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PATROLOGOS edutainment

«As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God», says the inspired Apostle, but to have been accounted worthy of the Holy Spirit and to have become sons of God is the single most valuable of all desired things, and when we have achieved that, we find rest from all inquiry in this life, as it is written. 

This marvelous blessedness therefore, which is above all other desirable blessedness, the Saints have been worthy of attaining through the centuries by the practice of the virtues; some through having striven as martyrs and by having resisted sin until their death, and others through having struggled in self-discipline and having trodden the narrow way and thus becoming martyrs for their good disposition. 

The Church of Christ has received as a tradition, that was enacted by the inspired Apostles and the blessed Fathers for the salvation of our race, to hand down to memory the prowess and the virtuous deeds of the saints, as much of those who ended their lives in martyrdom, as of those who by spiritual ascesis they emulated the angelic life, and to deliver them as a example of virtue to the generations to come. 

For the pathway that leads to virtue is rough and steep and especially for those who have not yet offered their whole selves to the Lord, but they are still at warfare under the tyranny of their passions. 

For this reason we need to be encouraged towards virtue, whether this be with exhortations, or with the narration of the lives of those who have walked on this road, something which with less effort draw us toward it and does accustom us to not despair from the difficulty of the journey. 

For as with the man who is going to walk on a hard and difficult path, by exhorting him someone and by encouraging him will hardly convince him, while by pointing to many others who have already traversed this path, and have successfully arrived to its end, he will rather more likely convince him as well to undertake the course. 

Following therefore myself too this rule, and also being heedful of the danger hanging over that servant, who having received the coin from his Lord, he hid it in the earth and what was given to him to trade withal, he left it unused, for that reason, an edifying story that has come up to me I will not pass it over in silence. 

This story has been told to me by devout men from the inner land of the Ethiopians, whom they call Indians, after they translated it from trustworthy records. This story, therefore, goes thus. 

The so called country of the Indians is lying far beyond Egypt, is vast and populous, and is surrounded by seas and gulfs, navigable by ships, on the side of Egypt, while on the mainland it reaches the borders of Persia, which in the old times was completely dark with the darkness of idolatry, completely barbarous and wholly given up to the most unlawful practices. 

But when the only-begotten Son of God, Who is in the bosom of the Father, not withstanding to see His own creature in bondage to sin, moved out of His compassion for the same, He revealed himself in the world among us (being born) without sin, and, without leaving the throne of His Father, He dwelt in the Virgin’s womb for our sake, so that we might dwell in heaven, and be raised again from the ancient fall and be freed from the sin, by receiving again the prior adoption as sons. 

And when He had fulfilled every stage of His life for our sake through His incarnation, He endured crucifixion and death and marvelously uniting the earthly with the heavenly, He rose from the dead and after having gloriously ascended up into heaven and having seated at the right hand of the majesty of His Father, He sent down the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, in the shape of fiery tongues, to His eyewitnesses and disciples, according to His promise. 

And He despatched them as Apostles to all the nations in order to give light to the people who were sitting in the darkness of ignorance and to baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and from there, to some of them it fell to the lot to journey to the far-off East and to others to the Westward and to travel across the North and South climates, fulfilling thus the order that was given to them. 

Then, the most holy Thomas, who was one of the twelve-member company of Christ’s disciples, was sent out to the land of the Indians, preaching them the Gospel of the Savior. 

With the synergy of the Lord Who was confirming the preaching through the miracles that were following it, the darkness of superstition was banished and after the people were delivered from the sacrifices and the abominations of the idols, they were added to the true faith and thus, being transformed by the hands of the Apostle, they were made by the Baptism members of Christ’s household, and waxing ever with fresh increases, they made advancement in the unblemished Faith, and in all their lands they were builting churches. 

When the monasteries began to be founded in Egypt as well and multitudes of monks began to band themselves together, and the fame of their virtues and of their angelic way of life was spreading out to the ends of the world and also came to the Indians, it also stirred them up to the same zeal, insomuch that many of them, after giving up everything, they withdrew to the deserts and despite living in mortal bodies they adopted the spiritual life of Angels. 

