John Damascene
Acta Sanctorum, May 6
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-06/john-damascene.html
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ON S. JOHN DAMASCENE

MONK AND PRESBYTER AMONG THE GREEKS.

ABOUT THE YEAR DCCLXXX

[Preface]

John Damascene, Confessor (S.)

By D. P.

This excellent man, and even when in his fatherland Damascus
he was occupied with temporal affairs, celebrated for sacred doctrine
and zeal of religion,
to every form of sanctity afterwards
elevated him the most celebrated Laura of S. Sabbas,
in Palestine; concerning whose other Holy alumni we have treated
several times, and shall treat hereafter, on the days
sacred to their memory. [Inscribed in the Greek Fasti November 29,] The Synaxarium, collected by order of Emperor Basil, and
the most ancient of all that we know of in this kind, refers
his memory to day XXIX of November: on which day the same had
also other MSS. from which Sirletus compiled his Menology,
which is extant printed by Henricus Canisius. The rest,
which we have seen both printed and handwritten, day
IV of December assign to John: when in the printed Menaea
he is venerated with the office of the day partitioned with S. Barbara, [and December 4,] with proper Canon
and Sticharia and Contacia, in which the Saint is greatly praised,
for his incomparable faculty of composing sacred hymns,
his efficacious refutation of heresies, and the rigor of monastic
exercise. The Greeks are followed by the Russians or Muscovites, and other churches
which afterwards borrowed sacred rites from the Greeks, to whom
have adapted themselves Molanus in his additions to Usuard of the second
or Douai Edition, Canisius in the second edition of the German
Martyrology, and Arnold Wion in the *Tree of Life*,
imitating Trithemius, treating of John, as having professed
the Benedictine Rule, among the illustrious men of his
Order.

[2] [To the Latins May 6,] This same without further proof did in the Benedictine Menology
Gabriel Bucelinus, but on the present day
VI of May; when John into the tables of the Roman Martyrology
recognized by him, Baronius inserted, with a distinguished eulogy.
And the eulogy indeed he received from the life; the day, either from Maurolycus
or from Molanus of the first edition: before whom however certain
other MS. Latin works, although not yet known to us, on
the same day must have referred John. For in the Additions
of the Carthusians of Cologne to Usuard of the year
1521, often cited under the name of Greven, thus is read:
At Constantinople the deposition of holy memory John
Damascene, an outstanding Doctor, and no less in life and miracles
clear. And these words Molanus in the first, as said,
of the year 1564 Louvain edition transcribed, omitted
in the second Douai of the year 1583. Maurolycus in the year
1564 first edited, then 1570 and 1578 reprinted at Venice:
At Constantinople of S. John Damascene the Presbyter,
in morals and doctrine most clear in the time
of Theodosius the third, that is, of Adramytenum, who only for
a small part of the year DCCXV reigned, when not yet had begun
John to shine forth by writings. But Maurolycus seems by that
determination to have wished to correct others, who before him,
to the age of Theodosius the elder, that is the IV century of Christ, had ascribed Damascene.

[3] [Life written by John Patriarch before the year 969] The Life, which we have, and in Greek also from MS. Medicean
of the King of France we give, before this with the works at Basel
printed, presents as author John Patriarch of Jerusalem:
who having received the argument from a certain Arabic and
most simple narrative, adorned it with elegant
style, perhaps two centuries after the death of Damascene.
Indeed, examining all the monuments, from which I have endeavored
to integrate the series of Patriarchs of Jerusalem,
I found none of that name, before him whom Curopalates
asserts, about the last year of Nicephorus Phocas,
of Christ DCCCCLXIX, [from Arabic papers;] alive was burned by the Saracens.
Not yet at Constantinople had this so adorned Life become known,
perhaps not yet even composed, when his cult
he had there and an eulogy in the Synaxaria;
certainly drawn from other older notices, and indeed very
different from the Arabic context: which in the Synaxarium of Basil
the Emperor MS. is such, on November XXIX.

[4] He was under the imperium of Leo the Isaurian and his son
Constantine, [from another older eulogy in the Menology of Basil] from the city of Damascus, of illustrious lineage,
honored and faithful: but he had a father loving virtue;
and was instructed in all the discipline of the gentiles,
moreover also in the divine letters. Then for the love
of Christ deserting paternal riches, he became a monk,
together with Cosmas, that one of whom there is much mention
in the poems of the sacred festivities, especially of the great
week before the day of Pasch. John moreover,
by the efficacy of his orations and demonstrations taken from
Scripture, confounded the heresy of the Iconomachs;
* whence by the heretical Emperors variously banished,
and committed to prisons, in beautiful confession
he was consummated, and buried by his disciple.

[5] These things there: things wholly similar to which Sirletus found in other MSS., [and Sirletus's]
up to the sign *: but with the rest omitted, he concludes thus:
Confounding the heresy of the Iconomachs, many things
learnedly and accurately written he left; in which the solution
of almost all questions is found. But when
he had reached a great and praiseworthy old age,
he departed life, B. John, before called Mansur,
by which name also his parents were called. With
that with Sirletus eulogy agrees, [and the Menaea,] on May VI, the Synaxarium
of the Clermont College at Paris, except that it interposes mention
of Cosmas's Episcopate of Majuma, and at the end
adjoins certain things about his poems and life consummated in peace;
which can be of use on day XIV of October.

[6] Someone has expunged from the Clermont, what there about
the surname had been written: but the same is excellently confirmed by Suidas, [another from Suidas.] with this added concerning the eulogy of his poems: John
Damascene, surnamed Mansur, was a most eloquent man,
and to none of those, who in his time
shone with the praise of doctrine, was second. His
works are many, and especially learned both,
in the divine scripture his collectanea of Parallels,
and his musical Canons, partly composed in Iambic verse,
partly in prose. There flourished however together with
him Cosmas of Jerusalem, a man of most elegant ingenium,
breathing music wholly harmonious and
modulated. Certainly the musical Canons of John and Cosmas
have admitted no comparison hitherto, nor
as long as this world endures, will they admit.

[7] Furthermore the meaning of the name expounding Theophanes,
in the second year of Copronymus, [Surname Mansur meaning Redeemed] on the same occasion he declares,
how impious this man was in mind toward John, while
he still lived in Palestine, under the barbarian dominion of the Saracens
more secure than in the lands of the Christian Emperors.
For when he had brought in mention of Peter Bishop of Majuma
(who seems to have been Cosmas's predecessor) cut down by the Arabs because
of his freely vituperating Mahometism: him, he says,
with the encomiums of his orations our holy Father
John, [Copronymus distorts to insult:] who is rightly called Chrysorrhoas (because of
the flourishing in his life as much as in his discourse
grace of the spirit, like gold radiant) whom also
the sacrilegious Emperor Constantine yearly was wont
to subject to anathema, because of his eminent
doctrine in the right faith: and for his ancestral name
Μανσοὺρ, which means Redeemed, the new
doctor of his age, with wholly Judaic ingenium, called
Μανζηρὸν, that is (as from Papias shows Meursius
in the Glossary) Son of a Harlot.

[8] The rage of the Tyrant did not terrify John, who even the right
of the ecclesiastical keys impiously arrogated to himself, [whose fury, nothing terrified,] that of him
he might take vengeance, whom otherwise he had not in his power. Indeed,
just as other distinguished monks, among whom Stephen the Younger
and his companions were, to be commemorated on November XXVIII,
he ran to Constantinople or certainly into its vicinity
also himself, [dared to approach Constantinople;] where the faith was greatly endangered, to be a sharer
of the perils and contests; which in the Menology of Emperor Basil
indicated, we should wonder were passed over by the writer of the Life,
unless he professed himself to be following Arabic monuments.
For when in these are contained only those things, which
either in his fatherland as a layman or as a monk in the Laura he had done; concerning
his death the Greek writer seems to have found absolutely nothing, whence
he noted neither the day, nor the place.

[9] That John spent the last part of life abroad
also from this we can confirm, [whence happened that the Sabaites who died abroad did not write his life] that if in his Laura
he had died, and among the holy Fathers of that place by a more religious
rite he were buried outside the common cemetery; there would not
have been lacking among the monks living there someone, who
would have described his whole life equally lengthily and accurately, and
with the same elegance of the Greek language, as is described there
the Life of his nephew Stephen Sabaite, to be given by us on July XIII;
who in the year DCCXCV there died, and in the tenth year
of his age of Christ DCCXLV, having entered the Laura, lived not a few
years in it with his uncle S. John, and as
described there is the Martyrdom of XX monk Martyrs,
killed two years after the death of the said Stephen
by the Arabs, which we illustrated on day XX of March.

