeding a little, he stopped at a certain village, wishing to refresh himself with some rest, and asked the inhabitants what the name of that river was; and hearing that it was called Chelidon, he marveled at the Saint's prediction. And indeed, like a swallow—that is, chelidon—it is borne by its flow, and snatches many who are not well acquainted with it into destruction. Narrating to the inhabitants of the place the admirable work done for him, he stirred them to praise God, who through His Saints performs such miracles: and he himself, rising above all in thanksgiving, cried out: Glory to You, Lord, glory be to You: I ask only one thing, that I may be found worthy to see Your servant again and to kiss his venerable footprints. Having completed his mission and returning, he came to the Saint and, prostrate at his feet, gave thanks, confessing and narrating before all the great work of God performed in him. From which it can be understood how good it is for one to have God as a helper through the intercession of His Saints.

CHAPTER VI.

Gregory, tempted by sorceries and freed from them, narrates a vision presented to him concerning his master.

[42] Gregory sets out for Thrace, But let us pass to another miracle performed upon myself. I have a certain country estate in the parts of Thrace, near the fortress of Rhaedestus, I mean: intending therefore to go there at harvest time to gather the fruits which God had given me there, I went to the Saint, wishing to take with me as companions and provision for the journey his prayers: and having received these, I departed joyfully. I came to the oratory of the holy Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen, and long supplicating him, I added these words: Holy Protomartyr, Apostle and Archdeacon of Christ my God, on account of a belt found in his lodging and not returned, behold, I undertake a long journey by land and sea: be therefore my guardian and protector in all things. For as I, to the best of my ability and with great readiness, have ministered to your holy and venerable house, so do you, according to the grace given you by God, be present to me as helper and provider in every necessity. Having prayed thus, I pursued my journey. But I had found in the house where I had been lodged a belt valued at about two gold coins, which belonged to the daughter of the household: which they, searching for, had also asked me about. But I, led astray by diabolical inducement, denied it, saying to myself: The one who lost it possesses many good things, and I am poor: selling it therefore, I will give the price to the needy. This was the intention (for it is good to confess the truth) of one retaining another's property. But I confess my sin: for it is written, Confess to one another, and pray for one another. James 5:16 But attend, I beg, to what befell me through the care of a Father chastising his sons and again having mercy on them.

[43] When I, as was said, was going on my way, I lost the lid of my box, he suffers a threefold greater loss, valued at four coins, and then also my belt, purchased for two coins. On account of which, being in a very troubled state of mind, the Saint appeared to me in a dream, showing me a broken flask, and said: Do you see this vessel? I see it, I said, Lord. Then he said: If anyone steals this, fourfold will be taken from him, either in this world or in the next, if indeed he is rich: but if he has no wealth, he will pay the debt with fourfold torment. To which I replied: Lord, I have stolen nothing from anyone. and is convicted of theft by the appearing Saint, But he said: Having taken the girl's belt (and he expressed the name), do you deny you have stolen? I have not stolen, I said, but I found it. He said again: Know, my son, that if anyone, taking a lost thing and knowing whose it is, does not return it, he is to be judged as a thief. Why then do you complain that you have lost trifles worth six coins? For you ought, when asked, to have returned what belonged to another: therefore beware lest you fall into a worse temptation and be compelled to pay greater penalties. For nets are not spread for birds without cause: and Satan thirsts for your destruction: therefore much vigilance is needed by you. and is warned of an imminent temptation. When he had said these things, he departed from me. I, coming to the country estate, dispatched the business for which I had gone, and remembering the words of the Saint, how distinctly he had spoken to me, I grieved and was very sad, recognizing that I had not returned the found property that belonged to another; and thus I had lost not fourfold but sixfold. But these reflections came too late, the deed being done: moreover I was more anxious in my mind on account of the onset of another temptation indicated to me, into which I fell shortly after.

[44] There was a certain hired man on the estate, Alexander

by name: An adulterous girl, he had recently joined a girl to himself in lawful marriage; but she was of such unbridled lust that within a short time she had drawn to herself by her sorceries all the men who dwelt in the area, and no one dared raise his voice against her: for whoever had dared in any way to oppose her was immediately punished with a serious illness. Indeed she had made her own husband, who had beaten her as she deserved for the impudence of her wickedness, so weak through diseases that he could not even drive away a fly from himself, much less prevent himself from being sometimes beaten with a club or rope by her when she was angry, and expelled from the cell. It is also said of her mother a worse daughter of a sorceress mother, that she could halt the flight of birds and impede the courses of rivers and prevent cattle from moving forward, and perpetrated very many other execrable things which it would be unlawful for a man to utter. Her daughter, having expressed the unbridled lust of her mother in herself, as a bad egg from a bad crow, did even worse things than she. For if anyone said even one word unpleasant to her, she bound him to his bed for three or four years, deprived of strength: and if anyone laid hands on her, within the third day she delivered him to death.

