PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF THE HOLY FATHERS

[I] This book is a record of the virtuous asceticism and marvelous manner of life of those blessed and holy fathers, the monks and anchorites which inhabit the desert, (written) with a view of stirring to rivalry and imitation those who wish to realize the heavenly mode of life and desire to tread the road which leads to the kingdom of heaven. It contains also memoirs of aged women and illustrious God­inspired matrons, who with masculine and perfect mind have successfully accomplished the smuggles of virtuous asceticism, (which may serve) as a model and object of desire for those women who long to wear the crown of continence and chastity.

[2] It was written at the suggestion of one of the finest of men, one who was most learned in my opinion, of peaceable habits, religiously disposed in hear and mind, and charitable to the poor.  It was this man, highly honored as he was, and by reason of his own goodness occupying a high place among great men, guided by the power of the Spirit of God—he it was who enjoined us to this task.  Or, rather, it was he who aroused our sluggish mind to the contemplation of higher things.  Indeed, it was he who moved us to imitate and rival the ascetic virtues of the holy and immortal spiritual fathers, those who had led lives pleasing to God by subjecting their own bodies.

[3] And so, having described the lives of these invincible athletes, we have sent them to him, proclaiming the conspicuous virtues of each of these great persons. I am referring to Lausus, the best of men, who by the favor of God has been appointed guardian of our godly and religious empire; it is he who is inspired with this divine and spiritual passion.

[4] I then, who am clumsy in utterance and have but a superficial acquaintance with spiritual knowledge and am unworthy to draw up a list of the holy fathers of the spiritual life, fearing the infinite greatness of the task set me, so much above my capacity, found the command intolerable, requiring as it did so much worldly wisdom and spiritual understanding. Nevertheless, respecting in the first place the eager virtue of the man who urged us to obey the command, and considering the benefit accruing to the readers, and fearing also the danger of a refusal albeit with a reasonable excuse, I first commended the noble task to Providence and then applied myself diligently to it. Sustained, as if on wings, by the intercession of the holy fathers, I attended the contests of the arena. I have described in a kind of summary only the main contests and achievements of the noble athletes and great men­not only illustrious men who have realized the best manner of life, but also blessed and highborn women who have practiced the highest life.

[5] I have been privileged to see with my own eyes the revered faces of some of these, but in the case of others, who had already been perfected in the arena of piety, I have learned their heavenly mode of life from inspired athletes of Christ. In the course of my journey on foot I visited many cities and very many villages, every cave and all the desert dwellings of monks, with all accuracy as befitted my pious intentions. Some things I wrote down after personal investigation, the rest I have heard from the holy fathers, and I have recorded in this book the combats of great men, and women more like men than nature would seem to allow, thanks to their hope in Christ. I now send the whole to you whose ears love divine oracles, to you, Lausus, who are the pride of excellent and God­beloved men, and the ornament of the most faithful and God­beloved empire, noble and Christ­loving servant of God. I have recorded to the best of my feeble powers the famous name of each of the athletes of Christ, male and female, describing a few short contests out of the many mighty ones engaged in by each, adding in most cases the family and city and place of residences

[6] We have also told of men and women who have reached the highest stage of virtue, but owing to vainglory, as it is called, the mother of pride, have fallen into the lowest pit and abyss of hell, and the triumphs of asceticism, so earnestly desired and so strenuously fought for, acquired by them after long periods of time and many labors, have been dissipated in an instant by pride and self­conceit. But by the grace of our Savior and the fore­knowledge of the holy fathers and the sympathy of spiritual affection they have been snatched from the nets of the devil and, helped by the prayers of the saints, have recovered their former life of virtue.

CHAPTER XVIII: MACARIUS OF ALEXANDRIA 1

[1] BUT I did meet the other Macarius, the Alexandrian, a priest of the place called Cellia. I sojourned in this Cellia nine years.  He survived for three years of my stay there. And some things I saw (for myself), some I heard from him, and some things  again I heard from others. This then was the method of his asceticism. If ever he heard of any feat, he did the same thing,  perfectly. For instance, having heard from some that the monks of Tabennisi all through Lent eat (only) food that has not been  near the fire, he decided for seven years to eat nothing that had been through the fire, and except for raw vegetables, if any such  were found, and moistened pulse he tasted nothing. [2] Having practiced this virtue to perfection, he heard about another man,  that he ate a pound of bread. And having broken up his ration?biscuit and put it into a vessel with a narrow mouth, he decided  to eat just as much as his hand brought out. And he would tell the story thus in a joking manner: " I seized hold of a number of  pieces, but I could not extract them all at once by reason of the narrowness of the opening, for like a tax?gatherer it would not  let me." So for three years he kept up this practice of asceticism, eating four or five ounces of bread and drinking as much  water, and a pint of oil in the year.

