Religious History 1 part 11/13

When the admirable Meletius, who was then appointed to oversee the region around the city of Antioch, a man of sound mind, shining with understanding and adorned with sagacity, said that the iron was superfluous, since resolve alone was sufficient to place rational bonds upon the body, he yielded and obediently accepted the exhortation, and having ordered a smith to be summoned, commanded him to undo the bond.

And since a piece of leather had also been fitted to his leg, so that the flesh might not be maimed by the iron, and this too had to be torn open — for it had been sewn together — they said that they saw more than twenty very large bed-bugs nesting within it.

And the admirable Meletius said that he himself had witnessed this.

And I have recorded this, showing thereby also the man's great endurance;

for though he could easily have pressed the leather with his hand and killed them all, he endured the painful bites, enduring in small things while embracing the training for the greater contests.

So, as the report ran everywhere, everyone came running together, not only those living nearby, but also those a journey of many days away;

some bringing those paralyzed in body, others asking health for the sick, others entreating to become fathers, beseeching to receive through him what they had not received from nature.

And receiving what they sought and obtaining their requests, they returned with rejoicing, and by proclaiming the benefits they had received, they sent forth many times more people to seek the same.

Thus, as all came from everywhere, and every road resembled a river, one could see a sea of humanity forming in that place, receiving the rivers pouring in from every side.

For not only do those who inhabit our own world flock together, but also Ishmaelites, and Persians, and the Armenians subject to them, and Iberians, and Homerites, and those who dwell still further within than these.

And many came from the western extremities: Spaniards, Britons, and the Gauls who occupy the region between these.

As for Italy, it is superfluous even to speak of it.

For they say that the man became so renowned even in great Rome, that in all the entrances of the workshops small images of him were set up, thereby providing themselves some protection and security.

Since those who came were beyond counting, and all of them attempted to touch him and to gather some blessing from those garments of skin, he — first thinking such excess of honor unseemly, and then finding the toilsome nature of the matter distressing — devised the standing upon the pillar, ordering it first to be cut six cubits high, then twelve, after that twenty-two, and now thirty-six;

for he longs to fly up to heaven and to be released from this earthly sojourn.

And I myself suppose that this standing did not come about apart from divine dispensation; for which reason I exhort those given to fault-finding to bridle their tongue and not allow it to run on as it happens, but rather to consider how often the Lord has devised such things for the benefit of the more indolent.

...he commanded (Isaiah) to walk unshod, and commanded Jeremiah to put a girdle about his loins and thus deliver the prophecy to the disobedient; and at another time to put wooden collars, and afterward iron ones, about his neck;

and commanded Hosea to take a harlot for a wife, and again to love a woman who was wicked and an adulteress;

and to Ezekiel he commanded to lie forty days upon his right side, and upon his left, a hundred and fifty.

and again, to dig through a wall and to go out as a fugitive, and to depict captivity in his own person;

and at another time, to whet a sword to a keen edge and with it shave his head, and divide the hairs into four parts, allotting some to this and some to that — not to enumerate everything.

Now the Ruler of the universe commanded each of these things to be done, gathering by the strangeness of the spectacle those who would not be persuaded by mere word, nor endure to attend to prophecy, and making them ready to hear the divine pronouncements.

For who would not be astonished, seeing a divine man walking naked? And who would not have desired to learn the cause of what was happening? And who would not have asked why on earth the prophet endures to dwell with a harlot? Just as, then, the God of all things commanded each of those things to happen, providing for the benefit of those living carelessly, so too he presided over this new and strange spectacle, drawing all by its strangeness to behold it, and rendering persuasive to those who came the exhortation offered them;

for the novelty of the spectacle becomes a sufficient pledge of the teaching, and he who comes to see returns having been instructed in divine things.

And just as those who have obtained the lot of ruling over men change, over a certain period of time, the images upon their coins — now stamping the likenesses of lions, now of stars and angels, at other times, by a strange design, trying to render the gold more precious — so the King of all, setting these new and manifold ways of life, as it were certain stamps, upon piety, moves to praise the tongues not only of those nurtured in the faith, but also of those sick with unbelief.

And that these things are so, it is not words that bear witness, but the outcry of the facts themselves.

For the Ishmaelites, many myriads of them enslaved to the darkness of impiety, the standing upon the pillar enlightened.

