Introduction

INTRODUCTION.

Amongst the various departments of reading, none can be more interesting than that which records the actions of men who have rendered themselves illustrious by their wisdom, their heroism, or their eminent virtues. In the Lives of the Saints of the Oriental Deserts, the reader will find an heroism that exceeds the natural powers of man; — a wisdom, in comparison of which that of a Socrates or a Solon is but childishness (for wisdom becomes more or less estimable in proportion to the value of the objects that attract its attention) • hence the virtues of the illustrious characters whose memoirs are the subject of the subsequent pages, as far surpass those of the most exalted characters of Pagan antiquity, as man in a state of nature is sur passed by the angelic spirits.

Many traits will be found in their lives that cannot accord with the enervated delicacy of modern ideas and habits, pre-occupied, as they unfortunately are, by the false maxims and vitiated manners of an age that labors to substitute a vain philosophy, the pander of every passion, in lieu of divine revelation, which nor only commands and afford the means of their subjugation, but also invites us to erect on their ruins tha fabric of evangelical perfection.

The Almighty has at all times inspired his servants with a conduct suitable to the exigencies of the age in which they lived, making them all to all, in order tu gain all to himself. Reasonings and exhortations-make but a feeble impression on ignorant or brutal men, accustomed to blood and pillage; — men who, as they had been trained up in the fatigues of war, and were always in the harness, — hardened in vicious habits and blinded by hereditary errors, would have esteemed ordinary austerities a°, to nothing; but when they witnessed an absolute contempt of all earthly comforts in an Antony, a Macarius, <fec. the severe chastisements they inflicted on themselves, and their alacrity in assuaging the corporal as well as the spiritual necessities of others, which proceeded to such a length as even to do penance for them, what could they infer, but that they loved God and their neighbor with an ardor at once holy and invincible. With minds therefore deeply impressed with so edifying an exterior, they became more docile; and from listening to those whom they so greatly admired, at length be came proselytes to the holy religion they professed. Thus St. Abraham, by his invincible patience and meekness under a series of the most cruel outrages for the space of three years, more than by his preaching, subdued the olindness and obstinacy of the Pagans near Edessa, who were at length obliged to acknow ledge, " that the God whom he preached must be the true God, and the religion which taught him so much patience and charity, the true religion." Thus Theodoret witnessed Simon Stylites from his pillar receiving the abjuration of multitudes of Iberians, Armenians. Persians, and Saracens, who, in his presence, with a loud voice renounced their idols, and trampled them under foqt. And thus barbarians and infidels of distant regions frequently invoked with success, protection amidst the dangers of the sea, in the name of the God of Theodosius.

But it is not in Pagan or barbarian nations only, that the lives of these illustrious men have contributed to promote the cause of God and virtue: — St. Chrysostom, who was no less distinguished for his learning and accomplishments, than for being the metropolitan of the Eastern Empire, recommends (Horn. 8. in Matt. 7. p. 128,) the reading the life of St. Antony, as replete with instruction and edification; and St. Augustin, in the eighth book of his Confessions, chap. 6, gives a minute detail of the conversion of two courtiers in the emperor's service, who had renounced the world by accidentally reading the life of St. Antony; and moreover attributes his own conversion in a great measure to the same cause.

There was a time when the bare testimonies either of St. Chrysostom or St. Augustin, would render any further arguments in favor of a work of this kind un¹

Jfii INTRODUCTION.

necessary; but, unfortunately in an age wherein seep ticism and infidelity are so prevalent, the most venerable authority or incontestible evidence in support of miraculous or supernatural events, whether of an ancient or modern date, will not always satisfy the weak or temporising amongst those who consider themselves of the number of the faithful — who generally listen with indifference, or treat with disdain and derision, the bare mention of a miracle; for stupidity itself will on such occasions assume the office of censor, and aspire to wit, when tinctured by the buffoon philosophy of Voltaire's school.

A distinguished modern, MONTESQUIEU, whose works are supposed to have promoted the French- Re volution, imagines the spectres that tempted the otherwise as sailed St. Antony and others, to have been metaphorical; whereas such a supposition, if admitted as a truth, would not only invalidate the testimonies of SS. A.thanasius, Jerome, Cyril, &c. but even the holy Scriptures themselves, Wisd. xvii. where it is said, that during the Egyptian darkness, the infernal spirits in creased the terror of the inhabitants by frightful apparitions; of whose existence even the Pagan poet Virgil seems to have had some idea.

