SS. MARTYRS IN ARABIA.
(ABOUT A.D. 304.)
[Roman Martyrology. Authority:—Eusebius, lib. viii., c. 12.]
Nothing more is known of these martyrs than that in the persecution of Maximin they were slain with the axe.
SS. THALASSIUS AND LIMNÆUS, HH.
(5TH CENT.)
[Commemorated by the Greeks. Authority:—The Philotheus of Theodoret, c. 12. Theodoret knew these hermits, and visited them. He wrote whilst the latter was still alive.]
Thalassius was a hermit, living on the side of a hill near the village of Pillima, in the diocese of Cyrus, in Syria, then governed by the famous Theodoret, the ecclesiastical historian. Under his direction was disciplined Limnæus, who, as a boy, having a too glib tongue, learned to control it by imposing on himself, for many years, complete silence. Limnæus afterwards became the pupil of the hermit Maro. He lived in a sort of court, made of rough stone walls, open to the sky, with a little door and window. Through the latter he spoke with the people who visited him, but he suffered none, save the bishop, to enter through the door. One day, as he went forth, he trod on a viper, which bit his heel. He put forth his right hand to withdraw the venomous beast, when it turned and fixed its fangs in his hand, and when he endeavoured to grasp it by the left, it bit his left hand also. He was bitten in more than ten places before he could disengage the serpent, yet he would not allow the wounds to be dressed by a physician, but signed them with the cross. He suffered great torture from the bites, but recovered. He loved to assemble the blind around his cell, and teach them to sing hymns to the glory of God. For their accommodation he built two houses adjoining his cell, and he devoted himself especially to their spiritual direction. Theodoret wrote of him when he had spent thirty-eight years in this manner of life.
S. BARADATUS, H.
(ABOUT A.D. 460.)
[Greek Menæa. Authority:—Theodoret, in his Philotheus, c. 27; who wrote whilst Baradatus was still alive, and from personal knowledge of him and his manner of life.]
S. Baradatus held so high a position among the solitaries of Syria, that the Emperor Leo, wishing to know the opinion of the Eastern Church touching the council of Chalcedon, wrote to him, as well as to S. Simeon Stylites and S. James the Syrian. All we know of him is derived from the account left us by Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, who calls him the admirable Baradatus, and says that he manifested his ingenuity in discovering new austerities. Baradatus at first dwelt in a hut, but afterwards he ascended a rock and built himself a cabin, so small that he was unable to stand upright in it, and was obliged to move therein bent nearly double. The joints of the stones were, moreover, so open that it resembled a cage, and exposed him to the sun and rain. But Theodosius, patriarch of Antioch, ordered him to leave this den, and the hermit, at his advice, chose one more commodious. He spent most of his time in prayer, with his hands raised to heaven. His clothing was of leather, which covered him so completely that only his nose and mouth were visible. Theodoret says that his knowledge of heavenly things and doctrinal perspicuity were very remarkable. His answer to the Emperor Leo is found appended to the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon.