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The Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk

2.

Maronia is a little hamlet some thirty miles to the east of Antioch in Syria. After having many owners or landlords, ¹ at the time when I was staying as a young man in Syria ² it came into the possession of my intimate friend, the Bishop Evagrius, ³ 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 learnt as follows.

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Vita Malchi monachi captivi

II

[Adolescentulus morabatur in Syria Hieronymus.]

Maronias triginta fere milibus ab Antiochia, urbe Syriae, haud grandis ad orientem distat viculus. Hic post multos vel dominos vel patronos, dum ego adulescentulus morarer in Syria, ad papae Euagrii necessarii mei possessionem devolutus est. Quem idcirco nunc nominavi, ut ostenderem, unde nossem, quod scripturus sum.

Erat illic quidam senex nomine Malchus, quem nos Latine «regem» possumus dicere, Syrus natione et lingua, ut revera eiusdem loci indigena. Anus quoque in eius contubernio, valde decrepita et iam morti proxima, videbatur. Tam studiose ambo religiosi et sic ecclesiae limen terentes, ut Zachariam et Elisabeth de evangelio crederes - nisi quod Ioannes in medio non erat. De his cum curiose ab accolis quaererem, quaenam esset eorum copula, matrimonii, sanguinis an spiritus, omnes voce consona sanctos et deo placitos et mira nescioquae respondebant. Qua cupiditate illectus adorsus sum hominem et curiosius sciscitans rerum fidem haec ab eo accepi.