Palladius: The Lausiac History

INDICES (i) GENERAL .... 181

(ii) PERSONS MENTIONED IN THE

TEXT . . . .183

(iii) REFERENCES TO ANCIENT

WRITERS . . .185

(iv) MODERN WRITERS . . 187

MAP OF MONASTIC EGYPT To face title

Hither, and with one accord Sing the servants of the Lord: Sing each great ascetic sire; Antony shall lead the choir.

Egypt, hail, thou faithful strand! Hail, thou holy Libyan land! Nurturing for the realm on high Such a glorious company!

By what skill of mortal tongue Shall your wondrous acts be sung? All the conflicts of the soul, All your struggles to the goal; And your virtue's prize immense, And your victories over sense. How perpetual watch ye kept Over passions, prayed and wept; Yea, like very angels came, Visible in earthly frame.

Hymn for the Friday before Quinquagesitna. St. Theophanes. Translated by J. M. Neaie.

Jciv

I. The Author and his Book

In the fourth and fifth centuries of our era Egypt had come to be regarded with great reverence throughout Christendom as a Holy Land of piety. Pilgrims came from all parts to visit the saints who lived there, and several wrote descriptions of what they saw and heard, which are among the most interesting documents of the early Church. Palestine was so near that it was usually included in their tour; the glamour of its sacred sites, which remains with us still when that of Egypt has faded into oblivion, was already potent. But Palestine was clearly second to Egypt in the affections of the pilgrims.

The'prevailing sentiment was expressed by Chrysostom with admirable clearness {Horn, in Matt. viii.). It was eminently appropriate, he explains, that the child Jesus should be taken to Egypt to escape Herod. Palestine persecutes Him, Egypt receives Him. This typifies the position Egypt was to occupy in the development of the Church. The land which had oppressed the children of Israel, had known a Pharaoh, had worshipped cats, was destined to be more fervent than any other, to have its towns and even its deserts peopled by armies of saints living the life of angels, and to boast the greatest, after the apostles, of all saints, the famous Antony.

Palladius, the author of our book, who was destined

to be Chrysostom's devoted adherent, made a pilgrimage to this holy land, like so many others, and stayed there many years. The following is an outline of his life, with the dates as established by Butler.