ON ST. JULIAN SABAS, HERMIT IN MESOPOTAMIA,
PROBABLY BETWEEN THE YEAR 372 AND 380.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Julian Sabas, hermit in Mesopotamia. (S.)
E. C.
§ I. The distinction of the saint from another contemporary monk Julian. His memory in the sacred fasti.
St. Julian, of whom the Menaea treat on the 18th day of October, Once, again and a third time Bolland gave warning that St. Julian Sabas would be treated at this day. Namely, when at the 14th of January there occurred this announcement of the Roman Martyrology: In Syria, of St. Julian Sabas the elder, who in the time of the emperor Valens restored by the power of miracles the catholic faith, almost collapsed at Antioch, he noted thus among the Passed Over of that day: But in the same Martyrology, and by the Greeks in the Menologion and the Menaea, he is celebrated on the 18th of October. Then, concerning Julian Chaba, written in Maurolico and Felici at the 27th of January, he says: This is Julian Sabas, of whom we shall treat on the 17th of October. Then, noticing that the same Saint is praised by Galesini and in the German Martyrology at the 28th of January, again he wrote there among the Passed Over: Of him we shall treat on the 18th of October. Nor indeed did Papebroch exempt us from this labour when, at the 9th day of June, where in the Roman Martyrology there exists the memory of St. Julian the monk praised by St. Ephrem the deacon, suspecting that he was not to be distinguished from St. Julian Sabas, he edited together the oration of St. Ephrem on Julian the monk and the Synaxarion on St. Julian Sabas from the Menaea of the Greeks; as though from these two writings, having nothing in common with each other, but which he thought were to be so taken that the parts lacking to one should be supplied from the other, there would at length arise an entire biography of one and the same Saint. He had not read, namely, the things which Theodoret narrated of St. Julian Sabas in the Philotheus, or Religious History. For if he had compared these with the Ephremian oration, he could easily have seen that here one Saint, there another
is commended. Ours indeed, on the testimony of Theodoret, drew many monks to his cave and long ruled them as father and master; and when he had spent more than forty years in ascesis, yet now and again going out of the desert for God's cause, illustrious moreover for the gift of miracles, he at length departed from life, so venerable in old age that thence he obtained among all the surname of Sabas, which signifies old man. But St. Ephrem relates nothing similar of his friend Julian; but reports that he, having lived among the brethren with the best example, fell asleep in the Lord after years of monastic life, not forty, but beyond twenty-five: that he was surnamed old man, or wrought miracles, or undertook any journey, he does not even intimate. We omit to pursue the rest, from which the diversity would appear more.
[2] Papebroch at the 9th of June, The occasion for confusing the two Saints of the same name was given to Papebroch by Sozomen, whose words are alleged by Bolland Volume I of February, p. 54. and by Papebroch himself Volume II of June, p. 175.: At the same time, about Edessa, Julian practised the most exact kind of monastic discipline: who, as if bodiless, followed such an institution and manner of life that he seemed to lack flesh and to consist of bones and skin alone. Wherefore Ephrem, the Syrian writer, composed a treatise on his life. The same things, but in other phrasing, are stated by Nicephorus, likewise adduced by Bolland Place cited. And Bolland indeed, on account of the mention of the treatise of St. Ephrem, took these things as said of the Julian whose Life was to be given by us on the 9th day of June, and whom he distinguished from St. Julian Sabas, already thrice referred by him to the 18th of October; but Papebroch, going further, began to conjecture from this that that very distinction was to be wholly removed: especially since the Roman Martyrology at the 18th day of October, with the Menologion of Sirleto and the Menaea, places our St. Julian on the bank of the Euphrates, and the other Julian, on the 9th of June, at Edessa in Syria, which city lies not far from the aforesaid river; and since there is added besides the identity of the time in which each lived, as is evidently gathered from the year of the death of Julian the apostate, divinely foreknown by St. Julian, and from the year of the death of St. Ephrem the Syrian. Nor did it seem to Papebroch to stand in the way of his conjecture that St. Ephrem records the advice given to Julian, his fellow-inmate, that he should not go round the desert wandering outside his cell for the sake of learning, and that the Menaea on the contrary describe several journeys of our St. Julian. For it may be, he says, that the same man, obeying the salutary advice, never went out of his cell for the sake of curiosity; but yet, for other and most just causes, both drew many disciples by his example to build cells near him, and made an excursion to Mount Sinai to build a church there, and in the year 372, St. Meletius of Antioch having already been driven out for the second time, was summoned to console that church; and likewise to Cyrrhus to restrain the madness of the Arian bishop there; having set out also at one time to the Royal city itself; and finally, having returned to his former arena beside the Euphrates, completed his life there holily on the very day on which he is venerated, the 18th of October. But, as we have already indicated above, he would no doubt have judged otherwise if he had consulted the Philotheus of Theodoret, and had not been content with the Synaxarion alone, in which, while the principal heads of the Life of St. Julian are indeed recited in compendium from Theodoret himself, yet not a few others narrated by him are passed over, and by a topographical error the Saint's cave is asserted to have been on the bank of the Euphrates, otherwise than is done by Theodoret, as we shall show afterwards.
[3] as Sozomen seems already formerly to have done, But if we now attend to what Sozomen adds to the words cited above Book III, chapter XIV, p. 115. Cambridge edition of 1720.: Further, God confirmed by His testimony the opinion which men had conceived of him, granting him the power of driving out demons and of curing every kind of disease, and that not by medicines, but by prayer alone; all of which fit St. Julian Sabas well, and cannot aptly be applied to the other Julian, so far as we know him from St. Ephrem, although, as we have said, Bolland understood them of this Julian: if, I say, we attend to these things, there is ground for a suspicion, not undeservedly, to arise that Sozomen himself did not have the affairs of each Julian sufficiently accurately examined, so that he seems to have thought that what he had learned by hearing or reading of the more celebrated St. Julian Sabas had been praised by St. Ephrem. Rémi Ceillier already suspected this, where he discoursed on the writings of St. Ephrem [Histoire des auteurs ecclésiastiques, volume VIII, chapter I, article II, § III, no. 20, p. 72.], and before him Tillemont, whose judgment on this matter is this [Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique, volume VIII, note VII on St. Ephrem, pp. 740 and 741. Edition of 1713.]: Sozomen, speaking of the St. Julian whose history St. Ephrem wrote, says that he led a life so austere that he seemed to lack the flesh of a body consisting of bones, and attributes many miracles to him. Which indeed fit St. Julian Sabas exceedingly well, while in the other St. Julian St. Ephrem notes no austerity which is very extraordinary, likewise no miracle: whence it is credible that these two Saints were confused into one by Sozomen. That too which he writes, that the Saint of whom he speaks dwelt about Edessa, I think should be referred to St. Julian Sabas. For St. Ephrem, concerning himself, for the time at which he relates that he lived with St. Julian, speaks in such a way that he seems to indicate clearly enough that he then lived as a mere monk in a monastery: now, since St. Gregory (of Nyssa, namely, in the Oration on St. Ephrem) records that he was led by the will of God from his homeland, which was Nisibis, to Edessa, because it was not fitting that the sun should be hidden longer under the earth Cf. volume I of February, p. 70., it may be believed that he led that obscure life among the monks at Nisibis rather than at Edessa; and accordingly it is likely that at the time when St. Ephrem first gave himself to monastic life, namely under the rule of Constantine and Constantius, that St. Julian too lived at Nisibis or in its vicinity.
[4] with St. Julian the monk, Surely St. Ephrem indicates clearly enough that he dwelt with Julian elsewhere than where he afterwards delivered the Oration on his life, by those words Greek-Latin Works, volume III, p. 254. Cf. volume II of June, pp. 175 and 176.: Ἀμέλει καὶ ἐν οἷς ἐκαθεζόμην τόποις μοναχός τις, that is, Assuredly (for Vossius wrongly translated the word ἀμέλει into Latin by negligent) in those places too in which I resided a certain monk, etc.: so that, as regards topography, the reading of the Roman Martyrology at the 9th of June must probably be corrected: At Edessa in Syria, of St. Julian the monk, whose illustrious deeds St. Ephrem the deacon wrote; where Baronius signifies in the Notes that Sozomen and Nicephorus were his guides. Nor yet on that account would I at once substitute Nisibis for Edessa with Tillemont; since St. Ephrem could have had him as fellow-inmate either about Heliopolis by Lebanon, where Julian had lived as a slave under a heathen master, or in any other part of the world, inasmuch as the biographer published by Assemani relates Bibliotheca Orientalis, volume I, p. 24 and following. that he spent eight years travelling and visiting monasteries. For the rest, as we have already indicated, we hold as probable Tillemont's opinion that the two Julians wrongly coalesced into one in Sozomen; the more so because what Sozomen relates of St. Julian he seems to have received from Palladius, narrating similar things in this manner In Rosweyde, Vitae Patrum, book VIII, or Lausiac History, chapter CII.: I have heard of a certain Julian in the parts of the Edessenes, a man of the greatest exercise, who exhausted his flesh beyond measure, so that he carried about only bones and skin. And he was held worthy to be strong in the grace of cures to the very last end of life. Where everyone sees that the same things are narrated in other phrasing; to which Sozomen added nothing except the mention of the treatise of St. Ephrem, of which Palladius was wholly silent, although a little before he had highly commended the writings of the same Saint Ibid., chapter CI..
