教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 115 章

For from the aforesaid Probus and other religious men who related it, I came to know those things which I took care to make known to my hearers concerning the venerable Father Stephen in the Homilies on the Gospel (Homily 35). For he was a man, as this same Probus and many others bear witness, possessing nothing in this world, seeking nothing; loving poverty with God alone, ever embracing patience amid adversities, fleeing the assemblies of the worldly, ever longing to be free for prayer. Of him I relate one good deed of virtue, that by this one his many may be weighed.

For when on a certain day he had brought to the threshing floor the harvest which he had reaped, cut down by his own hand, and had nothing else with his disciples for the whole year's provision, a certain man of perverse will, goaded by the promptings of the ancient enemy, set fire to that same harvest and burned it, just as it was upon the threshing floor. When another beheld this deed, he ran to the same servant of God and announced it. After he had made it known, he added, saying: 「Woe, woe, Father Stephen, what has befallen you?」 To him, with countenance and mind at peace, he at once replied: 「Woe has befallen him who did this; for what has befallen me?」

In these words of his is shown upon what summit of virtue he sat, who lost with mind so untroubled the one thing he had for the world's provisions, and rather grieved with him who had committed the sin than for himself who bore the loss of that sin; nor did he weigh what he himself outwardly lost, but how much the guilty one, chargeable with the fault, was losing within. And so, when the day of death urged him to go forth from the body, many gathered, that to so holy a soul departing from this world they might commend their own souls. And while all who had gathered stood about his bed, some, entering, saw angels, but were in no way able to say anything; others saw nothing at all;

but so most vehement a fear struck all who were present, that no one, when that holy soul was going forth, could stand there. And so both those who had seen and those who had seen nothing at all, all struck and terrified by one fear, fled, so that it might be given plainly to understand what and how great was that power which received that departing soul, whose going forth no mortal could bear.