[3] Here is another practice of his. He determined to dispense with sleep, and he told us how he did not go under a roof for  twenty days, that he might conquer sleep, being burnt up by the sun's heat and shriveled up with cold by night. And he used to  say this: " Unless I had soon gone under a roof and got some sleep, my brain would have so dried up as to drive me into  delirium for ever after. And I conquered so far as depended on me, but I gave way so far as depended on my nature that had  need of sleep."

[4] As he sat early in the morning in his cell, a mosquito settled on his foot and stung him. And feeling the pain he squashed it  with his hand after it was full of blood. So, accusing himself for having taken vengeance, he condemned himself to sit naked  for six months in the marsh of Scete, which is in the great desert. The mosquitos there are like wasps, and even pierce the hides  of wild boars. So then he was bitten all over and developed so many swellings that some thought he had elephantiasis.  Returning to his cell after six months, he was recognized by his voice that it was Macarius himself.

[5] Once he desired to enter the garden?tomb of Jannes and Jambres, so he told us. But this garden-tomb had once belonged  to the magicians who had great power long ago with Pharaoh. Forasmuch then as they had the power for long periods, they  built their work with stones faced four?square, and made their tomb there, and stored away much gold. They also planted trees,  for the place is rather damp, and they dug a well besides. [6] Since therefore the saint did not know the way, he followed the  stars by a kind of guesswork, crossing the desert, as one does at sea. Taking a bundle of reeds he planted them one each mile  as landmarks in order to find his way as he returned. So having traveled nearly nine days he approached the place. Then the  demon, who always withstands the athletes of Christ, collected all the reeds and put them at his head as he slept about a mile  from the garden-tomb. [7] So he arose and found the reeds, God having allowed this perhaps to try him further, that he might  not trust in reeds, (possibly an allusion to Mt. 11:7, "a reed shaken wiht the wind.") but in the pillar of cloud that led Israel  forty years in the desert. He used to say: "Seventy demons came out from the garden?tomb to meet me, shouting and fluttering  like crows against my face and saying: 'What do you want, Macarius ? What do you want, monk? Why have you come to our  place? You can't stay here.' I told them,'' he said, "'Let me just go in and look round and go away.' [8] "So," he said, " I went in  and found a little brazen jar suspended and an iron chain against the well, rusted already by time, and some pomegranates with  nothing inside because they had been dried up by the sun." So then he turned back and went on his way for twenty days. But  when the water which he was carrying failed him and also the loaves, he was in great distress. And when he was nearly  collapsing there appeared to him a maiden, so he declared, wearing a pure white robe and holding a cruse dripping with water.  [9] He said she was some distance, about a stade, away from him, and he went on for three days, gazing at her as she stood  with the vessel and being unable to catch her up, as happens in dreams ;l but he lasted out sustained by the hope of drinking.  After her appeared a herd of antelopes, one of which with a calf stopped?there are many in those regions. And he said that her  udder was flowing with milk. So, creeping under her and sucking, he was satisfied. And the antelope went as far as his cell,  giving him milk, but not allowing her own calf to suck.

[10] On another occasion, while digging a well near to some vegetable shoots, he was bitten by an asp. Now this beast is able  to cause death. And having taken it with both hands he seized it by the jaws and pulled it in pieces, saying to it: "When God  did not send you, how did you dare to come ? "

Now he had several cells in the desert: one in Scete, the great interior desert, and one in the Libyan desert, and one at the  so?called Cellia, and one on Mount Nitria. Some of these are without windows, and in these he was said to sit during Lent in  darkness. Another was too narrow for him to stretch out his feet in it. Another, in which he met his visitors, was more spacious.

[11] He healed so great a crowd of demoniacs that they cannot be counted. When we were there a highborn maiden was  brought from Thessalonica, paralyzed for many years. He rubbed her for twenty days with holy oil 2 with his own hands,  praying the while, and sent her back to her city restored to health. After she had gone she sent him many generous gifts.

