Eadbert

ON SAINT EADBERT

BISHOP OF LINDISFARNE IN ENGLAND.

YEAR DCXCVIII.

Eadbertus, Bishop of Lindisfarne in England (S.)

G. H.

Among the more illustrious Saints of England rightly to be reckoned S. Cuthbert Bishop of Lindisfarne, we said on his Life, related on day XX of March, on which he died in the year DCLXXXVII. His death and burial when Bede had related in book 4 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English nation chapter 29, S. Eadbert succeeds S. Cuthbert after a year, he adds these: Which when it had been done, the Bishopric of that Church for one year was kept by the venerable Bishop Wilfrid, until one was elected, who in place of Cuthbert ought to be ordained Bishop. Was ordained however after this Eadbert, a man in knowledge of the divine Scriptures and at the same time in observance of the heavenly precepts, and especially in the operation of alms distinguished, excelling in doctrine and almsgiving. so that according to the law every year the tenth, not only of quadrupeds, but also of all fruits and apples, also of garments a part to the poor he gave. So there Bede, who in the Life of S. Cuthbert chapter 11 num. 61 the same Eadbert, a man of great virtues, and in the Scriptures notably learned to have been, asserts: and then in chapter 12 describes, how the body of S. Cuthbert was elevated, with cooperating S. Eadbert, and how he concluded life with a blessed end: which are repeated thence as follows.

[2] But the divine dispensation, wishing to show more broadly how great in glory the holy man after death lived, whose before death sublime life, allows the body of S. Cuthbert to be elevated, with frequent also miracles' indications was clear; with eleven years having elapsed of his burial, sent into the minds of the Brothers, that they should take up his bones (which according to the manner of the dead, with the rest of the body now consumed and reduced to dust, they thought would be found dry) and laid in a light ark, in the same place indeed, but above the pavement for the sake of worthy veneration place. Which when they reported as having pleased them, to Eadbert their Bishop, in the middle almost of the Lenten time; he assented to their counsel, and ordered that on the day of his deposition, which is the thirteenth of the Kalends of April, they remember to do this. They did so: and opening the sepulcher, they found the whole body, as if still living, intact; and with flexible joints of limbs, much more like a sleeper than a dead man. But also all the garments, with which he was clothed, not only inviolate, but also appeared with pristine novelty and admirable brightness. Which when the Brothers saw, they were soon struck with great fear and trembling, so that scarcely could they speak anything, scarcely dared to look at the miracle, which was open; scarcely they themselves knew what to do.

[3] But the outermost part of his garments, for showing the sign of incorruption, taking (for those which were near to his flesh, they entirely feared to touch) they hastened to refer to the Bishop, and during Lent solitary, what they had found: who was then by chance in a place more remote from the monastery

place, encircled on every side by the flowing waves of the sea, dwelt solitary. In this indeed always the time of Lent he was accustomed to spend; in this for forty days before the Lord's nativity, in great continence, prayer and tears of devotion, to lead: in which also his venerable predecessor Cuthbert, before he sought Farne, as we have also taught above, for some time had served the Lord in secret. Receives part of his garment, But they brought also part of the garments, which had encompassed the holy body. Which when he received both as gifts gladly, and the miracles gladly heard (for the very garments, as if still surrounding the body of the Father, with wonderful affection he kissed) "New," he says, "garments place around the body in place of those which you have brought; and so place it in the case, which you have prepared. I know however most certainly, that not long will the place remain empty, which is consecrated by such virtue of a heavenly miracle. And blessed is he much, to whom in it a seat of resting the Lord, author of true blessedness and giver, deigns to grant." And he added in wonder, what once in verses I have said, and he said:

Who shall expound the heavenly gifts of the Lord by words? Or what ear contains the riches of paradise? While the pious one, having broken the weight of hostile death, and praises virtue, Shall give to live always in the starry citadel; He who now adorns dead members with such honor, And gives the beautiful pledges of perpetual aid. And how blessed is the house, which under such a Guest shines, Knowing no spot, joyful with light shines. Nor difficult to thee, Almighty, to entrust under the soil, Lest the devouring corruption consume the deposited corpses, You who for three days preserve the Prophet under the entrails of the whale, Opening for him the path of light from the mouth of death: Who in the midst of fires guard innocent limbs; Lest the Chaldean flame harm the Hebrew glory: Forty times you renew through cold the people's clothing, Which fleeing the Pharian, untraveled keeps the soil: Who form the light ash into reborn limbs, When the world shall tremble at the Angelic trumpets from heaven.

These and many similar things when, with many tears and great compunction, the Pontiff with trembling tongue completed; the Brothers did, as he had ordered: and the body wrapped in a new covering, and placed in a light case, above the pavement of the sanctuary they composed.

[4] Meanwhile the bishop beloved of God, Eadbert, by a bitter disease is seized: dies, May 6, and with the heat of languor growing through the days and much worsening, not long after, that is on the day before the Nones of May, he himself also migrated to the Lord; having obtained from him the gift, which he had most diligently asked; namely that not by sudden death, but by long worn out illness, he should pass from the body. Whose body in the sepulcher of the blessed Father Cuthbert placing, they placed above the case, in which the incorrupt members of the same Father they had placed: where now still, and is famous for miracles, if the faith of the petitioners requires, signs of miracles do not cease to be made. But also the garments, which the most holy body of his either alive or buried had clothed, do not lack the grace of healing. These miracles of S. Eadbert by the same S. Bede, in the Life of S. Cuthbert written in verse, are thus expounded:

The marks of diseases flee, the impious fury of the dark Demon stands off; and as alive he was wont before, To show the splendor of signs, so even now everywhere Is spread, and through dead limbs wonderful virtue.

He was made Bishop in the year DCLXXXVIII, died in the year DCCXVIII, buried in the Church of Lindisfarne, which S. Finanus there the Bishop (testifying the same Bede in book 3 chapter 25) in the manner of the Scots, not of stone, but of cut oak composed, buried in the church covered by him with lead. and covered with reeds. But also the Bishop of that place Eadbert, having taken away the reeds, with sheets of lead the whole both the roof and even the walls of it took care to cover. The Life of S. Finanus we illustrated on day XVII of February.

[5] In the History of the Church of Durham (which under the name of Simeon of Durham edited we have vindicated to Turgot, on the Life of S. Cuthbert) book 2 chapter 6, on the second devastation of the Danes, is said in the year DCCCLXXV the body of S. Cuthbert taken up, sacred bones to various places, and the venerable bones of his successors the venerable Priests, namely Eadbert, Eadfrid, and Ethelwold. These taking, from places to places, going and returning they wandered for seven years, testifying Richard of Durham book 2 chapter 1. Then to the village, named Creca, coming, there four months they sat. At length returning to the village Kunkacestra, now Cestram they call, they came: and there with the Relics they rested, and at length translated to Durham. from the year namely DCCCLXXXIII up to the year DCCCXCV. Afterwards in the year DCCCCXCV translated were the same holy bodies into the Ripon monastery: thence, after three or four months, to Durham. Finally in the year MLIV, on day XXIV of August, the said bones were found in the same coffin with the holy body of S. Cuthbert, and from this removed separately were preserved, as all these things are read in the History of the Translation of S. Cuthbert into the new tomb num. 6, and on February XII in the Life of the above-indicated Bishop Ethelwold.

[6] Memory in the Fasti. The sacred memory of S. Eadbert celebrate Greven and Molanus, in the Additions to Usuard, with MS. Florarium and today's Roman and Anglican Martyrology: likewise Maurolycus, Canisius, Menardus, Mihew, Bucelinus and others. Gelenius also refers: but he judges him to be the same with S. Egbert the Presbyter, who died on the island of Hy: whose Acts we gave on April XXIV.

ON S. JOHN DAMASCENE

MONK AND PRESBYTER AMONG THE GREEKS.

ABOUT THE YEAR DCCLXXX

John Damascene, Confessor (S.)

By D. P.

This excellent man, and even when in his fatherland Damascus he was occupied with temporal affairs, celebrated for sacred doctrine and zeal of religion, to every form of sanctity afterwards elevated him the most celebrated Laura of S. Sabbas, in Palestine; concerning whose other Holy alumni we have treated several times, and shall treat hereafter, on the days sacred to their memory. Inscribed in the Greek Fasti November 29, The Synaxarium, collected by order of Emperor Basil, and the most ancient of all that we know of in this kind, refers his memory to day XXIX of November: on which day the same had also other MSS. from which Sirletus compiled his Menology, which is extant printed by Henricus Canisius. The rest, which we have seen both printed and handwritten, day IV of December assign to John: when in the printed Menaea he is venerated with the office of the day partitioned with S. Barbara, and December 4, with proper Canon and Sticharia and Contacia, in which the Saint is greatly praised, for his incomparable faculty of composing sacred hymns, his efficacious refutation of heresies, and the rigor of monastic exercise. The Greeks are followed by the Russians or Muscovites, and other churches which afterwards borrowed sacred rites from the Greeks, to whom have adapted themselves Molanus in his additions to Usuard of the second or Douai Edition, Canisius in the second edition of the German Martyrology, and Arnold Wion in the Tree of Life, imitating Trithemius, treating of John, as having professed the Benedictine Rule, among the illustrious men of his Order.

