Spouses

ON THE HOLY SPOUSES

BASIL AND EMMELIA, PARENTS OF SS. BASIL THE GREAT AND GREGORY OF NYSSA,

AT NEOCAESAREA IN CAPPADOCIA.

CENTURY IV.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Basil, parent of S. Basil the Great (S.)

Emmelia, parent of S. Basil the Great (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

CHAPTER I.

Praise common to both from the virtue of their ancestors, their own gifts, and the holy education of their children.

To the parent of Ecclesiastical Annals,

Caesar Baronius, much do they owe, Several inscribed in the present-day Roman from this family:

since other several holy Fathers, both

specially Basil the Great and

Gregory of Nyssa, in that

their paternal grandmother, Macrina;

their parents, Eusebius and

Emmelia; their brother also youngest

in birth, Peter Bishop of Sebaste, inscribed hitherto in no

Fasti of the Saints among the Greeks or Latins,

he took care to have inserted into the tables of the present-day Roman Martyrology,

since with merit (as from the writings of the sons and S. Gregory Nazianzen

it is plain) by the elogium of sanctity. Of Peter and Macrina

at the days IX and XIV of January treated my Masters and predecessors

Bolland and Henschen: I here about

Basil and Emmelia about to treat, first from the writings of Basil the Great

with praises in Nazianzen, I recall to memory what he

has concerning the most atrocious persecution of Maximinus, in which

some of our athletes contended even unto death,

others almost unto death; for this reason, namely,

left behind, that as survivors of their own victory, they might be left

to others for an example of virtue. For their number

increased, the forefathers on his father's side. The ancestors of Basil on

his father's side: who although they were so disposed in soul,

that they would easily have endured all those things, on

account of which the crown of martyrdom is granted, yet did not further rush

into the stadium; but committing themselves to divine

providence, to a certain forest of the Pontic mountains,

which already once suffered exile from the year 235 to 242, with few companions both of flight and ministers

of food, they fled, where for the seventh year

and longer than that their exile was prolonged, they relate,

and a manner of living for generous bodies

straitened and unusual, except that beasts and birds of their own accord

offered themselves to be slain for food, by a notable miracle,

which there more fully Nazianzen pursues, as continued

through all that seven-year period.

[2] This being once related in praise of Macrina the grandmother of Basil,

here I would not touch upon it, had not our Henschen wished a corrected

emendation, he gave a husband to the elder Macrina about the year 270 which to that place from Baronius' mind is added,

as if not Maximinus there were to be understood, he who

in the year CCXXXV moved a most savage persecution against the Christians;

but sixty years younger Galerius Maximian.

For if these things concerning S. Macrina herself and her husband, the grandparents of Basil,

were to be understood, as Baronius understood, the age of S. Gregory

Thaumaturgus would not agree, whose disciple Basil

several times attests his grandmother to have been: but if of the paternal

forefathers of Basil, as Billius renders, it be thought said,

born of such parents the paternal grandfather of Basil, partner of the same

exile with them, perhaps in boyish age;

but Macrina to have been born in the profound peace of the church under the Philip

Emperors, Christians, about the year CCL;

let her have used before marriage the mastership of Gregory

Thaumaturgus, but of Emmelia about the year 315, whose life is extended beyond the Synod of Antioch

held in the year CCLXV; married however about the year

CCLXX, she could after eight or ten years have borne Basil

the elder: and he, now a man of confirmed age, having taken

to wife Emmelia, about the year CCCXVI begot of her first

S. Macrina the younger, then S. Basil the Great,

and the rest thereafter in order children, of whom the tenth

and last Peter, was at once born and orphaned:

for at that time when he was brought into light, his father departed from

the living, namely about the year CCCXXX. she having died about the year 372. But the mother

(as in praise of her sister Macrina wrote one of the brothers, Gregory

of Nyssa) having advanced into a sorrowful old age, into a heavy

old age advanced, migrated to God, about the year

CCCLXXII, and so if she be supposed at the age of eleven years to have come into a husband's

hands, she numbered of her age in this our chronology

about the seventy-fourth year; who by others,

establishing Basil born after the Nicene Council, would scarcely

have been a sexagenarian. But before we inquire into the year

of death, let us draw forth her praises and her husband's, from the writings of the sons and

of the familiar friend Gregory Nazianzen.

[3] First concerning his mother, what she was before marriage,

let her son Gregory tell us: She, he says, was of such virtue

that she governed herself in all things by the counsel of God, and a pure

and entire manner of living above all loved,

so that not willingly but unwilling in a manner

she married. This marriage equally holy For when, bereft of both parents

she was in the very flower of age, and the fame of her beauty

incited many, that they desired her for a wife to themselves; and

there was peril, unless willing she were placed in marriage to someone,

lest through violence and something of adversity should befall

(for those captured by her beauty looked toward rapine)

that she might consult her safety, she chose for herself a man approved and consummate

by gravity of life. Him therefore, about

thirty years and more; herself, we rightly suppose at least fifteen

years old, when they came together; but of both

now joined Nazianzen, in the oration on the praises of Basil,

thus writes: Although of that marriage, which was

no less of virtue than of bodies, many also

other distinctions there are; namely the zeal of nourishing the poor

and receiving guests, the purgation of the soul

through continence, a portion of goods to God

consecrated (which thing not yet then was the zeal of many,

as now from the first examples it has been increased and cultivated)

and all other things, and a leaf it was, which divided between Pontus and Cappadocia

would suffice to fill the ears of many;

to me however the greatest and most illustrious seems to be

felicity in children.

[4] on account of the rare sanctity of all the children. For those who at once both many, and upright and honorable

sons have had, in fables perhaps you may find,

but these the very fact has exhibited to us; as those who indeed were such

themselves, that, even if of such children they had

by no means been parents, to themselves nevertheless for

the renown of name they could have sufficed; and again

such sons they brought forth into light, that, even if

they themselves had not been of so great virtue, they would yet have surpassed

all by the felicity of offspring. For when one or two

live with praise, that is such, that it can be ascribed to nature;

but on all sides perfect and to the highest carried

virtue of all, must plainly be assigned to them, by whom they were brought forth and educated.

Which indeed clearly demonstrates

that, to be proclaimed by the name of felicity, number of Priests

and of Virgins; and of those who in marriage

applied to themselves that force, that marriage

brought to them no hurt, whereby the less they aspired to

equal glory of virtue. That happy number,

in my judgment at least, is the ternary: wherefore as I find

three Bishops, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa,

and Peter of Sebaste; so also I think there ought to be reckoned

three virgins, although the name of the firstborn alone Macrina

is known to us, two perhaps having died early in the flower of age:

other three were joined to husbands, as also of the aforenamed

brothers one Gregory: for Naucratius, in number

of sons the second, died a youth and unwedded.

[5] But to whom, continues Nazianzen, is Basil,

the father of this our Basil the great, unknown? a man

of great name among all, and to the virtue of both who of his paternal vow was made

partaker, if any one ever was, not to say

alone. For though he surpassed all the rest in virtue,

by his son alone he is hindered from obtaining the first place. To whom is

Emmelia? who was first called that which afterward

she was, or was that which she had first been named; she, I say,

bearing the name Emmelia, that is, of Harmoniousness.

That I may say it in one word, this she was among women, which

he among men. Their life, Macrina her daughter before her own

death among the benefits of God to be weighed commemorating, divinely-added riches there are.

not so much as illustrious and famous by wealth, but as by divine

kindness increased and heaped up demonstrated;

and although on account of the confession of Christ, the father's parents

had been assailed and harassed, probably under

Aurelian in the year CCLXXVI; but the maternal grandfather the royal

indignation, of Galerius Maximian, as I think, had taken away,

and all his goods to other masters had distributed;

yet so through faith to have grown, that at that time no one

was more famous than they. But the household property, although

according to the number of children by manifold reckoning it had been

divided, yet that heap the divine clemency

so increased, that the parents' wealth, namely which on both sides

they had brought to the marriage, afterward each child's

hereditary lot exceeded. Of the father says the same

Macrina, that thus far he flourished a youth, that among

the citizens and in the courts his glory stood, but afterward

his erudition extended itself farther; through all

Pontus (as she soon adds) made known.

[6] But what kind of a mother Emmelia was in the education of her children

and especially of her daughters, The chaste education of the children and singly of Macrina. from the care expended on Macrina herself

it gives to be understood Nyssa's bishop, when he says, that

she uniquely strove that her daughter, having passed the age of infancy, be educated:

but not with that external series of disciplines,

by which mostly from the reading of the Poets the first ages of learners

are imbued. For base and unbecoming

altogether she deemed it, with the tragic

perturbations of women (whence the Poets took their beginnings and arguments

of writing) or with the foulnesses of comedies,

or with the shameful deeds of those who so many troubles to

Ilium bore, a tender and well-formed

mind to be infected, and with less weighty narrations about women

in a manner to be defiled. Accordingly

what from Scripture, dictated by the divine Spirit, to that first

age seemed easier and more apt, she proposed to be learned:

but among the first the Wisdom of Solomon,

and that especially from it which to life and morals

most conduced. Among these things the twelfth year of age

had Macrina passed; and when to a miracle

she was beautiful, and her marriage was sought by very many.

The father, who indeed was prudent and in judging honorable matters

experienced, a certain one both by birth

and by morals honorable and approved, still among

the disciplines of adolescence engaged, from present

profit judging concerning the future, his daughter's spouse

chose, as soon as she should have a fitting

age.

CHAPTER II.

The Acts of S. Emmelia widowed of her husband, and her pious death.

[7] Of the children, as we have said, the tenth and last Peter,

as soon as he was born was also bereft of his father

Basil, The widow with her elder daughter lives more holily, whom I would believe to have died near the sixtieth year.

