ON ST. DANIEL, MONK IN PERSIA,
AT AN UNCERTAIN TIME
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY
Daniel, monk in Persia. (S.)
BY P. P.
[1] Of this unknown Daniel If the history which has been copied out for this day in the Abyssinian synaxary were less corrupt, perhaps we should know who that Daniel was and when he lived, or was thought to have lived, who cured the king of the Persians of an incurable disease and converted him to the Christian faith. But in a vanishing little narrative, all of whose proper marks have been thoroughly obliterated, not even a conjecture can be built up without rashness. Not a few wonder-workers by the name of Daniel occur, especially in the hagiographical literature of the Syrians, to review all of whom one by one is longer than it is useful. The first to present himself to memory is Daniel the Physician, disciple of St. Eugenius, of whom a Syriac Life exists stuffed with empty inventions BHO. 244.. He, if he is to be believed ever to have existed, flourished in the reign of Shapur II, in the province of Beth Nuhadra, where he baptized the petty king of the village of Tell Ḥaš with his court and people [P. Bedjan, Acta martyrum et sanctorum, vol. III (Paris, 1892), pp. 499–502; cf. J. Labourt, Le christianisme dans l'empire perse sous la dynastie Sassanide (Paris, 1904), pp. 306–307.]. But the miracles by which he achieved this have nothing in common with the narrative now in question. In the history of the monastery of Qartamin, in the territory of Tur Abdin, which they say was founded about the middle of the fifth century, two Daniels are named among the first monks, the former of whom walked on the river Tigris when he was setting out for Corduene [F. Nau, Notice historique sur le monastere de Qartamin, in Actes du XIVe Congrès des orientalistes, vol. II (Paris, 1906), p. 84.], while the other, who became bishop of the monastery, is inscribed in the martyrology of Sliba at 9 December [Anal. Boll., vol. XXVII, pp. 143, 170. They say that at his episcopal consecration a voice was heard from heaven which cried out three times: He is worthy and fit. Nau, work cited, p. 85; Anal. Boll., work cited, p. 170, note 1.]. Whether either of those two was adorned with a Life or an encomium which the Abyssinian synaxarist excerpted, it is entirely idle to ask. In the same Sliba, at 20 October, there is announced Daniel of the monastery of Ḥabšusiātā Anal. Boll., work cited, pp. 140, 166.? The monastery of Habsusiatha indeed, or of the Beetles, in Arabic al-Ḫanāfes [See Jacut's Geographisches Wörterbuch, ed. F. Wüstenfeld, vol. II (Leipzig, 1867), p. 658.], is a place not without fame in the territory of Mosul; but the St. Daniel who seems to have given it its name [Gregorii Barhebraei Chronicon ecclesiasticum, ed. J. B. Abbeloos and Th. J. Lamy, vol. III (Louvain, 1877), p. 497.] is nothing else to us than a fleeting shadow. Nor except in passing and for form's sake is mention owed here to Daniel, bishop of Edessa, whom the Syrians entered in their calendars [See the Martyrology of Qennesre at 28 April, F. Nau, Patrologia orientalis, vol. XI, fasc. 1, p. 40 (cf. above, p. 385), and Sliba at 11 January, 28 April, 30 June. Anal. Boll., work cited, pp. 145, 152, 155, 172–173, 181, 187.]: for he flourished when the kingdom of the Persians had already been overthrown, and his genuine history does not seem to have been enlarged with so portentous a little fable [He held the see of Edessa after the year of the Greeks 952, of Christ 640–641; Michael the Syrian, book XI, ch. 8; ed. J. B. Chabot, Chronique de Michel le Syrien, vol. IV, p. 420; cf. vol. II, p. 429. That he sat from the year 665 to 684 Rubens Duval asserts, Histoire d'Édesse (Paris, 1892), p. 237; who however could not read this in the authors whom he prefers in the place cited (cf. ibid., p. 240). A miracle performed by this Daniel is related by Michael the Syrian, ibid. Chabot, work cited, vol. IV, pp. 420–21; vol. II, p. 429.]. Of this the Life of St. Daniel of Galas too is silent [Edited in extracts by F. Nau, Revue de l'Orient chrétien, vol. XV (1910), pp. 60–62.]. Least of all, finally, could there have been signified in this place by the Ethiopic synaxarist Daniel, abbot of Scetis, who, two days intervening, at 16 Hedar, by the same synaxarist
is saluted by his proper name and title, with a little narrative from his Life added [Zotenberg, Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens de la bibliothèque Nationale (Paris, 1877), p. 163.]. For this was well known to the Abyssinians as to the Copts [See BHO. 241, 243; his life was set out by L. Clugnet, Bibliothèque hagiographique orientale (Paris, 1901), pp. I–XXVIII.]; nor is it read in it that Daniel wandered off into Persia, still less that he converted the king of the Persians to Christ by his prodigies. Thus far, then, all conjectures fall to the ground in vain.
