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Pilgrimage in the Holy Land

St John Phocas, tr. Stewart, 1889

Chapter 2

Now when the godly city of Antioch stood upon the banks of the river Orontes, it rejoiced in vast theatres, beauteous colonnades, massy temples, numerous inhabitants, and boundless wealth, so that it notably surpassed almost all the cities of the East. Time, however, and the hands of the barbarians have extinguished its prosperity, albeit it still can boast of its towers and its strong ramparts, and of the charming babble of its divided waters, as the river gently spreads around and encircles the city, twining about its towers with its moist embraces. In addition to this, it is admirably supplied with water by the streams which flow from the fountain of Castalia,¹ whose waters gush forth briskly, and are by many channels led through the whole city, and lave it with their waters, thanks to the vast works and generous heart of the founder of the city, who brought the stream by an aqueduct from its very source through the mountains into the city. Without the walls lies the famous suburb of Daphne,² adorned with groves of all sorts of trees, and ‘the wonderful’ mountain which was inhabited by the wonderful Simeon.³ Near these is the Mount Maurus,⁴ and the crag Scopelus, wherein many holy men in olden times sought for God and found Him, and now are among those whose souls are saved,⁵ and dwell in the thickets of these mountains, enamoured of His beauty. The fountain of Castalia springs up between two hills, and, bending its course along the foot of the hill which is nearest to the sea, swiftly discharges a surprising amount of water. Here we behold a great portico, roofing over the spring, wherein the water which plenteously bursts forth is divided into two streams. The one of these is conveyed in lofty channels, becomes an aërial river, and pours down from above into the city on the right hand; the other overflows upon the ground on the left hand of the fountain, floods the marshes, and, after watering the whole meadow of Daphne, joins the stream of the Orontes on the left-hand side. The ‘wonderful’ mountain which rises between the city and the sea is a beautiful object, and is most pleasant to behold; for it borders upon the city and upon Roso, and upon one side joins the crag Scopelus, and on the other the hill called Caucasus.⁶ The river Orontes runs in countless meandering curves round the base of this mountain, and then discharges its waters into the sea. It was on the summit of this mountain that that great man lived a life of contemplation, and, having lifted up his heart, lifted up his body also, and strove to rise into the air together with his body, and to hang half-way between God and man. How this strange life was arranged for this holy man I will explain to you. Having by the hands of masons hollowed out the summit of this wondrous mountain, he formed a monastery out of the solid living rock, in the midst whereof he hewed out a natural pillar, upon which he took his stand, setting his feet upon a rock, as the Scripture hath it, and built a beautiful church looking towards the East, dedicated to God, in which he was wont to call together his disciples: so he remaining out of doors, and they standing all night long within the church, did service to God in the way that became saints.

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