[10] [as also at Constantinople his Life in Palestine was not distinctly known.] Further as concerning the last age of John Damascene
little or nothing at all the Palestinians knew, among whom in Arabic
written his earlier life Patriarch John found;
so neither did the authors of the Synaxaria at Constantinople seem
to have had known the things which concerning the calumny constructed against him through Leo
the Isaurian to the Saracen Prince of Damascus
those knew, and which concerning his distinguished obedience were narrated
in common tradition among the Sabaite monks: in
whose Laura even now is shown his cell, not
likewise the sepulcher. But this we judge altogether that he obtained at Constantinople,
just as we have shown some old Latin Martyrologies
to have and to have had: which alone also
mentioned miracles wrought during life, but in
general; and seem to have committed the true day of death to memory.

[11] But why do I not rather say the Greeks did this? Because
these, in choosing the day of annual commemoration, seem
to have had altogether another regard. [why the Greeks rather referred to November 29] For those who first took up the day XXIX
of November; therefore seem to have done it,
because the day before they had celebrated S. Stephen the Younger; and
because on account of the praised by him works of John Damascene
and zeal for the cult of sacred images, they judged it congruous
to make the memory of this also consequently. Those who
took up the day IV of December and held it had instituted
by S. John himself the office of the Virgin and Martyr
Barbara, and recited the encomium of her composed
by him; judged it fitting to join the cult of both,
with composed, what had not yet been done, a proper
Canon about John himself. [or December 4,] Just as on II
of March, before the life of S. Mary the Egyptian, we said it pleased,
that in the office of feria V of week V of Lent,
when the life of that Saint by S. Andrew of Crete brought to Constantinople
was recited, together with the great Penitential
Canon by him composed, with the said Canon
of S. Mary another Canon of S. Andrew was mixed, although
proper otherwise both had its own day of cult, this on April I,
that on October XVII.

[12] [than on May 6, on which he seems to have died,] Add that John, although dead on day VI of May,
nevertheless on that day had no peculiar cult: because
his body humbly buried, while still reigning Copronymus's
son Leo Chazarus, heir of paternal impiety as much as
of the kingdom, never seems to have been raised from the earth;
perhaps lacking miracles which would have urged this to be done,
when the whole devotion of the Constantinopolitan People, restored after
a little while under Irene and Constantine the Emperors orthodox cult of images,
was borne toward S. Stephen and other illustrious
Martyrs for their defense; whose pre-eminent
splendor obscured the light of others Confessors in the same.
Nor let anyone judge this said by mere conjecture, [and at Constantinople modestly buried.]
but let him read in the Menaea the Canons of day IV, which are about
S. John; and he will find no mention there made
of the body or burial, or miracles wrought by his invocation,
contrary to what he will note done in the Canons of other
Saints, whose tombs were in veneration.
Similarly nor in the Clermont Synaxarium, where it is wont to be accurately
noted in what place of the city of Constantinople the Synaxis of each
Saint is celebrated, by reason of the body or relics
of him, nothing such is read of S. John, whom
nevertheless the Latins ascribe to Constantinople, and that as we judge
not vainly.

[13] The Eulogy which the Great Menaea weave for him, much
more lengthy than in the Synaxarium of Emperor Basil, [Lived 104 years, born about year 676,] with these words
is concluded: In a fertile old age he ended life, when
he had produced it to four years over a hundred.
These I would so order, that about the year DCCLXXX dying
John, with Copronymus indeed dead, but the Church not yet
pacified, he was born about the year DCLXXVI; so much so
that under Leo the Isaurian (who reigned from the year DCCXVI to
DCCXLI) when he was about forty years old, amid the public
business which he carried at Damascus, he began to busy himself
for the cult of sacred images, which root and branch overthrown
the impious one wished; and to confirm the faithful by writings
of letters sent everywhere, and the more freely to argue against the perfidious
the less he feared his anger, placed far outside his
jurisdiction. Then suffering calumny from him, and
for his hand restored to him by the Mother of God which had been cut off, [Ordained Presbyter about year 740]
with his adoptive brother Cosmas, having entered the Laura of S. Sabbas,
he there for some years lay hidden; until again he began to shine
forth by composing with Cosmas sacred Canons; and
by John Patriarch of Jerusalem indeed Cosmas
was made, after Peter the Martyr, Bishop of Majuma
about the end of Leo or the beginning of Copronymus; but John
ordained Presbyter, and that not a little before the year
DCCXLIX: for then we have shown in the Catalogue
that John the Patriarch was no longer alive, whom dead
nevertheless Damascene praises as his master, all of whose
sentiments he intimately knew, in a letter written before the year
already said against those who were reviving the heresy of Peter the Fuller.

[14] With this Patriarch dead, to his beloved among the
Sabaites solitude Damascene betook himself, [died about year 780.] and there
wrote those learned books, whose force not bearing
Copronymus first while he was absent began to strike with yearly anathema;
then close engaging he dared to wear out with exiles and prisons,
mentioned in the Basilian menology: from
which, with him dead, freed, secretly returned to Constantinople;
nor much after departed life, before at least
his cult to images and peace to the orthodox were restored,
to whom under Leo Chazarus certain truces had fallen, with
the persecution mitigated which had previously raged. We hoped to be able
to say more concerning the last contests of Damascene from
the Oration of the most wise Cyrus Constantinus Logotheta
Acropolita on S. John Damascene: [Eulogy written by Constantinus Logotheta] wherefore
we took care to have it transcribed from the Vatican Codex, and by the most humane
Joannes Franciscus de Rubeis, Roman jurisconsult,
to be rendered into Latin, although most lengthy,
and flowing with too much verbosity. And already that interpretation
almost wholly through couriers had been brought successively,
and the few pages remaining were soon expected to be brought,
when these were demanded for the press; which to delay further
seemed not fitting, since in those things which had come to hand,
nothing appeared except a bare paraphrase of the older Acts,
by which to augment the bulk of this work would not be
worth the trouble. But if at the end of the said oration something is found
about things done by the Saint at Constantinople, that in the Appendix
of this volume we shall propose. Now we have enough to remit the reader
to the encomium of S. Theodosia, Holy Religious
and Martyr of Constantinople, by the same Constantine
composed and on May XXIX illustrated; where with more matters we shall treat
of the author, who at the end of the XIII century wrote and flourished:
about John however thus he began, Τῷ
Ἰωάννῃ
τὸν
λόγον,
τῷ
ἐκ
Δαμασκοῦ
τὰ
ἐγκώμια: To John an oration!
To Damascene encomiums! In what way therefore on
the very threshold shall I not be benumbed, and before to the contest
am I unclothed shall I not flee away?

[15] Meanwhile from the things said above concerning the time and place,
in which this Saint seems to have died; it follows, that there is no
likely cause, on account of which Baronius held Maurolycus
and Molanus suspect, and judged that for "Constantinople"
should be written by him "Damasci"; when
neither did the Saint die there, nor by any argument is it established
that the Christians, groaning under the Saracen yoke,
either there or in general in the whole East were solicitous, about instituting any cult of him. [How badly he is divided into two.]
You have hence whence you may correct
Volaterranus, Bellovacensis, and Antoninus: who referring the age
of Damascene to the Senior Theodosius, gave occasion
to Trithemius of distinguishing two Johns Damascene;
one who flourished under the said Theodosius, and edited
books on the orthodox faith; another, who fought for images.
For it is clear from chapter 10 book 3,
where the author mentions Peter the Fuller, who in the fifth Synod
was condemned under Justinian; and from book 4, where against the Iconomachs
he disputes, that to the author of these books such antiquity
is not fitting; that he could not be the same who also
wrote under Copronymus.

[16] His works most recently edited and recollected Jacques
Billy, abbot of S. Michael in the Desert, [Various editions of his Works,] often
afterwards subjected to the press. Into these certain writings of other
authors have been inserted, of whom partly are unknown,
partly are indicated names: but in those which are marked
with the name of Damascene himself, Billy thinks should be numbered
the history of Barlaam and Josaphat, which others wish to attribute
to John of Sinai: which on their anniversary
day November XXVII it will be allowed to examine. Philippus
also Labbe in the year 1652 had brought to light a Conspectus
of a new edition of all his works in
four parts distributed: but that edition hitherto has not seen
the light: into which what new matter would have come can be
seen from the Conspectus itself, to which the reader the author refers
in his historical Dissertation on ecclesiastical writers.
I from Allatius here indicate can be added to these, [to these can be added a sermon on S. Barbara M.] for the life of S.
Stephen the Martyr (which certainly is not Damascene's, but
Metaphrastes's, taken from another older one, by Stephen
Deacon of the Great Church composed; which we shall
in our time bring to light) for this, I say, Life
to be added I suggest, the Sermon on the Glorious Martyr
of Christ Barbara, which under his name, I do not know where, he found,
and judged to be truly his, a man most versed in distinguishing such things,
with this beginning: Ὑπέρκειται
μὲν
ὁμολογουμένως
ἅπασαν
ἐγκωμίων
σύνθεσιν.