[12] Having heard that the monks of Tabennisi had a splendid rule of life, he changed his clothes and put on the secular  garments of a workman, and went a fifteen days' journey to the Thebaid, traveling through the desert. And having come to the  monastery of the Tabennesiots he asked for their archimandrite, Pachomius by name, a man of great reputation and possessing  the gift of prophecy?though the story of Macarius had not been revealed to him. So meeting him he said: " I pray you, receive  me into your monastery that I may become a monk." [13] Pachomius said to him: "You have already reached old age, and you  cannot be an ascetic. The brethren are ascetics and you cannot endure their labors. You will be offended and will depart,  cursing them." And he did not receive him either the first day or the second, till seven days had passed. But he persisted in  waiting, fasting (all the time), and at last he said to him: " Receive me, father, and if I do not fast as they do and work, order me  to be driven out." He persuaded the brethren to admit him; now the total number (of the occupants) of the first monastery was  1,400 men and remains so up to this day. [14] Well, he entered. When a little time had passed, Lent came on and he saw each  man practicing different ways of asceticism?one eating in the evening only, another every two days, another every five, another  again standing all night but sitting down by day. So having moistened palm?leaves in large numbers, he stood in a corner and  until the forty days were completed and Easter had come, ate no bread and drank no water, neither knelt down nor reclined, and  apart from a few cabbage leaves took nothing, and them only on Sunday, that he might appear to eat. [I5] And if ever he went  out in obedience to nature, he quickly came in again and took his stand, speaking to no one and not opening his mouth but  standing in silence. And, apart from prayer in his heart and the palm?leaves in his hands, he was doing nothing. All the ascetics  therefore, seeing this, raised a revolt against the superior, saying: " Where did you get this fleshless man from, to condemn us?  Either drive him out, or know that we are all going." Pachomius, therefore, having heard the details of his observance, prayed to  God that the identity of the stranger might be revealed to him. [I6] And it was revealed; and he took him by the hand and led  him to the house of prayer, where the altar was, and said to him, "Here, good old man, you are Macarius and you hid it from  me. For many years I have been longing to see you. I thank you for letting my children feel your fist, lest they should be proud  of their ascetic achievements. Now go away to your own place, for you have edified us sufficiently. And pray for us." Then he  went away, as asked.

[17] On another occasion he told us this story: " Having perfected every kind of life that I desired, then I had another desire. I  desired to keep my mind for five days only undistracted from (the contemplation of) God. And, having determined this, I  barred the cell and enclosure, so as not to have to answer any man, and I took my stand, beginning at the second hour. So I  gave this commandment to my mind: " Do not descend from heaven. There you have angels, archangels, the powers on high,  the God of all; do not descend below heaven." [18] And having lasted out two days arid two nights, I exasperated the demon so  that he became a flame of fire and burned up all the things in the cell, so that even the little mat on which I stood was consumed  with fire and I thought I was being all burned up. Finally, stricken with fear, I left ok on the third day, being unable to keep my  mind free from distraction, but I descended to contemplation of the world, lest vanity should be imputed to me."

[19] Once I visited this holy Macarius and found a village priest lying just outside his cell, whose head was all eaten away by  the disease called cancer, and the actual bone appeared on the crown of his head. He had come to be healed and Macarius  would not grant him an interview. So I besought him: "I pray you, pity him and give him his answer." [20] And he said to me:  " He does not deserve to be healed, for it has been sent him as a punishment. But if you want him to be healed, persuade him to  give up taking services. For he was taking services, though living in fornication, and for this reason he is being punished and  God is healing his soul." So when I said this to the afflicted man he consented, and swore that he would no longer exercise his  priesthood. ? Then he received him and said: " Do you believe that God is?" He said to him: "Yes." [21] "Were you able to  mock God?" " No," he answered. He said: "If you recognize your sin and the chastening of God, on account of which you  suffered this, reform yourself henceforward.' So he confessed his fault and gave a promise that he would sin no more nor take  the service, but embrace the position of a layman. Then he laid his hands on him and in a few days he was cured and the hair  grew and he went away healed.

