Lausiac History (recension G)

 having written down the lives of the fathers, Abraham and those who followed, Moses and Elijah and John, they did not relate them in order to glorify

 goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control, is acknowledged. Pref.14 For Paul himself said: For the fruit of the spirit is such and such things.

 being virgins but he entrusted them to Christ, saying: He who created you will provide for your life, as also for me. And there was with his sister

 a judge who orders one to be submitted to debauchery. 3.4 So that one, having gone mad, orders her, having been stripped, to be thrown into the cauld

 but haughty in disposition, exceedingly rich in money, giving † not † to a stranger, not to a virgin, not to the church, not an obol to a poor person.

 So having met and spent three years with the monasteries around Alexandria, with about two thousand most excellent and very zealous men, departing fro

 Lord and what do you command now? I command, he said, that each of us from now on remain by himself. But she did not agree, saying Let us rema

 without a fever, not having been sick, but sewing up the basket, being seventy years old who, having sent for me, and while the last stitch was on it

 at the martyrium called Roufinianais. Whose tomb is said to heal all who suffer from fever.] 12 .tConcerning Benjamin 12.1 In this mountain of Nitria

 were perfected. And some were pleased by this one, others by that one. When a dispute therefore arose among the brotherhood over the praises, they go

 therefore also to banish you from this. 16.3 Therefore, knowing that he had been mocked, he returned again to his first cell. And having completed th

 the tax-collectors are upon you, whose disease you also suffer. And it happened that he disobeyed after the death of Macarius, after another fifteen

 the saint, taking him, prayed over him, beseeching God. And after one or two days, when the affliction subsided, the holy Macarius says to her: 17.13

 ravens before my sight, and saying: What do you want, Macarius? What do you want, monk? Why have you come to our place? You cannot remain here. So I

 he did nothing with his hands. Therefore, when all the ascetics saw this, they rose up against the abbot, saying: From where have you brought us this

 you shall be shaken, I shall not hear you. 18.24 So after falling for a long time, he rose. And when night came, they attacked him again and filling

 fifty miles he went away to where he had his company. This so great man, at long last being pricked with compunction by some circumstance, gave himsel

 so that we should fear these flies more than he feared the demons. This was the way of life of Moses the Ethiopian, who was himself also numbered amon

 of Eulogius and worthily nourished by the disease. But after fifteen years a demon dwelt in him and he rebelled against Eulogius and he began to assa

 Do not turn aside anywhere, depart do not be separated from one another, but go to your cell where you have spent your time. For God is already sendi

 to them a way of life such as never in youth. 22.5 And having moistened palm leaves he says to him: “Take these, weave a rope as I do.” The old man we

 And standing by the rocks on the mountain he prays and says thus: You see, Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, that I will not come

 wisdom no longer approached me. 24 .tConcerning Stephen the Libyan 24.1 A certain Stephen, a Libyan by race, from the region of Marmarica and Mareoti

 to place in the little book for the security of the readers, just as among the holy plants of paradise was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

 he fell into a fall of pride. And opening the window, she received the one serving her and was mixed with him, because she had not maintained her asce

 saying to her, We do not dare to meet them for we know their drunkenness and their recklessness. 31.3 But if you will have mercy both on the whole v

 to the angel that the prayers are few, the angel says to him: I have prescribed these things so that even the lesser ones may be able to complete the

 matter. So when the elder came, the other sisters reported the matter and he ordered that not a single one of their offerings be accepted and as for

 having been enclosed for years and receiving his needs through a window from the one who served him, he was deemed worthy of the gift of prophecy. Amo

 sufficiently, I thanked God when I learned that the pretexts driving me had been accomplished. 35.10 Then again he says to me, joking: Do you want to

 about to give birth, she was having a difficult labor, the spirit crushing her. So while the woman was demon-possessed, her husband came and begged th

 All ran up to him, both those wearing the tribon and those wearing the birrus, saying to him: What is the matter with you? And where are you from? An

 and why should I go out? He says to her: If you have died to the world and the world to you, it is the same to you to go out and not to go out ther

 suggests. 38.6 He says to him: If you listen to your friend, it is not expedient for you to live in this city. Evagrius says to him: If God delive

 he died among them, having partaken of communion on Epiphany in the church. He told us then about death that, It is the third year I have not been tr

