The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): JanuaryBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): January
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
letter to the parents of Apollinaris, with her clothes and baggage,
narrating the circumstances. Anthemius and his wife wept when they heard
of the loss of their daughter, but consoled themselves with the belief
that she had entered some community of religious women.
However, S. Apollinaris made her way into the desert of Scété, where
lived S. Macarius of Alexandria, at the head of a large monastery of
recluses in cells and caves. Apollinaris, having cut off her hair, and
being much tanned by exposure to the sun, and wasted with hunger in the
marsh, where she had lived on a few dates, passed as a man, and was
supposed, from being beardless, to be an eunuch. She spent many years
there under the name of Dorotheus. Now it fell out that her sister,
being grievously tormented with a devil, Anthemius bethought himself on
sending her to Macarius to be healed, for the fame of his miracles had
spread far and wide. But when the young girl was brought to Macarius,
the aged abbot, moved by some interior impulse, conducted her to
Dorotheus, and bade him heal the possessed by prayer. Then S.
Apollinaris earnestly, and with many tears, besought Macarius not to
tempt her thus, for God had not given to her the gift of performing
miracles. Nevertheless he persisted; then the possessed woman was shut
into the cell of Dorotheus for several days, that he might, by prayer
and fasting, cast the demon forth. And when, after a while, the virgin
seemed to be healed, she was restored to the attendants, who conducted
her to her parents with great joy.
Some months after, the maiden suffered from an attack of dropsy, and the
parents, in shame and grief, supposing her to be pregnant, questioned
her closely thereabout. But she could not account for her size, and when
they pressed her more vehemently, moved by the evil spirit, she declared
that Dorotheus, the hermit, had seduced her. On hearing this, Anthemius
sent to Scété, that Dorotheus should be brought before him. The holy
congregation was filled with horror and dismay on hearing the charge,
and they went with one accord and cried to God to put away from them so
grievous a reproach. Then said Dorotheus, "Be of good courage, my
brethren, the Lord will reveal my innocence." And when she was brought
before Anthemius, she said, "I am your daughter, Apollinaris." Then they
fell on her neck and wept, and she prayed to God, and kissed her sister,
and the Lord heard her cry, and healed the damsel of her disease. And
after having tarried with them a few days, she returned to the desert
once more.
S. SIMEON STYLITES, H.
(A.D. 460.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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