[45] Such then being that most wicked woman, she also attempted to spread her snares against me, she harasses her guest with dreams sent by night and to pour out her venom like an asp. For seeing me staying on the estate, at night she sent me dreams and caused her face to be presented to me through demons; by day she constantly appeared before my eyes. And if it happened sometimes that I went to the river, a short distance from my dwelling, to wash or to avoid the heat, that pest watched me and impudently followed. And since it is truly said that it is not well for straw and fire to meet, I was not far from having my reason overthrown, with the cooperation of the most wicked demons by whom I was continually harassed; by day shamelessly following, had I not, mindful of the Saint's words saying in my sleep: Beware lest you fall into a worse temptation, sustained myself, strengthened by his prayers. Since therefore I often resolved to repel her more roughly or even to drive her away with blows, I feared lest through her sorceries I might fall ill: but again, agitated by the heat of my thoughts and the stings of impure demons sent upon me by her, I did not know what to do and said to myself: If I consent to commit sin with her, alas what a miserable fall, that I who have never approached a woman should now, conquered by this fury, be unhappily cast down from my state of mind. Amid these distresses, to one so troubled, what happened and how was the matter resolved? Victory was won by Him who alone is the true God, she vainly solicits to sin: Christ our Savior: for at a certain time, having taken courage, I repelled her from me with fists and insults, saying: O daughter of Beelzebub, if you dare approach me again, I will savagely beat that impure body of yours with rods. For I had resolved within myself to die a thousand times rather than to fall through sin from the most sweet love of my Christ. From that time, therefore, that impure and lascivious woman abstained from me, and freed from her temptation, I gave thanks to the Lord.

[46] she avenges herself But after some days, when the heat was most vehement, I went to the oratory of the holy and great Martyr George for the sake of prayer, because it was a feast day, namely a Sunday: and the oratory was in the middle of the vineyards. When I had completed my prayer, I lay down on one of the benches to sleep for a while. When behold, in my sleep I see a black cloud descending from the highest heaven with a great stench and falling upon me; and I hear a voice saying thus: Receive what Melitene has prepared for you: for this was the name of that frenzied woman. a most grievous illness sent through magic: I felt therefore that that dark and extremely cold cloud had insinuated itself into my inmost bowels: and rising from sleep, I found myself seized with a grave illness, which that adulteress had sent upon me because I had not consented to her defilements. Departing thence, wretched, with heavy groaning, I returned home and lay upon my bed, and began to accuse myself of sin, but also to be angry at the Saint, because he had permitted such a crime to be committed in his oratory. From day to day the disease grew worse and had already brought me to the gates of death; when suddenly a fiery heat rushed upon me, which, consuming all my limbs like reeds, seemed utterly intolerable and such as the human mind could not conceive in thought: with the adulteress, as I believe, aggravating the force of the disease; by which he is brought near to death, which being unable to bear, I rose and ran as a fugitive, wandering from place to place, to find the shade of a tree or the water of a river, if perhaps some refreshment might come to me. Indeed I even thought of plunging myself into the water to drown, not enduring the bitterness of the torment: urged by which I also exclaimed: O the violence! O the storm that engulfs me! If the fire of hell is such, it would have been altogether better for a man not to have been born. O the bitter pain! O the sharp flame by which I am burning! What more? I recognized no person, I admitted the conversation of no one; a single night seemed longer than forty years.

