ON ST. CYRIACUS, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR,
IN PALESTINE
In the year of Christ 556.
COMMENTARIUS PRÆVIUS.
Cyriacus, abbot and confessor, in Palestine. (S.)
BY J. C.
§ I. The Saint lived in Palestine with several holy men. His memory in the sacred Calendars: the documents to be published. Some things are set forth about the particular errors of the Origenists in Palestine.
[ ] The fifth and sixth centuries several men who dwelt in the desert made illustrious by their sanctity and by their notable deeds. Among them easily the chief was St. Euthymius, St. Cyriacus, contemporary with several Saints, whose Life we gave on the twentieth of January, a deformed one indeed, but we shall give a better one in the Supplement of the Work, as has already been promised in various places. His death is commonly fixed in the year 473, at which Bolland had fixed it. Contemporary with St. Euthymius, St. Gerasimus adorned the region near the Jordan with a most famous laura built there and fortified with the best institutions, and died in the year 475, as Henschen makes out at the fifth day of March, where he collected his deeds. The fellow-ascetic, or companion in the ascetic life, of the same St. Euthymius was St. Theoctistus, about whom Pien wrote at the third day of this month, fixing his death in the year 467. St. John the Silentiary has a place among the Saints, among whom at the thirteenth day of May his deeds were illustrated: Henschen assigned to his death the year 558. Of St. Sabas it will be treated on the fifth of December, on which he is inscribed in the sacred Calendars. With these most famous and holy men, almost all of them, and with others whom I pass over, there lived and acted St. Cyriacus, whom others call Quiriacus, and whose memory today, chiefly from the Calendars of the Greeks, is celebrated in either Church. I call Cyriacus by the title of abbot, following Cyril, the author of the Lives of SS. Euthymius, Sabas, and our Saint, not because he presided in this strict title over a monastery and monks gathered in it; but because he both gathered monks and toward the end of his life was held as the father of all the hegumens. And so in the Roman Martyrology he is announced thus: In Palestine, of St. Quiriacus the anchorite.
[2] Among the Latins Molanus had gone before Baronius in his additions to Usuard, today inscribed in the sacred Calendars: where he announces the Saint in almost the same words. His name, as could already be observed, from the Greek Κυριακὸς, Quiriacus, has prevailed in a sufficiently common dialect: I have thought that the simpler expression should be retained and that Cyriacus should be written. In the Basilian Menology he is celebrated with the following elogium. Our holy father Cyriacus the anchorite was from the city of Corinth, under the emperor Theodosius the Great, the son of a priest of the church of Corinth. He, when he was in the rank of reader, being kindled with the love of Christ above all things and wishing to provide for his own salvation, left the world and followed him. For at the age of eighteen he set out for Jerusalem; where, when he had prayed at the holy places, he betook himself to the laura of Saint Euthymius, from whom, receiving the sacred habit of monks, he shone with so keen a wit that he refuted and easily convicted those who held with Origen. But when he had cultivated himself with much exercise and austerity of life, and had been so breathed upon by God with a prophetic spirit that, discerning even the hidden thoughts of men, he admonished and amended them with the highest gentleness and courtesy, in deep old age he departed glad and rejoicing to the Lord, with whose love he had burned from infancy.
[3] [The published Lives of him ascribed to Metaphrastes: the original one here to be printed] All these things are excerpted quite accurately from the Life of St. Cyriacus. Almost similar is the elogium which is read in the Menaia, where it is sung thus.
Σκύλλης ἀμύνῃ Κυριακὲ πικρίᾳ. Γεῦσιν γλυκεῖαν, ᾖ θανεῖν κατεκρίθην. Σκυλλιβόρος δ᾽ ἐνάτῃ μύσεν εἰκάδι Κυριακός.
You ward off, Cyriacus, by the bitterness of the squill the sweet taste by which I was condemned to die. Cyriacus, the squill-eater, closed his eyes on the twenty-ninth.
Where allusion is made to the prodigy by which he made squills, a kind of herb bitter by nature, sweet for a disciple: which is narrated more fully in Chapter 2 of the Life at number 8. Further, the elogium in the Menaia scarcely differs at all from that which we have given above from the Basilian Menology. In the Calendars of the Muscovites I do not find St. Cyriacus. Job Ludolf's Coptic Calendar has a certain Cyriacus at the fifth, otherwise the second, of October, but he is announced with Hanna his mother, which does not fit ours. In our extract of the Synaxary, which we are accustomed to call Sirmond's, no mention is made of St. Cyriacus either, whom nevertheless the Anthology and the other more recent Calendars of the Greeks of this kind unanimously celebrate. His Life was long ago translated into Latin and published by Lippomano, and reprinted by Surius. Pouget, who with Loppin and Montfaucon published the Greek Analecta in the last century, appended to the Life of St. Euthymius the Greek text of the Life of St. Cyriacus from two Colbertine manuscript codices, and gave it a new Latin translation. Pouget did not doubt that it had passed under the pen of Metaphrastes; which he testifies both in the Preface and in the very title. Apart from some corrections made in translating, it scarcely differs at all from that published by Surius, which too was always held for a lucubration of Metaphrastes. We have obtained a Greek copy from the Vatican library more different from both. The codex is marked N. 866. The Life bears all the marks of the genuine Work of an author not only contemporary but such as was present at not a few of the events: for others he cites his own contemporary witnesses and men of great authority. Finally he openly declares that he is Cyril of Scythopolis. That we have a contemporary writer is clear from these words at number XI: Then I, setting out from the monastery of the great Euthymius to the great laura of blessed Sabas, where John, bishop and solitary, was abbot, was sent by him to this abbot Cyriacus. The same thing he testifies often elsewhere no less clearly. Finally he even brings out his own name at number 16, writing: To us (as we approached him) the old man (Cyriacus), rejoicing exceedingly, said: Here is my fellow-monk Cyril!
[4] That he is the same author of the Lives of SS. Euthymius and Sabas by Cyril of Scythopolis, who also writes about St. Cyriacus elsewhere. he also testifies in various places. At the beginning of the Life he writes thus: Of the anchorite and best of all anchorites, Cyriacus, I have often made mention in the published discourse about the great Euthymius. Of both he speaks thus at number 15: Besides, from the beginning he began to relate to me all the deeds of the holy Euthymius and Sabas, which indeed I have already set forth in two published books. And so, if the Lives of SS. Euthymius and Sabas, which he wrote almost entirely from the account of others, have great authority from Cyril their author, surely the Life of St. Cyriacus ought to have greater, written by the same man, who wrote not from report alone but most of it from the testimony of his own eyes. One or another anachronism indeed may be noticed in it, but one which I believe should be ascribed rather to the carelessness and drowsiness of the copyists than to Cyril himself. Of these things more fully in the following paragraph. There is hope that, when those errors are corrected, from this Life of ours, about whose author there is no room at all to doubt, no small light will accrue to the Deeds of SS. Euthymius and Sabas, and also to the history of the Origenists of those times, concerning which certain things are here reported, perplexing enough, and which, if they are compared with one another and with the other better-known errors of the Origenists, seem to deserve a fuller discussion: since not a few nor slight madnesses are here rubbed off upon the Origenist monks, which you would scarcely find asserted elsewhere. Let us meanwhile gather here what Cyril testifies above that he reported about St. Cyriacus in the Lives of SS. Euthymius and Sabas written by him, and which further show his familiarity with St. Cyriacus.
[5] And so in the Life of St. Euthymius published by the Benedictine monks in the Greek Analecta, page 36, these things are found. Some things are pointed out concerning the Origenists Abbot Cyriacus the anchorite, that very man who in the old laura of Souka flashed with virtues according to God, shone there for nearly seventy years with notable deeds of the monastic life, who indeed had renounced the world from his youth in the monastery of the great Euthymius, and had spent much time with his successors, and had accurately learned all his form and manner of living: he, I say, handed down to me most of what is narrated in this Work. He testifies almost the same in the same place at page 42, where he again mentions the prodigies of St. Euthymius received from the mouth of St. Cyriacus, and he repeats the same rather frequently in other places also. As concerns the machinations of the Origenists, of which a little above, St. Cyriacus sets forth to Cyril at number 12 of the Life their abominable and unheard-of doctrine in this manner. 1. They say that Christ is not one of the Trinity. 2. They say that our bodies after the resurrection will utterly perish, and first that of Christ. 3. They say that the holy Trinity did not found this world, and that in the restitution to the former state all rational natures, even the demons themselves, will be able to produce Aeons (in the Greek it is αἰώνας, Ages, as others have rendered it). 4. They say that our bodies after the resurrection will be ethereal and spherical: for such, they say, was the Lord's own body when it rose. 5. They say that we shall be like Christ in the restitution to the former state. Further, although these things have a connection with their depraved dogmas, certainly in not a few respects they differ from the articles which at the urging of the orthodox Justinian condemned in the Origenists, and which he appended to the encyclical letter sent to the patriarchs, nine in number. Those turn chiefly upon
errors about the existence of the spirit or soul before the production of the body and its union with it. About the reparation or redemption of the angels effected by Christ, their nature being assumed, and about the freeing through him of the demons and the damned. Only the fourth dogma, reported by St. Cyriacus, is read to have been proscribed there by Justinian in article 5. Further, that letter of Justinian is commonly fixed about the year of Christ 541, in which perhaps there were not yet sufficiently known at Constantinople the particular madnesses which were creeping through Palestine, having proceeded, as St. Cyriacus also affirms in the following number of the Life, from Nonnus, Evagrius, and Didymus. Certainly later are the things which in the council of Constantinople, which is the fifth ecumenical, were defined against them, chiefly at the urging of Eulogius, Conon, St. Cyriacus, and Pancratius the monks, which things too are later, as will easily be gathered from the chronological order to be deduced in the following §.
[6] Evagrius especially and Didymus But that in the Fifth Synod not only the three famous Chapters and other matters pertaining thereto were treated, but that Origen and his followers Evagrius the hermit-deacon, and also Didymus the Alexandrian monk, were struck with anathema, is beyond doubt from Epiphanius, from our Cyril, from Victor of Tunnuna, from Evagrius, Theophanes, Cedrenus, Nicephorus, and others. Let us hear Cyril at the end of the Life of St. Sabas in Cotelier volume 3 of the Monuments of the Greek Church page 174. And so, he says, when the holy and universal fifth synod had been gathered at Constantinople, there were subjected to a common and general anathema Origen and Theodore of Mopsuestia, together with the things which were said about pre-existence and restitution by Evagrius and Didymus. That is, that particular dogmas were asserted by Evagrius and Didymus and proscribed by the synod, Cyril here clearly asserts, and it is scarcely doubtful that some of them were from those reported above. Certainly, as becomes clear to one considering it, the chief errors which turn upon pre-existence and restitution, and the blasphemies against Christ, have no small connection with the impious dogma of Theodore Ascidas, which Evagrius writes in book 4 chapter 38 to have been condemned in the fifth place, and sets forth in these words: Theodore Ascidas the Cappadocian said: If the Apostles and martyrs already work miracles and are in such great honor, in the restitution, unless they become equal to Christ, what will their restitution be? From which the power of those restored follows as a consequence, and easily flows out into the dogmas pertaining to it and reported above. About the condemnation of Evagrius and Didymus in the Fifth council the words of Victor of Tunnuna are also clear, writing: In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Justinian sends into exile Eutychius bishop of Constantinople, the condemner of the three Chapters and of Evagrius the hermit-deacon and of Didymus the Alexandrian monk and confessor… To the same effect is what Sophronius writes to Sergius in the synodical Letter reported in the Sixth synod, Session XI, where he professes that he embraces the Fifth synod, which takes away and utterly abolishes, principally indeed the mad Origen and his ravings, and along with him the impious dogmas of Didymus and Evagrius.
[7] not yet sufficiently elucidated. Finally Nicephorus Callistus in the Ecclesiastical History book 17 chapter 27, treating of the Fifth synod, after he had spoken of the first Session, writes thus. But in the second session, after libels had been presented and read by Eulogius, Conon, Cyriacus, and Pancratius, monks of Jerusalem, against the impious dogmas of Origen, who was also called Adamantius, and against the followers of his impiety and seduction, Justinian again ordered the Synod to pronounce sentence about them, the libels also which had been written to Pope Vigilius about these matters being brought forward… The Synod therefore referred the matter to Justinian with exclamations against Origen and those who like him had been seduced, some of which were framed in these words, as we have excerpted them from the commentaries of that Synod. Nicephorus adds the declamation to Justinian, and goes on to report the words of the synod. But from the reading of our Acts you will learn their force. To these they joined the chapters which the followers of Origen professed; which chapters show at once their agreement and their disagreement, and also their manifold error. The fifth of these chapters is of certain blasphemies of certain persons of what was called the New laura, written in these words. Theodore Ascidas, and the rest which I have transcribed above from Evagrius. About all these things nothing is found in the Acts of the Fifth council which we have: which, as also the reckoning of the times, raised the greatest difficulty for learned men, which among others the most famous Pierre de Marca in the Dissertation which is inserted in Labbe's Councils volume 5 column 602, Noris in his Historical Dissertation on the Fifth ecumenical Synod, and Louis Doucin of our Society in his History of the disturbances arisen in the Church in the cause of Origen and his doctrine, tried to remove. But in my judgment they have not wholly attained it; since that point which seems the chief one, whether and when the particular dogmas of the Origenists of that time were condemned, has by no means been elucidated. I had resolved to publish that material treated more thoroughly; but let it suffice to have opened the way for others. Certainly the particular errors of Evagrius and Didymus and their followers — which I see hitherto held by some as beyond doubt — Justinian did not touch in his articles in the famous Encyclical, nor do Nicephorus, Evagrius, and others treat of these alone as the articles condemned in the Fifth synod, but of others, among which the blasphemous assertion of Theodore held the fifth place. But since among those who demanded the condemnation in the synod St. Cyriacus is recounted, it is altogether likely that among the chief errors were those which we have reported above from the Life, since it seems beyond doubt that the Saint set forth to Cyril those errors at which he most shuddered, and that he likewise reported them to Justinian and to the synod.
§ II. The chronological notes in the Life to be published are to be corrected. The chronological order deduced from the corrected ones and from others.
[ ] Not in the year of Christ 449, as the corrupt chronological note suggests, The Life which we give is sprinkled with chronological Notes so precise that at first sight they instill in the reader confidence about an accurate distinction of times and a sincere narration of the matters attached to them. That confidence, when I inspected the matter more deeply in order to form a chronological order, was taken from me as it were at the second step by the epochs which occur in the second place and can scarcely be reconciled with the other set forth a little before. Since this Life has very many reckonings connected with the Lives of SS. Euthymius and Sabas and with the Catalogue of the patriarchs of Jerusalem, it seemed good to treat that part a little more studiously and thoroughly, and, if it can be done, thus to deduce a certain chronological order, so that it may bring light or correction to the epochs sought from it. Let us therefore shake out and compare ours. And so at number 1 St. Cyriacus's birth is thus circumscribed. He was born of them (his parents) toward the end of Theodosius the Younger, on the ninth day of January, in the second Indiction: τῆς δευτέρας Ἰνδικτίονος. Theodosius the Younger died in the year of Christ 450, on the twenty-eighth day of July. Indiction 2, having begun in the month of September 448, was running in the month of January 449, which year is the last but one of Theodosius the Younger, and into which accordingly everything here conspires for fixing St. Cyriacus's birthday.