[2] To the Latins May 6, This same without further proof did in the Benedictine Menology Gabriel Bucelinus, but on the present day VI of May; when John into the tables of the Roman Martyrology recognized by him, Baronius inserted, with a distinguished eulogy. And the eulogy indeed he received from the life; the day, either from Maurolycus or from Molanus of the first edition: before whom however certain other MS. Latin works, although not yet known to us, on the same day must have referred John. For in the Additions of the Carthusians of Cologne to Usuard of the year 1521, often cited under the name of Greven, thus is read: At Constantinople the deposition of holy memory John Damascene, an outstanding Doctor, and no less in life and miracles clear. And these words Molanus in the first, as said, of the year 1564 Louvain edition transcribed, omitted in the second Douai of the year 1583. Maurolycus in the year 1564 first edited, then 1570 and 1578 reprinted at Venice: At Constantinople of S. John Damascene the Presbyter, in morals and doctrine most clear in the time of Theodosius the third, that is, of Adramytenum, who only for a small part of the year DCCXV reigned, when not yet had begun John to shine forth by writings. But Maurolycus seems by that determination to have wished to correct others, who before him, to the age of Theodosius the elder, that is the IV century of Christ, had ascribed Damascene.

[3] Life written by John Patriarch before the year 969 The Life, which we have, and in Greek also from MS. Medicean of the King of France we give, before this with the works at Basel printed, presents as author John Patriarch of Jerusalem: who having received the argument from a certain Arabic and most simple narrative, adorned it with elegant style, perhaps two centuries after the death of Damascene. Indeed, examining all the monuments, from which I have endeavored to integrate the series of Patriarchs of Jerusalem, I found none of that name, before him whom Curopalates asserts, about the last year of Nicephorus Phocas, of Christ DCCCCLXIX, from Arabic papers; alive was burned by the Saracens. Not yet at Constantinople had this so adorned Life become known, perhaps not yet even composed, when his cult he had there and an eulogy in the Synaxaria; certainly drawn from other older notices, and indeed very different from the Arabic context: which in the Synaxarium of Basil the Emperor MS. is such, on November XXIX.

[4] He was under the imperium of Leo the Isaurian and his son Constantine, from another older eulogy in the Menology of Basil from the city of Damascus, of illustrious lineage, honored and faithful: but he had a father loving virtue; and was instructed in all the discipline of the gentiles, moreover also in the divine letters. Then for the love of Christ deserting paternal riches, he became a monk, together with Cosmas, that one of whom there is much mention in the poems of the sacred festivities, especially of the great week before the day of Pasch. John moreover, by the efficacy of his orations and demonstrations taken from Scripture, confounded the heresy of the Iconomachs; * whence by the heretical Emperors variously banished, and committed to prisons, in beautiful confession he was consummated, and buried by his disciple.

up to the sign *: but with the rest omitted, he concludes thus: Confounding the heresy of the Iconomachs, many things learnedly and accurately written he left; in which the solution of almost all questions is found. But when he had reached a great and praiseworthy old age, he departed life, B. John, before called Mansur, by which name also his parents were called. With that with Sirletus eulogy agrees, and the Menaea, on May VI, the Synaxarium of the Clermont College at Paris, except that it interposes mention of Cosmas's Episcopate of Majuma, and at the end adjoins certain things about his poems and life consummated in peace; which can be of use on day XIV of October.

[6] Someone has expunged from the Clermont, what there about the surname had been written: but the same is excellently confirmed

by Suidas, another from Suidas. with this added concerning the eulogy of his poems: John Damascene, surnamed Mansur, was a most eloquent man, and to none of those, who in his time shone with the praise of doctrine, was second. His works are many, and especially learned both, in the divine scripture his collectanea of Parallels, and his musical Canons, partly composed in Iambic verse, partly in prose. There flourished however together with him Cosmas of Jerusalem, a man of most elegant ingenium, breathing music wholly harmonious and modulated. Certainly the musical Canons of John and Cosmas have admitted no comparison hitherto, nor as long as this world endures, will they admit.

[7] Furthermore the meaning of the name expounding Theophanes, in the second year of Copronymus, Surname Mansur meaning Redeemed on the same occasion he declares, how impious this man was in mind toward John, while he still lived in Palestine, under the barbarian dominion of the Saracens more secure than in the lands of the Christian Emperors. For when he had brought in mention of Peter Bishop of Majuma (who seems to have been Cosmas's predecessor) cut down by the Arabs because of his freely vituperating Mahometism: him, he says, with the encomiums of his orations our holy Father John, Copronymus distorts to insult: who is rightly called Chrysorrhoas (because of the flourishing in his life as much as in his discourse grace of the spirit, like gold radiant) whom also the sacrilegious Emperor Constantine yearly was wont to subject to anathema, because of his eminent doctrine in the right faith: and for his ancestral name Μανσοὺρ, which means Redeemed, the new doctor of his age, with wholly Judaic ingenium, called Μανζηρὸν, that is (as from Papias shows Meursius in the Glossary) Son of a Harlot.

[8] The rage of the Tyrant did not terrify John, who even the right of the ecclesiastical keys impiously arrogated to himself, whose fury, nothing terrified, that of him he might take vengeance, whom otherwise he had not in his power. Indeed, just as other distinguished monks, among whom Stephen the Younger and his companions were, to be commemorated on November XXVIII, he ran to Constantinople or certainly into its vicinity also himself, dared to approach Constantinople; where the faith was greatly endangered, to be a sharer of the perils and contests; which in the Menology of Emperor Basil indicated, we should wonder were passed over by the writer of the Life, unless he professed himself to be following Arabic monuments. For when in these are contained only those things, which either in his fatherland as a layman or as a monk in the Laura he had done; concerning his death the Greek writer seems to have found absolutely nothing, whence he noted neither the day, nor the place.

[9] That John spent the last part of life abroad also from this we can confirm, whence happened that the Sabaites who died abroad did not write his life that if in his Laura he had died, and among the holy Fathers of that place by a more religious rite he were buried outside the common cemetery; there would not have been lacking among the monks living there someone, who would have described his whole life equally lengthily and accurately, and with the same elegance of the Greek language, as is described there the Life of his nephew Stephen Sabaite, to be given by us on July XIII; who in the year DCCXCV there died, and in the tenth year of his age of Christ DCCXLV, having entered the Laura, lived not a few years in it with his uncle S. John, and as described there is the Martyrdom of XX monk Martyrs, killed two years after the death of the said Stephen by the Arabs, which we illustrated on day XX of March.

[10] as also at Constantinople his Life in Palestine was not distinctly known. Further as concerning the last age of John Damascene little or nothing at all the Palestinians knew, among whom in Arabic written his earlier life Patriarch John found; so neither did the authors of the Synaxaria at Constantinople seem to have had known the things which concerning the calumny constructed against him through Leo the Isaurian to the Saracen Prince of Damascus those knew, and which concerning his distinguished obedience were narrated in common tradition among the Sabaite monks: in whose Laura even now is shown his cell, not likewise the sepulcher. But this we judge altogether that he obtained at Constantinople, just as we have shown some old Latin Martyrologies to have and to have had: which alone also mentioned miracles wrought during life, but in general; and seem to have committed the true day of death to memory.

[11] But why do I not rather say the Greeks did this? Because these, in choosing the day of annual commemoration, seem to have had altogether another regard. why the Greeks rather referred to November 29 For those who first took up the day XXIX of November; therefore seem to have done it, because the day before they had celebrated S. Stephen the Younger; and because on account of the praised by him works of John Damascene and zeal for the cult of sacred images, they judged it congruous to make the memory of this also consequently. Those who took up the day IV of December and held it had instituted by S. John himself the office of the Virgin and Martyr Barbara, and recited the encomium of her composed by him; judged it fitting to join the cult of both, with composed, what had not yet been done, a proper Canon about John himself. or December 4, Just as on II of March, before the life of S. Mary the Egyptian, we said it pleased, that in the office of feria V of week V of Lent, when the life of that Saint by S. Andrew of Crete brought to Constantinople was recited, together with the great Penitential Canon by him composed, with the said Canon of S. Mary another Canon of S. Andrew was mixed, although proper otherwise both had its own day of cult, this on April I, that on October XVII.

[12] than on May 6, on which he seems to have died, Add that John, although dead on day VI of May, nevertheless on that day had no peculiar cult: because his body humbly buried, while still reigning Copronymus's son Leo Chazarus, heir of paternal impiety as much as of the kingdom, never seems to have been raised from the earth; perhaps lacking miracles which would have urged this to be done, when the whole devotion of the Constantinopolitan People, restored after a little while under Irene and Constantine the Emperors orthodox cult of images, was borne toward S. Stephen and other illustrious Martyrs for their defense; whose pre-eminent splendor obscured the light of others Confessors in the same. Nor let anyone judge this said by mere conjecture, and at Constantinople modestly buried. but let him read in the Menaea the Canons of day IV, which are about S. John; and he will find no mention there made of the body or burial, or miracles wrought by his invocation, contrary to what he will note done in the Canons of other Saints, whose tombs were in veneration. Similarly nor in the Clermont Synaxarium, where it is wont to be accurately noted in what place of the city of Constantinople the Synaxis of each Saint is celebrated, by reason of the body or relics of him, nothing such is read of S. John, whom nevertheless the Latins ascribe to Constantinople, and that as we judge not vainly.

