The Lausiac History

THE NUN WHO FEIGNED MADNESS

[i] In this monastery there was another virgin who feigned madness and possession by a demon. And they detested her so much that they would not even eat with her, she preferring this. She would wander about in the kitchen and do every kind of menial work, and she was, as they say, " the monastery sponge," fulfilling in fact the words of Scripture : " If any one seem to be wise among you in this world, let him become foolish that he may be wise." ^ She fastened some rags on her head — all the rest had the tonsure and wore cowls — and served in this guise. [2] None of the 400 sisters ever saw her chewing during the years of her life. She never sat at table, nor partook of a piece of bread, but wiping up the crumbs from the tables and washing the kitchen pots she was content with what she got in this way. Never did she insult any one nor grumble nor talk either little or much, although she was cuffed and insulted and cursed and execrated.

[3] Now an angel appeared to the holy Piteroum, an anchorite of high reputation who dwelt in Porphyrites,^

1 Cf. XXI. 15. 2 I Cor. iii. 18.

^ On the shores of the Red Sea. Piteroum may perhaps be identical with Pityrion the disciple of Antony, mentioned in Hist. Mon. XVII,

THE NUN WHO FEIGNED MADNESS 119

and said to him : " Why are you proud of yourself for

being religious and dwelling in a place like this ? Do

you want to see a woman who is more religious than

you ? Go to the monastery of the Tabennesiot women

and there you will find a woman wearing a crown on

her head. She is better than you. [4] For though

she spars with so great a crowd, she has never let her

heart go away from God. But you sit here and wander

in imagination through the different cities." ^ And he

who had never gone out went off to that monastery and

besought the masters ^ to let him go to the monastery of

the women. They were emboldened to let him in, since

he was famous and advanced in years. [5] And having

gone in he demanded to see them all. But she did

not appear. At last he said to them : " Bring me all, for

there is one lacking." They said to him : " We have one

within in the kitchen, a sakP ^ For thus they style the

mentally afflicted. He said to them : " Bring her also to

me. Let me see her." They went off to call her. She

did not answer, perhaps perceiving what was the matter,

or even having had a revelation. They drag her forcibly

and say to her : " The holy Piteroum wants to see

you " ; for he was famous. [6] When she came, he

perceived the rag on her forehead and fell at her feet

and said to her : " Bless me." She also fell at his

feet in like manner, saying : " Do you bless me. Master."

They were all amazed and said to him : " Father, do not

let her insult you, she is sale." Said Piteroum to them

all : " You are sale. For she is mother * both of me

^ Reitzenstein, Hell. Wundererz., p. 77, says this story is ascribed to Sarapion in the Syriac Life of Sarapion. See XXXVII. 5, which speaks of the continual wanderings of Sarapion.

* The senior monks who were responsible for the discipline ot the nuns.

' (xaKos. "As a title it was bestowed upon certain holy men who feigned idiocy for Christ's sake, the most distinguished of whom was Simeon the Fool" (Sophocles).

* dfifias, the feminine equivalent of dfiffas.

120 THE LAUSIAC HISTORY

and you" — for thus they call the spiritual women — "and I pray to be found worthy of her in the day of judgment." [7] Having heard these words they fell at his feet, all confessing in different ways : one that she had poured the rinsings of the plate over her ; another that she had beaten her with her fist ; another that she had applied a mustard-plaster to her nose. And, in a word, all confessed outrages of one kind or another. So after praying for them he went away. And after a few days, unable to bear her glory and the honour bestowed by the sisters, and burdened by their apologies, she left the monastery. And where she went, or where she disappeared to, or how she died, no one knows.