 I appoint myself as a host for you. And taking money and partitioning the porticoes and setting up about three hundred beds, he nursed the starving,

 the hill of the ascension from where Jesus was taken up, he continued standing and singing psalms and praying and whether it snowed or it rained or i

 of those boiled by fire. Having persevered in these for eighteen years, he sang the hymn of victory to Christ. This man, having been warred against in

 in Jerusalem for the sake of a vow, bishops and monks and virgins, at their own expense they edified all whom they met, and they healed the schism of

 to many souls, in some there is an excellence of intellect, in others a fitness for discipline. But when neither the action nor the excellence is for

 There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure 47.16 lest ever with the won

 having drawn [their swords], they attacked. And such a thing happened: when he raised the sword and was about to draw it against Gaddana, the hand of

 she led to the solitary life. And having catechized her younger son Publicola, she led him to Sicily and having sold all her remaining property and r

 to her own daughter. 57.2 I knew this woman, who labored through every night, grinding with her hands for the subduing of the body, explaining that,

 of this one, named Taor, who, having been thirty years in the monastery, never wished to receive a new garment or veil or sandal, saying, I have no n

 of her own. And she freed the eight thousand slaves who wished it, for the rest did not wish it but chose to serve her brother to whom she conceded t

 was said to be most learned and most faithful who received Origen the writer, as he was fleeing the insurrection of the Greeks, for two years at her

 they may stir up some of the civil disturbances, falling away from their purpose. 67 .tConcerning Magna 67.1 In this city of Ancyra many other virgins

 to slander a certain lector of the city. And when she was already pregnant, being questioned by her father, she accused the lector. But the presbyter,

 warm loaves in his sheepskin at another time again wine and loaves. At another time again, when he was speaking, I knew that You are in need go the

So having met and spent three years with the monasteries around Alexandria, with about two thousand most excellent and very zealous men, departing from there I came to the mountain of Nitria. Between this mountain and Alexandria lies a lake called Maria, of seventy miles; which, sailing across in a day and a half, I came to the mountain on the southern side. 7.2 Adjacent to this mountain is the utter desert, extending as far as Ethiopia and the land of the Mazices and Mauritania. On this mountain dwell about five thousand men, having different ways of life, each as he is able and as he wishes; so that it is permitted to remain alone, or with a second, or with many. On this mountain are seven bakeries serving them and also the anchorites in the utter desert, six hundred men. 7.3 Having lived, therefore, on this mountain for a year and having been much helped by the blessed fathers Arsisius the great and Putubastus and Asion and Cronius and Sarapion, and having been spurred on by many stories of the fathers from them, I entered into the innermost desert. On this mountain of Nitria is a great church, in which stand three palm trees, each having a whip hanging from it. And one is for the case of erring monks, another for robbers, should any happen to fall in, and the other for casual visitors; so that all who err and are convicted as deserving of blows embrace the palm tree, and receiving on their back a set number are thus dismissed. 7.4 Next to the church is a guest-house, in which they welcome a visiting stranger for the entire time, until he departs of his own accord, even if he remains for two or three years; but having allowed him one week of idleness, for the remaining days they keep him busy with tasks, either in the garden or in the bakery or in the kitchen. But if he should be a person of note, they give him a book, not allowing him to meet with anyone until the hour. On this mountain also live physicians and pastry-makers. And they also use wine, and wine is sold. 7.5 All of these, however, work at linen with their hands, so that all are self-sufficient. And indeed around the ninth hour it is possible for one standing to hear how psalmodies come forth from each cell, so that one would expect to be aloft in paradise. They assemble in the church only on Saturday and Sunday. And there are eight presiding presbyters of this church, in which, as long as the first presbyter lives, no one else makes the offering, or preaches, or judges, but they only sit quietly by him. 7.6 This Arsisius and many other elders with him, whom we have seen, were contemporaries of the blessed Antony. Among the things they related was that they also knew Amoun of Nitria, whose soul Antony saw being taken up and guided by angels. This man said he also knew Pachomius of Tabennisi, a prophet, an archimandrite of three thousand men, about whom I will relate later. 8 .tConcerning Amoun of Nitria 8.1 He said that Amoun had lived in the following manner: that being an orphan, a young man of about twenty-two years, he was forcibly joined in marriage to a wife by his own uncle; and being unable to resist his uncle's constraint, he submitted to being crowned and to sitting in the bridal chamber, and to having endured all the rites of marriage. But after everyone had gone out and put them to bed in the bridal chamber and on the couch, Amoun got up, shut the door, and sitting down called to his blessed partner and said to her: 8.2 "Come, lady, now I will explain the matter to you: this marriage which we have celebrated is now at an end. It would be well, therefore, if from now on each of us should sleep separately, so that we may please God by keeping our virginity untouched." And taking a little book from his bosom, he read to the girl, who was unlearned in the scriptures, from the Apostle and from the Savior, and for the most part adding everything from his own thought, he introduced the teaching concerning virginity and purity; so that she, being fully convinced by the grace of God, said: 8.3 "I too am fully convinced,