[5] whose life St. Ephrem described, But a Syriac fragment of that treatise or homily on St. Julian, on the testimony of Assemani [In the Prolegomena to the Works of St. Ephrem. Cf. Bibliotheca Orientalis, volume I, pp. 154 and 155.], exists in Philoxenus, or Xenaias, bishop of Hierapolis, in the book On One of the Trinity incarnate and suffering, Nitrian Codex 26, fol. 133, where it is inscribed Ode or Hymn on Julian Sabas. From which, says Assemani, it becomes plain that the surname of Sabas, or the Elder, was given to two Julians among the Syrians, of whom the first was he of whom the Roman Martyrology at the 14th of January: "In Syria," etc., as Theodoret narrates at length in the Philotheus… The other Julian is he of whom the same Martyrology on the 9th day of June: "At Edessa," etc., as Sozomen relates, book III, chapter XIII. Whether the same title of Sabas was attributed to a third Julian, a monk, whom the Martyrology mentions on the 18th day of October: "In Mesopotamia," etc., is not established for me. Yet it seems certain that the two former Julians are by no means confused by Sozomen, as Tillemont conjectures, volume VIII, page 740; since the Julian praised by Ephrem, of whom Sozomen speaks, has nothing in common except the name with that Elder whom Theodoret affirms to have raised up the catholic faith at Antioch. So that learned man indeed; but, as it seems, with the matters little examined. For besides the fact that Tillemont shows well that the statements of Sozomen (add those of Palladius too) by no means fit the Julian around whose praises the Ephremian homily turns, it must be observed besides that that homily bears no appearance of an Ode or Hymn: so that the Hymn on Julian Sabas cited by Philoxenus seems to have been a wholly different work; from which accordingly it cannot be concluded that the surname of Sabas or Elder was common to Julian, St. Ephrem's former fellow-inmate, with the other and more celebrated Julian: nay rather, it would be given us hence to conjecture that St. Ephrem, who composed so many hymns that as many as twelve thousand or even more are attributed to him Bibliotheca Orientalis, volume I, pp. 59, 80 and following., consecrated one to the very well-known Saint who lived in the region of Edessa and is believed to have died before him. For Philoxenus calls the work of Ephrem praised by him, in the Syriac language, Madroscho Ibid., p. 56., which word fits certain rhythmic works accommodated to singing Cf. Augusti, De Hymnis Syrorum sacris, p. 9., but not the other writings of the same Saint, as Assemani himself says Place cited, p. 80.:
It must be known that to all the Hymns of Ephrem which are called Madrosce there is prefixed in red letters the Tone, Norm or Pattern of the chant, after the form of which the Ephremian Hymn itself has been worked out. For Madrosce, as the same explains Ibid., p. 61., are verses composed of several strophes, like Latin Odes, which sometimes consist of equal feet, sometimes of different and unequal ones.
[6] wrongly confused. Meanwhile, as is clear from what has been adduced, Assemani attests that which we had chiefly undertaken to demonstrate, that the Julian who is inserted in the Roman Martyrology at the 9th day of June is one, and he who is celebrated today there and in the Menaea of the Greeks is another. Whence we must still stand by Bolland's promises, that St. Julian Sabas would be treated in our work at this day, and the opinion of Papebroch must be abandoned in this respect. Which indeed is now to be abandoned all the more because among the Greek works of St. Ephrem, which Assemani and others took care to edit together with the Syriac, there came forth an entire homily on Julian the monk Volume III, p. 254 and following. with the closing clause with which orations of this kind were accustomed to be concluded; nor among the few things which this edition shows to be lacking in the Latin edition of Gerard Vossius is any deed to be found, nor anything else except certain admonitions which had fallen out at the end of Vossius's copy: so that that conjecture of Papebroch also vanishes, that only the beginning of the Life of Julian written by Ephrem becomes known through Vossius's version, and that from the things which Ephrem discourses after relating the death of his friend it appears that he still had other things to narrate of him, which, if they had come down to us entire, would perhaps contain all the things narrated in the Menaea.
[7] but Baronius did not notice It must now be asked whether Bolland judged rightly that the Julian Sabas commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the 14th of January is the same of whom at the present day the same Martyrology chants thus: In Mesopotamia, on the bank of the Euphrates, of Saint Julian, hermit, without warning, as is customarily done elsewhere of Saints occurring twice or more, that he had already been treated at the said day of January. Surely the Greeks today commemorate St. Julian Sabas, as is manifest from the Synaxarion, which we have noted before was compiled from his Life written by Theodoret; but from presenting which we abstain here, since it has already been adduced in our work at the 9th of June, though unseasonably and preposterously. There can therefore be no doubt that the same Saint is indicated on this very day in the Menologion of Sirleto by those words In Canisius, Lectiones antiquae, volume III, part I, p. 480. Basnage edition.: Commemoration … of our Holy Father Julian, who, dwelling in a cave by the banks of the river Euphrates, practised the monastic life. But that the reading of the Roman Martyrology was derived hence not only strikes the eyes of anyone comparing it even cursorily with the phrasing of Sirleto, but we are taught it by Baronius himself, writing thus in the Notes: The Greeks treat of the same on this day in the Menologion; by which name he always understands the Sirletian work, a manuscript codex of which had fallen to him: for he seems never to have used the Menaea themselves. And from this we now begin to open the source of the error into which that very great man stumbled concerning the proposed argument.
[8] that St. Julian Sabas was the same, For since the name of Julian appears today in Sirleto without the epithet Sabas and with the bare mention of the eremitical life led by the Euphrates, Baronius would not even have suspected that he was here inscribing in the Martyrology that very Saint whom on the 14th of January he had proclaimed as a wonder-worker and champion of the catholic faith among the Antiochenes, and of whom he had noted there thus: The Greeks likewise. Theodoret writes much of him, book of the Holy Fathers, chapter II, and History, book III, chapter XIX, and book IV, chapter XXV. This is that Julian whom St. John Chrysostom adorns with worthy praises, homily 21 on the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians. That Sabas is another, of whom it is treated below on the Nones of November (read December). And he would have suspected it all the less during the first writing of the restored Roman Martyrology, because at that time the very name of Julian was absent from the reading of the 14th day of January; since, as Politi witnesses Martyrologium Romanum illustratum at the 14th of January, p. 236., in the first edition of this Martyrology the eulogy of the Saint was read thus: In Syria, of Saint Sabbas the elder, who in the time of the emperor Valens, by the power of miracles, raised up the catholic faith almost collapsed at Antioch, as though Sabbas were a proper name: which eulogy, says the same Politi, was at once in the second edition put together again with the order of the words changed (namely as we presented it at the beginning of this Commentary), the pleonasm, however, remaining, which lies in the words Sabas the elder. For Saba to the Syrians, as Theodoret aptly observes, is the same as πρεσβύτης to the Greeks, senex (old man) to the Latins; but Baronius called him the elder to distinguish him from St. Sabas the abbot, whom we venerate on the 5th of December, as he himself sufficiently intimates in the Note already alleged. Which distinction, however, is clearly superfluous, since our Saint was called Julian by proper name and Sabas only by surname.
