Thais

ON ST. THAIS, PENITENT, IN EGYPT,

PROBABLY IN THE FOURTH CENTURY, NOT YET AT ITS MIDDLE.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

The memory of the Saint in the sacred Fasti, ancient veneration, age; two Lives to be edited.

Thaïs, penitent, in Egypt. (S.)

BY C. B.

Although Baronius and the others, most learned men, who reformed the present Roman Martyrology, did not bring St. Thaïs into it from the Sirletian Menology of the Greeks, as they did in the case of several other Saints, The Saint, who, although she is not in the Roman Martyrology, yet in various I have nevertheless judged that a place among the Saints should be given in our Work to that penitent sinner, who is called by others Thaisis or Thaisia or even a little otherwise; first, because she exists inscribed in several other sacred Fasti besides, even Latin ones; and then because she is found to have been honoured as a Saint for a very long time already. How true both these reasons are, on account of which I reckon Thaïs among the Saints, will become plain from what is now to be said. The great printed Menaea of the Greeks, which are wont to commemorate daily the Saints who are honoured with ecclesiastical cult by the Greeks, record the memory of our Saint at this day in these following words: Τῇ αὐτῆ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς ἁγίας Ταισίας τῆς, On the same day, of saint Taisia the harlot; then they subjoin two little verses, in which St. Thaïs is indicated to have washed away by penance the filth or sins of unchastity. Behold them, with a Latin interpretation also added at the end. They run thus:

Ἐκ τοῦ ρύπου σμηχθεῖσα τῆς ἀσωτείας Φαιδρὰ πρόσεισι τῷ Θεῷ Ταισία.

Purged from the filth of luxury, Taisia approaches God joyful.

[2] To the little verses, as is generally wont to be done, a eulogy is subjoined. in other sacred Fasti, This further agrees almost exactly with the eulogy with which the Saint is adorned in the Sirletian Menology. Wherefore, so that the studious reader may have at hand at once both what the printed Menaea and what the Sirletian Menology record in writing of the Saint, I likewise transcribe it here with a Latin version added. It is conceived in these following words: Αὔτῃ ἐκ παιδὸς παρὰ τῆς ἰδίας μητρὸς ἐργαστήριον κατέστη τοῦ διαβόλου· παρὰ δὲ παφνουτίου τοῦ Σιδωνίου ἀγρευθεῖσα, καὶ τελείαν πληροφορίαν λαβοῦσα, ὅτι ἐστὶ μετάνοια, πάντα τὰ προσιόντα τοῖς δεομένοις διανοίμασα *, λιτρῶν ὄντα τετρακοσίων, καὶ ἐαυτὴν ἐγκλείσασα ἐν τινι κελλίω, καὶ δακρύουσα καὶ στενάζουσα ἐκ βάθους καρδίας ἔλεγεν· Ὁ πλάσας με, ἐλέησόν με. Ἐν τούτοις διετέλεσεν ἔτη τρία, ἐκεῖθεν δὲ ἐξελθοῦσα κελεύσει τοῦ ἀββᾶ μετὰ δεκαπέντε ἡμέρας ἐτελειώθη. She (namely Thaïs) was made from her youth a workshop of the devil by her own mother; but when she had been caught by Paphnutius the Sidonian, and had been thoroughly convinced that penance must be done, distributing to the poor all her goods, which were of four hundred pounds, and shutting herself up in a certain little cell, and weeping and groaning from the depth of her heart, she said: Thou who didst create me, have mercy on me. In these she spent three years; and having come out thence by command of the abbot, after fifteen days she departed from among the living. In almost as many words, in the Menology written by him in the present language of the Greeks, Maximus Margunius, bishop of Cythera, also celebrates Thaïs even today, following the Menaea after his custom.