Thus, while matters were going well and on wings of gold, as the saying goes, many were soaring up to the skies, there arose a king in that country, by the name of Abenner, who definitely turned out to be great in riches and power and in the victory over his enemies, but also brave in warfare, being vain of his splendid corporal stature and of the comeliness of his face, and boastful of all his worldly advantages that too soon wither away. 

But in his soul he was utterly crushed by poverty and choked from the many vices, for he belonged to the religion of idols worshipers, and was passionate with the superstitious error of the idols. 

And while he lived in much luxury and enjoyment of the pleasures and delights of life, and was never balked of anything that he wanted and desired, yet there was one thing only that marred his happiness and was giving him worries in his soul, the curse of childlessness. 

For, being without children, he was thinking a lot, how he could be relieved from this problem and he will be called father of children, something that most people greatly desire. Such was the king, therefore, and such was his mind. 

Meanwhile the glorious band of Christians and the multitudes of the monks, paying no respect to the king’s majesty and completely defying his threats, they advanced in the grace of Christ, and by paying more attention to the word of God they were making short account of the king’s words and they were closely clinging to those who would lead them to the worship of God. 

For this reason many of them who had adopted the monastic rule, they abhorred all the pleasures of this world, and to one thing only they devoted themselves with love, namely to godliness, thirsting to lay down their lives for Christ his sake and they were yearning for the blissfulness beyond that comes from Him. 

They preached therefore the saving name of God, not with any fear and trembling, but rather with excess of boldness, and nothing else but Christ alone was on their lips and they plainly proclaimed to all, that things of the present time are transitory and easily fade away, while the future life to come is fixed and incorruptible, and they were giving to the people the seeds and the reasons for them to become friends with God and to become worthy of winning that life that is hid in Christ. 

Therefore many, take pleasure in that most sweet teaching, they turned away from the bitter darkness of error and they were added to the sweet light of truth, to the extent that certain of the noblemen and senators would lay aside all the burdens of life and would become monks. 

The king however, when he heard of this, he was filled with wrath and boiling over with indignation, he immediately passed a decree, that all the Christians would be forced to renounce their religion. Meanwhile he invented and practiced new kinds of torture against them and he threatened of new forms of death. 

He was also sending letters throughout the whole country that was under his dominion, to the rulers and the governors, letters that were ordering penalties and unlawful massacres against the righteous. 

And opposing indeed with particular determination against the ranks of the monastic orders, he waged a truceless and unrelenting warfare against them. 

Hence, many of the faithful were shaken in spirit, while others, not being able to endure the torture, they yielded to his illicit decrees. 

But the chiefs and rulers of the monastic order, some in rebuking his wickedness, ended their lives by suffering martyrdom and thus they attained the everlasting blessedness, while others were hidding themselves in mountains and deserts, not out of dread of the tortures with which he was threatening them, but by a certain divine dispensation. 

Now while this dark and moonless night took over the land of the Indians and while the faithful were harried on every side, and the champions of ungodliness prospered and with the bloods and the fumes of the sacrifices even the very air was reeking, a certain man of the royal household, who holded the rank of the chief satrap, and in the quality of his soul and in his stature and in his comeliness and in all other qualities that usually mark the beauty of the body and the braveness of the valiant soul, he was different that the others. 

So when he heard this ungodly decree, after he bade farewell to this futile and degrading glory and enjoyment, he enlisted himself to the ranks of the monks, retiring away into the desert lands, and, when through fastings and vigils and by diligent study of the divine sayings he thoroughly purged his senses and his soul from every depentance of the passions, he illumined them with the light of apathy. 

The king however, who loved him much and esteemed him highly, when he heard all this, he was certainly grieved in spirit at the loss of his friend, his anger however was the more hotly kindled against the monks. 

And after he sent men everywhere in search of him, and he left no stone unturned, as the saying is, in order to find him, after a quite long while, the people that were sent in quest of him, when they learned that he dwelled in the desert, they searched and they apprehended him and they presented him before the king’s judgment seat. 

