CHAPTER LXIII

OF THE BLESSED MAN SISINNIUS

NOW this holy man Elpidius had a certain disciple whose name was Sisinnius, who was a slave by birth, though a free man in the faith; by race he was a Cappadocian, and it is necessary that we should make known the fact that he was so, for the sake ofthe glorifying of Christ Who hath made us worthy to be accounted His kinsmen, and to be exalted to that true family, whichisfullofhappiness, of the kingdom of heaven. Now therefore when this man Sisinnius had passed some time with Elpidius, and had struggled to lead the ascetic life strenuously foraperiod ofsevenyears, he at length shut himself in a grave for three years, and he endured such privations therein that neither by day nor by night did he sit or lie down, and he never went out herefrom. And this man was held to be worthy of possessing the gift of authority over devils, and now that he hath come into his own country he hath been held to be worthy of the gift of the priesthood; and he hath made congregations ofmen and of women, which, according to a sure testimony, lead lives of purity and chastity. He hath trampled upon the lust which is in men, and he hath bridled the voluptuousness of the women, so that there hath been fulfilled that which is written, “In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female” (Galatians 3:28). And he was also a great lover of strangers and of voluntary poverty, which was a reproach unto those who were rich and miserly.