Book X (continued)

Chapter CLXXXVI
The life of MOSCHUS, a merchant of Tyre

We visited abbot Eustachius, superior of the cenobium of abba Saba, who repeated to us the story which Moschus, a merchant, had told him when he was at Tyre:
When I was in business I once went off to the baths at the end of the day and on the way encountered a woman standing in the gloom. I spoke to her and she consented to come with me. Much to the joy of the devil I did not go and bathe but went straight home to a meal, which I entreated her to share with me. However, she would not taste a thing. When at last we got up and went to the bedroom, and I made as if to embrace her, she tearfully cried out with a loud voice.
"Alas, what a wretch I am!" she cried.
I asked her in some agitation why she was crying.
"My husband is a speculator", she said, crying even more bitterly, "and all his property and the property of others was lost in a shipwreck. For that, he has been imprisoned and I have got nothing, not even enough to take him a bit of bread. So because of my extreme poverty I decided to sell my body, just so I could find a bit of bread to take to him. For all we had has been lost."
"How much does he owe?" I asked her.
"Five pounds of gold," she said.
So I gave her the gold and said:
"See, by the grace of God I have not touched you. Settle the debt with this gold, redeem your husband, and pray for me."
Some time later a false accusation was laid against me to the Emperor that I had mismanaged his business affairs. So he gave an order that all my assets were to be confiscated, and that I was to be stripped and dragged through Constantinople to the prison. I had been there quite some time, with only one tunic to wear apart from my underwear (? camisia), when I was told that the Emperor had decided to put me to death. I wept in despair for my life. Crying and sobbing, sleep at length overcame me, and I saw that woman whose husband had been in prison.
""What is wrong, Sir Moschus?" she said. "Why are you imprisoned?"
"I am the victim of a false accusation, and I think the Emperor has decided to put me to death."
"Would you like me to speak to the Emperor for you, to ask for your freedom?"
"Surely he doesn't know you?"
"Ah, but he does."
When I awoke I was not quite sure what it meant. But she appeared to me a second and a third time, saying:
"Don't be afraid. Tomorrow I will see you are set free."
At daybreak, on the order of the Emperor I was taken into the palace. As I went in he looked at me in my dirty and ragged tunic and said:
"I have decided to have mercy on you. Go, and amend your ways."
And I saw that same woman standing at the Emperor's right hand.
"Be strong and fear not," she said.
And the Emperor ordered everything to be given back to me, adding some more goods besides, and restored me to my previous state, in the same position as I had before.
That same night the woman appeared to me again.
"You know who I am?" she said. "I am that same woman on whom you had pity, and for the love of God did not touch my body. See, I have freed you from danger. See the mercy of God, that through me on whom you had mercy, mercy has been shown to you. as if to say, 'In that you have done this to me I have magnified my mercy upon you.'"

Chapter CLXXXVII
The teaching of abbot JOHANNES of Cyzicus on how to acquire virtue.

When going up one day to the holy mount of Olives from the holy Gethsemane, we came across the monastery of abbot Abraham, the superior of which was abbot Johannes of Cyzicus. We questioned him about how one could acquire virtue.
"Anyone who desires to acquire virtue," he said, "must first of all hate the contrary vice. Otherwise he can acquire nothing. So if you would cultivate mourning (luctus) you must hate facetiousness (risus). If you wish to be humble you must always abhor pride. If you wishes to be abstemious you must hate gluttony. If you wish to be chaste detest lust. Naked, fly from worldly goods. Anyone who would be compassionate must beware of avarice. Anyone who longs for the desert, should avoid cities. If you would find peace hate presumptuousness. Anyone who would be a pilgrim should hate drawing attention to himself. Anyone who desires to keep anger in check should fly from much socialising. If you wish to endure insults, detest cursing. Anyone wishing to be undistracted should remain in solitude. Anyone wishing to bridle his tongue should prevent his ears from hearing many things. Anyone with a constant desire to fear God should love affliction and poverty.

Chapter CLXXXVIII
The life of two BROTHERS who were moneychangers in Syria.