[47] Then what? I see myself as if placed under deep ground, in a dream he sees himself placed at the boundary between life and death, and a most deep chasm, whose sides were very high to the East and West. I, standing at the Western side, began gradually to be dragged downward, about to be thrown into the dreadful chaos of that abyss. Seized therefore with great fear, and unable to stand firm because of dizziness, I remembered the holy Martyr Stephen, and sighing deeply, I said: Holy Martyr, are these the prayers which I poured out to you on my knees at the departure from the City, by which I begged you to be my helper? Behold, I am going, and you will see me no more: for from now on I shall never serve you: for I know well that I have already approached the gates of death. I also beheld across the torrent as it were another world, inexplicable by earthly tongues. When therefore I had invoked the Saint, behold, he himself also stood beside me in a purple tunic, and said to me: by St. Stephen (to whom he had commended himself on leaving Constantinople) How are you, dearest? What are you suffering? Do not be angry with me: for I was not here, but was visiting the houses which I have throughout the whole world, as do the other Saints: but now, here I am. But O the impious and sorcerers! Do you see how much those most hostile ones can harm, when God permits it? While the Saint was saying these things, I was being borne into the depths of the abyss: I nevertheless asked what these sides were and what the chasm. He answered me: These are the boundaries of death, and the abyss is that which all the dying cross with much labor, until they reach the opposite bank, beyond which is the way leading into the other world. For by this path the souls of the departed, proceeding, reach the summit and from it look down upon this infinite world, into which all must go, small and great alike, to render an account of what they did in life. Then I said to the Saint: So I too, as I see, my Lord, am about to die? He replied: What else do you expect after you have been brought here?

[48] Uttering therefore a deep groan and wailing vehemently, he is taught prayers by whose recitation he will be restored to health: Not so, I said, my Lord, not so let it happen to me now: for I was not yet expecting this. But the Saint said: I will first recite certain words by which you may beseech the Lord, and I will claim you for myself and rescue you from this necessity, extending helping hands so that you may climb out from there. And when I asked what those words were by which I would be freed, he prescribed a text of prayer to be recited, one that struck with a certain sacred awe and encompassed the Cherubim and Seraphim and all the supracelestial powers: which, as soon as I committed to memory, I was immediately relieved from that terrible burning and the infirmity which had held me for a whole week, and at midnight, with the moon shining most purely, turning toward the East, I recited to the Lord all that the Protomartyr had taught, in the form of an oath. and having received them And again I was plunged into that terrible chaos, from which I also emerged: and the holy Martyr, again visible to me, asked whether I had done all he had commanded. When I said, I have, Lord, he, grasping me by the sleeve with his right hand, dragging me violently uphill, brought me to the place from which I had been cast down, namely to the dreadful summit of that side which is to the West, and said to me: Behold, thus far you have been drawn from the death of hell. And immediately we found ourselves in a certain wonderful atrium, walking about. Because I could not proceed on account of weakness, the Protomartyr, breathing a certain divine sweetness, placed his shoulder under me, saying: Grasp my neck with both hands and I will carry you, and so we shall proceed.

[49] As we were thus proceeding through that atrium, we found innumerable stone jars, each holding a hundred, two hundred, or even four hundred measures: they were all white as snow, he seemed to be brought into an atrium destined for St. Basil's merits, full and sealed with a certain bitumen made from mastic: also sealed on top and inscribed with how many measures each of them held. I, seeing these, was amazed, not knowing indeed what they contained inside; and I said to the Saint: Whose is this wonderful atrium, my Lord? And then, what are these vessels, and what do they contain? The Saint answered and said: Of our holy Father Basil, who adopted you as his son, this is his: the vessels contain spiritual oil divinely given to him, with which he anoints sinners who flee to him, cleansing them from the stains of their transgressions and teaching them to be children of God: for he has freed many souls from the jaws of Satan; and I think the Lord holds him in the order of the Apostles, to whom we also are now traveling. While we were still conversing, behold, the great Basil himself came to meet us, as if coming forth from a spiritual bridal chamber; and to find him there, to whom the Protomartyr said: Is this how, O Father Basil, you deserted your dearest son Gregory at the very time of standing surety? Believe me, if I had not come to help, he would perhaps already be dead. The Saint replied: I saw you, Blessed one, with him, and therefore I myself delayed going to him. But now, if you please, let us show him perfect mercy. Then both proceeding together, we came upon a certain dark vault, and a dragon who was the cause of all the evil which, entering, we saw nothing, since the darkness was most profound everywhere: but soon the Saint's very face shone like the sun. Then the holy Protomartyr said to me: Do you see how great a glory and how great a beauty your spiritual father has? Truly

he is one of the greater luminaries.

