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Justin Martyr

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Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

St. Ignatius

St. Daniel the Stylite

Introduction

Ch. 1-34

Ch. 35-70

Ch. 71-102

Notes

The Life of
St. Theodore
of Sykeon

Pass. 3-10

Pass. 11-20

Pass. 21-30

Pass. 31-40

Pass. 41-50

Pass. 51-60

Pass. 61-70

Pass. 71-80

Pass. 81-90

Pass. 91-100

Pass. 101-110

Pass. 111-120

Pass. 121-130

Pass. 131-140

Pass. 141-148

Notes

A homily of
St. Gregory Palamas
on Matthew 5:1-12

St. John Chrysostom Letters to Olympias

Letter 1

Letter 2

Letter 3

Letter 4

Letter 5

THE LIFE OF ST. THEODORE OF SYKEON

[An asterisk * indicates a note, keyed by chapter, at the end of the life.]

111

(Summary) Theodore cures the nephew of Florentius, the chief elder of the village of Sandos. He suffered from an incurable malady-the socalled 'phugadaina'* - which had attacked the corner of his mouth and begun to eat away his flesh.

Florentius takes his nephew with him on horseback to the Saint. Theodore rubbed with his hand the part afflicted, blew three times into his mouth and gave him water which he had blessed, and he was then restored to health.

112

Every year on the Saturday after the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ a public procession regularly came to the monastery from all the neighbouring villages. Once when at this festival great crowds had poured in from the countryside a cauldron of hot water happened to be standing at the foot of the slope in a ditch at the side of the road and it had a fire under it. After the service was over and the crowds had finished their meal and were getting ready to leave the monastery, a boy came out of the church of St. George and ran to put his belongings into safekeeping.* As his path lay close to the cauldron, through the Devil's operation he fell, as he ran, into the boiling cauldron.

His parents who were behind him ran and seized him by the feet and pulled him out and carried him to the church of St. George where the Saint was still blessing the people; they threw the child down at his feet halfdead and broke out into lamentations over the accident which threatened their boy's life.* The servant of the Lord laid the child near the sacred altar and bending his head, began to pray for him. After anointing the child with oil from the 'sleepless' lamp he raised him up by the grace of God and after leading him three times* round the altar he gave him back to his parents with his flesh whole and the skin uninjured.

113

Now Anicetus, the abbot of the monastery of the holy martyr Theodore of Briania, came with the folk in the procession. When he had heard of the boy's accident and seen him well with his skin unhurt, he thought that the water in the cauldron was in fact cold; as he wished to test the miracle, forthwith as he passed by with the procession he put his hand into the cauldron to see whether it would be burned or not; he was burnt immediately and badly hurt. The Saint had joined the procession below the monastery and was dismissing the crowds when the abbot Anicetus came to him and shewed him his hand and asked him to sign it with the Cross, saying that it had been burnt by the man in charge of the cauldron. But the Saint smiled and said, 'Oh no, brother! you thrust it into the cauldron yourself; nevertheless, we may pray that the Lord may heal it', and after Theodore had made the sign of the Cross upon it, the abbot was relieved of the burning and felt no pain and went home marvelling at the things he had seen and heard.

114

In the village of Sandos in the district of Protomeria a certain householder, Eutolmius by name, wanted to enlarge his threshingfloor because of the rich abundance of crops that had been given him and because the floor could not take a double yoke of oxen; close to it was a hillock in which there were many demons. Now as he dug and was levelling the ground in a circle round his floor he happened to dig into the neighbouring hillock and remove a stone out of it. And unclean spirits came forth and entered into the animals in the village and made them savage, and later began to work their mischief also upon the villagers.

