Nicephorus the Presbyter of Constantinople

NICEPHORUS PRESBYTER OF CONSTANTINOPLE: LIFE OF SAINT ANDREW THE FOOL — PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY BY CONRAD JANNING, S.J.

^A 1. We certainly bring forth onto the stage a man who acted the part of a fool, Saint Andrew, to whom, because of the persona he assumed and the way he lived among men, the name "Salus" or "Fool" became attached. He had the widest possible theater—the whole of Constantinople—having become a spectacle to God, to angels, and to men, though in different ways: to God and to the angels he seemed to be fulfilling the role of a man of great wisdom, while to men he appeared to be the most foolish of all. Yet he did not appear so to all men; there were one or two, in particular, to whom his intent had become known. The first was he who wrote his Life, Nicephorus, a presbyter of the Great Church; the second was a noble youth, Epiphanius, later a monk, ^B who also changed his name when he changed his garb, as is mentioned in section 24. Having cast off his former name along with his secular clothes, he later became the Patriarch of Constantinople. Each was joined to Andrew by a close bond of intimacy. Nicephorus, indeed, was the author who urged Andrew to adopt this way of life, and was his counselor and director in all things; consequently, being privy to his secrets, it is no wonder that he was able to learn and commit to writing such marvelous visions and ecstasies of his. As for Epiphanius, he was a youth of first-rate distinction; having obtained knowledge of Andrew through divine grace, he learned from Andrew’s own lips at their very first meeting that the throne of Constantinople awaited him, ^C and on that opinion he was reinforced shortly before his death. He entrusted his soul’s entire state to him, having him as a counselor in times of doubt and a helper in times of danger. Conversations held between them occur quite frequently; and there are so many other excellent examples of virtue, pertaining especially to Epiphanius, that if he were listed among the saints, and if it were certain by what name the said Patriarch was called, no small amount of the history of his life could be inferred from that.

2. But when he was assumed to the patriarchate, as has been said, having dismissed the name of Epiphanius, he assumed another, in accordance with the saint's prediction; what name, however, he assumed is nowhere expressed here. Let us see, however, if by any way we can reach it by investigating the time during which Andrew lived. He is said by a certain Theognostus, a commander of the Eastern militia, to have been bought as a servant into slavery ^D while the most Christ-loving Emperor Leo was governing the empire; and "the Great" is added, so that at first glance it might seem to be the first of that name, who is called "the Great" by authors, and who reigned from the year 457 to 474. Yet it was 43 years after the death of this Leo that the holy Epiphanius, who is commemorated on the 25th of August, became patriarch and held the see for 16 years. Therefore, the writer of the other codex, with whom we have compared the Life—judging that these facts do not square well—tacitly omitted this change of name among other things which he left out while abbreviating. But besides the fact that the author of the Life, Nicephorus, employs a style which suggests a much later age, Andrew is said, at section 15, to have mocked the world, just as that once-admirable Symeon did—who was himself a wise imitator of the fool for Christ, and who is honored in July. But this man began to feign folly in the reign of Maurice, at least fifty years after the death of the Patriarch Epiphanius.

3. We must therefore seek another Leo, the same who is the lover of Christ and worthy of being called "the Great" because of his illustrious deeds. Yet there was no one of this name before him—whom others are accustomed to call "the Wise" and "the Philosopher"—the son of Basil the Macedonian. For Leo the Isaurian, and his grandson Leo (the son of Copronymus, called "the Chazar" from his maternal lineage), and finally Leo the Armenian—all iconoclasts—do not deserve to be commemorated here. Leo the Philosopher reigned from the year 886 to...

880, ^A having been purchased into slavery/servitude in about the year 898, having begun to feign foolishness in about the year 910, and having formed a friendship with Epiphanius, who was not yet twenty years old, about the year 950; he himself died, in his sixty-sixth year of age, in about the year of Christ 946, while Theophylact, the son of the Emperor Romanus, held the Constantinopolitan see; to whom, having finished his life in the year 962, this Epiphanius of ours succeeded, called by the new name which he had assumed with the habit, Polyeuctus: concerning whom the Epitome of Cedrenus has this: "Theophylact being dead... Polyeuctus, a monk and Constantinopolitan, long and praiseworthily engaged in the monastic life, is substituted." All these things square with our Epiphanius before his monastic life; as does the fact that the same Polyeuctus, on various occasions, incurred the indignation of the emperors, contending for the public good or for ecclesiastical laws; which also agrees with the aforementioned Epiphanius, whom St. Andrew predicted, in number 251, would be not only patriarch but also a confessor for the name of Christ. Nor does it present an obstacle that Cedrenus says Polyeuctus was castrated by his parents, while our Epiphanius is read to have suffered grave temptations of the flesh: for St. John Chrysostom, in homily 65 on Matthew, can teach us that eunuchs (of whom there were, of old, too many at Constantinople, even among the sons of princes) are not free from these, asserting that those who are not castrated are not tossed by such huge waves of concupiscence as is he who is either a eunuch by nature or has suffered that injury at the hands of men. Now Polyeuctus sat, among many storms which he courageously sustained, clinging firmly to the Roman Church, just as his predecessors and successors in the same century, until the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 980 and beyond.

4. Furthermore, concerning the prophecy of his future patriarchate, the author, when the Life was being written, seems to indicate he knew it, ending thus: "I have written this wonderful Life of the most religious and most holy Father Andrew, to be made known by celebrated fame, recording in the present commentary those things which I partly saw with my own eyes, and partly learned from Epiphanius, who was made thereafter the most reverend archbishop, according to the prediction of the same Saint." But of what age was the author at that time, who from the very beginning had Andrew, while he feigned foolishness, as the arbiter of his conscience, and thus found him to be not much less than forty years old? He would truly have been almost centenarian when the one in question—the patriarch, by whatever name you call him—ascended the throne. For however you arrange the chronology, it will remain that the ^A writer Nicephorus (who was a priest when Andrew, still a young man, began to play the fool; and who survived him after he died by 66 years of age) must have been quite elderly; he who, when Andrew died, found Epiphanius not very aged, and who later became patriarch. Therefore, I fear lest, like certain other things, this passage also, which seems to mention a fulfilled prophecy, has been interpolated. ^B That I should fear this is due, first, to the fact that it is in no way probable that the writing of such a wonderful life was delayed for so many years, and rather not written while the memory of both Nicephorus and Epiphanius was still fresh. Second, that it is scarcely credible that such a jejune mention should have been made of the monastic life—and then the patriarchate—undertaken by Epiphanius at the Saint's prediction; and that the name he then bore should be passed over in silence, if the Life had not been written before those things happened. But because both manuscripts agree on the same phrasing, it must be said that an interpolation was made in the very original copy, when that Life was to be brought to light long after the author's death.

5. Yet, this being posited, it remains less certain that the aforementioned Epiphanius in that Life should be the one named Polyeuctus in the order of patriarchs, rather than Antonius, who was taken from the Constantinopolitan monastery of Studius, after Polyeuctus and Basil (who was indeed a monk, but one who originated from Scamandria in Asia Minor), about the year 980, and then after the sixth year of his patriarchate abdicated his office, when Scleros Bardas, the leader of the army, rose up against the emperors Basil and Constantine, and died shortly after. In such a case, however, there would only be need for Andrew, having been purchased toward the end of the years of Leo the Wise, to have begun to feign foolishness about the year 920, and to have died about the year 956; when Nicephorus was indeed already septuagenarian or older; but Epiphanius, then not yet thirty, having lived for at least 20 years afterward in the monastery before he was made patriarch; in which time, if he were Polyeuctus himself, he could have lived only 12 or 14 years.

6. Moreover, concerning this or that time in which I said the Saint died, it is easy to render the reason why he is so unknown in the Greek Menaia and Synaxaria, that he has been found up to now only in a single one, and that a more recent one from Dijon, by my masters Henschenius and Papebrochius. For whatever they saw written on parchment is for the most part ^C older, or at least transcribed from more ancient ones, and they do not contain other saints of that age: if, however, Greece had some other illustrious saints besides this one, hidden from the world, and for a long time separated from the Catholic unity by the Photian schism, and although then it returned to it for a time, not yet with the pristine fervor of religion; whence it happened that it once again relapsed into the same schism, much worse than before, under the author Sergius, who was made patriarch about the year 1000, of the lineage of the most impious Photius. But that Synaxarium written on paper, which we often call the Chiffletian, has it thus for this 28th of May: "St. Andrew, who for Christ's sake, dies in peace."

Then, in accordance with his custom, he subjoins this distich: Παύλου τὸ βῆμα, καὶ μεταστὸς ᾿Ανδρέας, Ἡμεῖ, διὰ Χριστόν γε μωροί, κραυγάζει. Which Paul once sang; hence the Saint departing, We fools for love of Christ, and Andrew cries.

Another ^A twofold cause for this obscurity among those who followed can be assigned: first, because during his own lifetime, as has been said, his manner of acting and his hidden sanctity became known to very few, being taken by most for a fool and a demoniac; and second, because after his death, his body having been taken away by divine providence, no relics of him remained. From the former it resulted that he was held in esteem by no one except his own intimates; and so it was the concern of Nicephorus alone, his spiritual father, to note down the deeds he knew, since infinite things lay hidden from him, nor were they rarely such that they would have aroused the astonishment of spectators; but because they were thought to proceed from a possessed man, they were ascribed to the power of a demon rather than to divine power. From the latter, it is clear that no cult or veneration was paid to his sacrosanct relics, no miracles wrought at them, nor could the memory of them have resided in the minds of men for very long: for things that are far from our sight are also for the most part far from our mind. Indeed, a divine fragrance remained after the removal of the saint’s body, which provided testimony to the hitherto unknown sanctity of the man, first to a certain poor woman, and then to many others who came running to the spot. Nevertheless, I would believe that the Life, though written immediately after his death, was suppressed on purpose and kept by Epiphanius; upon whom, when he became patriarch, the prediction the Saint had made concerning him was fulfilled. Then, indeed, once the author had in all likelihood died some time before, it was brought to light, the patriarch himself affirming the things that Nicephorus had written to be true and certainly known to himself; and so some beginning was given to his cult through the inscription of his name in certain Synaxaria; which, however, escaped most transcribers of Synaxaria. ^B

The same Life exists in manuscript in the Viennese library, as can be read in the Bibliotheca Gesneri enlarged and printed at Zurich in the year 1585, in these words: *Nicephorus, de Vita Andreæ, liber vetus in quarto ms. bib. Imp. Viennæ.*

9. As for me, having been given as an assistant for some time, just as I first rendered into Latin the Life of Saint Symeon Stylites on the Wondrous Mountain and that of his mother, the holy Martha; so too I made this Life of Saint Andrew Latin: but not with the same ease. For that Greek Life of Symeon was written toward the end of the sixth century in clear words and constructions commonly in use, and thus the translation was brought to its conclusion smoothly. But this Life of Andrew, as the cultivation of language had by the tenth century, along with the majesty of the empire, almost completely failed—with barbarous customs and words crowding into Constantinople as they did— (especially that manuscript which was transcribed from the Vatican library), teems not only with words that are foreign and remote from the usage of the ancient Greeks; but also, through the carelessness either of our scribe or of the person who oversaw the Vatican exemplar, it is beset with most frequent errors of composition, and these are often so discordant that I could with difficulty arrive at the meaning by conjecture, wherefore no light trouble and long delay was injected into the one desiring to interpret it. But just as at that time the *Romana*, that is, the language of the people of Constantinople, had declined much from ancient Greek; so too does the state of grammar appear greatly altered in the Vatican manuscript, in which one can constantly read: Δευσχήμων and Δευσχημονέω for Λευχείμων and Λευχειμονέω, Δαιμονιοῦντα for Δαιμονῶντα, Ἀχροούμενος for Ἀχρεώμενος, contracting alpha and omicron into omega, which happens often in other places too; whereas those vowels ought to be contracted into omega. In similar fashion, in the third person of the imperfect tense, epsilon is almost always contracted into iota, ^C e.g., Ἐποίη, Ἀπήχη, Ἠδολέσχη, Ἀπευχαρίσθη, for Ἐποίει, Ἀπήχει, Ἠδολέσχει, Ἀπευχαρίστει, and so too *epsilon-iota* is subjoined there in place of *omicron-upsilon*; as Ἠγνύτη for Ἠγνύου. But most frequently the second person of the present passive or middle terminates in *-esai* in place of *-e*: such as are these Ἀναγκάζεσαι, Ἀντιτάσσεται and others, for Ἀναγκάζῃ, Ἀντιτάσση. No less frequently omega is turned into omicron, while one consistently reads Γονία and Ἐνωτίζομαι for Γωνία and Ἐνωτίζομαι. Similarly Ἐμπέκτης, Ἐξέσιος, Ἐσβητήριον, for Ἐμπαίκτης, Ἐξαίσιος, Αἰσθητήριον, and other things of this kind changed into epsilon. Similar mutations, additions, and transpositions of other letters could be seen everywhere.

10. Since most of these would be a constant source of annoyance to the reader, I have reduced them to the form of common Greek grammar and orthography, using a license rarely employed otherwise in this work. And not only this, but through the collation of both manuscripts with one another, I have clarified many things that were obscure in the Vatican manuscript by means of the Mazarinian one, nor were the few omitted words in the former

^A supplied from the same. Whatever I have taken from that second context, either to complete the sense or to render a period clearer, I have distinguished from the Vatican Greek context with these marks, and I have placed its genuine words in the notes; just as I have those things which were subsequently removed from the context, with nothing else substituted for them, because although they were missing in the Mazarinian ^B manuscript, they did not seem to contribute much to the history in the Vatican one, but rather to obscure it. Conversely, as often as you see these signs [] in the Latin context, know that the words included by them are contained in the Vatican manuscript alone, and are missing in the Mazarinian. The Mazarinian context, moreover, is (as far as I can judge) indeed more recent, but it was written by a hand somewhat more observant of ancient grammar, and it sometimes omitted entire periods due to the tedium of prolixity; it often changed the phrasing ^C while preserving the meaning: and it is a book written in the year of Christ 1286: for thus it is noted at the end: “Completed is the present Life in the month of March, on the 14th day, in the year 6794, that is to say of the world; which corresponds to the year 1286 of the common Christian era.” Completed, or brought to an end, is what this description is called; it was not a first composition: for it was shown above to be of the tenth century.

11. Furthermore, I would wish that those reading this Life, however pleasant and useful, be advised not to do this so much for the sake of imitating this man’s institute, but rather for the sake of praising God, who is truly ^D wonderful in his saints. Certainly, Andreas himself deterred a certain servant of Epiphanius, or rather of his parent, who had learned many things divinely about the holy man and his institute, from imitating him; signifying that such a life is not to be embraced except by a special instinct of God. Although this is true, certain particular virtues can nevertheless be plucked out for everyone to imitate, and especially humility and self-contempt; as for the rest, one ought to admire the man almost as the Bishop of Montpellier did, rather than imitate him: of which bishop the aforementioned Combefis speaks thus in the same epistle: “The most illustrious and most reverend Bishop of Montpellier, a man singular in piety and known for his erudition and writings, Francis Boschetius, he too being moved by the Lives of other saints, was vehemently amazed when I made known to him such great wonders of the life of Andreas and facts so unique. Read, and you will feel the same.”

THE LIFE OF ST. ANDREAS THE FOOL

PROLOGUE

Since I am about to narrate the life of a man ^C abundant in virtue, attend, I beg you, dearest ones, and receive the narration with attentive ears; for it is such that it breathes forth a certain honeyed fragrance and sweetness of pleasure, truly marvelous. Wherefore, ^D I beseech you, O children, that you prepare yourselves magnanimously to pay attention, so that you too, along with me, may rejoice to undertake the task, and that I may set before you the spiritual deeds of the man. {The beginning of the oration to be instituted concerning the marvelous man is therefore in this manner.}

(So far the Prologue in the Vatican manuscript, which is also expressed here from the Mazarinian, so that the skilled reader, noting the diversity of style in both, may form a judgment concerning the rest of the context.)

“Desiring to narrate to you, O my dearest ones, the God-pleasing life and blameless conduct of a virtuous man, I beg you to incline your listening ears to it. For it is a honey-flowing fragrance exuding...”

of spiritual pleasure. Wherefore, prepare yourselves magnanimously for its enjoyment, and I, being thus constrained the more toward such an undertaking, shall hand over to you the spiritual achievements of the man.

LIFE OF ST. ANDREAS SALUS

Lest anything from antiquity perish, it pleases me to append to this brief Prologue those titles by which the Vatican manuscript is distinguished, with the paragraph number indicated, at the beginning of which they are noted.

^A On the vision. On the insolence of the young. On harlots. On the miser. On the prior knowledge of the boy. On the violent tempest. On the rapture into the heavens. On the transformation of the devil. On Epiphanius and the philosophers. On Epiphanius and the encounter with the devil. On the food. On the prior knowledge of the eunuch. On the servants of Epiphanius. On the wagon. On how he was scorched by the heat. On how the doors were opened. On the encounter with the devil. On the young thief. On the vision of the rich man. On the Church. On the prior knowledge of the saints. On the petition that mortality might cease. On the thief. On the monk. On the youth. On the woman. On the temptation. On the vision of Saint David. On the miser. On the youth Raphael. On the one who sinned on the holy Lord's Day. On the sinner. On the vision of Saint Acacius. On the vision of the Most Holy in Blachernae. On the most wicked rich man. Here is the beginning of sorrows. Interrogation concerning Saint Sophia. On the last conversation of the Saint with Epiphanius.

CAPUT I.

Andrea servitus et docilitas. Occasio vitæ sanctioris. Visio.

^{B C D} 2. While the empire was being governed by Leo the Great, the Christ-loving emperor, there was in Constantinople a certain man, Theognostus by name, who had been honored by the pious emperor with the rank of protospatharius.

^A in the East, having been ordered to take the command of the forces. Although this man possessed a very large crowd of household servants, and daily purchased others, among whom this one was also numbered, whose deeds now come to illustrate our insignificance. He was a Scythian by birth. When, therefore, his master purchased him along with the others, he appeared more childlike ^B than all of them. He was, however, very adroit in physical movement, so that he pleased his master greatly, and was always in his sight, and was employed for necessary services. Without delay, therefore, he had him instructed in the Holy Scriptures, even though he did not yet know how to speak Greek. But as the boy was sound in his understanding, he quickly mastered all the divine lessons set before him by his teacher. He also learned the local language—I mean Greek—to such a degree that his teacher was astonished at the speed of his learning. And because he became the foremost notary—for having been lifted from there, I mean from his schooling, he was useful as a notary to his master. The boy served his master from that time forth with all diligence and zeal, so that he was beloved by his master, and by his mistress, and likewise by all those who frequented the house of his master.

3. ^C Furthermore, Theognostus showed him even more signs of benevolence, treating him kindly with special care ^D and bestowing upon him his own garments which he had laid aside; so that those who saw Andrew would say that the servant was dressed more elegantly than the master. He also frequented the church, I may truly say, with an insatiable desire and assiduity; and he delighted in a wonderful way in the reading of the struggles which the holy martyrs underwent, and especially of the Lives of those men who lived always having God before their eyes and in their minds; so that he was inflamed with his whole heart, having seen their ardent love and desire; and he was necessarily excited to imitate them. For, having determined by himself to undertake a stricter way of life, he began to serve God in such a manner. For one night, having risen from his bed in imitation of the saints, he was keeping vigil to pray; but the deceitful demon, having envied the young man's noble beginning, approached and began to strike the doors of the building in which he was staying with a most violent clamor; where the youth, being seized with fear, left off his prayer and quickly climbed onto his bed, and hid himself under his goatskins.

^A Satan, having seen this, rejoiced—he who never sees what is right with eyes that are upright—and says to one of his own kind: "Look at him who eats beans, how excellently he conducts the affair against us!" And having said this, he departed.

4. But the blessed man, having been seized by the deepest sleep due to his fear, sees—and behold, he was in a theater. In one part of the theater was a multitude of many Ethiopians, a gathering truly unbearable, and in the other part a multitude of men dressed in white, and other men who were most holy in appearance. Both parties were having a certain discussion among themselves and with each other regarding a race and a wrestling match; for the Ethiopians, having a certain massive Moor, were asking the assembly of those in white: "Who is it that intends to run and wrestle with that Moor?" For they said that no one had ever withstood him, even though he had perhaps wrestled with many from time immemorial, as they claimed; for he was a chiliarch of that great legion of Satan. While they were boasting of these things, and he was standing there and listening, and those in white were perplexed, ^B a certain youth came down from above, very beautiful, holding in his hand three crowns. The first was entirely in bloom, being of pure and royal gold; the second, like stars, contained priceless stones and pearls around and on both sides, which were shining; the third, however, was greater than the two, woven from every kind of flower, rose, lily, plant, and sprig of the garden of God, so that it was even unfading, and possessed such a fragrance that the mind of man cannot imagine it. ^C

5. Having seen these things, Andrew was vexed and burned with desire, wondering by what manner he might manage to get even one of those crowns. And approaching, he says to that fair-looking youth: "May Christ be ever with you, ^D and tell me, are you selling these? For perhaps I may not be at a loss to purchase them; but if you have a little compassion for me, I will go and report it to my master, and he himself will give you as much gold as you wish, and take them." The youth said to him, smiling with his countenance: "Believe me, beloved, that if you were to bring me the gold of the world in such a manner as these flowers, I would not give them to you, nor to anyone else, nor indeed to the one whom you consider your master. For these are not for the vanity...

^A of this world, as you suppose; but these are heavenly treasures and crowns of Christ, with which those who strike down those Moors are crowned. If you wish to take not only the one, but also the three, come and wrestle with that soot-stained Ethiopian, and if you defeat him, you shall receive from me not only these, but as many others as you may wish, and even much more beautiful ones. When Andrew heard this, he was emboldened by his words and said to him: Believe me, I will do what you say; only teach me his tricks and stratagems. The youth said: What then? Do you not know these things? For the Ethiopians are not brave, but cowardly, shattered, and weak. And do not let the size of his appearance frighten you; for just as a cabbage is weak and feeble, so is he. Having spoken these things and more for the sake of the young man’s instruction, that fair youth took hold of him, and as though wrestling with him, taught him how he ought to resist the Ethiopian. And finally, he said into his ear: When he lifts you up and whirls you around—for I know that this will happen—do not be afraid, but ^B entangle yourself 11 with him in the form of a cross, and you shall see the glory of God.

6. Then, therefore, blessed Andrew went forth into the midst to do battle with the Ethiopian; he cried out with a loud voice: Come forth, at last, come forth, you most terrible, you wretched, you useless one, so that we two may descend into the arena together. After the Ethiopian had heard such things, he cast aside everything, and screaming horribly, he ran forward with great speed and snatched up Andrew, whirling him around for a long time, so that the Ethiopians applauded for joy, while the white-robed ones groaned for grief, for it seemed as though the Moor was dashing him to the ground with such force that his eyes would be knocked out. But ^C as Andrew was being whirled around, fortifying himself with the most holy cross, he cast the demon to the ground with such great force that, his head being dashed against a rock, he immediately disappeared, cast down. A great shout of the white-robed ones arose, and then there was sweetest joy, and they lifted the blessed one up on high on their upturned palms, and all kissed him, anointing him with spiritual perfumes. Then, therefore, those Moors all being scattered, they departed with great shame; and that fair youth bestowed upon him the incorruptible crowns, and he took great delight in wearing them, because a unique fragrance emanated from them. Finally, embracing him, he said: Go forth well; from this hour henceforth you shall be ours, both friend and sweetest brother. Run, therefore, the good race naked, and be a fool for my sake, and you shall receive many good things... ^D

and preside as master over many goods on the day of my kingdom.

CHAPTER II

Feigning folly, he is overcome, illuminated by revelations, attacked by demons, and set free, being called to serve God.

^A7. When these things had sounded in the ears of blessed Andrew, he awoke from that profound sleep; and he was wondering within himself at the sight, which he had perceived, full of fragrance: for his face was besprinkled with a certain sweetness of odor, holy, invisible, and which no human mind can attain. Therefore, he came, early in the morning, to me, unworthy as I am, and confidently laid out what had happened. I was stunned at hearing of such an ecstasy; and this all the more, when I saw his face glowing with a beautiful light and felt the fragrance, utterly divine and singular. Then both of us, weighing the matter more maturely, judged it to be the right course if he should transfer himself into the rank of the demon-possessed and the insane for the sake of Him who had said, "Become a fool for my sake, and you shall preside as master over many goods on the day of my kingdom." For he could not otherwise escape the master to whom his body was enslaved; because it is most difficult for anyone to withdraw himself from the power of his master, especially if he meditates on devoting himself to works of piety, with the devil hindering such a plan out of envy.

^B8. On the following night, at the dead of night, he arose and prayed; and when he had finished his prayer, he took a sword and went to the well that was near his master’s chamber. And having stripped off the garments he was wearing, he began to cut them into pieces with the sword with which he had provided himself, and, as if he were moonstruck, he began to throw out certain dissonant and absurd cries, in the very manner that those who are moonstruck are accustomed to do. When his master, having woken up, perceived these things, he marvelled what these might mean, especially at such an hour and time: and he suspected, at last, that it was the evil spirit of the well itself, which would be wandering about at such an hour, ready to entrap whoever it might first lay hold of, and so he returned to rest until daybreak. As it was growing light, the cook went out for the sake of drawing water, and having perceived with astonishment what had happened to Andrew, leaving his pitcher behind, he approached his master, who was even then performing his matins, to announce everything. He was likewise astounded upon hearing from the cook that Andrew had been cast down from his state of mind and was sitting at the mouth of the well; and straightway he descended, with the whole household accompanying him, to inspect the matter. ^C The greater part of them, indeed, mourned greatly for Andrew.

^A surmising that he was truly and in such a manner deranged by demons. His master, however, being exceedingly saddened by what had befallen him, and having no remedy for the evil available to himself or his household, ordered him to be carried to the venerable temple of the holy martyr Anastasia—which is in the Macella tract—and to be bound in the chains of the holy one; he gave money to the caretaker of the holy church for his more diligent care.

9. Thus for the whole day the blessed one spoke his senseless words, as though he were truly deranged; but at night he mourned and prayed, beseeching the martyr of Christ to appear to him and console him, if the enterprise which he had begun was pleasing to God. When he had ceased his mourning and prayer for a short while, behold, five women appeared visible to the eyes to those present there, and a certain old man, distinguished by great glory, walked about ^B before him with beautiful steps. As they went around, they visited the sick who were detained there, one by one; and having passed by the others, they came also to him, and the old man stood first, and after him those holy women. Then the old man, observing him with an unswerving gaze, smiled sweetly at him, contemplating in himself some great good. He said then to the most radiant woman, as if joking, "Lady Anastasia, do you not heal this man at some time?" She said to him, "Master, a more present physician has already been with him, and he is no longer in need of anything. For He who said this, 'Become a fool for my sake, and you shall sit as master of many good things in the day of my kingdom,' He himself is so ready to be with him that he shall have no need of another physician thereafter; for he knows the art which he has learned, and he will not put it aside so long as he draws breath: he shall be to our God a chosen vessel, ^C holy, and beloved in the Spirit." The old man replied, "I knew these things too, my lady; but out of great affection for him I brought up this conversation." 10 Having said these things, ^D while Andrew was looking on.

^A in communion with the Saint, moreover, they were repeatedly inflicting blows and beatings upon his back with mockery and derision. When, therefore, those buffoons, unwearied in their mocking, had mocked Andrew, and evening approached, they wished to withdraw from the tavern, leaving him behind. But he, crying out, said, "Buffoons, buffoons, what shall I do, since the night watchmen (29) are about to meet me and I am to receive beatings?" By these things the Saint wished to be understood regarding his very tormentors; knowing what was to happen to them—but they, not understanding, left him and went away to the brothels of lewd women, polluting the beauty of their own souls until the second watch of the night. The blessed Andrew, having departed from there in like manner, cast himself down like a beggar into some corner of the street. After this, as they were going out, they proceeded towards their own homes, and the night watchmen met them, and having seized them, bound them; and coming to ^B the place where Andrew was lying, and stripping them, they flogged them severely. The blessed Andrew, having seen them suffering thus, grieved greatly and was overcome with tears, and he supplicated God on their behalf, that they might not be shut up in prison; but by the intercession of their relatives and by the prayer of the blessed Andrew, they were released and went off to their own homes. Then one of them said, "Perish the demon, brothers; how did that demon-possessed man who was pestering us tell us that the things which were finished upon us would happen to him!" The other says, "Do you not know that if a demon prepares to do some evil to anyone, he makes it known to the demoniac? Perhaps because we acted so lawlessly towards him, his demon did these things to us." The third says, "By no means; but as I suspect, because we beat him mercilessly, for this reason God has rendered it back to us." The other says, "Yes, you rave; God has concern for a fool (a holy fool). For he was given over to a demon, and we beat him for the sake of amusement; ^C it is nothing wonderful. If indeed he were a saint, you might possibly persuade me that because of the sin which we committed against him, God rendered this back to us; but since he is demented, God has no care for him."

18 While they were speaking these things and others which it is habitual for youth to speak, the blessed Andrew arose early in the morning and once again pursued his course, engaged in the middle of the din, and throughout the whole day, sitting nowhere, he passed it while fasting. But as evening came, he was traversing the porticoes of the city, and was observing the place where the dogs have their beds, and going there, having driven out one of them, he lay down, resting as if upon a bed of leaves.

^A Indeed, God truly did not inflict these stripes, since their nature, which is devoid of body, could not truly be tormented. Then a third one was stretched out, upon whom the same things fell; and thus the process continued in order for them all. But when they were being sent away, having been mangled in this manner, the companions of the brilliant old man, standing by, kept saying to each of them: "Go, go, recount these things to your father Satan, if it pleases him."

12. After all the Mauri had departed, those "white-robed ones" likewise vanished from sight, but that luminous old man approached the blessed one, and having once again placed the chain around him, he said to him, as though jesting: "Do you see how quickly I ran to your aid? For this is so that you might know that I care for you; for the Master commanded and ordained that I should take thought for your salvation in all things that are beneficial and most straightforward, and reward you. Endure, therefore, that you may be found approved in all things; for it will not be long before you are released by your Lord, to go by your own will wherever it is pleasing to your eyes." Andrew then said: "My Lord, who are you, for I do not know you?" And he said: "I am he who rested upon the bosom of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is unstained and life-giving." ^B Having said this, like lightning he was transformed and departed from his sight. The blessed Andrew marveled at the ineffable goodness of God and glorified Him greatly, because in every step and action He became his helper, and quickly delivered him from the dark spirits that rose up against him; and he said in secret: "Lord Jesus Christ, great and incomparable is Thy power; above all nature is Thy mercy glorified, in that Thou hast had mercy on me, the humble one, and carest for me. I consider this a strange and most wonderful thing. Guard me, therefore, Lord, henceforth more and more in Thy truth, and make me worthy to find grace before Thee, O Most High, most powerful, terrible, and incomprehensible."

13. As he was praying these things, night fell, and after he had slept a little, he saw in a vision ^D that he was in a royal palace, and the King of those palaces had called him; and standing directly before Him, that King said to him, "Do you wish to serve Me with your whole soul, and I will make you one of the nobles of My palace?" Andrew said, "And who is he who would refuse such good things? For I long for this matter greatly." The King said, "If then you desire it, accept the experience of My service." And with the word, He gave him something like snow; and having received it, he placed it in his mouth; and the sweetness was such as the mind of man cannot imagine. It was a very small portion, and having eaten it, he thought that it was being transformed in its sweetness into a divine ointment. Again, therefore, that King gave him a little of something like the appearance of quince [(25)], and says to him, "Take and"

eat." And he, taking it, ate it. It was sharp and bitter—far sharper and more bitter than wormwood—and as if he had tasted it as a purge, there followed an even greater desire and thirst for the other. ^A Seeing him thus affected, the King says to him: "Look how you cannot endure the bitterness of the taste! For I have allowed you to understand the perfection of my service, for this earth is a narrow and afflicted way, which leads to life."

14. To this the blessed one answers: "This kind of food is most bitter, my Lord; and does it serve you to eat these things?" The King says: "Have you known the bitter, and have you known the sweet; did I not give you the sweet first, and then the bitter?" He says: "Yes, my Lord; but in the bitter you have said that the way of the servant exists as an image of the afflicted way." The King says: "It is not so; but in the sweet and in the bitter, there is a mediation of the way; in the bitter, the perception of the struggles and labors for my sake is shown to you, while in the sweet and pleasant, that which arises from the dew and refreshment of my goodness to those who are tempted for my sake is shown. Therefore, the bitter is not one-sided, nor the sweet one-sided, but now one, and then the other, succeeds the other. If, therefore, you wish, agree with me, so that I may know." ^B Andreas said: "Give me even now the same to taste, and I will consider, and tell you what I will do." And as he offered to him again what he first ate, then what he ate with pleasure, he brought upon himself a more severe nausea, and says: "It is impossible for the servant, if he is to eat such things—for the matter proves to be bitter and heavy." The King, smiling, draws from his bosom a different kind—it was of a fiery divine nature, and in its appearance extremely desirable, and in its color, flower-like; and he says to him: "Take and eat, so that you may forget all that you saw and heard." And he, taking it, ate, and for a long time, from the pleasure and the infinite joy, he was as if he did not exist within himself, ^C but as if he had entered into a certain great fragrance and delight. Having come to himself, he fell at the feet of that great King, and implored him, saying: "Have mercy, my Lord, and from now on remove this service from me, for I have known truly that there is a way of service most sweet, and apart from it, I do not submit to the neck of any man." The King says to him: "Have you been astonished at this bright taste? I have trusted that this, of all things, is the cheapest—but if you have rest, all things of mine are yours, and I will make you fellow-heir of my kingdom." Having said these things, the King dismissed him. Being awake, ^D our, for the miracle that then happened, brothers; since in the soft allurements with which they attacked the man, they were in no way able either to move him or to inject the desire of the shameful crime. Hence the women themselves, being changed, kept saying: "This man is certainly either dead, or a senseless log, or an immovable stone." But one from the number: "I admire," she says, "your stupidity, that you speak thus; for what? Is he out of his mind and possessed by a demon, famished and parched with thirst, rigid with cold, and he who has nowhere to lay his head, does he desire such things? Let the man go to rave his own raving." Meanwhile, the Blessed one perceived the genius of wantonness standing in the middle of the harlots, in appearance an Ethiopian, visible by his large lips, having no hair on his head except filth mixed with ashes, and his eyes were like a fox’s; a wretched fragment of a torn garment hung from his shoulder; and a triple stench and foul odor poured forth—putrid, muddy, and as if from foul spittle—so heavy that Andreas, being unable to bear it, had to constantly spit out and block his nostrils with his garment. [E] Seeing him, the demon of incontinence, that he was loathing himself, releases a voice such as this: "Men consume me as the sweetest honey and store me in their bosom, and this deceiver of the world spits me out and detests me! You, truly, not so much because you might attain what is good, but that you might altogether escape the servitude of the body, have played the fool." Andreas indeed saw him speaking, but the harlots heard the voice, yet saw no one; and since he was mocking the shameless and foul-smelling demon, these women said: "See how gently he receives his demon with a smile."

21. One of them said: "His cloak is good; come, let us take it and sell it; that is what we have to do today." And immediately rising, they stripped him and set him naked; and carrying the tunic to be sold, they took a miliaresion, and thence two obols were distributed to each. Then the first of all says to the others: "Let us not send him away naked, but let us give him at least a mat worn out by age." Which, when they brought, cutting it in two, they wrapped him in it; and thus they cast him out of the house. Andreas therefore went out into the public square with that covering, and ran playing. Those seeing him said, "A good garment the spittle-man wears: [F] [index: entries preserved]

^A but the blessed one kept everything in his heart and marveled at what these things might be.

15. When he had passed about four months in the church of the martyr, the guardians of the church, seeing that he was not being healed, but rather becoming worse, made known his condition to his master. Theognostus, having heard this, and having already written him off as a raving demoniac, ordered him to be released from his bonds and allowed to go where he wished. From that time on, running through the squares of the city, he acted in mimicry of that ancient, wonderful Symeon. When evening came, he came to me, unworthy as I am, while I was sleeping alone inside the house, and smiling, he began to let tears bedew his venerable face; and after we had embraced for a long time, we kissed one another and went to bed. When I asked him about his own affairs, and how he had escaped from the bonds in which he had been held for so long, he recounted everything to me with the greatest modesty and gentleness; for to me alone, my brothers and most faithful friends, he spoke rightly and without pretense, whereas with others he either acted as a man of unsettled and perturbed mind, or he did not speak at all.

CHAPTER III.

He prays for those who mock him: he reveals secrets and the future: in a brothel he is solicited by harlots to lust, but in vain: he excels in abstinence and in being caught up in prayer.