For as this most radiant lamp, set upon a lampstand, sent forth its rays in every direction after the manner of the sun.

And it is possible to see Iberians too, as I said, and Armenians and Persians coming and partaking of divine baptism.

And the Ishmaelites, coming in bands — two hundred at once, and three hundred, and sometimes even a thousand — renounce with a cry the deception of their fathers, and, breaking before that great luminary the idols that had been worshipped by them, and renouncing the orgies of Aphrodite (for from of old they had received the worship of this demon), they partake of the divine mysteries, receiving laws from that sacred tongue, and bidding farewell to their ancestral customs, and forswearing the eating of wild asses and camels.

And of these things I myself became an eyewitness, and I heard them both renouncing their ancestral impiety and assenting to the evangelical teaching.

And once I underwent a very great danger:

for he himself bade them come to me and receive from me the priestly blessing, saying that they would reap from this the greatest profit.

And they, running together in rather barbarous fashion, some pulled me from in front, others from behind, others from the sides, while those who stood apart from the rest climbed upon others and stretched out their hands — some pulling at my beard, others seizing hold of my garments.

Such benefit did the pillar, mocked by those fond of mockery, well forth, and so great a ray of the knowledge of God did it send down into the minds of the barbarians.

I know too of another such thing that happened through them, of this kind:

One tribe besought the divine man to send some prayer and blessing to their own chieftain;

but another tribe present objected, saying that the blessing ought not to be sent to that one, but to its own leader;

for the one, they said, was most unjust, while the other was a stranger to injustice.

And when a long contention and barbarous quarrel had arisen, at last they set upon one another.

But I, using many words, exhorted them to keep the peace, since the divine man was sufficient to impart the blessing both to this one and to that.

But these said that the other ought not to obtain it, and those in turn tried to deprive the other one of it.

And Symeon, threatening them from above and calling them dogs, with difficulty quenched the contention.

And I have related these things, wishing to demonstrate the faith of their minds.

For they would not have raged so against one another, had they not believed the blessing of the divinely-inspired man to possess the greatest power.

I saw also, on another occasion, a wonder that took place, worthy to be celebrated.

For a certain man came in — he too was a chieftain of the Saracens — and besought the divine head Symeon to come to the aid of a man who, on the road, had had the limbs of his body paralyzed.

And he said that this man had suffered this affliction near Callinicum — this is a very great fortress.

When the man had been brought into the midst, Symeon bade him renounce the impiety of his forefathers.

And when he gladly obeyed and fulfilled what was commanded, Symeon asked whether he believed in the Father and the only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit.

And when he confessed that he believed:

"Believing," he said, "in these names, arise."

And when he had risen, Symeon commanded him to carry the chieftain upon his shoulders as far as the tent itself — for the chieftain had a very great body — and he, taking him up, went off at once, while those present moved their tongues to the singing of hymns to God.

And he commanded this in imitation of the Lord, who bade the paralytic carry his own bed.

But let no one call this imitation an act of usurpation.

"He who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do." And we have beheld the fulfillment of this promise.

For while the shadow of the Lord nowhere worked a wonder, the shadow of the great Peter both undid death and drove out diseases and put demons to flight.

But it was the Lord who worked these wonders too through his servants; and now likewise, making use of his name, the divine Symeon works countless wonders.

For it happened also that another wonder took place, in no way inferior to the former.

For among those who had come to believe in the saving name of the Lord Christ, a certain not obscure Ishmaelite made a prayer to God, with Symeon as witness, and a vow.

And the vow was that henceforth, to the very end, he would abstain from all food that had had life.

But, I know not how, after some time overstepping this promise, he slaughtered a bird and dared to eat it.

But God, wishing to bring him to conversion through reproof, and to honor his own servant who had become witness of the transgressed vow, changed the flesh of the bird into the nature of stone, so that he was no longer able to eat it even had he wished.

...that by his prayers he might loose him from the bonds of sin.

And many have become eyewitnesses of this wonder, having handled with their own hands the part of the bird near the breast, which was composed of bone and stone.

And I became not only an eyewitness of the wonders, but also a hearer of predictions of things to come.

