Apollinaris  (continued) Chapter CXCIII, Book X

"Five or six days ago," the treasurer pretended, "while turning out some ecclesiastical files, I found this bond, and I remembered that your father Macarius, who trusted me, had handed it over to me on some occasion. It has been with me since he died. I had completely forgotten about it, and had never thought of handing it back to him."
"This person who owes the money," said the young man, "is he wealthy?"
"Yes, indeed he is, and well-intentioned. You will be able to recover the debt from him without any trouble."
"God knows I haven't any money at present, but if I get back what is mine I will give you what you asked and even more than three
numismata."
And then the treasurer gave him the bond for fifty golden pounds.
He took it and hurried to the pontifex, and prostrating himself before him gave him the bond. He looked at it, read it, and then pretended to be very upset.
"Where have you been all this time?" he said. "Your father has been dead for ten years. Get away, I'm not going to meet this now."
"Truly, my lord, it has not been in my possession. Your treasurer has had it and I knew nothing about it. But may God have mercy upon him for giving it back to me now, saying that he had found it among his papers at home."
"Well, I'll think about it. Leave the bond with me and give me some time."
After a week he returned to the bishop to plead with him.
"Why have you waited so long before presenting this bond?" he asked, making as if to be unwilling to give him any money.
"God knows, my lord, that I haven't got enough to feed my family. If you have any inspiration from God, have mercy on me."
Then the holy Apollinaris pretended that this prayer had persuaded him.
"All right, I will give you the whole sum. All I ask, brother, is that you don't ask the holy church for any interest on it."
"I will do whatever you want or command. If you wish to take something out of the principal, do so."
"No, no. It is enough that you forego the interest."
And so he handed over the fifty pounds of gold, and let him go, reminding him again not to ask for interest.
Such was the work of that great Apollinaris, such was his holy trickery and compassion. And by means of his holy blessing God looked with such favour on the young man that he emerged from poverty and was restored to his former state and position, and excelled in good works and wealth even more than his parents, and especially grew in great strength of soul.

Chapter CXCIV
The rebuke given by an
OLD MAN  of Scete to a monk who went into a tavern.

An old man from Scete once went into Alexandria to sell his wares and saw a young monk going into a brothel. The old man was greatly distressed and waited outside for the young man to come out. As soon as he did the old man took the younger by the hand and took him apart.
"Don't you realise, brother, that you are wearing the angelic habit? Is this just youthful ignorance on your part? Don't you know how many are the snares of the enemy? Are you not aware of the many dangers lying in wait for monks in cities, through the eyes, the ears, and in various other shapes and disguises. And yet you have gone boldly into a brothel, hearing things you should not want to hear, and seeing harmful things in the company of shameless men and women. Please don't, my son, don't act like this, but fly to the desert where with God's help you may be saved."
"Go on, old man," the younger man replied. "All God asks for is purity of heart."
"Glory to God," the old man said, lifting up his hands to the heavens. "Here have I spent fifty-five years in Scete and I have not yet got purity of heart. And yet this man possesses purity of heart even in the midst of a tavern. God keep you, my brother, and let me not be confounded of my hope."

Chapter CXCV
The life of
EVAGRIUS the philosopher, converted to the faith of Christ by Synesius, bishop of Cyrene.