[9] whom he had already inscribed in the Roman Martyrology Whence Politi rightly, if you correct a few things, wrote Ibid., p. 237.: ELDER, therefore, is the interpretation of SABA; and accordingly I would advise that this interpretation be wholly rejected from the name of that Julian Sabas in the Roman Martyrology. For that Julian Sabas was not called the elder as if to distinguish him from another Julian Sabas the younger; but Saba is a title of honour, with which title the Syrians honoured that most celebrated monk Julian, as though they said ELDER. For this is the interpretation of that Syriac appellation. In Greek, for honour's sake, you would have called the same πρεσβύτην. Hence, if I am asked my opinion, I would advise that it be written in the Martyrology: "In Syria, of Saint Julian Sabas, who in the time of the emperor Valens, by the power of miracles, raised up the catholic faith almost collapsed at Antioch; of whom again on the 15th day before the Kalends of November." On which day likewise, if it shall seem good to the Roman Pontiff, I would write in the Martyrology: "In Mesopotamia, on the bank of the Euphrates (but this designation of place too is to be deleted), of Saint Julian, hermit, surnamed Sabas; of whom it is treated also on the 19th day before the Kalends of February." In both places the name of Julian Sabas is celebrated, both in Mesopotamia by the river Euphrates (rather, fairly far from the Euphrates), where he lived as a solitary with a great fame of sanctity, and in the city of Syria, Antioch, where he gave excellent effort to restoring the catholic faith. Elsewhere Sabbas (or rather Sabas) is a proper name, as that Sabbas, a man altogether admirable, of whom on the Nones of December. Here the proper name is Julian, the surname Sabbas. Nor indeed did almost all others call him by any other name than Julian, as John Chrysostom, etc. And from these statements of Politi and the other things which we have observed so far, it follows of its own accord that we must plainly adhere to the opinion of Bolland.
[10] at the 14th day of January, But why Baronius assigned the 14th of January to our Saint, and noted there that the Greeks likewise treat of him, no sufficiently probable reason is indeed at hand for us, as there was none for Politi, who professes that he wonders at it Ibid., p. 236., and adds that it seems to him equally to be wondered at that Rosweyde did not find the memory of Julian Sabas in the Menologion of the Greeks, which he affirms of himself in the Lives of the Fathers, while it exists there on the 18th of October: but, as Politi himself soon notes, the absence of the surname Sabas from the Menologion would have caused Rosweyde, just as Baronius, to believe that the Julian who is written to have been a hermit by the Euphrates was different from St. Julian Sabas. The name of Sabas does indeed occur in the Greek Menologion on the 14th of January, where are commemorated the Holy Fathers slain at Sinai by the Saracens, of whom, as is said there, Hesaias and Sabas were found alive, but the others were found dead, which is also narrated in the Menaea; but that the wise Baronius, who knew the deeds of St. Julian Sabas from Theodoret, should have confused this Sabas with him could by no means have happened. But if it please anyone to conjecture at least this from it, that Baronius took occasion from the commemoration of the Sabas just mentioned to praise on the same day Julian Sabas, whom (as we have shown above from Politi) he called merely Sabas in the first edition of the Martyrology, I shall not indeed greatly resist; since it is not contrary to the custom of the Martyrologists to assign a common day to Saints who have one and the same name, for this very reason. For the rest, that day chosen for our Saint by Baronius is a small interval distant from that which the Greeks also formerly wished to be sacred to him.
[11] and whom the Menaea also on the 17th of January, For although his memory is absent from the Menaeon of January of the Venice edition of the year 1843, which we use, yet we learn from Politi that it formerly existed in the printed Menaea on the 17th of January Ibid., p. 237., who alleges this title of the Synaxarion: Τῇ αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ μνήμη τοῦ ὁσίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰουλιανοῦ, that is, On the same day the memory of our Holy Father Julian, together with a distich: Ἐκ τοῦ παρατρέχοντος ὡς ὄναρ βίου Ἰουλιανὸς ἄσμενος παρατρέχει. Which distich is repeated, no word changed, at the 18th of October, and can be translated into Latin thus:
From this life, Julian, flying like a dream, you fly gladly to the heavens.
We learn the same from Siber, who adduces these verses at the 17th of January Martyrologium metricum Ecclesiae Graecae, p. 18., and also from the indices to the printed Menaea which our predecessors formerly made; and we have also the Synaxarion of that day concerning St. Julian, but in Latin only, from Rader's interpretation of the Menaea, which the Burgundian Library preserves. Here it is, different indeed from the Synaxarion of the 18th day of October, but equally, as it seems, condensed from the Philotheus of Theodoret: He first made himself a hut by the Euphrates, in the place which is called of the Osrhoenians: then he penetrated into the innermost solitude, where, having entered a cave, he tasted bread only once a week, which itself, however, was of bran, seasoned only with salt; and water sufficed him when thirsty. Further, his delights and luxury and banquets were assiduous prayers and the praises which he sang to God. All therefore ran together to him eagerly, all desired to live with him. When he was once going about the solitude, he fell in with a monstrous dragon, which by the sign of the cross he caused to burst in the middle. He also freed from death a boy fainting from thirst, when by prayers he suddenly drew forth a spring and let it drip into the mouth of the fainting one. He also built a church on that rock on which Moses was once deemed worthy of the sight of God, so far as it is lawful for man to see God, and placed an altar in it. At which, when he was once pouring out prayers, he received a voice from God which affirmed that the unhappy swine Julian the apostate had been removed from the midst.
Moreover, the boy of a certain woman, sent to draw from the spring, fell into a well, whom he drew out safe and unharmed through prayers. Asterius, consecrated as bishop by the Arians and glorying in his eloquence, and wishing to dispute with him about the faith, he sent off to death through prayers. And when he had shown forth very many other great miracles, he departed to that blessed life which is free from old age and trouble. So far there. And so far as can be gathered from the excerpts of our predecessors, this encomium of St. Julian at the 17th day of January was also found by them in the old manuscript Synaxarist of Sirmond, or of the Clermont college, and also in the manuscript Menaea of the Ambrosian Library and of the ancient monastery of the Friars Preachers at Florence; in which, on the contrary, at the 18th of October nothing seems to have been read of him: so that, if one must stand by antiquity in this matter, the 17th of January is better assigned to St. Julian Sabas.
[12] and other fasti commemorate him on other days. Among the Latin writers of sacred fasti, besides Baronius, of whom we have spoken abundantly above, Maurolico at the 27th day of January subjoins to the eulogy of St. Julian, bishop of Le Mans, as if taking the occasion thence: There was also another Julian, brother of Blessed Julius… Likewise Julian Chaba, hermit, who foretold the death of the prince Julian; which latter words Bolland duly warned are to be understood of our Saint. Felici follows Maurolico. Others keep the memory of the same Saint at the next following day. Thus the augmented Usuard, or the Martyrology for the use of the church of Sarum published in English at London in the year 1526, has of him at the 28th of January: Likewise the feast of St. Julian, confessor, surnamed Sabbas, a hermit of most holy life and greatly given to contemplation, who was also endowed with the spirit of prophecy; and it subjoins another Julian, a confessor and writer learned in Greek and Latin: but on the day before, besides St. Julian of Le Mans, it commemorates St. Julian the Hospitaller with his wife Castellana, St. Julian the Martyr with his companion Fercolus, and another Julian besides, who suffered under Diocletian. Thus too Pietro de' Natali, having made memorial of St. Agnes for the second time and of St. Constantia, Virgin, and having praised two Julians, the one bishop of Le Mans, the other brother of Blessed Julius, then says of ours Catalogus Sanctorum, book III, chapter XXXVII.: Julian the hermit was surnamed Sabba: of whom Theodoret says in the Tripartite History that he led an angelic life, and, abiding in the desert, gave himself to contemplation and prayer. He knew by the spirit and foretold the death of Julian the apostate emperor, being placed twenty days' journey from the place where he was slain. Which was found to have happened as he had foretold. After which follows a chapter on St. Julian, a learned man, whom Gennadius praises [De viris illustribus, chapter XLV, pp. 21 and 22, in Fabricius, in the Bibliotheca ecclesiastica.]. Thus likewise at the day already mentioned St. Julian Sabas was inscribed by Adam Walasser in the German Martyrology, to which the Venerable Peter Canisius wrote the preface and lent a helping hand, by Molanus in the first edition of Usuard, and by Galesini in his Martyrology likewise published in the year 1577. Again, however, it appears that the reason why that day was taken by these writers must be traced back to nothing else than the sameness of name of our Saint with other Julians. But whether, and what, day the Saint has assigned to his cult among the Syrians and other Orientals, whether catholic or non-catholic, has not hitherto become known to us: although we are taught by Assemani Bibliotheca Orientalis, volume III, part I, p. 636. that among the prayers to be recited according to the rite of the Syrians through the circle of the year, which are called Proemia and Sedrae, or Orders, there exists one on St. Julian Sabas, monk, in a certain Vatican codex, and a chant on the same in another codex Ibid., volume I, p. 613., in which the Octoechos of Severus, patriarch of Antioch, is contained.