From this time however with various (as is wont to happen) cares was distracted

the mother Emmelia, to whom the daughter Macrina (who

while the father was yet living through the death of the young man destined for her understood herself a widow

before a bride, nor any mention of marriage would she further admit) to the Mother, I say,

Macrina the daughter in all labors showed herself a partner;

and a part of the solicitudes herself undergoing, she from the heavy

burden of troubles relieved her. But at the same time both by the mother's

discipline she kept her life entire from all reproof;

and to her in turn she presented herself a great, to an equal

aim of Philosophy, by the example of her life a leader,

little by little drawing her to a purer and more perfect

life. But common to both was that,

that when at some time under Macrina's neck the breast had so

swollen, that Emmelia judged there was need of cutting; she,

afraid to lay herself bare to anyone, after prayers poured forth a whole night,

answered that it was enough to expel the disease, if

with her hand her mother herself should fortify the place with the holy Sign.

When therefore the mother had brought her hand into her bosom,

that she might sign that part; the Sign at once exerted its power,

and the disease departed; but a thin and obscure

mark appeared in place of the horrible swelling, and to the end

of life remained.

[8] Meanwhile there supervened the lamentable case of Naucratius,

he who of the four brothers after Basil was the greatest in birth,

namely born in the year CCCXX: for nothing forbids

to interpose the birth of one or another daughter. He when the twenty-

second year of age he had completed, all things being spurned

to the solitary life he had betaken himself, with one of the domestics

Chrysaphius; where having found certain old men laboring with want and disease,

he ministered to them food sought out by his own hunting.

Consternated by the bitter death of her son Naucratius, And he indeed in these labors at the same time tamed

his adolescence, nor on that account with eager soul to his mother's

will did he cease to obey, if anything by her at any time

was commanded. But thus philosophizing, and his mother

by his life rendering blessed, only the fifth year

he had spent of his solitude about the river Iris; when

suddenly he is snatched from life, not by any disease or

by any usual manner, by an untimely death taken away; but

when he had set forth to hunting, by which industry

he supplied the necessaries of food to those worn out with old age,

dead he was carried back to his house, both himself

and his companion Chrysaphius.

[9] Far away from the things which had happened was the mother,

distant a three days' journey from that

calamity (so far therefore is Neocaesarea distant from the place of the solitude beloved by Naucratius)

who though in every kind of virtue she was perfect;

yet when so bitter a message from someone she had received, by her she is raised up,

nature as is meet prevailing, collapsed and lifeless,

all but at once together with her voice gave up her

spirit. Here the great Macrina's, says Nyssa's bishop (whose

words thus far for the most part we use) virtue appeared, who not

only kept herself unconquered and erect, but

also her mother's weakness propped and sustained:

for her soul, by the gravest case cast down, rousing

and reviving with her own unconquered strength, to fortitude

and endurance she trained. Thus therefore at length the mother

resisted grief, nor anything unworthy or effeminate

admitted, as either to cry out, or to rend her cloak,

or to wail, or with mournful clamors to intensify her lamentation:

but by reason she put off the sense of nature's onset,

both her own and her daughter's counsels

bringing medicine to her sickness.

[10] These things from the principle now laid down can be referred to the year

CCCXLVII, a little more or less. For although

by Nyssa's bishop they are related after Basil's return; yet he confesses

that he interrupts the thread of the narration, that he may insert something altogether not

to be passed over, namely of those things which some years

before had happened, about the year 347. the elder son still being absent; concerning whom

and concerning the mother by Macrina to a more sublime kind of life roused,

thus to speak Nyssa's bishop had begun; When the rest

of the sisters had been honorably placed by their mother, from the public

gymnasia of letters, in which long he had been engaged,

returns the great Basil; in the year as I once established

(nor do I yet think it to be changed) CCCLVI, and so

then about XLI years old, his mother he found six or seven years

older than a fifty-year-old. Basil having returned about the year 356, And him indeed his sister Macrina

soon induced, that, the world's renown being postponed and the glory

of eloquence despised, embracing a laborious and toilsome

manner of living through poverty, an expedited

way to virtue he might construct for himself … But his mother

she persuaded, that the wont of her former life being left

and the more elated manner of living (whom by art subjected as handmaids

to her own uses she had employed) with herself of the same

lot and order she should wish to be.

[11] Thus far Nyssa's bishop, who the begun narration

here interrupting, Emmelia with her daughter retires to a monastery, after concerning Naucratius he interposed what

we above related; When therefore, he says, now both from the care of nourishing

her children, and from the solicitude of education and of placing them out

Emmelia was freed; and the domestic troubles

for the greater part among the sons themselves, Gregory

especially and Peter, were divided: the author, as

was said, to her mother the virgin was, that to the study of wisdom

and a pure manner of living she should betake herself. And her

from all the rest of things, and the wont of her former life,

to the proper moderation of a humble and abject life

she led, that in the multitude of Virgins,

with the same condition with them she might live, and with one table,

which pertain to life she might use, every difference of dignity

from their life being taken away. Wherefore

such was the order of life, and so great in the study of wisdom

the excellence, and so grave a discipline of living,

that by no faculty of speech can it be described. For such

are the souls, which from the bonds of the body loosed and from troubles

freed, have flown away from this prison of life,

such was their life: inasmuch as it, from all vanity of human

things alien, to the likeness of the Angels' life

most nearly approached.

[12] Not anger, not envy, not hatred, not suspicion

was discerned among them: all desire of honor, glory and

other vain things of that kind, all

pride and haughtiness, and the rest of similar vices, were thence rejected.

Their delights they placed in temperance:

their glory they thought to be situated in this, that they were

known to no one; their riches, that they possessed nothing,

and that all earthly resources as dust

from their bodies they had shaken off. and at the same time leads the Angelic life, But no

study they reckoned not vain, which on the care and cultivation of this life

was placed. There alone of divine things

flourished the care, and perpetual zeal of praying,

and assiduous chanting of Psalms, which

at no time ever, neither day nor night, was intermitted:

so that in that matter both their work alike, and

their rest consisted. What therefore human faculty of speaking

could explain this manner of living? Was

their life interposed between the human and the heavenly nature,

partaker of each, bordering on each.

For inasmuch as from human perturbations

it had vindicated itself, it was more excellent than the condition of man;

but inasmuch as in the body it was discerned, and was contained

in the figure of man, and used the instruments of the senses,

to the angelic and body-free nature

it yielded; one might perhaps even contend it was not inferior:

since living with the flesh,

to the likeness of the powers vacant of body

by the burden of the body they were not pressed, but lofty

and sublime was their life: inasmuch as with high and erect

soul with those heavenly powers they were conversant.

In this institute of living no small time

they had lived, when by assiduous accessions of goods found

increasing the study of wisdom, to a greater

cleanness of soul they drew near.

[13] But to attaining this so excellent aim,

of great help was … Peter, under the direction of Peter, youngest of the sons; in

whom the pains of bearing had ended for the mother: for he last

was received of the parents a son, who at once born

and orphaned was … He, the occupations of external studies

having scorned, and an ingenium to all

good disciplines apt for receiving having, and always

looking to his sister, whom to himself as

the aim of all good he had proposed; such progress in virtue

made, that in the rest of his life to the great Basil

in excellence of virtue he was judged to be in nothing inferior:

but then to his sister and mother he was instead of all, and

together with them to that angelic life he strove…

Meanwhile the mother now very old, in the hands of both

sons dying, migrated to God. Of which blessing

what of yours it was, which toward her children

she used, to commemorate will not be foreign. For when

of the absent ones singly lovingly she made mention,

that none might be without blessing; especially

the present ones herself by her prayers offered to God. For indeed

when on either side of the opposite couch they sat by her,

with one hand each touching, with these last words

she addressed God. To thee, Lord, and in the hands of both renders her spirit. both the first-fruits

and the tithe I dedicate of the fruits of my womb. For the place of the first-fruits

this my firstborn obtains for me, but of the tithe

this last my tenth son: but to thee

by the law both are owed, and are thy gifts. Upon

this therefore my firstborn and this tenth

let holiness come. Thus the clear prayer designating

both daughter and son, to the blessing at once and to life an end

set, when first she had charged her sons, that her into the sepulchre

paternal they should bring. This they as they had been bidden

when they had performed, for the rest of time to wisdom's

summit always with the foregoing life striving, and

their past good deeds with later ones to surpass studying,

they pressed on.

CHAPTER III.

The place of death and burial: likewise the year, and the reckoning of the chronology somewhat renewed.

[14] Between the retreat of S. Macrina, where she herself in the year CCCLXXII

died, Emmelia died in the suburban monastery, and the church of the Holy Martyrs the XL

of Sebaste, in which because the parents' bodies

rested, she herself also wished to be buried, seven or eight

stadia intervene; which, according to Suidas compared

with Pliny, constitute one Mile, or the third part of an hour's

league. But since the church itself was within the city of Neocaesarea,

ample enough, nor is it established that the same church

was near the gate, through which the body was to be brought; it can

happen, that scarcely a half quarter of an hour from the city's walls was distant

the monastery, as it seems clinging to the very suburbs; and

as Godfrey Hermant in the Life of Basil and Nazianzen

believes, at the nearer bank of the same Iris flowing past there,

at whose other bank the monastery of men was ruled by

Peter: which both is likely enough. Likely

also it seems to me, that, as to Nyssa's bishop bearing out his sister's

bier, his shoulders also lent the Bishop

of Neocaesarea Araxius, with two Clerics; so to the body

of the mother Emmelia about to be carried by Peter the chief of the Clergy, if not

he himself now named Bishop, came in aid. But Emmelia had prudently

provided, that for her husband she should construct a very capacious

coffin, buried, Bishop Araxius lending his shoulder, in which not only she herself could be laid by her

spouse, but also her most beloved Macrina. But she

since with the parents she was to be joined, and Nyssa's bishop feared,

lest the collapsed and dissolved bodies to a foul and disordered

deformity should have come; before, he says,

they were exposed to our eyes, with a pure shroud

they were covered. For when the lid had been lifted off,

on either side at the top a linen was cast in;

with which linen the parents' bodies being covered, I and

that region's Bishop, the body from the bier lifting,

near the mother laid it, in the same tomb in which the husband and afterward the daughter Macrina and thus the vow of both

we fulfilled; for with one consent they had always prayed

God, that to their bodies after death they might be coupled;

that what among them had been the conjunction of life,

not even by death itself should be dissolved.

