References
[1] John 1:5,10-12
[2] Taken from the Nicene Creed.
[3] After Pentecost, there was animosity in Jerusalem from the Jews who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. They called
the followers of Jesus heretics. They tried to stop them to protect the integrity of their own faith. St. Paul had the mission
to arrest them and throw them in jail. The conflict became intense in Jerusalem. In 37, Stephen was stoned. In 44, James
the Apostle was assassinated. In 62, James, the president of the Council of Jerusalem was martyred. This persecution would
only serve to spread Christianity throughout Judea and Samaria, and to Damascus and Antioch.
[4] Theodoretus wrote in his Historia Religiosa about Maron:
“After him I shall recall Maron, for he too adorned the godly choir of the saints. Embracing the open-air life, he repaired
to a hilltop formerly honored by the impious. Consecrating to God the precinct of demons on it, he lived there, pitching a small
tent, which he seldom used. He practiced not only the usual labors, but devised others as well, heaping up the wealth of
philosophy. The Umpire measured out grace according to his labors: so the magnificent one gave in abundance the gift of
healing, with the result that his fame circulated everywhere, attracted everyone from every side and taught by experience
the truth of the report. One could see fevers quenched by the dew of his blessing, shivering quieted, demons put to flight,
and varied diseases of every kind cured by a single remedy; the progeny of physicians apply to each disease the appropriate
remedy, but the prayer of the saint is a common antidote for every distress. He cured not only infirmities of the body, but
applied suitable treatment to souls as well, healing this man's greed and that man's anger, to this man supplying teaching
in self-control and to that providing lessons in justice, correcting this man's intemperance and shaking up another man's sloth.
Applying this mode of cultivation, he produced many plants of philosophy, and it was he who planted for God the garden that
now flourishes in the region of Cyrrhus. A product of his planting was the great James, to whom one could reasonably apply
the prophetic utterance, 'the righteous man will flower as the palm tree, and be multiplied like the cedar of Lebanon', and also
all the others whom, with God's help, I shall recall individually. Attending in this way to the divine cultivation and treating
souls and bodies alike, he himself underwent a short illness, so that we might learn the weakness of nature and the manliness
of resolution, and departed from life. A bitter war over his body arose between his neighbors. One of the adjacent villages that
was well-populated came out in mass, drove off the others and seized this thrice desired treasure building a great shrine, they
reap benefit therefrom even to this day, honoring this victor with a public festival. We ourselves reap his blessing even at
a distance; for sufficient for us instead of his tomb is his memory.” (Theodoretus of Cyrrhus. Historia Religiosa: A History
of the Monks of Syria, Translated by R. M. Price, (Michigan, 1985), pp. 117-119).
[5] John 15:4-5
[6] Theodoretus, “Historia Religiosa,” c. XVI, in Migne, P.G., 82, 1417
[7] Theodoretus wrote in his Historia Religiosa about James of Cyrrhus:
"… A companion of the great Maron and a recipient of his divine teaching, he has eclipsed his teacher by great labors. For Maron
had a precinct of the ancient imposture as enclosure, pitched a tent of hairy skins, and used this to ward off the assaults of rain
and snow. But this man, bidding farewell to all these things, tent and hut and enclosure, has the sky for roof, and lets in all the
contrasting assaults of the air, as he is now inundated by torrential rain, now frozen by frost and snow, at other times burnt and
consumed by the rays of the sun, and exercises endurance over everything. Competing as if in the body of another, and striving
with zeal to overcome the nature of the body -- for clad in this mortal one, he lives as in an impassible one --, practicing in a body
the life without a body, he exclaims with the inspired Paul, 'Though walking in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the
flesh, for our weapons are not fleshly but mighty through God for the destruction of strongholds, as we destroy arguments and
every high thing exalted against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive for obedience to Christ' (Co 10: 3-5) …
After training himself perfectly and accustoming his soul to excellent labors, he dared greater contests. Repairing to that mountain
which is thirty stades distant from this town, he has made it distinguished and revered, although formerly it was totally
undistinguished and sterile. So great is the blessing it is confidently believed to have now received that the soil on it has been
quite exhausted by those coming from all sides to carry it off for their benefit…". (Theodoretus of Cyrrhus. Historia Religiosa:
A History of the Monks of Syria, Translated by R. M. Price, (Michigan, 1985), pp. 133-149).
[8] Theodoretus wrote in his Historia Religiosa about Limnaeus:
"… In his choir was enrolled Limnaeus, now celebrated by all. At a very young age he entered this wrestlingschool and received
a fine education in this consummate philosophy. At first, knowing the treachery of the tongue, he imposed on it a rule of silence
while still an adolescent, and continued for as long as possible saying nothing to anyone. When he had received sufficiently the
teaching of the godly old man and made himself an impress of his virtue, he came to the great Maron, whom we recalled above-
-he came at the same time as the godly James. After reaping much benefit from there again, and keenly embracing the open-air
life, he repaired to another hill-top, lying above a village called Targalla…" (Theodoretus of Cyrrhus. Historia Religiosa: A History
of the Monks of Syria, Translated by R. M. Price, (Michigan, 1985), pp. 150-151).
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
