Religious History (Lives of the Syrian Monks) (chapters 22–30)

Religious History (Lives of the Syrian Monks)

continued

Chapter 22

22a Tillima is a village in our region. Long ago it received the seeds of the impiety of Marcion, but now it enjoys the farming of the Gospel. South of it there is a hill, neither very rough nor very steep. On it the admirable Thalassius built his dwelling for the ascetic life. He was a man adorned with many good qualities, and in simplicity of character, gentleness and humility of mind he surpassed the men of his time. I say this not only because I believe what I have heard, but because I have tested it. I came to the man and often enjoyed his sweet company. Into his company came Limnaios, whom everyone now celebrates in song. He arrived at that wrestling-school while still quite young, and was well trained in this highest philosophy. First, knowing how slippery the tongue is, while still a boy he made a law for it to be silent, and for a very long time he spoke to no one at all. When he had received enough of the divine old man’s teaching and had made himself a perfect impression of that man’s virtue, he went to the great Maron, whom we mentioned earlier. He came at the same time as the divine Jacob. From him too he gathered much benefit, and he came to admire the life in the open air. He took possession of another summit, above a certain village called Targala. There he has remained to this day. He has no hut, no tent, no shelter, but is enclosed by a bare wall of stones laid without mortar. He has a small door, always sealed with clay. He never opens it for others who come, but when I alone arrive he allows it to be done. For this reason a great many people gather from every side when they learn of my coming, longing to share my entrance with me.

22b To others who come to him at various times, he speaks through a small window and gives them his blessing, and through it he grants health to very many. For he uses the name of the Saviour, and so he stops diseases, drives out demons, and imitates the miracles of the apostles. Yet he does not only pour out healing for those who come to him; he has often applied it to his own body as well. Long ago an affliction of the limb attacked him. Those who have suffered it know exactly what pains and agonies come from it, and so do those who have watched someone suffer it. The sufferers writhe like madmen, twisting this way and that, stretching out their legs and drawing them back. Sometimes they sit, then stand, then walk about, trying to find some way to ease it. For this reason they spend time at the baths and go in often, finding some relief there. But why drag this out, listing things that are clear to everyone? He wrestled with such an affliction and was struck by pains so many and so great, and yet he received no help from a physician. He would not put up with a bed. He accepted no comfort from medicines or foods. Instead he sat on a board lying on the ground, and received his cure through prayer and the sign of the cross, and with the charm of the divine name he put the pains to sleep. At another time, as he was walking at night, he stepped on a viper that was asleep. It seized the sole of his foot and fixed its teeth in. He tried to defend his foot; he bent down and put his hand to it, and so moved the creature’s mouth onto the hand. Then he used his left hand to help the other, and drew the beast’s fury onto that one too. When it had had its fill of rage (it inflicted more than ten bites on him), it let go and went back to its own hole, while he was struck on every side with bitter pains.

22c But even then he would not accept the physician’s art. To his wounds he applied only the remedies of faith: the sign of the cross, prayer, and the invocation of God. I think the God of all allowed that beast to rage against his holy body for this reason: so that he might show everyone, plainly and openly, the endurance of that divine soul. For we see the same dealing of God in the case of noble Job. He allowed him to be flooded by many waves of every kind, because he wished to show everyone the wisdom of the Helmsman. How else would we have known Job’s courage, or this man’s endurance, if the adversary of godliness had not been given room to let fly every sort of missile against them? These things are enough to teach the man’s endurance; let me show his love for people from another side. He gathered many who had lost their sight and were forced to beg. On either side of his enclosure, to the east and to the west, he built lodgings, and he urged them to live in these and to sing hymns to God. He ordered that the food they needed be supplied by those who came to him. Shut in the middle, he stirs up both groups to sing, and one can constantly hear them praising the Master. Such was the love he showed to his fellow human beings. His open-air struggles run for the same length of time as those of the great Jacob; for they have now completed thirty-eight years.

Chapter 23

John also took up this way of life. Besides his other qualities, he was remarkable for gentleness and meekness. He settled on a rough ridge, exposed to torrents and facing north. There he spent twenty-five years so far, taking the full force of every harsh change in the weather. I will not go through everything one by one: his food, his clothing and the weight of iron he carries are much like those of the men I have already described. He is so far above everything human that he takes no comfort from any of it. I will give one clear proof of this at once. One of his devoted followers planted an almond tree right beside his sleeping mat. In time it grew into a tree. It gave him shade, and [its appearance ??] was pleasing to the eye. John ordered it cut down, so that he would get not even one small comfort from it. Moses also embraced this kind of life. He struggles on a high peak of Rhama, above the village. So does Antiochus, an old man, who built his enclosure in a very desolate place. So does Antoninus, who, though his body is aged, struggles just as the young do. They have the same clothing, the same food, the same standing, the same prayer, and the same labors all night and all day. Neither the length of time, nor old age, nor weakness of nature exposes any failing in their endurance. The love of labor is still in full vigor in them. God, who presides over the contest of virtue, has very many other contestants in our region, in the mountains and on the plains. It is hard even to count them, let alone write the life of each. I have now set before those who wish to profit enough for their benefit from these accounts. So I will turn to another kind of narrative, asking also to share in the blessing of these men.

Chapter 24

24a Those who were thought worthy to see Zebinas sing his praises to this day. They say that he reached a great old age and kept up the same labors right to the end. Though pressed by very heavy old age, he gave up nothing of what he had practiced in his youth. They said that he surpassed all the men of his time in his devotion to prayer. He spent his days and nights in it, and far from ever having enough, he made his longing burn hotter. Even when visitors came to him and he spoke a few words with them, he could not bear to bring his mind down from heaven. As soon as he was rid of them, as if he had not wanted to be parted from the God of all even for a moment, he took up his prayer of supplication again. When old age would not let him bear his continual standing without pain, he took a staff as a support. Leaning on it, he sang praises to the Master and prayed. Among his other good qualities he was known for hospitality, and he urged many of those who came to him to stay for the evening. But they dreaded his standing all night. They pleaded some business or other and slipped away from the labors. The great Maron greatly admired this man. He urged everyone who came to him to run to Zebinas and gather the blessing of the old man. He called him father and teacher, and the pattern of every virtue. Maron also asked to share a burial place with him. But the people who seized Maron’s holy body and carried it to the place I mentioned would not allow it. The wonderful Zebinas died first, in the neighboring village (it is called Kitta). He received the customary honors, and the people built a very large shrine over his tomb. Healing of every kind pours out from it for those who come with faith. The shrine now also has martyrs under the same roof, who contended among the Persians and are honored by us with annual festivals. The great Polychronius benefited from this man’s teaching. And the most godly Jacob said that Zebinas was the first to give him a hair tunic.