[15] were buried with like caution, It is fair to believe a like caution was applied

by the son Peter, when to Basil the father was to be laid

the mother Emmelia, nor was there then less than afterward at

the funeral of Macrina the crowd of the multitude meeting and accompanying,

the lamentation of the Virgins, the office of the Clergy; which however

here I omit, in the praises of Macrina by Nyssa's bishop described entire

to be read, and to be expounded at July XIX. But into the place of

the deceased mother and daughter, immediately to have succeeded seem

their nieces of the same purpose and institute. For S. Gaudentius

(who, at the same time at which the Bishop of Brescia was elected,

and in the year according to Baronius CCCLXXXVI, in the East

was engaged) thus speaks in the Sermon on the dedication of the Basilica of the XL

Martyrs. What worthy thing of the Forty Martyrs

shall I speak, who to my journey, when through the cities

of Cappadocia I was proceeding to Jerusalem, deigned to present themselves

as faithful companions? their nieces succeeding in the rule. For in that greatest city of Cappadocia,

which is called Caesarea, where have

those same most blessed ones a distinguished Martyrium, we found

certain handmaids of God, of the monastery of the holy

Virgins most worthy Mothers, altogether of Mary and

Martha most like, whom deservedly may Jesus love, by nature,

faith and zeal; and in the integrity of chastity sisters-german:

to whom by their uncle, the Confessor and Priest

Basil, once had been delivered the venerable Relics of these

Martyrs, which to our desire without delay

and faithfully they bestowed.

[16] But why to the dying Emmelia of the sons only Peter,

not likewise Basil, not Gregory was present? Basil was absent, detained by sickness and winter, For

himself a cause will Basil render, Epistle 7 to Eusebius

Bishop of Samosata, the year of which Epistle when we shall have known,

also will appear the cause for which Gregory ought to be excused.

Basil therefore thus begins: If all in order

the causes I should write, by which up to this day I have been

detained, although also vehemently I have desired

your piety toward God to visit, an infinite

field of history I should fill. The diseases indeed some

succeeding others, the hatred of winter, the continuity of business

I pass over to mention, as things known to thee

and already long ago indicated, through Epistle 6: but the same

things prohibited me also from running out to visit the sick woman.

But now he proceeds, that the one solace of life I had

my mother, even her on account of my sins

I lost. Nor mock me I pray, because at this

age I weep my bereavement; but pardon me, not patiently

bearing the departure of that soul, to which what

can be compared in those things which remain I do not see.

Again therefore into sickness I have fallen; and again on a bed

I lie, with strength altogether scanty wavering, and

every well-nigh hour the necessary end of life

awaiting.

[17] and the mother's death sorrowfully suffers, If we attended only to Nyssa's bishop, in the Life of Macrina

after the related death of the mother thus speaking, Meanwhile

Basil was declared Prelate of the Great Caesarea,

and his brother, namely Peter, in the Clergy promoted

to the order of the Presbyterate; you would say that neither was a Presbyter,

nor a Bishop Basil, when there died

Emmelia. But the aforecited Epistle to Eusebius, more familiarly

written than from a simple Presbyter it would have been fitting to be written to

for an excuse he alleges the continuity of business, which

not yet to a Bishop so great scarcely could be. More strongly however to

the same to be believed urges us the other part of the epistle, in which when

he had said the Churches, almost like his own body, to be afflicted,

things into worse always slipping; he subjoins:

Lately however Neocaesarea and Ancyra, into the place

of the deceased Musonius and Athanasius, seem to have received

successors, and thus far are at rest: but

neither those who lay snares for us to do anything, of their wrath and

savagery worthy, thus far have been permitted. And yet

upon their death writing to the Churches epistles 67 and 62,

he sufficiently indicates, himself to be a Bishop: when the Neocaesareans he wishes

to be persuaded, that they are his glorying, as he theirs; now made Bishop:

and that on account of the Pastor who shall be given them, it will be,

that with them either more amply and more closely he be united,

or altogether be disjoined; and that, although Musonius

he had not on account of certain suspicions (as

he asserted) joined to himself, for preserving the peace

of the Churches; yet never did he cease to invoke him

undertaken. But grieving for Athanasius' death; To whom

henceforth, says he, shall we impose the care of the Churches?

whom in these sad matters shall we receive as partner?

plainly as concerning his Coadjutor-bishop speaking, in whom much

of confidence he had reposed. Finally persecutions and exiles

only when now made Bishop began the Arians to contrive against him with

Valens; in which however that they had no success the Saint

glories, in that epistle in which he announces his mother's death.

[18] He was therefore now then a Bishop; and Nyssa's bishop, as

in narrating Naucratius' death he held not the order of time,

so neither in commemorating the Ordination of Basil: but the discourse which

concerning his mother he had begun, in a continuous series he drew out even

after her death; that, when he had said how Macrina bore it,

then he subjoined how he bore the death of Basil

his brother, in the eighth year after he had been made Bishop deceased.

But Basil had been made Bishop in the year CCCLXX,

and in the following year at the feast of the Epiphanies with Valens dealt,

and to have satisfied him seemed: a little however after to be sent

into exile he was, had not the Emperor compelled by several prodigies

rescinded the sentence. And so not inconveniently the death of Emmelia,

which at the going-out of winter happened (as it appears) in the month

perhaps of February or March, is referred to the year

CCCLXXII; in which year also Gregory of Nyssa, a few

months before made Bishop, the Arians persecuting him

expelled from his church, Gregory of Nyssa also was absent, driven out by the Arians. and among those whirlwinds

to run out to his sick mother he could not. But why

Baronius for commemorating the holy parents of those chose

this day May XXX, I have not whence to say; nor

by the example of the whole Basilian Order in our West, on such

of the Saints, in particular Churches of Genoa wont

to be venerated, on the occasion of the monastery which the same Order there

has.

[19] These things occurred, which concerning SS. Basil and Emmelia,

parents of the four holy children, I might say:

now to me a reckoning is to be rendered, [Basil and Nazianzen seemed once to us to have come into light before the year 300,] why I depart from the Chronology

in the Prolegomena to the Acts of S. Gregory Nazianzen established

from the opinion of Suidas, asserting him to have died a ninety-year-old, and

so before the year CCC to have come into light: which also concerning

his companion Basil, as a contemporary, I wished to be understood. Namely

even then I professed, a better way for explaining

the difficulties if anyone should show, that I would not embrace

it gladly. But now, the things which S. Basil's mother regarded,

more closely inspecting, and that she seems not before

the year CCCLVII to have entered the monastery with her daughter; I see

it not to agree that she in the year CCC was a mother, otherwise about to be

when she entered the monastery, more than a seventy-year-old.

Hence into this thought I came, that it could have been, that by one

numeral letter deceived Suidas for ο′ 70, wrote ϟ′ 90,

and Basil was older than Nazianzen by a few years; which

being supposed Emmelia entered the monastery at the age of LVII years, now, all things again weighed.

which is not very absonant. The things however which remained in marriage

to be placed, the daughters, better will be said before the coming

of Basil to have been married off: lest they be believed at thirty or even

greater in birth first to have been delivered to husbands. This however easily

will permit the context of Nyssa's bishop, to the order of things rather than

to time adhering, as above we have seen. But that more quickly born

Basil I may believe, I am no more moved by Epistle 20

of Nazianzen, to Eusebius of Caesarea given in the year

CCCLXVII; for that does not really praise Basil, as

by hoariness most excellent of all whom

Nazianzen knew, as the interpreter Billius renders: but

where here he reads πολιᾷ hoariness, the Parisian edition from the Basel

Codex has, πολιτείᾳ, conversation, which is far another

thing, but nothing to age makes. Nor however does this hinder, whereby

the less I believe Basil to his friend Nazianzen in age almost

equal to have been: for although that cannot be had with the preserved

age of his ninety years, which Suidas asserted; nor also

the other opinion standing, which makes him born of a father

turning I found a middle way, nor from the sense of Baronius abhorrent,

by which the difficulties almost all can be smoothed,

and it be said Nazianzen in the year CCCXIX born, by three years

only younger than Basil to have been: which matter because in few

words it cannot be explained, the Reader I ask that in the Appendix,

in volume VII to be placed, he consult that disputation

earlier concerning Nazianzen's age, by second cares renewed.

ON S. ISAAC THE CONFESSOR,

ABBOT AT CONSTANTINOPLE.

YEAR CCCLXXXIII

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On the Saint's prophecy concerning Valens, his cult, his monastery at Constantinople, and the double Acts.

Isacius the Anchorite, at Constantinople (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

At what time the Emperor Valens, by

his brother Valentinian of his own accord conceded to him

was governing the East, the Arian Valens generously rebuking, and

than with God and the Orthodox

was waging, of the Arian sect

in the same East Isaac,

of the solitary and ascetic life among the chief cultivators deservedly

to be numbered. Not so however of the quieter life was he

studious, that where God's and the orthodox faith's cause required it,

into the sight of men and the multitude to give himself

the most holy man refused. Which in Theodoret bishop of Cyrus

book 4 chapter 34 in these words is read. They say moreover

Isaac, to the Emperor, to war setting forth

together with the army, thus to have exclaimed: Whither dost thou go,

Emperor, who hast brought war upon God, nor hast him

as helper? For he it is who against thee the barbarians

stirred up, because thou first the tongues of many against

him to blasphemy didst excite, but those who

praised him from the churches didst expel. Cease therefore

to bring war upon him, and he will repress the war: restore

the best Pastors to their flocks, and a bloodless

victory over thy enemies thou wilt carry off: but if these moreover

being disregarded thou enter battle, by the very fact thou wilt experience how

hard it is against the goad to kick; thou foretellest death to him: for neither

wilt thou thyself return, and thy army thou wilt lose. To these the Emperor,

with anger roused, I will return, said he, and thee I will slay,

and the penalties of false soothsaying from thee I will exact. Then,

he, the threats by no means dreading, Slay, said he,

if in my words a lie has been detected.