[50] and the dragon that was the cause of all the evil Come now, the Saint said, setting aside our conversation for a moment, see where the dragon lurks (and he pointed to it with his finger), which a little before all but killed my son. And we saw upon the ground a terrifying creature of such great size as is a chest of forty measures: ... which, when it saw us, in no way took fright, bloodthirsty as it was; but sat quietly, turning its eyes upon us. When I stood terrified, the Saint, finding a very large stone of about thirty pounds, lifted it with both hands and, invoking the power of the Lord, dropped it upon the creature. While I was still more astonished, the Saint said: Take up stones also yourselves and stone it. I therefore, out of immense joy and exultation of spirit, killed by the same, quite readily throwing stones, said to the Protomartyr: My Lord, is this perhaps what some say: I and the Martyr George cast out an impure spirit from such a one; while others on the contrary object: He indeed expelled it, but you just stand watching? Certainly my venerable Father has done something very similar, for having killed that pestilent creature with one stone, after it expired he bids us to stone it. The Saint answered and said to me: Behold, my son, through the intercession of the Protomartyr, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have destroyed your enemy: and from now on your adversaries will never prevail against you.

[51] While the Saint was saying these things, unexpectedly we found ourselves in the Royal City, in the very temple of the Protomartyr: and that he had been healed and brought to Constantinople: which before we entered, we heard a most elegant concert of some boys singing a hymn of thanksgiving to the Lord. The Saint therefore, together with the Protomartyr, said to me: Behold, through the grace of Christ you have been made well: enter therefore you too into this temple, in which you formerly used to minister, and sing also a eucharistic song to God, the ruler of all, who magnifies His mercy upon you. And I, immediately bending my knee to my defenders and benefactors, entered singing in this manner: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? etc., the rest of that psalm. Which those handsome and venerable young musicians, also singing, exulted on my account, saying: Come, dearest one, let us rejoice together in it. Amid these words I ceased from the vision, as indeed shortly thereafter he returned there healed. and restored to myself I was amazed in spirit, and found myself, through the grace of God, perfectly healed: and having taken some crumbs, I was satisfied and slept sweetly. A little later, waking, I began to walk supported by a staff: then, and indeed shortly, having boarded a ship, I returned to the royal city, narrating and announcing to all what had happened to me, and how the Saints had freed me from a most bitter death by their prayers: and all who heard these things glorified God for my unexpected recovery.

CHAPTER VII

Death foretold by Basil, burial, miracles.

[52] Moreover, before I returned from Thrace, I was deliberating whether to do away with that shameless woman: Rom. 12:17 but I restrained my spirit, speaking thus to myself: Gregory, returning, is kindly received by Basil Wretched soul, do you not know that it is written: You shall not return evil for evil; let us therefore leave all things to the heavenly judgment. And so, deciding with myself and choosing what was more useful for my soul, I flew back, as has been said, to the royal city; and before all else I went to the divine temple of the Protomartyr, and there, having offered my prayers, I immediately went to the Saint, to render to him also the due acts of thanksgiving. The man of God, venerable as Enoch, a second Elijah, and a new Abraham, when he saw me coming so worn out from the disease, was wholly suffused with tears, and said: You have come well, my son, dearest to me, or rather to Christ. We sat down and he began enigmatically to narrate all that had happened to me. I, hearing, trembled, because I saw that nothing of what had been done escaped him.

[53] But, my son, he said, go in peace, returning to your house: for you will not see me again with the eyes of your flesh corporally in this life. and says that he is being seen by him for the last time, And having said these things, he cheerfully embraced me and kissed me in a friendly manner. But I, who before this speech had been reverently attending to his admonitions, as if proceeding from the very mouth of God, and had modestly fixed my eyes upon the ground, when I heard that I would not see him again in the flesh as before, bursting into a sudden wail and struck with great grief, I cried out: O best of Fathers, how shall I be able to be separated from you? Whom shall I have in your place as guide and helper of my weakness, and that announcement saddens him whether in subduing the passions of my flesh, or in avoiding the snares of demons, or in ordering the other affairs of this life? Woe to wretched me! Woe to unhappy me! What an announcement, to be deprecated in every way, I have heard! But the Saint gently soothed my pain somewhat, and bidding me cease from grief and tears, said: Do not, my son, do not weep inconsolably in this way on account of my departure: for one ought not to grieve on this account, but rather to rejoice and exult, and give thanks to the Lord who calls us from this vain and sorrowful life to a most happy other one, utterly free from all sorrow. Do not all things happen disorderly and in confusion to the captive and wretched soul? Do we not, as in a sea and tempest, live amid continuous fears and terrors, he consoles him with many words, enduring the snares of demons and subject to those necessities of the body from all of which wretched man is freed when, separated from the body, he departs to eternal life, most remote from all these things, and approaches God and his Creator? But if you say you grieve for the reason that you will be deprived of the benefit you received from me, not even for this should you assume such great mourning, since from now on you have God as your teacher, guide, helper, and defender. And furthermore, if we are found worthy to please Him, we shall not entirely depart from you: but we shall continually look after you, ever present to your mind as it is drawn back to contemplate within itself, and in all things we shall instruct you: and sends him away, salutarily admonished, from himself, only be willing yourself to walk that narrow way which the Saints have trodden, and do not allow the fire of divine love now kindled in you and the desire for eternal goods to be suffocated by being occupied with the vain cares and pleasures of this world: For as fire is extinguished by water, so divine love is extinguished and abolished by the solicitudes and delights of mortal life. But far be it that this should happen to you, my most desired son Gregory: therefore depart in peace, and the Lord be with you. Amen.

