St. John the Almoner

From his Life -written by Leontius, his Cotemporary, Bishop of Neapolis, in Cyprus

THIS Saint, whose life lias been commonly published with those of the fathers of the desert, though it does not appear that he ever lived in the desert, was born at Cyprus, about the year 552, his father, Epiphanius, being at that time governor of the island. He was brought up from his childhood in Christian piety, and amongst other virtues, he was always in a particular manner addicted to alms-deeds, and to the works of merc^ and charity to the poor; from whence he has ever since been distinguished by the surname of the Almoner, or Alms-giver. He was confirmed in the luve and practice of this heavenly virtue, by a vision he had in his youth, which himself afterwards related in the following manner: " When I lived in the island of Cyprus, being then no more than fifteen years oldt I saw one night in a dream a young virgin crowned Kith olive, of an incomparable beauty, and more bright than the sun, who, standing by my bed, struck me on the side, and awaked me. Being at length awake, I still perceived her standing in the same spot, and supposed her to be a woman; wherefore, making the sign of the cross, I asked who she was, and how she could have the boldness to come to my bed side whilst I was asleep? She answered, with a sweet and smiling countenance; I am the eldest daughter of the great celestial King: take me for thy friend, and 1 will conduct thee into his presence; for no one has so much power and interest with him as I have, since it was I that even brought him down from heaven to earth, and made him become man, in order to save man. Having said these words, she instantly disappeared. As soon as I recovered from my surprise, I began to think that this heavenly beauty represented ilms-deeds, and mercy and compassion for the afflicted; oecause it was indeed the mercy, compassion, and goodness of God towards mankind, that made him come down from heaven, to clothe himself with our humanity. Having arisen, I immediately dressed my self and without awaking any of the family, went at the first dawning of the day to the church. In my way I met a poor man trembling with cold, and in order to make, as it were, an experiment of the truth of the vision, I pulled off my cloak and gave it him. Presently after, before I had reached the church door, ft stranger, clothed in white, came up, and put a purse

S42 ST. JOHN THE ALMONER.

into my hands, containing a hundred pieces of mcneyt saying: Take this, my brother, and distribute it as you think fit. The joy, together with the surprise in which I then found myself, induced me to receive the purse without demur; but when, upon reflection, I turned back to follow the person, and to return him his money, as having no want or occasion for it, he vanished out of my sight. From that day I often gave alms to my brethren the poor, saying within my self: now I shall see whether Jesus Christ, according to his promise, will return me a hundred fold; bv which I became guilty of a great sin in tempting God, and afterwards conceived a great remorse of conscience for it, yet I still received from him, at sundry times, and in divers manners, all the satisfaction I could de sire." So far the Saint, speaking of his younger days. St. John had given the most brilliant examples of all virtues, more especially of an unbounded charity in a secular life, till about the fifty-fourth year of his age, when the great reputation of his sanctity, which now spread itself far and near, recommended him so strongly to the church of Alexandria, that upon the death of Theodore its patriarch, he was chosen his successor; the emperor Heraclius, in the mean time, using his utmost influence to overcome the repugnance the Saint had to this promotion, of which he thought himself infinitely unworthy. As soon as he arrived *t Alexandria, he sent for the archdeacon an.d officers of the diurch, and said to them; " It would be unjust, 0, ray brethren, if we should begin Avith any other care or concern, before that which we owe to Jesus Christ; wherefore be pleased to go through the city, and let nre have an exact list of all my masters." As they seemed not to understand his meaning, he ex plained himself, saying, that he considered the poor not only as his lords and masters, but his coadjutors also, who, by their prayers, were to help him to heaven. The list of the poor which they brought in was found to amount, in that great and populous city, to upwards of seven thousand five hundred; yet notwithstanding their being so numerous, the Saint gave orders that a daily allowance of necessaries should be given to every one of them out of his revenue.

