After studying classical literature and theology, Palladius (c.365-430) pursued the monastic life on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, then among the ascetics of Alexandria, Nitria, and the Cells in Egypt.  Palladius was eventually ordained bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, but he is best known as a historian of monasticism.  His Lausiac History contains stories and anecdotes about famous men and women ascetics of his day.

Source:  Palladius, The Lausiac History (Westminster, Maryland:  The Newman Press, 1965).

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 God-­inspired 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...

[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.

[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.