§ II. The praises of the Saint among ecclesiastical writers. His Life written by Theodoret. Disquisition on the place where he lived and the time at which he died.
Above the other ecclesiastical writers What Palladius, Sozomen and Nicephorus Callistus committed to writing concerning St. Julian Sabas we have already related above. St. Jerome likewise named him honourably in the Letter to Paulinus on the instruction of a monk: And to come to our own, he says Volume IV of the Works, part II, column 565, Martianay edition., let bishops and presbyters have as their example the Apostles and apostolic men; whose honour possessing, let them strive to have also their merit. But let us have as the leaders of our profession the Pauls and Anthonys, the Julians, Hilarion, the Macariuses. Nor less splendidly did St. John Chrysostom speak of him to the people of Antioch Volume XI of the Works, p. 162, Montfaucon edition.: You know assuredly and have heard, and some have even seen, the man of whom I am about to speak, that admirable Julian, I mean. He was a rustic man, humble and born in a humble place, nor skilled at all in outward learning, but filled with unfeigned philosophy. When he entered cities, which indeed happened rarely, there was so great a concourse as is not wont to happen at the entrance either of rhetors, or of sophists, or of anyone else whatever. But what do I say? Is not his name even now sung more illustriously than that of any kings? And perhaps this too pertains to the praise of Julian, which is narrated thus in the Syriac Acts of St. Ephrem in Assemani Bibliotheca Orientalis, volume I, pp. 33 and 34.: Meanwhile, when one night that most holy old man who had led Ephrem to the mountain had set foot out of his cell, he sees an Angel of the Lord gliding from heaven and bearing in his hand a volume or tome written within and without; and he heard the voices of the same Angel as if addressing another Angel: "Whom do you think will be rewarded by me with this book?" And when he had answered: "I think Origen, a monk dwelling in the Egyptian desert," the Angel who held the codex said: "God does not command this." And again: "Whom," he said, "do you think worthy of this volume?" To whom the other Angel: "I believe Julius, a monk who has settled in the northern lands." But he: "You err, you err: there is no one at this time to whom this codex is due for merit except Ephrem the Syrian, a dweller on the mountain of Edessa."
[14] of St. Julian Sabas For although here Julius is written, yet the compendium of the same narrative, which runs thus, persuades that Julian should be read Ibid., pp. 25 and 26.: But this is recorded of the same St. Ephrem before he received the gift of wisdom. A certain anchorite, who had withdrawn to the mountain of Edessa, in the dead of night heard an Angel of the Lord, glided down from heaven and carrying in his hand a huge codex written within and without, addressing him in these words: "Whom do you think I shall reward with this volume?" And he: "I believe Origen or Julian, monks." To whom the Angel: "There is no one to whom it is deservedly due unless perhaps Ephrem the Syrian alone." Where it must be noted that the author of this compendium, while he makes the Angel converse with the old man, departs not only from the Syriac Acts but also from St. Gregory of Nyssa In Bolland, volume I of February, p. 70. and Metaphrastes In Surius at the 1st day of February, p. 79, Cologne edition of 1618., who assert that the conversation was held between several Angels and that that old man was only a hearer; which nevertheless does not prevent its being permitted to believe that the name of Julian was rightly expressed by him from older writings, since at that very time of which there is question the fame of our Saint was certainly most celebrated at Edessa. But Gregory of Nyssa and Metaphrastes do not designate by name either Julian or Julius or Origen (whom Assemani thinks to be the disciple of St. Anthony praised by Rufinus in the Lives of the Fathers, book II, chapter XXVI, and by Sozomen, book VI, chapter XXX), but report indefinitely that some of the Angels pronounced this one, others that one, others again another of the more excellent men of that time worthy of the gift of the volume brought from heaven: so that not those two only whom the Syriac Acts report, but several holy monks too, seem to have been praised then by angelic voices.
[15] Theodoret treated in the Philotheus, and once But above the others Theodoret dealt most copiously with setting forth the life of St. Julian Sabas, as we have already indicated before: who indeed refers all that he wrote of him to Acacius, bishop of Beroea in Syria, as his source, to whom he testifies that all his affairs were accurately known. And first he pursued in writing the entire acts of St. Julian in the Philotheus, or Religious History, from which we shall edit the same with our annotations after this Commentary. Then he also inserted two chapters on the same Saint into his Ecclesiastical History, one where he treats of the death of Julian the apostate, the other where he treats of the persecution of Valens: which we shall now present to our readers, since they will be able to contribute something to the disquisitions afterwards to be instituted on the place where the Saint lived and the time at which he died. Accordingly, treating of the death of the emperor Julian, Theodoret speaks thus of our Julian [Ecclesiastical History, book III, chapter XIX, volume III of the Works, p. 657, Sirmond edition.]: But he too who in the body imitated the life of the bodiless, I mean Julian, who had the surname Sabas in the language of the Syrians, and whose life we have written in the Philotheus History, when news had been brought of that impious man's threats, offered prayers more earnestly to the God of all. And on the very day on which he was slain, this man learned of his slaying amid his prayers, although the monastery was distant from the camp by an interval of more than twenty stages. They report that he, while he was praying more earnestly and supplicating the merciful God, suddenly checked his flowing tears, and was poured out into gladness with a cheerful countenance, which testified to the joy of his mind. Which change of his his intimates beholding, asked him to disclose to them the cause of his gladness. Then he said that the wild boar, the ravager of the Lord's vineyard, had paid the penalty of his injuries against Him, and now lay dead, and had made an end of his plots. On hearing which, all leapt up and sang praises of thanksgiving to God. And it was learned from those who announced his death that it was that very same day and hour at which the divine old man knew and foretold the extinction of the wicked man.
[16] and again in the Ecclesiastical History. Afterwards, when the Arians were raging among the Antiochenes, and St. Meletius had been sent into exile, what was done there splendidly by St. Julian he briefly explains in these words Ibid., p. 699.: At the same time that celebrated Julian, of whom we have made mention before, having left his solitude, was compelled to come to Antioch. For since those nurslings of lies and ever diligent artificers of weaving calumnies, the Arians I mean, affirmed that that great man was of their party, Flavian, Diodorus and Aphraates, bright lights of the truth, sent Acacius, the strenuous athlete of virtue, who wisely
afterwards ruled the church of Beroea, to that most praiseworthy man, beseeching him that he would be willing to take pity on so many thousands of men, refute the falsehood of the adversaries and confirm the preaching of the truth. Further, the miracles which he wrought coming and returning and in the very great city itself have been written out in our Philotheus History, which those may consult who wish to know these things. But that he gathered the whole people of the city to our assemblies, I think no one will doubt who has considered human nature. For unusual things are wont for the most part to draw all to themselves: and of the greatness of his miracles even the enemies of the truth are witnesses. The same thing, indeed, the great Anthony had already done before at Alexandria in the times of Constantius… So those divine men knew how to accommodate things fitting to each time, both when it is fitting to embrace quiet, and when to prefer cities to solitude. So far Theodoret.
[17] The Saint lived in the northern part of Osrhoene, Now, as we said just before, it must be examined in about what place the Saint led the eremitical life. Sozomen says that he dwelt about Edessa, Palladius in the parts of the Edessenes; but Theodoret in the Philotheus writes more special things which can help to determine the place more closely. First of all he notes that he fixed his hut in the extreme and most uncultivated part of Osrhoene, or the region of Edessa. Then, speaking of Asterius, the disciple of St. Julian and in turn master of many monks, who had fixed his monastic arena in places near Gindarus, he says that he undertook two or three times every year a journey of not less than seven days in order to visit the holy old man: and Gindarus, which is called by Strabo the acropolis of Cyrrhestica, was between Antioch and Cyrrhus [Cf. Cellarius, Notitia Orbis antiqui, volume II, book III, chapter XII, §§ XXXVI and LI, pp. 353 and 360, Schwartz edition.], and was distant about three days' journey from Edessa, the metropolis of Osrhoene. Theodoret writes moreover that St. Julian, when he returned from Antioch to his desert, made his journey through the city of Cyrrhus: now that road leads straight to Edessa, namely through Zeugma, where the same writer teaches in the Life of St. Publius that a bridge was placed over the Euphrates Volume III of the Works, p. 802.. From these things it is natural to gather that the Saint's cave was situated at least four days' journey beyond Edessa, and indeed on the northern side towards the east, where the population of inhabitants was smaller: to confirm which conclusion the passage which we adduced a little before from the Syriac Life of St. Ephrem (no. 13) may perhaps serve, if, however, those words of the Angel: I believe Julius, a monk who has settled in the northern lands, are to be understood of St. Julian Sabas.
