Palladius of Galatia, Lausiac History 70
https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/328
Context
During an era of revolutionary religious practice and intense
theological debate, Palladius wrote one of the most influential works of Late Antiquity:
a collection of biographies of holy persons, his History for Lausus.
Palladius of Galatia entered the monastic life in the late 4th century, travelled to
Alexandria and Nitria (where he stayed for nine years among the Desert Fathers), and,
after a sojourn in Palestine, returned to Asia Minor in 400 C.E. as bishop of Bithynian
Helenopolis. He wrote his religious history for Lausus, chamberlain in the court of
Theodosius II (historia Lausiaca), later in his career, after a period of
controversy and further stays in Egypt and Palestine. This passage portrays a legal and
spiritual controversy involving the daughter of a presbyter in Caesarea, who was
impregnated by an assailant, a wrongfully accused reader in the local congregation, the
Bishop (of Caesarea?), and a nearby convent.
Text
(1) Πρεσβυτέρου τινὸς θυγάτηρ ἐν Καισαρείᾳ τῆς
Παλαιστίνης ἐκπεσοῦσα παρθένος παρὰ τοῦ ταύτην φθείραντος ἐδιδάχθη
ἀναγνώστην τινὰ τῆς πόλεως συκοφαντῆσαι. Καὶ γενονυίας ἤδη ἐγκύου, ἐξεταζομένη παρὰ τοῦ
πατρὸς κατεῖπε τοῦ ἀναγνώστου. Ὁ δὲ πρεσβύτερος θαρσῶν ἀνήνεγκε τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ. Ὁ δὲ
ἐπίσκοπος συνερότησε τὸ ἱερατεῖον καὶ ἐποίησε κληθῆναι τὸν ἀναγνώστην. Ἐβασανίζετο ἡ
ὑπόθεσις· ἐρωτώμενος παρὰ τοῦ ἐπισκόπου ὁ ἀναγνώστης οὐχ ὡμολόγει· τὸ γὰρ μὴ γενόμενον
πῶς καὶ ἐνῆν ῥηθῆναι; (2) Ἀγανακτῶν ὁ ἐπίσκοπος ἐμβριθῶς ἔλεγε αὐτῷ· “Οὐχ ὁμολογεῖς,
ἄθλιε καὶ ταλαίπωρε, καὶ ἀκαθαρσίας μεστέ;” Ἀπεκρίνατο ὁ ἀναγνώστης· “Ἐγὼ τὸ ὂν εἶπον,
ὅτι οὐκ ἔχω πρᾶγμα· ἀναίτιος γάρ εἰμι καὶ τῆς ἐννοίας τῆς πρὸς ἐκείνην. Εἰ δὲ θέλεις τὸ
μὴ ὂν ἀκοῦσαι, πέπραχα.” Τοῦτο αὐτοῦ εἰρηκότος καθεῖλε τὸν ἀναγνώστην. Τότε προσελθὼν
παρακαλεῖ τὸν ἐπίσκοπον καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· “Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδὴ ἔπταισα κέλευσόν μοι αὐτὴν εἰς
γυναῖκα δοθῆναι· οὔτε γὰρ ἐγὼ κληρικὸς λοιπὸν οὔτε ἐκείνη παρθένος.” (3) Ἔκδοτον οὖν
αὐτὴν δέδωκε τῷ ἀναγνώστῃ, προσδοκήσας διακεῖσθαι τὸν νεώτερον περὶ αὐτὴν καὶ ἄλλως μὴ
δύνασθαι ἀποκοπῆναι τὴν πρὸς αὐτὴν συνήθειαν. Λαβὼν οὖν αὐτὴν ὁ νεώτερος καὶ παρὰ τοῦ
ἐπισκόπου καὶ παρὰ τοῦ πατρός, παρατίθεται μοναστηρίῳ γυναικῶν καὶ παρακαλεῖ τὴν αὐτόθι
διάκονον τῆς ἀδελφότητος μέχρι τοῦ τοκετοῦ αὐτῆς ἀνέχεσθαι. Ἐντὸς οὖν ὀλίγου χρόνου
ἐπληρώθησαν αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ τεκεῖν· παρέστη ἡ κρισίμη ὥρα, στεναγμοί, ὠδῖνες, πόνοι,
καταχθονίων ὁράσεις· καὶ τὸ βρέφος οὐκ ἐξήρχετο. (4) Παρῆλθεν ἡ πρώτη ἡμέρα, ἡ δευτέρα,
ἡ τρίτη, ἡ ἑβδόμη· ἡ γυνὴ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀδύνης τῷ ᾅδῃ προσομιλοῦσα οὐκ ἔφαγεν, οὐκ ἔπιεν, οὐκ
ἐκαθεύδησεν, ἀλλ’ ἐβόα λέγουσα· “Οἴμοι τῇ ἀθλίᾳ, κινδυνεύω συκοφαντήσασα τόνδε τὸν
ἀναγνώστην.” Ἀπελθοῦσαι λέγουσι τῷ πατρί. Ὁ πατὴρ φοβούμενος τὸ καταγνωσθῆναι ὡς
συκοφαντήσας, ἡσυχάζει ἄλλας δύο ἡμέρας. Ἡ κόρη οὔτε ἐτελεύτα οὔτε ἐγέννα. Ὡς οὖν τὰς
βοὰς αὐτῆς οὐκ ἔφερον αἱ ἀσκήτριαι δραμοῦσαι ἀπήγγειλαν τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ ὅτι “Ἐξομολογεῖται
βοῶσα ἡ δεῖνα ἀπὸ ἡμερῶν ὅτι ἐσυκοφάντησε τὸν ἀναγνώστην.” Τότε πέμπει πρὸς αὐτὸν
διακόνους καὶ δηλοῖ αὐτῷ· “Εὖξαι ἵνα γεννήσῃ ἡ συκοφαντήσασά σε.” (5) Αὐτὸς δὲ οὐκ
ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἀπόκρισιν οὔτε ἤνοιξε τὴν ἑαυτοῦ θύραν ἀφ’ ἧς ἡμέρας εἰσῆλθε δεόμενος τοῦ
θεοῦ. Ἀπέρχεται πάλιν ὁ πατὴρ πρὸς τὸν ἐπίσκοπον· γίνεται εὐχὴ ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ· καὶ οὐδὲ
οὕτως ἐγέννησε. Τότε ἀναστὰς ὁ ἐπίσκοπος ἀπῆλθε πρὸς τὸν ἀναγνώστην, καὶ πλήξας τὴν
θύραν εἰσῆλθεν πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· “Εὐστάθιε, ἀνάστα, λῦσον ὃ ἔδησας.” Παραχρῆμα
δὲ τοῦ ἀναγνώστου κλίναντος γόνυ σὺν τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ ἐγέννησεν ἡ γυνή. Ἴσχυσε δὲ ἡ τούτου
δέησις καὶ ἡ παραμονὴ τῆς προσευχῆς ἀναδεῖξαι καὶ τὴν συκοφαντίαν καὶ παιδεῦσαι καὶ τὴν
συκοφαντήσασαν· ἵνα μάθωμεν προσκαρτερεῖν ταῖς προσευχαῖς καὶ εἰδέναι αὐτῶν τὴν
δύναμιν.1
Textual Note
Ed. Bartelink 1974Translation
(1) A virgin once fell, the daughter of a certain presbyter in
Caesarea Palestinae, and was taught by her seducer to accuse a
certain reader in that city. When she had become pregnant, as she was being interrogated
by her father, she denounced the reader. The presbyter confidently referred the matter
to the bishop, and the bishop called his clergy together and had the reader summoned.
The case was investigated. The reader was questioned by the bishop but would not
confess. For how could that be told which had not happened? (2) The bishop was angry and
said to him sternly, “Do you not confess, you miserable and wretched man, full of
uncleanness?” The reader answered, “I said the truth, that it is no concern of mine. For
I am guiltless even of thinking about her. But if you wish to hear what is not true,
then I have done it.” When he said this, the bishop deposed the reader. Then he
approached the bishop and entreated him, and said to him, “Well then, since I have
fallen, bid her to be given me as wife. For neither am I a cleric any more nor is she a
virgin.” (3) So he gave her over to the reader, expecting that the young man would live
with her, and that otherwise his intercourse with her could not be interrupted. Now the
young man, having taken her both from the bishop and her father, handed her over to a
nunnery and exhorted the deaconness of the sisterhood there to support her until the
childbirth. So within a short timem the schedule of her pregnancy was completed. The
critical hour came—groans, pangs, labors, visions of hell—but the baby was not
delivered. (4) The first day passed, the second, third, seventh. The woman being in hell
with the pain did not eat, drink, or sleep, but cried out, saying, “Woe is me, miserable
woman that I am, I am in peril because I accused this reader falsely.” The nuns go off
and tell the father. The father, fearing to be condemned as a false accuser, keeps
silence two more days. The young woman neither died nor gave birth. So when the nuns
could no longer endure her cries, they ran and told the bishop, “So-and-so has confessed
in her cries days ago that she accused the reader falsely.” Then (the bishop) sends
deacons to (the reader) and tells him, “Pray that she who accused you falsely may give
birth.” (5) But (the reader) gave them no answer nor opened his door, but from the day
he entered his house he had been praying to God. The father went away again to the
bishop; prayers were said in the church, and not even then did she give birth. Then the
bishop arose and went to the reader, and knocking at the door went in and said to him,
“Eustathius, arise, loose what you have fastened.” And immediately the reader knelt down
with the bishop and the woman gave birth. Now his pleading and the persistence of his
prayer were strong enough both to reveal the false accusation and to chastise the false
accuser, that we may learn to persevere in prayers and to know their power.2
Translation Note
Rev. Clarke 1918Works Cited
- 1 Palladius of Galatia, Palladio. La storia Lausiaca, ed. G. J. M. Bartelink, 6th ed.: Mondadora, 2001, Vite dei santi; Scrittori greci e latini 2 (Verona: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, 1974), ch: 70.
- 2 Palladius of Galatia, The Lausiac History of Palladius, trans. W. K. Lowther Clarke, Translations of Christian Literature: Greek Series (London and New York: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge ; Macmillan Company, 1918), p: 176-178.
How to Cite This Entry
Joseph L. Rife, “Palladius of Galatia, Lausiac History 70,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, entry published June 30, 2023, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/328.
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Bibliography:
Joseph L. Rife, “Palladius of Galatia, Lausiac History 70.” In Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, edited by Joseph L. Rife., edited by Joseph L. Rife. Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project, 2023. Entry published June 30, 2023. https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/328.About this Entry
Entry Title: Palladius of Galatia, Lausiac History 70
Authorial and Editorial Responsibility:
- Joseph L. Rife, general editor, Vanderbilt University
- Joseph L. Rife, editor, Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia
- David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, and William L. Potter, technical editor, “Palladius of Galatia, Lausiac History 70”
- Joseph L. Rife, entry contributor, “Palladius of Galatia, Lausiac History 70”
Additional Credit:
- TEI encoding by William L. Potter
- Electronic text added by Joseph L. Rife
- Testimonia identified by Joseph L. Rife