The Metrical Life of Rabban Hormizd (Budge translation)

Blessed be He Who hath magnified thy triumph : And hath made thee a marvellous man by thy strife : And hath multiplied and increased thy praise : May our congregation be guarded by thy prayer.

Verficles.Blessed be He Who hath placed thee in His Church : A fountain of life unto him that taketh refuge in thee : And hath bound unto himself a blessed habitation : Bless our congregation by thy prayer : Blessed be He Who by His help hath made thee to overcome : And hath given thee to be a means of help to His people : Pour out in abundance thy blessings : And bless those who dwell in thy monastery.

The Discourse.O Thou Who meritest praise from all created things, hidden Being : Adorable Being, hidden from all, without beginning : Being Who art, Thou art and shalt be Glorious God : Exalted and raised above every time, and name, and appellation : He is removed and remote from all the periods of time and worlds which exist : His existence had no period of beginning, and it cannot be sought out : And His duration is without end and also without measure : And His origin resisteth the knowledge of all created beings : Without beginning, and without cause, and not [affected] by time : The Knower of times, and of what is above them, as Creator : In powers and created things, that is to say, in things which exist : Complete and perfect because He is self-existent and eternal : He took not being from another, for that was impossible :

Nor His personality, which is hard [to understand] and which cannot be found out : It is admitted that He is One Substance, One Being : Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, Persons three : One Nature, One Might, One Lordship : One Will, One Dominion, One Knowledge : One Self-existent One, One God, One Kingdom : One wonderful and marvellous Wonder, boundless : Unutterable and not to be sought out by human reason : Incomprehensible to the mind, and unknowable by the comprehension : The Cause and also the effects by individual qualities : And neither in Nature nor in Person doth He belong to the cause : These are the individual qualities without confusion : Begetting, being born, and proceeding forth : Father begetting, Son being born without intermission : Spirit proceeding from the Person of the Father without break : The Father did not begin the Fatherhood since time was :

It existed ever, for His Being and existence had no beginning : The Son was from everlasting and [His] sonship had no beginning : And the Spirit is eternal, for there was never a time when He went forth : Among Them none is older than His Neighbour in existence : But in everything They are One, without division : There is no time, not even a minute, or a moment : Between One and the Other in priority or in coming after : For They are not subservient unto the numbers [used in] reckoning : For They are known by one, and two, et cetera, in composition : But One, One, and One, They are declared [to be] frequently : A series which is exalted above numbers and quantity : God forbid that the Trinity should be declared by number : In a manner which is above all human understanding can [this] only be done :

For not by one, and two, [and] three, nor by multitude : Can the Trinity of the Godhead be established : One substance, between the Persons of Whom there is no distinction : Except only in the individual qualities which are characteristic [of each]: The quality of begetting, of being born, and of proceeding from: The first of these is privative, or negative: Which word, interpreted in Greek, is ἀποφατική: But the middle and the third are hypothetical: When we read (or, say) "One of the Persons of the Trinity": The two Others are [included] with Him in the mention [of the One]: But although there is equality in the Persons: Yet in their characteristics They are different and are not equal: The characteristic of the Person of the Father is giving birth: And this is not attributed to the Persons of the Son and the Living Spirit: Similarly the characteristics of the Son and Spirit: Are not by any means hypothecated to the Person of the Father: And according to plain language I would say, the Father is the Cause: And the Son is His strength, that is, His wisdom and also [His] reason: And the Holy Spirit is His life in very truth: That God might be a wise God, rational, and of a living being: When a man uttereth the Name of God in the congregation: He also maketh known [the existence] of reason and life by the word:

And when a man uttereth the name of a man it is a manner of demonstration : Which of necessity sheweth that he possesseth life and reason : And, as an example, when a man uttereth the name Helios : He maketh known by his word one substance and three persons : Inasmuch as the sun hath one combination, and three persons :100 They are equal and not divided, although they have in them a nature which can be predicated : But they are not equal and are divided when individual qualities are to be declared : And they are found, on the contrary, to be divided and no longer equal : Therefore [the word] "sun" is a general name for [its] persons : So likewise is it in respect of the Trinity, the Living God :105 The name "God" is a new one for the Self-existent, and is not a natural one : It is also Hebrew, and in that it is [also] Syrian, [it meaneth] effective power : The persons of the sun are the sphere, the light, and the heat : None of them is earlier or later [than the other] in the matter of time : The sphere of the sun is not earlier than the rays of its light :110 And his flame is not later than the light or the sphere :

Although here they are powers, [yet] they are not stable persons : And since they are powers here we must understand [them to be] persons there : It is manifest proof that the Trinity cannot be comprehended : And therefore light is called in speech the image of a person : Father, Son, Holy Spirit, [these form] One existence : Two perfect [existences], complete in being, from One perfect [existence] : And also that which was enunciated by the son of thunder (Boanerges) : "In the beginning was the Word" [meaneth] the Lord, the Person of the Son : For by the appellation of individual speech he glorifieth the Person : And he maketh known and informeth concerning the Persons of the Father and Son : There is no word which doth not possess soul, and certainly life : The utterance is the soul, the understanding (or, meaning) is [its] life and reason :

And these are without disappearance, and without interruption : And none is anterior to his fellow by any period of time which can be exactly measured : But these are powers and operative agencies [here] : And there they are Persons and perfect Existences in very truth : And let us bring into comparison a proof from a person by way of example : For without doubt words make certain that there is One Nature : Adam, the first man, was not born, and certainly he was not a son : But he begot, after the manner of one who was a son, the young man Abel : And this one (i. e., Abel) who had been born, did not become a father to all eternity : And Eve [came into being], not by being born, but by proceeding from [Adam] : If in the similitude of the house of Adam, and in the visible creation He thus :

Preserved in one nature, without confusion of persons, the characteristics of each : Let us have no doubt whatsoever about the Eternal Trinity : That It existeth, and that in Its existence It had no beginning : One in Three, and Three in One, One God : To Whom by nature there is neither a name nor an appellation : Every name and appellation which the Holy Scriptures call Him by : And which they ascribe to the Holy One belong now to His Being and now to our creation : Therefore, that He is One God, created beings know well : But how He is, and what, no creatures that live are able to know : And they confess that He is One in Three co-equal Persons : But they cannot know the Persons of the Creator :

From [enquiring] how this can be excuse thyself, for it is a very difficult matter. And they know all the matters which concern them without confusion : Their boundlessness and their habitation each with the other : Neither spiritual beings, nor corporeal beings have imagined in writing : If the riches of Christ can neither be enquired into nor sought out :150 How can a created being examine into the nature of His Godhead? : The Father knoweth the Son, Who is begotten of Him, and the manner of His being born : And that He is the Son, for He knoweth Him that brought Him into being, and the manner thereof : It is the Holy Spirit Who can fathom the depths of Godhead : But rational minds are too feeble to know the mystery of self-existence :155 Look, O my brother, upon the sun for thy benefit and not for thy harm : Draw nigh unto the fire that thou mayest be warmed and not burned : Hearken unto our Lord, and believe, and hold His living word to be true : "I am in My Father, and My Father is in Me", and save thyself from investigation : Keep silent and [enquire not] how it can be, for the matter cometh not :160 Into the comprehension of the reason or of the minds of created beings :

To His preachers He gave the command to preach and baptize : In the Adorable Name of the Trinity He gave dominion : He did not say unto them how, but what [then ?] : He that believeth and is baptized shall live and put on armour : And he that believeth not shall be one condemned in the day of trial : And shall possess an evil inheritance at the last—the fire of Gehenna : And the Baptist describeth that he who believeth in the Son : Shall have life, and shall be invited to the feast on high : Whilst he who is not obedient unto the Son "shall not see life" : But the anger of God shall abide upon him, and he shall not be with those at the feast : Let us believe, and be sure of, and obedient to, these things, that we may not be with those who are deprived [of them] :

And that we, in the hardness of our heart[s] may not be spoiled by our Enemy : And he who believeth without this faith casteth himself : Into an unfathomable sea, and destroyeth his life, and becometh man : The Self-existent is a Spirit, and the Spirit bloweth where it listeth : And the things which belong to Him cannot be sought out by him that wisheth : And also John made known, "In the beginning was the Word": And the other words, little by little, concerning the Son, the Word: And four times [John says] that He was God with God: And [describes] the manner wherein He made created things in marvellous silence: And the Apostle sings, and Paul the chosen one taught: That by Him God made the worlds, and that He is the light of His splendid glory: And the Image of the Being of His Father, and thus a perfect Person:

But how this is he passeth over in silence in a proper manner: And also the cries of 'Holy', which the angels cried, are three: And make known that there are Three Persons in One Self-existent Being: But they never learned the condition of the Godhead: And they never had the power to teach it or to make it known by speech: And the rational Church [saith :—] "One Holy Father: "And One Son, Who shall be called holy, and is holy: "And One Holy Spirit, holy in one praise:" In these words doth the Church, without any mingling, ascribe praise: I do not say because there are Three [Persons] there are three Beings: But only that there are Three Persons, co-equal in the Self-existent Being: One Self-existent Being with Three Persons is to be confessed : And it must not be believed that any One is inferior to His Fellow :

The Father did not create without the Son, and the Son did not fashion : Without His Father, and the Spirit did not adorn without the Father and Son : But with one power, and with one will common : To their Three Adorable Persons They are co-equal in substance : He fashioned this creation and brought it into the state in which it now is : According to hidden wisdom, and knowledge which preceded all other knowledge : It was not a new thought which was stirred up in the Creator to create creation : Neither did He do it because there was great necessity : But because it thus pleased His will, which is perfect in goodness : And it existed aforetime in His everlasting knowledge : And since it pleased His love not from anything did everything come : He alone was before everything, and He is beyond everything :

In Him were depicted the worlds which came into being after time : And He pondered no new thought as to how, and in what form, and when, they were to come into being : Everything constituted was made and perfected with Him : And when it pleased Him He created everything which is in this world: Great wonder filled creation when created beings began to be: And the hosts on high, if they were created, remained in astonishment: The All-wise made everything which He made wisely: And He ordered His work like a good workman without confusion: Every object which He had planned in the construction of the world: That the rational beings which He had created should become divine His love perfected: He did not desire to give to this world the perfection of existence: But He reserved it wisely for another world: In the new world, which His love had prepared from the beginning:

He wished all rational beings to be perfect, and this was fitting: And [in] this present world, as in the case of children, by degrees: It pleased Him to perfect us by His training which is full of incitement: This is the splendour of the beautiful form of reason: That of its own will it may examine and choose, and not by force: Freedom itself is the child of power [and]: Of the being which bestoweth a hidden nod upon reason: For He is the Power which searcheth into, and chooseth, and rejecteth: He is the Reason, the lord of hidden treasures, and of the labours which are performed : Glorious and to be praised, the Lord of creation, the mighty Nature : But in what manner He ordered the work of His hands is hidden in mystery : On the first day of the week, on the first day, seven natures : Heaven, fire, darkness, air, earth, water, and spiritual beings :235 These, in a mystery, out of silence and in silence He created : On the morning of [that day], with a wonderful voice, He created the light : On the second day He made the firmament from the waters : And that exalted Being placed it between the earth and the heavens : On the third day He collected the waters into the mass of the seas :240 And earth and Paradise sprang up, and the Self-existent fashioned Eden : On the fourth day He stablished the sun, and moon, and stars : And with them He adorned the firmament which appeared at His secret nod : On the fifth day He united the waters and they brought forth creeping things : And birds, and the great beasts of the sea, and everything which is in the waters :245 On the sixth day He created from the earth dumb creatures :

And He created Adam, and called him His form and living image: He made him king over everything which is in this world: Until the time should come when he should become as God, and a being of knowledge: He commanded and warned him not to eat from the tree, But by the counsel of the Enemy he was persuaded, and transgressed the command and trod it under foot: The beloved heir remained a condemned one doomed to destruction: And sin, and the Evil One, and greedy death ruled over him: There went forth on him the sentence of doom: And the king was cast out into exile like a poor man: The desire of the Calumniator was perfected in the destruction of the image: And the wicked servant began to hold in derision the Lord Most High: Rational beings and dumb creatures turned away their gaze together: And there came upon him, without understanding, great affliction:

The Creator saw that His image had become a thing to be despised: And one given over to destruction, through evil, and iniquity, and all kinds of sin: It pleased not the gracious and merciful Lord: That the beauty of His image should be wiped out by Belial: He sent His consubstantial Son, and the Spirit: And the glorious Lord, without leaving [heaven] went down: He dwelt in the womb of a blessed woman, the daughter of mortals: Unending, and without limit or termination: He took from one who had been made in His image and likeness, of the race of earth: Flesh which had been endowed with soul, a rational soul, and perfect manhood: With one will of the Three [Persons] in common: He united to Himself man who was to become God, an only-begotten Son: The Father desired him, the Word abode in him, the Spirit dwelt in him:

And he became a dwelling for the Trinity, and a glorious temple: Although in the will of the Trinity there was unity: Yet separately and individually the Word is of the Son: Father, and Son, and Spirit willed one will: And the Son, in His love, without change, became One Who went down: And One Who had been made humble, and One Who was empty, and One Who was despised: And One Who had been made Man, and endowed with a body and members: He received, and took, and exalted, and deified, and Him that was to become a Son He made so: And He exalted, and honoured, and magnified, and sanctified Him that was to be holy: He made a temple and a shrine, and extolled and magnified Him that was to be magnified: And He united with Him Jesus Who was to be derived from us: He was to become sublime, and a Being divine, and an exalted Being:

And One Who was to become a temple, and a shrine, and One able to unite [with God]: Therefore let us confess Jesus Christ, the Adorable One, the Lord: God and man, existing for time and eternity, the Creator and what is created: Word and flesh, King and purple, Dweller and temple: The simple and compound, He Who taketh and what is taken, the Wearer and what is worn: Being made God, Being made Son, and Being Who is to become God and Son: Being made sublime and magnified, Being Who is to become sublime and magnified: Honourable and extolled, the Being Who is to be honoured and extolled: Holy One and Being made a temple, the Being Who is to be sanctified and made a temple: Being made a shrine and united to God, the Being Who is to become a temple, and united with God: Finite and [in]finite, the Being Who shall be praised:

Two forms and also Two substances—one is the Son: Two Natures and two Persons—one is the Lord: One Person (πρόσωπον) Which keepeth the Natures united: And which preserveth the existing Persons in unity: Besides, Nature and Person are God the Word complete: And Nature and Person are complete in perfection : One is Christ in His Godhead and in His Lordship : And in kingdom, and in glory, and in operative power : He is One in power, and also in honour, and in working : And in extolment, and in ruling, and in judgeship :305 He is One in adoration, and in dominion, and in pardoning : The Son is One, one Redeemer, to Him be confession : With things of Lordship He associated His temple in a manner supernatural : For it was impossible for Him to be a nature derived [from anything] : He gave to it by grace all exalted and glorious attributes :310 Effectively, and in a full manner, in truth : And He took the humble qualities derived from the condition of becoming a shrine : Willingly, and face to face, as a pledge : From birth until baptism was hidden : The wonderful, marvellous, glorious, and secret Dispensation :315 From His public appearance (?) until the Ascension, which was openly seen and evident : By the performance of marvellous and mighty deeds, and wonderful things : Having fulfilled His Dispensation in a fitting manner : He chose the Twelve and the Seventy-two, and gathered together the Apostles : He taught them all manner of secret and hidden things :

And gave them power to do wonderful and mighty deeds : He was taken up with great glory to the heaven of heavens : To the adorable throne at the right hand of His hidden Father : He filled the path of the kingdom on high with saints : Virgins, ascetics, monks, [in] bands and companies :325 They heard Him teaching, "Ye shall not possess the possessions of the world": And they went forth naked of the goods thereof, and esteemed them a dream : Men and women clave to Him and journeyed with fervour : And because of His love they endured the works of righteousness : Now one of His chosen ones was our father, of whom our discourse speaketh :330 A cherub in the body, an angel incarnate, and clothed with light : On this path travelled the blessed man of whom history [telleth] : And he cultivated the virtues strenuously in great love : Now again, by the help of the Trinity, I begin : To put in writing a few of the triumphs of the righteous man :335 Righteous zeal compelleth me to declare the history of the chosen one : And the marvellous labours, and the glorious matters of the pious man :

The crown of his triumphs, and the asceticism of the venerable and noble man : Have incited me, the wretched one, to relate the story of the acts of his life : The sincere soul and chaste person of the pure priest : Call me and impel me to describe in words his beautiful deeds : The willing poverty and the strong self-abnegation of this warrior : Invite me to travel the simple road of a true discourse : The solitary life and the stern discipline of this advocate : Demand from me the speech of a collected narrative and I must burden myself with a discourse : The love of his Lord and the innocent love of this warrior : Have counselled me, the sluggard, to rise up and to become strenuous : The compassion and humility of this merciful man : Command me to set in writing certain of the doings of the just man :

His pious fasting and his self-denial which surpass speech : Transfix me and goad me, the man sunk in stupor as with sleep : To arise and preach the might of his triumphs strenuously : And also to depict his glorious qualities at great length : Grant me, O my God, by his prayers, the riches of speech : That I may relate the history of the person who was full of grace : Although I am wanting and ignorant both in speech and in knowledge : And my heart is sunk low in poverty and in confusedness : O Gracious One, Who art full of goodness, Thy great riches : Pour out upon me that perchance my miserable soul may become wise : My mind is too inferior to utter adequately this history : Of the man who was adorned with piety and holiness : From Thy storehouse make me wise and teach my foolish ignorance :

That I may be able to declare the triumph of Thy servant fully : Give Thou speech unto a thing which is dumb and hath no understanding : Put strength into me, the man who hath been made like unto it, with every folly : O my Lord, unto Thee belong the strength and the power : And unto Thee belong all victory and every gift : Extend and give to my mind wisdom and discernment : And guide me in the discourse on Thy chosen one with Thine exalted hand : That I may make known and declare, and my motions may relate all the wonders : Of this Thy triumphant one in holiness and modesty : In the contending of the righteous men who were among the Prophets and Apostles: He strove, and became perfect and exalted in piety and glory: He was set apart from the womb, like Moses the prophet, for things in the future:

And like Samuel he was called to the heavenly priesthood: I desire that in my speech this athlete of righteousness: I may extol, and also that I may praise him in an exalted manner: My mind is timid, and full of trembling, and consternation: Lest my feebleness be not sufficient to make plain the truth: The knowledge of earthly imaginings is far too little: To declare his marvellous labours by the lips: Therefore I have drawn nigh and dismissed from my heart every tremor: For I rely upon his prayers to find skilfulness of tongue:

From the East rose the lamp of righteousness: Our pious father Rabban Hôrmîzd, full of grace: His parents were Christians by belief: And they were prosperous and rich in the fugitive possessions of the world: They possessed men-servants and maid-servants in abundance : Who ministered unto them with exceedingly great reverence : They occupied themselves much with pious fastings and prayers : And were continually affording relief to the poor : The name of his father was Joseph, a righteous and wonderful man : And that of his mother was Thekla, a chaste and faithful woman : When he had arrived at the age of twelve years : The righteous folk took him to school with diligence : That he might learn the Scriptures, and become trained in spiritual learning : And in six years he could recite easily the New Testament and [the Psalms of] David by heart :

And when he had lived full twenty years, there moved in him the natural motions : Which were established in the nature of our creation by the Creator : These fervent feelings were bubbling up in him continually : And he used to say to his parents ceaselessly : "I will become a monk, and I greatly long to be one : "Behold, I am ready to serve the Lord with gladness" : With this thought of the fear of the Lord, and righteous anxiety : He was burning with incorporeal and divine fire : His heart was hot therewith by night and also by day : And he was exceedingly desirous for and awaited the garb anxiously : Our Adorable Lord knew the thoughts of the young man : And what was fair and fitting for His service and for the honour of His glory : As he was lying in the bed-chamber of his father's house :

And was wrapped in an exceedingly deep sleep : He saw a vision of Jesus our Lord sitting : Upon the throne of glory and being praised by the heavenly beings : When the motions of his soul had been united in the sweetness of the vision : The great King commanded one of the companies on high : Straightway, according to His command, the Watcher flew : And stood before the blessed young man, and said unto him : "Why art thou standing, O man, in a place which is not thine? : "For it is the country of the Watchers on high, of marvellous holiness" : He answered the Watcher, "He Who is mighty took me from my country : "And hath set me in a country which, indeed, is not mine : "But I beseech thee that I may not suffer any injury from thee" : And the Watcher heartened him, [saying] "Fear thou not, O wonderful man :

"For I am commanded to be thy guide and not one to harm thee : "And I have not injured thee, as thou didst imagine, and I will not do thee a hurt" Whilst they were thus conversing with each other with this conversation : A crown of glory suddenly appeared with the spiritual being He shewed it to him and said, "O thou young man who art to become beautiful : "Seest thou how this which I hold in my right hand sparkleth ? "If thou wishest this crown to be thine : "Get thee wings like unto mine, and thou shalt become the wearer of the crown" The young man seeing it became like one burning with fire : And he said to the Watcher, "Give it unto me, Master, for I desire it :" As soon as he had put the crown on the head of the just man it shone with light :

And the Watcher flew away, and ascribed praise unto the Bestower Having woke up from his sleep he remained standing in vexation And straightway he learned in secret, in his soul, the manner of the matter He was very hot with the fire of his love of Jesus Christ : And to no man did he reveal this glorious and marvellous vision But the young man determined to go to Jerusalem : That he might pray in the holy places Wherein Christ had wrought His wonderful, mighty deeds : And wherein He had perfected His marvellous dispensation : And he desired to go thence to the wilderness of Egypt : And he longed to dwell with the Fathers in the Scete desert : One day he wished to go forth from his father's house : And to journey along the road to where he had a mind to be as he was able :

After he had travelled seven and thirty days : According to the will of the Lord he arrived at the city of Mâwsel : And he diffidently took up his abode in the church the name of which is Bêth Hâlâ : And by Divine agency he found there three brethren : From the most holy Monastery of Rabban Mâr Bar-'Idtâ : Excellent men, holy men, and lords of wisdom : Abba Jacob from Kephar Zamrê, a pure man : And Mâr John, who was renowned for [his] triumphs, from Shâmrah : And Mâr Hênân-'Îshô', of glorious attributes, from Adiabene : Men of stature, and men who had happiness in contemplation of divine things : When he had been blessed by them, and had sat down modestly : Suddenly the divine fire kindled upon him : And he became fire through and through, an incomparable wonder : The which a tongue of flesh is unable to utter in words :

The pious men seeing that secret fire had shrouded the chosen man : Marvelled with astonishment, and perceived with the mind a mystery of the new world: And [marvelled] at his choice for the service of the spirit, and at the gifts: And at the mighty deeds and miracles which should take place through him: Then they were moved, and they prophesied about him in the power of the Spirit: Saying, "A chosen vessel thou art about to be unto the king Christ: "Many through thee shall be made members of the household of the glorious Lord: "And at the utterance of thy name stinking devils shall flee: "And evil reptiles which shoot forth the venom of greedy death: "At the memorial of thee they shall know thee, and shall abide in peace: "But I counsel thee, O our love, to desist from this journey: "And to rise up with us to go to our monastery, for it is better so:

"Our Lord Christ hath revealed unto us the whole matter of thy chosen person: "That thou art useful to Him, and that thou wilt serve His Lordship. "And an overseer of His treasures and rest: "And a almoner of His gifts thou shalt be, as is fit and proper: "When thou hast departed from this world unto the world of rest: "Thy spiritual children shall find alleviation: "They shall rejoice in thee and in thy treasures in abundance : "And thy seed of the spirit shall burst forth in a flood like the Nile : "Thy house which is in the spiritual land shall be : "Like that celestial Jerusalem, a country of glory : "The seed of Pachomius shall never depart therefrom : "And of excellent men until the arrival of the last of all things" : The young man hearing the counsel of the old men without hesitation :

