The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY: BOOK I 35
eye-witnesses has written the miracles of this man, while Theodoret too,
the bishop of Cyrrhus, has also written and eloquently recorded
them; 123 leaving aside most matters therein, 124 we have learnt something
which is preserved to the present day by those in the holy desert, and
ascertained it from them.
And so after Symeon, this angel upon earth, this citizen of the
supernal Jerusalem while in the £esh, pursued this strange course which
was unknown to mankind, those in the holy desert sent someone to
him, 125 enjoining him to say what is this outlandish existence, why after
abandoning the well-worn path that has been trodden by the saints is he
travelling some strange way that is utterly unknown to mankind; and
that they instruct him to descend and to follow the way of the chosen
Fathers. If he willingly pro¡ered himself for the descent, these men
ordered that permission be granted him to pursue his own way; for from
his obedience [22] it would be clear that he thus persevered in the struggle
under guidance from God; but should he resist, or indeed be a slave to his
personal will and not directly respond to the injunction, he should be
dragged down, even forcibly. 126 When indeed the man came to him and
announced the command of the Fathers, and Symeon had at once put
forward one of his two feet in his desire to ful¢l the Fathers’ injunction,
123 The Greek Life by the monk Antony and the anonymous Syriac Life both claim to
have been written by eye-witnesses, though Lane-Fox, ‘Daniel’ 181^5, is sceptical, especially
about Antony’s work; Theodoret, RH 26. Further discussion of the di¡erent versions
in Lietzmann, Symeon; Peeters, Tre¤fonds 93^136; Festugie' re, Antioche 347^87; Harvey,
‘Sense’; Doran, Lives.
124 The text is slightly awkward. Festugie' re (218 n. 48) adopted the suggestion in Bidez^
Parmentier’s apparatus that e ’' nde' au ’“ be read for e ’no ‘“˛, ‘leaving aside most matters, we have
taken no more than one . . .’, but the sense is clear without emendation.
125 Festugie' re (218 n. 49) suggested that these were probably the Fathers in the Egyptian
desert, and a fragment of John Diakrinomenos (535: text at Theodore Lector 154:1^4)
records that Egyptian monks sent an anathema to Symeon, which they withdrew after
learning more about his life and humility. But there is no reason why monks in the deserts
of Syria or Palestine should not have been equally concerned about this ascetic innovation,
since Symeon’s early monastic career had caused much controversy. The Life of Daniel, 7^
8, records an incident when Mesopotamian monks criticized Symeon’s innovatory behaviour,
and the Syriac Life 111 (Doran) provides a defence of his practice with reference to
Old Testament champions of God.
126 A recurrent theme in hagiographies, and collections of stories about holy men, is the
relationship of the individual ascetic to the established Church in the form of the leader of a
monastery or the local bishop: see, for example, Theodoret, RH 15.4; 21.6^8, 15^21, and cf.
n. 121 above.