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in learning. .And continuing unceasingly in meditation on the Word of God, he readied and kept the highest rank as a disciple of the Divine Mysteries. And when he reached manhood, and by his own parents was being daily urged to have converse with a woman, and utterly refusing so to do, by the spite and sorcery of the parents of her whom they had betrothed to him, by some Satanic craft his eyes wore blinded. Yet the saint, no wit vexed at his strange misfortune, said within himself, " Even though I be reft of my bodily sight, yet that which is spiritual is left me," took with him one of his own servants (he too was called John) and .entering joyfully on his new life, withdrew himself from his family, with unbending spirit imposed on himself a still sterner discipline, bid adien to all, aud revelling in fasting and in prayers—for every three or even four days tasting bnt a little bread and water, to tame his spirit, distressed by the scorching heat of day, and by the icy cold of night, and taking no bodily rest whatever—under such a rule he lived for the space of twelve years. So it was that on account of his snrpassing virtue he won from on high the grace of miracles, and stood manifest as a healer of every kind of disease, and an espeller of evil spirits, and on α time in a dry place, when his own servant was parched with thirst, by prayer he made water to flow forth which springs up even to this day. And three days before his departure to God (as the story about him tells) the holy man saw three eagles hovering round hiin, and knowing in his spirit that he was soon to taste of the better end, he made clear to his servant his departure from hence, and thereon praying the customary prayer he ascended in peace to Him Whom he longed for, by Whom he had been called to the blessed life of an ascetic. His precious corpse was laid by his own father with honourable and costly ceremony in the place where it now lies, and daily works manifold healings and wonders. The whole span of his life was twenty-two years. Through his holy intercession have mercy on ns, Ο onr God. Amen. From the Acotouthia of S. Neophytos, printed at Venice in 1778, and reprinted at Nicosia in 1893, I translate the life of the samt, whose feast is celebrated ou January 24. I append a compressed account of the discovery and translation of Ids remains. January 24. Commemoration of our holy father NEOPHYTOS the cloistered monk. The grave holds thee, but thy body only. Thon art our pride, men visit thy cell. On the twenty-second day thy soul entered the heavenly port The birthplace of this holy man was the town of Levkara in Cyprus. He was the son of pious pai-ente, and flourished in the days of those pious sovereigns the Comneni, what time the Saracens, God knows for what sins of ours, made themselves masters of the Holy City of Jerusalem. This island too suffered at their hands many incursions, as well as from the Christian hosts which, stirred by the pious zeal of the sovereigns of Knrope, hurried together from all sides to ransom the Holy Places. S. Neophytos being now eighteen years old, his parents wished him to marry, and when lie learned that, according to custom, they were arranging the preliminaries of the wedding, he fled secretly from his home, and hid himself in the monastery of S. Chrysostom called Koutzoventi. He reckoned as nought parents and betrothal, despising them as well as other transitory things, and cared for the love of Christ only. For from a child he longed for quiet, and hailed a life of seclusion. And iu the ordinance written by his own hand for his OQ Ί SYNAXARIA. 227

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