Page:Theparadiseoftheholyfathers.djvu/257



HERE was a certain man whose name was Chronius, who came from the village which was called Tomârtâ (i.e., Phœnix) which was nigh unto the desert; and when he had gone away a little distance from human habitations, and had departed from his village, having measured out along the road with his right foot about fifteen thousand paces, he prayed and dug in that spot a pit, and he found [therein] good and sweet water. Now the well was about seven fathoms in depth; and he built there a little habitation wherein to dwell, and from the day wherein he shut himself up in that place, he prayed to God that he might never return to a region inhabited by men. Now when he had dwelt there some few years, he was esteemed worthy to become a priest unto the brotherhood, for there were gathered together unto him about two hundred brethren. And these excellent things are said concerning him: that during the whole of the period of sixty years, wherein he was performing the ministrations of the altar, he never once went out of the desert, and that he never ate bread which he had not [earned by] the labour of his hands.

OW by the side of this Chronius, who is [mentioned] above, there used to dwell a certain man who was called James the Lame, and he was an exceedingly learned man; now both of these men knew the blessed Anthony.

And it came to pass one day that there happened to be there also Paphnutius, who is described as a man who watered gardens by machines, and who possessed the gift of knowledge to such a degree that he knew how to expound the Books of the Old and New Testaments without reading from them; and he was such a gentle man that his meekness overcame the gift of prophecy which was found with him; now the former was voluntary, and the latter was an act of Divine grace. And of this man it was said that he possessed spiritual excellence to such a degree that for a period of eighty years he did not own two tunics. Now when I and the blessed man Evagrius came to these men we desired to learn the reasons for the stumblings of the brethren and for their transgressions against the strict rules of the ascetic life.

And it came to pass in those same days that Chaeremon the anchorite departed from the world whilst he was sitting on his seat and holding his work in his hand.