[22] Before my eyes a young lad was brought to him possessed by an evil spirit. So, putting one hand on his head and the  other on his heart, he prayed so much that he made him hang in mid?air. Then the boy swelled like a wine?skin and festered so  that he became a mass of erysipelas.1 And having cried out suddenly, he produced water through all his senses, and calming  down returned to his original size. So he anointed him with holy oil and handed him to his father, and having poured water  upon him ordered that he should touch neither flesh nor wine for forty days. And so he healed him.

[23] One day vainglorious thoughts troubled him, driving him out from the cell and suggesting to him as if by a divine  dispensation that he should visit the city of the Romans to cure the sick. For grace acted powerfully in him against (evil)  spirits. And when for a long while he would not obey, but was being vehemently pressed, falling on the doorstep of his cell, he  put his feet outside and said: .'' Drag me, demons, pull me. For I am not going with any feet. If you can take me, then I will  go." He swore to them: " Here I lie until evening. Unless you shake me, I will not listen to you." [24] So, having lain there a  long while, he got up, but when night came on they attacked him again, and having filled a two?bushel basket with sand and put  it on his shoulders, he tramped about in the desert. Theosebius the Cosmetor, an Antiochian by race, met him and said to him: "  What are you carrying, father? Give me the burden and don't trouble yourself." But he said to him: "I trouble my troubler. For  he is insatiable and tempts me to go out." So having tramped about for a long time? he went into his cell, having punished his  body.

[25] This holy Macarius told me the following?for he was a priest. " I noticed at the time of distributing the mysteries that it  was never I which gave the oblation to Marcus the ascetic, but an angel used to give it him from the altar. I saw only the  knuckle of the donor's hand." Now this Marcus was a young man, who learned by heart the Old and New Testaments,  exceedingly meek and continent beyond all others.

[26] One day having leisure?Macarius then being in extreme old age?I went off and sat by his door, thinking him superhuman,  seeing that he was so old, and listened to what he said and what he did. He was quite alone inside; being already a hundred  years old and having lost his teeth, he was fighting with himself and the devil and saying: "What do you want, bad old man ?  See, you have had oil and have taken some wine. What do you want more, you white?haired glutton ? "-scolding himself. Then  to the devil: " Do I owe you anything now? You won't?find anything. Go away from me." And, as if humming to himself, he  was saying: "Here, you white?haired glutton, how long shall I be with you ?'' (Cf. Mt 27:17)

[27] Paphnutius his disciple told us, that one day a hyena took her whelp, which was blind, and brought it to Macarius. And  having knocked with her head at the door of the enclosure, she entered, Macarius sitting outside (his cell), and threw the young  one down at his feet. And he took it and spat on its eyes and prayed, and immediately it recovered its sight. (Cf. Lk 18:43) And  its mother having suckled it took it and went away. [28] And on the next day she brought the saint the fleece of a large sheep.  And the blessed Melania said this to me: "I got that fleece from Macarius as a gift to a visitor. And what marvel, if He who  tamed the lions for Daniel, also made the hyena intelligent ? "

And he said, that from the day he was baptized. he never spat on the ground,! it being then sixty years from his baptism. [29]  As to his bodily form, he was rather short, and beardless, having no hairs except on his lips and the tip of his chin. For owing  to the excess of his asceticism the hairs of his beard did not even sprout.

One day, when I was suffering from accidie, I went to him and said: " Father, what shall I do ? Since my thoughts afflict me  saying, 'You are making no progress, go away from here."' And he said to me: " Tell them, 'For Christ's sake I am guarding the  walls,"

I have told you these few stories out of many relating to the holy Macarius.

