Curiosities of Christian History Part 16

Macarius the hermit, in order to subdue the rebellious flesh, remained six months in a marsh, and exposed his naked body to the attacks of African gnats. Once he was presented by a traveller with a bunch of grapes, at which he looked longingly; but on reflection he thought another brother was more worthy, to whom he gave them. That brother again remembered another still more worthy, and pa.s.sed them on. The tempting cl.u.s.ter pa.s.sed from hand to hand, from worthy to more worthy, until it came back once more to the hands of Macarius, who, not to be tempted overmuch by the devil, flung the morsel far out of his reach.

TWO HERMITS EXCHANGING COURTESIES OVER A LOAF (A.D. 340).

St. Jerome, in his Life of Paul, the first hermit, who for fifteen years never slept except standing against a wall, relates that Antony, hearing that there was a better hermit than himself, went across the desert to find him, and after many dangers at last saw a wolf enter a cave, and divined that this must be the cell of Paul. So he went in, and at the noise Paul shut his door; but Antony fell on his knees and prayed, and then besought admittance, which was granted. Paul then said, "Behold him whom thou hast sought with such labour, with limbs decayed by age, and covered with unkempt white hair. Behold, thou seest but a mortal soon to become dust. But because charity bears all things, tell me, I pray thee, how fares the human race--whether new houses are rising in the ancient cities, by what emperor is the world governed--whether there are any left who are led captive by the deceits of the devil." As they spoke thus, they saw a raven settle on a bough, which, flying gently down, deposited, to their wonder, a whole loaf for their use. When he was gone, "Ah!" said Paul, "the Lord, truly loving, truly merciful, has sent us a meal. For sixty years past I have received daily half a loaf, but at thy coming Christ has doubled his soldier's allowance." Then having thanked G.o.d, they sat down on the bank of a gla.s.sy spring. But here a contention arising as to which of them should break the loaf, occupied the day till well-nigh evening. Paul insisted as the host; Antony declined as the younger man. At last it was agreed that they should take hold of the loaf at opposite ends, and each pull towards himself, and keep what was left in his hand.

Next they stooped down and drank a little water from the spring; then raising to G.o.d the sacrifice of praise, they pa.s.sed the night watching.

TWO HERMITS TRYING TO QUARREL (A.D. 350).

Ruffinus, in his Lives of the Fathers, relates that there were two ancient hermits who dwelt together and never quarrelled. At last one said to the other, with much simplicity, "Let us have a quarrel, as other men have."

And the other answering that he did not know how to quarrel, the first replied, "Look here, I will place this stone in the middle between you and me. I will say it is mine, and do you say that it is not true, for that it is yours; in this manner we will make a quarrel." And placing the stone in the midst, he said, "This stone is mine." And the other said, "No, it is mine." And the first said, "If it be yours, then take it." Not being able either to stamp and swear and blaspheme and slang and defame each other's parents, and shake their fists or strike a blow at a venture at each other, they could not carry the conversation further, and the whole quarrel collapsed.

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF HERMITS.

St. Jerome and others relate that a certain anchorite in Nitria having left one hundred crowns at his death, which he had acquired by weaving cloth, the monks of that desert met to deliberate what should be done with all that money. Some were for giving it to the poor, others to the Church; but Macarius, Pambo, Isidore, and others, who were called the Fathers, ordered that the one hundred crowns should be thrown into the grave and buried with the corpse of the deceased, and that, at the same time, the following words should be p.r.o.nounced: "May thy money go with thee to perdition!" This example struck such a terror into all the monks that no one dared lay up any money.

THE WISE SAYINGS OF ST. PAMBO THE HERMIT (A.D. 350).

In the fourth century lived St. Pambo, who became a famous hermit, and practised rush-weaving. One day the blessed Melania took a fine present to him of a silver vessel, which he did not raise his head from his work even to acknowledge, and which caused her to ask if he knew its value. He replied, "He to whom it was offered need not that you should tell him."

Two Spanish brothers spent their fortune, one by building hospitals, and the other by giving it away and becoming an anchorite, and Pambo was asked which was the more perfect. His reply was, "Both are perfect before G.o.d: there are many roads to perfection, besides that which leads through the desert cell." Some one gave Pambo gold to distribute in alms, and told him to count it. He answered, "G.o.d does not ask _how much_, but _how_!" He was on a visit at Alexandria, and there saw an actress perform. Pambo looked sad and observed, "Alas! how much less do I labour to please G.o.d than does this poor girl to delight the eyes of men!" He used to say that "a monk should only wear such a dress as no one would pick up, if thrown away."

When Pambo was on his deathbed, he said, "I thank G.o.d that not a day of my life has been spent in idleness; never have I eaten bread that I have not earned with the sweat of my brow. I thank G.o.d that I do not recall any bitter speech I have made, for which I ought to repent now." It is said that Pambo, on beginning his own career, consulted Antony how to act, and the latter gave this advice: "Never trust in your own merits; never trouble yourself about transitory affairs; keep a check on your stomach, and learn to hold your tongue." And Pambo acted strictly on these lines.

A HERMIT CULTIVATING AN OLIVE TREE (A.D. 350).

Mr. Baring-Gould says that Meffreth, a German priest of Meissen, in 1443, told, in one of his sermons, this story of a hermit: There was once an aged hermit in the Egyptian Desert, who thought it would be well with him if he had an olive tree near his cave. So he planted a little tree; and thinking it might want water, he prayed to G.o.d for rain; and so rain came and watered his olive. Then he thought that some warm sunshine would do good and swell its buds; so he prayed, and the sun shone out. Now the nursling looked feeble, and the old man deemed it would do good if some frost would come and harden it. He prayed for frost, and h.o.a.rfrost settled that night on its branches. Next he thought a hot southerly wind would benefit his tree, and, after praying, the south wind blew upon the olive tree. And then it died. Some little while after, the hermit visited a brother hermit, and lo! by his cell door there grew a flourishing olive tree. "How came that goodly plant here, brother?" asked the unsuccessful hermit. "I planted it, and G.o.d blessed it as it grew." "Ah! brother, I, too, planted an olive, and when I thought it wanted water I asked G.o.d to give it rain, and the rain came; and when I thought it needed sun, I asked, and the sun shone; and when I thought it needed strengthening, I prayed, and the frost came. G.o.d gave me all I demanded for my tree, as I saw fit, and yet it is dead." "And I, brother," replied the other hermit, "left my tree in G.o.d's hands, for He knew what it wanted better than I."

MACARIUS STUNG BY A GNAT (A.D. 380).

Ruffinus, in his Life of the hermit Macarius, says that that holy man, sitting one day in his cell and feeling himself bitten in the foot by a gnat, put his hand to the place, and, finding the gnat, killed it. On seeing the blood he blamed himself, as it seemed to him he had revenged himself for the injury received. For this thing and in order to learn meekness he went into the utmost solitude of the wilderness called Scilis, where those gnats are largest and most venomous. He lived there for six months naked, that he might be stung by them; and at the end of that time he returned so disfigured and wounded that he was unrecognisable save by his voice, being covered all over with boils and blisters, so that he lost all shape and appeared leprous.

ST. MARTIN, BISHOP OF TOURS, HERMIT MONK (A.D. 380).

St. Martin of Tours, who died 397, was from infancy devout, but was obliged to enter the army, owing to a decree of the Emperor. While in the army, one very cold and frosty day a poor naked and shivering beggar stood near the gate of Amiens; and as none relieved him, St. Martin, having already given away all he had, took off his own cloak, and with his sword cut it in two, giving one half to the beggar and keeping the other. The bystanders laughed at the figure of the saint; but the following night in his sleep he was astonished to see Jesus Christ appear to him dressed in the beggar's half of the cloak, and asked if he knew it. Jesus then said to a troop of angels attending him, "Martin, yet a catechumen, has clothed Me with this garment." This vision encouraged the saint to persevere in his course. He soon left the army, went into a monastery, and afterwards became a bishop. He had many visions and had great insight into impostors.