When the king saw him in such poor and rough raiment him who before had been clad in rich apparel, and him who had lived in the lap of luxury, to be shrunken and wasted by the severe practice of the ascetic discipline and bringing the visible signs of his hermit-life, he was filled with mingled grief and fury, and blending in his speech both of these two emotions he said to him: 

«O you dullard and mad man, why have you exchanged the honor for shame and your glorious estate for this unseemly appearance? You the highest magnate of my kingdom and chief commander of my realm, you made yourself the laughing-stock for boys, and not only you have forgotten our friendship and fellowship, but by revolting against nature itself and having no pity on your own children, and despising riches and all the splendor of the world, you have chosen ignominy rather than the enviable glory, in order to gain what? 

And what shall you profit from it, from the fact that above all gods and all men you have preferred Him Whom they call Jesus, and this rough and rag dressed life, to the pleasures and delights of the sweet life?» 

When he heard these words the man of God, in a courteous but also calm manner he replied; 

«If you wish, O king, to converse with me, remove your enemies out of mid court, and then I will answer you concerning whatsoever you may desire to know. For, while they are here present with you, I will not tell you anything. Without speech, punish me, kill me, do as you will; for «the world has been crucified to me and I to the world», as my divine teacher says». 

And when the king said, «Who are these enemies whom you bid me turn out of court?» the saintly man answered; 

«Anger and desire. For these since the beginning, as fellow-workers of nature they were made by the Creator, and such they still are for those who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. But in you who are altogether carnal and have nothing of spirit, they have become adversaries and play the part that belongs to the enemies and the antagonists. 

Because the desire in you, when activated it stirs up pleasure, while when negated, it stirs up anger. Today therefore let them be banished these things from you, and let here be present the wisdom and the righteousness in order to hear what is being said and to judge. Because, if you take out of the way the anger and the desire and bring in their place the wisdom and the righteousness, I will truthfully tell you everything». 

To these the king said; «Lo, yielding to your request, I will banish out of the court both desire and anger and I will bring as intermediaries the wisdom and the righteousness. So now tell me without fear, where from did it come to you such great error and the fact that you prefer those things that are just vain hopes, than those that are tangible». 

The hermit then answered and said: «If, O king, you wish to know the cause, that is, where from did it come to me to despise the temporal things and to devote my whole self to the hope of eternal things, listen. 

In the old days, when I was still very young, I heard a certain good and salvatory word, and the power of this word took my soul by storm, and the remembrance of it, like some divine seed planted in my heart, was preserved unseparated in me, until it took root and blossomed and bore the fruit that you see in me. 

And the meaning of that word was more or less this; The foolish, it says, consider as good to despise the things that exist, as though they do not exist, and to attach themselves to the things that do not exist as though they exist. He therefore, who has never tasted the sweetness of the things that exist, will not be able to understand the nature of the things that do not exist. And since he shall not understand them, how shall he despise them? 

Of course, by «things that exist», that word named the things that are eternal and cannot be removed, while by «things that do not exist» named the present life and the pleasure and the prosperity that deceives, whereon, O king, unfortunately, your heart is fixed amiss. 

Time was when I also clung myself to these, but the power of that word, by continually goading my heart, stirred the governor mind in me in order for me to choose the superior choice, while the law of sin, warring against the law of my mind, was holding me captive as with iron chains, to pursuing the things of the present. 

When the kindness and the benevolence of God our Savior was pleased to free me from that terrible captivity, it strengthened my mind to overcome the law of sin and it opened my eyes, in order to discern the good from the evil. 

Thereupon I perceived and saw that all things present are in vain and nothing more than desirous option of the spirit, as Solomon the wise also said somewhere in his writings. Then, the veil of sin was removed from my heart and the darkness proceeding from the grossness of my body, which had settled down upon my soul dispersed and I perceived for what purpose I was created and that it behoved me to move upward towards my Creator by the keeping of the commandments. 

For this, after I abandoned everything, I followed Him and I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, because He delivered me out of the mire and from the making of bricks, and from the harsh and deadly ruler of the darkness of this world, and He showed me a short and easy road, by which I shall be able to embrace the angelic life, in this earthly body. 

Desiring to attain this angelic life I chose to walk the steep and narrow way, completely renouncing the vanity of present things and their unstable changes and conduct thereof, and not being persuaded any longer to consider anything else as good instead of the true good, from which you, O king, have been sundered and alienated. 