After some of them, both men and women, had been tormented the spirits which were in them cried out that these disasters were happening to them because of the digging into the hillock. When the villagers saw the distress of their OWII people and thought that Eutolmius had dug in order to get money out of the hill, when they heard also that the governor of the province, Euphrantas, was preparing to take action against them in the matter for having brought the charge against Eutolmius, they grew mad against the householder and rushed to burn dowu him and his household as being responsible for their illfortune. But as this attempt was foiled by those who held the highest positions in the village and wished to restore peace, they sent to the monastery begging the Saint and servant of Christ, Theodore, to come to the village and free them from the evils which had befallen them. The Saint came back with them and standing on the place which had been dug, he said to them, 'Believe me, children, nothing has happened in this spot according to your suspicions; but in order that you may be more fully satisfied, make the hole much deeper'. When this was done, they found nothing whatever suspicious. So as they were fully satisfied, on the morrow he made arrangements for a procession and in company with them he led the procession with prayer round the village-and the persons who were being tormented followed him, too-and came to the hillock which had been dug open; as he bent his head and prayed, all the spirits which had come out of it and worked mischief among the beasts and in various places were quickly collected to that spot. The Saint then turned to the afflicted and rebuked the unclean spirits that were in them, and by invocation to his master, Christ, he cast them out, and by the power of his prayer to God and by the visitation of the Holy Spirit he shut them all up there. After putting back the stone which had been thrown out and filling up the trench with earth, he placed above it a model of the Holy Cross and stayed there sleepless the whole night, singing and praying to God.

115

The next day he had read the liturgy and was on the point of going back to his monastery, when the chief men of the village of Permetaia came there and fell at his feet beseeching him with tears to come to their village, too, because there through a slab of stone having been removed from a certain spot many demons came out and afflicted six men and eight women of the village. So the Saint and servant of Christ, Theodore, came out and went away with them together with the chief men of the village of Sandos. As they drew near the village of Aiantoi, by the working of those unclean demons because of whom he was travelling, the animal on which he was sitting fell in a heap and slipping down, he fell on the hinder parts of the beast; when it tried to get up the two boards which had formed the seat came backwards and landed under the Saint's stomach and crushed him, and owing to the great pressure they cut through his hairgarments and were driven a good way into his flesh. Much blood flowed out, so he took a linen rag, applied it to the wound in his body and mounting his beast again, journeyed on with his companions and said with a smile, 'Truly, children, God's help protects me; for the unclean demons attacked me to injure me'. On arrival at the village his companions thought he would fall into some illness through the horrible wound he had received, but, mightily strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, he stood like an iron statue through that night and without sleeping continued in praise to God.

On the morrow after praying he led a procession with prayer round the village and after ordering the slab to be replaced to its former position he went himself to the spot with the procession and after praying for a brief space of time and calling upon the name of the holy, consubstantial and lifegiving Trinity, he cast out the spirits that were in people, and as they came out he drove them together and confined them in that place and for the future they did no harm to anybody. For in these cases he had also working with him the holy great martyr George, who had followed him closely from his earliest years. After marking the spot with the sign of the holy Cross, together with those who had come with him from the village of Sandos, he departed and regained his monastery. He also sent a letter to Euphrantas, the governor, and stopped him from proceeding against them by satisfying him that the digging in the hillock was not done for the sake of treasure but at the instigation of Satan. And thus he dismissed to their homes the householders of the village of Sandos who had come with him,

And at another time, when the vines of the same village of Sandos were devoured by a plague of locusts, and the vines of the men of the village of Permetaia were being eaten up by worms, through Theodore's presence and prayers in both these places all the pests were smitten dead at once, Lying about in heaps to the glory of Christ our God, Who gave Theodore such grace.

