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File: e024863912cbcf3⋯.jpg (328.87 KB, 775x460, 155:92, life of paulus.jpg)

16b05d  No.3873

Excerpt from The Life of Paulus the first Hermit, by St. Jerome:

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3008.htm

7. But to return to the point at which I digressed. The blessed Paul had already lived on earth the life of heaven for a hundred and thirteen years, and Antony at the age of ninety was dwelling in another place of solitude (as he himself was wont to declare), when the thought occurred to the latter, that no monk more perfect than himself had settled in the desert. However, in the stillness of the night it was revealed to him that there was farther in the desert a much better man than he, and that he ought to go and visit him. So then at break of day the venerable old man, supporting and guiding his weak limbs with a staff, started to go: but what direction to choose he knew not. Scorching noontide came, with a broiling sun overhead, but still he did not allow himself to be turned from the journey he had begun. Said he, "I believe in my God: some time or other He will show me the fellow-servant whom He promised me." He said no more. All at once he beholds a creature of mingled shape, half horse half man, called by the poets Hippocentaur. At the sight of this he arms himself by making on his forehead the sign of salvation, and then exclaims, "Holloa! Where in these parts is a servant of God living?" The monster after gnashing out some kind of outlandish utterance, in words broken rather than spoken through his bristling lips, at length finds a friendly mode of communication, and extending his right hand points out the way desired. Then with swift flight he crosses the spreading plain and vanishes from the sight of his wondering companion. But whether the devil took this shape to terrify him, or whether it be that the desert which is known to abound in monstrous animals engenders that kind of creature also, we cannot decide.

8. Antony was amazed, and thinking over what he had seen went on his way. Before long in a small rocky valley shut in on all sides he sees a mannikin with hooked snout, horned forehead, and extremities like goats' feet. When he saw this, Antony like a good soldier seized the shield of faith and the helmet of hope: the creature none the less began to offer to him the fruit of the palm-trees to support him on his journey and as it were pledges of peace. Antony perceiving this stopped and asked who he was. The answer he received from him was this: "I am a mortal being and one of those inhabitants of the desert whom the Gentiles deluded by various forms of error worship under the names of Fauns, Satyrs, and Incubi. I am sent to represent my tribe. We pray you in our behalf to entreat the favour of your Lord and ours, who, we have learned, came once to save the world, and 'whose sound has gone forth into all the earth.'" As he uttered such words as these, the aged traveller's cheeks streamed with tears, the marks of his deep feeling, which he shed in the fullness of his joy. He rejoiced over the Glory of Christ and the destruction of Satan, and marvelling all the while that he could understand the Satyr's language, and striking the ground with his staff, he said, "Woe to you, Alexandria, who instead of God worships monsters! Woe to you, harlot city, into which have flowed together the demons of the whole world! What will you say now? Beasts speak of Christ, and you instead of God worship monsters." He had not finished speaking when, as if on wings, the wild creature fled away. Let no one scruple to believe this incident; its truth is supported by what took place when Constantine was on the throne, a matter of which the whole world was witness. For a man of that kind was brought alive to Alexandria and shown as a wonderful sight to the people. Afterwards his lifeless body, to prevent its decay through the summer heat, was preserved in salt and brought to Antioch that the Emperor might see it.

79242c  No.3874

He smoke weed


2e4375  No.3876

Of course it happened, it says so in the text.

>Let no one scruple to believe this incident; its truth is supported by >what took place when Constantine was on the throne, a matter of >which the whole world was witness.


13d38d  No.3890

Mere scribal fantasy perhaps a inserted antipagan polemic or symbolism. Idk


13d38d  No.3891

>>3873

That is only in the Latin version, the Greek version makes them demons.

>When he was ninety St. Anthony was tempted to vain-glory, thinking he was the first to dwell in the desert. In obedience to a vision he set forth to find his predecessor. On his road he met with a demon in the form of a centaur. Later on he spied a tiny old man with horns on his head. "Who are you?" asked Antony. "I am a corpse, one of those whom the heathen call satyrs, and by them were snared into idolatry." This is the Greek story (b) which makes both centaur and satyr unmistakably demons, one of which tries to terrify the saint, while the other acknowledges the overthrow of the gods. With St. Jerome the centaur may have been a demon; and may also have been "one of those monsters of which the desert is so prolific." At all events he tries to show the saint the way. As for the satyr he is a harmless little mortal deputed by his brethren to ask the saint's blessing. One asks, on the supposition that the Greek is the original, why St. Jerome changes devils into centaurs and satyrs. It is not surprising that stories of St. Anthony meeting fabulous beasts in his mysterious journey should spring up among people with whom belief in such creatures lingered on, as belief in fairies does to the present day. The stories of the meeting of St. Paul and St. Anthony, the raven who brought them bread, St. Anthony being sent to fetch the cloak given him by "Athanasius the bishop" to bury St. Paul's body in, St. Paul's death before he returned, the grave dug by lions, are among the familiar legends of the Life. It only remains to add that belief in the existence of St. Paul seems to have existed quite independently of the Life.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11590b.htm


13d38d  No.3892

Here is a attempt at a symbolic interpretation:

>The second image of sexuality used by Jerome is the centaur that Anthony encounters along his journey to meet Paul. A centaur is half man and half horse, literally an animal from the waist down.54 Miller suggests that the centaur is a hyperactive image of both the ascetical, tame desert and the wild, devilish desert. 55 Goldberg rather adventurously suggest that the She-Wolf that lead Anthony to Paul’s cave was also a literary device recalling a Roman prostitute and thus should also be counted as an image of sexuality in the Vita.56 This would connect well with the temptress and the martyr earlier in the Vita. Goldbery suggests that this sexual tension symbolised by the She-Wolf may have been associated with the dangers of interacting with the outside human world, paradoxically symbolised by none other than Paul.57 Goldberg more reasonably suggests a connection between the She-Wolf, Anthony and Paul, and the Twins of Rome, Romulus and Remus.58 This may be seen as a programmatic literary device of the greatness of Monasticism rivalling the glory of Rome herself. Rome being born out of a Fratricide and Monasticism being born of two men sharing bread.

http://paulinefathers.org.au/about/st-paul/vita-st-paul-first-hermit/#sdfootnote55sym


16b05d  No.3900

>>3892

>>3891

very interesting reads, thanks.




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