DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0255
236 A SAINT AND PROPHET. [CHAP.
sionally been exerted over the people by artful men,
who have played on their simplicity and credulity, and
have made the profession of a Saint and Prophet answer
well their own base ends. The older Sfakians remember
that not long after the devastation of their country in
1769, a saint, who was stone-blind and never tasted any
food1, came from one of the monasteries of the Holy
Mountain2 to preach and prophesy to the Sfakians.
When surrounded by a numerous audience he would
sometimes declare who were the sinners, and who the
righteous men among- his hearers. Once some Moham-
medans joined his congregation, and scarcely had they
entered the church before he exclaimed, that they would
never learn any thing from him but must go to their
prophet Mohammed. He declared that the wrath of
God could only be averted from the land by their
abandoning their unchristian and murderous practices:
and the influence of his reputation and preaching among
them was confessedly great enough to put a stop, for
awhile, to the murders which from time immemorial
were so common in Sfakia. But the date of this worthy
man's ministry is so remote, that we do not learn so
much about him as we may of another saint, who is
still living3, and who made his appearance in Sfakia
1 My Sfakian informant, although he had been a leader in the whole war,
and had lived in exile at Nauplia ever since his country was given up to
Mehmet-Ali, was firmly persuaded that the ayws yeprnvrai never eat any.
thing. Many examples "of wonderful fasting" are stated in Jonstonus,
An History of the Wonderful Things of Nature, Classis x. Ch. 2. §. 7. p. 315.
ed. Lond. 1657. The periods vary from the modest length of forty days
to that of forty years! " H ermolaus knew a priest who lived in health forty
years, without any thing, but by sucking in the air." The goats of Cephal-
lenia are said always to have satisfied their thirst in the same way: see the
Book de Mirab. ausc. n. 9. p. 831. ed. Bekk. At e» Kcipa\\i)via atyes ov
irivovrjtv, (ds eot/cec, uisTrep Kal TaWa TeTpdiroSa, na.6' i]p.epav 3e irpos to
TreXayos dvTta to. Trposwira TroL^a-aa-aL yaGKOvo-LV eUSe^ofievai to. irveu-
paTa.
3 To "Aywv "Opos, as Mount Athos is called by the Greeks.
3 I saw him at Nauplia in 1834. He has long since abandoned his sacred
profession spoken of in the text.
sionally been exerted over the people by artful men,
who have played on their simplicity and credulity, and
have made the profession of a Saint and Prophet answer
well their own base ends. The older Sfakians remember
that not long after the devastation of their country in
1769, a saint, who was stone-blind and never tasted any
food1, came from one of the monasteries of the Holy
Mountain2 to preach and prophesy to the Sfakians.
When surrounded by a numerous audience he would
sometimes declare who were the sinners, and who the
righteous men among- his hearers. Once some Moham-
medans joined his congregation, and scarcely had they
entered the church before he exclaimed, that they would
never learn any thing from him but must go to their
prophet Mohammed. He declared that the wrath of
God could only be averted from the land by their
abandoning their unchristian and murderous practices:
and the influence of his reputation and preaching among
them was confessedly great enough to put a stop, for
awhile, to the murders which from time immemorial
were so common in Sfakia. But the date of this worthy
man's ministry is so remote, that we do not learn so
much about him as we may of another saint, who is
still living3, and who made his appearance in Sfakia
1 My Sfakian informant, although he had been a leader in the whole war,
and had lived in exile at Nauplia ever since his country was given up to
Mehmet-Ali, was firmly persuaded that the ayws yeprnvrai never eat any.
thing. Many examples "of wonderful fasting" are stated in Jonstonus,
An History of the Wonderful Things of Nature, Classis x. Ch. 2. §. 7. p. 315.
ed. Lond. 1657. The periods vary from the modest length of forty days
to that of forty years! " H ermolaus knew a priest who lived in health forty
years, without any thing, but by sucking in the air." The goats of Cephal-
lenia are said always to have satisfied their thirst in the same way: see the
Book de Mirab. ausc. n. 9. p. 831. ed. Bekk. At e» Kcipa\\i)via atyes ov
irivovrjtv, (ds eot/cec, uisTrep Kal TaWa TeTpdiroSa, na.6' i]p.epav 3e irpos to
TreXayos dvTta to. Trposwira TroL^a-aa-aL yaGKOvo-LV eUSe^ofievai to. irveu-
paTa.
3 To "Aywv "Opos, as Mount Athos is called by the Greeks.
3 I saw him at Nauplia in 1834. He has long since abandoned his sacred
profession spoken of in the text.