Второе избиение преподобных отцов в Синае и Раифе

Many years passed after the first massacre of the venerable fathers of Sinai, and again, in the days of the venerable Nile the Faster, the barbarians attacked Mount Sinai. They wandered in the desert, stretching from the Red Sea, between Arabia and Egypt, to the Jordan, and lived not in cities and houses, but in tents. Moving from place to place, they camped for a longer time where they found good water and pasture for their livestock. They obtained their livelihood not by any craft, or trade, or agriculture, but by hunting animals, mainly by robbery. Armed with swords, bows and spears, all they did was attack other people's villages and commit robbery on the roads. The venerable fathers, who chose for themselves, for God, a solitary life in the Sinai desert, lived - some in caves and stone gorges, others - in small cells built near water sources, others - near the church. They ate raw roots and dates, as well as vegetables found in that area. Rarely did any of them eat bread, for they spent their lives in great abstinence and strict fasting: one of them ate food every other day, two, or three days, and there were those who supported their weak flesh with food only once a week. The life of all of them was like that of an Angel. As if forgetting about their body, they cared about their soul and thought only about pleasing the Lord. They served Him diligently and fervently, praising Him day and night. Continuously praying and chanting psalms, they all gathered in church on Sunday and, having spent the whole night in prayer, received communion of the Divine Mysteries in the morning and then, again going to their cells, remained in silence. Among them was the Monk Nil the Faster. Previously, he occupied the place of eparch 548 in Constantinople and, living in an honest marriage, had two children. Then, in agreement with his wife, he left the world: Nile’s wife and her daughter retired to Egypt and there, in one of the women’s monasteries, took on the monastic image. And blessed Nile with his son Theodulus retired to Mount Sinai; here he was an eyewitness to the disaster caused by the barbarians and subsequently described this massacre of the holy fathers. While living on the mountain, the Monk Neil used to visit the fathers who lived in the surrounding area. One day he and his son descended from the mountain and came to the fathers, whom he found having a common meal. The presbyter there, Blessed Theodulus, said, among other things, during the meal: “Who knows if we will all have to gather together for this meal one more time before we die?” So he said, foreseeing in his spirit the approaching disaster. The next day, after Matins, the barbarians unexpectedly attacked the holy place. Like frantic dogs, they surrounded the monastery and, shaking the air with wild cries, tried to frighten those in it. Then they rushed to the storerooms, where some food was collected for the fasting people and dried vegetables were stored for the winter to strengthen the monks amid their great labors. First of all, the barbarians plundered this food, then they rushed to the church in which the fathers had gathered, took everyone out of it, tore off their old clothes and lined up the elderly elders naked in a row so that it would be more convenient to kill them. They ordered Blessed Theodulus, presbyter of the holy place, who the day before made a prediction about death, to be the first to bow his head under the sword; two fierce-looking barbarians stood with drawn swords at his sides. Bending under the sword, he showed no fear, only quietly said: Both barbarians, one after the other, struck him; one wound was from the ridge to the jaw, the other from the shoulder to the chest; the righteous fell to the ground. After this, they took and killed another elder who lived with the presbyter. The local presbyter had one youth in his service; The barbarians ordered him to pick up the scattered fruits, and they showed an appearance as if they wanted to spare him as fit for service. When he bent down and began to pick up the fruit, one of the barbarians standing behind, quietly drawing a sword, dealt the youth a cruel blow and killed him. When the beating of other fathers was taking place, some of the barbarians, obviously due to God’s special influence on them, gave a sign with their hands to the other monks to flee. Those who were stronger in body and could run actually ran, heading through the valley to a mountain inaccessible to the barbarians. Gathering his strength, the blessed Nile ran with them and thus got rid of death. His son Theodulus remained in the hands of the barbarians. Since he had a very handsome face, they did not kill him, but tied him up and took him with them in order to sacrifice him to the morning dawn, which they worshiped instead of God. Not knowing the true God, they did not worship idols, did not honor any of the pagan gods; they served only the morning dawn; and they always sacrificed the best prey to her, most often they killed the most beautiful of the captive youths in her honor, for which purpose they spared the son of the Monk Nile. Having plundered other monastic monasteries located in the neighborhood and killed many holy fathers in different places, the barbarians left. Neil the Faster, looking from the top of the mountain at the taking of his son into captivity and at the cruel death of the reverend fathers, sobbed inconsolably and said with tears: – O blessed, thrice blessed fathers! Where is now the work of your abstinence? Where is the continuous enduring of