[17] But to the same works the by far greatest accession
can be made from the nineteen ecclesiastical books of the Greeks,
long ago in Greek printed at Venice, [and many from the ecclesiastical books of the Greeks,] judges in his Prolegomena
to *Marian Greek Piety* our Simon
Wagnereck. For the said books (which the Greeks use almost
from the use of the Jerusalem monasteries, by S. Sabbas first
ordered; just as having been abolished by the Saracens, S. Sophronius
beginning to restore, left the work to S. John
Damascene, either to be completed, if he had only begun,
or anew to be restored, if completed by him again
the barbarians had abolished) the Greek, I say, books of ecclesiastical
Hymnody Damascene aforesaid so restored, [which almost abolished John restored] that
it seems can be attributed to him, whatever about Saints or Feasts, preceding his
age, without name of author, they contain.
For Simeon of Thessalonica, in his Dialogue against heresies
in Leo Allatius, first speaks thus: Our holy
Father Sabbas reduced the divine office into a certain Type
or written form, which from SS. Euthymius
and Theoctistus through tradition he had received:
these moreover from their elders and especially Chariton
the Confessor took. But this norm of the divine
Office, by S. Sabbas committed to writing, when by
the irruption of devastating barbarians it had perished, [after Sophronius,]
our holy Father Sophronius, Patriarch of the holy
city, by his study and labor restored; and after him the divine and
in theological matters most acute John Damascene
renewed, and again committed to writing.

[18] And a little below, with Sophronius passed over (as if his
labor either had brought nothing to perfection or wholly perished)
again he says, [himself the writer of many Canons,] The Jerusalem Typicon, has the most sacred
Sabbas and the Theologian Damascene as
nomothetes. Certainly the aforesaid Wagnereck, at
the end of his first part (the others designated by him we do not yet
know to have come into the light, with the author's death verisimilarly
intercepted) weaving the Catalogue of the authors named in the said books
and tasted by him, found nothing
on whose account he should name S. Sophronius; but after the Theotocia
under the name of S. Sabbas produced, he subjoined those
which have S. John Damascene as author to the number seventy-five:
besides others which perhaps are by the same author;
but, the name through the carelessness of librarians omitted,
are unknown whose they are.

[19] Wagnereck moreover judges, that the Breviaries themselves of the histories
of the Saints are the invention and work of Damascene, [and perhaps the first author of the Synaxarium.] in which part indeed
they include Saints older than his age,
and constitute the Synaxarium properly so called;
and he alleges to this the authority of Aegidius Romanus, in 3 Sent.
quaest. 4 art. I § 2 num. 48 citing the Martyrology of S. John Damascene; which can be nothing other than
the Synaxarium ordered by him, and afterwards augmented
by various accessions; just as that, which today still the Greeks
use, is called the Typicon of S. Sabbas, from its first author;
and those which under the names of Jerome and Usuard are cited
as Martyrologies are believed truly to be theirs, although augmented
by various additions at the end of each day. Of the institution
and use of the Synaxarium, supplying the place of more and
larger books on the Lives of the Saints, and to that extent to be likened
to the Breviary of the Western Church on the Saints, rather
than to the more succinct Martyrology, we treated extensively
before the month of March, on the basis of that which Basil
Porphyrogennetes ordered to be collected, edited at the end of our first volume
of the Acts of the Saints of March: to which can be added, what here
about its inventor Damascene we suggest, and we believe it
the more likely, because of Acts and Martyrdoms, thus
collected in compendium, no
mention before his times do we find.

LIFE

By John Patriarch of Jerusalem.

From the Greek MS. Medicean of the King of France, with R. P. Antonio Francisco Destieu S. J. as Interpreter.

John Damascene, Confessor (S.)

BY JOHN OF JERUSALEM FROM GR. MS.

CHAPTER I.

The fatherland and lineage of John; his father's liberal humanity toward captives.

[1] Men have been wont, for the glory of those,
who the divine image in their souls uncontaminated
and incorrupt with primigenial integrity preserved, [If Saints are honored with precious statues]
or even more often deformed and contaminated
restored, to make sacred images of bodies and effigies.
But those for whom more magnificent cult
is at hand, their hands also full of riches more splendid
according to the amplitude, and bring splendid
materials, and on the same of them sculpt the lineaments,
that those who in this way reckon themselves with greater honor
toward holy Men to be discharged. If therefore in the artifice of images
they so eagerly study splendor, how
fittingly will neglected and unformed speech be commemorating things done by them?
Pardon indeed should be given to the more rustic,
narrating with extempore speech, as they can, the deeds
of those, who pleased Christ: [the more should their life be adorned with cultivated discourse,] but
indeed to those, to whom the faculty of speaking is acquired by study,
in no way should be excused, if the lives of Saints
they have cast down written with light, as the impulse carried, hand:
and especially the Lives of those men, to whom the Spirit
and life gave space for vigil over books, and who
by the help of doctrine both the mind from ignorance and oblivion,
and the soul from every turbulent motion vindicated:
who moreover to this earthly compass have brought
ornament; who illustrated the minds of all by their elaborated
writings, having not only of external
wisdom enticements, but of the Paraclete also
abundantly vibrating light.

[2] Of these, and among the first, [especially of John Damascene] is one that celebrated
John, to whom the surname from Damascus the city of his fatherland
with the fame of an illustrious Man was given. For he
arose as no small star of the ecclesiastical firmament;
but both the greatest and most splendid, not only
in the night of heresy diffused everywhere shining, but every
also that ill-meaning gloom by sent forth rays of his
eloquence dispelling. For diffused everywhere
in the lands was night, [who dispelled the night of heresies by his writings] obscuring the splendid forms of venerable images.
There was indeed a deep gloom,
which he who brought and diffused, was not someone
of the people, who namely in some part of the orb the evil
would sow; but holding the scepter of the Roman Empire,
the very ends of the orb, so to speak,
he embraced with his hand: by which it was, that with much fury everywhere
breathing, and with great force overthrowing
the venerable images, their cultors as well,
in the manner of a lion seizing and roaring, [under Leo the Iconoclast,] that one in name
and mind a Lion, partly tore in pieces, partly of the Orthodox
some by his roaring scattered to other places, and into
hiding-places of subterranean recesses he drove, and many preferred
to dwell with lions and dragons,
than to abide with him and his ministers:
others however struck with fear ran far to the extreme ends of the earth
(for the Lion roars, and who
shall not fear?) and from him, as from the sight of an asp,
fled.

[3] [opposing him generously.] But this man, having his name from the grace, with which he was
imbued, with anger against only the serpent
boiling (so that to the study of religion and to virtue
this anger might be turned for him) not from Thrace, which
at that time he inhabited, to the Sarmatians; not from the
Byzantine city, to the columns of Hercules did he flee in flight;
nor from palaces did he pass to solitude
on account of the roar of this Lion; but living first at Damascus,
afterwards in Palestine, and exercised in
solitary place, against the Lion most strongly fought,
and his heart from such an interval of places,
with the arms of eloquence, fashioned by the fire of the Paraclete and
hardened by vital water, like with three-pronged spears the strongest
warrior of mine pierced through. But of these things in their own place
our oration shall expound more ornately: unless perhaps
it be fair, which truly is not, to neglect such a man's
life unadorned, as it is, and only in tongue and
Arabic letters written. Therefore I must expound
from what and how noble a root this most flourishing
shoot blossomed, and which fatherland soil
boasts to have produced it.

[4] [In whom Damascus was born to the highest glory of the city] It is the city of Damascus. For as it itself glories
much in Paul, whom one day to ascend the heavens,
first it saw, with impiety cast away, from an enemy of Christ
made a lover of Christ; so by right and merit
much glory it takes from this man, who neither
came from elsewhere, nor from another religion to the right
was led, but whom from the very root it brought forth;
and forming him for piety more, than for the habit of body
in midwifing, and nourishing in teaching,
on account of this its shoot magnificently itself raises
and exults, and from it took greater pleasure,
than from the ornaments, which it has for splendor;
whether you say the temperateness of the year, or the streams
of sweet and pellucid waters, with which it is irrigated
much. Nor indeed does the abundance of the best fruits
exalt this city so much, as this beautiful and noble
tree born from it, which according to the courses of waters nourished produced timely fruits of the Holy Spirit,
some of which are perpetually fresh among us,
as beautiful in sight, so sweet to taste, and finally
of such kind, that those, by whom they are reached and tasted,
not only with pleasure they affect, but also
fatten and increase those eating them, and exalt them into men
perfect in spirit, and complete in all numbers.
So the city of Damascus on account of this its offspring
is in greater glory, than on account of all other goods,
and pleasures, of which it has abundance.

