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

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 various ways by the spirits of wickedness, persevered in one monastery for forty years. This man related that, "For thirty-two years I have not touched any fruit." And once, when cowardice made war on him, in order to overcome it he shut himself up in a tomb for six years. 45.3 The blessed Basil the bishop greatly cared for this man, delighting in his austerity and his severity; who even still now has not withdrawn from the pen and the notebook for writing, being somewhere in his eightieth year. This man said that, "From when I was initiated and reborn until this present day, I have not eaten another's bread for free, but from my own labors"; as before God he persuaded us that he had given two hundred and fifty coins from the work of his hands to the maimed, never wronging anyone. 45.4 Who on foot and by his own journeying went as far as Rome itself to pray at the shrine of the blessed Peter; and he reached as far as Alexandria, to pray at the shrine of Mark. † He came † a second time also to Jerusalem, going on his own feet and providing for himself with his own expenses. And this man said, "I do not remember ever departing in my mind from my God".] 46 .tConcerning Melania the elder 46.1 The thrice-blessed Melania was Spanish by birth, that is, a Roman; she was the daughter of Marcellinus, the ex-consul, and wife of some man of high rank, whose name I do not well remember. This woman, having been widowed in her twenty-second year, was deemed worthy of divine love, and having said nothing to anyone, - for she was prevented - in the time of Valens, who held power in the empire, having had a guardian named for her son, taking all her movable possessions and putting them on a ship, with some disclosed male and female servants, she sailed in haste to Alexandria. 46.2 And from there, having sold her goods and converted them into gold, she went to the mountain of Nitria, meeting with the fathers around Pambo and Arsisios and Sarapion the Great and Paphnutius the Scetiote and Isidore the confessor, bishop of Hermopolis, and Dioscorus. And she spent time with them for half a year, circling through the desert and visiting all the saints. 46.3 But after this, when the Augustal Prefect of Alexandria had exiled Isidore and Pisinnius and Adelphius and Paphnutius and Pambo, among whom was also Ammonius Parotes, and twelve bishops and presbyters, to Palestine near Diocaesarea; she followed them, serving them from her own money. But when the servants were prevented, as they related, for they met with the holy Pisinnius and Isidore and Paphnutius and Ammonius, she, having put on