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.

(At this great council, when many reasoned soundly and well, and others spoke differently (for there were few who thought contrary to the right dogmas, although they did not dare to expose their impiety, but covered it with certain stratagems, which not everyone could discern, but only those who comprehended the mysteries of the truth), the confession of faith was read, which was preserved and preached at that time throughout the whole world; all recognized it, having testified both in words and on paper, that they believe and think so. Many did this quite willingly, and seven of some of the accomplices in the blasphemy of Arius, although they also testified to the Creed with their tongues and pens, yet in their souls they held the conviction of the opposite, according to the word of the prophet: "These men worship Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me" (Isaiah 29:13). About them also Jeremiah says: "Thou art near their lips, but far from their wombs" (Jeremiah 12:2), and also David: "With thy lips thou blesseth, and with thy heart a maple" (Psalm 61:5), and their words are softer than oil, and that are arrows (Psalm 54:22). And so these seven men began to ask the great Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, to have pity on Arius, who had been condemned by the whole council. But when Alexander, knowing their pretense and suspecting the cunning of Arius, did not heed their request, some others, deceived by Arius in their simplicity, began to praise the virtue of love for mankind, proving that it was especially pleasing to the Lord of all. When the great Alexander called unjust love for one person inhumanity, harmful to many, pointing out that it could serve as the cause of the destruction of the entire flock of Christ, then James offered advice to all to observe a strict fast and during the seven days of this fast to pray to the Lord that He would grant peace to the churches. Everyone accepted this advice of the divine man, since they knew that he shone with apostolic gifts. Fasting was combined with prayer, and when Sunday came, on which many hoped to see the impious Arius received by the Orthodox into church communion and, upon the onset of the Divine Liturgy, expected to see the adversary of God pardoned, a Divine and truly wondrous miracle took place. In the most unclean place, this wicked man, having vomited out the food he had taken, vomited out its receptacle together with it: his intestines fell out and mingled with impurities, this wicked man fell down dead and suffered a shameful death. He received the well-deserved recompense for his abominable blasphemy in a vile place through the prayers of the great James. The Holy Scriptures justly praise the priest Phinehas, because he struck down Baadfeshloa, the author of the misfortunes of the people of Israel. That is why the Psalmist David sings of it, saying: "A hundred Phinehas and propitiate, and cease to be slain: and it shall be reckoned to him for righteousness, for generations and generations for ever" (Psalm 105:30-31). But Phinehas deservedly and gloriously struck down the enemy with his weapons, and for Jacob, instead of spear and sword, the word with which he struck the wicked man was enough, so that he would not see the glory of the Lord. And this alone was sufficient to expose the folly of the accomplices in the wickedness of Arius. For James, as a preacher and defender of the dogmas we revere, having struck with his weapon the words of the father of impiety, forced others to turn away from this insane impiety).

After the end of the holy council, each primate returned to his flock; Jacob also returned, as a leader and conqueror, comforted by the victories of piety.

11. After a while, the great and admirable Emperor Constantine, adorned with crowns of piety, died; power over the Roman empire was inherited by his sons. Then the king of Persia (Sapor was his name), looking with contempt upon the children of Constantine, as not equal in strength to their father, set out with a multitude of infantry and cavalry against Nisibis; He also brought here as many elephants as he could. Having disposed his army to storm the city, he set up siege weapons, built fortifications, fixed the piles, and blocked the spaces between them like wattle with branches, ordered the soldiers to make an embankment and set up siege towers against the fortress towers. Then, placing archers in them, he commanded them to shoot at those standing on the walls, and ordered the other soldiers to blow up the walls from below. Since, through the prayers of the pious man, all this did not bring success, Sapor with a multitude of his people stopped the flow of the neighboring river, blocking it with a dam. When a large amount of water had gathered, he released it all at once on the walls, as if using a siege engine of great destructive power. The wall could not withstand the pressure of the water and under its onslaught on one side completely collapsed. The Persian soldiers raised a great cry as if the city had almost been taken, for they did not know of the great stronghold guarding the inhabitants of the city. The Persians postponed its capture for a while, seeing the impossibility of approaching the fortress due to the abundance of water. Moving away at a distance and as if calmed down from their labors, they gave themselves a rest, and took care of the horses. The inhabitants of the city turned to God with fervent prayers, having the great Jacob as their intercessor before Him. All the adults eagerly renewed the collapsed wall, not caring in the least about its beauty or slenderness, but in disorder piling up what they could: stones, bricks, and other objects brought with them. The work went well, and in one night the laying in the wall reached a height sufficient to hold back a cavalry charge, and to prevent infantrymen without ladders from climbing the wall. Then all the inhabitants of the city began to beseech the man of God to ascend the wall and strike the enemies with the arrows of prayer. Heeding the requests, he climbed one of the towers and, seeing a multitude of enemies, began to beseech the Lord to send a cloud of mosquitoes and mosquitoes upon them. The Lord heard his prayers, as he had previously listened to the prayers of Moses, and the Persian soldiers were stung by the arrows sent by God. The horses and elephants broke free from their harness and fled, scattered everywhere, because they could not bear the attacks of these insects.

12. When the wicked king saw that all the siege weapons were of no use, and the pressure of the water was useless, for the broken wall was quickly rebuilt; when he saw that his entire army was exhausted by labor, suffering in the open air and being persecuted by a punishment sent from above; when he also saw a man of God walking on the walls, and decided that the Roman emperor himself was in command of the city (for on the wall he saw a man dressed in purple and adorned with a diadem), then he was indignant at those who had deceived him by persuading him to go to war, and by assuring him that there was no emperor in Nisibis. Having condemned these advisers to death, he sent his army back and hastily retired to his royal palace.

13. Such miracles God performed through this Hezekiah, not less, but greater than through Hezekiah of old (2 Kings 19:14-19)! For what miracle can surpass that of Jacob, for the city with the broken wall was not taken by the enemy! And I am also amazed that in his prayers Jacob did not ask for lightning and fire from heaven, as the great Elijah did, when two military commanders came to him, each with fifty soldiers (2 Kings 1:9-12). James knew that the Lord said to the Apostles James and John, when they wanted to do the same thing as Elijah did: "You do not know what kind of spirit you are" (Luke 9:55). And therefore he did not ask that the earth be opened under the feet of the Persian soldiers, nor did he ask that the army of the enemies be given over to the fire, but turned to God only with a prayer that it would be ulcerated by insects and that the enemies, recognizing the power of God, would finally learn piety.

14. Such boldness before God was this man of God! He was vouchsafed such grace from above! Living in this way and progressing from day to day in the Divine, he left this life with the greatest glory and migrated from these places. After some time, when the city itself was ceded by the then Roman king to the Persians, its former inhabitants left the city and carried with them the body of their defender and leader, grieving and grieving over their migration, but singing and glorifying the valor of the victorious James. For if he had lived, they would not have fallen under the power of the barbarians.

Having told about this holy man, I, praying for his blessing, will proceed to another story.