[5] [from ancestors most especially Christian] This therefore is the city, which bore that man.
But he had pious ancestors, and who in the midst
of thorns kept the flower of piety and the fragrance of Christian
science alone; alone the Christian name,
just as a precious heritage, not by any force
to be wrested away retained, with orthodox doctrine among
themselves nothing depraved, from which time the Hagarenes
took the city. Hence their virtue made them illustrious
in the midst of the impious, and the enemies themselves revered such
virtue: or rather, just as Daniel
on account of shown specimens of piety among the Assyrians,
among the Egyptians Joseph, illustrated God; them
in foreign and hostile land although captives, He constituted
arbiters and Lords of affairs; in the same manner
the ancestors of John, moderators of public affairs here also
among the Saracens He made to be; [and honored among the Saracens themselves] and
here also pious captives commanded the impious, into whose
power they had come. O great miracles of God!
O admirable calamities! Nothing surely than virtue
is more sublime, nothing than piety more excellent and exalted.
For as standards on a hill, or rather as in
night a lamp, as a seed in Israel, as in ash
sparks; so was the lineage of John's ancestors left
at Damascus, to bring forth this conspicuous torch,
which to the ends of the earth would shine ahead.

[6] [with the father given to virtue beyond the rest] Such therefore to him, whom we have undertaken to praise,
were his ancestors. But the father himself, as one who was from such
good stock propagated, in piety and other virtues
striving to surpass them, presented an even greater
charity of God. And surely it was consonant,
that to a man so distinguished and about to come to the highest peak
of virtue such, whom he was about to have nearer,
author of life would fall, who his own ancestors
in splendor would surpass; that with continued
as it were in some progression by right and composed
reason the ascent on high might be built, and so
the things which would happen to this great and celebrated man
would be seen to be governed by divine providence from heaven: just as
also concerning John the Baptist it happened.
For since he was about to shine with greater light than the earlier Prophets,
and, [and of great charity toward captives:] which is far before the dignity of the prophetic Priesthood,
that sacred mystery, the baptism of the Lord he was about to perform; by divine providence
it was procured, that not from the rank of the common people, but
from the priestly tribe he should come forth, and have a parent
the Prophet. In like manner also to our John divine
providence gave a father a man especially both religious,
and humane. For prefect of the administration of public affairs
of the whole dominion; both
on account of his much virtue, and on account of the rest of his life's
splendor, with riches with which he flourished
much, not for feasting and drinking
he abused with absurd expense; but as much as in gold
he had, and in other movable goods, that he made
the price of redeeming Christian captives:
the most splendid faculties of movable things which through
Judaea and Palestine he had, to redeemed
Christians, who in those places had chosen for themselves a seat,
he distributed for rest and sufficient
sustenance of life; allowed others under the open
sky and free foot, to set out wherever they wished.
So full of humanity was the virtue of this man.
For he had so much, as one who had nothing,
returning his faculties to God night and day.

[7] When he was such, not of hospitality, like Abraham,
but of humanity he received the reward, [who given to that son from heaven,] an admirable
offspring, if not from a promise, certainly from divine
foreknowledge and predestination. For God knew beforehand
how John was to turn out, whom therefore
to such a Man He predestined to be born as son [b], and
at the same time as a reward of humanity shown to those,
who with hard captivity had exchanged liberty.
There is born therefore to him this excellent boy, and with tender
still little body through the regeneration of a spiritual mother [c],
his father makes his offspring a son of light, executing
a thing not indeed easy then, and which in the midst of those
nations not many would dare. Thereafter
the father's care for the son was, [providing him a teacher to instruct] not that he should learn together to drive
horses, dexterously brandish a spear, from a bow most skillfully
aiming send an arrow; with wild beasts engage,
and turn natural mildness into bestial
cruelty, as not rarely happens to many of disturbed mind,
and rushing forth in some furious and immane manner. To these arts not
was sought by John's father another Chiron [d], nourished in mountains,
and nourishing his pupil with the marrow of stags:
but a man was sought trained in every kind of erudition,
endowed with every eloquence, who would belch forth a good word
from the heart of the soul, that he might also nourish his
own son with such food and feast. This indeed
so pious desire God fulfilled for him, and he was found
by the seeker, of such a kind as was sought. But to him
seeking such a fortune offered itself.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The excellent progress of John and Cosmas under their teacher Cosmas brought from Italy.

[8] The Damascene barbarians, having made, as they were wont, an excursion
toward the shores of the sea, much booty of Christian
men had taken, [Cosmas the monk captured by the Saracens] and entering the sea
they had led away the captive crowd in ships: but those led away
into the city partly they offered for sale to buyers,
partly they reserved to be slaughtered with the sword.
Among their number was a man in monastic habit, born
in Italy [b], beautiful in face, more beautiful in mind,
Cosmas [c] by name, in whose face a certain
gravity shone forth, indicating the internal habit of mind.
At his feet threw themselves those, who were
being dragged to death: him they besought, that he might render
God propitious to them, and obtain the pardon of their crimes from
his easy will toward men by his prayers.
The barbarians themselves observing the reverence with which
those about to die turned themselves to him, a man of such
gravity of morals, [among those condemned to death] approaching him asked,
what dignity in the world he had used, by what honor
among the Christians he was distinguished? He replied:
No order of sacred grades have I attained, but I am a useless
Monk, instructed in Philosophy,
not only ours and friendly to God, but also that
which has external sages as authors. These things at the same time he said,
and tears arising filled his eyes.

[9] [the father of John understanding him weeping,] Not far from there had stood John's parent,
and beholding the man so profusely weeping, approaches,
about to console his calamity with words, and says, Why,
O divine man, do you weep over the loss of this orb, which
already long ago you have renounced; and as, from this garment I conjecture,
even dead also? Not of this life, replied
the Monk, do I deplore the loss: for, as you say, I am
dead to the world. This grieves me uniquely, that I have aspired
to all human disciplines in vain,
making them as it were a foundation for myself the orb,
which is called, of the sciences. I exercised my tongue in Rhetoric;
I am instructed in dialectical precepts and demonstrations;
about morals I have endeavored to know, as much
as [d] the Stagirite, as much as the son of Ariston [e] handed down;
the whole nature of things, as much as is enough for man,
[that the sciences acquired with much study] by speculation I have investigated; arithmetical reasonings
I have learned; geometry I hold to the rule; the harmonies
of music and concordant numbers I know well enough,
to the motion and conversion of the heaven whatever pertains,
I have not neglected, that at length from the magnitude and
beauty of created things I might obtain knowledge equal according to my capacity
of the Creator himself. For
whoever has obtained more certain knowledge of created things,
he both knows their Author more certainly,
and on account of admirability looks up more. Thence to
the secrets of Theology I have progressed, both that which the Greeks
have handed down, and that which is by our Theologians
explained with most certain reason. With these sciences therefore
filled, not yet I have hastened to give to anyone in matter so useful
a part to be had, and to procreate a son for the father
who would correspond to philosophical
studies. For as most love
to take up natural children, hence reckoning the succession of lineage
to remain: so also those who have devoted themselves to Philosophy,
desire to beget children through philosophical institution,
that the golden lineage of Philosophers may be preserved
perpetually among the living; they themselves, that they may have been authors of
admirable offspring, may obtain immortal glory. [had not communicated to another;] For it is proper to all
of benign nature in general, that they wish to make others
participants of the goods of which they are rich; therefore he who is not such, nor
wishes that, does not act rightly, but malignantly, full of a certain
pride and envy; since he cannot be brought
to share with others, if he abounds in any good.
Wherefore even what he seems to have, will be taken away from
him, just as happened to the servant not placing the talent with the bankers.
I therefore, who have chosen the good part, would greatly
wish to hand down the doctrine acquired by me to others;
but my vow being frustrated, that I might be reckoned among those faithful
servants, who increased the talents placed with others
twofold, with no son begotten through Philosophy,
I depart life without offspring; and on that account miserable, as I might say,
I depart with my face, as you see, foul with tears, sad and dejected.

[10] [f] [obtains the same from the Prince] These words when he had heard who desired such a treasure,
he replied: Come, blessed man, console your own mind,
for perhaps the petitions of your heart will the Lord give you.
These things at the same time said the father of John, with what speed he could most quickly
ran to the Prince of the Saracens, and at his
knees fell, asking that most ornate man Cosmas
for himself. Nor did he carry away a refusal of his petition, but
received as a gift of altogether enormous price Cosmas, whom
led to his houses he began to console, and from long
endurance of hard things worn out he began to refresh. Then also
adding such things; Not only, he said, in the future
are you free, but even of my house I wish you to be sharer and lord
together with me, [and entrusts to him his son John and Cosmas the adoptive] and partner in all my joy
and sorrow. One thing however from you

I ask, honorable man, that this indeed natural son of mine,
John, and besides this other one of the same name as you,
who born at Jerusalem, and at tender age bereaved of parents,
I have adopted as a spiritual son, with all
your science and Philosophy, whether external or that with which
the grace of the Holy Spirit imbues the worthy, you most diligently
inform and instruct. These things heard our Philosopher seemed
like a horse violently breaking his bonds
and shaking the spaces of the field with his hooves; or like
a thirsty stag rushing in course to the fountains of waters:
you would have said equally that he, like a new Midas, had fallen
upon great treasures of gold by chance; with such alacrity
to the matter prompt he takes up the youths, and becomes their teacher.

