Three blind men (continued) Chapter LXXVII, Book X
(
Miracle of the dead girl, etc. forther down this page)

"Let's go to the Tetrapylum and wait there," I said to Sophronius. It was a place held in great reverence in Alexandria, for it is said that Alexander, the founder of the city, brought the bones of the prophet Jeremiah out of Egypt and reburied them there. When we got there, about noon, we found no one inside except three blind men. Without making a noise we sat down near these three men to read our books. They were having a long conversation with each other.
"How did you come to be blind?" one of them asked the other.
"In my youth I was a sailor," he replied, "and while sailing from Africa on the high seas I suddenly became blind, and could not see where I was going for the whiteness in my eyes. And how did you become blind?" he asked the other.
"I worked in glass production of various kinds," he said, "the fire damaged both my eyes, and I became blind."
Having questioned each other they both then turned to the third.
"Tell us how you also became blind," they asked.
"When I was young," he replied, "I hated work, I rejected it, I was just a layabout (
luxuriosus). But I had nothing to live on so I took to stealing. I had committed many crimes, when one day I was standing in a certain place where I noticed a very richly dressed corpse being carried by. I followed the funeral procession to see where it would be laid. They went behind St John ['s church], and laid the body in a tomb. They said the funeral prayers and departed. As soon as I was sure they had all gone I went in to the tomb and pulled off all the rich clothing, leaving nothing but a linen cloth. As I was on my way out of the tomb, loaded up with many bundles, a wicked thought said to me, 'Take the linen cloth as well, it is such a good one.' Alas, I went back and took the linen cloth also, leaving the body quite naked. The dead man suddenly sat up before my very eyes, thrust out his hands towards me and gouged out my eyes. Terrified, I dropped everything, and found my way out of the tomb with great danger and difficulty. So now, I have told you how I too became blind."
My respected master Sophronius nodded to me when we had heard this tale, and we stole away.
"Abba John," he said, "we really have no need for any further study today. We have already been educated quite enough."
I have told this tale that you also might be educated: there is no ill doer who may hide from God. And we heard this tale from the very person it happened to.

Chapter LXXVIII
The astonishing miracle of a dead
GIRL, who seized a grave-robber and would not let him go until he had promised to become a monk.

Abba Johannes, the father of the monastery of Gigantum, told us a similar story from the time when he had been at Theopolis:
It is not so long ago that I had a visit from a certain young man.
"Help me, for the love of God," he said, with many tears and convulsive sighs. "I need to do penance."
I could see that he was very penitent and deeply sad.
"Tell me the reason why you are so filled with compunction," I said. "Don't hold anything back, for God is surely able to help you."
"Abba," he said, "I am truly a great sinner."
"Believe me," I said, "Just as there are a great many different kinds of wounds, so there are many different kinds of medicine. If you wish to be cured, tell me truly what you have done, so that I can give you a penance which is suitable. For there is one sort of cure for fornication, another for murder, another for avarice, another for lying, another for anger. No need to go through the rest of the vices for you, but there are various remedies for all the vices of the soul just as there are various remedies for all the bodily ailments."
But he could do nothing but groan even more and strike his breast with tears and convulsive sighs. Such was his distress and sorrow that his heart failed him and he was quite unable to say a single word. I tried to concentrate his mind on his desperate grief and his unbearable sins, unable as he was to describe his disaster, or what had happened to him or what he had done.
"Listen to me, my son." I said, "Put a little order into your thoughts and describe to me what you have done. Then perhaps our Lord may be able to offer you some help. For of his ineffable mercy and boundless compassion he has suffered all things for our salvation. He was a friend of publicans and welcomed the harlot who came to him. He accepted the robber, and was called the friend of sinners. He will gather you into his hands also, my son, as you turn to him in penitence. 'For he desires not the death of a sinner, but rather that he turn from his wickedness and live'". (
Ezekiel 33.11).
Then he made an effort to control his tears and sighs a little.
"I am a sink of iniquity, father," he said "fit neither for earth or heaven. Two days ago I heard that a young girl belonging to one of the richest families of this city had died, and was being buried with many costly garments in a tomb outside the city. From force of a most wicked habit I went by night to the tomb, went in and set about robbing her. I took everything she wore off her, not even sparing her loincloth, which I also removed, leaving her naked as the day she was born. I had begun to leave the tomb when she suddenly sat up in front of me, stretched out her left hand and seized my right and said 'You most wicked man, aren't you ashamed to have stripped me bare? Have you no fear of God and the reward of everlasting damnation? Ought you not at the very least to have had respect for the dead? And if you are a Christian, do you think it would have been right for me to stand naked before Christ? Have you no respect for the female sex? Was it not this sex which gave you birth? Have you not violated your own mother in what you have done to me? You wretched man, what shall you plead before the tremendous judgment seat of Christ when faced with this crime you have perpetrated on me. While I was alive no stranger ever so much as saw my face, but now I am dead and buried you have stripped me and seen my naked body. O, to what depths of human misery have you descended! How will you be able to hold out your hands to receive the holy and precious body of our Lord Jesus Christ? What will be in your heart?'
"I was totally overcome by panic and horror as I witnessed and heard all this.
"'Let me go,' I finally managed to say with fear and trembling, 'and I won't ever do this again.'
"'Certainly not,' she said. 'You came in here of your own free will, but you shall not go out again just as you please. This place will be a tomb for both of us, and don't think that you will die quickly. You will suffer here for many days before you painfully deliver up your wicked soul.'
"I wept and begged her to let me go for the sake of Almighty God, promising and swearing an oath that I would never do such a wicked and shameful thing ever again. And at last after my floods of tears and sighs she gave me her reply.
"'If you wish to live and be freed from my grasp you must promise me that if I let you go you must not only refrain from such wicked and profane deeds in future, but resolve immediately to renounce the world and become a monk, and serve Christ in penitence for the evil you have done.'
"I swore.
"'In the name of God who will receive my soul,' I said, 'I will not merely do what you say, but after leaving here I will never go back home but
go with all speed to a monastery.'
"'Put my clothes back on,' the girl then said, 'and leave me in the same state as you found me.'
"I did so, she stretched herself out, and lay there, dead."
With this tale from the young man fresh in my ears I comforted and encouraged him, urging him to penitence and continence. I tonsured him, gave him the monastic habit and enclosed him in a mountain cave, where I left him giving heartfelt thanks to God and struggling manfully for the salvation of his soul.