Συντυχὼν οὖν καὶ συνδιατρίψας τοῖς περὶ Ἀλε ξάνδρειαν μοναστηρίοις ἔτη τρία, καλλίστοις καὶ σπου δαιοτάτοις ἀνδράσιν ὡς δισχιλίοις, ἀναχωρήσας ἐκεῖθεν ἦλθον εἰς τὸ ὄρος τῆς Νιτρίας. Μεταξὺ δὲ τοῦ ὄρους τούτου καὶ τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας λίμνη κεῖται ἡ καλουμένη Μαρία, σημείων ἑβδομήκοντα· ἣν διαπλεύσας διὰ μιᾶς καὶ ἡμισείας ἡμέρας ἦλθον εἰς τὸ ὄρος ἐπὶ τὸ μέρος τῆς μεσημβρίας· 7.2 ᾧ ὄρει παράκειται ἡ πανέρημος παρατείνουσα ἕως Αἰθιοπίας καὶ τῶν Μαζίκων καὶ τῆς Μαυριτανίας. Ἐν ᾧ ὄρει οἰκοῦσιν ἄνδρες ὡς πεντακισχίλιοι διαφόρους ἔχοντες πολιτείας, ἕκαστος ὡς δύναται καὶ ὡς βούλεται· ὡς ἐξεῖναι καὶ μόνον μένειν, καὶ δεύτερον, καὶ πολλοστόν. Ἐν τούτῳ τῷ ὄρει ἀρτο κοπεῖά εἰσιν ἑπτὰ ὑπηρετούμενα κἀκείνοις καὶ τοῖς εἰς τὴν πανέρημον ἀναχωρηταῖς, ἀνδράσιν ἑξακοσίοις. 7.3 Παροι κήσας οὖν ἐν τούτῳ τῷ ὄρει ἐνιαυτὸν καὶ πολλὰ ὠφεληθεὶς ἀπὸ τῶν μακαρίων πατέρων Ἀρσισίου τοῦ μεγάλου καὶ Πουτουβαστοῦ καὶ Ἀσίωνος καὶ Κρονίου καὶ Σαραπίωνος, καὶ πολλοῖς διηγήμασι πατέρων παρ' αὐτῶν κεντρωθείς, εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὴν ἔρημον τὴν ἐνδοτάτω. Ἐν τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ τῆς Νιτρίας ἐκκλησία ἐστὶ μεγάλη, ἐν ᾗ ἵστανται φοίνικες τρεῖς, ἕκαστος ἔχων μάστιγα κρεμαμένην. Καὶ ὁ μέν ἐστιν εἰς λόγον μοναζόντων πταιόντων, ὁ δὲ λῃστῶν, ἐάν γε ἐμπέσωσιν, ὁ δὲ τῶν περιτυχόντων· ὡς πάντας πταίοντας καὶ διελεγχομένους ὡς ἀξίους πληγῶν περιλαμβάνειν τὸν φοίνικα, καὶ λαμβάνοντας ἐπὶ νώτου ῥητὰς οὕτως ἀπολύεσθαι. 7.4 Πρόσκειται δὲ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ξενοδοχεῖον, εἰς ὃ τὸν ἀπελθόντα ξένον, μέχρις οὗ ἐξέλθῃ αὐθαιρέτως, δεξιοῦνται πάντα τὸν χρόνον, κἂν ἐπὶ διετίαν ἢ τριετίαν μείνῃ· συγχωρή σαντες δὲ αὐτῷ ἑβδομάδα μίαν ἐν ἀργίᾳ, τὰς λοιπὰς ἡμέρας περισπῶσιν ἐν ἔργοις, ἢ ἐν κήπῳ ἢ ἐν ἀρτοκοπείῳ ἢ ἐν μαγειρείῳ. Εἰ δὲ ἀξιόλογος εἴη, διδόασιν αὐτῷ βιβλίον, μὴ συγχωρήσαντες αὐτῷ ἕως τῆς ὥρας μηδενὶ συντυχεῖν. Ἐν τούτῳ τῷ ὄρει καὶ ἰατροὶ διάγουσι καὶ πλακουντάριοι. Κέχρηνται δὲ καὶ οἴνῳ, καὶ πιπράσκεται οἶνος. 7.5 Πάντες δὲ οὗτοι ὀθόνην ἐργάζονται ταῖς χερσίν, ὡς εἶναι πάντες ἀνενδεεῖς. Καὶ δὴ καὶ περὶ ὥραν ἐννάτην ἔστι στάντα ἀκοῦσαι πῶς ἀφ' ἑκάστης μονῆς ψαλμῳδίαι ἐξέρχονται, ὡς προσδοκῆσαι μετάρσιον εἶναι ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ. Τὴν δὲ ἐκκλησίαν σαββάτῳ καταλαμβάνουσι μόνῳ καὶ κυριακῇ. Ὀκτὼ δὲ ἀφηγούμενοι πρεσβύτεροι ταύτης τῆς ἐκκλησίας εἰσίν, ἐν ᾗ μέχρις οὗ ζῇ ὁ πρῶτος πρεσβύτερος ἄλλος οὐδεὶς προσφέρει, οὐχ ὁμιλεῖ, οὐ δικάζει, ἀλλ' ἡσύχως αὐτῷ προσκαθέζονται μόνον. 7.6 Οὗτος ὁ Ἀρσίσιος καὶ ἄλλοι πολλοὶ σὺν αὐτῷ γέροντες, οὓς ἡμεῖς ἑωράκαμεν, σύγχρονοι ἦσαν τοῦ μακαρίου Ἀντω νίου. Ἐν οἷς διηγοῦντο καὶ τὸν Ἀμοῦν εἰδέναι τὸν Νιτριώτην, οὗ τὴν ψυχὴν εἶδεν ἀναλαμβανομένην ὁ Ἀντώνιος καὶ ὑπὸ ἀγγέλων ὁδηγουμένην. Οὗτος ἔλεγε καὶ Παχώμιον εἰδέναι τὸν Ταβεννησιώτην, ἄνδρα προφήτην, ἀρχιμανδρίτην ἀνδρῶν τρισχιλίων, περὶ οὗ ἐς ὕστερον διηγήσομαι. 8 .tΠερὶ Ἀμοῦν τοῦ Νιτριώτου 8.1 Ἔλεγε δὲ τὸν Ἀμοῦν βεβιωκέναι τοιούτῳ τρόπῳ· ὅτι ὀρφανὸς ὑπάρχων, νεανίσκος ὡς ἐτῶν εἴκοσι δύο βίᾳ παρὰ τοῦ ἰδίου θείου ἐζεύχθη γυναικί· καὶ μὴ δυνηθεὶς ἀντισχεῖν τῇ τοῦ θείου ἀνάγκῃ, ἔδοξε καὶ στεφανοῦσθαι καὶ καθέζεσθαι ἐν παστῷ, καὶ πάντα ὑπομεμενηκέναι τὰ κατὰ τὸν γάμον. Μετὰ δὲ τὸ ἐξελθεῖν πάντας κοιμήσαντες αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ παστῷ καὶ τῇ κλίνῃ, ἀναστὰς ὁ Ἀμοῦν ἀπο κλείει τὴν θύραν, καὶ καθίσας προσκαλεῖται τὴν μακαρίαν αὐτοῦ σύμβιον καὶ λέγει αὐτῇ· 8.2 "∆εῦρο, κυρία, λοιπὸν διηγήσομαί σοι τὸ πρᾶγμα· ὁ γάμος ὃν ἐγαμήσαμεν οὗτός ἐστι περισσὸν ἔχων οὐδέν. Καλῶς οὖν ποιήσωμεν ἐὰν ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἕκαστος ἡμῶν κατ' ἰδίαν καθευδήσῃ, ἵνα καὶ τῷ θεῷ ἀρέσωμεν φυλάξαντες ἄθικτον τὴν παρθενίαν". Καὶ ἐξενεγκὼν ἐκ τοῦ κόλπου αὐτοῦ βιβλιδάριον ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ ἀποστόλου καὶ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἀνεγίνωσκε τῇ κόρῃ ἀπείρῳ οὔσῃ γραφῶν, καὶ τῷ πλείστῳ μέρει πάντα προστιθεὶς τῇ ἰδίᾳ διανοίᾳ τὸν περὶ παρθενίας καὶ ἁγνείας εἰσηγεῖτο λόγον· ὡς ἐκείνην τῇ χάριτι τοῦ θεοῦ πληροφορηθεῖσαν εἰπεῖν· 8.3 "Κἀγὼ πεπληροφόρημαι,