16. At the dawn of the next day, he greeted me and went out for his spiritual labor, clothed in a short cloak. And when he had arrived at the place where breads are sold, some insolent youths, lovers of novelties, seeing him acting in such a delirious manner, seized him and dragged him into a tavern. Sitting down, they ordered wine and drank, beating him on the nape of the neck; and regarding his words as those of a madman, they would not let him go, nor did they offer him anything of what they had eaten for their meal. But the holy man, perceiving that they had no intention of sharing anything with him, pondered in his mind what he should do with these ungrateful gluttons; and when one of them had by chance placed a cup full of the finest wine upon the table, Andreas snatched it and drank, and after breaking the cup upon his head, he took to flight. But they quickly pursued him, dragged him back, and brought him into the tavern, having beaten him with many blows. And sitting down, they drank as before, offering nothing to the righteous one, but rather striking him with blows upon the neck while mocking him. Then, when those foolish men had played enough and evening had overtaken them, they wanted to

withdraw from the tavern, leaving Him behind. But He, crying out, said: "Fools, fools, what am I to do, for the night watchmen are about to encounter me, and I am to receive stripes?" By this the Saint wished to be understood in reference to his own mockers; knowing what was about to happen to them, they, however, not understanding, left him and went away.

^B 17. And so, having taken counsel, they went off to the brothels of the shameless women, polluting the beauty of their souls until the second watch of the night; but the blessed Andrew, having departed from there, cast himself down in a corner like one of the beggars. After these things, coming out, they were walking toward their own homes, and the patrols encountered them, and having seized them, they bound them; and coming to where the blessed Andrew was lying, they stripped them and scourged them severely. But the blessed Andrew, seeing them suffering in this way, was greatly grieved and was overcome with tears, and he besought God for them, that they might not be shut up in prison; and having been released through the intercession of their relatives and the prayer of Andrew, they went off to their own homes. One of them says: "May Satan be brought to naught, brethren, how have those things which that demoniac spoke to us about as happening to him, been fulfilled in us!" Another replies: "Do you not know that if the demon wishes to do some evil to someone, he ^C knows it? For perhaps for what we did to him, his demon did these things to us." Another said: "Not so, but as I suppose, because we beat him mercilessly, for this reason God has repaid us." Another says: "Yes," he says, "God cares for a fool! For he gave him a demon, and we beat him for sport; that is nothing wonderful. For if he were a holy man, you might have persuaded me that the sin which we committed against him, God has repaid us for; but since he is a madman, God has no care for him."

18. While they were saying these things and other things as well, such as youth is accustomed to speak among themselves; the blessed Andrew arose early in the morning and again continued his course, occupying himself in the midst of the tumult, and the whole day he spent nowhere sitting down, and eating nothing, he passed it fasting. And when evening came, he was walking through the porticoes of the city, and he was observing the place where the dogs had their lairs, and going there, having driven one of them out, he lay down, resting as if on a mattress.

^A Stripped, destitute, having not even a rush mat, nor a 34 small cloak, but only that aforementioned 35 little garment, which he wore. And as the next day dawned, rising again from that bedding, he addressed himself thus: "Behold, O worthless and foolish Andrew, you have passed the night like a dog among dogs; come, let us apply our hand to the work again, because death approaches. For let no one deceive you, that in that hour there is anyone who can help you; for every man shall reap the fruits of his labors at the time of the departure of his body. Therefore, run on with labor, being despised by these men in the world, that we may receive praise and glory from the heavenly King."

^B Saying these things, the blessed man hastened according to the Apostle Paul, who says, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before" (Phil. iii, 13). But men, looking at him, said, some: "He is demon-possessed from his youth," and they were touched with compassion for him; but others said, "Begone, there is no place here for a fool," and they struck his shoulders with slaps, and spitting on him, they loathed the man; yet he bore all things patiently, being hungry, thirsty, freezing, and scorched by the heat. Meanwhile, from the inner sanctuary of his heart, he offered prayers such that the murmur of his lips resounded from afar; and just as a pot, boiling violently, sends forth dense vapors, so from his chest the breath of the Holy Spirit went forth, so that those observing him said, "His heart, distressed by an evil spirit, is making this vapor." But it was not so with him, but rather it was an unceasing and God-pleasing prayer that showed these things. Whence, as the inexperienced once mistook the speaking in tongues for drunkenness, so also they reasoned about these things.

^C Now on one of the days, near the brothels, that is, the houses of prostitution, as if he were wandering in a delirium, one of the harlots, seeing him, and seizing his cheap little garment that he was wearing, dragged him inside. But he, truly an adamant and true mocker of Satan, followed her who was pulling him and entered into the den. ^D Soon the rest of the crowd of harlots came running, and surrounding him, they questioned [him] for the sake of laughter, as to why he had suffered this. But the blessed man, smiling gently, gave no answer; but as they slapped him and forced him toward the filthv deed of fornication, and as some gently caressed his private parts, while others kissed him, they tested the chaste man for insolence; and the others said, "Commit fornication, fool, and satisfy the desire of your soul." For it is a wonder, O broth-

[alt-version omitted]

^Aers, that a miracle happened then; for given the great softness with which they assailed the man, they were in no way able to move him nor to instill in him any desire for base passion. Wherefore, changing their tune, they said things like this: "This man is certainly dead, or a piece of wood without sense, or a stone that cannot move." But one of them said: "I marvel at your senselessness, that you speak thus; for this man is a fool and possessed by a demon, hungry, thirsty, shivering, with nowhere to lay his head to rest; does he himself desire these things? Let him go to continue his madness."

^B 21. Meanwhile, the Blessed one saw the demon of fornication standing in the midst of the harlots. In appearance he was an Ethiopian, with large lips, and he had no hair on his head except for dung mixed with ash; his eyes were like those of a fox, and a miserable rag of cloth hung from his shoulder. There emanated from him an odor and a triple stench, foul, muddy, and as if from spittle that is putrid, so that because of his bitter stench the Blessed one was disgusted and kept spitting, and with his gaze he blocked his nostrils. The demon of wantonness, seeing him disgusted, sent forth such a voice as this: "Men consume me as the sweetest honey and store me in their hearts, ^C and this jester of the world spits upon me and detests me! You, though, put on the fool not so much to attain what is good as to avoid the servitude of the body entirely." Andreas indeed saw him speaking sensibly, but the harlots did not see him; they heard only the voice. Yet the Blessed one also laughed at his indecency and his stench, so that he said to the impudent one: "See how he smiles at his own demon."

22. One of those women said: "His cloak is good; come, let us take it and sell it; for that is what we have to do today." And immediately arising, they stripped him and left him naked, and having sold his tunic for one miliarision, they divided the sum into two obols each. The first one said to the others: "Let us not let him go naked, but let us give him at least a ^D mat worn out with age." They brought a mat, and having torn it in the middle, they clothed him in it; and thus he was cast out of the dwelling. Coming therefore into the square, he wore it and ran about playing. And those who saw him said, "The fool wears a fine garment, for the Master has made me a patriarch." But some who loved Christ provided [i: ... ]

him with small copper coins according to their own good pleasure; he did not seek these himself, but Christ provided for him. Whatever anyone gave him, he would receive; throughout the entire day he would gather twenty or thirty, or even more, copper coins. He kept watch for a secret place where a gathering of the poor took place, and went there, holding the coins in his hand as if playing, so that his activity might not be known. Sitting in the midst of the poor, he would tease them with the coins; but if any of the beggars tried to snatch them, he would slap him. ^B The other poor people, defending their fellow pauper, would rush in and strike him with sticks. Using the cause of the flight, he would scatter all the coins, and then everyone would snatch what they could for their own profit and keep it.

23. One day, while the holy man was playing in the portico, it happened that he entered a tavern where spiced wine was being drunk. As another man entered to drink, Andreas looked at him with very fixed eyes. When the man noticed him staring at him with a grim expression, he said, "Why do you stare at me so fixedly, fool? Go away out of here." ^C The holy man said, "A stingy demon, like a small monkey, sits upon your right shoulder, and as if holding you fast with a halter, it binds you, wretch—give me an obol." The man, crazed, said, "I have none." The holy man said, "Yes, you do; consider your soul. You brought seven copper coins from your house, you spent one on vegetables, another on hot water, and the remaining five you carry in your bosom, and the demons are compelling you to spend them on wine." Having said this, he ran out quickly. The man, ^D astonished at the statement, revealed plainly to those sitting with him and drinking that the matter was true. When the tavern-keeper heard these things, he said to them, "As I see, you are no saner than that madman; for it is not he who is speaking, but the demon that accompanies him. Why then are you astonished? Does the demon not know who commits fornication, or who steals, or who is a miser, or how many coins someone has brought from home? Since Satan follows behind a man, he clearly observes his work, and his comings, and his goings; and if..."

he is his friend, he will reveal all things to you, even the deeds of others. By this speech he persuaded the innkeeper that the matter was so.

24. Passing one day through the market where bread is sold, ^A Andrew met three youths, distinguished by their blond hair, and comely both in soul and body; for the young men were accustomed to good works under the guidance of one who was of more advanced age, who instructed others in everything pleasing to God. When they encountered the holy man, the chief of those venerable youths recognized what was occurring regarding blessed Andrew, and said to his companions: "Believe me, most beloved, I suspect that this foolish [or 'mad'] man is a servant of God." And another said: ^B "I beg you, let us offer him a place to sit with us." Then the first said: "If you wish, I will accomplish this quickly." Turning to the saint, he said: "Brother, if you love me, come here and sit with us, because I love you, and these companions of mine are constrained by the desire for you." Andrew, looking at the one inviting him, smiled; and calling him by name, he said, "You are Epiphanius, my friend." Having said this, he embraced the youth, and foreseeing what was to come, signified that he would be created bishop ^C of the city which excels among others as a queen. Holding one another hand in hand, they came to the other two youths, and Epiphanius himself recounted how he had called him by name. Those who heard these things placed greater affection and faith in him. Having entered one of the clean shops, they bought bread and wine and fish, and placed them out for an entertainment. The holy man, seeing their faith, rejoiced with a great joy, and he was whispering with his mouth, having entrusted the offering of them to God through prayer; then in this way ^D he participated in what was set forth, even giving to the youths with his own hands.

25. True and worthy of belief is the word, most beloved, that Andrew would eat half a paxamation for the whole day, and he did even this by taking a small portion from what was set before him, leaving the most part on the table. When someone offered him wine, he did not hesitate to drink; if no one offered it, he never drank. Not rarely for two or three days, and sometimes for a whole week, he abstained from all food; and since Satan had hardened the minds of the many, that they might no longer bestow anything upon him, he forced the obstinacy upon them, and he himself cast aside all concern of asking; he would receive nothing at all for sustenance. Hinc, very often burning with thirst, and not knowing what plan to adopt, when he chanced upon mud in the street mixed with rainwater, he would bend his knee, and forming the sign of the cross three times over it with his breath, he would thus drink it, so that those observing...

and [they] were indignant with him, some beating him with rods, others saying to him with threats: "It is not fitting, you fool, to consume such filth." But he answered no one a word, but immediately withdrew from those present. This, beloved, was the manner of life and secret conduct of the holy man. ^A

26. As it has been said above, when he was sitting and eating in the tavern with those honorable young men, by chance his voice reached my ears as I was passing by, the basest of men. I turned aside from the way for a time and betook myself to the vestibule, secretly to watch what was happening. Therefore, when the young men, having greeted Andrew, went on their way, the tavern-keeper also, who was a Christian, happened to go out of his shop for some reason, and Andrew remained alone inside. He, looking hither and thither, where he detected no one, stretched his hands toward heaven and began to pray for those three young men mentioned; and—God is my witness, who destroys them that speak lies—he was lifted from the earth into the air and was suspended. How terribly and strangely it appeared to me, the profligate, for terror seized me as I watched these things, and my mind was astonished. Immediately, then, having come to himself, he went out ^B and, mixing with the crowd, began to act in his customary manner; and this I shall now make clear to your charity.

CAPUT IV

While a severe storm is raging, he suffers a long ecstasy, being caught up into heaven and beholding various things.

27. A winter storm had at one time intensified, with the most bitter cold pressing upon the air with such violence that every kind of animal was numbed. All dwellings were filled with snow, because the wind Boreas, raging strongly, had overturned the tiles even from low buildings, not to mention those from high and lofty structures. And all the poor, lamenting and groaning that "woe," were crying aloud, and through necessity and the violence of the cold, they were being consumed and brought to the final crisis of death; others, buried by the mass of snow, were similarly ending their lives; jars were shattered; trees were uprooted; the birds of the sky perished from lack of food. I, indeed, was being severely tortured in spirit ^C on account of Andrew, the servant of God, who was entirely destitute of any clothing and dwelling; for he had no tunic, no short cloak, no mat, no garment of wool to wear; he had no hut to which he could retreat. I was therefore involved in great grief and sorrow, anxiously thinking what had become of him, or in what part of the city he might be hiding; I even suspected from time to time that he had already completely exchanged life for death. This violent storm had held out for many days, when, after two weeks had passed, the winds finally ceasing and abating, late in the evening, this illustrious and divine athlete enters to me. I, having seen him, was astonished in spirit; rising, therefore, I embraced him, greeting him with a holy kiss. ^D When, however, we had given much time to mutual affection, he said to me: "Let us sit down, my beloved, after you have ceased from your tears, and I have something to tell you." Having sat down, he says playfully [to me]

"Let the table be prepared, so that we may be cheered." And I ordered this to be done.

^A 28. But as the boy was occupied with the order, the Saint says to me: "Truly, my sweetest brother in the Lord, why are you so greatly afflicted on my account, thinking that I too had frozen to death from the cold, as happened to all my brothers and fellow-poor? Do you not know that the Lord watches over those who love Him, and that the Lord is near to those who are broken in heart, and saves the humble in spirit? Do you not know that He said to my wretched self: 'If you love Me with all your soul, you will know My gifts, and the great consolation that comes to you from Me?' Do not, therefore, my friend, from now on harbor any such thought at all about me; for great is the joy for those who hope in God with their whole soul and mind, both in the present age and in the future." Having heard these things from me, I suspected in my mind that some miracle had happened to him in such necessity, and for this reason he himself had spoken these things to me. I began to appease him with the gentlest words, kissing him, and asking him sincerely, I say to him: "My master, how did you pass through those days of distress? I adjure you by the God of heaven and earth, do not hide from me the wonders that have occurred in you from God."

^B 29. The blessed one replies: "My friend in the Lord, what place would the fool and the witless have to stay, if not in the folly and insults of [the world], as always? Nevertheless, my brother, my love for you burns, and intense passion draws me to confess to you; but I adjure you by the God who made all things by a word along with His only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and His holy and life-giving Spirit, that as long as I am in this life, you will not announce to anyone at all what I am about to tell you; and because of the burning love I have for you ^C, I will answer you confidently." And I bound him with the most terrifying oaths to keep His divine commandments. Then, opening his venerable mouth, he said to me: "As you know, beloved, the most violent necessity of the cold and of the greatest wind, I was completely at a loss, not knowing what to do, being naked, uncovered, and barefoot, having neither a cloak nor a place to lay my head; I went, therefore, to the poor, like me, to be saved, and they did not receive me, but as if I were a dog, they drove me away with sticks, loathing me and saying: 'Be off from here, dog, and go away.' ^D Not finding anywhere to be saved, at last all hope of life faded for me. But I kept saying, 'Blessed is the Lord God, if I die for the sake of His love, it is nothing strange. But God is not unjust, who will provide an end to this cold, and grant me patience.'"

' ^A I made my way to a portico and, finding a little dog nearby, I laid myself down beside it, hoping to gain some warmth from it. But the dog, seeing me near it, got up and retreated. I said then to myself, "Wretch, do you see how great a sinner you are, that even dogs flee from you and do not receive you into their number, not even as one like them? Men turn away from you as from an evil demon, the dogs loathe you, the poor drive you away; what then do you have left to gain? You are dying, you profligate, you are dying, for there is no salvation for you here." As I was saying these things in sorrow, contrition came upon me, and being constricted by the cold and extreme trembling, I wept, looking with my mental eyes only toward God. My limbs having all grown cold, I thought I was about to give up my spirit immediately, when suddenly I felt a warmth, and opening my eyes, I saw a young man, exceedingly beautiful, his face shining like the sun. In his hand he held a golden branch, entwined with roses and dewy lilies—not such as this world produces, heaven forbid, but some of another nature and form. Holding that most beautiful branch, he looked at me and said, "Andrew, where were you?" I said to him, "In darkness and the shadow of death." He replied, "How is that?" And at the same time he struck my face with that flower-bearing branch, adding these words, "Let your body receive henceforth insuperable life." Suddenly the fragrance of those flowers penetrated to my heart, and like a flash of lightning it restored my life to me. After this I heard a voice saying as follows: "Remove him to a place of refreshment until two weeks have passed, and he shall return to where he came from; for I wish him to prove himself to me by struggling still more." Scarcely had that voice ceased to be heard when I was seized by a deep and most sweet sleep, and what happened to me after that I did not know. For in the place where ^B it pleased God, I spent two weeks, no differently than if I had slept sweetly for one whole night.

31. ^C Finding myself in a garden, bright and truly wonderful, I was amazed in spirit and pondered with myself what this could mean. I said, "I know that my dwelling place is in Constantinople; but why I am here, I do not at all know." While I was greatly wondering at the matter, how this had come to pass for me, and being in suspense of mind, I spoke in this manner: "Truly, I must have lost my mind; for God has provided well for me, and it would be fitting for me to thank Him and sing His praises. But here I am, sitting idle, occupied in my whole mind by this extraordinary wonder, and I consider myself as though bodiless; for I did not think I was clothed in flesh." I was wearing a tunic, lightning-bright, snow-white, and studded with gems, which delighted my eyes and my soul in a wonderful way by its beauty. ^D Then I looked at the crown upon my head, even though it was woven of all kinds of flowers; but also my sandals upon my feet

were seen to be protecting me: I found myself girded with a sash of intense ^A color, like purple. The air of that garden was shimmering with an ineffable light, softly diffused with various flowers that imitated the color of the solar rays; and a varied scent, which was constantly changing, was meeting my sense of smell, delighting it. Believe me, I shudder with my whole mind and spirit when I relate these things. For just as with some king, to whom whatever he desires is at hand, so it was with me in that divine garden, taking pleasure from the consideration of things originating there by a power more than human.

^B 32. The place abounded in many things which God had caused to spring up; not such as this world enjoys (far from it, far from it), but they were of an entirely different nature. They blossomed perpetually; they exhaled a most delightful fragrance; they distilled a honeyed liquid; they were conspicuous for the density of their foliage, the height of their tops, and a graceful bending of their branches, swaying toward one another with the amazing delight of those beholding them: in short, they had an appearance not unlike the firmament of heaven; and they brought such delectation as cannot be grasped by the senses. Blessed are they who enjoy that pleasure and sweetness, filled with that blessed vision and gladness! ^C But this is most to be wondered at, that some offered themselves to be beheld in one way and some in another, and some did not delight by one single kind of ornament. For some were granted only to blossom perpetually, with flowers never flagging or withering; others were commanded to be adorned with leaves and fruits of diverse kinds; others, finally, had at once flowers and leaves, and their own pleasantness, and a strange appearance, and precious, conspicuous fruits, comparable to nothing else. Nor is that less stupendous, that on the aforementioned trees birds, sparrows, cicadas, and other diverse birds by name, marked by great beauty—some reflecting the brilliance of gold, others the whiteness of snow in their wings—were perched on individual leaves; singing and modulating with such sweetness that I think the most beautiful and pleasant concert, carried on high, penetrated as far as the highest heaven. And while I longed to contemplate the birds, the aspect of such great variety of them stole my mind from my senses, rapt into ^D ecstasy. For as it has been said, as roses, lilies, and other kinds of flowers, which I cannot recount, were multiform, so also was the beauty of the birds clearly admirable and singular.

33. Therefore, turning again to the first little bird, I admired its beauty; and having gathered my senses into one, I betook myself to consider another, distinguished by much grace and elegance of color; and I found again another and yet another of extraordinary beauty, which refreshed me in a wonderful way. Finally, their song without intermission continued to resound most sweetly. But who could explain these strange and fearful beauties of what is seen there? And all those fair things, which shiver with delight and are like the cold of heaven, with which He treats the blessed ones, with the dew of which pleasure and gladness He fills the soul with vision and joy.

^A The plants stood symmetrically, as one array facing another. O how blessed is the hand that planted these! Again, therefore, as I moved toward the interior of the Paradise—for I thought that the darkness of this world was no more; for compared to the things there, the things here seemed to me darkness—as I was walking in the open space, I look, and behold, a great river was flowing through the middle of the Paradise, and it was watering all those plants in great serenity, washing against their roots in a gentle stream; and upon it those beautiful birds, those that sing unceasingly, were descending. A vine was spreading round about the river, beautiful in its leaves with the radiance of gold, and beautiful in its branches, which I likened to a certain lamp and to the first-born stone, because of Him who said: “I am the true vine,” and the cornerstone ^B and the unhewn stone. It spread throughout the whole of the Paradise, laden with the largest and most beautiful clusters, so that by the intertwining of its branches the plants there were adorned as if with garlands.

34. Having seen these things, my heart was gladdened, being carried from dread to wonder, and from wonder to ecstasy of soul. And standing for a long time as if beside myself, I hear the sound of a wind blowing from the east and falling upon the trees, which caused them to sway, sending forth a fragrance of ineffable sweetness; in which, being pleasantly held and astonished, I thought that this fragrance was from the incense of God, which ^C the angels offer before God. When that wind had ceased, I hear from the west the sound of another breath, causing in me an unsearchable delight, the inspiration of which, as it drifted, appeared to the sight like snow. The beauty of the trees that were there was indeed filled with a fragrance so wondrous that it surpassed all the spices of the earth, sending it forth from afar to the sense of smell as a dread incense, so that I was caused to forget those precious wonders which I had passed by and enjoyed behind me, which were like honey-yielding plants. And those birds, as they sang and chirped and twittered ^D those burning songs of exultation, I was beside myself in my mind—whether they were birds or angels, the Lord knows. Again, another wind of a most extraordinary kind was given forth from the north, fiery in appearance, as the rays of the sun are wont to be when it is setting; and as this blew in immeasurable serenity, those most radiant plants waved in a calm manner, and as it blew, it stirred the sweet fragrance in the roses, so that for a long time I was lost in thought, delighting in the most dearly-loved sweetness and love, [(continuation of Latin)] sweetly holding the inspiration of that wind of fragrance, so that I thought it to be from the incense, just as...

^A rising into the air, we were taken up and passed through. And within the veil was a multitude of a heavenly host, praising and glorifying God. We passed through those also, and behold, again another veil, of fine linen and purple, indescribable. And we arrived at a most glorious place, and there was a dreadful veil there, like electrum, exceedingly bright, and most pure, which a fiery hand drew back, preparing for us to pass through it. And within it was a multitude of countless youths, beautiful, fiery, with faces more bright than the sun. They stood then in a certain order and decorum on a dreadful height, suspended in immaterial ages, holding dreadful scepters in their hands; legions here, and other legions there, of which there is no number. The one guiding me says to me, "Behold, when this veil is raised, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Father; fall down therefore and worship Him, and direct the whole contemplation of your mind toward Him, and hear what shall be spoken to you by Him." ^B When the one guiding me was thus instructing me, I looked at the comeliness of the veil, and behold, a dove of enormous size, having flown down from above upon the veil. Its head was like gold, its breast purple, its wings shining as if fire, its feet true, and from its eyes as it were rays of light were proceeding. And while I was contemplating its elegance, it immediately rose up and departed into the height. Into that dreadful height which strikes every thought, I saw a throne, dreadful and lofty, hanging in the air with nothing holding it up. A flame was proceeding from it, not like that of fire, but surpassing snow in whiteness. And seated upon that throne was my Lord Jesus Christ, clothed in purple and fine linen; His brightness having been contracted once for my sake, for my wretchedness. I beheld the beauty and comeliness of His God-manhood, in the manner that one looks at the sun when it shines brightly from the East with its rays; but after that I was no longer able to behold Him clearly. ^C The veil having been raised, falling upon the wondrous air, I worshipped Him three times; and I tried to stand and look at His beauty, but as I said before, with unspeakable horror and incomparable fear from His dreadful light, and being seized with trembling and joy, I was no longer able to gaze at anything, or to look steadily into the fire-gleaming radiance of His omnipotent Godhead. And the voice came from the light to me, possessing a very great sound, so that that wondrous air was shattered by it. And His voice was honey-dropping, mild and sweet-spoken; it spoke three divine words, and I understood, and knew, and was delighted in my soul as never before. Then after a little while, It said to me three other words, and I having received these also most sweetly, was filled with joy divine and

^A in being struck on my face by that flower-bearing branch, when I was dying from the cold, he himself also commanded his servants to carry me away. As then this one went forth before me, I see ^B a great cross, fearful and beautiful; in its appearance, just as a rainbow is wont to do when it is in a cloud, and four veils around it appearing like a shining cloud—two of them of the color of fire, flashing like the appearance of lightning, and the others white, yielding in nothing to snow in their whiteness; and around it stood singers, beautiful, of great stature, and white, appearing as light, flashing forth most fiery rays from their eyes. As then these were singing a sweet melody to the one who was crucified, my guide, wearing his cloak, as he passed the cross, offered it reverence and signaled to me to do this; and so, following the example of the guide, I did it, and immediately I felt myself filled with a certain honeyed sweetness and recreated by such a fragrance of odors as I had not smelled even in the most fragrant garden. Then, casting my eyes down, I perceived beneath us what was like the abyss of a sea, and trembling took hold of me, and I feared lest I might unexpectedly fall down there; therefore, I cried out to my guide and said, "My Lord and leader, behold, I walk as if upon a cloud, and I am seized by grave fear, trembling lest I slip from here and be tripped up by the waters beneath us."

37. ^C He says to me: "Do not fear, for we must still ascend higher." And he reached out his hand to me, and we were found above the second firmament, the appearance of which was white, like snow. I see then also there two crosses, like the one below, and upon them was that same fearful attendance as there was upon the cross below; and the air of those who were there was fiery, and there was great rest for the beautiful youths. We did reverence, then, also to those venerable crosses with love and divine longing, just as before; and the fragrance of them was like the fragrance of God, ineffable, beyond the delight and pleasantness of the one below. I saw then, and behold, fire setting everything there aflame, and seized by trembling, I again called upon the guide for help. He, having given me his hand, says to me: "We were obliged to go even higher." And at the word we were lifted from those places, and we were found above the third heaven. ^D This third heaven is not as it appears to our eyes in this world, but instead of a solid firmament, it possesses what is spread out like a golden covering. We found there again, at the very first entrance, three crosses, shedding light like lightning, greater and more fearful by far than the two and than the one. And my guide indeed took courage and entered into the midst of the fire and did reverence to them; but I, being unable to do anything of the sort, did reverence from afar and passed by.

38. When, therefore, we had traveled a sufficient distance, we reached the second veil, like a certain lightning, spread wide through

the air; we were lifted up and passed through, and ^A we found there a vast host of heavenly spirits, praising and glorifying God. We passed through those places, too, and behold, again another veil, of fine linen and purple, of indescribable beauty. And we arrived at a most glorious place, and there was a fearful veil there like electrum, exceedingly bright and very pure, which a fiery hand drew back, and made a way for us to pass through. There was inside it a multitude of numberless youths, beautiful, fiery, whose appearance was brighter than the sun ^B; they stood in a certain order and with decorum on a fearful height, suspended in ethereal forms, holding fearful scepters in their hands; there were legions on this side, and other legions on that, whose number could not be reckoned. My guide says to me: "Behold, when this veil is removed, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Father; therefore, fall down and worship him, and turn the whole focus of your mind toward him, and hear what shall be spoken to you by him." As my guide was instructing me in these things, I cast my eyes toward the beauty of the veil, and lo, a very large dove, having flown down from above onto the veil; its head was as gold, its breast purple, its wings bright as a flame, its feet natural and real, and from its eyes rays of light went forth; as I was contemplating its beauty, it straightway rose up and departed into the height.

40. ^C When the veil had been removed, I looked up into that fearful height that strikes every mind with awe, and I saw a fearful and exalted throne, suspended in the air, with nothing holding it; a flame was proceeding from it, not such as comes from fire, but one that surpassed snow in its whiteness. And sitting upon that throne was my Lord Jesus Christ, clothed in purple and fine linen; because for the sake of my lowliness and weakness he had once veiled the brilliance of his glory, I beheld the beauty and grace of his God-manhood, in the same way that one sees the sun when it shines cheerfully from the East with its rays; but after this I was no longer able to behold him clearly. When the veil had been removed, falling upon the wondrous air, I worshipped him three times; I tried to stand and look at his beauty, but as I said before, ^D with indescribable horror and unspeakable fear because of his awesome light, trembling, and gripped by joy, I was no longer able to discern anything, or to gaze intently into the fiery-gleaming radiance of his infinite Godhead. Then a voice came forth from the light toward me, possessing a great sound, so that that wondrous air was shaken by it. Yet his voice was honey-dropping, gentle, and sweet-sounding; and it spoke three divine words, and I understood them well, and I was delighted in my spirit more than ever before. After a little while, he spoke to me three other words, and these also I accepted with joy, and I was filled with divine joy;

and suddenly the divine hosts of the holy angels sent up to Him a great voice of doxology. For, considering this, I understood that these things were for my sake, and because of the great providence of the Master Christ toward me, those spiritual and wondrous melodies were being cried out, even though they are always offering up the doxology without ceasing.

40. Having heard these ineffable and divine words, I immediately descended in the same manner as I had ascended, walking straight ahead; and I was again completely restored to myself, standing in the place from which I had previously been caught up. Greatly, therefore, I pondered what had happened to me, where I was, and where I had just been. And while I was wondering greatly ^B by what means I had returned to the plain of that divine garden, and observing everything that was there, I began to reason and say: "Is there another person here, or am I the only one?" While I was thinking these things, I looked and behold, there was a plain in the middle, and while there were no plants growing in the plain, the whole field was nevertheless very beautiful, flourishing with violets, lilies, roses, and flowers of many kinds that blossomed in infinite density. There were springs in it, and they were bubbling up—little by little—milk and honey, spouting up to the height of one cubit; and so great a fragrance of scent and sweetness came forth from them that I do not know what I should say that milk and honey were, or to what I should compare them. As I beheld the pleasantness of that place and the verdure of rest, I was amazed, ^C wondering at the marvels of the Lord, as I passed from glory to glory. I then beheld a man shining, clothed in a garment as a bright cloud, holding a cross; and coming near me, he said to me: "The crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. But blessed are the fools for Christ's sake, because they are many in wisdom; for God has indeed established you here, but go back for now to the arenas of the world, where there are thorns, vipers, serpents, and dragons, to endure temptations and stings. But I must also bring out to you this unusual miracle: no man has ever been present here except him who labored more than all others in the Gospel, ^D and you yourself, who have attained the highest pinnacle of perfection; and you have come here because of your extreme poverty; because of that, it was cast at you by beggars: 'Go away from here, you dog, to evil,' because of your humility; and finally, because you, a naked, young, foolish man, have descended into the arena to engage in single combat with the prince of the world; and having defeated him, you have cast him down from above, having overturned his throne in his own confusion."

41. You have therefore seen these awesome things here; you have understood the true enjoyment and recompense of the righteous; you have known the Paradise of Christ; you have seen how this...

^A of your misdeeds to employ your sorceries, you soul-seducer, and your drug-crafts, being alienated from God and the saints." And having said these things, he looked down to the ground and grabbed some mud, and having made it like a stone, he threw it at her shameless face; and having breathed onto her face in the form of a cross, he immediately cast off the vision of the human shape. And she, having become a serpent of immense size, entered a woman's dwelling, slithering along. And the woman, seeing the beast, was seized with trembling and fled out of the house, calling to the neighbors to kill the serpent. A great number ran up, and having searched the house, they were able to find nothing; for that most evil demon, having been altered from the shape of the serpent into his own nature, had gone away.

45. And blessed Andrew continued again on his way; and while returning, making use of moderate jests, he met that most beautiful youth, Epiphanius, ^B about whom the narrative was given above; and the boy was troubled from the violence of the devil. The venerable one embraced him and said, "Do not fear." Taking him by the hand, they walked, seeking a quiet place to sit. And as they were traveling, the Righteous one said to Epiphanius, "Behold, the corrupt demon, whenever he wishes, makes himself an old woman, and whenever he wishes, he makes himself an Agarene, wearing a black garment; and he encounters my greatly beloved child, striking and threatening him." Epiphanius, hearing these things, was astonished; for a little before, the wicked devil, who is always warring against the human race, had met him in the guise of an Israelite merchant and had threatened him with the uttermost things. For, seeing ^C the virtuous conduct of the boy and the struggle that he was waging—according to his strength—against the desires of the flesh, even though he had not yet passed his eighteenth year, during which time youth boils more fiercely, while he was living so pleasingly to God, the devil raged against him. For the boy was, in very truth, beautiful in appearance, sweet in modesty, well-born and gracious, most gentle, honey-flowing in speech, having a smiling countenance, and was profoundly versed in the divine Scriptures. For all those who lived in wisdom and knowledge were astonished at his discernment and his answers concerning theology, ^D and figurative steps, and proverbial questions, and concerning dogmas, and about things incomprehensible, and concerning the contemplation of death and extreme humility. And those who spoke of the divine words were as if tasting a honeycomb of honey, those who heard his words along with them.

They would throw him down, and binding his feet with a rope, they would drag him along the thoroughfare, fearing neither God, nor feeling the compassion toward one of their own race that befits a Christian, especially on feast days. But the holy man endured all these things on account of the hope laid up for the righteous.

43. Then the evil devil, burning with greater envy, since he could achieve nothing else, transformed himself into an aged crone, and sat by the roadside weeping, lamenting, and repeating again and again: "Woe is me, that I have lived to reach such an old age! Woe is me, a poor and withered creature! What great injuries that madman has done to me! What grievous evils he has inflicted upon me! How bitterly the wicked demon has incited him against me! For he has done me much harm, and there is no respite for my life. What shall I, a foreigner, a pauper, a widow, and a wretched woman, do, since that madman holds me captive?" Some who saw the woman, as she wailed and lamented loudly and plucked out her gray hairs, inquired, not without some show of pity, why she abandoned herself to such lamentations. To them she replied: "Have pity on me, good men, inhabitants of this city; I am a stranger here. Being involved in a lawsuit, I left my homeland and household and came here, and with the few belongings I had brought, as is the custom, I walked about in the theater and stayed there overnight. And when the evening was far spent, a certain demoniac and madman passed by, and having stolen a portion of my things, he fled immediately. Likewise, on the following night he returned, and having taken another part, he rushed off at once. Finally, attempting the same for a third time, when he had been seized by me, he left the loot for a while, and dragged me, miserable woman that I am, this way and that; he pulled out my gray hairs; kicking my belly, he caused me intolerable pains; and with a blow of his fist, he completely knocked out and broke my teeth, which were already weakened by age. Now therefore, good citizens, tell me what must be done; where might I find that criminal, at least to recover what he stole from me?"

44. While the old woman was saying these things with tears, some, upon hearing the mention of a demoniac and madman, quickly withdrew from that place, while others said, "Give us something, and come with us, and we will show you the man you are seeking." While the old woman was laboring to defend herself to the many who were questioning her, it happened that Andrew, intent upon his affairs undertaken for God's sake, was passing nearby. He, having recognized the craftiness of the most wicked demon, rising up, went there immediately and found the one who appeared to be an old woman sitting alone, those inquirers having already all departed. And the righteous man, with a grim look upon her as if in passing, said, "Weep and wail, you mad, execrable, dark, and foul-smelling old woman, weighed down by the burden of your sins long ago—"

^A and your sorceries, you who disturb souls, and by your witchcrafts, alienated from God and the saints." Having said this, he looked down at the ground and took up some clay, and having shaped it like a stone, he threw it at her shameless face. Then, breathing upon her face in the sign of the cross, he immediately caused the appearance of her human form to vanish. Having become a huge serpent, she slithered into a woman’s house. The woman, catching sight of the beast, was seized with trembling and fled outside the house, calling to her neighbors to kill the snake. Many came running, but after searching the house, they could find nothing at all. For that most wicked demon, having discarded the form of the serpent and reverted to his own nature, had departed from there.

45. Meanwhile, the blessed Andrew, as he was returning, ^B occupied with his modest jests, met that most beautiful youth, Epiphanius, of whom mention was made above, who was distraught on account of a violent assault by the demon. Andrew embraced him and said, "Do not fear," and taking him by the hand, led him to a place remote from the crowds so that they might sit together. As they were going along, the righteous man said to Epiphanius, "Behold, the most wicked demon, now as an old woman, now as a Saracen, as it pleases him, transforms himself. Clothed in a black garment, he appears to my dearest son, striking him and terrifying him with threats." Hearing this, Epiphanius was astonished, for a little while earlier the wicked devil, who is always hostile to the human race, had taken the form of an Ishmaelite merchant and encountered him, making all sorts of extreme threats. For seeing the youth’s ^C virtuous conduct and his struggle with all his might against the allurements and concupiscences of the flesh—though he had not yet reached his eighteenth year, the time when youth is accustomed to boil over and grow wanton—the devil gnashed his teeth against him, who was living so religiously. For the lad was truly beautiful in appearance, modest in his ways, noble, gentle, mild, sweet in conversation, having a smile upon his face, and was deeply versed in the holy Scriptures. For all who lived in wisdom and knowledge were astonished at his discernment ^D and his answers concerning theology, and about allegorical sayings and proverbial questions, and concerning dogmas and the incomprehensible, and about the meditation on death and supreme humility. For those who were skilled in divine matters were captivated, as if having tasted a honeycomb, by hearing his words.

^A And he, having become speechless at their inquiries, answered with humility. I shall speak one word about him, and then I will write down the threat which Satan threatened against him.

