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

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 Paulinus, comprising some four hundred monks, and having persuaded every Pneumatomachian heretic, they brought them into the church, honoring the local clergy with gifts and food, thus they continued, giving offense to no one. 47 .tOn Chronius and Paphnutius 47.1 A certain man named Chronius from the village called Phoenice, having measured out from his own village, which was near the desert, fifteen thousand steps counted by his right foot, prayed there and dug a well; and finding most excellent water seven fathoms deep, he built himself a small cell there. And from the day he installed himself in the monastery he prayed to God never again to return to an inhabited place. 47.2 After a few years had passed, he was deemed worthy of the presbyterate, as a brotherhood of about two hundred men had gathered around him. This then is told of the virtue of his asceticism, that for sixty years he served at the altar as a priest and did not leave the desert, nor did he eat bread except from the work of his own hands. With him lived a certain Jacob from the neighborhood, surnamed the lame, most knowledgeable to the highest degree. Both were acquaintances of the blessed Antony. 47.3 One day, when Paphnutius, who was called Cephala, also came, who had the gift of knowledge of the divine scriptures of the Old and New Testament, interpreting all of it without having read the writings, he was so meek as to conceal his prophetic virtue; of whom it is said that for eighty years he did not have two tunics at once. Having met these men, I and the blessed Evagrius and Albanius sought to learn the causes of the brothers who transgress or even fall away or are tripped up in their proper life. 47.4 For it happened in those days that Chaeremon the ascetic died while seated and was found dead in his chair, holding his work in his hands. And it also happened that another brother, while digging a well, was buried by the well; and another coming down from Scetis died from lack of water; among whom were also the cases of Stephen who fell into shameful profligacy, and Eucarpius, and the case of Heron the Alexandrian, and Valens the Palestinian, and Ptolemy the Egyptian in Scetis. 47.5 We therefore asked what was the cause that men living thus in the desert, some were deceived in their minds, while others were broken by licentiousness. Paphnutius the most knowledgeable gave us this answer: "All things that happen are divided into two, both into God's good pleasure and his permission. Therefore, whatever happens according to virtue for the glory of God, these things happen by God's good pleasure; but whatever in turn is harmful and dangerous and circumstantial and leads to a fall, these things happen by God's permission. 