[3] also Latin ones, here I now come to the sacred Fasti of the Latins, in which, as has already been said, our Saint likewise exists inscribed. Maurolycus announces her at this day thus: Of Thaïs of Alexandria, whom the abbot Pannucius * converted, who, having thrown into the fire the most precious things which she had acquired by harlotry, merited pardon by macerating herself of her own accord for three years by the narrowness of a cell and by fasting. Greven in his Usuard agrees with Maurolycus, as also Chastelain in his Universal Martyrology. But the latter of these two hagiologists celebrates our Saint only in a very few French words, which sound in Latin: In Egypt, saint Thaïs the penitent. The former, however, although he commemorates Thaïs no less fully than Maurolycus, using these following words, Of Taysis, formerly a sinner, whom the holy abbot Pafnucius converted and shut up in a narrow cell; where, having spent three years in the greatest penance, she afterwards rested in peace, yet does so not at the eighth of October, as here, but at the twenty-eighth day of August. The reason of the difference may perhaps have been that the one wished to record in the sacred Fasti composed by him the natal day of the Saint, that is the one on which by her happy departure from the living she was first born in heaven, but the other that on which she was converted to God from the filth of an impure life. Our Ms. Florarium makes me incline to this opinion, in which at the 28th day of August the conversion of our Saint is celebrated very briefly in this manner, The conversion of Thaisis the sinner, and then at the 8th day of October her deposition more fully.

[4] is celebrated, recorded; probably in the fourth century The words in which this last is done there, which it pleases me also to transfer here, are these following: The deposition of St. Thaisis the sinner, converted by saint Paphnutius from the pursuit of harlotry. Whom he, having found a monastery of Virgins, shutting up in a little cell, sealed the door with lead, and left her a little window, through which a moderate amount of food might be brought to her. But after three years of penance the abbot Paphnutius, returning after a revelation made to him by God about her, broke up the door which he had sealed with lead, and said to her: Come out, because God has forgiven you your sins. But she said: I call God to witness that from the time I entered here, I have made for myself as it were a bundle out of all my sins, and set it before my eyes, and as my breath has not departed from my nostrils, so not for one moment up to this hour have my sins departed from me. She flourished in the year of Salvation CCCXLIV. In a Ms. of the Charterhouse of Brussels (see tom. 3 of March of our Work, page 711) a certain translation also of our Saint is celebrated; but since no other sacred Fasti commemorate this, and I do not perceive whence it could have been drawn, and I have already recounted the chief of those in which Thaïs is celebrated, I now make some observations on the eulogies just transcribed here from them, and especially on the last, adduced from our Ms. Florarium. And first, I would not dare to convict of undoubted falsity the assertion by which it builds up that St. Thaïs flourished in the year of Salvation 344. For the abbot Paphnutius, who converted the Saint to God, is narrated in the Life of Thaïs to be edited by us to have gone to the most celebrated abbot of the Thebaid, St. Antony, surnamed the Great, and to have consulted him before she departed from the living; and Antony, as we have already shown at the 17th day of January in the Commentary prefixed to his Acts, num. 18, exchanged this mortal life for the immortal in the year of Christ 356, nor, as appears, before the year 320 (see in our Work the Commentary which is prefixed to the Life of St. Antony at the 17th day of January, num. 17) did Antony become famous with such a reputation for holiness and miracles that the abbot Paphnutius, then desiring to know whether her sins had been forgiven by God to Thaïs, still living, should seem to have been about to consult him on this matter.

[5] These things, therefore, having been weighed, I wrote in the margin above, in order to exhibit to the studious reader the epoch of the death met by Thaïs, determined at least in a broader manner, she passed to the Lord not yet at its middle. Probably in the fourth century, not yet at its middle. And if it were held in view at what time Paphnutius, of Heraclea from what is to be said, who brought the Saint to better fruit, closed his last day, the time at which Thaïs passed to the Heavenly ones could perhaps be defined more closely; but although indeed Chastelain in his universal Martyrology, page 229, joins the death of this abbot with about the year 330, and our Ms. Florarium notes, in words presently to be recited, that he flourished in the year 321, yet they supply nothing which prevents his Life from being extended up to the year 350; nay rather, Tillemont, tom. 10 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 44, affirms that he perhaps did not depart from the living before about the year 380. Since these things are so, content with having determined the time at which the Saint died in the manner in which I have already done so, I now add here a few things for the knowledge of the abbot Paphnutius, of whom there existed several namesakes (see Rosweyde in the Lives of the Fathers, page 488). Maurolycus at the 29th of November has thus concerning the abbot Paphnutius, whom, no otherwise than above, he wrongly calls Pannucius with Peter de Natalibus: Of St. Pannucius, abbot, who inhabited the desert of the region of Heraclea, and by whose work they report that Thaïs, a harlot of remarkable beauty, having thrown her ornaments into the fire, merited pardon by penance. Our Ms. Florarium supplies almost the same at the 8th of March. Behold the words. Of Paphnutius, confessor, who converted Thaisis the harlot, and won for God three men snatched from the world. He flourished in the year of Salvation CCCXXI. Paphnutius, therefore, who converted our Saint, most certainly, if only these two adduced Hagiologies record rightly, is no other than the Paphnutius who, in Rosweyde in the Lives of the Fathers, book 2, cap. 16, is mentioned by Rufinus as the last inhabitant of the desert in the regions of Heraclea, a splendid city in the Thebaid, and is related by Palladius in the Lausiac History, cap. 62, to have exchanged life for death in the region which is about the Heracleotes of the Thebaid.

