Early Christian Biographies

Life Of St. Epiphanius

THE LIFE OF ST. EPIPHANIUS _ TWOFOLD OBLIGATION constrains me to undertake this ~ work. which I know will be free from neither labor nor adverse criticism, in view of the fact that it imposes upon me the treatment of a subject which, while it looks for a wealth of literary talent in the writer, places, at the same time, restrictions upon that talent. Even persons who are, as it seems, most prominent in worldly circles will be displeased both with him who through vain glory extols them with a too florid praise and with him who, lacking in eloquence, confines himself to an unadorned account of their deeds. For, in praise, as it is shameful to fashion fictions of which not even he who is their subject is aware, so also is it unjust and deplorable to pass over in silence what is truly worthy of commendation. We accord to the laudable deeds of our ancestors a credence and esteem proportionate to the ability of their narrator; what a writer of little literary ability undertakes to narrate is entirely lost to posterity or comes down in an attenuated form, while that eulogy which goes beyond the bounds of truth diminishes the glory of its subject to the degree that it has endeavored to augment it by falsehood. An eloquent but untruthful narration often deprives worthy deeds of due praise, whereas that narration which does not give merited glory to its subject is incomplete and beggarly. 303 304 ENNODlUS I, therefore, about to narrate the life of blessed Epiphanius, Bishop of Ticinum, beg the Holy Spirit, as the witness and companion of his acts, to help me to leave an imperishable record, which will ever keep alive the memory of his virtues as an example for others. In this work, although the fixed precept~ of the art of eloquence do not restrict me to the mere unadorned enumeration of meritorious deeds, I shall, however, find none of his labors so insignificant, so lowly, as to demand amplification by those ornaments of animated speech indispensable to the majority of writers. I shall, furthermore , cite witnesses of recent combats and I shall display trophies adorned with the still-smoldering spoils stripped from the Devil. No one relates well-known events which have occurred almost under the eyes of his readers, without being certain of their verity. And so, things of which they themselves have been witnesses I shall review for my readers, whom, were my intention to transgress the truth in this narration , I would avoid as conscious of my impertinence. That remarkable Epiphanius, then, was by birth a native of the town of Ticinum. His father, Maurus, and his mother, Focaria, were both of freeborn ancestry, the latter being of the stock of the holy bishop and confessor, Mirocles. But, why do I recall the lineal prerogatives of those whose chief claim to family honors rests in their son? Under his predecessor , Bishop Crispinus, a man of greatest integrity, Epiphanius, when scarcely eight years old, began his service in the heavenly militia and as he had been previously indicated by a heavensent sign, entered upon the officer of ecclesiastical lector. When he was yet a suckling babe, many saw his cradle aglow with a celestial light, the harbinger and prefiguration of the keenness of intellect and beauty of soul that were to be his. Mter mastering in a brief time the art of writing in shorthand , he was enrolled among the exceptors, and even as a LIFE OF ST. EPIPHANIUS 305 beginner he could take notes that needed no correction by masters in the art. Thus, his labors increasing with his advancing years, he by the grace of God attained his sixteenth year; though still a boy in years, he thought the thoughts of a mature man. There blossomed in him before all else that mother of good works, modesty. With such readiness did he minister to the bishop that, if he saw any task performed by another, he grieved because he had been deprived of rendering that service. He received the old with dignity, the young with courtesy, and even then he had the courage to correct the wicked. He was obedient to his superiors, submissive to his seniors enjoining upon him sacred duties, kindly and helpful to those of his own age and rank, and, with genuine charity, courteous and affable to those of lower status. He considered...