[9] Theodoretus wrote in his Historia Religiosa about Domnina: "Emulating the life of the inspired Maron, whom we recalled
above, the wonderful Domnina set up a small hut in the garden of her mother's house; her hut is made of millet stalks.
Passing the whole day there, she wets with incessant tears not only her cheeks but also her garments of hair, for such is the
clothing with which she covers her body. Going at cockcrow to the divine shrine nearby, she offers hymnody to the Master of the
universe, together with the rest, both men and women. This she does not only at the beginning of the day but also at its close,
thinking the place consecrated to God to be more venerable than every other spot and teaching others so. Judging it, for this
reason, worthy of every attention, she has persuaded her mother and brothers to spend their fortune on it. As food she has lentils
soaked in water; and she endures all this labor with a body reduced to a skeleton and halfdead for her skin is very thin, and
covers her thin bones as if with a film, while her fat and flesh have been worn away by [her] labors. Though exposed to all who
wish to see her, both men and women, she neither sees a face nor shows her face to another, but is literally covered up by her
cloak and bent down onto her knees, while she speaks extremely softly and indistinctly, always making her remarks with tears…
For it is fervent love for God that begets these tears, firing the mind of divine contemplation, stinging it with pricks and urging it
on to migrate from here…” (Theodoretus of Cyrrhus. Historia Religiosa: A History of the Monks of Syria, Translated by R. M. Price,
(Michigan, 1985), pp. 186-189).
[10] Theodoretus wrote in his Historia Religiosa about Cyra and Marana:
“… At this point I shall treat of Marana and Cyra, who have defeated all the others in the contests of endurance. Their fatherland
was Beroea, their stock the glory of their fatherland, and their upbringing appropriate for their stock. But despising all these, they
acquired a small place in front of the town, and entering within it, walled up the door with clay and stones. For their maidservants
who were eager to share this life with them they built a small dwelling outside this enclosure, and in this they told them to live.
Through a small window they keep a watch on what they are doing, and repeatedly rouse them to prayer and inflame them with
divine love. They themselves, with neither house nor hut, embrace the open-air life. In place of a door a small window has been
constructed for them, through which they take in the food they need and talk with the women who come to see them. For this
intercourse the season of Pentecost has been laid down; during the rest of the time they embrace the quiet life. And it is Marana
also who talks to visitors; no one has ever heard the other one speak. They wear iron, and carry such a weight that Cyra, with
her weaker body, is bent down to the ground and is quire unable to straighten her body. They wear mantles so big as to trail
along behind and literally cover their feet and in front to fall down right to the belt, literally hiding at the same time face, neck,
chest, and hands…. In this mode of life they have completed not merely five or ten or fifteen years, but forty-two; and despite
having contended for so long a time, they love their exertion as if they had only just entered on the contests. For contemplating
the beauty of the Bridegroom, they bear the labor of the course with ease and facility, and press on to reach the goal of the
contests, where they see the Beloved standing and pointing to the crown of victory. Because of this, in suffering the assaults of
rain and snow and sun they feel neither pain nor distress but from apparent afflictions reap joy of heart…. Since by such a way of
life they have adorned the female sex, becoming as models for other women, they will be crowned by the Master with the
wreaths of victory…” (Theodoretus of Cyrrhus. Historia Religiosa: A History of the Monks of Syria, Translated by R. M. Price,
(Michigan, 1985), pp. 183-185).
[11] Theodoretus wrote in his Historia Religiosa about Abraham the hermit, the apostle of Lebanon:
“Nor would it be pious to pass over the memory of the Wondrous Abraham, using as a pretext the fact that after the solitary life
he adorned the Episcopal chair; for because of this he would with good reason deserve to be remembered surely all the more, in
that, when compelled to change his position in life, he did not alter his mode of life, but brought with him the hardships of
asceticism, and completed his course of life beset simultaneously with the labors of a monk and the cares of a bishop. This man
too was a fruit of the region of Cyrrhus, for it was born and reared there that he gathered the wealth of ascetic virtue. Those who
were with him say that he tamed his body with such vigils, standing, and fasting that for a long time he remained without
movement, quite unable to walk. Freed of this weakness by divine providence, he resolved to run the risks of piety as the price
of divine fervor, and repaired to the Lebanon, where, he had heard, a large village was engulfed in the darkness of impiety. Hiding
his monastic character under the mask of trader, he with him companions brought along sacks as of coming to buy nuts- for this
was the main produce of the village. Renting a house, for which he paid the owners a small sum in advance, he kept quiet for
three or four days. Then, little by little, he began in a soft voice to perform the Divine Liturgy. When they heard the singing of
psalms, the public crier called out to summon everyone together. Men, children, and women assembled; they walled up the doors
from outside, and heaping up a great pile of earth poured it down from the roof above. But when they saw them being suffocated
and buried, and willing to do or say nothing apart from addressing prayer to God, they ceased from their frenzy, at the suggestion
of their elders. Then opening the doors and pulling them out from the mass of earth, they told them to depart immediately.
At this very moment, however, collectors arrived to compel them to pay their taxes; some they bound, others they maltreated. But
the man of God, oblivious of what had happened to them, and imitating the Master who when nailed to the cross showed concern
for those who had done it, begged these collectors to carry out their work leniently. When they demanded guarantors, he
voluntarily accepted the call, and promised to pay them a hundred gold pieces in a few days. Those who had performed so
terrible a deed were overwhelmed with admiration at the man's benevolence; begging forgiveness for their outrage, they invited
him to become their patron- for the village did not have a master; they themselves were both cultivators and masters. He went to
the city, and finding some of his friends negotiated a loan for the hundred gold pieces; then returning to the village he fulfilled his
promise on the appointed day.
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