Received [it], and departed to the monastery with them with a joyful heart : Having gone into the monastery the godly congregation received him : With the consent of their Rabbâ, Mâr Sabhr-Îshô', the head of the congregation : Which was in number about two hundred and sixty chosen men : Divine and marvellous men, pure vessels : After the manner of heavenly beings they conversed on the mysteries of the new world : And they were triumphant in the glorious works of excellence : With love, and with lowly humility they received him : The skilled mind, without prying and without investigation : As soon as he had entered into the service of the community, according to rule : He began the service of the angels and of heaven : He rejected everything in this world which dissolveth away : And the delightful things thereof he counted as the dung which is cast out :

He directed his gaze straight to the future world which abideth : And looked at the good things which pass speech and all understanding : Before his eyes he depicted nothing whatsoever except Christ : And he travelled along the celestial way with a joyful heart : This glorious man was greatly beloved by God : And the glorious Lord was wont to answer him quickly : When he had served in the monastery for a few months, according to rule : The brethren brought him on the First Day of the week to the door of the apse : After the receiving of the adorable Mysteries of the Living Son : Mâr Sabhr-Îshô' and the congregation laid hands upon him : And with prayers they shaved the righteous man by the command of the Lord : And with hymns of the Holy Spirit they ordained the pious man :

Even as our Lord wrote in His life-giving Gospel : "Where two or three are gathered together in My Name there am I" : The blessed man having recently received the garb of the monk : Removed himself from the work of the body to that of the mind: And he did this by turns, and became the one instead of the other: Through the fire of his love of Jesus our Lord which burned hotly: That is the fire which our Lord cast into this world: And by it he became a being flaming and burning with heat: By day he toiled strenuously in the service of the monastery: Being well ordered in mind, and quiet, and gentle, and prudent: At the time of compline, when the board was being struck at eventide: The sacristan used to give the venerable man a piece of holy bread: And fasting, he used to go forth in the evenings without food:

And he tasted nothing at all except a handful of water: On the First Day of the week having partaken of the Adorable Mysteries: He then ate a meal of bread, and water, and salt: Having acquired constant and simple humility in his soul: He laboured in self-denial which was boundless and unmeasurable: Of fruits, and of the fruits of trees he never ate: And for seven years he toiled in austere labours of this kind: The whole congregation of the monks marvelled at him: And they and his acquaintances ascribed unto him endless blessing: Within themselves they said, "Who can this young man be : "Who hath made himself wisely the home of every ascetic excellence: "In his boundless understanding he is a righteous man : "The exalted one of understanding possesseth wisdom and knowledge in his soul: "These spiritual excellences cannot be found in [any] other man :

"Except in the old men, that is, those who have lived an exceedingly long time": The coenobites having turned themselves to the refreshment of sleep : He would rise up from their midst with courage: And girding himself about with a rope strenuously : He would clean out the ashes of the furnace with his pure hand: And he would then devote himself to the latrine of the community : And sweep it out with his own hands and clean it: Fair was the humility to which, for our Lord's sake, the young man descended : Fair was this love of the understanding with which he burned: Fair was the fervent desire of the fear of the Lord with which he was on fire : Fair was the abasement of his pious soul to which he abased himself: He was thus strenuous in relieving his brethren in every want of the body :

Because the chosen man knew that he was pleasing his Lord in gratifying the brethren : Then he also devoted himself to service before the Lord : And he was lifting up praises and thanksgiving to such a degree : That our Lord saw the labour and love of the chosen man among the just men : And that he was careful to observe all His lifegiving commandments : He adorned his soul with every kind of spiritual excellence and practice : Especially with the glorious decoration of humility : Which is the robe of the King Christ, and it giveth victory : Unto its possessors, and destroyeth the Satans : Then the grace of the Lord began to blossom in his mind : And the King Christ opened His hidden treasures before him : He filled him with His Spirit, and scattered the wiles of the devils in him :

And in respect of his companions, he did not permit them to be caught in snares : But he was admonishing them continually, and shewing them : And pointing out the various deeds of crafty devils : Now the coenobites esteemed him as a companion of the seers : And they used to call him the "physician of the coenobites" : But that old Enemy, the hater of the truth : When he saw the glory of the wonderful works of the excellent man : Grew jealous, and became angry, and murmured greatly against the blessed man : Our father Hörmizd, whose triumph is famous, and whose memory is pious : One night, when he was alone keeping vigil : And praying and making supplication before his God :575 That Prince of the air, the destroyer, acted craftily towards him : And called out for his rebel company, which was full of guile : They began composing a crafty and cunning device : And said to our father, "O thou good and upright young man : Why dost thou persecute us unsparingly ? :580 We have not sinned against thee, and thou wilt destroy us and our souls : By thee the sword is directed against our ranks, and thou hast put on armour : And without understanding thou dost wish to make war against us : But thou hast not perceived that this world is delivered over to me : And that I order everything which is therein according to my will :585 Therefore hearken unto me, O thou who understandest all things that are seemly : If thou art persuaded by me I will magnify thee in all quarters [of the world] :

"And I will make thee to triumph greatly among the monks in holiness : "And thy praise shall increase in the world gloriously : "And the fame of thy triumph I will carry into all creation : "And I will make thee prince of all the glorious men in all the world : "I will make thee the most glorious of all the men who have been before thee of old : "And all men shall ascribe blessing, O triumphant one : "I will shew thee my glory, as I shewed [it] to thy fathers, in love : "Only thy glory shall exceed greatly the glory of them : "I will fill thee with my spirit, and I will also shew thee all hidden things : "And I will teach thee and make thee to know to the full all secret things : "Thy glory shall be victorious before governors and before kings :

"And they shall bow before thy greatness and become men who kneel [before thee] : "And I have many wonderful things to teach thee : "Which now, at this hour, I wish to hide from thee : "If thou wilt hearken unto me thou shalt live before me a life of rest : "But if thou opposest me I will make all thy days to be troubled : "And thou shalt suffer cruel tortures which will be worse than fire : "But be persuaded by my words and receive my fair counsel :"

Thus far did our father hearken unto the wicked Devil : And then in wrath did he revile and curse the malicious Devil : Being on fire with divine zeal : Saying, "I tell thee to shut thy mouth, O thou impudent one : O Liar, and father of all falsehood :610 Thy doctrine is craft which slayeth man by its evil venom : What use to me is thy counsel, which is wicked and full of guile? : In thy fear is thine iniquity, and on thy wretched head is derision : Christ, my God, and my true King, is sufficient for me : And as He loveth me He Himself will teach me the true doctrine :615 I have Christ, the Lord of my life, the Lord : And He will make me to drink abundantly of the love of His love which is better than wine : I shall never make myself a companion in thy foul impurity : And I shall never bow before the persuasion of thy counsel, O thou who strivest : It is Christ Who hath overcome thee, and Who hath laid bare thy crafts :620 He hath given us power by His humility to tread upon thy wretched head : He hath made thee to be a reproach and a mockery unto His chosen ones : And hath made thee, by His secret power, a thing to be trodden upon by His friends :

"Cease thy blasphemy, O impudent one"; and the righteous man cursed him [saying]: "In the Name of Jesus the Nazarene thou shalt be submissive" Immediately he heard the Name of Christ Satan fled: From before the eyes of our pious father, whose triumph is renowned And as he was flying in the air he who had been found guilty cried out: "The follower of Nimrod thinketh that I have been vanquished "Little by little I shall push aside his lofty spirit: "Until I bring him down to the lowest depth like mire "Many made their boast in the Name of the Nazarene: "But I have brought them down, and they have remained overthrown, and have never risen up again" When our pious father saw the defeat of the Devil: He was not lifted up in any way, but gave thanks to the hidden Being And with a humble and grateful heart he gave thanks to Christ:

Who had given him the power to overcome the herd of devils of the Evil One [Saying] "O our Lord Jesus, Who by Thy divine humility: "Didst break the spiritual heads of him that is full of wickedness "Thou art He, O our Lord, Whose head did bless us in the Crucifixion: "Thou didst make to bow the head of the Adversary, and he put on shame Thou didst give us courage, and didst say, 'I have overcome the world : "Be not afraid of Belial, the perverse Enemy :' "It is Thou, O our Lord, Who in Thy grace hast given us the gift : "Of treading upon with boldness serpents, yea, scorpions : "And that all the power of the Calumniator, the head of wickedness : "We may drive away in Thy Name like smoke before the flame : "Thou art He Who did command Thine Apostolic band :

"Saying, Go forth, preach and baptize the nations and all peoples : "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit, Three Persons : "One Substance, One Nature, One Being : "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, Thou didst say in speech : "Open the eyes of the blind, and cast out devils from mankind : "Raise the dead, and like God, make ye for them a Resurrection : "And with new tongues ye shall speak by the power of the tongue : "Also, lay your hands on the sick, and they shall gain relief : "And ye shall not be harmed even if ye drink poison" : And these things actually came to pass for the blessed, apostolic band : And then they were handed down through all generations until the end: By the physicians whom the Lord established in His chosen Church: To become the light and the salt which doeth away insipidity:

And illuminers of the children of men by means of guidance: Leading them to the fair life of spirituality: Christ visited His Church in a time which was full of trouble: By our father Hôrmîzd, whom He filled with spirit and all gifts: He set him apart for the keeping of His treasury, and He made him a chosen vessel: To give money unto his companions in a fair order: Now Satan, having been overcome in the first combat: Neither ceased nor desisted from his tyranny and crafty rage: On the second night they gathered together all the devils in creation: And they took with them all kinds of singing and horns: And they put on robes which were shining like lightning in brightness: And they surrounded our father that they might make him cease to pray: Our father was occupied with his Lord and was united unto Him: And in that divine union was gaining enjoyment:

And suddenly lightning, which was full of fiery rays: He breathed on the camp of the foul devils which were in ambush: Straightway were destroyed, even as is a light cloud by the air: The herds of devils, and the legions of the fiends, with disgrace and shame: Then the light which was united to his pious soul: Shrouded our father, and his soul had delight in that joy: The extent of which the tongue of flesh cannot relate: For it is a pledge of the joy of the new world: In all these things our father with a humble heart to our Lord: Gave thanks with innumerable sighs and tears: Saying, "O our Lord Jesus, Thou beloved Son: "For Whose sake Thy servants suffer pain with every endeavour: "And daily perform strivings without regarding [them]: "And also drive away from them every care and every thought: "According to the word of Paul, who said, He who striveth:

"Must keep his mind from everything and perform his course": Our father stole away his soul from all matters of the world: And only held fast to the Lord in his heart without turning aside: "He heard that our Lord said in His life-giving word: "Him who loveth Me and keepeth My word diligently: "I will love and will shew him Myself continually: "And I and the Father, without doubt, will make him to be a chamber : "Who hath made his pious and holy soul a dwelling of the Spirit :" And he was, moreover, by his glorious works, like unto a mirror : For the fathers and brethren in the monastery who laboured in works : The name of our perfect father was greatly beloved among them : And the triumphs of this labourer were exceedingly renowned : And the purity of his soul and his simplicity which surpassed measure :

Our pious father made himself like unto a drag-net (or, broom) : And he abased himself like a purge before the brotherhood : One day they brought to the monastery a young man vexed by the devil : For twelve years had he been tortured by the foul devil : And twenty and nine days only was he there : And he was most evilly entreated by the devil by which he was tortured : He broke chains in pieces and tore his apparel into strips : He gnawed the flesh of his arms with his teeth, and plucked pieces out of them : Now his parents were exceedingly wearied by the young man : Who was in this affliction the whole of the day and the whole of the night : The congregation of the brethren were in sorrow because of him : And they all with one common voice and mind prayed for him :

That, if it were possible, the youth might be set free from his affliction : But if not it might be according as the hidden will [of God] inclined : Our Lord, by Divine Providence, hearkened unto the request of His servants : And killed the young man, and removed him to life and also to rest : Now his parents and all his kinsfolk were in pain and affliction : And were weeping for him with lugubrious groans : The sound of their bitter and painful mourning : Went forth with cries of lamentation into all the monastery : And everyone who heard the voice of their mourning was drawn : To weeping, and pain, and sorrow, and was exceedingly afflicted : Now our father who was still working strenuously in the common house : Was greatly moved by the sound of their bitter weeping : For he was not permitted to go and see their sorrowful circle :

But his compassion drew him to go with a sighing heart : And when he had drawn nigh and seen his kinsfolk in suffering and grief : The man who toiled mourned more than did they with suffering : Therefore our Lord seeing His servant covered with tears : Wished to console him, and to make his grief an acceptable sacrifice : Straightway our father perceived in his heart the tranquil peace : Which the mercy of our Lord poureth out upon them when He maketh His compassion abundant :735 The good Lord gave His servant freedom of speech : Whereby he persuaded them they should find deliverance through him : Those sorrowful folk were afflicted with bitter suffering : And on their behalf the renowned soldier cast himself into the strife : Of him that had asked Him Jesus Christ was not unmindful in any way :740 For He had good knowledge of what He had fashioned, the glorious man : He urged His servant to ask still more with a joyful heart : That by means of his persuading He might make the youth who was decaying to live again : The flesh of the young man began to tremble, and to be moved by the soul : And our father prayed on his behalf that he might make him to be alive wholly :745 And because it was night he was still holding his own apparel : And the air was bitterly cold, and the rain drove fiercely in great showers :

With the hidden eye of the purity of his mind the beholder : Looked forth, and saw the Watcher, who clave always to the young man : Holding on to parts of his soul, and he would not let them go : Because the restoration to life was to be fulfilled by the hands of our father : Now between these and these things our father was in doubt : He was greatly afraid to draw nigh openly unto the dead man : Lest he should be recognized before the morning dawned and be glorified : And should be well known quickly and clearly from his poverty : For he possessed neither apparel nor covering : But naked he boldly marched along the path of the Gospel : And that he might not put on glorious raiment he was very mindful : Lest it should become to the crafty Enemy the excuse for a snare :

But he wisely made a plan against the Enemy : That he might not be tripped up in the nets of the foul devil : Straightway then he ran quickly, and went to the common house : And stripping off his own garment put on that of the steward : And whilst the kinsfolk were groaning and weeping he came upon them suddenly : And there was no one who knew him, and like a stranger he began to ask them questions: They thought that he was either the bishop or the head of the monastery: And they answered in their sorrow, "Thou art a stranger then, O man: "That thou hast no knowledge of this bitter affliction: "Which the wicked Devil, the abominable Enemy, hath made our son to bear: "We have continued here in hope for thirty days: "That perchance our son might be healed, and our sad heart be consoled:

"But this evening he choked and died at the setting of the sun: "And Fortune hath made us to drink grief and suffering, as thou seest": Then our pious father stilled the voice of their weeping: And encouraged them, and spake unto them in a sweet voice: Saying, "Weep ye not, O strangers, for the young man is not dead: "Cease [weeping] before me, for his soul is in him and he is alive": When they had heard the joyful, glad tidings from the pious man: They stilled their weeping, and were relieved a little, and ceased from anxiety: But our father was still lying in grievous pain: And in secret his eyes shed tears on their behalf: He waved his hand three times in the sign of the Cross: And prayed, and said, "O our Lord Jesus, Thou Good Lord : "When Thou wast performing Thy human dispensation on our behalf :

"Thou didst restore to life the daughter of Jairus, the chief of the synagogue : "In Thy great love Thou didst give life to the widow's son : "And for Lazarus Thou didst effect resurrection from the grave : "Now, O Lord, unto Thy secret power nothing is difficult : "And Thy will is one with Thy Father in the creation of created beings : "Thou, Lord, didst say to Thy disciples, and didst command in Thy word : "Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall find, in truth : "Every petition which ye shall ask My Father in My Name : "Shall be [granted] unto you by My Father abundantly : "Open, O my Lord, Thy door to the voice of the weeping of Thy servants, Thy creatures : "And accept Thou the person of me, the feeble one, Thy wretched servant : "Lift up the doors of Thy Church which Thou hast redeemed by Thy living blood :

"And raise up the head of her who hath been brought low by restoring the young man's life : "And also let Thy holy Name, O Jesus the Lord, be glorified : "In the sight of men of evil eye, and of evil and filthy men who are [our] enemies, without cause" Having finished his prayer, and said Amen, O Lord : He cried to the young man three times, and the pious man said : "O John, in the Name of Jesus Christ, arise": And straightway he rose up from the sleep of greedy death by His glorious power Straightway, at the word, the young man opened his eyes : And began to stammer, and asked for water to drink [to quench] his thirst And he gave praise twice, and said, "Worshipped be Thou, O Christ : "Who hast given me life, and hast freed me also from trouble"

The wicked devil, seeing that the young man had returned to life : Cried out in the Persian tongue, and the abominable one said "Glory be unto that holy splendour, Jesus, the Living One : "For He hath built me my house, and moreover, He did not leave me a stranger "And I was not like my companions who have no dwelling-place, and wander about : "But by His secret nod I will return into my habitation" And again the kinsfolk of the young man heard the voice of the deceiver :

And they were terrified at the sound of the speech of the crafty devil Thereupon our father was exceedingly afraid of the devil : Lest he should expose him in the sight of men, and he should be known : He prayed with pain that he might bind the devil and make him to be fettered : And having felt that he had received within himself power from on high : He turned to the devil and spake in the Persian tongue, saying, :820 "Fie upon thee, O devil! How wicked, and abominable, and despicable art thou : From of old thou didst never feel ashamed or that thou wast disgraced : And to the end of time thou wilt never be able to feel ashamed : By Jesus, Who drove thy legion out of that man : Thou shalt keep silence, and shalt never expose me before the sons of flesh :825 For I am a sinner that is in need of the mercy of Jesus the Lord : Shut thy mouth, and never speak again, and be dumb, O mad one" : The devil hearing the humble words of our father : Was terror-stricken, and by the power of the Watcher who helped him : Cried out, and said, "Hear, O man who art cunning in [spiritual] merchandize :830 Hadst thou not acted thus craftily against the ruler [of devils] and death : With the sign of thy humility, and its victorious qualities :

"Thou wouldst not so easily have conquered two mighty men" :: Our father made a washing of the cross which was on him : And he gave it to the young man who had been restored to life to drink :: And three times he signed him with the sign of the Cross : And he repeated over him the adorable Name of Jesus Christ :: Then our pious father departed from them : And no man among them knew who the chosen man was :: He went back to the common house to the monks, who were asleep, And took off the apparel of the steward :: When the morning dawned the [report of the] triumph of the restoration of the young man flew abroad : And all the brethren who had spent the whole night in sorrowful pain :: Rejoiced a hundredfold, and sixtyfold, and thirtyfold : And they gave fitting and grateful thanks unto Jesus the Most High ::

The whole congregation who had made ready to bury the young man : With exceeding joy met the face of the dead who had come to life :: But there was much enquiry among all the brethren : And they said to the kinsfolk, "Who caused the young man to live?" :: And they said, "That is the affair of the man who made him to live, and no [other] man knoweth" : And each of them was saying a different thing concerning him: [And about] that which had been done by Divine agency: Who is able to pry into and to seek out a wonderful sign? But they said, "The angel of the Lord came down from heaven: "And made the soul of the young man to go back into its inner place" Now the Evil One was murmuring at these things which were happening to our father: And he was desirous and anxious to fulfil his will:

But in fighting with him the wretched being was put to shame: And he gained nothing but defeat for himself thereby: Inasmuch as our father was girt about with the invincible armour: Of honest and simple humility, and was arrayed therein withal: Our Lord clothed Himself with this garment: On going down to the strife and contest with Satan: But Satan himself was the one vanquished in his fight: And he and his camp carried off woe for themselves: These things having been performed for the holy man: After three nights the Evil One waxed bold: That is, it was permitted by the Divine agency: That he should wage war against the soldier of righteousness: And as the blessed man was [occupied in] converse with God:

At midnight there burst upon him a company of foul [fiends] : And with terrifying words and threats against the blessed man the filthy beings : Fell upon the righteous man and smote him unmercifully : And they left him lying in torture, and pain, and suffering : And with only one small breath remaining in his soul :875 Now the pious man was lying in a small cell in the common house : And none of his brethren perceived the things which had been done to him : Our Adorable Lord was beholding His fighter : And was not unmindful of his contending against devils : Straightway He sent one of the Watchers to the help of the righteous man :880 And he took him by his hand, and strengthened his feet, and strengthened his heart : [Saying,] "Fear not, O son of Adam, the strife : For thy Lord seeth thee and also the abominable one : Thou shalt only strive with them for a season : And afterwards thou shalt enjoy high honour" :885 And with the word the spiritual being went away and departed : And the blessed man received rest from the blows : In secret the devils were torturing him all night long : And openly whilst in the monastery in the daytime he was working under rule :

Even after [the devil] had been vanquished by Divine help : He was neither sorry nor ashamed to strive with the pious man : But he began [again] with other crafty plots and schemes : And was inviting his hosts to the combat : He was making ready his companions with boldness : And he cried to them, [saying,] "Help me, O my ranks, like athletes : "He is the man by whom we are held to be creatures to be derided : "And our hosts appear in his eyes to be contemptible : "And our companies and all our ranks are to be mocked at : "And our assemblies and gatherings things to be rejected : "But what is more evil for us than all kinds of injuries is : "That he esteemeth not us as beings which have to be considered in the world : "From the beginning of the world until now we have been mighty ones :

"And we have subjugated the world and made it to journey on in error : "In all the generations of the world we have cast to the earth virgins : "And thousands and myriads of chaste and righteous men by crafty schemes : "[Yet] this man hath stiffened his neck and rebelled against us : "And hath armed himself against us and our ranks like a warrior :· "This is a thing to laugh at, and we shall be something to laugh and marvel at : "If this man vanquish our armies :· "Come, O my hosts, and let us deal wisely with this fighter : "Let us cast him into shame, and make him a disgrace and a reproach :· "That he may not be strong against us, lest we be considered as a deceitful phantom by him : "And he rebel against us, and we be slain before him like a partridge :·

"And he make us a laughing-stock, and make us drink gall and bitterness : "And he laugh at our hosts shamelessly and insolently :· "Woe to us if we be vanquished by him, and we remain broken : "Woe to our ranks which one man can make hateful" :· Then rank by rank the devils began to take up arms : And the armed ones made fierce attacks upon him like soldiers of a body-guard :· In the nights the rebellious ones disturbed him : And the foul and abominable ones shewed him phantoms innumerable :· Of beasts which ravage and destroy, herds upon herds of them of various kinds : And of dragons and serpents the mad ones were bringing :· That they might frighten and terrify the chief of combatants : That having confused him the foul and stinking beings might lead captive his mind : But through this scheme which the disgraced ones had contrived :

The more he condemned them, and he regarded them as phantom biers of the dead : He laughed at their power and likened them unto dead bodies : And he cut the meshes of all the nets which the disgraceful one had prepared : He sent among all their ranks a voice like a warrior : And by his humility he overcame, and brought [them] low, and left [them like] dust : At this defeat the evil ones were not ashamed, but that night : They brought back [their] bow and began to shoot forth arrows in secret : If peradventure he might be languid, and his mind have become terrified : And it might be unarmed and do battle with them : The attack of the devils this time was exceedingly strong : So that at the sight of the horrible phantoms his heart might fall : The life of his body was destroyed, and he became like a dead man :

And but for the mercy of Jesus he would never have lived : Christ, the Most High, is never unmindful of His athletes : Whose gaze is fixed upon Him in every breath : O how mighty and fierce is the attack of the wicked devils : Who are waging war unmercifully against the saints! : And again the devils made ready attacks [after due] preparation : Sowing in him the thought of boasting and pride : That by means of a plot of this kind he might become caught in their net : And might fall into their hand[s], and become unto them a matter for scoffing : The evil ones well knew how great was his humility : And that there was no means of disgracing him by their arrows : But that having been stripped of this armour of humility : It would be very easy to twist him like a thread in their hand[s] :

