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So far let it suffice for me to have told a few things out of many
concerning Abbot John: now I will relate a memorable deed of Abbot
Patermucius. For he, when anxious to renounce the world, remained lying
before the doors of the monastery for a long time until by his dogged
persistence he induced them--contrary to all the rules of the Coenobia--to
receive him together with his little boy who was about eight years old. And
when they were at last admitted they were at once not only committed to the
care of different superiors, but also put to live in separate cells that
the father might not be reminded by the constant sight of the little one
that out of all his possessions and carnal treasures, which he had cast off
and renounced, at least his son remained to him; and that as he was already
taught that he was no longer a rich man, so he might also forget the fact
that he was a father. And that it might be more thoroughly tested whether
he would make affection and love for his own flesh and blood of more
account than obedience and Christian mortification (which all who renounce
the world ought out of love to Christ to prefer), the child was on purpose
neglected and dressed in rags instead of proper clothes; and so covered and
disfigured with dirt that he would rather disgust than delight the eyes of
his father whenever he saw him. And further, he was exposed to blows and
slaps from different people, which the father often saw inflicted without
the slightest reason on his innocent child under his very eyes, so that he
never saw his cheeks without their being stained with the dirty marks of
tears. And though the child was treated thus day after day before his eyes,
yet still out of love for Christ and the virtue of obedience the father's
heart stood firm and unmoved. For he no longer regarded him as his own son,
as he had offered him equally with himself to Christ; nor was he concerned
about his present injuries, but rather rejoiced because he saw that they
were endured, not without profit; thinking little of his son's tears, but
anxious about his own humility and perfection. And when the Superior of the
Coenobium saw his steadfastness of mind and immovable inflexibility, in
order thoroughly to prove the constancy of his purpose, one day when he had
seen the child crying, he pretended that he was annoyed with him and told
the father to throw him into the river. Then he, as if this had been
commanded him by the Lord, at once snatched up the child as quickly as
possible, and carried him in his arms to the river's bank to throw him in.
And straightway in the fervour of his faith and obedience this would have
been carried out in act, had not some of the brethren been purposely set to
watch the banks of the river very carefully, and when the child was thrown
in, had somehow snatched him from the bed of the stream, and prevented the
command, which was really fulfilled by the obedience and devotion of the
father, from being consummated in act and result.
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