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| Chapter XXVII. Of the humility and obedience of Abbot Patermucius, which he did not hesitate to make perfect by throwing his little boy into the river at the command of his senior.
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Chapter XXVII.
Of the humility and obedience of Abbot
Patermucius,787
| 787
Patermucius (Petschenig) or Mucius (Gazæus);
probably a different person from the man of this name of whom we read
in Rufinus, History of the Monks, c. ix., as there is no allusion there
to the narrative which Cassian gives here, nor any hint that that
Patermucius had a son. | which he
did not hesitate to make perfect by throwing his little boy into the
river at the command of his senior.
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 Cœnobia—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 love788
| 788
Affectionem.…charitatem.—Petschenig. The text of
Gazæus reads the ablative. | 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 Cœnobium 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
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