[54] When therefore I had withdrawn to my home, shortly the holy and great Lent arrived, He, having spent Lent in solitude, returning, during which I was accustomed never to go anywhere outside, but intent solely on divine psalmody and the meditation of the sacred Scriptures, to devote myself to fasting and perpetual tears and frequent genuflections, as much indeed as my strength permitted. Therefore then also I kept my solitude until the splendid and holy resurrection of Christ who gives us life: although on account of the departure of my divine Father, tossed by the uncertain sea of thoughts and my spirit wounded with deadly grief, I continuously poured tears from my eyes, commensurate with the small amount of water which I applied to sustain my wretched body. On the third day after the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, going out from my cell, I ran to the place where my holy Father was staying, finds him dead on March 26. on account of my great love for him, hoping that I would find him still alive. But after I came to the place and inquired of the household members what had happened to him, I learned that on the twenty-sixth day of March, after celebrating the feast of the Lord's Annunciation and receiving the divine and undefiled mysteries, with half of Lent already past, suffering slightly in his head and reclining upon the pallet on which he was accustomed to rest, he had commended his holy and divinely illuminated soul into the hands of God, leaving to this world an eternal and immortal memory, his divine actions and noble victories, greater than the human condition, against demons and every kind of infirmity, himself now joined to the assembly of the firstborn in heaven.

[55] When therefore his sacred body lay exposed to view and funeral hymns and canticles were being sung to pay him the last honors, a great concourse of people gathers at the body one could see crowds of people flowing together like rivers, so that they might be sanctified by the mere sight of him. And if anyone merited to be blessed by some scrap of his garments or goatskin through contact with the holy remains, this person was considered the most fortunate of all by those who had known him well. For he was truly called Blessed, and was celebrated by all tongues as something miraculous. The aforementioned Constantine Barbarus, which Constantine Barbarus tries to carry out of the city who had the Saint in his house and sustained him, deliberated with himself to place the Saint's venerable Relics on a ship and to transfer them across from the great City to the East, where he had a certain country estate and an illustrious temple of the most holy Theotokos. But that that plan should be carried out was not permitted by that John of whose memory we made mention in a certain part of the wonders of our holy Father, narrating how the Saint had freed him from the diabolical madness which had come upon him from the sorcery of his own maidservant. John prevents it, For he spoke thus to the said Lord Constantine: Lord and dearest brother, why did you wish to take such a plan regarding the body of the Saint, as if you thought there were no monuments in Constantinople? Return therefore, if you please, and I will place it in a fitting location.

[56] Therefore, when he returned and the appropriate psalmody was finished, and places it under an altar in a certain convent of his, John placed the body in a coffin and transferred it with glory and fitting offerings to his monastery, which is situated near the church of Sts. Florus and Laurus and the divine temple of the holy Apostle Philip, and is inhabited by holy women serving God. And finding a suitable stone monument, newly hewn, for receiving the sacred pledge, he placed it within the holy altar. And from that time the holy Relics are shown to be like an unfailing fountain of wonders for all who approach them devoutly. and there he consecrates himself to God. The aforementioned John, moreover, after he had tended the Saint's body in this manner, inflamed with divine love and abandoning all things, bade farewell to glory, riches, pleasures, delights, and to the whole world entirely, and having his hair shorn and clothed in a sackcloth of haircloth, he remained until the end of his life near the tomb of the Saint, ministering to him: for he survived only a short

time, namely one year, which he spent in psalms, hymns, prayers, almsgiving, and continual tears, and he too was buried in the same monastery.