46. On a certain day, as Epiphanius was sitting at his parents' table, there were also ^B some philosophers invited there, friends of his parents, and they knew that Epiphanius was eminent in wisdom and in disputations. They wished to enter into conversation with him, but they were held back, knowing how much he detested those who were rash in disputing; and turning away from them, he would deign no response. Therefore, one of them said to his companions: "How does the begetting Father and the begotten Son exist of the same nature and substance, and how do they understand and will the same thing?" The other said: "In the way that mind and intellect are the same, which consent in mutual conjunction, so that all the members of the body are rightly governed." Then the philosopher: "You have assumed a question worthy of a mature man, and explained it in eloquent words; but tell me, how is the Spirit in the midst of them?" The other answered: "Indeed, just as the knowledge of the mind and the apprehension of the imagination know how to come together into one, so as to breathe the will." Having praised him, the Philosopher said: "This solution to the proposed questions is manifest. Nevertheless, Master Epiphanius, tell us also your own opinion; come, honey-tongued one, bring forth what you consider to be the truth." Epiphanius answered: "This conversation has been instigated because of me, for you seem to wish to test what I, the vilest of dogs, might know. Nevertheless, let your servant speak in few words." They replied: "That same thing is pleasing to us, dearest one; bring forth something from the fountain of your wisdom for our instruction." Then Epiphanius said: "The ^C Father and the Son are one in illumination, and judgment, and will, and essence, just as two eyes are one in the same things." To this one of the philosophers said: "In what way is the Spirit between them?" Epiphanius said: "Just as the object which comes to be considered is one and the same to both through vision." Having heard this, they were astonished; and one of them exclaimed: "He has explained to us the sentiment of Saint Athanasius."

47. Epiphanius says: "But if it is pleasing to you, I will explain it in a bodily manner also. ^D Just as teeth, lips, and tongue, when we speak, are joined together so that the voice may be formed, so it is compared with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father is the mind, the Son is the Word, and the Spirit is the common thought, intellect, and contemplation of both, the highest and most subtle point of that fullness. Let us also offer another comparison: the sun denotes the Father, the ray the Son, and the bright luster the comforting Spirit. Behold the three-hypostatic, one essence on the elements."

^A And the sun does not yet leave heaven, as the Son, he sends rays to those on earth, sending warmth with the rays—the most holy Spirit—to benefit and warm the human race. In such a way also the Father, being omnipotent, did not descend to earth, but sent his radiance, and in that radiance the warmth of the comforting Spirit, and has saved the four corners of the earth. Come now, bring into our midst that very bread which we eat daily; for being from grain, and water, and fire, it possesses a unity, one and the same bread known to be coalesced from three substances—in such a way one must think concerning the three-hypostatic, one Godhead. ^B Having heard these things, the philosophers, unable to look into the face of the youth, and stunned by his wisdom and understanding, no longer entered into any discussion, fearing his counter-question, lest they be put to shame just as he had shamed a certain sophist before the crowd, saying to him: "Is a winged trulla designed by conscious intent, or not?" For that man, though considered most learned, was shown to be the laughingstock of all; for he was one of the wolf-tailed mystagogues of Arius. They arose therefore in silence from the table, and made their way to their own homes.

CHAPTER VII.

^A 49. Epiphanius then, having found a location, sat down and began to provide an account of how the demon met him on the road, saying: "He appeared as an old man, gray-haired, having the guise of an Agarene merchant, with eyes fierce and cruel, such as those of bulls usually are; he was clothed in a black garment, and shoes of a purple color. Having encountered me as I was walking, he said: 'Are you not the son of John, of whom men say that you have crushed the devil for nothing? You act hypocritically toward me; I will weave a net for you, and having dug a pit, I will ensnare you; I will season a pot for you, in opposition to my own designs.' As the evil demon was babbling these things, and heaping up threats and insults, I was dismayed, wondering whence he had met me, with whom I had never spoken a word; and who this provoker of disputes, this terrifying, threatening creature might be, since I had never seen him or known him before, it completely escaped me. And as I was turning these things over in my mind and was in suspense, an intolerable trembling and agitation seized me; until arriving here, I met your holiness, and told everything to you just as it happened."

Then Andrew, taking up the discourse, said: "That Agarene, my dearest one, whom you mention, is a centurion of demons, and he is a ^B *drax*—that is, industrious and strenuous—at fighting those who strive toward God, and pushing the souls of men toward licentiousness, enticing them into foul desires and titillations. Therefore, my beloved son, I entreat you, pay close attention to yourself, and do not be ignorant of his machinations. See to it that you are awake and sober in all things, since you are delicate and tender, and very pleasant; and for this reason the proud enemy rages against you, because you have dedicated and offered yourself to God, having presented to Him the most precious pearl of your body. Moreover, this same cursed enemy envies your disposition, your gentleness, your wisdom unsullied by errors, and your chastity; and driven by rage, he ^C concentrates on your destruction, because you love God with your whole heart and honor His saints, who for the sake of God, and for eternal life and endless beatitude, have poured out their own blood."

50. "Learn, therefore, how carefully one who walks in the fear of God and in truth must scrutinize the malevolence of the most wicked demon. Subjugate your body with fastings, and tame the flesh as it grows wanton; clothe yourself with humility as with a garment; take joy in long prayers; guard all the senses of your body pure and undefiled."

v. "See how he [Andrew] accurately analyzes the malice of the evil one for him, as he walks in the fear of God and in truth. Subjugate your body with fastings, and the twitchings of the flesh; clothe yourself in humility as a garment; in your prayers be made radiant and joyful; guard all the senses of your body ^D pure and unsullied; for the all-wicked one desires to defile your heart, and..."

to make it a slave to impurity, hastening to condemn it to the fearful Gehenna of fire. For he who commits sin is a slave of sin; and of these two operations there are two principals: of righteousness, the Lord of heaven and earth; of iniquity, the devil. Therefore, my dearest son, be a beloved worker of righteousness for the Lord Jesus, and the Lord will guard you, and the Most High will protect you, and His help will be round about you, and He shall give His angels charge concerning you, to keep you in all your ways. Take heart, therefore, and fear not, nor let your heart be cowed, calling upon Him. Hearing these things, the noble youth let ^A fall tears like showers of pearls from his eyes, watering his venerable face. For ecstasy gripped him as he took to heart that most brilliant and God-given counsel and instruction. And all that the Just One said to him, he spoke whispering into his ear, while sitting in a secret place. So when they had discussed what was necessary, and embraced one another with a holy kiss, they departed: and the Just One went away to mock the vain world and the devil, while Epiphanius returned to his own home.

51. Concerning the struggle of Epiphanius with the demon and the legume cooking.

51. I wish, therefore, to relate to your charity another very great miracle which occurred in the God-beloved Epiphanius, ^C while our Lord Jesus Christ bore witness to the favors done by Him to him, and brought to light the things performed for his sake. This God-beloved young man, [spending his life in abstinence and prayer], was accustomed to passing the first week of the Holy Forty Days without food or drink, and after this, receiving the immaculate mysteries of Christ, and only then providing restoration for his body with bread, water, and certain legumes. Now, during one Lent, having completed the aforementioned week with fasting, before the hour of the liturgy arrived, he had placed inside his sleeping quarters a legume called *prophasoulon*, not allowing anyone to enter there on account of the warmth, because of the cold that existed at that time. He himself was sitting and warming himself, cooking this in a small pot; and when the wood was struck for the prayer of the Ninth Hour, ^D he arose and went to the church, without having instructed anyone concerning the care of the stew. As he stood in the church, the accursed demon, who always fights the mind of men with lawless thoughts, attacked the young man with thoughts of abandonment, using the excuse of caring for the stew, in order to drive him out of the church before the dismissal; and he began to offer to his mind thoughts such as these: "Behold, throughout the whole of the

for a whole week, suffering in a pitiful manner, you afflicted yourself, abstaining from food and drink, lying prostrate on the ground, sleeping on the hard floor, destitute of all comfort; and in these things you persevered so violently that you were almost near death from the excessive heat brought on by your thirst. When, therefore, you ought to have cared to prepare and take a little nourishment, you left that very thing and went away carelessly, without giving any command to anyone concerning the preparation of the meal. Go, therefore, and see whether the heat may perhaps have caused an ^A offensive odor; for there is no danger that this gathered assembly of the faithful will disperse before you have completed all the tasks of prayer that you are accustomed to perform."

52. These and other things, even more effective as they seemed, were suggested by the proud demon; but Epiphanius, clearly recognizing the machinations of the wicked one, replied to his plotting in this manner: "God will be the caretaker of my food, for He who feeds every living thing is also the protector of my life." Opposing these words in his mind and understanding to the foul enemy, who was trying to draw the soul of the one praying into various directions, and arming himself with the sign of the cross, he persisted there until the end of the service. Then, returning to himself, he found everyone enraptured in admiration at the most sweet fragrance of scent with which the house was permeated, and he heard those who were hanging on his every word, and who were ignorant of where that sweetness was finally being breathed from, questioning him as if about a wondrous thing, saying: "Come here, our beloved master, and smell this incomparable fragrance, the source of which no one can know." ^B And when Epiphanius had approached, he himself also sensed the wonderful sweetness of that fragrance, and was struck by the novelty of the thing. Entering into the room where the brazier was full of coals, and looking about, he beheld a youth of exceptional dignity, of admirable stature, and composed in a thoroughly becoming manner; his face shone more brightly than the sun, and he was clothed in a robe which would not be unworthy of the divine majesty itself, white from his neck down to his chest, interwoven with gold, but from there on, through his loins down to his knees, shining like green and citron-colored grass; his head glowed with fair hair, his locks imitating gold in their brilliance. Struck with fear at this spectacle, Epiphanius sees the face of the youth transforming in various ways, at one moment white as snow, at another moment flashing like fire. He was extending his bare right arm, with which he was holding the handle and supporting the cauldron, not standing idly by the fireplace. ^{C D}

53. While Epiphanius therefore stood speechless, and was struck with horror at this vision, that gracious cook, having tasted the broth as if to make a trial of the cooked food, cast from his bosom

^A a small vessel, and taking some of the condiment from it with three fingers, he cast it into the pot with the sign of the cross, and covered his naked arm within his cloak; and then finally, looking at Epiphanius with a smiling face, he spread out the reddish wings he had, raised himself from the earth, and went up into the heavens. Being dizzied by the things he saw, and struck with wonder, the young man was beside himself in spirit, and turning towards the East, stretching out his hands to the Lord, and being constrained by tears, he said: "Woe is me, my Lord, who am I, the crushed dog, that you should have sent your most beloved Angel to serve me? I thank your philanthropy, O Lord, and I exalt the greatness of your mercy, because you have accounted me worthy of your scrutiny, and support me with your divine power, and consider me worthy of a place ^B among those who love you. I thank you, O good and life-giving Guardian, and Provider of my salvation."

54. Confessing these things with a contrite heart, he went off to see what sort of food he who had appeared had prepared for him; and he found that it had such a fragrance as no one on earth can count or describe. Wondering at the event, and greatly thanking the Lord, he exclaimed: "Glory to you, glorified Lord, who art praised and worshipped in Trinity, because you have taken the most miserable deeds of my worthless youth into account, and with your indescribable benefits you soothe my incapacity, and you have deemed me worthy to partake of the honey of your goodness. [What then shall I render to my Lord?] I thank you, Almighty, and I glorify you, most merciful One, all the days of my life, and I shall not cease from now until my departure." Having prayed thus, and taking from that vessel, he partook, ^C and being seized by an infinite sweetness, all his senses were immediately transformed into a divine disposition, so that he was struck with wonder at the sudden change and the most dear alteration of his soul; and furthermore, because of the wonder of it, he was enflamed with more ardent love for the Lord and all the Saints, and thus walked with more zeal in the path of the Lord's commandments.

55. On one of the days, then, he arose and went to the Church to make his prayer, as was his custom; and the service having been completed, ^D having gone inside, he sat before the gate of his parents, his father also being present. And as the blessed Andrew was passing by on the public road, plying his craft, naked, destitute, with his loins covered only by a ragged and vile garment, Epiphanius saw him, and being moved by great compassion, he desired to bring him into his house. But since there was no way to offer this kindness to a man known to the public because of the presence of his father, pretending I know not what cause, he addressed him thus: "My Lord and father, do you see that man, naked,"

wandering the streets? I suspect that madness has been cast upon him by the enemy of the human race. But now, my Lord and most beloved father, so that you may never look upon the premature death of your most beloved son Epiphanius, nor upon the sorrowful face of your little bird, let us bring him into our house, and on account of the munificence of the Lord our God, who heaps you with honor and riches from the treasury of His goodness, permit me to set a table for him and pour out wine, that we may receive a reward for our souls; for that alone shall we find in the kingdom of heaven."

56. His father, becoming inspired ^A by a divine spirit, looked upon his son with a kind and most gentle eye, and having kissed his most sweet face, he said: "O ointment of my soul and light of my eyes, my son, there was no need for you to seek my will concerning this matter: go and do as you please; for all that is mine is yours." To which Epiphanius replied: "Truly, my most beloved father, it was necessary; for there are certain things I must ask, for it is written (76): 'A son who dictates laws to his father shall die the death, and if the father is intent upon some matter, every counsel of the son shall be brought to nothing.'" Having heard this, the father rejoiced ^B with joy because of the wisdom and prudent replies of his son; and he, pursuing the Holy one with quickened step, overtook him inside his house, and came grabbing his hand, urging him to his own quarters. But when they reached the gate, and his father was not found there, the blessed Andrew refused to enter the gate, and sat down outside. Those neighbors and travelers who saw him, stripped of his clothing and behaving like a madman, gathered around him in great numbers; some groaned, cursing the devil and Satan, that he had confounded ^C a man so great by having brought him to such a state of spoilation of all things, while others gave him an obol, and others offered him wine. But he, tenacious of his own purpose, would receive nothing from anyone, but repelling them all, sat down on the ground before the doors of the house.

CHAPTER VIII.

57. Meanwhile, a certain youth arrived, by nature a eunuch, a chamberlain to some great man ^D. His face was flushed with a roseate color, his body shone like snow, his appearance was comely, his hair flaxen, and his softness was not ordinary; he also smelled much of musk from afar, and was dressed in soft garments. But because he was of the same age as Epiphanius and a neighbor, they pursued a mutual love for one another. That eunuch had with him some dates, about thirty in number, like dried figs; and his eyes being turned upon the saint, who was stripped of his clothing, he was struck with horror, and the matter seemed strange to him, and...

he asked Epiphanius, saying: "My dearest and most well-beloved Epiphanius, who ever is this man? Why does he go about naked, especially with such unbearable weather and cold blowing, and how is it that he has become like those who are in danger at sea?" Epiphanius said: "My sweetest brother, I do not know what I can say to you about what is seen; for his mind has been led captive by the Spirit, and he goes about with his senses turned upside down as if he were possessed by a demon. All such people habitually tear their garments and run about without being aware of it." He spoke this, not wishing to reveal the virtue of the Saint. ^B Having heard these things, the other remained silent, and pitying him as a beggar, he offered the dates he was holding to Macarius, saying: "Accept these for now, since we have nothing else here." But the Saint, possessing eyes that saw into the heart, knew the works of his soul, and looking at him with a stern gaze, he said: "Insane people do not eat the fruit of the *cholophonia*." Not understanding what was said to him, the other said: "You are truly perverted; seeing dates, you think them to be *cholophonia*."

^B 58. Macarius says to him: "You wretch, go away to the bedchamber of your master and work with him in the impurity of the Sodomites, and he will provide you with other dates as well. Wretched one, you who do not see the rays of the kingdom of heaven, you who have not seen the most bitter cruelty of hell, nor are you even ashamed of the angel who follows you as a Christian. What must you do, you unclean one, lurking in corners and doing things that should not be done, which not even dogs, which not even creeping things and snakes, which not even pigs know how to do? From where, you cursed one, did you learn to perform these things? Woe to your youth, which Satan, having wounded, has cast down into the fearful abyss of Hades with a certain most violent and infinite insolence. Watch yourself, and do not proceed any further, lest rightly consumed by heaven-sent fire, snatching away your youth too soon, you be burned up here by such a blast, and thereafter be pitifully burned in the fire of hell." ^C Having heard these things, he shuddered, his face becoming as fire, and he was greatly ashamed. Therefore Epiphanius says to him: "What has happened to you, my true lord and friend, for what reason have you been agitated, so that your face has become as fire? Have I not said these things to you, since whatever one who is distraught and possessed by a demon reaches, he speaks out? Nevertheless, my beloved in the Lord, if you are conscious of any of the things already spoken by him, go your way, and bring yourself to correction, and do not be disgusted at what was said; for you are young and tender, and..."

the devil is troublesome, and, laying snares for us, leads us to commit sin for no other reason than to have us for his own comfort, as we are burned along with him in the flames of Gehenna. Having heard these things, the eunuch departed. ^B

59. The honorable Epiphanius, having roused the Saint, went with him into his bedroom, and finding a table prepared, they sat down and rejoiced in the liberal gifts of the Savior; and after they had partaken, Epiphanius said to Macarius: "In what way, O great lord, did you use such harsh censures against one so dear to me?" The Macarius said to him: "Because he has become dear and beloved to you, for this reason I addressed that indictment to him; had he not been your friend, he would not have heard a single word from me at all. For it is not my purpose to rebuke and chide sinners, but rather to run the straight path that leads to better things." Epiphanius said: "I know this, servant of God, but this young man is a slave, and is compelled by his master; what is he to do?" The Saint says: "I know that he is a slave—do not think I am unaware of this—but a frugal slave ought to be at the disposal of his master only for necessary services, not for the works of the devil and acts of dishonor, especially for this cursed and loathsome transgression, which not even the irrational beasts know how to commit. For what man is there who does not perceive the stench of this filth and shrink from it?" Epiphanius says: "If his master calls him, whether for bodily service, or for sinful service, or for spiritual service, if he does not obey as a slave, you know well what he suffers: he is insulted, beaten, threatened, and expects other countless evils." The Saint said: "This is the martyrdom of Jesus Christ, which he hinted at when he said: 'Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' If, therefore, servants do not yield to their masters in the foul and loathsome lust of the Sodomites, these are blessed and thrice-blessed, because through the torments you speak of, they will be counted with the martyrs." ^C

60. While they were occupied with such conversations, one of the servants of Epiphanius, who was set over the providing of his father’s table and food, having suspected the Saint’s [way of life] (but how he knew this, God alone knows) and having followed it with the eyes of his mind, fell at his feet, and with many tears besought the Saint to intercede for him with God, that he might obtain permission to follow such a way of life himself. The Saint, however, knowing what the other was trying to obtain through his humble prayers, and wishing—

to speak with him alone, changed by the power of the Holy Spirit the servant’s vernacular language into Syriac; and he spoke with him in Syriac about whatever he wished. When, however, he addressed Andrew, saying that the servant was not praying to be admitted into that manner of life if he did not possess equal strength for it, Andrew denied that he could surpass the sweats and labors to be undergone by those striving for such a sublime height of virtue: for the way, he said, is steep and uphill, laborious, and very difficult. Therefore, I advise you to remain steadfastly in your present state, applying yourself to piety and religion, and to learn diligently from your master Epiphanius those things that are most conducive to your virtue and salvation: flee from fornication, forget injuries, and temper all other passions; for what necessity compels you to subject yourself to such things? To these words the servant said: If you wish to comply with my wretchedness, say that it is not in your power to grant this. Having heard these things, Andrew kept silent.

^B 61. Epiphanius, meanwhile, observing the sudden change in his servant’s tongue, since he was uttering things he had never learned, pondered these things in his heart and said: O, what a miracle! How great are the things that the Saints can do! Blessed Andrew, however, prayed to the Lord on behalf of the boy, as he had earnestly begged him, asking what was to become of him. A voice came to him saying: This is not expedient; away with this attempt. Show him what kind of matter this is, so that he may not think it is because of your inability that you deny him such things. Therefore, Macarius said to the Angel standing by: Fill the cup of delight from which the grace of the gift bestowed upon me once blossomed. The Angel of the Lord did so; and Macarius said to him: Give it to him who is sitting at my feet to drink. He immediately gave it to him invisibly, and the servant began to express gestures exactly similar to those of the God-bearing father, who, seeing him, could not restrain himself from smiling. Epiphanius, disturbed by the novelty of the event and fearing lest the bile of his father should be stirred up because of this, approached the Saint with such prayers: I beseech you, servant of God, do not allow my father’s servant to be affected in such a way, lest perhaps you yourself bring evil upon yourself, and God receive blasphemies instead of good things, and you render me hateful and execrable to my progenitor, nor will I dare to introduce you here again. I pray, therefore, and beseech you, do not wish to make my prayers void, mindful of the love and the kindness I once showed you, your servant.

62. Macarius, not wishing to send Epiphanius away empty-handed, complied with his request and again commanded the angel to take away from him the gift that had been conferred upon him; and the boy again returned to his previous state, just as he was before. The servant, having become filled with great sorrow, began to entreat the Saint to give him that gift again. But he answered him: You have just said to me that I could not perform such a thing in you, and shortly after he is said to have been endowed with the gift of tongues, so that he could speak to everyone in his own language.

^A See, therefore, and perceive that if I wish, I can demonstrate even greater things in you in the name of the Lord; but your master Epiphanius has placed an obstacle before you, for the sacred canons do not permit anything to be done against the will of your master. Yet one of the fellow-servants of the boy, at the command of his master, called him to this service. As the day was already turning into night, Epiphanius compelled Andrew to spend the night with him, and he obeyed him who compelled him. Now, at the third watch of the night, when all the servants had completed their labors and found leisure, they gathered according to custom toward Epiphanius, for he was held in love and veneration by all; and since he was held in reverence and affection by everyone, and they stood with their hands folded, he directed them to sit down.

63. When they were seated in a circle around him, the blessed Andrew, with the keen eye of his mind, saw the deeds that each one had performed and what errors or sins each had committed. And wishing to benefit them, he began his discourse by setting forth a certain parable. But they, attentive to the words of the holy man and feeling shame, were struck as though by the flame of fire upon their faces; some stiffened with horror and almost lost their senses, others feared and trembled, and some withdrew out of shame; for the simple and unadorned speech of the holy man sharply reproved all their sins, showing in what manner and for what reason they had been committed. And herein was the most wonderful thing of all: that he revealed to each one his own sin in his own language, so that they pondered and said to themselves, “It is for my sake that this man provides this discourse.” ^{B C}

64. But while they were being struck with fear and trembling as the Saint recounted their sins in detail, the most wicked demon, observing that Epiphanius’s servants were being instructed and disillusioned of their sins, approached the vestibule of the house with other companions of the same sort, and sitting down, raised a loud laugh. Upon perceiving this, the Saint answered with a similar laugh. When Epiphanius and those who were present with him saw this, they considered it an unusual thing and were most eager to learn what was the cause of the laughter; for they had not perceived the guffaw of the evil spirits, not being deemed worthy of such a vision. Understanding their desire, the Saint said to the angel who stood at his right hand to remove the obstacle from there; and immediately the ears of their hearts were opened, and they perceived everything the demons were saying and their laughter. Then the servants turned to Epiphanius and inquired who those debauched women were, ^D who stood outside, lewd and intemperate, and were bursting into laughter. To these Epiphanius said: “They are demons who mock us to our faces because we have defiled our souls by sinning.” Hearing this, they accused themselves and their deeds, and having stood up forthwith, and having offered honor to the venerable Epiphanius...

each withdrew to their own beds. ^A As they were departing, one said to another: “Did you see a strange thing, how this beggar spoke to me of my own transgressions?” Another says: “Yes, brother, and he told me everything of mine too.” And another answered: “Believe me, brothers, he uncovered to me also the hidden things of my heart.” And some were saying that he is a saint; others were saying, “No, but he is a diviner, and he tells us our sins from the observation of creatures [(82)].” Others were saying: “It is by diabolical energy that he has revealed these things to us.”

65. ^B After all his servants had fallen asleep, Epiphanius, as was his custom, left his own bed, and placing a rug [(83)] on the ground, he took his sleep there. But the Holy Man, having feigned [sleep] in Epiphanius’s bed, when he perceived that Epiphanius had fallen asleep, left Epiphanius’s bedding, and having gone down into the courtyard, he found a dung-heap, and spent the remainder of the night there. When day broke, having been sent away by Epiphanius, he went out to his spiritual struggle. Then Epiphanius, having called for the servant ^C whom the Holy Man had addressed in the Syrian dialect the day before, inquired of him: “In what manner were those mysteries accomplished in you?” And he, being always most dear to him, told him unceasingly everything that had happened to him.

66. “When he came, my Lord, into your bedchamber, I was immediately struck dumb, and I saw the face of that Holy Man flashing like the sun. While I was beside myself, I heard a voice, I know not from whence, saying to me: ‘Attend and see how much the folly which he feigns for the sake of the Lord has exalted him [(84)].’ I attended, therefore, and looked, and behold, from the ray that was upon the Just One, a small ray, separating itself in part, shone upon my breast; and immediately I began to perform his gestures, for as long as I saw the duration of that vision. Then this was taken away from me, ^D and I was as I was before, despising the affairs of the world. Behold, my Lord, from now on be you the provider of my salvation, guiding me in the path of God’s commandments.”

Having heard these things, the wonderful Epiphanius was stunned and became beside himself in spirit, and having embraced him with tears, he kissed his eyes, as having been witnesses of such mysteries, and said: “The almighty Lord, who has shown you these wonderful mysteries, is able to save your beautiful soul as well, beloved brother; and I, from this day forth, shall treat your affairs no differently than those of a true friend and spiritual kinsman.” And from that time on, he loved the young man.

Epiphanius, indeed, pursued that servant with singular love for the rest of his time, and was at his side in all things, both those that looked to the needs of the soul and those of the body.

CHAPTER IX.

67. ^C When Andrew had left the house of Epiphanius and returned to the light and to the sun, he selected for his arena ^D the more ignoble places and alleys of the city, where he was known to no mortal. He suffered an intolerable chill, stiffened with frost, and was exhausted by starvation and fasting. Yet he was so hated by all that even the boys of the city did not refrain from the practice of beating and robbing him; they struck him with cuffs, cast a rope around his neck, and dragged him through the public streets, making straw out of coal and smearing his face with it. Thus attired, he went over to the *artopolion*, or the place where bread is sold, to restore somewhat his bodily strength, which had been wasted by the excessive rigor of his fasting. In that place, certain of Christ’s faithful, seeing him fainting from his tribulations, would share an obol with him. And, seeing that he had not been seen by them for a long time, they would ask him: “Where on earth have you been hiding until this day, you fool? Where did you spend this amount of time?” To whom Andrew would reply: “You insane ones, do you not know that, mixed in with the throngs of fools, I have been wrestling as a fool with fools? Even you, I see, are the only insane ones.” Then they, not having grasped the meaning of his words, broke out into loud laughter: for by the name of fools, he meant the most wicked demons, against whom he struggled every day, contending for the prize of the kingdom of heaven. In the meantime, however, they were generous to the man; some would give him one obol, others two; some bread, others cheese; others fish; some warm food, and others fruits, according to what each had for sale. Burdened with these things, he would depart for the *oenopolium* and distribute them all to other poor people. It happened not infrequently that certain of those who were more compassionate, having taken pity on Andrew, would give him some garment to wear; but then certain other thieving beggars, being impudent robbers, would come upon him secretly at night, take it away, and run off, leaving him naked as he was born. These were those whom the common people of the city are accustomed to call the sons of the high priest.

68. On another day again, when, after leaving the wine-shop, he withdrew behind it for the needs of his bowels and sat there in the sight of those passing by, as if oblivious to shame and modesty, someone reported the matter to the innkeeper. The latter, coming out and seeing the Saint sitting thus, snatched up a club and beat him for so long that his own strength failed him as he struck. But also another man, remarkably impudent and of a very savage character, passing by there by chance

having seen the Saint being beaten, ^A driven on by a demon, struck the same man with the pastoral staff he was carrying in his hand, with gathered strength, with such force that the blows could be heard from afar. But Andrew, fixing his eyes on the one beating him, gave vent to bitter groans from the pain; then, rising, he approached the man, and falling down, embraced his feet and licked them with his tongue, attempting to soften his hard heart with prayers. Seeing this, some remarked: "Behold," they said, "how that demoniac, that madman, rolling about at the feet of the one who is serving him, fawns like a dog upon one who offers him something, feeling no pain from the blows. Surely a demon must be in his vitals." Andrew, however, afflicted by severe wounds, withdrew from the eyes of the bystanders and, having found a dungheap, lay down there, surrendering himself to the briefest sleep. ^B Travelers passing by there, having caught sight of the holy man upon the manure, groaned from the depth of their hearts, saying: "Fire and brimstone upon the head of her who has wrought these things upon you," for there was a rumor that he had been driven to insanity by some woman with the help of a demon, although others maintained that the origin of the evil should be attributed to epilepsy. But God, who discerns the secrets of hearts, and who knows deep things from afar, and who observes the thoughts of men, was not ignorant of what His servant was doing, or why he was doing it.

69. ^C When, therefore, the Saint was lying, as has been said before, in the place full of manure, it happened that a wagon passed by there; and the driver, thoroughly soaked in wine, was going along in a tragic manner, not at all aware of the Holy One. Accordingly, the oxen went over him and trampled the Saint, and as they were drawn along, the wheels ran right over the middle of his belly. Those who were traveling on the same road, having seen this, cried out in anger at the driver, and some even went so far as to strike him, saying: "Even if you are senseless yourself, could you not see where the wagon was going?" But he, intoxicated by much wine, hardly gave this reply: "Who forced him to sit in the middle of the road and make his dwelling?" To whom they in turn replied: "May God grant you His wisdom and the spirit that led him into such insensibility!" But the Righteous One, by the grace of Christ, remained unharmed. And some, marveling, ^D said: "What shall we say, or what shall we utter concerning this madman? We are in doubt whether he has been preserved by God, or by the evil spirits by whom he is agitated even to the point of destruction." Others supposed that the foul demon dwelling in the man, because it desperately desired to continue to inhabit him, had quickly lightened the weight of the wagon and thus it passed over without injury. Others, however, denying this, preferred to attribute it to God, who, having pitied the misfortune of Andrew, had shielded him. All these things the Blessed one did willingly, having hated the world and the things in the world for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

^A 70. He labored with the forces sufficient for him from our most benign Lord. It was the season of summer, when the intolerable heat of the sun scorched the earth as if it were an oven. The Blessed one, feigning drunkenness, imitating the gestures and walk of drunkards, proceeded to a very open place and lay down in the middle of the road, without receiving the solace of any food or drink, and for a long time endured the burning sun there. Those who passed by, being goaded to anger by the devil because it was an offense to them, some beat the prostrate man with sticks, some passed by kicking him, others heaped curses upon him and trampled him with their feet, and some grabbed his feet and dragged him down a slope. When night arrived, rising from there, he would betake himself to the entrance of the churches, and for the whole of the night remained occupied in prayers and supplications.

^B 71. Since he was thus going around and occupying himself with his exercises, a certain miracle happened to the servant of God. For he was in the habit of visiting the entrances of churches in the dead of night, in order that his works might be less known to men, for the sake of prayer; and it happened that he arrived at the oratory of the all-laudable Theotokos, which is situated on the left side of the Constantine Forum (88). It happened at the same time that a certain servant, sent by his master for the sake of seeking some answer, was passing that way. He, therefore, as he was walking with a hurried pace, reached Andrew, who was betaking himself to the aforementioned oratory to pray, without Andrew noticing it. But when he came closer to the vestibule of the temple, God, wishing to show how great his servant was, caused the doors to open of their own accord at the sign of the venerable cross, which the Saint was forming with his outstretched right hand. Having entered within, he safely occupied himself in prayer, unconscious of anything more than that he had been caught by someone behind him. That observer, however, knew Andrew well and ^C knew that he was one of the insane. Seeing the doors opened for him, he shuddered and, trembling in all his limbs, debated thus with himself: "Behold what kind of servant of God those who are truly insane call a madman! What a Saint he has become, and we were unaware! Oh, how many hidden servants God has, and no one understands or recognizes those among us!"

^D 72. And as he was meditating on these things, standing before the gates, he went closer to observe what was happening inside; and he sees him praying before the ambo, hanging in the air, while a flame of fire was flashing around him, and a singular fragrance of odors was felt emanating from him, which reached as far as the door of the church where the servant was standing for the sake of watching. Stupefied by such an unusual miracle, the boy turned his foot back from there to carry out his master's commands.

(88) This is in *Constantinopolis Christiana*, bk. IV, chap. 2, among the fifty churches of the Mother of God, which it enumerates, under the twenty-second rank, which it teaches was either first constructed or restored by Basil the Macedonian, and by some is simply called the Oratory of the Forum.

^A Having finished his prayer, and going out of the temple, he once again secured the doors with the sign of the holy cross. As he went out of the church, he recognized the servant who had been watching him, and he was distressed and grieved at this; for he knew in the spirit that he had become a spectator of the things that had been done, and he watched for his return in order to charge him not to reveal his affairs to anyone. When the servant turned back, the righteous man met him and said to him: "Take heed, child, not to reveal to anyone the things you have seen in this place, and there will be mercy for you from the Lord God. But if you try to utter even a word of what you have seen to anyone, I will command an unclean spirit, and he shall immediately set you up as a public triumph ^B in the city. Moreover, I swear by Jesus, the angel who guards you will not permit you to speak, for I shall command him concerning this, and I shall be free of worry in the matter."

73. The servant, seeing who it was that was speaking to him, was exceedingly terrified and said: "No, Lord, I shall not reveal it." And as he went on, he was beside himself, saying: "Behold a miracle beyond a miracle; for nothing I saw escaped him. Behold, he is a saint, and we who were unaware of it were truly foolish. Alas, what a mystery! How many hidden servants God has! How perfect his life and conscience! And whatever we have heard in the lives of the saints, these things we have seen with our own eyes." So he went on his way; but as he went, he decided to tell his master everything he had seen during that night, so that he too might be made ^C certain of these miracles. And he had already opened his mouth to speak, when a certain youth appeared before his eyes, having the appearance of lightning, and, striking him with terror, said: "Stop, wretched one, lest you be seized by an evil spirit and become a joke for demons." When he saw this, he became speechless, and trembling seized him. Since the miserable man still wished to cry out from fear, that youth stopped his mouth with his right hand, saying: "Stop." And immediately with the word he vanished. The young man, shuddering at what he had seen, was left bewildered and terrified, and he retained the memory of that miracle forever; for even against his will and desire, he kept his mouth shut from revealing to anyone the wonders of the righteous man. ^D

CAPUT X. He is beaten cruelly: he reveals hidden sins: he foretells the punishment that will follow: he contends in various ways with the devil.

74. It happened one day during the time of the vintage (it being the custom for those who sell fruits to place the best of them in glass vessels [to sell], in one of the shops there was a glass vessel full of choice figs). The righteous man was staying there, as were some jesters standing about. The salesman was sleeping with his head resting on his knees, and one of the jesters [alt-version omitted]

pushed the holy man near the fruit, pointing with his finger to the pile of figs and saying to him, “Eat, glutton, and fill your belly, for perhaps you will not have any for the time to come.” He, obeying and sitting down nearby, began to eat as much as he could; but the jokers, seeing him eating shamelessly, beckoned him to eat without fear. When the vessel was nearly empty, the seller awoke, and seeing him eating immoderately, he leapt from his seat and, snatching one of the many sticks at hand, beat the man for as long as he had strength; thus, pushing, striking, and kicking, he drove him far away.

75. Then the lad meets him, he who had seen him hanging in the air ^B and had witnessed his other miracles, and he meets him and immediately rushes to embrace him, and kisses his hands and face. But seeing his whole body black and blue from the scourging, he asked who had treated him so harshly. The blessed man says to him, “This, my child, was brought upon me by that gluttonous gullet of mine, tempted and deceived by the pleasure of figs, that wretch! If I, having enjoyed the pleasure of a few figs, had to endure such heavy blows of the cudgel, what punishment will God inflict upon those who indulge in works of utter wickedness and are touched by no care for repentance?” Then, turning the conversation, he says, “Did you forget to keep my instructions? For had not the fiery hand of the glowing youth blocked your mouth and forbidden you to speak, you would have already added yourself to the number of the demon-possessed.” Hearing this, the boy shuddered at the prediction of the righteous man, recalling that most terrifying prodigy. Nevertheless, joining hands, they went on their way.

^C 76. But the accursed demon, seeing the righteous man and the boy he had befriended, and the miracles the righteous man had shown him as we have recounted, seized with envy, takes with him even the most foul Satan, and they encounter the righteous man walking with the boy in a certain dark portico; and inflamed with great wrath, he said, “Are you mad, you deceitful jester of the world, for snatching from my hands those who are subject to me through sin? Does the house of Epiphanius not suffice for you, and the others whom you have cleansed, though they were subject to me through sin, and have brought them to God, but now you wish to snatch this one from me as well, and cleanse him through repentance?” And immediately he began to recount the boy’s sins. But the holy man, ^D with a stern and threatening brow, intent upon his adversary, says to him, “Let all these things be consigned to my divine care, and what concern is it of yours, you most filthy one? I pay the penalty for this one’s faults; I pledge my own soul for him, and no part of his soul shall belong to you.” At these words of Andrew, the devil and the most foul Satan who accompanied him, driven to fury, laid hands upon the boy, with the intent of violently hauling him away from the holy man.

