great deference paid to his instructions, even by barbarians, is not to
be expressed. Many Persians, Armenians, and Iberians, with the entire
nation of the Lazi in Colchis, were converted by his miracles and
discourses, which they crowded to hear. Princes and queens of the
Arabians came to receive his blessing. Vararanes V. king of Persia,
though a cruel persecutor, respected him. The emperors Theodosius the
younger, and Leo, often consulted him, and desired his prayers. The
emperor Marcian visited him, disguised in the dress of a private man. By
his advice the empress Eudoxia abandoned the Eutychian party a little
before her death. His miracles and predictions are mentioned at large in
Theodoret and others. By an invincible patience he bore all afflictions,
austerities, and rebukes, without ever mentioning them. He long
concealed a horrible ulcer in his foot, swarming with maggots. He always
sincerely looked upon, and treated himself, as the outcast of the world,
and the last of sinners; and he spoke to all with the most engaging
sweetness and charity. Domnus, patriarch of Antioch, administered unto
him the holy communion on his pillar: undoubtedly he often received that
benefit from others. In 459, according to Cosmas, on a Wednesday, the 2d
of September, this incomparable penitent, bowing on a pillar, as if
intent on prayer, gave up the ghost, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
On the Friday following his corpse was conveyed to Antioch, attended by
the bishops and the whole country. Many miracles, related by
Evagrius,[4] Antony, and Cosmas, were wrought on occasion; and the
people immediately, over all the East, kept his festival with great
solemnity.[5]

The extraordinary manner of life which this saint led, is a proof of the
fervor with which he sought to live in the most perfect sequestration
from creatures, and union with God and heaven. The most perfect
accomplishment of the Divine Will was his only view, and the sole object
of his desires; whence upon the least intimation of an order from a
superior, he was ready to leave his pillar; nor did he consider this
undertaking as any thing great or singular, by which he should appear
distinguished from others. By humility he looked upon himself as justly
banished from among men and hidden from the world in Christ. No one is
to practise or aspire after virtue or perfection upon a motive of
greatness, or of being exalted by it. This would be to fall into the
snare of p