116

Again, in the village of Eukraae in Lagantine there was a farmer, Timotheus by name, who happened to dig into the side of a hill, which bordered his land, whether in order to improve the adjoining property which belonged to him or in order to carry off some treasure I cannot say. For the report spread abroad that he had done it in search of money. Thereupon the great army of unclean spirits who dwelt in it came out and attached themselves to the persons of that village and most of the men with their wives and children were grievously tormented; and the spirits caused such disorders and such breakages that Euphrantas, the then governor of the metropolis of Ancyra, hearing of this, decided to send and arrest the aforesaid farmer, Timotheus, and subject him to a heavy fine for having broken open a grave. And through the working of the spirits in the possessed the governor seized some of the sufferers on account of the disorders caused by them, and inflicted many strokes with an oxhide whip on their naked bodies, thinking by these means to reduce them to quietness. But the men who were beaten, instead of weeping and asking for greater leniency, were on the contrary seized with uncontrollable laughter, begging that more strokes should be inflicted on them, and when released they went off madly to commit still more villainies and disorders. For first of all they went in a body and burnt down the granaries belonging to Timotheus, the cause of their being possessed by the demons, and him they tried to catch and kill, but he had fled. Then in the same way they went round and burnt down the other granaries in the village, and roaming round they would enter all their own houses and eat up all they could find and they spoiled and smashed up all the furniture and wrought much havoc in their own homes, and if any spoke to them wishing to stop them they rained blows upon them. Such things as these were done not only in the case of men through their being possessed by the demons, but they further killed some of the animals, others they made savage, and they became unmanageable and smashed things up and the spirits hovered about the confines of their land and raised apparitions causing great harm to the passersby, and so there was an accumulation of distress in that village and its borders. A few of the householders of the village, however, were free from the demons, and they with their clergy came to the monastery to the Saint and fell down and clasped his feet beseeching him with many strong oaths to take pity on their populous village which was in the throes of great misery. So the Saint yielded and went with them; all the people of the village met him, both the healthy and the possessed, while the unclean spirits roundly cursed him. On reaching their church of the holy Archangel, he remained the whole night in hymns and prayers begging the merciful God to drive away the army of demons both from man and beast and all the neighbourhood and to drive them all back again to the place from which they came out and to shut them all up there. At dawn all the inhabitants of the village came to him in a body; the spirits in those who were possessed called out that they were suffering violence at his hands, since he had come out against them and was making intercession to God. But the Godinspired man, strong in the divine grace bestowed upon him, rebuked them as if they were cheap little boys destined to slavery, and commanded them to go away to the hill from which they had come and to enter it again and stay there, harming no one.

117

Owing to illness he deputes one of his elders, named Julianus, to go to the hill in his place and take the service and re-imprison the demons. After some demur Julianus obeys and is successful.

118

Another time a similar thing happened in the same village. For a marble sarcophagus stood at a certain spot on their boundary and it contained the skeletons of some Greeks (i.e. pagans) of ancient times which were guarded by demons; by the latters' suggestion the following idea occurred to some of the householders of the village; they came and opened the said chest and took off the covering, or lid, and carried it to their village and placed it there to serve as a watertrough. Because of this many of the inhabitants of the village were again vexed by demons, and their beasts and properties were likewise injured .

So again they went and fetched the servant of God and by his prayers to God he healed all those who had been bewitched by the unclean spirits and freed the beasts and the district from the harm wrought by them and bound them down in the place where they had been before. Nor did he allow the lid of the sarcophagus to be given back to the spirits as they desired, asking that it should be restored to its former position but he left it in the village as it was useful for the watersupply, and it is there to this day as witness of his marvellous works.

In the villages nearest to Eukraae, called Buna, Peae* and Hynia, a huge swarm of beetles appeared in the cornfields and ate up their summer crops; so the men of these three villages implored the Saint to come. He went with them to their plain, and as soon as he had offered a prayer, the whole swarm of beetles vanished and was never seen again.

119

Many similar wondrous works were done by nim in various places to the glory of our Saviour, Christ our God, Who gave him these signs of His grace. One day before the murder of the Emperor Maurice [602 CE]l when the Saint was in the monastery of the Mother of God and was reciting the proper psalms for the day in the newlybuilt sanctuary, the 'sleepless' lamp went out. He made a sign to one of the brothers and had it lighted, and at once it went out; again the brother came and with many a prayer relighted it, but it went out immediately.