[9] but in the year 448 Next there occur other chronological notes at number 3, by which St. Cyriacus's departure from his native land and the beginnings of a more perfect life are defined in these words: He came to Jerusalem in his eighteenth year, in the eighth year of Anastasius bishop of Jerusalem, but in the ninth of the empire of Leo the Great, at the beginning of the Indiction. Unless Cyril wished by these words to designate the month of September or October of a year sufficiently determined from elsewhere, the number of the Indiction has here been omitted by the copyist's fault: since neither can the beginning of the first Indiction or Cycle be understood, with which, namely in the year 462 or the following, the other epochs added cannot concur. But neither are these in agreement among themselves. Two, namely the eighth year of Anastasius the patriarch and the ninth of Leo I the emperor, do indeed concur, by the reckoning of the moderns, in the year of Christ 465, in which in the month of September the fourth Indiction begins; but the eighteenth year of St. Cyriacus, born in the year 449, is a whole year later; since it could thus only have begun in the year 466, as is clear to one reckoning. Therefore either the Saint was born earlier, or he entered upon the monastic life later: and which is to be chosen let us now see. Metaphrastes, accustomed in the Lives which he reformed to treat chronological notes rather negligently, in the Life in Pouget or Loppin designated St. Cyriacus's birth only by the end of Theodosius; the notes of his departure into Palestine he retained the same as Cyril's, except the beginning of the Indiction.
[10] St. Cyriacus was born, and came into Palestine in the year 465. Commenting on these, he who translated the aforesaid Life assigns at page 103 the year 465 to St. Cyriacus's arrival in Palestine, but at page 101 the year 448 to his birth. And rightly indeed: for that not the following year but 448 must be laid down as the Saint's birth year, both the following notes at number 5 of the Life and the chronological notes scattered elsewhere persuade, as will become clear in the course of things. Therefore let us here attach his birth to the year 448. In the note from the reign of Theodosius the Younger, inasmuch as he held it for 42 years, and so admits a latitude of at least 2 years about the end, nothing will have to be changed; but certainly the Indiction must be corrected. What if by the copyist's fault it has been so corrupted that he read δευτέρας for προτέρας or νεωτέρας? Certainly if you so read, you will have in the month of January of the year 448 a new Cycle of indictions, or Indiction I running, and the rest will flow more conveniently, as we shall presently experience. At number 5 of the Life there follows the death of St. Gerasimus, attached to the ninth year of St. Cyriacus's arrival in Palestine, on the fifth of March, Indiction XIII. Indiction XIII, which was flowing in the month of March of the year 475, conflicts with the ninth year of his arrival in Palestine, which by so many concurring reckonings I have fixed above in the year 465; whence, the reckoning being begun, the ninth year ends at the beginning of the Indiction of the year 474. Since reckonings concur which conflict with one another, I believe that an error could more easily have been made in the ciphers than in the year expressed in words. There is added that Metaphrastes likewise read "in the ninth year," as is clear from the copies of Lippomano and Pouget.
[11] The chronological notes, being entangled Moreover the twenty-seventh year of St. Cyriacus, which next follows, conspires with the ninth year: for if to the 18 years which we saw above that he had when he landed in Palestine we add 9, the twenty-seventh will arise, in which, soon after the death of St. Gerasimus, St. Cyriacus began the solitary life in the laura of St. Euthymius. Therefore the Indiction seems to need correction, and for XIII, XII must be read, so that the death of St. Gerasimus and our Saint's coming to abbot Elias may be attached to the year of Christ 474. Further, St. Cyriacus spent X years in the laura of St. Euthymius, as becomes manifest from Cyril's reckoning at number 20. That they were completed is hinted by what is said at number 7 of the Life: But abbot Cyriacus, afflicted in mind on account of the division made of the monasteries, withdraws (from the laura of St. Euthymius) and comes to the laura of Souka toward the end of Indiction VIII, which ends in the month of September
of the year of Christ 485, of St. Cyriacus's age 38. There follow at number 7 chronological notes which, in a decidedly involved period, appear themselves too more intricate. The words which I render are attached to those just cited. And he discharged (in the first years which he spent in the laura of Souka) in different years four offices: namely of the bakehouse, of the infirmary, of the guest lodging, and of the stewardship. And when he had served all the fathers and had been for their edification, he was promoted to the priesthood: for he had been made a deacon in the monastery of the great Euthymius, and after four years was made treasurer and canonarch in the fortieth year of his age. And when thirteen years had been completed in that office, he was made a priest, and remained treasurer and canonarch for another eighteen years.
[12] I judge that a sense not a little entangled must thus be rendered, some correction being applied, and, in order that it may be extricated, it must be observed that: and after four years he had been made treasurer and canonarch in the fortieth year of his age, must be referred to the diaconate, as the position seems to require. Indeed between the 38th year of his age, in which toward the end of Indiction VIII he came to Souka, and the 40th, in which he was made canonarch, you will find only two years and 5 months. Finally, matters flow more awkwardly if we lay down that the Saint was ordained deacon in the 36th year of his age, set out for Souka two years later, in his 38th year, and in his 40th, of Christ 487, was made canonarch. Then further, the reckoning being begun there, he was made a priest in the year of Christ 500, of his age 53, or in the following one, if the XIII years which he is said to have spent in the office of canonarch before being promoted to the priesthood were completed, which makes nothing or little for our chronological order here. Let us return to the remaining notes, or combine them with the others. In Chapter 2 of the Life, at its very beginning, St. Cyriacus says to Cyril: In the thirty-one years during which I was canonarch and treasurer the sun did not see me eating, etc., from which some difficulty emerges in the reckoning. For if you add 31 years to the 40 years which St. Cyriacus counted when he undertook those duties, there will arise the 71st year of his age, of Christ 518, in which from these words he seems to have laid them down.
[13] The same the reckonings concurring at the end of the preceding number persuade; are disentangled for after he had administered the office of treasurer and canonarch for 13 years, St. Cyriacus is there said to have been taken to the priesthood, and presently it is added: and he remained (after he had been consecrated priest) treasurer and canonarch for another eighteen years. If you join these to the preceding thirteen, there will arise 31 years, exactly as many as I showed just now from number 8 of the Life that St. Cyriacus administered those duties. But another chronological note contradicts, which itself too brings its own difficulty, to be dissolved before we deal with reconciling it with the preceding ones. At number 8 just cited St. Cyriacus is said to have laid down the office of treasurer and to have withdrawn from the laura of Souka into the wilderness of Natupha in the LVII (in Greek εζ᾽) year of his age, in Indiction III. The 57th year of his age conflicts not only with the 31 years spent in the offices and running out into the 71st year of his age, but also with Indiction III: for in the year of Christ 504, which runs with the 57th year of the Saint's age, Indiction XII was current, not III. Therefore an error has crept in here into the ciphers, to be corrected the more safely as Metaphrastes's reckoning agrees here with the rest of the computation. He, both in Lippomano and in Pouget, expressed in words the year, not the 57th, but the seventy-seventh of St. Cyriacus's age, in which he resigned the office of treasurer and withdrew into Natupha.
[14] and are combined This year, which concurs with the year of Christ 524, has in the first place Indiction III in agreement, and a reckoning not contradicting it, except in one point, which, that we may elucidate it, let us now return to what was produced above. From the 77th year of the Saint's age, which we have just established, if we subtract the 31 years spent in offices, we shall fall back into the 46th year of his age. But it is shown above that he was made treasurer and canonarch earlier, nay in the fortieth year of his age: therefore six years, superfluous from the offices held according to the epochs compared, interrupt the reckoning. I suspect that St. Cyriacus laid down the office of canonarch six years before he resigned the office of treasurer, when about to withdraw from the laura of Souka to the wilderness of Natupha, so that for 31 years he administered both offices together, and in the last six years was treasurer only. Certainly elsewhere mention is always made of both offices together, but when he was about to set out into Natupha, there is mention only of the office of treasurer laid down. Finally, thus what follows too is rightly combined, as we shall presently experience. In the 77th year of his age, of Christ 524, after the month of September, St. Cyriacus, having set out for the wilderness of Natupha, spent there 5 years, as is asserted both at number 9 of the Life and in the recapitulation at number 20.
[15] The time of the disturbances Thence, when he grew famous with the glory of miracles, shunning honor he withdrew into the inner wilderness of Rouba, and there spent another five years in quiet; until again his prodigious healings stirred up crowds, which the Man, being a lover of quiet, avoiding, he hid himself in a most solitary place called Susakim. St. Cyriacus's stay in the wilderness of Rouba is everywhere defined by Metaphrastes as five years, which in our Greek manuscript were omitted in the recapitulation, whence 5 years are lacking in the reckoning which Cyril there deduces. He came moreover to Susakim in the 87th year of his age, of Christ 534, and there spent seven seven years, until he was summoned by the fathers of the laura of Souka, over whom Cassian presided, to bring help against the Origenists, who after St. Sabas's death were laboring to infect all the monasteries with their plague, and were now openly making war upon the orthodox. St. Sabas's death our Papebroch and others commonly, who had also seen the Life published by Cotelier, referred to the year of Christ 531: Le Quien in his Patriarchs of Jerusalem contends that it must be attached to the following year.
[16] in Palestine It is not the place here to touch that dispute, since scarcely anything from it flows into our chronological order; since the beginnings and progress of the disturbances stirred up, deduced from either date, conveniently agree with these times. What most memorable things then happened our own Cyril himself describes, both in this Life at numbers XI and following, and at the end of the Life of St. Sabas published by Cotelier at number 84 and following. What chiefly pertains here is Cyril's journey described at number XI and clothed with its circumstances; from which it will be possible to judge more fitly about the time of the disturbances and sedition stirred up by the Origenists. From the epochs gathered here it becomes manifest that St. Cyriacus did not come to the cave of St. Chariton before the year 541, in which, as Cyril there clearly describes, he was received by the holy Man, namely about the year 543 or even later. Certainly the letters which he was carrying from St. John the Silentiary to St. Cyriacus made mention of a public war that had arisen in the holy city. There is no doubt that the discussion is of that of which the same Cyril writes thus in the Life of St. Sabas at number 86. Then Ascidas compelled archbishop Peter (of Jerusalem), who had set out for Constantinople, to have as syncelli Peter the Alexandrian and John Strongylus.
[17] stirred up obstinately by the Origenists, Hence those who adhered to Nonnus took greater license; and their impiety indeed they preached publicly and through the houses: but they devised various persecutions against the fathers of the Great laura: and if they saw any orthodox monk in the holy city, they procured that he should be beaten by certain men of the world, and, calling him a Sabaite, drove him from the sacred city. Accordingly, when certain orthodox fathers had been beaten and a war had arisen against the pious, the Bessi of the Jordan, led by divine zeal, went up into the holy city, to bring aid to the orthodox who were being assailed with war. Then, a public battle being joined against the Bessi and others who were of right belief, after they had fled to the guest house of the Great laura, the enemy suddenly attacked in fury, as men wishing to bring death upon the fathers: and when they had found the hospice fortified, they broke the doors or windows with stones, and were vigorously assailing those who were within with stones. More may be seen in the same place, after which there follows immediately. Then the fathers of the Great laura beseech abbot Gelasius to go to Constantinople, which journey, induced by their prayers, he presently undertook: but by the intervention of Theodore Ascidas, the defender of Origen and of Leontius and Nonnus, being kept from converse with the emperor and from the court, having accomplished nothing, as he was about to return into Palestine he died at Amorium in the month of October, Indiction IX, and accordingly in the year of Christ 545.
[18] and the various fortunes of the lauras It is likely that St. John the abbot, when Gelasius had set out for Constantinople, bore the charge of the Great laura, and that in that interval he ordered what had happened to be announced to St. Cyriacus through Cyril: and so this journey of Cyril's is probably attached to the year of Christ 544 or the following; for Gelasius seems neither to have departed much before, nor to have spent longer at Constantinople. Nay, and thus what the interrogated St. Cyriacus narrates in the following numbers about the machinations of the Origenists flows rightly. And first indeed the seditions and battles at Jerusalem, on the occasion of which Gelasius abbot of the Great laura was sent to the emperor Justinian, fall in the year 543 or the following. What St. Cyriacus sets forth to Cyril at number 14 about the Origenist monks, whom Nonnus and his followers had tried to set over the laura of Souka, had happened earlier and about the beginning of the time in which the Saint was living at Susakim, as will presently appear. Certainly Peter the Alexandrian, whom he had ordered the too timid Peter bishop of Jerusalem, who had set out for Constantinople in the year 541 in order to win the favor of Theodore Ascidas, to have as syncellus, was that same man whom the fathers of the laura of Souka had expelled from the abbacy as an intruded abbot.
[19] at that time Nay, and Cassian of Scythopolis, that he might preside in the place of the expelled over the laura of Souka, had been summoned from the great laura of St. Sabas some years already before St. Cyriacus narrated these things, as becomes clear from the Life of St. Sabas, where at number 88 Cyril writes thus. Moreover God gave a great sign or prodigy, just as of old in the case of Arius. For on the very day of the persecution, on which they were being driven out of the Great laura, the prince of the enemy, the leader of impiety, Nonnus, was taken from the midst of men, seized by a sudden death. Further, the most grievous wolf George, after holding for seven months the sacred flock of the divine Sabas, is cast out from it by his own comrades, being accused of luxury and turpitude… Then the fathers who had been left in the Great laura … took as their superior abbot Cassian of Scythopolis, who at that time was governing the congregation of Souka excellently and in an orthodox manner … and who had ruled the laura of Souka for eight years. This Cassian, after he had been shepherd of the sacred flock of the divine old man for ten months, fell asleep in peace in the selfsame place and rested in the XVI year after the death of the great (Sabas).
[20] are established. The chronological order down to the Saint's death From which such a chronological chain of some preceding years emerges. The XVI year from the death of St. Sabas is that of Christ 547: therefore George in
was more probably intruded into the presidency of the laura of St. Sabas in the year 545, and in it Nonnus the leader of the Origenists died; since Cyril seems to attach both matters to that same year, and two years must be granted to the 10 months of Cassian's abbacy, the 7 of George's, and finally to his election. Thence let us subtract the 8 years during which Cassian presided over Souka; we shall slip down to 537, which is the third of St. Cyriacus's stay in Susakim; and accordingly the nefarious machinations of Nonnus and the changes of intruded abbots of the laura of Souka were, if not begun, at any rate carried through and completed in those three years. Let us now return to the year 541, in which we saw above that St. Cyriacus was brought into the cell of St. Chariton, and where, as the Life witnesses at number 10 toward the end, he stayed about five years, and accordingly until the year of Christ 546, which is the 99th of his age, which chronological order is fixed by Cyril at number 17 and flows from what has gone before, where the 87th year of his age was combined with the year of Christ 537. There remain moreover the 8 years spent in this second retreat to Susakim; to which if you add the two in which he again lived in the cell of St. Chariton, you will have the Old man dying at 109 years in the year 556 of the common era. And this reckoning Cyril clearly establishes when he writes at number 20 of the Life that the Saint was again brought back by the fathers of the laura of Souka to the cave of St. Chariton, being very old, as exceeding his hundred and seventh year.