24b I never saw Zebinas myself, for he had reached the end of his life before I came. But in this Polychronius I see the philosophy of the divine Zebinas. A seal does not stamp its pattern on wax as exactly as this man bears the marks of that one. I know this for certain, because I have set the stories told about Zebinas beside what Polychronius does. Like him, he is set on fire with love for God, and he stands above everything earthly. Though he is bound to a body, his soul has wings. It passes through the air and the upper sky, rises higher than the heavens, and continually pictures to itself the contemplation of God. He never allows his mind to be dragged down from there. Even while he talks with those who come to him, his thoughts move about in the heights. I learned of his all-night vigil and standing in prayer from this. I saw him wrestling with old age and weakness together, and receiving no care at all. By pleading with him many times I persuaded him to take two men to live with him and enjoy some comfort from them. He asked for men who shone with virtue and who lived by themselves in another monastery, so I persuaded those admirable men to choose, above everything else, the care of this man of God. They stayed with him only a short time, and then tried to run away, because they could not bear the all-night standing. They begged the man of God to measure the labor by the weakness of the body. He said to them, “Not only do I not force you to share my standing continually, I often urge you to lie down.” They answered, “How could we, healthy men in the middle of life, lie down while the one who has grown old in toil stands, and despises the weakness of his body?” This is how I learned of the night labors of that venerable head. As for these two men, in time they gained so much virtue that they pursued the same philosophy as this great man.

24c One of them, Moses (for that name has stayed with him to this day), gives Polychronius every service as to a father and master, and he imprints on himself the virtue that flashes out from that holy soul. The other, whose name is Damian, went to a city not far away (it is called Niara). He found a small hut beside the threshing floors and lives there, following the same way of life. Those who know both men well say that when they look at him they seem to see the soul of the great Polychronius in another body. He has the same simplicity, gentleness and humility, the same mildness of voice and sweetness in company, the same alertness of soul and attention to God, and the same standing, labor, sleeplessness, food, and poverty according to the divine law. For apart from a small basket holding soaked lentils, his dwelling has nothing in it. That is how much he gained from the company of the great Polychronius. But I will leave the disciple and return to the teacher, for the stream gets its water from the spring. Along with his other passions, Polychronius drove out ambition from his soul and trampled the tyranny of empty glory, and he was always careful to hide his labors. He would not wear iron, fearing that some harm might come of it, if his soul were inflamed with pride. Instead he told someone to bring him a very heavy oak root, saying he needed it for some other use. He put it on his shoulders at night and prayed with it lying on him, and he did the same by day whenever he had leisure. When someone arrived and knocked at the door, he hid it in a certain place. Someone showed it to me. I wanted to know how heavy the load was, and I could barely lift it with both hands. When he saw me, he told me to put it down.

24d I begged in return to take it, so that I might steal away the occasion for his labor. But when I saw that he was distressed, I gave way to his longing for the victory. From these labors of his there blossoms a grace given by God, and many miracles are worked through his prayers. For example, when that terrible drought was wearing people down and driving them to supplication, a crowd of priests came to him. Among them was one from the territory of Antioch, appointed to shepherd many villages. This man begged the older men who were present to persuade the man to lay his right hand on a small oil flask. They said that he would not put up with it. Afterward, when a prayer was being made and my holy father was praying, the priest stood behind him and held out the little flask in both hands. The flask began to gush, so that two or three of those present stretched out their hands and received them full of the oil. Yet although he sends out the rays of divine grace, is laden with achievements of every kind, and day by day gathers the riches of the philosophic life, he is so modest in his thinking that he embraces both feet of everyone who comes to him and puts his forehead to the ground, whether the visitor is a soldier, a craftsman, or a farmer. I will tell something that can show his simplicity and his modesty. A certain earnest man had been given the governorship of this region. He came to Cyrrhus and wished to enjoy, together with me, the sight of these great athletes. So we went around to the others, and came also to the man whose virtue I am now describing. I said that the one who had come with me was a governor, a man who cared for justice and loved the godly. At once the holy man stretched out both hands, took hold of both the governor’s feet, and said, “I want to ask you for a favor.” The governor was very upset and begged him to get up, and promised to do whatever he asked (he guessed that he was going to plead with him on behalf of some of his subjects). Then the holy man said, “Since you have promised, and have confirmed the promise with an oath, earnestly offer prayers to God on my behalf.”

24e The governor, striking his forehead, begged to be released from the oath, since he was not worthy even to bring petitions to the Master for himself. What speech could be adequate to praise worthily a man who, at such a height of philosophy, has so great a humility of mind? Not even the many kinds of suffering that have come upon him have shown up his love of labor as weak. Though besieged by illness of many kinds, he endures the same labors. After much persuasion we barely managed to build this little cell, contriving a little warmth for a body that was thoroughly chilled. Many people have often come to him with gold, and some even left it to him when they died. But he never accepted anything from anyone. He told them instead to become stewards of what they offered. The great Jacob once sent him a goatskin cloak that someone had brought to Jacob. He sent it back, because he saw that it was too weatherproof and too comfortable. He always wore very cheap and plain clothing. He considered poverty more lovable than any kingdom, so that he did not even always have the food he needed. I know, since I have often come to him, asked for his blessing, and found nothing else there but two dried figs. His honey is thrice desired by those who see him, and very sweet to those who hear of him. For I know of no one, not even the most mocking of men, who has ever laid any blame on him. Instead everyone sings his praise and speaks well of him, and those who go to him do not want to leave.