[6] Her Life, which has a Greek author, But what is to be thought of this matter? Nothing at all is at hand to me by which I might pronounce that the conversion of Thaïs is either to be denied to Paphnutius of Heraclea, who is indeed so called from the place in which he led the eremitic life, and is also called the Sidonian, most probably from another, in which he was born, in the eulogy given above from the Menaea (whether rightly or otherwise I do not define), or to be attributed to another Paphnutius. Since this is so, I will not believe that our Saint was converted by a Paphnutius who is different from Paphnutius of Heraclea, until solid reasons which prove it are brought forward. Further, in St. Antoninus, Peter de Natalibus, Jacobus de Voragine and other Legendaries there exist also various eulogies of St. Thaïs; but all these, as also the eulogy transcribed here above from our Ms. Florarium, undoubtedly flowed from the Latin Life of our Saint which exists in Rosweyde in the Lives of the Fathers. Anyone who compares this with those will easily recognize it; and so that you may also be able to estimate how much they are worth, take the following about that Life of the Saint. Although it is evident on no head at what time and by what author it was written, and Rosweyde expressly notes that it was composed by an uncertain author, yet it is permissible to gather that he who composed it was a Greek from a certain Ms. copy of the same Life which I have at hand; for this has a preface prefixed at its head (in which respect it differs from all the other copies seen by me); and in this the author, who discloses that he was a monk and was called Dionysius, expressly declares that by command of his abbot he is translating the Life of St. Thaïs subjoined from Greek into the Latin tongue. Moreover, various phrases or forms of speaking proper to the Greeks occur in it, as will become plain to one who considers.

[7] it was afterwards also bound in metre, and we edit these two works. And as regards now the time at which that Life was first written in Greek, I do not doubt at all that this had already been done before the eleventh century, which is an argument that Thaïs was already then held as a Saint. For Marbod, bishop of Rennes, who, as may be seen from the Preface prefixed to his Works, published at the Paris presses in the year 1708, flourished in the eleventh century, expressed the mentioned Life of our Saint, when it had already been translated, as I think, by another from the Greek tongue into the Latin, in a bound style consisting of Leonine verses. This metrical Life of our Saint exists inserted in the edition of Marbod's Works just praised, col. 1541 and the three following, and is also contained in our codex ✠ Ms. 81. And I subjoin here, with renewed printing, both this and that: the former, indeed, which, because it is less ancient, will obtain only the second place, from our said codex ✠ Ms. 81, collated with the mentioned Paris edition; but the latter, which, since from what has been said it is certainly more ancient than the eleventh century, may perhaps even have been composed already from the fifth or fourth century by an author contemporary with the Saint or nearly so, from Rosweyde's edition in the Lives of the Fathers, collated with our other codex, P Ms. 18, in which also it exists. And Marbod's work, although it supplies almost nothing which is not contained in the other Life, I have also judged should be reprinted, both because, since it is not long, I think it will not be unwelcome, and because it serves after a fashion to elucidate the other Life, as you will be able to observe in the Annotations to be subjoined according to custom to each work, which will chiefly teach the reader the principal differing readings.

* διανείμασα

* Paphnutius

LIFE,

By an anonymous author,

From the Rosweyde edition, collated with our codex P Ms. 18.

Thaïs, penitent, in Egypt. (S.)

BHL Number: 8012

A. anonymous.

SOLE CHAPTER.

The perverse life of the Saint, her conversion, penance, happy death.

