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.

4. At that time there was a mad worship of idols among men, and soulless statues were honored with the honor of God, and many despised the service of the true God. They persecuted those who did not want to participate in their insane intoxication, and who, having established themselves in the true concepts of things and possessing spiritual discernment of them, laughed at the impotence of idols and worshipped the Creator of the universe. At this time, Jacob went over to Persia to see the sprouts of piety there and to serve them in a proper service. When he crossed one stream, certain maidens, who were washing linen and wringing it out with their feet, instead of assuming another, more decent position, without any modesty, with a defiant look and shameless eyes, looked at the man of God, without covering their heads and without lowering their raised clothes. The man of God, indignant at this and wishing to show the Power of God on this occasion in order to miraculously smite wickedness, cursed the stream — and the water in it immediately dried up. He also cursed the maidens, punishing their shameless youth with premature gray hair; His word was immediately followed by action, and the blackness of their hair disappeared and they became like trees freshly planted in spring, covered with autumn leaves. And when they felt this punishment (for the stream had dried up before their eyes, and when they looked at each other's heads, they saw a sudden change), the maidens ran into the city, and there told what had happened. Some of the inhabitants of the city came out to meet Jacob, begging him to soften his anger and lift the punishment. He did not hesitate long – he offered a prayer to the Lord, and then commanded the stream to flow again: instantly the waters flowed from their innermost receptacle, obeying the wave of the righteous man. The inhabitants of the city, who were honored with this, began to ask Jacob to return the former color of hair to their daughters. It is said that he heeded this request of theirs, and even sent for the maidens who had been punished in this way, but since they did not come, he left his punishment in force in order to teach others modesty, urging them to chastity and constant remembrance of the power of God.

5. Such is the miracle of this new Moses, not by the stroke of a rod, but by the sign of the cross. And I, besides the miracle itself, am also very much amazed at the meekness of Jacob, because he did not betray those shameless virgins, like the great Elisha, to fierce bears, but by harmless punishment, which only slightly deprived them of beauty, he taught them both piety and decency. I say this not to condemn the severity of the prophet (God save me from such madness!), but to show how James, having a power similar to that of Elisha, acted in the spirit of the meekness of Christ and the New Testament.

6. Again, when he once learned that a certain Persian judge had unjustly decided a case, he commanded a certain very large stone lying nearby to be crushed and disappear, in order thus to denounce the judge's unjust decision. When the stone was instantly shattered into an innumerable number of small particles, those present were horrified, and the judge, seized with fear, reversed his previous decision and pronounced another, just one. Here, too, Jacob imitated his Lord, Who, desiring to show that He voluntarily underwent suffering and that He could easily punish His enemies if He so desired, punished the soulless fig tree, withering it with a word, and thereby revealed His Power (Matt. 21:18-22). Likewise, James, imitating the Lord's love for mankind, did not punish the unjust judge, but, breaking the stone, taught him justice.

7. Being famous for such deeds and being loved by all, so that his name sounded on the lips of all, James was drawn to the high priestly ministry and received the primacy in his own country. However, even leaving solitude in the mountains, and choosing, against his will, life in the city, he did not change either his food or his clothing — only the place of residence changed, and the way of life remained the same; only his labors increased, and the new labors were more varied than the former. To fasting, to the feats of vigilance, and to the sackcloth in which he was clothed, were added all kinds of care for the needy, that is, care for widows, care for orphans, denunciation of offenders, and just defense of the offended. And why should we tell all this to those who know what is required of those who accept such a ministry? Saint James especially loved such labors, because he both loved and feared the Lord these sheep.

8. And the more he acquired the riches of virtue, the more he received the grace of the Holy Spirit. Once this holy man was going to some village or city (I cannot name the exact place) and some poor people approached him; They showed him another poor man who had pretended to be dead, and asked the saint for the money necessary for the burial. Jacob granted their request and prayed to God for the supposedly deceased, asking the Lord for the remission of his sins and numbering among the righteous. During this prayer, the soul of the pretended to be dead flew away. His body was hidden by coverings, and as soon as the pious man departed, those who staged this performance began to force the lying man to get up. When they noticed that he did not hear, and that the lie had turned into the truth, and the mask had become a face, they overtook Jacob and begged him to return. They also explained the reason for their deception – poverty, and they asked the saint to forgive them their sin, and to return to the lying man the soul that had flown away. Imitating the Lord's love for mankind, Jacob heeded their request and performed a miracle, by prayer restoring to the lying man the life that had been taken from him by the power of prayer.

9. And it seems to me that this miracle is similar to the miracle of the great Apostle Peter, who put to death Ananias and Sapphira, secret kidnappers and deceivers (Acts 5:1-11). For in the same way Jacob took the life of a man who concealed the truth and used a lie. Only the Apostle, knowing about the abduction, for it had been revealed to him by the grace of the Spirit, inflicted punishment, and James, not knowing about the deception, stopped the pretender's life. In addition, the Apostle did not release the dead from punishment, for the beginning of the preaching of salvation also needed fear, and James, filled with the grace of the apostles, first punished, and then removed the punishment, seeing in this spiritual benefit for sinners. However, let us pass on to the other acts of Jacob by briefly outlining them.

10. When Arius, the father and inventor of the blasphemy against the only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, rebelled against the Creator with his teaching, and filled Egypt with indignation and agitation, and the great Constantine, the Zerubbabel of our flock (for like him he led all the Orthodox captives out of a foreign country, and restored and raised up the temples of God that had fallen to the ground), gathered together all the heads of the churches at Nicaea on this occasion, then James also came there with others to defend the right dogmas, as the leader and foremost fighter of the phalanx of the soldiers of Christ, since Nisibis was then under the rule of the Romans.