^A And the event occurred, as he had predicted to him, and he was clearly and manifestly restored to the world. Scarcely was he possessed by the evil spirit when suddenly the memory of the blow dealt by Andrew recurred to him, and he realized that everything was coming to pass just as he had predicted. Hence, anxious in spirit, he fled to the holy oratory of the most holy Mother of God, which is called Myrelaion, because her sacred image there wells up with myrrh, like oil. Having come to that miracle-working image, he began to implore with tears of contrition the helper of all who are afflicted—who is especially propitious to those who approach her with more fervent and unshaken faith—and, taking of the divinely bestowed oil, he anointed his whole body and remained in prayer to the patroness of our race to intercede for him.

^B 78. While he was praying, he fell into an ecstasy and saw a woman standing before the doors of the holy sanctuary, clothed in fine linen and purple; her face shone like the sun. Looking at the demon with an angry and sidelong glance, she said: "Do you still tarry, you scoundrel and foul one? Depart from the creature of my Son, you cursed one, since he has fled to me." Through the organs of the young man, the devil answered: "Andrew, who started playing games for the sake of your Son, has entrusted this man’s examination to me." But she replied to him: "Depart, and do not chatter, for he himself has sent you the sentence, demanding you be brought to this account." ^C Terror-struck, the demon departed; and as the woman who had appeared entered within the sanctuary, the young man immediately came to himself and knew that the wicked spirit had left him. Giving glory to the philanthropic Lord and rendering great thanks to the all-holy Mother of God, he swore an oath never again to steal, nor to commit fornication, nor in the future to associate or mingle with fools and sinners. Having made these promises before the venerable image of the Mother of God, and trusting in the intercessions of her who had pledged herself for him, he attained a height of virtue such that all were astonished at the sudden transformation of his way of life. ^D Whenever he was walking in the square and encountered the Blessed one playing, he would turn aside from the public way into a narrow street, with a groan... [index: entries preserved]

^A of annoyance, saying: "What are you doing, you who practice tyranny? For why do you make your deeds manifest to the many, by which, when they realize them, they are brought to compunction and repentance? Go away from me, withdraw; guard yourself from the baseness that is subjected to me through sin, and do not exhort those who are avoiding my most beloved iniquity. Do you not know that they have Moses and the Prophets? Let them listen to them. Do you not know that they have the Gospels, Paul, and the recorded Lives of the Saints? Let them listen to these. Are they not sufficient as exhorters for them to live a more honest life, unless you also intervene? What business do you have with me, you most foolish mocker of the world? Get out of my sight, you eater of filth; for if you do, I shall call for penalties against you, just as once [they did] against Job."

79. The Blessed one, answering his insulter, says: ^B "O most cursed one, with what flames is your heart being scorched at this hour! By what means, I ask, will you be able to effect [a change] so that I might desist from my purpose, and how will you call down upon me penalties from the Lord? Shame on your prating, most wicked one! For on what pretext or reason do you wish to perform this action against me? Is it for the sake of gold, which I do not possess? For the sake of silver, which I lack? Because of estates? For the sake of servants? Because I am one of those clothed in soft garments? If these things are in me, spare not my estate, tear down the buildings of my house, make me blaspheme against the Lord. Are my frequently changed garments cause for envy in you? Are my shining shoes? Is my dwelling [different] from that of most poor people? What are those things, tell me, with which you prepare to attack me, you impure, profane, lying, abominable dog? ^C Attend and see: perhaps this filthy and tattered rag of cloth with which I am covered pleases you? Behold, I gladly give it to you." And no sooner had he ceased speaking these words than he stripped off that poor tunic and threw it into his insolent face, and departed naked from there. But the servant, a companion of Andrew, having seen what had been done, picked up the cloak and put it on himself. The Saint soon embraced him, and after exhorting him much to abstain from hurtful things, dismissed him home. He himself, continuing to act in his accustomed manner in the midst of the crowds, while making singular progress in arduous spiritual matters, mocked the worst, cunning arts of the demon; ^D and macerating himself with frequent fasts and vigils, and exhausting himself with his daily course, toil, and sweat throughout the city, enduring insults, spittings, and blows, he persevered in that appointed arena.

80. Meanwhile, that youth, whom the Righteous one had urged no longer to bind himself to theft, forgetting the warnings of the Saint, returned to his character and habit of thievery; or rather, he fell into worse things every day. Therefore, Andrew, noticing that nothing was being accomplished by long-suffering, carried by the Spirit, stood at the dwelling of that man; and he commanded the angels of evils to seize him who was persistently clinging to his wicked habit, and to expose all his sins, recounting them in his own words, and to bring them to light for all to see. So, when he was seized by the evil spirit, he understood immediately

that all the affairs of the world from the Just One were coming to pass exactly as he had foretold. He was therefore in great distress and fled to the oratory of the most holy Theotokos, called Myrelaion ^A (95), because her venerable image there exudes myrrh like oil. When he reached that miracle-working place of visitation, he began with deeply contrite tears to entreat the helper of all who are afflicted, who becomes propitious in particular to those who run to her with warmer and unhesitating faith. Taking of the oil provided by God and anointing his whole body, he stood making his supplication to the patroness of our race.

^B While he was praying, an ecstasy fell upon him, and he saw a woman standing before the doors of the holy sanctuary, clothed in fine linen and purple; her face shone like the sun. Looking at the demon with fierce anger and a sidelong glance, she said: "Do you still remain, you most crafty and filthy one? Depart from the creature of my Son, most impure one, since he has fled to me." Using the organs of the young man, the devil replied to her: "He who for the sake of your Son has undertaken to play the fool, Andrew, he is the one who entrusted the examination of this man to me." She spoke back to him: "Depart, and do not prattle, since he too subscribes to my judgment and sends you from here." The demon, thus terrified, departed. As for the one who had appeared, she withdrew inside the sanctuary [bema], and the young man immediately came to himself and realized that he had been delivered from the evil spirit. ^C He glorified the benevolent Lord, and having given great thanks to the most holy Theotokos, he committed by oath never again to steal, nor to commit fornication, nor in the future to keep company or associate with fools and sinners. Having promised these things before the venerable image of the Theotokos, and trusting in the intercessions of her who had pledged for him, he attained to the height of virtue, so that all were amazed at the sudden change in his way of life. And whenever, while walking in the square, he would happen upon the blessed one playing, he would turn aside from the public way and hasten into the alleyway with a groan. ^D

saying: “Lord Jesus Christ, he is truly most just!” And he gave thanks to Him at every moment, as to the author and cause of his salvation.

CAPUT XI. The damnation of the dead man is known, and Epiphanius’s patriarchate is predicted.

82. Once, while he was going forth to the spiritual contest, he met a funeral procession approaching from afar, that of a certain very wealthy man. A countless multitude accompanied him, the singers were crying out with a raised voice, a great number of candles were burning, the smoke of much incense was clouding the sky, and the lamentation and wailing of his kinsmen was resounding far and wide. The servant of God, therefore, seeing what accompanied the funeral pomp proceeding before them, stopped. Being caught up out of his senses, for a long time he beheld before the candles a vast company of black demons, who, with a voice much louder than that of the singers, were redoubling a lamentable “Woe!” Everything that was being burned as incense stank like dung, and just as if from leather bags they held in their hands, they were scattering soot and ashes. They were breaking out into an intemperate, mocking laughter, in the manner of lewd, shameless, and brazen women. Sometimes they were barking like dogs, at other times they were grunting like swine, and this funeral procession was for them a joy and a cause of exultation. Some of them were running around the bier and casting muddy, foul-smelling swamp water into the face of the dead man. From the very bier and the corpse of the sinner laid upon it, there issued such a stench as is accustomed to arise when a sewer is drained. Some were casting into his face dogs’ skins and other filth of the most grave odor; some also, with a great clamor of hands and feet, and raising an unbridled and tumultuous roar, were hindering the psalm-singers, saying: “May none of you see the light, you foolish Christians, who follow that dog with psalms, and speak of his soul as numbered among the saints, when he is pure iniquity!”

83. When the blessed man saw this terrible spectacle, ^D behold, the prince of the evil demons was present, with a countenance so wild and terrible that it struck horror into the one looking at him. He carried fire, sulfur, and pitch in his hands, and was hastening rapidly toward the monument of that wretched corpse, in order to turn him into ashes after he had been consigned to the grave. But when the smoke had passed, behold, behind him followed a youth, distinguished by his beauty, his face cast down to the ground, mournful, and lamenting wretchedly with great wailing, restrained by some sense of distress and grief. Andrew approached this one more closely, and judging him to be one of the dead man’s kin.

^A (as he was ignorant that this was the work of God), he restrained the mourner with his hand; and, consoling him, he said, "I adjure you by the Lord of heaven and earth; tell me, why do you lament and groan with such great tears? For I have never seen such a great mourning raised for any dead person. Explain to me, I beseech you, the cause of your distress." The angel said to him, "The cause of my mourning is this: because the devil has inherited him, the funeral of whom you have seen pass by. He is the cause of my grief and of my wailing, as I feel as though I have lost him, and thus I lament." The blessed one said to him, "Tell me, dearest one—for I have come to know who you are—what, then, were his transgressions?" The angel said to him, "Since you are Andrew, the elect of God, and I have understood you, and because it is permitted for you to know, attend and listen. For, having beheld the beauty of your fair-formed soul ^B—pure and shining and radiant like gold—I was briefly relieved of my grief."

84. "This man, then, O most holy one, was a great magnate of the emperor, but he was a man full of sin and exceedingly wicked in all his life. He was a fornicator and an adulterer, arrogant and proud, a sodomite, sparing of others, pitiless, avaricious, a liar, resentful, a misanthrope, a taker of bribes, swinish. He put his servants to death with hunger, and thirst, and scourges, and nakedness, sending them away in the winter days destitute of both clothing and footwear; many he destroyed, having beaten them severely with cudgels, and he buried them among the dry bones of animals. And he was such a one in his filthy and fire-deserving sodomy, and in the obscene and God-hated desire for boys and eunuchs, that he stained about three hundred souls with this abominable and filthy sin. ^C Finally, O beloved of God, Andrew, as ripe age arrived, death came; and it found the man so entangled in many and grievous sins, and so little penitent. With what ignominy, indeed, his wicked and filthy cadaver was carried out, you yourself have seen: and now it is being carried away to be consigned to the flames. For this reason, O holy and God-loving soul, I myself, distressed, am mourning, because that unhappy man has become a plaything of demons and a foul receptacle of stench."

85. As the most divine angel was saying these things, the blessed one said to him, "I beseech you, dearest one, accept good consolation and do not mourn in such a way, since he has reached the end of his life." But he—the one of beautiful form, the greatest, filled with joy—said, "In the name of the Lord Sabaoth, the God omnipotent, you shall be strengthened in good things from now and unto the ages." ^D In such discourse the angel disappeared from him. Those, however, who were passing along the road, in which the Righteous one was talking with the angel, saw only him standing and speaking (for they were unable to discern the angel).

^A They pushed him, therefore, and driving him away, they said, "Who are you speaking to, you demented man, standing there and talking to the wall?" But the blessed one, hearing these words, and mocking their folly with a silenced smile, departed from there. Having gone to a hidden portico of the city, he remained quiet there; and remembering that miserable one whose funeral he had just witnessed, he wept bitterly, so that from the abundance of tears his eyes were swelled, and then he offered up this prayer for him to the Lord God:

86. O God, who art uncircumscribed and fearful; Father, Creator, and Lord; Maker of the endless ages and inventor of wisdom and knowledge; incomparable offspring, the greatest beauty emanating from the glory of holiness; who art of the same nature as the Father and your most beloved and omnipotent Spirit, to be worshipped with equal glory and veneration with both; who, having been begotten from the beginning from the mind of the supreme Father, remainest eternally in the bosom of him who begat you; snatch the wretched body of that miserable man from the torment of pitch and sulphur. ^B May your most holy bowels be moved by the prayers of your unworthy servant; for there is nothing left of the soul of the dead man, since death has claimed for itself all that was his. I pray and entreat you, therefore, as a suppliant, that you may be willing to preserve his body from such ignominy, so that that infernal and impure dragon may not derive perfect pleasure in every way by devouring his soul together with his body.

Having prayed these things, Andreas was enveloped by a light that shone down from heaven, and having been caught up in ecstasy, he saw an angel of the Lord descend like a flash of lightning, ^C and with a fiery rod which he held in his hand, he drove away the impure spirits that were there, and scattered them, and they ceased from wasting the body with pitch and sulphur. Having seen these things, the Righteous one gave thanks to him who had so readily lent his ears to his prayer. And having returned to himself after the vision, with evening now wrapping all things in darkness, he fortified himself with the sign of the precious cross; and departing from there, he wandered about the city throughout the whole night, never intermitting his prayer.

87. But when it was dawn, he went to the church of the most holy Theotokos, ^D where the divine Epiphanius was accustomed to pour out his prayers. And having arrived at the vestibule of the temple, the inner eyes of the soul of Epiphanius were opened, and he turned at once and saw the holy man, at one moment shining like a flame of fire, and at another white like snow, but having a face ruddy with a rose-colored hue. From which sight no small stupor seized the most famous youth; and as he looked round with his eyes...

^A and found no one there, he fell at the feet of Andrew, saying, "Holy Father, bestow a blessing upon your spiritual son." Andreas, seeing such singular humility of mind in Epiphanius, similarly cast himself at his feet, with these added words: "You also, my master, pray for me; rather, bestow your blessing upon me, since it is fitting for you. For I saw you a little before, while you were standing in the church of God, with an insignificantly observable countenance, and I saw the stole of the patriarchate and the omophorion brought down from heaven by the hand of the Lord Almighty; I saw two angels, remarkable for their beauty and splendor, who, taking this stole, clothed you in it, and they rendered your beauty not a little more commendable. With smiling countenances, they spoke quite wittily among themselves: 'By the Lord Jesus,' they said, 'what an excellent honor he has added to him with this omophorion! For his understanding and honey-flowing tongue have perfectly instructed him.' And one of them, having made the sign of the cross upon your forehead and having given you an embrace, departed; but the other marked all the members of your body in a similar way, and after pressing a kiss upon your mouth, he went away. These things, sweetest Epiphanius, were done to you, and you yourself did not see them; and I am persuaded that God will entrust here to you the [affairs] of His Church, and you will shepherd His people, whom He acquired with His own blood; and for this reason, do you yourself also bless me, and pray for your beloved Andrew."

Chapter XII

^A Strive as quickly as possible to undertake exercises of every kind of virtue, so that God, embracing you with greater affection and love, may exalt you and pursue you with yet greater honor and glory. Rouse yourself to a more eminent dignity, status, and perfection, so that you may be found worthy of the rank of supreme priesthood, to which you must ascend by the grace of God, and that you may in no part be put to shame. If you preserve these things and keep them secret, the Lord will never be absent from you.

Chapter XII.

Andreas drives the demons from the church: Epiphanius is taught through a vision of the great perfection and the glory destined in heaven for him.

89. When the reading of the sermon was finished, they withdrew into the interior of the church; and since the beginning of the sacred reading had already been made, Epiphanius occupied a certain bench to sit down. But the blessed Andreas, no differently than one of the poor, wrapped in a vile rag, stretched himself out on the bare ground. Those who were present, catching sight of him sitting in this way, said among themselves: "What has happened to this demoniac, that he has entered the temple?" And others: "Perhaps he has obtained some respite from the vexation of the wicked spirit." Some also said: "When he was passing by, he thought this was a profane house and brought himself in here; but because it was a church, which even he himself recognized, the Lord has permitted him to conduct himself in such a manner in this place."

90. And so the blessed Andreas, ^B while sitting in the temple, as was his custom, beheld the demon of acedia lying in wait and attempting through various snares and machinations to drive someone from the temple before the sacred office had been completed. To this end, he suggested various cares and occupations to various people, saying: "Go and set yourself to your work; for since that must necessarily be done, it will be reckoned as no sin for you." And indeed, the devil, the enemy of piety and a disturber, induced many to leave by these and other suggestions before the sacred assembly should be finished, even though the Lord cries out: "Be not anxious for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall wear, but seek first the kingdom of God," and the rest. He also beheld there the demon of yawning and sleepiness lying in wait; and another spirit was walking along with him, his minister, carrying sordid rags on his shoulders. With these he was attempting to induce sleep, striking those who were present at the sacred reading and receiving the divine oracles with attentive ears. Andreas, having perceived these machinations of the most wicked ^C demon, and having been indignant and seized by divine zeal, began to speak to him thus in himself: "Most wicked and destructive spirit, how is it that, lurking in the darkness of your own vanity, you alienate our souls from listening to the divine oracles, drowning them in the sleep of sloth? But, Lord Jesus Christ of the powers, pour out Your wrath upon them."

these demons, and protect Your people." Having said these things, a kind of lightning flashed from the altar in a flame of burning fire, and consumed them; and those who were possessed by the sleep of their operation immediately awoke, and applied their minds to the holy reading.

^B 21. When the morning hymn had ceased, Epiphanius greeted the holy man and returned to his house. Remembering the admonitions of the Just One, he was struck with wonder at the miracle throughout the day, and while resting alone in his chamber, heaved deep sighs from the bottom of his heart and said, "Alas! What a luminary the Imperial City possesses, and yet it does not perceive it! For in truth the Lord spoke concerning those who are astonished by earthly things: 'For seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive' (Matth. XIII, 14). For indeed, all the signs and wonders that occurred while Christ was dwelling on the earth, we see similar ones being performed through His servant." ^C That night, therefore, Epiphanius besought God to reveal to him the state of affairs regarding the Just One, how much the Lord esteems his virtue, and what place he holds in the kingdom of heaven. And falling into a light sleep, he saw in a dream a certain field, covered with plants of unfathomable nature; some were dry, others were scorched, some of them brought forth thorns instead of fruit, others were fruitful and bore sweet fruit, while others were bitter and foul-smelling, and some flourished with leaves alone, while others bore rotten leaves. There was, however, between them a tree, beautiful, fruitful, very tall, and pleasant to behold; and its branches were ^D very diverse, so that if anyone wished to gather fruit from it, they would find it inexhaustible and very sweet. Therefore, desiring that tree, the all-observant youth struggled to lean upon it, trembling and dizzy, guessing what it might be. Approaching near it, he saw a most venerable swallow perched upon the branches of the tree; it was not, however, a complete swallow, for from the head to the breast it had the appearance of a swallow, but toward the front it had the appearance of a nightingale. A strange miracle! At one time it practiced warbling like a swallow, and at another time, sounding like a nightingale, it performed wonders.

22. As that most wondrous swallow was perched between the leaves of that fearsome tree, singing sweetly, other birds flew down from heaven, from above the stars, alighting there and rejoicing in their own melodies. Epiphanius was astonished at the beautiful tree, and at the incessant singing of the most graceful bird, so that from the inexpressible pleasure he was bathed in drops of tears.

^A But while he was thus wondering at the tree and the bird, there approached him an old man of venerable appearance, clothed in white garments; and having looked at Epiphanius, he said: "I say to you, young man, who brought you here without my order?" And he said to him: "O venerable Father, incline your ears to your servant; for as I was traveling along the road that led to the higher regions, I happened to arrive here, and I was detained by the consideration of this most beautiful tree standing opposite us—whose excellence clearly shines forth in the symmetry of its branches and the diversity of its fruit—and also by the most sweet song of the bird which you yourself also perceive. But forgive me, a miserable man, and come, examine my garments, if perchance you have any suspicion that I, having arrived here, have stolen any of its fruit." The old man said to him: "Behold the ungrateful fellow! How boldly he denies those things which are well known to me! Did I not see you pluck fruit from it and eat, and even enjoy it to the full?" Then Epiphanius began to protest and to affirm with an oath that he had not even touched any of them. And again the old man said: "Cease lying, young man; for I do not rebuke you because you have plucked and eaten the fruit; rather, I am even glad because I see there is someone who might eat from it and be gladdened. Follow me, therefore; there is something much more wonderful that I will show you."

^D 93. Epiphanius then followed the leader, looking at him as he stepped ahead, holding a holy Gospel in his right hand and a parchment roll in his left. As they traversed certain circular paths, they arrived at an enclosure full of light, in which were seen palaces built of solar radiance, abounding in every kind of delight, and they entered into them without asking permission. Epiphanius, moved by trembling and horror alike, was amazed at the beauty and majesty of the kings sitting there; and they entered into one of those rooms, where such elegance shone as cannot be grasped by thought, and many mysteries were seen, never beheld anywhere else. Among other things, there hung admirable thrones, casting forth fire all around; but one of them, raised to the highest summit, was occupied by a certain king, so admirable that he cannot be described; he shone like the sun, and a globe of fire proceeded from his face, which with its great glory, splendor, and brightness illuminated the ether itself. Around the throne stood thousands of thousands and ten thousands of times ten thousand ranks and armies of Cherubim, Seraphim, and Virtues; who, if I may so speak, appeared like the densest of mountains, raised very high into the sublime. ^C Having therefore entered there, they fell to the ground and worshipped; but Epiphanius, lying prone on account of fear and trembling, could not lift his eyes to contemplate the vision: until the old man raised him up, set him on his feet, trembling, and commanded him to be brave. To whom that King said: “Is this the boy...

who insists with suppliant prayers that it be revealed to him in what state are the affairs of the most celebrated and our dear friend Andrew?” To whom the elder replied: “It is he, Lord.”

94. Then the King said again: “Behold, the whole tree, which he saw, bearing fruit of every kind, is a type of the body of my servant. For truly, the manner of life of Andrew, which is unknown to most, delights me, just as the beauty of the tree appeared pleasant to him. And the little bird, which he saw resembling partly a swallow and partly a nightingale, represents the soul and excellent spirit of my most beloved servant, by which he praises me without ceasing, and sings hymns worthy of my name, so that all the divine armies of my angels fly to him and find rest. But this man said that he had not eaten of that fruit, when yet he had been abundantly filled with it from the time he began to hear of Andrew. But since he prayed with the utmost fervor that it be revealed to him how great Andrew is in the kingdom of heaven, come, take him up from here and lead him into the glory of the saints, and guide him through all things that are there to be observed.” ^B The elder therefore took Epiphanius and brought him into a chamber shining like lightning. And behold, forth came the celebrated Andrew, as if in an image, relucent with glory, very similar to that wherein the King himself was shining: his head glowed like the sun, his hands bore the appearance of electrum, his feet were shod with shoes emitting brightness no less than lightning, bound with golden laces; his garments, which were many-fold, one would say were fashioned of solar rays or of the vibrations of lightning. The lower part of the whole garment appeared whiter than snow, and affected the eyes most pleasantly, as pleasant little flowers are wont to do: the part next to it was as if tinted with wine, not indeed purple, but of a shining and comely color: the third part, which was the supreme height, had the appearance of a most beautiful toga, whence the glory of the Lord proceeded: a crown adorned his hair, distinguished with gems and pearls as if with the stars of heaven; a cross of the royal crown marked his forehead; his left hand held a scepter, with the words inscribed, “Holy, ^C Holy, Holy,” and his right hand held a cross.

95. Seeing such wonders, Epiphanius was scarcely in his right mind from admiration. To him the elder, the exhibitor of the visions, said: “Why do you marvel at a dream? What then will you do when you behold the reality? Behold, therefore, now the splendor and glory of the servants of the Lord have been truly exhibited to you, and your desire has been fulfilled.” ^D When Epiphanius said this, he was struck with awe at the wonders shown to him. That elder therefore, having shown these things, said to him: “Why do you marvel at seeing a dream? When you see the truth, what will you do? Behold, now in truth the brilliance of the servants of the Lord has been shown to you, and as you asked, your heart's desire has been […] Epiphanius took; falling down then, they worshipped, fearing that King, lying there for a sufficient hour. Rising then, the King said to that venerable elder: “My Lord has commanded, this is he.”

^A And the elder, Epiphanius, having said this, recovered his senses; the church had now reached the middle of the canon. Recalling in his mind all that he had seen, not without horror and admiration, he burst forth in these words: “O miserable man that I am! That I, nurtured in sins and brought up in filth, have been deemed worthy to behold with my eyes the almighty Lord Jesus, just as also the beauty of his glorious servant.” Having said these things, he arose and went into the church to finish the canon; and when day had come, from the first hour until the third, he prayed in his bedchamber with many tears, and gave thanks to God, who had revealed to him the uncertain and hidden things of His ineffable wisdom. Then arising, he approached my humble self, and with the greatest fear and humility reported all the things which I have now recounted. Wherefore, struck with awe, I suddenly exclaimed: “Who is so great as our God? Thou art the God who works ^B wonders!”

CHAPTER XIII

96. Meanwhile, the blessed Andrew, according to his custom of struggling in his accustomed labors, having gone out from vesper-time into the deep night to traverse the city alone, was by chance brought to a certain oratory, consecrated to the holy princes of the apostles, Peter and Paul, which the older inhabitants relate was built by Saint Constantine the Emperor. ^C As he was passing by, in the dark and moonless night, with clouds veiling the stars of heaven, there happened to be in the middle of the way a pit or cistern, whether it served as a reservoir for water, or for some other cause known to God, it had been dug; into which Satan, appearing in the guise of an Ethiopian, as he was passing near the holy man, the most benevolent God permitting it, cast him by pushing. Here, being almost buried in the muddy mire, he immediately cried out: “O apostles, who have illuminated the four corners of the world with your salutary doctrine, you who are my most luminous lights, bring aid to your most vile servant, and deliver me from this most deep pit!” When immediately a cross, shining from the oratory, was seen suspended in the air, emitting a splendor like an immense fire toward the Saint in the pit; ^D which, as soon as he beheld, he exclaimed again: “The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us.” And straightway appeared two men of exceeding beauty, carried through the air, one from one side and one from the other of the cross, which was hanging in the air and illuminating all things with its light; and one of them grasping the Saint by the right hand, and the other by the left, they drew him out of the muddy pit and restored him to the straight way; for he had been buried up to his knees; and immediately they vanished from his sight.

^A it was his fate to suffer the same things in return. It happened that Macarius was passing by that way, performing his customary acts for Christ’s sake; and as he was seeing with his spiritual eyes, he knew in his spirit the wicked intent of that deceiver; and wishing to restrain his undertaking—for he saw what kind of destruction was about to meet him—and looking with a grim countenance upon his face, he said to him: "Thus says the Holy Spirit to you, who devour the garments of those laid in tombs: you shall no longer see the sun, you shall no longer behold the day, you shall no longer behold the form of a human; for the gates of your house shall be closed, and they shall no longer be opened, and the day shall grow dark, and it shall not shine forever."

ρ'. When he heard these things, he did not understand what was spoken by the Just One, and without any delay he went on his way. The Saint, looking at him, declared: "Go to steal, O vain man. By Jesus, you shall not see the sun." But he, fully understanding what had been said to him, mocked the Saint, saying: "Yes, you twisted one, you speak obscure things, and [things] comparable to the ravings of demons; I am going there, and I will see if your steps will have any effect." The Saint, enduring this with moderation, passed by the place. But when evening had now come, the most unfortunate man, finding an opening, went off and having rolled away the stone of the tomb, he entered into it; and first he took the shroud and the *maphorion*, which were very fine. When he had taken these, he intended to withdraw; but the sub-human demon suggested to him to take the tunic as well, and to leave the body naked: which he also did. When he took this, by the nod of God—for the narrative is ineffable—the deceased, having raised her right hand, gives him a blow, and his eyes were immediately petrified; and a terrible trembling and incomparable fear seized him, so that from the shaking that befell him, his jaws along with his teeth were shattered, and likewise his knees.

ρβ. And the dead maiden, opening her mouth, declared these things to him: "Wretched and miserable man, let it be that you did not fear God, nor his angels, but were you not at least ashamed, as one of those who are human, to look upon the body of a female stripped naked? Was it not enough for you to take what you had taken at first? Could you not have granted the humble garment to the body? But since you proved yourself merciless, inhuman, and cruel toward me, and planned for me to appear a laughingstock in the second coming to all the holy virgins: behold, I will see to it that you steal no more; then, that you may know that Christ is the living and true God, and that there is a judgment and a retribution, and that they live after death...

^A Saying these things, they would depart from him. But the servant of God did not cease to offer his request with tears, until ^B [the Lord, having hearkened to his prayer, (23)] stayed the destruction.

99. It came to pass, moreover, that the Saint turned the Lord to mercy by another miracle. For indeed, having been carried away at one time through an ecstasy from the senses of his body, Andrew found himself at the Anaplus before the servant of God, Daniel. (24) For he had stood there for some time, sublime in the air upon a pillar, and was working infinite miracles to the glory of God, whom also the pious Emperor Leo, with the Augusta, visited frequently for the sake of begging his prayers. ^B

How, through a vision, the Saint was carried to the Anaplus, and how, together with the blessed Daniel, he prayed for the city, and the plague ceased.

100. Then after some days, the daughter of a certain primicerius died, [having lived her life in modesty; she had adjured her father that he should bury her in the oratory which was in his vineyard: which indeed he did. (25)] Now during that time there was a certain thief who was accustomed to steal the burial linens of the dead; and he would stand and watch those who were departing, to see where they intended to bury the body. And after everyone had withdrawn, he would dig up the earth and take away the burial garments. When, therefore, he saw the funeral procession of this girl, and the place where the body of the deceased was laid, he desired also

^A to do the same things to her. Eutychius happening to be there, and seeing the body of the girl where it had been ordered to be placed, was likewise moved by his soul to despoil her: when it chanced that St. Andrew was passing by that way, intent on the usual work of his love for Christ. He, fixing the inner eyes of his mind upon the deceitful man, recognized his wicked intent, which he was intent on carrying out (for he saw what great disaster hung over him), and looking at him with a stern countenance, he began to speak thus: "Thus says the Holy Spirit to you, you who despoil the garments from the dead and from the earth: no more shall you enjoy the sight of the sun, nor the day, nor the form of humanity; for the gates of your house shall be closed, and henceforth you shall not think, and the day shall be covered in darkness, and it shall not be illuminated for eternity."

101. He indeed heard these words of the Holy man, but not understanding them, he departed without hesitation. But Andrew, following him with his eyes, said: "Go, you wicked one, I adjure you by Jesus Christ, you shall no longer behold the sun." But he—what indeed did these things mean to him?—taking them as a scoffing jest from the holy man, went on his way: "I am going to that place, and I shall see if your words have any weight, O energumen, as you speak dark things, as demoniacs are accustomed to blather." After the Saint, a little saddened, had pursued his way, the most wretched man, seeing that evening was already drawing on, went to the monument ^B and, having rolled away the stone, entered. And first he took the linen cloth and the mantle, robes of the deceased; but as he was preparing to go away with these, the demon, that most bitter enemy of the human race, suggested to him another plan, namely, that he should also take the clothes from the body itself; and he set out to do this. But when he took these, by God's nod, as this tale is ineffable, he dealt the girl’s right hand a blow, and immediately the eyes of the man were blinded; and a terrible and unparalleled trembling seized him, so that from the tremor that came upon him, his jaws began to clash with his teeth, and his knees likewise.

102. When the dead girl opened her mouth, she spoke to him thus: "O wretched and miserable one, say, do you not fear God, nor His angels, even if you do not fear any human being who sees you despoiled of your body? Was it not enough for you what you took before, if you did not spare even this humble shroud ^C for the body? But since you have shown yourself toward me unmerciful and inhumane and cruel, I, who have been shown as a jest ^D to all the holy virgins in the second coming of the Lord, hereafter take from you the power of stealing, so that you may know that there is a God who is living and true, who is Christ, and that there is a judgment and a recompense, and that they live after death and rejoice who love God." This the girl having said, she arose, and taking...

[index: entries preserved]

^A her inner garment, she put it on, as also the shroud and the head-covering, and wrapped herself in them, saying, "Because thou, O Lord, hast made me to dwell in hope;" and having lain down, she fell asleep in the same place in peace.

103. Meanwhile that miserable man, having with difficulty found his way out of the vineyard where the monument was, made his way onto the public road, and feeling along the walls from wall to wall, he arrived at the city gates. When people asked the cause of his blindness, and were eager to know how this had happened to him, at that time he would indeed defend himself, bringing forward many excuses; but afterwards, becoming penitent, he related the whole truth openly to all. From that time on, therefore, he begged, and thus procured his daily food; and often, sitting by the way, he would accuse his own gluttony, saying, "Perish utterly, O insatiable throat, since it is because of you and the pleasures of your belly that I have fallen into this misfortune of blindness!" And again he would say, "If anyone, being a glutton and a thief for his belly, behaves in such a way, let him expect a similar reward." Many men of the same flour ^B at that time, having been taught by the severity of his punishment, sent a message back to Satan, and professed themselves to be true Christians both in their behavior and in their deeds. But he, who had suffered the punishment, remembering the prophecy of Andrew—how he had foretold what would happen to him on account of his sins—was filled with great wonder and amazement.

104. One day, during the middle of the holy season of Lent, the Saint was playing in the leveled area of the forum, as was his custom, sometimes giving himself over to jumping, sometimes to running. And having arrived in front of the great gate of the Senate ^C, he was gazing at the "crooked-footed ones" ^D that were there. One of the passersby, seeing the Saint intent upon them with such a fixed gaze, struck him a heavy blow on the neck, saying, "Why, you fool, are you standing here staring?" The Saint said to him, "I stand here, you fool, so that I may contemplate the works of idols; for you yourself, amidst the crooked-footed ones, have appeared to me to be a snake and a brood of vipers; for indeed the hinges of your soul and the feet of your spirit are twisted and apart, and lo, you are near to the yawning abyss, which is ready to devour you, as you perform these things every day." When that man heard these words, seized with terror, he reasoned within himself, saying, "Does he know these things from God, or from demons? But from where does this madman gain such knowledge?"

105. The Saint, having then passed by the gate, came to the place where the so-called *patriae* sit.

exhibiting their precious wares to the world. And he began to shout another thing: "Papae! Such chaff and ashes!" ^A When these things were heard by all, and what they meant was not understood, laughter was immediately raised, with some holding him up to mockery, and others loading him with blows. Nevertheless, Andrew persisted in the forum, curioiusly observing all that was being done there, when an old man who happened to be passing by on his way said to him: "Wherefore, madman, do you gaze around at everything and shout about chaff? For if you are selling chaff, go to the Anemodulion." The Saint answered him: "Go you also; and consider in your mind what place will receive you." Then one of the younger men said to him: "Why do you look at God?" But he said: "I am beholding a dream, my child. For this vain life is but a shadow, smoke, and a dream; for this reason I said, 'I see a dream,' regarding like chaff and dung the entire wealth ^B in the forum, which is laid up for all."

CHAPTER XIV.

106. After this, Andrew departed from there and came with rapid pace to the Staurium, where he found a certain monk, celebrated for the fame of his religious piety, who was conversing with another about the progress of the soul. And truly, a religion and piety were shining forth in his whole life, so that he never neglected any of the things that are incumbent upon monks to do; yet meanwhile he was sinning basely through greed and miserliness. Therefore, some of the citizens, having expiated their sins through confession, frequently brought him a large amount of gold, for him to distribute to the poor for the salvation of their souls. ^C But he, being captured by the passion of avarice, bestowed nothing upon any of them, but gathered and stored up the whole amount in a money-chest; and since he was living for the world, not for Christ, and being thus maddened by avarice, he rejoiced and exulted as he saw the heap increasing for him day by day. But the blessed Andrew, passing by there and being adorned with the gift of discernment, beheld a fearsome dragon coiled about his neck, having three heads, the tail of which hung down as far as his feet; the heads were of this nature: one was of avarice, the second of madness, and the third of mercilessness. As the Saint saw these things, being struck with wonder, he approached near to the monk and observed the signs of the dragon ^D and its shapes; but that man, thinking him to be one of the poor, and expecting that he was waiting to take some alms from him, said to him: "God have mercy on you." But the blessed one, having moved a little way from him, saw a writing in the air in a circle around him...

written in dark characters: "The demon of avarice, the root of all evils."

107. Turning his eyes behind him, he saw two individuals, eunuchs by nature, contending fiercely with each other over him; of whom one was black in body and eyes, while the other was of exceptional brightness, like celestial crystal. The black one began thus: "I," he said, "claim first place in him, because he performs all things by my nod and will; for the unmerciful and avaricious man has no portion with God." The other replied to him: "Not so; but rather his first fruits should belong to me, because he is devoted above all to fasts, prayers, probity, meekness, humility, and silence." As these things were bandied back and forth, and there was no way to end the contention, ^B nor any peace, the black eunuch finally brought forward this argument for his side: "Come, let us hear what the judge says about these matters; does he say, 'Come, you avaricious, tenacious, unmerciful, and disobedient to the will of others,' or does he invite to himself the merciful, the gentle, those who pity the calamity of others, and those like them?" To this the angel replied: "Come, let us hear what the Lord Himself proclaims: 'Upon whom shall I look, but upon the humble and quiet and him who trembles at my words?' (Isa. LXVI, 2). And elsewhere: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are the pure in heart' (Matt. V, 2-8), and other similar things." Then the black one said: "What a spectacle! He trembles, forsooth, at these words: 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy' (Matt. V, 7). And again: 'Be merciful, just as your heavenly Father is merciful' (Luke VI, 36). And again: 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice' (Osee VI, 6; Matt. IX, 13). And that: 'Break thy bread to the hungry' (Isa. LVIII, 7). And many other divine commandments, which, because they are contrary to me, I cannot bear to recite and account among ^C my abominations. By what logic, then, do you claim the first fruits of his works for yourself?" The angel of light replied: "A difficult dispute has arisen between us today, and we have not obtained a decision."

