The Lausiac History

PTOLEMY

[i] Again another monk, Ptolemy by name, lived a life difficult, even impossible, to describe. He dwelt beyond Scete in a place called Climax.^ The place which bears this name is one in which no one can live because the well of the brethren is eighteen miles away. He then, carrying a number of pots ^ brought them there, and collecting the dew with a sponge from the rocks

1 Ps. cxviii. (cxix.). * "The Ladder."

» KiMKlffia. See XVII. 11.

io8 THE LAUSIAC HISTORY

during the months of December and January — for there is a plentiful fall of dew then in those parts — he made this suffice during the fifteen years he lived there. [2] And he became a stranger to the teaching of holy men and intercourse with them, and the benefit derived therefrom, and the constant communion of the mysteries,^ and diverged so greatly from the straight way that he declared these things were nothing ; but they say ^ he is wandering about in Egypt up to the present day all puffed up with pride, and has given himself over to gluttony and drunkenness, speaking no (edifying) word to anyone.^ And this disaster fell on Ptolemy from his irrational conceit, as it is written: "They who have no directing influence fall like leaves. ' ^

j CHAPTER XXVIII

I ■; A VIRGIN WHO FELL

Again, I knew a virgin in Jerusalem who wore sackcloth for six years and shut herself up in a cell, taking none of the things that bestow pleasure. In the end she fell, abandoned (by God) because of her excessive arrogance. She opened the window and admitted the man who waited on her and sinned with him, because she had practised asceticism not with a religious motive and for the love of God, but with human ostentation,^ which springs from vain-glory and corrupt intention. For, her thoughts being engrossed in condemning others, the guardian ^ of her chastity was absent.

^ Cf. XVI r. 9, where a five weeks' absence is enough to call down punishment.

* The translation is approximate only ; the text is quite uncertain. ^ firiSevl fM-qVev 6/j.t\ovvTa. * Prov. xi. 1 4 (LXX).

* KoTct ffK7)vriv avdpanr[v7]v, lit. on a human theatre or stage.

* /. e. guardian angel.

ELIAS 109

\' CHAPTER XXIX

ELIAS

[i] Elias, an ascetic, was a great friend of the virgins. For there are some souls hke this, whose virtuous aims testify to their goodness. He had compassion on the class of women ascetics, and having property in the city of Athribe ^ built a great monastery and brought into the monastery all the dispersed women, caring for them consistently (with his purpose), and procured them every kind of refreshment, and gardens and utensils and whatever their life required. These ladies, brought from different sorts of hves, had continual fights with one another. [2] Now since he was obliged to listen to them and make peace — for he collected some 300 of them — he found it necessary to remain in their midst for two years. Being still young, for he was some thirty to forty years old, he was tempted by desire. And having left the monastery he wandered fasting in the desert for two days, making this request in his prayer : "Lord, either kill me, that I may not see these women in trouble, or take away my passion that I may care for them in a rational way." [3] When evening had come, he fell asleep in the desert, and three angels came to him — so he told the story — and caught hold of him and said : " Why did you leave the monastery of the women ? " He explained the matter to them. " Because I was afraid I might harm both them and myself." They said to him : " Then if we relieve you of the

^ "We cannot be certain whether the Athribe here mentioned was Aihribis in the Delta, or Atripe, also called Athribis, near Panopolis. But in all probability it was the latter. Atripe was on the west bank of the Nile nearly opposite to Panopolis (Akhmim), at 26° 30' N. Latitude. Here was Schenoudi's great White Monastery, the ruins of which are still standing. Schenoudi established also a convent of nuns at Atripe, and the story in the text may possibly refer to this convent" (Butler).

no THE LAUSIAC HISTORY

passion, will you go and care for them ? " He agreed to this. They made him swear an oath. [4] He said this was the oath : " Swear to us, by Him Who cares for me I will care for them." And he swore to them. Then one of them seized his hands, and another his feet, and a third taking 'a razor unmanned him, not really but in the vision. So he seemed to himself to have been cured, so to say, in the trance. They asked him: "Do you feel any benefit?" He said to them: " I feel greatly lightened and am persuaded that I am relieved of my passion." [5] They said to him: "Go away, then." And he returned after five days, the monastery mourning for him the while, and went in and remained inside henceforward, in an adjoining cell, from which being near at hand he corrected them continually so far as he could. But he lived forty years more, always assuring the fathers : " Passion comes no more into my mind." Such was the gift of grace of that holy man who thus looked after the monastery.