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

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; therefore, go out." She went out; and after she went out and came to a certain church, he says to her in the church: "Therefore, if you wish to convince me that you have died and no longer live to please men, do what I do, and I will know that you have died. 37.15 Having stripped off all your garments like me, place them on your shoulders and pass through the middle of the city with me preceding you in this fashion." She says to him: "I will scandalize many by the indecency of the act, and they will say that she is out of her mind and possessed by a demon." He answered her: "And what does it matter to you if they say that she is out of her mind and possessed by a demon? For you have died to them." Then she says to him: "If you wish something else, I will do it; for to this measure I do not even pray to come." 37.16 Then he says to her: "See then, no longer be proud of yourself as more devout than all and as having died to the world; for I am more dead than you, and I show by deed that I have died to the world; for I do this without passion and without shame." Then having left her in humility and having broken her pride, he departed. And there are many other wonderful things that he has done which lead to passionlessness. This man died in the sixtieth year of his life, and was buried in Rome itself. 38 .tConcerning Evagrius 38.1 Concerning Evagrius the celebrated deacon, a man who had lived according to the apostles, it is not right to be silent, but to commit these things to writing for the edification of those who read them and the glory of the goodness of our Savior, having deemed it worthy to set forth from the beginning both how he came to his purpose, and how having practiced it he worthily died at fifty-four years of age in the desert, according to what is written: "In a short time he fulfilled many years." 38.2 This man was by race a Pontian from the city of Ibora, the son of a country-bishop; he was ordained a reader by the holy Basil, the bishop of the church of the Caesareans. Therefore, after the death of the holy Basil, the most wise and most passionless and resplendent in learning Gregory the Nazianzen, the bishop, taking note of his ability, appointed him a deacon. From there, at the great synod in Constantinople, he leaves him with the blessed Nectarius the bishop, being a most skilled dialectician against all the heresies. And he flourished in the great city, being bold in his arguments against every heresy. 