[11] [who taught by him all the disciplines] Then John, like an eagle by its wings,
his excellent natural disposition of mind and study were carrying him flying through heaven.
But Cosmas, his brother in spirit, and fellow-disciple in study,
you would have said was a ship borne with sails spread like wings through
the water, with favorable winds blowing, and zephyrs swelling
the stern. Thus by the swiftness of ingenium and contention of study
all more abstruse doctrine was acquired by them,
both that which is occupied in writing, and that which is in disputing
and demonstrating. Meanwhile the discipline of morals
not only cultivated their mind, but also pacified the turbulent
motions of the soul, and as the eagle fixes its sharp eyes
on the sun, so they fixed their unaverted eyes on the natures of things
expounded in words. [in each they emerged eminent] But arithmetical proportions
they pursued no less happily, than either
also so skilled in geometric demonstrations,
that other Euclids, or if any were
similar, they were judged; but in poetic
faculty so eminent, as they seem to learned men on account of
the divine poems which they wrote. But how great in astronomy
John was, although he himself wrote few things,
on intervals, stations, habits, retreats with even
reasoning for a brief instruction of the more rude,
appears clearly. Such through all things
also was Cosmas, whose praises
I leave the oration to others; for our subject of praise is John.

[12] [and specially in Theological matters John,] Who moreover the exact knowledge in him of theological dogmas
will not recognize and admire from his elementary
book, which if anyone shall say is perfect with all the precepts
of right reason, and the Mosaic tablets,
he will not have erred from the truth. [i] But these things to the commendation of the book
I know were to be said afterwards, not
now: yet we have said it here, in argument
of the discipline cultivated by him, that may be understood,
how the whole of it he undertook with diligence
and erudition;
and how, what certainly has admirability, he was not
exalted by knowledge and that cognition; but rather
as the branches of fertile trees with abundant fruit's
weight bend down toward the earth, [yet nothing more elevated thence:] so John let himself
down with manifold fruit of doctrines fruitful, that
not into the ground indeed looking, but into the deepest
sea of Philosophy; through which because
by human affections, like by some ship, he was borne,
he wished to unburden it from this world, and to put off entirely
the garments of bodily affections, and so
with naked mind to plunge into the sea and reach the bottom,
that he might find there lying a pearl of great price.
This when he had in his vows and before his eyes, to the very lowest
abyss he descended, neither inflated by knowledge
was he extolled, but by the desire of more recondite knowledge
he was much abased. So however the lamp of his intellectual mind
abounded with the oil of human erudition,
that to its kindled light from heaven, which corporeal matter
does not nourish, equally him to bring near, the whole
fiery John seemed to be.

[13] [and to his father he is restored by the teacher] Meanwhile the master, deservedly led to love of his pupil,
approaching the boy's father: Behold, he said, what
you desired, that you have obtained: these boys excel me in doctrine:
neither was it sufficient for them to have equaled their teacher,
but by greatness of ingenium and never relaxed
endeavors, with God especially augmenting the gift of wisdom for them,
to a higher peak of Philosophy than I,
they have been borne. Hereafter useful my work to them cannot be;
my reward of which let it be, that through you it be allowed me to retire
into the institute of solitary life, and in it the highest wisdom
to investigate by prudent counsel. [retiring to the Laura of S. Sabbas:] For, what
before I learned of Philosophy, that transmits me to this:
to be enriched however with two goods is more blessed for me,
and to add to the possession of the prior wisdom that, which
is sundered from all matter and surpasses all thought,
such as only the naked mind and entirely abstracted from
the body can perceive. Heavy fell on John's
parent this discourse of the Philosopher: but to retain
the man he could not, lest he might seem to have malignantly returned
the reward for his son's instruction in the sciences. He dismissed therefore
with good grace the Philosopher, supplied with viaticum
most copious for use. He however to the Laura of S. Sabbas in
solitude went, where remaining until death,
to the highest wisdom God himself by dying he departed. [k] Departed
also by death John's parent: [and John is created Protosymbolus.] but John the Saracen
Prince calling to himself, adorned him with the dignity of first
Counselor. And he indeed refused, with desire drawing him elsewhere:
at length compelled by much force he could not resist
any longer, and so with greater power
he is substituted for his parent. [l]

ANNOTATIONS

CHAPTER III.

For the defense of sacred images having suffered calumny, he loses his hand: which the same miraculously received, he obtains to be discharged from the office of Senator.

[14] [The mad Leo Isaurian against images] At
that time the Roman empire governed
Leo Isaurian, whom against the holy images
and the rightly thinking assembly of the Church, just as
a roaring and seizing lion, his fury drove:
for those he consumed by the fire of his bestial rage, but the cultors
themselves of those, seizing and destroying, with the teeth of tyrannical
impiety pitiably tore. These things
when they had come to John's ears, with Elijah's impetus
to defend sacred things, and the Baptist's free confidence in reproving
of his namesake imitating
(as if the Holy Spirit were anointing within him him, who even
before unction had been destined to be an adversary of impiety),
his discourse like a spiritual sword he drew,
to cut off the doctrine of the bestial man as a head.
To the Orthodox therefore, to whom he was known,
for the honor of the venerable images he sent Epistolary [a]
exhortations, laboriously showing
and most wisely, [and not bearing John's zeal for them,] necessary the adoration of images.
He also exhorted them, that they should commemorate similar things
to others, and show his Letters to all;
and in every way the new defender of truth was striving,
that as if through the world from hands to hands of the pious his
letters might go, and so the right doctrine be confirmed. Finally,
by the example of Paul he tried the orb of the earth, if not
with feet, certainly with the truth promulgated through Letters
to traverse.

[15] [Some letter of his sought out] Which when the Emperor Leo learned, summoning some
devoted to his error, when now his impiety
he could not bear to be transfixed, with John's letters openly
promulgating it; he orders, with the appearance of religion feigned,
with all study and through the catching of conversation,
to catch a Letter written by John's hand. Wherefore
those protectors of impiety did not desist with concealed deceit
to move every stone, and what they had been ordered,
to seek out, until having found the Letter
they handed it over into the hands of the Emperor. He moreover summoning
some of his notaries, sets forth the form of the Letter
for them to imitate, that they might represent both the marks
of the writing, and sentiments and locutions. He had ready
the work of many for this: them commands
that disgraceful Emperor, that they should write to himself as if
from John a Letter, of which this was the sentiment.

[16] [feigns one as if written to himself by him,] Hail Emperor. To your majesty by this title
I congratulate that the same is the faith of each of us.
I, with veneration due to your Imperial dignity,
by which above the rest you are exalted, testify benevolence;
which has effected, that I should signify to you,
this our city is altogether negligently guarded,
and the garrison of Hagarene soldiers is most slight
and infirm. Wherefore, by immortal God,
have mercy on this city, which by no labor
you will occupy, if from a sudden you send a strenuous band
of soldiers, which feigns the journey elsewhere. I also
to this expedition will contribute something, for almost the whole
region with the city itself is in my power. With this Letter
adorned, that impious one with equal malignity writes another
to Damascus to the Prince of the Saracens, [and sends to the Saracen Prince:]
which had thus: Just as nothing more blessed than peace,
nothing more fortunate than friendship; so to keep the leagues
of peace and praiseworthy and pleasing to God I judge.
Therefore before every other thing this is to me prior, inviolate,
which with you, most noble man, I have sanctioned, to guard the friendship
of peace; although for it to be dissolved and broken
shrewdly the faith, by some living under your imperium
of the Christians by clandestine and frequent letters
I am incited, asserting that he will certainly come to me to capture your city by hand, only if a firm
army I should send there. Wherefore one of the Letters
sent to me by him I have sent back to you, that
the things, which I write to you about, I may confirm: at the same time that you may understand,
of what and how integral I am in alliances; moreover that you may
know the malevolence and fraudulence of him, who has dared to write
these things to me.