Chapter 25

Asklepios, a remarkable man, belongs to this same company. He lives about ten stades away and has taken up the same way of life. His food is the same, and so are his clothing, his humble character, his hospitality, his love for the brothers, his gentleness and mildness, his conversation with God, and his extreme poverty. Besides these there is his abundance of virtue, the wealth of his philosophy, and everything else we have described in that holy man. They say that even when he was counted among the brothers living in the village, he embraced the ascetic and orderly life and took no harm from mixing with the crowd. Since he distinguished himself in both ways of life, the one among citizens and the one in the wilderness, he will rightly be thought worthy of double crowns. Many others have also imitated his virtue. Not only our own region but the neighboring cities and villages are full of this kind of philosophy. One of them is the most godly Jacob, who is shut up in a small cell near a village called Nimouzan. He is now near the end of his life, for he is more than ninety years old. He is shut in alone and gives his answers through a short opening dug in a winding shape, so that he cannot be seen. He uses no fire and has no lamplight. Twice he opened the door and told me to come inside. In this way he honored me and showed the affection he has for me. Those who are still alive do not need my words, for if they wish they can see the philosophy of these men for themselves. But for those who come after, and who will not share in the sight of them, these accounts are enough to help, since they show the character of this philosophy. So I will end my account of these men here, ask for their blessing in return, and move on to another narrative.

Chapter 26

26a Symeon, the great Symeon, the wonder of the whole world, is known to all who live under Roman rule. The Persians know him too, and the Medes and the Ethiopians. Report has even run to the nomad Scythians and told them of his labor and his philosophy. I have nearly all people as witnesses of his struggles, which are beyond description. Even so, I fear my account may seem to later generations a mere story, stripped of all truth. For what has been done is higher than human nature, and people like to measure what they are told by nature. If anything is said that goes beyond nature’s limits, those not initiated into divine things take the account to be false. But earth and sea are full of devout people who have been trained in divine things and taught the grace of the all-holy Spirit. They will not disbelieve what is to be said but will readily believe it. So I will make my account eagerly and with confidence. I will begin where he was found worthy of the heavenly calling. There is a village on the border between our country and that of the Cilicians. They call it Sisan. He came from there. At first his parents taught him to shepherd flocks, so that in this he would be like the great men: Jacob the patriarch, Joseph the self-controlled, Moses the lawgiver, David the king and prophet, Micah the prophet, and the holy men of their times. Once, when a heavy snow had fallen and the sheep had to stay indoors, he had a break from work. He went to the holy church with those who were breathing out the breath of life [text uncertain: “τῶν φυσάντων”]. I heard this from his own holy tongue. He said that he heard the voice of the Gospel call blessed those who weep and mourn, and call wretched those who laugh. It named as enviable those who have a pure soul, and it said the other things joined to these. Then he asked one of those present what a person should do to gain each of these things. The man pointed him to the solitary life and showed him that highest philosophy.

26b So he received the seeds of the divine word and buried them well in the deep furrows of his soul. He told me he then ran to a shrine of the holy martyrs nearby. There he pressed his knees and his forehead to the ground and begged the One who wants all people to be saved to guide his steps onto the perfect road of godliness. He spent a long time in this way, and a sweet sleep came over him, and he saw a dream like this. “I seemed,” he said, “to be digging foundations. Then I heard someone standing by say that I still had to deepen the trench. So I added depth as he commanded and tried to rest again. But once more he ordered me to dig and not to stop working. He told me this three and four times. At last he said the depth was sufficient, and he commanded me to build from then on without toil, since the labor had come to an end and the building would go up easily.” What happened afterward bears witness to this prediction, for what came about was beyond nature. He got up from there and found lodging with some ascetics who lived nearby. He spent two years with them. Then, longing for a more perfect virtue, he reached the village of Teleda, which I mentioned earlier, near which the great and godly men Ammianos and Eusebios had set up their training ground for ascetics. But the wonderful Symeon did not go to that one. He went to the other, which had grown out of it. For Eusebones and Abibion, who had received full benefit from the teaching of the great Eusebios, built this school of philosophy. They were of one mind and one way of life all their days, as if they showed one soul in two bodies, and they had many fellow lovers of this life. When they departed this life with good reputation, the wonderful Heliodoros took over the leadership of the community. He lived sixty-five years, and he spent sixty-two of them shut inside. For he was raised by his parents for three years, and then entered this flock, never having seen anything of what goes on in the world.

26c He used to say that he did not even know what pigs or roosters or other such creatures looked like. I myself often enjoyed seeing him. I marvelled at the simplicity of his manners and greatly admired the purity of his soul. This champion of godliness, a contender in all five events, came to him and spent ten years in the contest. There were eighty fellow contenders, and he outdid them all. While the others took food every other day, he stayed without food the whole week. The superiors were annoyed and kept quarrelling with him and called it disorder, but he did not obey what they said, and they could not put a bridle on his eagerness. I heard the man who now leads that same flock tell this story. Symeon once took a rope made of palm fibre, which is very rough to the touch, and tied it around his waist. He did not put it on over his clothes; he fastened it right against the skin. He pulled it so tight that it made a sore all around the part where it lay. He kept on like this for more than ten days, and the wound grew worse and dripped blood. Someone saw it and asked him the reason for the blood. He said there was nothing to be troubled about. But his fellow contender forced the matter, put his hand in, learned the cause, and reported it to the superior. At once the superior rebuked him, begged him, and exposed the cruelty of what he had done, and with difficulty he got him to undo the rope. Even so, he could not persuade him to put any treatment on the wound. When they saw him doing other things of this kind, they ordered him to leave that training ground. Otherwise he might harm the physically weaker men who tried to imitate what was beyond their strength. So he left. He went to the most deserted part of the mountain and found a dry cistern, not very deep. He lowered himself into it and offered his hymns to God there. Five days went by. Then the leaders of that training ground changed their minds and sent two men to look for him, with permission to bring him back.