[21] deduced. Further, from what Cyril adds in the same place, the time of the expulsion of the Origenists from the New laura is fixed, which at number XI St. Cyriacus had foretold to St. John the Silentiary. For he writes at number 20: The fathers of the laura of Souka brought him (a second time) to the cave of St. Chariton after the departure of the Origenists from the New laura. From the chronological order carried down to his death it is clear that St. Cyriacus returned to the laura of Souka in the year of Christ 554. The impieties of the Origenists against the orthodox, their dissensions among themselves, their obstinacy, and finally their expulsion Cyril pursues at the end of the Life of St. Sabas published by Cotelier at number 90 and following, but more at length than could be conveniently transferred here. Let it suffice to excerpt from it what confirms our chronological order. After he has narrated in detail how Eustochius patriarch of Jerusalem had recovered the New laura, and had resolved to bring into it orthodox monks, the heretics being driven out, he goes on thus: And so, being gathered in the holy city (Cyril himself was among those to be brought in), we went out with the patriarch and the new superior (John) into the village of Thekoa, and after the Origenists had been driven out by Anastasius the commander we recovered the New laura in the twenty-third year from the death of Sabas. This epoch, the beginning being taken from the year of Christ 531, in which we said that St. Sabas died, concurs exactly with the year 554, and so clearly confirms the time of St. Cyriacus's death, which certainly happened two years afterwards.
LIFE
By Cyril of Scythopolis, a disciple of the Saint
From the Vatican codex number 866, J. C. being the translator.
Cyriacus, abbot and confessor, in Palestine. (S.)
a
BY CYRIL OF SCYTHOPOLIS.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's birth, pious upbringing, zeal for sacred reading, calling to the monastic life; the virtues in which he excelled in his youth.
Τοῦ ἀναχωρητοῦ, καὶ πάντων ἀναχωρητῶν ἀρίστου Κυριακοῦ πολλάκις ἐν τῷ περὶ Ἐθυμίου τοῦ μεγάλου ῥηθέντι μοι λόγῳ μνήμην ἐποιησάμην. ἀναγκαῖον τοίνυν ἡγησάμην τοῦτο δι᾽ ὀλίγων γνωριμώτερον τοῖς ἐντυγχάνουσιν καταστῆσαι ὀλίγας τινὰς ἀπαρχὰς τῶν αὐτῷ κατορθωθέντων διηγούμενος, εἰ γὰρ ἡ ἀπαρχὴ τῶν λεγομένων λογίων ἁγία, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ τὸ φύραμα τοῦ παντὸς αὐτοῦ βίου συνηγίασται. Οὗτος τοίνυν ὁ τὴν ψυχὴν ἔχων πεφωτισμένην Κυριακὸς, γένος μὲν τῆς Ελλάδος ὑπῆρχεν, πόλεως Κορίνθου. γονέων δὲ, πατρὸς μὲν Ιωάννου πρεσβυτέρου τῆς κατὰ Κόρινθον ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ καθολικῆς ἐκκλησίας, μητρὸς δὲ Εὐδοξίας. ὑφ᾽ ὧν ἐγενήθη περὶ τὸ τέλος τῆς τοῦ Θεοδοσίου τοῦ νέου βασιλείας, μηνὶ Ἰαννουαρίῳ θ᾽, τῆς δευτέρας ἰνδικτίονος. Γέγονεν δὲ ἀνεψιὸς ἐκ μητρὸς Πέτρου τοῦ ἐπισκόπου Κορίνθου, ὑφ᾽ οὗ γέγονεν ἀναγνώστης ἐκ βρέφους τῆς αὐτῆς ἁγίας Εκκλησίας. ὅστις ἀββᾶς Κυριακὸς ἀναγινώσκων τὰς θείας γραφὰς, ὡς αὐτός μοι διηγήσατο, καὶ διημερεύων ἐν αὐταῖς, καὶ διανυκτερεύων ἔτι ὢν νέος ἐθαύμαζεν πῶς πολυτρόπως κατὰ γενεὰν καὶ γενεὰν τοὺς ὀρθῇ προαιρέσει εὐαρεστῆσαι σπουδάσαντας ἐδόξασεν ὁ θεὸς, καὶ φωστῆρας ἐν κόσμῳ ἀνέδειξεν, καὶ πάντα ἐξ ἀρχῆς ᾠκονόμησεν πρός σωτηρίαν τοὐ ἀνθρωπίνου γένους.
[2] Τὸν μὲν Ἀβελ διὰ θυσίας δοξάσας, τὸν δὲ Ενώχ δι᾽ εὐαριστήσεως τῇ μεταθέσει τιμήσας, τὸν δὲ Νῶε διὰ δικαιοσύνης σπηνθῆρα τοῦ γένους φυλάξας, τὸν Ἀβραάμ διὰ πίστεως πατέρα ἐθνῶν ἀναδείξας, τὴν εὐσεβῆ τοῦ Μελχισέδεκ ἱερωσύνην ἀποδεξάμενος, τὸν Ἰωσὴφ, καὶ τὸν Ἰὼβ ὑπομονῆς τε, καὶ σωφροσύνης εἰκόνα τῷ βίῳ ἀναστήσας, τὸν Μωυσέα νομοθέτην καταστήσας, τὸν τοῦ Ναυΐ Ἰησοῦν ἡλίῳ καὶ σελήνῃ ἀναγωγὸν καταστήσας, τὸν Δαυΐδ προφήτην, καὶ βασιλέα, καὶ φρικτοῦ μηστυρίου πρόγονον ἀναδείξας, τῆς Βαβιλωνίας καμίνου τὴν φλόγα εἰς δρόσον μεταποιήσας, Δανιὴλ τοὺς λέοντας ἐν τῷ λάκκῳ νηστεύειν διδάξας, τὸ θαλάττιον κῆτος εἰς προφητικὸν θάλαμον ματασκευάσας. πρὸς τούτοις πᾶσιν ἰλιγγιᾶ αὐτοῦ ἡ διάνοια, ἐννοοῦσα τὰ ὑπὲρ ταῦτα, τὸν τοιοῦτον ἄσπορον τόκον, τὴν παρθένον καὶ μητέρα. πῶς ἂν θεὸς λόγος ἀτρέπτως γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος, καὶ διὰ τοῦ τιμίου αὐτοῦ σταυροῦ, καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως, τόν τε ἄδην ἐσκήλευσεν, καὶ τὸν ἀπαταιῶνα ὄφιν κατήργησεν θριαμβεύσας, καὶ τοῖς ἰδίοις θανατωθέντα παραπτώμασιν Ἀδάμ ζωοποιήσας, πάλιν εἰς παράδεισον ἐπανήγαγεν. ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα διανοούμενος ὁ Κυριακὸς, κατενύγη ἡ καρδία αὐτοῦ φόβῳ θεοῦ, καὶ ἐβουλεύσατο έπὶ τήν ἁγίαν πόλιν ἀναχωρῆσαι, καὶ τοῖς βιωτικοῖς πράγμασιν ἀποτάξασθαι.
[3] Καὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις ἀδολεσχὼν λογισμοῖς, ἤκουσεν ἐν μιᾷ κυριακῇ τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου λέγοντος· εἴ τις θέλει ὀπίσω μου ἐλθεὶν, ἀπαρνήσασθω ἐαυτὸν, καὶ ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀκολουθήτω μοι. καὶ παραυτίκα ἐξελθὼν τῆς ἐκκλησίας, καὶ μηδενὶ μηδὲν εἰρηκὼς, ἦλθεν ἐπὶ Κεγχρέαις, καὶ ἐπιβὰς πλοίῳ διαπερῶντι ἐν Παλαιστίνῃ, παρεγένετο εἰς ἱεροσόλυμα, ὀκτὼ καὶ δέκατον μὲν ἔτος ἄγων τῆς ἡλικίας· ἐν ὁγδόῳ δὲ ἔτει τῆς ἰεραρχίας ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις Ἀναστασίου, ἐνάτῳ δὲ τῆς βασιλείας Λέοντος τοῦ μεγάλου βασιλέως, ἐν ἐρχῇ τῆς ινδικτιόνου. καὶ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν πόλιν ἐδεξιώθη παρὰ τῷ ἐν ἁγίοις Εὐστοργίῳ, ἀνδρὶ ἁγίῳ, καὶ τοῖς τοῦ παναγίου πνεύματος χαρίσμασιν διαλάμποντι, ἤδη συστησαμένῳ μοναστήριον πλησίον τῆς ἁγίας πόλεως Σίων περιφανέστατον, ἐν ᾧ παραχειμάσας ὁ δοῦλος τοῦ θεοῦ Κυριακὸς, ἐπεπόθησεν τὴν ἔρημον οἰκῆσαι. καὶ ἀκούων παρὰ πάντων σχεδὸν τὰ κατὰ θείον Εὐθύμιον, παρεκάλεσεν τὸν μέγαν πατέρα Εὐστόργιον ἀπολύσαι μετ᾽ εὐχής.
[4] Καὶ ἀπολυθεὶς, ἧλθεν εἰς τὴν λαῦραν τοῦ μεγάλου Εὐθυμίου. καὶ προσκαρτερήσας ἐξεῖσε Ἀνατολίῳ τινὶ πρεστβυτέρῳ, καὶ Σολυμπίῳ μοναχῷ ἀδελφοῖς κατὰ σάρκα, καὶ Κορινθίοις οὖσι τῷ γένει, καὶ γνωστοῖς ἡμέρας ἱκανὰς, προσεκύνησεν μεν τὸν μέγαν Εὐθύμιον, καὶ τὸ σχῆμα διὰ τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ χειρῶν μεταμφιάσατο. μεῖναι δὲ αὐτόθι οὐ συνεχωρίθη, διὰ τὸ νέον τῆς αὐτοῦ ἡλικίας. ἀλλ᾽ ἀποστέλλεται εἰς τὸν Ιορδάνην πρὸς τὸν ἐν ἁγίοις Γεράσιμον, ἤδη τοῦ μεγάλου Θεοκτίστου τελευτήσαντος· πάνυ γὰρ παρεφυλάττετο ὁ μέγας Εὐθύμιος ἀγένιον ἔχειν ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ λαῦρᾳ. ὁ μέντοι ἐν ἁγίοις Γεράσιμος τοῦτον δεξάμενος, ἀκέλευσεν αὐτὸν μένειν εἰς τὸ κοινόβιον, ξύλα κόπτων, καὶ ὑδροφορῶν, καὶ μαγειρεύων, καὶ πᾶσαν διακονίαν μετὰ προθυμίας ἀκτελὼν. διημερεύων δὲ ἐν κόπῳ καὶ μόχθῳ, διανυκτηρεύων δὲ ἐν ταῖς πρὸς θεὸν δεήσεσιν, ἐν τῷ κανόνι τῆς ψαλμῳδίας προθυμότερος μετ᾽ ἐργοχείρου ἱστάμενος.
[5] Ἐν δὲ τῷ κοινοβίῳ διακονῶν, τὴν τῶν ἀναχωρητῶν πολιτείαν ἐκράτησε διὰ δυὸ, ἐσθίων ἄρτον καὶ ὕδωρ, ἐλαίῳ, ἢ οἴνῳ, ἢ εὐκράτῳ μὴ χρόομενος, ὥστε τὸν μέγαν Γεράσιμον θεωροῦντα τήν τε ἄσκησιν, καὶ πολιτείᾳν τοῦ νεωτέρου θαυμάζειν, καὶ ἀγαπᾷν αὐτὸν. ὅθεν καὶ ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῶν νηστειῶν πληροφορούμενος ἐλάμβανεν αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν πανέρημον τοῦ Ῥουβᾶ. οἵτινες αὐτόθι ἡσύχαζον ἕως τῆς τῶν Βαΐων ἑορτῆς, κατὰ κυριακὴν ἐκ τῶν τοῦ μεγάλου Εὐθυμίου κοινωνούντων. ὀλίγου δέ τινος χρόνου διελθόντος, καὶ τοῦ μεγάλου Εὐθυμίου ἐν Χριστῷ τελειωθέντος, ἴδεν ὁ ἐν ἁγίοις γεράσιμος τὴν αὐτοῦ ψυχὴν ὑπ᾽ ἀγγέλων ὁδηγουμένην, καὶ εἰς οὐρανὸν ἀναφερομένην. καὶ λαβὼν τὸν ἀββᾶν Κυριακὸν ἀνῆλθεν εἰς τὴν μονὴν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὸ σῶμα κηδεύσας, ὑπέστρεψεν· τῷ μέντοι ἐννάτῳ χρόνῳ τῆς ἐν παλαιστίνῃ παρουσίας τοῦ ἀββᾶ Κυριακοῦ, ὁ μέγας πατὴρ ἡμῶν Γεράσιμος ἐτελεύτησεν, καὶ τῷ τῆς δικαιοσύνης κατεκοσμίσθη στεφάνῳ, μηνὶ μαρτίῳ ε᾽. τῆς ιγ᾽. ἰνδικτίονος. Βασιλείου δὲ Στεφάνου ἀδελφῶν τῆς ἡγεμονίας κρατησάντων. ὁ ἀββᾶς Κυριακὸς ἀνεχώρησεν, καὶ ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν λαῦραν τοῦ μεγάλου Εὐθυμίου. καὶ ὑπὸ Ἡλίας τοῦ ἡγουμένου εἰσδεχθεὶς, ἔλαβεν κελλίον, καὶ ἡσύχασεν, ἐν τῷ κζ᾽ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ἡλικίας χρόνῳ, μηδὲν κτώμενος τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου.