For indeed the drought that occurred, and the great barrenness of that year, and the famine and pestilence together that followed, he foretold two years beforehand, saying that he had seen a rod being brought against mankind, and, through it, the scourges it foreshowed.

And at another time he foretold the attack of the so-called caterpillar, and said that it would do no great damage, since divine loving-kindness would accompany the chastisement.

And when thirty days had passed, an innumerable multitude descended in flight, so as even to cut through the sunbeam and cast a shadow — and this we all beheld exactly.

But it damaged only the fodder of the irrational animals, bringing no harm at all to the food of men.

And to me too, when I was being warred against by someone, he announced, fifteen days beforehand, the downfall of my enemy, and by experience I learned the truth of the prediction.

And there once appeared to him also two rods, being borne from heaven and falling towards the eastern and the western lands;

and this the divine man declared to signify an uprising of the Persian and the Scythian nations against the sovereignty of the Romans;

and he related the vision to those present, and with many tears and unceasing supplications he stayed the plagues that threatened against the inhabited world;

at any rate the nation of the Persians, already armed and ready for an assault against the Romans, was checked from its intended onset by a divine influence working against it, and was occupied within itself by its own domestic troubles.

And though I know very many other such things, I shall pass them over, avoiding prolixity of discourse.

But these things too suffice to show the spiritual insight of his mind.

His fame was great also with the king of the Persians.

For, as the envoys who came to him related, he inquired diligently what the man's manner of life was, and what sort were his wonders.

And they say that his consort also, having been deemed worthy of his blessing, asked for oil, and received it as a very great gift.

And all those about the king too, struck by his fame, and though receiving many slanders against him from the Magi, both inquired diligently, and, being instructed, called him a divine man.

And the rest of the crowd, approaching the muleteers and servants and soldiers, both offered money and besought to share in the blessing of the oil.

And the queen of the Ishmaelites, being barren and longing for children, first sent some of her most worthy men, and besought Symeon that she might become a mother.

And when she obtained her request and bore a child as she had desired, she took the royal child that had been born and ran to the divine elder;

and since it was not permitted for women to enter, she sent the infant to him and besought to obtain from him a blessing;

"For this sheaf," she said, "is yours;"

"for I with tears brought the seed of the prayer, but you have made the seed into a sheaf, having drawn down, through prayer, the rain of divine grace."

But how long shall I contend to measure the depth of the Atlantic Sea? For just as that is immeasurable to men, so the things done by him each day surpass narration.

But above all these things, I admire his endurance.

For by night and by day he stands, seen by all;

a marvel — now standing for a long while, now frequently bowing down and offering worship to God.

Many of those standing by even count these acts of worship.

Once one of those with me, having counted one thousand two hundred and forty-four, then grew weary and gave up the reckoning.

And bowing down, he always brings his forehead close to the toes of his feet;

for his stomach, receiving food only once a week, and that in small amount, readily allows the back to be bent.

They say that from his standing a malignant sore also formed on one of his feet, and that continually a great quantity of discharge issued from it.

But nevertheless none of these afflictions has discredited his philosophy; rather he bears nobly both the voluntary and the involuntary hardships, overcoming both the one and the other through his zeal.

And once he was compelled to show this sore to someone.

A certain man came from Rabaena, an earnest man honored with the ministry of Christ.

This man, having reached that summit,

said: "Tell me, by the Truth itself which has turned the race of men to itself, are you a man, or a bodiless nature?"

"Why on earth have you put forward this question?"

And when he had said, "Because I hear all men repeatedly saying that you neither eat nor sleep, whereas each of these is proper to human beings —"

"for no one possessing this nature could live through life without food and sleep," he ordered a ladder to be set against the pillar, and bade the man climb up and first examine his hands, then put his hand inside the leather garment and see not only his feet, but also the most grievous sore.

And the man, having seen and marveled at the extremity of the sore, and having learned from him that he does partake of food, came down from there, and coming to me, related everything.

And at the public festivals he displays yet another feat of endurance.

For after sunset, until the sun again reaches the eastern horizon, stretching out his hands to heaven, he stands all night long, neither charmed by sleep nor conquered by toil.

Amid so many labors and such a mass of achievements and multitude of wonders, he is so moderate in disposition, as though he were the last of all men in worth.

In addition to his moderate disposition, he is also very approachable, gentle, and gracious, answering each one who converses with him, whether he be an artisan, a beggar, or a rustic.

