ARBITERS OF THE HOLY

Summary

Some time in the 520s, the great old man Barsanuphius, an Egyptian recluse, wrote from his cell in the vicinity of Gaza, in order to comfort a sick and dispirited monk:

I speak in the presence of Christ, and I do not lie, that I know a servant of God, in our generation, in the present time and in this blessed place, who can also raise the dead in the name of Jesus our Lord, who can drive out demons, cure the incurable sick, and perform other miracles no less than did the Apostles … for the Lord has in all places His true servants, whom He calls no more slaves but sons [Galatians 4:7] … If someone wishes to say that I am talking nonsense, as I said, let him say so. But if someone should wish to strive to arrive at that high state, let him not hesitate.

Throughout the Christian world of the fifth and sixth centuries, average Christian believers (like the sick monk, Andrew) were encouraged to draw comfort from the expectation that, somewhere, in their own times, even maybe in their own region, and so directly accessible to their own distress, a chosen few of their fellows (who might be women quite as much as men) had achieved, usually through prolonged ascetic labour, an exceptional degree of closeness to God. God loved them as His favoured children. He would answer their prayers on behalf of the majority of believers, whose own sins kept them at a distance from Him.