[6] Πολλὰ δὲ κεκοπίακεν ἐν τῇ οἰκοδομῇ τοῦ κοινοβίου, τότε γὰρ ἡ λαῦρα εἰς κοινόβιον μετεσκευάσθη. ἦν δὲ ἐκεῖ τό τηνικαῦτα Θωμᾶς τις προσαγορευόμενος, μέγας τῷ βίῳ, τούτου τὰς ἁρετὰς, καὶ τὰ πλεονεκτήματα γνοῦς ὁ ἀββᾶς Κυριακὸς, συνῆφθη αὐτῷ τῇ τοῦ πνεύματος στοργῇ προσβιβαζόμενος, καὶ γυμναζόμενος, καὶ τῇ αὐτοῦ ἑπώμενος ἀγωγῇ ὅστις Θωμᾶς ἀποσταλεὶς ὑπὸ Φίδου τοὐ διακόνου εἰς Ἀλεξανδρείαν, ὠνήσατο ἁπλώματα παρὰ τοῦ ἀρχιεπισκόπου λόγῳ τοῦ κτιζομένου κοινοβίου. τὰ γὰρ τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν Εὐθυμίου, καὶ Θεοκτίστου μοναστήρια ἦσαν τότε ἐν ὁμονοίᾳ, κοινὸν τὸν βίον ἔχοντα, καὶ μίαν διήκοισιν, ὑπὸ ἕνα ὄντα οἰκονόμον κατὰ τὴν τοῦ μεγάλου Εὐθυμίου ἐντολὴν. δώδεκα ἔτους χρόνου παρεληλυθότος μετὰ τὴν ἁγίαν ἐκείνου κοίμησιν, τοῦ ἡγουμένου τῆς τοῦ ἀββᾶ Θεοκτίστου μονῆς ἀββᾶ Λογγίνου τελευτήσαντος, καὶ Παύλου τὴν ἡγουμενίαν διαδεξαμένου, Τερέβονος Σαρακηνὸς ὁ πάλαι βαπτισθεὶς, καὶ ἰαθεὶς ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις Εὐθυμίου μέλλων τελευτᾶν, ἱκανὰ κατέλιπεν πράγματα τοῖς ἀμφοτέροις μοναστηρίοις. Τοῦ δὲ Παύλου αὐθαδιάσαντος καὶ τὸ τοῦ Τερέβωνος λείψανον, καὶ τὰ πράγματα ἀποσπάσαντος, συγχύσις ἀνεφύη, καὶ τῶν μοναστηρίων διαίρεσις.
[7] Τῶν τοίνυν περὶ τὸ μοναστήριον χωρίων τοῦ ὁσίου Εὐθυμίου διαιρεθέντων, κτίζει ὁ Παῦλος πύργον εἰς τὰ διαιρεθέντα χωρία, καί δίδωσι διακόσια νομίσματα ὑπὲρ ἀγορασίας ξενοδοχίου, πρὸς τὸ αὐτὸν μόνον διακατέχειν τὸ ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ πόλει κοινὸν ξενοδοχεῖον. τότε οἱ μὲν τῆς μονῆς τοῦ μεγάλου Εὐθυμίου ἡγόρασαν ξενοδοχεῖον τῶν αὐτῶν διακοσίων νομισμάτων, πλησίον τοῦ πύργου τοῦ Δαυῒδ παρὰ τῶν πατέρων τῆς λαύρας τοῦ Σουκᾶ. ὁ δὲ ἀββᾶς Κυριακὸς διὰ τὴν γεναμένην τῶν μοναστηρίων διαίρεσιν, ἀναχωρεῖ λυπηθεὶς κατὰ διάνοιαν, καὶ ἔρχεται εἰς τήν λαύραν τοῦ Σουκᾶ περὶ τὸ τέλος τῆς η᾽ ἰνδικτίονος, καὶ πληρεῖ τέσσαρας ἐν διαφόροις ἔτεσι διακονίας, τήν τε τοῦ
ἀρτοκοπίου, καὶ τοῦ νοσοκομίου, καὶ τοῦ ξενοδοχείου, καὶ τοῦ οἰκονομίου. Καὶ πάντας τοὺς πατέρας θεραπεύσας, καὶ οἰκοδομήσας, εἰσηνέχθει εἰς τὸ ἰερατεῖον· ἦν γὰρ χειροτονηθεὶς διάκονος εἰς τὴν τοῦ μεγάλου Εὐθυμίου μόνην, καὶ μετὰ τέσσαρα ἔτη προεβλήθη κειμηλιάρχης, καὶ κανονάρχης, τῷ τεσσαρακοστῷ ἔτει τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ἡλικίας χρόνῳ. πληρώσας ιγ᾽ ἔτη ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ διακονίᾳ, γέγονεν πρεσβύτερος, καὶ διέμεινεν κειμήλιάρχης, καὶ κανονάρχης ἂλλα ιή᾽ ἔτη.
St. Cyriacus, born at Corinth Of the anchorite and best of all anchorites, Cyriacus, I have often made mention in the published Discourse about Euthymius the Great b: and so I have thought it necessary now to make him briefly better known to those who take up this book, relating a few first-fruits of his notable deeds: for if the first-fruits, as the Scripture says, are holy, it is manifest that the whole lump of his life too has been sanctified. This Cyriacus therefore, having obtained an illustrious soul, was born in Achaia, in the city of Corinth: of parents, of a father John, priest of the holy Catholic church of God at Corinth, and of a mother Eudoxia. Of them he was born toward the end of the reign of Theodosius the Younger, on the ninth day of January, in the second Indiction c. His maternal uncle was Peter bishop of the Corinthians d, by whom from boyhood he was made a lector of that holy church. But abbot Cyriacus, reading the sacred Scriptures, as he himself related to me, and exercising himself and spending his nights in them while still a young man, marveled how in many ways God had raised to glory in generation after generation those who with a right purpose strove to please him, and had shown them as luminaries in the world, and had disposed all things from the beginning for the salvation of the human race.
[2] is roused by frequent sacred reading to the perfect life How he had glorified Abel for his sacrifice; had honored Enoch by translation because he pleased him; had preserved Noah, the spark of the human race, for his justice; had made Abraham for his faith the father of the nations; had accepted the pious priesthood of Melchizedek; had raised up Joseph and Job as a pattern of patience and chastity; had appointed Moses lawgiver; had made Joshua the son of Nun to command e the sun and the moon; had rendered David a prophet and king and forefather of the awful mystery; had turned the flame of the Babylonian furnace into dew for the boys; had taught the lions in the pit to fast before Daniel; had transformed the sea monster into a prophet's chamber. At all these things his mind was carried away in wonder, especially when he pondered the birth without seed, and her who was at once Virgin and Mother: how the Word, which was God, was made man without change, and by his precious Cross and resurrection despoiled hell and, triumphing, cast down the deceiving serpent, and gave life again to Adam, slain by his own trespasses, and led him back into paradise. Pondering these and like things in his mind, Cyriacus was pricked in heart with the fear of God, and resolved to withdraw into the holy city and to bid farewell to the affairs of the world.
[3] and bids farewell to the world. Intent upon such thoughts, he heard on a certain Lord's day the Gospel saying: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me; and at once, going out of the church, having disclosed his plan to no one, he went to Cenchreae f, and boarding a ship crossing over into Palestine, he came to Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of his age, in the eighth year of Anastasius bishop of Jerusalem, but in the ninth of the empire of Leo the Great the emperor, at the beginning of the Indiction g. And when he had come into the holy city, the Saint was hospitably received by Eustorgius, a holy man resplendent with all the gifts of the most holy Spirit, who had long since built a most illustrious monastery near the holy city on Sion, in which Cyriacus the servant of God passed the winter, desiring to dwell in the wilderness. And when he heard from almost everyone very many things about the divine Euthymius, he earnestly asked the great father Eustorgius that he might be dismissed with his prayers.
[4] Being dismissed, he came to the laura h of the great Euthymius: He receives the monastic habit from St. Euthymius: and when he had constantly attached himself there to a certain Anatolius a priest and Solympius a monk, brothers according to the flesh, but by race Corinthians and long known to him, he embraced also the great Euthymius, and changed his habit at his holy hands: yet he was not permitted to stay there on account of his youthful age i, but was sent to the Jordan to holy Gerasimus k, the great Theoctistus being already dead l; for the great Euthymius took great care that no young man should dwell in his laura. Holy Gerasimus, moreover, having admitted him, bade him stay in the monastery; where he split wood, carried water, prepared food, and performed every service with eagerness, spending whole days in labor and hardship, passing the nights in prayers to God, assiduous in the office of psalmody as well as in the work of his hands.
[5] But while serving in the monastery, he surpassed the anchorites' manner of living in two respects, In his novitiate sustaining his body with bread and water, and using neither oil nor wine nor even a tempered drink, so that the great Gerasimus, seeing the exercise and discipline of life of the Youth, marveled and loved him greatly. And wishing to attest this, he took him at the time of the fasts into the great wilderness of Rouba m, where they lived in quiet until the feast of Palms among those who on the Lord's day communicated from the hands of the great Euthymius. And when some time had passed, when the great Euthymius had died in Christ, holy Gerasimus saw his soul led away by angels and lifted up to heaven, and taking abbot Cyriacus he went to his monastery, and, the funeral being performed, returned n. But in the ninth year of father Cyriacus's arrival in Palestine our great father Gerasimus died and was adorned with the crown of justice on the fifth of the month of March, Indiction XIII. Basil and Stephen o having obtained the government of the brethren, abbot Cyriacus returned and came to the laura of the great Euthymius, and, being received by Elias [p] the abbot, he obtained a cell and began to live in it solitarily in the twenty-seventh year of his age, possessing nothing of the things of this world. and in the monastic life
[6] And he labored very much in the building of the monastery; for at that time the laura [q] was converted into a monastery. And there was then there a certain man surnamed Thomas [r], notable in his life, whose virtues and prerogatives abbot Cyriacus, having discerned them, joined himself to him, and, profiting and being exercised by the fervor of his spirit, followed his institute. This Thomas moreover was sent by Fidus [s] the deacon to Alexandria, to procure from the archbishop what was necessary for the construction of the monastery. For the monasteries of our fathers the great Euthymius and Theoctistus were still united, having a common manner of living and one administration under one steward [t], according to the great Euthymius's command. In the twelfth year from his holy death [v], when Longinus abbot of the monastery of father Theoctistus had died, and Paul had taken up his presidency, Terebon the Saracen, of old baptized and healed by St. Euthymius [u], being near to death, had left great resources to both monasteries. But when Paul had obstinately resisted and had carried off Terebon's body and the resources, confusion arose, and a division of the monasteries.
[7] His virtues and labors For the possessions being separated which were near the monastery of St. Euthymius, Paul erects a tower at the boundaries of the divided estates, and gives two hundred coins for the purchase of a guest house: so that he alone might retain the common lodging for guests in the holy city. Then therefore with those two hundred coins those of the monastery of the great Euthymius bought a guest house near the tower of David from the fathers of the laura of Souka; but abbot Cyriacus, afflicted in mind on account of the division made of the monasteries, withdraws and comes to the laura of Souka toward the end of Indiction VIII [w], and discharges in different years four offices, namely of the bakehouse, of the infirmary, of the guest lodging, and of the stewardship [x]. And when he had served all the fathers and had been for their edification, he was promoted to the priesthood: for he had been ordained deacon in the monastery of the great Euthymius, and after four years was made treasurer and canonarch [y]. And when thirteen years had been completed in that ministry, he was made a priest, and remained treasurer and canonarch for another eighteen years.
ANNOTATIONS.
Bolland commented in the Life of this Saint given on the 20th of January, which consult if you desire more about these matters.
p. This Elias is different from his namesake who was patriarch of Jerusalem after Sallustius. About this successor of ours it is read in the Life of St. Euthymius page 80: But the fathers, astounded that he (St. Euthymius) foretold things to come with so great confidence, ask as their superior a certain Elias, steward of the monastery, of Jericho by race: whom the dying Saint also granted them.
q. The laura was changed into a monastery only in the year 479, or rather in the following, in which Cyriacus was in the thirty-first or second year of his age. Further, the construction of the monastery with its circumstances is narrated at length by Cyril in the Life of St. Euthymius page 85 and following, and there it becomes manifest from the time of the see of the patriarch Martyrius, who in the year 478 or 479 only ascended the see of Jerusalem and sent Fidus to the emperor Leo, that the beginnings of the monastery were placed about the year just named.
r. Thomas, according to the reckoning at the preceding letter, was not sent to Alexandria before the year 478 or the following, since before that time there had been no business about founding a monastery. I do not know therefore what he is about who wove the chronological notes to the Life of St. Cyriacus in the Benedictine Analecta, when at page 109 in the margin he attaches Thomas's death to the year 474. In that Life Metaphrastes indeed wove in a patch after the words below according to the great Euthymius's command, of this kind: But the divine Thomas too, when he had completed the present life, had been received into the eternal dwelling and numbered in the company of the just: but by this he ought to have suggested an error about the death of Longinus, not indeed the epoch of Thomas's death.
s. The wonderful apparition of St. Euthymius which happened to the shipwrecked Fidus, his heavenly commands about founding the monastery, and Fidus's efforts to carry them out, you will read described thoroughly in the Life of St. Euthymius in the often-praised Pouget page 86 and following. The see of Alexandria at that time was occupied by Timothy Salophaciolus, whom others name Asbus and Albus. He succeeded Timothy Aelurus when he was expelled in the year of Christ 460, and died in the year 482, as Solier makes out in the Chronological History which is prefixed to volume 5 of June, page 58.
t. When St. Euthymius died, Elias succeeded to the presidency of the Laura: Maris had already succeeded St. Theoctistus before (see the Life of St. Sabas in Cotelier number X page 231), and Longinus succeeded him, while St. Euthymius was still alive and ordaining it; how then were both monasteries united? They were, namely, under one and the same steward or dispenser, who administered the undivided temporal goods, the abbots alone being intent upon spiritual matters. But their duties too were so divided that I believe that he who governed the monastery, which the young men had to inhabit in order to be formed to the sterner virtues before they were admitted to the laura and to the cells, was in some manner subject to the chief governor of the laura.
v. St. Euthymius died on the 20th day of January in the year of Christ 473: therefore in the twelfth year after, 484, or at the beginning of the following one, Longinus died. About Paul, who followed him in the presidency, besides what Cyril here comprises, I find nothing elsewhere.
u. Who that Terebon was Cyril describes fully and thoroughly in the Life of St. Euthymius page 19, from whom receive a few things. That ancient Terebon then (this one of ours), grandfather of the younger, when he was a young man and not yet of age, being struck by a demon, withered on his whole right side from head to foot. And though much money was spent, his father, called Aspebetus, helped him nothing further. Now this Aspebetus, since he was a heathen and a tributary of the Persians, came into the dominion of the Romans by this treaty. At the beginning of the persecution then stirred up in Persia about the end of the reign of Isdegerdes king of the Persians, when the magi wished to seize all the Christians, they set the prefects of the subject Saracens everywhere along the roads, so that none of the Christians living in Persia should flee to the Romans. But Aspebetus, being at that time a prefect, when he saw this savagery and inhumanity against the Christians stirred up by the magi of the city, moved by compassion, hindered [ ] of the Christians from flight. Nay rather, taking pity, he helped them, although he practiced the religion of the heathen received from his forefathers. Being therefore accused before king Isdegerdes, taking his half-withered son Terebon with all his kindred and substance, he fled over to the Romans, whom Anatolius, then prefect of the East, having received them, made subject to the Romans, a treaty being ratified, and appointed Aspebetus prefect of the Saracens who by treaty were subject to the Romans and who dwelt in Arabia. Here you have how Terebon came into Arabia, and whence he possessed great resources. Cyril narrates after these things how Terebon, while still a heathen, was called by a vision to St. Euthymius, was healed by him, and with his father and all his kindred, astounded at the prodigy, was converted to the faith: all of which, if you wish, you will read in the same place. At page 45 he reports another benefit rendered to Terebon by St. Euthymius, when he miraculously obtained fruitfulness for his wife.
w. Namely in the year 485, which reckoning flows excellently with the rest of the computation.
x. Of each of those offices mention is often made elsewhere in the Lives of SS. Euthymius, Sabas, and the other heads of monasteries; an explanation, if you need any, you will find in Du Cange in either Lexicon.
y. I observed in the Commentarius prævius §2 numbers 12 and following that the chronological notes which concur here are not a little complicated. See them there disentangled and reduced with the others to a chronological order.
