Kingsley_Hypatia.txt topic ['13', '324', '378', '393']
peace, when they saw those
whom they had driven out as reprobates laboring
peacefully and cheerfully under .
elder generation of , too, saw, with some
horror, the new influx of sinners : but their abbot
had but one answer to their remonstrances:
" who are whole need not a physician, but
those who are sick."
was the young abbot heard to speak
harshly of any human being. " thou hast
tried in vain for seven years," he used to say, " to
convert a sinner, then only wilt thou have a right
to his own 299
to suspect him of being a worse man than thyself."
there is a seed of good in all men, a
and striving with all men, a gospel
and good news which would turn the hearts of all
men, if abbots and priests could but preach it
aright, was his favorite doctrine, and one which he
used to defend, when, at rare intervals, he allowed
himself to discuss any subject, from the writings
of his favorite theologian, of .
all, he stopped, by stern rebuke, any
attempt to revile either heretics or heathens. "
the alone," he used to say, " lies
the blame of all heresy and unbelief: for if she
were but for one day that which she ought to be,
the world would be converted before nightfall."
one class of sins, indeed, he was inexorable
all but ferocious ; to the sins, namely, of religious
persons. proportion to any man's reputation
for orthodoxy and sanctity, 's judg-
ment of him was stern and pitiless. than
once events proved him to have been unjust: when
he saw himself to be so, none could confess his
mistake more frankly, or humiliate himself for it
more bitterly : but from his rule he never swerved ;
and the of the dreaded and avoided
him, as much as the publicans and sinners loved
and followed him.
thing only in his conduct gave some handle
for scandal, among the just persons who needed
no repentance. was well known that in his
most solemn devotions, on those long nights of
unceasing prayer and self-discipline, which won
him a reputation for superhuman sanctity, there
mingled always with his prayers the names of two
women. , when some worthy elder, taking
300
courage from his years, dared to hint kindly to
him that such conduct caused some scandal to the
weaker brethren, " is true," answered he ; " tell
my brethren that pray nightly for two women :
both of them young; both of them beautiful;
both of them beloved by me more than love my
own soul; and tell them, moreover, that one of
the two was a harlot, and the other a heathen."
old monk laid his hand on his mouth, and
retired.
remainder of his history it seems better to
extract from an unpublished fragment of the
of -
ticus, the greater part of which valuable work was
destroyed at the taking of under
, .. 640.
" when the said abbot had ruled the mon-
astery of seven years with uncommon pru-
dence, resplendent in virtue and in miracles, it
befell that one morning he was fate for the
office. a certain ancient brother, who
was also a deacon, being sent to ascertain the
cause of so unwonted a defection, found the holy
man extended upon the floor of his cell, like
in the flesh, though far differing from him
in the spirit, having fallen into a trance, but hav-
ing his eyes open. , not daring to arouse
him, sat by him until the hour of noon, judging
rightly that something from heaven had befallen
him. at that hour, the saint arising without
astonishment, said, ' , make ready for me
the divine elements, that may consecrate them.'
he asking the reason wherefore, the saint
replied, ' may partake thereof with all
my brethren, ere depart hence. know
to his own 301
assuredly that, within the seventh day, shall
migrate to the celestial mansions. this night
stopd by me in a dream, those two women, whom
love, and for whom pray ; the one clothed in a
white, the other in a ruby-colored garment, and
holding each other by the hand ; who said to me,
" life after death is not such a one as you
fancy: come, therefore, and behold with us what
it is like." ' at which words, the deacon
went forth : yet on account not only of holy obe-
dience, but also of the sanctity of the blessed
abbot, did not hesitate to prepare according to his
command the divine elements; which the abbot
having consecrated, distributed among his breth-
ren, reserving only a portion of the most holy
bread and wine; and then, having bestowed on
them all the kiss of peace, he took the paten and
chalice in his hands, and went forth from the mon-
astery towards the desert ; whom the whole frater-
nity followed weeping, as knowing that they should
see his face no more. he, having arrived at
the foot of a certain mountain, stopped, and bless-
ing them, commanded them that they should fol-
low him no farther, and dismissed them with these
words : ' ye have been loved, so love. ye
have been judged, so judge. ye have been
forgiven, so forgive.' so ascending, was taken
away from their eyes. they, returning aston-
ished, watched three days with prayer and fasting :
but at last the eldest brother, being ashamed, like
before the entreaties of 's disciples,
sent two of the young men to seek their master.