26d So these two men went around the mountain and asked some people who were pasturing flocks there whether they had seen anyone of such a complexion and wearing such a dress. The shepherds pointed out the pit. The two men at once shouted loudly down to him, then brought a rope and hauled him up with great effort, since getting out is not as easy as going down. After spending a short time with them, he came to the village of Telanissos, which lies below the summit where he now stands. There he found a small hut and stayed shut up in it for three years. Always eager to increase the wealth of his virtue, he longed to go forty days without food, like Moses and Elijah, those men of God. He persuaded the admirable Bassus, who at that time was traveling through many villages overseeing the priests of each village, to leave nothing inside and to seal the door with clay. Bassus pointed out how hard the thing was and urged him not to think that a violent death was virtue, for that is an accusation, the greatest and the first. But Symeon said, “Father, set aside for me ten loaves and a jar of water, and if I see that the body needs food, I will take some of them.” It was done as he ordered. The loaves and water were put in place, and the door received the clay. When the days were over, the admirable Bassus, a man of God, came. He took away the clay and went in through the door. He found the loaves still in their number and the jar of water still full, and Symeon himself lying breathless, unable either to speak or to move. So Bassus asked for a sponge, moistened the man’s mouth with it and washed it out, and gave him the tokens of the divine mysteries. Strengthened by these, Symeon raised himself up and took a modest meal: lettuce, chicory and the like, chewing them a little at a time and sending them down to his stomach. Bassus the great was filled with admiration. He returned to his own community and told them of this great wonder.

26e Bassus had more than two hundred members in his company. He did not allow them to keep an animal or a mill, or to accept gold that was offered, or for anyone to go outside the door either to buy something necessary or to visit an acquaintance. They were to stay inside and receive the food sent by divine grace. His company keeps this rule to this day, and though they have grown more numerous, they have not broken the commands they were given. But I will go on to the great Symeon. From that time until today (twenty-eight years have passed) he stays forty days without food. Time and practice in the labor have robbed it of most of its difficulty. In the first days he used to stand and sing hymns to God. Then, as his body, weakened by the fast, could no longer bear standing, he would sit and carry out the divine service. In the last days he would lean over, for as his strength was gradually spent and extinguished, he was forced to lie half-dead. Once he was on the pillar, he could not bear to come down, so he devised another way of standing. He tied a beam to the pillar, and fastened himself to the beam with ropes, and in this way he spent the forty days. After that, receiving a greater measure of grace from above, he no longer needed even this help. He stands the forty days taking no food, strengthened by his eagerness and by divine grace. As I said, he spent three years in that little hut, and then took possession of this much-talked-of summit. He ordered a low wall built around it. He had an iron chain of twenty cubits made, nailed one end of it to a very large rock, and fastened the other to his right foot, so that even if he wished he could not go outside those limits. So he lived inside, continually picturing heaven to himself and straining to behold what lies above the heavens. For the iron bond did not hinder the flight of his mind. But the admirable Meletius, who was then appointed to oversee the territory of Antioch, a man shining in prudence and understanding and adorned with sharpness of mind, said that the iron was needless, since the will was enough to put rational bonds on the body. Symeon yielded and accepted the advice readily. He ordered a smith to be called, and had the bond removed.

26f The skin was bound to his leg so that the iron would not injure his flesh. It was sewn on, and it had to be torn open. They said that more than twenty very large lice were found nesting in it, and the admirable Meletius said he had seen this himself. I have recorded it to show the man’s great endurance. He could easily have crushed the skin with his hand and killed them all, yet he put up with the painful bites and bore them steadily. In small things he welcomed training for greater struggles. As his fame spread in every direction, everyone came running, not only his neighbors but people who lived many days’ journey away. Some brought those whose bodies were paralyzed. Some begged health for the sick. Some begged to become fathers, and asked to receive through him what nature had not given them. Those who received what they asked went home rejoicing, and by proclaiming the benefits they had obtained they sent out many times as many to ask for the same things. So people arrived from every side, and every road was like a river. You could see a sea of people gathering in that place, taking in rivers from everywhere. For not only do those who live in our own part of the world flow together there, but also Ishmaelites, Persians, Armenians who are subject to them, Iberians, Homerites, and people living farther inland than they. Many came who live at the farthest edges of the West: Spaniards, Britons, and the Gauls who live between them. About Italy it is needless even to speak. They say that the man became so famous in mighty Rome that at the entrances of all the workshops people set up small images of him, to get from them a kind of protection and security. Since those who came were beyond counting, and all tried to touch him and to gather some blessing from his garments of skin, he first thought that such excessive honor was out of place. Then, finding the burden of the situation hard to bear, he devised the plan of standing on the pillar.

26g First he ordered a pillar of six cubits to be cut, then one of twelve, after that one of twenty-two, and now one of thirty-six. For he longs to fly up to heaven and be freed from this earthly life. I believe that this way of standing did not come about without divine providence either. So I urge fault-finders to bridle their tongues and not let them run loose as they please. Rather, they should consider how often the Master has devised things like this for the benefit of the more careless. He commanded Isaiah to walk naked and barefoot. He commanded Jeremiah to put a loincloth around his waist and so bring his prophecy to the disobedient, and at another time to put wooden and then iron yokes on his neck. He commanded Hosea to take a prostitute as wife, and again to love a wicked and adulterous woman. He commanded Ezekiel to lie on his right side forty days and on his left a hundred and fifty. Again, he commanded him to dig through a wall, go out as a fugitive, and act out a captivity in his own person. At another time he told him to sharpen a sword to a keen edge, shave his head with it, divide the hair into four parts, and distribute some to one place and some to another. I will not list them all. The Ruler of the universe commanded each of these things to be done. By the strangeness of the sight he gathered those who would not obey a word and would not tolerate listening to prophecy, and so prepared them to hear his oracles. For who would not be astonished to see a man of God walking naked? Who would not long to learn the reason for what was happening? Who would not ask, “Why on earth does the prophet put up with living with a prostitute?” Just as the God of the universe commanded each of those things to be done, looking out for the benefit of those living in carelessness, so he also arranged this new and strange spectacle. By its strangeness he draws everyone to come and see, and he makes the exhortation offered to those who arrive more persuasive. For the novelty of the sight becomes a sound pledge of the teaching, and the one who comes to see goes home instructed in the things of God.