CHAPTER II.
St. Cyriacus's wondrous abstinence and zeal for penance adorned by God with prodigies. Seeking hiding places out of love of solitude, he is made illustrious by miracles. He uncovers and attacks the depraved dogmas of the Origenists.
ΔΙεβεβαιώσατο δέ μοι λέγων, ἐν τῷ τοσούτῳ τῶν τριάκοντα ἑνὸς χρόνων κανονάρχην μὲ ὄντα, καὶ κειμηλιάρχην, οὐκ ἴδεν ὁ ἥλιος ἐσθίοντα, οὐδὲ ὁργιζόμενον. ἔλεγεν δέ μοι καὶ τοῦτο, ὅτι οὐκ ἐπλήρουν κρούων εἰς τὸ ξύλον τοῦ κρούσματος τῆς λαύρας τῆς νικτερινῆς ψαλμῳδίας, μεχρις οὗ ἐστιχολόγουν ὅλον τὸν ἄμωμον. τῷ μέντοι οὖν εζ᾽ τῆς αὐτοῦ ἡλικίας χρόνῳ, παραδίδωσιν τὸ κειμηλιαρχεῖον ἐπὶ τῆς τρίτης ἰνδικτίονος. καὶ ἀναχωρεῖ ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ Νατουφᾶ πανέρημον, μαθητὴν τινὰ ἔχων μεθ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ. καὶ έπειδὴ μελάγριαι οὐχ εὑρίσκοντο ἐν τοῖς τόποις ἐκείνοις, παρεκάλεσεν τὸν θεὸν διὰ τὴν ἀνάγκην τοὺ σώματος παρασχεῖν αυτοῖς ἐκ τῶν αὐτόθι σκίλλων τρέφεσθαι. καὶ πιστεύσας τῷ τὰ πάντα κτίσαντι, καὶ μεταβαλεῖν τὸ πικρὸν εἰς γλυκὺ δυναμένῳ, εἶπεν τῷ ἑαυτοῦ μαθητῇ, ἄπειθε τέκνον, συνάγαγε σκίλλας καὶ ἔκζεσον. καὶ εὐλογητὸς Κύριος, ὅτι ἔχωμεν ἐξ αὐτῶν εὐφρανθῆναι. καὶ συνήγαγεν ὁ μαθητὴς, καὶ ἐξέζεσεν, καὶ παρέθηκεν μετὰ ἄλατος, καὶ ἐγλυκάνθησαν αἱ σκίλλαι παραυτίκα, καὶ ἔμειναν ἐσθίοντες ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐπὶ χρόνον ἐτῶν δ᾽. Τοῦ δὲ τετραετοῦς χρόνου πληρωθέντος, ἀνήρ τις, πρωτοκωμήτης ἀπὸ Θεκούων τῆς κώμης, μαθὼν τὰ περί αὐτοῦ παρὰ τῶν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ θρέμματα νεμόντων, ἦλθεν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἔχων ὄνον ἄρτων θερμῶν πεφορτωμένον. καὶ ἀπογυμνώσας ἀπῆλθεν, καὶ ἤσθιον ἀπὸ τοῦ ἄρτου.
[9] Ὁ μὲν οὖν μαθητὴς χωρὶς γνώμης τοῦ γέροντος κατ᾽ ἥν εἶχεν συνήθειαν σκίλλας ἐκζέσας ἐγεύσατο, καὶ μὴ ἀνέγκας τὴν πικρίαν, ἔκειτο ἄφωνος. ὁ δὲ γέρων μαθὼν τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς συμφορᾶς, ὑπερευξάμενος αὐτῷ καὶ ἀναστήσας αὐτὸν, μετέδωκεν αὐτῷ τῶν ἀχράντων μηστυρίων, καὶ ὑγιῆ ἀποκαταστήσας, ἐνουθέτη λέγων· τέκνον, ὁ θεὸς πάντοτε μὲν θαυματουργεῖ, πολλῷ δὲ μᾶλλον ἐν καιρῷ ἀνάγκης, καὶ περιστάσεως, ἐξαιρέτως ὅπου καὶ σωτηρία ψυχῶν. μὴ οὖν δειλιάσης. καὶ τῶν μὲν ἄρτων ἥδη πληρωθέντων, καὶ ἀνάγκης αὐτοῖς γενομένης, πάλιν ὁ γέρων εὐλογήσας, τῷ μαθητῇ ἐπέταξεν ἐκ τῆς σκίλλης ἐτοιμᾶσαι εἰς τὴν ὥραν τοῦ γεύσασθαι. ὁ δὲ μαθητὴς ἐφοβεῖτο ἃψασθαι. καὶ λαβὼν ὁ γέρων καὶ εὐλογήσας, καὶ τὸν τοῦ σταυροῦ τύπον ποιῆσας, ἤρξατο πρῶτος ἐσθίειν, καὶ οὕτως ὅ μαθητὴς θαῤῥήσας ἔφαγεν, καὶ ἔμεινεν ἀβλαβὴς. τῷ δὲ ε᾽ χρόνῳ τῆς ἐν τῷ νατουφᾶ αὐτοῦ διαγωγῆς πληρουμένου, ἀνήρ τις Θεκουἳνὸς ἀκούσας περὶ αὐτοῦ, ἤγαγεν πρὸς αὐτὸν
τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ δινῶς σεληνιαζόμενον, καὶ ἐδυσώπει αὐτὸν εὐχὴν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ ποιήσασθαι, ὁ δὲ γέρων συμπαθήσας αὐτῷ, έποίησεν εὐχὴν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀλείψας αὐτὸν ἔλαιον, τοῦ ἁγίου σταυροῦ, ἀπεκατέστησεν αὐτὸν ὑγιῆ.
[10] Ὅστις Θεκουἳνὸς τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ὑγιῆ ἀπολαβὼν, τὸ θαῦμα ἀνεκήρυττεν. τούτου δὲ διαφημησθέντος εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν ἑνορίαν ἐκείνην, ἦλθον πρὸς αὐτὸν πολλοὶ, καὶ ὄχλουν αὐτῷ. καὶ φεύγων ὁ ἀββάς Κυριακὸς τὴν ὄχλησιν, ἀνεχώρησεν ἐπὶ τὴν ἐνδοτέραν ἔρημον τοῦ Ῥουβᾶ, καὶ ἔμεινεν ἐκεῖσε χρόνον ἐτῶν πέντε, ῥίζαις μελαγρίων ἀρκούμενος, καὶ καρδίαις καλάμων. καὶ μαθόντες τινὲς κατήρχοντο πρὸς αὐτὸν, φέροντες ἀσθενοῦντας, καὶ ὑπὸ πνευμάτων ἀκαθάρτων ἐνοχλουμένους, οὕστινας ἐθεράπευσεν τῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ χρώμενος ἐπικλήσει, καὶ τῇ τοῦ τιμίου σταυροῦ σφραγίδι. Τότε τὴν πολλὴν δυσχεραίνων ὄχλησιν, ἀνεχώρησεν ἀπὸ τοῦ Ῥουβᾶ, καὶ εἴσηλθεν εἰς τόπον πανέρημον, καὶ ἀπόκρυφον, ἐνθα οὐδεὶς τῶν ἀναχωρητῶν ἔμεινεν. ὁ δὲ τόπος ὑπὸ τῶν ἐνχωρίων Σουσακεὶμ ὀνομάζεται. ἔνθα οἱ ἀμφότεροι χείμαῤῥοι, κατασμίγονται, ὅτε τῆς νέας λαύρας καὶ ὁ τῆς Σουκᾶ λαύρας, βαθύτατοι ὄντες, καὶ φοβερώτατοι. φασὶν δέ τινες τούτους εἶναι τοὺς ποταμοὺς Ἰθάμ, περὶ ὧν ὁ Δαυῒδ ἐν ταῖς πρὸς θεὸν μεγαληγορίαις φησὶν· Σοὺ ἐξύρανας τοὺ ποταμοὺς Ἰθάμ· ποιήσας τοίνυν εἰς σουσακείμ ἔτη ἐπτὰ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τῆς μεγίστης τε καὶ φοβερωτάτης θνήσεως, οἱ τῆς λαύρας τοῦ σουκᾶ πατέρες τὸν ἐπικείμενον φόβον δεδιότες, κατῆλθον ὁμοθυμαδὸν μετὰ λιτῆς, καὶ πολλῇ τῇ παρακλήσει χρησάμενοι, ἀνήγαγον αὐτὸν ἀπὸ σουσακεὶμ εἰς τὴν λαύραν. ὅστις ἀββᾶς Κυριακὸς εἰς τὴν λαύραν ἐλθὼν, ἔμεινεν εἰς τὸ ἀναχωρητικῶν κελλίον τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις χαρίτωνος ἑπὶ πέντε χρόνους καταγωνιζόμενος τῶν Ὀριγενιαστῶν.
[11] Τότε δὴ ἐγὼ ἀπὸ τῆς μονῆς τοῦ μεγάλου Εὐθυμίου παραβαλὼν εἴς τὴν μεγίστην λαύραν τοῦ μακαρίου Σάβα, τῷ ἀββᾶ Ἰωάννῃ τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ καὶ ἡσυχαστῇ, ἀπεστάλην ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ πρὸς τοῦτον τὸν ἀββᾶν Κυριακὸν μετὰ γραμμάτων διηγουμένων περὶ τοῦ γεγονότος ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ πόλει δημοσίου πολέμου, καὶ δυσωποῦντων αὐτὸν νῦν ἀγωνίσασθαι ἐν ταῖς πρὸς Θεὸν πρεσβείαις πρὸς τὸ ἐν τάχει καταβληθῆναι τὸ φρύαγμα τῶν ἐν τῇ νέᾳ λαύρᾳ μετὰ Νόννου, καὶ Λεοντίου κατὰ Χριστοῦ στρατευομένων διὰ τῶν Ὀριγένους δογμάτων. ἐλθὼν τοίνυν ἐγὼ είς τὸν σουκὰν, καὶ μετὰ Σωζίμου, καὶ Ἰωάννου τῶν αὐτοῦ μαθητῶν, ἀπελθὼν πρὸς αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ σπήλαιον τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις Χαρίτωνος, καὶ προσκυνήσας αὐτὸν, ἐπέδωκα αὐτῷ τὴν ἐπιστολὴν, εἶπον δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ ἀπὸ στόματος τὰ παρὰ τοῦ ἀββᾶ Ἰωάννου τοῦ ἡσυχαστοῦ λεχθέντα. ὁ δὲ ἀββᾶς Κυριακὸς δακρύσας εἶπεν, εἰπὲ τῷ στείλαντί σε, μὴ ἀθυμήσωμεν πάτερ, ὁψόμεθα γὰρ ἐν τάχει τὴν μὲν Νόννου, καὶ Λεοντίου ἐν θανάτῳ κατάλυσιν, τὴν τε τῶν λοιπῶν ἐκ τῆς νέας λαύρας ἐκβολὴν, πρὸς τοιούτους γνησίους τοῦ μακαρίου Σάβα μαθητὰς τὴν νέαν λαύραν οἰκεῖν, τῶν νόθων ἐξ αὐτῆς διωχθέντων.
[12] Ἐγὼ δὲ εἶπον· τί γάρ ἐστι πάτερ τὰ παρ᾽ αὐτῶν πρεσβευόμενα, ἐπείπερ αὐτοὶ διαβεβαιοῦνται, ὅτι τὰ περὶ προϋπάρξεως, καὶ ἀποκαταστάσεως δόγματα μέσα τυγχάνει καὶ ἀκίνδυνα, προφέροντες καὶ ἐκεῖνα τὰ παρὰ τοῦ ἁγίου Γρηγορίου λεγόμενα· φιλοσοφεῖ μοι περὶ κόσμου, περὶ ὕλης, περὶ ψυχῆς, περὶ λογικῶν φύσεων, βελτιόνων τε, καὶ χειρόνων, περὶ ἀναστάσεως, Χριστοῦ παθημάτων. ἐν τούτοις γὰρ καὶ τὸ ἐπιτυγχάνειν οὐκ ἄχρηστον, καὶ τὸ διαμαρτάνειν ἀκίνδυνον. πρὸς ταῦτα ἀπεκρίθη ὁ γέρων καὶ εἶπεν. οὐ μέσα, καὶ ἀκίνδυνα τὰ περὶ προυπάρξεως δόγματα, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπικίνδυνα, καὶ ἐπιβλαβῆ, καὶ βλάσφημα. ἵνα δέ σε πληρωφορήσω ἐν ὀλίγαις λέξεσιν τὴν πολυσχεδῆ αὐτῶν ἀσέβειαν στηλιτεῦσαι πειράσομαι· λέγουσιν μὴ εἶναι ἕνα τῆς Τριάδος τὸν Χριστὸν. λέγουσιν τά ἐξ ἀναστάσεως σώματα ἡμῶν εἴς παντελῆ ἀπώλειαν ἐλθεῖν, καὶ Χριστοῦ πρώτου. λέγουσιν ὅτι ἡ ἁγία Τριὰς οὐκ ἐδημιούργησεν τὸν κόσμον, καὶ ὅτι ἐν τῇ ἀποκαταστάσει δυνήσονται πάντα τὰ λογικὰ μέχρις καὶ δαιμόνων δημιουργεῖν αἰῶνας. λέγουσιν ὅτι αἰθέρια, καὶ σφεροειδῆ ἐγείροντο ἡμῶν τὰ σώματα ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει, καὶ γὰρ καὶ τὸ τοῦ Κυρίου οὕτω φασὶν ἐγείρασθαι σῶμα. λέγουσιν ὅτι γινόμεθα ἴσοι τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐν τῇ ἀποκαταστάσει.