a servant-boy's hooded cloak, in the evenings brought them the things they needed. But the consular of Palestine, learning of this and wishing to fill his purse, expected to extort from her; 46.4 and having seized her, he threw her into prison, not knowing she was a free woman. But she declared to him: "I am the daughter of so-and-so, and the wife of so-and-so; but I am a slave of Christ. And do not despise the meanness of my attire; for I am able, if I wish, to exalt myself, and you do not have the power in this matter to extort from me nor to take any of my possessions. Therefore, so that you do not, through ignorance, fall into charges, I have declared this to you; for against the insensible it is necessary to use pride like a hawk." Then the judge, understanding, both apologized and did obeisance to her, and ordered her to meet with the saints without hindrance. 46.5 After their recall, she, having founded a monastery in Jerusalem, spent twenty-seven years there, having a community of fifty virgins. With her lived also the most noble and like-minded and very steadfast Rufinus, from Italy, from the city of Aquileia, who was later deemed worthy of the presbyterate; than whom a more learned and more gentle man was not to be found among men. 46.6 Both of them, therefore, during the twenty-seven years, receiving those who happened to be in the

τῶν ἑψομένων διὰ πυρός. ∆ιακαρτερήσας ἐν τούτοις ἐπὶ δεκαοκτὼ ἔτεσιν ᾖσε τὸν ἐπινίκιον ὕμνον τῷ Χριστῷ. Οὗτος ὑπὸ τῶν πνευμάτων τῆς πονηρίας δια φόρως πολεμηθεὶς ἐνεκαρτέρησεν ἐν ἑνὶ μοναστηρίῳ τεσσαρά κοντα ἔτη. Ἀφηγεῖτο δὲ οὗτος ὅτι "Ἐπὶ τριάκοντα καὶ δύο ἔτη οὐδεμιᾶς ὀπώρας ἡψάμην". ∆ειλίας δέ ποτε πολεμησάσης πρὸς τὸ ταύτης περιγενέσθαι μνήματι ἑαυτὸν καθεῖρξεν ἐπὶ ἔτη ἕξ. 45.3 Τούτου πάνυ ἐκήδετο ὁ μακά ριος Βασίλειος ὁ ἐπίσκοπος ἡδόμενος αὐτοῦ τῇ αὐστηρίᾳ καὶ τῇ στυφότητι· ὃς εἰσέτι καὶ νῦν τοῦ καλάμου καὶ τῆς τετράδος τοῦ γράφειν οὐκ ἀνεχώρησεν, ὀγδοηκοστόν που ἄγων ἔτος. Οὗτος ἔφησεν ὅτι "Ἀφ' οὗ ἐμυσταγωγήθην καὶ ἀνεγεννήθην μέχρι τῆς σήμερον ἡμέρας, ἄρτον ἀλλό τριον δωρεὰν οὐ βέβρωκα, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων πόνων"· ὡς ἐπὶ θεοῦ ἡμᾶς ἔπεισεν ὅτι διακόσια πεντήκοντα νομίσ ματα ἐκ τοῦ ἔργου τῶν χειρῶν αὐτοῦ λελωβημένοις δέδωκεν, οὐδέποτε ἀδικήσας οὐδένα. 45.4 Ὃς πεζῇ τῇ πορείᾳ καὶ μέχρις αὐτῆς Ῥώμης ἀπῆλθεν εὐξόμενος εἰς τὸ μαρτύριον τοῦ μακαρίου Πέτρου· ἔφθασε δὲ καὶ μέχρις Ἀλεξαν δρείας, εὐξόμενος εἰς τὸ μαρτύριον τοῦ Μάρκου. † Ἦλθε † δὲ καὶ δεύτερον εἰς Ἱεροσολύμους, ἰδίοις ἀπελθὼν ποσὶ καὶ ἀναλώμασιν ἑαυτῷ ἐπαρκέσας. Ἔλεγεν δὲ οὗτος ὅτι "Οὐ μέμνημαί ποτε ἀποστὰς κατὰ νοῦν τοῦ θεοῦ μου".] 