[18] not on the bank of the Euphrates. But if it were certainly established where the battle was fought in which Julian the apostate fell, this too would help to define more accurately the place which St. Julian inhabited; since a little before we learned from Theodoret (no. 15) that this place was distant from the camp by an interval of more than twenty stages. Meanwhile, as we attend to what Ammianus Marcellinus narrates [Res gestae, volume II, book XXIV, no. 8, and book XXV, nos. 1, 2 and 3, p. 30 and following, Zweibrücken edition of 1786.], that Julian, deterred from the siege of Ctesiphon, began to move his camp thence northwards on the 16th day of June, which was the tenth before his death, and that within that space of ten days the Romans several times joined battle with the Persians, and halted for two days at the village of Hucumbra, and again for three days after the victory won over the Persians in the tract named Maranga; it follows that we must say that the Roman camp on the 26th day of June, on which the emperor received the mortal wound, had not yet been moved far from Ctesiphon and the river Tigris: so that we have their place known, if not entirely, at least approximately. And thence twenty stathmi or stages are easily counted as far as the northern region of Osrhoene, where we have just deduced from other assertions of Theodoret that St. Julian dwelt. And before us Tillemont already observed Volume VII, p. 585. that the Synaxarist of the Menaea, who places the Saint's cave beside the Euphrates, could not have done so on the authority of Theodoret, nay that the latter rather opposes him. Theodoret did indeed write that Osrhoene reaches westward as far as the bank of the Euphrates; but he did not write that the Saint lived beside that river, but assigned another situation to his cave clearly enough, as we have shown above. Badly, therefore, did the Synaxarist so fuse these two things into one, that St. Julian lived in Osrhoene and that Osrhoene reaches to the Euphrates, as to write that the Saint's dwelling was placed on the bank of the Euphrates; which topography Sirleto in the Menologion of the Greeks and Baronius in the Roman Martyrology then borrowed from the Menaea.
[19] But he died a good while after the year 376, No inquiry would have to be instituted concerning the year of the death of St. Julian, if one might trust the Edessene Chronicle inserted in Assemani's Bibliotheca Orientalis, where it is read in express words Volume I, p. 397.: In the six hundred and seventy-eighth year Mar Julian Sabas departed from this world. And Assemani shows Ibid., p. 387. that from the number of years which the author of the Chronicle computes according to the era of the Greeks, which is also called that of the Seleucids or Syro-Macedonians, three hundred and eleven are everywhere to be subtracted, in order that the years of the Christian era may be found: whence it comes about that the year of the Greeks 678 here assigned to the death of St. Julian is equivalent to the year of Christ 367. But if the Saint departed from this world at that time, we do not at all see at what time his journey to Antioch could have taken place. He went thither under the persecution of Valens, when the great Meletius had been ejected from his church, and Flavian and Diodorus the presbyters were ruling it in his stead and name, St. Aphraates the monk bringing help: which three excellent men indeed summoned St. Julian to Antioch, the monks Acacius and Asterius being sent to him, to confirm the people in the catholic faith, as we have partly already received above from the Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret, while it is narrated more fully by the same in the Philotheus, and that from the report of Acacius himself, who had been present at the events. Further, Valens began to reign in the year 364, at which time he still displayed catholic views; nor did he openly fall away from these except in the third year of his rule, when, before the expedition undertaken against the Goths in the year 367, seduced by his wife, he received baptism from Eudoxius, the Arian bishop, who, as Theodoret says Ecclesiastical History, book IV, chapter XII, p. 672., bound the most unhappy man by oath to persevere in the impious dogma, and to expel from all places all who thought the contrary. Wherefore the beginning of the persecution of Valens cannot be traced back further than the year 367 [Cf. Baronius at the year 366, nos. III, IV and V, and Pagi, ibid., nos. III and IV, volume V, p. 228, Lucca edition.].
[20] as is shown from his journey to Antioch. For what Socrates Book IV, chapter II, p. 215, Cambridge edition and Sozomen Book VI, chapter VII, p. 228. write, that Valens came to Antioch before Procopius seized the empire, that is, in the year 365, and that already then St. Meletius had been punished by him with exile, and the others who had refused to communicate with Euzoius, the Arian bishop, had been ejected from the churches and afflicted with punishments, the learned reject by common vote: since, as it is true that Valens at that time had Antioch in mind, and with that intention proceeded as far as Caesarea of the Cappadocians, so it is also established that, on receiving the news of the rebellion of Procopius, he turned back his foot thence to move against Procopius, whom he crushed and extinguished within Phrygia Salutaris in the month of May of the year 366 [Cf. Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, volume V, p. 34 and following, Brussels edition of 1732.]. Tillemont alone, and he indeed not without much doubt, is of opinion that this alone of the things narrated by Socrates and Sozomen can be somehow probable, namely that St. Meletius was expelled from the see of Antioch in the year 365 by order of Valens Mémoires, etc., volume VI, p. 534, and volume VIII, pp. 359 and 765.. But our Stilting not undeservedly contends that this too is improbable Volume IV of September, p. 415.; and Tillemont himself is forced to admit that, if St. Meletius then suffered some exile, it certainly did not last long, and so that the Saint was probably restored to his see by Valens himself on the occasion of the rebellion of Procopius, in order that the emperor might win over to himself the minds of the people of Antioch: if this is so, the Saint must have returned either in the year 365 itself or certainly at the beginning of the following; nor can all those circumstances which Theodoret connects with the Antioch journey of St. Julian Sabas be reduced to that brief space of time. Next, in Tillemont's judgment Mémoires, etc., volume VIII, place cited, it can plainly not be doubted that St. Meletius was present at Antioch in the year 357 and the following three years: since it is established that for at least three years St. John Chrysostom meanwhile adhered familiarly to him and was instructed by him in the sacred dogmas Cf. volume IV of September, p. 412.. We must necessarily, therefore, come to that last and longer exile of St. Meletius, whose beginnings are fixed at the year 370, 371 or 372 according to the various opinions of the learned; at which time also Valens was in fact at Antioch, and received from St. Aphraates, when he asked why he had exchanged solitude for a most populous city, that shrewd and most worthy answer which Theodoret relates both in the Ecclesiastical History Book IV, chapter XXIII, p. 698. and in the Life of Aphraates In the Philotheus, p. 816.. There is added that the same Theodoret writes towards the end of the Life of St. Julian Sabas that he, having returned from Antioch to his companions, lived with them no little time: so that accordingly, all these things having been weighed, we think his death must be fixed about ten years later than is done by the author or transcriber of the Edessene Chronicle.
[21] against a certain Edessene chronographer And surely, besides the fact that Theodoret is much to be trusted in the affairs of the church of Antioch, and especially in those of which we treat here, since he was himself an Antiochene by birth and bishop of the city of Cyrrhus not far from Antioch, and near to the times of St. Meletius, and moreover as a boy once visited St. Aphraates with his mother Ibid., p. 819., and finally learned accurately the deeds of St. Julian Sabas, as we have already observed, from Acacius the monk, afterwards bishop of Beroea: besides these things, I say, which bring no slight prejudice against the authority of the Edessene Chronicle, which fixes the death of St. Julian at the year 367, there are also other things which make us think that we can freely depart from the assertions of the same Chronicle, especially as regards dates. For granted that Assemani Bibliotheca Orientalis, volume I, p. 387. conjectures that the writer of the Chronicle lived about the year of Christ 550, and the archive of the church of Edessa
had in hand, which conjecture we leave to him, he nevertheless candidly confesses that this work is by no means free of anachronisms, in this manner: It sometimes neglects or perverts the order of time; which, however, I judge is to be attributed to the amanuensis rather than to the author. Wherefore in publishing it I shall first of all restore the events to their place and order. And now and again Assemani himself corrects some errors of this kind. Thus, where the Chronicle at the year of the Greeks 689 speaks in these words Page 398.: In the same year, on the 27th day of December, the orthodox, having returned by right of postliminium, recovered the church of Edessa, he warns that this happened a whole year later, namely after Valens had perished on the 5th day before the Ides of August 378. Thus he convicts the Chronicle of error concerning the years of the ordination of SS. John Chrysostom P. 400. and Cyril of Alexandria P. 401.. Thus likewise with his own hand he assigned the year of the Greeks 742 to the ecumenical Council of Ephesus: So, he says P. 403., I have emended the error of the amanuensis, who relates that it was done in the year of the Greeks 744, of Christ 433, against the common opinion and against the Acts of the Synod of Ephesus itself. And the said Assemani observes P. 404. that the time of the pseudo-synod of Ephesus, in which, among others, Ibas, bishop of Edessa, was struck with anathema by Dioscorus, is anticipated by the author of the Chronicle; indeed that the departure of Ibas from the city of Edessa and the intrusion of Nonnus into his see are wrongly ascribed to the year of the Greeks 759, of Christ 448, since that very conventicle in which Ibas was condemned was begun only in the year 449, on the 8th day of August. From which it may be gathered that not even in the affairs of Edessa itself is the chronology of this writing sufficiently firm.