He also received the gift of teaching from the bountiful Master;

and twice each day, delivering exhortations, he floods the ears of his hearers, speaking with great charm, offering the teachings of the divine Spirit, urging them to look up to heaven and to fly, to be freed from the earth, to envision the expected kingdom, to fear the threat of Gehenna, to despise earthly things, and to await the things to come.

One may also see him acting as judge and pronouncing verdicts that are upright and just.

These things and such things he performs after the ninth hour;

for the entire night, and the day up to the ninth hour, he continues in prayer.

After the ninth hour, he first offers divine teaching to those present, then, having received the request of each, and having wrought certain healings, he resolves the disputes of those in contention.

And around sunset he then begins his converse with God,

putting down the insolence of the Jews, at other times scattering the factions of the heretics, sometimes writing to the emperor about these matters, sometimes rousing the rulers to divine zeal, and at other times exhorting the shepherds of the churches themselves to take greater care of their flocks.

I have related these things, having attempted to show the whole rain by a single drop, giving those who encounter this writing a taste of the sweetness of honey with just the tip of the finger.

What is celebrated by all is many times more than this, but I for my part did not undertake to write everything, but to display through a few things the character of each one's way of life.

And, as is likely, others will write far more than these things;

and if he should live on, they will perhaps add even greater wonders.

But I both desire and beseech God that he himself, aided by his own prayers, may continue in these good labors — being a common ornament and the glory of piety — and that my own life may be ordered and directed toward the evangelical way of life.

Having lived on through many wonders and labors — through the blaze of the sun, wintry frosts, the violent assaults of winds, and the weakness of human nature — remaining alone among all men ever unconquered, since it was now necessary for him to be with Christ and to receive the crowns of his measureless contests, by his death he confirmed to unbelievers that he was indeed a man, yet even after death he remained unbending: his soul had taken possession of heaven, but his body would not even then consent to fall, but stood upright in the place of his contests, like an undefeated athlete contending that no part of his limbs should touch the earth.

Thus victory remains with those who contend for Christ, even after they have died.

At any rate, healings of all sorts of afflictions, and wonders, and the power of divine workings, just as when he was alive, are accomplished even now — not only at the tombs of the holy relics, but also at the memorial of his prowess and prolonged contest, I mean the great and celebrated pillar of this righteous and much-hymned Symeon, by whose holy intercessions we pray both that we ourselves may be saved and strengthened in the right faith, and that every city and country upon which the name of our Lord Jesus Christ has been called may be kept free from every kind of injury and harm, both from heaven and from enemies;

to Him be glory unto the ages of ages.

For those who contend in companies — and there are countless such communities, defying number — enjoy the unfading crowns and attain to the longed-for ascent.

But those who embrace the solitary life, and practice conversing with God alone, and partake of no human consolation, likewise enjoy the proclamation of victory.

And others, living in tents, and others in huts, sing hymns to God.

And others embrace a life in caves and caverns.

But many — of whom we have mentioned some — were not persuaded to have a cave, a cavern, a tent, or a hut, but having given their own bodies over to the bare open air, endure opposite conditions, at one time frozen stiff by unrelieved cold, at another burned by the fire of the sun's ray.

And again, the manner of life of these varies still further;

for some stand continually, while others divide the day between sitting and standing.

Some avoid the company of the crowds, while others, using no such covering, expose themselves to all who wish to view them.

I have been compelled to go through each of these at present, wishing to write the life of the wondrous Baradatus;

for he too devised novel practices of endurance.

For first, having shut himself up for a long time in a small hut, he enjoyed only the divine leading of the soul.

Then, having gone up to the ridge lying above, and having constructed out of wood a small chest not even proportionate to his body, he lived in it, being continually compelled to stoop;

for it did not have a height equal to the length of his body.

This was not fitted together with boards, but was open like latticework, and resembled skylights that have rather wide openings for the light;

for which reason he was neither freed from the assault of the rains, nor released from the sun's blaze, but received both, just like the other ascetics in the open air;

but he surpassed them only in the additional toil of his confinement.

Having continued in this manner for a long time, he later came out, yielding to the exhortations of the divinely-inspired Theodotus, who had obtained the episcopal presidency of the Antiochenes.