46 .tΠερὶ τῆς γραὸς Μελανίου 46.1 Ἡ τρισμακαρία Μελάνιον Σπανὴ γέγονε τὸ γένος, εἰτοῦν Ῥωμαία· θυγάτηρ μὲν γέγονε Μαρκελλίνου τοῦ ἀπὸ ὑπάτων, ἀνδρὸς δέ τινος τῶν ἀπὸ ἀξιωμάτων γυνή, οὗ καλῶς οὐκ ἐπιμέμνημαι. Αὕτη χηρεύσασα εἰκοστὸν δεύτερον ἄγουσα ἔτος ἔρωτος θείου κατηξιώθη, καὶ μηδενὶ μηδὲν εἰρηκυῖα, - ἐκωλύετο γάρ-ἐν τοῖς καιροῖς Οὐά λεντος ἀρχὴν ἔχοντος ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ, ποιήσασα ἐπίτροπον τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτῆς ὀνομασθῆναι, τὰ κινητὰ πάντα αὐτῆς λα βοῦσα καὶ ἐμβαλοῦσα εἰς πλοῖον, μετὰ φανερῶν παίδων καὶ γυναικῶν δρομαία κατέπλευσεν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν. 46.2 Κἀκεῖθεν διαπωλήσασα τὰς ὕλας καὶ εἰς χρυσὸν κατα κερματίσασα εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸ ὄρος τῆς Νιτρίας, τοῖς πα τράσι περιτυγχάνουσα τοῖς περὶ Παμβὼ καὶ Ἀρσίσιον καὶ Σαραπίωνα τὸν μέγαν καὶ Παφνούτιον τὸν Σκητιώτην καὶ Ἰσίδωρον τὸν ὁμολογητὴν ἐπίσκοπον Ἑρμουπόλεως καὶ ∆ιόσκορον. Καὶ ἐχρόνισε παρ' αὐτοῖς ἕως ἥμισυ ἔτους ἀνὰ τὴν ἔρημον κυκλεύουσα καὶ ἱστοροῦσα πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους. 46.3 Μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο τοῦ αὐγουσταλίου Ἀλεξανδρείας ἐξο ρίσαντος Ἰσίδωρον καὶ Πισίμιον καὶ Ἀδέλφιον καὶ Παφνούτιον καὶ Παμβώ, ἐν οἷς καὶ Ἀμμώνιον τὸν παρώτην, καὶ δώδεκα ἐπισκόπους καὶ πρεσβυτέρους, εἰς τὴν Παλαι στίνην περὶ ∆ιοκαισάρειαν· οἷς ἠκολούθησεν αὕτη ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων χρημάτων ὑπηρετουμένη. Κωλυομένων δὲ τῶν ὑπη ρετῶν, ὡς διηγοῦντο, συνέτυχον γὰρ τῷ ἁγίῳ Πισιμίῳ καὶ Ἰσιδώρῳ καὶ Παφνουτίῳ καὶ Ἀμμωνίῳ, αὕτη παιδαρίου καρακάλλιον λαβοῦσα ἐν ταῖς ἑσπέραις ἔφερεν αὐτοῖς τὰ πρὸς τὴν χρείαν. Γνοὺς δὲ ὁ ὑπατικὸς τῆς Παλαιστίνης, θελήσας τὸν κόλπον πληρῶσαι προσεδόκησεν αὐτὴν καπνί ζειν· 46.4 καὶ κατασχὼν αὐτὴν ἔβαλεν εἰς φυλακὴν ἀγνοῶν τὴν ἐλευθερίαν. Αὕτη δὲ δηλοῖ αὐτῷ· "Ἐγὼ τοῦδε μὲν γέγονα θυγάτηρ, τοῦδε δὲ γυνή· τοῦ δὲ Χριστοῦ εἰμὶ δούλη. Καὶ μὴ τῆς εὐτελείας τοῦ σχήματός μου καταπτύσῃς· δύναμαι γὰρ ἐμαυτὴν ἐὰν θέλω ὑψῶσαι, καὶ οὐκ ἔχεις με ἐν τούτῳ καπνίσαι οὐδὲ τῶν ἐμῶν τι λαβεῖν. Ὥστε οὖν ἵνα μὴ ἀγνοήσας ἐγκλήμασι περιπέσῃς ἐδήλωσά σοι· δεῖ γὰρ κατὰ τῶν ἀναισθήτων καθάπερ ἱέρακι τῷ τύφῳ κεχρῆ σθαι". Τότε γνοὺς ὁ δικαστὴς καὶ προσαπελογήσατο καὶ προσεκύνησεν αὐτῇ, καὶ ἐκέλευσεν αὐτὴν ἀκωλύτως συν τυχάνειν τοῖς ἁγίοις. 46.5 Αὕτη μετὰ τὴν ἀνάκλησιν τούτων μοναστήριον κτίσασα ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις εἰκοσιεπτὰ ἔτεσιν ἐνεχρόνισεν ἐκεῖ ἔχουσα συνοδίαν παρθένων πεντήκοντα. Ἧι συνέζη καὶ ὁ εὐγενέσ τατος καὶ ὁμότροπος καὶ στιβαρώτατος Ῥουφῖνος ὁ ἀπὸ Ἰταλίας ἐξ Ἀκυληίας τῆς πόλεως, πρεσβυτερίου ἐς ὕστερον καταξιωθείς· οὗ γνωστικώτερος καὶ ἐπιεικέστερος ἐν ἀνδράσιν οὐχ εὑρίσκετο. 46.6 ∆εξιούμενοι οὖν ἀμφότεροι ἐν τοῖς εἰκοσιεπτὰ ἔτεσι τοὺς παρατυγχάνοντας ἐν τοῖς