[13] The Eulogy which the Great Menaea weave for him, much more lengthy than in the Synaxarium of Emperor Basil, Lived 104 years, born about year 676, with these words is concluded: In a fertile old age he ended life, when he had produced it to four years over a hundred. These I would so order, that about the year DCCLXXX dying John, with Copronymus indeed dead, but the Church not yet pacified, he was born about the year DCLXXVI; so much so that under Leo the Isaurian (who reigned from the year DCCXVI to DCCXLI) when he was about forty years old, amid the public business which he carried at Damascus, he began to busy himself for the cult of sacred images, which root and branch overthrown the impious one wished; and to confirm the faithful by writings of letters sent everywhere, and the more freely to argue against the perfidious the less he feared his anger, placed far outside his jurisdiction. Then suffering calumny from him, and for his hand restored to him by the Mother of God which had been cut off, Ordained Presbyter about year 740 with his adoptive brother Cosmas, having entered the Laura of S. Sabbas, he there for some years lay hidden; until again he began to shine forth by composing with Cosmas sacred Canons; and by John Patriarch of Jerusalem indeed Cosmas was made, after Peter the Martyr, Bishop of Majuma about the end of Leo or the beginning of Copronymus; but John ordained Presbyter, and that not a little before the year DCCXLIX: for then we have shown in the Catalogue that John the Patriarch was no longer alive, whom dead nevertheless Damascene praises as his master, all of whose sentiments he intimately knew, in a letter written before the year already said against those who were reviving the heresy of Peter the Fuller.

[14] With this Patriarch dead, to his beloved among the Sabaites solitude Damascene betook himself, died about year 780. and there wrote those learned books, whose force not bearing Copronymus first while he was absent began to strike with yearly anathema; then close engaging he dared to wear out with exiles and prisons, mentioned in the Basilian menology: from which, with him dead, freed, secretly returned to Constantinople; nor much after departed life, before at least his cult to images and peace to the orthodox were restored, to whom under Leo Chazarus certain truces had fallen, with the persecution mitigated which had previously raged. We hoped to be able to say more concerning the last contests of Damascene from the Oration of the most wise Cyrus Constantinus Logotheta Acropolita on S. John Damascene: Eulogy written by Constantinus Logotheta wherefore we took care to have it transcribed from the Vatican Codex, and by the most humane Joannes Franciscus de Rubeis, Roman jurisconsult, to be rendered into Latin, although most lengthy, and flowing with too much verbosity. And already that interpretation almost wholly through couriers had been brought successively, and the few pages remaining were soon expected to be brought, when these were demanded for the press; which to delay further seemed not fitting, since in those things which had come to hand, nothing appeared except a bare paraphrase of the older Acts, by which to augment the bulk of this work would not be worth the trouble. But if at the end of the said oration something is found about things done by the Saint at Constantinople, that in the Appendix of this volume we shall propose. Now we have enough to remit the reader to the encomium of S. Theodosia, Holy Religious and Martyr of Constantinople, by the same Constantine composed and on May XXIX illustrated; where with more matters we shall treat of the author, who at the end of the XIII century wrote and flourished: about John however thus he began, Τῷ Ἰωάννῃ τὸν λόγον, τῷ ἐκ Δαμασκοῦ τὰ ἐγκώμια: To John an oration! To Damascene encomiums! In what way therefore on the very threshold shall I not be benumbed, and before to the contest am I unclothed shall I not flee away?

[15] Meanwhile from the things said above concerning the time and place, in which this Saint seems to have died; it follows, that there is no likely cause, on account of which Baronius held Maurolycus and Molanus suspect, and judged that for "Constantinople" should be written by him "Damasci"; when neither did the Saint die there, nor by any argument is it established that the Christians, groaning under the Saracen yoke, either there or in general in the whole East were solicitous, about

instituting any cult of him. How badly he is divided into two. You have hence whence you may correct Volaterranus, Bellovacensis, and Antoninus: who referring the age of Damascene to the Senior Theodosius, gave occasion to Trithemius of distinguishing two Johns Damascene; one who flourished under the said Theodosius, and edited books on the orthodox faith; another, who fought for images. For it is clear from chapter 10 book 3, where the author mentions Peter the Fuller, who in the fifth Synod was condemned under Justinian; and from book 4, where against the Iconomachs he disputes, that to the author of these books such antiquity is not fitting; that he could not be the same who also wrote under Copronymus.

[16] His works most recently edited and recollected Jacques Billy, abbot of S. Michael in the Desert, Various editions of his Works, often afterwards subjected to the press. Into these certain writings of other authors have been inserted, of whom partly are unknown, partly are indicated names: but in those which are marked with the name of Damascene himself, Billy thinks should be numbered the history of Barlaam and Josaphat, which others wish to attribute to John of Sinai: which on their anniversary day November XXVII it will be allowed to examine. Philippus also Labbe in the year 1652 had brought to light a Conspectus of a new edition of all his works in four parts distributed: but that edition hitherto has not seen the light: into which what new matter would have come can be seen from the Conspectus itself, to which the reader the author refers in his historical Dissertation on ecclesiastical writers. I from Allatius here indicate can be added to these, to these can be added a sermon on S. Barbara M. for the life of S. Stephen the Martyr (which certainly is not Damascene's, but Metaphrastes's, taken from another older one, by Stephen Deacon of the Great Church composed; which we shall in our time bring to light) for this, I say, Life to be added I suggest, the Sermon on the Glorious Martyr of Christ Barbara, which under his name, I do not know where, he found, and judged to be truly his, a man most versed in distinguishing such things, with this beginning: Ὑπέρκειται μὲν ὁμολογουμένως ἅπασαν ἐγκωμίων σύνθεσιν.

[17] But to the same works the by far greatest accession can be made from the nineteen ecclesiastical books of the Greeks, long ago in Greek printed at Venice, and many from the ecclesiastical books of the Greeks, judges in his Prolegomena to Marian Greek Piety our Simon Wagnereck. For the said books (which the Greeks use almost from the use of the Jerusalem monasteries, by S. Sabbas first ordered; just as having been abolished by the Saracens, S. Sophronius beginning to restore, left the work to S. John Damascene, either to be completed, if he had only begun, or anew to be restored, if completed by him again the barbarians had abolished) the Greek, I say, books of ecclesiastical Hymnody Damascene aforesaid so restored, which almost abolished John restored that it seems can be attributed to him, whatever about Saints or Feasts, preceding his age, without name of author, they contain. For Simeon of Thessalonica, in his Dialogue against heresies in Leo Allatius, first speaks thus: Our holy Father Sabbas reduced the divine office into a certain Type or written form, which from SS. Euthymius and Theoctistus through tradition he had received: these moreover from their elders and especially Chariton the Confessor took. But this norm of the divine Office, by S. Sabbas committed to writing, when by the irruption of devastating barbarians it had perished, after Sophronius, our holy Father Sophronius, Patriarch of the holy city, by his study and labor restored; and after him the divine and in theological matters most acute John Damascene renewed, and again committed to writing.

[18] And a little below, with Sophronius passed over (as if his labor either had brought nothing to perfection or wholly perished) again he says, himself the writer of many Canons, The Jerusalem Typicon, has the most sacred Sabbas and the Theologian Damascene as nomothetes. Certainly the aforesaid Wagnereck, at the end of his first part (the others designated by him we do not yet know to have come into the light, with the author's death verisimilarly intercepted) weaving the Catalogue of the authors named in the said books and tasted by him, found nothing on whose account he should name S. Sophronius; but after the Theotocia under the name of S. Sabbas produced, he subjoined those which have S. John Damascene as author to the number seventy-five: besides others which perhaps are by the same author; but, the name through the carelessness of librarians omitted, are unknown whose they are.

[19] Wagnereck moreover judges, that the Breviaries themselves of the histories of the Saints are the invention and work of Damascene, and perhaps the first author of the Synaxarium. in which part indeed they include Saints older than his age, and constitute the Synaxarium properly so called; and he alleges to this the authority of Aegidius Romanus, in 3 Sent. quaest. 4 art. I §2 num. 48 citing the Martyrology of S. John Damascene; which can be nothing other than the Synaxarium ordered by him, and afterwards augmented by various accessions; just as that, which today still the Greeks use, is called the Typicon of S. Sabbas, from its first author; and those which under the names of Jerome and Usuard are cited as Martyrologies are believed truly to be theirs, although augmented by various additions at the end of each day. Of the institution and use of the Synaxarium, supplying the place of more and larger books on the Lives of the Saints, and to that extent to be likened to the Breviary of the Western Church on the Saints, rather than to the more succinct Martyrology, we treated extensively before the month of March, on the basis of that which Basil Porphyrogennetes ordered to be collected, edited at the end of our first volume of the Acts of the Saints of March: to which can be added, what here about its inventor Damascene we suggest, and we believe it the more likely, because of Acts and Martyrdoms, thus collected in compendium, no mention before his times do we find.

LIFE

By John Patriarch of Jerusalem.

From the Greek MS. Medicean of the King of France, with R. P. Antonio Francisco Destieu S. J. as Interpreter.

John Damascene, Confessor (S.)

BY JOHN OF JERUSALEM FROM GR. MS.

CHAPTER I.