sorrows? Have you received a crown for your many deeds? Is this a reward for long-term monasticism? Have you walked the path set before you in vain? Is it fair to suffer disaster for virtue? For the Providence of God left you without help when they killed you, the truth did not protect your innocence against the murderers, but an unclean hand was able to arm itself against holy bodies, and wickedness can boast that it has won. How did the bush not kindle its ancient flame and burn up the wicked (Ex. 3:2)? How did the earth not open its mouth and swallow them up, as Korea once did with all its like-minded people (Num. 16:32)? How did the terrible sounds of trumpets, lightning and thunder (Ex. 19:16) that once sounded from Sinai not resound, which would have frightened the wicked? - But the retribution of the Almighty slowed down: He did not strike down the murderers from above, nor did He deliver those who were being killed with an omnipotent hand, so that the barbarians would know, at the sight of miracles, the invincible power of God. So helplessly, like wordless victims, the holy fathers fell among the bushes, 549 on the very mountain from which the law was given. Where was then the power that drowned the Egyptians in the sea and prepared a grave for them at the bottom of the sea (Ex. 14:28)? That power that defeated the enemies of the Israelites with a hail of stones and gave victory to its people without blood and labor (Joshua 10:11)? Where did the Almighty hide His help, blocking the mouths of lions so that they would not harm Daniel (Dan.6:16), and extinguishing the power of fire for the Babylonian youths, in order to make their piety obvious through it (Dan.3:24)? How could He hide the virtue of these His servants, leaving them defenseless, as if they did not deserve His help at all? The blessed one spoke this way because of heartache and great sorrow. A soul struck by severe suffering is sometimes inclined to say many things without thinking; for God’s help often abandons the righteous, placing them under the power of tormentors for various kinds of torment and innocent death, and this is for the purpose of so that their virtue appears purified like gold, their faith shines like a lamp, and so that they are worthy of an even greater reward in heaven. Undoubtedly, these saints, together with the previously elected fathers, were canonized as holy martyrs and are now glorified in the Kingdom of Christ. When evening came, the Monk Nil and the others who had escaped with him dared to descend from the mountain to bury the bodies of the slaughtered saints. They found the Venerable Theodulus the presbyter still breathing and barely able to speak. They sat near him all night and cried. The elder told them: – Do not be embarrassed at the sight of the disaster that has befallen us, for Satan is in the habit of asking God to allow Him to tempt those who try to please Him; in a similar way, he asked permission to strike Job with disasters, whose children he also destroyed. But the Lord the Hero knows why He betrays His ascetics into the power of the enemy: He does this in order to give the tolerant sufferers the greatest reward. If the Lord rewarded Job twice as much as what he lost (Job 42:10), then incomparably more awaits those who love Him and suffer for His sake - “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor. 2:9). Saying this and saying goodbye to those around him, the elder died and was buried, along with the other murdered fathers, before sunrise. In the meantime, one young man appeared at the monastery, having run away from the barbarians. It was a slave of the boyar Magedon, who happened to be in these places at that time on matters of popular government. The barbarians captured this boyar somewhere on the road along with his son. Having robbed them, they first killed the son in front of his father, and then killed him himself. The young man, who was among his slaves, escaped and appeared in the destroyed monastery, trembling with fear, as if he were being chased and overtaken. Saint Nile began to ask this young man how he managed to escape. He said: “I was bound together with your son; Yesterday the barbarians began to talk among themselves and confer - as one of the captives, who knew their language, secretly told me - in order to sacrifice both of us - me and your son - to the dawn of the morning, for which they had already built an altar of stones and laid firewood on it. I informed your son about this and told him that if we do not flee, then we will no longer see the sun rise. Out of fear of being caught, he remained, saying: “If God so wishes, then it is impossible to avoid death and hide, even if someone hid in the most inaccessible and secret places.” In the dead of night, taking advantage of the fact that the barbarians, having drunk heavily from the evening, were fast asleep, I freed myself from the ropes that bound me and crawled out, crawling like a snake, far beyond the boundaries of their camp, and then, getting to my feet, quickly ran and, driven by fear, rushed as if on wings. I was afraid that, having noticed my escape, they would pursue and overtake me; even now I still cannot free myself from fear and trembling: the cruel tortures that the barbarians subjected others in my presence are vividly in my mind, and it’s as if I now see them with my own eyes. And the young man told about the murder of many holy fathers. “In one free place,” he said, “where there was water, the barbarians stopped to rest. And then they saw a small cave in the mountain. Rushing towards it, they brought out