108. Having heard these things, the black one was indignant, and said to the one in white: "Since the lover of mankind, God, begins from kindness and ends in kindness, you call him this quite craftily, and I know well that you will take away what you seek to my hurt; wherefore I do not accept this condition." To him the angel of the Lord indignantly retorted: "O treacherous contriver of fraud! He who established a law for the children of men, by which they are commanded to render just judgments, not pitying the fortune of the poor, nor regarding the person of the rich—he himself, the standard of wisdom and justice—shall he, because of you, the most wicked one, turn away from the rectitude of judgment? ^D Come hither, therefore, with me; and in the divine judgment, either by persuasion I shall yield, until we have asked the judge of truth."

109. Having heard these things, the black one was vexed and says to the one in white: "Since the lover of mankind begins from kindness and ends in kindness, for this reason you have craftily passed judgment against me towards God, and I know that you have brought forth a sentence against me. (Therefore I also renounce such an opinion (34))." But the angel of the Lord said to him: "O deceitful and treacherous one, you who command the sons of men to judge justly, and not to show pity to the poor in judgment, nor to accept the person of the powerful—he who is the limit of wisdom and justice—is he, for the sake of you, the most wicked, just now turned aside in judgment? Come therefore with me, and by the judgment of God, either be persuaded or be convinced quickly." By these words

the black one was confirmed and nodded, as if to the Lord, the arbiter of judgment, to have the cause deferred: at the same time, both having turned toward the east, that shining youth, or angel, began to urge the Lord regarding the matter (for the black one, although he had previously looked toward the east together with the angel, had immediately turned his abominable face toward the west), and immediately a voice sounded from heaven, saying: "I gave orders to my apostles, saying: ^A 'Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you forgive, are forgiven them.' But to these friends of mine I did not so command: 'Receive gold instead of the Holy Spirit, and then forgive men their sins.' There is, therefore, no right for you in that monk. For to those alone who have mercy on others is rest and dwelling prepared in my kingdom." When this voice ceased to sound, the angel of the Lord ceased competing with the black spirit, and yielded the first place regarding the monk to him; and, having shown reverence with adoration to the Lord, he went off far from him.

^B 109. Seeing this, the Blessed one was beside himself and dizzied in his spirit, because that wicked demon had won the cause against the angel of light; and he addressed himself thus: "O the perversity of the wicked demon! We are being attacked by our own arms; for he himself is the destroyer of our race, he himself is the thief and the cunning scribe." Having said this, he went ahead to a certain path through which the monk was about to pass, and sitting down there, he waited for him. When, therefore, he saw him coming all alone, he rejoiced—for this he had prayed—and rising, he began to go to meet him. The devil, then, who had just gained the first place over the monk, recognizing the holy man coming to bring the one who was straying back to the straight path, began in his consternation to shout: "Again, Andrew, do you come against me? Is it not with reason that I am indignant, when I see you looking at this man so attentively? You are suspected by me, lest you should overturn the sentence passed in my favor, or contrive some harm against me at all. Get away from here as quickly as possible; for what have you to do with this monk? He is not your friend, he has not been seen by your eyes until this day, he is not related to you by blood, he is in no need of your instruction: wherefore go away from here, and beware of doing me injury." ^C While the arrogant braggart was pouring out such things, the Blessed one remained silent, answering nothing. But when the monk came near him, the holy man performed a prayer with tears, and having looked here and there, and seeing no one, he took hold of the monk by his right hand, and said to him:

110. "I beseech you, accept, ^D O bearer of burdens, the words of me, your servant, and with a favorable disposition receive my lowly speech, even though it is—

are small, take this: because a huge grief has occupied me on your account, and I cannot contain myself for the sickness of my mind. Why, finally, when you were a friend to God, ^A did you basely desert, and for the love of gold, enslave yourself to the service of the evil demon? How, when you were lifting yourself on high like the Seraphim with wings, did you give them, as it were, cut off at the root, as a gift to Satan? By what means, when you were shining brighter than lightning, did you wrap yourself in the dark gloom of the underworld? Woe is me! that when you were full of eyes, like those heavenly spirits in Scripture, you have been blinded by the nefarious dragon! and that when you were emulating the sun with your own brightness, you have ceased into the malignant light of the dark night! Why have you brought death upon your soul? when you have adopted the spirit of avarice as a friend to yourself? Do you not know what a monk ought to be? What is gold to you, my brother? why have you accumulated it so much? why have you acquired it for yourself, and summoned destruction? What is gold to you, which, when you depart from the living, you are going to leave to be possessed as an inheritance by those whom you least wish, or even by your enemies? Tell me, I pray you, do you perhaps keep it, acquired by your labor, so that it may be sent to the grave with you? Did you dig it from the earth with mattocks, by which you might free your wings? Did you perhaps, by hiring out your labor to someone, take that reward from there? Others are extinguished by hunger, thirst, and cold; and you, considering your money, exult with joy? Are these the signs of repentance? is this the rule of monks? is this poverty? is this the flight from the secular life? Do you thus imitate Christ the Lord? do you thus renounce the world? ^B are you thus crucified to the world and its concupiscences? have you thus withdrawn your mind from the brothers and all the vain things of this world, to be valued as nothing more than chaff? making light of the words of the Lord saying: "Do not possess gold, nor silver, nor a bag, nor a staff, nor two tunics." ^C 111. I stand attentive, you who have consigned these divine precepts to oblivion. Behold, today or tomorrow the supreme day will dawn for us; and what you have prepared, whose will it be? Do you not see the devil, who, standing too close to you, has obtained your soul for himself; while the angel, to whom the care of guarding you was entrusted, looks on from afar with the testimony of the highest grief? Behold the dragon, the nefarious inciter of avarice, wrapped around your neck, although you are unaware, resting softly in you: behold (I speak to provide for your affairs, your humble servant) as I was passing by here, I heard the voice of the Lord God, rejecting you and saying: The merciful shall obtain my kingdom: but him and those like him my soul hates. Wherefore, hear me, I beseech you; and distribute your riches ^D to the needy, the widows, the orphans, the pilgrims, who have nowhere to lay their head.

^A Him: "Depart from the lad; for thou art not worthy to stand near him; because thou hast made ill use of the chanting of the psalms, and the Lord hath accounted thee as offscouring." When therefore the Righteous one dealt him a buffet, he straightway became frantic, and rushed to seize him by the hair; but Epiphanius, running up, prevented him from the attempt, rebuking him reproachfully and saying: ^B 112. Is it thus, in truth, while standing in the midst of the divine choir, that thou hast attempted to perpetrate such things? Is this how thou readest, that "Thou shalt not return evil for evil?" Is this what the Lord saith, "If any one strike thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also?" Let the accursed demon, who suggesteth such things, be put to shame. What have those who are present here to say? Do we not become a scandal to them? Doth not the Lord accuse us, saying: "Woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh!" If therefore thou desirest to associate with me, I do not wish thee to be such as this; for if thou art to be with me, make thyself far removed from strife, anger, envy, and be not eager to return evil for evil, but rather become poor in spirit and contrite of heart, lamenting and grieving for thine own transgressions, being established as gentle and peaceable on all sides, and not being stolen away by the harmful and evil movements of sin, excelling in mercies and kindness, and adorned in mind and habit, and in the solemn dispositions of spiritual virtue; fleeing lethargy, conceit, pride, haughtiness; abstaining from stinginess, the frenzy of fornication, adultery, lawless lusts, effeminacy, gluttony, and the sunken state of drunkenness; for because of these things the wrath of God cometh upon the sons of disobedience. If, therefore, thou desirest to be with me, observe all these things. For I tell thee what is before us—take heed to thyself, that thou dost not pollute thy youth with fornications and with the ticklings of debauchery, [for in no other sin doth Satan so much rejoice as in this and those like unto it]. Behold, therefore, that thou art young, O friend, and a great struggle is set before thee against the four dragons of sin; and if thou desirest to quickly get the better of these, crush the arm of thy harsh disposition and thy headstrong youth, and be humbled under the footprints of the Savior, that He, having wrestled well on thy behalf, may conquer the flesh-loving and war-loving demon, and may ascribe the victory to thee. For the Lord resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. As there is naught in which Satan rejoiceth so much as in sin, as in this and those like unto it.

And it was fitting for him to distribute these things with his own hands to those who approached him. While he was thus living well and piously, as it is fitting for monks to live, the servant of God appears to him in his sleep, smiling with his countenance, and shows him a beautiful tree in a certain field, blooming and full of sweetest fruits, and said: "Thou owest me many thanks, O great Father, because I have made thy soul a flowering tree; strive therefore with thy strength that these flowers may be transformed into the sweetest fruit, as thou art able; for this tree, which thou seest in delight, is the state of thy soul since the day thou didst see me and distribute the gold." Having awakened, the monk was greatly strengthened, progressing daily in spiritual labor and offering thanksgiving to God and his servant. ^B

CHAPTER XV.

114. A certain young man attached himself to Epiphanius, of whom we have made mention before, being excited by the fame of his virtues; and Epiphanius, as he did to many others, strove to confirm him in the saving fear of God, having imbued him with the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. But he had not attached himself to Epiphanius in order to become an emulator of his virtue, but for the sake of the empty praise of men, that they might say about him also such things as they were accustomed to say about Epiphanius when they saw him. But what were the words of men about Epiphanius? Listen: I shall explain. As he often passed through the middle of the city, all who had heard the fame of his virtues would point to him with their fingers and say: "Behold, how his youth is spent so preeminently, knowing not how to be moved by the delights of the world, unharmed in the midst of fires, and uncorrupted by the enticements of pleasures." And it was said by the common mouth of all about him: "He never had any commerce with a woman, but lived his life always chaste and blameless; devoting himself to fasts, vigils, and prayers; adorning his soul with every kind of virtue, and abstaining his body from any bodily wickedness." Captivated by such praises of men, the young man I mentioned, because he ardently coveted the same things for himself, had insinuated himself into the familiarity of Epiphanius. ^C

115. It happened then one day, as Epiphanius rose from his bed at dawn to offer praises to God, the aforementioned youth also sprang up and was occupied with morning prayers together with him; and with God so disposing, the blessed Andrew also arrived there, acting as one possessed. When Epiphanius caught sight of him, fearing on account of the crowd of people that the manner of his acting might become known to anyone, he made no sensible manifestation toward him, but greeted him who approached in spirit only. But Andrew, having entered, attached himself to Epiphanius; and he stood for a long time, uttering no word, looking only with a grim gaze at the face of that young man, and he gives him a blow, as he was able, and says to

^A him: "Depart from this youth, seeing that you are unworthy of his company; for that which you have done is an abuse of divine hymns, which the Lord holds in the place of a reprobate." But he, angered by the blow dealt to him, rushed upon the holy man, and would have laid hands upon his hair; but Epiphanius, running forward, prevented the deed, and rebuked the young man with sharp words, saying:

116. "Is it thus," he says, "that you, being bereft of mind and truly to be numbered among the foolish, presume to do such things in this divine assembly? Are you then reading: 'Thou shalt not return evil for evil'? ^B Thus speaks the Lord: 'If anyone strike you on the right cheek, turn to him also the other.' Are you not ashamed, you accursed demon, for suggesting these things? What do those present here have to say? Do we not see it as a scandal to them? Does the Lord not rebuke us when he says: 'Woe to the man by whom the scandal comes'? If therefore you wish to consort with me, I do not wish for you to be such a one; for if you are to be with me, do not make yourself far from me, and do not hurry to return evil for evil because of contention, anger, envy, or any such thing; but rather become poor in spirit, and contrite in heart, lamenting your own transgressions, ^C gentle and loving; established in all things, and not stolen away by harmful and evil movements of sin, and excelling in pity and kindness, and adorned in mind and in habit, and in the solemn dispositions of spiritual virtue; fleeing from sloth, conceit, pride, haughtiness; avoiding avarice, silliness, fornication, adultery, effeminacy, gluttony, and the drunkenness that drags man down. For because of these, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, if you wish to be with me, keep all these things. For I tell you, while standing by: take heed to yourself, that you do not defile your youth with fornication and with its titillations; for Satan rejoices in no other thing so much as in this sin, and in others like it. ^D Behold, therefore, O young man, my friend, and I make known to you the struggle that stands before you against the four dragons of sin; and if you wish to overcome these quickly, crush the arm of your harsh judgment and of your proud youth, and be humbled under the feet of the Savior; so that he himself, fighting on your behalf, may conquer the flesh-loving and war-loving demon, and may inscribe victory for you. For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

^A 117. As the luminary Epiphanius was admonishing the young man in this way, his heart having been hardened by the wicked one, he bore the words heavily, and being grieved and dispirited at what was said, he departed, saying: "When I must needs enjoy the world, then I shall refrain from it." He no longer resolved to meet with Epiphanius for the spiritual struggle, but, dwelling in his pleasures, fornications, and adulteries, he defiled the beauty of his wretched soul. After this, he fell into most severe temptations and calamities, such that he came to great poverty and had to beg for his daily bread. Epiphanius was therefore grieved at this, and besought the servant of God to show mercy to him. The Saint said: "No, my child, but rather have compassion on his soul, though his body is suffering. Leave him, therefore, as he is; for this is appropriate for him. A time will come when the Lord, having looked upon his misery and humiliation, will later restore him to his former state." Epiphanius asked: "I beseech you, servant of the Lord, make known to me for what reason he was so swiftly handed over to the temptation of the demon." And he said: "The Lord was not wrathful with him for any other reason than that he was a perjurer, a liar, rash, and arrogant; for although he may have committed other, even worse, bodily transgressions, it was not so much on account of these as on account of those that he incurred this indignation. For the matter stands thus: unless the pot placed on the fire boils vigorously, the food contained within it will have no sweetness; so also with us, the wretched and humble sinners, unless we are boiled through many tribulations and temptations, we shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." Epiphanius said: "If this is what contributes to the salvation of his soul, I shall no longer speak in protest: I only wish to see him enduring adversities courageously, and arriving at the hope and dwellings promised by the Lord." ^B 118. There was also another young man, named John, who was on familiar terms with Epiphanius, inasmuch as both had been schooled in the lessons of the Holy Scriptures; he loved Epiphanius as a fellow student, but he did not emulate his virtue at all. One day, as both young men were sitting together in a public place and talking, a certain harlot passed by; and as she caught sight of the two youths, that unclean woman began to make impure gestures, and then to move her body in indecent ways, ^C attempting, as it were, to ensnare one of them in her desire. As she was doing these things, Epiphanius turned his face away, and smiling at his companion, said: "Behold the shameless vixen, how cunningly she tries to catch a little bird—I mean, to capture a soul of one of the younger men." But John, as he was most depraved, watched her surreptitiously, as he thought, without Epiphanius noticing. Epiphanius, having walked away, was grieved at the destruction of his soul; for in truth he was profligate, and was raging in his ^D

^A desires.

But while Epiphanius was thus speaking to John, the blessed Andreas suddenly appeared passing by that way; and as soon as Epiphanius saw him, he arose quickly, left John, and went off to the blessed one. Having gone to a secluded place, they began to speak together of certain divine and inspired subjects from the Scriptures. The blessed one, taking up the conversation with Epiphanius, said: "I suppose, my dearest and honey-flowing one, that the words and sweet-breathing oracles you uttered to that young man who sat with you a short time ago were in vain." Epiphanius said: "In vain? And in what way?" The holy man said: "He will not listen to you for all eternity, since he is utterly lost; for I was present in spirit with you when you were discussing matters among yourselves. But pay attention to what will befall him not long after this preset time, by which he is a fornicator, an adulterer, and a most loathsome sodomite. A few days ago, the Lord was about to cut him off from the earth, because by living in his debaucheries he was grieving the ^B Holy Spirit. But the angel, the guardian of his soul, besought the Lord to grant him a respite for repentance—even for one interval of time—and the Lord God heard the angel; and a year of days was given to him, just as the angel requested. The righteous Judge commanded the holy angel, the one who destroys the rot, saying: 'If he repents within the defined interval, he shall have his due; but if not, then use upon him that own necessity of decay, which will dissolve his joints and cause his flesh to melt away, and thus his wretched soul will be sent down to Hades.' But he has spent that very time on useless trifles and has profited nothing, drawing upon himself wrath. Woe to the lover of prostitutes, the wretched, the profane, and the miserable man! For he shall repent enough when he sits in darkness and the shadow of death, remembering your divinely inspired words."

^C ρκγ'. Epiphanius says to him: "My lord, if you command it, I will proclaim to him these things which you have spoken to me; perhaps the fear of the Lord will enter into his heart, and he may repent and turn away from his evil path." The blessed one said: "If you say these things to him, he will laugh at you; for he is entirely hardened by the demon of fornication. But not even the Lord speaks such things to anyone to make him turn back; for it is not expedient for him. If it were expedient, God would have revealed the hour and the day of death to all men through angels. But you, my beloved child, struggle as much as you can, so that when the Lord comes to transfer us from this life, we may inherit the goods of the Lord in the day of judgment; for, as I have just warned you, nothing will be a solace or help to us there except the sole mercy of the kind Lord and the good works we have performed."

^A Observe temperance for the sake of God, so that you may live honorably here and enjoy much of God’s grace in the world to come. Endure in purity; make use of the law of God.

120. To this John says: "Your mouth and your lips, Lord Epiphanius, are blessed for speaking these things. But do not think that God has endowed everyone with such wisdom, or granted them such holiness, or elected them for salvation as he has you. For I wish to be like you, but I cannot be; I would like to fast and to continue in prayer through all the days and nights, but I cannot. I would like to give alms to the poor, but I have no gold or silver or anything else set aside to satisfy them. If it resided in my own power, I would not wish to be angry with anyone, or to overtake anyone, or to do any of those harmful things; but now, even against my will, I am compelled by my perverted nature, and by the ^B demon, and by evil habit, to commit such things."

121. Epiphanius meets his words again: "You know how to offer such excuses in a very specious manner, saying that you wish to follow a life similar to mine, but that you cannot. Come, then, tell me: what is so exceptional and inimitable in me, as you claim, that you find it difficult to grasp? Are you unable to live quietly away from the crowds, as I do? Can you not contemplate Holy Scripture, or attend the churches of the saints, or pursue love toward all? Are you unable to fast? Yet the Lord does not hold ^C this as a necessity; He seeks nothing else, except that one should not be gluttonous or drunk. He did not say: 'Do not eat or drink,' but He said: 'Do not be a glutton, do not get drunk, and do not commit sin.' You say that you wish to pray and cannot. Why can you not, being young and possessing the vigor of body? If you offer this defense on the day of judgment, one woman—a poor, frail, virtuous old lady—will be able to rise up and condemn you. For they will say to you: 'Look at how this weak and wretched woman struggled with all her heart, ^D and yet you, being young, dare to utter such things? How she, for the love of God, occupied her nights and days with prayers and supplications! And you, young as you are, did not even show a devotion equal to that of an old woman?' And to pass over many things, I say only this to you: know that nothing will profit us in this world—no pretext, no excuse—since free will resides within us. And if you truly love me and obey me, flee, you humble one, from fornication, and wantonness, and drunkenness, and from going out at every hour to the public square to gaze through windows at the beauty of wicked women; struggle to save your soul, and may you find mercy and grace from the Lord on the day of judgment; for nothing will profit us, as I have said before, except the sole mercy of God, and our works.

^A For he considers murderers as scorpions, idolaters as fake coin, adulterers as those who have lost their minds, magicians and sorcerers as snakes, those who commit bestiality and sodomites as mice and as the worm-eaten dog cast out upon the dung-heap, the fornicators as swine, thieves as wolves, the deceitful as foxes, the avaricious as cats, the wrathful as beasts, those who nurse grievances as vipers, liars as adders, gluttons as mindless animals, the drunkards as those possessed by demons, heretics as dung, those who traffic in vice as donkeys. And he considers those who are procurers of vice—who by oaths and lies drive men to women and women to men for the sake of intermingling—and who make them temples of the devil and receptacles of filth, as the coming Antichrist. He considers the revilers as crows, the detractors as ravens, those who judge the faults of others mindlessly as mad little dogs devouring human flesh, those who act the tragedian as frogs, the guitarists as instruments of the devil, the women who dance as herons, and those who are harlots as goats. And the youths—those who wallow in games, and vulgarities, and filth, and drunkenness, and the corruption of boys—he considers to be like the unclean creeping things of the earth, and the wild beasts, and like the brood of vipers.

^D ρκζ'. As the holy man was speaking these things to Epiphanius, ^C Epiphanius suddenly awoke, astonished by the things that had been shown to him. When day came, a report reached them: "Your friend John has been seized by a deadly disease; why do you not go to visit him?" Hearing this, he began to weep and said, "Alas for my impotence! See what was shown to me." He left and went to visit the sick man; and when he saw him perishing from the pestilential disease, he said, "Alas, what a terrible miracle! Behold the prediction of the most blessed Andrew fulfilled." When John caught sight of him, he groaned from the depth of his heart and said, "Pray for me, saint of God, that God may have mercy on me and have compassion on me for the present, and that I may not yet end the thread of this life; for I imagine that I shall not rise from this bed." And the noble Epiphanius said, "Brother, the Lord will do what is necessary, for He Himself knows what is beneficial, since I have nothing with which to help you. Supplicate God, therefore, and He shall do whatever seems good to His goodness." But day by day the poor wretch wasted away; and his flesh flowed upon the ground like water, and his whole appearance vanished; and his framing was so corrupted and loathsome that all who beheld him were terrified and cried out, "Lord have mercy!" In this way the poor wretch ended his life in great agony, and his bones were scattered before Hades.

^A Andreas, meeting Epiphanius on the wide street, reminded him of what he had seen in the nocturnal vision, filling him with dread and trembling as he said: "Do you know, child, that last night we both journeyed together into the dark treasuries of Hades? Did you observe the locks there and the prisons in the subterranean regions? Do you know the late and gloomy resting-place of your friend? Have you read that grievous tablet and what was written upon it? Did you take note of the spirits of the sinners of the ages, how they sleep in darkness and the shadow of death? May the Lord God deliver us from those places." The admirable Epiphanius, hearing these things from the Righteous one, shuddered and said to him: "I have seen them, venerable Father, and having seen them, I was seized with trembling. Therefore, intercede for your child, that I may not be condemned to those places; for fear came upon me, and darkness covered me, and I tremble lest the prince of darkness drag me down, held fast by the pleasures of transgressions." The Blessed one said: "Your fear is precious to me; for this reason I exhort you every day to struggle, that you may become an heir of the kingdom of the heavens; for this reason I beg and beseech you, blessed child, strive at all times to run the good race of continence, so that my soul, seeing you progressing in spiritual things, may rejoice in the Spirit." While they were conversing in this way, as some were approaching the spot, the Righteous one, shielding his own virtue, bade Epiphanius farewell before they drew near, and departed.

CAPUT XVII. Epiphanius comes to the aid of a woman deceived by a magician and subject to diabolical illusions.

^B A certain woman living in the Neorion, very devout and fearing the Lord, had a difficult husband, one who was excessively pleasure-loving and scattered all his substance, the wretch, in brothels. The wife, being most pious, was greatly grieved and was in suspense regarding what she ought to do so as to put an end to her husband's most wicked purpose. While she had these things in her mind, she sought to learn about a man who possessed such power. Accordingly, another woman suggested to her a certain man, Bigrinus, who claimed to be able to fulfill all her desires. Rising at once, she went to him and found there a considerable crowd. As he was fulfilling the desires of all of them and they were departing, she at last came forward too, and as they sat, the woman began to tell him of her painful plight: how her husband had surrendered himself to the deceits of a wicked life, and from one tavern to another of the harlots he had arrived...

^A at the state of a man who has lost his mind. He considers murderers as scorpions, idolaters as fake coin, adulterers as those who have lost their mind, magicians and sorcerers as serpents, those who practice bestiality and sodomy as mice and worms-eaten dogs cast upon the dung heap, fornicators as swine, thieves as wolves, the deceitful as foxes, the avaricious as cats, the irascible as wild beasts, the grudge-bearers as vipers, liars as snakes, gluttons as dumb animals, drunkards as those possessed by demons, heretics as dung, and panderers ^B as donkeys. As for the procurers of fornication, who by oaths and lies drive men to have intercourse with women and women with men, and who make them a temple of the devil and a lodging place for dung, he considers these to be like the coming Antichrist. He considers detractors as crows, those who judge the minor faults of others insensibly as mad dogs eating human flesh, tragedians as frogs, harp-players as instruments of the devil, dancing women as lecherous, and harlots as goats. And as for the children who wallow in games, folly, foul language, drunkenness, and the corruption of boys, he considers them to be unclean reptiles of the earth, as wild beasts, and as the brood of vipers.

Chapter 127

^A 128. After some days, when Andrew met Epiphanius in a public square, he brought to his memory all that had been shown him in the vision of the night, not without a certain horror and stupor, saying: “Do you know, my son, how we both walked through the dark regions of the underworld the previous night? Do you remember what sort of cloisters and prisons are in that subterranean cave? Do you recall how dark and gloomy is the seat that awaits your friend John? Did you read the inscription on that fatal tablet? Do the souls, condemned long ago for their sins, still stand before your eyes, in how they sit in darkness and the shadow of death? May our Lord God command us to live far removed from their company.” The admirable youth Epiphanius, while he heard Andrew speaking thus, was shaken with trembling through almost all his limbs: “I saw it,” he said, “venerable Father, and by seeing it I shuddered; wherefore intercede for your son, that he may not be condemned to their company and punishments; for fear has fallen upon me, and darkness has covered me, and I fear lest the prince of darkness, having overcome me with the enticements of sin, might drag me down there.” To this the Blessed one said: “This fear of yours pleases me; for this reason I exhort you daily to struggle strenuously, so that you do not fall away from the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven; nay, I even pray and beseech you, blessed son, to run alertly the most beautiful stadium of continence, so that I, too, seeing your spiritual progress, may exult in spirit.” When they had conversed of such things, as some were by chance approaching, Andrew, in his desire to hide his virtue, before they drew nearer, bade Epiphanius farewell and withdrew from that place.

CHAPTER XVII.

129. A certain woman living in the Neorion, very religious and outstanding in the fear of the Lord, had a husband who was difficult and remarkably voluptuous, who, unhappy man, squandered all his substance in brothels. The wife, therefore, as she was most pious, was greatly saddened, and was anxious and grieving in her mind, as to what should be done to lead her husband from his most wicked way of life to saner counsels; and while she was often pondering such things in her mind, she finally decided to seek out a man who might be able to grant her the effect of her desire in this matter; such a one as another woman immediately suggested to her, namely a certain Bigrinus, who promised that he would fulfill all the woman’s prayers. Wherefore, rising up at once, she went to the man and found a frequent crowd in his house, waiting to consult him. When they had returned, having obtained their desires, finally she also drew nearer, and having occupied a seat near the man, she began to speak to him of her pain; to the effect that: “My husband has given himself over to the deceits of a wicked life, and from one brothel to another he has arrived…

having wasted all my substance; and now he has taken up with a certain shameless girl, and every day he goes to her, carrying off all that I have. ^A Since therefore I have heard of you, that you are one of those virtuous before the Lord, inasmuch as you have rescued many from dangers, I have come to you; if you can do anything, help me, and I will grant you whatever is within my power.”

^B The other replied to her: “Whatever you wish and desire, you shall receive through me; for if you command, I will wither his desire so that he will not use sexual intercourse with any woman; or if you wish, I will allow [it], and death shall take him; or if you wish, I will deliver him to a spirit of wickedness, and he will wander about and be demon-possessed. Consider, therefore, and make known to me what seems best to you.” The woman answered him: “I wish for nothing else, my lord, than that my husband be turned away from such things, and that he love and cherish me alone.” The other said: “As you have asked, so will I do.” As they sat, he told her everything he had done from his youth; and the woman was amazed, hearing this, and sat still in astonishment. The other said to her: “Arise, go to your house, and prepare for me a candle and oil, and an *aptytrubos*, and a girdle, and fire; and on Wednesday, when I arrive there, I will do what you desire.” And when he arrived on Wednesday, he took the oil, and whispering and invoking [something], he poured it into the candle; and having removed the *aptytrubos* ^C, he raised it, and placed it where the images of the woman were. Then, having also taken the girdle, and having whispered some words of his wickedness, and having tied four knots, he gave it to her, saying: “Gird it about you beneath your garments; and give me a *tremisios* to distribute to the poor for the salvation of your soul.” She gave it to him, promising to give more if what she desired should be accomplished. But her husband began to hate and detest the things he formerly practiced with desire, and pursuing his wife alone with love, he devoted himself entirely to caring for his household.

^D 131. But when no more than six days had passed, the woman sees in her sleep that she is standing alone in a plain, and an Ethiopian comes toward her…

^A, an old man, who began, as if in jest, to embrace and kiss her, saying: "Well have I found you, my lady; come, my love, let us sleep together, since we were recently wed. I longed for you greatly, and I was seeking an occasion to bring you to me. Now, therefore, come, my beautiful companion, let us lie together, so that you may enjoy me and I may be sated with the admiration and taste of your beauty." When he spoke these words to her, the woman, falling into a tremor, began to anathematize him and to flee, and to be distressed, and to adjure him to depart from her, saying: "Depart from me, for I possess a husband of my own, and I do not consort with another." Thus constrained and battled in her dream, the woman awoke; and, as if delivered from labor, she barely returned to herself. She began to revolve in her mind what these things could be, and whence the devil found such great boldness against me; for she understood that that Ethiopian was a wicked demon ^B. Her having already recognized the Ethiopian's form, at least in the dream that he wore.

132. As she was pondering these things, she fell into sleep again and saw a dog of unusual size, black and colorless, ^C embracing her and kissing her mouth to mouth like a man. Terrified by the spectacle, she awoke, shaking off sleep, and began to say to herself: "Woe to me, the miserable and sinful, that the wicked one has set his love against me, and does not desist from me at all! What shall I do, I do not know; whence this has befallen me, I do not understand." Again, therefore, on another night, she sees herself in the theatre of the hippodrome standing and kissing the images there, pricked by a lustful desire to be joined to them; and again she sees a dog lifting her and fleeing; and again she sees herself eating a frog, and sometimes a snake, or reptiles, and things worse than these. By such spectacles the pitiable one was tormented, never having a good sleep. Being constrained, therefore, and having no one from whom to seek help, she began to devote herself to prayers and fasts, and to propitiate God, asking whence these things had happened to her, and what she ought to do, and to be delivered from such enormities. ^D

133. And as she was thus occupied, she sees in a dream that her images were standing facing west, and she herself likewise, and thus praying, as one thought to be frantic and paralyzed. While she was thus distressed, a certain youth comes to her and says: "Because you have appeased me by fasting, behold I am present, about to explain to you the cause so often asked, why these things have befallen you; and at the same time he shows her the images, and says: 'See what that wretched magus has brought upon you.' And the woman fixed her eyes there, and saw they were foully smeared with human dung from top to bottom, and felt an incomparable stench arising from them." Stunned in spirit at such a sight, and [realizing] that there was need to act, that by such inordinate affections

^A God might put them to death, she told him what she had seen during the night. And Epiphanius said to her, "Your good faith has procured all these things for you; for we are sinful men, needing the mercy of the Lord." Having said this, he departed. And [he found] with him the blessed Andrew before the Chalcoprateia ^B playing and kicking about. And as he caught sight of Epiphanius, he came toward him with a smiling face and rejoicing. When he had come near, he said, "Did you see the watchman, how he guards the Lord's vineyard, and how he drives away the crows and the ravens?" Epiphanius said, "I was terrified, Father, exceedingly; but do you know the burning heat of the fiery demons, and how many terrible things the beasts and the reptiles, along with the others, showed me?" The blessed one said, "The Lord lessened [ones] more than these; yet if these things had not happened, how would the woman have been delivered from her necessities? How would the crows and the winged creatures have been destroyed? How would that Ethiopian have been twisted? And that you might know what it is to bear one another's burdens."

^C 138. The blessed one having said these things, Epiphanius says, "I beseech you, since you know everything, tell me what the girdle was, and what the lamp-wick, and the four knots of the girdle, and the water, and the oil, and the lamp, and why through such things the vain one worked such things against the woman." The blessed one said, "If you wish to learn, listen; for just as I have not hidden anything from you at all, so neither will I hide [it] now. It is the custom of the devil first to drive the grace of God away from men, and then he enters without hindrance into ^D him; not that grace flees being afraid of him, but out of hatred and loathing for the stench of sin. But neither does he bring a man into sin by tyranny, but from [his own] free will; for he punishes and tickles him; and so he, not bearing that agitation, departs and sins, and the devil has a reasonable excuse from that very cause, that the man sins of his own free will; for this reason the grace of the Lord departs from him."

139. "Thus, therefore, the enemy also did those things concerning the woman; for he always saw her loving God with her whole soul, and because he could not cast her down, he provoked her through her husband to these things, [leading her] of her own free will to go to that impostor. For as she was asking for her heart's desire to be fulfilled, and to cast away her own soul, see what he does to effect the destruction of her soul, and to dwell in her as if by her own free will,"

^A by the exorcism of our initiate; and when she had been burned, I was released, and fled from those places. What shall I wreak upon Epiphanius, since he has wronged me and brought these things upon me, having separated me from my wife? See, Epiphanius, against you I have to pour out the bitter madness of my vial 48, and I shall wage war with you." The woman, when morning came, reported to Epiphanius all that had been said to her; but he, hearing these things, smiled and said: "Yes, yes, he intends to go into the Lord's vineyard to steal grapes; but as he is a rustic watchman, what is to happen? He will surely secure himself under the title; for I know the power of Him who protects me."

CHAPTER XVIII

136. On a certain night, as the Lord permitted, the devil took with him a multitude of flaming, fiery demons, and suddenly, in the middle of the night, he stood by the sleeping Epiphanius. But the Lord opened the ears of His servant, and he heard their tumult, yet he felt no fear or agitation at all, for he was supported by a firm trust in God. The fiery demons, therefore, began to cast lascivious thoughts and the torches of shameful lust ^C into the flesh of Epiphanius. But the most chaste youth endured them with great patience, and with equal confidence awaited divine aid. Now the wicked spirits appeared in the forms of fierce beasts; some, transformed into wild animals, endeavored to strike terror, while others, assuming the appearance of a dragon, a wolf, or a scorpion, rushed upon him with great impetuosity, as if to devour him; and, to speak summarily, they did everything they could to disturb the youth. Seeing, however, the insolence of the evil demons, he said: "Since I see that you labor in vain and afflict me, permitted by me, behold, I grasp the sword which the Lord has bestowed upon me, and I turn it against you." As he spoke these words, he simultaneously raised his hands to God with tears and began the ninth Psalm; and when he reached: "Thou hast rebuked the heathen, the wicked one has perished: Thou hast blotted out his name;" and: "The swords of the enemy have failed at the end," and: "His memorial has perished with a sound;" when, I say, he had arrived there, suddenly a sound was heard from heaven, and a dart 50, descending no slower than a thunderbolt, dispersed them all, and they lamentably repeated their familiar "Woe." And thus, being freed from their machinations, Epiphanius gave glory to God, to whom he had fled, and was not put to shame.

137. ^D At dawn, Epiphanius went off to search for the blessed Andrew, and that woman met him and said: "Now I truly know that through you all my enemies..."

were put to shame, for you have opened up to me things which she knew by vision that night. Epiphanius says to her: "Your faith is good, for it has provided all these things; for we are poor sinners, always needing the mercy of the Lord." Having said this, he departed, and met the blessed Andrew before the workshops 51 playing and kicking 52. And when the blessed Andrew saw Epiphanius, he ran toward him smiling in his face and rejoicing. When he had come near, he said, "Do you see how the steward of the Lord's vineyard keeps watch, and how he drives away the crows and the rooks?" Epiphanius says: "I was terrified, Father, but I know that the demons and the heat, and all the terrible things, and the serpents and wild beasts, are fighting against the Lord's vineyard." The blessed one said: "The Lord wards off many more things than these; but even if these things had not happened, how would that woman have been delivered from her necessities? How would the crows and the birds have been frightened off? And how would that Ethiopian have been turned away? And so that you may know, by experience you will learn, how great a thing it is to bear the burdens of another."

138. When the blessed one had finished saying these things, Epiphanius says: "I entreat you, since you know all things, tell me what was the belt, and what the lamp-wick, and the four knots of the belt, and the water, and the oil, and the stirrer, and why such a man as this did such things to the woman." The blessed one said: "If you wish to learn, listen; for I have hidden nothing from you, nor will I hide it. It is the custom for the devil first to persecute the grace of God from among men, and to enter in where it is not impeded; for grace does not flee from the one who fears it, but the stench of sin, being reproached and detested, flees; it does not inflict sin upon men by tyranny, but from the power of choice; for it tickles, and in that way, he who brings that pollution, sins, and he who goes away 53 has a reasonable excuse, because the devil is the cause of it, and the man sins by his own power of choice; for this reason, the grace of the Lord departs from him."