CHAPTER XLVI: MELANIA THE ELDER

[1] The thrice?blessed Melania Divas a Spaniard by origin, but afterwards belonged to Rome. She was the daughter of  Marcellinus the ax?consul, and wife of a certain man of high official rank, whom I do not quite remember. Having become a  widow at twenty-two, she was favored with the divine love, and having said nothing to any one?for she would have been  prevented?in the time when Valens had the rule in the empire, she had a guardian nominated for her son and took all her  movable property and put it on a ship; then she sailed with all speed to Alexandria, accompanied by various highborn women  and children. [a] After that, having sold her goods and turned them into money, she went to the mountain of Nitria, where she  met the following fathers and their companions?Pambo, Arsisius, Sarapion the Great, Paphnutius of Scete, Isidore the  Confessor, bishop~of Hermopolis, and Dioscorus. And she sojourned with them for half a year, travailing about in the desert  and visiting all the saints. [3] But after this, when the prefects of Alexandria banished Isidore, Pisimius, Adelphius, Paphoutius  and Pambo, with them also Ammonius Paroles, and twelve bishops and priests, to Palestine in the neighborhood of  Dioczesarea, she followed them and ministered to them from her own money. But, servants being forbidden them, so they told  me?for I met the holy Pisimius and Isidore and Paphnutius and Ammonius?wearing the dress of a young slave she brought  them in the evenings what they required. But the consular of Palestine got to know of it, and wishing to fill his pocket thought  he would terrify her. [4] And having arrested her he?threw her into prison, ignorant that she was a lady. But she told him: "  For my part, I am So?and?So's daughter and So?and?So's wife, but I am Christ's slave. And do not despise the cheapness of  my clothing. For I am able to exalt myself if I like, and you cannot terrify me in this way or take any of my goods. So then I  have told you this, lest through ignorance you should incur judicial accusations. For one must in dealing with insensate folk be  as audacious as a hawk." Then the judge, recognizing the situation, both made an apology and honored her, and gave orders  that she should succor the saints without hindrance.

[5] After they were recalled she founded a monastery in Jerusalem, and spent twenty?seven years there in charge of a convent  of fifty virgins. With her lived also the most noble Rufinus, from Italy, of the city of Aquileia, a man similar to her in character  and very steadfast, who was afterwards judged worthy of the priesthood. A more learned man or a kinder than he was not to be  found among mend [6] So these two during twenty?seven years receiving at their own charges those who visited Jerusalem in  pursuance of a vow, bishops and monks and virgins, edified all who visited them, and they reconciled the schism of Paulinus,  some 400 monks in all, and winning over every heretic that denied the Holy Spirit they brought him to the Church; and they  honored the clergy of the district with gifts and food, and so continued to the end, without offending anyone.

CHAPTER LIV: THE ELDER MELANIA

[I] THOUGH I have told above in a superficial way of the wonderful and saintly Melania, nevertheless I will now weave into  my narrative at this point what remains to be said. What stores of goods she used up in her divine zeal, as it were burning them  in a fire, is not for me to dwell on, but for those who dwell in Persia. For no one escaped her benevolence, neither East nor  West nor North nor South. [2] For thirty?seven years she had been giving hospitality, and at her own costs had succored both  churches and monasteries and strangers and prisoners, her family and her son himself and her stewards providing the money.  She persevered so long in the practice of hospitality that she possessed not even a span of land. She was not drawn (from her  purpose) by desire for her son, nor did yearning after her only son separate her from love towards Christ. [3] But thanks to her  prayers the young man attained a high standard of education and a good character and an illustrious marriage, and participated  in the honors of the world; he had also two children. A long while after, hearing how her granddaughter was situated, that she  was married and was proposing to renounce the world, afraid lest they should be injured by bad teaching or heresy or evil  living, though an old woman of sixty years, she flung herself into a ship and sailing from Caesarea reached Rome in twenty  days. [4] And having met there that most blessed and worthy man Apronianus, a pagan, she instructed him and made him a  Christian, persuading him to be continent as regards his wife, Melania's niece named Avita. And having also strengthened the  will of her own granddaughter Melania, with her husband Pinianus, and instructed her daughter in?law Albina, wife of her son,  and having induced all these to sell their goods, she led them out from Rome and brought them into the holy and calm harbor  of the (religious) life. And in so doing she fought with beasts a in the shape of all the senators and their wives who tried to  prevent her, in view of (similar) renunciation of the world on the part of the other (senatorial) houses. But she said to them: "  Little children, it was written 400 years ago, It is the last hour. Why do you love to linger in life's vanities? Perchance the days  of antichrist will surprise you, and you will cease to enjoy your wealth and your ancestral property." [6] And having liberated  all these she led them to the monastic life. And after instructing the younger son of Publicola she brought him to Sicily, and  having sold all her remaining goods and receded their value, she came to Jerusalem. Then, having got rid of her possessions,  within forty days she fell asleep in a good old age and profound meekness, leaving behind both a monastery in Jerusalem and  an endowment for it.

