CHAPTER XXVIII

ACCOUNT OF THE OTHER CELEBRATED MONKS OF THIS PERIOD

THERE were at this time other monks who obtained just celebrity. In the desert of Chalcedonia, Avitus, Abraham, and not a few others, led a calm and spiritual life in a body subject to passion. In the neighbourhood of Apamea, Agapus, Simeon, Paul, and others, taught the most sublime philosophy. In the province of Zeugma, Publius and Paul adopted the same course of life. The renowned Acepsemas passed sixty years shut up in a cell in Cyrestes, without speaking to any one or seeing any human being. The admirable Zeugmatus, although deprived of the use of his eyes, carefully tended the flock, and defended it from the attacks of wolves. On this account the heretics set fire to his cell; but Trajan, one of the military commanders, who was a man of great piety, had another cell built for him, and took him under his own protection. Marianus, Eusebius, Ammian, Palladius, Symeon, Abraham, and others, preserved the image of God in the neighbourhood of Antioch, it being engraven in their own souls. I have written the history of their lives. The mountain which is situated in the neighbourhood of the great city was no less honoured, for here dwelt Peter, a native of Galatia, and an Egyptian who bore the same name, and also Romanus, Severus, Zeno, Moses, Malchus, and many others, who, though unknown to the multitude, were known to God.