Thaïs, while she is perverting many, is visited by the abbot Paphnutius, There was a certain harlot, Thaisis by name ^b, of such beauty that many, selling their substance on her account, came to the last poverty: and moreover, her lovers engaging in quarrels among themselves, the girl's threshold was frequently filled with the blood of young men ^c. When the abbot Paphnutius ^d had heard this, taking a secular habit and one solidus, he set out to her in a certain city of Egypt ^e, and gave her the solidus * as the price of sin. And she, having received the price, said: Let us go into the house; then he, having entered, as she was inviting him to mount a bed spread with precious coverings, said: If there is an inner chamber, let us go into it ^f. She said: There is indeed, but if you fear men, no one enters into this outer chamber either: but if you fear God, there is no place which is hidden from the eyes of His Divinity ^g.

[2] When the old man had heard this, he says to her: And

do you know [and, caught by him in her words and converted, she publicly burns the things she had acquired by harlotry,] that there is a God? To whom she answered: I know both God and the kingdom of the world to come, and also the future torments of sinners. He says to her: If then you know these things, why have you destroyed so many souls, so that, an account being rendered, you will be condemned not only for your own crimes but also for theirs ^h? When Thaisis had heard this, rolling herself at the feet of the monk Paphnutius, she besought him with tears, saying: Enjoin penance, father ⁱ; for I trust to obtain remission, you praying; I ask a respite of three hours only, and after this I will come wherever you bid, and will do whatever you command. And when the abbot Paphnutius had appointed for her a place to which she should come, she, departing, having collected all the things which she had received from sin, and having brought them out into the middle of the city, the people looking on, set fire to them, crying: Come, all you who have sinned with me, and see how I burn the things which you conferred on me. And the value was of forty pounds ^k.

[3] And when she had consumed all, she proceeded to the place which the abbot had appointed for her: she is then willingly and gladly shut up in a very narrow cell, whom he, having found a virginal monastery, leading her into a little cell, sealed the door of the little cell with lead, and left a little window, through which a moderate amount of food might be brought in to her, and ordered that every day a little bread and a little water should be ministered to her by the sisters of the monastery ^l. And as he was departing, the door being leaded, Thaisis said to him: Where do you bid me, father, pour out my water? And he answered: In the cell, as you are worthy. And when again she asked how she should pray to God, he says to her: You are not worthy to name God, nor to bring the name of His divinity ^m upon your lips, nor even to spread out your hands to heaven, since your lips are full of iniquity, and your hands polluted with filth; but only sitting facing the East, look, repeating frequently this one sentence: Thou who didst fashion me, have mercy on me ⁿ.

[4] [she does penance in it for three years, and then by Paphnutius, a revelation having been made to a disciple of St. Antony] When therefore she had been thus shut up for three years, the abbot Paphnutius felt compassion, and presently set out to the abbot Antony ^o, to inquire of him whether the Lord had forgiven her her sins or not. When therefore he had arrived and had narrated in detail so great a case to him, the abbot Antony, having called together his disciples, commanded that all should keep vigil that night, and persist in prayer each apart, so that God might declare to one of them the cause for which the abbot Paphnutius had come. And so, when each had withdrawn and was praying incessantly, the abbot Paul, the greater disciple of saint Antony [p], suddenly saw in heaven a bed adorned with precious coverings, which three virgins, shining with bright faces, were guarding. When therefore Paul himself said: This bounty is no other's than my father Antony's, a voice came to him: It is not your father Antony's, but is that of Thaisis the harlot [q].

[5] [being taught that her sins have been forgiven, she is led out of it, and shortly after dies.] When the abbot Paul had plainly related this, the will of God being known, the abbot Paphnutius departed, and, having returned to the monastery in which she had been shut up, broke open the door which he had blocked; but she asked that she might still remain thus shut up: but when he had opened the door, he said to her: Come out, since God has forgiven you your sins. She answered: I call God to witness that from the time I entered here, I set all my sins like a bundle before my eyes, and my sins did not depart from my eyes, but I wept always beholding them. To whom the abbot Paphnutius said: Not on account of your penance has God forgiven you, but because you always had the thought of these things in your mind [r]. And when he had led her out thence, Thaisis lived only fifteen days, and so rested in peace.

ANNOTATA.

p. No other Paul is undoubtedly designated here than that great disciple of St. Antony who, from the simplicity of his manners and the integrity of his life without disguise, is called the Simple, and has already been given by us at the 7th day of March, on which he is recorded in the Roman Martyrology.

q. Our codex has: of Taysis, beloved of God. But the Rosweyde reading seems here more conformable to the original Greek Life of Thaïs, inasmuch as, besides various Legendaries, Marbod also agrees with it below in the metrical Life.

r. These things are to be understood with a grain of salt: for Paphnutius, who enjoined on Thaïs a most severe penance, would not have thought that the works of penance are altogether useless. By these words, therefore, if they are truly those of Paphnutius, he would only have meant that Thaïs merited pardon not so much by a most austere life as by the sorrow conceived for her sins, continually present to her mind, joined with the detestation of them.