[7] But when all these persons had left Rome there fell on Rome a hurricane of barbarians, which was ordained long ago in  prophecies, and it did not spare even the bronze statues in the Forum, but sacking them all with barbaric frenzy delivered them  to destruction, so that Rome, which had been beautified by loving hands for 1200 years, became a ruin. Then those who had  been instructed (by Melania) and those who had opposed her instruction glorified God, Who had persuaded the unbelievers by  a reversal of fortune, in that, when all the other families had been made prisoners, these ones only were preserved, having been  made by Melania's zeal burnt?offerings to the Lord.

CHAPTER LV: SILVANIA (MELANIA continued)

[1] IT SO happened that we traveled together from Aelia to Egypt, escorting the blessed Silvania the virgin, sister?in?law of  Rufinus the ex?prefect. Among the party there was Jovinus also with us, then a deacon, but now bishop of the church of  Ascalon, a devout and learned man. We came into an intense heat and, when we reached Pelusium, it chanced that Jovinus took  a basin and gave his hands and feet a thorough wash in ice?cold water, and after washing flung a rug on the

ground and lay down to rest. id] She came to him like a wise mother of a true son and began to scoff at his softness, saying: "  How dare you at your age, when your blood is still vigorous, thus coddle your flesh, not perceiving the mischief that is  engendered by it? Be sure of this, be sure of it, that I am in the sixtieth year of my life and except for the tips of my fingers  neither my feet nor my face nor any one of my limbs have touched water, although I am a victim to various ailments and the  doctors try to force me. I have not consented to make the customary concessions to the flesh, never in my travels have I rested  on a bed or used a litter."

[3] Being very learned and loving literature she turned night into day by perusing every writing of the ancient commentators,  including 3,000,000 (lines) of Origen and 2,500,000 (lines) of Gregory, Stephen, Pierius, Basil, and other standard writers. Nor  did she read them once only and casually, but she laboriously went through each book seven or eight times. Wherefore also  she was enabled to be freed from knowledge falsely so called (I Tim. 6:20) and to fly on wings, thanks to the grace of these  books; elevated by kindly hopes she made herself a spiritual bird and journeyed to Christ.

CHAPTER LVI: OLYMPIAS

[I] THAT most venerable and devoted lady Olympias followed the counsel of Melania, attending?to her precepts and walking  in her footsteps. She was the daughter of Seleucus the ex-count, grand-daughter of Ablavius the ex?prefect, and bride for a few days of Nebridius, the Prefect of the city, but the wife of no man. For  she is said to have died a virgin, but the spouse of the Word of Truth. [2] She dispersed all her goods and gave to the?poor.  She engaged in no mean combats for truth's sake, instructed many women, addressed priests reverently, and honored bishops;  she was accounted worthy to be a confessor for truth's sake. The inhabitants of Constantinople reckon her life among the  confessors, for she died thus and went away to the Lord in the midst of her struggles for God's honor.

CHAPTER LXI: MELANIA THE YOUNGER 1

[I] SINCE I promised above to tell about the (grand?) daughter of Melania, I am constrained to pay the debt, for it is not just  that men should disdain her youthfulness in respect of the flesh and leave on one side with no pillar to commemorate it such  great virtue, virtue which, frankly, far surpasses that of old and zealous women. Her parents by using compulsion made her  marry a man of the highest rank in Rome. Her conscience was always being pricked by the tales she heard about her  grandmother, and (at last) she was so goaded that she felt unable to perform her marriage duty. [2] For, two male children  having been born to her and both having died, she came to have such great hatred of marriage as to say to her husband  Pinianus, son of Severus the exprefect: " If you choose to practice asceticism with me according to the fashion of chastity, then  I recognize you as master and lord of my life. But if this appears grievous to you, being still a young man, take all my  belongings and set my body free, that I may fulfil my desire toward God and become heir of the zeal of my grandmother,  whose name I also bear. [3] For if God had wished us to have children, He would not have taken away my children untimely."  After they had, struggled under the yoke a long while, at last God had pity on the young man and planted in him a zeal for  renunciation, so that the word of Scripture was fulfilled in their case: " How knowest thou, O woman, that thou shalt save thy  husband?'' (I Cor. 7:16) So having been married at thirteen and having lived with her husband seven years, in the twentieth year  she renounced the world. And first she gave her silk dresses to the altars: this the holy Olympias has also done. [4] Then she  cut up her other silks and made them into different church ornaments. And having entrusted her silver and gold to a certain  Paul, a priest, a monk of Dalmatia, she sent them across the sea to the East, 10,000 pieces of money to Egypt and the Thebaid,  10,000 pieces to Antioch and its neighborhood, 15,000 to Palestine, 10,000 to the churches in the islands and the places of  exile, while she herself distributed to the churches in the West in the same way. [5] All this and four times as much she  snatched, if God will allow the expression, " out of the mouth of the lion," (II Tim. 4:17) Alaric by her faith. And she freed  8000 slaves who wished freedom, for the rest did not wish it, but preferred to be slaves to her brother; and she allowed him to  take them all for three pieces of money. But having sold her possessions in the Spains, Aquitania, Tarragonia and the Gauls,  she reserved for herself only those in Sicily and Campania and Africa and appropriated their income for the support of  monasteries. [6] Such was her wise conduct with regard to the burden of riches. And her asceticism was as follows. She ate  every other day?to begin with after a five days' interval?and assigned to herself a part in the daily work of her own  slavewomen, whom also she made her fellow ascetics.