[22] in many things not sufficiently accurate. But what of the fact that the death of St. Ephrem is there referred to the year of Christ 373? For it is written thus P. 397.: In the six hundred and eighty-fourth year, in the month of June, on the ninth day, Mar Ephrem, most celebrated for learning, departed from this world. Which being admitted, what becomes of the things that are sung by the Syrians concerning the mutual friendship between St. Ephrem and St. Basil the Great? They narrate In the Acts of St. Ephrem, ibid., p. 39 and following. that St. Ephrem, when for eight whole years he had burned with the desire of meeting Basil, at length came from Egypt to Caesarea of Cappadocia, and there lived some time with Basil and received the sacred Order of the diaconate by the imposition of his hands: but that four years after he had returned thence to Edessa, men were sent by Basil who should bring Ephrem back to Caesarea, whom he had long since determined to create bishop; but that Ephrem, by feigned madness, withdrew himself from that honour: finally that he grieved vehemently when he received the news of St. Basil's death, and somehow softened the bitterness of his grief by writing poems and hymns in his praise. But St. Basil was certainly not ordained bishop before the year 369, nay far more probably only in the year 370 [Cf. volume II of June, pp. 812, 813 and 845, and Works of St. Basil, volume III, pp. LXXXIII and LXXXIV, Maurist edition.]; and, on the testimony of both Gregory of Nyssa and Nazianzen, he occupied the throne of the church of Caesarea for eight years with the ninth begun: therefore he prolonged his life at least up to the Kalends of January of the year 378, or rather of the year 379, whatever Assemani Work cited, pp. 397 and 398., bringing forward in this place things conflicting with what he said elsewhere [Ibid., p. 52 and following, and Greek-Latin Works of St. Ephrem, volume II, p. LII.], may argue to the contrary, in order to defend the assertion of the Edessene Chronicle concerning the year of St. Ephrem's death. Since these things are so, it remains either that that narrative of St. Ephrem's journey into Cappadocia and of the things joined to this journey be reckoned among fables, or that the authority of the often-mentioned Chronicle be rejected concerning the time at which the Saint most celebrated among the Edessenes departed from this world. But if in this matter the Chronographer strayed from the truth by at least five, perhaps even six, years, there is no reason why we should believe him more where he treats of the death of St. Julian Sabas; especially since his statements, as we demonstrated long ago, can by no means be reconciled with most certain facts known from elsewhere. Receive now, reader, these facts from the Life of St. Julian by Theodoret, which, according to our custom, divided into chapters and numbers, we subjoin here with our annotations.
LIFE OF ST. JULIAN SABAS BY THEODORET,
from the edition of Sirmond Volume III, p. 771 and following..
Julian Sabas, hermit in Mesopotamia. (S.)
BY THEODORET.
Chapter I. The eremitical life of St. Julian. Many monks formed by him, among whom the more distinguished are Jacob the Persian and Asterius. His withdrawal to Mount Sinai.
St. Julian, inhabiting a cave in the extremity of Osrhoene, Julian, whom the natives, for honour's sake, surnamed Sabbas, which name signifies old man, fixed his monastic hut in the region which was formerly called that of the Parthyaeans, now of the Osrhoenians a. And that region reaches westward indeed as far as the bank of the river whose name is Euphrates; but towards the rising sun it has the boundary of the Roman empire b: for Assyria receives it, which is the western limit of the Persian kingdom, which later men called Adiabene c. In this nation there are indeed many great and populous cities: but very many parts of the region are thronged with inhabitants, very many desert and uncultivated. When this divine man had come to the extremities of this solitude, having found a cave not made by hand, nor well and handsomely hollowed out, but such as could afford a slight covering to those who came, he gladly inhabited the place, judging it more magnificent than palaces glittering with gold and silver.
[2] he leads a most holy life. Dwelling in this, he took food once a week: and the food was bread of millet, and that of bran, and the relish salt; while his drink was the most sweet native stream of water, nor did he measure this drink by satiety, but defined it by the need of the food taken before. Further, his delights, and his sumptuous and rich banquets, were the chanting of the hymns of David and assiduous conversations with God. When he enjoyed these insatiably, he would not take satiety, but, being always filled, he always cried out: How sweet are Thy words to my palate, more than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth. He heard also blessed David saying: The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves, more to be desired than gold and many precious stones, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. He heard him again saying: Delight in the Lord, and He will give thee the requests of thy heart; and again: Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord; and: Make my heart joyful, that it may fear Thy name; and: O taste and see how gracious the Lord is; and: My soul hath thirsted after the strong and living God; and: My soul hath stuck close after Thee. And he transferred into himself the love of him who said these things. For on this account the great David taught by singing, that he might make many partakers and companions of the divine love. Nor was he deceived in his hope, but he wounded both this divine man and innumerable others with divine love. For this man was inflamed with so great a fire of love that he was inebriated with desire, and saw nothing of earthly things, dreaming of the Beloved alone by night and meditating on Him by day.
[3] When many, both of those near and of those farther distant, had heard of this his supreme philosophy (for winged fame had pervaded all shores), they ran to him, He finds many companions, praying that they might become partakers of his arena and live thenceforth under him as master and trainer of the gymnasium. For not birds alone, by singing, hunt birds, calling their kin to them and entangling them in snares set beneath, but men too capture the companions of their nature, some indeed to destruction, others to salvation. Gathered in this manner, they were in a short time ten, thereafter twice and thrice as many, then afterwards they reached the number of a hundred d. And that cave held them although they were so many e. For they had learned from the old man to neglect the care of the body. And they too, like their master, fed on barley bread seasoned with salt. But in the course of time, gathering herbs growing of themselves and filling earthen vessels, they mixed in as much brine as was sufficient, to be a relish for those who had need of treatment.
[4] and forms them to the monastic life; But damp dwellings are harmful to this kind of herbs, for they are wont to bring mould and rot upon them. When this blight had befallen this relish (for much moisture flowed into the cave from every side), the disciples asked the old man that they might be allowed to build some little cell, as large as was sufficient for holding the vessels of this relish. He at first did not acquiesce in the petition, but at length, persuaded (for he had learned from the great Paul not to seek his own, but to accommodate himself to the humble), he gave a short and small measure for the little cell, and went off far from the cave to offer his accustomed prayers to God. For he was accustomed, walking through the desert sometimes as far as fifty stadia, sometimes twice as many, and separating himself from all human intercourse, and returning into himself, to converse privately with God and to contemplate that divine and ineffable beauty. His disciples, having found this leisure, built the little cell suited indeed to use and necessity, but of a greater measure than they had been ordered. Returning after the tenth day, like a certain Moses from the mountain and from that ineffable contemplation, seeing the structure made greater than he wished: I fear, he said, O men, lest, while we enlarge our earthly dwellings, we diminish the heavenly: and yet these are temporary and not to be of use to us for long, while those are eternal and will have no end. And though he said these things, instructing the choir to more perfect things, he nevertheless tolerated it, hearing the apostolic voice: I seek not what is profitable to myself, but to many, that they may be saved.
[5] among whom is Jacob the Persian. And he taught them within indeed to offer to God a common hymnody, but after dawn to go out into the solitude two by two, and that one, bending his knees, should show the adoration due to the Lord, while the other, standing, should sing fifteen psalms of David. Then, an exchange of task being made, the one rising should sing, while the other, prostrating himself on the ground, should adore. And this they began at the morning twilight and did assiduously until evening. But resting a little before sunset, some from here, others from there, all from every side came together into the cave, and together offered the evening hymns to the Lord. And the old man himself was accustomed to take one of the more distinguished as companion of the office. And there followed him more frequently a certain man, a Persian by race, great indeed and admirable in form, but endowed with a soul more admirable than his form; whose name was Jacob, who also after his death shone forth in every virtue. And he was distinguished and illustrious not only in those gymnasia of philosophy, or monasteries, which were there, but also in those which were in Syria, in which he ended his life, having lived, as they say, a hundred and four years
f. He, making a journey through the desert with the great old man, followed at a distance. For the master did not allow him to come nearer, lest any occasion of conversing should arise thence, and the conversation should draw the mind away from the contemplation of God. Following, therefore, he catches sight of a very great dragon in the road. Contemplating it lying there, he did not dare to go forward: but when he wished to turn aside for fear, he again strengthened his mind. Then, stooping and snatching up a little stone and throwing it at it, he observed that the dragon remained in the same state and could not move itself: from which, understanding that it was dead, he judged the death of the beast to be the work of the old man.