After his consecration, he immediately applied him self, with all diligence and fervor, to execute every branch of his pastoral charge with, the utmost perfection; and, as a true father of his people, to procure them whatever, was either for their spiritual or corporal welfaie. He began, by putting an effectual stop to the frauds and injustices committed in trade, par- •ik-ularly by false weights and measures, a practice which, said he, God, as we learn from his divine word, utterly abhors; and, as he was informed, that they who had the administration of the temporalities of his church, were ofton biassed by presents which were made them so as to be partial in the discharge of their office, he sent for them, and after appointing them a larger salary, strictly forbid them to receive any presents from any person whatsoever; because said he, a fire shall consume the houses of those that take bribes. Being also informed that many who labored under in juries and oppressions, were intimidated by his secre taries, and other officers, from laying their complaints before him; as a remedy to so great an evil, he ordered a chair to be placed before the great church, with a bench on each side, where he attended for several hours, on every Wednesday and Saturday, to give audience, and redress the grievances of all that pleased to come for that purpose, and would charge the proper officer to see that what he ordered should be presently executed. Upon which occasion he used to say: " If we poor mortals are allowed at every hour to enter the house of God, in order to address our supplications to him, and lay all our wants before him, though his Majesty be incomprehensible, and in finitely elevated above all created beings, if we," continues he, " are so anxious that he would hear our prayers, and make haste to help us, how ready ought we to be to hear the petitions, and grant the just de mands of our fellow-servants, remembering that saying of our Lord Jesus, with what measure you have measured, it shall be measured to you again" Matt vii. 2.

Oil these occasions, it was the custom of our Sa:nt, tfho hated idleness, either to employ his time in reading the holy Scriptures, whilst he was waiting in order to give audience to such as should apply to him, or in spiritual conferences with some servants of God: but one day having remained there till noon, without being applied to by any one, he withdrew, with tears in his eyes, saying: that none of his people had favored him that day, or afforded him any opportunity of offering something to Jesus Christ, in order to cancel his own innumerable sins. Sophronius, a great servant of God, who sat by him, replied, that he ought rather rejoice to find that God had made him his instrument in establishing so good a harmony and per feet a peace amongst the sheep committed to his charge, that there was not even one to be found amongst them that had any difference or misunderstanding with his neighbor; for this indeed, said he, is converting men into angels.

This Sophronius, with John his companion, men equally eminent both for their wisdom and their sanctity, were sent by divine providence to the assistance of our Saint. He made use of them, upon all occasions, as his counsellors and directors, and obeyed them with as much submission as if they had been his fathers; and his esteem, as well as his love for them were the more increased by the success that attended the exertion of their eminent talents in bringing back fo God inn r. onerable souU who had been unhappily seduced by the Eutychian heresy, which th^n great] j prevailed all over Egypt, even amongst many of th<s religious. By means of these holy men, the Saint had the comfort of beholding in his days, not only-many private houses and families, but also several churches and monasteries, delivered out of the jaws of the internal wolf, and again restored to the true fold of Christ, the Catholic Church. As to our Saint, he incessantly warned his flock to avoid all communion in spirituals with any who were separated by heresy from the communion of the church, and not so much as to enter into their churches or meeting houses, much less to join with them in prayer, even though any one should be so unhappily circumstanced as to be confined during his whole life to a place where he could never see a catholic priest, or receive any of the holy sacraments; for, said he, as the laws of God and man forbid any one, who has a wife living, to coha.bit with another woman, how distant or for how long a time soever his lawful wife may be separated from him, so he who has been espoused to Christ in the Catholic Church, cannot without the crime of spiritual adultery, upon any pretext whatsoever, en gage himself in the communion of heretics.

Exclusive of the assistance that our Saint received in tho discharge of his pastoral office from those two great men, he was also desirous of participating in the prayers and merits of the holy solitaries, fur whosi mnnner of life, though he had never been a solitary himself, he conceived the utmost esteem. To this end, having assembled together a number of saint-like ancLorets out of the deserts, he distributed them into two bands, and built cells for them in two chapels erected at his own charges; the one dedicated to the blessed Virgin, the other to St. John; furnishing them with all necessaries out of his own farms, in order, as ho told them, that whilst he, under God, took upon himself the care of providing for their corporal sustenance, they, on their part, should provide for the spiritual necessities of his soul, especially by offering up to God in his behalf their evening and midnight de votions. These foundations of our Saint were of great edification to the faithful of Alexandria, many of whom, in different parts of the city, were excited by the example of these holy men, to pass whole nights in singing the praises of God.