She had with her also her mother Albina, who lived a similar ascetic life and distributed her riches for her part privately. Now  these ladies are dwelling on their properties, now in Sicily and now in Campania, with fifteen eunuchs (apparently to be  interpreted literally; but perhaps metaphorically in allusion to Mt. 19) and sixty virgins, both free and slaved.

[7] Similarly also Pinianus her husband lives with thirty monks, reading and busying himself with the garden and solemn  conferences. But in no small way did they honor us when we, a numerous party, went to Rome because of the blessed bishop  John; they refreshed us both with hospitality and lavish equipment for the journey, thus winning for themselves with great joy  the fruit of eternal life by their God?given works springing from a noble mode of life.

CHAPTER LXIII: THE VIRGIN AND ATHANASIUS

[I] I KNEW a virgin in Alexandria whom I met when she was about seventy years old. Now all the clergy bore her witness that when she was young, some twenty years old, and exceptionally  lovely, she was to be shunned because of her beauty, lest she should make any one an object of blame through suspicion. So  when it happened that the Arians conspired against the blessed Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, by means of Eusebius the  prefect, when Constantius was Emperor, and they were calumniously accusing him of unlawful deeds, he avoided being judged  by a corrupt tribunal and trusted no one, neither relation nor friend, nor cleric nor any one. [2] But when the prefect's men  entered suddenly into the episcopal residence and sought him, he fled at midnight to this virgin, wearing only his tunic and  cloak. But she was disconcerted at the affair and frightened. So he said to her: "Since I am sought by the Arians and am  unjustly accused, I resolved to flee, lest I should bear a false reputation and involve in sin those who wish to punish me. [3] But  God revealed to me to?night: 'With no one canst thou be saved except with this lady."' So with great joy she cast aside all  hesitation and gave herself wholly to the Lord; and she hid that most holy Nan for six years, as long as Constantius lived, both  washing his feet herself and ministering to his bodily requirements and arranging for all his needs, borrowing books and  bringing them to him, and no man in all Alexandria during the six years knew where the blessed Athanasius was living. [4]  Now when the death of Constantius was announced and came to his ears, he dressed himself fittingly and was found once  more by night in the church; arid all were astonished and looked on him as a dead man come to life. Now his defense to his  near friends was as follows: " This is why I did not take refuge with you, that you might the better swear (ignorance of my  whereabouts), and also because of the search. But I fled to one whom no one could suspect, because she was beautiful and  young, bearing two things in mind, her salvation?for I did help her? and my reputation."

CHAPTER LXIV: JULIANA

[I] AGAIN there was a certain Juliana, a virgin of Cesarea in Cappadocia, said to be very learned and most faithful. When  Origen the writer fled from the uprising of the pagans she received him, and supported him for two years at her own cost and  waited on him. I found this written in a very old book of verses, in which had been written by Origen's hand: [2] " I found this  book at the house of Juliana the virgin at Cesarea, when I was hidden by her. She used to say that she had received it from  Symmachus himself, the Jewish interpreter."

I have inserted the virtuous acts of these women as part of my plan, that we may know that it is possible to gain excellence in  many ways, if we desire.