Память преподобного Саламана Молчальника

This reverend father of ours, Salaman, came from the village of Kapersana, located on the western bank of the Euphrates 939. Having loved solitude, he found a small hut on the other side of the river and shut himself in it, sealing the door and window tightly; Once a year he went out through a tunnel under the wall and stocked up on food. The local bishop, having learned about the virtuous life of the saint, wished to honor him with the priesthood. Arriving for this purpose at the saint’s dwelling, the archpastor ordered part of its wall to be dismantled, after which he entered the cell. Upon the ordination of the Monk Salaman as a presbyter, the bishop gave him instructions on the grace of the priesthood; During the entire time of his stay in the cell, the saint did not hear a single word from the venerable silent man and left, ordering the dismantled part of the wall to be rebuilt. The inhabitants of the village from which the Monk Salaman came, wanting to have the man of God in their midst, one night crossed the river at a ford, took the saint, who did not argue, did not resist, but did not express consent, and took him to their side; here the villagers built a hut for the monk, similar to the previous one, and shut him up there; Saint Salaman continued to remain silent; no one heard a single word from him. Soon, the inhabitants of the village located on the other bank, where the monk had previously been saved, came at night to his new home and heard him saying the following prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me and on all those who serve Your name and worship You, our True God.” The villagers dismantled the cell and took the saint to themselves, and this time the blessed silencer did not resist at all and did not demand that they leave him. Having thus made himself dead to this life, in the most precise sense he could repeat the apostolic word: “And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). To such a high degree as no one else, having killed the carnal man within himself, blessed Salaman completed his feat to the end and, rejoicing, moved to the heavenly abodes 940. The Euphrates flows from the mountains of Armenia, in its lower course it merges with the Tigris, after which it flows into the Persian Gulf with the name Shat-el-Arab. Capersana (Persa or Persana) was located near Samosat (now Samsat), the main city of the Syrian province of Commagene. You might be interested in: