Palladius of Galatia, Lausiac History 70
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https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/328

Καισαρείᾳ τῆς Παλαιστίνης

, and

Caesarea Palestinae

are directly attested at Palladius of Galatia, Lausiac History 70. This passage was written ca. 419-420 C.E. possibly in Aspuna. 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.

(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.

[Ed. Bartelink 1974]

(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.

[Rev. Clarke 1918]

Works Cited

[...] 70
[...] 176-178

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