The Evil One desired continually and burned with the wish [for the time when] : Our father should be made to stumble before him : And he might lift up the heel upon him, and he might become a mocking : And when he might be able to say, "Aha, Aha, our eye hath seen him" : But the Evil One himself was caught in his own net : And he who had planned the matter found himself in his own pit : After a few days the head of the monastery called our father : And gave him silver, and commanded him to depart like a good [servant] : And he told him, "Buy us a little oil for use in the monastery : "Not inferior oil, but some for the altar and some for the brethren" Our pious father was exceedingly obedient to the command of the brethren :

And in his humility he surpassed greatly every man of his time Straightway he offered penitence to Rabban as was his wont : And he took with him two coenobites and possessions [i. e., money or sheep] And they went along the road to the city Ma'le-thâyê : And they all of them passed the night together in a church And they found therein seven and twenty poor folk assembled : Who had been driven there by the governor because of the poll-tax Our father, seeing the poor folk in tribulation : Now they had been bound in fetters by the governor because they believed Judged in his mind which was full of mercy and compassion : "It is better for me to redeem these prisoners who are held in fetters here" Saying in his pious soul, "For Christ's sake : "I will redeem the people who confess His glorious Name

"I will hope in Him that He knoweth the reason of [my] journey : "And that I and the fathers have need of oil" He was exceedingly afraid of boasting and pride : Lest he should fall under the judgment of Satan and destroy what was good : As the treasure which is hidden is laid up in the earth : So he was anxious to work the deeds of excellence in secret : He was greatly afraid, and in no small degree, of vainglory : For it is not easy for a man to pluck the fruits of the spirit : Therefore, wishing to give money unto those needy folk : "Take [this], set yourselves free, and pray for me", he said to the afflicted : Three hundred and fifty silver [zûzê] they took and gave to the governor : And seven and twenty souls were released from that accursed one :

From among them the blessed man removed himself : And he drew nigh unto his fellows, and said unto them, "Forgive me : "O my fathers, I have heard that there is suitable oil : "But whether in the city of Mâwsel, or in Balâdh I know not : "I counsel you, O my beloved, to go along the road : "And let each one of you bring us a report of the oil" : His companions hearing this took the road without delay : Because they considered it as a command from an angel : After he had sent away the coenobites, the animals which were with him : He took in the darkness outside the city of Ma'le-thāyē: He found there on the edge of the river a hidden place: And in a place which could not be seen he fastened the animals: And he turned his face to the East and prayed:

And made strong entreaty unto Jesus, our Lord, with groans and sighs: "O Thou Who givest rest unto all strangers and poor folk: "Thou, O Lord, by Thy power, didst change water into wine at Cana: "Thou didst make thousands to be satisfied with a little bread: "And also in Thy Gospel Thou didst promise Thy disciples, a company of blessed men: "If two of you be in the earth and they become petitioners: "My Father shall grant unto those who desire according to their will: "And, Your Father knoweth what is necessary for you: "Thou hast stirred me up to ask, and now I make entreaty: "Although with my whole heart I have committed myself unto Thee: "I have not toiled one hour before Thee for fair alms: "But because Thou hast received my person, and my great sins: "Thou hast put away and cast behind Thyself mercifully: "Thou, in Thy grace, hast made Thy servant to possess boldness of speech :

"Whereby I can ask the things which are greater than my wretched nature :" "Do Thou, O Lord, according to Thy grace, give me that which is in its secret nature water : "And in Thy great love make it to appear oil outwardly" :" And at the end of his prayer our pious father : Took from the loads skin bottles and began to fill [them] with water :" Satan stopped him and would not let him pour in water : The wretched creature saying that he had compassion on the bottles of the brethren :" And, "I will not let thee pour [water] into the bottles of the monks : "And I will not let thee fulfil that which is in thy heart :" "Get thee gone from their monastery that they may be assembled at work which ought to be done : "And henceforward for them they shall be fewer [by] one in seven" :"

When our father saw that Satan would not let him [fill the bottles] : He entreated the Lord to send him help :" Suddenly there appeared unto our pious father a Watcher : And he compelled the devil himself to fill the skins with water :" Then in his mind the Lord made the quest of the coenobites to fructify : And he prayed to his Lord to bring back the companions of the chosen man : His fellow monks more than two or three stages had as yet : Not gone away, and suddenly by Divine agency appeared : A Watcher in the form of our father Hörmizd, and said in a [loud] voice : "Come, my beloved, for I have bought oil without any crooked dealing" :1035 And he strode along, and journeying after him quickly : They arrived at the place where our father was standing in readiness : And by the Divine agency the shadow : Of the being who had called them was, they saw, united with the stature of our father : They had imagined that he who had called them was the righteous man himself :1040 But because of their joy in him they did not enquire into the matter : The blessed man had himself filled [the skins] with seven loads : And as he was journeying along his road the man of understanding was praying and saying : "O Thou glorious God, Thou alone art the doer of wonders : Shew me Thy way, and I will walk in truth, O Lord, Thou Self-existent One" :1045 Now after the following day they arrived at the monastery : And the brethren saw that the oil which the messenger had brought was exceedingly fine :

And they all lovingly praised and glorified those who had brought it: And he who was renowned for triumphs was exceedingly wise in the business of his Lord: Now, as soon as he had gone in to the coenobites, being full of grace: They said unto our pious father with gladness: "Didst thou buy this beautiful oil from the Paradise of Eden?: "For the odour, and colour, and taste which it possesseth [are wonderful]": He in his humility said unto them, "I am not skilled: "In buying and selling, O my fathers, but [am] only a simple man: "I offered the money which ye sent with me to the seller: "And he weighed out and gave me this oil according to his will: "But it is owing to your prayer that what hath happened hath been fulfilled: "And I, like a useless servant, have [only] ministered thereunto": Thus whilst going on from strength to strength in divine triumphs:

He became humble and meek more and more: And while our holy father was still labouring strenuously in the common house: Mâr Sylvanus, the shepherd of Kardô, came to the monastery: This pious man was wonderful, and worthy of blessings: And his soul was wont to enjoy divine visions: His mind was occupied continually with the contemplation of divine things: And he was fed abundantly upon revelations at all times : He was cherished by Divine Providence : And he sat for three days in a cell which was near the common house : The brethren having completed the prayers and the first section of the Psalms : And the reader having sat down to read the commentary on Genesis to the brethren : The mind of Mâr Sylvanus was carried away in silent contemplation : And all the things which were about to be, and hidden mysteries, were revealed to him :

And he learned the meaning of the hidden mysteries of the new world : And concerning Elijah and Enoch, and the righteous men in Genesis : And he learned in a vision concerning the blessed man himself : And concerning his deeds, and his mode of life, like the sun : And that glorious man having been in the countries of the spiritual beings : And by the bestowal of the spirit having enjoyed the contemplation of divine things : By the might of grace his mind returned unto him : And he understood the mysteries and the hidden things which he had learned : Then the blessed man desired to make enquiries concerning our father : And to be blessed by him, and to learn what manner of man he was by searching [him] out : And since the mercy of the Son restrained him from doing those things :

He desired to go into the monastery and to see him in the morning season : And the true man was prohibited and restrained from this also : Inasmuch as it was not permitted by the spirit of Jesus Christ, the Lord : Now when the time for the glorious and adorable Mysteries had come : One commanded the sacristan to go up and beat the board for the brethren : And having beaten the board for the second part of the service, and begun [to do so for that] concerning the Trinity : The board fell from his shoulders, and he remained in a state of wonderment : His mind was carried away in the contemplation of spiritual things : And on Mâr Sylvanus also alighted this gift : They had enjoyment together in the constitution of the new world : And they were in wonderment which was without compare for three hours :

They came back to themselves, and learned everything which was in the vision : And they became companions together in exceedingly great joy : And they enjoyed that happiness of the new world : In which all rational beings are about to be at the end [of all things] : Now when Mâr Sylvanus had learned to know him by the Holy Spirit : He went up to the monastery to our father the holy man :- And our father perceiving this removed himself into the common house : That he might not be smitten by the arrow of [vain] glory :- By which many fathers have been made to stumble and fall : And have become superfluous to their labours and have died in sin :- Therefore our father was exceedingly afraid of this combat : For no man hath ever fallen thereby and been saved therefrom easily :-

O merchant who wast filled with spiritual wisdom : Who didst break the head of this dragon by humility :- When Mâr Sylvanus the bishop had perceived : That our venerable father had removed himself from the monastery :- He set all in order and laid up what he had learned from our pious father : He followed in his foot-steps and overtook him on the eastern side of the monastery :- There they embraced and kissed each other with a pure kiss : And they prayed and sat down to converse in love and affection :- After an hour in which they conversed on the judgment of the world to come : They began to talk concerning the new world and the future glory [thereof] :- And according to the Divine Providence which watch-eth all things : They both were shrouded in the contemplation of divine things : Corporeal and incorporeal, and they were examining closely into all knowledge :

And secret things, and hidden mysteries, which were beyond measure : And by the Divine agency their understanding returned unto its power of discerning : And they renewed their believing minds : Which were remote from [all] opposing doubt : And from the thoughts of the children of men which were full of guile : Mâr Sylvanus departed thence, and passed on to his country : Taking with him in his soul the loving thought of our father : How a lamp of light like unto this could be found : To illumine creation by the light of his intellectual glory :

The head of the monastery called our pious father and drew nigh unto him : Lovingly he said unto our father, "Enough of the monastery : "For behold, thou hast fulfilled seven years therein, and thy triumph is renowned" : He received the counsel of the holy man, who was answered by him, "Yea": And secretly he armed himself with prayers, and went forth boldly: He began to change his manner of life and to reduce himself: And mightily did he make to be parched and dried up the passions of his body: And he prepared himself for the service of the mind: And he wished for and desired to live alone in silent contemplation: He girded up his loins with the Word of truth that he might not be remiss: And he shod his feet with the preparation of the Gospel: He was grasping the shield of faith and was exceedingly bold:

He set the sword of the Spirit upon his side and made himself ready: He was grasping the mighty bow of holy fasting, and he brought it near [him]: And he made ready and prepared the arrows of prayer with healthy wings: He laid waste and destroyed the ranks of the devils like the lightning: He sent his voice among their hosts, and scattered and overcame them: He was strenuous, and quick, and watchful, and zealous, and stern, and bold: He was skilful, and mighty, and was never wasted by the Satans: The devils were dried up by him as [by] the burning blast of the desert:

And he burnt them up by the armour of his humility like the fiery wind of the storm : The ranks of Beelzebub, the passions and the devils, turned their backs : And he pursued them by the power of his Lord the Master : Our father sat in the cell and observed a life of silent contemplation : Once in ten days he maintained a strict fast and indulged in no way :1155 By night and by day in vigil he loved and embraced the Watcher : And upon the ground he neither reclined nor lay at full length : Whenever he had need to take a little sleep for his necessity's sake : He rested his back (or, side) against the wall, and thus supported he took it : Laborious fasting and prayers he added diligently for himself :1160 And he weakened and brought low all the thoughts and passions of nature : His body through stern labours he reduced, and he became emaciated : His vision declined, and the pupils of his eyes became dark, but he was unconquered : The love of his Lord spread abroad and blazed in his heart : And he was neither moved by the matters of the world, nor occupied thereby :1165 But he renewed his youth in chastity, and purity, and was well preserved :

And he ascended the lofty grade of spirituality, and became magnified: He found impassible sincerity (or, simplicity): And he was at all times bringing his mind nigh unto spiritual things: And the whole of him became fire in fire, like the Cherub: And things that were afar off he saw as if they were near in . . . . . The wiles of the corrupt one he exposed and destroyed from [one] end of creation [even unto the other]: And their branches and their roots he dried up and withered: He was not in any way whatsoever carried away by their crafts: And his strength did not diminish through their corruptness, and he was never overcome: By all the evil things which they brought upon him he was not pained: And in all the days of his life he never indulged the lust of the body: When he had remained in [the Monastery of] Mâr Bar-'Idtâ, the famous athlete:

Labouring for seven and thirty years, being bold in heart: The signs and wonders which were wrought by his hands everywhere became famous: And in every country and city he was revealed and was magnified: The Ruler of wickedness was moved before him, and terrified, and consumed: Because in the war which he was waging with him he saw that he was not vanquished : The wars of devils never ceased from him until he had grown old : And they made heavy their blows upon him, but he never submitted : O the athlete, who made powerless the wars of the enemies : And like a mighty man delivered his soul from their snares : One night he was in loving converse with the angels : And suddenly he was carried away by the contemplation of his Lord : And there blazed into his cell the light which never setteth :

And which is seven times brighter and stronger than the light of the sun : The sweet odour which never lesseneth breathed from his cell : And the smell thereof overcometh all the scents of the world : Mâr Abraham, who is worthy of all good, had placed himself by his side : An excellent man who had trodden under foot the thorns of devils and the horned one : He had enjoyment with him according as the Lord had given : He was happy only proportionately, and not to an equal degree : For he had not as yet arrived at the state of asceticism of our father : Neither had he approached his perfection : And having for three hours enjoyed this vision and been glorified : He returned to himself by the grace of Jesus the Lord : And he understood with his fair mind and stood up, being ready :

And he drew nigh unto the marvellous man Mâr Abraham willingly : After he had opened the door, and brought him in, each embraced the other : And they prayed, and sat down according to custom, and praised Jesus : Then he said, "Our father, I think we should depart together" : And Mâr Abraham agreed with him gladly, and made answer : Thirteen years he had enjoyed his own will in Bêth-Âbhê : And he also prepared himself to depart from this place : Therefore, henceforward, O father, it shall not be for me to answer thee : But [only] to fulfil all thy commandments and thy will, O Rabbâ : He laid down a condition, and our pious father pledged himself thereto : And he devoted himself to his service all his days : They remained there three months in mingled love : And then, in a vision, it was revealed to our father that departure was nigh :

As soon as he had been made certain by the vision he rose up and went quickly: To the pillar, whose light illumined and shone brightly : Mâr Yôzâdhâk, his fellow-monk, and joined himself unto him : And he was exceedingly wonderful in splendid deeds, and shone with great splendour : That he might reveal before him what had been revealed to him, whereon he was meditating :1220 And Mâr Yôzâdhâk from afar off perceived and knew the step : And he made known to those who were reclining with him, and made them to hear the steps : [Saying], "They belong to Rabban Hôrmîzd, our companion", and thus he desired : These are they who were holding loving converse with him : Mâr John, and Îshô'-Sabhran, whose names are lovely :1225 And Mâr Adônâ, and Rabban Simon, whose histories are sorrowful : Perfect men whose triumph was much more glorious than the light : Before he had finished his speech with them whereon each was pondering : Our father knocked at their door, being gracious in the spirit of his person : Mâr Yôzâdhâk made Rabban Simon to hear the words :1230 "Rise up, bring in Rabban Hôrmîzd, whose beauty giveth joy" :

After they had brought him in, and they had sat down in love mingled with the spirit : Mār Yōzādhāḵ declared the truth without hesitation : "Son of the Persians, desirest thou to live in the desert and in the rock? : "As thou hast been led by the Comforter, and hast acquired the grade : "But rise up, my brethren, and let us be careful that the noise of us be not heard : "And let us look preparedly for his arrival without noise" : Then all being ready they rose up and were without doubt : And departed to the Monastery of Mār Abraham of Rīshā as they desired : For it was suitable for the cultivation of a life of contemplation for which they longed : And for which, for a long time past, they had eagerly craved and wished : A company of men who were greatly adorned with purity :

And who had ascended in the scale of divine revelations : In one soul and spirit they were united and also mingled together : And they dwelt there for seven years and rejoiced together exceedingly : All their days they were not accused of blameworthy actions : And with purity and sincerity they were exceedingly white, like the snow : They were cooled from the fire of lust of every kind of the Evil One : And they were crowned with the crown of glorious works by the might of the Spirit : The beauty of these marvellous men adorned and illumined every one : And their immeasurably glorious life stirred up every man : I desire and am anxious to record and to declare their glory : But my strength is weak, and feeble, and insufficient, and my tongue halts : Who is able to recount their history or to declare [it] ? :

For it was the Holy Spirit Who guided, and directed, and taught them : He prepared them for future things, and directed them, and desired them : And by His power He made an end of, and accused, and condemned their Foe : Him and his hosts He broke, and crushed, and brought low, and overwhelmed : And his treasures by his sides He revealed and made them to flee : He made manifest his great glory in their sight, and made them to desire it : And he made the beauty of His light to shine upon them after the manner of a gift : His admirable works which surpass speech He ordered and made white like the snow : And talents, ten and five, by His grace He distributed to them : The treasure in the city of their souls He discovered and revealed : And He strengthened their merchandize and made it to expand and grow up :

Who is able to write down their history as he would wish? : And to recount their glory with the tongue of flesh without fear, lest he should omit something : Our Lord by their hand all the breaches of the world fenced in : And by their power cooled the flame of sin which the Evil One had sown therein : He breathed into the world the odour of their happiness which was like unto frankincense : Come, O my beloved, and let us sanctify our mouth with their history and meditate thereon : And let us strip off and remove from the gaze of our soul the covering of envy : Let us take from them strength and help that we may fence in our breaches : And let us cool and refresh ourselves from the burning heat of our offences : Come, and let us arm ourselves with the armour of their prayers, and meditate thereon :

And let us vanquish him, and let us crush and break in his head therewith : Let us laugh at him by their might and expel and drive him away from us : And by means of them we may cast him out and drive him away beyond Magog : Come, O my beloved, and let us love and desire their history : That we may be delivered from evil and put forth new blossoms of goodness : It is right to look upon these wonderful men, and to meditate upon them : For they have certainly mixed and mingled their love with the love of their Lord : They have cast away the envy of the Evil One to a far place, and have utterly driven it off : They considered seven years as one day, and were never in any way away :1285 Íshô'-Sabhran, a man of spiritual labours, who was taught by the Spirit : Himself ministered unto the fathers cheerfully : The whole week through they were occupied in unbroken and ceaseless contemplation : And on Sunday they wearied themselves with vigil in hope that knew no doubt : They participated in the Adorable Mysteries with a pure and well-washed heart :1290 And then each returned to his habitation in deep thought and meditation : In the hidden power which they had received from the Mysteries, which sprang up in their hearts : And they praised that gift [of the Spirit] which had shone upon them : Íshô'-Sabhran, as he was wont, with whole and untiring love : Brought them bread and water, being exceedingly careful [for them] :1295 Whenever a sick man came to them, or one who was maimed :

Or one who could not stand, he would bring him to our father: For the gift which made the power to operate by him alone was heard of [everywhere]: And the marvellous rumour of him spread abroad and flew into all countries:

Íshó'-Sabhran brought him and led him nigh to our father: And placed him and made him to sit down alone before his cell: It was not hidden from our father, and he rose up and made ready: A washing of his cross and [some of] his earth for the blind man whose eyes were dried up: He placed his hand over them and sang a hymn, and prayed, and chanted: "O our Lord Jesus, Who didst cut away wickedness from the nature which was eaten into thereby: "And didst tear out and pluck away the tare of the Enemy from Thy wheat: "And didst uproot and trample down all his thorns from the vineyard of His betrothed: "And didst shatter and break away his teeth and fangs from her members: "And hast strengthened by His armour His chosen ones, and those who call upon Him, and work in His vineyard:

"And hast made [them] put down roots deep into the foundation of His faith : "Hearken unto Thy servant, and let not his prayer be despised by Thee : "Open Thou the eyes of this Thy servant whom the Evil One hath confounded" : And straightway his eyes received the light, and he began to blink : And wondering he gave thanks to our Lord, and adored His Name : Then they brought unto him a man whom a mad dog had bitten, and he had become mad : And he was gnawing his flesh with his teeth and rending [it] : And by reason of what ran from him his whole body was covered with matter, and he was in a horrible state : And by reason of his lacerations there only remained for him to depart and die : And Îshô'-Sabhran took him to our father's cell and went away :

And Christ revealed unto our father Hôrmîzd, and informed him of him : And according to his wont he made ready a washing, and watched and waited for him : That peradventure he might sleep, and not remember who it was that had healed him : But his severe sickness pained him sore, and made his sleep to depart from him : Then he prayed over him, and he sank into a slumber from which he fell into a deep sleep : And he poured over him the water of the washing, and prayed, and said : "O Lord Jesus, heal Thou him that taketh refuge with Thee": And he had rest and relief and was as happy as a man who had been born afresh: Also from Mâwsel they brought a woman having loathsome leprosy: And he had mercy upon her in the great love which was poured out over all:

He made a washing, and he called her kinsfolk, and commanded them: To anoint her body: and straightway all her body was cleansed: And they praised God Who had set in His Church this testifying athlete: And they went back with joy, and our father set them on their way with prayer: Our father being occupied with his silent contemplation, and being much alone: The Lord revealed unto him concerning a shepherd who had died: He had thrown sops of bread and milk into a basin as he had been wont to do: And had tarried in the eating thereof and had gone away therefrom: An evil reptile came by it by chance and dropped therein: And shot its venom into it and departed and went forth wriggling: As soon as the shepherd had eaten of the food he was smitten: And he suffered great and severe agony, and died and became a dead body:

Now since he loved his Lord and was subject unto Him : Our Lord revealed unto our father the matter of him before he was pierced : Without delay he rose up and made ready to journey along the road : And was meditating going to the place where the shepherd was : Now the shepherd was away at a distance of sixty parasangs : And a Watcher lifted him up and flew away with him, and with a waft of the Spirit : Placed him by the side of the shepherd ; and he saw that he was lying dead : And that all his flock was scattered about on that mountain : He prayed to the Lord, and the shepherd lived, and woke up, and shuddered : And sat upright, and held converse with our father : Then he commanded him to collect his flocks that they might not be lost :

And in a moment the Watcher took him back, and he was not fatigued : Mâr Yôzâdhâk, being worked upon by the Holy Spirit : Drew nigh by night unto the cell of our father : "Peace be unto thee", he said, "O our pious brother, Rabban Hôrmîzd" : "By means of thee the shepherd who was poisoned hath been brought back to life : "But poison is about to be driven forth from thy dominion : "And in all thy country no mad dog shall make any to suffer : "Whosoever believeth in the uttering of thy name, and taketh refuge [therein]: "Shall not die from the bite of a mad dog or from poison"

And which He fulfilled unto our father before the end: His prayer annulled the venom of the serpent and the bite of the mad dog: And according to tradition the oil which he sanctified and [which] was kept in his monastery: He left [it] in his monastery as a thing to be handed on and an inheritance: He bequeathed to his sons the power of his prayers in the oil which he sanctified: And his oil healed men of every kind of sickness: Especially that of the mad dog by the might of his supplication: That I should say his oil healed the sick and diseased is a small thing: For, to say the truth, the power which was hidden in him restored the dead to life: Whosoever was bitten by a mad dog, and took refuge in him: And received his oil in faith and called upon his name:

And kept the fast according to the canon with which he had been commanded: It was impossible for death to draw unto that bite: Whosoever received his sanctified oil and observed continence : Could take hold of a serpent and play with him like a fish : The benefit that the oil which he left in his house possessed resembled : [That of] the serpent which Moses set up in the wilderness for the help of his people : Our Lord, wishing to remove His chosen ones, indicated to him secretly : The place which His will had [fore] seen, and made ready : On the Sunday, according as they were wont, they assembled in His honour : And were rejoicing in the Mysteries of the Son—O His Body and Blood : Îshô'-Sabhran said, "The Lord hath dried up the spring : And hath made it to be like unto dry ground which water hath never moistened" :

Then our father revealed to them, and he made known unto them clearly by his speech : "This thing is from before the Lord, and He willeth it : "That some of us should depart unto the place which He hath ready and prepared : "And for those who remain here the spring will flow again" : The holy man Mâr Yôzâdhâk answered and made his words to flow : "Thus doth the Holy Spirit command our congregation by His nod : "I, Yôzâdhâk, and Mâr Adônâ, who is marvellous in triumph : "And Abbâ Simon, by His help, will depart to the mountains of Kardô: "Rabban Hôrmizd, and Mâr Abraham, by the might of His assistance: "Will depart to Mount 'Edhrai in the victory which His might hath given them: "Mâr John, and Îshô'-Sabhran, according to His dispensation: "Shall bring all their days to an end, according to His will:

"Rise up, O my beloved, and let each one of us depart to his place: "And whithersoever our Lord commandeth us by His nod will we direct our steps":: O the peace which each gave unto his fellow in that hour!: And each kissed his companion with a kiss of love and affection: So they performed and fulfilled that which the Spirit had commanded by His will: And each of them prepared himself [to go] whither He had called him: Our father took Mâr Abraham with him: And they came together to Mount 'Edhrai and found therein: A little cave and a spring of water in front thereof: And they remained in love three days each with his fellow: Then there came upon them, according to His grace, a revelation of the Spirit: That Mâr Abraham should depart to the country to which He had set him apart: Straightway he went forth and betook himself to where He had called him :

And in the country of Nineveh he founded a monastery, and his fame went forth : Our father remained by himself in his cave : And as yet none of the believing men had knowledge of him : It was the village of Al-Kôsh which first of all perceived him : And the believers of that place came to him before any [other] men : Our father blessed their whole assembly in his prayers : And our Lord visited all their sick through his prayers : They all rejoiced that the Lord had sent unto them His servant : And had also, by grace, given unto their village His soldier [as] a neighbour : Then the blessed people of Al-Kôsh answered and said unto him : "Blessed art thou, our father, and adored be the Lord Who hath been mindful of us in His love : "For not according to our merit, but according to His grace hath He given us His pious one :

"To be our neighbour, and the neighbour of our village, adored be His nod : "Therefore our whole congregation crieth unto thee, our father : "And it would love thee to dwell in this place, in its neighbourhood : "We esteem thy blessed arrival as that of an angel : "And if thou wishest to build a monastery we will build it : "All the expense [thereof] we will provide from our own possessions : "And we will supply ready what is required for its maintenance : "Behold, all of us in our congregation are before thee as sons in subjection : "And whatsoever thou commandest in thy loving will we will perform" : When he had heard these things from their congregation he blessed it : And was grateful unto them, and gave them the hēnāna, and sent them on their way with blessings : They went back rejoicing, and praising our Lord, and adoring His Name :

That their village was worthy of being the neighbour of the holy man : All good things came upon the people of Al-Kôsh on his arrival : And afflictions of every kind smote the sons of Bez-kîn on his coming : Sighing and trembling were poured out on the heretics thereby : And afflictions of every kind sprang up for the heretics : There was a village which was called Bêth Kôpê in his country : About two or three parasangs distant from his monastery : When they (i. e., the people) heard of his coming, they took their sick, and went up to him : That they might see him, and be blessed by his prayers :

Before they arrived one of the sick folk died on the way : And all the believers were suffering great pain because of it : When [the people began] to bury him the parents of him that was dead prevented [them] : And they swore that they should not bury him without Rabban seeing him : When they came to him he told them first of all concerning him that had died :1450 And he praised their decision not to bury the dead man : He commanded and they brought the dead man before him, and straightway he rose up : And began to pray and to make supplication before his God : He heard his prayer, and made the soul of the young man to go back into him : And he blinked with his eyes like one who had just risen from his sleep :1455 Asking for water our father prepared a washing [of his cross] and gave him to drink : And the believers marvelled at this miracle which had happened at his hand : They praised the Lord Who, in His grace, had made them worthy : To see signs, and also to be blessed by His servant : They fell down before him, and kissed his feet, and praised his name :1460 Until at length they used to take away the dust from under his feet : And esteem it as a hônânâ and a gift of heaven :

And he, according to his humility, rebuked them for doing so : Having gone back they spread the fame of his name in all the country : And everyone who heard brought his sick [friend], and came to him : All the people of the country round about him thronged to him : And received health from God by means of him : On every sick man who came to him, and took refuge in him : He laid his hand, and in the Name of Jesus healed his sickness : He opened the storehouse of the treasures of the Spirit which had been given unto him : And he began to distribute his Lord's money among his companions : This is the good and faithful servant which his Lord set : Over His household to give a portion at the right season : Blessed art thou, our father, how great is the blessing which thy Lord prepared for thee ! : Wherewith in the day of judgment He will make thee to rejoice with His saints : O the mighty man who reckoned the riches of this world as dross : And who never relaxed his fighting all the time of his abiding [therein] ! : O how glorious is the crown of the fighter which the Holy Spirit : Wove to crown him withal in the new world ! :

O the architect who laid his building in the heavens above : And who crowned his tower with the wonderful mansions of his chastity !

The Monastery of Bezkin, the accursed and full of iniquity and wickedness Seeing the merchant of the house of God working strenuously : And grasping the sword of the Spirit, and destroying the ranks of the heretics The monks thereof were envious against the righteous man, as was Cyril : Who against Saint Mâr Nestorius worked strife The blind moles and whelps began to burrow : In the ground of the hearts of the nobles and rich men of the country One night ten shorn [monks] went forth with boldness : And after the manner of their father, the chief of the devils, dared impudently To enter into the cave of our glorious father, the prince of the pure : And they found him occupied in the converse of his Lord, and they made him to suffer pains For unmercifully they tortured him with [other] wicked men :

And they beat him cruelly until the skin of his body hung in strips And leaving him lying in agony they returned unto the polluted Bezkin : And the wicked men, the workers of perfidy, thought that he was already dead : But Grace providentially watched over the blessed old man : And the desire of the lovers of impurity was not fulfilled : Blessed art thou, O our father, who didst endure many contests in thy youth :1500 Through devils, and savage fiends, and thou didst remain strenuous : Blessed art thou who in the time of thine old age didst endure from the sons of devils : Blows and stripes from the hands of those who were mad and full of lasciviousness : Blessed art thou, O our father, who didst daily and hourly endure death : For the sake of thy God, and wast never vanquished, but didst gain the victory :1505 The wickedness which the men of Bezkin, who were full of lust, had done : Was told unto the sons of Al-Kôsh, the blessed city of believers : There was a man therein, whose name was Gabriel, who was full of all virtue : And he possessed in abundance men-servants, and maid-servants, and sheep and cattle : He took it upon himself to minister unto him that was full of piety :1510 All the days which he lived upon the earth in all diligence :

One day, according to his custom, he went up with zeal : To visit our father, and he saw that his features were different from usual : He asked him to inform him what had happened unto him in truth : And he told him that they had been beaten and smitten in war and contest : Gabriel did not inquire further because he knew that he never had rest : From fighting against Satan and the spirits of wickedness : When he had made an end of all his service to our father : He turned his care towards [his] worldly affairs in sorrow : Enquiring after his flocks he went about the mountains : And a shepherd met him and informed him of the deed of those who were the heirs of fire : Straightway he went back blazing with the fire of zeal : That he might learn and know this thing from our father in truth :

Before he could speak, our father, who was full of grace, spoke : And quieted the force of his wrath, and made his anger to cease : He taught him and warned him, "Thou shalt not hasten against the sons of wickedness : "But let the Lord take vengeance for me upon these men who are full of folly : "For the sentence of destruction hath gone forth against them : "And of swift doom hath gone forth upon them from the Most High : "Their allotted span hath come to an end, and they shall be destroyed : "And the time when their monastery shall be a heap [of ruins] for ever is nigh : "O Gabriel, if thou wishest and hast the desire for me : "To dwell here in thy neighbourhood, get longsuffering : "For we have One Who careth for us, and Who will do battle for us :

"And will wage war, and vanquish our enemies, we being at rest" : With these humble words he filled him with happiness : And he went back to his house, his soul rejoicing in grace : The sons of the polluted tavern of Bezkın knew not how to desist : And they made no plans to make to cease the wickedness of their heart[s] : Because they had eaten to their fill of the meats of sinners, and were sick : And they had, like dogs, made their souls lascivious with harlotry and impurity : Like the Sodomites they were drunk with the wine of the sins of lust : And they were heated with desire after the manner of lustful stallions : Outwardly they were shorn [monks], but inwardly they were evil men : And they had craftily contrived to carry out a scheme which was full of calamity ::

Five of them, after the manner of mad men, committed fornication with one woman : She having brought forth a son, they added to and doubled their wickedness :: Because they were afraid of the governor they said to the woman : "Rise up, we will take thee to the village of Arshâm"; thus they promised her :: The five of them took her and her son, and they departed and came : Below the cave of our pious father, and they fulfilled their wickedness :: They dashed the poor woman upon the ground and trampled upon her : And they stabbed her, and threw her at the door of his cell, and departed, and told :: The governor of Mâwsel, and they boasted and vaunted themselves before him, [saying] : "That righteous man of whom the Nestorians boast :: "Hath committed fornication, and hath killed the woman, and forsaken her son, they say" :

And they told many lies and falsehoods concerning him :: Straightway the governor and his company went forth, and came, and arrived : And they saw the murdered woman and her son, who was alive, whom they had cast on the ground :: When the blessed company of the people of Al-Kôsh heard, they grieved : And they armed themselves well, and they all ran together, and came :: They saw the governor who was beating our father, and they restrained [him]: Saying, "It is not right for thee to judge him without examination" Gabriel said, "Concerning matters which are not made plain: "Be not hasty to judge in this wise before they have become evident "But first of all examine carefully both sides: "And whichever is guilty let him be punished with a just punishment" The governor answered, "We have no testimony like this of: "The dead woman herself, who hath, undoubtedly, been cast at the door of the murderer [by him]"

Gabriel made answer to him, "That would indeed be a thing filled with wonder: "A murdered woman who testified against her murderer in the sight of all" The governor agreed to his words, and demanded that they should be fulfilled: And Gabriel persuaded our father to stand up and pray After his prayer he drew nigh unto the dead body boldly: "Unto thee I speak, O dead body, in which there is no life "In the name of Jesus, live, and stand up, and rebuke thy slayer": And at his word the woman lived, and began to speak She revealed to them that for a long time five men worked and committed fornication with her: And that then they brought her and slew her cruelly in that place: "I only know that from lying down in death: "Thou didst call me, and raise me up, and didst rouse me from a state of terror":

And again [Gabriel] began to command the governor: "Take the child, and set him upon the knees": The governor having done even as he had been commanded: Our father adjured the dumb child to utter words: "I command thee, O child without speech, by the might of the Godhead: "To tell and to declare before us who and what is thy father": The Lord opened the mouth of the child, and he spake: And began to reveal who was his father, and who had committed the mad act: "Five of them, like dogs, waxed lascivious in impurity: "And my coming into this world of suffering was due to two of them: "For indeed, of the five three were impotent": And the child became silent until the appointed time of all mankind: The multitudes seeing this wonderful thing which was full of marvel: Went forth before his feet and kissed them, saying sorrowfully:

"Forgive us, our father, for we have sinned and done foolishly; forgive us in [thy] grace: "And let the iniquity of the wicked who are full of error return upon their own head[s]": They took away the dust of his cave in faith like a hēnānā : And they kept it with joy as a heavenly gift : The people of Al-Kōsh returned to their village, being full of gladness : And they brought a bier and buried the woman who died through the children of shamelessness : And Gabriel commanded [them] concerning the child, and to bring him [to him] : And he gave him to a nurse and admonished her to rear [him] : Having grown up and arrived at the age of twenty years he wished to become a monk : In the monastery of our father, and he triumphed nobly in all ascetic excellence : And the governor and all those who were with him remained in wonder :

And were filled with zeal, and they captured Bezkin of the heretics : He fettered the men thereof and carried [them] off to Balādh : And he wrote to the great governor of Māwṣel how they had worked craftily : The heretics of Māwṣel and Balādh made themselves advocates : And bribed the governor of Māwṣel with money in no small [quantity] : He gave them the command to depart to their monastery uninjured : And they went back and began to renew their works of destruction : Our pious father according to his wont being occupied continually : With visions of the spirit and the enjoyment of revelations : Wished to direct his meditation always on spiritual things : And to think closely upon the joy of the new world : Once, however, his thought carried him to the heretics : And how wicked and licentious they were, and how they loved lust :

Suddenly he saw by his side an angel in wonder without compare : And his soul shone with light which man cannot describe : Neither is the mind of man able to set a limit to or to depict : How sublime and filled with wonder are the various kinds of understanding : Then the Watcher and our father began to sing Psalms together : From the beginning of the [Book of] David until the end thereof : Now the voice of the Watcher was too delicate for the singing : And mortal beings were unable to hear the sweet sounds thereof : Before they had ended the soul of our father was well nigh to depart : But the mercy of Jesus gave him strength to play the man : After the Psalms the Watcher began to sing :

The Canticle [which] beginneth "A mighty King", and he sang it through : At the end he smote his wings and soared upward : To the place whence he had come down, and mingled with his companions : Our pious father Rabbâ Hôrmizd was filled with gladness : Incomparable, the gladness of the new world :1635 What mouth is able to describe his labours : And what tongue of flesh is able to describe the marvellous histories of him : His various excellences resist the power of every earthly being : And his glorious acts are a stronghold against injury : I am exceedingly desirous of writing down and recounting his narrative :1640 My heart is too feeble, and my tongue is too humble to utter [it] : My mind is timid and I am terrified at approaching : The writing down of the story of the glorious one among the just, and of making it known : Because I am fettered and bound by every kind of weakness : And I am snared and hampered by every kind of wretchedness :1645 It is meet to examine into and to search out [the histories] of just men : And to follow out the[ir] triumphs and to write [them] down : Nevertheless I, the wretched one, have dared to depict : His marvellous history, and have been so bold as to compose a discourse with my words :

Our father is in this country a treasury of all holiness : And the place where he is buried is a fountain of help and healing of every kind : Blessed shalt thou be, O our father, in the day when Jesus thy Lord cometh : To renew thee and to give life unto the dead who have crumbled into dust : Thou shalt stand there with the sons of light without fail : And like the sun thou shalt shine with brightness like unto their own : Thou shalt shine like lightning with the lightning-like light of Jesus : And thou shalt have enjoyment in the happiness of thy fellow-believers : Blessed art thou, O our father, because thou wast most zealous in providing : A portion in its time and season, which was altogether blameless : Come, O ye my beloved, ye mortals, and see and search into : And tell unto all the story of the manner of the labours of our pious father : Praise and confess ye Jesus our Lord Who made His servant to triumph : And strive ye earnestly to walk in his footsteps : O my beloved, come ye and make yourselves friends of the labours of our father : And make yourselves heirs of and possess ye his living and incorruptible prayers : Stand up, be strenuous, and wean your heart[s] from things of earth :

And walk and journey on prosperously in the way of our father: Scatter ye wisely all the crafts of the Evil One: And accustom yourselves to self-abnegation and exceeding abstinence: Strengthen with wisdom and unceasingly your weaknesses: And be not spoiled by the Enemy as by a thief through despair: And dispel and cast afar off his divers craftinesses: Esteem him as a feeble one, and be proud and boast yourselves over him: And make yourselves glorious and most splendid over all his hosts: And with the humility of our father deck yourselves beautifully: For it is the garb of Jesus; care ye for it, and put it on, and abase yourselves: So that the arrows of the Evil One may not pierce it, and vanquish him and do him harm: O my beloved, come ye and make yourselves like unto our father in love: And cleanse and refine your conscience and heart, and let them be like snow:

Guard yourselves wholly against the possessions of this world: Let go and hate the passions of the flesh, and despise lust: Come ye and take refuge in the prayer of our father who is arrayed in victory: Shut yourselves within it, and multiply woes against all its hosts: Glorify and praise the Lord Who magnified our pious father : And yoke ye yourselves beneath his yoke and make yourselves divine : O my beloved, forgive ye each other, and let each pardon the other : And break ye and blunt thereby the sharp arrows of the Evil One : Expel, drive out, and cast forth craft and guile from your heart : And carry therein love and mercy, and fill it full therewith : Make it clean and undefiled by abominable things and the filth of sins : Wash ye with tears and keep and fulfil the commandment of the Lord :

And little by little we will shew forth and declare all wonderful things : A sickness afflicted the son of 'Ûkbê, the governor of Mâwşel : Which was hidden from the knowledge of all the physicians : His sickness having become more sore, and being nigh to be deprived of his life : All the physicians confessed, [saying], "It is hidden from our power" : "But set him upon a litter that he may not suffer pain : "And before he be deprived of his life by death : "Rise up, and carry him unto Rabban, whose power is mighty : "And he possesseth the power to drive out the devils from every one who is possessed" : The Amîr received their counsel, and he prepared his soldiers : And quickly and without delay he went forth to the holy man : Having drawn nigh unto Al-Kôsh his son was deprived of life :

And he cried out and wept for his only son who had been cut off by death : Gabriel drew nigh unto 'Ûkbê, and thus spake : "O Amîr, grieve thou not, neither be filled with anger : "For by the prayer of our father thy son Shaibîn who lieth dead shall exult : "And thou shalt rejoice in him and in his healing anew" : And he commanded and they placed him on the back of an animal, being made firm and comfortable : And 'Ûkbê, having arrived where our father was, remained ashamed : And entreated our father not to regard him as a light and contemptible man : And not to let him return to Mâwsel with a sorrowful heart and deprived of his son : Our father had knowledge, for the Holy Spirit informed him secretly : That 'Ûkbê should not this time be bereaved of his son :

He made a sign to Gabriel and commanded him to bring the young man near : And he stood up in prayer that death might depart from that dead man: "In the Name of Jesus, stand up, O Shâibîn, and be glad and exult": And at his word his flesh began to move, and he rejoiced: Twice he commanded him, "Rise up, for death hath departed from thee: "By the might of Jesus be delivered therefrom, and thou shalt leap up": Christ loosed the penalty of his death, and mocked at Sheol: And gave us power that, like Him, we might overcome and mock it: Straightway the dead man opened his eyes and sat [up] and talked: And Rabban gave him a washing and some of the Oblation, and he ate and was glad: And the congregation rejoiced with joy beyond compare: There burst forth on them a contemptible and foul multitude of contentious men:

Who had come to comfort 'Ûkbê, with one who had departed from the truth: And seeing that the son of the governor had risen he remained [there] ashamed: And began craftily to proclaim the praise of our father: Who by raising Shâibîn to life had made us all to rejoice and be glad: And the governor refrained altogether from answering them: Because he knew their craftiness, and because there was no truth in him he despised and spurned him: The company of the contentious ones is subject to the devils and is spoiled by them: And by Satan it is raised up above all wickednesses and wandereth foolishly: And it leaneth to the doctrine of devils, and is greatly harassed by them: And it armeth itself with the strength of sins thoroughly, and prevaileth and rageth: It is cut off from and deprived wholly of the virtues of excellence: And is stripped of the confession of the orthodox and is shorn thereof:

Then 'Ukbê answered our father and began to arrange words [saying]: "How shall I call thee? I do not know how to speak in a well-ordered manner: "Like an angel thou hast intimate knowledge of spiritual things: "And like [that of] God thy name shall be proclaimed through thy works: "That I may reward thy love as is meet I desire earnestly: "But the riches of this world are accounted by thee as a clod of earth: "I beseech thy love, although I am remote from the truth: "Give us the baptism of thy Lord that we may not again go astray: "In Him let us obtain pardon, and let us not be despoiled by Satan: "And let us not be grievously afflicted by the crafts and wiles [of the devils]: "Through thy prayers let us not be bereft of blessings: "And let us not be pierced by the sharp arrows of the Enemy:

"And let us not be deprived of the Grace of Jesus thy Lord: "And in His Name let us live, and acquire strenuousness, and become strong thereby": Our father made answer, "I possess neither earthenware vessel nor table": For the riches of this world were despised in his sight like a scab and a sore:

Falsely to declare unto the governor in his speech: "In our monastery is everything requisite for baptism in the fullest: "For baptism by him and by us is the same and is [equally] excellent and beneficial": Our father seeing that the heretic [was wishing] to steal: Cried out in violent wrath against the wretched man who was so bold: "O sinner, dare not [to speak] thus insolently: "For our baptism and thine are not alike, and it is not seemly (?): "Even as Satan cannot be praised with God: "And it is impossible for a luminary to shine side by side with the darkness:

"Similarly thy baptism cannot be praised in the same way as ours : And if thou wishest us to shew [this] openly and declare it by a deed" [we will do so] : Our pious father commanded Gabriel to send quickly and in haste : To bring a basin (or, tank) and two children, and not to be troubled : [One] the son of heretics and the other the son of baptized believers without hindrance :1770 And he did so. And our glorious father sanctified the baptism : Having taken and baptized the Nestorian who had been signed with oil : The waters congealed together, even as in bottles, and would not spread over him : The son of the heretics having gone down into the waters they flowed up over his head : And the crowds wondered, and asked them to make plain the interpretation thereof :1775 Then our father with the truth of his word made them an answer : "The baptism of the Nestorians is perfect in the Spirit, and flourisheth : The baptism of the Jacobites lacketh sanctity, and is without the spirit" : The multitudes seeing marvelled, and wondered, and believed, and praised God : Shâibîn, and 'Ukbê, and his companions were baptized, and prospered, and did well :1780 And the company of the shorn went forth ashamed, and were mocked and scorned :

The men of Al-Kôsh, and 'Ûkbê, and his companions returned rejoicing : And the report of our father mounted up and spread abroad in all regions : In proportion as the triumph of our father flew abroad and spread everywhere : The company of the heretics became furiously enraged, and they blasphemed : Blessed shalt thou be, O our father, when in the clouds from above there appeareth : The King Christ, Who shall be borne aloft by angel[s] : On Satan and the heretics anger shall flow : And on every one who served, and sacrificed, and was submissive unto them : In rays of light among the company of the righteous thou shalt shine : And thou shalt shine brightly with the angels and shalt also be triumphant : When on the righteous the light of thy Lord shall rise and shine forth : And like the stars in little or much shall be abundant :

Blessed shalt thou be, O our father, on the day wherein thy Lord shall open His door : And His light shall shine forth and be extended upon all, and every one shall desire Him : When the weight of the sufferings of every one who is smitten shall be cast away : And also the foul matter which cometh from every one that is wounded shall be purged from him : When Satan shall not be at rest with him that is wounded : And shall be in pain and anguish, and be tortured abundantly :: When with weeping he afflicteth his heart and crieth out through his trouble : And all his congregation is hurled headlong into Gehenna :: When his appointed season is cut short and upon him bursteth : Fierce wrath, and he shall be pained and troubled every hour by his emotions :: When to dust by the voice of the Son every man He sendeth :

And from the earth without let or hindrance he riseth and cometh forth :: When the Lord shall praise and give honour to every man according to his [merit] : And shall bestow upon him the reward of his actions, whether good or evil :: When the wicked and the rebels are slain with tortures : And the fiends and the devils shall never again obtain refreshing or rest :: Blessed shalt thou be when the odour of renewal breatheth forth without end : And floweth in great abundance over heavenly and earthly beings :: When all the rational beings who longed for Him shall triumph gloriously : And He shall give unto all incomparable abundance, and every one shall yearn for Him :: When thy Lord shall gratify the righteous with [His] promised blessings : And every man shall enjoy rest according to his deeds and virtues: The nation of the heretics which hated love and loved tumult:

In proportion as the triumph of our father was noised abroad, became troubled: It pondered day and night desiring earnestly: The murder of the righteous man and like fire burned with fraud: How many times in the nights did it strive hard to murder him: And inasmuch as this was prevented by Grace he went away and escaped: One night, however, the mind of our father had flown to heaven: And his understanding was shining in his converse with God: Therefore he neither knew nor was able [to do aught]: Because he was wholly shrouded in spirituality and was exalted therein: In the morning-season after the dawn had come, and his mind had burst upon him: He went forth from his cave to walk about, and by the door he found: A group of about ten heretics who had come to attack him: And who remained senseless having been restrained by Thy grace:

He perceived that they formed a company of evil men who had been sent against him: And he shed tears and wept [to think] how much they had lacked grace: And how eager they had been to fulfil the wish of devils : And how greatly they had been inflamed by the fervour of foul devils : Our blessed father poured out on them the overflowing abundance of his love : And he loosed and set them free from the bonds wherewith justice had bound them : Like his Master he forgave their folly, himself being untroubled : And into his cave he took them in willing love : And he, being joyful and glad, answered and said unto the uncircumcized of heart : "Ye have armed yourself with weapons of violence like murderers : "Lay down your staves and knives, and enter in and take your rest" : And he washed with his hands the feet of the impure people who were lascivious and abominable :

He gave that company of foolish men, who were destitute of goodness, to eat and to drink : And they were defiled and corrupted by the impurity of wickedness and iniquity : He dismissed them that they might depart to their companions, a foolish and senseless company : Which was pierced and worn away by the droppings of Satan : Now in proportion as our father made himself a sacrifice for their error : They the more sharpened their teeth to crush the glorious man : When they saw that they gained no advantage by all [their] schemes over him that was glorious in virtues : But that iniquity was closing in and overwhelming them the more : Henceforth they took the way of the foolish and stupid Cyril : And as he offered sacrifices unto devils and made them smell their savour [even so did they] :

For there the wretched man sacrificed unto devils, and was mingled with them : With the little brethren before the head of their shrine his face he' blackened : And the mouth of the naked ones was rent with a cry to devils : The devil heard the prayer of the old men of shame, and he inflamed [them] : To be brazen of face in [making] petitions before him, and he incited and urged [them] : To bore a hole in a cake, and gave them power to hang it on the neck of their chief : And on the necks of them all, one after the other, and he made them hot and to burn : To be participators in the iniquitous laying on of hands he incited [them] : 1. I. e., the head of the monastery. And he taught and urged them forward to deliver themselves to his sorcery:

After their Satanic feast was ended and concluded: The polluted company, which was skilled in wickedness, removed to Bezkîn: Quickly and without delay it departed and went away: And brought and gave to 'Uḳbē and his son no small moneys: Now therefore the polluted company, which burned with impurity having drawn nigh unto Māwṣel: According as it had been made wise by the deceiver, and had been inflamed by him: Hung the cake on the neck of John that he might not be rejected: And mingled with wine a few of the crumbs which fell from it: That peradventure having offered [it] to 'Uḳbē and his son their heart[s] might become obscured: And he might not be despising everything which the polluted company might say: And the governor made [them] to sit upon his throne: Having tasted their wine he was inflamed with love for them: It darkened, and blinded, and dug out the eyes of his understanding:

And he neither despised nor treated with contempt their works and sorcery: The wretched man wandered from the truth of our father, and spurned and trampled upon it with his feet: And the grace which he had wrought for him he forgot and abhorred: The craft of the wicked which destroyed his life went deeply into his heart : And he was inflamed by their devils, and became hot and burst into flame :· Like an ox by his slaughterer he was led away by them : And to the shrine of idolatry through love of them he was carried off :· The persuasion of their evil counsel he did not refuse : By their acts they bound him, and they left him like a dead man who hath been mummified :· Straightway the venomous and crooked serpents sharpened arrows : To shoot in secret at the upright of heart, and they mingled falsehood :·

Before the governor they begot iniquity and put forth falsehood : And the deceiver called to our father, and they raged at him :· O wretched men, how should be moved by your baseness : He who made strong his wall by virtues which were harder than iron :· O audacious ones, how should have fear of your folly : He whose mind was always swimming in spirituality :· O cruel ones, how should be snatched away by your teeth : He who was never rent by the devils, the sons of your hordes :· O ye who are aided by your teeth, how should be torn asunder :

He who made to tremble and fear the hosts of furious devils :· O senseless ones, how should be burned by the fire of your iniquity : He who was never burned by the coals of fire of Jesus : O ye heretics, in your swift actions how could be kept in obscurity : He who was reared on the breasts of grace and was brought up thereby : Cease, O ye heretics, from your growlings, and be not inflamed :1900 Against the man who prayed for your wretched estate, and that ye might not be shaken hither and thither : Cease ye and bark not like little dogs because he hath become an alien to the world : For he hath no fear of your barking, neither is he afraid : Meditate, O ye wretched συνουσιασται, and be ye strenuous : Because your end hath come, and also your boasting shall be extinguished :1905 Your polluted monastery shall not escape from the anger of God : And shall remain a heap, and your blood shall be mingled with the dust : O ye wretched ones, observe that sharp arrows have been shot forth : And there is no escape to you from them ; fear ye, and be afraid : Because of this. Your dwelling-place shall be laid waste, and also brought very low :1910 And in your habitation no man shall have the power to dwell :

The people of Al-Kôsh and Gabriel were very eager : And with fear and with sorrow they went up to our father : For they saw that 'Ûkbê clave unto the heretics and was joined [with them] : And besides our father marvelled at them and was wounded : Before the blessed men came unto him our father escaped : And he said unto them, "My sons, the glory of the contentious ones is nigh to be pulled down : "The destruction of the Zion of the heretics hath appeared and come : "Their vine shall be cut down, and their vineyard shall be wasted, and shall become [a place for] gleaning : "Fear ye not, O my sons, the strife of the evil ones, who love the craving for dainty meats : "And be not distressed because by reason of anger they have no escape : "Although they have bribed 'Ûkbê on my account, and have made him to possess hesitation :

"And have made straight the arrows of two talents and have made a mark of and shot at me : "I prayed that they might not again be left all [this] incitement : "But the Lord did not desire this and prepared for them a deep pit : "The arrow of wrath He placed on the string like an archer : "And He passed sentence upon them, and drew His sword : "By the life of Christ Who taught me and gave unto me strenuousness : "To-morrow there shall not be left a stone which shall not be moved and overturned" The blessed men of Al-Kōsh answered "Amen", with fervour : And they were blessed by our father, and went down with leaps Then our father stood up in his prayer mingled with love : And prayed strenuously for the church and the people of Bezkin At the end thereof he saw by his side a burning Watcher :

With a crowbar in his hand, and he was ready and eager to destroy Bezkin "Why prayest thou, O good servant?" he said unto the understanding one : "Take this crowbar wherewith I am commanded to uproot it and overthrow it" The Watcher smote it, and the inhabitants thereof he scattered and burned : And he smote it again, and he made its foundations to totter, and he threw [them] down Whosoever fled at the first quaking destruction did not come to him : [If] he went forth from the tavern of the polluted ones before it was overthrown Whosoever dared to resist boldly and audaciously the voice of the Watcher : Remained beneath the stones, and died by a cruel and terrible death Úkbê first of all heard the voice of the Watcher of every one who was burned up : And with quaking he went forth thence, being fearful and afraid :

He was exceedingly ashamed before our father because he had despised him : And [because] he had been subservient to the flame of the children of sin and had been burned in their war : Seeing the destruction of the tavern of the polluted one and that he had escaped : He turned aside to the house of Gabriel of Al-Kôsh and entered therein : He confessed that he had sinned and had consented unto [evil] deeds and had mingled himself therewith : And that by his own will the flame of the polluted ones had gained dominion over him :

The word of your father, and its craft was laid bare to the eye thoroughly : The iniquity of the wicked ones returned upon their own head, as on Mânî : And their wickedness went up on their eggs and was united and heaped up : In the language of old it is meet to call it the "second Nineveh" : And like Sodom her sister is seemly the naming of her in every utterance : Like Gomorrah her destruction came by suffocation : And she was a companion [thereof] like Admah, and Zoar, and the other [cities]: That which was found therein was carried off by the villages round about her: After anger had brought down her inhabitants to the devouring pit: Then the sons of the Monastery of Íth-Allâhâ, a congregation devoted to the ascetic life: He had never been neglectful of our holy father since he had been his companion:

Fifty of them, glorious men, who were testified to abundantly: They became unto the monastery first of all a foundation: Then the rumour was noised abroad in the land, "The monastery is built": Every man gave as he pleased of his possessions and brought [it]: From Bêth Kôpê also the name of Khôdâhwi was proclaimed: Seven talents of silver he gave our father and thus he confessed: "When these have come to an end I will give another similar amount": And he asked a prayer from our father and also made supplication: Our father dismissed him with a joyful heart and prayed for him: And he called George and delivered [unto him] the riches of the son of Shûbhhi: He began to put the coping-stone on the building of the temple and monastery: And he set the hand to cells for the habitation of the brethren : The people of the dominion and also of the state began to pour forth :

And everyone was hastening that he might be the first of all to be a participator : And ran quickly [there] after the manner of a huntsman : Little and great for any purpose that would be helpful : And 'Ûkbê himself, by his own prompting, manifested love : And made three talents of silver to come to our father by the hands of Shâibîn : Our father accepted [them] and delivered them over to his overseers and told them : That they were to be careful for the building of his monastery as he wished : In those days it was revealed unto our father by the Holy Spirit : That he should go to Mattai and uproot the idol of the devil and deceiver : He went forth in the morning and departed and came to the tavern of Matthew : And before he went in he stood up in prayer and he besought and prayed :

That he might be concealed from the eyes of the heretics : So that he might not be diverted from the matter which he was held worthy to perform : When the doorkeeper saw his venerableness he was greatly stupefied : And according to his will without delay took care and fulfilled [his wish] : To sleep he brought him in to the door of the shrine of Mattai and departed :And according to his wont he rose up to keep vigil and delayed not :Straightway suddenly one of the Watchers appeared unto him :And opened the shrine of Abbâ Mattai and put in his hand :1995 And brought forth a wretched little idol of white brass and shewed [it] :And its eyes were of beryl, and he gave it to our father, and related unto him :"This wretched little contemptible idol which is despised by all :"Hath led astray the heretics of this monastery :"Mâr Mattai was a companion and follower of Mâr Awgin :2000 "And through the Spirit the lot fell upon him, and in it he departed :"All the inhabitants of this country he turned :"To the faith of the Trinity, and in it he directed them :"He taught and made manifest that the Nature of God is immortal :"And he confessed that the Nature of Jesus the Man was, by grace, Divine :2005 "Their faith having been destroyed, and their truth corrupted :"Through Cyril the crooked serpent, and having been made to stink by him :"Their whole congregation hath been forsaken and rejected by Divine Providence :

"In all the ends [of earth] beneath the heavens it hath been made abominable and blind :: "Then Marcion by his sorceries destroyed, and corrupted, and made to stink : "All their understanding, and he polluted and defiled their temples :: "He taught them and told them to place idols in the altars : "And promised them that they should be deliverers from the night-devils :: "And that they might not be afflicted in the month of Shebat by them he made incantations : "And they delivered themselves over to his sorceries, and his seed shot up well in their hearts :: "Now there is no altar in which an idol hath not been hidden : "And him they serve because he performs their business :: "The grace of thy Lord hath, however, retreated from them afar : "Through Cyril He hath brought upon them injury and He hath afflicted [them] ::

"He it was who first of all ministered unto devils and boasted in them : "He was the first who offered sacrifices unto devils, and was greatly puffed up :: "Through Kâkî, a certain Egyptian sorceress, he was led astray : "And he gave the sons of his following to eat and to drink of this death :: "In all countries the seed which he had made to grow sprang up and flourished : "Through the miserable little idols of accursed devils, and through them hath waxed great :- But take thou this one and depart unto thy monastery and be at peace : And let us pray that their resting-place may be removed from this place":- And when they had prayed the prayer which they were praying the Watcher removed : Our father by the might of the Spirit and made him to come into his cave without labour :- At the time of dawn Gabriel saw him and he was filled with gladness : And he shewed him the idol, and related the story thereof before him :- Then he revealed it and made it known unto the whole congregation : And he narrated how the angel of the Lord had helped him :- Straightway the devil was terrified at our father, and he began : To complain, saying, "Woe is me through thee, O Son of Nazarenes :- Woe is me through Thee, O Jesus Christ, Thou Son of Mary : Woe is me through Thy servant Hōrmizd, the son of Persians :- For thou hast persecuted me in all the bounds of earth and my strength hath declined : I fled from Thee into the abyss of Sheol, and my name hath been brought low :- Thou hast brought up my person which is hated from the interior thereof in shame :

"And Thou wishest to make me a scoffing unto my friends and unto him that honoureth me : In the cities and villages wherein my name hath been proclaimed : And in the places wherein was my power Thou hast also made it to be abrogated : Henceforward my reproach will be proclaimed therein and behold, it will also be revealed : And my glory will be abated, and my disgrace increased, and also made to appear" :2045 The company of the disciples of our father was astonished at what the devil declared : From out of the idol, and that he had exposed the wretchedness of himself in the sight of all : George took the idol and brought [it] down and shewed [it] : In the towns and villages which were there, and also told the story, [saying] : "This is the god of the heretics which hath been turned out and cast away :2050 And the prince of the religion of the evil man Cyril, the mole that was blind : The name of the shrine of Mattai the erring one hath polluted and made to sin : And this is the night-devil of Egypt which it hath made to go astray" : And Gabriel the man of Al-Kôsh was fully occupied : With ministering unto the workmen and artificers, and was not sluggish :2055 After a period of ten months the monastery was built : And it was provided with all furnishings, and was well built :

Our pious father in no way neglected his ascetic life : And in love employed his body and his soul with the Cross of his Lord : With his marvellous works he rejoiced the Watchers of heaven and men : And the hordes of fiends and devils he despised and held in contempt : He perceived and searched into minutely and skillfully : The hidden mystery which was from the angels and everything which was covered : The mystery, which was revealed unto us of our image which was corrupted, was raised upon high : And an adorable throne on the right hand he inherited and acquired : Being made worthy of the throne of the Word, the Son Who was of the Father : He, our first fruits, the Son Who was of Mary, Who appeared in the earth : He was derived and chosen from every race of Adam :

And He wrought mighty deeds, and healed the sick, and vivified the dead : He Who is not easily comprehensible and Who cannot be understood became comprehensible : And He hid His glory and became a perfect being in His two Natures : At the time of the Crucifixion by the Jews He drank vinegar : All the souls that were lost by His voice He brought back [to life] : At His death He removed from Sheol the dead who had gone to corruption : And He gave us freedom from the service of death which was cast out : He in the beginning the head of our generations made to come into being : And He stablished anew by His voice our nature which was created afresh : Like a weak man in the sight of the children of men He appeared : And as God by rational beings He was confessed :

Two of them, without doubt, in Him were perfected : And the words which the prophets prophesied concerning Him He fulfilled and accomplished : The yoke of death He cast out from our nature and destroyed and made an end thereof : And the stinking wounds with the medicine of His words He bound up and healed : Compassion and mercy for every one who turned back He poured out abundantly : And He made every man who was chosen by Him worthy of the honour of his glory : Our own father He honoured and magnified greatly and without measure : And He exalted to the highest height the exaltedness of his spirituality : Ceaselessly in vigil the watcher sang psalms and hymns : And in the fire of his love he made himself like unto the son of sojourners : In marvellous and quiet contemplation in the cell our father delighted :

And swiftly he trod the path of the righteous and emulated them : All his days he never relaxed the habit of profound contemplation : And he made himself like unto the spiritual beings and Watchers of heaven : He proclaimed the fruits of glory and praise and made them to blossom : He counselled his soul wisely and wept for it : [Saying], "Receive my counsel and deliver thyself from Gehenna, O my soul : "And despise, and hate, and reject the riches of the world and its desirable things : "Raise up thy mind unto Him who is about [to come], and search Him out : "Make thy thoughts to dwell on high, and glorify and praise thy Lord : "O bride of the King, admonish thy understanding and thy motions, and cleanse [them] : "And make straight and wide thy deeds and actions in truth and righteousness :

"Make the eyes of thine heart blind unto all beautiful things which are vain : "And satisfy thyself like the spiritual beings with the love of thy Lord : "Rouse thyself, O my soul, and shew love, and return glory : "Give a reward unto thy Lord, and be thou exalted over all [thy] passions : "Flee from every man who possesseth customs of sluggishness and is a whoremonger : "And remove thyself and be away from [him], and let thy tears run down like waterspouts : "Like the sinful woman, lay hold upon and cling fast to the skirts of thy Lord : "And wash His feet with the tears of thine eyes, and wipe them with [thine] hair : "Like Simon after his denial [of Christ], repent and be contrite : "And, like the thief on the right hand, confess thy Lord : "Cling unto thy brethren, and redeem and deliver thyself from their wars :

"And by thy discipline rebuke and make wise the simplicity of their hearts" : With such counsels he counselled his soul, hearken ye, O my brethren : And by his understanding he set free his disciples from all error : Our pious father cried out to his disciples, saying, "Come ye, incline unto my words : "And in your person[s] fulfil all my deeds and keep ye my ordinances : "Come all ye ascetics who are gathered together, and enter into my folds : "Put your necks under my yoke, and train ye yourselves in all my doctrines : "Come, O my beloved, and occupy yourselves in all my discourses : "Take heed unto yourselves, and acquire ye the truth of all mine admonitions : "Draw nigh unto mine entreaties, and observe and search out the work of my hands : "And proclaim the truth and act like mighty men in the hope of my words :

"Ye know that I have neither concealed from you my judgments : Nor all the tribulations which I have endured and suffered from mine enemies : I became an alien and a stranger unto all my neighbours : Be ye like unto me, and be ye participators in my labours : O my lords, be ye careful and fulfil ye your love towards me : Cleave ye unto me, and transgress ye not [any of] all my statutes : At this time I praise you, O ye who have shewn goodness unto me : And in your reverence, according as I have taught you, be ye my consolers : By my counsels and words be ye persuaded, O my obedient sons : And incline [your ears], and understand, and listen unto the discourse of all my words : O my neighbours, ye who encourage me, observe ye the things which I have endured : Fulfil my statutes, perform my commands and all my laws" : The disciples hearkened unto their master and inclined unto the command of his mouth : And they shewed [it] to each other, and they taught [it], and laboured [in it] and performed it : They received the law and statute of their master, [and] in their heart they kept it : They performed his word, and also honoured his covenant with them :

They embraced it in their hearts and believed it in all the motions of their soul: And they wrote in their hearts the teacher of the truth and the preceptor of the spirit: They went after him and also found their help in his hands: And they magnified and praised him and proclaimed his rule in the sight of all: They became his disciples with their whole hearts and never left him: And they called him the investigator of mysteries and the philosopher of the spirit: Thus and more was our father, even as they exalted him: And in his piety, after the manner of the Apostles they likened him and compared him: By our father's prayer they expelled the Evil One from his habitation: And drove him away, and they vanquished his strength, and drove him out: And they cast out and expelled the Prince of wickedness beyond the borders:

They thrust him out like scorpions and serpents, and trod upon him with the foot: The property of the devils they made their own possession and spoiled him: And the wall of his strength with the weapon of their humility they shook and threw down: They fulfilled the doctrine of our father and stablished and furnished his monastery: And, like heralds, they proclaimed him and made him known in the ears of every man:

Our father humbled and brought low the Prince of the air : And he broke and humiliated his hordes and bands like an athlete : By crimes of every kind the children of his dogmas he led to destruction : And every one who was a heretic like Cyril he made to suffer and brought to doom : He grasped the sword of the spirit in his hand like an athlete :2160 And the wretched idols of the heretics he uprooted and brought low : By the help of his prayer, and the assistance of his words which he made sharp by the Spirit : He rooted out the night-devil which led [men] astray and rejected [him] and set him to rest : The arrows of his prayer with the bow of fasting he shot out and drove them : Into the heart of the enemies of Jesus our Lord, and extinguished their strength :2165 Blessed art thou, O our father, before whom the Prince of wickedness was made to suffer : And in thy presence all the array of his warriors was brought low : His arrogance and boasting were obscured in thy presence : And through thee nothing whatsoever was carried off by the claw of his wickedness : The oppression of Bezkín, the tavern of devils, was extinguished by thy power :

And the assemblies of the "shorn" were slain and brought low in the abysses of Sheol : The might of their audacity and insolence thy love blotted out : And through thee their wasted monastery was overturned on the heads of its inhabitants : By their own will the Devil blinded and obscured their understanding : And he left them to the lizards (?) and the moles, and darkened their minds :2175 Therefore thy Lord cast and poured out upon them the fire of wrath : And made their habitation beneath the earth, and there He mingled : That which He had promised the heretics whom He had kept back from thee : And he whose luck was evil was prohibited from Mount 'Edhrai : Thy love was poured out in thy heart on their behalf continually :2180 And thou wast praying that peradventure the Lord might turn away His wrath from them : Their appointed time was fulfilled, and they were cursed in anger : And such was their madness that their root was never again to take firm hold in the mountain : Blessed art thou, O our father, whose rank was so high with thy Lord : And kings, and governors, and satraps adored thine honour :2185 Blessed art thou, O our father, whose grade is beyond measure :

And the height of whose position no man is able to declare: Blessed art thou, O our father, who didst rejoice the Watchers by thy humility: And who didst make glad exceedingly men by thy self-denial: Blessed art thou, O our father, whom the riches of this world never flattered: And who wast never turned aside from thy course by its polluted beauties: Blessed art thou, O our father, whom the storm of passion never vanquished: And the ship of whose soul the waves of the world never overwhelmed: Blessed art thou whose wisdom journeyed in the whirlwinds of thy mind: And the flood of the sea of whose understanding led thee into the haven of life: Blessed art thou, O our father, whose history is so marvellous and wonderful: And whose knowledge is exalted and more excellent than [that of other] rational beings: Blessed art thou, O our father, whose birth-place was the East:

And in whose beauty the North, and the South, and the West rejoice: Blessed art thou, O our father, who hast sanctified the earth by thy steps: Wherein, like thy Lord, thou hast performed thy mighty deeds and miracles: Blessed art thou, O our father, whose doctrine poured forth like Gihon: Upon all the souls who drew nigh unto thee and took refuge in thee :: Thine understanding was like unto the pouring forth of the Tigris : And thy knowledge shewed itself to be deep as the depths of Pison :: Like the river Euphrates thou didst water the flock of thy Lord : With the refreshing drink of thy paternity and lordship :: From thy youth thou wast chosen and called to the fellowship of thy Lord : And like Jeremiah and the son of strangers (i. e., Elijah) thy name waxed glorious :: Come, O priest, that I may write down thy history and may praise thee :

And may reveal unto men all thy paths and thine excellences :: Come, O thou zealous one, in thine integrity and righteousness : That I may magnify thy truth, O thou whose aim was as straight as a line :: Come, O chosen one, that I may incite thy sons to jealousy by thy glorious acts : And may exalt thee with my halting tongue and may praise thy name :: Come, O thou who art the most zealous of all the righteous men thy kinsfolk in name : Who hast laboured and filled thy treasury with the riches of the Spirit which made thee wise :: 1. See line 3310. Come, O thou lowly one, whom the pride of thine Enemy never carried away : Who didst love thy Lord, Who was Himself thy Helper, and Whose power aided thee : How is it possible for a wretched man like myself to recount thy gifts :

Wherewith the Holy Spirit, according to thy fitness, adorned thee : Thy history is exalted, and thy quest was immeasurably sublime : And it is impossible for my tongue to be sufficient [to do so] in a fitting manner : The region of the Persians, that is, Bēth Lāpāt, rejoiceth in thy beauty : For it gave thee birth, and gave thee as a treasure unto the Syrians : The city of Āthōr and all its dominions rejoice in thy name : For thou didst go about among them when thou wast a stranger and didst reveal thy beauty : Thou didst make a tarrying for a length of years with Mār Bar-'Idtā : And there according to rule thou didst perform thy ministration as a coenobite : There thou didst wage war against the Enemy with the weapon of thy humility : And thou didst vanquish his power, and break his head with the sword of thine abstinence :

Then thou didst remain for six years in the Monastery of Rīshā : There thou didst perform mighty deeds and didst manifest thy deeds of power : The village of Al-Kôsh above all [other] places exalted thee : And thy Lord, by His nod, wished to make thee to rest in the neighbourhood thereof :· Unto this place from the East thy Lord brought thee : That therein thou mightest plant the vines of thy vineyard and also thy plants :· By its inhabitants thy temple was stablished and thy monastery built : That they and thy sons might abide in thy love and in thy blessings :· Blessed be Al-Kôsh which was worthy of the eventide of thine old age : It received blessings from thee, and became also the place of thy rest :· Blessed be Christ Who strengthened thee, and Who made thine end marvellous : And filled thee with the revelations and visions of the Spirit :·

Blessed be He Whose nod was with thee and went about with thee : And Who was thy Helper and Sustainer in all thy labours :· Blessed be Christ Who hath set thee among the ranks of His workers : And Who exalted thee greatly by the revelations of things which were to come :· Blessed be He Who knew thee of old and gave thee the wages of thine aim : And instead of the beauty of thine excellence made thee to inherit the marriage chamber :· Blessed art thou, O our father, whose Lord thus honoured and magnified thee : And Who fished thee out of the sea of the world and set thee apart for His service : Blessed art thou, O our father, whose memorial is more exalted than [that of] all the righteous : Whom the Lord called unto him with His voice, like Samuel :

Blessed art thou, O our father, whose history is marvellous, and whose happiness is exalted : Who hast, like David, by thy strenuousness overthrown thine Enemy : Happy is every man who shall travel in the way of thy path and in thy footsteps : And who shall strive earnestly to emulate thy strenuousness : O our Lord, Thou hast given our father Hōrmizd dominion over the treasure of Thy riches : And because he kept Thy covenant and loved Thy Name Thou didst make [him to be] a participator in Thy glory : Because he made entreaty unto Thee each night with supplications and with prayers : Like Joseph, Thou didst deliver him by Thine arm from the hand[s] of enemies :

Mār Tūmārṣā, the Catholicus, went forth unto him : When the rumour smote his ears he received [it] with joy : And with a glorious company of his bishops he departed from Babel: He was a fellow-monk with our father and had been planted with him: And he also had laboured in the Monastery of Rabbâ Mâr Bar-'Idtâ: Because of the love which was between each other he ran and made haste: And moreover a matter of necessity worked upon him: Our father receiving [news] of his coming by means of a revelation: Called George and Gabriel and spake unto them: "Rise up, my brethren, run and get ye down, and make haste to Bêth Kôpe: "And sing praises and glorifyings before our father Mâr Tûmârsâ: "According to his beauty honour him rightly and bring [him] to us": And they did thus and fulfilled everything which our father had admonished them:

Because [our father] was weak in body through old age and abstinence: He went down into his presence before the temple, and received his person: But who can declare the gladness of Mâr Tûmârsâ: Or seeing our father and on saluting him lovingly: He neither sat down, nor ate, nor drank, until he had consecrated the altar: And he consecrated and distributed the mysteries of the Son Emmanuel: They all had happiness after the manner of the spirit, and made rejoicings: And they kept the feast and celebrated the festival to our father Mû'îl: Then our father the Catholicus warned and admonished: And he wrote a writing with his own hand, and sealed [it], and make known thus: "I Tûmârşâ the Catholicus, by the grace of God: Command, and ordain, and curse by the might of the strength of God: "That there is no power to [any] bishop to bind or to loose:

"In this monastery, neither shall his name be proclaimed [therein], [nor] command, [nor] speak: "Whosoever shall transgress this ordinance shall be dismissed and degraded: "And shall be counted a heretic in the Church, and vile, and contemptible": All the bishops united in giving approval to this: And they all made their declaration, and sealed the writing and delivered it unto our father: After they had finished all these things, they gave praise in the spirit: They ate the Food of the Lord, and raised hymns of praise unto God: Then Khôdhâwî with love for them fettered himself: And offered [them] a feast, and they drank three cups [each], and were refreshed: And he brought and laid down before Tûmârşâ a talent of silver: And asked and besought from him, with hope, a prayer: Mâr Tûmârşâ marvelled at the love of him who [thus] served the Lord: And blessed him in the might of Him that had put forth twelve parables:

[Saying], "O Khôdhâwî, in return for this thy love my Lord shall grant thee: "Forgiveness of sins and He shall strengthen thee at His right hand: "The honour [which thou hast paid] us is sufficient, and thou shalt not work thyself further: "For we have heard of thy care for this monastery [from] one who lieth not: "Take back thy money, my riches are sufficient for me", and he separated himself from this [gift]: "And money like this is useless to me; take it and let it be carried away": The believing man constrained him, and made answer to him, saying, "It is a votive offering, and my lord moved my heart [to vow it]: "It shall never again return to me nor be gathered up by me": Tûmârsâ placed another talent upon those which he had received: And handed [it] over to the monastery by the hand[s] of George and Gabriel:

After his petition had been accepted, and he had been shewn the right road: And he had been well inducted by our father into the mystery of revelations: He was set free wholly from contests and was also strengthened: He was set on fire with the fire of love for our father Hôrmízd: And being delivered and having gained freedom he was no longer weak : But if he were hung upon the neck[s] of hidden enemies : Beneath the destruction of the corrupt ones by the prayer of our father he would not fall : And by their hidden wickednesses he would neither be polluted nor defiled : Where the prayer of our father is the might of the Rebel is dissipated and dispersed :2320 And like the phantoms of the desert and reeds he is reckoned and held in contempt : On the morning of the [next] day Mâr Tûmârsâ rose up, and departed quickly : And our father accompanied him on the road as long as he was able to endure the toil : Then they separated, each from the other, in unspeakable love : And being full of the Spirit our father went into his cave :2325 Blessed art thou, O our father, for thou wast linked unto the chain of the Apostles : And thy body through [thy] labours was not broken down or made powerless : Blessed art thou, O our father, for thy Lord's sake thou didst get austerity : And he was constrained neither by the blandishments of the world, nor the crookedness thereof : Blessed art thou, O our father, for the building of thy tower was crowned on high :2330 And could never be washed away by the floods which dashed against it :

Jesus, the Word, the Headship of our nature, having become a Temple : In His Humanity He suffered through the Jews and endured sufferings : With the disgrace of the cross for our redemption, and was stripped naked : And having gone up [on it] by His might the horde of devils was greatly confounded : But He overshadowed the ranks of His chosen ones and those who called upon Him : And of the place of miracles they were made worthy by the Comforter and continued so to be : Our pious father by means of these things was at once highly exalted : And the corrupt devil looked and saw him and was made guilty by him : When he met him and saw the aspect of his face he was moved as by a storm : At his exaltation he burned as with fire, and became cinders, and was burned to ashes :

By mysteries of holiness and with [divine] gifts he triumphed and was crowned : And the report of him flew abroad and was carried into every country : The Name of our Redeemer was sanctified by him and was praised : And through him the Calumniator was made foolish and brought to derision : By the prayer of our father the Devil was afflicted with all manner of tribulations : And the building of his fraud fell down, and was washed away, and carried to a distance : By the prayer of our father the devil of pride fell down and was spurned : And he ceased his glorifying and boasting, and was made of no effect : Seeing that none of the plots which he wove benefited him : He contrived schemes, and went unto the heretics, and was shewn to be a liar : As at the beginning of the world he was crafty and plotted against Adam :

So with insolence he made an attack upon our father, and was made contemptible : The athlete of the Spirit made war against him, and was crowned with the Spirit : And in his strenuousness he was never wetted by the waters of his passions : He waged war against him with his snares, and he was never tripped up : And he was neither caught in his traps and nets, nor impeded by them : The wretched one waged war and was put to shame, but was not made an end of : Until he was pierced with goads and knives ; he bore [these] and was slain : The Evil One waged war and cried to his host, and it quickly gathered together : And with great noise rose up in his crookedness and neighed like a stallion : The Enemy fought with our father who made him an object of derision :

And he broke him, and trod him under foot, and considered the voice of his threats like the sound of a tinkle : The cunning one fought, and the dominion of himself was loosed : And every rational being wove a crown of glory for the triumph of our father :

And He fulfilled and established [him] according to His promise to His disciples : Christ Who cured the lame and the halt, and healed the sick : Gave unto our father the power to restore to life the dead by his prayer : Jesus our Lord, Amen, Amen, cried out and proclaimed : "Whosoever believeth in Me, and confesseth My Name, shall be perfect : "And all the works which I do he also shall fulfil : "And, without doubt, shall fashion those which are greater than Mine" : Before His disciples He wrought mighty deeds and exalted them : And what was better than His mighty deeds He gave unto them, and they worked even as it is written : Having chosen and stablished His Apostles for the preaching [of His Gospel] : They wrought [mighty deeds] by the power of the Comforter, and He was greatly exalted :

By their shadows and garments the sick were healed : And they gave healing unto every one who was envied and oppressed by devils : These fulfilled His promise in the early times of old : And they shot the poisoned arrow in the cunning of the Evil One : They taught in the mountains and islands of Kittim and Doranim : And they baptized in Judaea, and worked in Lôdim, and Egypt, and Jerusalem : They went down and arrived at length in Âlim, and Mahnim, and Yahbhim : And turned from error unto the truth everyone who was prudent : In the path of these our father strove [to walk], and delivered himself thereunto : And even as did they he wrought mighty deeds and gave life to the dead : He set himself in the way of the violent attacks [of devils], and never hid himself : And he never rested in the pollution of fierce devils : The foundation of his wall was laid upon the adamant of humility : And the mansions of his house were established upon the diamond of love : The fortifications of the enemies he broke in pieces, and was himself exalted : Because he weaned his body from all desirable things, that is to say, because he fasted : The bonds, and fetters, and chains of his passions were broken in pieces by him : And those which sprang up from moisture were dried up and withered : And he was warmed with the love of Jesus as with a flame of fire :

And the hymn of the Spirit which was without end was declaimed by him: And his name was written down upon the two-fold tablet in the library: And none of his members was pierced by the sharpness of the teeth of the Evil One: And Belial, the wretched one, sick and horrible, was brought to ashes by his armour: And he considered his threats like a gnat which hummeth and buzzeth: Then openly B'el-zèbhûbh rose up insolently that peradventure he might speak: And craftily flattered him with his senseless words and whispered and muttered in his ears: Straightway he who was wise in spiritual things shut his ear: And severed and cut off his nose and trunk: Then the Devil cried unto his hordes to support him: And by his murmured words he drew them [to him], and incited [them], and made [them] wise: [Saying], "O my hosts, prepare your armour, and poison your arrows:

"And we will boldly attack him that slew our ranks, that, perchance, we may destroy [him]": As the gluttonous ones blasphemed our father and threatened him: In their dog-like gluttony they rushed upon [him] and let out wind: Straightway the famous man like a warrior thundered at them: And roared at them in fierce wrath and banned and cursed [them]: And holding them back by his awful word[s] he shouted at them : Like wax before the flame they melted and fell away : Like his Lord he put them to shame and he abused them and fettered [them] : And like smoke before the flame they vanished and were cut to pieces : Come, O my beloved, let us ascribe exaltation to this upright man : And let us take from him the power to fight with this subtle devil : Gather yourselves together to him, and let every rational being take refuge in his skirts :

And take ye help to crush the head of the perverse and crooked Evil One : Come, O my beloved, let us weave praises of the wise athlete : And let us get freedom from the service of our abominable Enemy : Come, let us take refuge in his prayers, that per-adventure we may be healed : Of the wounds of our Adversary, and may not again be impure [thereby] : Let us cover up our wounds with the bandage of his prayer and heal [them] : And let us be no longer angry at the offering up of a song to his holiness : Let us wash away all our diseases with the medicine of his words and cover our bodies therewith : That we may not be bitten through by the raging teeth of the Devil : The Rebel being defeated by our father, and upset and overthrown :

Went to his house and saw that it was well furnished and warm : He ran to the people of the heretics and set himself up before them : And he made use of them as an instrument and lifted up the heel : The Evil One is wont to lay his foundation upon a weak spot : Because he is able to make manifest his fraud, and to conceal it at will : Straightway he stirred up the heretic people and threatened [them] : He entered the marbôsê, and put devils in the "shorn" ones, and spake to their hearts : They all assembled in secret in Mâwsel, and they were hot like fire : They collected ten talents of silver and appointed a synod : [Saying], "Let us not cease to strive, and let us not stand still : "Until we have destroyed this man who hath overthrown our monasteries and our temples :

"Come therefore, let us make a plot, and let us also act wisely : "Because he hath dared to overthrow all our congregations and hath made our strength ashes : "If we are put in fetters by the governors because of his death : "We will weigh out the gold he wisheth, and we shall not be delivered over unto death : "Unless we destroy him from our dominion we shall not be happy : "And he will lay waste our monasteries and make an end of them : "Rise up, let us make ready, and let us not sleep before we have slain him : "Perchance his Man Jesus Christ Who hath become the High God : "As he said, will come and deliver him from us and he shall be whole" : And the abominable ones did not know that He had set a definite and appointed time for their end :

And [that] the sword of Jesus was sharp for their slaughter, and [that] He had cut off their abode : And [that] His spear was ready to pierce them through, and [that] He had cut off time for them : And eight of the marbôse who were filled with envy went forth : And seven "shorn" ones, and five young men, who were polluted and lascivious : The bloody company came secretly to cross over the Tigris : To go up against him and to hack him limb from limb : In crossing the river, when in mid-stream, their boat stood still : And Pîthiôn, the master of the ferry-boat, though skilful : Began to cry out to all the saints and spake, saying : "O blessed ones, help me in my affliction, and make deliverance for me : "In God is my confidence"; and he spake his words unto His chosen ones :

And seeing that the end had come straightway he cried out again: "O God of Rabban Hôrmîzd, help me", he shouted: And the Lord heard his prayer, and did not cut off his hope utterly: He sent His Watcher, who appeared in the form and garb of our father: And he sat down upon the sail of the ferry-boat, and poured out mercy upon him: And whilst the boatman was marvelling at the sight of our father and rejoicing: He turned the ferry-boat upside down and the heretics sank in the waters and were drowned: After they were drowned the old man righted the ferry-boat, and [it became] as it was before: And no harm came to Pîthîôn and he was not injured: Neither did a single plank of his ferry-boat fall out and become lost: Because he saw the old man who was taking care of him so that he might not be destroyed:

And Pîthîôn heard the sound of the words which were spoken unto him by the old man: "See, O Pîthîôn, thou hast not gotten rebuke along with the heretics: "Because thou hast taken refuge in me and hast called upon me thou hast gained happiness: "And through Divine Providence the lot hath come unto thee of such a resurrection as this: "These loathsome men who are now brought to dust went forth to kill me: "Therefore praise Jesus thy Lord Who hath not cut [thee] off, and turned [thee] into dust": Every one who heard the rumour of the miracle glorified God ceaselessly : And praised the Lord of Rabban Hōrmīzd, and sang sweet hymns to Him : "Blessed art thou, O our father, for through thee the heretics were brought to dust : "And behold, in their gluttony like little dogs, they had waxed fat : "Blessed art thou, O our father, for the mouths of the heretics through thee were shut fast :

"And their deceitful arrogance through thee was brought to an end : "Blessed art thou, O our father, for through thee their miserable idol was stoned : "And also their works, which [were wrought] in the name of the mighty devil, were cut off by thee : "Blessed art thou, O our father, for the end of the heretics was decreed through thee : "And also through thee their name was crushed out and cut off : "Blessed art thou, for thy Lord was depicted and shadowed in thine understanding : "And Rabban meditated upon heavenly things and also dreamed thereof : "Blessed art thou, for in his wars with thee of thine Enemy : "The horn and glory were cut off, and his members were cut off" :

And he prayed that Jesus would pour coals of fire upon them :- He thirsted and hungered to annul the error of their wickedness : And he took upon himself the burden of destroying their serpent-like ways :- He well knew how false the heretics were : And that they were filled with lies, and iniquity, and wickedness, and also rebellion :- The fraud of the burdens under which they made [men] to suffer made his heart sick : And he abhorred the levity of conduct of which they boasted :- He knew well that idols were hidden in their altars : And that the filthy ones were offering up filthy offerings, and were exalting themselves thereby :- He had thorough knowledge of their assemblies, and [of how] they were exposing themselves near him : And of their synod, which was bloody with the blood of him through which they were contending with him :- Having ended his prayer which was heard [by God, to pray] which he had knelt down : The Watchers of heaven, by whom he had been anointed, gave him the salutation of peace :- Then one spiritual being parted from them and turned towards him : Saying, "Peace be unto thee, O Rabban, peace be unto thy revered estate", he said and sang :- Straightway he smote his wings together, and spread them out, and alighted : And by the might of the Spirit he made our father to be at the tavern of Mattai :

Then he began to pray and to make supplication, and to sing the song of Hosanna : That peradventure there might be some means whereby he might turn from their error : Then he was answered by the spiritual being, "They will not repent : And they will never turn away from their wandering after devils : I desire not the death of sinners but that they shall repent : But to these there is no repentance, and for it they have no inclination : They have learned to do evil to the uttermost and they have fed themselves thereon : Their appointed time is ended, and they shall go down into Sheol" : Again he prayed that he might not be vanquished by the envy of devils : And that he might be strengthened by the direction of heaven : Therefore the Watcher opened before him the doors which had been shut : And he led him from place to place until [they came] to the library : Straightway he also opened to him the chamber of the books of the calumniators : And said, "Receive riches, O thou who through the things of the Spirit art filled with holiness" : The blessed man turned about hither and thither in the library : And he prayed that he might be able to destroy them by some means :

As soon as he had made the entreaty there sprang up a fountain of water, thick in nature : Which in smell was exceedingly stinking and putrid : He became wise in the spirit and destroyed their books by the waters of the fountain : And having destroyed them, the waters of the fountain were cut off : And the Watcher took him outside the door of the monastery of the lascivious ones : And by reason of his extreme old age [our father] asked him to be freed from fatigues : He heard a voice which could be perceived by the senses speaking unto him from heaven : [Saying], "Fear thou not, O my chaste servant Hôrmîzd, who art arrayed in splendour : "For to the end of thy days and the close of thy strife thou shalt be filled with triumphs : "And this most wonderful of all wonderful gifts hath been given unto thee" :

And at the word he was filled with the spirit of all visions : And suddenly his mind was carried away in the wonder of revelations of every kind : He was enjoying the contemplation of the Trinity and reclining therein : And he was refreshing himself in heavenly things happily, and was anointed therewith : And there was revealed unto him the day of his departure unto the country of the blessed : And to the house of divine rest which was full of enjoyments : He was experiencing the new life which never cometh to an end : And there was present in his mind Jerusalem on high of the firstborn of the heavens: From the time of his youth until the day of old age, ceaselessly : The Spirit had renewed him, and made him young, and perfected him with all gifts: Like the eagle he was renewing himself at all seasons : Until at length he became like Jesus his Creator in every perfect thing:

These are those who serve Jesus, the king of all kings : And he was the firstborn of an innumerable host of brethren: The Evil One in fighting with the Prince was girded with shame : And his glory was burned up, and his power destroyed, and he was consumed, and he became [like] smoke: Lust, and glory, and the love of Mammon he ordained as an ornament : And imagining that peradventure he might lead astray he was broken up and ground to pieces: He was abhorred in the sight of angels, and trodden down, and vanquished : His power was cut off, and he was thoroughly hacked in pieces, and crushed, and reviled: Seeing the Prince giving life to the dead he became envious : And he imagined that upon him as upon all men compassion would be shewn: And that although he was doing mighty deeds yet he would die and be judged :

Therefore the crafty one demanded worship that before his face he might be sustained : Our adorable Lord whilst He was burning up and turning into smoke his dominion : The Watchers were singing and acclaiming with praise the power of His Lordship : The Watchers praised the Beginning of our nature because He had conquered our Enemy : And by His merit He raised us all up from our fall :2565 The Rebel set battle in array in Eden against the head of our race : And conquered us by a fruit, and we fell from our glory, and we were expelled by him : He looked upon our Lord as he did upon Adam because He was clothed in our nature : And he warred with our Redeemer by means of the same food wherewith he ensnared Adam : The Prince of the air having conquered and overcome the head of our generations :2570 Imagined that we should be conquered and fall even as he fell : At the end of His fast our Lord endowed us with innocence and gave us merit : And freed us from the Evil One and death, and made known our resurrection : The Watchers have revealed unto us concerning our merit and our Redeemer : For they drew nigh and praised our Lord, and preached our return :2575 By three fights we learned concerning the fulfilment of all our desires :

Concerning the meats which are to be eaten, we have learned and have become wise: Concerning glory, we know all that are glorious and that bring exaltation: Concerning the riches which may be acquired, the Mammon of this world, we have been made to enquire: By His merit He opened before us the gate of Paradise: And as He conquered even so we, through Him, conquer our Enemy: He gave us the confidence that we should vanquish the Evil One by our patient endurance: And in chosing righteous men from among us He made known our honour: By His Apostles He turned us all from our error: And by their teaching He opened our eyes, and thereby we have become exalted: They preached concerning our happiness and concerning our resurrection: And they raised the dead, and drove out devils, and we knew and saw: And from them we learned Three Persons and One Being:

And we have investigated Their individual attributes, and by them we are sanctified: By the fathers we have been led on from one to the other: And they have shewed us and taught us surely the truth of our confession: First of all the Apostles became our leaders and our strengtheners: And then the Prophets and the Doctors became those who exalted us: God set in His Church and manifested Paul our teacher: First of all the Apostles and then the Prophets were those who preached for us: The Apostle taught us concerning the Prophets that they belonged not [only] to our olden time: But he set them in order that they might teach in our Holy Church: There were in the Church Prophets of our mysteries, and also our teachers: Barnabas and Niger, who manifested forth our Gospel and the things which strengthened us: Through them in great glory we have stood up and been exalted:

And from Satans and also from idols we have made our escape: Through them by the abundance of gifts we have become rich and have been raised up: To an exalted grade, and from them we have acquired the gifts of the Spirit: Through their doctrine we have delivered ourselves over to their disciples: And also by their teaching we have turned ourselves away from error: In their discourses we have rejoiced greatly and have strengthened ourselves: And by their preparations we have separated ourselves from the darkness of our ignorance: Among the ranks of these the excellences of our father spring up and increase: And like the sun in his circle, and the moon in his fulness, the gifts rise up: Because he was remote from all sluggishnesses and drove away all abominable things: Because of [his] preparations he enjoyeth with them the glories of good things: The good things which are his are laid up in heaven which overfloweth with all delights:

And his soul is enriched with all kinds of hidden and unspeakable treasures: As the wages of his labours he inheriteth incomprehensible delights: Which are given unto him not by grace but by reason of his prosperous works: Because he wrought endless works he hath ascended unto all lofty things: And he conquered the enemies, and was made excellent in all glorious things: He raised the dead, and delivered the sick from every kind of disease: He rescued the afflicted from every kind of injury, and gave them help: He weaned himself from and denied himself every visible thing: And became a man of great self-denial and laboured well in all ascetic excellences: In his life of asceticism he lived hard and sternly, and was very zealous: And because he despised the things which are visible he loved those which endure: The Lord revealed unto him all the hidden things which were about to come to pass:

And before his mind things which were afar off became as if they were near :- Mighty deeds, and signs, and great works innumerable : Our Lord wrought by the hands of our father who was arrayed with all merits :- The destruction of the "shorn" ones by means of him our Lord effected : And the house of error by his prayers He laid waste and destroyed :- On Ignatius, the head of the monastery of the company of despised ones : The deceiving devil, he made [his] might manifest, and burned him up :- He was offering up continually unto him in his cell offerings unto him : At times birds, at others young goats, at others lambs :- At others mice (or, bats) and cats, and [animals] of divers kinds : He was sacrificing unto the deceiving devil who was full of all impurities :- And the devil used to make him to triumph frequently : In the sight of governors, and before kings, and before other men :- He made people to understand concerning him that he wrought mighty and divine deeds : And he made to go forth before many [the rumour] that he could reveal mysteries :- The devil made answer unto Ignatius who was full of uncleanness : [Saying], "O my friend and companion, what hath come to thee that thou hast become negligent :

"[Why] is thine heart sunk in sluggishness like [those of] laymen : "And thou knowest not what hath happened in thy monastery in these [last] days" Ignatius answered his master the devil complaining unto him, [saying] : "I know not why thou speakest unto me [in this wise], O prince of devils "But I do know one thing, which is that according to thy wont from the beginning : "I have not seen thy power [displayed] in this monastery for a long time past "The corn-bin, and the oil-flask are empty, nothing remaineth in them : "The wine-vessels have dried up because there was no wine to put in them "Men and women are cut off from us and never come up : "And the treasury is empty, and also the little brethren rejoice not "Our sacramental cake which used to be hot exceedingly in all who ate : "Behold, it hath become cold and limp, and thou hast deceived us greatly, and we have been rejected by thee

"What offence have we committed against thee, or in what way have we neglected thee : "Behold, incense is laid before thee at all seasons "Behold, lights are set in order before thee at all hours : "Behold, the little brethren worship before thee, and thee they love The old men stand naked before thee to afford thee gratification : "And we have diminished nought from thine honour in any thing which gratifieth thee" :· [Thus] was the chief of the lascivious ones answered by the deceiving devil : "If thou seekest aught for my shrine"—and Ignatius replied, "Yea" :· "Turn, and go into the house of thy Mattai, and see that he hath been vanquished : "And of the oil which burneth before him bring [a little], and learn these things" :· The little dog Ignatius went forth in haste, for he could not endure [himself] : And he went in before the shrine of Mattai that he might learn these things :·

Having attempted to enter he was not able [to do so] until the third time : Because he was restrained by Divine Providence, that is to say, by fetters :·

[Saying], "Why have I not been permitted [to enter]? Spare and have pity on me" :· The devil answered, "Knowest thou not that thy monastery hath been destroyed : "For Hôrmîzd the Nestorian came and destroyed it, and wasted it :· Through your negligence he stole away mine image from within it and carried it away : "Therefore have I been angry with you, and I have departed because mine image hath been carried away : "The brother of my image, seeing that my image was not cared for by you : "In fierce wrath hath sent out upon you a sentence of doom : "And he was afflicted because ye neglected the image of his brother : "He hath driven you out in his zeal, and his power shall never again be displayed upon you : "And he hath ordained these things because ye have made him to be a stranger unto his house :

"And he will never permit you to inherit again the habitation of his brother : "See, O Ignatius, your Mattai will not bring you benefit : "For he was persuaded to allow the sorcerer Hōrmizd to spoil his house : "Thereupon he carried off his power and left him in emptiness : "And stole the riches which were hidden in my image, and ye remained idle : "But, what is worse than everything else, he hath destroyed all my books : "And he hath obliterated, and erased, and torn in pieces my holy books insolently : "Wherein my friends and companions in all generations have worked, and which they composed : "In them I breathed through the Holy Spirit, and they compiled them and multiplied copies of them :

"And all the triumphs of the ancients were set forth in them nobly and in beautiful language : And because ye had not laboured in them and had neglected them they have been erased by water :- Go thou into the library and look upon the confusion [there], O Ignatius : Which the sorcerer Hôrmîzd hath wrought in the house of the night-devil" :- Straightway the white dog [i. e., Ignatius] ran in haste to the library : And he saw even according to what the devil had said unto him, and he was embittered with tribulation :- He cried unto his "shorn" ones openly, and he commanded his devils in secret : And informed them of what had taken place, and they were greatly moved :- Then Ignatius acted cunningly through his devils : And he commanded [them] to knead dough and to bake bread with words of power :- And they fashioned that cake of error in [the form of] the devil who tormenteth : And whilst it was hot his devils made him fly away to the city of Mâwsel :- Because the governor [thereof] was a friend of this little dog [or, crocodile] : The [governor] hearing [of his arrival] commanded and they brought him into the palace :- After saluting the head of the heresy he made him to sit by his side : Ignatius set [before] him the bread which was hot, and made an apology :

And he who deserved punishment said, "I have brought it unto thee from my monastery as a blessing": The governor smiling spake and made answer unto the wavering one: "Give me a blessing of the bread of thy monastery, and work a cure" [in me]: And he gave him the cake, and the governor saw that it was hot, and he praised him with praises: The governor marvelled at the heat of the bread, and was, moreover, troubled thereby: And he confessed that Ignatius was a holy man who was adorned with all adornments: He knew not that he was burning with abominable desire as with fire: And that like a furnace he was blazing with desire and was rent asunder thereby: He began to complain before the governor and to offer entreaty unto him: And he calumniated our father before him that he might not spare him: He related that "He hath committed many robberies and wickednesses against us with evil intent:

"Have thou mercy upon us, and avenge our cause upon him with punishment": The wretched governor hearkened unto all the evil [words] which the man of destruction uttered: And he was burning to destroy our father and to make an end of him: And having made angry with the wrath of his fury the pro-consul: He said, "Let him and me [contend] with might in thy judgment-hall to-morrow": The governor hearkened unto him, and performed the desire of this Arius : And sent ten of his soldiers after that mighty man : Our father was occupied in wise meditation like Ar-senius : And was remote from everything which gave him fatigue like Pachomius : Like the saints, the sons of the Thebaid, and also those of Scete : He separated himself from everything which was wearisome, lest peradventure he might be disturbed in his mind : Every one who had adopted the life of a monk came to him without urging :

And they all became marvellous men [forming] one assembly : Jerome and Palladius have written books and testified : That the monks who were in Egypt fled from all men : In danger [of death] by thirst they toiled in Sinai and in Pontus : And to the west of the river Nile they served God with every [kind of] law : Theodore, that inspired Expositor : Wrote the triumphs and set down in writing the labours of the followers of 'Opôrôs : He condemned with his words Mecedonius and the followers of Arius : And with two volumes he drove Eunomius into exile : He wrote accounts of all the righteous men who were in Palestine : And he praised greatly those who were in Cyrrhus, as also those who were in Ephesus : Theodoret composed the [history of the] triumphs of those in Constantinople : And of those in Antioch, and in Colossus, and in Asia :

Concerning the monks who were in Jerusalem and also in Athens : He wrote and testified that they had filled the Church with virtues : Even as Rome and Corinth also were filled : With the monks and anchorites which [followed] after Paul : Even so was filled the monastery of our father with a monkish host : Virtue of every kind did the holy man lay up in store in his house : He fought battles with evil beings fiercely and emulated Peter : And the companies of pious men thronged unto him from all parts : He was as firm as adamant in the performance of stern labours : And there was revealed unto him light during his vigil, a Watcher like Achilles : He despised and rejected all kinds of singing and all kinds of music : And he wished to meditate upon ascetic abstinence and self-denial :

He despised and held in contempt the rebels by the power of the Cross : And he considered the monasteries of the heretics to be places of uncleanness : He restrained the Prince of the devils from his violence by [his] passion : And he was greatly afraid of their hordes like Justus (i. e., Jesus) :: He did not with tranquillity call to his help the merciful One : And being wounded by the attacks of devils did not [look for] the support of Christ :: In the contest with the contentious ones he was neither brought low nor did he pine away : And he neither meditated on, nor grieved at, nor was disturbed by their envy :: At their barkings, which were like those of little dogs, he was not terrified to death : Because he had arrayed himself in and was adorned with the armour of the Spirit ::

He was not impeded in the course of his path and he lay not down : And by the envy of enemies, whether unseen or seen, he was never rebuked :: The pride of the contentious ones, who were foolish in mind, languished before him : And moreover, before him, the hatred of tumultuous fiends perished :: When the envoys of the governor came unto him he accepted their entreaty : And like a mighty man he stood up with vigour and made ready :: Because he was unable to travel easily on foot : From the village of Al-Kôsh a mule had been provided for him :: The ten brethren who went down with him pondered with trepidation : And not knowing the cause [of the arrival of] the envoys they remained thinking :- For the governor 'Ukbê, who had been acquainted with our father, had departed : And another, whose name was Âlî, and who knew him not, had come :- He had a son who was tortured by a devil with pains in the belly : And Ignatius had worked upon him with his sorceries, but had not relieved him of his falling away :-

The boy relied upon his father that he would be healed of the sickness : But he had no respite from his wasting away, and he was smitten sorely :- The foolish man Ignatius made the wretched one marvel daily at his sorceries : And his devils made him to fly about in the air, and he was not smitten with penitence :- Being swollen with pride in his devils the man of devils dared to act craftily : And he spake unto the governor in his arrogance, and informed [him] :- "Gather together to-morrow unto me the people of thy city, and let them not be few : And thou shalt see how terrible is my glory in the air in the sight of the multitudes" :- But the boastful man neither understood nor knew : That the sword of the Lord was sharpened for his slaughter and that he would be crushed thereby :

And that at the time of his glory he would shew himself to have been made a fool : And that the judgment of the Most High, whereby he would be crushed, had gone forth against him : Because he had boldly dared to speak falsehood, and had uttered lies : And had calumniated the servant of Jesus, and had spread lying reports [about him] : And that He would break and humble his pride by the hands of His servant :2790 And that he would expose all his fraud and shew him to be abominably wicked : The horsemen and our father arrived at daybreak on the Tigris : And seeing no ferry-boat in which to cross the river, they halted and alighted : Straightway our father made the sign of the cross over the water and passed over : As on dry land, and in the Name of Jesus he did not sink in the water :2795 Then having crossed over he stood opposite and cried out, saying : "Come, O ye horsemen, come, O ye children of the portion of the wretched fool : Is it possible that the devil which hath made him to sin hath not told Ignatius : That he should not approach the place of consuming, and that he shall be broken : Is it possible that the devil for whom he hath sinned continually hath not preserved [his] friendship for him :

"The man who offered unto him his soul's confession daily and hourly : Fie upon you, O ye crafty devils, let wrath pour forth on you : Because ye do not observe sure affection towards those who love you : When the judgment of the Most High cometh and falleth upon you : Ye shall receive death in your hands, and a sinking into Sheol" :2805 When the day had come upon the earth and the light had become abundant : The horsemen also found a ferry-boat, and they crossed over in it, and came : Our father encouraged and strengthened the brethren who had come with him : Saying, "Be not grieved, O my beloved brethren, nor be in despair : For I have received [tidings] from our Lord that this day the wretched one shall be punished :2810 And that he shall be rewarded for his sins and that [a penalty] according to his wickedness shall be set upon his head" : The governor, hearing of the coming of his envoys and of our father : Commanded that they should come in before him that he might know the truth : Our father having gone in and made the governor to hear the salutation of peace : The governor was perturbed at the salutation of our father and remained trembling :

He saw that fire was shining in his face and his colour failed (?) : And he was moved at the fierceness of his appearance and was afraid and trembled :- In trepidation he stood upon his feet and returned his salutation : And enquired of him concerning the greatness of his age, with respect, as if wishing to inform himself thereon :- Our father having replied to him from the beginning of the matter, and the governor having obtained knowledge thereof : He marvelled at his wisdom, and confessed and make known that our father was a servant of the Lord :- Straightway the devils of the impure Ignatius [began] to buzz in the air : And they took the miserable man up and held him suspended in the air :- Suddenly our father fixed a sharp arrow in his bow : And shot it at the miserable man and his legions, and pierced his heart :- He made the deceiving devils to hear [these words] :— "It is not meet for you : To fulfil in him your will with the fulness of impurity :- By Jesus Christ I bind you, O ye trembling horde : So that ye may abide in the air as ye are in hot agitation :- And ye shall continue to abide in terror until I loose you from the bond" : And by Divine Providence the devils were smitten [in this wise] :

The wretched man immediately saw that his end had come upon him and arrived : And that the wheels of his sorcery were made powerless and that his strength had declined : And that the Divine Will was ruling and was crushing him : And that there was no one who could release him from the penalty which had [fallen] upon his wickedness : He began to ascribe woe to himself and to declare himself meet therefor : And, shedding tears, he said, "Woe is me, woe is me! What hath befallen me? : "My sins and wickednesses have overtaken me, and wrath hath met me : "And there is none who can release me from the bond of thine awful word : "Woe is me through thee, O Rabban Hörmizd, for thine arrow hath sunk in me : "And according to my iniquities a penalty hath suddenly burst upon me :

"I repent, O pour out in abundance thy love upon me, O holy man : "And cause thy Lord by thy means to pour out His mercy upon me : "Let not reject my penitence Him that punisheth every man : "Even as He rejected not Cyprian when he repented and shed tears" : Straightway the love of our blessed father was poured out upon him : And, seeing that he was weeping, his mercy appeared, and he poured it out upon him abundantly :

That peradventure he might be pardoned his wickednesses, and might lead a holy life : Through a revelation of the Holy Spirit our father learned : That the wretched man for whom he had a care was not meet for repentance : That he was not repenting with all his heart as he feigned : But that he was only simulating [repentance] because he was now in the grip of justice : That the wretched man was so bold [as to put forward] his penalty for his help : And that he had apostatized because he had been punished in anger with the reward of his wickedness : Then our father rose up from his prayer and multiplied his sorrow : Because he had no means of performing mercy where he had learned : Then he looked up into heaven and prayed, and made entreaty, and afflicted his heart :

[Saying], "O our Lord Jesus, shed Thy mercy upon this wretched man : "In such wise that though his body may now come to an end by [his] penalty : "His soul may live in the day of Thy manifestation and may be with Thy chosen ones" : Then he commanded his guardian angel to cease to keep him under his wing : And to dismiss him straightway from his care that he might fall down and perish: As soon as the angel had gone away from the wretched man who was . . . . . : He commanded that the devils should cast him down that he might perish: The Satans did as they were commanded, and he fell down, and was overthrown : And straightway he was rent asunder, and his bowels were torn open, and anger waxed strong against him: His body was carried away by the sons of his faith and cast into a grave :

Even as the Arians did for Arius who had acted corruptly and blasphemed: As soon as the governor saw this he ran and bowed down : And besought our father to heal his son and to destroy the devil: Our father fulfilled his petition and crushed the devil : And in going forth the devil shrieked and cried out, being angry at [his] expulsion: "Woe is me through thee, O son of Persians", he ascribed unto himself : "By Hercules, fie upon thee, for we have been destroyed by thee, and thou hast made an end of us: "Cursed be Persia, and everything which it hath sent forth upon us ; for he hath vexed us" : And suddenly he became like smoke and, by the might of the word of our father, disappeared: 'Âlî, seeing that the command of the word of our father had broken the devil :

And that it had made to vanish the sickness in his bowels and the wasting away: Embraced our father and confessed the truth and nobly declared: "There is none like unto thee, O servant of God, who teachest the truth: "Thy Lord hath in truth judged Ignatius and made an end [of him]: "And although thou didst pray to thy Lord that he might live, he did not live but was torn asunder": Who can depict the mighty deeds and miracles which [our father] wrought in Mâwsel: And what mouth is able to describe his great acts: He went forth with his companions wishing to return by night: Without any man in the city perceiving that he had withdrawn therefrom: Because he saw that the multitudes would throng to him and press upon him: And [he wished] not the glory of his . . . . . He travelled over the waters of the river Tigris and was not impeded:

And he walked [upon them] as on dry land and was not sucked down in them: Having arrived at his monastery and gone into his cave he arrayed himself in the love of his Lord: And his ship arrived in the haven of life which is unchangeable: The triumph of our father can never be depicted with the tongue of flesh: And his marvellous labour cannot be described by the mouth of a rational being: At his awful word the Prince of devils was burned up and perished : And was consumed by the might of his prayers and, moreover, came to an end : The horde of Satans was scorched by the weapon of his humility and wounded : And was broken to pieces by the might of the hurling of his stones : That foul company and the contentious ones were destroyed utterly by him :2900 And all their books of sorcery were obliterated by him : The miserable little god of the heretics was broken by him : And the deceiving devil which dwelt therein was overthrown by him : He was not exhausted by weariness of mind, that is to say, loss of strength : And his thoughts were not drawn away by things to be desired :2905 From his humility which exalted him he plucked happiness : And during all his days no blemish either ran in his soul or stirred it : Many of the children of men came into his presence : And in penitence smote upon their breasts and were troubled : He quenched and drove out of his heart the fire of passions :2910 And he scattered, and sprinkled, and poured out the waters of his purity upon the heat thereof : By his abstinence he made the tree of passions to wither in his heart :

And its roots dried up through his ascetic life because he crucified himself: The righteous man travelled in the footsteps of his Lord, and made himself His associate: And by the contests of devils he was not changed from His love: In the vineyard of the Son he wearied and exhausted himself strenuously: And through the weariness of his labour he plucked the fruit of life from the acres thereof: He laid hold upon and became learned in the heavenly way from his youth up: And he travelled through the mansions of light uprightly and bore himself chastely: From his childhood he bore the yoke of his Lord and clave unto Him: And he seized upon and embraced the burden of life of the Son of God: When in the vigour of early manhood the lusts of the flesh waxed strong against him: He armed himself with the life of asceticism, and was not drawn aside:

He arrayed his mouth in abstinence, and became strong and vigorous: And he continually restrained his lips with the food of the Spirit: Above the snares of the hordes of devils he flew and smote the wing: And he crucified his soul to the wealth of the world and the blandishments thereof: By the finely [woven raiment] of this vain world he was not polished: But by the rough, sewn garment, that which was abominable in him was rubbed away: In the grade of sons our strong father placed himself: And in the secret village of his father he was working diligently and carefully: He considered himself neither servant nor hireling, but he united himself to sonship: And he was joined unto the love of his Lord as if he had been the heir: By the glory and splendour which shone upon his face and the light with which he was clothed:

Signs and mighty works of every kind he poured forth in great abundance: The lofty arm of his mighty power he lifted up and thrust out: And he healed the sick, and the paralytic, and every one who was bowed: He observed and looked into secret things, and was exceedingly keen: To track down and also to search out every one who was cast away: By his prayers he was able like an athlete to make an end of: Every one who turned aside willingly to devils and clave unto them: In olden time the Enemy submerged every one with the flood of error: And he made men to turn away from the worship of their Creator to that of graven images of every kind: From the day when he changed the girdle of truth into error and corrupted it: With the waters of his lies he hath made all men to perish [in following] after his images :

At the confounding of tongues he was yoked fast under the worship of images : From this time he was limited to the contest of devils which afflicteth : And images have sprung into use by the nod of the Lord, but they were rejected and treated with contempt : In the season of Nísán he fell from his glory, and cried out and twittered : And in the time of Nimrod he aimed with his arrows at our race, and smote us, and pierced us therewith : In the days of Hagar [as] a Watcher of fire he appeared and made himself known : And at that time the dominion (or, power) of devils began to afflict : From their beauty at the beginning of the world the Lord drove them out : And His awful anger held them in sore restraint : From the time of Adam He fashioned and determined folly upon them :

And He overthrew their glory, and they became ashes, and He crushed their Chief : Our race cried out before the arrows of the Enemy which He had stablished : And weeping and whimpering our Lord overthrew him, and he was greatly afflicted: He by His Cross brake the gates of Sheol and set [us] free: And He healed our sicknesses and led captive the power of devils, and it was crushed: Every one who was afflicted by passions or by devils: Rested through His servants, and he ascribed healing unto their Lord: The congregation of our father was exceedingly well directed in this power: And it began to apply itself diligently to works of excellence and stern labours: And it bound itself fast with self-abnegation and strict vigil: And it took care to reject the loathsomeness of quarrelsome devils: The congregation of our father walked in his footsteps rejoicing:

And the vexing of devils and the passions of nature it considered as a dying gasp: Incorporeal beings marvelled at the vexatious passions which came upon our father: And he bore them valiantly, and fought against [them], and was not spoiled: The Watchers rejoiced over him because he was not dragged into the pit by the sons of darkness: And because the eyes of his understanding were not blinded by phantoms: He planted the plant of himself with wisdom in Jesus the Vine: And he plucked therefrom the sweet cluster which had ripened through the Spirit: He pressed onwards fervently all his days: And he was not impeded by devils, and he devoted himself to running [his course]: He set in front of him Jesus being transfixed by nails: And he made speedy his course to Him in love, himself being fixed by nails: The assembly of the old ones (i. e., devils) was greatly disturbed by his fury:

And by the might of his prayer its head was crushed and also broken in pieces: To the haven of life of the Son of God he pressed on continually: And he was not wrecked in the sea of the world, but gained deliverance: He flew over the thorns of passions and devils, and was not pricked [thereby]: And he soared upwards like the eagle, and was not pierced by their teeth: He lived in the inn of the world like a traveller all his days: And he regarded the delights thereof as dross and rejected them wholly: He became one who searched into thoughts with a right aim: And he loved dearly those who belonged to the right hand and rejected that which was contemptible: Like dust he left the devil trodden down beneath his feet: And his lying pride, corruptible and abominable, by his prayer was crushed: The heart[s] of his opponents in doctrine he made his poisoned arrow to pierce :

And by the help of his prayer he made the end of their boasting to appear upon them : Like an athlete he contended with contendings strenuously : And the Watchers marvelled at his athlete's skill because they saw that he was delivered :

To utter and cry out praise to Jesus and glory to His Name : By our father Hörmizd He made all sicknesses to depart from them : And he drove off and kept away sudden illnesses and the devil which vexed : The mind of the Lord and His hidden power he brought forth into sight : And like David who limited the desire of those who feared him that he might not repel [it] : Their desire and all their entreaty he performed and executed : And he hearkened compassionately unto their entreaty and redeemed [them] : He preserved them from everything injurious, and did not forsake [them] : But whosoever acted wickedly He would destroy and lop off with the axe of His anger : How many times did He give the command against the rebels, and there went forth : The staff of anger which slew the wicked and destroyed them :

He called and whistled for the complete destruction of their wickedness : And in His mercy, like a father, He cut off the rod of His wrath : He decided that Adam must die, but His decision He put off and cast aside : And He allowed [him] to live here nine hundred [years] and more, which was sufficient : He was angry with the son of Noah, the father of Canaan, who mocked greatly : At the nakedness of the upright man Noah, who was redeemed from the waters : His seed Canaan, who was of his posterity, He cursed and drove to a distance : That he might be a servant of servants to his brethren, as was right : The Father of mercy did not perform this as He had declared : And Canaan did not become a slave and serve his brethren as He had declared :

In His essential love and pity compassion was shewn to him and he was forgiven : And God removed his servitude afar off and he escaped therefrom : He looked at and saw the kings whom the son of the upright man had begotten : That he was redeemed from the slavery which he had decreed for him : It is evident and well-known unto every rational being that the Lord is just : And that He doth not wish to afflict the man who hath sinned according to his sin: Thus in His discourse [wherein] He cursed Cain and passed judgment on him: That he should be avenged sevenfold it was decreed, and from [his] doom he became free and escaped: Upon Israel, who provoked to wrath, and troubled [God] greatly: The secret Nod commanded a decree of judgment, and it went forth in his land: That it should be laid waste and destroyed, and that his land should be left without an inhabitant:

And behold, the whole nation which needed it not was filled therewith: With a merciful intent He cut off His decision of judgment: And He punished the wicked with a penalty which was not proportionate to their wickedness: In this wise He brought forth the merit of our father and made it to shine: And He endued him with signs, and sanctified his motions by the Spirit, and nourished him: Our pious father began to look out for the mercy of his Lord: And he made all men to burn with desire to learn from him as he was expounding: The Lord by his hands vexed sorely the fierce devils: And plundered them and made their tumult to cease from the race of man: The might of His Lordship He revealed and strengthened in our father Hōrmizd: By the honour of His consubstantial Spirit for Whom he longed : Our pious father worshipped all His laws and kissed [them] :

And he loved and embraced the keeping of them with great affection : O victor who by victory (or, merit) ascended into the heights of heaven : And the incitements of devils and the impedings of the passions surmounted in the Spirit : O prosperous man who inflamed himself with the love of his Lord : And craved greatly for the possession of the life which is to come : O skilled man who proclaimed and pointed out all hidden things : From whom nothing was hidden, and to whom nothing was difficult : O merchant who traded so skilfully and who expended his riches : Before that Lord Who had stripped Himself of His deepest love : O athlete who made the triumph of his labours to shine in the world : And who manifested brightly the truth of his love in the sight of all rational beings :

O athlete who vexed the devils his enemies : And esteemed all their blandishments as the buzzings of gnats and held them in contempt : O mighty man who crushed the Head and Prince of the air : And vanquished his strength, and destroyed his goad, and cut through his armour: O mighty man who broke and dashed in pieces the company of devils: And burned them up and dissolved them like wax before the flame: O fighter who destroyed the vaunting of devils by his might: And consumed it and put an end to it like tow before a fire: O archer before the points of whose arrows was cleft: The heart of the Enemy, and it became matter, and corruption, and loathsome and stinking: Come, O my beloved, and let us inflame ourselves with the love of our father: And let us cry out in song, unwearyingly, to his adorable Lord:

Come, let us inhale his divine odour, and let it be drawn in by us: That peradventure we may be saved from Gehenna thereby and we may not be afflicted: Come, let us depict his beauty in our mind, and let him be gazed on by us: And let us look upon him and gaze at him with pure vision: Come, let us take refuge in the prayers of this man who was strong: With the armour of the Spirit, and let us be like unto him, and through him be justified: Come, all ye ranks, let us celebrate his festival, and not keep silence: And let us embrace longingly his coffin (or, tomb), and let us be warmed thereby: Let us celebrate his day with all sorts and conditions of men, and let us not separate ourselves: From the place of his coffin, which is full of help, and let us not be remote therefrom:

Come, O all conditions of men, and let us honour the memory of him that was embraced: By spiritual beings, and let him be embraced doubly by us: Come, let us shelter ourselves under the wing of his shrine and cleave thereunto: And let us take [therefrom] help to meet the assaults [of devils] that we may not be vexed [thereby]: Come, all ye peoples, and let us worship before him, and let us embrace: The dust of his shrine and let us receive it as a hênanâ that we may not be in trouble: Come, all ye nations, let us beat ourselves before our father with vigour: That peradventure our teeth may not be gnashed in Gehenna: Blessed be our congregation which honoureth with fervent salutation the body: Of our father, the heir of the delights which were promised and are incorruptible: Blessed be our congregation which hath gotten a valiant and strenuous abbot:

That through his prayers we may be delivered from all torture: Blessed be our congregation which hath been held worthy of sonship unto our father in truth: I beseech Thee, O Lord, in Thy world let not there be any member of it in trouble: We are the sons of a good father who was nurtured in the Spirit: And let us smite the wing to ascend into heaven after our father: Let us train ourselves and make ourselves like unto our father and emulate him: And by his guidance let us suck the milk of the spirit and feed luxuriously upon him: As we have promised, let us cleave to our father, and let us shine through him: That we may rejoice in our congregation whilst sending forth rays of spiritual light: Let us set up sign-posts, after the manner of our father, that we may not be cast out:

By those who ascend the heavenly path when we go up: Let us walk in his footsteps diligently with our loins girded: That we may not wander away in error from the road and become cast away: By the sign-post of his tread let us set our steps, for perhaps will be easier: The narrow path of preparation, and not difficult: May our intelligence [act] discreetly and not with corrupt design: That we may not be tormented by that worm which never dieth: When our Enemy shall observe us in such a gentle state he will be in despair: For henceforth he will find no means of annoyance whereby we may be driven away: By the prayer of our father the Prince of devils was completely driven out : And by the poison of his sharp arrows was he put to flight : By the merit of our father the compassion of the Lord hath been proclaimed :

By the mouth of every one who hath cleaved unto the love of the truth : By the mercy of Jesus which shone upon him abundantly : He shone, and he was illumined by the visions of the Spirit, and he became exceedingly strong : The princes of the beings of the air were made a mockery : By his piety and gentleness, and they were also destroyed thereby : By their miserable little idol and graven image they had been made abominable : And their abominable glory and wicked vaunting were stripped off : The head of their monastery who sacrificed devils was brought to naught by him : And every one who was a companion of him and [every] heretic were clothed in shame : The horde of heretical contentious men was brought low through him : And their company also went down to the abyss of the devouring [Sheol], and was completely made an end of :

And he assembled by and about him a company of brethren, [and] he continued: In the glorious labours of ascetic excellences which were never ended: The odour of his life went forth into all countries and enriched them: The Calumniator, who saw his works, became blind and was stupefied: And became hot and blazed with the fire of the envy of his evil imagination: Endless marvellous deeds were wrought and performed by the hands of our father: And he fettered and bound abominable devils by his command: And having endured weariness through harsh and stern labours: The Lord then wished him to have rest in the haven of life, and: He led his ship to the landing-place of rest where there was no vexation: And He carried his riches into His great treasury, and set him free: His bundle was laid up like a garden which is full of all kinds of beautiful flowers:

Until the time when his Lord, Whom he pleased, should appear: This chartularius will open his bundle in the sight of all multitudes: And before that King Who, more than all others, honoured his love: Unto the Lord of riches he will deliver his riches, nothing being wanting: And he shall receive a crown of glory from Him like one who hath toiled prosperously: Our father cried unto Gabriel his deacon, and said : "The day whereon I must depart and lie with my fathers hath drawn nigh: "I must go from this world by the way of all flesh : "And according to the will of the Great King I must pass therefrom: "Rise up, O Gabriel, assemble unto me without delay : "The congregation of the brethren, whom may the Lord by His power increase": The beater beat the board and assembled the whole congregation of truth :

And they went in to the blessed old man who was full of wonder: He opened his mouth and began to speak very sweetly : "O my dearly beloved brethren, whom the Lord hath given unto me: "The time when I must leave [you] and be set free hath come and arrived : "I have finished my course, and I have kept my faith in truth: "And, as I think, a crown of righteousness is laid up for me : "And not for me only, but for all those who have loved my Lord: "Ye have heard that I have sought to perform well a laborious race of contending : "Not that I may boast thereof, but so to say, that I may incite you [to do the same]: "That is to say in fasting, and in prayer, and in self-denial, and in vigil :

"And in voluntary abnegation and abstinence, which make [a man] to prosper well :"With hunger, and with thirst, and with heat, and with the cold which freezeth :"And with the stripes of fierce devils which were full of wrath :3155 "With severe tortures which came through devils, that is to say, through their pulling at me :"With deaths of various kinds which came upon me frequently through the passions and through devils :"With the necessities brought about by the contentious ones who were filled with impediment :"And by liars [and] crafty brethren who many times raged at me :"Therefore, O my brethren and beloved sons, take heed unto yourselves :3160 "And hold firmly and abide in your confession and in your faith :"Fulfil and make perfect the truth which ye have heard from me :"And keep in love all the commands wherewith I have admonished you :"Fight your fight in the faith which is in Jesus my Lord :"And continue in these things abundantly and with bravery until the end :3165 "Have great care that your souls and your lives shall be pleasing unto Jesus :"And be ye perfect according to His good and perfect will :"I myself am a feeble man, and I have not pleased my Lord :

"O my sons, be ye prosperous in the service of Jesus the Lord :"Ye shall not acquire either gold or silver, according as my Lord spake :3170 "And love ye abstinence and the ascetic life and endure them :"My sons, be very watchful against envy and also hatred :"Because they greatly impede ascetic excellence, and make you to possess hindrance :"Foolish envy destroyeth the heart and manifesteth restraint :"And hatred is a Satanic passion which maketh a man to go downwards :3175 "Also pride, which emitteth burning, shooteth up therefrom :"And moreover it fighteth against God shamelessly :"Against these evil passions which cast [men] into darkness :"Acquire ye two beautiful and divine things which give freedom [therefrom] :"Humility, and love which continueth hot and never cooleth :3180 "And upon them rest always and acquire from them patient endurance :"Hearken ye unto Paul, who in his writings singeth :"After love and humility run and prevail mightily :"For without humility a man shall not see Christ my Lord :"And he shall not grow in excellences nor become prosperous :3185 "My sons, set this object before you in everything which ye wish to do :

"That ye may perfect to the uttermost the glory of the Lord :: "When ye shall observe these things in love ye shall gain: "The benefit of life for yourselves, and ye shall wax very rich :: "Jesus Christ shall be your leader, and unto Him ye shall be pleasing: "And He shall shew you the straight road, and ye shall be prosperous therein :: "Jesus Christ shall visit you and by Him ye shall be illumined: "And He shall direct you in the path of His righteous ones and ye shall be rich in Him :: "He shall be with you until ye attain to the Spirit and the truth: "And for the sake of Himself Christ, my Lord, He will make you to attain [unto them]" :: He blessed his sons by his prayers, and sealed and made sure: And he taught and admonished [them] with many things which were without number ::

Like a guide before his beloved ones he set out and stayed: To shew them a smooth road with no stones thereon: He waited and expected his sons to travel in his footsteps :: And behold, in the haven of peace, where there is no fear, he resteth and giveth light: And he kindleth in his beloved sons the desire to gather together about him :: He went up gloriously from the sea of this world with his merchandize: And he looketh out for and draweth in the ship of his sons in great love: Diligently he ran his course and lacked nothing: And at the end thereof he maketh his sons mighty and fearless men: In the last stage of his journey on the road he rested and tarried: And prepared the way for the company of his sons, and multiplied admonition: Whosoever journeyeth in the steps of our father will not suffer loss:

And will fly with him to meet his Lord, without being delayed: Whosoever runneth in the footsteps of our father will feel no sorrow: And will rest with him in the times which are to come, and will not be looked at with the evil eye: Whosoever leapeth in his footsteps will not suffer harm: And with him will gain of the happiness of life, and will not feel injury: Whosoever keepeth his doctrines will not be put to shame: And whosoever doeth them shall neither be belittled nor made wroth: Whosoever writeth his words in his heart shall not be made sorrowful: And he shall enjoy them, and shall neither suffer loss nor be despised: Whosoever shall depict his image on the tablet of his heart shall not be rooted out: And whosoever shall be nourished upon his food shall not become mad: When the Great King and Governor raiseth him up to life :

With him he shall enjoy the happiness of the Governor of the world : When the companies of fire are moving about in trepidation he shall not be ashamed : And he shall not bend either the neck or the back in any shame whatsoever : When the assemblies of the burning ones, that is, the companies of fire, are being assembled : He shall gather himself unto them, and before their Lord shall be the singer : When the flaming beings of the hosts of the Spirit shall stand up in the light : With them he shall enjoy the delights of the blessed without the evil eye being upon him : When the beings who burn up are blazing with fire and burning everything to dust : With them he shall sing the songs of the spirit like one who hath a harp :

And those who have crumbled into dust through decay cry out, and there is none to quiet them : When, first of all, shall arise those who have gone to corruption, and who have been gathered together in Jesus : And they shall cast off corruption by the power which cannot be felt : When shall be assembled all the generations, and no man shall remain behind : And trembling shall fall upon creation, and every rational being shall hold his peace : When the command of the Governor shall separate [them] into two divisions : The wicked for burning and the good for the King, and shall put on light : When He shall with His holiness make happy His saints with holy enjoyment : And shall exalt every one to his happiness in his proper place and according to his merit : When He shall make the furious ones and the wicked to feel the pain of the fire :

And every one shall feel pain according to his merit : O Lord of our father, by his prayers sanctify our congregation : And in that hour with him in Thy glory array [it] in light : From the weariness of the flame in Thy love cut [it] off : And by Thy power let it remain away from participation with the sons and heirs thereof : With many things like unto these he trained his sons : And lovingly, as unto beloved sons, he spake with great affection unto them : From the confession of heretics in wisdom he kept [them] apart : And with great solicitude he admonished [them], and quieted [them] in respect of it : He spread out his holy hands and began to pray and to sing the service : [Saying,] "O Good Lord, Who hast care for our life, put me not to pain :

"Pity Thy servant, put away my folly, and make my wickednesses to die away : Deal not evilly with me in proportion to the sins which I have sinned all my days : For Thou well knowest that the nature wherewith thy servant is clothed is feeble : And that it is prohibited and restrained by the enticements of the nature of Adam : Though I am unworthy, receive my spirit from me and gather it in peace : And gather Thy servant unto all those whom Thy pity hath compassionated" : He said to his sons, "Remain ye in the peace which my Lord hath set apart for me" : Then he closed his eyes, and was silent, and was quiet, and held his peace : Then he opened his eyes and sealed with the sign of the Cross the company : Of his beloved sons three times, and blessed it, and sanctified it : [Saying,] "Remain ye in peace, and be ye watchful of everything which moveth passion : By the might of Jesus, the Great King, Who cannot be found out" : Then the companies of fiery beings descended with great honour : And the Watchers, rank after rank, surrounded his holy body : The odour of the spiritual beings which came forth from him was perceived by all : And his sons were unable to approach his holy body :

After two hours they drew nigh unto his body and felt it : Because the odour of the angels had departed, and he was separated from them : And they all drew nigh and fell upon his body, and they were suffering greatly : And they wept, and arrayed themselves in mourning, and put on sorrow : Bishops, and priests, and others, assembled from every place : And were gathered together in great numbers from cities and countries : Service was sung beside his pure body for three days : And then they dug out a cave in the martyrium, and secured it therein : All the brethren were stirred by their great weeping : And in the fire of his love they burned hotly : They shed tears and cried bitterly, and then they ceased : Because their teacher and leader had gone away from them : They were in sorrow and in great mourning which afflicted them sorely :

And they were constrained by tearful sighs and groanings which were endless : As were the Hebrews and the Israelites, being greatly perturbed : When they mourned for Moses their deliverer every morning and evening : Now the Hebrews and Israelites had no knowledge whatsoever : Of the grave of Moses, the head of their nation, who had died and been gathered [to his fathers] : As hath been described in the Book, Mount Nebo was set apart : And he went into the land of a nation which had not the Law, and which was very fierce : The congregation of our father which honoured and sanctified his death : Did not evilly entreat and destroy its mind with despair : Moreover, Elisha at the departure of his master plucked out his hair : And he cried and beat himself, and tore and rent asunder his garments : He sought and searched for the "son of the sojourners", the prophet of the Spirit : And therefore he gathered together the prophets and the sons of the prophets unto him : Because his master had been removed he was sorrowful and suffered pain : And he sought [him] among the plains, and mountains, and valleys, and went about alone : Now although the sons of our father were sad and sorry, and were suffering greatly : Yet before every one they ceased their cries of grief and desisted from mourning : Because they knew that he had departed definitely, without any defilement : And they exalted, and magnified, and glorified his Lord with all holiness : And they despised and trod under foot the desirable things of the vain world : And they walked in the path of their master with diligence and discretion :

They collected their minds from all wandering and also from all vagueness : And they became aliens and strangers wholly unto every man : They knew that their master was triumphant and holy like the Apostles : And that he was kept in his cave, like a Watcher, and was at rest : They made themselves like unto him in all their acts, and ceased not so to do : And their minds were gathered in from all wandering and trepidation : The young men and the old men also dwelt in his monastery : And there was not among them a man who was greedy, or sensual, or sluggish :

And sang praises at his burial and magnified [him] greatly : They embraced and kissed his holy body lovingly : And even embraced and took his coffin in their arms affectionately : He did not recline upon his bier asleep like all other men : But his departure took place whilst he was watchful, that is lying down and resting : As he was looking at the Watchers on high he died in a marvellous fashion : ---Duplicated by Google And his soul flew among their companies like a flame of fire :- The believers, and the priests, and the clergy, ran in separate companies : And paid honour to our father, and glorified his Lord with loud praises :- He ordered that the death of our father should take place in an excellent manner : And without lying upon a bed of sickness he died peacefully :- He delivered up his soul whilst he was invoking blessings upon his sons : And whilst he was offering up prayers beseechingly for their help :- Concerning his departure he had learned by revelation in a sublime manner : And he cried to his sons and shewed them the path in a most suitable fashion :- Our father saw the ranks of the Watchers by spiritual means : And the fiery ones descended in vast and innumerable companies :- As soon as he had seen the assemblies of the spirit near at hand : His soul flew without toil [unto them] like a bird :- The hosts of the righteous and of the angels most certainly : Abbâ Sisoes saw openly when he was dying :- And being exalted in a most excellent manner in the visions of the spirit : His soul departed from him as he was sitting in the possession of his senses :

Our father Hôrmîzd, whilst praying in a spiritual manner : Delivered up his soul, after the manner of Moses, without sickness : The Watchers of fire took his soul with great honour : And bore it to Paradise with the most profound love : His holy body was borne with great honour and ceremony : By his sons and the priests, and was laid in his monastery in a most fitting manner : Because our pious father was exalted after the manner of Abel : And because he pleased his Creator by his virtuous life, that is to say, by his austere chastity : I have arranged in order a few of his various triumphs in a poor fashion : And have described with my halting speech the glory of his beauties with words of praise : Come, O my hearers, let us honour and magnify lovingly : Our father, who gave praise like Lamech, and endured in human fashion :

Come, let us exalt the man who was righteous after the manner of Noah : Who believed his Lord, and loved and cherished Him like Abraham : Come, let us be like unto this man who was simple like Isaac : And was upright, and humble, and who clave to simplicity like Jacob : Come, let us love this man who was chaste like Joseph : And was humble before his temptations like Job : Come, let us pay honour unto him that was meek like David : And let us travel in his works diligently and fervently : Let us emulate his course, all of us together, lovingly : And let us lay hold upon his habit of fasting boldly like mighty men : My brethren, let us look upon his abstinence with enlightened eyes : For he stablished sacrifices for his soul and body undoubtedly : Let us resemble him in his asceticism discerningly :

Although we cannot attain wholly to his sanctity : In the works which he wrought diligently and piously : Let us toil as far as we are able, and let us attain his aim simply : Let us who have put on his garb, and are called his sons, after the manner of disciples : Cleave as ascetics should, to his labours and his excellences : Come, let us bow down before his shrine in a special manner : And let us weep and shed tears before his Lord penitently : Let us afflict ourselves seriously and severely for our wickednesses : And let us thunder with our voices tempestuously like the son of Mattai : Come, let us commemorate him with pain like Hezekiah : And let us make supplication with all our power like Habakkuk :

Let us pray with our heart in faith painfully : And let us make ourselves like unto him continually in exhortation : Let us praise our father and observe that he is exalted sublimely : And let us proclaim his happiness in sweet words and tones : Blessed art thou, O our father, for how greatly exalted wast thou in revelations :3375 And, like the son of Amram, thou wast pre-eminent in [explaining] hidden things : Blessed art thou, for thou hadst perfect understanding of the hidden things of the Scriptures which thou didst read : And by thy zeal thou didst scatter enemies like the Tishbite : Blessed art thou, O priest, who didst put to shame and smite the Calumniator : And who wast adorned with thy humility like the son of Shaphat :3380 Blessed art thou, O renowned one, who wast most mighty in thy wonderful works : Who, wherever thou didst dwell, didst firmly fasten the image of thy deeds therein : Blessed art thou, O chosen one, who wast not vanquished or brought low by thy labours : But didst triumph and wast helped in thy wandering like the son of Bôzî (Ezekiel) : Because thou didst love thy Lord thou didst cleave to Him and keep His Law :3385 Thy happiness is exalted, and He will give thee happiness in return for what thou hast wrought :

And He Who chose thee knew that thou didst serve, and didst contend truthfully : And didst keep passions in check, and thy reward was double according to what thou didst : Here as the wages of thy labours He awarded thee the mighty works which thou didst : And there He awarded unto thee His fair glory according to thy prosperous diligence : In this world thou wast awarded two rewards by thy God, that is to say : Thou didst perform miracles, and thou didst bring secret things into the light of day : By the two oils which thou didst bless and sanctify and didst leave in thy monastery : Two helpers and two physicians within them thou didst proclaim : By our Vivifier thou wast crowned with two glories : That is, the secret things which thou didst reveal, and the diseases and devils which thou didst expel and drive away :

Thy body and thy soul, perfect man, thou didst sanctify and set free : And through and through, wholly, thou didst triumph and wast sanctified : Thus every perfect man thou didst save and redeem : From the error of the Calumniator, and he himself thou didst slay : Thou didst heal the body of every evil and didst drive away pain therefrom : And the soul also thou didst deliver and set free from error : Two helpers and two givers thou didst bring down and didst give : All thy days in all the regions wherein thou didst go : By thy marvellous powers which were constant thou didst fortify the soul : And by thine incessant healings thou didst help the body : By these things thy Lord made thee to triumph, and He sanctified thee who hadst walked in His paths : He crowned thee with two happinesses because thou didst embrace abstinence and poverty :

And He honoured thee with two good things in this world which thou hast left : That is, the secret things which thou didst know, and the meritorious things which thou didst perfect with thine own hands : O thou who wast honoured by these two good things, and who wast made perfect : Thou wast also in the midst of two difficult things between which thou hadst fallen : Thou didst stand up in two battles in the world which thou didst despise and hold to be without savour : The battle of the passions and the battle of devils which thou didst vanquish and overcome : Because thou didst fight in two battles and wast not cast down : Thou wast also magnified by two things of benefit which thou didst gain and receive : Because thou didst break the passions of thy body and didst crush the devils :

Thou didst prosper in wonderful deeds, and thou didst illumine thy motions in secret things : Thou didst desire the truth, and didst hate a double way : Our Lord poured out upon thee two good things, and in them thou didst live : Such are the things which I have collected [whereby] thou didst please [God], and through which thou didst acquire two good things : I, the wretched one without merit, whom thou hast counted among thy sons : Pray, O our father, for me, the feeble one, whom by grace thou hast called : And hast made worthy of thy monastery, and hast mingled with the congregation of thy sons whom thou hast chosen : By the compassion of thy shrine thou hast enriched me and filled me with all wisdom : And because I took refuge in thee thou hast beautified my soul and made my mind to shine :

As thou hast bound me in thy fold and hast reckoned me among the flock of thy sons : So do thou . . . upon me from Him that chose thee, that I may repent as thou didst repent : Adored be thy Lord Whom thou didst love, Whose love was [above] everything thou didst gain : And for the sake of His love thou didst endure passions and afflict thyself : Because thou wast praised for thy beauty thou wast not puffed up : Thy beauty is one with that of thy Lord : thou didst bear the burden and didst humble thyself : Unto Him it is manifest how greatly thou didst contend in the labours which thou didst endure : And He shall reward thee in the marriage chamber of His delights according as thou didst serve Him :· HERE ENDETH THE DISCOURSE.

Blessings.By thy prayers may our Lord make peace to abide in the world : And may He sow therein peace and tranquillity by thy prayers :· By thy prayers may the kings of the earth and the rulers thereof : Become of one mind in simple love through thy prayers :· By thy prayers may the Bride of the King, the Holy Church : Be exalted with glory, and put on splendour by thy prayers :· By thy prayers may the Prince of pastors, the Great Shepherd : Feed His flocks in the meadows of the Spirit by thy prayers :· By thy prayers our own shepherd : May our Lord make victorious over his enemies by thy prayers :· By thy prayers may the shepherds who are in every territory : Be adorned with good gifts of every kind by thy prayers :· By thy prayers may the priests who minister in the Holy of Holies :

Have sprinkled upon them good gifts of every kind by thy prayers :· By thy prayers may the company of the Levites who minister unto what is good : Gain blessing in return for their diligence by thy prayers : By thy prayers may our Lord direct the monks : In the smooth road which goeth up to heaven by thy prayers : By thy prayers may this village also be preserved : From all evils which the workers of evil [may do unto it] by thy prayers : By thy prayers may our Lord support our leader : And the chaste old men, and the heads of monasteries by thy prayers : By thy prayers may our Lord make wise the scholars : By meditations upon the Scriptures of the Holy Spirit by thy prayers : By thy prayers may the congregation which this day honoureth thy commemoration :

Become worthy of the good things which are laid up for thee by thy prayers : By thy prayers may the whole congregation which is gathered together here : Become supplied with blessings of every kind by thy prayers : By thy prayers both the writer and the reader : May our Lord shelter under His merciful care by thy prayers : By thy prayers may we all become worthy to sing loudly : Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, by thy prayers :