Yet be not overbold,

The slippery God will try to loose his hold; And various forms assume to cheat thy sight; And with vain images of beasts affright

INTRODUCTION". lfl

With foamy tusks will seem a bristly boar,

Or imitate the lion's angry roar;

Break out in crackling flames to shun tny snare,

Or hiss a dragon, or a tiger stare;

Or with a wife thy caution to betray,

In fleeting streams, attempt to slide away.

Georg. B. iv

That the Almighty has, at certain periods, granted a limited power to the devil personally to, tempt or torment the sons of men, either with a view to put the virtue of his chosen servants to a trial,, and, thereby afford them opportunities of triumphing over the pow ers of hell, or for other reasons best known, to his ever just but inscrutable judgments, is.evident from the testimonies, of the scriptures both of the Old and New Testaments: as in the cases. of Job, — our Saviour in the desert — the young man possessed by the devil; and several other instances of, the kind recorded by the Evangelists. Similar events have also frequently occurred in every age of.the church, in countries emerging, or struggling to., emerge, from Idolatry into Christianity through the missionary labors of apostoli cal men;* for when Satan perceives kingdoms over which he had for so long a time exercised an almost unlimited control, on the point of being extricated from his dominion, it is then he exerts the utmost extent of ais power to retain them under his subjection.

OV INTRODUCTION.

In a word, whatever may appear -upernatuial to our readers, in the perusal of the lives of these holy solitaries, rests on the same credit arid authority as the most ordinary and familiar circumstance related of their; nor is any miraculous interposition of Providenoo enabling them to pursue a system of life, impossible to mere human efforts, that has not a parallel in the holy scriptures themselves: for example, if some of them fasted many weeks without any corporal sustenance [without referring to the forty days' fast of our Saviour in the desert], did not Elias and St. John the Baptist also fast in the same rigorous manner? If St. Paul the first hermit was miraculously fed by a raven, was not the prophet Elias also fed in a like miraculous manner? If a lioness saved the life of St. Malchus and his companion in a cave, and destroyed their vengeful pursuers, did not bears also rush from the woods to devour the wicked children who had de rided and insulted the baldness of Elizeus the prophet? But however wonderful and interesting the events here recorded of these venerable solitaries may appear, yet the sublime virtues which they practised are by far more deserving of our frequent contemplation. In profane history we often discover the most splendid actions of worldly heroes tainted by motives of pride, vanity, or self-interest: whereas we invariably find the heroes of the wilderness to have founded their great-less on the most profound humility, and absolute an

INTRODUCTION. XI nihilation of their own will, that they might the more implicitly conform in every action and circumstance of their lives to the holy will of God; hereby exemplify ing in themselves the character of a mo:jk or anchoret as drawn by the celebrated Abbe Ranee, founder of the Abbey of La Trappe: " When," says he, " a soul relishes God in solitude, she thinks no longer on any thing but heaven — she forgets the earth, on which there is nothing that can please her — she burns with the fire of divine love, and sighing after God alone, regards death as her greyest advantage. Nevertheless, they will find themselves much deceived, who, on forsaking the world, imagine they shall advance towards God by straight paths, or roads sown with lilies and roses; or that they have chosen a state in which they will find no difficulties to encounter that could disturb the tranquillity of their retreat, which the hand of God will not turn aside: on the contrary, they must be persuaded that temptations will every where pursue them; that there is no time nor any place wherein they can be exempt from them; that the peace which God promises is procured in the midst of tribulations, as rosebuds are found among thorns. God has not nromised his servants that they should meet with no trials, but that with the temptation he will also give them the grace to overcome it. Heaven is offered us on no other condition: it is a kingdom of conquests, n prize of victory; but, 0 God! what a prize I!!. "

LIVES

OF THE

SAINTS OF THE DESERTS,

Footnotes

1. See Butler's " Lives of the Saints." See also " Missionea Orientales," reeve et imprime a Londres, ann. 1797. 2 ↩