The History of Didymus the Blind
...I also saw a certain blessed man who was in
Alexandria, and whose name was Didymus, and who
also, with us, wrote these things; now he was blind,
and he could not see at all; he was a marvelous man,
and I went several times to see him. He was eighty
years of age, and he told me that he became blind
when he was four years old and could not see at all,
but according to what he himself related to me, “After
forty years I perceived the faces of things.” And
although this man had never learned the Testaments,
and had never entered a school, the gift of an excellent
and healthy mind had been given unto him by God,
and he became learned in the knowledge of books
through an enlightened understanding. And he was
adorned with goodness and with the knowledge of
truth to such a degree, and was so ready and was so
wholly wise that there was fulfilled in him that which
was written, “The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind.”
He could interpret the Old and New Testaments word
by word in its proper place, and had investigated carefully the commandments and could repeat all the
words which were in them. And he was so thoroughly
well acquainted with the belief of the truth and he
comprehended so deeply all heresies that his
knowledge was more excellent than that of many who
were before him in the Church. Now when he was
urging me to make a prayer in his cell and I was
unwilling to do so, he spake unto me and related unto
me concerning Abba Anthony who, he said, “came
three times and visited me in this cell.” And when “I begged and entreated him to pray, straightway he
knelt down upon his knees and prayed, and waited
not for me to speak one word about it, but at the first
word he corrected me by his obedience. He did not
let me finish my speech, but by work he made manifest
obedience.” And Didymus said unto me, “Thou also,
if thou wishest to walk in his footsteps and life and
deeds, and in hospitality, and if thou wouldst walk in
the life of excellence and in the love of God, remove
thyself from contention.”
And this blessed man Didymus himself told me the
following story. “Once on a time I was suffering by
reason of the wretched Emperor Julian. Now one
day, when it was eventide, and I had eaten no food
through my anxiety about this matter, whilst I was
sitting on my seat I dropped into a light slumber, and there fell upon me a marvelous thing. I saw and
behold there were white horses galloping about, and
they had on them riders who were dressed in white
and they were crying out saying, “Tell Didymus that
Julian died this day at the seventh hour. Rise up,
then, eat and send and make this news known unto
Bishop Athanasius, so that he may also know and
rejoice. And I wrote down the day, and the hour, and
the month wherein this vision took place, and it was
found that it had happened even as it had been told
me in the vision.”
|