[6] He kills a dragon with the sign of the cross. The journey having been completed, and the office of hymns fulfilled, when the time of rest had come, and the old man, sitting, had ordered him too to give his body to a little rest, he at first sat silent. Then, when the old man had begun some discourse, Jacob, gently smiling, asked him to disclose to him what he did not know. And when he had given him leave to ask: I saw, he said, a very great dragon lying in the road, and at first I feared, thinking it alive. But when I observed that it was dead, I entered upon the road without fear. Tell me then, father, he said, who killed it? For you went before, and no one else passed this way. Then the old man: Cease, he said, to search out such things, which can bring no profit to those who inquire. But the admirable Jacob pressed none the less, desiring to know the truth. And the old man, having long tried to conceal it, but not bearing for longer that his friend should be distressed: I, he said, if you long to know, will tell you: but I forbid that anyone else learn from you what I shall say while I live: for it is fitting to conceal such things, which often stir up arrogance and pride. But when I have departed hence and have been freed from perturbations of this kind, I do not oppose your telling it and narrating the power of divine grace. Know then, said the great Julian, that that beast rushed upon me in the same road and opened its mouth to devour me. But I, calling upon the name of God, and showing with my finger the trophy of the cross, both shook off all fear and saw the beast at once falling down, and, having praised our common Saviour, I went on further. The narrative thus finished, he set out to the cave.
Asterius follows Julian into the solitude, Another time a certain youth, born of a noble family and softly brought up, bearing an eagerness of mind greater than his strength, strove with prayers to the old man that he might be allowed to make the pilgrimage of the desert with him, not that common one which all entered upon daily, but the longest, which was often prolonged to a journey of seven, often even of ten days. And this was the most celebrated Asterius. When the divine old man forbade him, and warned him that the solitude lacked waters, the youth pressed on, beseeching that he would grant him this gift. Overcome, therefore, by his prayers, the old man yielded; and he at first followed eagerly: but after the first and second and third day had passed, burning with the rays of the sun (for it was summer, and when summer is at its height the flame of the sun is more burning), he laboured continually with thirst. And at the beginning, mindful of what the master had foretold, he did not dare to disclose his ailment.
[8] and he quenches his thirst with a spring drawn forth by his tears. But at length, overcome and plainly failing, he begged the old man to have pity on him. Then he, recalling to memory what he had warned beforehand, ordered him to return: but when the youth said that he neither knew the road which leads to the cave, nor, if he knew it, could go, his strength being consumed by thirst, the divine man, pitying the youth's plight and pardoning the weakness of his body, with bent knees prayed to the Lord, and watered the ground with hot tears, seeking a way of salvation for the youth. And He who does the will of them that fear Him and hears their prayer turned the drops of tears poured out upon the dust into a spring of waters: and so, the youth being filled with the stream, he ordered him forthwith to depart, and the spring remains to this very day, bearing testimony to the Mosaic prayer of the divine old man. For as he once, when he had struck the barren rock with his rod, drew forth overflowing river-waters to satisfy many thousands of men worn out with thirst: so this man, watering that most arid sand with tears, caused fountain streams to flow forth, to heal not the thirst of many myriads, but of one youth. For, his mind being illuminated by divine grace, he plainly foresaw the future perfection of the youth.
[9] The same afterwards raises a monastery near Gindarus; For he, a long time after, impelled by divine grace to train many others also in the same virtue, fixed a monastic arena in places near Gindarus g (which is a very great village situated under Antioch), and both drew to himself many other athletes of philosophy, and drew also the great Acacius h, that most eminent and most famous man, I say, who both excelled in the monastic life and sent forth splendid rays of virtue when created pontiff and allotted Beroea i to feed. And bearing the care of the flock for fifty-eight years, he did not abandon the form of the monastic life, but tempered together the monastic and the civil virtue, and, taking the exact perfection of the one and the dispensation of the other, joined in one the things which were disjoined. For the rest, the hunter and master of this virtue was Asterius, who was always held by so great a love of that great old man that he often went to him twice in the year, often even three times. And coming, he used to bring dried figs to the companions, loading three or four beasts of burden: but gathering two medimni sufficient for the old man for the whole year, he placed that burden on his own shoulders, showing himself a beast of burden to his master.
[10] and thence often carries food on his own shoulders to Julian. And he carried that burden not for a space of ten or twenty stadia, but for a whole journey of seven days. When the old man once saw him carrying the pack of figs on his shoulders, taking it ill, he said that he would not eat. For it was not just that he should undergo so great a labour, while he himself should delicately enjoy his labours. But when he had sworn that he would not put the burden down from his shoulders unless the old man affirmed that he would use the food brought: I will do, said the old man, what is bidden, only put down the sack at once. For in this too he imitated the first of the apostles, who, when the Lord wished to wash his feet, at first refused, strongly affirming that it should not be; but when he heard that he would be cut off from the communion of the Lord unless he permitted it, prayed that He would wash both his hands with his feet and his head. So too the great John, ordered to baptize the Saviour, at the beginning both confessed himself a servant and showed Him to be Lord; but afterwards did what was commanded, not wantonly resisting, but obeying the Lord. So this divine man too was indeed loath to take food with another labouring, but, considering the most ardent eagerness of the one serving, he set the other's ministry before his own will.
[11] St. Julian withdraws for a time to Mount Sinai. There will perhaps be someone, of those who delight in reproofs and have learned only to carp at honourable things, to whom this narrative will not seem worthy of commemoration. But I have added this too to the other miracles of this man, not only to show the respect of great men towards him, but because I thought it worth while that the sweetness and moderation of his character should be declared. For although he was so great and of such virtue, he did not think himself worthy of even the slightest honour, but repelled it as pertaining nothing to himself: yet again he tolerated it because it brought benefit to those who offered it. Fleeing it, therefore (for since he had become known to all, he drew lovers of good things to himself by his fame), he at length set out to Mount Sinai with a few intimates, entering no town nor village, but making his journey through pathless solitude. And they carried on their shoulders also the necessary food, bread, I mean, and salt and a wooden cup and a sponge tied to a rope: so that, if ever they found deeper water, they might draw it with the sponge and drink it squeezed out into the cup. Having thus traversed a journey of many days, they arrive at the longed-for mountain, and, having adored their Lord, they spent a long time there, accounting the solitude of the place and the quiet of the soul the greatest pleasure. And when on that rock under which Moses, the prince of the prophets, lying hidden, merited to see God in such manner as He could be seen, he had built a church and had consecrated a divine altar, which remains to this very day, he returned to his arena k.
ANNOTATIONS.
being completed, it was to be restored to the Roman empire. Amida, or Constantia, which is today called Diyarbakır, and was not much distant from Nisibis towards the North, was in the dominion of the Romans. But as regards the northern boundary of Osrhoene, near which we believe St. Julian dwelt, Theodoret omitted to define it. Perhaps on that side Mount Masius divided Osrhoene from Armenia, which is the continuation of Mount Taurus from the Euphrates, and cuts across the whole of Mesopotamia through Nisibis as far as the Tigris Cf. Cellarius, place cited, § XXXIV, p. 622..
Chapter II. The death of Julian the apostate divinely revealed to St. Julian. His journey to Antioch, miracles, return to the desert and death.
He learns from heaven that Julian the apostate has perished. Further, having been informed of the threats of the impious emperor, of the same name as himself, who, boasting that he would utterly destroy all the pious, set out against the Persians, when those who held the same opinions were gaping after and awaiting that abominable return, he then, offering earnest prayers to God and prolonging them up to ten days, heard a voice which said that that execrable and stinking swine had been removed from the midst. But neither, when his petitions were finished, did he at once finish his prayer, but changed the petition into praises, giving thanks to the saviour of His own, and the merciful and mighty enemy of strangers. For He tolerated the impious man for a very long time: but when His patience had stirred the wicked man to greater rage, He opportunely inflicted punishment. The prayer completed, turning to his own, he openly displayed a glad and tranquil mind: for the gladness of his mind showed a cheerful face. And when those who were present wondered at the new spectacle, that he who always seemed of sad aspect was then seen to smile, and asked the cause: The present time, he said, O men, is one of gladness and joy. For the impious man has ceased, as Isaiah says, and has paid the deserved penalties of his audacious undertakings, and he who exercised tyranny against God the maker and saviour has been justly slain by an obedient right hand. Therefore I rejoice, seeing the churches which he was assailing exulting, and beholding that the wicked man obtained no help from the demons whom he worshipped. Such foreknowledge, then, he had of the slaying of this impious man.