Wherefore we ourselves were alienated and we have parted from you, because not only you were falling into certain and manifest destruction, but because you are also forcing us to descend into similar peril. Because, for as long we were evaluated in the affairs of this world only, we haven't failed to perform in no point of duty; You yourself will certainly bear me witness that I have never been accused neither for some kind of sloth nor for negligence. 

But since you have endeavored to remove it from us, even this the chiefest of all blessings that is, our religion, and to deprive us of God with this most severe of deprivations, and for this purpose you remind us of past honors and preferments, how would I not rightly say, that you ignore the good, and that you compare these two things to each other, I mean the devoutness toward God and the human friendship and glory, that flows and fades like the water? 

And how can we agree with you on this, and instead, won't we deny, both the friendship and the honors and the love of the children and any other greater tie that exist? 

And in fact, when we see you, O king, to behave ungratefully toward God, Who gives you even the life itself and the breathe, our God Who is Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, Who, while He is, like the Father, without beginning and coeternal and having created by his word the heavens and the earth, and having created the man with His own hands and having honoured him with immortality, and having made him king of all that exist on the earth, by assigning him as his royal dwelling the fairest place of all, the Paradise. 

The man however beguiled by envy and caught by the bait of pleasure (woe is me!), fell from all these blessings in a miserable way; and he that once was enviable, became a piteous spectacle and deserving of tears for his misfortune. 

Wherefore He, Who had moulded us and created us, looking again with eyes of compassion upon the work of His own hands, without ceasing being God, as He had been from the beginning, He became for our sake a man like we are too, but without sin, and after He received on His own will both crucifixion and death, He overthrew the foeman that from the beginning envied our race; 

and after He rescued us from that bitter captivity, out of His love for us He gave us back the former freedom, and to that place from where we had fallen because of our disobedience He lifted us up again out of philanthropy, granting us even greater honor than the honor we had before. 

Him therefore who endured such sufferings for our sake and bestowed upon us such blessings, do you reject Him and you scoff at His Cross? And being yourself wholly riveted to the carnal delights and to the deadly passions, do you proclaim as gods the idols of shame and of dishonor? 

Not only you have alienated yourself from your relation with the heavenly goods, but also all others who obey your commands you have severed from the same and you have delivered them to the peril of their souls. 

Know therefore that I will not obey you, nor I will participate in such ingratitude of yours towards God, neither I will deny my benefactor and Savior, though you slay me by wild beasts, though you give me to the fire and sword, as it is in your power. 

For neither I fear death, nor I desire the goods of the present world, knowing well their high frailty and vanity. For which of those goods is useful or permanent or perpetual? 

And not only that, but also within their very existence, great misery, great and ceaseless attendant care, and great sorrow coexist with them. Because together with the pleasure and the enjoyment of the present goods, every kind of dejection and pain is associated. Their riches is poverty and their loftiness is the lowest humiliation. 

And who can enumerate their miseries, which in few words my own theologian has shown me? For he says, «The whole world lies in wickedness»; and, «Love not the world, neither the things that belong in the world, for all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life»; and, «the world passes away, likewise the lust of it, while, he who does the will of God abides forever». 

Seeking for myself this good will of God, I have forsaken everything and have joined those who possess the same desire and seek after the same God, among whom there is no strife or envy, sorrows and concerns, but they all run the same race, in order to obtain those everlasting habitations which the Father of lights has prepared for them those who love Him. 

Them I have gained as fathers, them as brothers, them as friends and acquaintances, while I walked away from the friends and brethren I once had, and I lodged in the wilderness waiting for God, who saves me from the faintness of spirit and from the storm». 

When these words were spoken by the man of God in so gently manner and in good reason, the king certainly was stirred by anger and he wanted to cruelly torment the saint, but he hesitated and he postponed it, because he esteemed the respect that he inspired and his good fame. He answered however and said; 

«Since from every angle, oh miserable man, you have contrived your utter ruin, by following it, as it seems, by fate, you have sharpen your wits and your tongue, and hence you have uttered a vain and ambiguous babbling. And had I not promised at the beginning of the conversation, that I would banish anger out of the court, I would now hand over your body to the fire. 