[2] The same almost, but in a briefer phrase, Sozomen book 5

chapter 40. But Theophanes these words uses; and even absent he learns it. Thereupon Isaac,

the holy Monk, having seized the bridle of the horse of Valens,

leading the army out of the city, and to war advancing,

as if his last words foreshowing, to him

said: Whither dost thou hasten Emperor, against God fighting,

and him now soon about to experience an adversary:

he adds however, the death of Valens being narrated, by the enemies in a barn

to which he had fled burnt up; They relate also the divine

Isaac, in custody detained, the stench of the scorched Valens,

by God's nod and cleanness of soul, to have perceived; and

before those who were to announce the war's outcome had arrived, the very slaughter of the tyrant to the bystanders to have foretold.

So he, rightly omitting, what also omitted Sozomen, mention

of the village from which Isaac had come; because that he came

from the Eastern parts, that is from Asia Minor commonly

Anatolia, and there from a boy the yoke of the Lord bore, have

all both Menaea and Synaxaria on this XXX of May, and to them

consonant the Acts of his Life.

[3] For on this day (although on the XXVI he died) by the chief Office of the whole

day he is venerated at Constantinople it appears from the Greeks'

Typicon, he is venerated 30 May with chief cult, the Metrical Calendar, and the Muscovite Calendar

received from Constantinople, where he alone is commemorated,

equally as in the Menology of the Emperor Basil, from which

perhaps taken the Arabo-Egyptian Martyrology which

in MS. the Maronites have at Rome, placed under the care of our Society,

on this day also prescribes the Memory of S. Father Isaac

the Confessor: but especially the same is plain from the printed Menaea,

where a full Canon concerning him is set forth; but an epitome of his Life

more prolix in one place, briefer however than that which is had

in the Chiffletian Synaxarium: to which in both places this distich is prefixed.

By God's decree thou wast raised to a divine place,

Leaving, Isaac, the earthly region.

By God's bidding be carried to a divine place,

Deserting the earthly place, O Isaac.

[4] Moreover on the day August III in the aforesaid Menaea and

most Synaxaria is recalled S. Isaac's commemoration,

on the occasion of S. Dalmatus his successor and his son Faustus,

by whom S. Isaac's own monastery was increased with notable fame

(for Dalmatus himself was famous in secular soldiery, and 3 August with his successor S. Dalmatus: before

he, his wife and children left, subjected himself to Isaac;

and now Hegumen, of all the monasteries of the whole city

he bore the Prefecture committed to him) by this, I say,

Dalmatus, was the monastery called "of Dalmatus" and "of the Dalmati,"

of Dalmatus and of the Dalmati, and S. Isaac himself,

by a certain prolepsis of name, is called in the sacred books of the Greeks

Hegumen of the Dalmati. All add

the title of Confessor, on account of the prison, by Valens' command

endured: the Claromontane Synaxarium moreover calls him a Presbyter,

which since it is silent in the Life, does not seem

sufficiently founded in antiquity.

[5] But the Life and conversation of our holy Father Isaac, The Life when written; the Life and conversation of our holy Father Isaac,

was written after the times of the Emperor Justinian, when,

the temple of S. Sophia being built by him, from the old church of S. Irene

was translated the prerogative of the Cathedra, which in it

Constantine the founder had placed, as is gathered from num. 18:

and again it seems written out before the translation of the body into

the temple of all the Saints, made before the Empire of Leo

the Philosopher: who as Codinus says, the church of S. Stephen,

in which first was buried S. Isaac, neighbor to the monastery

of the Dalmati, reduced to a smaller form, and

all its material, the marbles, columns and golden

leaves into the temple of all the Saints

he transferred, the age of Isaac himself, where were deposited the Relics of S. Isaac. There lived

therefore the author in the sixth or seventh century, or at least not long after

the eighth; and indeed at that time, at which the Constantinopolitans

began to please themselves in the pseudo-canon below to be commemorated,

concerning the primacy of their Patriarchate above the rest except the Roman,

as is plain from num. 13. The same also seems

in the very monastery of the Dalmati to have been a Monk, who

perpetually calls S. Isaac our holy Father,

and the history of that monastery so accurately knew.

[6] Another Life, but much more contracted, exists in the MS.

Venetian of the Library of S. Mark, and miracles. whence to make it Latin

took care Aloysius Lipomanus, translated thence to

the Lives of the Saints of June under the day March XXVII, because there

is read the Saint to have died on the VI Kalends of April: perhaps by

an error of the Greek copyist reading 27 of March for 26 of May. But since it in some things is very different from

that which from the Vatican we have, probably also much

earlier written; that of each one by itself the Reader may judge,

it here we have determined to give, in the second place however: for although

earlier perhaps in time, it is yet in accuracy much later:

but its Greek text, which at Venice to obtain

we have not yet been able, we shall await at least for the work's Supplement.

[7] whence the other was received. The Saint himself, as appears from what has been said, in the year CCCLXXX

came to Constantinople, already great in birth; for he died

full of days, as is said in num. 17, under Merobaudes II and

Saturninus Consuls, that is in the year CCCLXXXIII:

so that it is likely that with greater and more miracles

dead there he shone than alive: of which however

nothing in particular narrates the Life, nothing the Canon of the Office proper to him;

only Ode V congratulates him, that he was in his

life a driver-away of unclean spirits, an expeller of impure

spirits: but the Claromontane Synaxarium

ends his elogium by asserting, that, having worked very many miracles and saving many from soul-bearing dangers, in peace holily he rested in the Lord, very many wonders

working, and many from dangers threatening the destruction of souls

saving, in the peace of the Lord holily he rested.

LIFE

By an Anonymous author of the monastery of the Dalmati,

from a MS. Greek of the Vatican Library, Cod. 1671 fol. 45.

Translated by R. P. Daniel Cardonus S. J.

Isacius the Anchorite, at Constantinople (S.)

FROM THE VATICAN MS.

PROLOGUE.

[1] After the most holy and venerable Cross of Jesus Christ,

our Lord and Savior, began to be adored,

and the cult of false gods ceased, At what time under Constantine the Great the orthodox faith flourished, no

region of the world by the doctrines of the holy Apostles, thus

as it were by the rays of a certain most beautiful and new light,

was not continually illustrated. Hence also it came to pass, that

the Emperor Constantine, most worthy of the veneration of men,

when the empire of the whole world divinely to him

offered he had received, and by the sacred laver of regeneration

had merited to be purified, and the Lord also Jesus

Christ, true God of true God to exist, openly with light

professed; all through the world the images of the gods,

the first of all Kings, he commanded to be abolished.

But the cunning and crafty demon the Arian

sect, as it were another idolatry,

devised. For at that time when the now mentioned

most Christian Emperor was governing the world subjected to him,

of the most holy Alexandrian Church

there arose a certain Presbyter, of morals quite corrupt,

and to every malice of the worst demon by the deed

itself to be executed a most ready instrument. Arius the heretic suddenly arising

The man's name was Arius, of the execrable and altogether

diabolical blasphemy the first inventor. He by S.

Peter ^a, Bishop and Martyr, through divine revelation

to this marvelously roused, from the communion of the orthodox

Church was prohibited: but of the prohibition

such was the reason. When by the Emperor ^b Diocletian

against the holy Peter Protectors were sent in,

for the cause of seizing the man, and Peter himself now

was held shut up in prison; by chance it happened, that to prayer

after his manner intent in the silence of midnight,

the appearance of a most beautiful youth he saw offered to himself. [by S. Peter Bishop of Alexandria, impelled from heaven to this, he is excommunicated.]

Before the very eyes of the holy Man this one stood, clad in a linen

tunic, and it from the top to the lowest

hem into two parts torn, which with either

hand, lest the body's nakedness should appear, he

seemed to gather. Forthwith S. Peter: Who, said he, my Lord,

so shamefully has torn thy tunic? * nay rather Maximinus

To whom the youth: In this manner to treat me Arius did not

fear. This therefore now beware, lest to that impious man milder

thou ever show thyself, or him receive into

communion, or from the bond of excommunication

altogether loose. For, both in this, and in the future

then world, Arius is to be excluded from the participation of the divine glory. But Achillas and Alexander

the Presbyters bid be summoned, since they by lawful

succession of thy Episcopate the throne shall occupy,

when through martyrdom thou thyself shalt be taken from the living: to whom

that thou wilt accurately enjoin, that they themselves Arius into

their communion to return in no way ever and

at no time suffer. These things to Peter being said, the young man

from his eyes soon withdrew himself. But when, whatsoever

he had heard commanded to himself, not undiligently he had executed

the holy Man, in a fair confession of the faith persisting,

closed his last day.

[2] But Arius, when all the approaches to the communion of the faithful

he perceived to be closed to himself, Wherefore raging Arius openly divulges his heresy. against

the mystery of the most holy and consubstantial Trinity,

through the whole Alexandrian city,

his blasphemous tongue began to exert, and the divinely

inspired Scriptures into a depraved sense distorting,

to bring upon the souls of men wretched death and corruption

dogmas impiously to divulge; teaching,

that the Son of God and Word, which from himself before all

ages was begotten without any beginning of time,

was of a certain substance unlike from his Father God;

and him, through whom all creatures, whether those

which heaven or those which earth contains, and which either

fall under our sight or the same flee,

were produced, into the number and order of those same creatures

to reduce dared the man nefarious

and impure. All these things so pernicious when

at length at some time to the now often named and of pious

memory the Emperor Constantine's ears they had come,

the matter he thought by no means to be neglected, but

by most beautiful ^c letters soon to him sent,

partly of threats, partly of exhortations by the weight,

from so perverse and so to God hostile a doctrine that

henceforth he should abstain he bade. Who in vain by Constantine the Great by letters admonished, But after that of all

correction destitute in his opinion to persist

he knew the impious and unhappy Arius, from Alexandria

into this royal city by him so called ^d to be summoned

him forthwith he bade, about to answer for the blasphemies

by which the supreme deity he was assailing. He

then having convoked at Nicaea of Bithynia eighteen

above three hundred Bishops, by the sanctity of their lives most famous,

the heresy lately arisen against God

manifest he made, and them that the Lord Christ

to the defense of the true and orthodox religion to be undertaken

propitious they might render, to exhort he did not disdain.