26h Kings, too, change the images on their coins from time to time. Sometimes they stamp the likeness of lions, sometimes stars and angels, and at other times they try to make the gold more valuable by a strange new design. In the same way the King of all puts these new and varied ways of life on true religion like so many stamps, and so moves the tongues of everyone to praise. This includes not only those raised in the faith but also those sick with unbelief. That this is so is shown not by arguments but by the clamor of the facts themselves. The Ishmaelites, many tens of thousands of them, were enslaved to the darkness of impiety, and the standing on the pillar has enlightened them. For this brilliant lamp, set as if on a lampstand, sends its rays everywhere like the sun. As I said, you can see Iberians, Armenians and Persians coming, and receiving holy baptism. The Ishmaelites come in bands, two hundred together, or three hundred, and sometimes a thousand. They loudly renounce their fathers’ deception. Before that great lamp they smash the idols they once worshiped. They renounce the rites of Aphrodite (for from ancient times they had accepted the worship of that demon) and they share in the divine mysteries. They receive laws from that holy tongue, bid farewell to their ancestral customs, and refuse to eat wild asses and camels. I have been an eyewitness of these things. I have also heard them renouncing their fathers’ impiety and agreeing to the teaching of the Gospel. And once I went through a very great danger. Symeon himself ordered them to come to me and receive the priestly blessing from me, saying they would gain the greatest benefit from it. But they ran together in a rather barbarous way. Some pulled me from the front, some from behind, some from the side. Those standing farther back climbed over the others and stretched out their hands. Some pulled at my beard, and others grabbed hold of my clothes.

26i I would have been suffocated by their over-eager rush if he had not shouted and scattered them all. Such is the benefit that flowed from the pillar that the mockers love to mock, and such a ray of the knowledge of God has it sent down into the minds of the barbarians. I know of another incident involving these people. One tribe begged the holy man to send a prayer and blessing to its chieftain. Another tribe, which was present, objected. They said the blessing should not be sent to him but to their own leader, for the first man was thoroughly unjust, while theirs had nothing to do with injustice. There was a long quarrel and a barbarian brawl, and at last they came to blows. I used many words to urge them to be quiet, saying the holy man was fully able to give his blessing to both. But these said that the other man must not receive it, and those tried to keep it from the other. Symeon threatened them from above and called for dogs, and with difficulty he put an end to the quarrel. I tell this because I wanted to show the faith in their minds. They would never have raged against one another like this unless they believed that the blessing of the godlike man had very great power. At another time I saw a celebrated miracle. A man came in (he too was a chieftain of the Saracens) and begged the holy head to help a man who had been struck on the road and had lost the use of the limbs of his body. He said this had happened near Callinicus, which is a very large fortress. The man was brought into the middle. Symeon ordered him to renounce the impiety of his forefathers. When he gladly accepted this and obeyed, and did what he was told, Symeon asked whether he believed in the Father, and in the only-begotten Son, and in the Holy Spirit. When he confessed that he believed, Symeon said, “Since you believe in these names, stand up.” When the man stood up, Symeon ordered him to carry the chieftain on his shoulders as far as his own bed. The chieftain had a very large body. The man took him up and went off at once. Those present set their tongues to singing hymns to God.

26j He gave this order in imitation of the Master, who told the paralytic to carry his bed. Let no one call this imitation tyranny. For the saying is the Master’s own: “He who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater than these he will do.” We have seen the fulfillment of this promise too. The Lord’s shadow never worked a miracle anywhere, yet the shadow of the great Peter both undid death and drove out diseases and put demons to flight. But it was the Master who was working these miracles through his servants. So now too, in the same way, the divine Symeon uses his name and works countless miracles. Another miracle happened through him, in no way inferior to the first. One of those who had come to believe in the saving name of Christ the Master, an Ishmaelite of some standing, made a vow to God with Symeon as witness. The promise was that from then on, to the end of his life, he would abstain from all food that has life. Somehow, after some time, he let the promise slip, slaughtered a bird, and dared to eat it. But God wished to bring him to repentance by rebuke, and also to honor his own servant, who had witnessed the broken promise. So the flesh of the bird was changed into the nature of stone, and the man, even if he wanted to, could no longer eat it. For how could he possibly eat from a body that had turned to stone, the very one he had taken up for food? The barbarian was struck with amazement at this strange sight. He hurried to the holy man, bringing his hidden sin into the light, proclaiming his transgression to everyone, asking God’s forgiveness for his fault, and calling on the saint for help, so that by his all-powerful prayers Symeon might draw him out of the bonds of sin. Many people saw the miracle with their own eyes and felt with their hands the part near the breast, made of bone and stone together. I was not only an eyewitness of his miracles; I also heard him foretell things that were to come.

26k He foretold the drought that came, the great failure of crops that year, and the famine and plague that followed, two years in advance. He said he had seen a rod being carried against mankind, signaling the scourges that would come through it. At another time he announced the attack of the so-called caterpillar, and said that it would do no great harm, since God’s love for mankind would accompany the punishment. Thirty days later an immense swarm arrived, so thick that it cut the sunlight and cast a shadow. We all saw this clearly. It damaged only the fodder for the animals and did no harm at all to the food of men. Once, when someone was making war on me, he told me fifteen days beforehand that my enemy would be overthrown, and by experience I learned that his prediction was true. I know very many other things like these, but I will pass over them to avoid a long account. These are enough to show the spiritual insight of his mind. His fame is great even with the king of the Persians. The ambassadors who came to that king told his story, and he asked carefully what kind of life the man led and what miracles he did. They say that the king’s wife asked for oil that had been granted his blessing, and received it as a very great gift. All the king’s court were struck by the report; though they heard many slanders against him from the magi, they still inquired carefully, and when they were told, they called him a man of God. The rest of the crowd approached the muleteers, the couriers and the soldiers, offering them money and begging to share in the blessing of the oil. The queen of the Ishmaelites was barren and longed for children. First she sent some of her most eminent people to ask that she might become a mother. When her request was granted and she had what she desired, she took the child, now a king, and ran to the holy old man. Since women were not allowed to approach him, she sent the baby to him and begged to receive his blessing, saying, “This sheaf is yours.”