When we were at Alexandria, Leontius of Apamia, a most faithful and religious man, arrived from Pentapolis, for he had been living for many years in Cyrene. This was in the days of Eulogius, the holy patriarch of Alexandria, who later became bishop of that same city of Cyrene. In the course of some friendly conversation with us, Leontius told us the following story.
In the time of the most blessed Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, the bishop of Cyrene was a philosopher called Synesius. When he came to Cyrene, he met up with a philosopher called Evagrius, who had been a companion of his when studying the liberal arts. He was a dearly beloved friend, although a pagan, much given to the worship of idols. Bishop Synesius did everything he could to convert him from idols to the worship of Christ. He took an immense amount of trouble upon himself in this matter, for the great love that he had for him of old. Evagrius put up with this treatment rather grudgingly, for he had no desire to accept Synesius' teaching. But the bishop, for the great affection which he had for him refused to become tired of trying, continued daily to urge him and teach him and persuade him to believe in Christ and receive his Sacraments. Evagrius replied to his persistent teaching.
"Truly, my lord bishop, among other things which I can't stand about Christians is the fact that they say that this world will come to an end, and all the people from the very beginning will rise with their bodies, to be clothed in immortal and incorruptible flesh and live for ever, and will be rewarded according to their works. Compassion on the poor will be rewarded by God, for those who share their money with the poor and needy will find treasure in heaven, and will be returned a hundredfold in the regeneration to eternal life bestowed on them by Christ. Everything they say seems to me to be a ridiculous deception, a fable."
But Synesius asserted that everything in Christianity was true, there was nothing false or contrary to truth, and he cited many documents to try and persuade him.
And at last he did succeed in converting Evagrius, and he baptised him and his sons and his whole household. Furthermore, not long after the baptism he gave three hundred pounds of gold to the bishop for distribution to the poor.
"Take this gold and give it to the poor," he said, "and write me a bond, so that Christ may honour it in the next life."
He took the gold and gladly gave him the bond he had asked for.
Some years later this philosopher became mortally ill. On the point of death he gave instructions to his sons.
"When you are arranging my funeral, put this document in my hands and bury it with me."
On his death the sons did exactly as they had been requested and buried the bond with him. The third day after the burial he appeared to bishop Synesius as he was sleeping at night.
"Come to the tomb where I am buried", he said, " and take back your bond. Satisfaction has been made. I have had the debt repaid, and lest you should have any doubt about this, I have receipted it with my own hand."
Now the bishop did not know that the bond had been buried with him, but next morning he summoned the man's sons.
"Did you, by any chance, inter anything in the tomb with your father?"
"Nothing, apart from the usual grave clothes," they replied, thinking that the bishop must have been talking about coins.
"No document at all buried with him?"
They still did not know that he was talking about a bond as such.
"Oh yes, my lord," they said, "he did give us some document or other when he was dying and told us to bury him with the document in his hands, but not to let anyone know."
Then the bishop told them of the dream he had had that night, and he took them to the tomb, along with some clerics and leading citizens. They opened the tomb and found the philosopher lying there, still with the bond in the bishop's handwriting clutched in his hand. But something had been added to it in the philosopher's handwriting:
"I, Evagrius, philosopher, bid you, my most holy lord bishop Synesius, greeting. I have received payment for the debt herein written by your hand, and have no further claim against you for the money which I gave you, and through you to Christ our God and Saviour."
All those present were absolutely amazed at what they were reading and for the next few hours did not stop crying
Kyrie Eleison, glorifying the God who does wonderful things, and gives his servants such great proofs of how he keeps his promises.
This same lord Leontius declared that the bond receipted by the philosopher had been preserved right up to the present day, and was kept in the sacristy of the church of that holy Cyrenian, and whenever a new sacristan was installed he was charged to take care of it with all diligence along with all the other holy vessels, and finally to hand it over whole and undamaged to his successor.

Chapter CXCVI
The miracle which happened to the
CHILDREof Apamia, when in play they repeated the words of the prayer of consecration.

Gregorius, the bishop of an African province, was a most faithful man, a lover of monks and the poor, always rejoicing in everything that was good. He told us the following story from his home town of Thorax in the province of Apamia, the second province of Syria:
  There is a farm about forty miles from the city called Gonagus, where the children used to feed the cattle out in the fields. As children will, they enjoyed playing games, and as they were playing one of them said to the others:
"Let's celebrate Mass, and offer the sacrifice and receive communion, just as the presbyter does in the holy church."
They all thought it was a great idea, and decided on one of them being the ordained presbyter, and two other boys the ministers. They were out in a level area where they were able to choose a large rock to serve as an altar, on which they placed some bread and an earthenware vessel containing wine. The one acting as a presbyter stood in the middle, with the two ministers one on each side of him. The 'presbyter' said the words of the holy oblation, and the other two stirred the air by using the scarves [
fasciolae, 'small bandages'] they wore as fans. The 'presbyter' was familiar with the words of consecration because it was the custom in church for boys to serve at the altar and they were the first after the presbyters to receive the communion of the holy and worshipful mysteries of Christ our God. Since it was the custom in some places for the presbyter to say the prayers of the holy sacrifice out loud, the boys had learnt them from hearing them so often as they stood nearby.
When all had been done according to the custom of the church up to the breaking of the bread and communion, fire fell from heaven on to the altar and burnt everything up, so that nothing remained, neither stone nor anything that had been placed on it. This happened so suddenly that the boys all fell to the ground in fright, and remained there for a long time, half dead, speechless, not able to get up. When they did not return home at the usual time (for they just lay terror-struck on the ground), their parents came out from the village to find out why. When they found all the boys lying insensible on the ground, unaware of anything around them, they cried out to them but received no answer. They picked them up carried them home, each his own son, while they could do nothing but gaze on the boys as they continued in this kind of trance. They were completely dumbfounded, not having the faintest idea of the reason for their unconscious state, and having no way of being able to find out. For however often they flung their questions at them all day long they could not get an answer, and so could not understand what had happened.
A whole day and night passed by before the boys little by little began to come to themselves. They related everything that had been done and what had happened to them, and they took their parents and all the local inhabitants out to show them the place in which the miracle had occurred, and pointed out to them the traces left of the fire that had fallen from heaven.
As they gradually took in what had happened and became convinced by the signs left behind, they ran back to the city and told the bishop everything. He was overwhelmed by how great this unusual miracle was, and hastened out with all his clerical staff to interview the boys. Having heard what they had to say and inspected the traces of celestial fire, he put all the boys into a monastery. Over the place itself he built a very extensive monastery, putting the holy altar of the church on the very spot where the fire had fallen. 
That most faithful man, lord Gregory, told us that he had seen one of the boys himself and knew that he was a monk in the monastery where the miracle had occurred. And Gregory, that venerable man, bore witness to this great and truly divine, stupendous miracle that had happened in our own time.

Chapter CXCVII
The story told by
RUFFINUS about the holy Athanasius and his childhood companions.