38.3 It happened, then, that this man, who was greatly honored by the whole city, became ensnared by an idol of womanly desire, as he himself related to us, after his mind was later set free. The woman in turn was in love with him; and she was of the nobility. Therefore Evagrius, fearing God and respecting his own conscience, and setting before his eyes the greatness of the shame and the schadenfreude of the heretics, prayed to God, beseeching that he might be hindered by Him. So as the woman pressed him and raged, wishing to depart he was not able, being held by the bonds of this attendance. 38.4 But not long after, his prayer having succeeded before the trial of the matter, an angelic vision appeared to him in the form of soldiers of the commander, and seizes him and leads him as if in a court of justice and throws him into the so-called custody, having bound his neck and hands with iron collars and chains, while those who came for him supposedly did not state the charge. But he knew in his conscience that he was suffering these things on account of her, expecting that her husband had accused him. 38.5 Therefore, as he was exceedingly distressed while another trial was being conducted and others were being tortured for a crime, he remained in extreme anguish. But the angel who provided the vision transforms himself into the presence of a genuine friend, and says to him, bound amidst a line of forty convicts: "For what reason are you detained here, master deacon?" He says to him: "In truth I do not know, but a suspicion has me that so-and-so the ex-prefect has accused me, being struck with irrational jealousy; and I fear lest the magistrate, having been corrupted by money, may sentence me to punishment

καὶ ἵνα τί προέλ θω;" Λέγει αὐτῇ· "Εἰ ἀπέθανες τῷ κόσμῳ καί σοι ὁ κόσ μος, ταὐτόν σοί ἐστι καὶ προελθεῖν καὶ μὴ προελθεῖν· πρόελθε οὖν". Προῆλθε· καὶ μετὰ τὸ προελθεῖν αὐτὴν ἔξω καὶ ἐλθεῖν ἕως ἐκκλησίας τινὸς λέγει αὐτῇ ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ· "Οὐκοῦν εἰ θέλεις με πληροφορῆσαι ὅτι ἀπέθανες καὶ οὐκέτι ζῇς ἀνθρώποις ἀρέσκουσα, ποίησον ὃ ποιῶ, καὶ οἶδα ὅτι ἀπέθανες. 37.15 Ἐκδυσαμένη κατ' ἐμὲ πάντα σου τὰ ἱμάτια ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων θὲς καὶ πάρελθε μέσην τὴν πόλιν ἐμοῦ προ λαμβάνοντος τῷ σχήματι τούτῳ". Λέγει αὐτῷ ἐκείνη· "Σκανδαλίζω πολλοὺς ἐπὶ τῷ ἀσχήμῳ τοῦ πράγματος, καὶ ἔχουσι λέγειν ὅτι Ἐξέστη καὶ δαιμονιῶσά ἐστιν". Ἀπε- κρίθη αὐτῇ· "Καί σοι τί μέλει ἐὰν εἴπωσιν ὅτι Ἐξέστη καὶ δαιμονιῶσά ἐστι; Σὺ γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἀπέθανες". Τότε λέγει αὐτῷ ἐκείνη· "Εἴ τι ἄλλο θέλεις ποιῶ· εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ τὸ μέτρον οὐδὲ εὔχομαι ἐλθεῖν". 37.16 Τότε λέγει αὐτῇ· "Ἴδε οὖν μηκέτι μέγα φρόνει ἐπὶ σεαυτῇ ὡς πάντων εὐλαβεστέρα καὶ ἀποθανοῦσα τῷ κόσμῳ· ἐγὼ γάρ σου νεκρότερός εἰμι, καὶ ἔργῳ δείκνυμι ὅτι ἀπέθανον τῷ κόσμῳ· ἀπαθῶς γὰρ καὶ ἀνεπαισχύντως τοῦτο ποιῶ". Τότε καταλείψας αὐτὴν ἐν ταπεινοφροσύνῃ καὶ κλάσας αὐτῆς τὸν τῦφον ἀνεχώρησε. Πολλὰ δέ ἐστι καὶ ἄλλα ἃ πεποίηκε θαυμαστὰ πράγματα τὰ συντείνοντα εἰς ἀπάθειαν. Οὗτος τελευτᾷ ἑξηκοστὸν ἄγων ἔτος τῆς ἡλικίας, ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ Ῥώμῃ ταφείς. 