[57] after his death he was seen by a friend, After this John also was laid to rest, a certain friend and intimate of his prayed to God every day and night that he might know what reward he had received for that fervent faith and sincere charity with which he had been devoted to the Saint. On a certain day therefore, falling into ecstasy, he saw awe-inspiring palaces, whose gates of solid gold gleamed like the sun, raised to a great height, and having on the upper post this inscription marked in red letters: THE ETERNAL DWELLING AND REST OF MY TRUE SERVANT BASIL THE YOUNGER. And while, full of wonder, he gazed upon these things, a certain youth of extraordinary beauty opened the gates of the said palaces; and so, examining all things more carefully with eyes directed toward the interior, he saw a wonderful atrium adorned with inexplicable splendor, and in it, walking about with royal majesty and glory, our most holy Father Basil, glorious in the company of St. Basil. in a large retinue, having with him also his disciple, Lord John: who was of the order of eunuchs, of declining age and venerable with the white hair of his snowy face, seeming to serve as the Steward of the house. He seemed also to hear a voice coming from within, saying: Such is the reward that those who love God with their whole heart and who worthily venerate His servants receive after death: wherefore they also deserve to dwell with them for all eternity and to enjoy the communion of the rewards prepared for them. If therefore you also wish to be with these through those ages without end, zealously exercise yourself in keeping the commandments of the Lord, and you will not be without a share of such glory and rest. The man, having returned to himself from such a spectacle, truthfully reported all things to us just as he had seen and heard them.

EPILOGUE

He exhorts to works of corporal and spiritual mercy.

[58] And indeed, Brothers most beloved in the Lord, so the matter stands, as can also be learned from the Lord's own words, where it is said: Make yourselves friends from the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when you fail, they may receive you into eternal dwellings. Luke 16:9 For as you who are wise know better than we, by the name of mammon is designated that which is superfluous to just necessity: which he who retains is unjust against him who is in need of it and has not the means to procure it for himself. For he himself retains the superfluous out of avarice or unbelief, or rather out of wickedness or softness of spirit: but his neighbor is perishing from want. But what is worse than this, what shall we consider that which is collected not from mammon but from the oppression and plunder of the poor? We shall surely say it is a sacrilege placed upon the altar, provoking God to anger and delighting demons; unless perhaps someone, imitating the example of Zacchaeus, returns fourfold what he has plundered, and thus renders God favorable to himself. Meanwhile, he who from what is superfluous to his own necessity (which is properly mammon) lights candles in the temples of God and celebrates the memorials of the Saints, dispensing alms there to the poor, not to obtain any human praise but solely for the honor and glory of the Saints of God, will without doubt be received by them and joined to them, exulting eternally, even though he may have been somewhat negligent and a sinner to some degree, with the Saints assuredly interceding for him. But now, if this is how things go with him who has mercy on the poor even from the mammon of unrighteousness, or who returns fourfold from unjustly acquired goods, what great recompense shall those have stored up for them who have been generous and liberal to the poor from goods religiously acquired and from the just fruits of their labors?

[59] That there is not one mode of exercising mercy, and that it is not to be tested from the distribution of corporeal things alone, but is in reality various and manifold, is manifestly clear; otherwise those who have nothing of the sort to distribute would remain deprived of that great beatitude and reward which God has promised to the merciful: when on the contrary our most humane God and Lord, not wishing anyone to be excluded from the benefit to be gained from Him, has so smoothed the paths of beneficence that no one should remain without a share of divine goods: for these He has set forth in common for all people, as the breathing of air, the light of the sun, the use of fire and water. And first indeed He deeply planted the causes of compassion as a certain foundation of a house in the souls of men, and He endeavors to incline us thereto even by natural reason: since all things that proceed from us, however small or of no value, He Himself receives as the greatest; since He is accustomed to crown from the intention of the mind alone the disposition inclined to almsgiving, and does not disdain a cup of cold water offered from ardent charity, or two small coins: and for him who does not even have these, if he has uttered a groan for some afflicted person, he will not be rejected; and if he has also shed tears for him and confirmed such a person with consolatory words to endurance and thanksgiving, he will be accepted by God as one who has fulfilled the whole law of charity.

[60] But also by prayer and supplication we can profit greatly for those who labor in body and soul together: and he who rouses the negligence of a weak and inert brother to do well by counsel and admonitions treasures up much mercy for himself. Also to reconcile those who are at odds and to bring them to peace is of great benefit; and what is greater than all, by the example of honorable conduct and a holier life to cause some, turning from evil, to do good. In many ways therefore God has implanted in our nature the seeds of mercy, which let us strive with all our might to exercise, Brothers, so that through it, after the great day of judgment, we may enter into the heavenly bridal chamber together with the Bridegroom, Christ our Lord, and enjoy the kingdom of heaven, in the same Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom belongs all honor, glory, and adoration with the unbegotten Father and the life-giving Spirit, now and always and through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.