Chapter LXXIX
The great and astonishing miracle of the most holy
EUCHARIST, in the time of Dionysius the bishop of Seleucia.

When we came to Seleucia we called on abbot Theodore, the bishop of that city. He told us the following story:
This is something that happened under my predecessor, Dionysius of holy memory, bishop of this city. There was a businessman in the city, very rich, and very religious, though a heretic, for he was a follower of Severus. [465-538, Monophysite Patriarch of Antioch]. He had a servant who was a faithful communicant of the holy and apostolic Church, and according to the custom of that province on Maundy Thursday (
die Sancto Coenae Dominicae) he received Communion, wrapped it in a fair linen cloth and put it in a safe. It so happened, however, that after Easter this man of faith was sent to Constantinople on business and gave the key of the safe to his master, forgetting that he had left the holy Communion in it.
The master opened the safe one day and found the linen cloth with the holy particles of Communion wrapped up in it. He was worried about this and did not quite know what to do with them. He was reluctant to consume them, seeing that they were of the holy Catholic Church, whereas he was a follower of Severus. So he put them back in the safe, thinking that his servant would consume them when he came back.
But when Maundy Thursday came and the servant had still not come back he thought that perhaps he should burn them, rather than keep them there for a second year. But when he opened the safe he found that the holy particles had germinated, producing stalks and ears of corn. He was overcome with fear and trembling, picked up the holy particles, and together with his whole household shouting
Kyrie eleison ran to the holy church, and to the most holy and venerable bishop Dionysius. This great and terrible miracle, exceeding anything that might be thought or reasoned about, or invented, was witnessed not by one or two or three or even several more, but by the whole church, citizens and peasants, natives and visitors, travellers by land and sea, men and women, old men and children, young men and seniors, masters and servants, rich and poor, princes and subjects, wise and foolish, virgins and monks, widows and married women, rulers and ruled. They too shouted Kyrie eleison, though some praised God in other ways, but all truly gave thanks to God for his ineffable miracles. And many who believed because of the miracle were added to the holy Catholic and apostolic Church.

Chapter LXXX
The spring which was granted by God to the brothers of the monastery at Scopulus through the prayers  of their abbot 
THEODOSIUS.

We arrived at the monastery of abbot Theodosius at Scopulus, which is a mountain between Seleucia and Rosus Cilicia. The fathers showed us round the monastery, which is about an arrow's flight in length, and pointed out to us a copious and beautiful spring.
"This spring, brothers," they said, "is not natural, but was granted to us by divine favour. For our holy father Theodosius fasted greatly and poured out many tears, and with many prayers and prostrations obtained from God the gift of this water for our use and consolation. Before this spring our fathers often went thirsty, but God who listens to the needs of those who fear him of his infinite bounty gave us the blessing of this water through the prayers of our holy father.
"And yet two years ago some of the brothers asked the father of the monastery to build a bath house in the monastery. The abbot did not really like the idea, but pandered to their weakness and agreed. The bath house was duly built in the monastery, and after it had been used only once, that great and lovely spring, gift of God, dried up. And to tell you the truth as Christians, we fasted and said many prayers and made many prostrations that we might have the spring back again, but without success. A whole year went by without any water in the spring, leaving us in great difficulty. But as soon as our kind and gentle father pulled down the bathhouse God gave us back the water."

Chapter LXXXI
The well which was filled with water when a picture of abba
THEODOSIUS was lowered into it.

These same fathers told us the following story:
There is a woman of the faith in the Apamaean region who dug a well not so long ago. It cost her quite a lot of money, requiring a lot of labour, but when it had been dug to a great depth and no water was found she was very upset and distressed because of all the labour and expense. However a woman appeared to this worried woman in her dreams, saying, "Send to Scopulus and get a picture of abba Theodosius. Through him God will provide your water." The next day the woman sent two men to get a picture of the holy man. When it was lowered into the well the water immediately began to flow so that the well was soon half full. They gave us some of this same water to drink, and we drank and glorified God.