47.6 And the permission comes from a reason; for it is impossible for one who thinks rightly and lives rightly to fall into shameful stumbles or the deceit of demons. Therefore, all those who seem to pursue virtue with a corrupt purpose, with the disease of pleasing men and with audacity of thoughts, these also fall into errors, God abandoning them for their own good, so that by the abandonment, perceiving the change from their transformation, they may correct either their intention or their action. 47.7 For sometimes the intention errs, when it is done with a bad purpose; and sometimes also the action, when it is done corruptly or not in the way it should be. This often happens, that even the licentious man gives alms with a corrupt purpose to younger women for a shameful end, but the action is reasonable in giving aid to one as an orphan and alone and an ascetic. And it also happens that one gives alms with a right purpose to the sick or the aged or those who have fallen from wealth, but sparingly and with grumbling, and so the purpose is right, but the action is unworthy of the purpose; for the merciful man must show mercy with cheerfulness and generosity." 47.8 And they also said this, that "There are advantages in

Ἱεροσολύμοις εὐχῆς ἕνεκεν, ἐπισκόπους τε καὶ μονάζοντας καὶ παρθένους, οἰκείοις ἀναλώμασιν ᾠκοδόμησαν μὲν πάντας τοὺς παρατυγχάνοντας, ἥνωσαν δὲ τὸ σχίσμα τὸ κατὰ Παυλῖνον ὡς ἀνδρῶν τετρακοσίων μοναζόντων, καὶ πάντα αἱρετικὸν πνευματομάχον συμπείσαντες εἰσήγαγον εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, τιμῶντες τοὺς κατὰ τόπον κληρικοὺς δώροις καὶ τροφαῖς, οὕτω διετέλεσαν μηδένα σκανδαλίσαντες. 47 .tΠερὶ Χρονίου καὶ Παφνουτίου 47.1 Χρόνιός τις ὀνόματι ἐκ τῆς κώμης τῆς λεγομένης Φοινίκης, ἀπομετρήσας ἀπὸ τῆς ἰδίας κώμης πλησίον οὔσης τῆς ἐρήμου μύρια πεντακισχίλια βήματα τῷ δεξιῷ ποδὶ ἀριθμούμενα, ἐκεῖσε προσευξάμενος ὤρυξε φρέαρ· καὶ εὑρὼν κάλλιστον ὕδωρ ἀπέχον ὀργυιὰς ἑπτὰ ᾠκοδόμησεν ἑαυτῷ ἐκεῖ ξενίαν μικράν. Καὶ ἀφ' ἧς ἡμέρας ἐνεθρόνισεν ἑαυτὸν τῇ μονῇ ηὔξατο τῷ θεῷ μὴ ἀνακάμψαι μηκέτι εἰς οἰκού μενον τόπον. 47.2 Παρελθόντων δὲ ὀλίγων ἐτῶν ἠξιώθη πρεσβυτερίου ἀδελφότητος περὶ αὐτὸν συναχθείσης ὡς ἀν δρῶν διακοσίων. Αὕτη οὖν αὐτοῦ φέρεται τῆς ἀσκήσεως ἡ ἀρετή, ὅτι ἑξήκοντα ἔτη παρεδρεύσας τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ ἱερατεύων οὐ τῆς ἐρήμου ἐξῆλθεν, οὐκ ἐκτὸς ἔργου ἰδίων χειρῶν βέβρωκεν ἄρτον. Τούτῳ συνῴκει Ἰακώβ τις ἐκ γειτόνων ὁ ἐπίκλην χωλός, γνωστικώτατος εἰς ἄκρον. Ἀμφότεροι δὲ γνώριμοι ἦσαν τοῦ μακαρίου Ἀντωνίου. 