* in our codex P Ms. 18 there is added: as it were

ANOTHER, METRICAL, LIFE,

By Marbod, bishop of Rennes,

From our codex ✠ Ms. 81 collated with the Paris edition of the year 1708.

Thaïs, penitent, in Egypt. (S.)

BHL Number: 8019

A. Marbod

Thaïs, while by prostituting herself she ruins many, I will tell in song the life of a certain woman, That those who cleave to the things of the world may not despair, But may learn through her that God wills that they come to their senses; Nor does He hold cheap those who come to their senses for their crimes, Nor will those be of more worth to Him who have had no crimes, But with equal reward He bids both these and those be blessed. In heaven they live in concord and without jealousy. There was once an exceedingly beautiful girl, Thaysis by name, Known to all Egypt for her crimes; For she spurned God, by whose gift came ^b That beauty of body, and gave her heart to impious deeds. As a mousetrap of Satan she prostituted herself to those about to perish; For base uses she sold her comely limbs; She passed sleepless nights, while she received all comers. So great was her thirst for lewdness, and so great for gain; She mingled all ages, spurned the bonds of blood; She granted adulterous beds, believed them just ^c. Difficult to none, except to him who brought her nothing. Like a house without a bolt that chimaera was to all. Many of the nobles, supported by very rich fortune, Became beggars, while they gave their goods to the harlot. Her lovers, through frequent seditions ^d, While Mars disturbs Hymen, stained her threshold with blood. Before her house mutual slaughter took place, And streams ran with a rival's blood. She, pressing her couch, blessed with gems and gold, Rejoices to have been the prize and cause of the brawl, And thinks the streams of gore witnesses of her face.

[2] Moved by that report, the holy Abbot Paphnutius, A hermit powerful in excellent life and in signs, [she is visited by Paphnutius, moved by the report of this matter, and, caught by him in her words,] Is made sorrowful, weeps, pours forth complaints from his breast: Woe is me! by how many diseases, how base, the world perishes! How great an image of the abyss has risen in my district! Forthwith, having put off his habit, he is clothed in lay garments, Dissembling what he was, while he seeks for Christ the lost; He takes a weight of silver for the uses which he knew, And seeks the most celebrated house of the unspeakable girl. As there was opportunity of entering, there was given also opportunity of speaking; He brings out the silver, and offers the price of lust. She, the man being seized, had said, Let us hasten within, And draws to the bed one who had not come to do these things, Upon which, quickly spread, she said: My dear, come. Let us not do so, the hermit had answered her, For the place is open; it is right for us to seek hiding-places. Thaisis said against him: God sees within and without, And the coverings of night are to Him as the naked things of day; If you dread Him, trust in no concealment; If, fearing men, you desire inner hiding-places, You know not what you seek, because you fear things not to be feared; Despise human sight, trusting in a wall. Here the monk, following the woman's words, brought in: If God is witness of crime, as you yourself confess, And no hidden place avails to shut out His countenance, Then this wall is set up superfluously; For let every judge of human sight be far away, Yet you will not escape, when the last destruction comes; For the avenger of crimes becomes the witness and judge of crimes. O beloved of God, image of the heavenly King! If you know the Lord, why do you serve His enemy? Why, for so many buried with you and on your account ^e, Will you, worthy to be tormented, be burned in eternal fire? You ought not to trust in life, you ought not to trust in beauty; We are all earth; life flees quickly, quickly like smoke.

