AGATHON, THE THIRTY-NINTH PATRIARCH. A. D. 661-677.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, the one God.
The second division of the histories of the holy Church, consisting of six chapters and the lives of fourteen patriarchs.
Agathon was the son of the patriarch Benjamin in the spirit, not in the flesh; and he is the thirty-ninth in the series of the patriarchs.
When the great champion and maintainer of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and teacher of the orthodox creed, Abba Benjamin, returned from banishment, and resumed his seat upon the evangelical throne in the Church of God, he restored that which had been overthrown by Heraclius, and by the impure Chalcedonian Council, in the person of Proterius. For this Father Abba Benjamin reconstructed all things, and set them in order with the help of the Lord Christ, the Good Shepherd, who gave his life for his 4 sheep, according to his words in his pure Gospel 1 : «The Good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep». So Benjamin walked in the footsteps of his Lord, and carried his cross and followed him, and endured trials and woes and great temptations till death for the right faith, but neither retreated nor turned backwards in his conflict, until he had finished it; so that he received his reward with the saints, his fathers, who preceded him. As David says 2 in the Psalms : «Precious before the Lord is the death of his pure ones».
So the Father Benjamin died. And the faitful God-fearing people, by the command of the Lord, took that God-fearing priest Agathon, and enthroned him as patriarch, according to the agreement of his name with his actions; for he was good and his conduct was good, adorned with every noble deed, full of the grace of the Holy Ghost and of the orthodox faith.
Now the Muslims were fighting against the Romans furiously. And the Romans had a prince whose name was Tiberius, whom they had made their ruler, and who possessed many islands. So the Muslims took the Romans captive, and carried them away from their own country to a strange land. Thus with regard to Sicily and all its provinces, they took possession of that island, and ravaged it, and brought the people captives to Egypt. And this holy patriarch Agathon was sad at heart when he saw his fellow-Christians in the hands of the Gentiles; and as the conquerors had offered many souls of them for sale, he bought them and set them free. But they 5 were followers of the impure and heretical sects, known as the Gaianites, who do not communicate with the orthodox, and as the Barsanuphians.
And Abba Agathon did not neglect to ordain bishops in every place, that they might bring back the sheep which Satan had led astray to the Church of the Lord Christ. Therefore Satan brought down upon him great trouble on account of his purity of heart and excellence of character.
In those days Alexandria was governed by a man whose name was Theodore 3, who was a chief among a congregation of the Chalcedonians, and was an opponent of the orthodox Theodosians. This man went to Damascus to the leader of the Muslims, whose name was Yazîd, son of Mu'âwiyah, and received from him a diploma giving him authority over the people of Alexandria and Maryût and all the neighbouring districts, and declaring that the governor of Egypt had no jurisdiction over him; for he had given Yazîd much money. Then Theodore returned and tyrannised over the father, Abba Agathon, and troubled him; not only demanding of him the money which he was bound to pay, and taking from him thirty-six denarii as poll-tax every year, on account of his disciples, but that which he spent upon the sailors in the fleet he also exacted from him. And whenever he wanted funds he required the patriarch to supply them. But the community of the Chalcedonians would not associate with this man. The 6 patriarch needed seven thousand denarii to satisfy the demands of Theodore the Chalcedonian, besides the taxes upon his property, and was prevented from leaving his cell by the governor's cruel hostility on account of his orthodox faith, for he even issued a command, saying : «Whoever shall see the pope of the Theodosians going out by night or by day, may stone him to death, and I will be responsible for him». So the Father Agathon lay hid during the days of that impious official, praying for him according to the injunction of the Gospel 4 : «Love your enemies, bless those that curse you». In the days of Abba Agathon was built the church which was dedicated in the name of the Father Macarius. And the brethren multiplied so that they built the cells near the Marsh; and they increased by the grace of the Lord Christ, and the believing brethren assisted them. In those days there appeared at the monastery a man, pure in body and clean of heart, learned in the two kinds of wisdom, the ecclesiastical and the secular, whose name was John, a native of Samannûd. While he was making a pilgrimage to the desert he was attacked by a sore sickness, and none of the seniors believed that he