" whom befell a thing noteworthy and full of
miracles. ascending the same mountain where
they had left the abbot, they met with a certain
302
people, not averse to the verity,
who declare that certain days before a priest had
passed by them, bearing a paten and chalice, and
blessing them in silence, proceeded across the
desert in the direction of the cave of the holy
.
" they in miring who this might be,
the answered that some twenty years ago
there had arrived in those mountains a woman
more beautiful than had ever before been seen in
that region, dressed in rich garments ; who after a
short sojourn among their tribe, having distributed
among them the jewels which she wore, had em-
braced the eremitic life, and sojourned upon the
highest peak of a neighboring mountain ; till, her
garments failing her, she became invisible to man-
kind, saving to a few women of the tribe, who went
up from time to time to carry her offerings of fruit
and meal, and to ask the blessing of her prayers.
whom she rarely appeared, veiled down to her
feet in black hair of exceeding length and splen-
dor.
" these things, the two brethren doubted
for a while: but at last, determining to proceed,
arrived at sunset upon the summit of the said
mountain.
" , behold a great miracle. above an
open grave, freshly dug in the sand, a cloud of
vultures and obscene birds hovered, whom two
lions, fiercely contending, drove away with their
talons, as if from some sacred deposit therein en-
shrined. whom the two brethren, fortify-
ing themselves with the sign of the holy cross,
ascended. the lions, as having fulfilled
the term of their guardianship, retired ; and left to
to his own 303
the brethren a sight which they beheld with aston-
ishment, and not without tears.
" in the open grave lay the body of -
mon the abbot; and by his side, wrapt in his
cloak, the corpse of a woman of exceeding beauty,
such as the had described. embrac-
ing straitly, as a brother a sister, and joining his
lips to hers, he had rendered up his soul to ;
not without bestowing on her, as it seemed, the
most holy sacrament ; for by the grave-side stood
the paten and the chalice emptied of their divine
contents.
" beheld which things awhile in silence,
they considered that the right understanding of
such matters pertained to the judgment-seat above,
and was unnecessary to be comprehended by men
consecrated to . , filling in the grave
with all haste, they returned weeping to the ,
and declared to them the strange things which
they had beheld, and whereof the writer, having
collected these facts from sacrosanct and most
trustworthy mouths, can only say that wisdom is
justified of all her children.
" , before they returned, one of the brethren
searching the cave wherein the holy woman dwelt,
found there neither food, furniture, or other
matters ; saving one bracelet of gold, of large size
and strange workmanship, engraven with foreign
characters, which no one could decipher.
which bracelet, being taken home to the of
, and there dedicated in the chapel to the
memory of the holy , proved beyond all
doubt the sanctity of its former possessor, by the
miracles which its virtue worked ; the fame where-
of spreading abroad throughout the whole ,
304
drew innumerable crowds of suppliants to that
holy relic. it came to pass, after the
persecution wherewith and the
king devastated , and enriched the
with innumerable martyrs, that certain
wandering barbarians of the race, imbued
with the pravity, and made insolent by suc-
cess, boiled over from the parts of into
the region. plundering and burn-
ing all monasteries, and insulting the consecrated
virgins, at last arrived even at the monastery of
, where they not only, according to their
impious custom, defiled the altar, and carried off the
sacred vessels, but also bore away .that most holy
relic, the chief glory of the , namely, the
bracelet of the holy , impiously pretending
that it had belonged to a warrior of their tribe, and
thus expounded the writing thereon engraven :
" 's 's .
whether they spoke truth or not, yet their
sacrilege did not remain unpunished ; for attempt-
ing to return homeward toward the sea by way of
the , they were set upon while weighed down
with wine and sleep, by the country people, and to
a man miserably destroyed. the pious folk,
restoring the holy gold to its pristine sanctuary,
were not unrewarded : for since that day it grows
glorious with ever fresh miracles as of blind
restored to sight, paralytics to strength, demoniacs
to sanity to the honor of the orthodox
, and of its ever-blessed saints."
be it. and , like the rest,
went to their own place ; to the only place where
to his own 305
such in such days could find rest; to the desert
and the hermit's cell, and then forward into that
fairy land of legend and miracle, wherein all saintly
lives were destined to be enveloped for many a
century thenceforth.
now, readers, farewell. have shown you
under an old face your own likenesses
in toga and tunic, instead of coat and bonnet.
word before we part. same devil who tempted
these old tempts you. same
who would have saved these old if they
had willed, will save you, if you will. sins
are yours, their errors yours, their doom yours,
their deliverance yours. is nothing new
under the sun. thing which has been, it is
that which shall be. him that is without sin
among you cast the first stone, whether at
or , or , or -
mon.