26l “I brought the seed of my prayer with tears, but you have made the seed into a sheaf, drawing down the rain of divine grace through your prayer.” But how long shall I keep trying to measure the depth of the Atlantic Ocean? Just as those depths cannot be measured by men, so what he does day by day goes beyond any telling. For my part, I admire his endurance above all of this. Night and day he stands in the sight of everyone. He has taken away the doors and pulled down no small part of the enclosure, so that he is set before all as a new and strange spectacle. At one time he stands for a long while, at another he bows again and again, offering worship to God. Many of those standing by count these bows. Once one of those with me counted one thousand two hundred and forty-four, and then he grew tired, sat down, and gave up the count. As he bends down he always brings his forehead to his toes. His stomach receives food only once a week, and then only a little, so it readily allows his back to bend. They say that from the standing a long-lasting sore has formed on one foot, and a great deal of pus is constantly draining from it. Yet none of these sufferings has shamed his philosophy. He bears bravely both what he has chosen and what has been forced on him, and has overcome both by his eagerness. He was once compelled to show this sore to someone, and I will tell the reason. A man came from Ravenna, an earnest man honored with service to Christ. When he reached that summit he said, “Tell me, by the truth itself that turned the race of men around: are you a man, or a bodiless nature?” The bystanders were angered at the question, but Symeon ordered them all to be silent. To the man he said, “Why have you asked this?” The man replied, “Because I hear everyone repeating that you neither eat nor sleep. Each of these belongs to human beings, for no one who has this nature could live without food and sleep.” Symeon ordered a ladder to be set against the pillar and told him to climb up. First he was to examine his hands, then put his hand inside the leather covering, and see not only the feet but also the very grievous sore.

26m The man saw it and marveled at the extent of the sore. He learned from Symeon himself that he does take food, and he came down from there. When he reached me, he told me everything. At the great public festivals Symeon shows yet another kind of endurance. From sunset until the sun returns to the eastern horizon he stands all night with his hands stretched up to heaven, neither charmed by sleep nor overcome by weariness. Amid so many labors, such a mass of achievements, and so many miracles, his mind is so humble that he considers himself, by his own worth, the last of all men. Besides his humble mind, he is very easy to approach, gentle, and gracious, and he answers each person who speaks to him, whether a craftsman, a beggar, or a countryman. He has also received from the generous Master the gift of teaching. Twice each day he gives his exhortations and floods the ears of his hearers, speaking with great grace and bringing the instruction of the divine Spirit. He urges them to lift their heads toward heaven and take wing, to be freed from the earth, to picture the kingdom that is expected, to fear the threat of Gehenna, to despise earthly things, and to wait for what is to come. One can also see him sitting as judge and delivering right and just verdicts. These things and others like them he does after the ninth hour. For he spends the whole night, and the day until the ninth hour, in prayer. After the ninth hour he first gives divine teaching to those present. Then he receives each one’s petition, works some healings, and settles the quarrels of those in dispute. Around sunset he begins his conversation with God for the rest of the time. Yet while doing all this he does not neglect care for the holy Churches. At one time he fights against Greek impiety, at another he puts down the boldness of the Jews, and at another he scatters the factions of the heretics. Sometimes he writes to the emperor about these matters. Sometimes he rouses the rulers to zeal for God. At other times he urges the shepherds of the Churches themselves to take greater care of their flocks.

26n Having gone through these things, I have tried to show the whole rain from a single drop, and to give those who read this writing a taste of the sweetness of the honey on the tip of my forefinger. What everyone else sings of him is many times more than this. But I have not undertaken to write down everything. I have undertaken to show, through a few things, the character of each man’s way of life. Others, as is likely, will write far more about him, and if he lives on, they may perhaps add greater wonders. As for me, I long for him, helped by his own prayers, to continue in these good labors. I also beg God that he, who is a common adornment and the glory of true religion, may have my own life set in order and steered toward the life of the Gospel.

Chapter 27

27a The common destroyer of mankind has found many roads of wickedness, striving to hand the whole human race over to utter ruin. In the same way, the children of true religion have devised many different ladders for the ascent to heaven. Some contend together in companies. In countless such communities, beyond counting, they enjoy the unfading crowns and reach the ascent they long for. Others embrace the solitary life. They train themselves to speak with God alone, and they take no share in any human comfort, and in this way they win the proclamation of victory. Others live in tents, and others in huts, and sing hymns to God. Others embrace life in caves and grottoes. Many, some of whom I have mentioned, could not be persuaded to have a cave, a grotto, a tent or a hut. They have given their bodies to the open air and put up with extremes of weather: at one time stiff with unmixed frost, at another scorched by the fire of the sun’s rays. Their way of life differs again among themselves. Some stand continually. Others divide the day between sitting and standing. Some shut themselves up behind low walls and avoid the company of the crowd. Others use no such covering and are set out in full view for anyone who wishes to look. I have been forced to go through each of these now, because I wanted to write the life of the wonderful Baradatus. For he too devised new practices of endurance. First he shut himself in a small cell for a long time, and enjoyed only the soul’s delight in God. From there he went up to the ridge above, and made a small wooden chest, not even matched to the size of his body, and lived in it, forced always to stoop. For it was not as high as his body was long.