[13] the emperor Valens persecuting the Church, But when Valens, who after him held the reins of the Roman empire, having cast away the truth of the evangelical dogmas, had taken up the imposture of the Arian error, then a greater storm arose against the Church, when the governors were driven out on every side, and robbers and enemies were substituted in their place. And, not to pursue the whole of that tragedy at present, passing over the rest, I shall commemorate only one thing, which openly demonstrated the grace of the divine Spirit flourishing in this old man. The great Meletius a had been ejected from the church of Antioch, to whom the God of all had committed it to be fed, and there had been ejected from the divine churches, together with the people agreeing with them, all the clerics who worshipped the one divine essence of the Trinity. And now, coming to the foot of the mountain, they celebrated sacred assemblies there: now they set up a place of prayer on the bank of the river; sometimes also in the military exercise-ground which is situated before the northern gate. For the enemies did not permit the pious to stay in one place.
[14] and the Arians boasting that St. Julian was theirs, And the nurslings of falsehood had boasted, and spread a rumour in that city, as though the great Julian, this old man, I say, embraced the communion of the dogmas which they followed. Which thing greatly distressed the pious, lest this report, deceiving perhaps the ruder and simpler, should entangle them in the snares of the heretics. But the divine and blessed men Flavian and Diodorus b, both adorned with the presbyterate and presiding over the religious people, and Aphraates, whose life I shall add for you separately, God granting c, persuade that great Acacius, of whom we have already made mention, to take as companion of the road the distinguished Asterius, his own master indeed, but disciple of the holy old man, and to hasten to the common splendour of piety, the support of evangelical doctrine, and persuade him that, leaving his dwelling in the solitude, he should come and bring help to so many thousands perishing by fraud, and by the dew of his coming extinguish the Arian flame.
[15] he, summoned by Acacius and Asterius, The divine Acacius ran, and, having taken the great Asterius as he had been ordered, betook himself to the greatest light of the church, and when he had greeted him: Tell me, he said, O father, for what cause do you so gladly endure all this labour? And when he answered in these words: To me both with body and soul
and life and all things the worship of God is more precious; and I strive, so far as it can be done by me, to offer Him a clean ministry and to please Him perpetually. I will set forth to you, says Acacius, a way by which you may serve Him more than now. And this I shall show, led not by reasoning alone, but taught by His own instruction. For when He had once asked Peter whether he loved Him more than the others, and had heard what He knew even before Peter's voice: Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee; He showed him by doing what he might worship Him more earnestly: If thou lovest Me, He said, feed My sheep, and feed My lambs. This too, O father, you must do; for there is danger lest the sheep be devoured by wolves: and He who is greatly loved by you greatly loves these, and it is proper to lovers to do those things which, when they are done, are pleasing to those who are loved. And besides, there is no small danger and loss of these many and great sweats of yours, if you suffer the truth, grievously assailed, to be betrayed by silence, and its followers to be taken, and the bait of your name to be set out for taking them. Since the leaders of the Arian abomination vainly boast that they have you as companion of their impiety.
[16] he sets out for Antioch; Having heard these things, the old man, at once bidding farewell to quiet for the time, nor shrinking from the noise of the city unaccustomed to him, set out for Antioch. And having advanced a journey of two or three days in the solitude, he came by night to a certain small town. There a rich woman, hearing that that sacred company was coming, ran to meet them to receive their blessing, and, falling at their knees, asked that they would use the lodging of her house. The old man yielded, although for more than forty years he had abstained from such a sight. While that admirable woman was occupied in the service of the holy men, a boy of seven years, the only son of his mother, who emulated the hospitality of Sarah, towards evening and in the darkness fell into a well. From which, when a huge tumult had arisen, as was natural, the mother, the matter being known, ordered all to be quiet, and, placing a certain cover on the well, returned to her service. And when the table had been set before the holy men, the divine old man ordered the woman's son to be called, that he might receive a blessing. And when the admirable woman said that he was unwell, he persisted in ordering that he be brought. But when the woman signified what had happened, the old man, leaving the table, ran to the well, and, the cover being removed at his order and a light brought, he sees the boy sitting on the top of the water, and striking the water with his hand in a boyish manner, and treating as play and jest what they had thought his death: and, a certain man being bound with ropes and let down into the well, they drew out the boy: who soon hastened to the old man's feet, saying that he had seen him in the waters holding him up and preventing him from sinking. This reward of her hospitality the woman received from the blessed old man.
[17] where by miracles But to pass over other things which were done on the journey, they came at length to Antioch: all flocked together from every side, eager to see the man of God, and each seeking the medicine for his own disease. And he dwelt in the caves which are at the foot of the mountain, where fame has it that the divine Apostle blessed Paul too dwelt and lay hidden. But in order that all might recognize that he was a man, a most vehement fever at once seized him. And when the great Acacius, observing the multitude of those who had come together there, took the sickness ill, fearing lest those who were present should be disturbed if they learned of the illness of the man from whose hand they hoped to obtain medicine: Do not be distressed in mind, said the old man, because, if health is necessary, the Lord will give it at once. Immediately, therefore, after these words, turning to prayers, and putting his knees, as he was wont, and his forehead to the ground, he asked that he might receive health, if any profit would return from it to those who had come together. He had not yet finished his prayers, and suddenly a copious sweat flowing forth extinguished the flame of the fever.
[18] he confirms the orthodox in the faith. And when he had freed many there from every kind of disease, he set out for the assembly of the pious. While he was passing the gates of the royal house, a certain beggar, who, using his buttocks instead of feet, was dragged along the ground, touching his cloak with outstretched hand, drove out his disease by faith, and, leaping up, ran as he was wont before the disease, like that lame man whom Peter and John raised up. When this was done, the multitude of the whole city flowed together, so that the military exercise-ground was filled with men. Whence, the calumniators and artificers of falsehood being affected with shame, the nurslings of truth on the contrary were of glad and cheerful mind; and those who needed any help drew the splendid light of piety into their houses. A certain man endowed with the highest magistracy, who held the prefecture of the East, sent to him asking that he would come to him and free him from a pressing disease. He came without delay, and, having besought the common Lord, drove away the sickness with a word, and ordered him to give thanks to God.
[19] Through the city of Cyrrhus, which he frees from a heretical bishop, When he had accomplished these and other things of the kind, he resolved thereafter to seek again the hut of monastic exercise. And making his journey through Cyrrhus, which city is two days' journey distant from Antioch d, he turned aside into the church of the illustrious martyr Dionysius. Those who were prelates of religion there all together asked that he would bring help to them, who were expecting certain destruction. For they said that Asterius, a man exercised in the sophistic art, who had fallen away to the church of the heretics and had obtained the episcopal office, keenly defended falsehood and assailed the truth with wicked artifice. And we fear, they said, lest by his eloquence, covering falsehood as with a bait, and spreading out the knots of syllogisms like nets, he entangle many of the simpler ones. For for this reason he has been summoned by the adversaries. To whom the old man: Be of good courage, he said, and supplicate God with us, joining fasting and affliction to prayers. While they were praying in this manner, on the day before that feast day on which the defender of falsehood and enemy of truth was to make his speech, he was struck by a divine blow, and, having been sick only one day, departed from the living, hearing, namely, that voice: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and the evils which thou hast prepared, nets and snares, shall be for thee and not for another. He therefore suffered the same things as Balaam, who, himself also summoned against the people of God, when he had given certain impious counsels against them to Balak, paid the penalty, slain by an Israelite right hand. Thus, then, this man, having devised wicked things against the people of God, was deprived of life through the people of God. And Cyrrhus received this benefit through his intercession.
[20] he seeks again his desert and dies there. These things which I have narrated were handed down to me by that divine head, the great Acacius, who knew all his affairs accurately. Having departed thence, then, when he had come to his companions, and had lived with them no little time, he eagerly departed to the life free from old age and trouble, having pursued impassibility in a mortal nature, and awaiting the immortality of the body. But I, making here the end of my narration about him, shall go on to another, praying the Saints whom I have commemorated that by their intercession they may win for me the favour from above.