Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

796 26. holy men
thought on self-formation had produced the conclusion that full knowledge
of the self was possible only for those who were prepared, as spiritual
sons, to see their own souls through the quiet eyes of an Old Man. 28
The Old Man alone, wrote John of Gaza to a monk in an adjoining monastery,
‘is absolutely not the plaything of demons’ (Barsanuphius,
Correspondance 373, Regnault (1971) 263). Such guidance usually took place
within the narrow confines of a given monastery or monastic region. But
what holy men such as Barsanuphius and John could do at Gaza, and what
Epiphanius did at Thebes in upper Egypt, was to place their authoritative
words at the disposition of a far wider variety of questioners. In a world
where the primary division was not that between the monastery and the
world, or between the clergy and the laity, but the existential chasm between
religious persons and the vast majority who had neither the leisure nor the
inclination for such matters, it was usual for any outstanding person or
monastic establishment to function as a ‘monastery without walls’ for a
wide network of religiously-minded clients ‘in the world’.
Holy men might receive desperate requests for help of every kind, from
words of comfort and prayer to God to direct intervention with the
authorities. This is shown by the ostraka found in the monastery of
Epiphanius at Thebes. A woman whose husband had been carried off by
the barbarians wrote:
Be so good, let thy compassion reach me . . . for my heart is flown forth from me.
(Crum and Evelyn-White (1926) no. 170, p.199)
An elderly priest also approached the hermit:
broken, lying abed, being carried in and out . ..A great grief is in my heart, night
and day . . . be so kind as to appoint for me prayers and a [regime of fasting] convenient
to my sickness and old age, and even be it lying down, I will fulfil them.
(Crum and Evelyn-White (1926) no. 11, p.195)
It was from the Old Men, Barsanuphius and John, that the Christian notables
of the Gaza region received advice on all manner of topics. The
codes of Christian deportment proposed in these letters represent the late
flowering of a very ancient délicatesse, issuing now with supernatural authority
from behind the permanently closed doors of the cell of an Egyptian
recluse. Not least of the good advice provided by the Old Men concerned
dealings with non-Christians. Should a landowner place his wine press at
the disposal of a Jewish neighbour?
If, when it rains, God causes the rain to fall on your fields and not on those of the
Jew, then you also can refuse to press his wine. But as he is full of love for all
mankind ...whyshould you wish to be inhumane rather than merciful?
(Barsanuphius, Correspondance 686, Regnault (1971) 441)
28 Brown, ‘Asceticism pagan and Christian’, in CAH xiii, 601–31.
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