The fatherland and lineage of John; his father's liberal humanity toward captives.

[1] Men have been wont, for the glory of those, who the divine image in their souls uncontaminated and incorrupt with primigenial integrity preserved, If Saints are honored with precious statues or even more often deformed and contaminated restored, to make sacred images of bodies and effigies. But those for whom more magnificent cult is at hand, their hands also full of riches more splendid according to the amplitude, and bring splendid materials, and on the same of them sculpt the lineaments, that those who in this way reckon themselves with greater honor toward holy Men to be discharged. If therefore in the artifice of images they so eagerly study splendor, how fittingly will neglected and unformed speech be commemorating things done by them? Pardon indeed should be given to the more rustic, narrating with extempore speech, as they can, the deeds of those, who pleased Christ: the more should their life be adorned with cultivated discourse, but indeed to those, to whom the faculty of speaking is acquired by study, in no way should be excused, if the lives of Saints they have cast down written with light, as the impulse carried, hand: and especially the Lives of those men, to whom the Spirit and life gave space for vigil over books, and who by the help of doctrine both the mind from ignorance and oblivion, and the soul from every turbulent motion vindicated: who moreover to this earthly compass have brought ornament; who illustrated the minds of all by their elaborated writings, having not only of external wisdom enticements, but of the Paraclete also abundantly vibrating light.

[2] Of these, and among the first, especially of John Damascene is one that celebrated John, to whom the surname from Damascus the city of his fatherland with the fame of an illustrious Man was given. For he arose as no small star of the ecclesiastical firmament; but both the greatest and most splendid, not only in the night of heresy diffused everywhere shining, but every also that ill-meaning gloom by sent forth rays of his eloquence dispelling. For diffused everywhere in the lands was night, who dispelled the night of heresies by his writings obscuring the splendid forms of venerable images. There was indeed a deep gloom, which he who brought and diffused, was not someone of the people, who namely in some part of the orb the evil would sow; but holding the scepter of the Roman Empire, the very ends of the orb, so to speak, he embraced with his hand: by which it was, that with much fury everywhere breathing, and with great force overthrowing the venerable images, their cultors as well, in the manner of a lion seizing and roaring, under Leo the Iconoclast, that one in name and mind a Lion, partly tore in pieces, partly of the Orthodox some by his roaring scattered to other places, and into hiding-places of subterranean recesses he drove, and many preferred to dwell with lions and dragons, than to abide with him and his ministers: others however struck with fear ran far to the extreme ends of the earth (for the Lion roars, and who shall not fear?) and from him, as from the sight of an asp, fled.

[3] opposing him generously. But this man, having his name from the grace, with which he was imbued, with anger against only the serpent boiling (so that to the study of religion and to virtue this anger might be turned for him) not from Thrace, which at that time he inhabited, to the Sarmatians; not from the Byzantine city, to the columns of Hercules did he flee in flight; nor from palaces did he pass to solitude on account of the roar of this Lion; but living first at Damascus, afterwards in Palestine, and exercised in solitary place, against the Lion most strongly fought, and his heart from such an interval of places, with the arms of eloquence, fashioned by the fire of the Paraclete and hardened by vital water, like with three-pronged spears the strongest warrior of mine pierced through. But of these things in their own place our oration shall expound more ornately: unless perhaps it be fair, which truly is not, to neglect such a man's life unadorned, as it is, and only in tongue and Arabic letters written. Therefore I must expound from what and how noble a root this most flourishing shoot blossomed, and which fatherland soil boasts to have produced it.

[4] In whom Damascus was born to the highest glory of the city It is the city of Damascus. For as it itself glories much in Paul, whom one day to ascend the heavens, first it saw, with impiety cast away, from an enemy of Christ made a lover of Christ; so by right and merit much glory it takes from this man, who neither came from elsewhere, nor from another religion to the right was led, but whom from the very root it brought forth; and forming him for piety more, than for the habit of body in midwifing, and nourishing in teaching, on account of this its shoot magnificently itself raises and exults, and from it took greater pleasure, than from the ornaments, which it has for splendor; whether you say the temperateness of the year, or the streams of sweet and pellucid waters, with which it is irrigated much. Nor indeed does the abundance of the best fruits exalt this city so much, as this beautiful and noble tree born from it, which according to the courses of waters

nourished produced timely fruits of the Holy Spirit, some of which are perpetually fresh among us, as beautiful in sight, so sweet to taste, and finally of such kind, that those, by whom they are reached and tasted, not only with pleasure they affect, but also fatten and increase those eating them, and exalt them into men perfect in spirit, and complete in all numbers. So the city of Damascus on account of this its offspring is in greater glory, than on account of all other goods, and pleasures, of which it has abundance.

[5] from ancestors most especially Christian This therefore is the city, which bore that man. But he had pious ancestors, and who in the midst of thorns kept the flower of piety and the fragrance of Christian science alone; alone the Christian name, just as a precious heritage, not by any force to be wrested away retained, with orthodox doctrine among themselves nothing depraved, from which time the Hagarenes took the city. Hence their virtue made them illustrious in the midst of the impious, and the enemies themselves revered such virtue: or rather, just as Daniel on account of shown specimens of piety among the Assyrians, among the Egyptians Joseph, illustrated God; them in foreign and hostile land although captives, He constituted arbiters and Lords of affairs; in the same manner the ancestors of John, moderators of public affairs here also among the Saracens He made to be; and honored among the Saracens themselves and here also pious captives commanded the impious, into whose power they had come. O great miracles of God! O admirable calamities! Nothing surely than virtue is more sublime, nothing than piety more excellent and exalted. For as standards on a hill, or rather as in night a lamp, as a seed in Israel, as in ash sparks; so was the lineage of John's ancestors left at Damascus, to bring forth this conspicuous torch, which to the ends of the earth would shine ahead.

[6] with the father given to virtue beyond the rest Such therefore to him, whom we have undertaken to praise, were his ancestors. But the father himself, as one who was from such good stock propagated, in piety and other virtues striving to surpass them, presented an even greater charity of God. And surely it was consonant, that to a man so distinguished and about to come to the highest peak of virtue such, whom he was about to have nearer, author of life would fall, who his own ancestors in splendor would surpass; that with continued as it were in some progression by right and composed reason the ascent on high might be built, and so the things which would happen to this great and celebrated man would be seen to be governed by divine providence from heaven: just as also concerning John the Baptist it happened. For since he was about to shine with greater light than the earlier Prophets, and, and of great charity toward captives: which is far before the dignity of the prophetic Priesthood, that sacred mystery, the baptism of the Lord he was about to perform; by divine providence it was procured, that not from the rank of the common people, but from the priestly tribe he should come forth, and have a parent the Prophet. In like manner also to our John divine providence gave a father a man especially both religious, and humane. For prefect of the administration of public affairs of the whole dominion; both on account of his much virtue, and on account of the rest of his life's splendor, with riches with which he flourished much, not for feasting and drinking he abused with absurd expense; but as much as in gold he had, and in other movable goods, that he made the price of redeeming Christian captives: the most splendid faculties of movable things which through Judaea and Palestine he had, to redeemed Christians, who in those places had chosen for themselves a seat, he distributed for rest and sufficient sustenance of life; allowed others under the open sky and free foot, to set out wherever they wished. So full of humanity was the virtue of this man. For he had so much, as one who had nothing, returning his faculties to God night and day.

[7] When he was such, not of hospitality, like Abraham, but of humanity he received the reward, who given to that son from heaven, an admirable offspring, if not from a promise, certainly from divine foreknowledge and predestination. For God knew beforehand how John was to turn out, whom therefore to such a Man He predestined to be born as son ^b, and at the same time as a reward of humanity shown to those, who with hard captivity had exchanged liberty. There is born therefore to him this excellent boy, and with tender still little body through the regeneration of a spiritual mother ^c, his father makes his offspring a son of light, executing a thing not indeed easy then, and which in the midst of those nations not many would dare. Thereafter the father's care for the son was, providing him a teacher to instruct not that he should learn together to drive horses, dexterously brandish a spear, from a bow most skillfully aiming send an arrow; with wild beasts engage, and turn natural mildness into bestial cruelty, as not rarely happens to many of disturbed mind, and rushing forth in some furious and immane manner. To these arts not was sought by John's father another Chiron ^d, nourished in mountains, and nourishing his pupil with the marrow of stags: but a man was sought trained in every kind of erudition, endowed with every eloquence, who would belch forth a good word from the heart of the soul, that he might also nourish his own son with such food and feast. This indeed so pious desire God fulfilled for him, and he was found by the seeker, of such a kind as was sought. But to him seeking such a fortune offered itself.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The excellent progress of John and Cosmas under their teacher Cosmas brought from Italy.

[8] The Damascene barbarians, having made, as they were wont, an excursion toward the shores of the sea, much booty of Christian men had taken, Cosmas the monk captured by the Saracens and entering the sea they had led away the captive crowd in ships: but those led away into the city partly they offered for sale to buyers, partly they reserved to be slaughtered with the sword. Among their number was a man in monastic habit, born in Italy ^b, beautiful in face, more beautiful in mind, Cosmas ^c by name, in whose face a certain gravity shone forth, indicating the internal habit of mind. At his feet threw themselves those, who were being dragged to death: him they besought, that he might render God propitious to them, and obtain the pardon of their crimes from his easy will toward men by his prayers. The barbarians themselves observing the reverence with which those about to die turned themselves to him, a man of such gravity of morals, among those condemned to death approaching him asked, what dignity in the world he had used, by what honor among the Christians he was distinguished? He replied: No order of sacred grades have I attained, but I am a useless Monk, instructed in Philosophy, not only ours and friendly to God, but also that which has external sages as authors. These things at the same time he said, and tears arising filled his eyes.