38 .tΠερὶ Εὐαγρίου 38.1 Τὰ κατὰ Εὐάγριον τὸν ἀοίδιμον διάκονον, ἄνδρα βεβιωκότα κατὰ τοὺς ἀποστόλους, οὐ δίκαιον ἡσυχάσαι, ἀλλὰ ταῦτα γραφῇ παραδοῦναι εἰς οἰκοδομὴν τῶν ἐντυγχα νόντων καὶ δόξαν τῆς ἀγαθότητος τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν, ἄξιον ἡγησάμενος ἄνωθεν ἐκτιθέναι, πῶς τε ἦλθεν ἐπὶ τὸν σκοπόν, καὶ ὅπως αὐτὸν ἐξασκήσας ἀξίως τελευτᾷ πεντήκοντα τεσ σάρων ἐτῶν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον· "Ἐν ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ ἐπλήρωσεν ἔτη πολλά". 38.2 Οὗτος τῷ μὲν γένει ἦν Ποντικὸς πόλεως Ἰβορῶν, υἱὸς χωρεπισκόπου· ἀναγνώστης κεχειροτόνηται παρὰ τοῦ ἁγίου Βασιλείου τοῦ ἐπισκόπου τῆς ἐκκλησίας Καισαρέων. Μετὰ οὖν τὸν θάνατον τοῦ ἁγίου Βασιλείου προσσχὼν αὐτοῦ τῇ ἐπιτηδειότητι ὁ σοφώτατος καὶ ἀπαθέστατος καὶ παιδείᾳ διαλάμπων Γρηγόριος ὁ Ναζιανζηνὸς ἐπίσκοπος προχειρίζε ται διάκονον. Ἐκεῖθεν ἐν τῇ μεγάλῃ συνόδῳ τῇ κατὰ Κων σταντινούπολιν καταλιμπάνει αὐτὸν τῷ μακαρίῳ Νεκταρίῳ τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ διαλεκτικώτατον ὄντα κατὰ πασῶν τῶν αἱ ρέσεων. Ἤνθει δὲ ἐν τῇ μεγάλῃ πόλει λόγοις νεανιευόμενος κατὰ πάσης αἱρέσεως. 38.3 Συνέβη οὖν τοῦτον σφοδρῶς παρὰ πάσης τῆς πόλεως τιμώμενον, εἰδώλῳ περιπαγῆναι γυναι κικῆς ἐπιθυμίας, ὡς αὐτὸς ἡμῖν διηγήσατο, ὕστερον ἐλευθε ρωθεὶς τὸ φρονοῦν. Ἀντηράσθη τούτου πάλιν τὸ γύναιον· ἦν δὲ τῶν μεγιστάνων. Ὁ οὖν Εὐάγριος τὸν θεὸν φοβούμε νος καὶ τὸ ἑαυτοῦ αἰδούμενος συνειδός, καὶ πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν θέμενος τὸ μέγεθος τῆς αἰσχημοσύνης καὶ τὸ ἐπιχαιρεσίκακον τῶν αἱρέσεων, ηὔξατο τὸν θεὸν ἱκετεύων ὅπως παρ' αὐτοῦ ἐμποδισθῇ. Τῆς οὖν γυναικὸς ἐπικειμένης καὶ λυττώσης θέλων ἀναχωρῆσαι οὐκ ἴσχυε, δεσμοῖς τῆς θεραπείας ταύτης κατεχόμενος. 38.4 Μετ' οὐ πολὺ δὲ τῆς εὐχῆς αὐτοῦ προ κοψάσης πρὸ τῆς τοῦ πράγματος πείρας, ἐπέστη αὐτῷ ἀγ γελικὴ ὀπτασία ἐν σχήματι στρατιωτῶν τοῦ ὑνάρχου, καὶ ἁρπάζει αὐτὸν καὶ ἄγει ὡς ἐν δικαστηρίῳ καὶ βάλλει αὐτὸν εἰς τὴν λεγομένην κουστωδίαν, κλοιοῖς σιδηροῖς καὶ ἁλύσε σιν αὐχένα καὶ χεῖρας καταδησάντων, τῶν ἐπ' αὐτὸν ἐλθόν των δῆθεν τὴν αἰτίαν οὐ λεγόντων. Αὐτὸς δὲ τῇ συνειδήσει ᾔδει ὅτι χάριν ταύτης ὑφίσταται ταῦτα, προσδοκήσας τὸν ἄνδρα αὐτῆς ἐντετυχηκέναι. 38.5 Ἐν τῷ οὖν λίαν αὐτὸν ἀγω νιᾶν ἄλλης δίκης πραττομένης καὶ βασανιζομένων ἑτέρων ἐπὶ ἐγκλήματι, ἔμενε σφόδρα ἀγωνιῶν. Μετασχηματίζεται δὲ ὁ ἄγγελος ὁ τὴν ὀπτασίαν παρασχὼν εἰς παρουσίαν γνη σίου φίλου, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ δεδεμένῳ μεταξὺ σειρᾶς τεσ σαράκοντα καταδίκων· "Τίνος ἕνεκεν κατέχῃ ἐνταῦθα, κῦρι διάκονε;" Λέγει αὐτῷ· "Κατὰ μὲν ἀλήθειαν οὐκ ἐπίσταμαι, ὑπόνοια δέ με ἔχει ὅτι ὁ δεῖνα ὁ ἀπὸ ὑπάρχων ἐνέτυχε κατ' ἐμοῦ ἀλόγῳ ζηλοτυπίᾳ πληγείς· καὶ δέδοικα μήποτε χρήμασιν ὁ ἄρχων διαφθαρεὶς τιμωρίᾳ με