It would be an endless task to relate the particulars of all the great things done by our Saint during the ten years of his episcopal administration, as well fo. the promoting of the glory of God, as for the sanctification and salvation of the souls committed to hia lharge, together with the many wonderful examples he gave of humility, — meekness, — patience, — charity for all, even his enemies, — and the rest of the evaiioplical virtues; but as the most distinctive traits in his charac* M- were the most tender compassion for the poor and distressed, and an unbounded liberality in point of alms-deeds, we cannot refrain from adducing the following extraordinary instances. In his time Chosroes, king of Persia, having laid waste Syria, and other parts of the eastern empire, and carried off a great number of Christians intq captivity and slavery such as could escape his hands made the best of their way to Alexandria, and presented themselves in great multitudes to the man of God, as the known refuge of all the distressed. The Saint received them all with open arms, and as many of them were sick and wounded, he placed in hospitals or other lodgings, where they were all entertained at his charges, and as long as they themselves chose to remain, the most tender care was taken of them; and as to the rest, who were innumerable, he ordered his almoners to give a piece of silver to every man that applied to them for charity, and two to every woman or girl, in consideration of the weakness of their sex. His almoners perceiving amongst the great numbers of those that applied for relief, some to be richly clad, made a scruple of giving them any money, and came to consult the Saint on the subject; but he being highly displeased at their not having complied to the letter, with those words of our Lore: Luke vi. 30. Give to every one that askcih tkce, desired they would not in future b3 so inquisitive into the circumstances of those who came to crave alnis, but rather distribute that which belonged to

God with a bountiful hand, according to the will and commandment of Christ. " But if your little faith" said he, " makes you apprehend lest my income should not be sufficient to furnish wherewith to relieve such great numbers, I will by no means become a partaker in your unbelief; for since it has pleased God to make me, though most unworthy, the dispenser of his goods, if all the men in the world were to come to Alexandria to crave alms I would relieve them, under an entire confidence that they would never be able to exhaust his immense stores, nor those of the church."

Whilst this great multitude of strangers remained at Alexandria, one of them, in order to put the Saint's extreme charity and compassion for the distressed to a trial, presented himself in a ragged garment one day when the man of God was going to the hospital to visit the sick, which he constantly did twice or thrice in a, week, and begged he would have pity on a poor captive, and order him some relief. The Saint immediately ordered his almoner to give him six pieces of stiver. No sooner had he received this alms but he departed, and having changed his dress, and met the Saint again in another street, he cast himself at his feet, saying, he was a poor man in the utmost distress, and begged his assistance. The holy prelate then told his almoner to give him six pieces of gold, although this officer had just whispered in his ear, and told him so

HftO ST. JOHN THE ALMONER.

it was the very same person whom he had relieved a little before. Again he came a third time, still imploring the charity of the man of God, and when the almoner signified that it was the same identical person, the Saint answered, give him twelve pieces of gold; for possibly, said he, this may be Jesus Christ, my Saviour, who' is come on purpose to try me; alluding, in all probability, to what had happened not long be fore to St. Gregory the Great.

Tn the mean time the Persians continuing their de vastations in the eastern provinces, drove still greater numbers of people to Alexandria, to shelter themselves there under the charitable wings of our Saint, who not content with relieving all that came, sent also consider able alms to Modestus, the patriarch of Jerusalem, at this tame reduced to the greatest extremity with all his people by the Persians, who had taken that city and burnt the churches. With this alms he sent also a letter to the patriarch, apologizing for not sending something more worthy of the temple of God, and de claring how glad he should be, if circumstances would permit him to come himself in person, and labor with bis own hands in rebuilding the holy church of the bepulchr-e and resurrection of our Lord, requesting also that he would excuse his want of the means, and obtain for him, by his prayers, that his name might be written in the book of life.

At this time the innumerable mu itude of personi that cam a from all parts to Alexandria, made all sorts of provisions exceedingly dear, more especially as the harvest had failed in Egypt, the Nile not having over flowed that year as usual. The Saint, who could not endure to see distress laid out all the money he had 01 could any way procure, either by begging or bor rowing of good people, till at length, all being spent, no one could be found that would lend him any more, every body apprehending, lest by the continuance of the famine, they should come themselves to want; when behold, amidst these extremities, as if God had a mind to try the fidelity of his servants, a rich citizen, who was desirous of being promoted to holy orders, but was prevented by the canons of the Church, on account of his having been twice married, made him an offer of two hundred thousand bushels of wheat which he had stored up, together with a very large sum of money to be disposed of in charities, upon condition he would dispense with the irregularity he had incurred by his bigamy, and ordain him deacon. The Saint told him, that although the offering which he proposed could never come at a time in which it was more wanted, 'he nevertheless could not accept it, a.s it was defective and tainted by the condition to which it was annexed, because the law of God required that the sacrifice offered to him should be clean and with out blemish: and as to the. present necessities of hia brethren, the poor, as well as those of the Church, ha was confident that the same divine goodness which had hitherto taken care of them, would still continue to feed and support them, provided, said he, we inviolably observe what he commands us. No sooner had he returned this answer, and dismissed the ambitious aspirer to a spiritual promotion, but his people brought him the gladsome tidings that the two great ships be longing to the Church, which he had sent to Sicily, were just arrived in the port laden with corn; upon which the man of God prostrated himself on the ground, and returned hearty thanks to our Lord, who had not only preserved him from sin under that trial, but had immediately sent him such a seasonable and abundant provision.