[9] the father of John understanding him weeping, Not far from there had stood John's parent, and beholding the man so profusely weeping, approaches, about to console his calamity with words, and says, Why, O divine man, do you weep over the loss of this orb, which already long ago you have renounced; and as, from this garment I conjecture, even dead also? Not of this life, replied the Monk, do I deplore the loss: for, as you say, I am dead to the world. This grieves me uniquely, that I have aspired to all human disciplines in vain, making them as it were a foundation for myself the orb, which is called, of the sciences. I exercised my tongue in Rhetoric; I am instructed in dialectical precepts and demonstrations; about morals I have endeavored to know, as much as ^d the Stagirite, as much as the son of Ariston ^e handed down; the whole nature of things, as much as is enough for man, that the sciences acquired with much study by speculation I have investigated; arithmetical reasonings I have learned; geometry I hold to the rule; the harmonies of music and concordant numbers I know well enough, to the motion and conversion of the heaven whatever pertains, I have not neglected, that at length from the magnitude and beauty of created things I might obtain knowledge equal according to my capacity of the Creator himself. For whoever has obtained more certain knowledge of created things, he both knows their Author more certainly, and on account of admirability looks up more. Thence to the secrets of Theology I have progressed, both that which the Greeks have handed down, and that which is by our Theologians explained with most certain reason. With these sciences therefore filled, not yet I have hastened to give to anyone in matter so useful a part to be had, and to procreate a son for the father who would correspond to philosophical studies. For as most love to take up natural children, hence reckoning the succession of lineage to remain: so also those who have devoted themselves to Philosophy, desire to beget children through philosophical institution, that the golden lineage of Philosophers may be preserved perpetually among the living; they themselves, that they may have been authors of admirable offspring, may obtain immortal glory. had not communicated to another; For it is proper to all of benign nature in general, that they wish to make others participants of the goods of which they are rich; therefore he who is not such, nor wishes that, does not act rightly, but malignantly, full of a certain pride and envy; since he cannot be brought to share with others, if he abounds in any good. Wherefore even what he seems to have, will be taken away from him, just as happened to the servant not placing the talent with the bankers. I therefore, who have chosen the good part, would greatly wish to hand down the doctrine acquired by me to others; but my vow being frustrated, that I might be reckoned among those faithful servants, who increased the talents placed with others twofold, with no son begotten through Philosophy, I depart life without offspring; and on that account miserable, as I might say, I depart with my face, as you see, foul with tears, sad and dejected.

[10] ^f obtains the same from the Prince These words when he had heard who desired such a treasure, he replied: Come, blessed man, console your own mind, for perhaps the petitions of your heart will the Lord give you. These things at the same time said the father of John, with what speed he could most quickly ran to the Prince of the Saracens, and at his knees fell, asking that most ornate man Cosmas for himself. Nor did he carry away a refusal of his petition, but received as a gift of altogether enormous price Cosmas, whom led to his houses he began to console, and from long endurance of hard things worn out he began to refresh. Then also adding such things; Not only, he said, in the future are you free, but even of my house I wish you to be sharer and lord together with me, and entrusts to him his son John and Cosmas the adoptive and partner in all my joy and sorrow. One thing however from you

I ask, honorable man, that this indeed natural son of mine, John, and besides this other one of the same name as you, who born at Jerusalem, and at tender age bereaved of parents, I have adopted as a spiritual son, with all your science and Philosophy, whether external or that with which the grace of the Holy Spirit imbues the worthy, you most diligently inform and instruct. These things heard our Philosopher seemed like a horse violently breaking his bonds and shaking the spaces of the field with his hooves; or like a thirsty stag rushing in course to the fountains of waters: you would have said equally that he, like a new Midas, had fallen upon great treasures of gold by chance; with such alacrity to the matter prompt he takes up the youths, and becomes their teacher.

[11] who taught by him all the disciplines Then John, like an eagle by its wings, his excellent natural disposition of mind and study were carrying him flying through heaven. But Cosmas, his brother in spirit, and fellow-disciple in study, you would have said was a ship borne with sails spread like wings through the water, with favorable winds blowing, and zephyrs swelling the stern. Thus by the swiftness of ingenium and contention of study all more abstruse doctrine was acquired by them, both that which is occupied in writing, and that which is in disputing and demonstrating. Meanwhile the discipline of morals not only cultivated their mind, but also pacified the turbulent motions of the soul, and as the eagle fixes its sharp eyes on the sun, so they fixed their unaverted eyes on the natures of things expounded in words. in each they emerged eminent But arithmetical proportions they pursued no less happily, than either also so skilled in geometric demonstrations, that other Euclids, or if any were similar, they were judged; but in poetic faculty so eminent, as they seem to learned men on account of the divine poems which they wrote. But how great in astronomy John was, although he himself wrote few things, on intervals, stations, habits, retreats with even reasoning for a brief instruction of the more rude, appears clearly. Such through all things also was Cosmas, whose praises I leave the oration to others; for our subject of praise is John.

[12] and specially in Theological matters John, Who moreover the exact knowledge in him of theological dogmas will not recognize and admire from his elementary book, which if anyone shall say is perfect with all the precepts of right reason, and the Mosaic tablets, he will not have erred from the truth. ⁱ But these things to the commendation of the book I know were to be said afterwards, not now: yet we have said it here, in argument of the discipline cultivated by him, that may be understood, how the whole of it he undertook with diligence and erudition; and how, what certainly has admirability, he was not exalted by knowledge and that cognition; but rather as the branches of fertile trees with abundant fruit's weight bend down toward the earth, yet nothing more elevated thence: so John let himself down with manifold fruit of doctrines fruitful, that not into the ground indeed looking, but into the deepest sea of Philosophy; through which because by human affections, like by some ship, he was borne, he wished to unburden it from this world, and to put off entirely the garments of bodily affections, and so with naked mind to plunge into the sea and reach the bottom, that he might find there lying a pearl of great price. This when he had in his vows and before his eyes, to the very lowest abyss he descended, neither inflated by knowledge was he extolled, but by the desire of more recondite knowledge he was much abased. So however the lamp of his intellectual mind abounded with the oil of human erudition, that to its kindled light from heaven, which corporeal matter does not nourish, equally him to bring near, the whole fiery John seemed to be.

[13] and to his father he is restored by the teacher Meanwhile the master, deservedly led to love of his pupil, approaching the boy's father: Behold, he said, what you desired, that you have obtained: these boys excel me in doctrine: neither was it sufficient for them to have equaled their teacher, but by greatness of ingenium and never relaxed endeavors, with God especially augmenting the gift of wisdom for them, to a higher peak of Philosophy than I, they have been borne. Hereafter useful my work to them cannot be; my reward of which let it be, that through you it be allowed me to retire into the institute of solitary life, and in it the highest wisdom to investigate by prudent counsel. retiring to the Laura of S. Sabbas: For, what before I learned of Philosophy, that transmits me to this: to be enriched however with two goods is more blessed for me, and to add to the possession of the prior wisdom that, which is sundered from all matter and surpasses all thought, such as only the naked mind and entirely abstracted from the body can perceive. Heavy fell on John's parent this discourse of the Philosopher: but to retain the man he could not, lest he might seem to have malignantly returned the reward for his son's instruction in the sciences. He dismissed therefore with good grace the Philosopher, supplied with viaticum most copious for use. He however to the Laura of S. Sabbas in solitude went, where remaining until death, to the highest wisdom God himself by dying he departed. ^k Departed also by death John's parent: and John is created Protosymbolus. but John the Saracen Prince calling to himself, adorned him with the dignity of first Counselor. And he indeed refused, with desire drawing him elsewhere: at length compelled by much force he could not resist any longer, and so with greater power he is substituted for his parent. ^l

ANNOTATIONS

CHAPTER III.

For the defense of sacred images having suffered calumny, he loses his hand: which the same miraculously received, he obtains to be discharged from the office of Senator.

[14] The mad Leo Isaurian against images At that time the Roman empire governed Leo Isaurian, whom against the holy images and the rightly thinking assembly of the Church, just as a roaring and seizing lion, his fury drove: for those he consumed by the fire of his bestial rage, but the cultors themselves of those, seizing and destroying, with the teeth of tyrannical impiety pitiably tore. These things when they had come to John's ears, with Elijah's impetus to defend sacred things, and the Baptist's free confidence in reproving of his namesake imitating (as if the Holy Spirit were anointing within him him, who even before unction had been destined to be an adversary of impiety), his discourse like a spiritual sword he drew, to cut off the doctrine of the bestial man as a head. To the Orthodox therefore, to whom he was known, for the honor of the venerable images he sent Epistolary ^a exhortations, laboriously showing and most wisely, and not bearing John's zeal for them, necessary the adoration of images. He also exhorted them, that they should commemorate similar things to others, and show his Letters to all; and in every way the new defender of truth was striving, that as if through the world from hands to hands of the pious his letters might go, and so the right doctrine be confirmed. Finally, by the example of Paul he tried the orb of the earth, if not with feet, certainly with the truth promulgated through Letters to traverse.