But since you anticipated and you tied me up with these words, I bear with your insolence, by reason of my former friendship with you. Arise therefore and flee from my sight, lest I ever see you again and kill you in a miserable way». 

And exiting, the man of God departed to the desert, grieved on one hand to have lost the crown of martyrdom, being a martyr on the other hand every day in his conscience and wrestling against the principalities and the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the evil spirits, as the blessed Paul says. 

But after he departed, the king yet more angry declared a fiercer persecution against the monastic order and he judged as worthy of a greater honor the ministers and the temple-keepers of his idols. 

So while the king was under such terrible delusion and error, a son was born to him that was very beautiful, and this apparent beauty of his was prophesying his future fortunes. Because it was said that nowhere in that land had ever been seen a so charming and lovely a baby. 

Full of joy the king for the birth of the child, he gave him the name Ioasaph, and in his folly he went in person to the temples of the idols in order to offer sacrifice to his still more foolish gods and in order to offer hymns of praise, unaware of who is the true giver of all good things, to Whom he should have offered the spiritual sacrifice. 

Him then, ascribing the cause of his son’s birth to lifeless and dumb things, he sent out criers everywhere to gather the people together to his son’s birthday celebration. 

And you could see all the folk running together for the fear of the king and bringing in and collocate their offerings ready for the sacrifice, in accordance to how much could afford the hands of each one and to the devotion that he had towards the king. 

But chiefly the king stirred them up to emulate him in generosity, by bringing for sacrifice full many oxen of goodly size, and thus, after making a feast for all his people, he bestowed largesses to all, both to those who belonged to the body of his counselors and the magnates, as well as to his soldiers, and also to the men of low degree and the insignificant ones. 

In this feast for the birthday of the child, some fifty-five chosen men came to the king, of those who occupied themselves with the astrology of the Chaldeans. After the king invited them to seat near him, he was asking each one of them to tell him what would become his child that was born. 

Them then, after they had consulted each other for a long time, they said that he would become great both in riches and in power and he would surpass all who had reigned before him. 

But one of the astrologers, who was completely different from all the others that were with him, said; «From what the courses of the stars teach me my king, the advancement of the child that has just been born to you, will not be in your kingdom, but in another superior one and greater beyond compare. 

I also think that he will embrace the religion of the Christians, which you persecute, and I don't believe that he will be disappointed in his aim and in his hope». 

In this way the astrologer spoke, like Balaam of the old days, without this meaning that the astrology were telling the truth, but only that God signified the truth by the mouth of his opponents in order to remove every excuse from the ungodly. 

When the king heard these things, he received the tidings with a very heavy heart, and the sorrow that took him over cut his joy short. 

After he built a very beautiful palace in a city set apart and he decorated gorgeous chambers, he set his son to live there, after the completion of his first infancy, and he forbade anyone to approach him. 

And he appointed for his sake instructors and servants, young in age and very beautiful in their appearance, giving them the order to reveal him not anything of the annoyances of life, neither death, nor old age, nor disease, nor poverty, nor anything else sorrowful that could interrupt his happiness. 

On the contrary, they should present before him all the pleasant and enjoyable things, so that, while his mind would experience delight and pleasure with these, he would not be able at all to consider the future things to come. 

And nor he should ever hear, not even as bare words, anything related with Christ and his doctrines. Because mainly this more than anything else he was minded to conceal from his son, for he was fearful of the prophecy of the astrologer. 

And if anyone of his servants happened to fall sick, he commanded to have him removed from there as fast as possible, and he put another servant in his place, full of vigor and all healthy, so that it would never occur for the eyes of the boy to behold anything irregular. 

These were the things the king had in his thoughts and these things he did; for, «seeing, he did not see, and hearing, he did not understand». 

When in fact he learned that some of the monks still managed to escape, although he thought that it had not remained not even a trace of them, he became very angry and, turning with fury against them, he commanded heralds to scour every city and the whole country, proclaiming that within three days no one from the order of the monks should be found nowhere. 

And if any were discovered after that deadline, they should be delivered to death by fire and sword for these, he said, they persuade the people to believe the Crucified as God. 

Meanwhile another thing also happened, because of which the king was fierce and angry against the monks. 

End of chapter 1