ISIDORE^
[i] The first time that I set foot in the city of the Alexandrians, in the second consulate of the great Emperor Theodosius,^ who now lives with the angels because of his faith in Christ, I met in the city a wonderful man, distinguished in every respect, both as regards character and knowledge, Isidore the priest, hospitaller of the Church of Alexandria. He was said to have fought successfully his first youthful contests in the desert, and I actually saw his cell in the mountain of Nitria. But when I met him, he was an old man seventy years of age, who lived another fifteen years and then died in peace. [2] Up to the very end of his life he wore no linen except a head-band, never had a bath, nor partook of meat. His slender frame was so wellknit by grace that all who did not know his manner of life expected that he lived in luxury. Time would fail me if I were to telP in detail the virtues of his soul. He was so benevolent and peaceable that even his enemies the unbelievers themselves reverenced his shadow because of his exceeding kindliness. [3] So great a knowledge had he of the holy scriptures and the divine precepts that even at the very meals of the brethren he would have periods of absent-mindedness and remain silent. And being urged to tell the details
^ Palladius mentions three monks named Isidore. Besides this one, there is the priest of Scete (XIX) and the bishop of Hermopolis Parva (XLVI). See Butler's note ; and D. C. B. for other perr.ons of the same name. See also note on X, 2. (For this Isidore cf. Soar. VI. 9, Soz. VIII. 2, 12 f.).
^ /. e. 388. But see Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de I'Eglise, II. 610.
^ The phrase is taken from Heb. xi. 32.
48 THE LAUSIAC HISTORY
of his ecstasy he would say : " I went away in thought on a journey, seized by contemplation." For my part I often knew him weep at table, and when I asked the cause of the tears I heard him say : " I shrink from partaking of irrational food, being myself rational and destined to live in a paradise of delight owing to the power given us by Christ." [4] He became known to all the Senate at Rome and to the wives of the nobles, when he paid his first visit in company with Athanasius the bishop,^ and on a second occasion with Demetrius the bishop ; a man of great wealth and extensive property, he wrote no will when he came to die, and left neither money nor goods to his sisters, who were virgins. But he commended them to Christ, saying : " He that created you will provide for your life, as He has done for me." Now there was with his sisters a community of seventy virgins.
When I visited him as a young man and besought that I might be trained in the solitary life, since I was in the full vigour of my age and needed, not discourse, but bodily hardships, like a good tamer of colts he led me out from the city to the so-called Solitudes five miles away (and handed me over to Dorotheus).^
CHAPTER n
DOROTHEUS^
[i] Handing me over to Dorotheus, a Theban ascetic who was spending the sixtieth year in his cave, he
^ The visit with Athanasius would be in 340 ; for the difficulties of the other visit see Butler II. 185.
2 The Dorotheus story is made into a separate chapter for the convenience of readers, but there is no break in the original.
^ See Soz. VI. 29 for the same story. Another Dorotheus is mentioned in chap. XXX
DOROTHEUS 49
ordered me to complete three years with him in order to tame my passions — for he knew that the old man lived a life of great austerity — bidding me return to him afterwards for spiritual instruction. But being unable to complete the three years owing to a breakdown in health, I left Dorotheus before the three years were up, for living with him one got parched and all dried-up.^ For all day long in the burning heat he would collect stones in the desert by the sea and build with them continually and make cells, and then he would retire in favour of those who could not build for themselves. Each year he completed one cell. And once when I said to him : " What do you mean, father, at your great age by trying to kill your poor body in these heats?" he answered thus : "It kills me, I kill it." For he used to eat (daily) six ounces of bread and a bunch of herbs, and drink water in proportion. God is my witness, I never knew him stretch his legs and go to sleep on a rush mat, or on a bed. But he would sit up all night long and weave ropes of palm leaves to provide himself with food. [3] Then, supposing that he did this for my benefit, I made careful inquiries also from other disciples of his, who lived by themselves, and ascertained that^ this had been his manner of life from a youth, and that he had never deliberately gone to sleep, only when working or eating he closed his eyes overcome by sleep, so that often the piece of food fell from his mouth at the moment of eating, so great was his drowsiness. Once when I tried to constrain him to rest a little on the mat, he was annoyed and said : " If you can persuade angels to sleep, you will also persuade the zealous man." [4] One day about the ninth hour he sent me to fill the jar at his well in view of a meal at the ninth hour.
^ ^v ydp avTov ri Siaira auX/"««57js koI |r/poTaTr/. " Omitting \*yovres, as suggested by Turner. D
50 THE LAUSIAC HISTORY
Well, as it happened, I went and saw an asp at the bottom of the well, and stopped drawing water and went away and said to him: "We are dead men, father, for I saw an asp in the well." But he smiled gravely and looked at me for a time, and then shaking his head said : " If the devil decides to become a serpent or tortoise in every well and to fall into our water-supply, will you refrain from drinking for ever ? " And he went out and drew the water himself, and was the first to swallow some of it, fasting, saying: "Where the cross passes, the evil of anything is powerless." ^
I CHAPTER III
POTAMIiENA^
[i] This blessed man Isidore, who had met Antony of blessed memory, told me a story which is worth recording, which he had heard from Antony. There lived in the time of Maximianus the persecutor a very beautiful maiden called Potamiaena, a certain man's slave. Her master failed to seduce her, though he besought her eagerly with many promises. [2] At last mad with rage he handed her over to the then prefect of Alexandria, giving her up as a Christian and one who abused the times ^ and the Emperors because of the persecutions, and suggesting this to him with the help of money : " If she falls in with my design, keep her without punishment." But if she should remain puri-