[3] That illustrious assembly of the Fathers, by the work of the divine Spirit

not a little aided, and of his holy inspiration

full, of the heresy as not much from Judaism

abhorrent the contrivance destroyed, and its very

inventor by their prayers to God to the earth

prostrated. For he from Alexandria having set forth, and by the Nicene Council condemned, and to

the assembly of the holy Fathers whom I have said betaking himself,

relying on the audacity of his followers, the filthy novelties of his blasphemies

to vomit forth openly he did not doubt:

but the most holy and most wise Fathers when the foul

error with deserved infamy they had branded, the true

and uniform faith concerning the consubstantial Trinity to all

through the world cultivators of the Christian religion

they handed down, exhibiting to the Emperor Constantine,

most worthy of eternal memory, by their council

framed of the orthodox faith the rule indubitable.

Who soon as he saw it, and divinely conceived of our faith

the tradition to be believed, both he himself

it with veneration received, and through his edicts

most pious everywhere of places the rule he willed it to be of those things,

which concerning the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

were to be believed. But now, that as

many things as possible in silence I may pass over, to the head of the matter itself one must come.

The same therefore he, who from all back

eternity of all things visible and invisible is the Rector

and Lord, whom before men impiously

had denied Arius, by a dismal death at length is extinguished. and into the order of created things

had reduced, into that fatal place to retire

compelled, in which not so much of an impure belly the filth,

as his intestines all through the privy the unhappy man cast out;

clearly namely demonstrating, even to the last

ejection of excrements, what not unworthy

of his life an end he had been allotted. For it was fitting,

that, who on account of base blasphemies against Christ a grievous,

while he lived, stench had exhaled, in places grievously stinking the end of his life should find.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER II.

On the impiety of the Arian Emperor Valens, and the triple admonition and prediction of Isaac to him.

[4] These things so wondrously by the Lord Jesus Christ being worked, time advancing, the enemy of peace Belial

[4] Valens invades the Churches of the Orthodox: These things which I have narrated so wondrous when beyond

the expectation of all by the divine power of the Lord

Jesus Christ they had come to pass, in the times following

the enemy of all peace Belial another against

the orthodox faith monster raises up, Valens

the Emperor, to Arius not much dissimilar;

who when he was most impious, not otherwise than

invaded, striving to renew the heresy of the wicked Arius.

For all the churches of the Orthodox

bidding be shut up, that no ministries of divine worship any more

in them be performed; of these indeed some into

barns he converted, others altogether to demolish he attempted.

Nor indeed for a short time this foul tempest

raged. But while it lasted a certain man arose, in the solitary

places of the East a life among mortals leading

an angelic. The name to him with the most holy son of Abraham,

nor his morals less common: Isaac

he was called. In integrity of faith also to Isaac most like,

by which he was admonished, Whom about to admonish his solitude Isaac forsakes. that, the solitude he was dwelling in being left,

to Constantinople he should betake himself. By the divine

precept he by no means judging that it should be resisted, his solitude bidding farewell,

to the city indicated to him a journey set up, and he found

of the heresy. Arian by the deluge a huge multitude of souls

overwhelmed. Then indeed, just as

to Jeremiah full of compassion it befell,

it pervaded. Lam. 1, 13

[5] The Goths meanwhile rebel against the Romans. By divine providence then, which never

does not toward the utility of its own aim, it came to pass, that

who, their forces gathered into one and

the Danube being crossed, Thrace miserably depopulated,

relying on the infinite multitude of their soldiers.

In great straits therefore both for this, and

for the past calamity of the churches was engaged

the city of Constantinople. Then the Emperor,

resolved. But while for the sake of reviewing the army

into the field he was going forth, it happened that with the same spirit,

by which once in the cause of Susanna had been filled Daniel,

was filled also Isaac; against whom about to go Valens is admonished by Isaac once, who going to meet

Valens, Open, said he, O Emperor, of the Orthodox

the churches, and the Lord will render thy way prosperous

before thee. But Valens the man's abject and foreign

appearance beholding, the ragged old fellow thus

as a fool held in contempt, nor of a word deemed him worthy:

for of a Monk no vestige was it there to find.

The next day again, when anew he went out of the city

the Emperor, before him Isaac stood, and said:

Open, O Emperor, the churches of the Orthodox, and

over thy enemies a victor to thee it will be given in peace to return.

Then the King, of that promise, by which a return to him

was assigned peaceful, the efficacy perceiving, with

those who more closely accompanied him about opening

the churches of the Catholics a consultation set up.

But who at that time with the honor of Provost ^c was distinguished,

and also all the rest who the perverse Arian

dogmas followed, again, much from that counsel Valens

they endeavored to avert. Calumnies also being cast against the holy

Man, and his words with a malignant laugh

received, the same with scourges sorely beaten

they dismissed. By their discourses therefore persuaded the Emperor,

the admonition of the old man being despised,

the way which he had begun he pursued. The distinguished meanwhile

servant of the most high God Isaac without intermission

his prayers to God poured forth, that speedy to the orthodox faith

aid to bring he would not be loath.

[6] Two days had passed, when, the army being drawn up for fighting,

a third time, concerning the opening and restoring of the Orthodox Churches. to the Emperor advancing to war,

anew himself to meet presents the holy Man; who both

the royal horse's bridle seized, before him confidently stood,

and partly by rebuking as adversary to God, partly

by exhorting endeavored to persuade, that his to the Orthodox

temples he should yield and open. Unmoved however

as before persisted Valens; whom those who were nearer

were urging the holy man, that from the way he should depart, not

without blows; but in vain these were.

A great concourse therefore of the rest of the multitude being made,

some him with rods, some with scourges, with fists and twigs others

at their pleasure to beat, Wherefore with blows received, nor except hardly, God so willing,

could they effect, that his hands from the horse's bridle he should remove.

Then indeed the Emperor, as if into fury driven,

and his eyes into every part casting about, all

around him the place a marsh as it were of concreted

appearance to exhibit he beheld, which not a confluence of waters,

but a certain foul-smelling mire made up.

In the marsh also itself of reeds and thorns,

with their points a dire destruction threatening,

animal, as from error often is wont to happen, a step had brought,

place the Emperor, thus as a snare of death it

to be reckoned, and the holy Monk into the same

bade be cast, and his journey he pursued. Into the deadly

marsh cast the illustrious confessor of Christ,

nothing at all in it of evil or trouble suffered. and into the miry marsh cast, and freed divinely,

For behold by the divine power of the Lord Jesus Christ twin

to the holy Man presented themselves Angels, who both from

the miry lake him led out, and into the public way

conducted; Then, Peace, they say, to thee be: be comforted

and be robust: and these things said, straightway

they disappeared. But the holy Man to himself restored, on his knees

himself prostrated, and to God who so great for his servants

solicitude is wont to show, thanks immense

he rendered.

[7] To Valens in vain again admonished, His prayer then finished rising, with great

haste a different path having entered, by a shortcut

of the way the King advancing to war he forestalled,

and the imperial horse's bridle seized again,

thus confidently and bravely he spoke: Thou indeed,

O Emperor, to inevitable death delivered me hast judged,

when by thy command into that mire I was cast:

but the Lord Jesus Christ, whose faith thou

hast denied, a certain new life on me has bestowed; from the lake

into which to be immersed me thou hadst wished, safe and unharmed

leading me out, that the perverse opinion of thy mind

he may openly convict. Yet even now amicably I exhort thee,

me that kindly thou hear, and to the Orthodox their churches

unbar and restore; which done, thus persuade thyself,

that it will be that from the war, to which now thou goest, a victor

thou come forth, and to thee in peace returning true be afforded

of praises and congratulations the material. The Emperor Valens

his admonisher diligently beholding, and in the countenance

in him the cheerfulness and the liberty of speech attending,

thus as if out of himself he had been carried away, not a little word even

to those things which had been said to oppose was he able. Interposed

therefore some little delay, And what, says the Emperor

to the holy man turned, at length is to be,

if the churches of the Catholics to open and restore I refuse?

Then by the Holy Spirit incited the servant of God,

not otherwise than once to Ahab King of Israel the Prophet

Micaiah, thus also he prophesied to Valens

the Emperor, in this manner addressing him: More fortunately

indeed with thee it would have been dealt, Emperor, The disaster he foretells and death: if to the words

persuaded by me, the churches of the Orthodox to unbar

and restore thou hadst brought into thy mind, and to

that war departing in peace hadst chosen to return;

but since up to this time inexorable to persist

thou hast not doubted, thus to thee I announce: if after that expedition

alive to return thou shouldst chance, know that

to me the Lord has not spoken. Thou shalt go namely into

that place, and battle with the Barbarians joined,

by no means them to resist shalt thou be able; nay they rather

shall come off thy superiors, and thou shalt flee from the face of the pursuers,

until into a tiny hut thou hide thyself, in which

lurking with flames cast round about alive thou shalt be burned.

That will be the time of thy misery and calamity,

in which thou shalt know that there reigns some God in heaven, who

by thee now is not acknowledged.

[8] These things heard, with great fury inflamed was the Emperor,

and having called to himself forthwith two of the nobles, Into prison he is thrust down.

of whom to one Saturninus, to the other the name was Victor,

the holy man to them to be guarded he delivered, thus commanding:

That old fellow you, with fetters and chains

bound and burdened, in close custody shut up,

until in peace home returned, punishment

I take of the impudent man, and not less importunate this

his soothsaying. Then B. Isaac, with a certain

majesty of countenance smiling, thus the King again

addressed: Now indeed to thee thus I have foretold. If from that war

alive thou bring thyself into the city, the Lord has not spoken

to me. To his enemies therefore to war down

set out Valens ^d; but the aforenamed two magnates

the holy man seized, as to them

had been by the King commanded, in prison shut up.

But from the time at which into it entered the holy

Man, day and night supplications with tears

to God he set up, that with appeased countenance at length

his people he would look upon, and with present aid protect

he would.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER III.

On the destruction of Valens, and the election of Theodosius as Emperor: who having received baptism, holds Isaac in honor; and, the Arians being driven out, restores peace to the Church.

