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Life of St Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza
Mark the Deacon, tr. Hill, 1913
Chapter 101
But after they had put off the sacred dress,1 the holy man having called the said maiden unto him said unto her: ‘Desirest thou that we should join thee unto a man in lawful marriage? for thou art of age to have a husband. For neither is honourable marriage forbidden of our Scripture.’2 Then the maiden, hearing the words of the holy man, began to weep and to say: ‘Good father, after that thou hast joined me unto a mighty husband, wouldst thou put me away from him and give me unto one that is lowly and of no worth? In no wise, my lord, do this thing.’ But the saint, being amazed,3 said: ‘And who is this whom I have joined unto you? ‘And she answered: ‘Jesus Christ, the saviour of our souls, my true bridegroom, for ever and ever, from whom I shall never be put away.’ But the saint, hearing her words, was sore moved and wept, so that out of the fullness of his heart he embraced the maiden and kissed her head; for in sooth he was altogether without passion4 and out of the great tenderness of his heart easily moved to tears. And we who stood nigh him beholding the grace of the Holy Ghost that was given unto the maiden, beloved of God, did glorify God who granteth wisdom and grace unto his elect. But on that day he let the maiden depart.
Notes
- the sacred dress. See above, note on c. 49.
- forbidden of our Scripture. The reference is to Heb. xiii. 4.
- amazed. συναρπαγεῖς, ‘caught’, ‘rapt’. Usener, Legenden der Pelagia, 57: σὺ εἶ ὁ δόλιος ὄφις ὁ . . . ὑπεισελθὼν τῇ Εὔᾳ καὶ συναρπάσας αὐτήν. Cp. Luke viii. 29; Prov. vi. 25.
- without passion. ἀπαθής. The text may be defended. The passage tallies with c. 8, where it is said that Porphyry attained τὴν τελείαν ἀπάθειαν. It is true that in the same chapter he is described as συμπαθητικός. But the point here seems to be that Mark is anxious that Porphyry’s emotion should not be wrongly interpreted; it was no human passion that moved him. Yet it must be admitted that the passage is very clumsy. Haupt suggests εὐπαθής, the Teubner editors συμπαθής, which is better.