[15] Some letter of his sought out Which when the Emperor Leo learned, summoning some devoted to his error, when now his impiety he could not bear to be transfixed, with John's letters openly promulgating it; he orders, with the appearance of religion feigned, with all study and through the catching of conversation, to catch a Letter written by John's hand. Wherefore those protectors of impiety did not desist with concealed deceit to move every stone, and what they had been ordered, to seek out, until having found the Letter they handed it over into the hands of the Emperor. He moreover summoning some of his notaries, sets forth the form of the Letter for them to imitate, that they might represent both the marks of the writing, and sentiments and locutions. He had ready the work of many for this: them commands that disgraceful Emperor, that they should write to himself as if from John a Letter, of which this was the sentiment.

[16] feigns one as if written to himself by him, Hail Emperor. To your majesty by this title I congratulate that the same is the faith of each of us. I, with veneration due to your Imperial dignity, by which above the rest you are exalted, testify benevolence; which has effected, that I should signify to you, this our city is altogether negligently guarded, and the garrison of Hagarene soldiers is most slight and infirm. Wherefore, by immortal God, have mercy on this city, which by no labor you will occupy, if from a sudden you send a strenuous band of soldiers, which feigns the journey elsewhere. I also to this expedition will contribute something, for almost the whole region with the city itself is in my power. With this Letter adorned, that impious one with equal malignity writes another to Damascus to the Prince of the Saracens, and sends to the Saracen Prince: which had thus: Just as nothing more blessed than peace, nothing more fortunate than friendship; so to keep the leagues of peace and praiseworthy and pleasing to God I judge. Therefore before every other thing this is to me prior, inviolate, which with you, most noble man, I have sanctioned, to guard the friendship of peace; although for it to be dissolved and broken shrewdly the faith, by some living under your imperium of the Christians by clandestine and frequent letters I am incited, asserting that he will certainly come

to me to capture your city by hand, only if a firm army I should send there. Wherefore one of the Letters sent to me by him I have sent back to you, that the things, which I write to you about, I may confirm: at the same time that you may understand, of what and how integral I am in alliances; moreover that you may know the malevolence and fraudulence of him, who has dared to write these things to me.

[17] Both these Letters that man, like in name a Lion, so also a serpent in cunning, who orders the right hand of John to be cut off. sends to the Barbarian. Which when received he calls John to himself, and shows him the suborned Letter. Which John running through, confessed the forms of the letters to be similar to his; but what was contained in them, that he did not at all know, nor that it ever entered his mind, he said. The fraud and snares were not hidden from him reading: but that enemy of Christ, the Prince, to John's words just as, they say, an ass to a lyre, conducted himself: for he was deaf to the sincere and veracious words, but did not press his unjust imperium with silence; but on the spot he orders to be cut off John's right hand: but a brief time of begging to clear his crime, and the fury of the impious man toward himself to recount, the Barbarian denied, who carried away by fury did not contain himself at all. Therefore was cut off that right hand, which strength through its writings had instilled in the souls of those rightly thinking about God: was cut off that right hand, which attacked the enemies of God; and, which before when the cult of images with pen it championed, was tinged with ink, now itself is tinged with its own blood. Cut off indeed they suspended it on high, so to speak, in the forum.

[18] As soon as evening rendered darkness, and at length John thought that the fury of the Tyrant had subsided, to him he sent a suppliant embassy in these words: My pains are growing, which received and applying to his arm and have now reached such a state, that they cannot be borne: nor will the sharp force of the evil remit, as long as my amputated hand hangs in the air: wherefore command it to be returned to me as a benefit, that I may bury it in the earth, and the pain may cease to rage. The Tyrant immediately yielded to his prayers, and was given to the just man his hand. Which he, having received, betook himself into a domestic oratory, where prone with all his body before the divine image of the Mother of God, and putting back the cut-off right hand to its native joining, from the depth of his breast he began to beseech her, so easy to the wretched, with groans and tears exclaiming: Lady, Mother, who didst purest bear God, asks to be restored to him by the Mother of God: behold on account of the sacred images this right hand has been cut off from me. You do not ignore the cause of the fury, with which Leo raged: succor therefore as quickly as you can, and heal the hand. That right hand of the Most High, which from you took flesh, with you interceding, of his virtue performs many miracles: this hand therefore at your prayers may He heal, O Mother of God, that your praises, of which you shall have given matter, and of the son born from you, with composed numbers for chant it may write, and lend its work to the orthodox cult: for you can do whatever pleases you, since you are the Mother of God.

[19] These things John not without tears praying is seized by sleep, and with this obtained through a vision, and he sees the sacred image of the parent of God turn to him eyes full of compassion and hilarity, and to speak: Behold, your right hand has been healed: of the rest cease not, but it as you just now promised me, make it the pen of a scribe writing swiftly. Awakening contemplating curiously, and seeing it healed, exulted in spirit in God his savior, and in the Mother of God: because He has done great things for him, who is mighty. Then standing on his feet he raised his hands to heaven, and sang a chant befitting that time most beautifully; and the whole night together with all the family rejoicing, to give thanks to God modulated a new song: Your right hand, O Lord, sings eucharistic hymns with the family. magnificently to your praise has used its power; your right hand has restored to me my torn-off hand, and through it shall break the enemies, who do not honor your venerable image and that of your Mother. You also through my hand, not without your manifold glory, shall crush the adversaries who tear apart images. So that night was a day for him, not however a night, nor darkness, but light. And to use the prophetic voice in a slightly different way; there was a voice there, not confused, of those keeping a feast day, a voice of those feasting in the tabernacle of the just man.

[20] Wherefore summoned to the Prince These things moreover were not done secretly, nor in silence: but that wonderful sound, and as if to numbers led acclamation reached the whole surrounding neighborhood. Hence forthwith some of the enemies of Christ Saracens went to their Prince, asserting that John's hand had not been cut off, but perhaps another's, or some servant of the family, who through benevolence had given himself for his Lord; but those, to whom prefecture had been ordered, had exchanged the punishment for a price. For John, they said, sitting at home thus sings, thus exults, that you would think he were celebrating nuptials, and raising the sound of bridal hymeneals: indeed of such joys his exultation seems greater. and attesting the miracle wrought on himself, This news brought, John is summoned: who having come, is ordered to show his cut-off right hand. This shown, a certain little line of the cutting, the Mother of God so arranging the matter, betrayed itself, and was a manifest indication of the most true mutilation. To these things the Barbarian asks, what physician, what medicaments applied to the wound had cured. John however with clear and great voice proclaiming the miracle; The Lord, he says, my, the omnipotent physician, who has force and power not at all slow to prayers.

[21] and declared innocent To whom again the Barbarian: As far as I conjecture, whatever you have suffered, O man, you have suffered with no crime of yours: but pardon me, that with inconsiderate sentence against reason I imposed that punishment on you: now however administering your former office you shall occupy the chief place among our counselors; nor shall we hereafter do anything except with you as author. But he casting himself on the ground, adored; and prone for a long time besought, that to depart elsewhere, and to enter another and more lovable way, he be allowed, and to follow him, who says, I am the way. The Barbarian on the contrary denied the faculty of withdrawing, and one might see in a duel, so to speak, contending the Barbarian and the Just one: the former laboring much to retain John impeded by the bonds of the world; this with some force striving to break those, and with angelic wings to fly away. Then truly an immense field lay open, in which sat as arbiter of the contest Christ, spectators were the Angels. obtains the faculty of retiring to a monastery. Someone may have said perhaps not without reason, that evil spirits from the left side had added courage to the Barbarian, and at the same time mildness for caressing and persuading. Conquered however after much contention my duelist, and all the arguments proposed for persuading by the adversary, like puerile darts despised, and victor he departed, his head crowned with an illustrious fillet; and the house, from which sad before of countenance he had gone forth, with more cheerful aspect now he enters ^c.

[22] and his goods rightly distributed There remained moreover for him to follow two sentences proposed by the Lord, the one, which orders to sell his faculties, and to distribute to the poor; the other, which commands to leave even houses and fields, and all other things for the Lord's cause. About the first he was not at all slow to do; but about the second he did not act so, as to leave his faculties rashly, sowing many lawsuits and contentions among kindred, with some pretending one right of inheritance and another another: but going middle between both, his goods he divided to the poor and captives, also to his servants, whom he gave with liberty, to kindred, also a part of his own being consecrated to divine temples. Therefore as naked from his mother's womb he went out, so he departed from the world, all other things, enters the Laura of S. Sabbas with Cosmas. except a necessary garment, stripped. Such he went to Jerusalem, where adored, with the worship that was fitting, the majesty of the holy places, just as a stag burning with divine thirst, retiring into solitude, he reached the Laura of the divine Sabbas; having not only of the journey, but also of his counsel a companion and partner Cosmas, whom previously of the same education and institution he had had as a sharer. You would have said they were a holy pair, who together were running to the yoke of Christ, that they might subject their necks to it.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

The monastic exercise of John, and under an austere old man perfect obedience.