[9] Meanwhile the Emperor to a certain near the Danube

and his men's opinions heard, Valens is conquered, and alive is burned, of the conflict with

the enemy to be entered the day he had appointed. Which when it came,

and it was begun to fight, to his enemies Valens equal to be

could not; wherefore compelled into flight to give himself

the impious man, so long the hands of the pursuing enemies

he escaped, until in a certain field an open barn

having spied, together with the Provost, his perverter, into

it he hid himself. This pursuing him the Barbarians when

they perceived, fire cast from every part into the barn,

alive they burned. And in that manner at length

punishment paying the merited, according to S. Isaac's

prediction, his soul the wretch breathed out. But what

part of the army from the slaughter survived, Sirmium ^b of the Illyrian

tract the city sought, and a sent thence to Gratian

He to the aforesaid city soon as he came

^d, as Emperor to them proposed Theodosius,

divinely to so great a dignity elected, of the true faith

and of Christ most loving, of the orthodox religion

A renewed therefore from the mind of Theodosius and Gratian

against the Barbarians who Valens by fire had slain

war, To whom in the Empire succeeding Theodosius, and the Lord Jesus Christ well propitious, of the Barbarians

some by the sword they destroyed, others they turned

into flight; of whom the greatest also part, while the Ister

they cross, by the waters swallowed up perished. Thus the Emperors Gratian

and Theodosius, the victory over the Barbarians

obtained, and with erected to themselves trophies famous, Gratian into

Gaul, the Barbarians happily he overcomes, Theodosius to Constantinople proceeded. He

Thessalonica when he reached, by a bodily infirmity suddenly

began to be tried. Wherefore having summoned to himself ^f Acholius, of the city

of Thessalonica the Bishop, what faith he professed

he inquired. Answered he, ^g the Illyrian indeed

nations by Arius' blasphemy breathed upon, yet so that the impious

against God rebellion, which he introduced, them

after himself it had not drawn: For the faith, said he, we hold

even from the beginning through the holy Apostles to us

consigned; and is baptized by Acholius. and by the holy Fathers handed down once by the doctrine

in the Nicene Council, concerning the undivided and consubstantial

Trinity. Which words with a willing mind receiving

Theodosius, with the sacred forthwith of baptism's water

wished to be purified. Baptized therefore he was by Acholius,

of Thessalonica and of the metropolitan city the Bishop,

in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: and the sacred

then and incorruptible of our Lord

Jesus Christ body, and the venerable blood reverently

he received.

[10] Restored after some little days his bodily health

to Constantinople he entered in the month of November, To Constantinople then having set forth

on the day XXIV, in the fifth Indiction ^h, the most religious

Princes, Gratian the fifth, and himself Theodosius

the first time Consuls; at which also time Gregory

Nazianzen the Bishop in a tiny Oratory

of the Orthodox assemblies held, them from everywhere

convoking, and by his sound doctrine in the right faith

confirming. And the same afterward Oratory, by royal magnificence

not a little increased, from ⁱ Anastasia a name

then its own had. Saturninus meanwhile and Victor

going to meet the Emperor, all things which

about the holy Confessor Isaac had been done

related; the soothsaying especially, which to Valens to

his face to announce he had not feared, and which in all its

numbers now had been fulfilled. The things being heard which were narrated,

Theodosius seized great of so great a man admiration, all things about Isaac he is informed,

and him to the Imperial palace to be led as

soon as possible he commanded. The men therefore, whom I have said, most famous,

into the prison with haste having entered, the holy man's

knees suppliant they seized, and sacred from him

prayers for themselves they begged, since now from the matter

itself's outcome a Prophet him to be they had known.

Led then out from custody to the Emperor forthwith

they offered; who the holy Man going to meet receiving

and suppliantly venerating, that God to himself by praying propitious

he might render, earnestly he sought. and him he holds in honor. To the Emperor prosperous

all things after he had prayed the Apostolic man, and

health restored, all things which under the unhappy Valens

had happened he announced.

[11] Which all things understanding Theodosius, and the Churches'

calamity his own reckoning, an edict

forthwith in the more celebrated places of the city to be set forth he commanded, The edict of Theodosius against the Arians:

by which these things were prescribed. The Emperor Theodosius,

Victor and Triumpher, to all of the Arian impiety

the Priests. Be it known to you, that, whosoever

of you from this day shall be detected within the city's

walls, in any of the Orthodox churches assemblies to gather,

with a penalty not light is to be chastised. But which hitherto

most holy churches through wars and rapines

you have occupied, those now in peace to their possessors restore,

content outside the city's walls to remain. To Demophilus

the Prince and Bishop of Constantinople, the same were announced,

and of him asked, whether, the Nicene and sacrosanct synod admitted,

into the union of all the Christian people

and the peace of the Church to consent he would. who also Demophilus from the city of Constantinople drives, Who when all

concerning peace and union discourse plainly he refused,

against him thus pronounced the Emperor: Peace fliest thou

and concord? I bid therefore that hence as soon as possible

elsewhere thou betake thyself, nor any more among us

oratories occupy. The announcement received Demophilus,

to the convoked from everywhere of the Arian doctrine adherents

thus spoke: Brothers, an Emperor we have obtained

most humane, who of his own proper faith and consubstantiality

assertors the churches bids be restored,

thus peaceably to us decreeing: Which of wars and

tumults in the time the churches you have occupied, those

now in and with peace restore. Know therefore outside the city's

walls henceforth to us it is to be assembled. These things

having spoken, and peace he restores to the Church. together with all the Arian multitude

the city leaving, outside its walls a sojourn

for himself he chose. Thus indeed when for forty ^l

altogether years the Orthodox churches they had held

the Arians, with Theodosius reigning, not from them only, but the very

city also to depart they were compelled, in that same Consulate,

and in that same month.

[12] When in that manner there had prevailed again the Nicene

faith, and its own the city of Constantinople had received

Bishop ^m, to the holy Churches and the whole

people was restored peace; their own also temples and oratories

received and frequented the Orthodox: this hope

indeed had conceived the Emperor, that it could be that into

the same with the Catholics doctrine of faith and communion

would come both Arians and Macedonians,

of the truth of Consubstantiality persuaded,

as they had been before from the Catholic Church themselves

they had separated: for whatsoever to the heretics them

regarded, already before the Emperor had taught the Bishop,

Nazianzen Gregory; by what namely reckoning

Constantius, The First Council of Constantinople the same convokes. of Constantine the Great the son, in favor

of Arius and Macedonius, all things which by his Father so rightly

and so religiously had been established overturning,

the orthodox faith also subverted, and his

example imitated had Valens. After these things Theodosius

the chief of either sect's champions to

wished. There were present forthwith of Consubstantiality the patrons

most fierce ^o, from Alexandria having set forth Timothy, Cyril

[p] of Jerusalem to right concerning the Trinity

to think anew led, and Meletius [q] of Antioch.

He himself also was present Gregory Nazianzen,

and Acholius of Thessalonica, and others several,

Macedonius the cause to defend had come, Eleusius [r] of Cyzicus,

Marcian of Lampsacus, Euethius of Ephesus,

Mares of Chalcedon, and the rest all to thirty

up, of whom far the greater part the Hellespont

and Asiatic cities inhabited. In the Consulate therefore

[s] of Eucherius and Syagrius, in the month of May, all whom I have said

the Bishops, and the Emperor, and the holy Confessor

and our Father [t] Isaac into one came, with

the rest all, who the orthodox concerning Consubstantiality

faith openly professed: [u] but those

to whom less was of prudence, Condemned and driven out are the heretics. the wiser ones'

exhortations being spurned, into the Arian sect to consent rather

chose, than Consubstantiality in the divine

Persons to admit. And when thus concerning themselves openly

they professed, not only from the assembly of the Church, but from

the very also city were they cast out, and from the orthodox-thinking

altogether separated: but the Fathers those things which at Nicaea

as to faith had been established, firmer to be wishing, similar

to the Nicene decrees they published.

[13] The Emperor also after to the Council Fathers

concerning the Constantinopolitan Bishop's election he had referred,

by several of the Clergy's suffrages designated was

[x] a certain Nectarius, a man in piety eminent, of Senatorial

blood, The election of Nectarius as Bishop of Constantinople. of morals the best, who of Praetor then the office

was discharging. He by the whole people to the Episcopate

requested, by a hundred also and fifty

Fathers' assent that dignity received, with present

the Emperor of Christ most loving Theodosius, the father

of Arcadius and Honorius, who themselves also afterward the Empire ruled,

together with the most holy Isaac. Then that

also was established, that the second from the Roman

Bishop place of dignity should obtain the Bishop

of Constantinople [y], because Constantinople

all things when his likewise assent had given

the Emperor, an end at length to the Council was put,

to the greater glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

ANNOTATA.

p Concerning Cyril of Jerusalem see, if it please, the Historical Commentary of our Month of March on the 18th day, on which this holy Bishop's memory with solemn cult the Church venerates. In it it will be to see, that never from the Orthodox faith he had defected, as supposes this Life's Author (by the common of several report to this opinion induced) when to the Confession of the Homoousion him anew he says to have returned. There is noted in the same place accurately the time, at which he entered and held his Episcopate.

q S. Meletius' Acts are prefixed on the 12th of February: a Man he was of admirable sanctity, which by many, from the Arians' fury, troubles exercised, more brightly thence shone forth. His image on rings, on cups, on phials, on the walls of bedchambers, by many for veneration's sake painted writes Chrysostom, in the Encomium which of him he wove.

r The leader he was Eleusius, of thirty-six Macedonian Bishops, whom into the Council to be called had bidden Theodosius, for the reason that he hoped, these Bishops, for that which with Liberius they had entered fellowship, the faith of the Homoousion more easily would receive.

s This same of the celebrated Council time, that is the year 381 and the month May, indicates Socrates book 5 chap. 8.

t There was present Isaac, as other Abbots or Monks, as a Consultor, not as a Definitor, which of the Bishops only was; and therefore among the Fathers of the Council he is not numbered.

u Of these in the faith of the Homoousion to be rejected the pertinacity describes Socrates, book 5 chap. 8, and from him Baronius.

x For peace' sake namely had yielded Gregory, a notable to the Fathers oration having delivered, which among the published ones is the 32nd: but Nectarius also among the Saints is venerated in the Menaea on October XI: but this he that praise in the Episcopate especially merited. More moved against him Baronius, in his creation to have happened says, a prodigy and plainly a monster. For indeed, when a Bishop, to Gregory not unequal in merits and doctrine, who in his place was to be substituted, ought to be sought … it happened, in place of a most accomplished Christian, to be substituted a man not yet a Christian, but a Catechumen still; and in place of a most perfect Theologian, to be subrogated a man of Ecclesiastical affairs utterly unskilled; and finally for a Monk of most consummate perfection, a man sought from the court; and in place of a virgin, to be given one who hitherto more intemperately had lived. In which some perhaps things are more than fair exaggerated.

y Of this Canon also Socrates and Sozomen made mention, nor altogether it denies S. Gregory Epist. 123, but denies it by the Roman Church received. S. Leo also Epist. 53: In vain of certain Bishops, says he, is brought forth the consent, to which so many years' series deny effect: so that not even in the East indeed received he hints. But how would it have received it, with the prejudice of its own See, the present Timothy of Alexandria? how the same afterward for himself would not have alleged Anatolius? unless because it was established, with most Bishops now and namely the Alexandrian having departed and the Council dissolved, by a few who remained it to have been stuffed into the rest of the Canons; unless perhaps these too by those few were published, and therefore deservedly together all by the Roman church not received. Of which matter an argument can be the day 7 Ides of July, to them ascribed, when the very Council, in those things which the faith regard and on account of which it had been convoked, was celebrated in the Month of May.