47.3 Μιᾶς οὖν τῶν ἡμερῶν συν δραμόντος καὶ Παφνουτίου τοῦ ἐπιλεγομένου Κεφαλᾶ, ὃς χάρισμα γνώσεως εἶχε τῶν θείων γραφῶν παλαιᾶς καὶ καινῆς διαθήκης, πᾶσαν αὐτὴν ἑρμηνεύων μὴ ἀναγνοὺς γρα φάς, πρᾶος δὲ ἦν ὡς καλύπτεσθαι προφητικὴν ἀρετήν· οὗ φέρεται ὅτι ὀγδοήκοντα ἔτη ὑφ' ἓν δύο χιτῶνας οὐκ ἔσχε. Τούτοις συντυχόντες ἐγώ τε καὶ οἱ μακάριοι Εὐά γριος καὶ Ἀλβάνιος ἐζητοῦμεν μαθεῖν τὰς αἰτίας τῶν παραπιπτόντων ἢ καὶ ἐκπιπτόντων ἀδελφῶν ἢ σφαλλομένων ἐν τῷ καθήκοντι βίῳ. 47.4 Συνέβη γὰρ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις καὶ Χαιρήμονα τὸν ἀσκητὴν καθεζόμενον τελευτῆσαι καὶ εὑρεθῆναι αὐτὸν νεκρὸν ἐν τῇ καθέδρᾳ κατέχοντα τὸ ἔργον εἰς τὰς χεῖρας. Συνέβη δὲ καὶ ἄλλον ἀδελφὸν ὀρύσσοντα φρέαρ καταχωσθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ φρέατος· καὶ ἄλλον ἀπὸ τῆς Σκήτεως κατερχόμενον ἀποθανεῖν ἀπὸ λείψεως ὕδατος· ἐν οἷς καὶ τὰ κατὰ Στέφανον τὸν ἐκπεσόντα εἰς αἰσχρὰν ἀσωτίαν, καὶ Εὐκάρπιον, καὶ τὰ κατὰ Ἥρωνα τὸν Ἀλεξανδρέα, καὶ τὰ κατὰ Οὐάλην τὸν Παλαιστῖνον, καὶ τὰ κατὰ Πτολεμαῖον τὸν ἐν τῇ Σκήτει Αἰγύπτιον. 47.5 Συνη ρωτῶμεν οὖν τίς ἡ αἰτία τοῦ οὕτω ζῶντας ἀνθρώπους ἐν τῇ ἐρημίᾳ τοὺς μὲν ἀπατηθῆναι τὴν φρένα τοὺς δὲ πε ριρραγῆναι ἀκολασίᾳ. Ταύτην οὖν ἡμῖν ἔδωκε τὴν ἀπό κρισιν Παφνούτιος ὁ γνωστικώτατος, ὅτιπερ "Πάντα τὰ γινόμενα διαιρεῖται εἰς δύο, εἴς τε εὐδοκίαν θεοῦ καὶ συγ χώρησιν. Ὅσα τοίνυν γίνεται κατὰ ἀρετὴν εἰς δόξαν θεοῦ, ταῦτα γίνεται εὐδοκίᾳ θεοῦ· ὅσα δ' αὖ πάλιν ἐπιζήμια καὶ ἐπικίνδυνα καὶ περιστατικὰ καὶ ἐκπτωτικά, ταῦτα γίνεται κατὰ θεοῦ συγχώρησιν. 47.6 Ἡ δὲ συγχώρησις ἐκ λόγου γίνεται· ἀδύνατον γὰρ τὸν ὀρθῶς φρονοῦντα καὶ ὀρθῶς βιοῦντα περιπεσεῖν πταίσμασιν αἰσχύνης ἢ πλάνης δαιμόνων. Ὅσοι τοίνυν διεφθαρμένῳ σκοπῷ νόσῳ ἀνθρωπαρεσκείας καὶ αὐθαδείᾳ λογισμῶν μετέρχεσθαι δοκοῦσι τὴν ἀρετήν, οὗτοι καὶ σφάλμασι περιπίπτουσι, θεοῦ πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον αὐτῶν ἐγκαταλιμπάνοντος αὐτούς, ἵνα διὰ τῆς ἐγκαταλεί ψεως αἰσθανόμενοι τὴν ἐκ τῆς μεταβολῆς ἀλλοίωσιν διορθώ σωνται ἢ τὴν πρόθεσιν ἢ τὴν πρᾶξιν. 47.7 Ποτὲ μὲν γὰρ ἡ πρόθεσις ἐξαμαρτάνει, ὅταν κακῷ σκοπῷ γένηται· ποτὲ δὲ καὶ ἡ πρᾶξις, ὅταν διεφθαρμένως ἢ καθ' ὃν δεῖ τρόπον μὴ γένηται. Ὅπερ συμβαίνει πολλάκις καὶ τὸν ἀκόλαστον διεφθαρμένῳ σκοπῷ ποιεῖν τὴν ἐλεημοσύνην ἐπὶ νεωτέρας διὰ τέλος αἰσχρόν, πρᾶξιν δὲ εὔλογον τῷ ὡς ὀρφανῇ καὶ μόνῃ καὶ ἀσκουμένῃ διδόναι ἐπικουρίαν. Συμβαίνει δὲ καὶ σκοπῷ ὀρθῷ ποιεῖν ἐλεημοσύνην εἰς νοσοῦντας ἢ γεγηρακό τας ἢ ἐκπεπτωκότας πλούτου, φειδωλῶς δὲ καὶ μετὰ γογ γυσμοῦ, καὶ εἶναι τὸν μὲν σκοπὸν ὀρθόν, τὴν δὲ πρᾶξιν τοῦ σκοποῦ ἀναξίαν· δεῖ γὰρ τὸν ἐλεήμονα ἐν ἱλαρότητι ἐλεεῖν καὶ ἀφειδίᾳ". 47.8 Ἔλεγον δὲ καὶ τοῦτο ὅτι "Προ τερήματά εἰσιν ἐν