27b It was not joined with solid planks. It stood open like a lattice, and was like those skylights that have wider openings for the light. For this reason he was not spared the beating of the rains, nor freed from the blaze of the sun. He took both just as other men do who live in the open air. His one advantage was the hardship of being shut in. After he had continued in this way for a long time, he later came out, yielding to the urgings of the holy Theodotus, who received the high priesthood of the church of Antioch. Now he stands continually with his hands stretched out to heaven, singing hymns to the God of all. He covers his whole body with a leather tunic. Only around the nose and mouth he has left a small opening for his breath, so that he can breathe the common air, since human nature cannot live otherwise. He endures all this labor though he did not receive a strong body. He is struck by many ailments. But his boiling zeal, set on fire by love for God, forces to labor a body that cannot labor. His mind is adorned with understanding, and he asks and answers questions very well. At times he reasons better and more powerfully than those who have read through the labyrinths of Aristotle. Though he is at the very height of virtue, he does not let his mind climb up with him. He bids it creep below, at the very foot of the mountain. For he knows how much harm a mind inflamed with pride brings on itself. Such, in sum, is his philosophy. May it grow until he reaches the turning post of the race. For the fame of these victors is the common joy of the godly. As for me, may I be upheld by his prayers and not be far from delighting in such sights.

Chapter 28

28a I will not pass over the story of Thalelaios either, for the sight of him is full of wonder. I have not only heard others tell of this strange marvel; I saw it myself. About twenty stades from Gabala (a small and very charming city) he took possession of a hill. On it stood a sacred precinct dedicated to demons, honored with many sacrifices by the godless people of former times, and there he built a small hut. The people used to serve these accursed beings, as they said, trying to soften their great cruelty with sacrifices. For the demons harmed many people, both passersby and neighbors, and not only human beings but also donkeys, mules, cattle and sheep. They were not making war on the animals; through them they were plotting against people. So when they saw him arrive at that time, they tried to terrify him but could not, since faith fenced him round and grace fought on his side. Filled with rage and madness, they turned against the trees planted there. Around that hill there happened to be many flourishing fig and olive trees. They say that more than five hundred of these were suddenly torn up. I heard this from the neighboring country people as they told it. They had long been held in the darkness of ungodliness, but through his teaching and his miracles they received the light of the knowledge of God. When the accursed demons had done this and still had not frightened the champion of the philosophic life, they brought other devices against him. At night they raised howling cries and showed torches, trying to scare him and throw his mind into confusion. But he laughed at all their assaults, and in the end they left him and ran away. He then made two wheels, each two cubits across, with boards not fitted tightly against each other but standing apart, and joined the two wheels together. Then he sat inside, fastened those spaced boards with pegs and nails, and hung the wheel out in the open air. He drove three other tall timbers into the ground, joined their upper ends with further beams, tied the double wheel between them, and suspended it. The inside of this is two cubits high and one cubit wide.

28b Sitting in this, or rather hanging in it, he spent ten years so far. He is a man of very large frame, and even sitting he cannot straighten his neck. He always sits bent over, with his face pressed to his knees. When I came to him, I found him gathering the benefit of the divine Gospels. I asked him, because I wanted to learn the reason for that strange way of life. He answered in Greek (he was a Cilician by birth): “I am weighed down by many sins, and I believe in the punishments that have been threatened. So I thought up this kind of life, devising moderate punishments for my body, so that I might take something away from the weight of those that are expected. For those are harder, not only in amount but in their very nature, because they are involuntary. What happens against one’s will is very painful, but what is freely chosen, even if it is hard, hurts less. For the labor is self-chosen, not forced. So by lessening what I expect to suffer with these small troubles, I shall carry away from here great gain.” When I heard this I greatly admired his sharpness of mind. He was not only contending in contests beyond those set before him and devising other struggles of his own, but he also understood the reasons for them and taught them to others. The people of the neighborhood also said that many miracles happen through his prayer, with healing given not only to people but also to camels, donkeys and mules. As a result that whole nation, long held in ungodliness, renounced the deceit of their fathers and received the brightness of the divine light. With these as his helpers he tore down the demons’ precinct and raised a very large shrine to the glorious martyrs, setting the holy dead against the falsely named gods. By their intercession may he too come to the end of his contests with the same victory, and may we, helped by them and by him, become warm lovers of the struggles of the philosophic life. Amen.

Chapter 29

29a Now that I have written about the lives of the best men, I think it fitting to record also the women who have contended no less, and perhaps even more. They deserve even greater praise. Their nature is weaker, yet they show the same zeal as the men, and they free their sex from the disgrace it inherited from its ancestors. For the present I will speak of Marana and Cyra, who have surpassed all the others in the contests of endurance. Their homeland was Beroea. Their family was distinguished in that city, and their upbringing matched their family. But they looked down on all of this. They enclosed a small plot of ground a short way outside the city, went inside it, and walled up the door with clay and stones. Their maidservants were eager to share this way of life. So they built a small lodging outside the enclosure and told them to live there. These women watch what goes on in the enclosure through a small window. They rise often for prayer, and they are set ablaze with love for God. Marana and Cyra have neither house nor hut, and they embrace life in the open air. In place of a door they have had a small opening made. Through it they receive the food they need, and they speak with the women who come to them. The time of Pentecost is set aside for this meeting. For the rest of the year they keep to a life of silence. Marana alone speaks with those who come. No one has ever heard the other utter a word. They wear iron, and carry so heavy a load that Cyra, who has the weaker body, is bent down to the ground and can hardly straighten up. Their garments are very large. At the back they trail along the ground and cover the feet completely. At the front they hang down to the belt itself, and they completely hide the face, the neck, the chest and the hands. I saw them often when I went inside that door. They had told me to have an opening dug through, out of respect for the dignity of the priestly office. I saw that the weight of that iron could not be borne even by a strong man. After much pleading I was able to have it taken off at once. But after I left, they put it back on their limbs, the collar on the neck and the belt on the waist.