[23] Therefore John, who alone is the subject of my writing, having entered that divine sheepfold, falls at the feet of the Pastor, The rest refusing the care of instructing him, earnestly praying that he might add him alone to the other sheep of the flock, calling himself a lost sheep, and from deserted mountains now first to Christ the Pastor returning. The Pastor of the sacred flock rejoiced at this matter, and called him blessed by that counsel: and since on account of the splendor of life and rich faculty of ingenium that novice seemed to be entrusted to one of the chief elders, that with such a guide he might safely enter the way of God; whom alone he believed especially conspicuous in all virtues, first he summons, and to him to entrust John he labors. But he refused, alleging he was not at all equal to ruling so celebrated in doctrine a man. The prefect of the flock dismisses this old man, and after him summons another: the second alleges the same as the first. The third also after these is brought, and others besides these not a few: but with one voice all began to deprecate the care of instructing John.

[24] is handed over to a certain learned old man, After so many however another at last is brought an old man, simple in morals, but endowed with much doctrine, who with prompt mind receiving the prompt John, takes him into his cell. And first on the threshold he lays down for him this excellent foundation: that he should not do anything by his own discretion; but to God should sacrifice his sweats through the contention of assiduous prayer, and by weeping should strive to wash away the spots of his prior life: for God judges that sacrifice alone pure, and more fragrant than every other incense. This was the first precept about those things, who instructs him in the precepts of cultivating the spirit which are done by the help of the body. About those things, which are of the soul alone; he warned him not to bring back any image to his mind, or represent forms of unsuitable things: but to free the same from all vain swelling, that he might not be elated by manifold knowledge of disciplines, as if by those things, which he had learned, he had attained all things: nor should he desire visions, or manifestations of things placed in obscurity: not to be accustomed to lean on his own confidence; that he might think himself without danger of error to hold anything, until the mind itself is separated from the body: but on the contrary that he should reckon his own ratiocinations to be formidable, and thoughts, which can be deceived: he should study, not to allow his mind to be scattered, but with greatest care to collect it, that in this manner it itself may be perfused with divine light, the soul be purged, the body cleansed, and finally the body with the soul be joined to the mind, that this triple thing, on account of itself with the most simple Trinity conjunction, may turn out simple; nor any longer of flesh, nor of soul, but the whole man may consist of spirit, those two former by the leading of the will into that third and primary, namely the mind, transformed.

[25] In such manner the father to the son, and the master to the disciple prescribed, this also adding: Send to none a letter: and hands down silence to be kept. commemorate nothing at all of external disciplines. Keep silence prudently: for you know that this is not only of our Philosophers a precept, but also Pythagoras that Samian commanded his disciples, learning the secrets of Philosophy, to keep it for many years. Do not judge it right, even to utter good things at an unsuitable time, and David teaches you this, when he says: I was silent from good things. But what then happened to him from this, hear: My heart, he says, grew warm within me; with the fire namely of divine love, which by the meditation of the prophetic mind was excited. Ps. 38. 3. These things the old man warned John, not writing in waters, not sowing in rocks, but in fertile earth.

[26] He obeying through all things Much time hereafter John spent through every kind of experiment showing certain obedience in any matter to him instituting him. No detraction of his to commands; no complaint in his mouth; no weighing in his mind, by which the precepts of his master he should judge within. Indeed this one thing as if sculpted in the inmost tablets, so deeply settled in his mind, that, whatever he did, whatever he was ordered to do, that according to the counsel of Paul without complaint and discussion he gave effect: for what does it help him to do rightly, on whose lips sits, or in whose heart lurks anything of complaining murmur, or, like a serpent, nefarious discussion? when more upright will the mind of him so feeling become? when further to better things will it be advanced? therefore those who are such, labor in vain profiting nothing in interior things.

[27] also ordered to sell baskets at too high a price Hereafter however with sharper bouts of obedience exercising his pugilist, what does the old man not contrive? Baskets, which they were wont to weave with their own hands collecting many, having seized the occasion, says to John: Baskets, son, if anywhere in the whole Palestine, at Damascus I have learned are sold for much; and we have need, as you yourself know, of many things: wherefore all those baskets, as quickly as you can, having collected, go thither; nor sell them at any less, than you have been ordered by me: at the same time the price, more than was fitting, doubly greater he defines. He returned nothing, neither did he discuss the words of the one ordering, sure to obey even unto death. He lifts the burden upon his shoulders, and as if he added wings to his feet by zeal of obeying, so he sets out for Damascus clothed in patches, with squalor and filth covered, who himself before in that place had been seen conspicuous in splendor. There he goes through the forum offering baskets for sale; humbly obeys. which because he valued at much, he was moving laughter, exposed to the mocks and injuries of all. Until at length one of those, whom he had had as a servant, since he was illustrious and famous in the city, standing opposite, and recalling his face to mind, recognized the man so abject and ragged, who he was and once had been: and touched with compassion approached, as if he did not know him whom he knew, and bought the baskets at the price as much as was demanded. With this received, John takes the way back to him who had sent him, and like a victor with brisk step returns, with the enemy laid low, parent of vainglory and pride.

[28] Asked to compose an Epitaph By chance among John's neighbors was a Monk, who had exchanged earthly pilgrimage for a heavenly dwelling, and had departed to God. By blood he had a brother, who, conquered by calamity, could not at all conceal the bitterness of his fraternal funeral. Wherefore John consoled him, with what words he could recalling him from grief. But he persisting in mourning, asked John tearfully, that he should write him some bit of song to lighten his grief and rouse his mind. John reverenced the command of the Old man, and did not assent to the petition; but the other did not desist asking, sad and afflicted. For why, he said, do you not pity a grieving mind? why do you not apply to it some slight medicament, which may put pain to sleep? If you were a physician of bodies, and disease had pervaded my body, when contrary to the precept of the old man he had assented but you would not apply a remedy to me as far as your strength allowed when I was ill and entering the way of death, would you not be giving the punishments of contemned and neglected me to God? Now therefore while you contemn and neglect me worse off, you will give graver punishments. If you fear the Old Man's command, know that I will hold this matter so secret, that no one will hear. Bent by this discourse John, on the dead one composes an elegant song, which is sung by all to this day with this beginning: All human things are vanity.

[29] and therefore was expelled by him, By chance John's master was away from the cell, who meanwhile was singing that song in tunes within the cell; when the Old Man running outside, and catching that singing voice with much anger exclaims: Have the first promises so fallen away, that for grief and mourning you have caught delights by singing, and diffused with joy you sit? He soon explains the cause to the old man, and pleads the grief of him who had constrained him, and prone on the ground asks pardon for himself. But the Old Man stood like a rock or anvil, granting nothing to the supplicant, and on the spot expelled him from the cell. Here at once into the admirable man's mind there came the disobedience of the first parents, on account of which they were expelled from paradise. And now having no place where to stand, nor whither to turn, he grieved more deeply than that one to whom his brother had perished, saying these things within his mind: That one indeed has lost a brother, but I through disobedience my soul have lost. At length approaching other Old Men, whom he knew to be eminent in virtue above the rest, he sends the same as legates to the Old Man, earnestly to plead, that he should suffer himself to be soothed, and pardon John for his fault. They went therefore, and earnestly besought: but he like a statue was nothing moved by prayers, nor did he give the disciple permission to return to the cell.

[30] Then one of these Monks said: You could impose on him who has erred something else, for restoration to be obtained he is ordered to clean the latrines: than that he be deprived of your company. He however with severe countenance; This, he said, law I dictate to John, if he wishes the pardon of disobedience to be given him, that he traverse the whole circuit of the Laura, and with his hand cleanse all the latrines in the cells of the monks. This having been heard, when they were withdrawing with countenance contracted and lowered for grief, much admiring the inflexible mind of the Old Man, John ran into them; and bowing himself in his customary way, he asked about the Father's sentence against him. To whom they; not without stupor they admired the Old Man's harshness, whose response they would scarcely dare to expound for shame. But when he strenuously and submissively contended that they should reveal it, at length grieving they declare that base cleansing. He however when he understood, against all their hope rejoiced: It will be entirely easy, he said, for me, indeed of the greatest pleasure. And flying to the cleansing commanded immediately, when he had sought and found the instruments he goes to the cell of the Old Man dwelling next door; and entering it he begins to soil those hands, which he had often anointed with many aromas, and the right hand healed by Christ (O great abjection of the man) with mud and dung he contaminates.

[31] As soon however as the Old Man heard such great promptness of John to obey, doing which begun and praised and his sincere and profound, indeed sublime humility, running he embraced him, and threw himself upon his neck, kissing his hand, eyes, shoulders: and what, he exclaimed, blessed pugilist of obedience have I begotten in Christ? But John at these voices of the Old Man much blushing, bowed himself to the earth, and as if he had prostrated himself before God, watered the ground with tears: and so far is it that at the paternal voices he was inflated, or at the praises of the Old Man swelled, that more even did he humble himself, and more, and his mind grieved most. more he humbles himself So namely those, who have an exercised intellect, we know cast themselves down at their own commendation, and are troubled by their own praises, referring everything to God. The father meanwhile lifts the son from the ground, and taking him by the hand enters his cell with joy. You would have said, having observed John, that he was being restored by postliminy to the Paradise of pleasure; and he who had represented the old Adam in himself before by disobeying, now exhibited again the new image of Christ by that singular obedience.