[13] Ποῖος τοίνυν ἅδης ταῦτα ἐρεύξατο; οὐ παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ ταῦτα μεμαθήκασιν, μὴ γένοιτο, τοῦ λαλήσαντος διὰ τῶν προφητῶν, καὶ ἀποστόλων, ἀλλὰ Πυθαγόρου, καὶ Πλάτωνος, Ὀριγένους τε καὶ Εὐαγρίου, καὶ Διδύμου παρειλήφασιν τὰ μυσαρὰ ταῦτα, καὶ ἀσεβῆ δόγματα. ἐγὼ δὲ τεθαύμακα, πόσους τε εἰκῆ, καὶ μάτην πονους ἀνήντλησαν εἰς τοιαύτας ἐπιβλαβεῖς ματαιοπονίας, καὶ πῶς οὕτως τὰς ἰδίας ὅπλῆσαν γλῶσσας κατὰ τῆς εὐσεβείας. οὐκ ἔδει μᾶλλον αὐτοὺς ἐπαινεῖν καὶ δοξάζειν, φιλαδελφίαν, φιλοξενίαν, παρθενίαν, πτωχοτροφίαν, ψαλμωδίαν τε, καὶ πάννυχον στάσιν, καὶ δάκρυα κατανύξεως; ουκ᾽ ἐχρῆν αὐτοὺς μᾶλλον ὑποπιάζειν νηστείαις τὸ σῶμα, καὶ δι᾽ εὐχῆς πρὸς θεὸν ἐκδημεῖν, καὶ μελέτην θανάτου τὸν βίον ποιεῖσθαι, καὶ μὴ ταῖς τοιαύταις αἰρεσχελίαις ἀδολεσχεῖν; καὶ λέγει ὁ γέρων· ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἠβουλήθησαν τῇ ταπεινῇ ὁδῷ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πορευθῆναι, ἀλλ᾽ ἐματαιώθησαν ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐσκοτίσθη ἡ ἀσύνετος αὐτῶν καρδία, φάσκοντες, εἶναι σοφοὶ, ἐμοράνθησαν. πάντων δὲ τῶν ζυζανίων ὁ σπορεὺς, καὶ τῶν κακῶν αἴτιος γέγονεν Νόννος, ὅστις τῆς τοῦ μακαρίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Σάβα κοιμήσεως δοξαζόμενος, ποτίζειν ἤρξατο τὸν πλησίον ἀνατροπὴν θολερὰν, Λεόντιον τὸν Βυζάντιον ἔχων ὑπουργὸν, καὶ ὑπέρμαχον, καὶ συναγωνιστὴν.
[14] Καὶ πρῶτον μὲν τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ νέᾳ λαύρᾳ λοτιωτέρους, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀλογοτέρους, εἰς τὴν αὐτοῦ μιαρὰν συνκατέσπασεν αἵρεσιν, καὶ οὐκ ἠρκέσθη τούτοις, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰς τὰ μοναστήρια τῆς ἐρήμου τῆς ἐαυτοῦ μεταδοῦναι λοίμης ἐσπούδασεν. ποίαις δὲ μηχαναῖς οὐκ ἐχρήσατο κἀμὲ τὸν ταπεινὸν συγκατασπᾶσαι; ὁ δὲ θεὸς δι᾽ ἀποκάμψεως ἔδειξέν μοι τὸν τῆς αἱρέσεως αὐτοῦ βόρβορον. ποίαις δὲ μεθοδίαις οὐκ ἐχρήσατο τῇ τοῦ Σουκᾶ συνοδίᾳ τῆς ἐαυτοῦ μεταδοῦναι κακοδοξίας; καὶ οὐκ ἴσχυσεν, ἐμοῦ τῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ χάριτι ἕκαστον νουθετοῦντος, καὶ παρακαλοῦτος τῆς ὀρθῆς μὴ ἀποστῆναι πίστεως. καὶ αὐτοῦ σπουδάσαντος ἡγούμενον τῆς ἐαυτοῦ αἱρέσεως ὑπασπιστὴν καταστῆσαι ἐν τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ λαύρᾳ, Πέτρον φημὶ τὸν Ἀλεξανδρέα, καὶ δουλῶσαι τὴν συνοδίαν, καὶ οὐκ ἡδυνήθη, ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον ἡ συνοδία κινηθεῖσα, τῆς ἡγεμονίας Πέτρον ἐξέωσεν. πάλιν μὲν οὖν οἱ περὶ Νόννον ἀναιδῶς κινούμενοι, ἀλλὸν Πέτρον ἑλλαδικὸν τῆς Ὀριγένους λοίμης ὄντα ὑπασπιστὴν ἡγούμενον ἡμῶν ἐγκατέστησαν. ἀλλ᾽ ἡ σωνοδία πάλιν ζήλῳ πνευματικῷ κινουμένη, Πέτρον μὲν τῆς ἡγεμονίας ἔξέωσεν, καὶ εἰς τὴν λαύραν τοῦ μακαρίου Σάβα ἀπελθοῦσα, ἔλαβεν ἑαυτῇ τὸν νῦν ἡγούμενον ἀββὰν Κασσιανὸν, Σκυθοπολίτῃν ὄντα τῷ γένει, ὀρθόδοξόν τε ὄντα καὶ βίῳ καὶ λόγῳ κεκοσμημένον· καὶ τότε μόλις ἐσχύσαμεν τοὺς Ὀριγένου ὑπάσπιστὰς ἀποκρούσασθαι.
A strict observer of the Rules and a practicer of abstinence Further, he affirmed a to me, saying: In all that time of thirty-one years in which I was canonarch and treasurer, the sun did not see me eating, nor moved by anger. He told me this too, that he did not cease from striking upon the wood by which in the laura the signal is given b for the nocturnal psalmody, until he had recited the whole Immaculate c. But in the fifty-seventh year of his age he resigns the office of treasurer in the third Indiction d, and withdraws to the wilderness of Natupha, having a disciple e with him; and since melagria f were not to be found in those places, he prayed God that he would supply them with what was necessary for the body from the squills g which grew there. And trusting in him who created all things and can change the bitter into sweet, he said to his disciple: Go, son, gather squills and cook them, and blessed be God, for we have wherewith to be gladdened. The disciple gathered and cooked them and sprinkled them with salt, and the squills at once became sweet, and they continued to eat of them for the space of four years. But when the four years had elapsed, a certain man, chief of the village, from the village of Thekoa h, who had heard of Cyriacus from those who were pasturing flocks in the desert, came to him having an ass laden with warm loaves, which, when he had unloaded it i, he departed, and they ate of that bread.
[9] by a miracle he makes bitter herbs sweet. Made illustrious by prodigies, But the disciple, when without the Old man's bidding, according to the custom he had, he had cooked squills, tasted them, and, not bearing the bitterness, lay speechless. But the Old man, having learned the cause of the misfortune, prayed for him, and when he had raised him up, imparted to him the undefiled mysteries and restored him to health, and admonished him, saying: Son, God indeed always works miracles, yet much more in a time of necessity and affliction: but especially for the salvation of souls. Do not therefore be afraid. And when the loaves had been consumed and need had arisen for them, the Old man again blessed and bade the disciple prepare some of the squills for the hour of eating. But the disciple was afraid to touch them. And the Old man, taking them, when he had blessed them and made the sign of the Cross, began to eat first, and thus the disciple ate and remained unharmed. But when the fifth year of his stay in Natupha was completed, when a certain man of Thekoa had heard of him, he brought to him his son, grievously lunatic, and besought him that he would fulfill his vow over him. But the Old man, taking pity on him, poured out a prayer over him. And when he had anointed him with the oil k of the holy Cross, he restored him to health.
[10] That man of Thekoa, when he had received back his son whole, published the miracle abroad, and when it had been spread through all that neighborhood, many came to him and were troublesome to him. he flees the crowds. He is brought back to the laura of Souka. And abbot Cyriacus, fleeing the throng, withdrew into the inner wilderness of Rouba, and remained there five years, content with the roots of melagria and the pith of reeds. Certain persons hearing this began to bring to him the sick and those vexed by unclean spirits, whom he healed using the name of Christ and the sign of the venerable Cross. Then, wearied of the great throng, he withdrew from Rouba, and came into a most solitary and hidden place, where none of the anchorites remained. But the place is called by the inhabitants Susakim l, where two torrents, namely that of the New laura and that of the laura of Souka m, mingle together, and they are very great and most terrible. And some say that these are the rivers Etham, of which David in his great utterances to God says: You dried up the rivers Etham n. When therefore he had stayed at Susakim seven years, in the time of the greatest and most horrible corruption o, the fathers of the laura of Souka, struck by the present fear, came with one accord in supplication; and using much entreaty they led him away from Susakim to the laura. And so abbot Cyriacus, having returned to the laura, remained at the solitary cell of St. Chariton about five years, fighting against the Origenists.
[11] Then indeed I, setting out from the monastery of the great Euthymius to the great laura of blessed Sabas [p], The errors of the Origenists where John, bishop and silentiary, was abbot,
was sent by him to this abbot Cyriacus with letters announcing the public war [q] waged in the holy city, and urging him to strive with prayers before God, that as quickly as possible the arrogance might be cast down of those who in the new laura with Nonnus and Leontius [r] were making war against Christ by the dogmas of Origen. When therefore I had come to Souka, and with Zosimus and John his disciples had gone off to him into the cave of holy Chariton [s], and had venerated him, I delivered the letter, reporting to him also what I had received from the mouth of abbot John the silentiary. But abbot Cyriacus, weeping, said: Report to him who sent you: Let us not lose heart, father, for we shall very soon see the destruction in death of Nonnus and Leontius, and the expulsion of the rest from the new laura [t], so that genuine disciples of blessed Sabas may inhabit the new laura, the illegitimate ones being driven from it.
[12] But I said: What then, Father, are their assertions? and their blasphemies Since they affirm that the dogmas about pre-existence and restitution to the former state are indifferent and without danger: alleging also those sayings of holy Gregory [v]: Discourse to me about the world, about matter, about the soul, about rational natures, both the more excellent and the less eminent, about the resurrection, about the sufferings of Christ: for in these both to hit the mark is not useless, and to go astray is without danger. To this the Old man answered and said: By no means are the dogmas about pre-existence indifferent and without danger, but perilous and harmful and blasphemous. And that I may fully persuade you of it, I shall try in a few words to depict their manifold impiety. They say that Christ is not one of the Trinity [u]. They say that our bodies after the resurrection will utterly perish, and first that of Christ [w]. They say that the holy Trinity did not found the world, and that in the restitution to the former state all rational natures, even the demons themselves, will be able to produce Aeons [x]. They say that our bodies will be ethereal and spherical at the resurrection: for such, they say, was the Lord's own body when it rose. They say that we shall be like Christ in the restitution to the former state.
[13] he sets forth to Cyril, and foretells the end of the disturbances, What hell at last belched forth these things? They did not learn these things from God — far be it — who spoke through the Prophets and Apostles: but from Pythagoras and Plato, from Origen and Evagrius [y] and from Didymus [z] they received these abominable and impious dogmas. And I have marveled how many labors they have rashly and vainly spent upon those damnable madnesses, and how greatly they have armed their tongues against piety. Ought they not rather to praise and cultivate brotherly charity, virginity, love of poverty, psalmody and the night station [aa], and the tears of penitence? Ought they not rather to subdue the body with fastings and to journey in mind to God and to spend life in the meditation of death, than to rave with these heretical follies? And the Old man said: But they would not walk in the humble way of Christ, but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened: saying that they were wise, they became fools [bb]. And the sower of all the tares and the author of the evils was Nonnus, who, being puffed up from the death of our blessed father Sabas, began to pour out upon his neighbor a turbid perdition, having Leontius the Byzantine as minister and helper and fellow-soldier.
[14] And first indeed those who in the New laura were the more learned, foretells, or rather the more unlearned, he dragged along into his wicked heresy. But nor did he stop at these, but strove also to infect the monasteries of the wilderness with his plague. And what engines did he not bring to bear to overthrow even weak me? But God through a vision showed me the mire of his heresy. What fraudulent snares did he not lay, to make the community of Souka a sharer in his perverse doctrine — and he could not, since by Christ's grace I was always exhorting and rousing each one not to fall away from the right faith. But he also busied himself to set up in our laura an abbot who was a defender of his heresy, Peter, I mean, the Alexandrian [cc]; and to subject the community, nor could he nevertheless, for the community, being stirred up against him, drove Peter from the presidency. And so again certain men, incited by Nonnus, set up as abbot another Peter, sprung from Greece, a champion of Origen's plague: but the community, again animated with a zeal according to the spirit, drove Peter from the presidency, and going to the laura of blessed Sabas received thence the abbot who is now, Cassian [dd], of Scythopolis by race, orthodox and notable in life and doctrine. And thus at last we scarcely were able to repress the defenders of Origen.
ANNOTATIONS.
they labor with doubtful enough success. It is certain from book 2 of Paralipomenon chapter XI verse 6 that a certain place, more probably between Bethlehem and Thecue, was called Hitham, Aithan, Ethan, or, as the Vulgate has, Etam. The same seems to be that of which Josephus writes in Antiquities book 8 chapter 2, and which he says is distant from Jerusalem by two schoeni, that is, fifteen miles. That place was a delight to Solomon on account of the pleasantness of the waters flowing together there. Le Brun in his Eastern Journey chapter 51 describes the ruins of the pools existing there and presents them in a drawing. From his account they are distant about one mile from Bethlehem. Although all these things, as regards the distance, seem to fit well enough the site of the laura of Souka, yet they agree less with Susakim, several miles distant from it, according to number 15, and besides, the description of the torrents which Cyril here makes by no means suggests the image of pools. But neither elsewhere do I find a confluence in Palestine to which I could apply those words.
p. At about what time and on what occasion Cyril was sent by St. John the Silentiary, whose Acts were illustrated by us on the 13th of May, on which he is venerated, you will find set forth in the Commentarius prævius number 17 and following.
q. Thus I thought the word, otherwise ambiguous, should be translated, on account of what I deduced in the Commentarius prævius number 17, which consult if you please.
r. Of Nonnus, in the often-mentioned Life of St. Sabas at number 36 page 274, it is read: This Agapetus, having undertaken the government of the New laura, found in the congregation four monks admitted there by the most simple Paul, who was unaware of them, who secretly whispered Origenian dogmas: whose chief was a certain Palestinian man, Nonnus by name, who, professing to follow Christianity and feigning piety, had in his mind the dogmas of the impious heathen, of the Jews, and of the Manichees, which by Origen, Evagrius, and Didymus were fabulously brought forth about pre-existence. He then narrates his expulsion, and his machinations against the Catholics. His end and other things pertaining to it you have in the Commentarius prævius §2 number 19. Of Leontius, in the same Life, Cyril speaks thus at number 72 page 344: Finally he (St. Sabas, before Justinian) recounted the destructive heresy of Origen along with the rejection of the said heresies, since among the monks who were with him a certain man of Byzantium by race, Leontius by name, one of those who together with Nonnus had been received into the New laura, was found to defend the dogmas of Origen. Wherefore St. Sabas drove him from his company and, returning into Palestine, abandoned him. Leontius, left behind at Byzantium, thrust himself into the court and there by dissimulation most grievously injured the cause of the Orthodox. His nefarious machinations you have in the same place at number 84, his death at number 86.
s. Of this cave of St. Chariton it is written in his own Life at number 13: Since he took care for quiet and silence more than for anything else, not being ignorant how much it could contribute to virtue, when he had learned that there was a certain cave situated indeed on a steep and precipitous mountain, but not far distant from this sacred laura (of Souka), which even to this day is called Cremastos, that is, the Hanging one (for no one can come to it except by ladders), that excellent man inhabits it. The aforesaid cave, of which the discourse here is, thence retained the name of St. Chariton, and was much frequented by holy men.
t. This prophecy of St. Cyriacus was fulfilled to the letter. See the Commentarius prævius §2 number 19, where you have the matter with its circumstances reported from the Life of St. Sabas by our Cyril.