The blessed Saint found fault with him for his clumsiness, and went and himself lighted the lamp. Directly he had moved away, it went out again, as before. Then he gathered together the brothers who were there and spoke to them very solemnly as follows: 'I assure you, brothers, this sign has not; been given us without cause or to no purpose. Therefore examine yourselves and consider what you have done, and confess your sin before God; for even if you wish to hide it, the Lord wills to make it known.' And when in response to this appeal the brothers declared that they were not conscious of any sin, he stood in prayer beseeching God to reveal to him the meaning of this sign. And God granted him a revelation, and he became very cast down and groaned and said, 'Very truly didst thou picture the nature of man, blessed Isaiah, for "Every man", it is written, "is grass and all the glory of man is as the flower of grass; the grass has withered and its flower has fallen.''[Is 40:7] When he had said these words the brothers came and asked him to tell them what had been revealed to him. After enjoining them not to speak of it to anyone, he announced to them the manner of death by which the Emperor Maurice should die. They said, 'He deserves his fate for he has in many things governed ill, especially in the things which * he is doing now'. The Saint replied, 'This man, children, will { shortly be removed, and after him worse things shall happen, such as this generation does not expect'.

120

After a few days the Emperor Maurice was assassinated and Phocas usurped the throne. Domnitziolus, his nephew, was made a patrician and 'curopalates' and dispatched to the East by the Emperor to take over the army and make a stand against the Persian nation, which was invading and lording it over our country.* When this famous man arrived at Heliopolis, and heard of the raid of the Lazi* into Cappadocia and of the conspiracy of the patrician Sergius,* the Emperor's fatherinlaw, against him, he was in great distress and fear as he did not dare to proceed with his journey as he had been bidden. He had heard about the servant of God, so he came to him in the monastery and falling at his feet besought his prayers and begged him to give him good advice, as he was at a loss and did not know what he ought to do. He told him of the orders given to him by the Emperor and of the difficulty created by the invasion of the Lazi; the servant of God said to him, 'Go straight along thy way, son, in the name of God; you need have no fear of them, they will not hinder you, but you will reach your army in safety. However, in your war with the Persians things must take their appointed course*; you are going to experience great trials and conflicts, but I commend you to God and to his holy martyr George to keep you free from harm. When these dangers beset you, you will remember my prayer and God will rescue you from your great peril.' When he had told him of these and other things which were to come, he prayed over him and dismissed him on his journey. And according to Theodore's prophecy he accomplished his journey without hindrance through the grace of God, as the Lazi had retreated; and he found that all things happened exactly as the Saint had foretold.

In the war against the Persians he fell into an ambush; great slaughter was wrought on his army, and he himself was in sore straits. Then he remembered what had been foretold to him by the inspired man, and he called upon his prayers .o come to his aid. Fleeing on foot to a bed of reeds, he hid himself there and by God's assistance he escaped from danger and got back into the Roman camp and reassembled his army

On his journey back to the Emperor he visited the blessed man and falling at his feet in deep devotion he rendered thanks to God and acknowledged the help which the Saint's prayers had brought to him-how they had saved him from great perils-and he confessed that all things had happened to him just as Theodore had foretold.

Afterwards, when this distinguished man had been blessed by the Saint and had celebrated a feastday, he went on his way to the imperial city. From that time forth he cherished a deep affection and trust for the servant of God, and for the holy monastery, and whenever he passed through the village by the imperial post on his way to the capital from the East, he used to go up on foot to visit the Saint in the monastery and would prostrate himself before him. He gave such bountiful alms to the oratories of the monastery that from them leaden tiles were made for the church of the holy martyr George and many precious things were acquired. He also used to distribute much money to the poor who happened to be there; and owing to his reverence for the Saint he always granted the requests of those who desired audience from him *

 

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