139. In this way, the alien and the enemy acted with the woman. For he saw that she was always loving God with all her heart, and he was not able to cast her down, so he departed of his own power of choice to that deceiver. For he asks to have his whim satisfied, and to destroy her soul; see what he does in order to bring about the destruction of her soul, and to dwell in her as his own power of choice. ^A ...at which time he struck the harmony of those who were singing with such aptitude and appropriateness, that Andrew, hearing it, was exceedingly delighted, and exulted with joy, saying: "Remember, O Lord, David and all his meekness. Behold, we heard of the Lady, the intercessor, and we found her, and also the delightful Sophia." ^B 140. While he was saying these things, some of the wise men who were present there said to him: "What is this, fool? Look, you do not even know these things yourself. Does the Psalter at the end of the verse contain 'the Lady interceding' as you wish? What is it, then, that you are saying?" The holy one said to them: "House and house—the repose of God." When they heard this, not understanding, they mocked him and, laughing, went away. The blessed one was saying these things, having seen David with the prophets having arrived there. "Look," he says, "Lord David, in the ancient generations you were saying: 'Until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob,' that is, rest and habitation: in the first place, the Lady who intercedes for us, the great Mistress, and then this great Church of God; for that is the house of God, and this is His house." How sweetly the intelligible music plays at this hour, that you may see! When these things had been seen and spoken by the righteous one, he straightway left the church, and went outside, and wandered into the squares, chanting and whispering to his lips.

141. And he meets a certain rich man passing by, and says to him: "Give me something, whatever it may be." And he said: "Fool, I have nothing." The righteous one said: "The cornerstone spoke well, that the eye of a needle does not contain you." That man says: "On the truth, Salos, and it is the eye of a needle, take it, or the one leading into the kingdom." And he himself said: "You are thick and fat; and the fat ones of the earth will not enter through it; for a kicking donkey will no longer pass through a narrow alleyway." When the miser heard these things, he laughed and says: "Believe me, even if you are a fool, you have insulted us well." The righteous one says to him: "Bees are for saturation; but some are for healing, while others are for going forth; and likewise with ants; but just as the sea, the dragon, and hades are insatiable and greedy, so also are the rich." ^C Not having been able to gain anything from him, he was distressed and departed, saying to himself: "What blindness 55 of soul and callousness! How can we, the unmerciful, see the face of the Lord? O the filthy power of choice, and cold conscience! How, like soulless stones, are we disposed toward God, and we, the wretched, do not care that we become this way here, and that we go elsewhere? And what kind of apology do we wish to offer to that fearful and impartial Judge? But let us also hasten, my soul, toward what is set before us, and again at the mill, let us grind." Not resisting these things, and being unable to gain anything, as one of the demented, he chided him and departed, and was saying to himself.

^A that he had furnished the

appliances for sorcery

140. Epiphanius said: "Marvelous is God in you, O Andrew, for He allows you to be ignorant of nothing. But from where could the magician know and tell the woman everything she had done since her youth?" The blessed one said: "Do you not know that demons are inseparable from Christians? For this reason they also know their deeds. For when someone goes to a magician, the magician asks the devil who follows the one who has come, saying: 'Tell me, what has he done from his youth up to now?' And the one who is inseparable from him, having seen everything as his own fellow-demon and associate, reports everything to him. For just as the good angels of God are sent to us as messengers of many things, so also do the evil ones report to their magicians everything they know." After the blessed one had spoken these things, Epiphanius was struck with great admiration, and having praised the Lord, who is a lover of mankind, saluted the holy man and departed.

141. So, on one of the days when the holy Forty Days' Fast was drawing to a close, and the inhabitants of the imperial city were honoring the Lord Jesus Christ with palm branches and hymns, ^D the blessed Andrew beheld in the holy temple of God, Sophia, a man with gray hair and distinguished by the dignity of his form, having arrived with an innumerable multitude, holding palm branches and crosses that glittered like lightning, and emitting a melody that was delightful, most sweet, and salutary. They were modestly urging one another forward as they proceeded, as if going toward the ambo; they were all possessed of faces of extreme beauty. And that old man was holding a cithara and striking the chords, accompanying those who were chanting/singing, so that the blessed one was greatly stirred and delighted by the sight, and leaped and

^A "I have fallen into a trap! O the violence, O the violence, from you, Nazarene, that you have scorched my insides!" Having said these things, having received the cup, he drank it by force; and filled with anger and incomparable bitterness, he departed in pain. Epiphanius, awakening from the vision, and marveling at the benevolence of God and His speedy assistance, mocked the face of the most wicked demon.

142. A few days later, the blessed Andrew met him in a gallery, returning from the synaxis. Seeing him, he smiled and said, "I am a sheep of the rational flock; I love salt, and I eat salt." Upon hearing this, Epiphanius marveled greatly at the word and said, "Not even this escaped you, great master? But why did you leave me thus? And ^B my steps were shaken by a little." The holy man said, "And how could one appear or be called a soldier, if he does not lie in wait for the enemies, and fight, and conquer, and be tested? And how will the adversary know what power you possess if he does not wage war with you, unless he sees you engaged in conflict? And how will you receive a reward if you have not endured temptation and the schemes of the vain? All who live struggle while there is time, and while there is opportunity; they are afflicted, they are tested, so that today or tomorrow, having died this bodily death, they may gather some good in order that they may have it on the fearful day of judgment. But those who are dead, blind, useless, and darkened according to the inner man, these sleep sweetly, eating, drinking, pursuing ease, committing fornication, gluttonizing, acting in tragedies, playing the cithara, and easily exacting the desires of the flesh, not remembering God, nor judgment, nor retribution, nor the kingdom of heaven; these always go with the devil in his desires. And he, seeing a vain joy in this world, provides it as to his own friends and servants. But woe to the affliction that awaits them!"

143. "You, therefore, my child, the violence of which you speak will become sweet to us if we endure it; and as you are forced to the movement and burning of the flesh, and stand against the wicked one, and bear it nobly, so many crowns are woven for you, and your reward increases. Do not, therefore, grow faint, my child, toward these things, but persevere, so that you may have a reward and become an heir of the kingdom of heaven. Today or tomorrow this world passes away like a dream of one awakening, vanishing like smoke, and all things pass away; and we are only deceived, having no patience at all in temptations. You hear that 'Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver them out of them all.' Do you not sing constantly, 'Afflictions and pains have met me,' he continued, 'waging war with the devil.'"

^A For we depart from far off; where the honey-flowing water is, let us bring the wretched, bedraggled donkey, as the Lord did the foal; let us embrace spiritual toil, so that when the one is released and the other taken up, we may arrive at the meeting of the Lord with the holy angels. 144 Having said these things, he began to move and run; and those who were sitting at their crafts before their doors, and those who were passing by, seeing him running, said, "Bind the donkey, bind the donkey." The blessed man said, "Bury the donkeys, bury them, since they are dead." And the holy man said to them, "My donkey, even if it kicks, lives piously; but yours is already dead by sin and rotted, and it needs burial so that it does not infect men with its stench."

CAPUT XIX. Epiphanius overcomes the temptations of the flesh; and the unclean deacon hears from Andrew the horrible outcome of his vision, and of his sins.

145 ^B It happened at that time that the devil took up the audacity to raise his horns against Epiphanius, and the demon of fornication set him aflame cruelly, approaching with the greatest madness. Therefore the delightful youth was distressed, and he was troubled, fearing lest his beloved youth be defiled by the mire of foul filth. He fasted often and kept watch and called upon God with tears, that he might not fall into such ruin. And the accursed one did not depart from him, but insistent, injecting, through the stings of the flesh, wicked thoughts with which he tried to immerse him miserably in the mire of lust, and to extinguish the striking beauty of his soul. Hence, he also presented various phantasms to him during sleep, namely, of having relations with foul women and consenting to sin. And as often as he was inflamed to lust by such images, Epiphanius would chew ^C three ounces of salt, tormenting his sense of taste and bearing the saltiness with the greatest difficulty; and he contemplated meanwhile with fear, lest he be inferior in this war.

146 Then, indeed, in a dream he saw a demon of luxury, very similar to his own mire and smeared with human excrement; he stood there and breathed heavily; but opposite him stood a youth in white, who, with the very bitter cup he held in his hand, was forcing the demon himself by blows to empty it. And the demon, beside himself with rage, asked the fair youth why he was forcing him to drink that cup. He replied to him thus: "Because you forced the servant of the Lord, Epiphanius, to torture his own innards with the acrimony of salt, being examined by the just judgment of God concerning this, you are now obligated to pay the penalty." And the black one said, "Woe is me, Father and protector, ^D that wishing to cure you with these severe things...

^A I have fallen into these calamities!" ^A When he had said these things, having taken the cup, he drank it by force, and being filled with rage and incomparable bitterness, pained, he withdrew. Having become awake, Epiphanius, having come to himself from the vision, and having marveled at the love for humanity of God, and the swift assistance, laughed at the face of the evil demon.

147. After some days, the blessed Andrew encounters Epiphanius returning ^B from the assembly in a certain portico; and seeing him, he smiled and said, "I am a sheep of the rational flock, and I love salt, and I eat salt." Having heard these things, Epiphanius marveled greatly at the word, and says, "Could it be that not even this escaped you, O great one? But why did you leave me thus? And for a little while my steps almost slipped." The holy one said, "And how could the soldier be found and called, if he does not lie in wait for the enemy bravely, and fight, and conquer, and is tested? ^B And how would [the enemy] know if the adversary has any strength, if he does not join battle with you, if he sees him hitting? And how would you receive a reward, not having endured temptation and the schemes of the vain? All who live are struggling as long as there is time and opportunity, they are afflicted, they are tested, so that today or tomorrow, having departed from this bodily death, one may carry off some good thing in the terrible day of judgment. Those who are dead, blind, unprofitable, darkened according to the inner human, these willingly sleep, eating, drinking, chasing after relief, fornicating, gluttonous, acting as tragedians, playing the cithara, and performing the desires of the flesh, ^C not remembering God, nor judgment, nor recompense, nor the kingdom of heaven; these are everywhere coworkers of the devil in his wills—and he, seeing their vain pleasure, provides this world as to his own friends and servants. But woe to the affliction that awaits them!"

148. "Therefore, child, the violences, as you say, will be sweet to us, if we endure them; and as being necessary for the stirring and burning of the flesh, if you stand against the evil one, and bear [them] bravely, so many crowns are woven for you, and the reward increases. Do not, therefore, faint, child, at these things, but endure, so that you may have a reward and be a sharer in the kingdom of heaven. Today, tomorrow this world passes away like a dream upon waking, it vanishes like smoke, ^D and all things are passing; and only if we be patient in temptations, we are at all [safe]. Do you hear that 'Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver them out of them all'? Do you not sing often, 'Afflictions and pains I found, and I called upon the name of the Lord'?"

He, offering his prayers in the secret chamber to the Lord on his behalf, supplicated for his friend, that he might not be beset and punished by the demon. ^A But when Satan, with the rest of the host of demons, lurking everywhere meticulously, perceived Epiphanius praying (for the evil plotter felt more bold and audacity, because the sick man seemed now to be adjudged to him), he counseled to cast down the pious youth with his seat into the nearby cataract of the house. But Epiphanius, knowing the counsel of the plotter, by rising quickly, made his plan without success. Having failed, therefore, in his goal and intent, the most filthy one began again to set an example of that pathetic one; and immediately as he was lying, he began to pull at his own beard, and afterwards making noises like a kid, and again sticking his tongue out, acting the lunatic, and again barking terribly at those standing by like a shepherd’s dog, so that all who saw it were seized with great fear, seeing the demon barking through the mouth of the youth. ^B They who were there asked Epiphanius, whence the devil received such power over him, to perform such things. And he said to them, "My brothers, I do not know how to speak anything to this; unless I conjecture that he was shackled by some great transgression, and he did not turn away from it at all until this day, either he did not declare it, or he did not repent; because of this, the devil inherits the unrepentant." In such a test, therefore, he made an end of life.

151. Therefore, one day, having found the blessed Andrew, Epiphanius recounted to him the series of the whole matter, eager to learn from him for what reason that wretched youth had died barking like a dog. ^C The holy one answered him and says, "That friend of yours was an adulterer and a vengeful man. For having repudiated his own wife, he had relations with his maidservant through the highest crime; and while he was performing the duty of a deacon, the wretched man did not shudder at the terrible power of the inaccessible Divinity; and not being ignorant of the sins into which he was deeply immersed, not ceasing to add sins, and polluting himself with frequent adulteries, having put on the sacred phelonion, he performed his divine duty, with no reverence for those life-giving and immortal mysteries; indeed, he even surmised that he escaped God our Lord in his crimes. For a priest who is a fornicator, and a deacon who is an adulterer and fornicator, shall be accursed to the Lord God; for it behooves one who stands by the holy altars to be entire, pure, and clean. ^D You know, child, that God rejects ministers defiled by the filth of sin, as he prosecutes with capital hatred an adulterous and sinful generation. There are, however, some who opine that the sacred Gospels of the Christians should be held in the place of fables; whence they, intent upon morose thoughts, as if lurking in an underground building, putting aside shame and fear, indulge their own nature; ignorant indeed how great, and how wild and infestous is the dragon, the prince, I say, of this world, who is sent to every one of those dying, to discuss their wicked works and contend with the holy angels regarding the souls that have sinned, in order to find the soul that has loved darkness, so that he may inherit it.

Many, therefore, with joy commit fornication, and with gifts and presents; they commit adultery and rot the substance of the soul, and they do not know what kind of burning of death and tribulation and pain awaits them, and bitterness, and shivering, and crushing. But after these things, Lord, have mercy. For who is able to recount those things which even the angels, contemplating them, shudder and tremble? For such is that fire, in that it touches and affects even the bodiless nature itself—the angelic one, I mean, if it should fall, from which also the demons came. For his consort, whom the miserable man had, did not suffice for him, but he craved also the maidservant, performing the disgrace of the devil, [and] he heaped up the debts of his soul until the end. The end came, the dragon came, the holy angels came; they searched through his matters, and finding his wretched soul defiled and rotting and stinking and smeared with dung and sulfur, they turned away; the devil snatched it, and as he loved it, he made an example of him. For a priest ^A must have great circumspection, so that he does not enter into sin; not only does he profit nothing, but contrariwise he receives an addition of sin; for because of him the Holy Spirit does not descend there, and those gathered there are deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

CHAPTER XX. Andreas teaches Epiphanius in a sublime way about the soul and the creation of the world and divine things.

I, having observed this, my child, was grieved in my heart and rebuked him, in order that he might perhaps be sobered. But if you do a second time, you will not do a third—that is to say: I shall demand a sickle against you and I shall reap you; for from the time a man dies, he no longer commits sin, nor does he act righteously; for once the soul is loosened from the body, it has received [its] rest.

^C ρνδ'. Epiphanius said to him, "I beseech you, if I have found grace in your eyes, tell me, of what nature is the soul of man? For I myself know a little about it, but I am not fully assured by my own conjectures as much as I would be assured by the divine words spoken to me by you." The blessed one says to him, "My child, the soul of man is the whole of him; for of this flesh of our earthy body, it is either life, or God, if I may so speak, or something else of that sort. For to it God gave the power to make it live and to govern it, and to warm it, and to refresh it through heat; for without it our bodies become clay, and dust, and ashes."

ρνε'. Epiphanius said, "I know such things myself; but I ask what the substance of the soul is, and what its mode of perception is from the time it departs from the body [and what is the specific sign of the righteous one and [the soul] of the sinner]." The blessed one said to him, "The substance of the soul is an intellectual spirit, light and most exceedingly wise, serene and sweet, quiet and most meek, fashioned into certain invisible limbs, beyond description beautiful and most delightful, most comely and most pleasing to God and to the choirs of the holy angels. ^D In the beginning, all men shine more clearly than the sun; but as they grow and advance in age, such as they are will they be used. The souls of all those living in virtue do not possess the same brilliance; but as each one has hastened to brighten his own soul through divine and virtuous struggles. Meanwhile, as I have said, according to what one struggles for, it is brightened; and the more one draws near to God, the more it shines; the more one endures afflictions and toils for the Lord’s sake, it is led to draw near to God, it is illuminated, it is brightened, it becomes by participation god by the grace of the Holy Spirit."

ρνς'. "And just as iron is black and cold, but being placed inside the fire and remaining there it is brightened more; so also is it with men. Fire is the mark and signature of a righteous soul."

^A Many, therefore, commit fornication with joy, and with gifts and presents; they commit adultery, and they consume the substance of the soul, and they do not know what kind of burning of death and tribulation and pain awaits them, and bitterness, and shuddering, and contrition. But after these things, Lord, spare us. For who can narrate those things which even the angels, when they consider them, shudder and tremble? For such is that fire, that it touches and punishes even the incorporeal nature itself—the angelic one, I mean, if it should fail, from which the demons also are. For his own wife, whom the wretched man had, did not suffice for him, but he craved also the maidservant, performing the shame of the devil, and gathered up the debts of his soul all the more until the end. The end came, the dragon came, the holy angels came, and they examined his affairs, and finding his wretched soul defiled and putrid and stinking and smeared with dung and sulphur, they turned away; and the devil dragged it off, and as he loved to do, he made an example of him. For a priest ^B must have much diligence, so that he does not enter the church defiled by sin; for not only does he fail to benefit anyone, but on the contrary he receives an addition of sin. For because of him the Holy Spirit does not descend there, and those gathered there are deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

CAPUT XX.

Andreas teaches Epiphanius sublimely regarding the soul and the creation of the world and divine things.

153. As the things already narrated were told, Epiphanius was [with him]; it was the morning of the Lord's day, and a certain noble was passing by towards the palace. This man, having been disturbed by the burning of the flesh, by the desire for a woman, had on that account ^C had relations with her. As he was proceeding to the palace and had drawn near to the righteous one, the blessed man, having looked at him, knew what had been done by him on the holy Lord's day, and says to him: "Look at the wretch who has defiled the holy Lord's day, and is going off to defile the palace as well." And that man, when he heard this, was greatly astonished, and smiling briefly, he passed on. But he narrated this to his friends, and some were amazed, others disbelieved, and others said that he was saying these things by the prompting of demons. But Epiphanius wondered at the foreknowledge of the righteous man. The blessed one says to him: "This night I saw a woman like a queen, wearing a royal crown adorned with pearls and stones, and she was bringing to judgment the noble who passed by. 'How,' she said, 'did you dare, wretch, to defile the Lord’s day? Is it not enough ^D for you to bark insatiably for your desire for the whole week, but do you also spend my holy day thoughtlessly? By my bridegroom Christ, if you do it a second time, you will not do it a third.'" Having said this, she departed from him.

^A ...since the Lord granted life to them; indeed, they urge and encourage us that we may never cease to walk and travel toward them. The way and journey of the ages possesses a beginning, but it does not admit of an end into eternity. For the first-formed one set out upon the way of these ages as the beginning, yet he has not yet been able to pass out of it for our sake; because we and he are one through nature and blood. For until now the seven ages of this world, which are measured by time, have not been completed; but after their fulfillment, then God shall stir up a fearful spirit over all the earth, and the bones of men shall be gathered, each to its own harmony, and they shall be fitted together and joined; and sinews and flesh shall be put upon them, and to each body its soul shall be given, incorruptible, released from the tents in which it is now ^B shut up. And then the angel shall trumpet with voice and trembling, and the dead shall rise in the twinkling of an eye. And the Judge shall descend, and shall render to each according to his works. And then at last the eighth age begins to receive its beginning, and as Solomon says: "Give a portion to seven, and also to eight." This age does not possess a fulfillment; it shall lead the righteous into incomparable joy, and the sinners into perpetual punishment; for men shall be incorruptible and immortal after the resurrection from the dead, and the paradise shall be continuous, and the punishment shall be without end, and the age shall be unending and boundless; for "age" is interpreted as that which is ever extended into the boundless and impassable habitations, possessing no limit or fulfillment whatsoever.

^D Epiphanius said: "What is the second creation of God?" The holy man says: "The ages appeared as his first creation; for since the Most High is incorporeal, in the first place he created the world around him that is incorporeal, intellectual, and immaterial." Epiphanius said: "Were the ranks of the heavenly powers brought into the world all at once, or one by one, like the rest of creation?" The holy man said: "He could, even with one word, have set all the legions above before the fearful throne of the inaccessible glory of God; but just as he created the visible elements of this world here one by one, so too were the heavenly ranks brought to perfection. Having created the manifold spirit of the ages, he took from it, just as the body was taken from the earth, and having established the pure and most holy powers of the heavenly forces, he created, in the first rank, the Cherubim, then the Seraphim, then the Thrones, the Lordships, the Principalities, the Authorities, the Powers, the Angels and Archangels. Of the countless myriads and thousands of the heavenly powers above, Michael and Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael, and Samael are the leaders of the incorporeal powers. This Samael...

^A fire represents the Holy Spirit, while black iron represents us, lowly men; in proportion as we progress through fasts, all-night vigils, prayer, restraint, and the observance of the laws laid down for us by the Holy Spirit, so much the more does our joy increase, our light intensify, and our glory grow. In the same way, I would have you reason concerning the souls of sinners: for at the beginning, when they are first infused into the bodies of infants still enclosed in the maternal womb, good God, how beautiful they are, and removed from every stain! But when they have already entered into this mortal life and begin to sin, they suddenly become unlike themselves and become dark souls; and when they plunge more deeply and wallow in the mire of sin, they are so tainted with blackness that soot could be called white in comparison to them. Store these things in your memory, my son, for they will be of profit to your soul, to which you are my dearest little sparrow.

157. Epiphanius, having taken the blessed one with him, ^B goes to the holy [church of] Agathonicus, and having sat down near its basin, because it was free from the noise of the crowd, he thus addresses his companion: "Tell me, I pray, what is the first of all the works that God created? I desire to learn this from you, as from a fountain flowing with honey and milk." Wishing to satisfy his desire, Andrew says: "God, he says, was eternally with His Word and Holy Spirit; and before any of the things that are now seen existed, the Most High, rejoicing in silence and quiet tranquillity in Himself (for there was none with whom He might speak), brought forth without time the Word, God, with the Holy Spirit, from His own mind and fiery mouth. But you, my son, understand these things aptly and prudently, so that you may also be able to be of benefit to others in turn. Then the Most High resolved ^C to produce the world, and said: 'Let there be ages,' and immediately they came to be. Therefore, He first spoke the Word, and having been begotten, He perfected the work. This is the Word, which was begotten of the Father before all ages without change. This is called the generation of God the Word. When, therefore, the Word had been begotten of God the Father, it was established as the primary beginning of all other things, and having founded the never-ending ages within Himself, He brought the whole work of creation to its end. The foundation, therefore, is in the Word, and the Word is with the Father; this is He who at the end of the ages became man for our salvation from the Virgin Mary."

158. Epiphanius said: "Speak to me more plainly: what is the substance of the ages?" And the righteous man said: "It is," he said, "a never-ending extension; consider it the infinity of times and years. Their essence, however, is one spirit, ^D multiform and most wonderful, running its course through seven signs; which it is given both to angels and to men to understand with the mind. And those who..." [index: entries preserved]

the principles and the capacity to walk that they have obtained.

The Lord granted life to them; they encourage us, therefore, so that we may unceasingly walk and journey toward them. Their way and path has a beginning, but it does not admit of an end into the age. For the first-formed man began this path of the ages, yet he has not yet been able to pass out of it for our sake; since we and he are one through birth and the joining of blood. For up to this present time, the seven ages of this world, which are measured by time, have not been completed. But after their fullness, then God shall stir up a formidable spirit over the whole earth, and the bones of men shall be gathered, each to its own harmony, and they shall fit together and be joined; and sinews and flesh shall be laid upon them, and the soul of each, incorruptible, shall be given to its body, released from the tabernacles in which it is now ^B enclosed. And then the angel shall sound with a trumpet, with voice and trembling, and the dead shall rise in the twinkling of an eye. And the Judge shall descend, and shall render to each according to his works. And then, finally, the eighth age shall have its beginning, and as Solomon says: “Give a portion to seven, and also to eight.” This age indeed does not possess a completion; but it shall lead the righteous into incomparable joy, and it shall punish the sinners eternally; for men, after the general resurrection of the dead, shall not be able to die or be extinguished. The heavenly paradise shall be perpetual, the torments of hell shall not be terminated, and the age itself shall be extended into all eternity without measure or end; for *aiōn* (age) is interpreted as being always extended into the endless and unpassable dwellings, not possessing a limit or a fullness in its entirety.

^C 159. Epiphanius said: What is the second work of God? The holy man says: The ages appeared as His first creation; for because the Most High is incorporeal, in the first place He fashioned the incorporeal, intelligible, and immaterial world that is around Him. Epiphanius said: Were the ranks of the heavenly powers brought into the world in one moment, or one by one, as creation was? The holy man said: He could have presented all the legions on high to the terrible and inaccessible throne of the glory of God by a single word; but just as He fashioned the visible elements of the world here one by one, so too were the ranks on high brought to completion. Having fashioned the multiform spirit of the ages, He took from it, as from earth He took the body, and having set them in order, He fashioned the pure and most holy powers of the heavenly hosts: ^D first the Cherubim, then the Seraphim, then the Thrones, the Lordships, the Principalities, the Authorities, the Powers, the Angels, and the Archangels. Of the infinite myriads and thousands of the heavenly powers on high—Michael and Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael, and Samael—these are the ones who take precedence among the incorporeal powers. This Samael...

^A who was cast down from the heavens because he did not worship Adam, as some fable-tellers have supposed—and yet he was not yet a man when he was fashioned, but he desired to establish his throne in the clouds, so that he might be like the Most High, and he envied His glory, and for this reason God cast him down from on high to the lowest depths with all his army, and delivered him from the highest to the lowest. ^B God therefore established orders of angels, whose number cannot be calculated by human reckoning, just as the only-begotten Son of God said at the time of His passion to Blessed Peter, that He could produce more than twelve legions of angels. Now, from where did the spirit of those who fell, and those spirits of men who are saved, ascend in such numbers, so that the tenth choir of angels might be filled? It is manifest therefore that the celestial spirits were produced in the second place.

160. Epiphanius further asked what God created in the third place.

161. Epiphanius said, “Is the Divine then anthropomorphic?”

^A Just as it is, or how He possesses His own form, it is impossible to relate; but when He appears to His elect, which happens very frequently, He assumes another form and accommodates His aspect to the weakness of those who desire Him. How, asks Epiphanius, is Christ simultaneously God and man, and how does He possess substance in both deity and humanity? How, likewise, is He—though but one Son—asserted to have a double nature? Saint Andrew thus solves it: The divine Word, as holy John the theologian says, became flesh and dwelt among us, not by losing His deity, in no way at all, but, while that remained, the same Word truly became man, having assumed a mortal nature and will; yet the subsistence of both was one, the substances two, and the person of the Deity one, since the venerable person of His humanity proceeds from the divine Word. And He is called one Son, because humanity and deity consist in one subsistence. Just as often the fluid nature of water, once frozen, receives two designations; for when it is water in its own state, it has one designation, but when it is transformed into ice, it necessarily acquires another designation as well, that of being called ice. In the same way, then, the God Word—until He was incarnate—was heard as God only; but after the incarnation, He is called both God the Word and the Son of Man. ^B

162. Epiphanius says, “Moreover, this heaven which our eyes behold, what indeed does it have which covers it from above?” And the Saint says: “Just as clouds often snatch the lower part of the heavens from our sight, so also its upper part is covered by the great power of the waters, as the prophet David testifies: ‘Who covers His upper parts with waters.’” Epiphanius again: “How many heavens do you think there are—only one, as with Moses, or several?” To which the Saint: “Moses indeed sang this to the Jews, who were wandering in the darkness of ignorance and were nearly blind to the light: ‘In the beginning God created the visible heaven and the earth,’ signifying one heaven. But the blessed ^C Paul, who was himself a legislator in the new law of grace, exclaimed with a loud voice: God knows a man such as this who was caught up even to the third heaven. He speaks of the one heaven that is apparent to our eyes; the Apostle, however, asserts that there is that one and other heavens besides, which are not seen. It is therefore right to hold faith with greater certainty, truth, and authority; for these are things which the new law embraces.”

163. Epiphanius says: “In heaven are the rational divine hosts, and God is above these; but what is above God? Tell me, I beseech you.” The Saint says: “By Jesus, you speak of high and name-less things in your questioning; nevertheless, I will tell you—and you shall be accounted with your servant in the bath, being washed and cleansed by him; whom do you have to call greater? That pitiable, purchased slave, or yourself, who have been cleansed by him [and who yet exist as his master]?” ^D

^A You pose portentous questions! Nevertheless, I shall give you an explanation for them. God resides in a place beyond the intelligence of all virtues, and at his right hand the Lord Christ occupies an admirable throne, shining like lightning; from it, such intense rays of light proceed that the heavenly orders of spirits are awestruck. Above God, a vast air extends on high, like electrum in appearance, resembling snow in whiteness; but more sublime than that is God. And again, in immense height and breadth, like a vast sea, that air spreads; yet God sits everywhere here. But, my son, to whichever part of this height you cast your eyes, you will nowhere reach the limit of the air, just as you cannot reach the limit of the Divinity itself. For deep calls to deep, namely, the wonderful essence and the lightning-like nature of the Godhead, which cannot be explained by any discourse. Epiphanius, marveling at him as he spoke, said: “Whence have you obtained such prompt knowledge and explanation of these things, as if you had always been occupied in knowing them?” The holy man replied: “When God has opened and illuminated the interior eyes of the mind for anyone, he sees and knows many things, and in knowing them, he is filled with wonder.”

CHAPTER XXI.

Andreas explains various Scriptures and natural phenomena to Epiphanius.

^B 464. Then, turning to other things, Epiphanius said: “What explanation does this have, which the Lord says: ‘Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath’?” Andreas, the most perceptive eye of God, who long beforehand knows and foresees both things that fall under observation and those that do not, said: This also he was providing for, that Jerusalem was to be delivered into the hands of the Romans to be utterly destroyed because of their unbelief; hence he uttered this prophecy. For if their flight had fallen on a Sabbath or in winter—the Jews lying about by their custom on the Sabbath upon their mats, from which it is not permitted for them to arise or to take flight—they would have fallen, one and all, into the hands of the enemies. But in winter, I think, because of the cold and the impassability of the mountains, even if they were to flee, where would they have to hide, with the violence of the winter being so great in the mountains? The truth of it was revealed, just as he had prophesied and declared to them; for he said that stone would not be found upon stone there, and it happened so. For after some time, Vespasian and Titus his son coming from Rome ^C fulfilled for them according to the word of the Lord all the evils which the Creator had foretold to them.

465. Epiphanius said again: “What did the Prophet mean: ‘Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge’?” The blessed one said: “Draw near to the Jordan, and you will find what you are looking for. For the day is the Father testifying to the Son, as the Son being baptized is light; the speech is the one in the midst, the Holy Spirit, in the likeness of a dove descending there. Since Paul the Apostle says… ^D

concerning the Spirit, "And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. vi, 17). And by the name "night" comes the Forerunner; night indeed, if one compares him with the Divinity; night also are the Jews. And knowledge, announced by John to the Jews, signifies faith.

^C 166. Then Epiphanius says: Do we see water raining down from the clouds, descending hither from heaven, or does it flow from elsewhere having been gathered into the clouds? The Saint said: "I set my bow," says God, "in the clouds" (Gen. ix, 15). This bow, therefore, by the command of God, gathers the waters of the sea as if into a wineskin, and places them in the folds of the clouds; and whenever God wills for rain to be given to the earth, a sound of spirit is sent forth vehemently from the belly of the bow, and that spirit is tumultuous and disturbing. When therefore this comes and solidifies the clouds, and moistens them, then again another spirit flows forth, water-bearing, also roaring and thundering, and it fills the clouds with water; for it fills them just like a sponge. And after this, another treasury opens from out of those that hold the water, and the spirit ^B comes forth from it with thunder, making a way for the water coming onto the clouds. Thus, therefore, as often as the water-bearing treasury is opened, thunders are heard; for thunder goes before the water; although many times it also rains without thunder. But those elements do not flow of their own accord, but the Lord God appointed his angels to direct them, just as [he did] also for all the elements of heaven.

167. Furthermore, to Epiphanius asking why the Lord Christ called Saint John the Theologian the Son of Thunder: Because, answers Andrew, as my own sentiment holds, he drew the arcane words of the Gospel from the inexhaustible fountain of the Lord, who is the arcane and ineffable Thunder. For He himself transcended by the Spirit into the heavens, just as the Apostle [did]. For the heavens of the Lord are the intelligible ones, the apostles, and he thundered through them the Gospel to all creation. For the Lord ^C is the Thunder, but the Theologian is the Son of Thunder; for no one else had the power to thunder more dreadfully than he; nor is there anyone else who, by a more exceptional grace, is a Son of God. The Holy Spirit is the Thunder, of whom John is a son by grace. And to the holy Theotokos, the Lord hanging on the cross was saying: "Woman, behold your son" (John xix, 26). And the Lord ascended again into the heavens after his resurrection from the dead, and sat at the right hand of his Father, and then he thundered in a voice, with a vehement [sound] of the Holy Spirit, sending it forth in the likeness of ^D fire.

upon the apostles. But the head of the evangelists is ^A the Theologian, and he is named the white Horse, and Son of thunder.

168. Epiphanius asked: Whence does the lightning come forth? And what is its substance? The holy man said: Whirlwinds draw up from the sea, and from rivers, and from lakes, waters, and filling themselves they rise up, and empty themselves into the abysses of the storehouses; and when they have filled all, they disperse into their own constitutions and remain firm. Then the lightning is the security of those storehouses, and it holds within itself all the water, and consumes all its salt and filth, if indeed it is from the sea; and the angel of the Lord comes down and displays the wood of the precious cross, and makes those waters sweet; and henceforth that lightning goes before the thunder, accomplishing a force ^B for the conduits in the clouds, and it cleanses and prepares beforehand; and if it chances upon a thinning of the clouds, it composes them into straightness. But very often it comes into the air, shining and giving light upon the earth; and often, if its force is abundant, shining it reaches even unto the earth, flashing, and everything it touches it consumes and burns up. For it has within itself a power of burning superior to earthly fire; perhaps, I say, even to the unquenchable punishment. That God brought forth even this lightning for the need of rain is not my word, child, but the Prophet’s. For, he says, "God made lightnings for the rain." And another ^C prophet says: "He who directs the waters with lightnings, and with the rushes of the streams sows the clouds, and [gives] the drizzle to the clouds." The substance of the lightning is from celestial fire. Just as the sun has rays [as] an effulgence of itself, so also the lightning is an effulgence of the eternal fire, that is, of that which exists above the firmament. Understand that celestial fire to me, which Elijah brought down by prayer upon the wood and the whole burnt offering, and the priests of shame, and the messengers of Jezebel; of this fire the lightning is an effulgence, both material and substantial.

169. Epiphanius said: Therefore, do those who say ^D that the prophet Elijah is he who thunders in the chariot and lightens in the clouds, and that he hunts the dragon, speak the truth? The holy man said: God forbid, my child; for this is the height of folly even to admit into one's hearing. For men composed these things in a senseless manner from their own imaginations, just as this also [is false], that Christ, in the presence of the Jewish crowd, molded sparrows out of clay and threw them into the air, and breathing upon them, they flew; and again that snow was formed from flour. Just as these are a lie, so too are those things a lie, as many as the...

heretics have forged and taught—strange things which every Christian ought ^A to reject. Therefore, Elias did not ascend into the heavens—far be it—nor does he sit upon a chariot; rather, he has grace regarding the rain to beseech God, that in a time of drought He might grant rain to the earth; since, "No one has ascended into heaven, except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven." This one lives in the flesh and is upon the earth, even if there is no one who recognizes him. Enoch also lives, and walks about in the midst of many, and there is no one who knows him. The Evangelist John also lives, and is in the world, like a pearl cast into the midst of mire, being in the flesh upon the earth, a representative of Jesus Christ to make atonement ^B for our sins, and to turn away His righteous anger against us, whenever our transgressions multiply, in order to blot us out on account of our sins. Many, therefore, of the righteous have seen him, but they did not reveal him on account of the unbelief and curiosity of human frailty. Whence these three live until the end, and then, having struggled against the Antichrist, they shall defeat him, and thus shall receive the crown of martyrdom from Christ our God.

170. These things are thus. Concerning the lightning burning the dragon, I do not doubt, for it is true; but it is not saint Elias who is sending the lightning, ^C but the Angel of the Lord appointed for this purpose. The dragon comes into being from therefrom: the demon observes the snakes, and into whichever one it pleases him wherever it is, he enters, and becomes inseparable from it, and a co-inhabitant and a co-malefactor; and as time progresses, the demon works the snake into a great and terrifying and bold phantom, and one very evil, and he does not separate from it at all, but remains in it doing great harm. From thence the snake becomes a dragon, a bitter and most destructive beast—though indeed it is also evil of itself—but it also puts on the devil, and the evil becomes twofold, according to ^D the saying: "Satan found the devil." When, therefore, the devil who is in the snake intends to come out of his den to harm or destroy men, God sees from above, and not wishing for evil to come to pass, He beckons to the Angel of the lightning, and straightway he begins to thunder against the dragon, and sends forth the whirlwind of the lightning, and burns him. But the devil, who is in the snake, protecting him, lifts him up into the air, and flees from the terrifying fear and trembling of the lightning. And fleeing, he struggles to be hung upon a man, so that...

saturus, in sublime se tollit; and fleeing through the air, it avoids the terrible and violent lightning: but while fleeing, it strives diligently to remain suspended somewhere from a human being, so that, because God desires to spare the human, he might also spare it. But God, who perceives even the most hidden things, having known the plan of the most wicked spirit, gives a sign to the aforementioned angel, saying: "Take away both the friend and the foe"; that is, since the most wicked one has sought an asylum for himself in a just man, burn both: I will then deign to console my servant with more bountiful comfort. Finally, wherever the angel finds the dragon, whether in a tree, or in a field, in a house, in a ship, or in a man; there he strikes him, reduces him to ashes, and utterly destroys his nature; but Satan, bound in indissoluble chains, he will torment with lightning-fire until the final day of judgment. ^A

171. Epiphanius again interposing: "Snow, you say, that is carried from the sky, whence does it become white, or from where is it called forth to be turned into snow?" The Saint answered: "It is evident that, while the water is still in the clouds, as it manifests itself, the spirit goes out from the firmament, bearing before it a woolly whiteness; and it falls upon the clouds that are full of water, and it whitens the water thoroughly, in the same way that dew whitens the wax. ^B Now, that water descending through the air is not thin and in minute droplets, such as we see on earth after its descent from that immense altitude of heaven, but it is a copious and joined mass; which, while falling, is divided into many particles, and finally arrives at us. Consider, however, the admirable power of God; how, when it pleases Him, He makes the rain to fall upon the earth in round, dense grains, which we are accustomed to call hail: and how, when it pleases Him, He forms the same rain into soft snow, which we see descending to the earth like wool: and how finally, when He pleases, He commands the water to pass into ice, and again the ice into water. For wonderful is the Lord in all these things. ^C

172. And Epiphanius, immediately posing another question: "How," he asks, "do you think one should interpret what the Prophet says: 'For a cup is in the hand of the Lord, full of unmixed wine, poured out; and he inclined it from this to that; but the dregs thereof were not emptied out; all the sinners of the earth shall drink?'" Andreas immediately subjoins the solution: "Our Lord said: 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me, and drink.' ^D The cup, therefore, is Jesus Christ, true God and man. The cup shadows forth his humanity; the unmixed wine, the simple Word of the Godhead. For just as wine is not held except in a vessel; so without flesh, the invisible wisdom of God could not deign to converse visibly with men. In the hand of the Father, therefore, is the Son of man; for he himself said: 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.'"

'" ^A And they supposed that he had done these things by sorcery. «You have shamed the counsel of the poor, but the Lord is his hope.» «The poor shall eat and be satisfied.» «He shall judge the poor of the people, and save the children of the needy.» «I know that the Lord will execute the judgment of the poor, and the cause of the needy.» «He that dishonors the poor signs.» «The poor meets with no rebuke.» «He that falsely accuses the poor provoked him that made him.» «The poor is separated even from his friend.» «Glory goes before the humble.» «All the works of the humble are manifest before God.» «Every one that hates his poor brother shall be far from friendship. Better is the poor man who is just, than a rich man who is a liar.» «Do not constrain the poor, for he is poor.» «Reach not out to a rich man if you are poor; but in your intent abstain.» «Better is a poor man walking in his truth, than a rich man who is a liar.» «The wisdom of the poor is despised, and his words are not heard.» «If you see the oppression of the poor, and the subversion of judgment and justice in the district, wonder not at the matter, for the high one above the high one watches.» «The poor shall be fed by the Lord, and poor men shall rest in peace. The Lord has founded Sion, and by him the humble of the people shall be saved.» «The humble man slipped, and they reproached him. He uttered wisdom, and no place was given to him; the poor man spoke, and they said: Who is this?» «The prayer of the humble passed through the clouds, and he will not be comforted until the Most High visits.» «Better is the life of the poor under a roof of planks than sumptuous food among strangers.» «It is not just to dishonor a wise poor man.» «The wisdom of the humble shall lift up his head, and in the midst of great men he shall sit.» It is not being poor that is reproachful, but not bearing poverty with gratitude. ^B And they supposed that he had done these things by sorcery. «You have shamed the counsel of the poor, but the Lord is his hope.» «The poor shall eat and be satisfied.» «He shall judge the poor of the people, and save the children of the needy.» «I know that the Lord will execute the judgment of the poor, and the cause of the needy.» «He that dishonors the poor sins.» «The poor man meets with no rebuke.» «He that falsely accuses the poor provokes him that made him.» «The poor is separated even from his friend.» «Glory goes before the humble.» «All the works of the humble are manifest before God.» «Every one that hates his poor brother shall be far from friendship. Better is the poor man who is just, than a rich man who is a liar.» «Do not constrain the poor, for he is poor.» «Reach not out to a rich man if you are poor; but in your intent abstain.» «Better is a poor man walking in his truth, than a rich man who is a liar.» «The wisdom of the poor is despised, and his words are not heard.» «If you see the oppression of the poor, and the subversion of judgment and justice in the district, wonder not at the matter, for the high one above the high one watches.» «The poor shall be fed by the Lord, and poor men shall rest in peace. The Lord has founded Sion, and by him the humble of the people shall be saved.» «The humble man slipped, and they reproached him. He uttered wisdom, and no place was given to him; the poor man spoke, and they said: Who is this?» «The prayer of the humble passed through the clouds, and he will not be comforted until the Most High visits.» «Better is the life of the poor under a roof of planks than sumptuous food among strangers.» «It is not just to dishonor a wise poor man.» «The wisdom of the humble shall lift up his head, and in the midst of great men he shall sit.» It is not being poor that is reproachful, but not bearing poverty with gratitude. ^C And since he could not be induced to do so by any reasoning, with his ears burned by a white-hot iron, he is cast into a boiling cauldron; but escaping unharmed, he is suspended head downward and dispatched. And while the saint was being tortured, a lion from the desert advanced into the middle of the theater and, with a human voice, confessed Christ as God. Wherefore Athanasius the registrar embraced the faith of Christ. Then they were dismissed by the prefect, that they might go wherever they wished; and they withdrew to the mountain, where the holy Zosimus baptized Athanasius. But after they had remained on the mountain for some time, entering a deep cave, they delivered their souls to the Lord.

CAPUT XXII. Other questions proposed by Epiphanius, and aptly solved by Andrew.

175. Upon Epiphanius asking again whether demons have anything in their nature in excess compared to the angels of God, the blessed Andrew replied in this manner: They have the same nature as the angels, with this one distinction intervening, that the angels of God are undefiled and pure, whereas demons are wild, black, gloomy, stained by sins, and cursed. The angels shine, the demons darken; the former are light, the latter are darkness; and to the extent that a sinner differs from a just man, to that extent a demon differs from an angel. ^A Epiphanius asked: "Where are the souls of the saints at present?" The Saint replied: "The souls of the saints are in Paradise, and they see the good things that they are to inherit after that terrible resurrection of the bodies. For if their venerable bodies are not raised, their souls alone cannot fully enjoy the good things prepared for them there."

176. Epiphanius said thereafter: "What interpretation is to be given to, ^B 'The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works'?" For in this passage Arius perished, assuming the Son of God to be a creature. The Saint said: "The humanity of the Son of God says this 'by the wisdom of Solomon' [it calls the Creator and God, the pre-eternal Father (85)]. For the Lord, he says, created me as a man at the end of time, the beginning of the ways of the new grace and a lawgiver. For Christ himself is indeed the beginning of salvation, ^C the beginning of mercy, the beginning of love, the beginning of the signs in the new grace, the beginning of teachings, of commandments, of meekness, and of peace. He himself is the Lord and God incarnate, the beginning of temperance and of every virtue and holiness. For every virtue (86), which brings men into paradise, is called a way by the divine Scripture; and Christ according to his humanity has grown to be the way of every intelligible way, as it were the head, and indeed is prepared elsewhere as the Church, since he himself first cut every path leading ^D to life and to the paradise, as a sweet and most beautiful lawgiver. And this is what is meant by, 'The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways.'"

177. Now consider this, which is added immediately in the same Scripture: "Before the ages he founded me." By this he has opened up to signify the timeless generation, and that he was created before all ages. He has as a foundation the Word of the Father; first, because the only-begotten and Word and Son of God was born from his Father, and was set as a foundation, and then the age was founded upon the foundation. It was evident that...

the divine Word encompasses the ages altogether. For if it did not possess in itself the character of a foundation, the entire creation would have had nowhere to stand. Indeed, the apostle Paul says, "In him and through him all things were created." Where it is said, "in him," it indicates that the Word is the foundation; but that which is said, "through him," demonstrates that since the Word of the Father came forth from the Father himself without corruption, and accomplished the making of all created things, therefore he is both the foundation and the one who establishes all things upon himself. For he is the consistence of things visible and invisible; because of this he says, "Before the age he founded me." And the Apostle says, "Let each one see how he builds upon it; for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." ^B 178. And Epiphanius says: "How was Arius overthrown by this passage?" And Andrew [replied]: "That miserable man, when he heard, 'The Lord created me,' did not perceive that he speaks of the humanity of the Son of God, but understood that this was said of his divinity. And so, carried away by the insanity of the demons, he fell into folly; for he did not consider Christ to be twofold, God and man, but, having defined him as single, and having conceived terrible thoughts, he degraded the Divine to a creature and a work."

179. Epiphanius said: "What does it mean, 'O God, in thy name save me, and in thy power judge me'?" The blessed [Andrew] said: "This judgment is general for all of humanity, or rather, the petition exists from the Church toward God. For she cries out through the mouth of the Prophet to the Most High, saying: 'O God, I have a cause with the devil and his idols. For he oppresses me, playing the tyrant with his wickedness; but come, having been incarnated, let it be named Jesus Christ, and I will believe. Save me in thy name, fulfill all thy economy, suffer death for my sake, rise again, be taken up, seat yourself at the right hand of the Father, send me the Comforter through thy apostles, and you will resolve my cause, you will overthrow the idols, you will shatter the altars, you will prevent the shameful sacrifices, you will grant me the nations under heaven, and in thy power you will judge me, you will discern for me the good things in the judgment, to know you and to guard thy commandments.' ^C And the Word of God holds together the ages; for if this had not been placed as a foundation, all created things would have had no consistence at all. For the apostle Paul says, 'In him and for him all things were created, and through him.' The ['in him'] says he is himself the foundation; but ['through him'] signifies that the Word, being of the Father, went forth from the Father himself without flowing away, and worked the making of the creatures; so that he himself was both the foundation and the one building all things upon himself. For he is the consistence of the visible and the invisible; because of this he says, 'Before the age he founded me.' And the Apostle says, 'But let each one see how he builds, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.' The name, therefore, is Jesus Christ; the power, [is] the Holy Spirit. The Church therefore entreats the Father, saying, 'O God, in Christ Jesus...'" ^D

180. The name, therefore, is Jesus Christ; the power, the Holy Spirit. The Church addresses the eternal Father thus, saying: "O God, in Christ..."

Jesus, save me, and in your Holy Spirit bestow upon me discernment." For discernment shows man every good path, and does not allow him to wander from the straight way of life. It holds the leading place among the other virtues, seeing that from it charity is born, and from charity, mercy. It finally produces every good work, and first and foremost, kindness toward others, then aversion and detestation of sins, humility which exalts its own, and finally peace and gentleness. This very discernment is as it were the mind ^B of the Holy Spirit; which, when once received into the mind of a man, chooses for itself a seat there, and most sweetly affects his spiritual faculties. What, moreover, is that discernment? Pay attention. It weighs every thought with an equal balance: whatever it finds to be wholesome, it permits it both to reside in the mind and to be committed to execution; but what is harmful and rotten, it expels from the mind, and casts it afar off, just as if cast from a sling.

181. Epiphanius, however, continuing his questioning, said: "What, I ask, does the holy Apostle Paul wish to be understood by the statement: 'Every sin is without the body, but he who commits fornication sins against his own body'?" Andrew, responding, said: "Every other sin is concerned with the soul, except for fornication, which belongs to the body; for woman was built from the rib of Adam, so that the two are one body. Every sin, therefore, is outside the body, ^C that is to say, it is not committed by the body, but by the soul, and by the mind, and by the spirit, as I have said before. For it is from the mouth that the liar, or the perjurer, or the slanderer, or one who is working some other iniquity, harvests his pleasure; but only the one who commits fornication completes the sin with his own body. Just as the pig, when it is rolled in the mire, does not pollute its inner parts, but makes its entire outer skin foul and stinking, so also the one who commits fornication, mixing himself in beds and lewd acts, rendering his body and soul foul, he appears as a laughable object to the invisible demons. Hence he sins against his own body, defiling it—this not alone, but also ^D that of the woman with whom he becomes entangled. A man having a wife, and a woman having a lawful husband, do not have their bodies as their own; for the body of the husband is the wife’s, and that of the wife is the husband’s, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. If, therefore, the woman fornicates, she sins against the body of the husband; and if the husband sins, he sins against his own body, which is the wife's. Thus, therefore, they sin against their own bodies, when they do not love their own, but those of others, as both defile their own bed. For this reason, every sin is outside the body; but he who commits fornication sins against his own body, just as a pig rolling in dung, and his body becomes foul, and his soul stinking, just like a demon's; and while every sin terribly darkens the soul, fornication renders the body stinking and shameful.

^A 182. To Epiphanius, who asked this question: "Who is meant in the Gospel by mammon?" the Saint replied: "Mammon is the man who is a tax collector, and a rapacious person, and a covetous one, devouring the houses of widows and orphans unjustly, trampling upon them by his power; and mammon is also the name given to the demon of covetousness, who urges one into this passion." Epiphanius says: "What is the meaning of the saying: 'Your sons like new olive plants around your table'?" The Blessed one replied: "Look, beloved, at the holy altars at the hour of the fearful liturgy, and observe around the table the sons of God standing with lamps, like new olive plants in a vineyard; I mean the newly-baptized at the hour of the sacred ministry, just as beautiful plants transplanted from darkness into light. For having these in mind, the Prophet said these things, ^B who were recently, through holy baptism at the time of the divine sacrifice, translated from darkness into light. For they are those whom the Prophet had in his soul when he uttered this oracle."

183. Epiphanius asked again: "What meaning has that which was said by Isaiah: 'But the dead shall not see life, nor shall the physicians raise them up'?" For the followers of the heretics strongly strive to persuade us that there is no resurrection of the dead. The Blessed one says: "Jupiter and Apollo, and Hermes, and Saturn, and Juno and Artemis, and the whole catalogue ^C of idols, are called dead and blind; for the Prophet calls these dead. For neither do gold and silver either live, or will they ever live; for these things are inanimate and dead. And if the Greeks, like sick men—since they were deceived—approached these for cures and offered them sacrifices, the Prophet, seeing their senselessness and the insensibility of the idols, toward which the deceived nations drew near as if toward physicians, spoke thus in mockery of them: 'But the dead shall not see life,' that is, the gods of the Greeks, the stony and wooden ones, the silver and gold and earthen and brazen ones, being dead matter; their physicians are not—these same dead ones, ^D broken by Christ, shall never rise again."

184. Epiphanius said: "What interprets: 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner'?" The Saint replied: "This stone is Christ; he was rejected by the scribes and elders of the people of the Jews, and he became the head of the Church of the nations, which is called the corner, because not all of the world has believed in Christ, but only, as it were, the distinct part chosen from the Greek nations, which we Christians are." Epiphanius said: "What interprets: 'There will I make a horn to sprout for David, I have prepared a lamp for my Christ'?" The Blessed one says...

A horn indeed God made to sprout for David, clearly Christ from the holy Virgin; but a lamp the Father of mercies prepared for Christ, His Son, to wit, the blessed forerunner John.

185. Finally, Epiphanius asks for an explanation of this sentence: "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." And Andreas added to this in the same way: "The Holy Spirit bears witness of the Lord Jesus Christ; for the Lord Himself says to His disciples: 'But when the Comforter shall come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, he shall testify of me.'" ^B From which it is clearly seen that the testimony of the Lord is the Holy Spirit; for the Comforter testified there of the Son, as likewise on Tabor. Inasmuch, then, as the testimony of the Lord is called the Holy Spirit, it is allowed to understand by the name of 'simple' the apostles who, before they were strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, were simple in mind and virtue, as being altogether imperfect. But when, after the glorious ascension of the Lord, the apostles gathered in the upper room, the descending Comforter rendered them men, who were previously unlearned and fishermen, and in the knowledge of all rhetoric and other arts, far more excellent ^C and wiser than all, as they received for their reward a gift without price, nothing save most sincere faith and longing for glory. This sentence may also be referred to those simple ones who, meeting the Lord with palm branches, praised and extolled Him with many proclamations; for the wise among the people and the scribes had not the faculty to do that which those simple ones of no estimation, taught by the Holy Spirit, gloriously performed.

186. Andreas and Epiphanius having been detained in conversation until late into the night, they finally parted from one another; and Epiphanius indeed betook himself to his house, shivering and astonished ^D at the wisdom and understanding which had proceeded from the mouth of the Blessed man; and he reasoned with himself and said: "Truly, no one is able to speak these things in such uprightness, unless God is with him." The blessed Andreas, however, again occupied himself as usual with the struggles of the night, doing what was his custom.

CHAPTER XXIII

187. The most blessed Andreas, therefore, playing one day as a man not sufficiently in command of his faculties, in the public portico which is called the Maurianos, it happened that he was...

to the Stone Gate, turning aside from the ^A public way. It was the day on which the contest for the sake of the Lord of the great martyr Thyrsus was being celebrated. As has been said, then, nearing the Stone Gate, he saw—and behold!—a certain man turning back from the martyr’s shrine of the Saint and going away to his house. He was entirely black and dark, and a crowd of demons proceeded before him and behind him, and they were mocking him in a certain tragedy; and dancing, they said, "This one for now is ours." The others, responding to the cadence, said, "Behold, we have gained him, like-bodied and like-minded, and there is no contradiction from anyone concerning him; for he is ours entirely." These things and much more—which it is not permitted to write—they said concerning him, and they were dragging the wretched man along, rejoicing; for they had known that on the morrow he was to depart from the body, and because of this they were rejoicing at his destruction.

^B 188. Macarius, however, standing by as he saw these things, became sorrowful; for it was necessary that, since they had gained him once and for all—as he had been a profligate from his very youth, indulging in incest and licentiousness—what was worst of all was that the wretch also went mad for the abominable heresy of the Sodomites; indeed, he knew neither the church, nor communion, nor had he ever received a prayer, but neither did he understand anything of spiritual things, but all was carnal, all was demonic; for he spent all his wealth on profligate, terrible, and satanic things, and he squandered his whole life with harlots, drunks, and cithara players, taking delight in them. As the wretched man was going to his house, the righteous one followed behind, wanting to see where he lived. And when he learned this, on the next day he came to the house, standing from afar, wanting to see the things that would come ^C to pass for him. And he found him caught in the snare of death and lying there, and committing certain unseemly customs. And there were many of his own there, who had come for the sake of a visit, and many others standing by, mourning him; but as he cried out certain terrible and shameful things—not he himself, but the devil who had gained him. The righteous one beheld Satan appearing sometimes as a mouse, sometimes as a serpent or as a viper, and he was coming out of his mouth and screaming through the organs of the wretched man—sometimes as a cat, sometimes as a dog, or as a pig. And he moved his hand in his privy, having tasted of his excrement; for because of the long time he had been quiet in the ^D agony of approaching death. Thus, therefore, the miserable man, being made an example and appearing as a shame to all, carried off a bitter end; for his soul had never turned aside, but...

was hastening straight to the pit, where it was to endure eternally in everlasting darkness and indissoluble bonds.

189. After the body of the deceased had been buried, many gathered to comfort his wife, and as they sat, they stirred up talk about his life, noting how harsh it was. ^B Some said that whenever he saw a woman, whether she was unmarried, a concubine, or married to another man, she would not escape his hands until he had satisfied his devilish desire. Others said that he was a gossip, a loquacious man, and a great adulterer. His wife told them about him, that from the time she was married to him, he had never known a church, nor had he prayed, nor had he ever signed his face with the cross, nor partaken of the sacraments, but he was always spending his nights at the brothels; and if he came here, and I spoke even once, he would not suffer the rod off my unfortunate body to go unused, but would inflict every hardship upon me. Among such things, two days ago, when he was pierced with compunction ^C and had come to my bed, his soul being softened as we slept, I began to admonish him. And he said to me, "What do you want me to do? Tell me." I said to him, "I want us to go tomorrow to the holy Thyrsus, since it is his feast day, and that we stay there for the holy liturgy, so that by partaking of the life-giving mysteries of Christ and being illumined, we might be sanctified, you miserable man, and you might become a Christian if only for one day; and perhaps the Lord God will put His fear into you, and you will hasten to be delivered from your past sins, and you will perform works of righteousness, and thus we might be ^D able to enter into life." And he agreed with me to do this.

190. When morning came, we went to the all-holy temple of the holy martyr Thyrsus. And as we entered inside, while I was praying, he stood mocking, and did not bow his head to the knee to worship the holy martyr, nor did he make the seal of the precious and life-giving cross upon his face, nor did he kiss the icon of the Saint, but stood with his hands hanging down, mocking those who were praying to God. As I finished the prayer, I turned and said to him, "Why do you stand like a lifeless statue, you wretch, and do not make even the seal of the Master God upon your face, but have become completely vain, miserable man, and stand like a Jew? Do you not fear God, even if you are ashamed before men? Go and pray as I told you." He said to me, "To whom should I pray?"

^A And I showed him the holy martyr’s precious icon, saying, “Pray here.” But when he heard this, he abhorred the icon and said, “And what power resides in this, seeing that it is inanimate and senseless, a vain delusion of the senseless? For what good is it, I tell you—” ^B [491.] But I, being terrified by the blasphemy against the holy martyr, began to entreat the saint to spare the most abominable man his senselessness, and not to requite him for his blasphemy. And suddenly, my mind having been snatched away toward the icon of the martyr, I heard her saying to me, “I indeed sympathize, but God is angry with him, and does not endure it; for He has ordered him to be uprooted tomorrow, that his memorial may be destroyed from the earth, and he shall know in the unquenchable fire that the glory of God’s true friends and martyrs is real.” After the dismissal of the Divine Liturgy, having gone inside, I found him secretly seized by a fever, and lying on his bed, as you have seen. This having been said by his wife, trembling seized all who were found there, and they were saying, “Truly God is not mocked; for His ordinances and judgments are unerring, and He Himself will render to each according to his works.” These things, beloved, I heard not only from the blessed mouth of that Righteous one, but also from the wife of that miserable man. For indeed for the sake of profit, and out of fear of the Lord, one must flee ^C always from fornication, and adultery, and drunkenness, and seek at night and day the help from the Lord, and not despise the holy martyrs, and their precious relics, and the venerable icons.

192. Once, when the holy man was walking in the public forum near the column which Constantine, of blessed memory and among the saints, the emperor erected—in which they say the precious nails that were fastened to the life-giving body of Christ are embedded—in the statue standing upon it, he was radiant, for the glory of God and as a covering and protection of the reigning city. And behold, a certain woman, being made radiant by the Divine Spirit and having fallen into an ecstasy, with her soul’s eyes having been opened, saw the holy one walking through the middle of the crowd, as a pillar of fire flashing, and as if casting firebolts into the air and shedding [light]. Some fools were giving him [blows], ^D others were hitting him on the neck; and many seeing him were disgusted, saying, “Lord, even if we had an enemy, we would not wish such things to happen to him.” Some dark and black demons, lurking and walking behind, were saying, “Yes, God will listen to your prayer, and not—”

^A raise up another such person on earth; for no one has scorched our hearts as this idler has. For, not wishing to perform the works of his Master, and feigning himself a fool, he mocks the world.”

193. Thus they spoke. But the woman saw those who were beating the Righteous One, as those dark ones were marking it down and saying, “Even if we have this judgment for our consolation, that since these people are beating him unjustly they possess sin—for we certainly condemn them by such a pretext at the hour of their death, because they beat an elect of God unjustly, and there is no salvation for them”—the Blessed One, hearing this in the Spirit, ^B resolved their crafty schemes in a word and sentenced them, saying, “It is not for you to mark these things down! For I have besought my awesome Master not to impute sin to them for this—for the extent to which they beat me—and their ignorance gives them room for an apology.”

194. When the woman heard these things spoken with those dark beings, she looked up on high, and behold, as if a gate of heaven were opened, and from it issued a multitude of delightful swallows, and in the midst of them a dove white as snow, very large; and it descended together with the swallows upon the Blessed one, carrying in its mouth a spray of olive, shimmering with gold, ^C and, speaking in human fashion to the Blessed one, it said, “Receive this spray, because the Almighty Father and Lord Sabaoth has sent you a sign from Paradise, because you are compassionate and philanthropic, in the way that He is compassionate and merciful. For behold, the Lord shall glorify you again and again, and His holy name shall be exalted upon you, because you have judged that those who beat you every day shall not have sin.” Having said these things, it sat upon his head, and it was entirely silvered over, and its back was in the greenness of gold; its eyes were like precious pearls; its feet were dyed in a royal hue, and it had a cross of flowers upon its head; and there was a great twittering of swallows around it.

195. Seeing this, the god-fearing woman was greatly amazed; ^D and, having come to herself from that vision, she was no longer able to tell anyone, but only said to herself, “Alas, the goodness of God, what beacons He has on earth, and no one knows them!” Often, therefore, she desired to recount the things that had been revealed to her, and immediately some power would restrain her, bringing her into trembling; and, having both heard and seen the miracle, she kept it hidden. Whence, one day the Righteous One meets her and says to her, “Keep my mystery for the time being, Barbara,

for that is her name, and do not reveal it to anyone, until I shall have passed through the place of the wonderful tabernacle even to the house of God.” She said to him, “I would not wish ^B anything ill; but if I should even desire to recount it to someone, I cannot, O venerable light-bringer and elect one of the Lord, all-admirable; for I am hindered by an invisible power, and a trembling enters into my bones, and my strength is shaken within me.”

CHAPTER XXIV

Epiphanius delivered from the temptation of the flesh: the Theotokos protecting the people: the hypocrisy of the impure man exposed.

^B 196. As the admirable Andrew’s virtue shone forth more day by day ^C amidst these and other prodigies, a severe war of intemperate lust was stirred up against Epiphanius. For cursed Satan, driven by the goads of envy, sent one of his demons, a centurion, against the young man, so that it might afflict his soul with immoderate sadness and carry his memory away from earthly things. Epiphanius, therefore, having experienced this assault, was being consumed by sorrow and bitterness of spirit; and since he had nothing of support against the powerful aggressions and terrors of the enemy, he found, after he had sought for a long time, the blessed Andrew; to whom, having first opened the entire state of his soul, he implores aid, that is, that he might be delivered from the bitter tyranny of the demon and not succumb to the temptation; nor might he despise one praying and sustaining the heaviest insults of the devil.

^C 197. Andrew, however, truly blessed, truly gentle and merciful, having pitied Epiphanius no otherwise than a proper son, addresses him thus: “Dearest son, because we have been puffed up in soul, the infernal dragon has erupted against us so that, having known our own insignificance, we may confess that our strength is nothing if one must wage war against the most wicked Satan, but that all things must be referred as accepted from our admirable God; for whether we defeat the enemy, or resist manfully, or invoke [him] with prayers, fasts, or other pious works, all things are the gift of our most benign God. For he himself says, ‘Without me you can do nothing’ 49; and, ‘All the justice of man is as a menstruous rag before the Lord’ 50. Now therefore, my son, I command you, and your obedience will give effect, that tomorrow in the light you go to the sacred temple of the holy martyr Acacius ^D in the Heptascalon, where I also, in spirit, will come, and we shall both supplicate with tears the holy martyr, so that the benefit which you seek from me, he himself may obtain for you from the most excellent and our most loving Lord. It is certain to me, indeed, that this great martyr does not bear a refusal from the Lord; because by a generous contest his own precious blood...

^A he did not hesitate to pour out with a ready mind: and those things which we desire will happen to us; and we shall recover the desired peace. But when you arrive at the holy place, do not pray with many words, but with a contrite spirit and a humbled heart, with tears and sighs brought forth from the depths of your breast, and with words testifying to the affliction of your soul, instantly supplicate him; and I know at once that you will see the glory of God. Yes, my child, you will do so, and the outcome will be for you in the way I have said.

198. Having heard these things, Epiphanius fell at his ^B honorable feet, and having greeted him with a holy kiss, he departed. When morning had come, Epiphanius went to the church of the honorable John the Baptist, and there celebrated the divine liturgy; but towards evening he went away to the church of the holy Acacius. It was the seventh hour, and the gates of the church were secured; but remaining in the narthex, he besought the martyr with tears of affliction not to suffer him to return home frustrated of his vows. And when the wood was struck for the evening hymn, and the ^C gates of the church were opened, he himself was the first to enter, groaning and weeping, and mingling tears with his prayer. And when he had drawn near to the coffer of the martyr, he spoke thus to him in spirit: "O holy luminary, beloved of the Lord, sanctified, anointed, most wonderful martyr of the Lord, have mercy upon me, a feeble and miserable man, suffering ill from the multitude of my sins, a captive of Satan the adversary; heal the ulcers, wipe away the wounds, cure the sores and the marks of my torments. Look upon this dog, ^D behold the serpent, attend to the wolf and to that lion roaring against me, the humble one, [and hastening to drag me into the abyss of lewdness]. Do not delay, O sweet one; do not hesitate, O pleasant one; do not overlook my most shameful tears, O honey-flowing one; drive far from me with the fearful sickle of your intercession all my enemies; for you are able, as a wonderful soldier of Jesus, to provide to those who ask those things which are desired."

199. When Epiphanius had poured out this prayer with tears to the martyr of truth, he immediately saw as it were a form of lightning coming forth from the coffer of the Saint, and surrounding him; and the appearance was very warm, for the heat of the trophy-bearer had come to do good. He sees therefore again, and behold, a fragrance came out of the coffer, just like lilies and roses, and similar to most precious myrrh, and a voice came to him saying, "I have heard your prayer; for even before you, he who plays for the Lord’s sake through you has interceded with me for you. Go therefore, and I also will pray for this to the Master and God; I will touch his precious feet, and see if He might overlook my request." And immediately the voice ceased. But Epiphanius, having marveled at the working of the Saint, prayed again.

that his prayer might be hastened; for I desire, O beloved great martyr of Christ, that you might fulfill the whole matter for your servant by midnight, and that I might see your most sweet face, even if only in a vision, bringing me joy and relief. Having said these things and kissed the casket of the martyr, he departed. ^B

σ΄. As he was entering his sleeping chamber, he performed the ninth hour of the night, and after he had slept for a short while, he sees immediately a certain crowd standing by him within his chamber, wearing white, and others wearing true yellow garments; and in their midst was the martyr Acacius, shining like a pearl, having the brightness of a new sun, and his beard freshly adorning his venerable chin. And he says to Epiphanius: "I heard your voice, and I said to the Master concerning what you requested of me, and He told me to do with you whatever I wish; and through me the Lord provides help to you, and the dragon that troubles you will tremble." And he says: "Yes, my lord." And immediately he sees a golden vessel brought to him, having four icons: one of the Master Christ, another of the Theotokos, and on either side, Cherubim and Seraphim; and inside the vessel was a certain appearance, as if of something reddish, very sweet-smelling. And as if in a sanctuary, he mixed and broke this and gave it to Epiphanius, saying to him: "Peace be to you," and he withdrew with all his retinue. Having been aroused, he became awake, and having considered the things seen by him, he found his mouth as sweet as honey; and stretching out his hand toward the height of the heaven, he gives thanks to God the merciful and to the holy martyr. ^C

σα΄. Having been relieved in this way of that evil war, at daybreak he arose, takes with him one of his father’s servants, and went to the venerable house of the martyr. And indeed, as he entered inside with confession and a shedding of tears, he sees again with his own eyes the prize-bearer of Christ, clothed in a true cloak and hastening to meet him, and receiving what was brought by him with much joy and eagerness, saying to him: "Again I was desiring to see you coming here, O Epiphanius, inasmuch as the longing of those who bear God appears very sweet to us, the friends of Christ; for we do not take as much delight in the prayer, soul, and heart of your disposition as in the great eagerness of will. Therefore, I want you to come here frequently, mindful of my friendship; for I will be a helper to you, and I will journey with you all the days of my life in spirit, and

you shall always be mine, because I have loved you and counted you among my intimates; hence I even wrote your name with my own hand here on the left under the ambo, for the Lord has entrusted you to my care. Come here, therefore, more frequently, so that you may be loved again and again.

^B 202. At such a speech, Epiphanius stood there, somehow struck, gazing fixedly at the holy martyr; and because someone among the ministers of the church saw him standing motionless before the ambo, and gazing with unswerving eyes at the same spot, he thought he was seeing a man of disturbed mind, and said not without a sense of pain: "Look at the youth of this handsome man, and how he has been cast down from the seat of his reason!" But after the blessed martyr had taken himself from sight, Epiphanius began to go around the temple, never ceasing to pour out prayers to the divine goodness; then, having celebrated the divine sacrifice and received the divine mysteries, he departed from there filled with great joy, marveling at the sudden kindness and help of the martyr. Thus, therefore, having been freed from the machinations of that wicked enemy through the intercessions of the good mediator, the blessed Andrew (for he himself had been very intimate with him in order to commend him to the martyr), he first gave thanks to God, then to the holy Acacius, and thus to the servant of the Savior, Andrew. From that time forth, Epiphanius frequented the venerable shrine ^C of the martyr, enjoying his precious intercessions continuously with great fondness and longing.

203. Sometimes, when vigils were being celebrated at the holy shrine in Blachernae, the blessed Andrew would go there, doing as was his custom; Epiphanius was also present, accompanied by only one of his servants. And having this habit, he would stand as his zeal gave him strength, sometimes until midnight, and sometimes until morning. Now when it was already the fourth watch of the night, the blessed Andrew sees a person of very great stature appearing visibly, coming from the royal doors in a womanly form, with a fearful retinue, among whom was the venerable Forerunner and the Son of Thunder, holding her by the hand on either side; and many holy men in white robes preceded her, while others followed with hymnody and spiritual songs. When, therefore, she came near the ambo, the holy man went to Epiphanius, saying: "Do you see the Lady and Mistress of the world?" ^D And he says: "Yes, my spiritual Father."

204. And as they were looking, she knelt down and prayed for a long time, wetting her godlike and immaculate face with tears. And after she had prayed, she went up to the altar, praying there for the people standing around. When, therefore, she had finished praying, her maphorion, which she wore upon her all-immaculate head, as a form…

^A of veil, which surpassed lightning in splendor, she took off with becoming gravity and, holding it stretched out wide with her most brilliant hands, she spread it over all the people gathered there; and as it was thus spread out, the glory of the Lord, shining like electrum on every side, was beheld by the admirable men Epiphanius and Andrew; and they beheld it for a long enough time, namely, as long as the most holy Mother of God was present; after whose departure the veil also ceased to be seen, being taken away at the same time as she, leaving behind a singular grace for all those present. And Epiphanius was deemed worthy of this vision through the intervening prayers of the divine Father Andrew; for he possessed there among those on high such grace and confidence, that he made him a partaker of his own visions through his intercession, being ready to help everywhere, and he greatly amplified his glorious honor.

^B 205. Again, when the blessed man was sporting, as was his custom, in the Hippodrome, and as it were exacting certain tribute, the people seeing this, some were distressed, while others were disgusted and anathematized him, and cursed him as one having a bitter demon. But one of the great ones passing by, seeing him, loathed him and spat upon him. But the servant of Christ, having watched him for a long time, and having discerned his affairs, says to him: "O deceitful, adulterous, church-mocking man, you who rise early for Satan, waking from midnight, for the sake of the church—lo, has your salary [(5)] not reached you, that you may receive according to what you have done, thinking to escape the fearful eye of the examiner?" Hearing this, that man spurred his horse and departed; for he held the office of ^C chartulary of the fleet, and came from Amastris. Some days later, therefore, having been seized by a most grievous disease, he began little by little to suffer; they went therefore from church to church, and from physician to physician, and there was no remedy for what was sought.

206. Night having set in, the holy man sees near his house an angel of the Lord, as it were coming from the west through the air, who was fiery, having wild eyes, and the appearance of his face was like fire, as if burning in a thicket and roaring to destroy; holding in his hand a fiery rod, and he was coming against the house of that wretched man, threatening to root it up ^D and its foundations. When, therefore, he stood over the sick man, he hears a voice as if from on high saying: "Scourge the mocker, the Sodomite, the adulterer, the fornicator, the impious, and the rogue; as long as you strike him, say thus, do you commit fornication?" He began therefore to strike him, and says to him: "Do you commit fornication, do you commit adultery, do you rise early for the devil?" And while his voice was heard, the one who was thus being struck...

^A forced and unwilling, confessed, saying: "I will not commit fornication for an eternity, only have mercy on me." Thus for three days and three nights he was tormented, saying, "I will not commit fornication," and so he cast away his wretched soul into eternal punishment.

207. These things, O friends, I have written, having learned them from the blessed Andrew, for the benefit and fear of our own souls, so that we may walk with toil in this world; for nothing escapes God and his saints. For when I asked the righteous man in what manner he committed the sin, he told me that he had two eunuchs, whom he used for the sin. For they would go here and there, ^B and gather unmarried women, harlots, married women, shameless women, adulteresses, and those who fornicated senselessly. Consequently, being full of concern for these things, he would rise before the cockcrow to go where those who were the agents of his perdition happened to be. Often his wife would ask him, "Where are you going at this hour?" And he would say, "To the church." Going then, he would first do the work of the devil, and thus would arrive at the church, reeking of the stench and defiled. Many, therefore, seeing him, would rise up and quickly say, "Behold the holy man!" But that was a hidden devil. And God utterly abhors those who do such things. ^C These things, O friends, as I said before, having been narrated to me by the light-bearer, I, in turn, have narrated to you as to my beloved.

CHAPTER XXV.

208. When Andreas and Epiphanius had found an opportunity at some point, the latter led him into his house. ^D [The Latin text here begins a long, discursive note regarding the nature of ecstatic visions and the fallibility of certain revelations, which is omitted as it constitutes a late intercalated apparatus rather than a part of the Vita proper.]

raptibusve illusioni alicui, ne in suis exstasibus [853/854] of his praise, to perform in tranquility even for this one week. And truly, as they sat alone, Epiphanius began to question the blessed man, saying, “Tell me, I beseech you, what the end of this world will be; and when, and what are the beginnings of sorrows? And how shall men know that they are near, at the doors? And by what signs will there be proof of the consummation? And where will this city, the new Jerusalem, pass away, and what will become of the temples that are here, and the venerable icons, and the relics of the saints, and the books? Declare this to me, I beseech you; for I know that concerning you and those like you God has spoken, ‘To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven’; how much more, then, those of this world?”

^B The blessed man answered: “Concerning our city, know that until the consummation of the age, no ethnic nation will ever strike fear into it; for no one will ever entrap it, nor will it be taken—far be it! For it has been gifted to the Theotokos, and no one will snatch it from her venerable hands. For many nations will assault its walls, and their horns they shall crush, retreating in shame, while we receive gifts and great wealth from her. But hear now concerning the beginning of sorrows, and concerning the consummation of the world and other things. In the last days, the Lord God will raise up a king from poverty, and he will walk in much justice, and he will put an end to all war, and he will enrich the poor; and the years will be as in the days of Noah—not, however, according to their wickedness, but compared thusly in terms of tranquility. For men in his days will be very wealthy and in endless peace, eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, and walking in the absence of war, and resting securely in earthly things; and when there is no war, they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into poles, and their javelins into agricultural tools with which they work the earth.”

^C [...] but known from elsewhere; because in no. 213, dealing with the Ethiopian who is to reign for twelve years, he adds, as they say, and thereafter uses the same phrase more often. Wherefore, although I have sometimes doubted whether it were not better to omit such things, yet at length I judged that it pertains to the faithfulness which we profess in this work, if I should exhibit the whole matter, whereby the reader might be better able to judge of the whole case. So also, when one has turned his mind to the particulars, he may easily have noted some things earlier, which could scarcely or not even with difficulty be approved by more rigid theologians: as when at no. 157 he discourses on the creation of the ages, as if they were some spiritual substance, prior to all other creation; and when, dealing at no. 170 with dragons—which are serpents assumed by the devil—and their tormentor-angels, he says things which the ears of the learned will receive only with difficulty and patience, and other non-trivial things besides. I pass over the fact that concerning the holy evangelist John, at no. 167, he affirms for certain that he did not die, but still lives, having been translated, and that he will appear with Elias and Enoch at the time of the Antichrist, just as he also inculcates further on at no. 227.

^D This opinion is ventilated with great arguments and authorities on both sides, as can be seen in John de la Haye, in his *Prolegomena to the Apocalypse*, quest. 18, and George of Trebizond, flourishing at Rome around the year 1450, who, in a reception of the sense common to his own Greeks, composed a treatise specifically for the affirmative side. Finally, the most learned Florentinius, in exerc. 3 on the *Index of the Apostles*, before his most ancient Martyrology, which we commonly call the *Hieronymian*, professedly dealing with the assumption of the apostle John, shows that this opinion is neither new nor to be ascribed to the Greek Fathers alone, which many very ancient Latins also held. Nevertheless, I do not wish to defend the truth of this opinion, much less to believe that Andrew himself revealed it divinely; but I hold the negative, which is commonly preferred, as more probable.

^A After these things he shall turn his face toward the East, and shall humble the sons of Hagar; for the Lord shall be angered because of their blasphemy, and because their fruit is the gall of Sodom and the bitterness of Gomorrah. And for this reason, having goaded him, He shall raise up the King of the Romans against them, and he shall utterly destroy them, and shall consume their children with fire; and they themselves, being delivered into his hands, shall be consumed by most violent flames. And Illyricum shall again be restored to the Roman Empire, and Egypt shall bring its tributes. (13) And he shall place his right hand upon the sea, and shall tame the fair-haired nations, and shall humble his enemies under his hands, and his scepter shall last thirty-two years. In the twelfth year of his reign, he shall receive no census or gifts, but shall raise up holy temples and shall rebuild broken altars; and there shall no longer be any litigation, nor anyone doing or suffering injury; for having cast the fear of himself upon the sons of men, he shall impel them to better things, and the magnates who act contrary to law and justice he shall bring low and deliver to death.

^B For in those times all gold, which is hidden in any place whatever, shall by the nod of God be revealed to his kingdom, and he shall scatter it among all his citizens, and all his magnates shall be enriched, and shall be as kings, and the poor shall be as the princes. And he shall have great zeal, and shall pursue the Jews, and in this city no Ishmaelite shall be found; and he himself shall put the city in great fear, and there shall not be one singing to the lyre, or playing the cithara, or singing songs, or anyone doing any shameful thing; for he shall hate all such, and shall utterly destroy them from the city of the Lord. And there shall be great joy then and exultation, and good things shall rise up in abundance from the land and from the sea, and it shall be as they were in the time of Noah, rejoicing in freedom from care until the flood came.

^C After that scepter has passed, the beginnings of sorrows shall arise. Then shall rise up the son of iniquity, and he shall reign in this city for three years and a half, and shall cause iniquity to happen such as has not happened from the beginning of the world, nor shall it ever happen again; for having taken his seat, he shall decree such things that a father may mix with his daughter, and a son with his mother, and a brother with his sister; and if anyone refuse, let him die the death. And this person, together with the Forerunner John, shall be established (14) in the.

day of judgment. Then he shall yoke monks with nuns, and priests likewise, and the iniquity of the mixing shall be worse than murder; and he himself shall commit incest with mother and daughter. And at that time, because of the cursed licentiousness, the foolish, having found release, shall wantoningly neigh after their own sisters.

^C 213. Verily, corruption and stench shall arise as an abomination before the Lord, and the Lord God shall be bitterly angry, and with great wrath He shall gaze upon all the earth, and He shall rain down with His thunder from above and with lightning, and they shall begin to fall uncontrollably upon the earth with great terror, and many cities shall be burned with fire, and men, from the thunder of those terrible claps, shall be paralyzed by a great rustling and shall die wretchedly, and many shall be burned by lightning. Woe then to the earth from the threat of the Almighty, and from His endless wrath and anger, which is already coming upon the whole world! ^B For this scepter of iniquity shall be struck down, and shall be caught in the unquenchable fire. But from those days, blessed are they who dwell in Rome, or in Armenopetra, or in Strobylus, or in Cariopolis; for in these cities and places they shall find rest. For all else shall be wars and perturbations and many commotions, according to Him who says: "Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars," and what follows.

214. After these things, another kingdom shall arise over this city, and he himself shall be a grim ass and a denier of Jesus Christ, and having read the ^C writings of the Greeks, he shall turn to Hellenism, and shall make war with the saints, and, according as it is written, from Satan the devil. For a few days after he has seized power, he shall cause all the sacred vessels to be burned with fire (20), and he shall call the precious and life-giving cross a gallows, and shall utterly destroy the sanctuary, and shall cut down half the people in the public squares; then indeed also friends shall [betray] friends, neighbors [shall betray] neighbors. ^D [After some missing text: A narrative of holy martyrs, including Deacon Rufinus, under the persecution of the impious Maximinian, who confessed Christ and were seized by the idolaters. After many tortures, they were sentenced to death. At that time, holy Rufinus, deacon of the Church of Christ, was teaching many in the name of Christ, was seized, and was shut in prison. A certain Christian woman, Akylina, visiting him, was also seized. Both standing before the magistrate, having been punished, and then performing wonders, caused the two hundred soldiers standing by to believe in Christ. The magistrate, immediately angered, ordered all to be put to death by the sword. Executing them, the torturers brought them to the place of completion; and they beheaded them all, as they gave thanks to God until the end.]

^A And then friends will betray friends to death, and brothers brothers, and neighbors neighbors, and father child, and child father; and many shall confess in zeal for the Lord, whose end will be blessed, for they shall reign with Christ. [Then those in the islands, and those in the valleys towards Thrace and below, forced into desolation, will fall, becoming caves of demons and the babbling of wild beasts and reptiles.] And at that time there will be most terrible noises in the heaven, and great earthquakes, and the downfall of large cities; for nation will rise against nation, and kings against kings, and there shall be a terrible crushing upon the earth, and tribulations, and distress upon the sons of men. Then shall appear fire from heaven like lightning, rapidly threatening, overshadowing every face of the earth [and many gatherings of birds, and of evil serpents. Then the earth will be filled with those biting men who worship their transgressions]. For all these things are the beginning of sorrows.

215. When this godless scepter has come to an end, then comes the Ethiopian from the first horn, who they say will hold the reins of the empire for twelve years. This man will be upright, and ^B he will reign in peace; he will rebuild the shrines of the saints that were previously fallen; and as an excellent cultivator of virtues, he will be beloved by all the people. The grace of the love of God will be spread over him, and there will be joy and exultation across the whole world. But even this empire will come to an end, with another soon succeeding him from Arabia, for one year, as they say. And he reigning, there will be gathered into one, by the nod of the invisible God, the venerable fragments of the life-giving wood, and they will be given to the emperor. He himself, having proceeded to Jerusalem, to the place where the feet of Jesus Christ our true God stood, will deliver with his own hands the royal diadem to our Lord God; and placing it upon the venerable wood of the holy cross, he will offer and consecrate his own soul. ^C

216. And then shall rise up in this city three young men, shameless, foolish, and useless, and they will hold in peace the scepter of the empire for one hundred and fifty days; and after these have passed, through the introduction of the devil, angered against themselves, they will wage a great war among themselves. And with the first ^D

^A proceeds to Thessalonica, addressing it thus: "Thessalonica, you will subdue your enemies, because you are the glory of the saints, and the Most High has filled you with holiness." Then he will bring forth its men—those who exceed the seventh year of age—as well as the priests and monastics, into the field of war; he will marshal them into the field, running with warlike intent, and will prepare a very great fleet, and will direct his journey toward Rome, and standing before its gates, he will say: "Rejoice, most powerful Rome; your sword is sharp and your arrows are dense; you are illustrious in your first fruits, you will hold fast your faith, and you will not totter; for blessed are they who inhabit you." Then he will also arm the fair-haired ^B nations and will construct ships, and he will enter at the time between light and darkness, and will receive his companions.

17. The second youth will undertake an expedition into Mesopotamia and the circuit of the islands, and will command the priests and monastics to take up arms, moved with grievous fury against others. And being puffed up, he will come to the navel (31) of the earth (though others say, against Alexandria), and there he will await his companions, with whom he is about to risk the hazard of war. Finally, the third youth, having subdued Phrygia, Caria, Galatia, Asia, Armenia, and Arabia, will attack Syleum (32) with hostile arms; and this will indeed be demanded for surrender, but it will not be captured into eternity. And from here he himself will also undertake a journey toward an unsettled people—that is, one who is not subject to them or to his companions.

18. Having therefore enrolled their armies, ^C they will come together against one another to wage an internecine war, and they will cut one another limb from limb; and just as sheep are wont to be slaughtered in a butchery, so those three kings will perish; and the blood of the Romans will flow so copiously that it will seem to have rained [blood], with not even one of them remaining from the battle to survive. Then the place where the battle was joined will become discolored for twelve stadia from the mingled blood. Thereafter, seven women, all having been reduced to widowhood, seeking one man for themselves, will not find one, until, called by this rumor from elsewhere, they arrive there. But those who were left behind as mere youths and unwarlike children to their mothers, having been led to a more mature age, ^D and as it were foully immersed in their own pleasures, will retain no trace of human sense. O blessed and most blessed those who in the mountains and caves are serving the Lord, that they will not behold the evils coming to pass! But they will be in their own.

enclosure, awaiting in peace the great mercy; they are the sweetest lambs, who are to be sacrificed for Christ by the wicked demon, the Antichrist.

^A 219. Then, indeed, since there will be no man of distinction, but everything will be in ruin, there will arise a vile woman from Pontus, named Mondia, and she will reign in this city. She herself will be a Bacchante, a daughter of the devil, a sorceress, and sexually depraved. And in her days there will be mutual betrayals and slaughters in the streets and in the houses; the son will slaughter the father, and the father the son, and the mother the daughter, and the daughter the mother, and brother the brother, ^B and friend the friend; and there will be great wickedness and hatred in this city. And in the churches there will be lewdness and profligacy, and incest, and zithers and dances, and satanic tragedies, and mockeries and plays, such as no man has seen, nor will anyone be able to see until that time.

220. For that queen will be indeed unclean, considering herself a goddess, and fighting against God, and choosing to wrestle with Him; for then she will defile the holy altars with filth, and by her own shame she will defile all the people with every defilement, and she will turn away her face, and will plunder every vessel from the temple, and will gather together the precious images of the saints, and the precious crosses, and the holy Gospels, ^C and every apostolic record, and every written book, and will make a great heap, and having cast fire upon it, she will burn it all to ashes, and she will destroy the churches, and will seek the relics of the saints to annihilate them, but she will not find them; for God will remove them by an invisible power from this city. Then she will destroy the holy table of the great church, the Church of the Holy Wisdom, and having shattered everything in the temple, she will stand facing the East, raging, and will say to the Most High, saying: "Did I not delay, O you who are called God, to wipe your face from the earth? Behold what I have done, and you could not even touch a hair of mine! And behold, wait a little, and I shall open the firmament and ascend to you, and I shall see who is the more powerful, and I shall behold who is the stronger among the gods." ^D And the gangrene will speak these things, or even more; and she will act, spitting into the heights and casting stones, until she says the most terrible things.

221. At that time the Lord God Almighty will bend His bow, and will sharpen His fierce anger, and with the terrible power of His might He will stretch out His hand over this city; and He will seize it in strength, and with the sickle of His power He will cut away the earth beneath the city; and He will command the waters, which have borne it from the beginning, to swallow it up; which, obeying fearfully with a swift rush and most terrible sound, will swallow it up and all that is beneath it...

and dispatch all that welled up into the terrible and yawning gulf of the abyss. Thus, then, my child Epiphanius, our city will be brought to an end, and those things which I have told you before will happen to the world, those things which the Lord Jesus Christ said are the beginning of sorrows.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Concerning the Jews and the Antichrist, and his tyranny, and the end of the world.

^B 222. Then, after the passing away of the city, a new empire will be established at that time. Some say that after the fullness of the kingdom of the nations has passed, God will rise up the divine scepter of Israel in order to reign hereafter until the completion of the seventh age, bringing forward as testimony what was said by Isaiah: ^C "And in the last days," he says, "the Lord God will raise a sign in the fullness of the nations over all the sheep of Judah, which are dispersed among the nations, and he will gather the lost of Israel into the holy city of Jerusalem; and it will be to Israel as in the day when he went out of the land of Egypt." And furthermore, what was said by the blessed Apostle: "When the fullness of the nations shall come, then all Israel shall be saved." And these men speak thus and agree in voice; but the blessed Hippolytus said that at the coming of the Antichrist, "the Jews will be the first to be deceived," and Christ, testifying to them regarding the Jews, said: "I have come in the name of my Father, and you do not receive me; ^D another shall come in his own name, and him you will receive; for in your sins you shall die."

223. That He will indeed gather them into the city of Jerusalem, and will return to them their own [....] so that the destruction of the dispersion [I said the loss, if He had done this long ago, by having restored our own (55)], we would have long ago believed in Christ, having put away the cause of the murder, for which the nations were preferred over us. This He did not do; but now, having been gathered, and having received their own things, and remaining in the same unbelief, how shall they be saved, with the Antichrist immediately coming into their midst? To whom they are about to believe, according to the terrible voice of the Son of God—for God is not deceived, He the only-begotten, who said "I am the truth." For now, even in gathering them, He will deprive them of this defense in the first place; for indeed Paul will...

^A have said these things, not from eternal punishment, [but from the wandering from place to place (37)], and from the reproach of the nations, and from the unspeakable shame, because in such great distress and in such great mockery (58) [being now, and being mocked by the nations, and serving them, they will be saved from the yoke of slavery, having been gathered to their own], not, however, as I said before, from eternal punishment; for if the affliction did not persuade them to believe in the life-giving and only-begotten Son of God, how will the supposed grace persuade them? And the rest.

Chapter 224

Chapter 225

woe to the whole earth, in which these shall go. For in those days, O Lord, let there be no Christian, if it be possible; but I know that there shall be. Then those days shall be darkened, mourning in the air by reason of the hatred which those abominable nations shall work; the sun shall become as blood, looking at the abominations that are fiercely being committed upon the earth; the moon and all the elements shall be darkened; for they shall even eat the dust of the earth, and they shall make the altars a house for pots. Then let those who inhabit Asia flee to the Cyclades of the islands, for those nations shall not cross into them, but they shall continue lamenting for six hundred and sixty days. ^A

^B 226. After this shall arise Satan, the Antichrist, from the tribe of Dan, not indeed by his own power becoming man—God forbid—but the Lord God shall fashion him as a foul and filthy vessel, so that the words of the prophets may be fulfilled in him; and he shall be released from the bonds of Hades, in which the Lord Christ, having gone there, had bound him, and he shall enter into the vessel fashioned for him. And when he is born a man, and has grown to manhood, and has become a king, then he shall begin to show his error, as John the Theologian says concerning him, who shall also stir up war against the Cyclades of the islands; and islands, as Isaiah says, are the Churches of the Gentiles. And when Elijah, and Enoch, and the Son of Thunder have gone forth and proclaimed his deception and the second coming of the Lord Jesus, he shall bitterly humble the Christians of that time until their last breath, the extremely vain one afflicting and destroying them. ^C

227. Then, if anyone is not led astray, he shall be revealed as a great and fearful friend of Christ; for blessed are all the saints; yet those who have borne witness during the time of the Antichrist are more so, or those who are about to bear witness, they are blessed and thrice-blessed, for a most great glory shall await them unto endless ages. He shall first kill Elijah, then Enoch, afterwards the Son of Thunder, and then he shall deliver to bitter death those who do not believe in him. Then shall there be between ^D

^A him and our Lord Jesus Christ a terrible war; and because he shall finally be seen to be carried away by an immense fury, and to set himself against heaven, drawing down lightnings, stirring up thunders, and making such a crashing noise that he will strike with terror and cause to faint all who inhabit the entire orb of the earth. Who at that time shall not tremble, who shall not fear, my dearest child? Blessed are those who shall not be scandalized at that time in our Lord Jesus Christ, the true God; blessed are those who shall not be separated from the Son of the holy Virgin Mary; blessed are those who for the sake of His love shall undergo death, fearing nothing in arguing directly against the infernal dragon himself and his errors; blessed, in fine, are all who shall manfully fight against him, and shall generously rebuke his inhumanity; these are, indeed, the lights of the earth, these the noble champions, these the precious pearls, these the sweet souls, ^B more pleasant than honey, who shall believe in the Father and in the Son and in the holy Spirit, the holy and consubstantial Trinity, which bestows life upon all.

228. While the blessed one was sitting and speaking these things, Epiphanius, hearing what things were about to happen to the whole world, was weeping from deep groans, as has often been said, for he was exceedingly compassionate. Then he says to the holy man: "I beseech you, tell me, how is humanity about to be wiped away from the earth, and thus the resurrection to come to pass?" The holy man said: "The abominable nations shall come to consume some, while others they shall put to death in the most crowded places and in wars; the rest of the faithful, the Antichrist shall consume in the Lord; but as for those who shall believe in the Antichrist, the Lord God shall send flying beasts, according to Ezekiel, having in their tails stings filled with poison; and as many as shall not have the sign of the stylus of Christ, sound and whole, on their foreheads, being stung by these beasts and tormented by the venom, they shall die a bitter death. Then if any of the saints shall have escaped the Antichrist, they shall be found in the deserts; and the Lord shall gather all of them by the spirit of His power into the holy city of Sion; these are those who are written into life."

229. But when the Antichrist has already been struck down, ^D and apprehended by his demons, and bound and guarded by fiery angels, so as to stand before the divine tribunal and be required to give account for the souls which he has destroyed, then the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible; afterwards, we who are alive, as Paul said, who are left unto the advent of the Lord, being changed in the twinkling of an eye from corruption into incorruption, together with them shall be caught up.

^C When, therefore, anyone sees that the abominable nations have come into the world, child, then let him know that all things are at the doors, and after a little while the Judge will come. These things the Blessed one spoke to Epiphanius on that night, while they and my insignificance were keeping watch. But when the wooden mallet of the church struck, Epiphanius went out there; and Macarius remained in his house praying by himself.

Chapter XXVII.

Occasion of the heavenly fragrance, perceived during the holy reading; the story is told of Theodore, comforted by angels while in torment.

^B When morning came, they again met [in the same place and] sat down and conversed about things of the Spirit. And a book of the great Basil lying there, the Venerable one urged Epiphanius to take it and read. It was a hortatory discourse, a homily on baptism, by the wise Solomon. As this was being read, Macarius listened gladly, smiling in his face and rejoicing, but Epiphanius was shedding tears over the book and heaving sighs from the depths. And Macarius said to him, "My child, why do you weep? Rejoice rather, according to the blessed Paul who says, 'Rejoice in the Lord always.' And as for those who do the works of the Spirit, it behooves them to exult and rejoice; but as for those who again do the wills of the devil, let them be downcast, since the light of God has come ^C into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light." Epiphanius said, "Am I not then a sinner, and do I not mourn my wicked deeds? How can I give an account? For this Holy one says to me: 'When,' he says, 'will you be reconciled to God, and when shall we know you as our own?' Hearing these reproaches, should I not mourn my terrible account? How can I bear it, O great Lord?" The Venerable one said, "This discourse, my child—do you not know that he was speaking in reproach to those who are uninitiated in the divine baptism?" Epiphanius says, "Yes, honorable Father, I also know; but this is that saying which the unlearned are wont to speak in riddles: 'I speak to you, O bride, so that you, my mother-in-law, may hear.'" ^D When Epiphanius had said this, Macarius smiled, and encouraged him again to read. As he was reading, suddenly there was disseminated in their minds a fragrance as of precious aromatics, so that Epiphanius shuddered for a full hour and was astonished. And Macarius saw the one who was bringing the fragrance continually. When he ceased the discourse, immediately also the fragrance departed. Having marveled

^A much, Epiphanius asked the blessed Andrew, saying: "I beg and beseech you, great lord, what was that fragrance which we perceived a while ago while I was reading?" The blessed one said: "How sweet to my throat are your words, more than honey to my mouth!" (Ps. cxviii, 103). Here, however, one must understand that it is said not of a physical mouth and throat, but of the spiritual throat and mouth. Epiphanius said: "Leave these things aside, and tell me if you have any vision; for I also know of these things through your precious prayers." ^B The blessed one said: "What do you wish for me to say, dearest one? For the angels of the Lord were present in abundance as you were reading; and one of them, glorifying the words of the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as it is a delectable sweetness, was offering incense in a manner worthy of God, rejoicing."

^C 252. Epiphanius said: "And where do the angels of the Savior find the incense, and the censer, and the coals, being immaterial and having no contact with material things?" But the blessed one, looking intently at him and extending his hand toward him, says: "You offer marvelous things, O man. But who told you that the angels possess incense censers perceptible to the senses, or that they have worldly incenses, or coal from [this] world? For spiritual beings possess spiritual things, and material ones possess material things. ^D When angels wish to offer incense before the Most High, they offer nothing else but that throne which surpasses every intellect—I mean that fragrance, that most sweet [fragrance] which proceeds from the fearsome and unapproachable Deity. For as they stand before the fearsome throne of the Almighty, they receive the fragrance of the light flashing forth from there, and incessantly from then on they exhale the ineffable fragrance of the Godhead. When, therefore, they desire that someone participate in its sweetness, they themselves, standing before him, strike his face with the divine fragrance in whatever measure they desire; and he, perceiving it thereafter by smell, is perplexed, wondering whence such fragrance is breathed upon him. The same angels also bring other flowers from paradise in an invisible manner, and fill the sense of smell of the man. For in three ways the holy angels have the power to offer incense to those who are joined with them in friendship and holiness: first, when they read the sacred books—for those angels then surround them invisibly, wishing to hear the God-pleasing words of the all-holy Spirit; again, when someone prays and speaks with God; and when, with laborious works, he crucifies himself for the sake of the same, and visits his body with scourges—for then they are present to their noble athlete, and soothe, recreate, and animate him in various ways.

^A 233. It is recorded that when Julian the Apostate was departing for the Persians, he decided to descend to the Pythian demon, who gave responses in Daphne, so that he might learn from him the outcome of the war upon which he was embarked, whether he would be the victor or the vanquished. When, therefore, he sacrificed to the Pythian idol, it was revealed to him by the demon that it could not function during those days, because the holy and glorious Babylas was lying there with the three infants, those most steadfast and pleasing-to-God remains. Then the impious Apostate commanded the people of Antioch to remove them from there fearlessly and without dread, to wherever they wished to deposit them, providing relief to the most wicked spirit that had appeared to him. When, therefore, a multitude of the city went out with candles, hymns, and litanies, they lifted up the casket of the Saints and proceeded, chanting: "Let all be confounded who worship graven images, who glory in their idols ^B (Ps. xcvi, 7)." The God-hated emperor, hearing these things, became angry and commanded the prefect of the city to arrest all who followed the procession.

234. The prefect, therefore, rushed to the public square and arrested many, incarcerating them in prison; among whom was a boy, one of the foremost of the city, about fifteen years of age, fair of beauty, and most blameless in life, by the name of Theodore; whom they brought to the governor, saying with a loud voice that he called himself a Christian and was a servant of Christ. ^C Although the prefect gave him much advice to abandon the truth, he did not persuade him. But when he saw him disobeying, he ordered him to be suspended upon the rack and to be torn and scourged; having endured, therefore, many terrible things while hanging on the rack, towards evening he was taken down and cast into prison. After he had spent some days together with all those who were detained in the prison at that time, and with that lawless emperor having been slain in the war, he was released along with all who were bound in chains, and this holy boy as well. When he had come to his own, his friends, his relatives, and his peers, together with his parents, ^D asked him, kissing his wounds and saying to him: "What did you feel, lord Theodore, when you were hanging on the rack and these holy remains of yours were being torn by the iron claws?" But he refused to relate it; until, being much entreated, he with difficulty told them such things, saying:

253. "When I was suspended on the rack and [the iron claws] began to touch [my flesh], at the beginning I bore it violently, and [encouraging] myself...

saying: "Humble Theodore, bear it bravely and endure this bitterness, for without ^A it, the eternal fire is waiting to overtake you." As I was saying these things, I looked and beheld—four eunuchs! They were beautiful, their faces like the rose, and their garments as white as snow. One of them held a sort of basin, which was white and most brilliant, striking the human eye with its appearance and bringing it into a state of ecstasy. The other held a gilded pyx ^B, filled with divine ointment like rose-oil. The other two held linen cloths as white as snow, folded in four, in their upturned hands. 256. When they reached my face, one said to the one holding that bright basin, "Bring it here." And as he brought it, he said to the one holding the gilded pyx, "Pour it in here." As he poured [it], that ointment welled up, coming like the appearance of lightning into my eyes, and spread through my internal organs to all my limbs, so that the fragrance of that ointment conquered and prevailed over those terrible pains ^C caused to me by the scourging. One of them, therefore, soaking that linen cloth he held in the basin, placed it upon my face and held it there for a long time, so that from that most sweet pleasure, as I mentioned before, I forgot my pains. Again, when he took that linen cloth away from my face, another stood ready to apply his own; and thus they took turns, until those who were beating me ceased and took me down from the wood. As soon as this happened, the angels withdrew from me, and being deprived of that most sweet pleasure, I was greatly saddened; for I wished to be tortured even longer. ^D For God gives us assurance that the thing is such that the human mind cannot imagine it. Only the beginning and the sight of the torments strike some fear, but as we progress, we are strengthened by the grace of God, so that we feel absolutely none of the pains.

257. These things, my Epiphanius, I wished to relate to you, that you might understand how holy angels are present with their help and free fragrances to those who struggle for Christ. When Epiphanius heard such an unusual narrative, he was struck again with a certain sacred horror, according to that saying, "Abyss calls to abyss, and chaos to chaos," and what follows. For he often recalled thoughts to his mind, and pondering in his heart concerning the Righteous One, he said, "Behold the divine words of a man thought to be a fool, and"

^A loathed by those who see him as a rotting dog. Alas! In this city, no other man of such prudence, no other luminary, no other saint of such stature will be found."

Chapter XXVIII

An account of the final conversation of Andrew with Epiphanius; his departure, passing, and the fragrance of holiness.

238. While Epiphanius was thus reflecting, the time for the divine liturgy arrived; he rose and went into the church—for it had always been his custom to spend his time in the assemblies of the holy church with great fervor, and to busy himself with the holy scriptures for the benefit of his soul. ^B When he returned, after the table had been set, both partook of the gifts of the Lord. For I, wretched as I am, was present there, spending time in the midst of the holy ones of the Most High, like a dog, and enjoying their spiritual conversations. For he used to interpret the languages of foreign peoples by the Holy Spirit, as anyone wished; and nothing of the mysteries of the Scripture escaped him, for he had been most highly instructed in it. He was also chaste, and eloquent of tongue, and possessed of a discernment so unclouded that, just as he knew the twenty-four letters of the alphabet, so he knew both the intelligible and sensible things from the fearful contemplation of the Holy Spirit. But he spoke to me and Epiphanius alone, when he came to me or had long ago visited him; to anyone else he did not speak even a bare word concerning Scripture. ^C

239. Afterward, while we were reclining and eating, Epiphanius said to the holy man, "My father, how is the 'bread' to be interpreted?" The Righteous One said, "The tenth and the two hundred, the wise man called 'bread' (52), and he called it the 'breakfast'." Epiphanius smiled at this, and they both spoke again concerning the incomprehensibility of the Godhead: that the Godhead is spirit, and more hidden and more incomprehensible than all the spirits He has created; most sweet and most desirable in pleasure, most refined, surpassing, and fearful; while much is understood—since His essence is incomprehensible—as far as any human mind is able to contemplate. ^D "Therefore, when He opens and is seen, as He wishes, He pours forth like the honey of lightning into the heart, most sweet, and He seizes it, and is fearful, and does not remain—yet He is very calm, and kind, and unspeakable, incomparable in every way, and impossible for the human mind to understand, as it cannot extend itself to grasp such abstruse matters. But when He reveals Himself to whom He wishes to be seen, He pours into his heart a certain honeyed sweetness of His own splendor, and snatches him to Himself vehemently, in a manner impatient. In short, He is a spirit most tranquil, benevolent, inexplicable in words, and to be compared with nothing at all."

240. Thus it was that what is above the firmament of heaven...

[English so far ends] ^A ether, I say, extends so far into the height that it is not permitted for one to grasp it by thought: for the more you ascend in contemplation, the less it is found; for the thing itself is an abyss. Or do you perhaps think you can reach the summit of the abyss with your mind? What then exists beyond the ends? It is, I believe, an immense extension and a vast sea, which no eyes can look upon or grasp within limits at all. But leave these things aside, and look beneath the earth: there is water there under water, a whirlpool under a whirlpool, chaos under chaos, and another whirlpool, under the underworld an abyss, under the abyss an Erebus, a dark air that is altogether imperceptible; and again beneath that is an abyss of abysses. For often I descended there in contemplation, that I might see the end of that depth which is under the earth, and I did not find it; then I proceeded further down, and still I did not find it; then I cast myself with my intellect, and I passed as quickly as lightning through the dark abyss of abysses, and having entered into the abyssal chaos, ^B an immense sea, invisible and impenetrable; and since no wall of cloud or any other obstacle of thicker body occurred to me to impede my further view, I barely directed the eye of the spirit, which is of the intellectual and contemplative powers within, to those things that were there. And when I had ascended from those things there, I proceeded toward the sunrise, and I looked upon it by the power of the Lord Sabaoth, and very keenly, and I saw, and behold, it was at the edge of the earth there; and again I traversed the breadth of the sunrise, and I found a river upon which the heaven was standing, and which shuts off the face of the earth from within. And I saw, and behold, above the heaven and the earth toward the sunrise, many waters, bright and clean and ineffable; and again I ascended to the heights, and with difficulty was I able to escape from the rapacity of those waters.

241. Then the Saint says to him: ^D "Behold, my most sweet child, this is my final conversation and discourse with you; for you will no longer see me, whether living or dead, except in the spirit. But I will tell you clearly all things that will happen to you in the future, that you may be mindful of me always, and hold my words continuously. For you are about, when your father has departed this life, to assume the monastic habit, and to shine forth well in the mercy and grace of the only-begotten Son of God, and fame will go forth concerning you [having been changed, and your name, in the habit]. And when this holy Church has been widowed of its bishop, the Lord will raise you up as a luminary and a guide and a most experienced shepherd of wandering souls. You will also go forth to bear witness for the name of Christ, and your lot will be with the saints. But you, my child, have the fear of God in your soul, and love..."

him with all your heart, and pray often with many tears; and remember me always in your holy offerings, when you stand before the Lord in great awe and in a state of humility. And behold, the Lord God will defend you from above, providing for every situation. Behold, the all-blessed and glorified Mother of God, she will be your guidance and your help. Come therefore, my child, and let us both bend our knees before the Lord God, and pray for the last time." And ^A when they had bent their knees, the holy man began to pray in this manner:

242. "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Trinity life-creating, and consubstantial, and co-throned, and indivisible, we who are poor, and strangers, and needy, and naked, having nowhere to lay our heads, beseech you. For the sake of your name we bend the knees of our soul and body, and of our heart and spirit, and we beg you and beseech you and implore you, O God, O God whose name is the terrible Sabaoth, O good and holy Master, Creator and Maker, Almighty, incline your ear, and graciously receive the supplication of us humble ones, our petition and prayer; and deem us worthy to be sanctified in your power and in your name, O merciful and compassionate, long-suffering and most-merciful Lord. Come, ^B Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; come, O terrible flash of the Godhead; come, the terrible Power; come, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, sympathizing with our transgressions, which we have committed in word or deed, or in thought or in mind. We beseech you, overlook, remit, forgive, O good one, compassionate, merciful, most-merciful; and do not put us to shame, nor cast us away from your face, O you who are moved by the pleasure and the charm of most sweet love ^C at the petitions of those who love you. I beseech you, Master, enlighten with the flash of your Godhead the eyes of this my son, who has bent his knees behind my unworthiness; sanctify his mental faculties with your Holy Spirit; brighten the reasonings of his soul with the unspeakable fragrance of your ever-living grace; breathe into him a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of power, and a spirit of understanding, a spirit of love and of peace, a spirit of gentleness, a spirit productive of tears, so that, prospered and guided by your ineffable right hand, he may do everything that is pleasing to you, being saved in your power."

243. Having prayed thus, the holy man arose, and having kissed his eyes, ^D and his face, and his breast, and his hands, and having instructed him to keep peace within his chamber, he left him harshly grieving and lamenting.

^A Having left him, he departed. Arriving hence at the walking-places which are under the porticoes, he passed the entire night in prayer for those in dangers, and in afflictions, and in necessities, and in imprisonments, and finally for all the inhabitants of the world. And thus, being called forth from the earth, seeing the entire host of the saints as if they were friends coming toward him, he yielded up his spirit with a cheerful and smiling countenance.

244. Meanwhile, a certain poor woman who dwelt thereabouts in a small hut, perceiving the abundant fragrance of ointment and of those incenses—sweet-smelling, incomparable, and exceeding all human understanding—leaped up suddenly; and having asked for a light, followed the scent and arrived at the place from which it was streaming. She found the blessed Andrew, who had completed the term of his life, and she perceived that divine fragrance exhaling much the more, and a pouring forth of ointments in a way beyond expectation emerging from his relics like a river. She ran, therefore, and reported the miracle to some with an oath, calling God to witness. And indeed, many having run together, when they drew near, they no longer saw anyone; but they were greatly astonished by the pleasant odor of the ointment and incenses, being in no way able to find the relics of the Saint. For the Lord had transferred them by His own judgments, which He alone knows, He who also knows His own hidden accomplishments.

^C 245. Thus was the hidden sun and the heaven-tall pillar of fire brought to its end: the blessed Andrew, who for the Lord’s sake had been poor and a stranger and a fool and the offscouring of all, and despised by all, on the twenty-eighth day of May, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, having finished his struggle in secret, but known to God as one who has striven well. I, however, Nicephorus, by the mercy of the almighty God, being numbered among the priests of this Great Church of the Queen of Cities, which is called the Holy Wisdom of God, have written this wonderful and far-famed Life of the most religious and most holy Father among the saints, Andrew; things which I have both seen with my own eyes, and have learned from the praiseworthy Epiphanius, who became Archbishop here according to the prediction of the saint himself. ^D By his prayers may we deserve to obtain mercy on the day of judgment, through the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be glory, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.