Nevertheless, he stands continually, stretching out his hands to heaven and hymning the God of all, covering his entire body with a leather tunic;

and only around the nose and mouth has he left a small opening for the breath, so that he may breathe, receiving the common air, since human nature is not able to live otherwise.

And he endures all this toil, though he has not obtained a robust body, but one afflicted by very many ailments.

But his zeal, boiling and set on fire by divine love, compels him who is unable to labor, to labor.

And, his mind adorned most excellently with understanding, he makes both his questions and his answers wisely;

and he sometimes reasons better and more powerfully than those who have read the Aristotelian labyrinths.

Though he is himself at the very height of virtue, he does not allow his disposition to ascend along with it, but bids it creep below, around the very foothills of the mountain.

For he knows how much harm a mind inflamed with conceit draws upon itself.

Such, in sum, is also this man's philosophy, which, as it increases, may it come to reach the turning-post of the race;

for the glory of these victorious ones is the common joy of the pious.

As for me, may it be, supported by their prayers, that I not remain far from this mountain, but ascend little by little, and delight in the contemplation of these men.

THALELAEUS. Nor shall I pass over in silence the account of Thalelaeus;

for the spectacle is full of wonder.

I did not only hear it from others who related it, but I myself also became an eyewitness of this marvelous spectacle.

For twenty stades from Gabala — this is a small and charming city — having taken possession of a certain hillock on which there was a precinct dedicated to demons and honored by the impious people of old with many sacrifices, he built himself a small hut.

They were continually propitiating those accursed spirits, as they said, endeavoring by such service to soften their great cruelty.

For they used to harm many, both passers-by and neighbors, not men alone, but also donkeys and mules and oxen and sheep, waging war not against the irrational animals for their own sake, but through these plotting against men.

So then, when they saw this man arrive, they tried to terrify him, but they were unable, since faith fenced him about and grace fought on his behalf.

Therefore, filled with rage and madness, they turned against the trees planted there.

Around that hill there happened to be flourishing fig trees and olive trees.

Of these, they say more than five hundred were suddenly torn up by the roots.

And I heard this told by the neighboring country folk, who, formerly held fast in the darkness of impiety, through this man's teaching and wonder-working received the light of the knowledge of God.

But since, even after doing this, the accursed demons did not frighten the athlete of the ascetic life, they again brought forth other devices.

For by night, using loud howling and displaying torches, they tried to terrify him and to cast confusion into his reasoning.

But when he laughed to scorn all their assaults, at last they abandoned the attempt and fled.

He constructed two wheels having a diameter of two cubits, and joined the two wheels together with boards that were not fitted to one another but set apart at a distance;

then, sitting inside, and fastening those spaced boards with pegs and nails, he suspended the wheel in the open air;

having fixed three other tall poles in the ground, and joined their upper ends together with other pieces of wood, and having in the middle of these bound and suspended that double wheel — the interior of which has a height of two cubits and a breadth of one cubit — sitting in it, or rather hanging in it, he spent ten years continuously.

Having a very large body, he cannot, even when sitting, straighten his neck, but always sits bent over, with his face fixed upon his knees.

Coming to him, I found him reaping the benefit of the divine Gospels and gathering with great diligence the profit that comes from them.

I asked, desiring to learn the reason for that novel way of life.

And he, using the Greek language — for he happened to be Cilician by race —

'I,' he said, 'being subject to many sins and believing in the punishments that have been threatened, have devised this form of life, contriving moderate chastisements for my body, so that I might steal away the weight of those expected punishments;'

'for those punishments are more severe, not only in quantity, but also in quality itself;'

'and that which happens against one's will is extremely distressing;'

'but that which is voluntary, even if laborious, is less painful.'

'For the toil is self-chosen, not forced.'

'If, then,' he said, 'by these small distresses I diminish what is expected, I shall carry away from this a great profit.' Hearing this, I greatly admired his shrewdness, because not only did he strive beyond the established contests and devise other exercises of his own, but also because he knew the reasons for these things and taught them to others.

And the local inhabitants said that many wonders occurred through his prayer, with not only humans but also camels, donkeys, and mules enjoying healing.

From this, that whole tribe, formerly held fast in impiety, renounced its ancestral deception and received the radiance of the divine light.