[17] Both these Letters that man, like in name a Lion,
so also a serpent in cunning, [who orders the right hand of John to be cut off.] sends to the Barbarian. Which
when received he calls John to himself, and shows him the suborned
Letter. Which John running through,
confessed the forms of the letters to be similar to his;
but what was contained in them, that he did not at all know,
nor that it ever entered his mind, he said.
The fraud and snares were not hidden from him reading: but
that enemy of Christ, the Prince, to John's words just
as, they say, an ass to a lyre, conducted himself:
for he was deaf to the sincere and veracious words, but did not press his unjust
imperium with silence; but on the spot he orders to be cut off
John's right hand: but a brief
time of begging to clear his crime, and the fury
of the impious man toward himself to recount, the Barbarian denied,
who carried away by fury did not contain himself at all.
Therefore was cut off that right hand, which strength
through its writings had instilled in the souls of those
rightly thinking about God: was cut off that right hand, which
attacked the enemies of God; and, which before when the cult
of images with pen it championed, was tinged with ink,
now itself is tinged with its own blood. Cut off
indeed they suspended it on high, so to speak, in
the forum.

[18] As soon as evening rendered darkness, and at length
John thought that the fury of the Tyrant had subsided,
to him he sent a suppliant embassy in these
words: My pains are growing, [which received and applying to his arm] and have now reached such a state,
that they cannot be borne: nor will the sharp force of the evil
remit, as long as my amputated hand hangs in the air:
wherefore command it to be returned to me as a benefit,
that I may bury it in the earth, and the pain may cease to rage.
The Tyrant immediately yielded to his prayers, and was given to the just man
his hand. Which he, having received, betook himself into a domestic
oratory, where prone with all his body before the divine
image of the Mother of God, and putting back the cut-off
right hand to its native joining, from the depth of his breast
he began to beseech her, so easy to the wretched, with
groans and tears exclaiming: Lady, Mother,
who didst purest bear God, [asks to be restored to him by the Mother of God:] behold on account of
the sacred images this right hand has been cut off from me.
You do not ignore the cause of the fury, with which Leo raged:
succor therefore as quickly as you can, and heal
the hand. That right hand of the Most High, which from you took flesh,
with you interceding, of his virtue performs many miracles:
this hand therefore at your prayers may He heal, O
Mother of God, that your praises, of which you shall have given matter,
and of the son born from you, with composed numbers
for chant it may write, and lend its work to the orthodox cult:
for you can do whatever pleases you, since you are the Mother of God.

[19] These things John not without tears praying is seized by sleep,
[and with this obtained through a vision,] and he sees the sacred image of the parent of God
turn to him eyes full of compassion and hilarity,
and to speak: Behold, your right hand has been healed: of
the rest cease not, but it as you just now promised me,
make it the pen of a scribe writing swiftly. Awakening
contemplating curiously, and seeing it healed,
exulted in spirit in God his savior, and in the Mother of God:
because He has done great things for him, who is mighty.
Then standing on his feet he raised his hands to heaven,
and sang a chant befitting that time most beautifully; and the whole
night together with all the family rejoicing, to give thanks
to God modulated a new song: Your right hand,
O Lord, [sings eucharistic hymns with the family.] magnificently to your praise has used
its power; your right hand has restored to me my torn-off
hand, and through it shall break the enemies, who
do not honor your venerable image and that of your Mother.
You also through my hand, not without your manifold
glory, shall crush the adversaries who tear apart images.
So that night was a day for him, not however a night, nor
darkness, but light. And to use the prophetic voice
in a slightly different way; there was a voice there, not
confused, of those keeping a feast day, a voice of those feasting in
the tabernacle of the just man.

[20] [Wherefore summoned to the Prince] These things moreover were not done secretly, nor in silence:
but that wonderful sound, and as if to numbers
led acclamation reached the whole surrounding neighborhood.
Hence forthwith some of the enemies of Christ
Saracens went to their Prince, asserting that John's
hand had not been cut off, but perhaps another's,
or some servant of the family, who through benevolence had given himself
for his Lord; but those, to whom prefecture had been ordered,
had exchanged the punishment for a price. For John, they said,
sitting at home thus sings, thus exults, that you would think
he were celebrating nuptials, and raising the sound of bridal
hymeneals: indeed of such
joys his exultation seems greater. [and attesting the miracle wrought on himself,] This
news brought, John is summoned: who having come,
is ordered to show his cut-off right hand. This
shown, a certain little line of the cutting, the Mother
of God so arranging the matter, betrayed itself, and was a manifest
indication of the most true mutilation. To these things
the Barbarian asks, what physician, what medicaments
applied to the wound had cured. John however
with clear and great voice proclaiming the miracle;
The Lord, he says, my, the omnipotent physician,
who has force and power not at all slow to prayers.

[21] [and declared innocent] To whom again the Barbarian: As far as I conjecture,
whatever you have suffered, O man, you have suffered with no
crime of yours: but pardon me, that with inconsiderate
sentence against reason I imposed that punishment
on you: now however administering your former office
you shall occupy the chief place among our counselors;
nor shall we hereafter do anything except with you as author.
But he casting himself on the ground, adored;
and prone for a long time besought, that to depart
elsewhere, and to enter another and more lovable way,
he be allowed, and to follow him, who says, I am
the way. The Barbarian on the contrary denied the faculty of withdrawing,
and one might see in a duel, so to speak, contending the Barbarian
and the Just one: the former laboring much
to retain John impeded by the bonds of the world;
this with some force striving to break those, and with angelic
wings to fly away. Then truly an immense field
lay open, in which sat as arbiter of the contest Christ,
spectators were the Angels. [obtains the faculty of retiring to a monastery.] Someone may have said perhaps
not without reason, that evil spirits from the left side had
added courage to the Barbarian, and at the same time mildness for caressing
and persuading. Conquered however after much
contention my duelist, and all the arguments proposed for persuading
by the adversary, like
puerile darts despised, and victor he departed,
his head crowned with an illustrious fillet; and the house, from which sad
before of countenance he had gone forth, with more cheerful aspect now he enters [c].

[22] [and his goods rightly distributed] There remained moreover for him to follow two sentences proposed by the Lord,
the one, which orders to sell his faculties,
and to distribute to the poor; the other,
which commands to leave even houses and fields, and all other things
for the Lord's cause. About the first he was not at all
slow to do; but about the second he did not act so,
as to leave his faculties rashly, sowing many lawsuits and
contentions among kindred, with some pretending one
right of inheritance and another another:
but going middle between both, his goods
he divided to the poor and captives, also to his
servants, whom he gave with liberty, to kindred,
also a part of his own being consecrated to divine temples. Therefore
as naked from his mother's womb he went out, so he departed from the world,
all other things, [enters the Laura of S. Sabbas with Cosmas.] except a necessary garment,
stripped. Such he went to Jerusalem, where adored,
with the worship that was fitting, the majesty of the holy places,
just as a stag burning with divine thirst, retiring into solitude,
he reached the Laura of the divine Sabbas; having not
only of the journey, but also of his counsel a companion and partner
Cosmas, whom previously of the same education
and institution he had had as a sharer. You would have said they
were a holy pair, who together were running to the yoke of Christ,
that they might subject their necks to it.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

The monastic exercise of John, and under an austere old man perfect obedience.

[23] Therefore John, who alone is the subject of my writing,
having entered that divine sheepfold, falls
at the feet of the Pastor, [The rest refusing the care of instructing him,] earnestly praying that he might add him alone
to the other sheep of the flock, calling himself a lost sheep,
and from deserted mountains now first to Christ
the Pastor returning. The Pastor of the sacred
flock rejoiced at this matter, and called him blessed by that counsel:
and since on account of the splendor of life and rich faculty
of ingenium that novice seemed to be entrusted to one of the chief
elders, that with such a guide he might safely enter the way of God;
whom alone he believed especially conspicuous in all virtues,
first he summons, and to him to entrust John
he labors. But he refused, alleging he was not at all
equal to ruling so celebrated in doctrine
a man. The prefect of the flock dismisses this old man, and
after him summons another: the second alleges the same
as the first. The third also after these
is brought, and others besides these not a few: but with one
voice all began to deprecate the care of instructing John.

[24] [is handed over to a certain learned old man,] After so many however another at last is brought
an old man, simple in morals, but endowed
with much doctrine, who with prompt mind receiving the prompt
John, takes him into his cell. And
first on the threshold he lays down for him this excellent
foundation: that he should not do anything by his own discretion; but to God
should sacrifice his sweats through the contention of assiduous
prayer, and by weeping should strive to wash away the spots
of his prior life: for God judges that sacrifice alone
pure, and more fragrant than every other incense. This
was the first precept about those things, [who instructs him in the precepts of cultivating the spirit] which are done by the help
of the body. About those things, which are of the soul alone;
he warned him not to bring back any image to his mind,
or represent forms of unsuitable things:
but to free the same from all vain swelling,
that he might not be elated by manifold knowledge of disciplines,
as if by those things, which he had learned, he had attained all things:
nor should he desire visions, or manifestations
of things placed in obscurity: not to be accustomed to lean
on his own confidence; that he might think himself without danger of error
to hold anything, until the mind itself is separated
from the body: but on the contrary that he should reckon
his own ratiocinations to be formidable, and thoughts, which
can be deceived: he should study, not to allow his mind
to be scattered, but with greatest care to collect it, that in this manner
it itself may be perfused with divine light, the soul be purged, the body
cleansed, and finally the body with the soul be joined to
the mind, that this triple thing, on account of itself with
the most simple Trinity conjunction, may turn out simple;
nor any longer of flesh, nor of soul, but
the whole man may consist of spirit, those two former by the leading of the will
into that third and primary, namely the mind, transformed.