v. Reference is made here, unless I am mistaken, to the words of St. Gregory Nazianzen, Apologetic Oration 1, from Billy's edition, number 65. Certainly not a few of the words reported here are taken thence, but the holy Doctor's sense has been ridiculously perverted, who there discusses what matter is to be treated by a sacred orator and how, and says only that greater circumspection must be used in discourses about the most holy Trinity than in treating other matters. Lippomano, and after him Surius, here observes that a part of what is here cited has been stitched on from the Works against the Eunomians, and rightly. Take Gregory's words at the end of Oration 1 on Theology, otherwise 33: Philosophize, he says, about the world or about the worlds, about matter, about the soul, about natures endowed with reason, both good and bad, about the resurrection, about the judgment, about rewards and punishments, about the torments of Christ. For in these subjects both to attain the mark is useful, and to go astray is by no means dangerous. To which these words of the Origenists are clearly referred: but wrongly and craftily are St. Gregory's sayings twisted into a perverse sense. For indeed the holy father there, inveighing against the Eunomians, because as philosophers of a single dawn they were wont to dispute about the most subtle questions and to decide them with a lofty brow, and treated the most abstruse matters about God and the most holy Trinity unskillfully, assigns them only another subject, about which, if not more happily, at least less dangerously they might busy themselves. This purpose of his both what precedes and what immediately follows clearly show. But indeed (Gregory goes on) with God in this life we shall have commerce more sparingly, but somewhat later perhaps more fully.
u. This proposition savors rather of Arius or his followers than of Origen or the Origenists. Although, as is usual with heretics, those who had imbibed Origen's errors in Palestine could easily have admitted blasphemous follies from other heresiarchs to suit their own convenience. Indeed above at letter r our Cyril hands down in the Life of St. Sabas that Nonnus was befooled with the dreams of the heathen, of the Jews, and of the Manichees. Moreover, the blasphemous dogmas gathered here were, I think, championed separately by different men, since they seem too openly opposed to one another to have been championed by the same man, if any sense remained to him.
w. In the Analecta καὶ Χριστοῦ πρώτοῦ is translated "and of Christ first."
x. Aeons, that is, ages, says the translator in the Benedictine Analecta; and this indeed it means in the obvious sense: but another is probably meant, and one very different. The Aeons here seem to have proceeded from the Valentinians or Ptolemaites, of whom Epiphanius in Heresy 33. Tertullian describes them, exploding them, in the book against the Valentinians chapter 8, where he hands down that the generation of Aeons in the ravings of the Valentinians was terminated at a decade. Further, the Aeons in their abominable genesis were Gods, or demigods, or I know not what kind of monster. Consult, if you desire more, the aforesaid Tertullian, who wittily lashes their madness.
y. Evagrius, who is commonly called of Pontus, was famous among the Origenists. Born at Ibera or Ibora in Pontus, he had become a deacon of the church of Constantinople, where he had ministered under Nectarius with much prudence and zeal. Beginning perhaps sincerely, out of desire for a more perfect life and for salvation, having set out into Palestine and thence into Egypt, he had devoted himself to solitude, and having obtained the holy wonder-working Macarii as teachers, he himself was accounted a saint, whose virtue was made illustrious even by prodigies: but he had concealed the Origen whom he savored of, until the hidden error at last broke out with the applause of the Origenists. Especially in his ascetic Opuscules he served up his poison. See Socrates and Palladius, Lives of the Fathers chapters 1, 12, 22, 25. St. Jerome set forth some of his errors.
z. Didymus of Alexandria was most famous and celebrated with the praises of the greatest and holiest men. He had lost his sight from very boyhood: yet from the authors, both sacred and profane, read aloud to him he had so profited in the sciences that few like him were found, and he was chosen to govern the school of Alexandria. Among his disciples are numbered Rufinus, Palladius, and Isidore the priest. He published several great Works, some of which survive even today. See St. Jerome, On Ecclesiastical Writers chapter 109, in the Chronicle at the year 376 and elsewhere; Palladius, Lausiac History chapter 38; Rufinus book 2 of the History chapter 7, and others. He had written a commentary on Origen's book On Principles, some of whose doctrines he had either imbibed or perhaps so explained that he added something of his own too incautiously, which even increased those errors; wherefore he was reputed a patron of the Origenists and was condemned long after his death.
aa. These sighs of his Cyril borrowed from St. Gregory Nazianzen, in whom the same things are read in Oration 1 against the Eunomians, otherwise 33, toward the end.
bb. These things are taken from the first Epistle to the Romans chapter 1 verse 21.
cc. Peter the Alexandrian, driven from the laura, afterwards stirred up various troubles for the orthodox monks, being intruded by the authority of Theodore Ascidas into the ministry of Peter, patriarch of Jerusalem, a rather timid man. Return to the Commentarius prævius number 18.
dd. Of Cassian I observed some things in the Commentarius prævius number 19.
CHAPTER III.
Having returned into the wilderness, he uses the ministry of a lion, and prodigiously obtains rain by his prayers. A narrative about the wonderful life and death of Mary the solitary. St. Cyriacus's pious death in extreme old age.
ΤΑῦτα διηγησάμενός μοι ὁ δοῦλος τοῦ θεοῦ Κυριακὸς, καὶ γνοὺς ὅτι τῆς μεγάλης μονῆς Εὐθυμίου τοῦ μακαρίου εἰμὶ, περιχαρὴς γεγονὼς εἶπεν, ἰδοὺ καὶ συγκοινοβιότης μου εἶ. καὶ λοιπὸν ἀρχὴν ἐποιήσατο διηγεῖσθαί μοι πολλὰ περὶ αὐτῶν τῶν ἐν ἁγίοις Εὐθυμίου τε, καὶ Σάβα, ἅπερ ἐθηκα ἐν τοῖς περὶ αὐτῶν ἢδη ρηθεῖσι δυσὶ λόγοις. καὶ οὕτως ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις διηγήμασιν τὴν ἐμὴν διαθρέψας ψυχὴν ἀπέλυσεν ἐν εἰρήνῃ. ὡς δὲ ἤρξαντο τινὲς ἐνοχλεῖν αὐτῷ εἰς τὸ τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις χαρίτωνος σπήλαιον, τοῦ ἀρχιγοῦ τῶν ὡριγενιαστῶν ἀποθανόντος Νόννου, καὶ τῆς τούτων δυναστείας διαλυθείσης, καὶ τοῦ κατὰ τῶν ὀρθοδόξων πολέμου θραυσθέντος, καὶ τῶν κακοδόξων εἰς τὸν κατ᾽ ἀλλήλων πόλεμον ἀσχολιθέντων, ἀμεριμνήσας ὁ γέρων, ἀνεχώρησεν πάλιν ἀπὸ τοῦ σπηλαίου τοῦ ἁγίου χαρίτωνος ἐπὶ τὸν Συσακεὶμ, τῷ koppaθ᾽ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ἡλικίας χρόνῳ, καὶ ἡσύχασεν ἐκεῖσε χρόνους η᾽. ἐγὼ τοίνυν ἐπιθυμήσας προσκυνῆσαι αὐτὸν, ἦλθον εἰς τὴν λαύραν τοῦ Σουκᾶ, καὶ λαβὼν Ἰωάννην τὸν αὐτοῦ μαθητὴν, κατῆλθον εἰς σουσακεὶμ. ἀπέχει δὲ ὁ τόπος οὗτος ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ Σουκᾶ λαύρας koppa ᾽
σταδίους. ὡς οὖν ἠγγίσαμεν τῷ τόπῳ, συναντᾷ ἡμῖν λέων παμμεγεθέστατός τε καὶ φοβερώτατος. καὶ λέγει μοι θροηθέντι ὁ ἀββᾶς Ἰωαννης, μηδὲν φοβηθῆς. καὶ ὡς ἴδεν ἡμᾶς ὁ λέων πρὸς τὸν γέροντα ἀπίοντας, δέδωκεν τόπον.
[16] Καὶ θεασάμενος ἡμᾶς ὁ γέρων, καὶ περιχαρὴς γεγονὼς εἷπεν: ἰδοὺ ὁ συνκοινοβιότης μου Κύριλλος. καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ ἀββᾶς Ἰωάννης· πάνυπερ ἐφοβήθη ἰδὼν τὸν λέοντα καὶ λέγει μοι ὁ γέρων· μηδὲν φοβηθῆς τέκνον. οὗτος γὰρ ὁ λέων προσκαρτερεῖ μοι ἐνταῦτα, φυλάττων τὰ μικρὰ λάχανα ἀπὸ τῶν αἰγαγρίων. καὶ πολλὰ εἰπών μοι περί τε τοῦ ἁγίου Εὐθυμίου, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῆς ἐρήμου ταύτης πατέρων, προετρέψατό με γεύσασθαι. ἡμῶν δὲ γευομένων, ἐλθὼν ὁ λέων ἔστη ἔμπροσθεν ἡμῶν. καὶ ἀναστὰς ὁ γέρων, δέδωκεν αὐτῷ κλάσμα ἄρτου. καὶ ἔπεμψεν αὐτὸν φυλάττειν τὰ λάχανα. καὶ ἔλεγέν μοι ὁ γέρων, ὅτι οὐ μόνον τὰ λάχανα φυλάττει, ἀλλὰ καὶ ληστὰς καὶ βαρβάρους ἀμύνεται. ποιήσαντος δέ μου τὴν μίαν ἡμέραν, καὶ ἱκανῶς τῆς αὐτοῦ διδασκαλίας ἀπολαύσαντι. δέδωκὲν μοι εὐλογίαν τῇ ἑξῆς, καὶ ποιήσας μοι εὐχὴν, ἀπέλυσύν με μετὰ τοῦ μαθητοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐν εἰρήνῃ. καὶ οὕτως ἐξελθόντες ηὕραμεν τὸν λέοντα ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ καθήμενον καὶ αἴγαγρον ἐσθίοντα, ὅστις λέων ἰδὼν ἡμᾶς ἰσταμένους, καὶ μὴ τολμῶντας ὁδεῦσαι, καταλειπὼν τὴν θήραν, ἀνεχώρησεν ἕως οὗ παρήλθομεν. ἐπειδὴ δὲ λάκκον οὐκ εἶχεν ὁ τόπος ἐφιλοκάλησεν ἐαυτῷ τοὺς ἐν ταῖς πέτραις βοθύνους· καὶ ἐδέχετο τῷ χειμῶνι τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ ὑπούργει αὐτῳ δαψιλῶς εἴς τε τὴν διαίταν, καὶ εἰς τὸ ποτίσαι τὰ λάχανα ὅλον τὸ θέρος.
[17] Καὶ τοῦ ὕδατος ποτὲ λείψαντος περὶ τὸν ἰούλιον μῆνα, ἐστενώθη σφόδρα, καὶ ἀνατείνας τὸ ὄμμα πρὸς τὸν θεὸν, παρεκάλει λέγων· Κύριε ὁ θεὸς παράσχου μοι ὀλίγον ὕδωρ διὰ τὴν ἀναγκαῖαν χρεὶαν τοῦ ταπεινοῦ σώματος τούτου. καὶ ἐπήκουσεν αὐτοῦ ὁ θεὸς, καὶ παραχρῆμα ἀνέβη μικρὸν νέφος ἐπάνω τοῦ Σουσακεὶμ, καὶ ἔβρεξεν κύκλῳ τοῦ κελλίου αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπλήρωσεν αὐτοῦ πάντα τὰ μεταξὺ τῶν πετρῶν δοκεῖα. δίκαιον δὲ ἡγοῦμαι ἐνταῦθα μνημονευσαι ψυχοφελῆ διηγήματα, ἅπερ, διηγήσατό μοι ὁ ἀββᾶς Ἰωάννης. ὁδηπορούντων γὰρ ἡμῶν κατὰ τὴν ἔρημον, ὑπεδείκνυέν μοι τόπον τινὰ, ὀν ἔλεγεν μνημεῖον εἶναι τῆς μακαρίας Μαρίας. ἐγὼ δὲ ἑπὶ τούτῳ θαυμάσας ἠξίουν αὐτὸν ἐξηγήσασθαι τὰ περὶ αὐτοῦ. ὁ δὲ ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπεν· ὅτι πρὸς ὀλίγου τινὸς χρόνου, ἀπερχομένου μου ἅμα τοῦ συμμαθητοῦ μου τοῦ ἀββἆ Παράμμωνος πρὸς τὸν ἀββᾶν Κυριακὸν, ἀτενίσαντες ἀπὸ μακρόθεν, θεωροῦμεν τινὰ ὡς ἄνθρωπον ἰστάμενον πλησίον ἀγριομυρίκης, καὶ νοήσαντες, αὐτὸν ἕνα τινὰ τῶν ἀναχωριτῶν τῶν αὐτόθι εῖναι. ἦσαν γάρ τότε πολλοὶ ἀναχωριταὶ ἐν τοῖς μέρεσιν ἐκείνοις. ἐσπεύσαμεν οὖν αὐτὸν προσκυνῆσαι.
[18] Ὡς δὲ ἠγγίσαμεν τῷ τόπῳ, ἐκεῖνος μὲν ἀφανὴς ἐγένετο, ἡμεῖς δὲ φόβῳ, καὶ δειλίᾳ συσχεθέντες, ἔστημεν εἰς προσευχὴν, νομίσαντες αὐτὸν πνεύμα πονηρὸν εἶναι, καὶ μετὰ δὲ τὸ τελέσαι τὸ ἀμὴν, περιβλεψάμενοι ἔνθα, καὶ ἔνθα, ηὕραμεν σπήλαιον ὑπόγεον, ἐν ῷ ὑπενοοῦμεν ὑποδύντα τὸν δοῦλον τὸν ἀληθῆ τοῦ Θεοῦ κρυβῆναι ἀφ᾽ ἡμῶν· καὶ πλησίον τοῦ σπηλαίου γενόμενοι, παρεκαλοῦμεν αὐτὸν ἅμα, καὶ ἐνορκοῦμεν λέγοντες· μὴ στερήσης ἡμᾶς πάτερ τῶν εὐχῶν σου, καὶ τῆς ἀγαθῆς σου συντυχίας. ὁ δὲ μόλις ποτὲ ἀποκριθεὶς, εἶπεν· τί θέλετε ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ; γυνὴ γάρ εἰμι. καὶ ἐπηρώτησεν ἡμᾶς λέγουσα· ποῦ πορεύεσθε; ἡμεῖς δὲ εἴπαμεν, πρὸς τὸν ἀναχωριτὴν τὸν ἀββᾶν Κυριακὸν ἀπερχόμεθα· ἀλλ᾽ εἰπὲ ἡμῖν τί τὸ ὄνομα σου; καὶ πῶς διάγεις καὶ πῶς παραγέγονας; ἡ δὲ εἷπεν· ὑπάγετε. καὶ ἐν τῷ ὑμᾶς ὑποστρέψαι, λέγω ὑμῖν. ὡς δὲ διεβεβαιούμεθα μηδαμοῦ ἀπιέναι πρὶν τὰ κατ᾽ αὐτὴν μαθεῖν, ἀπερίνατο λέγουσα· τὸ μὲν ὀνομά μου, Μαρία λέγομαι. ἐγενόμην δὲ ψάλτρια τῆς ἁγίας Χριστοῦ ἀναστάσεως. καὶ πολλοὺς ὁ διάβολος ἑσκανδάλησεν εἰς ἐμὲ. καὶ φοβηθεῖσα μή πως ὑπεύθυνος γενομένη τῶν τοίουτων σκανδάλων, προσθήσω ἁμαρτίας ἐφ᾽ ἁμαρτίαις μου, ἐδυσώπουν τὸν θεὸν τοῦ ῥυσθῆναι με τῆς αἰτίας τῶν τοιούτων σκανδάλων.
