GREGORY. It is also to be known that sometimes souls still placed in their bodies see something of the penal state of spiritual realities, which nevertheless usually happens to some for their own edification, but to others for the edification of those who hear. For there was a boy named Theodore, of whom I recall having already told before the people in my Homilies (Homilies 10 and 38), a very restless lad, who followed his brother into my monastery more by necessity than by his own will. To him indeed it was a heavy thing if anyone said anything to him for the sake of his own salvation. For he was able not only not to do good, but not even to hear it. By swearing, by growing angry, by mocking, he testified that he would never come to the habit of holy conversion.
But in that pestilence which lately consumed a great part of the people of this city, he was struck in the groin and brought to the point of death. And when he was drawing his last breath, the brethren gathered together to protect his departure by prayer. Already his body had died in its outermost parts; in the breast alone did a vital warmth still faintly breathe. But all the brethren began to pray for him the more earnestly, the more they saw him already departing in haste. When suddenly he began to cry out to the brethren who stood by, and with loud voices to interrupt their prayers, saying: Depart, depart! Behold, I have been given over to a dragon to be devoured, who because of your presence cannot devour me.
My head it has already swallowed into its mouth; give place, so that it may torment me no longer, but may do what it is about to do. If I have been given to it to be devoured, why do I suffer delay because of you? Then the brethren began to say to him: What is this that you say, brother? Sign yourself with the sign of the holy Cross. He answered with loud cries, saying: I wish to sign myself, but I cannot, because I am pressed down by the scales of this dragon. And when the brethren heard this, prostrate upon the ground with tears they began to pray more vehemently for his deliverance. And behold, suddenly the sick man, being made better, began to cry out with loud voices, saying: Thanks be to God! Behold, the dragon that had taken me to be devoured has fled; driven out by your prayers, it could not stand.
Now intercede for my sins, for I am ready to be converted and to forsake the secular life utterly. So this man who, as has already been said, had died in the outermost part of his body, was reserved for life, and was converted to God with his whole heart. And after, changed in mind, he had long been worn down by scourges, then his soul was loosed from the flesh. On the contrary, Chrysaorius — as Probus, his kinsman, of whom I have already made mention above (Chapter 12), was accustomed to relate — was a man very well provided for in this world, but as full of vices as of possessions: swollen with pride, subject to the pleasures of his flesh, inflamed with the torches of avarice in the acquiring of things.
But when the Lord had determined to put an end to so many evils, he struck this man with a bodily affliction. Coming to his last, at the very hour when he was about to go forth from the body, with open eyes he saw foul and blackest spirits standing before him and pressing violently upon him, to snatch him away to the prisons of hell. He began to tremble, to grow pale, to sweat, and with loud voices to beg for a respite, and to call his son by name, Maximus — whom I myself, being then already a monk, saw as a monk — with excessive and troubled cries, saying: Maximus, run! I have never done you any evil; receive me into your faith. Straightway Maximus, troubled, was present; the household gathered, weeping and lamenting.
But those whom he grievously endured pressing upon him, they themselves could not see the malignant spirits; yet they beheld their presence in the confusion and pallor and trembling of him who was being dragged away. For in terror of their foul image he was tossed hither and thither upon his bed; he lay on his left side, he could not bear the sight of them; he turned to the wall, there they were present. And when, held fast, he despaired of being able now to be released, he began to cry out with loud voices: A respite, even until morning! A respite, even until morning! But while he cried these things, in the very midst of his words he was torn out from the dwelling of his flesh.
Concerning him it is beyond doubt that he saw these things for our sake, not for his own, so that his vision might profit us, whom the divine patience still long-sufferingly awaits. For what did it profit him to have seen the foul spirits before death and to have begged a respite, when he did not receive the very respite he begged for? There is also even now among us Athanasius, a presbyter of Isauria, who relates that a terrible thing happened in his own days at Iconium. For there, as he says, there is said to be a certain monastery, in which a certain monk was held in great esteem. He was seen to be of good morals, and composed in all his actions; but, as the outcome made plain, he was far otherwise than he appeared.
For while he showed himself to be fasting with the brethren, he was accustomed to eat in secret, which vice of his the brethren did not at all know. But when a bodily affliction came upon him, he was brought to the extremity of life. When he was now at his end, he had all the brethren who were in the monastery gathered to him. And they, thinking that so great a man was dying, believed they would hear from him something great and delightful. But he, afflicted and trembling, was compelled to disclose to what enemy he was being forced, when handed over, to go forth. For he said:
When you believed that I was fasting with you, I was eating in secret; and behold, now I have been handed over to a dragon to be devoured, which has bound my knees and feet with its tail, and thrusting its head within my mouth, is drinking out and drawing forth my spirit. Having said these things he at once expired, and was not awaited by the dragon he had seen, so that he might have been able to be delivered by doing penance. Concerning which it is beyond doubt that he saw it only for the profit of those who heard, seeing that the enemy to whom he was handed over both became known to him and was not escaped by him. PETER. I should like to be taught whether after death a purgatorial fire is to be believed to exist.