Religious History

Contents

Staged to the end of the scan text; chapter 31 (On Divine Love) is incomplete because the last page is missing from the OCR.

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1. 0Theodoret explains why he writes the lives of the eastern ascetics, describes their spiritual warfare against the passions and demons, and defends the truth of the miracles he will relate from eyewitness testimony.
2. 1James of Nisibis lives as a mountain hermit, works miracles in Persia, becomes bishop of Nisibis, attends Nicaea, prays for the death of Arius, and by his prayer saves Nisibis from the Persian siege.
3. 2Julian Saba lives as a hermit in Osrhoene, gathers a community of a hundred, works miracles, foresees the death of the emperor Julian, and comes to Antioch under Valens to strengthen the Nicene party against the Arians.
4. 3Marcianus, a nobleman of Cyrrhus, lives enclosed in a tiny cell in the desert, founds a line of monasteries through his disciples, works miracles he tries to hide, puts love before fasting, defends Nicene doctrine, and is buried secretly.
5. 4Eusebius, an enclosed recluse near Antioch, is persuaded by Ammianus to lead a community; he binds himself never to look at the plain or the sky, and his disciples Agrippas, David and Abbas carry on his discipline.
6. 5Publius of Zeugma gives away his inheritance, gathers ascetics into a common life of mutual help, founds a second community for Syriac speakers who sing alternately with the Greeks, and leaves a line of successors who keep his rules.
7. 6Symeon the Elder, a desert hermit, sends lions to guide lost Jews, quenches a fire sent on a thief, evangelizes Mount Amanus, meets a hermit fed by a lion on the way to Sinai, and founds two monasteries.
8. 7Palladius, a recluse near Imma and friend of Symeon the Elder, is accused of a murder at a village fair and, by his prayer, makes the dead man point out the murderer; Abraham of Paratomos works healings from his tomb.
9. 8Aphrahat, a Persian convert, lives as a recluse at Edessa and then Antioch, where he defends Nicene Christians under Valens, answers the emperor with a parable, heals the emperor's horse and protects a field from locusts.
10. 9Peter the Galatian, after a pilgrimage to Palestine, lives in a tomb near Antioch, heals Theodoret's mother of an eye disease and of her love of finery, casts out demons, protects a consecrated virgin, and gives Theodoret half of his belt.
11. 10Theodosius of Antioch founds a working monastery near Rhosus on the Cilician coast, is respected even by Isaurian raiders, draws water from a dry rock, and dies at Antioch, where he is buried with Aphrahat.
12. 11Romanus of Rhosus lives as a recluse near Antioch in extreme simplicity, is known for his gentleness, heals the sick and obtains children for barren women.
13. 12Zeno, a former imperial courier from Pontus, lives in a tomb near Antioch in extreme poverty, is protected from Isaurian raiders by prayer, and leaves the rest of his property to Bishop Alexander to distribute.
14. 13Macedonius the Barley-eater lives for decades in a pit and huts on the mountains near Antioch, resists ordination, pleads for Antioch after the riot of the statues, works healings, and by his promise obtains the birth of Theodoret himself.
15. 14After naming other ascetics of the Antioch region, Theodoret turns to Cyrrhus and tells of Maesymas, a village priest whose jars never ran empty, who healed a dying child, and whose curse halted a harsh landlord's carriage.
16. 15Acepsimas lives sixty years enclosed and silent, miraculously restrains a shepherd and punishes a spy, accepts ordination as presbyter only because he is about to die, and is buried where he had sworn.
17. 16Maron, living in the open on a mountain top, heals bodies and souls, founds the ascetic movement of the Cyrrhus region, and after his death is fought over by neighbouring villages.
18. 17Abraham, an ascetic of the Cyrrhus region, converts a pagan village in the Lebanon by patience and generosity, later becomes bishop of Carrhae while keeping his ascetic diet and hospitality, and is honoured by the emperor at his death.
19. 18Eusebius of Asikha lives into his nineties in a roofless enclosure, wasting his body, walls himself in, and speaks to almost no one but Theodoret.
20. 19Salamanes lives walled in and silent beside the Euphrates, does not respond even to his ordination, and lets himself be carried back and forth between two rival villages.
21. 20Maris lives thirty-seven years in a damp cell near Omeros, keeps his virginity, and at his request Theodoret celebrates the Eucharist in his cell, using the deacons' hands as an altar.
22. 21James of Cyrrhestica lives without any shelter on a mountain near Cyrrhus, endures illness under the eyes of crowds, raises a dead child, supports Theodoret against the Marcionites by prayer and visions, sees John the Baptist and the patriarch Joseph, resists the devil's apparitions, and explains why he will not break off prayer to talk with visitors.
23. 22Thalassius trains Limnaeus, who after a time with Maron lives in a doorless enclosure, heals the sick, cures himself of colic and of viper bites by prayer alone, and houses blind beggars who sing hymns around him.
24. 23Theodoret briefly describes John, who cut down an almond tree to deny himself its shade, and the ascetics Moses, Antiochus and Antoninus, and notes that there are countless others.
25. 24Zebinas, a man of tireless prayer, is buried at Kitta; his disciple Polychronius, whom Theodoret knew, carries a hidden load by night, works wonders, and is so humble that he clasps the feet of every visitor, including the governor.
26. 25Asclepius, who lived as an ascetic first in a village community and then alone, and an aged recluse of Nimouza who twice admitted Theodoret, close Theodoret's account of the living ascetics around Polychronius.
27. 26Symeon the Stylite, a shepherd from Sisa, after extreme austerities at Teleda and Telanissus stands on a pillar, keeps forty-day fasts, attracts pilgrims from Spain to Persia, converts Arab tribes, works healings and predictions, preaches daily, and intervenes for the churches; Theodoret defends the pillar by the strange actions God commanded the prophets.
28. 27After surveying the different forms of ascetic life, Theodoret describes Baradatus, who lived in a cramped open lattice box and later stood wrapped in leather with hands raised, and who argued better than readers of Aristotle.
29. 28Thalelaeus drives demons from a pagan shrine near Gabala, lives suspended in a cramped cage made of two wheels as a voluntary penance for his sins, converts the local people, and builds a martyrs' shrine on the site.
30. 29Marana and Cyra, noblewomen of Beroea, live for forty-two years in a roofless enclosure under heavy iron chains and long fasts, speaking to visitors only at Pentecost, and make pilgrimages to Jerusalem without eating.
31. 30Domnina, a disciple of Maron's way of life, lives in a hut in her mother's garden in constant tears and serves ascetics and visitors; Theodoret ends the Lives with a survey of monasteries of men and women everywhere and an explanation of why he wrote.
32. 31In a closing discourse Theodoret argues that the ascetics' endurance, beyond what shepherds, farmers or sailors bear, can only be explained by love for God, and illustrates this love from Moses, the Bride of the Song, Paul, Peter, and the saints from Abel to the martyrs, before the text breaks off.