Chapter LXXXII
The life of
JOHN, an old man of the monastery of Scopulus.

We were able to meet with John, an old man in this same monastery. The fathers of the place told us that he was a very great Christian, a terrible foe of demons. He was able to cure immediately anyone who came to him possessed of an evil spirit.

Chapter LXXXIII
More about
JOHN

The fathers of the place also told us the following:
About twenty-four miles away from the monastery there is an industrial complex (
emporium) on a promontory called Narrow. A certain sea captain worked here and built a ship of about two hundred and seventy thousand litres cubic capacity [thirty thousand modii, corn measures or pecks, about 2 gallons each]. With a large team of workmen (he employed about three hundred of them) he tried for two weeks to launch the ship but could not get it to move anywhere near the sea, for it had been bewitched by some very evil people. The captain was in great anguish and despair and did not know what to do. But by the providence of God John was travelling in these parts. The captain saw him, and recognised him as a holy man.
"Pray for this ship, abba," he begged, "we can't launch it because of magic arts."
"Go home and prepare a meal for me," the old man said, "and God will come to your aid." But he was only saying this in order to get the captain home.
As soon as he had gone the old man went alone to the ship, prostrated himself three times, prayed to God and made the sign of the cross over the ship three times in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. then he went to the captain's home.
"Go back to your ship and launch it into the sea," he said.
The captain believed the old man's word. He went back with just a few people to help drag it, and the ship was soon launched into the sea.

Chapter LXXXIV
The life and death of an
ANCHORITE, a servant of God in the same monastery.

The fathers of this same monastery also told us this story:
There was an anchorite in these mountains, greatly beloved of God, who led a solitary life for many years. Without anyone being aware of it he died in a narrow little cave; we all thought he had gone to another part of the desert. But he appeared one night in a dream to our present good father, abba Julian, best of pastors.
"Take some people with you," he said, "and come and bring me back from the place where I am lying in Mount Cervus."
So our father took some of us with him up the mountain he had named. We searched for several hours but could not find the anchorite's remains, for the entrance of the cave was hidden at that time by snow and brushwood.
"Let us go down again, my sons", said our superior, when we were unable to find the anchorite. We were just about to go when, behold, a goat appeared and stopped a little way away from us, and then began to dig in the earth with its hoofs.
"Believe me, my sons," he said, when he saw the goat, "this is where the servant of God is buried." So we dug and found his body incorrupt, which we took down to the monastery and buried with honour.

Chapter LXXXV
How wheat in this same monastery was spoiled by germination when almsgiving was stopped.

Another tale they told us:
It was the custom on Maundy Thursday for all the orphans and poor people of the district to come here and receive half a pint (
medium sextertium) of wheat, thirteen pieces of blessed bread, a pint of wine, and half a pint of honey. Three years ago there was a great shortage of wheat. In this district you could only buy twelve pints of it for one unit of currency (numisma).
During Lent some of the fathers approached the abbot.
"Let's not give the customary wheat to the poor, father," they said, "lest the monastery suffers, for wheat is in such short supply."
"Let us not break with the blessing of our father Theodosius," the abbot replied, "Look, this is the old man's mandate. It ill behoves us to transgress it. Surely he himself will look after us."
But the brothers persisted in their opinion.
"He will not be able to make up for what we might be able to give, " they said.
The abbot was very sad but allowed them to do what they wanted. So the usual blessings did not take place that Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
Later, the person in charge of the storehouse opened the doors and found that all the wheat in it had germinated, so that we had to throw it into the sea.
"He who brings to naught the wishes of our father," said the abbot, "must suffer the consequences, and reap the reward of disobedience. We would have given away fifty pecks, pleased our father Theodosius by our obedience, and given some help to our brothers among the poor. As it is, we have lost about a thousand pecks of wheat. What have we gained, my sons? How much harm have we done to ourselves? We have done two things wrong. First, we ignored the mandates of our father; second, we have trusted not in God but in our storehouse. Let us learn from this, brothers, that it is God who rules the whole human race, and also that our holy father Theodosius cares unseen for us his sons."

Chapter LXXXVI
Another
ANCHORITE from the same monastery, who died immediately after receiving holy Communion

Abba Egiarius told us this story:
I left Aega after the solemnity [not specified] when the winter had become a bit more severe, and came to the monastery of Scopulus. This is what happened when I was there. There was an anchorite living a solitary life in those parts who used to come on Sundays to receive the sacred mysteries. Only once did he cause scandal when for five weeks he stayed away, not coming to the monastery as was his usual custom, which distressed the brothers of the monastery very much. but on the Sunday when I was there he did turn up. The brothers of the monastery were glad to see him, prostrated themselves and asked pardon, as he likewise prostrated himself and asked pardon of them, so restoring charity all round. Then when the anchorite had received the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ he went to the middle of the church and fell down dead, even though he had previously shown no sign of any illness. The fathers of the monastery realised that the anchorite had foreseen the day of his death, which is why he had come so that he might pass to the Lord having nothing against anyone.


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