* I read "ninth."

CHAPTER IV.

On the Monastic life of Isaac, his Disciples, Death, and Burial.

[This chunk contains the Greek text of Chapter IV of the Life of S. Isaac (sections 14–17). Its Latin parallel rendering, and the corresponding English translation, follow in the next chunk, where the Latin text of these sections is set out in full.]

[14] But the most blessed Isaac for the restored to the Churches

peace, Isaac, wishing to seek again the solitary life. and for the confirmation of the true faith, not a little

in soul exulting, the due to God praises rendered

for all the wondrous things which he had done. But since most loving

of solitude, in it the last breath of life

to send forth vehemently he desired; the work being now

especially accomplished, on account of which, the desert left, into the frequency

of men, God commanding, he had given himself; the matter

known, those two, whom often I have mentioned, men most famous,

Saturninus and Victor, suppliantly, that they should not by him

be deserted, the holy Man besought. Whom he,

as a spiritual Father admonished, that it was fair,

that when the work, to which to be accomplished one is applied by God,

to a happy end now is brought, to ascetic

then functions he should give himself back. Nevertheless still they insisted

with tears the most faithful men, to their petition

that Isaac would assent. When therefore the blessed Ascetic

their holy desire had understood, thus them

he addressed: Uniquely indeed that to me is in my prayers, that

to that whence hither I came, in friendly wise retain him Saturninus and Victor. again I betake myself; since

however, as distinguished servants of Christ, this you desire,

that the little which to me remains of life's time

tranquilly among you I pass, my as of a certain Father

best the voice receive: If any of you

promise to spend my life. Conveniently it happened that a suburban,

nor so far from the city's walls removed

house possessed Saturninus; similarly also Victor,

on what part the city to the sea inclines, near the Heleniana,

in the village which Psamathea ^a was called, certain

houses obtained: A meaner for himself a cell choosing Isaac, and began both in the name of B. Isaac

to build. Wisely however this had thought Saturninus,

that a man to a solitude to be inhabited accustomed by ampler

buildings is by no means delighted. Of two

stories therefore a little house he took care to be made, from dwellings

other, as the holy man had sought, separated. Then

Isaac meeting, Lo, said he, such as thou didst desire

Having entered into the house the Saint, when not at all toilsome

to be he beheld it, not a little delighted, a sojourn

there for himself he chose.

[15] But Victor not a small of his possessions

space with ample and many buildings was filling.

Who after he learned by Saturninus his hope

to have been forestalled, the more proudly built houses he rejects. great in soul grief he took:

and the holy man in that cell which he was inhabiting

visiting, his knees on the ground placed, that the place which for him

to be inhabited he had prepared to admit he would not be loath,

ardently he importuned. Him the holy man,

as a most loving of his children father, with this

answer pacified: Do not I pray, said he, son, what is done

so grievously bear; this indeed from the Lord we have

than, It is, it is; No, no; but what is more,

is of evil. In whatsoever therefore place from this life

to migrate the Lord shall have willed me, in it it is fair that

to the last even I persist. Which when he had said, and

to the man well had prayed, him in peace from himself he dismissed.

Isaac moreover an angelic on earth life was leading:

but the aforementioned Men illustrious to the royal

palace themselves never betook, unless first much

in the morning the holy Ascetic they had saluted, by whose then prosperous

apprecation fortified, Grows his among men veneration, to their affairs more alacritously

much they departed. To several also others when the wondrous

virtues of the holy man they had opened, with a certain holy

zeal all they filled: and there began on every

part eagerly to be made on the several days to Isaac

in the true faith and Christian morals not

into their own house him invited, that by his holy

prayers aided happy all things they might obtain;

whose notable faith perceiving Isaac, from all

vain glory's pursuit far placed, Which his humility and miracles increase. their houses

to go to he did not disdain. And when from time to time

it happened, that a longer somewhere delay for a just

cause he drew, and he wished much by night to himself to retire,

shut he found the city's gates. Before these

then standing the holy man, his to God poured

prayers; which finished, and of the Lord's Cross the sign

on the doors of the city impressed, of their own accord very often to be opened

these were seen; and his then cell thus sought again

Isaac, the divine majesty with deserved having pursued

praises. Nay even the Emperor himself Theodosius

very him frequently to go to, and of himself that among

praying mindful to be he would vehemently sought.

[16] At the last also it seemed good to the supreme Lord,

who where two or three in his name gathered

were, in the midst of them to be himself he promised,

to the greater glory of his name, not a few to his servant

Isaac disciples to commit and followers;

so that, Disciples not a few he gathers, divulged everywhere of the heavenly of S. our Father

Isaac's conversation the fame, to that angelic of living

reckoning very many from everywhere were excited, when

no there of a Monk ^b vestige was. Saturninus

however when the holy man through divine grace

with so many brothers and disciples increased he saw, with immense

toward him love compelled, all of that place's instruments

and rights he handed over, that altogether free to him it might remain.

He was therefore the blessed man as it were a most clear

light, in an obscure place shining forth: which if at any time

it happened to him going into the city, to those

who very many that for his house and family he would pray

besought, of the beggars some to come to meet,

nor what to the wretch he might bestow to be at hand; of his own

cloak divesting himself, to the needy that to grant he was wont. he is famed for virtues,

In this manner the whole of his life's course he consummated,

to his Lord most faithful obedience exhibiting,

to prayer assiduous intent, of hospitality most loving,

the needy with every aid cherishing, to the necessities

contentious, of injuries patient, of wrath devoid,

useful many things with praise teaching, and those gently

and kindly instructing who to the right faith contrary

opined. and by sound doctrine. To all these that uniquely he inculcated

to be confessed and with highest to be extolled praises,

that in the most holy Trinity of one and the same

substance is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit:

in this indeed most pious confession the salvation of men

to be situated, and other many things to good living useful to urge

by no means he ceased.

[17] Full of days, Moreover when of a distinguished old age the years

now entered, and full he was of days, to his life's

term to draw near he began. Having convoked therefore

all to whose spiritual profit he attended

the disciples, much to them he used admonition, that in

of the Lord's faith the rock firm and immovable they should persist,

and to God of mercies the Father them he commended.

Chosen then from all some one, to whom

Dalmatius ^d was the name, of most fervent faith a man, and of the virtues

of Isaac an imitator excellent, a new for them moderator

he substituted. Then vows again and prayers for their

cause to God conceiving, in peace all from himself he

dismissed. When therefore, that from this life he should depart, and

into the heavens to the Lord he should go, the time now had come;

through the Angels' hands, and his successor being designated, he dies. who not otherwise than intimate

certain his familiars to the dying were present, his spirit

to God he delivered. Then indeed immense the Brothers

all sorrow invaded. He himself also most Christian

the Emperor Theodosius, hearing of so great a man's

death, not a little grieved. A litter also he sent down,

on which the venerable of the holy man body placed,

to the great and most holy church,

which then from ^e Irene was surnamed, the vigils being celebrated in the Cathedral church, should be carried.

Which when it was done, in the same most holy church

was begun to be held a vigil. The next morning

the city whole with its most holy Archbishop

Nectarius, and all the Clergy, not without psalms and

hymns spiritual, to the very sepulchre carried out

the deceased.

[18] But Aurelian, of the magnates ^f of the Emperor

one, in the protomartyr Stephen's honor,

had built a Confession toward the south over against

the Monastery of S. Abbot Isaac. When therefore

he from the living had gone, he set up before the way

of the monastery a guard of many men, he is buried in the Martyrium of S. Stephen. that the venerable

of S. our Father Isaac relics they should seize, and into

the mentioned now Confession for blessing's sake

deposit; which also was done. In this therefore

manner in S. Protomartyr Stephen's Confession

at the sacred table's right side, in the Sacred

part itself, the venerable of S. Isaac body to place

it was necessary. But indeed his disciples, with great affected

sorrow, to their monastery returned,

which from the aforesaid Oratory not far was.

He ceased to live S. Father and Confessor of Christ Isaac

on the month of May the twenty-sixth day, with ruling the empire

Theodosius, and his son Arcadius Caesar

declared, the Consuls being Miarobaudus the second

ANNOTATA.

ANOTHER LIFE

From a Greek MS. of Venice in Lipomanus, the Interpreter being Francis Zini.

Isacius the Anchorite, at Constantinople (S.)

FROM LIPOMANUS.

[1] After the venerable and immaculate and precious

Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ's

finding, Valens persecuting the Orthodox, after the empire of Constantine

the Great the Emperor, the crafty and

cunning and wily serpent, who always

to the race of pious men hostile and envious and

malevolent is opposed, and the faith of our Savior Jesus

Christ always impugns, such a thing against God's

churches contrived. For with reigning the impious and

iniquitous Emperor Valens, a great against the orthodox

faith assault was made. For he of the Arian

heresy zealous and a defender, bade that

the holy churches of the faithful be closed: and forbade,

that the wonted in them sacrifices be made: nay even some

of them to be demolished, others into stables to be reduced he caused.