Abbot Theodore, the superior of an ancient monastery told us the following story:
There were two brothers in Constantinople who were moneychangers. The elder of them said to the younger:
"Let's go back to Syria and take possession of our paternal home."
"Why should we both undertake this task?" said the younger. "You go, and I will stay here, or else I will go and you stay here."
The came to an agreement that the younger should go. A short time after he had gone the one who stayed in Constantinople saw in a dream a most handsome old man of very commanding presence who said:
"Did you know that your brother is fornicating with a vagabond's wife?"
He woke up very distressed, and troubled in mind.
"Is his lapse my fault" he wondered, "for letting him go off by himself?"
He saw the same person a second time, saying:
"Don't you know that your brother is ruining himself with this vagabond's wife?"
And again he was very distressed. And a third time he saw the same person, saying this time:
"Don't you know that your brother has abandoned his lawful wife and united himself to this vagabond's wife?"
So from Constantinople he wrote to his brother telling him to drop everything and come back. When he got the letter the younger brother did drop everything and went back to his brother. Hardly had he greeted him when he took him into the church and in sorrow began to accuse him.
"Do you call this acceptable behaviour, brother, to commit adultery with a vagabond's wife?"
The younger brother swore by almighty God that he had not committed adultery or been with any woman apart from his lawful wife.
"Well is there some other even more serious sin that you have done," he asked.
"Truly I am not conscious of having done anything wrong - unless it is that I went to Communion with some monks of Severian teaching that I found in our village. I didn't know there was anything wrong in that. I am not aware of anything else I have done."
Then the elder brother realised what it meant when he was told that his brother had committed fornication. For he had abandoned the holy Catholic and apostolic Church, and by ruining himself in the unauthorised heresies of Severian, a vagabond indeed, he had contaminated the nobility of the true faith.

Chapter CLXXXIX
The life of a WOMAN, who kept the faith for her businessman husband, and God came to the aid of both.

When we were in the guesthouse at Ascalon, abba Eusebius, a presbyter, told us of a ship-owning business man who lost all his property and that of others, though he himself escaped from the shipwreck. When he came back to Ascalon his creditors seized him, threw him into prison and took possession of everything in his house, even his wife's clothing. She was greatly distressed, and worried that in her poverty she was unable to provide any food for her husband. She was sitting in tears in the prison one day when a rather important looking man came in giving alms to the prisoners. When he saw this free woman sitting with her husband he fell in love with her, for she was very beautiful, and told her to leave the prison and come with him. She thought that he was going to give her something, so she freely did as she was told.
"What is the problem?" he asked, when he had taken her home. "Why were you in the prison?"
She told him all.
"If I pay his debts, will you sleep with me tonight?"
"Sir, I have heard what the Apostle said," she said, with a mixture of charm and modesty, "that a woman has not power over her own body, but the husband (1Cor.7.4). Let me therefore go and ask my husband, and I will do whatever he says."
So she went and told him everything. Now he was a most conscientious man, with a very deep affection for his wife, and he was not immediately carried away by the hope and desire of getting out of prison, but rather groaned and wept.
"Go back, wife, and tell the man you refuse," he said, "for I put my trust in our Lord Jesus Christ, who will not finally abandon us."   
So she went back to the man and said:
"I have asked my husband and he is not willing,"
Now at this time there was also a robber in the prison who had been there since before the businessman had been arrested. He had observed everything and heard what the man and his wife had been saying to each other.
"See what a sad case they are in," he said, stifling a groan. "Liberty could have been important to them. They could have accepted the money and been freed. But they valued chastity more than money. They refused the prospect of a normal life, rather than let her chastity be violated. And what shall I do, miserable wretch that I am, who have never thought about God and am a murderer to boot."
He called them over to the window of the cell in which he was confined.
"I am a robber and murderer," he said to them "and soon the judge will be visiting here and he will order my execution for murder. I have been listening to your praiseworthy decision and been struck with compunction. So, go and dig in a certain place in this city and take the money you find there. When you have settled the debt you will find there is something left over for yourselves. And pray for me that I may find mercy."
A few days later the judge did indeed arrive in the city and ordered the robber to be led out and decapitated.
"If you like, husband," the wife said the next day, "I will go to the place the robber said. Perhaps he was speaking the truth."
"Do what you think best," he said.
That evening she took a small spade, went to the place, and dug. There she found a jar. She picked it up and hurried away. Before long she had discreetly paid off all the debts to the creditors and to others from money had been borrowed.
All debts having been met, she was able to free her husband from prison. And the man who told us this story added: "See how God multiplies his mercy upon those who keep the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Chapter CXC
The miracle of the wood given to abba BROCHA the Egyptian

Athanasius of Antioch told us this story of abba Brocha the Egyptian:
When Brocha came from Egypt to Seleucia near Antioch, he went out of the city into a desert place to build there a small cell for himself. Having completed it all but the roof he went into the city and called on one of the leading citizens of Seleucia and Antioch, one Anatolius Curvus, whom he found sitting outside the front door of his house.
"Do me a kindness," he said, "and let me have a little wood to roof my cell with."
Anatolius was very annoyed, and pointed out to Brocha a large piece of timber lying in front of the house big enough to have been made into a mast for a very large merchant ship (arbor navis onerariae quinquaginta millium)
"See that piece of wood?" he said. "You can take that away with you."
"Bless you," said abba Brocha. "I will carry it home."
"God bless you, too," said Anatolius, still furious.
Brocha took hold of the timber, lifted it up from the ground all by himself, put it on his shoulders and went off with it to his cell. Struck dumb with amazement by this magnificent and stupendous miracle which had just been done, he generously gave Brocha even more timber, sufficient not only to construct a roof, as he had asked, but to cater for many other useful needs.

Chapter CXCI
The balanced life of the holy JOHN Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople

The holy John, archbishop of Constantinople, was given the name Chrysostom (golden-mouthed) because of the wonderfully accurate purity of his teaching and the splendid beauty of his eloquence. It was said of him that from the time of his saving Baptism onwards he never swore an oath, nor compelled anyone else to swear an oath, never lied, never cursed anybody, never slandered or made fun of anybody.

Chapter CXCII
The story of a certain MONK of the monastery of the divine Pope Gregory, how he was restored from excommunication after his death.

A holy presbyter from Rome called Peter told us a story about the most blessed Gregory, Bishop of that city. During his time of being Pontifex Maximus he greatly edified a monastery of men by giving them a rule that they should not possess any money, not even a single obolus. Now, one of the brothers of the monastery made a request to his brother living in the world.
"I have not got a tunic. Do me a favour and buy me one."
"Here are three numismata," the brother replied. "Take them and buy what you like with them".
Another monk saw that this brother had three numismata in his possession, and went and told the abbot, who in his turn reported it to the most holy Pope Gregory. Gregory's reaction was to order that the transgressor of the monastery's rules should be excommunicated.
Not long afterwards this excommunicated brother died without Pope Gregory being aware of it. Two or three days later, when the abbot went and told  him, he was very distressed that the brother had departed this world before being absolved from the penalty of excommunication. He wrote a prayer in the form of a letter and gave it to one of the archdeacons with instructions to read it out loud over the brother's grave. By this letter he absolved the dead from the bonds of excommunication. The archdeacon went as he was told and read this short pronouncement over the brother's grave.
That night the abbot saw the dead brother..
"Are you not dead then brother?" he asked.
"Indeed, I am."
"And where have you been up till today?"
"Truly, sir, yesterday I was in prison, but as of yesterday I have been freed."
And everyone was made aware that at the very time when the archdeacon had read the words of absolution over the brother he was released from excommunication and his soul was freed from judgment and damnation.

Chapter CXCIII
The wonderfully charitable deed of the holy abbot APOLLINARIIS, Patriarch of Alexandria, towards a rich young man reduced to poverty.

We were told that the holy abbot Apollinaris, patriarch of Alexandria, was an exceptionally merciful man, overflowing with compassion, and this story about him confirms it.
There was a young man in Alexandria who was the son of one of the leading citizens famous for his dignity and wealth. On the death of his parents he was left with extensive assets both in gold and in shipping concerns. Unfortunately he did not manage his affairs to the best advantage, and losing everything was reduced to extreme poverty. It was not as if he had wasted his patrimony in riotous living, as many rich people have the habit of doing, but that shipwrecks and various other failures had caused his downfall. So from the heights of opulence he became one of the poorest, as the Psalmist says, 'They ascend to the heavens, and descend into the abyss' (Psalms 107.26). This young man once far above being worried by money, was now brought low and in need.
The blessed Apollinaris heard about this and saw how much misery and poverty the young man had fallen into. He took pity on his situation, his parents having been so well endowed, and would gladly have helped him by supplying him with food, but felt that that would be somewhat embarrassing. But his heartstrings were touched every time he saw him, with his mean clothing and sallow face showing how poverty-stricken he was. While the pontifex was worrying about all this one day, by divine inspiration he hit upon a marvellous plan, typical of the great and holy man he was.
He summoned the Nomicus, or treasurer of the holy church.
"Can you do something for me very secretly, Master Treasurer," he asked.
"I trust in the Son of God, sir, that I shall tell nobody of whatever instructions you may give me, nor shall anyone learn from me whatever you may share with me, your servant."
"Go then, and write out a bond for fifty pounds of gold which the holy church owes to Macarius the father of this wretched youth. Fix a signature to it, and conditions, and rates  of interest and bring it back to me."
With all speed the treasurer immediately did as the pontifex had asked, and brought the bond back to him. But since the young man's father had been dead ten years, the paper on which the bond was written looked rather too new.
"Come, Sir Treasurer," said the pontifex, "bury this bond in the wheat or barley bin for a few days, and then bring it back to me."
On the day appointed he brought back the bond, which looked rather ancient after what he had done to it, and gave it to the pontifex.
"Now, Sir Treasurer, go to the young man and say to him. 'What will you give me if I hand over to you a bond for a considerable sum of money which is owed to you?' But see that you do not accept more than three numismata for giving him the bond."
"Truly, my lord, if you were to say, I would not accept anything."
"No, I want you to take three numismata."
So he went to the young man as he had been told.
"Would you give me three numismata if I were to show you something of great value to yourself?" he asked.
He promised he would.

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