[2] the history In the little narrative itself which is recited in his praise in the synaxary, our Daniel, whoever he was, plays a secondary part, and near the end, as if the play were already over, he comes in. The first part is held by a boy whom his parents, moved by avarice, wished to slaughter, so that from his entrails they might furnish a remedy to the sick king. seems to have been concocted by a Syrian deceiver. This history, into which Daniel himself seems to have been introduced from elsewhere, has a not obscure similarity with the Syriac Life of Pope Silvester, where King Constantine, to wash away his leprosies, orders a bath to be prepared for himself from the blood of infants [In Zacharias Rhetor, Historia ecclesiastica, book I, ch. 7; ed. E. W. Brooks, in Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium; scriptores syri, textus, third series, vol. V (1919), pp. 63–65. The same subject was pursued in metrical discourse by James of Sarug, BHO. 1070. See A. L. Frothingham jr., L'Omelia di Giacobo di Sarûg sul battesimo di Costantino imperatore, in Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, series 3, Memorie, vol. VIII (1883), pp. 167–242.]. This invention expert judges have thought must be traced back to some Syriac source [See A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur (Bonn, 1922), p. 97. The most acute L. Duchesne himself thinks this little fable was born in the East; who however takes as the most ancient witness Moses of Khoren, whose lying authority had not yet been called into suspicion. Etude sur le Liber Pontificalis (Paris, 1877), p. 168. On the various forms which this little narrative took on among the Armenians, read especially F. C. Conybeare, The Date of Moses of Khoren, in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, vol. X (1901), pp. 490–97.]. concocted. Likewise the history in which a king of the Persians is read to have been brought to the Christian faith by a monk betrays a Syrian genius and reproduces Syrian examples. But by whomever at last it was devised, it flowed from the same subject from which the interpolator of the Life of Silvester made a tragedy. Therefore, since it seemed hitherto unknown, we have thought it worthwhile to bring it into the light, yet with no greater apparatus and diligence than it deserves [See what we noted on the Life of St. Ascanafer, Prelim. Comm., no. 3, above, p. 143.]. This is now enough about the saint, a most suspect one indeed, whose proper place was among those passed over.
THE LIFE OF ST. DANIEL, MONK IN PERSIA
Daniel, monk in Persia. (S.)
From the Ethiopic synaxary (14 Hedar), according to codex 126 of the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris.
[1] The king of the Persians On this day likewise rested Father Daniel, who worked miracles on the king of Persia, and brought him to believe in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the author of faith. Hebrews 12:2. For this king of Persia was suffering from a grave disease of the belly, and the physicians medicus cod. could not cure him. Now the king of Persia had a most skilful physician, who (nevertheless) could not cure him. When therefore the king wished to kill the physician, because (his) medical art failed, he cunningly addressed him in these words: "Seek for yourself, O king, a little infant, and command that its mother bind it (with chains), and that its father cut its throat, and that they bring you its heart: after you have devoured it, you will recover." He said this, supposing that the king would be prevented by fear from doing this. The king, however, gave his guard a thousand gold denarii, to seek out and buy such a little infant in the region. Now there were in the region (two) poor people, a man with his wife, who had one son. When they had heard the voice of the herald, they were enticed by the desire of gold, and brought their son to the king adduxit cod., weeping and saying: "I trust in God, who created me; he will snatch me away."
[2] deterred by pity, Then his mother bound (the boy) tightly; and 〈his father we have supplied it from the context.〉 drew his knife to cut his throat before the king and the princes. Then the infant raised his eyes to heaven, and by (the movement) of his lips, without voice, began to speak. And God softened the mind of the king; and the king ordered (the boy) to be loosed and brought to him; to whom he said dixerunt cod.: "What is it that you wished to say, when you raised your eyes upward?" And the little one said: "Lord, if it happens that someone is harmed by injury, his father and mother defend him. But if this is difficult for this one Understand: for the mother, unless the codex is to be corrected., the king and his princes defend him. But I, since with all of you there was no safety for me [In the archetype of this little narrative you would conjecture it was written: since destruction threatened me from you yourselves.], called upon God, who created me." The king, when he had heard his words, embracing him with mercy, is healed by St. Daniel presented him with a thousand gold denarii. Wherefore it pleased God to be propitious to the king; and so he sent him that Daniel, to cure him of his disease. He, when he had come to him, worked very many miracles, and brought it about that the king believed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; he healed him of his disease, and baptized him with the whole of (his) people with the baptism of the Christians. and is baptized. Then Father Daniel went away into his own region, where, having endured many labours, he rested in peace.