One day when he was praying in his cell, the devil came to him environed with light and clothed in royal robes, with a crown of gold and precious stones upon his head, and with a gracious and pleasant countenance told Martin how that he was Christ. Martin looked hard at him and said, "The Lord Jesus said not that He was to come clothed with purple and crowned and adorned with a diadem. Nor will I ever believe Him to be Christ who shall not come in the habit and figure in which Christ suffered, and who shall not bear the marks of the cross in his body." At these words the fiend vanished and left in his cell an intolerable stench. The bishop died of a fever at the age of eighty, and insisted in his last days on lying among ashes and in a hair shirt, refusing any comforts; for he said, "It becomes not a Christian to die otherwise than on ashes." Thousands of monks and virgins and the whole population, with hymns, carried his body to its resting-place.

DOROTHEUS, THE HERMITS' ARCHITECT (A.D. 440).

Sozomen, who wrote his history about 440, says that about two thousand monks dwelt near Alexandria in a district called the Hermitage. Dorotheus, a native of Thebes, was among the most celebrated of these. He spent the day in collecting stones upon the seash.o.r.e, which he used in erecting cells for those who were unable to build them. During the night he employed himself in weaving baskets of palm leaves, and these he sold to obtain the means of subsistence. He ate six ounces of bread with a few vegetables daily, and drank nothing but water. Having accustomed himself to this extreme abstinence from his youth, he continued to observe it in old age. He was never seen to recline on a mat or a bed, nor even to place his limbs in an easy att.i.tude for sleep. Sometimes from natural la.s.situde his eyes would involuntarily close when he was at his daily labour or his meals, and the food would drop on the way to his mouth. One day Piammon, a presbyter, was conducting the service, and said that he noticed an angel standing near the altar, and writing down the names of the monks who were present and erasing the names of those who were absent.

ST. POEMEN, THE PRINCE OF HERMITS (A.D. 450).

The prince of the desert, the chief of the solitaries and the fellow-citizen of angels, as he was long called, was St. Poemen, an Egyptian who flourished in 450. He had six brothers, and they all had a turn for fasting and self-mortifications, and retired to the desert and lived there, scorning the indulgences of ordinary life. All the people round soon confessed that Poemen was the greatest hermit of his time, and his sayings were quoted over all Christendom. A monk who suffered from violent temptations consulted Poemen how to overcome his evil temper, and was told to retire into the desert and wrestle there with his temper and conquer it. The monk said, "But, father, how if I were to die without Sacraments in the wild waste?" To this Poemen answered, "Do you think G.o.d would not receive you, coming from the battle-field?" Another monk, perplexed where to live and how to act, asked Poemen whether he should live in community or in solitude. Poemen replied, "Wherever you find yourself humble-minded, there you may settle down and dwell with security." Another monk went a long journey to see and consult Poemen, and began to talk about subtle theological niceties. Poemen looked grave and silent, till the visitor departed, expressing his disgust at coming so far for nothing. Poemen observed on this afterwards, "This anchorite flies far above my reach. He sails up to heaven, while I creep along the earth. If he would talk about our pa.s.sions and infirmities and how to overcome them, then we should have some subject in common to talk about." Another time Poemen, asked by a troublesome monk to tell him what was a living faith, replied, "A living faith consists in thinking little of oneself and showing tenderness to others." He also once said, "A warm heart, boiling with charity, is not troubled with temptations, any more than with the flies hovering round it. When the caldron cools, then the flies collect and swarm round it." Poemen lived to one hundred and ten, and had no equal in his time.

ST. MOYSES, WATER-CARRIER TO THE SICK HERMITS (A.D. 470).

St. Moyses of the tenth century was a brawny negro slave who had escaped from his master and lived for a time by rapine and murder. In one of his hairbreadth escapes he took refuge among the hermits, and began to see great merit in them, and tried to live like them and conquer his own furious pa.s.sions. He consulted the Abbot Isidore, who told him this enterprise would take some time. Moyses said he would wait and try, and he became a priest. In order to give himself exercise and tame his evil spirit, he made a practice of regularly going round the cells of the hermits, and wherever he found one sick he would go and fetch water and fill his pitcher. And this he would do at any hour of the night and go any distance. One night, in stooping over a pool and filling a hermit's pitcher, he was doubled up with an attack of lumbago, and thought the devil had given him a sudden stroke with a club. Moyses lay groaning with pain till next morning, when he was carried to a church, and there people took care of him. He was many months disabled, but on recovery at once resumed his work. One day, the governor hearing of Moyses and being curious to see him, met Moyses, and asked where that famous hermit Moyses lived. Moyses replied, "He's not worth visiting, for he is only a fool."

The governor related this to the monks at the nearest monastery, and said that the man who thus answered him was a huge old black fellow, covered with rags. The monks thereupon all exclaimed, "That was Moyses himself; it could be no other."

A HERMIT DEVISING NEW AUSTERITIES (A.D. 479).

In 479 Barnadatus, a Syrian monk, devised some new ways of self-mortification. First he shut himself up in a small chamber; and then, ascending a mountain, he made for himself a wooden box, in which he could not stand upright, and was always confined to a stooping posture. This box having no close covering, he was exposed to the wind, to the rain, and to the sun, and for a long time dwelt in this incommodious house. Afterwards he always stood upright, stretching up his hands to heaven, covered with a garment of skin, with only a small aperture to draw his breath. James, another contemporary monk, lived at first in a small hut, and afterwards in the open air, with only heaven for his covering, enduring the extremes of heat and cold. He had iron chains round his neck and waist, and four other chains hung down from his neck, two before and two behind. He had also chains about his arms. His only food was lentils. For three days and nights he was often so covered with snow, whilst he was prostrate and praying, that he could hardly be seen. This man, according to Theodoret, was celebrated for the many miracles which he wrought.

HERMIT ST. CARILEFF REFUSING A QUEEN'S VISIT (A.D. 540).

St. Carileff was a monk at Menat, near Clermont, and died about 540. He early became dissatisfied with his monastery, and resolved to penetrate farther into the forest, and live a more retired and perfect life. He and a companion went to reconnoitre, and in a remote corner came upon an old neglected vineyard, where they thought of settling down. One hot day the saint was working and had hung his hood on an oak tree, and on returning to resume it he found a wren had laid an egg in it. So the good hermit rejoiced and left his hood, so as not to disturb the tiny creature's nest.

When he reported to his abbot this circ.u.mstance, the latter said, "This is no accident; return thither, and there a monastery shall arise some day."

Carileff returned and settled in the old vineyard, and he gained the confidence of other animals besides the wren; for a large buffalo used to come to his cell and let him rub his s.h.a.ggy neck, and then it galloped back into the forest. One day the king heard of this splendid buffalo roaming about, and made up a hunting party to secure it. But it took refuge in the hermit's cell; and the huntsmen, hot with pursuit, were so amazed at seeing the great monarch of the forest standing thus peaceably beside its protector, that they acknowledged the man of G.o.d's superior power, and ended by giving him a grant of lands to build a monastery there. When the king told this story, the queen was eager to visit the holy recluse, and sent a message; but he most peremptorily refused to see her, saying, "As long as I live I shall never see the face of a woman, and no woman shall ever enter my cell. Why should this queen be so anxious to see a man disfigured by fasting and toil, and as brown as a chameleon? I will pray for her. A monk has no need of great possessions, nor has she of a monk's blessing. But his blessing she shall have, if she will only leave him alone."

THE FIRST SAXON HERMIT (A.D. 708).

Fuller, in his "Church History," says: "St. Guthlake, a Benedictine monk in 708, was the first Saxon that professed a hermitical life in England, to which purpose he chose a fenny place in Lincolnshire called Crowland--that is, the 'raw or crude land'; so raw, indeed, that before him no man could digest to live therein. Yea, the devils are said to claim this place as their peculiar, and to call it their own land. Could those infernal fiends, tortured with immaterial fire, take any pleasure or make any ease to themselves by paddling here in puddles and dabbling in the moist dirty marshes? However, Guthlake took the boldness to 'enter common'

with them, and erect his cell in Crowland. But if his prodigious life may be believed, ducks and mallards do not now flock thither faster in September than herds of devils came about him, all whom he is said victoriously to have vanquished. After the example of Moses and Elias, he fasted forty days and nights, till, finding this project destructive to nature, he was forced in his own defence to take some necessary but very sparing refection. He died in his own cell; and Pega, his sister, an anchoritess, led a solitary life not far from him."

ST. GUTHLAC, HERMIT OF CROYLAND (A.D. 708).

This St. Guthlac, according to his biographer, after he had been two years living in a monastery, began to long for the wilderness and a hermitage.

Being directed to a fen of immense size in the east of England, he met a man named Tatwaine, who told him of an island which many had attempted to inhabit, but no man could do it on account of manifold horrors and fears and the loneliness of the wide wilderness, so that no man could endure it and fled from it. The holy man at once selected and went through the wild fens till he came to a spot called Croyland. It was a place of accursed spirits; but he was strengthened with heavenly support, and vowed that he would serve G.o.d on that island all the days of his life. He used neither woollen nor linen garments, but was clothed in skins; and he tasted nothing but barley bread and water. He was sorely tempted by the devil; but at last the ravens, the beasts, and the fishes came to obey him. Once a venerable brother named Wilfred visited him, and they held many discourses on the spiritual life, when suddenly two swallows came flying in, and, behold, they raised up their song rejoicing. And often they sat fearlessly on the shoulders of the holy man Guthlac, and then lifted up their song, and afterwards they sat on his bosom and on his arms and his knees. When Wilfred had long beheld with wonder the birds so submissively sitting with him, he asked the reason, and Guthlac answered him thus: "Hast thou never learned, brother Wilfred, in Holy Writ, that he who hath led his life after G.o.d's will, the wild beasts and birds have made friends with him? And the man who would separate himself from worldly thoughts, to him the very angels come near." When Guthlac died in due time, angelic songs were heard in the sky, and all the air had a wondrous odour of exceeding sweetness.

ST. SIMEON STYLITES (A.D. 459).

St. Simeon Stylites, who immortalised himself by living on a high pillar, flourished about 459, was the son of a shepherd, and in his youth displayed a genius for mortifications of the flesh. He begged admittance to a monastery, and at once outdid all the monks there; for while they ate only once a day, he ate only once a week, and that on Sunday. He at a later stage pa.s.sed the forty days of each Lent without eating or drinking.

Not content with a hermitage, he built himself a small unroofed enclosure of rude stones, on a high mountain forty miles east of Antioch, exposed to the weather. Crowds began to flock to see him and get his benediction. He next built a pillar six cubits high, and lived on it four years. He gradually raised higher pillars; and the fourth time he made a pillar of forty cubits (sixty feet) high, on which he spent his last twenty years of life. It was only three feet in diameter at the top, so that he might not have even the luxury of lying down or sitting. He sometimes prayed in an erect att.i.tude, with his outstretched arms in the figure of a cross; but his most familiar practice was that of bending his meagre skeleton from the forehead to the feet. He bowed his body in continual prayer, and a visitor once counted twelve hundred and forty-four reverences of adoration made by him in one day. He made exhortations to the people twice a day. He died at sixty-nine in the act of prayer on his pillar, and the bishops and all the people round attended his burial, and many miracles were said to have been worked that day in testimony of his sanct.i.ty.

A PILLAR MONK IN WESTERN CLIMATES (A.D. 591).

In 591 Vulfilaic, a monk of Lombardy, had a pillar erected for him at Treves, and stood upon it barefoot, enduring great hardship in the winter.

The bishops therefore compelled him to come down and to live like other monks, telling him that the severity of the climate would not permit him to imitate the great Simeon of Antioch. He obeyed his superiors, but with tears and reluctance. And this, says Fleury, is the only instance that we know of a stylites or pillar monk in the Western world.

ST. HERBERT, THE HERMIT OF DERWENt.w.a.tER (A.D. 650).

Herbert was a monk of Lindisfarne or of Melrose at the same time as St.

Cuthbert, by whose advice he retired to the island in Derwent.w.a.ter, which is five miles long and one and a half miles broad, and lived there. He used to meet St. Cuthbert once every year; and at their meeting about 687 that saint, being then Bishop of Lindisfarne, said to him on parting, "Remember at this time, brother Herbert, to ask and say to me all that you wish, for after our parting now we shall not see each other with the eyes of the flesh in this world; for I know that the time of my departure is at hand, and that I must shortly put off this tabernacle." On this Herbert, falling at his feet with groans and tears, said, "For our Lord's sake, I beseech you not to leave me, but remember your most faithful companion, and entreat the mercy of Heaven that we who have together served Him on earth may pa.s.s together to behold His grace and glory in the heavens. You know I have always studied to live according to your direction; and if from ignorance or infirmity I have in any point failed, I have taken pains to chastise and amend my fault according to the decision of your will."