It was wonderful to relate the many other occasions wherein it pleased God to furnish his servant with extraordinary supplies in order to support his boundless charities, so that, generally.speaking, the more he gave away, the more he received from the divine bounty through the hands of charitable Christians, and some times not without an evident miracle. A citizen, who after living in opulent circumstances had been suddenly reduced to extreme poverty, applied to the Saint in the church for an alms; he recollecting him to have been not long before a wealthy man, had great compassion on him, and whispered to his almoner to give him fifteen pounds of gold; which when the almoner was going to exe *ute, he was persuaded by the secr> lary and the steward to give him onl} five pounds. The Saint returning home from the chirch, was met. by a rich widow, who put a promissory note in his hands, in which she obliged herself to give him five hundred pieces of gold for the poor. Having received the note, and knowing in spirit that it was sent to re compense the charity given to the abovementioned citizen, he required and found out that his officers had only given him five pounds instead of fifteen, where upon he told them they would be answerable to God for the other thousand pieces of gold which the good lady that had given the note for the five hundred had designed for the poor, if they had not abridged her charity by not complying with his. In order to convince them thereof, having sent for the lady, he asked her in their presence, if the sum mentioned in the note was what she originally intended to give to Jesus Christ, or whether she had proposed to give him a larger sum? She suspecting by this question that what had passed had been revealed from heaven, she was struck with fear and astonishment, and assured him in the most solemn manner, that she had actually written fifteen hundred pieces of gold, but that looking at the note just before she had presented it to him at church, she found to her great astonishment, the fifteen hundred changed into five hundred, but knew not by what means nor by whom, as the paper had never been in any other person's hands but her own, and therefore concluded it t<> be the will of God thai she should give no more than five hundred.

A captain of a ship, a stranger, having suffered great losses at sea, besought our Saint, with many tears, that he would have the same compassion for him as he had on all others in distress; he ordered his al moner to give him the weight of five pounds in gold; which sum enabled him to repair his vessel and put to sea again. But scarcely had he sailed out of port, when a storm arose which obliged him to fling all his goods overboard, and it was with the utmost difficulty he saved his ship. Again he applied to the Saint, begging he would have compassion on him for the sake of him who had shown pity to the whole world. The holy prelate having told him, that this misfortune had befallen him in consequence of his having min gled the charity money which he received of the church with what remained of his own former illgotten wealth, and that therefore he had lost both, gave him now the weight of ten pounds in gold, bidding him take care not to mix it with any other money. Thus being en abled to repair and load his vessel with a fresh cargo, he tried his fortune a second time, but with worse success than ever, for being cast away upon the coast he lost both ship and cargo, and hardly escaped with hi* life. This latter misfortune drove him into so violent a fit of despair, that he was almost tempted to make away with himso f, if the holy patriarch, who load