[25] In such manner the father to the son, and the master to the disciple
prescribed, this also adding: Send to none
a letter: [and hands down silence to be kept.] commemorate nothing at all of external
disciplines. Keep silence prudently: for you know that this
is not only of our Philosophers a precept, but also Pythagoras
that Samian commanded his disciples, learning the secrets of Philosophy,
to keep it for many years.
Do not judge it right, even to utter good things at an unsuitable time,
and David teaches you this, when he says: I was silent
from good things. But what then happened to him from this, hear:
My heart, he says, grew warm within me; with the fire namely
of divine love, which by the meditation of the prophetic
mind was excited. [Ps. 38. 3.] These things the old man warned John,
not writing in waters, not sowing in rocks, but
in fertile earth.

[26] [He obeying through all things] Much time hereafter John spent
through every kind of experiment showing certain
obedience in any matter to him instituting him. No detraction of his to
commands; no complaint in his mouth;
no weighing in his mind, by which the precepts of his master
he should judge within. Indeed this one thing as if
sculpted in the inmost tablets, so deeply settled in his mind,
that, whatever he did, whatever
he was ordered to do, that according to the counsel of Paul without complaint
and discussion he gave effect: for what
does it help him to do rightly, on whose lips sits, or in whose
heart lurks anything of complaining murmur, or,
like a serpent, nefarious discussion? when more upright will
the mind of him so feeling become? when further to better things
will it be advanced? therefore those who are such, labor in vain
profiting nothing in interior things.

[27] [also ordered to sell baskets at too high a price] Hereafter however with sharper bouts of obedience
exercising his pugilist, what does the old man not contrive?
Baskets, which they were wont to weave with their own hands
collecting many, having seized the occasion, says
to John: Baskets, son, if anywhere in the whole Palestine,
at Damascus I have learned are sold for much; and we have need,
as you yourself know, of many things: wherefore
all those baskets, as quickly as you can, having collected,
go thither; nor sell them at any less, than you have been ordered
by me: at the same time the price, more than was fitting, doubly greater he defines.
He returned nothing, neither did he discuss the words of the one ordering,
sure to obey
even unto death. He lifts the burden upon his shoulders,
and as if he added wings to his feet by zeal of obeying, so
he sets out for Damascus clothed in patches, with squalor
and filth covered, who himself before in that place
had been seen conspicuous in splendor. There he goes through the forum offering
baskets for sale; [humbly obeys.] which because he valued at much,
he was moving laughter, exposed to the mocks and injuries of all.
Until at length one of those, whom he had had as a servant,
since he was illustrious and famous in the city,
standing opposite, and recalling his face to mind,
recognized the man so abject and ragged, who he was and once had been:
and touched with compassion approached,
as if he did not know him whom he knew, and bought the baskets
at the price as much as was demanded. With this
received, John takes the way back to him who
had sent him, and like a victor with brisk step returns,
with the enemy laid low, parent of vainglory and pride.

[28] [Asked to compose an Epitaph] By chance among John's neighbors was a Monk, who
had exchanged earthly pilgrimage for a heavenly dwelling,
and had departed to God. By blood
he had a brother, who, conquered by calamity,
could not at all conceal the bitterness of his fraternal
funeral. Wherefore John consoled him, with what
words he could recalling him from grief. But he persisting
in mourning, asked John tearfully, that he should write him
some bit of song to lighten his grief and rouse
his mind. John reverenced the command of the Old man,
and did not assent to the petition; but the other did not desist
asking, sad and afflicted. For why,
he said, do you not pity a grieving mind? why do you not apply to it
some slight medicament, which may put pain to sleep?
If you were a physician of bodies, and disease had pervaded my body,
[when contrary to the precept of the old man he had assented] but you would not apply a remedy to me as far as your strength allowed
when I was ill and entering the way of death,
would you not be giving the punishments of contemned and neglected me
to God? Now therefore while you contemn and neglect me
worse off, you will give graver punishments. If you fear
the Old Man's command, know that I will hold this matter
so secret, that no one will hear. Bent
by this discourse John, on the dead one composes an elegant song,
which is sung by all to this day with this
beginning: All human things are vanity.

[29] [and therefore was expelled by him,] By chance John's master was away from the cell, who
meanwhile was singing that song in tunes within the cell;
when the Old Man running outside, and catching that singing
voice with much anger exclaims: Have the first
promises so fallen away, that for grief and mourning you have caught delights
by singing, and diffused with joy you sit? He
soon explains the cause to the old man, and pleads the grief of him
who had constrained him, and prone on the ground asks pardon
for himself. But the Old Man stood like a rock or anvil, granting
nothing to the supplicant, and on the spot expelled him
from the cell. Here at once into the admirable man's mind there came the disobedience of the first parents,
on account of which they were expelled from paradise. And now having no place where to stand, nor
whither to turn, he grieved more deeply than that one to whom
his brother had perished, saying these things within his mind: That
one indeed has lost a brother, but I through disobedience my
soul have lost. At length approaching other Old Men,
whom he knew to be eminent in virtue above the rest,
he sends the same as legates to the Old Man, earnestly to plead,
that he should suffer himself to be soothed, and pardon John for
his fault. They went therefore, and earnestly besought:
but he like a statue was nothing moved by prayers,
nor did he give the disciple permission to return to the cell.

[30] Then one of these Monks said:
You could impose on him who has erred something else, [for restoration to be obtained he is ordered to clean the latrines:]
than that he be deprived of your company. He however with severe
countenance; This, he said, law I dictate to John, if he wishes
the pardon of disobedience to be given him, that he traverse the whole
circuit of the Laura, and with his hand cleanse all the latrines
in the cells of the monks. This having been heard, when they were withdrawing
with countenance contracted and lowered for grief, much
admiring the inflexible mind of the Old Man, John ran into them;
and bowing himself in his customary way, he asked about the Father's sentence
against him. To whom they; not without stupor
they admired the Old Man's harshness, whose response
they would scarcely dare to expound for shame. But when he
strenuously and submissively contended that they should reveal it,
at length grieving they declare that base
cleansing. He however when he understood, against
all their hope rejoiced: It will be entirely easy,
he said, for me, indeed of the greatest pleasure. And
flying to the cleansing commanded immediately,
when he had sought and found the instruments he goes to the cell
of the Old Man dwelling next door; and entering it
he begins to soil those hands, which he had often
anointed with many aromas, and the right hand healed
by Christ (O great abjection of the man) with mud and dung
he contaminates.

[31] As soon however as the Old Man heard such great
promptness of John to obey, [doing which begun and praised] and his
sincere and profound, indeed sublime humility,
running he embraced him, and threw himself upon his neck,
kissing his hand, eyes, shoulders: and what,
he exclaimed, blessed pugilist of obedience have I begotten in Christ?
But John at these voices of the Old Man much
blushing, bowed himself to the earth, and as if
he had prostrated himself before God, watered the ground with tears:
and so far is it that at the paternal voices he was inflated,
or at the praises of the Old Man swelled, that more
even did he humble himself, and more, and his mind
grieved most. [more he humbles himself] So namely those, who have an exercised
intellect, we know cast themselves down at their own commendation,
and are troubled by their own praises,
referring everything to God. The father meanwhile lifts the son
from the ground, and taking him by the hand enters his cell
with joy. You would have said, having observed John,
that he was being restored by postliminy to the Paradise of pleasure;
and he who had represented the old Adam in himself before by disobeying,
now exhibited again the new image of Christ
by that singular obedience.

CHAPTER V.

The literary labors of John, and his happy passage to God.

[32] Not much time after these things had passed,
when to the Old Man [a] in sleep offers herself the Virgin
celebrated by the praises of all, [Warned by the Mother of God the Old Man not to prevent John] free of all stain:
And the spring, she says, why have you blocked up which was about to send forth such sweet streams,
so limpid, so copious, so
sweet? About to give water for refreshing minds, that, which
from a rock wonderfully burst forth in solitude, more excellent;
water of which David was captured by desire; the water
promised by Christ to the Samaritan woman? Permit
the spring to flow; for it shall flow most abundantly, and the orb
shall traverse universal, and with vast flood the seas of heresies
it shall cover, and them shall convert into admirable sweetness.
Those who thirst, let them go in haste to the water;
and those who lack the silver of pure life, with their affections
sold for the price let them buy from John of opinions
and works sincere purity. [to compose sacred chants,] He shall take up the prophetic cithara,
he the Davidic psaltery; he
shall sing new songs, songs to God the Lord: of Moses
the song he shall surpass with his musical modes, he shall surpass Mary's dance [b]: a fable shall the useless songs of Orpheus
be called: he shall stretch a spiritual and heavenly melody.
He shall pursue Cherubic hymns, and all
the churches, daughters namely of the heavenly Jerusalem, young
girls he shall make timbrel-players, who shall sing a song to God,
to announce the death and resurrection of Christ.
He shall expound the dogmas [c] of faith rightly, and
shall mark with infamy the tortuous obliquity of every heresy.
His heart shall belch forth good words, and shall announce
the Royal deeds greater than all admiration.

[33] [orders him to do this freely,] In the morning therefore the Old Man, who had learned these
secrets, calls John, and says: O Son prompt to obey
for the cause of Christ, open your mouth, that you may draw
the spirit; or rather, what in your heart you have anticipated,
through your mouth exhale. Wisdom namely your mouth
shall speak, because you have exercised yourself in much meditation of the mind.
Open your mouth, not in parables, but truths:
not in enigmas, but dogmas. Speak in
the ears of Jerusalem, of his pacific Church seeing God,
words not vain, neither flowing through the airs,
but which the Spirit inscribes on the heart. Ascend on the mountain
of Sinai, the mountain of visions and divine
revelations, and as into the abyss of profound humility
you have lowered yourself, so now come forth to the summit of the church.
Preach evangelizing Jerusalem, and in virtue exalt
your voice: for glorious things have been said to me about
you by the Mother of our Lord. Pardon whatever from
me has come to you of impediment, for through ignorance
I did it.

[34] From that time therefore divine songs beginning
John composed mellifluous chants, which adorned the Church,
and made for God a place of tabernacle,
in which the pure sound of those keeping feasts is heard.
And not these only, but also for the chief festivities
he wrote orations and a sacred book, [d]
written, as I might say, by a divine hand a tablet [who not these only but also by written books enriches the Church,]
he expounded with no small consolation of all the learned
and unlearned, as a door for entering
the mysteries of Theology and other dogmas of the true faith
and of more compendious speculation and science of those things,
which fall either under the intellect, or under
sense. Which book indeed I might call heaven,
shining like with stars, with right demonstrations,
both from nature and from Scripture taken,
and contributing much to erudition. Wherefore he who
into that heaven does not look, nor delighted by its
beauty receives light from it,
either is blind, or covered with darkness; nor would I doubt to call
that one unhappy, whoever stumbles at this divine splendor.
He moreover wrote also long books on the venerable and divine
images of commendable adoration. [e]
And the more he himself the beauty of the divine image impressed in him from the beginning
had imagined more august,
the more sublimely and more ornately he wrote about
venerable images.

[35] In these labors he had as helper with brotherly love,
whom from the divine Spirit as a brother he had received, Cosmas, [using as companion Cosmas in all things.]
that most ornate Man, and partaker of his eloquence,
institution, exercise. And
he ingeniously imitated John in his studies for spiritual
chants, and sang sweet harmonies to the cithara
and voice of the Church, his own body through the compression
of affections, fitting to God like a timbrel;
showing himself wholly as a Psaltery decachord, while
the fivefold sense of the body, and faculties of the mind equal in number
he tuned with great art and wisdom. At length also by the hand
of the Patriarch [f] of Jerusalem made Bishop of Majuma [g]
not willingly and of his own accord, but compelled by force, the flock, [This made Bishop]
as was pleasing to God, he gloriously governed;
and now advanced in great age, to his fathers,
or rather to God, by dying he passed.

[36] [he is ordained Presbyter] Meanwhile the same moderator of the Jerusalem church
divinely inspired, summons John, and ordained him,
that in the chair of the Elders he might praise
God. He however returning to the Laura of the divine Sabbas in solitude,
and his own, if it is right to say, little nest
entering, the eagle flying high, did not at all
oppose to his mind this saying of Solomon,
that Presbyters should be honored with double honor, but in another
direction, and contrary to himself, he turned that, using it
saying, that humility of mind by twice as much greater should be
procured by Presbyters, than before; by twice as much
more should Presbyters strive in their own exercise.
By Presbyters double contests must be borne, [and returned to the Laura presses on extirpating vices.]
not only against the body, but also against the soul's
hidden affections, also for those, who give themselves leisure, unless
they use eminent prudence; so that even the inner
man becomes squalid, nor do they perceive it. Of this kind
moreover are the affections, deceit; envy; false estimation
of things; secret arrogance; the study of empty glory
under the appearance of humility; curious scrutiny
of others' affairs, on account of which many evils inflict themselves
on the tongue; elevation of mind, and wandering; cunning of morals;
pride dissimulated by the lowering of the body;
abstinence joined with appetite for delicacies;
the pursuit of one's own will; love of base gain; clothing sought
outside the rule of law, whence discrepancy with the brethren,
and hidden enticement of pride.

[37] [virtues to be acquired] These vices to root out from his mind
when John was studying, he added labors to labors, especially
of the mind: and the mind itself everywhere
collecting in himself, even the books, which previously he had elaborated,
gathered, he reviewed, adorning, polishing,
correcting most accurately the diction, sense,
number, construction; and where elegance
flourished too much, and as it were to luxury, with prudent
judgment he reduced to gravity, lest anything either of ostentation,
or of levity his books should carry with them.
Surely whoever in this man's lucubrations with judgment
shall lean, [polishing his writings:] he shall behold sublimity of speculations and grave
ornament of oration. Now however who
in those orations shall not admire the zeal of piety;
and how he largely divides among all the riches of his wisdom?
For the talent of ingenium received not in
twofold only, but also in tenfold he augmented: more I
am afraid to add to the number, lest by exaggeration
also I seem to have transgressed the angelic limits: since
to say excessive things only, is unbecoming.

[38] [h] His own divine ardor also drove him to this, that
fighting for divine laws, first indeed at Damascus, [in which his zeal S. Stephen M. praises]
then from Palestine he might attack the contumelious
overthrowers of venerable images in Constantinople itself.
Hence the alumnus of that great City, who first
of the Martyrs his namesake, and, as that one for the cause of Christ,
so himself on account of His image, was overwhelmed with stones
and ran into heaven, when he made mention of John's books
written long before against the impious, the divine man
and full of God him called: although he was never
anointed with Episcopal unction (nor
indeed should the truth be dissimulated) he is to be looked up to nevertheless
as one girt at the brow with the crown of martyrdom: for
on account of the eminent zeal of piety against the pious man was
that calumny minted, on account of which his hand was cut off.

[39] With such a course of life and religious exercise completed,
faith preserved, indeed even propagated through books, and illustrated
by dogmas, [and at length having completed life he migrates to heaven,] and even to these times
established by his monuments, defended, vindicated, to
Christ his beloved he hastened: nor does he now
contemplate Him in image, or adore Him in figure;
but in face he beholds, viewing the glory of the blessed
Trinity. For these causes this pugilist of piety,
cultor of religious life, adorner of the Church, leader of Truth;
this in contests, exercises,
doctrine altogether singular man, master of the ignorant,
preceptor of the rude, it was right
to deck with praises, the greatest we could; not
that we might add some little of glory to him, but that he himself in turn
might be mindful of us in heaven, and we still on
earth dwelling might be filled with his heavenly glory, which
David testifies resides within the breast of the king's daughter, namely within the royal
mind, when he openly says: All
the glory of the king's daughter is from within. [Ps. 44, 14]

[40] Pardon moreover, O thrice Blessed, and present yourself to me
as a most ardent and perpetual patron before God,
because this excellent monument of your virtues
written simply by another man, [whence the author prays him to be propitious to him.] as he could, in Arabic
language and letters obtained, I to whom one with you
the name fell, into this discourse have taken care to
turn for the memory of posterity, both with love of you,
and impelled by your visitations, indeed even your, if so
should be spoken, mandates: and make me also an adorer
of the Trinity, free of matter, spiritual,
wholly secret from the body, wholly snatched up in contemplations,
wholly consecrated as a holocaust of divine love,
although still living in this body; that from it severed
without sense of pain, with good confidence with you to God I may be presented, to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

the orders of the Church you cheer with your mellifluous voices.
O you who illuminate the ends of the earth, pray that
our souls may be saved. II Whom shall I name you, Venerable
John and sweet-spoken? You the most shining star, you the eagle of the Trinity
illuminated, traversing the spiritual darknesses by virtue of vision; who
initiated into the ineffable mysteries of divinity, like another Moses
expounded your art of music, pray that our souls
may be saved. III Whom shall I name you,
ever to be honored? Bearer of light, illustrious leader,
minister and beholder of the mysteries of God, a star illuminating the Church,
or a most sweet flute? pray that our souls may be saved. With similar praises is also full the whole Canon, and the other parts of the divine office which are about the Saint in the Menaea.
