Having received instruction concerning this from the Holy Scriptures, and having heeded the voice of God, which says through the prophet: "Death has ascended through the window" (Jeremiah 9:21), the saints whom we have blessed have closed their senses, as with locks and locks, by the laws of God, handing over the keys to them to the mind, so that without the command of the mind their tongue will not open their mouths, their pupils will not dare to show themselves from behind their eyelashes, unless they were allowed to do so, and the ear, not being able to bar its entrance with something like eyelashes or lips, avoided meaningless speeches and accepted only those that delighted the mind. In the same way, they have taught the sense of smell not to have a passion for fragrances that can pamper and relax the soul. In the same way they removed satiety from the belly, teaching it to take only that which is not pleasurable, but beneficial, and they ate only as much food as was necessary in order not to die of hunger. They also destroyed the sweet tyranny of sleep, and, freeing their eyelashes from its bondage, learned, instead of submitting to it, to rule and use it, not when it attacks, but only when they themselves invoke it for a brief reinforcement of natural powers.

Having thus taken care of the enclosure of the walls and the strengthening of the gates, as well as establishing harmony between internal thoughts, they laughed at the enemies attacking from without, who could not forcibly invade their city. For the saints were protected by God's grace, and within them there was no traitor who would dare to let their enemies in. And the enemies, who were of an invisible nature, could not take possession of their body, which was visible and subject to natural needs, because the driver, the musician, and his pilot, holding the reins well, made the horses go in order; he, by striking the strings of the senses in a measured manner, taught them to produce harmonious sounds; And he, skillfully controlling the rudder of the ship, successfully repelled both the onslaught of waves and gusts of wind.

7. What person who is not devoid of a sense of justice will not be amazed at these people who have made their earthly journey in innumerable labors, tamed their bodies in sweat and deprivation, did not know what laughter is, and spent their whole lives in sobs and tears? Who will not give worthy praise to them, who considered fasting to be the most exquisite food of the sybarites, exhausting wakefulness the sweetest sleep, hard ground the soft bed, and prayer and psalmody the greatest and immeasurable pleasure? Who will not sing a song of praise to them, who have acquired all kinds of virtue?

I am aware that no word can adequately convey the greatness of their virtue, and yet I will try to do so. For it would be a great injustice not to give even the slightest praise to these perfect men, the worshippers of true wisdom.

8. Nevertheless, in my work I will not give praise to all of them, but to each individually, for God has given them various gifts, as Blessed Paul also taught, saying: "To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge, by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing, by the same Spirit; to another miracle-working, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another divers tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues" (1 Cor. 12:8-10). And pointing out the source of these gifts, he adds: "All these things are wrought by one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one separately as He pleases" (1 Corinthians 12:11). Since they possessed various gifts, it is natural that we will narrate each of them separately, without presenting all the deeds they performed (even a whole life would not suffice for such a description); Having told a little about the life and deeds of one and having shown in some way the characteristic essence of the life of this ascetic, we will move on to another in our narration.

9. Nor will we undertake to describe the way of life of all the saints who live everywhere, for we do not know the ascetics who shone forth in all the ends of the world; And it is impossible for one person to describe everything. I will only tell you about the lives of those who, like the dawn, shone in the east and embraced all the ends of the universe with their rays. And the speech here will be narrative, artlessly recounting a few acts of the saints and alien to the refined devices of panegyrics.

10. Those who begin to read this "History of the God-Lovers" or "The Ascetic Life" — let everyone call this work what he wants — I ask you not to harbor distrust of what is written, even if they happen to hear something beyond their strength. I also ask you not to measure the virtues of these holy men by your own measure, but to firmly remember that the Lord usually measures the gifts of the Holy Spirit with the spiritual disposition of pious people, and sends great gifts to the most perfect. This I have said to those who have not yet sufficiently penetrated into the hidden depths of the works of God. For those who are initiated into the hidden mysteries of the Spirit know how He is pleased with those who worship Him, and how many miracles He works in people and through people, drawing unbelievers to the knowledge of God by the greatness of His accomplishments. And whoever does not believe the events of which we are going to speak, will show that he does not believe in the truth of the deeds of Moses, Joshua and Elisha, and even considers the miracles of the holy Apostles to be fables. However, if the testimonies about these deeds are true, then he should consider these stories to be alien to falsehood, for the same grace that worked in the Apostles also created in others what it created.

11. I myself was an eyewitness of some of the events described, and those which I did not see, I heard about from those who saw them, men who loved virtue and were worthy to behold those ascetics and become their disciples. It should be recalled that of those who have recorded the teaching of the Gospel in writing, not only the Holy Apostles Matthew and John, who themselves saw the miracles of the Lord, are worthy of trust, but also Luke and Mark, to whom from the beginning they were self-seers and ministers of the Word, accurately conveyed not only what the Lord suffered and created, but also what He constantly taught." St. Luke, who was not a self-seer, says at the beginning of his Gospel that he intends to narrate things that are "perfectly known" (Luke 1:1). And we, although we know that he was not an eyewitness of what he narrates, but heard about it from others, we believe him and Mark no less than Matthew and John: for both are quite worthy of trust in their narratives, although they relate what they have learned from witnesses. In the same way, we will tell one thing as eyewitnesses, and the other out of trust in the eyewitnesses who told us this, who themselves were imitators of the lives of those ascetics. I spread about this, wishing to convince them of the truth of my story. Now I will proceed to the story itself.

I. JAMES OF NISIBIS

1. The divine lawgiver Moses, who laid bare the bottom of the sea and filled the parched desert with water, and performed many other miracles, described the way of life of the ancient saints, guided not by wisdom acquired from the Egyptians, but by the light of grace received from above. For how else would he have known about the virtue of Abel, about the godliness of Enoch, about the righteousness of Noah, about the pious priesthood of Melchizedek, about the calling, faith, courage, zealous hospitality, the glorious sacrifice, and about the other virtues of Abraham, and in general about the feats, victories, and glory of those pious men? How else would he have known about all this, if the rays of the intelligent and Divine Spirit had not enlightened him? A similar assistance of the grace of the Spirit is needed now for me, who have undertaken to describe the lives of the saints who shone forth in our time and shortly before it, and who am also trying to present a kind of parting words for those who wish to imitate the lives of these saints. All that remains is to call them in prayer and begin the story.

2. On the border of the kingdoms of Rome and Persia there is the city of Nisibis, which in ancient times paid tribute to the Romans and depended on their power. Born in this city, the great Jacob loved a desolate and solitary life, taking refuge on the tops of the highest mountains. In spring, summer and autumn he lived in the thickets in the open air, and in winter he hid in a cave that gave him a cramped shelter. He did not eat what was sown and harvested with difficulty, but what grew by itself. Gathering the fruits of wild plants, which were similar to garden vegetables and could be eaten, he gave his body as much of them as was necessary to sustain life, while doing without fire. Woolen fabric was also superfluous for him, which was replaced by the coarsest wool of wild goats. Both his underdress and his cloak were made of it.

3. Thus depressing the body, Saint James was constantly concerned about spiritual food for the soul; and, having cleansed her mental eye, he made his mind a bright mirror of the Spirit of God. According to the words of the divine Apostle, he with an open face, as in a mirror, beholding the glory of the Lord, was transfigured into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18). Therefore, every day his boldness towards God increased, and what he asked of God (and asked only what he should), he immediately received. Therefore, he even prophetically foresaw the future and acquired from the grace of the Holy Spirit the power to work miracles. I will tell you about some of these miracles, and to those who do not know I will show a ray of his Apostolic light.