CHAPTER V.

The literary labors of John, and his happy passage to God.

[32] Not much time after these things had passed, when to the Old Man ^a in sleep offers herself the Virgin celebrated by the praises of all, Warned by the Mother of God the Old Man not to prevent John free of all stain: And the spring, she says, why have you blocked up which was about to send forth such sweet streams, so limpid, so copious, so sweet? About to give water for refreshing minds, that, which from a rock wonderfully burst forth in solitude, more excellent; water of which David was captured by desire; the water promised by Christ to the Samaritan woman? Permit the spring to flow; for it shall flow most abundantly, and the orb shall traverse universal, and with vast flood the seas of heresies it shall cover, and them shall convert into admirable sweetness. Those who thirst, let them go in haste to the water; and those who lack the silver of pure life, with their affections sold for the price let them buy from John of opinions and works sincere purity. to compose sacred chants, He shall take up the prophetic cithara, he the Davidic psaltery; he shall sing new songs, songs to God the Lord: of Moses the song he shall surpass with his musical modes, he shall surpass Mary's

dance ^b: a fable shall the useless songs of Orpheus be called: he shall stretch a spiritual and heavenly melody. He shall pursue Cherubic hymns, and all the churches, daughters namely of the heavenly Jerusalem, young girls he shall make timbrel-players, who shall sing a song to God, to announce the death and resurrection of Christ. He shall expound the dogmas ^c of faith rightly, and shall mark with infamy the tortuous obliquity of every heresy. His heart shall belch forth good words, and shall announce the Royal deeds greater than all admiration.

[33] orders him to do this freely, In the morning therefore the Old Man, who had learned these secrets, calls John, and says: O Son prompt to obey for the cause of Christ, open your mouth, that you may draw the spirit; or rather, what in your heart you have anticipated, through your mouth exhale. Wisdom namely your mouth shall speak, because you have exercised yourself in much meditation of the mind. Open your mouth, not in parables, but truths: not in enigmas, but dogmas. Speak in the ears of Jerusalem, of his pacific Church seeing God, words not vain, neither flowing through the airs, but which the Spirit inscribes on the heart. Ascend on the mountain of Sinai, the mountain of visions and divine revelations, and as into the abyss of profound humility you have lowered yourself, so now come forth to the summit of the church. Preach evangelizing Jerusalem, and in virtue exalt your voice: for glorious things have been said to me about you by the Mother of our Lord. Pardon whatever from me has come to you of impediment, for through ignorance I did it.

[34] From that time therefore divine songs beginning John composed mellifluous chants, which adorned the Church, and made for God a place of tabernacle, in which the pure sound of those keeping feasts is heard. And not these only, but also for the chief festivities he wrote orations and a sacred book, ^d written, as I might say, by a divine hand a tablet who not these only but also by written books enriches the Church, he expounded with no small consolation of all the learned and unlearned, as a door for entering the mysteries of Theology and other dogmas of the true faith and of more compendious speculation and science of those things, which fall either under the intellect, or under sense. Which book indeed I might call heaven, shining like with stars, with right demonstrations, both from nature and from Scripture taken, and contributing much to erudition. Wherefore he who into that heaven does not look, nor delighted by its beauty receives light from it, either is blind, or covered with darkness; nor would I doubt to call that one unhappy, whoever stumbles at this divine splendor. He moreover wrote also long books on the venerable and divine images of commendable adoration. ^e And the more he himself the beauty of the divine image impressed in him from the beginning had imagined more august, the more sublimely and more ornately he wrote about venerable images.

[35] In these labors he had as helper with brotherly love, whom from the divine Spirit as a brother he had received, Cosmas, using as companion Cosmas in all things. that most ornate Man, and partaker of his eloquence, institution, exercise. And he ingeniously imitated John in his studies for spiritual chants, and sang sweet harmonies to the cithara and voice of the Church, his own body through the compression of affections, fitting to God like a timbrel; showing himself wholly as a Psaltery decachord, while the fivefold sense of the body, and faculties of the mind equal in number he tuned with great art and wisdom. At length also by the hand of the Patriarch ^f of Jerusalem made Bishop of Majuma ^g not willingly and of his own accord, but compelled by force, the flock, This made Bishop as was pleasing to God, he gloriously governed; and now advanced in great age, to his fathers, or rather to God, by dying he passed.

[36] he is ordained Presbyter Meanwhile the same moderator of the Jerusalem church divinely inspired, summons John, and ordained him, that in the chair of the Elders he might praise God. He however returning to the Laura of the divine Sabbas in solitude, and his own, if it is right to say, little nest entering, the eagle flying high, did not at all oppose to his mind this saying of Solomon, that Presbyters should be honored with double honor, but in another direction, and contrary to himself, he turned that, using it saying, that humility of mind by twice as much greater should be procured by Presbyters, than before; by twice as much more should Presbyters strive in their own exercise. By Presbyters double contests must be borne, and returned to the Laura presses on extirpating vices. not only against the body, but also against the soul's hidden affections, also for those, who give themselves leisure, unless they use eminent prudence; so that even the inner man becomes squalid, nor do they perceive it. Of this kind moreover are the affections, deceit; envy; false estimation of things; secret arrogance; the study of empty glory under the appearance of humility; curious scrutiny of others' affairs, on account of which many evils inflict themselves on the tongue; elevation of mind, and wandering; cunning of morals; pride dissimulated by the lowering of the body; abstinence joined with appetite for delicacies; the pursuit of one's own will; love of base gain; clothing sought outside the rule of law, whence discrepancy with the brethren, and hidden enticement of pride.

[37] virtues to be acquired These vices to root out from his mind when John was studying, he added labors to labors, especially of the mind: and the mind itself everywhere collecting in himself, even the books, which previously he had elaborated, gathered, he reviewed, adorning, polishing, correcting most accurately the diction, sense, number, construction; and where elegance flourished too much, and as it were to luxury, with prudent judgment he reduced to gravity, lest anything either of ostentation, or of levity his books should carry with them. Surely whoever in this man's lucubrations with judgment shall lean, polishing his writings: he shall behold sublimity of speculations and grave ornament of oration. Now however who in those orations shall not admire the zeal of piety; and how he largely divides among all the riches of his wisdom? For the talent of ingenium received not in twofold only, but also in tenfold he augmented: more I am afraid to add to the number, lest by exaggeration also I seem to have transgressed the angelic limits: since to say excessive things only, is unbecoming.

[38] ^h His own divine ardor also drove him to this, that fighting for divine laws, first indeed at Damascus, in which his zeal S. Stephen M. praises then from Palestine he might attack the contumelious overthrowers of venerable images in Constantinople itself. Hence the alumnus of that great City, who first of the Martyrs his namesake, and, as that one for the cause of Christ, so himself on account of His image, was overwhelmed with stones and ran into heaven, when he made mention of John's books written long before against the impious, the divine man and full of God him called: although he was never anointed with Episcopal unction (nor indeed should the truth be dissimulated) he is to be looked up to nevertheless as one girt at the brow with the crown of martyrdom: for on account of the eminent zeal of piety against the pious man was that calumny minted, on account of which his hand was cut off.

[39] With such a course of life and religious exercise completed, faith preserved, indeed even propagated through books, and illustrated by dogmas, and at length having completed life he migrates to heaven, and even to these times established by his monuments, defended, vindicated, to Christ his beloved he hastened: nor does he now contemplate Him in image, or adore Him in figure; but in face he beholds, viewing the glory of the blessed Trinity. For these causes this pugilist of piety, cultor of religious life, adorner of the Church, leader of Truth; this in contests, exercises, doctrine altogether singular man, master of the ignorant, preceptor of the rude, it was right to deck with praises, the greatest we could; not that we might add some little of glory to him, but that he himself in turn might be mindful of us in heaven, and we still on earth dwelling might be filled with his heavenly glory, which David testifies resides within the breast of the king's daughter, namely within the royal mind, when he openly says: All the glory of the king's daughter is from within. Ps. 44, 14

[40] Pardon moreover, O thrice Blessed, and present yourself to me as a most ardent and perpetual patron before God, because this excellent monument of your virtues written simply by another man, whence the author prays him to be propitious to him. as he could, in Arabic language and letters obtained, I to whom one with you the name fell, into this discourse have taken care to turn for the memory of posterity, both with love of you, and impelled by your visitations, indeed even your, if so should be spoken, mandates: and make me also an adorer of the Trinity, free of matter, spiritual, wholly secret from the body, wholly snatched up in contemplations, wholly consecrated as a holocaust of divine love, although still living in this body; that from it severed without sense of pain, with good confidence with you to God I may be presented, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

the orders of the Church you cheer with your mellifluous voices. O you who illuminate the ends of the earth, pray that our souls may be saved. II Whom shall I name you, Venerable John and sweet-spoken? You the most shining star, you the eagle of the Trinity illuminated, traversing the spiritual darknesses by virtue of vision; who initiated into the ineffable mysteries of divinity, like another Moses expounded your art of music, pray that our souls may be saved. III Whom shall I name you, ever to be honored? Bearer of light, illustrious leader, minister and beholder of the mysteries of God, a star illuminating the Church, or a most sweet flute? pray that our souls may be saved. With similar praises is also full the whole Canon, and the other parts of the divine office which are about the Saint in the Menaea.