[3] Suddenly terrified by such true words, Thaisis Said, Woe is me, woe; she fixed kisses on the old man's feet, [she is converted, and, all the things she had acquired by harlotry being publicly burned,] And, pouring forth tears, and beating her breast with her fists, Begs the man with flattering mouth, and giving sighs, That, standing outside the city, he wait for her three hours. And, designating the place, she breaks off the exchange of words. Thence she seizes her treasures, paints, necklaces, gems, Garments, silver, tripods, bowls and gold, And whatever things she had gained from her flesh, And brings together into the middle of the forum the riches of vices, Which were established to be of four hundred pounds ^f; And, a pyre being set beneath, I will first burn these with fire, she says, Before I be burned for things kept in the black fires of the abyss. And I will altogether first be without a partner of my bed, Before I be plunged into the depths of the abyss for things committed. O wretched citizens, from whom I am wickedly rich! You who bought crime, and sought it with a price, Come to behold the fruit of the past life. The pomp of the proud returns here, and the gains of the wicked; Fire will consume whatever corruption begets; Repent with me, you whom an equal crime defiles; Sharers of the fault, share in the merits. Weeping she uttered these words, and had compelled all to weep, When she sees all things fallen together into warm ash. She flies forth without delay, detesting her former deeds, And follows the Saint, desiring only heavenly things.

[4] she is willingly and gladly shut up in a very narrow cell, from which afterwards He, coming to the enclosure of sacred girls, Whose religion, contemner of delights, Could bring her solace if she should fail, Thrust his rejoicing friend into a small cell, And blocked it from outside, showing examples of rigour; Yet on one side he ordered a small opening to be, Through which strict sustenance might reach her, A small weight of water, and of bread, each day for her; For black lust is quenched by a cold drink, And he who lives on second-quality bread dies to the world. Such delicacies he orders the nuns to give her, And, lest anything be added, he threatens with fearful voice. He prepares therefore to return, after he had accomplished his vows, When thus from the cell the pitiable girl cries out: My father, listen, for I do not prepare to say much, Nor, I pray, depart, until you tell me what I should pray. Tell me briefly how I should pray to the Maker of the world. The name of Christ, he says, of which you were never worthy, It is not safe to bring forth through a polluted mouth; Let the divine name be a stranger to your mouth; And do not presume to stretch your palms to heaven, Which have long handled unspeakable things by alluring fraud; Only sit sorrowful, nor depart from this sentence: Thou who didst fashion me, I pray, have mercy on one praying, And, turned, keeping head and mind towards the East, Though with weary mind, never cease to say thus. When he had given these words, the Patriarch, weeping, departs.

[5] [after three years, by the same Paphnutius, a revelation having been made to a disciple of St. Antony,] Thaisis, in darkness, intent only on things to come, Enjoying clear light, sacrifices herself on the altar of her heart, And now had tormented herself with great evils for three years, When that pious father, pitying her labours, Seeks to know whether Christ had given her pardon. He seeks thee, Antony, equal to whose religion No one lived from the extreme of the world to its last parts; He tells what he seeks; what he seeks he afterwards learns. For Antony orders all the brethren to be sleepless Upon the following night, with tears and suppliant care, And with holy prayers to knock at the ears of the Thunderer, That He might deign to lay open to any one of them the closed cause, For the learning of which the abbot Pafnuthius came ^g. Nor yet does he disclose to them what it is that he seeks to learn. Then Paul, more powerful than the rest, by surname the greater, In ecstasy of mind, his step fixed above the ether, Sees a couch adorned with gems shining, Spread with purple, and pleasing to the sight in all things, Which three girls, like stars, were guarding; Which while he wonders at, he speaks such things to himself alone: This rest, father Antony, I believe is being prepared for thee ^h. A voice returned says, which leaves nothing doubtful: It is not his whom you say, but is that of Taysis the harlot ⁱ.

[6] These things being thus found out, thou turnest thy steps to Taysis, Most excellent Paphnutius; and presently, the prison being broken, [being taught that her sins have been forgiven, she is ordered to come out, and shortly after dies.] Thou commandest the enclosed one, beaten by long torment, to be led out, And her, resisting, and wishing to cherish her hiding-places, Thou consolest thus: Peace be to thee, life be to thee. Weep no longer, for thou hast finished thy labours; Know that all thy offences have been forgiven thee. She answered the Father: In the time of the black prison ^k, In which I always mourned, I held nothing long, nothing heavy, In comparison with the weight and number of my sins. This so pressed me that it never departed from my mind. As breath in my nostrils, so I bore my guilt in my mind. Then the father: This, he said, leaves nothing penal for thee, That with sad breast thou hast perfectly repented; For a troubled spirit is more pleasing to God Than flesh troubled with ever bitter torment. He approves a contrite heart, and one established in good, More than if thou always restrain thyself from all foods. She lived five times three days beyond these things, And so with Christ rested from this world.

ANNOTATA.