[19] ἐν μιᾷ οὖν κατανυγῆσα τὴν καρδίαν εἰς τὸν φόβον τοῦ θεοῦ, κατῆλθον εἰς τὸν ἅγιον Σιλωὰμ, καὶ ἤντλησα τὸ σκεῦος τοῦτο ὕδατος· ἔλαβον δὲ καὶ τὸ μαλάκιον τοῦτο τῶν βρεκτῶν, καὶ ἐξῆλθον νυκτὸς τῆς ἁγίας πόλεως παραθεμένη ἑαυτὴν τῷ θεῷ, ὅς καὶ ὁδήγησέν με ἐνταῦθα· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἔχω ἐνταῦθα ιη᾽ ἔτη. καὶ διὰ τῆς χάριτος τοῦ θεοῦ, οὔτε τὸ ὕδωρ ἔλειψεν, οὔτε τὸ μελάκιον τῶν βρεκτῶν ἠλαττωνήθη ἄχρι τῆς ἡμέρας ταύτης, ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ ἄνθρῳπον ἴδὸν, εἰ μὴ ὺμᾶς σήμερον. ἀλλ᾽ ὑπάγατε, φησὶν, καὶ πληρώσατε τὴν διακονίαν ὑμῶν, καὶ ἐν τῷ ὑμᾶς ὑποστρέφειν, ἐπισκέψασθέ με. Ταῦτα ἀκούσαντες, ἐπορεύθημεν πρὸς τὸν ἀββᾶν Κυριακὸν, ἀνηγγείλαμεν δὲ αὠτῷ καὶ ταῦτα· ὁ δὲ ἀκούσας ἐθαύμασεν καὶ εἶπεν· δόξα σοι ὁ Θεὸς ὅτι πόσους ἁγίους κρυπτοὺς ἔχεις· ἀλλ᾽ ἀπένθατε τέκνα, καὶ ὡς εἶπεν ὑμῖν, οὕτως ποιήσατε. λαβόντες οὖν παράθεσιν ἐκ τοῦ ἁγίου γέροντος, ἤλθαμεν κατὰ τοῦ σπηλαίου, καὶ κρούσαντες κατὰ τὸ ἔθος τῶν ἀναχωριτῶν, καὶ μηδενὸς ἀποκριναμένου, ὑπεισελθόντες, ηὕραμεν αὐτὴν τελειωθεῖσαν· μὴ ἔχοντες οὖν τὸ πῶς ἐνταφιᾶσαι, καὶ θάψαι αὐτὴν, ἀνελθόντες ἐν τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ λαύρᾳ τῆς Σουκᾶ, ἠνέγκαμεν πάντα τὰ πρὸς τὴν χρείαν, καὶ κηδεύσαντες αὐτῂν ἐθάψαμεν ἐν τῷ σπηλαίῳ, ἀποφράξαντες τὴν θύραν ἐν λίθοις.
[20] Ταῦτα ὁ ἀββᾶς Ἰωάννης διηγήσατο, ἅπερ ἀναγκαῖον ἠγησαμην, ὡς εἴρηται, γραφῇ παραδοῦναι πρὸς κατάνυξιν μὲν τῶν ἀκουόντων, καὶ ἐντυγχανόντων. δόξαν δὲ τῷ Χριστῷ τῷ παρέχοντι εἰς τέλος ὑπομονὴν τῆς ἀγάπης αὐτοῦ. ἐπανακτέον δὲ τὸν λόγον πρὸς τὸν ἀββᾶν Κυριακὸν. πληρώσαντος γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸν ὀκταετῆ χρόνον εἰς τὸν Σουσακεὶμ, καὶ εἰς βαθὺ γῆρας ἐλάσαντος, κατελθόντες οἱ τῆς λαύρας τοῦ Σουκᾶ πατέρες, ἤγαγον αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ σπήλαιον τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις Χαρίτωνος, μετὰ τὴν τῶν ὠριγενιαστῶν, ἐκ τῆς νέας λαύρας ἀναχώρησιν. ἐν ῷ σπηλαίῳ διάγοντος αὐτοῦ, ἐγὼ ὁ ταπεινὸς ποικνῶς παρέβαλλον αὐτῷ, καὶ πολλὴν τῇ ψυχῇ μου ὠφέλειαν ἐκαρπούμην· ἡν δὲ πάνυ προβεβηκὼς, τὸν ἑκατοστὸν ἔβδομον πληρώσας ἐνιαυτὸν. ἦλθεν μὲν γὰρ εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν πόλιν ἐτῶν ιη᾽. καὶ ἔμεινεν πρὸς τὸν ἐν ἁγίοις Γεράσιμον ἔτη θ᾽ καὶ ἐν τῇ τοῦ μεγάλου Εὐθτυμίου μονῇ ἕτη ῖ. καὶ ἐποίησεν ἐν τῇ λαύρᾳ τοῦ Σουκᾶ ἐν διαφόροις διαπρέψας διακονίαις ἔτη λθ᾽, καὶ ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τοῦ Νατούφα σκίλλας ἐθίων ἔτη ε᾽. ἡσύχασεν δὲ καὶ εἰς Σουσακείμ ἔτη ζ᾽, καὶ εἰς τὸ σπήλαιον τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις Χαρίτωνος ἔτη ε᾽, καὶ κατελθὼν πάλιν εἰς Σουσακεὶμ χρόνους η᾽.
[21] Πρὸ δύο χρόνων τῆς αὐτοῦ τελευτῆς κατελθόντες οἱ πατέρες ἤγαγον αὐτὸν, πολλαῖς χρησάμενοι παρακλήσεσιν, εἱς τὸ τοῦ μακαρίου χαρίτωνος σπήλαιον πάνυ, ὠς εἴρηται, προβεβηκότα. καὶ τοσοῦτον χηραλαῖος ὦν, στεῤῥὸς ὑπῆρχεν, καὶ πρόθυμος ἱστάμενος εἰς τὸν κανόνα τῆς ψαλμῳδίας, καὶ τοὺς ἀρχομένους πρὸς αὐτὸν ὑπηρέτει ἰδίαις χερσὶν, καὶ οὐδ᾽ ὅλως ἠτόνει, ἀλλὰ πάντα ἴσχυεν ἐν τῷ ἐνδυναμοῦντι αὐτὸν Χριστῷ. ἦν δὲ ὁ ἀνὴρ πρᾶος, καὶ εὐπρόσιτος, προφητικὸς, διδασκαλικὸς, ὀρθοδοξώτατος, τῷ σώματι εὐμεγέθης καὶ γενναῖος, καὶ ἀσινῆ πάντα ἔχων τὰ μέλη, καὶ ἦν ἀληθῶς πλήρης χάριτος, καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου. μετὰ οὖν πολλὰς ἡμέρας ἀσθενίᾳ σωματικῇ περιπεσὼν, προσκαλεσάμενος πάντας τοὺς πατέρας τῆς λαύρας, καὶ τούτους ἀσπασάμενος, ἐκοιμήθη ἐν εἰρήνῃ, παραδοὺς τὸ πνεῦμα τῷ κυρίῳ, κομισάμενος παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ τῆς δικαιοσύνης στέφανον, ὅν ἐπηγγείλατο τοῖς ἀγαποῦσιν αὐτὴν. καὶ νῦν ἐστὶν ἐν τῇ ἀναπαύσει πάντων τῶν δικαίων, πρεσβεύων ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, ὅπως καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀκολουθήσαντες τοῖς ἴχνεσιν αὐτοῦ, τύχωμεν τῶν ἐπηγγελμένων ἀγαθῶν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰυσοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ, μεθ᾽ οὗ τῷ Πατρὶ ἡ δόξα ἅμα τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι εἰς τοὺς αἰώνας τῶν αἰῶνων. ἀμὴν.
Having returned to the wilderness When Cyriacus the servant of God had narrated these things to me, and had understood that I was from the great monastery of blessed Euthymius, being exceedingly glad he said: Behold, you are of the same monastery as I. Then, from the beginning, he began to relate to me all the deeds of the holy Euthymius and Sabas, which indeed I have already set forth in two published books a. And when he had nourished my soul with narratives of this kind, he dismissed me in peace. But after certain men had begun to be troublesome to him in the cave of holy Chariton — Nonnus the leader of the Origenists being dead, and their dominion dissolved and their war against the orthodox broken b, while the patrons of the evil doctrine were warring among themselves — the Old man, having obtained security, again withdrew from the cave of holy Chariton into Susakim in the ninety-ninth year of his age, and there lived in quiet for eight years. And I, desiring to venerate him, came into the laura of Souka, and taking John his disciple, went with him into Susakim, which place is distant from the laura of Souka not less than ninety stadia c. When therefore we were drawing near the place, there met us a lion, very great and most terrible. But abbot John said to me, being alarmed: Do not fear. And when the lion saw us going to the Old man, it gave way.
[16] Having seen us, the Old man, rejoicing exceedingly, said: he is protected by the ministry of a lion. Rain Here is my fellow-monk Cyril. And abbot John said to him: He was struck with the utmost dread at the sight of the lion. And the Old man said to me: Do not be afraid, son: for that lion always stays here with me, guarding my few vegetables from the wild goats d. And when he had told me many things about holy Euthymius and the other fathers of that wilderness, he urged me to eat. But while we were eating, the lion came and stood before us: and the Old man, rising, held out to it a piece of bread and sent it away to guard the vegetables. And the Old man assured me that it not only guarded the vegetables, but also drove robbers and barbarians from the place. But after I had spent a whole day there and had sufficiently enjoyed his teaching, he dismissed me with his disciple in peace. And so, having departed, we saw the lion sitting in the road and eating a wild goat; and it, seeing that we halted and did not dare go forward, leaving its prey withdrew until we had passed by. But since the place had no cistern, he had hollowed out for himself e pits in the rocks, in which he caught water in the winter, which sufficed him abundantly for his use and for watering the vegetables through the summer.
[17] But when once the water failed about the month of July, he prodigiously obtains. An inserted he groaned deeply and, raising his eyes to God, prayed, saying: Lord God, grant me a little water for the necessary use of this abject body. And God heard him, for at once a small cloud went up over
Susakim, and rained around his cell and filled all the receptacles among the rocks. Further, I judge it worth while to report here what abbot John narrated to me. And so, when we were making our way through the wilderness, he showed me a certain place, which he said was the sepulchre of blessed Mary f. I, marveling at this, urged him to set forth the things pertaining to it: and he answering said: When a little while ago I was going up with my fellow-disciple abbot Parammon to abbot Cyriacus, straining our eyes from afar we see something like a man standing near the wild tamarisks g: judging therefore that it was one of the anchorites of that place (for there were at that time very many anchorites in those parts), we hastened to approach him.
[18] a wonderful narrative about Mary. But when we were drawing near the place, he ceased to be seen, and we, held by amazement and fear, stood to pray, thinking it was an evil spirit, and, the Amen being added at the end, when we had looked around here and there, we saw an underground cave, into which we suspected that the true servant of God had gone to hide himself from us. When therefore we had come nearer to the cave, together we called him and adjured him, saying: Do not deprive us, father, of your prayers and of your good company. But scarcely at length answering, he said: What do you want of me? for I am a woman. And she asked us, saying: Whither are you going? And we said: We are making for the solitary abbot Cyriacus: but tell us, what is your name, how do you live here, and how did you come here? But she said: Go, and when you have returned, I will tell you. But when we asserted that we would go nowhere before she had informed us of what concerned her, she answered and said: My name indeed is called Mary: and I was a singer of the holy Resurrection of Christ h, and the demon scandalized many through me: and I, struck with fear lest perhaps, being guilty of all these scandals, I should add sins to my sins, suppliantly besought God that I might be freed from the guilt of those scandals.
[19] Therefore on a certain day, pricked in heart with the fear of God, I went down to holy Siloam i, and filled this vessel with water; and I took also a basket with lupins k, and went out by night from the holy city, committing myself to God, who also led me here: and behold, I have been here eighteen years, and by God's grace neither has the water failed nor has the basket of lupins been diminished unto this day. But neither have I seen a man except you today. But go, she said, and fulfill your errand, and on your return visit me. Having heard this, we hastened to abbot Cyriacus, to whom we announced these things too. And he, when he had heard, was astounded and said: Glory to you, God, that you have so many hidden saints! But go, sons, and as she told you, so do. We therefore, having received food from the holy Old man, came to the cave, and when we had knocked according to the custom of the anchorites and no one answered, going in we found her dead. But not having the things needful for performing the funeral and for burying her, we went up to our laura of Souka and brought all that was necessary for the burial, and, performing the funeral rites for her, we entombed her in the cave and blocked up the entrance with stones.
[20] The Saint in extreme old age These things abbot John narrated, which I judged should here be committed to writing as they were related, for the astonishment indeed of hearers and of those who take up the book, but for the glory of Christ, who bestows perseverance in his love unto the end. But the discourse must be brought back to abbot Cyriacus. When he had completed the eighth year in Susakim and had come to deep old age, the fathers of the laura of Souka, coming down, brought him to the cave of holy Chariton, after the departure of the Origenists from the New laura l. And while he was living in the cave, I, abject as I am, frequently came to him and derived much profit for my soul. And he was very far advanced in age, for he had completed his hundred and seventh year. For he had come into the holy city at eighteen years of age, and stayed with holy Gerasimus nine years, and in the monastery of the great Euthymius ten years, and spent in the laura of Souka, having excellently discharged various ministries, thirty-nine years, and in the wilderness of Natupha he ate squills for five years m. And he lived solitarily at Susakim seven years; but in the cave of holy Chariton five years, and thence again withdrew to Susakim for eight years.
[21] Certainly two years before his death, when the fathers had come down, dies piously. they led him, using many entreaties, to the cave of holy Chariton, being, as has been said, very far advanced in age. And in such great old age he was still firm and ready and stood at the hours of psalmody, and ministered with his own hands to those who came to him; nor did he fail at all, but could do all things in Christ who strengthened him. And the Man was gentle and easy of access, prophetic, skilled in teaching, most highly orthodox; tall of body and excellent, having all his limbs unimpaired, truly full of grace and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore after many days, being seized with bodily infirmity, when he had called all the fathers of the laura and had embraced each one, he fell asleep in peace and delivered his spirit to the Lord, to receive from him the crown of justice which he promised to those who love it n. And now he is in the rest of all the just, interceding for us, that we too, following his footsteps, may obtain what was promised to the Saints in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be glory for ever and ever, amen.