would be healed. Then one night he saw a dream as if one in human form giving forth light and in great glory, sitting on the throne of the Seraphim and surrounded by a multitude, 7 alighted near the door of his cell. And he beheld a band of seniors, the holy fathers who live in the desert, going forward to receive the blessing: of him that sat on the throne. And he said in his own mind : «If I had some one who would take me, I also would go forward to this great heavenly king, and receive his blessing, and then perchance I should recover from this sickness and pain». At that moment there approached him one of those who had been standing around the throne and him that sat upon it, a man clothed in the raiment of the patriarchs and apostles, and holding upon his breast a book like the gospel; and he said : «Wilt thou that I bring thee to our Lord that he may grant thee the grace of healing?» Then John prostrated himself before that man with tears and prayed him saying : «Have pity on me, O my Lord, and take me to him, for I am in great trouble». So that holy one answered and said to him, for he was a priest : «O John, tell me that, if thou shalt be healed by the Lord, thou wilt be a son to me, and I will take thee to him». And he promised him in the vision that he would be a son to him until the day of his death; and that man took his hand and brought him to the Saviour of the world. Thereupon John fell prostrate at his feet, and the Saviour said to him : «O John, why love ye vanity, ye sons of men, and neglect the truth, and seek lies 5? Behold, didst thou intend in coming hither to build for thyself a cell of clay which will quickly disappear, or to lay up for thyself treasures in heaven, 8 and erect for thyself in the heavenly Jerusalem, the new city, a mansion which will not perish?» So he fell at his feet and prayed to be forgiven. And the Lord raised him up and said to him : «Now I grant thee the healing of thy sickness for the sake of Mark the Evangelist; therefore depart, and do all that he bids thee». Then the Lord ascended to heaven with glory and majesty.
After that John awoke from his dream, healed of his sickness. And he meditated, saying : «What is this that has now been done?» Then consolation descended upon him from that day. And he went to a monastery in the province of the Faiyûm, accompanied by his two disciples; and he concealed himself there.
Subsequently there appeared to Abba Agathon one who said to him : «Send to John the priest, who is of Samannûd, that he may help thee and assist thee; for it is he that shall sit after thee upon the throne». Accordingly the patriarch despatched some of the clergy to the bishop of the Faiyûm, Abba Mennas, and wrote bidding him send to him the priest John. Now that bishop loved John, and profited by his discourse, but he could not contradict the Father Patriarch. So he sent the messengers to John, and they brought him in a boat, and the bishop despatched him to Alexandria.
When the patriarch saw John he rejoiced over him. because he was very wise; and therefore he delivered to him his church, and gave him 9 authority over it and over the city. And some of the people prayed him to ordain John bishop over Upper Egypt, and others suggested some other see. But God was reserving him for his gentleness like David, that he might accomplish for him what had been promised in the vision in Wadî Habîb.
And that true father, Agathon, was occupied all his days in providing for the ordination of priests who were worthy of the laying on of hands and were fall of the fear of God; while men thanked God for his deeds. In his time lived the blessed bishop Gregory, bishop of Al-Kais, and a Syrian, whose name was Joseph. In his days also appeared the foul heresy of the Monk.
There was a commander among the Muslims, whose name was Maslamah, and he called together seven bishops, and sent them to Sakha on business connected with some people there, who were alleged to have burnt with fire some of the clerks employed there. The bishops were directed to try the accused; and, when they arrived at Sakha, they acted in concert with a man who was a magistrate there, named Isaac, and they corrected the state of affairs; and those men were healed from the burning. And the said Isaac came to an agreement with the governor of Sakha, and together they prevailed over Theodore the Chalcedonian who was at Alexandria. For this Isaac had received authority over the whole province on his account, because of the harm that he had done to the patriarch. 10
Then the patriarch Agathon finished his days in a good old age, and at the end he fell sick after remaining seventeen years upon his throne, and went to his rest on the 16th of Babah. And his body was placed, as it is written in the history of Saint Macarius, with the Father Benjamin. He died keeping the orthodox faith, and is now wearing the crown of righteousness with all the saints in the land of the living for ever and ever. Amen.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, the one God.
