St. Athanasius: The Paradise of the Holy Fathers

[Stone]

CHAPTER LXI

OF THE BLESSED ELPIDIUS

IN those caves which, in ancient times, certain men had hewn out of the rock in the valley of the river near Jericho, wherein those who had fled from before Joshua, the son of Nun, had gone up and hidden themselves, there dwelt Elpidius; now he was a Cappadocian, who had been converted in the monastery of Timothy the Chorepiskopos, and he was a wonderful man and was also held to be worthy of consecration to the priesthood. And he came and dwelt in one of these caves, and he shewed such patient persistence in his self-abnegation, that he surpassed and eclipsed many [thereby]; for he followed for five and twenty years his rule of life, and during that time he only ate food on the Sabbath day, and on the First Day of the week, and he dwelt like the chief and the king of the bees among the cells of the whole brotherhood. And he used to rise up continually during the night and pray; and I myself also dwelt with him. And he made that mountain to be so peaceful and to contain so many inhabitants that it resembled a city, and during the night season a man might see the various works, and the labours of all kinds which appertain to the ascetic life, being performed there. One night, when this man Elpidius was reciting the service, now we were with him, a scorpion stung him, and he crushed the insect, without either leaving the place where he was or being in any way moved as a man usually is when he is suffering from the sting of a scorpion. And one day as he was holding in his hand a vine branch, a certain brother took it away from him; and as he was sitting by the side of the mountain, he dug a hole and pushed the vine branch into it, like a man who is planting [vines]; and although it was not the time for planting, the vine branch sprouted, and grew very large, and spread its branches abroad until it covered the whole church. Now the name of that brother was Ænesius, a wonderful man.

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CHAPTER LXII

OF THE BLESSED MAN EUSTATHIUS

EUSTATHIUS was a brother of Elpidius whom [we have mentioned] above, and this man followed so strenuously after the acquisition of impassibility, and made his body so dry (i.e., emaciated) by the labours of vigilant prayer, that the [light of] the sun could be seen between his ribs. And of him the following story is told by the brethren who were continually with him, that is to say by his disciples: He never turned himself towards the west, because close by the side of the door of his cave was a mountain which, because of its mighty bulk, was very hard [to ascend]; and he never looked at the sun after the sixth hour of the day, because the door of his cell was hidden by the shadow of the mountain so long as the sun was declining towards its place of setting. And moreover he could never see those stars which appear in the western part of the sky, and for five and twenty years from the time when he entered the cave wherein he dwelt he never went down from the mountain.

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CHAPTER LXIII

OF THE BLESSED MAN SISINNIUS

NOW this holy man Elpidius had a certain disciple whose name was Sisinnius, who was a slave by birth, though a free man in the faith; by race he was a Cappadocian, and it is necessary that we should make known the fact that he was so, for the sake of the glorifying of Christ Who hath made us worthy to be accounted His kinsmen, and to be exalted to that true family, which is full of happiness, of the kingdom of heaven. Now therefore when this man Sisinnius had passed some time with Elpidius, and had struggled to lead the ascetic life strenuously for a period of seven years, he at length shut himself in a grave for three years, and he endured such privations therein that neither by day nor by night did he sit or lie down, and he never went out here from. And this man was held to be worthy of possessing the gift of authority over devils, and now that he hath come into his own country he hath been held to be worthy of the gift of the priesthood; and he hath made congregations of men and of women, which, according to a sure testimony, lead lives of purity and chastity. He hath trampled upon the lust which is in men, and he hath bridled the voluptuousness of the women, so that there hath been fulfilled that which is written, “In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female” (Galatians 3:28). And he was also a great lover of strangers and of voluntary poverty, which was a reproach unto those who were rich and miserly.

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CHAPTER LXIV

OF THE BLESSED GADDAI (GADDANUS), THE PALESTINIAN

AND I saw a certain old man whose name was Gaddâi, who lived without a shelter all his days in the places which were by the side of the Jordan. On one occasion the Jews rose up against him in fierce hatred (or zeal) by the side of the Dead Sea, and they drew the sword against him, and one of them took up a weapon to smite him, when the following great and wonderful thing was wrought upon the man who dared to lift up a sword against the blessed man: the hand of the man who had drawn the sword withered immediately, and the sword itself fell upon the ground.

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CHAPTER LXV

OF THE BLESSED MAN ELIJAH

AND there was in this place a solitary monk called Elijah who used to dwell in a cave, and he passed his life in performing the works of spiritual excellence, and was worthy of praise. One day, when a great many of the brethren thronged to him—now his [dwelling-place] was a cave—he lacked bread, and he made apologies [to us] because he was troubled on account of the insufficiency of the bread. Now therefore, when the brethren went into his cell they found three loaves of bread, and when twenty men had eaten and were satisfied, there still remained one loaf which, one said, satisfied him for five and twenty days.

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CHAPTER LXVI

OF SABAS, THE LAYMAN OF JERICHO

AND there was a certain layman from Jericho whose name was Sabas, and he had a wife, and this man loved the monks so much that during the night season he used to go round about in the desert, and pass by the cells of the solitary monks therein, and outside the cell and habitation of each one of them he would set down a bushel of dates and vegetables, which would be sufficient for his wants, for the monks who lived by the side of the Jordan did not eat bread, and thus this man Sabas supplied the wants of the monks. One day as he was carrying along a load [of food] for the usual needs of the monks, through the operation of the Evil One, who is the Adversary of the monks, a lion met him, which terrified him, and wished to make him to cease from his ministrations to those holy men, and schemed to prevent him from performing his benevolent intent for their comfort. And the lion having overtaken him about a mile from the place where the monks were, and having seized him by his hand in order to turn him aside from his business, He Who by the hand of Daniel shut the mouth[s] of the lions, shut the mouth of this lion also (Daniel 6:22; Hebrews 11:33), and the beast did this lover of alms no harm whatsoever; and although the lion was exceedingly hungry he only took a very little of the things which Sabas was carrying for the old men, and then he departed. And it is manifest that He Who gave this man his life also satisfied the hunger of the lion.