And this indeed pride long flourished: at which

indeed time, great was the grief and sorrow of the servants

of God. They prayed however night and day, that

the Lord God to mercy might be moved, and

justice might exercise. Thus therefore then it was done, as

once under Herod the king for the Prince of the Apostles

it was done.

[2] God therefore some years interposed, of a certain

servant of his a Monk, who Isaac was called, the spirit,

as for Susanna once Daniel, and Isaac of the evils an end from God seeking, roused:

who, like Elijah the Prophet, when an angelic life

he had set up, from the East set forth. But his

prayer like a lamp burned: for the divine Spirit

and grace heavenly in him rested. He when

the Emperor iniquitously to bear himself he perceived, vehemently

grieved and was anguished; and prayed the Lord,

that from his sublime and holy seats he would look down,

and his mercy demonstrate. Heard

him God, as Moses against

Pharaoh, and against the Emperor of the enemies an assault

stirred up. For at that time the Barbarians, at

the Danube gathered, their forces had drawn together, and

war against the Emperor were moving, and with all

their strength into the city to enter attempted. A great therefore

tumult arose, and much booty was driven off.

Gathered also the Emperor his army, and against

the enemy an expedition prepared. there rush into the Empire the barbarians: But the same to him happened,

which to Saul David's enemy had befallen: neither

indeed did he return: for Samuel's prophecy in

him also was fulfilled, that God to wrath

he had incited.

[3] When therefore to war was setting forth the Emperor,

there met him blessed Isaac, and thus him addressed:

Emperor, against whom about to move Valens twice in vain admonishes Isaac: of the Orthodox the churches open,

and God thy journey will prosper. But he the holy man

not even to answer deigned: but him, as a fool,

left, departed. On another day the holy man the Emperor

again having overtaken: Open, said he, Emperor

the churches of the Orthodox, and the war prosperously thou wilt finish,

and a victor thou wilt return in peace. The Emperor himself

collecting, and considering what to him meant those words,

Thou wilt return in peace; wished to him the churches free to dismiss.

And a council gathered, of opening the Orthodox

churches he consulted: but who at that time

Prefect was, since he was of the impious of the Arians

flock, persuaded the Emperor, that B. Isaac he should not hear,

but with contumely affected and afflicted dismiss.

By which words led the Emperor, the man

pious despised. But he the just of God judgment awaited.

[4] But a few days interposed, the Emperor

setting forth again he overtakes; and the horse's

bridle seized, he began him both to reprehend, and

to exhort, at length also the horse's bridle seized once and again, that to him he should grant, what he asked: but

he was unwilling. There were however near the way thorns with

paliuri, so dense and rough, that whatever animal

had entered, could not itself thence alive extricate.

This the Emperor place as a snare having spied,

bade, that the holy man thither they should cast,

that he might perish. But when into the thorns he had been cast,

so softly he lay, as if on a couch he were resting,

nor in any way was he hurt. And when the Emperor with

his army had departed, there approached three ^a men in white

garments clad, whom the blessed man did not recognize,

and him unharmed they drew out, and themselves from his eyes

withdrew, that he could not understand, who

they were. But when into himself he had returned, he knew them to be

Angels of God: and bending his knees, thanks he gave to the Lord,

to whom a care are those who fear him. And when

long on prayers he had dwelt, and God had praised,

he rose: and by the Holy Spirit corroborated, by another

way he met the Emperor, and stood in his sight.

But the Emperor him beholding, wondered,

and at the holy man's presence so was astonished, that to speak he could not.

to him death he threatens unless the churches he restore. He indeed with confidence: Thou indeed me, said he,

about to perish in the thorns didst think, but me

God through his Angels alive preserved. Wherefore

hear me, Emperor, and open the churches of the Orthodox,

and the adversaries thou wilt overcome, and with praise and

glory thou wilt return. The Emperor, although the liberty and countenance

of the man he admired, not however obeyed: was

for his heart blinded and alien from God: but

to two Senators, Saturninus and Victor, the holy

man he delivered: This one to me, saying, to be guarded

take care, until I return in peace: and then his

arrogance with deserved penalties I will affect. But holy

Isaac, of the Holy Spirit full, as once against

Ahab king of Israel Micaiah the Prophet, thus answered:

If returned in peace thou shalt be, know in me not to have spoken

the Lord God. Thou indeed hand

shalt join, but thou shalt not be able the enemies to resist, and from their

sight thou shalt flee: at length thou shalt be taken, and alive

with fire thou shalt burn up.

[5] The holy man therefore being delivered to guards, departed

the Emperor, by his words moved and perturbed. The Saint into custody given,

And when he was about to enter war, into a certain town

he reviewed, and a day to the battle named: and when for a few

days he had rested, standards he joined and clashed.

But as the holy man had foretold, of the enemies

the assault to sustain he could not: and so to flight himself

committed, and into a field, in which a stable was

of chaff full, he came; and there with the Prefect,

through whom he had been corrupted, hid himself. The Barbarians

indeed, who followed, and Valens being slain, when there him to lurk they had found,

with fire cast round the stable they kindled.

And thus the wretch burned, his spirit rendered. The whole

however his army to Thessalonica ^c betook itself,

and Gratian the Roman Emperor awaited:

who when to it, God favoring, he had come,

another to them Emperor, by name Theodosius, a man

faithful and glorious, and of the orthodox faith most zealous

appointed: Theodosius Emperor is appointed. and so to Rome Gratian

returned: the soldiers however, having received the Emperor

Theodosius, glad with him to Constantinople

set forth. Saturninus indeed and Victor, to whom

holy Isaac to be guarded had been delivered, to

the Emperor to salute approached: and they besought

from the holy man, that for them God he would pray:

for they venerated him as a prophet, since whatsoever

to the Emperor as future he had foretold, had come to pass.

[6] Isaac from prison loosed They led however him into the city, and among

themselves contended, which of them for the holy man a house

should build. But he, their contention known:

Hear, said he, me, servants of Christ, do not contend:

to me grateful is your zeal. But because to you

it is at heart, that for my humility a refuge you prepare,

what is to be done by you, I will say. If anyone shall be first,

to build me a house, there I will dwell all

the days of my life. They however, the holy man heard,

eagerly a house began to build. And Saturninus

indeed, since a place outside the gate ^d, which Collarida

is called, he possessed, there built. Victor however,

in the palace's place ^e, which Sandy is called, a house

constructed. When therefore both, of the blessed man's name

an edifice were contriving, Saturninus with applied diligence,

so willing God, a dwelling of double

consisting story finished: and the blessed man

approaching: Lo, said he, servant of God, a dwelling for thee

I have constructed: come therefore, and there dwell. Approached

the holy man, and there in the name of our God remained.

Victor however with great ambition a dwelling

when he had built, came and saw himself by Saturninus to have been

surpassed. And so with great affected grief, the built for him cell he enters, suppliant

to the holy man's feet he prostrated himself: I pray thee, saying,

Father, that my also place thou take, and

in it abide, since it in thy name to be built

I took care. And when with many words he had besought,

answered him the just Isaac: Son, saying,

in what place willed me God to dwell, in it I will rest,

until of my life the end shall come: and he blessed

him, and dismissed. In his dwelling therefore glad he was abiding.

[7] Saturninus however and Victor frequently him

visited, by the sign of the Cross the gates he opens, and led with them also other friends; and

those things, which for relieving the poor are necessary,

supplied. To his house also each of them him

invited, that to them the Lord at his entrance and

going-out might bless. But if it happened, that, he later

going out, the gates of the city were shut; he stood

and prayed, and the sign of the Cross made, of their own accord

the gates were opened, and so he went out, giving thanks

to God. Saturninus however since him vehemently he loved,

brought to him the deeds of the whole place, that proper it might be

of his dwelling. Nights therefore and days assiduous to God

prayers he offered, nor ever ceased to the poor

alms to distribute. But if it came to pass, that

some poor man on the way begged of him an alm,

at once he stripped off his cloak, and to the poor man gave.

In all however the time of his life gravity he kept,

in spirit fervent, as says the Apostle, the Lord serving,

in hope rejoicing, in tribulation patient, to prayer

instant, to the necessities of the saints communicating,

to all blessing, cursing no one, of the Angels

imitating the life, the footsteps following Apostolic,

both in zeal, both in sacrifice, both in desire of Christ;

all meekness toward all men before

himself bearing, The virtues of the holy man: with God's virtues adorned, by no means pugnacious,

from all malevolence and malice alien, peace and

quiet seeking, the adversaries admonishing and exhorting,

that they confess and adore the most holy

Trinity, in which consists the salvation of men; and that

the heavenly order of the Angels and the divine life

they imitate. Rom. 12, 13 Advanced however to a good old age,

to which Abraham in the land of promise, to

the common end of life he hastened.

[8] On a certain day therefore having convoked all the Brothers,

with a long them discourse he instructed, and his pious death and exhorted,

that stable and firm in the faith they should remain, and far

from all reproof to God's commands they should obey:

and so them to Christ most clement he commended:

and a man faithful ^f and constant,

and of his discipline zealous he chose, whom over them he might set:

and God having prayed, them he dismissed. But when

the hour had come, that from the body to God he should migrate, in

peace his spirit to the holy Angels he delivered. A great

indeed among the Brothers cry and grief arose,

who with tears said: Father, be mindful

of us: and tending him, according to his dignity carried him out.

The citizens however all to his death had run together,

and to the tomb even accompanied him, and with honorable burial. and his holy

and precious Relics in the church of S. Stephen the Protomartyr,

in ^g the sacred altar placed. And the rest

indeed to their own each places returned: the Brothers

indeed to his dwelling, God praising, returned.

He migrated to the Lord our holy Father

Isaac on the VI Kalends of April ^h, and assiduously for

us with the Savior Christ intercedes, confidence

using with God and the Father: to whom glory and dominion

and adoration and praise is owed, with his only-begotten

Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and world

without end. Amen.

ANNOTATA.