第42章 THE EUPHORBIA(4)

Paphnutius, on seeing it, recognised the column which had been shown him in his dream, and he calculated that it was thirty-two cubits high.He went to the neighbouring village, and ordered a ladder of that height to be made; and when the ladder was placed against the pillar, he ascended, knelt down on the top, and said to the Lord--"Here, then, O God, is the abode Thou hast chosen for me.May I remain here, in Thy Grace, until the hour of my death."He had brought no provisions with him, trusting in divine providence, and expecting that charitable peasants would give him all that he needed.And, in fact, the next day, about the ninth hour, women came with their children, bringing bread, dates, and fresh water, which the boys carried to the top of the column.

The top of the pillar was not large enough to allow the monk to lie at full length, so that he slept with his legs crossed and his head on his breast, and sleep was a more cruel torture to him than his wakeful hours.At dawn the ospreys brushed him with their wings, and he awoke filled with pain and terror.

It happened that the carpenter who had made the ladder feared God.

Disturbed at the thought that the saint was exposed to the sun and rain, and fearing that he might fall in his sleep, this pious man constructed a roof and a railing on the top of the column.

Soon the report of this extraordinary existence spread from village to village, and the labourers of the valley came on Sundays, with their wives and children, to look at the stylite.The disciples of Paphnutius, having learned with surprise the place of this wonderful retreat, came to him, and obtained from him permission to build their huts at the foot of the column.Every morning they came and stood in a circle round the master, and received from him the words of instruction.

"My sons," he said to them, "continue like those little children whom Jesus loved.That is the way of salvation.The sin of the flesh is the source and origin of all sins; they spring from it as from a parent.

Pride, avarice, idleness, anger, and envy are its dearly beloved progeny.I have seen this in Alexandria; I have seen rich men carried away by the vice of lust, which, like a river with a turbid flood, swept them into the gulf of bitterness."The abbots Ephrem and Serapion, being informed of his strange proceeding, wished to behold him with their own eyes.Seeing from afar, on the river, the triangular sail which was bringing them to him, Paphnutius could not prevent himself from thinking that God had made him an example to all solitary monks.The two abbots, when they saw him, did not conceal their surprise; and, having consulted together, they agreed in condemning such an extraordinary penance, and exhorted Paphnutius to come down.

"Such a mode of life is contrary to all usage," they said; "it is peculiar, and against all rules."But Paphnutius replied--

"What is the monastic life if not peculiar? And ought not the deeds of a monk to be as eccentric as he is himself? It was a sign from God that caused me to ascend here; it is a sign from God that will make me descend."Every day religious men came to join the disciples of Paphnutius, and they built for themselves shelters round the aerial hermitage.Several of them, to imitate the saint, mounted the ruins of the temple; but, being reproved by their brethren, and conquered by fatigue, they soon gave up these attempts.

Pilgrims flocked from all parts.There were some who had come long distances, and were hungry and thirsty.The idea occurred to a poor widow of selling fresh water and melons.Against the foot of the column, behind her bottles of red clay, her cups and her fruit under an awning of blue-and-white striped canvas, she cried, "Who wants to drink?" Following the example of this widow, a baker brought some bricks and made an oven close by, in the hope of selling loaves and cakes to visitors.As the crowd of visitors increased unceasingly, and the inhabitants of the large cities of Egypt began to come, some man, greedy of gain, built a caravanserai to lodge the guests and their servants, camels, and mules.Soon there was, in front of the column, a market to which the fishermen of the Nile brought their fish, and the gardeners their vegetables.A barber, who shaved people in the open air, amused the crowd with his jokes.The old temple, so long given over to silence and solitude was filled with countless sights and sounds of life.The innkeepers turned the subterranean vaults into cellars and nailed on the old pillars signs surmounted by the figure of the holy Paphnutius, and bearing this inscription in Greek and Egyptian--"/Pomegranate wine, fig wine, and genuine Cilician beer sold here/." On the walls, sculptured with pure and graceful carvings, the shop-keepers hung ropes of onions, and smoked fish, dead hares, and the carcases of sheep.In the evening, the old occupants of the ruins, the rats, scuttled in a long row to the river, whilst the ibises, suspiciously craning their necks, perched on the high cornices, to which rose the smoke of the kitchens, the shouts of the drinkers, and the cries of the tapsters.All around, builders laid out streets, and masons constructed convents, chapels, and churches.By the end of six months a city was established with a guardhouse, a tribunal, a prison, and a school, kept by an old blind scribe.

The pilgrims were innumerable.Bishops and other Church dignitaries, came, full of admiration.The Patriarch of Antioch, who chanced to be in Egypt at that time, came with all his clergy.He highly approved of the extraordinary conduct of the stylite, and the heads of the Libyan Church followed, in the absence of Athanasius, the opinion of the Patriarch.Having learned which, Abbots Ephrem and Serapion came to the feet of Paphnutius to apologise for their former mistrust.

Paphnutius replied--