The second division of the histories of the holy Church, consisting of six chapters and the lives of fourteen patriarchs.
Agathon was the son of the patriarch Benjamin in the spirit, not in the flesh; and he is the thirty-ninth in the series of the patriarchs.
When the great champion and maintainer of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and teacher of the orthodox creed, Abba Benjamin, returned from banishment, and resumed his seat upon the evangelical throne in the Church of God, he restored that which had been overthrown by Heraclius, and by the impure Chalcedonian Council, in the person of Proterius. For this Father Abba Benjamin reconstructed all things, and set them in order with the help of the Lord Christ, the Good Shepherd, who gave his life for his 4 sheep, according to his words in his pure Gospel 1 : «The Good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep». So Benjamin walked in the footsteps of his Lord, and carried his cross and followed him, and endured trials and woes and great temptations till death for the right faith, but neither retreated nor turned backwards in his conflict, until he had finished it; so that he received his reward with the saints, his fathers, who preceded him. As David says 2 in the Psalms : «Precious before the Lord is the death of his pure ones».
So the Father Benjamin died. And the faitful God-fearing people, by the command of the Lord, took that God-fearing priest Agathon, and enthroned him as patriarch, according to the agreement of his name with his actions; for he was good and his conduct was good, adorned with every noble deed, full of the grace of the Holy Ghost and of the orthodox faith.
Now the Muslims were fighting against the Romans furiously. And the Romans had a prince whose name was Tiberius, whom they had made their ruler, and who possessed many islands. So the Muslims took the Romans captive, and carried them away from their own country to a strange land. Thus with regard to Sicily and all its provinces, they took possession of that island, and ravaged it, and brought the people captives to Egypt. And this holy patriarch Agathon was sad at heart when he saw his fellow-Christians in the hands of the Gentiles; and as the conquerors had offered many souls of them for sale, he bought them and set them free. But they 5 were followers of the impure and heretical sects, known as the Gaianites, who do not communicate with the orthodox, and as the Barsanuphians.
And Abba Agathon did not neglect to ordain bishops in every place, that they might bring back the sheep which Satan had led astray to the Church of the Lord Christ. Therefore Satan brought down upon him great trouble on account of his purity of heart and excellence of character.
In those days Alexandria was governed by a man whose name was Theodore 3, who was a chief among a congregation of the Chalcedonians, and was an opponent of the orthodox Theodosians. This man went to Damascus to the leader of the Muslims, whose name was Yazîd, son of Mu'âwiyah, and received from him a diploma giving him authority over the people of Alexandria and Maryût and all the neighbouring districts, and declaring that the governor of Egypt had no jurisdiction over him; for he had given Yazîd much money. Then Theodore returned and tyrannised over the father, Abba Agathon, and troubled him; not only demanding of him the money which he was bound to pay, and taking from him thirty-six denarii as poll-tax every year, on account of his disciples, but that which he spent upon the sailors in the fleet he also exacted from him. And whenever he wanted funds he required the patriarch to supply them. But the community of the Chalcedonians would not associate with this man. The 6 patriarch needed seven thousand denarii to satisfy the demands of Theodore the Chalcedonian, besides the taxes upon his property, and was prevented from leaving his cell by the governor's cruel hostility on account of his orthodox faith, for he even issued a command, saying : «Whoever shall see the pope of the Theodosians going out by night or by day, may stone him to death, and I will be responsible for him». So the Father Agathon lay hid during the days of that impious official, praying for him according to the injunction of the Gospel 4 : «Love your enemies, bless those that curse you». In the days of Abba Agathon was built the church which was dedicated in the name of the Father Macarius. And the brethren multiplied so that they built the cells near the Marsh; and they increased by the grace of the Lord Christ, and the believing brethren assisted them. In those days there appeared at the monastery a man, pure in body and clean of heart, learned in the two kinds of wisdom, the ecclesiastical and the secular, whose name was John, a native of Samannûd. While he was making a pilgrimage to the desert he was attacked by a sore sickness, and none of the seniors believed that he would be healed. Then one