Житие святого Иакова, епископа Низибийского

Saint James was born in the city of Nisibia 520, which was located within the region that passed either into the hands of the Romans or the Persians, and at the time of the birth of this holy man belonged to the Romans. Having come of age, Saint James withdrew into the desert and lived on high mountains. He spent spring, summer and autumn in the forests in the open air, but for the winter he settled in one cave, in which he took refuge from the frost. His food was what the earth produced on its own, without any cultivation of it: he collected fruits from forest trees and edible roots, similar to garden roots, and with them he strengthened his weak flesh just enough to survive. Mortifying his body in this way, the saint of God constantly fed his soul with spiritual food; through purification he prepared his mind for the vision of God, making it a mirror of the Holy Spirit, and, as the Holy Apostle says, looking with open face at the glory of the Lord, he was transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). Through this, his prayerful boldness towards God constantly increased - and when he asked God for something, he immediately received it: he prophetically foresaw the future, and the grace of miracles was given to him from the Holy Spirit. Of these miracles of his, we will tell about a few and reveal to the ignorant about the Divine grace that shone in him. At that time, foolish people worshiped idols and gave Divine honor to soulless stones. Many not only neglected true reverence for God, but even hated those who, being perfect in virtue, knew the truth and, avoiding idolatry, laughed at the insignificance of idols and worshiped the Creator of all. Then Saint James, leaving the desert, went to Persia 521 to look at the newly planted garden of the holy faith and, as far as possible, to work on spreading the true faith. Once, when he was crossing a stream he met along the way, several girls, washing their clothes, with their legs exposed high, looked at the hermit dressed in unusual clothes with a shameless gaze, not ashamed of either his venerable appearance or their nakedness, and stood before him with impudence, without covering their heads. At the sight of such shamelessness, the saint became angry, wanting to demonstrate the power of God through punishment, and also to shame the idolatry of the wicked by performing a miracle, he cursed the source from which the stream came out; the spring and the stream immediately dried up, so that not a drop of water remained in them. He also cursed these girls and punished their shameless youth with sudden old age. According to the miraculous word of the saint, the black hair on their heads immediately turned grey, and they themselves suddenly grew old, changing like the leaves on young trees when frost suddenly strikes them. At the sight of the sudden disappearance of water and the appearance of gray hair on everyone, the girls were horrified and, when they came to the city, they told everyone about it. Having seen the miracle, the citizens went to the great miracle worker, Saint James, and began to earnestly ask him to take pity on them and return the water to them. Their requests touched the saint, he prayed to God, and the source was filled with water again, and the stream began to flow as before. The people asked the saint to also have mercy on the girls and, instead of premature old age, restore them to youth again. The saint was ready to do this too; but when he asked where the girls were, they were not there, for they did not come to the saint with repentance. For such unrepentance, he left them in punishment, so that they would remember the wonderful power of God, and so that others would learn from this chastity and decency. Such was the miracle of this new Moses, which he performed not with the blow of a rod, but with the sign of the Holy Cross. And more than a miracle, one should be surprised at his meekness, namely, the fact that he did not send, like the great prophet Elisha (2 Kings 2:24), bears to tear apart shameless girls, but, teaching them good behavior and fear of God, limited himself to only a minor punishment - a decrease in the beauty of their appearance. We say this not at all to reproach the anger of the prophet, but only to show that Saint James had the same miraculous power as the prophet, but he revealed it in the spirit of the goodness of Christ and in accordance with the New Testament. One day Saint James saw that a Persian judge had unjustly condemned an innocent man. He was saddened and, denouncing the iniquity of the judge, ordered one large stone located nearby to break and crumble into dust. Everyone who saw this was horrified. The unrighteous judge himself came into fear; he repented of his sin and changed his decision to another – a fair one. And here the miracle worker did this out of imitation of his Lord. Christ, wanting to show that He voluntarily goes to suffer, and that if He wanted, He could easily destroy His murderers, however, He did not destroy them, but revealed His power by the fact that at His one word the fig tree withered (Matthew 21:19). And Saint James, imitating the mercy of the Lord, did not put the unjust judge to death, but crushed the stone and through this taught the judge justice. Such miraculous deeds of the saint earned him fame and general respect, and he, against his wishes, was elected bishop by the inhabitants of his hometown of Nizibia; he himself did not seek such a high rank, he even shied away from it, yielding only to the intense requests of believers. Having left his solitary, desert life and settled with his compatriots, Saint James did not change his food and clothing; In the new place, he led the same lifestyle and worked even more than before. In addition to fasting, bowing to the ground and wearing rags, concerns about people were now added - to feed widows and orphans, protect the oppressed, help everyone and teach everyone virtue. But why calculate in detail the labors and concerns for people inherent in such a rank? Those who take upon themselves this yoke know this, especially those who love and fear the Heavenly Lord, Who hands them the food of the verbal flock. The more Saint James worked in the rank of bishop, the more good deeds he performed, the more he collected for himself the gifts of the Holy Spirit. One day, when the saint was walking to a certain village, beggars approached him along the way and began to ask for alms for the burial of the deceased. At the same time, they pointed to a dead man lying by the road, who was actually alive and was only pretending to be dead. These beggars, seeing the bishop walking from afar, ordered one of them to pretend to be dead in order to, with the help of such deception, beg more alms from the bishop. The saint gave them the alms they asked for and prayed for the deceased, so that God would forgive him his sins and rest his soul with the righteous, and go his way. After the saint left, the friends of the imaginary dead man began to tell him to get up; but he lay motionless, for in fact he was dead and lifeless. The beggars, seeing that their lies had turned into truth, ran after the saint and, falling at his feet, repented of their sin. Referring, in their justification, to poverty, they begged to forgive them and resurrect the deceased. The Wonderworker, following the example of the merciful Lord, forgave them, and, through his prayer, the deceased came to life. This, as we see, is similar to the miracle of the Apostle Peter, who struck with sudden death Ananias and Sapphira, who agreed to lie to the Holy Spirit and withheld from the price of the property sold (Acts 5:1). And Saint James took the life of a man who had hidden his spirit and falsely pretended to be dead. But Saint Peter put to death those who concealed the money, enlightened by the Holy Spirit and knowing about the theft; Jacob took the life of this beggar with his prayer, not knowing about the trick, for he falsely pretended to be dead. Peter did not raise from the dead Ananias and Sapphira, who had died at his word, for the beginning of the saving sermon required the intimidation of the wicked - so that others would also have fear, but James, having apostolic grace, punished with death only temporarily and then consoled them with the return of life. Soon after, Arius, that most ancient blasphemer of the oneness with the Father of the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, sharpened his tongue against the Creator and confused all of Egypt. Then the greatest of the Christian sovereigns, Constantine, who freed, as it were, the second Zerubbabel (Zerubbabel is a descendant of David, was the leader of the Jewish people; under his leadership, the Jews came out of Babylonian captivity to their native country) the universe from pagan captivity, recreated the temples of God that had been overthrown to earth and raised them up, convened the first Ecumenical Council of the Holy Fathers in Nicaea 522 . Among the holy fathers of the council was Saint James of God, Bishop of Nisibius, who participated in the defense of Orthodoxy and in the excommunication of Arius from the Church. Nisibia, as we said, was at that time under the rule of the Roman kings. After the death of Constantine the Great 523, the Persian king Sapor 524 came with his entire army and, besieging the city of Nizibia, pressed it for a long time. But, through the prayers of the holy Bishop James, his efforts remained in vain, and he could not take the city. Then Sapor dammed the river above the city with stones and earth, which flowed through the city, and thus stopped its flow. When there was a lot of water, he suddenly released it all at once onto the city. The walls of the city fell due to the strong pressure of water, and part of the city was flooded. The citizens of the city were in fear; The Persians rejoiced, thinking that the city was now in their hands. However, they did not attack the city that day, because the flood prevented it, and decided to make a general attack the next morning. With the onset of night, the entire population of the city, excited and inspired by their bishop, began to repair the city walls, and, with the help of his prayers, the walls were restored to such an extent that it was impossible for anyone on horseback or on foot to enter the city without a ladder. Nevertheless, the city could easily have been taken if its inhabitants had not sought help from above. Everyone began to beg the holy Bishop James to climb the city walls and curse the enemy army. Saint James went up and, seeing countless numbers of Persian regiments, began to pray to God to send mosquitoes and dog flies 525 on them, so that they would know the power of God and lift the siege from the city. God heard the prayer of His servant and immediately brought a whole cloud of mosquitoes and flies to the Persian camp. Their bites were so cruel that the horses and elephants, unable to bear them, broke their reins and bridles and rushed hither and thither with uncontrollable force. These mosquitoes and flies were unbearable not only for the animals, but also for the Persians themselves - worse than the darkness of armed warriors. The wicked king himself, seeing that his labors were in vain and that his army was being defeated by mosquitoes and flies, became bewildered and greatly embarrassed. In addition, he saw this Divine man, Bishop James, on the city walls, and mistook him for the king, for it seemed to him that he was dressed in royal purple and that a royal crown was shining with a dazzling shine on his head. He was angry with his spies, who informed him that there was no king in the city, and put them to death. Having lifted the siege from the city, he ran to his land, driven by flies and mosquitoes. The Lord performed such a miracle through the prayers of His saint, who asked not for fire to fall from heaven on the enemies and burn them, as the prophet Elijah once asked for such fire on the Pentecostals (2 Kings 1:10-12), and not for the earth to open its mouth and swallow them up (Num. 16:31-33), but only for mosquitoes and flies to be sent to them and that they may know God's power. And indeed, a great miracle was revealed then, for the huge Persian army could not resist the insignificant insects and, defeated by them, fled in shame. So great was the grace that Saint James had from God, and so great was the boldness of faith! Having reached a very old age, the holy saint rested in the Lord 526. Some time after his death, the city of Nisibia fell under Persian rule. When the believers left it, they took with them the relics of their intercessor and leader, Saint James, during whose life the city would never have fallen under the rule of the barbarians, for it was protected from them by the great saint of God by the invincible power of Christ our God, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory forever, amen. Nisibiya, or Nisibida, is a large and populous city in the Province of Mygdonia, in Mesopotamia. Nazibia was located near the Persian border, which is why traveling to Persia did not present much difficulty. Nicaea is a city in Bithynia, the northwestern province of Asia Minor. Convened by Emperor Constantine, the First Ecumenical Council took place in 325 and introduced the Creed into church use, which was subsequently supplemented and completed at the Second Ecumenical Council, which was held in Constantinople in 381. Tsar Equal to the Apostles Constantine the Great died in 337. Sapor II, known as the Great, King of Persia; reigned from 310 to 381 AD; known for his successful wars with the Romans, and was a cruel persecutor of Christianity. By “dog flies” we mean a genus of stinging flies or insects that are supposedly especially harmful to dogs, or in general, especially harmful insects. Dog flies were the fourth plague of the Egyptians under Moses. This was around 350, July 11th. Saint James of Nisibis is called a miracle worker because of the many miracles he performed, and because of the height of his spiritual wisdom he was called wise. Nowadays, 18 words of St. James are known in Armenian, written by him at the request of St. Gregory, the enlightener of Armenia. In addition to their dogmatic and moral importance, the instructions of Saint James are important as an example of the correct interpretation of Holy Scripture; Naturally, without any art or effort, the ancient teacher extracts from the Holy Scriptures. 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