Chapter LXII: Of The Blessed Man Eustathius
EUSTATHIUS was a brother of Elpidius whom [we have mentioned] above, and this man followed so strenuously after the acquisition of impassibility, and made his body so dry (i.e., emaciated) by the labours of vigilant prayer, that the [light of] the sun could be seen between his ribs. And of him the following story is told by the brethren who were continually with him, that is to say by his disciples: He never turned himself towards the west, because close by the side of the door of his cave was a mountain which, because of its mighty bulk, was very hard [to ascend]; and he never looked at the sun after the sixth hour of the day, because the door of his cell was hidden by the shadow of the mountain so long as the sun was declining towards its place ofsetting. And moreover he could never see those stars which appear in the western part of the sky, and for five and twenty years from the time when he entered the cave wherein he dwelt he never went down from the mountain.
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 of the glorifying of Christ Who hath made us worthy to be accounted His kinsmen, and to be exalted to that true family, which is full of happiness, 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 for a period of seven years, 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 here from. 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.
