The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus - Coptic ...

206
EVAGRIUS
appeased God with prayers and entreaties. Next, when Arcesilaus
enquired what indeed it was that had so distressed him, he clearly said
that the cry of the fall of the city of Antiochus had just then echoed
round his ears. As a result Arcesilaus and the bystanders, in astonishment,
recorded the hour, and subsequently found that it was just as
Zosimas had declared. 21 Through him many other miracles occurred;
omitting the majority, since indeed they are of too great a number to
relate, I will relate a few.
At the same time as Zosimas there £ourished a man named John,
who was similar in his virtues; he had wrestled in the solitary and propertyless
life at the monastery of Choziba, which is situated at the edge of the
ravine at the northern part of the highway which leads travellers from
Jerusalem to the city of the men of Jericho, 22 but was now bishop of the
city of Caesar, which I have already mentioned. 23 When he heard that
the wife of Arcesilaus, whom I have mentioned, had put out one of her
eyes with a weaving shuttle, this John the Chozibite went to her at the
run to inspect the injury. When he saw that the pupil had fallen out and
that the entire eye was discharging, he instructed one of the attendant
doctors to bring a sponge, to reinstate [158] what had discharged, as far
as he could, and to bind on the sponge and secure it with bandages. All
this was while Arcesilaus was absent, for he happened to be with
Zosimas in his monastery, which lay near the village of Sinde, about 500
stades distant from the city of Caesar. Accordingly runners raced o¡ for
21 The recluse Theodosius emerged from his cell to encourage his brethren to pray for
mercy to avert an imminent a¥iction ^ six or seven days later, an earthquake struck Antioch
(Life, pp. 86:14^87:23). An analogous miracle is told of Symeon the Fool and the earthquake
of 551 (iv.34; cf. also less speci¢c predictions of destruction in the Life of Symeon
the Younger, ch. 104^5).
Long-distance announcements of current events are quite common in miracle collections,
but usually involve the death of an important personage, e.g. John the Almsgiver (Life of
John ch. 46) or the emperor Maurice (Theophylact viii.13.7^14); cf. also Rufus, Plerophories
6, 54; Pratum Spirituale 57 (Holy Men). It was obviously essential to record the
precise time or circumstances of the pronouncement.
22 The monastery of Choziba is sited about ¢ve kilometres west of Jericho, tucked into
the base of the canyon wall on the north side of the Wadi Kelt/Qilt (for description and
photograph of the extant buildings, see Hirschfeld, Monasteries 36^8); it was su⁄ciently
close to the Jerusalem^Jericho highway for one of the monastic tasks to be o¡ering refreshment
to travellers.
23 John the Chozibite received a delegation of monastic leaders at Caesarea in 518 (Life
of Sabas ch. 61). Pratum Spirituale 25 has a story about John giving Holy Communion in
the monastery of Choziba.