29b They put on also the irons assigned to the hands and feet. They have lived this way not for five, ten or fifteen years, but for forty-two. After contending for so long, they long for the toil of the struggle as if they had only just begun. For they picture the beauty of the Bridegroom, and so they bear the labor of the race very lightly and easily. They hurry to reach the end of the contest, seeing their Beloved standing there and holding out the crown of victory. For this reason, though they take the force of rain, snow and sun, they are not distressed or pained. Out of what seems painful they gather joy. They imitated the fast of the divine Moses, and three times went without food for that long. For through forty days they took only a little food. Three times too they imitated the abstinence of the divine Daniel. They went through three weeks of days, and only then gave food to the body. Once they longed to see the holy places of the saving sufferings of Christ, and they ran to Aelia. They took no food at all on the road. Only when they reached that city and had finished their worship did they take food. Then they came back the same way, again without food. The journey is no fewer than twenty stages. They also desired to see the shrine of the glorious Thecla in Isauria, so as to kindle the torch of their love for God from every side. As they went, so they came back, without food. Such was the divine love that drove them into ecstasy. So did divine love for the Bridegroom drive them to frenzy. These women have adorned the female sex with such a way of life. They have become models for the others, and they will be crowned by the Master with the garlands of victory. As for me, I have set out the benefit that comes from this and gathered the blessing. Now I will move on to another account.

Chapter 30

30a The wonderful Domnina, whom I mentioned a little while ago, imitated the way of life of the holy Maron. In the garden of her mother’s house she set up a small hut. Her hut is made of reeds from the millet plant. She spends her days in it, and with unceasing tears she soaks not only her cheeks but also her garments of hair, for she covers her body with clothing of that kind. About the time of the cock-crow she goes to the house of God, which is not far off, and with the other women and men she offers the hymn of praise to the Master of all. She does this not only at the beginning of the day but also at its close. She both believes, and teaches others, that the place dedicated to God is more worthy of reverence than any other place. For this reason she also gave it great care. She persuaded her mother and her brothers to spend their possessions on it. Her food is lentils soaked in water. She endures all this hardship in a body that is wasted and half dead. For a very thin skin, like a membrane, is stretched over thin bones, since her fat and flesh have been used up by her labors. She is open to everyone who wants to see her, men and women alike. She does not look at a face, nor does she show her face to anyone. She is carefully covered by her garment and bent down to her knees. She speaks very softly and indistinctly, and always with tears as she speaks. Often she took my right hand and laid it on her eyes, and let it go so drenched that the tears dripped from the hand itself. When someone with such great riches of philosophy weeps, laments and groans like those who live in the utmost poverty, what words could praise her as she deserves?

30b For it is burning love toward God that brings forth those tears. It sets the mind ablaze toward the contemplation of God, pricks it with its rays, and urges it on toward the passage from this life to the next. Although she spends her days and nights in these things, she does not neglect the other kinds of virtue. As far as she can, she serves the excellent contenders whom I have mentioned, and those I have passed over. She also serves those who come to her. She tells them to lodge with the shepherd [priest] of the village, and she herself sends them everything they need. For her mother’s and her brothers’ goods are set before her for expenses, and they gain a blessing through her. When I too go to that district, which lies to the south of our country, she sends me loaves, fruit and soaked lentils. But how long shall I go on, striving to tell all her virtue at length, when I ought to set before you the lives of others as well, who imitated her and those women I mentioned earlier? For there are many others. Some have embraced the solitary life. Others have loved life in a community with many, so that two hundred and fifty, or more or fewer, live together. They put up with one kind of food and choose to sleep only on rush mats. They give their hands to wool-working and dedicate their tongues to hymns. There are countless such schools of philosophy, too many to number, not only in our country but throughout the whole East. Palestine too is full of them, and Egypt, and Asia, and Pontus, and all of Europe. For ever since Christ the Master honored virginity by being born of a virgin, nature has put forth meadows of virginity. It offers these fragrant, unfading flowers to its Maker. It does not divide virtue into male and female, nor split philosophy into [differences of sex]. For the difference is of bodies, not of souls.

30c For in Christ Jesus, as the divine Apostle says, there is no male and female. One faith has been given to men and women alike. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all of us; and to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. The one who sets the contest has also laid out a single prize for the victors, the kingdom of heaven, and has made this the common reward for all who strive. There are, then, as I said, many training grounds of godliness for men and women, not only in our own country but throughout Syria, in Palestine, in Cilicia, and in Mesopotamia. In Egypt, they say, some monasteries hold as many as five thousand men, who work with their hands and sing hymns to the Master in the midst of their work. They do not only earn the food they need from their labor, but also help strangers who come to them and the poor. But to tell it all is impossible, not only for me but for any writer. And if it were possible, I think it would be superfluous, an ambition that gains nothing. For those who want to reap some benefit, what has been said is enough to give them what they long for. This is why I have recorded different ways of life, and added the stories of women to those of men: so that old and young and women alike may have patterns of the philosophic life, and so that each person, copying the life that suits his heart, may have a rule and measuring-line for his own life in the account set down here. Painters look at their model and copy the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the cheeks, the ears, the forehead, even the hair of the head and of the beard. Beyond these they copy the seat and the stance, and even the look of the eyes, whether gentle or fierce. In the same way, each reader of this work who chooses to imitate some way of life should shape his own life by the one he has chosen.

30d Carpenters straighten their boards with a chalk line, and they keep trimming off what is extra until they lay the rule against the board and see that it is level. In the same way, the one who wants to emulate some way of life should lay it beside himself as a rule, cutting away the excess of vice and filling up whatever is lacking in virtue. This is why I took on the labor of writing: to give those who wish it a starting point for benefit. And I ask those who read, since they enjoy the labors of others without labor, to repay those labors with prayer. I also beg those whose lives I have written not to overlook me while I live far from their spiritual dance. Lift me up from where I lie below, lead me up to the height of virtue, and join me to their own company. Then I will not only praise the wealth of others but may myself have some grounds for praise, glorifying with deed, word and thought Christ, the Savior of all, our God. With him be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.