night he saw a dream as if one in human form giving forth light and in great glory, sitting on the throne of the Seraphim and surrounded by a multitude, 7 alighted near the door of his cell. And he beheld a band of seniors, the holy fathers who live in the desert, going forward to receive the blessing: of him that sat on the throne. And he said in his own mind : «If I had some one who would take me, I also would go forward to this great heavenly king, and receive his blessing, and then perchance I should recover from this sickness and pain». At that moment there approached him one of those who had been standing around the throne and him that sat upon it, a man clothed in the raiment of the patriarchs and apostles, and holding upon his breast a book like the gospel; and he said : «Wilt thou that I bring thee to our Lord that he may grant thee the grace of healing?» Then John prostrated himself before that man with tears and prayed him saying : «Have pity on me, O my Lord, and take me to him, for I am in great trouble». So that holy one answered and said to him, for he was a priest : «O John, tell me that, if thou shalt be healed by the Lord, thou wilt be a son to me, and I will take thee to him». And he promised him in the vision that he would be a son to him until the day of his death; and that man took his hand and brought him to the Saviour of the world. Thereupon John fell prostrate at his feet, and the Saviour said to him : «O John, why love ye vanity, ye sons of men, and neglect the truth, and seek lies 5? Behold, didst thou intend in coming hither to build for thyself a cell of clay which will quickly disappear, or to lay up for thyself treasures in heaven, 8 and erect for thyself in the heavenly Jerusalem, the new city, a mansion which will not perish?» So he fell at his feet and prayed to be forgiven. And the Lord raised him up and said to him : «Now I grant thee the healing of thy sickness for the sake of Mark the Evangelist; therefore depart, and do all that he bids thee». Then the Lord ascended to heaven with glory and majesty.
After that John awoke from his dream, healed of his sickness. And he meditated, saying : «What is this that has now been done?» Then consolation descended upon him from that day. And he went to a monastery in the province of the Faiyûm, accompanied by his two disciples; and he concealed himself there.
Subsequently there appeared to Abba Agathon one who said to him : «Send to John the priest, who is of Samannûd, that he may help thee and assist thee; for it is he that shall sit after thee upon the throne». Accordingly the patriarch despatched some of the clergy to the bishop of the Faiyûm, Abba Mennas, and wrote bidding him send to him the priest John. Now that bishop loved John, and profited by his discourse, but he could not contradict the Father Patriarch. So he sent the messengers to John, and they brought him in a boat, and the bishop despatched him to Alexandria.
When the patriarch saw John he rejoiced over him. because he was very wise; and therefore he delivered to him his church, and gave him 9 authority over it and over the city. And some of the people prayed him to ordain John bishop over Upper Egypt, and others suggested some other see. But God was reserving him for his gentleness like David, that he might accomplish for him what had been promised in the vision in Wadî Habîb.
And that true father, Agathon, was occupied all his days in providing for the ordination of priests who were worthy of the laying on of hands and were fall of the fear of God; while men thanked God for his deeds. In his time lived the blessed bishop Gregory, bishop of Al-Kais, and a Syrian, whose name was Joseph. In his days also appeared the foul heresy of the Monk.
There was a commander among the Muslims, whose name was Maslamah, and he called together seven bishops, and sent them to Sakha on business connected with some people there, who were alleged to have burnt with fire some of the clerks employed there. The bishops were directed to try the accused; and, when they arrived at Sakha, they acted in concert with a man who was a magistrate there, named Isaac, and they corrected the state of affairs; and those men were healed from the burning. And the said Isaac came to an agreement with the governor of Sakha, and together they prevailed over Theodore the Chalcedonian who was at Alexandria. For this Isaac had received authority over the whole province on his account, because of the harm that he had done to the patriarch. 10
Then the patriarch Agathon finished his days in a good old age, and at the end he fell sick after remaining seventeen years upon his throne, and went to his rest on the 16th of Babah. And his body was placed, as it is written in the history of Saint Macarius, with the Father Benjamin. He died keeping the orthodox faith, and is now wearing the crown of righteousness with all the saints in the land of the living for ever and ever. Amen.
