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

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 "How much do you want him to eat?" And she answered, saying: "Ten pounds of bread." Therefore, rebuking her because it was too much, in seven days, having prayed over him with fasting, he set him at three pounds, as he also had to work; and so having healed him, he gave him back to his mother. And God performed this miracle through Macarius. I did not meet this man; for he had fallen asleep a year before my entrance into the desert. 18 .tConcerning Macarius of Alexandria 18.1 But I did meet the other Macarius, the Alexandrian, who was a presbyter of the place called the Cells. In which Cells I dwelt for nine years; during which he lived for my three years; and some things I saw, and some I heard from him, and others I learned from others. Now his discipline was this: if he ever heard of anything, he accomplished it completely. For having heard from some that the Tabennesiotes eat uncooked food throughout the whole of Lent, he determined for seven years not to eat anything that had passed through fire, and except for raw vegetables if ever they were available and soaked legumes, he tasted nothing. 18.2 Having therefore accomplished this virtue, he heard again about another that he eats a pound of bread; and breaking his biscuit and putting it into a narrow-necked jar [the earthenware jars], he decided to eat as much as his hand could bring out. And as he related jestingly that, "I would grab many fragments, but I could not bring them all out because of the narrowness of the opening; for like a tax collector it would not allow me." For three years, therefore, he kept this discipline, eating four or five ounces of bread and drinking that much water, and a pint of oil for the year. 18.3 Another of his disciplines: he determined to overcome sleep, and he related that he did not go under a roof for twenty days in order to conquer sleep, being burned by the heat and stiffened by the cold at night. And as he said that, "If I had not quickly gone under a roof and made use of sleep, my brain would have so dried up as to drive me finally into a trance. And so far as it was in my power, I conquered; but so far as nature had need of sleep, I yielded." 18.4 As this man was sitting early in his cell a gnat stood on his foot and stung him; and feeling the pain, he crushed it with his hand when it was full of blood. Therefore, condemning himself for having avenged himself, he sentenced himself to sit naked for six months in the marsh of Scetis, which is in the great desert, where the gnats wound even the hides of wild boars, being like wasps. Thus then was he wounded all over and broke out in boils, so that some thought he had elephantiasis. When he returned then after six months to his cell, he was recognized by his voice that it was Macarius himself. 18.5 This man once desired to enter the garden-tomb of Jannes and Jambres, as he himself related to us. This garden-tomb was made by the magicians of that time who were influential with Pharaoh. Since they had held power for a long time, they built the work with four-foot stones, and they made their tomb there, and deposited much gold; and they also planted trees, for the place is well-watered, among which they also dug a well. 18.6 Since, therefore, the saint did not know the way, he followed the stars by some conjecture, traversing the desert as if on the sea, and taking a bundle of reeds he placed a marker every mile so that he might find the way on his return. Having journeyed then for nine days he approached the place. The demon, therefore, who always opposes the athletes of Christ, gathering all the reeds, placed them at his head while he slept, as if at a distance of one marker from the garden-tomb. 18.7 Rising up, then, he found the reeds, and perhaps God permitted this too for his greater discipline, so that he might not put his hope in reeds, but in the pillar of cloud that guided Israel for forty years in the desert. He said that, "Seventy demons came out from the garden-tomb to meet me, shouting and flapping their wings like

τὸν ἅγιον, λαβὼν ἐπηύξατο αὐτῷ τὸν θεὸν ἱκετεύων. Καὶ μετὰ μίαν ἢ δευτέραν ἡμέραν ὑπολωφήσαντος τοῦ πάθους λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ ἅγιος Μακά ριος· 17.13 "Πόσον θέλεις ἵνα ἐσθίῃ;" Ἡ δὲ ἀπεκρίνατο λέγουσα· "∆εκάλιτρον ἄρτου". Ἐπιτιμήσας οὖν αὐτῇ ὅτι πολύ ἐστιν, ἐν ἑπτὰ ἡμέραις ἐπευξάμενος αὐτῷ μετὰ νηστείας, ἔστησεν αὐτὸν εἰς τρίλιτρον, ὡς ὀφείλοντα καὶ ἐργάζεσθαι· καὶ οὕτως ἀποθεραπεύσας ἀπέδωκεν αὐτὸν τῇ μητρί. Καὶ τοῦτο τὸ θαῦμα πεποίηκεν ὁ θεὸς διὰ Μακαρίου. Τούτῳ ἐγὼ οὐ συντετύχηκα· πρὸ ἐνιαυτοῦ γὰρ τῆς εἰσόδου μου τῆς εἰς τὴν ἔρημον ἐκεκοίμητο. 18 .tΠερὶ Μακαρίου τοῦ Ἀλεξανδρέωσ 18.1 Τῷ δὲ ἄλλῳ συντετύχηκα Μακαρίῳ τῷ Ἀλεξαν δρεῖ, πρεσβυτέρῳ ὄντι τῶν λεγομένων Κελλίων. Εἰς ἃ Κελλία παρῴκησα ἐγὼ ἐνναετίαν· ἐν οἷς τὴν τριετίαν τὴν ἐμὴν ἐπέζησε· καὶ τὰ μὲν εἶδον, τὰ δὲ παρ' αὐτοῦ ἀκήκοα, τὰ δὲ καὶ παρ' ἑτέρων μεμάθηκα. Ἡ τοίνυν ἄσκησις αὐτοῦ ἦν αὕτη· εἴ τι ἀκήκοε πώποτε, πάντως τοῦτο κατώρθωσεν. Ἀκούσας γὰρ παρά τινων ὅτι οἱ Ταβεννησιῶται διὰ πάσης τῆς τεσσαρακοστῆς ἐσθίουσιν ἄπυρον, ἔκρινεν ἑπταετίαν τὸ διὰ πυρὸς διαβαῖνον μὴ φαγεῖν, καὶ πλὴν λαχάνων ὠμῶν εἴ ποτε παρευρέθη καὶ ὀσπρίων βρεκτῶν οὐδενὸς ἐγεύσατο. 18.2 Κατορθώσας οὖν ταύτην τὴν ἀρετήν, ἤκουσε περί τινος πάλιν ἄλλου ὅτι λίτραν ἐσθίει ἄρτου· καὶ κλάσας ἑαυτοῦ τὸ βουκκελλᾶτον καὶ καταγγίσας εἰς σαΐτας [τὰ κεράμια], ἔκρινε τοσοῦτον ἐσθίειν ὅσον ἂν ἡ χεὶρ ἀνενέγκῃ. Καὶ ὡς διηγεῖτο χαριεντιζόμενος ὅτιπερ "Ἐδρασσόμην μὲν πλειόνων κλασμά των, οὐκ ἠδυνάμην δὲ ὅλα ἐξενεγκεῖν ὑπὸ τοῦ στένου τῆς ὀπῆς· ὡς τελώνης γάρ μοι οὐ συνεχώρει". Ἐπὶ τρία οὖν ἔτη ταύτην ἔσχηκε τὴν ἄσκησιν, τέσσαρας ἢ πέντε οὐγκίας ἄρτου ἐσθίων καὶ τοσοῦτον πίνων ὕδωρ, ξέστην δὲ ἐλαίου τὸν ἐνιαυτόν. 18.3 Ἄλλη αὐτοῦ ἄσκησις· ἔκρινεν ὕπνου περιγενέσθαι, καὶ διηγήσατο ὅτι οὐκ εἰσῆλθεν ὑπὸ στέγην ἐπὶ εἴκοσι ἡμέρας ἵνα νικήσῃ ὕπνον, τοῖς μὲν καύμασι φλεγόμενος, τῇ δὲ νυκτὶ στυφόμενος τῇ ψυχρότητι. Καὶ ὡς ἔλεγεν ὅτι "Εἰ μὴ τάχιον εἰσῆλθον ὑπὸ στέγην καὶ ἐχρησάμην τῷ ὕπνῳ, οὕτω μου ἐξηράνθη ὁ ἐγκέφαλος, ὡς εἰς ἔκστασίν με ἐλάσαι λοι πόν. Καὶ τὸ μὲν ὅσον ἐπ' ἐμοὶ ἐνίκησα· τὸ δὲ ὅσον ἐπὶ τῇ φύσει τὴν χρείαν ἐχούσῃ τοῦ ὕπνου παρεχώρησα". 18.4 Τούτου καθεζομένου πρωῒ ἐν τῷ κελλίῳ κώνωψ στὰς ἐπὶ τοῦ ποδὸς ἐκέντησεν αὐτόν· καὶ ἀλγήσας κατέαξεν αὐτὸν τῇ χειρὶ μετὰ κόρον τοῦ αἵματος. Καταγνοὺς οὖν ἑαυτοῦ ὡς ἐκδικήσαντος ἑαυτόν, κατεδίκασεν ἑαυτὸν εἰς τὸ ἕλος τῆς Σκήτεως, ὅ ἐστιν ἐν τῇ πανερήμῳ, καθίσαι γυμνὸν ἐπὶ μῆνας ἕξ, ἔνθα οἱ κώνωπες καὶ συάγρων δέρματα τιτρώσκου σιν, ὡς σφῆκες ὄντες. Οὕτως οὖν κατετρώθη ὅλος καὶ σπονδύλους ἐξέβαλεν ὡς νομίσαι τινὰς ὅτι ἠλεφαντίασεν. Ἐλθὼν οὖν μετὰ μῆνας ἓξ εἰς τὸ κελλίον αὐτοῦ, ἀπὸ τῆς φωνῆς ἐγνώσθη ὅτι αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ Μακάριος. 18.5 Ἐπεθύμησέ ποτε οὗτος εἰς τὸ κηποτάφιον εἰσελθεῖν Ἰαννῆ καὶ Ἰαμβρῆ, ὡς αὐτὸς ἡμῖν διηγήσατο. Τοῦτο δὲ τὸ κηποτάφιον ἐγένετο παρὰ τῶν τότε μάγων παραδυνα στευόντων τῷ Φαραῴ. Ὡς οὖν κεκτημένοι τὴν δυναστείαν ἐκ μακρῶν τῶν χρόνων, ἐν τετραποδικοῖς λίθοις ἔκτισαν τὸ ἔργον, καὶ τὸ μνῆμα δὲ αὐτῶν ἐκεῖ ἐποίησαν, καὶ χρυσὸν ἀπέθεντο πολύν· ἐφύτευσαν δὲ καὶ δένδρα, ὕπικμος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ τόπος, ἐν οἷς καὶ φρέαρ ὤρυξαν. 18.6 Ἐπεὶ οὖν τὴν ὁδὸν ἠγνόει ὁ ἅγιος, στοχασμῷ δέ τινι ἠκολούθει τοῖς ἄστροις καθάπερ ἐν πελάγει τὴν ἔρημον διοδεύων, λαβὼν καλάμων δέμα κατὰ μίλιον ἓν ἵστα σημειούμενος ἵνα εὕρῃ τὴν ὁδὸν ὑποστρέφων. ∆ιοδεύσας οὖν ἐντὸς ἐννέα ἡμερῶν τῷ τόπῳ ἐπλησίασεν. Ὁ τοίνυν δαίμων ὁ ἀεὶ τοῖς ἀθληταῖς τοῦ Χρι στοῦ ἀντιπράττων, συναγαγὼν ὅλους τοὺς καλάμους, καθεύ δοντος ὡς ἀπὸ σημείου τοῦ κηποταφίου πρὸς τῇ κεφαλῇ αὐτοῦ τέθεικεν. 18.7 Ἀναστὰς οὖν εὗρε τοὺς καλάμους, τάχα καὶ τοῦτο τοῦ θεοῦ συγχωρήσαντος εἰς πλείονα αὐτοῦ γυμνα σίαν, ἵνα μὴ καλάμοις ἐπελπίζῃ, ἀλλὰ τῷ στύλῳ τῆς νεφέλης τῷ ὁδηγήσαντι τὸν Ἰσραὴλ τεσσαράκοντα ἔτη ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ. Ἔλεγεν ὅτι "Ἑβδομήκοντα δαίμονες ἐξῆλθον εἰς συνάντησίν μου ἀπὸ τοῦ κηποταφίου, βοῶντες καὶ πτερυσσόμενοι ὡς