•earnt by revelation all that had happened, had not sent for him to comfort him, with the assurance that '.he like misfortune should never again befall him, and,hat this was permitted in consequence of his having obtained by unjust means possession of his ship, Then in order to set him up in the world again, the Saint appointed him captain of the large vessel be longing to the church of Alexandria and sent him out laden with twenty thousand bushels of wheat. What follows is an abstract of the account given by the cap tain himself, with the most solemn asseveration of its veracity: — "We sailed," said he "during the space of twenty days and twenty nights with so violent a wind that not being able, either by the stars or the sight of any land, to know in what part of the world we were, we should have given ourselves up for lost, had not the pilot assured us that he saw the holy pa triarch by his side at the helm, bidding him not to fear, for that we were in the right road. On the twentieth day we came within sight of England, where, when we put to land, we found a great famine. Upon our making it known that we were laden with corn, the principal magistrate of the place told us God had sent us to assist them in their extremity; and having given us our choice either to receive money or the weight of our corn in British tin, we chose one half in coin, the other in tin. But behold a stil) gre vter wonder wrought by our Lord, as a recompense for the charity of our Saint: as soon as the ship re turned safe back to the coast of Egypt, some of the British tin being sold by the captain to a dealer in pewter, who on melting it down, found it pure silver; upon which, when he went to reproach the captain, as if he had suspected his honesty, and meant by a stratagem to put it to a trial, the whole was carefully ex amined, and all found to be excellent silver.

But as our Saint had, on so many occasions, received these miraculous supplies, in order to enable him to continue his extraordinary charities, so was he also sometimes tried, like Job, with great losses, which were shortly after repaid to him with interest. Nice-tas, the governor, urged on by some evil counsellors, under the pretence of the pressing necessities of the state, on account of relieving of the Persian war, de manded and carried off, in the name of the emperor, nil the money that had been brought to our Saint for charitable uses, leaving him master of only one hundred crowns; but on the same day, a stranger, from the coast of Barbary, brought him large sums of money, sent by charitable Christians; and the governor himself, before it was night, (upon reading a paper sent on this occasion by the man of God, in which he iiad written theso words, " Our Lord, who has said, / irill not leave tkee, neither will I forsake tlnee, cannot tell a Ik-, because, he is the truth; and therefore a wretched man, who must shortly b« the food of worrna, tannot tie up the hands of God, who furnishes all his creatures with both food and life,") returned all the money he had taken from him, adding thereto three hundred crowns of his own, and offering to undergo what penance the patriarch should oe* pleased to impose on him for his crime.

At another time the Saint sustained a very great loss, when all the vessels belonging to the church of Alexandria, to the number of thirteen, meeting with a violent storm in the Adriatic sea, were constrained to fling their whole freight, consisting of corn and other goods, overboard. On this occasion the holy patriarch said with Job, i. the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken, away, as it hath pleased the Lord, so it is done, blessed be the name of the Lord: and told his friends who came to condole with him on his misfortune, that with respect to himself he rather considered it more to his advantage than his loss, imputing it entirely to his having taken too much complacency in his alms, without sufficiently guarding against the danger of being infected by vainglory; — that he was very sensible of what service afflictions and humilia tions are to purify the soul from the dross of pride and vanity, being convinced as well as the psalmist, It is good for me that thou humbled me, that I may learn thy justifications, Ps. 118; — that however severely, as to his own part, he deserved to be punished on ao counfc. of his having given occasion, by his vanity, U so many innocent persons being thus reduced, yet as God was still the same as he was in the days of Job, he trusted, that notwithstanding his own unworthiness, he would help them out of their distress. This confidence of our»S*int was amply recompensed, for no\ long after our Lord restored him by one means or other, twice as much as he had lost, the whole of which he employed in comforting and assisting more abundantly than ever the poor and distressed.

The Saint being informed that one of his servants had labored under a pressing necessity, gave him privately with his own hand the weight of two pounds in gold; and when the man, confounded at the excess of his goodness towards him, told him he did not know he should be able to look him any more in the face: " Brother," replied the Saint, " I have not yet shed my blood for you, as Christ our common Master and God has done for us all, and has commanded us to do for our brethren."

One of the citizens being closely pressed to pay a debt, which he had not at that time the means to discharge, addressed himself to a rich nobleman, begging he would lend him fifty pounds of gold upon proper security. He assured him he would, but delayed to put his promise in execution, whilst the other, still closely watched by his creditor, apprehending he would proceed to extremeties, had recourse to tho holy patriarch whose heart and hand were ever opec

Ic relieve the necessities of all. No sooner had he told him his case, but the Saint replied: " My son, if your necessity required it, I would even give you the clothes off my back," and without further hesitation he lent him the whole sum. The following night the nobleman saw in a dream a person standing upon an altar, to whom many others approached to make their offerings, and for every offering they laid upon the altar they received a hundred fold in return. Ho seemed also to observe the holy patriarch come in immediately after him, and that there lay a sum of money upon a bench before him, which one of the bystanders bid him take up and offer upon the altar, that he might receive a hundred fold; but as he hesitated and was dilatory in doing as he was desired, the patriarch, who stood behind him, stept forward, took up the offering, and putting it upon the altar, presently afterwards received a hundred fold. The next morning the nobleman having sent for the man, offered to let him have the money he wanted; but he replied, that his lordship's delays to fulfil his promise had obliged him to have recourse to the holy patriarch, by whom he was immediately relieved; upon which the other related the vision he had seen, and severely condemned himself for having lost, by his want cf diligence in doing good, that great reward wherewith God recompenses those works which are done for his sake

Amongst the many others who, on seeing the boundless charities of the Saint, brought their money to him to be disposed of at his discretion for the relief of the poor, a man who had an only son aged fifteen years, came one day and presented him the weight of seven pounds and a half of gold, assuring him it was all he had, and only besought him to pray for his son, whom, he had sent in a ship k> the coast of Africa, that God would protect him and conduct him back in safety with his vessel to the haven. The Saint did not only pray himself, but also earnestly recommended the welfare of the youth and the vessel to the prayers of h:js clergy, as the man had desired; when behold, before the expiration of thirty days, the boy being taken ill died, and shortly after the ship, in which was also the uncle of the youth, on returning home, was cast away near the port of Alexandria, and nothing whatever saved but the lives of the persons on board, and the boat which conveyed them on shore. The melancholy news of the loss of his son and his ship arriving so rapidly one after the other, caused the most inexpressible affliction to the poor man. The holy patriarch was also exceedingly affected with it, more especially on account of the death of his only son; wherefore, not knowing what else to do, be besought the Father of mercies, and God of all consolation, to comfort the afflicted parent. Then sending a messenger t:> the man, as he had not the courage to see or speak to himself in person, he desired him not to lose his confr dence in God, whose judgments, though inscrutable, are nevertheless just, and according to what he knows is best for us, though we do not; and therefore cautioned him against any want of resignation on this occasion, lest he should bereave himself of the immense reward which God had prepared to recompense his faith and chanty, manifested in the offering he had made to God. This message was followed by a dream or vision the ensuing night, in which the maji of God appeared to the afflicted parent while asleep, and said to him, " Why do you afflict yourself, dear brother, and suffer yourself to be thus oppressed with grief? Did not you desire me to pray to. God to save your son, and behold he has saved him. For I can assure you, that had he lived he would have become a very lewd man; and as for your ship, had not God been moved to mercy, by the good work you did in ad dressing your charity to me, it would have been utterly lost, together with every person on board, so that you would have lost your brother also. Arise, then, and return thanks to God not only for preserving the life of your brother, but also for having saved your son, by taking him to himself before he became corrupted by the wicked maxims and' vanities of the world." Having awoke and found himself wonderfully comforted, he went early in the morning to the patriarch, to return thanks to God and to him, and related to him the vision he had seen. The holy man having glorified God, for his infinite goodness, desired the other not to attribute any thing of what happened to his prayers, but to God alone, and the faith he had placed in God; foi the blessed prelate had always the meanest opinion of himself, as was ever apparent from all his words and whole comportment, as he would never suffer any thing of good to be ascribed to him.

One of the principal men of the city, observing that the Saint, who was so liberal to others, allowed him self only a poor little bed on the floor, with an old tattered blanket for a covering for his lodging, sent him in one day a rich coverlet that cost six and thirty pieces of silver, conjuring him to make use of it for his sake. The servant of God, yielding to his importunity, used it for one night; but as they that lay in the same chamber observed, that instead of sleeping he spent the whole night in reproaching himself in the following manner with lying beneath such a rich covering, whilst the brethren of Jesus Christ, as he called the poor, lay starving with hunger and cold, and destitute of all the commodities of life: " and thou who aspirest after the joys of a happy eternity," he said to himself, " thou who drinkest wine, eatest good nsh, art well lodged, and, like one of the children of this wicked world, art also warmly covered, and liest at thy ease under a coverlet that cost six-and-thirty pieces of silver; surely living in so unmortified a manner, inrtead of expecting the joys of heaven hereafter, thou hast rather cause to apprehend that sentence pronounced on the rich man will fall to thy lot, to whom it was said, Luke xvi. Thou didst receive good things in thy life time, and lilceiuise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented."' The result of these reflections was, that he resolved to get rid of this rich piece of furniture the next morning, and sell it for the benefit of the poor, which he did with out any delay. When the gentleman saw his present exposed for sale, he purchased it, arid sent it to him again, entreating him to make use of it: he sold it a second time, and again in like manner a third time, giving the price of it to the poor, and telling his friends, with a pleasant countenance, " we shall now see which of us shall be first wearied out." This gentleman being very rich, and one from whom the Saint received many things, which he gave to the poor, upon these and similar occasions the Saint used to say, it was no harm to get all he could from the rich for the service of the poor, since by so doing he served both the one and the other; the poor, by relieving their wants, and the rich, by affording them the occasion to purchase heaven by their alms.

Amongst other exercises and lessons of charity which the Saint inculcated to his people, we must not pass over his sentiments with regard to the manner in which masters ought to treat their servants. Attend to the manner in which he expressed himself ons day on this subject, to one who was cruel and inhuman td his slaves: " My son," said he, with the utmost meekness, " I understand that by the temptation of the enemy, you are apt to treat your servants ill; let me en treat of you, for the time to come, to stop till your passion is passed over before you offer to correct them. For God has given them to us in order that they may serve us, but not that we should beat and abuse them; nay, perhaps he may have given them more with a view of exercising our patience, in supporting their faults and defects, than for any other service they can do. But tell me, Sir, with what price could you buy any one of these who has the honor to have been created, no less than yourself, after the imago and likeness of God; for, though you are his master, what have you either in body or so-nl that he has not? Give ear to St. Paul, Gal. iii. For as many of you that have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ; there is neither Jew nor Greek: tJtere is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female-. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ then, by taking upon himself the form of a servant, has taught us that we ought not to lift ourselves by pride over those whom he had made our servants: for as the prophet teaches us, Ps. 112, there is but one great Niaster and Lord of the universe, who is as the Lord Wir God, ivho dwellcth on hif/h, and looketh down on the low things, in heaven and in earth; he doea not say on the high things, but on the low things. How then can we pretend to domineer over those who have been redeemed, no less than ourselves, with the blood of our God and Master, for whose service ha has made the heavens, the sun, the stars, the earth the sea, and all the things therein; — for whose pro bection he employs his angels, and for whom the Son of God has subjected himself to all the humiliations and torments of his passion? — Can you, I say, Sir, treat with contempt this man whom God treats with honor? Shall you strike him as you would a beast, or as if he were not of the same nature as yourself? Tell me whether you be willing that every time you offend God he should punish you the same moment? I am certain you would not. How then can you say daily to God, for gi ve us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us? Do you do as you would be done by? "

This charity which the Saint inculcated to others he ever practised himself, without excepting his very enemies. Instead of being offended against those who had injured or wronged him, he, on the contrary, con ferred on them greater favors, that he might overcome evil with good; nay, he even humbled himself some times to impenitent sinners, by casting himself at their feet, and begging their pardon, although the fault was wholly on their side, that by these means he might bring them to a reconciliation with God and his Church.

One day a beggar having asked an alms of the holj patriarch, he ordered them that accompanied him to give him ten pieces of brass. The man, who expect ed more, instead of thanks returned him very abusive language, and treated him in a most insolent manner. Those that were present, being moved to indignation, would have punished the wretch upon the spot, had not the Saint severely reproved them, saying, " Let him finish what he has a mind to say; for why should not I, my brethren, suffer this small injury from a poor man, I who, for these sixty years, have been continually offending and injuring my God by my sins? "

Amongst other chanties, the Saint also founded several hospitals; and whilst a great mortality raged at Alexandria, he was very assiduous in attending such as were at the point of death, and in assisting them in their agony. He was also very diligent, not only in providing himself, but in ordering prayers to be offer ed in behalf of the souls of the faithful departed. In recommendation of this charity, and as a proof of the efficacy of such prayers, he related what had happen ed not long before to one of his countrymen, who had been carried away captive by the Persians, and cast into a prison called Lethe, or Oblivion. His friends having heard that he was dead, procured prayers to be said three several times every year, for the repose e* his soul; at each of which fas he assures them, when after four years he made bis escape out of prisDII, and returned home) he was always visited and comforted by a person shining like the sun, and was delivered on those occasions from his chains for the whole day.

The Saint recommended very much to his people the remembrance of death, as a most "wholesome meditation for all men; and having been told, that on the day of the coronation of the emperor, several pieces of different sorts of marble were presented to him, in order that he might choose the kind of which he would have his tomb made, that being ever mindful of his mortality and speedy return to dust, he might not suffer himself to be puffed up with pride, but take care to live and govern in such a manner, as to be always prepared for his last end; he also, with the same intention, gave orders to have a sepulchre prepared for himself amongst the tombs of the patri archs his predecessors, but that it should not be finished till his death; in the mean time he desired that the workmen, upon certain solemn days, should come and tell him, in presence of all his clergy: " My lore1., your tomb remains unfinished, 'give orders, if you please, that it may be completed, since you know no! the hour, as the scripture says, when the thief shall come." He also often entertained his friends that came to visit him with this same subject, of the continual thought we ought to have of death, and of thai separation which shall then take place between the soul and body. " I am of opinion," said he, " that the means to work out our salvation is, to be always thinking with sorrow on the hour of our death, and to consider well that we shall have no one to share with us the pains and conflicts we must then go through — • that at that hour the whole world shall forsake us, our good works excepted, which will never abandon us: — to think how great our astonishment and affliction must be, if at our departure hence we are not prepared for our trial: — to reflect that it will be in vain then to ask for a little more time wherein to do penance when we shall be reproached for having had so much, and made such ill use of it. " And how," said he, 11 shall poor John, (for so he commonly called himself) escape the claws of those cruel beasts that shall watch to catch him at his departure hence? What can he do when he shall see before him those bands of evil spirits, who shall strictly examine him, and charge home upon him all the evil he had done?" Which, he said, alluding to a vision in which St. Simon Styiites had seen in spirit, how, at the time of the separation of the soul from the body, when she would willingly fly up towards heaven, she meets with devils in her way, divided into different companies, according to the different vices which they usually suggest; and that the demons of pride examine the soul upon the ains committed in that kind: — those of impurity ex

Rmine her upon all her carnal sins and impure d ilectations: — those of detraction, upon every word that has proceeded out of her mouth against her neighbor: and so of all her other sins. Our Saint had this vision often in mind; as also that passage of the life of St. Hilarion, of the fear and apprehension he had, and the words he spoke to his soul, when he was upon the point of death; and therefore he would often be saying to himself: "If so great a Saint, who had served our Lord for such a number of years, who had wrought so many miracles, and even raised the dead to life, yefc apprehended so much that dreadful hour, what shalt thou be able to say or do, when thou shalt, find thy self encompassed by those cruel and unmerciful exam iners of all thy actions? What shalt thou be able to answer to such of these unhappy spirits as shall ex amine thee with regard to thy lies, thy detraction, thy hardheartedness, thy avarice, thy remembrance of in juries, or thy ill-will, &c. O merciful God, may thy almighty hand defend me at that hour from all the efforts of these enemies of my salvation! May thy goodness send thy angels to guide and conduct me safe in this last great and dangerous journey from time to eternity! " Such were the sentiments of our Saint, in his entertainments upon this most interesting sub-J3Ct, of the soul's passage out of this world into the other.

St, John had now illustrated the church of Alexaa* dria for ten years as a burning and a shining liyhi, when the time drawing near in which our Lord designed to take him to himself, he resigned his patriarchal see, and retired into his native country, Cyprus, in order to prepare himself for eternity. As soon as he arrived at Amathus, the place of his nativity, having a foreknowledge, by revelation, of his approaching death, he made his last will and testament in words to this effect: " I John, who was born a slave to sin, but have been made a free man by the grace of God, who, without any deserts of mine, has raised me to the priestly dignity, return thee most humble thanks, O Lord, that thou hast vouchsafed to hear the prayer I have made to thee, that I should not possess at my death any more than one small piece of money; and that whereas when I was made bishop I had great treasures at my disposal, and have received since immense sums from thy servants, thou hast always made me sensible that all this store was thine, and hast done me the favor ever to give back to thee without delay what belonged to thee; therefore, as this piece of money which remains belongs also to tltee no less than all the rest, I desire it may be likewise returned to thee, by putting it into the hands of the poor."

St. John the Almoner departed to our Lord in tht sixty fourth year of his age, anno 616. His body wa» interred in the church of Amathus, in the chapel o* St. Tychon, formerly bishop of that see, where manj miracles were afterwards wrought through his intercession. His name is recorded in the Roman Martyr ology on the twenty-third of January.