The Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk Saint Jerome The life of Malchus was written at Bethlehem, a.d. , 391

        They who have to fight a naval
battle prepare for it in harbours and calm waters by adjusting the
helm, plying the oars, and making ready the hooks and grappling
irons. They draw up the soldiers on the decks and accustom them to
stand steady with poised foot and on slippery ground; so that they
may not shrink from all this when the real encounter comes, because
they have had experience of it in the sham fight. And so it is in my
case. I have long held my peace, because silence was imposed on me by
one to whom I give pain when I speak of him. But now, in preparing to
write history on a wider scale I desire to practise myself by means
of this little work and as it were to wipe the rust from my tongue.
For I have purposed (if God grant me life, and if my censurers will
at length cease to persecute me, now that I am a fugitive and shut up
in a monastery) to write a history of the church of Christ from the
advent of our Saviour up to our own age, that is from the apostles to
the dregs of time in which we live, and to show by what means and
through what agents it received its birth, and how, as it gained
strength, it grew by persecution and was crowned with martyrdom; and
then, after reaching the Christian Emperors, how it increased in
influence and in wealth but decreased in Christian virtues. But of
this elsewhere. Now to the matter in hand.


	Maronia is a little hamlet some thirty
miles to the east of Antioch in Syria. After having many owners or
landlords, at the time when I was staying as a young man in Syria it
came into the possession of my intimate friend, the Bishop Evagrius,
whose name I now give in order to show the source of my information.
Well, there was at the place at that time an old man by name Malchus,
which we might render"king," a Syrian by race and speech,
in fact a genuine son of the soil. His companion was an old woman
very decrepit who seemed to be at death's door, both of them so
zealously pious and such constant frequenters of the Church, they
might have been taken for Zacharias and Elizabeth in the Gospel but
for the fact that there was no John to be seen. With some curiosity I
asked the neighbours what was the link between them; was it marriage,
or kindred, or the bond of the Spirit? All with one accord replied
that they were holy people, well pleasing to God, and gave me a
strange account of them. Longing to know more I began to question the
man with much eagerness about the truth of what I heard, and learned
as follows.


	My son, said he, I used to farm a bit
of ground at Nisibis and was an only son. My parents regarding me as
the heir and the only survivor of their race, wished to force me into
marriage, but I said I would rather be a monk. How my father
threatened and my mother coaxed me to betray my chastity requires no
other proof than the fact that I fled from home and parents. I could
not go to the East because Persia was close by and the frontiers were
guarded by the soldiers of Rome; I therefore turned my steps to the
West, taking with me some little provision for the journey, but
barely sufficient to ward off destitution. To be brief, I came at
last to the desert of Chalcis which is situate between Immæ and
Beroa farther south. There, finding some monks, I placed myself under
their direction, earning my livelihood by the labour of my hands, and
curbing the wantonness of the flesh by fasting. After many years the
desire came over me to return to my country, and stay with my mother
and cheer her widowhood while she lived (for my father, as I had
already heard, was dead), and then to sell the little property and
give part to the poor, settle part on the monasteries and (I blush to
confess my faithlessness) keep some to spend in comforts for myself.
My abbot began to cry out that it was a temptation of the devil, and
that under fair pretexts some snare of the old enemy lay hid. It was,
he declared, a case of the dog returning to his vomit. Many monks, he
said, had been deceived by such suggestions, for the devil never
showed himself openly. He set before me many examples from the
Scriptures, and told me that even Adam and Eve in the beginning had
been overthrown by him through the hope of becoming gods. When he
failed to convince me he fell upon his knees and besought me not to
forsake him, nor ruin myself by looking back after putting my hand to
the plough. Unhappily for myself I had the misfortune to conquer my
adviser. I thought he was seeking not my salvation but his own
comfort. So he followed me from the monastery as if he had been going
to a funeral, and at last bade me farewell, saying,"I see that
you bear the brand of a son of Satan. I do not ask your reasons nor
take your excuses. The sheep which forsakes its fellows is at once
exposed to the jaws of the wolf."


	On the road from Beroa to Edessa
adjoining the high-way is a waste over which the Saracens roam to and
fro without having any fixed abode. Through fear of them travellers
in those parts assemble in numbers, so that by mutual assistance they
may escape impending danger. There were in my company men, women, old
men, youths, children, altogether about seventy persons. All of a
sudden the Ishmaelites on horses and camels made an assault upon us,
with their flowing hair bound with fillets, their bodies half-naked,
with their broad military boots, their cloaks streaming behind them,
and their quivers slung upon the shoulders. They carried their bows
unstrung and brandished their long spears; for they had come not to
fight, but to plunder. We were seized, dispersed, and carried in
different directions. I, meanwhile, repenting too late of the step I
had taken, and far indeed from gaining possession of my inheritance,
was assigned, along with another poor sufferer, a woman, to the
service of one and the same owner. We were led, or rather carried,
high upon the camel's back through a desert waste, every moment
expecting destruction, and suspended, I may say, rather than seated.
Flesh half raw was our food, camel's milk our drink.


	At length, after crossing a great
river we came to the interior of the desert, where, being commanded
after the custom of the people to pay reverence to the mistress and
her children, we bowed our heads. Here, as if I were a prisoner, I
changed my dress, that is, learned to go naked, the heat being so
excessive as to allow of no clothing beyond a covering for the loins.
Some sheep were given to me to tend, and, comparatively speaking, I
found this occupation a comfort, for I seldom saw my masters or
fellow slaves. My fate seemed to be like that of Jacob in sacred
history, and reminded me also of Moses; both of whom were once
shepherds in the desert. I fed on fresh cheese and milk, prayed
continually, and sang psalms which I had learned in the monastery. I
was delighted with my captivity, and thanked God because I had found
in the desert the monk's estate which I was on the point of losing in
my country.


	But no condition can ever shut out the
Devil. How manifold past expression are his snares! Hid though I was,
his malice found me out. My master seeing his flock increasing and
finding no dishonesty in me (I knew that the Apostle has given
command that masters should be as faithfully served as God Himself),
and wishing to reward me in order to secure my greater fidelity, gave
me the woman who was once my fellow servant in captivity. On my
refusing and saying I was a Christian, and that it was not lawful for
me to take a woman to wife so long as her husband was alive (her
husband had been captured with us, but carried off by another
master), my owner was relentless in his rage, drew his sword and
began to make at me. If I had not without delay stretched out my hand
and taken possession of the woman, he would have slain me on the
spot. Well; by this time a darker night than usual had set in and,
for me, all too soon. I led my bride into an old cave; sorrow was
bride's-maid; we shrank from each other but did not confess it. Then
I really felt my captivity; I threw myself down on the ground, and
began to lament the monastic state whichI had lost, and said:
"Wretched man that I am! have I been preserved for this? has my
wickedness brought me to this, that in my gray hairs I must lose my
virgin state and become a married man? What is the good of having
despised parents, country, property, for the Lord's sake, if I do the
thing I wished to avoid doing when I despised them? And yet it may be
perhaps the case that I am in this condition because I longed for
home. What are we to do, my soul? are we to perish, or conquer? Are
we to wait for the hand of the Lord, or pierce ourselves with our own
sword? Turn your weapon against yourself; I must fear your death, my
soul, more than the death of the body. Chastity preserved has its own
martyrdom. Let the witness for Christ lie unburied in the desert; I
will be at once the persecutor and the martyr." Thus speaking I
drew my sword which glittered even in the dark, and turning its point
towards me said: "Farewell, unhappy woman: receive me as a
martyr not as a husband." She threw herself at my feet and
exclaimed: "I pray you by Jesus Christ, and adjure you by this
hour of trial, do not shed your blood and bring its guilt upon me. If
you choose to die, first turn your sword against me. Let us rather be
united upon these terms. Supposing my husband should return to me, I
would preserve the chastity which I have learned in captivity; I
would even die rather than lose it. Why should you die to prevent a
union with me? I would die if you desired it. Take me then as the
partner of your chastity; and love me more in this union of the
spirit than you could in that of the body only. Let our master
believe that you are my husband. Christ knows you are my brother. We
shall easily convince them we are married when they see us so
loving." I confess, I was astonished and, much as I had before
admired the virtue of the woman, I now loved her as a wife still
more. Yet I never gazed upon her naked person; I never touched her
flesh, for I was afraid of losing in peace what I had preserved in
the conflict. In this strange wedlock many days passed away. Marriage
had made us more pleasing to our masters, and there was no suspicion
of our flight; sometimes I was absent for even a whole month like a
trusty shepherd traversing the wilderness.


	After a long time as I sat one day by
myself in the desert with nothing in sight save earth and sky, I
began quickly to turn things over in my thoughts, and amongst others
called to mind my friends the monks, and specially the look of the
father who had instructed me, kept me, and lost me. While I was thus
musing I saw a crowd of ants swarming over a narrow path. The loads
they carried were clearly larger than their own bodies. Some with
their forceps were dragging along the seeds of herbs: others were
excavating the earth from pits and banking it up to keep out the
water. One party, in view of approaching winter, and wishing to
prevent their store from being converted into grass through the
dampness of the ground, were cutting off the tips of the grains they
had carried in; another with solemn lamentation were removing the
dead. And, what is stranger still in such a host, those coming out
did not hinder those going in; nay rather, if they saw one fall
beneath his burden they would put their shoulders to the load and
give him assistance. In short that day afforded me a delightful
entertainment. So, remembering how Solomon sends us to the shrewdness
of the ant and quickens our sluggish faculties by setting before us
such an example, I began to tire of captivity, and to regret the
monk's cell, and long to imitate those ants and their doings, where
toil is for the community, and, since nothing belongs to any one, all
things belong to all.


	When I returned to my chamber, my wife
met me. My looks betrayed the sadness of my heart. She asked why I
was so dispirited. I told her the reasons, and exhorted her to
escape. She did not reject the idea. I begged her to be silent on the
matter. She pledged her word. We constantly spoke to one another in
whispers; and we floated in suspense between hope and fear. I had in
the flock two very fine he-goats: these I killed, made their skins
into bottles, and from their flesh prepared food for the way. Then in
the early evening when our masters thought we had retired to rest we
began our journey, taking with us the bottles and part of the flesh.
When we reached the river which was about ten miles off, having
inflated the skins and got astride upon them, we intrusted ourselves
to the water, slowly propelling ourselves with our feet, that we
might be carried down by the stream to a point on the opposite bank
much below that at which we embarked, and that thus the pursuers
might lose the track. But meanwhile the flesh became sodden and
partly lost, and we could not depend on it for more than three days'
sustenance. We drank till we could drink no more by way of preparing
for the thirst we expected to endure, then hastened away, constantly
looking behind us, and advanced more by night than day, on account
both of the ambushes of the roaming Saracens, and of the excessive
heat of the sun. I grow terrified even as I relate what happened;
and, although my mind is perfectly at rest, yet my frame shudders
from head to foot.


	Three days after we saw in the dim
distance two men riding on camels approaching with all speed. At once
foreboding ill I began to think my master purposed putting us to
death, and our sun seemed to grow dark again. In the midst of our
fear, and just as we realized that our footsteps on the sand had
betrayed us, we found on our right hand a cave which extended far
underground. Well, we entered the cave: but we were afraid of
venomous beasts such as vipers, basilisks, scorpions, and other
creatures of the kind, which often resort to such shady places so as
to avoid the heat of the sun. We therefore barely went inside, and
took shelter in a pit on the left, not venturing a step farther, lest
in fleeing from death we should run into death. We thought thus
within ourselves: If the Lord helps us in our misery we have found
safety: if He rejects us for our sins, we have found our grave. What
do you suppose were our feelings? What was our terror, when in front
of the cave, close by, there stood our master and fellow-servant,
brought by the evidence of our footsteps to our hiding place? How
much worse is death expected than death inflicted! Again my tongue
stammers with distress and fear; it seems as if I heard my master's
voice, and I hardly dare mutter a word. He sent his servant to drag
us from the cavern while he himself held the camels and, sword in
hand, waited for us to come. Meanwhile the servant entered about
three or four cubits, and we in our hiding place saw his back though
he could not see us, for the nature of the eye is such that those who
go into the shade out of the sunshine can see nothing. His voice
echoed through the cave: "Come out, you felons; come out and
die; why do you stay? Why do you delay? Come out, your master is
calling and patiently waiting for you." He was still speaking
when lo! through the gloom we saw a lioness seize the man, strangle
him, and drag him, covered with blood, farther in. Good Jesus! how
great was our terror now, how intense our joy! We beheld, though our
master knew not of it, our enemy perish. He, when he saw that he was
long in returning, supposed that the fugitives being two to one were
offering resistance. Impatient in his rage, and sword still in hand,
he came to the cavern, and shouted like a madman as he chided the
slowness of his slave, but was seized upon by the wild beast before
he reached our hiding place. Who ever would believe that before our
eyes a brute would fight for us?

One cause of fear was removed, but
there was the prospect of a similar death for ourselves, though the
rage of the lion was not so bad to bear as the anger of the man. Our
hearts failed for fear: without venturing to stir a step we awaited
the issue, having no wall of defence in the midst of so great dangers
save the consciousness of our chastity; when, early in the morning,
the lioness, afraid of some snare and aware that she had been seen
took up her cub in her teeth and carried it away, leaving us in
possession of our retreat. Our confidence was not restored all at
once. We did not rush out, but waited for a long time; for as often
as we thought of coming out we pictured to ourselves the horror of
falling in with her.


	At last we got rid of our fright; and
when that day was spent, we sallied forth towards evening, and saw
the camels, on account of their great speed called dromedaries,
quietly chewing the cud. We mounted, and with the strength gained
from the new supply of grain, after ten days travelling through the
desert arrived at the Roman camp. After being presented to the
tribune we told all, and from thence were sent to Sabianus, who
commanded in Mesopotamia, where we sold our camels. My dear old abbot
was now sleeping in the Lord; I betook myself therefore to this
place, and returned to the monastic life, while I entrusted my
companion here to the care of the virgins; for though I loved her as
a sister, I did not commit myself to her as if she were my sister.


	Malchus was an old man, I a youth,
when he told me these things. I who have related them to you am now
old, and I have set them forth as a history of chastity for the
chaste. Virgins, I exhort you, guard your chastity. Tell the story to
them that come after, that they may realize that in the midst of
swords, and wild beasts of the desert, virtue is never a captive, and
that he who is devoted to the service of Christ may die, but cannot
be conquered.

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