Ruffinus the ecclesiastical historian tells a similar story from an earlier age about children at play. The most holy Athanasius, bishop of the great city of Alexandria, was a famous champion of the truth and an unparalleled teacher for the whole world, and in his account of the childhood of Athanasius, Ruffinus describes how his future elevation to the episcopate was divinely prefigured:
In writing down a few things about the men of old, it seemed right to me to gather together the memories of their contemporaries about how they lived from their youth up, and how they developed. So we go back to the time when the most holy Alexander (he who condemned the ungodly Arius) presided over the church after Achilles, as the holy Peter, archbishop and martyr, had predicted. One day when Alexander was standing on a small rise looking out to sea, he saw some boys playing on the shore as boys will. They were acting out ecclesiastical rituals, one of them pretending to be a bishop. He watched them for some time, and could see that they were trying out some of the greatest and most sacred mysteries. Disturbed by this, he called his clergy and having showed them what he had seen, he told them to go and get all the boys and bring them to him. As they stood before him he questioned them about what their game was, what they had been doing and exactly how they had done it. At first they were frightened, and, just like boys, denied everything. But gradually they laid it all bare from beginning to end, and admitted that they had been baptising catechumens at the hands of Athanasius whom they had chosen to be bishop. He then thoroughly interrogated them about which ones had been baptised, how they had done it, what had been the questions and what the responses. He realised that everything had been done in accordance with the rituals of our religion, and having discussed the matter with his clerics, he declared that since all had been solemnly done by question and answer there would be no need to baptise them again, as they had carried out everything that the priests usually did. Next, he called their parents together, and calling on God as his witness he enrolled Athanasius in the church, to be instructed there along with all those who [in play] had been his priests and deacons.
After a short while, Athanasius was able to read and write perfectly [
a Notario perfecte instructus esset], and was fairly proficient in Grammar. He was like a bond deposited in good faith by God, and his parents therefore handed him over as destined for the priesthood. From then on he was nurtured like Samuel in the temple, and whenever Alexander in his old age visited his bishops Athanasius followed him wearing the vestment (amictus) of priesthood, which in Hebrew is the Ephod.
The battles of Athanasius against the heretics in the church were so many and so famous that you would have thought that these words of scripture had been written especially for him: 'I will show him how much he must suffer for my sake' (
Acts 9.16). For the whole world conspired to persecute him, kings of the earth and the nations were moved, and kingdoms and armies gathered against him. But he relied on the power of divine wisdom, where it says: 'Though a host should stand against me, yet shall my heart not be afraid. If war rise up against me, even in this I will not lose hope.' (Psalms. 27.3). He achieved so many great things that I cannot be persuaded there have ever been any greater. One can only be struck dumb by the multitude of his deeds. The mind falls into confusion in trying to decide what to write down about him, what to leave out. So we just call to mind a few things. His reputation will tell of everything else, it will tell how even in small things truth was paramount for him, and nothing can be added to truth.

Chapter CXCVIII
The reply of the holy
ATHANASIUS, bishop of Alexandria, as to whether anyone can be baptised without faith.

After the aforesaid holy Athanasius became bishop of Alexandria he was once asked whether it was possible for anyone without faith to be baptised according to the rituals and teachings of the Christians, and what should we think of anyone who was baptised pretending to have faith or on some other pretext, and how would God receive such a person. Athanasius replied:
"I heard once from our elders that an angel in human form appeared to blessed Peter, bishop and martyr, when there were some  mortally ill people taking refuge in Baptism because they were afraid of death. The angel said: 'Why are you turning out so many empty vessels (
marsupia,pouches) even though they have been signed [with the cross]. They are utterly worthless and empty, with no inner life.' So as far as one can judge, from what the angel said, there are those who bear the sign of Baptism simply because they thought that if they were to be baptised they might get something out of it [sc. forgiveness of sins], and that is the only reason that they were baptised."

Chapter CXCIX
The story of a rather simple
OLD MAN,  who saw Angels when offering the Sacrament.

One of the fathers told us about an old man living a pure and holy life who used to see Angels standing on the right and on the left when offering the Sacrament. However, he had learnt his rite of consecration from heretics, so because he was rather simple and unversed in divine doctrine, he was saying things which were not in accordance with the true faith when making the offering, unaware that he was in error.
But one day by divine providence a deacon was with him who was skilled in divine doctrine, and he was there when the holy old man was offering the sacrifice.
""The words you use in making the offering," he said to the old man, "are those of heretics, men of erroneous opinions."
But because the old man saw Angels when making the offering he was not troubled, and took no notice of what the deacon said but treated him with derision. The deacon, however, persisted.
"You are wrong, abba," he said "for the Catholic faith of mother Church does not admit of the words you use."
The old man began to realise that the deacon was really serious in his arguments, and the next time he saw the Angels at the saving oblation as usual he spoke to them.
"This deacon here tells me this and that. Why should he be telling the truth?"
"Listen to him," said the Angels, "for he does speak the truth and is on the right path."
"Why haven't you told me this, then?"
"God has so decreed that humans should be corrected by humans."
And from that time on he was corrected, giving thanks to God and his brother.


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