a venerable-looking old man, who was dragged from the mountain and stoned. Then, having walked a little further, they grabbed and stoned one young monk - thin and with a pale face. After this, they came across a densely forested place with a small cave in which one hermit was taking refuge; he was young in years, but old in the great qualities of his soul. When the barbarians demanded that he go out and give them his clothes, the hermit answered: - Let my dwelling, in which I spent my life, be my coffin; kill me here. I will not take off my clothes, so as not to see my nakedness, which I have not looked at until now. Take it off yourself when you kill me - then I will be dead and will not know anything about myself. The barbarians turned to him again and demanded that he point out the secret monasteries in that desert, promising to spare his life for this. But he answered: - Although I know the places where holy men live, I will not tell you, for I do not want to be a traitor to the servants of God. The courage and boldness of the hermit enraged the wicked, and they, penetrating into the cave, chopped him into pieces with swords. Having passed even further into the desert, they met three fathers and, rushing at them, killed them with swords. Then they saw from afar two monasteries, located at a short distance from one another. Dividing into two detachments, they headed towards them, but what they did there, how and which of the fathers they killed, I don’t know (so said the young man who escaped); I only saw from a distance how one monk ran, and the barbarians, pursuing him, struck him with arrows; then, when he fell exhausted, they killed him with swords and spears. The next night I ran away, as I told you earlier. God knows what happened to your son. I left him alive, but without hope of life, for with the advent of the morning dawn he certainly had to die, having been sacrificed to her. Hearing this, the Monk Neil wept inconsolably and sobbed over the death of his son. What depressed him most was that his son should be slain as a sacrifice by the wicked. He cried out to God in these words: - My Lord, Lord God of the fathers! For the sake of the Most Pure Mother of God, who gave birth to You, for the sake of Your goodness, do not allow my son to perish at the hands of the barbarians! And God, by His special providence, preserved the youth Theodulus unharmed. The barbarians slept soundly until sunrise. Waking up and seeing that the morning star had already disappeared and that one of the youths left for the sacrifice had run away, they did not perform the usual sacrifice, but led the remaining youth in their direction. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Paran sent their messengers to the Hagaran prince Haman with a complaint against his robbers - that they, in violation of the peace treaty, attacked the monks and caused them such harm. At that time, blessed Nile went with the surviving fathers into the desert in order to find the bodies of the murdered saints and bury them. And it turned out that Proclus was killed in Bethrambe, Hypatius in Gath, Isaac was killed in a monastery named Salail, Macarius and Mark were killed in the neighboring desert, Benjamin beyond Elim, Eusebius in Thola, Elijah in Aza 550; They found the last one still breathing, and they brought him and put him in the cell, and they themselves returned to bury the others. When they returned, they found him dead near a vessel of water: tormented by thirst due to many wounds, as soon as he tasted the water, he immediately fell and died. Having buried everyone they could find, they went to Paran to find out what news the messengers from the Hagaran prince would bring. When they entered the city, the walkers also returned at the same time with a message of peace from the prince. In it, he promised to immediately punish and put to death the robbers who dared to commit such atrocities; He ordered the Faran residents to go to him fearlessly and take their captives without ransom, whoever they found alive. The inhabitants of Paran gathered and went to the Hagaryan prince; Blessed Nile went with them to find out about his son - whether he was alive in captivity, or had already died at the hands of the barbarians. And he found out that his son was alive. He was sold to the city of Emes 551, the bishop of this city bought him and made him his cleric. The Monk Nil the Faster himself speaks about all this in detail in his sermon. Arriving there, the monk found his son unharmed and healthy. Greatly consoled by this, he thanked God. The bishop received him with love, convinced him to accept the priesthood and then both of them - the Monk Nil and his son Theodul - with honor sent him home. They went to Mount Sinai, to their former abode, and lived there for many years 552, diligently serving their Master, our Lord Jesus Christ, before whom they were later honored, together with the faces of the reverend fathers, to appear in heaven, glorifying God forever, amen. Eparch is the head of a city or region. Bush is a thorn bush, from which Mount Sinai, which is covered with it, received its name. Here we mean areas near the Paran desert and the Sinai Peninsula, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. Emesa is a city in Syria, east of the Orontes River, which flows into the Mediterranean Sea. Saints Nil and Theodulus died in peace in the 5th century. Their bodies were transferred by Emperor Justin the Younger to Constantinople and placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Orphanotrophy (hospital). You might be interested in: