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Life of St Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza

Mark the Deacon, tr. Hill, 1913

Chapter 7

And I turned my eyes about looking often upon him; but he, seeing it, smiled pleasantly and said: ‘Marvel not, brother Mark, seeing me whole and strong, but learn the cause of my being healed and then marvel exceedingly at the unspeakable loving-kindness of Christ, how the things whereof men have despaired are by him made straight.’ And I besought him to tell me the cause of his being healed and how he had cast out¹ such a disease. And he answered me: ‘About forty days ago when I was keeping the vigil of the holy day of the Lord, an unspeakable pain of the liver gat hold upon me, and being unable to endure the anguish I went and lay down near the sacred Skull,² and by reason of the great pain I fell as it were into a trance. And I see the Saviour nailed upon the Cross and one of the thieves with him hanging upon another cross, and I begin to cry out and speak the words of the thief:³ “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” And the Saviour answereth and saith to the thief that is hanging: “Go down from the cross and save him that is lying there, even as thou wast saved.” And the thief came down from the cross and took me in his arms and kissed me, and stretching forth his right hand raised me up, saying, “Come to the Saviour.” And straightway I rose up and ran to him, and I see him coming down from the Cross and saying to me, “Take this wood and keep it.” And I took the same precious wood⁴ and lifted it up, and straightway I came to myself out of my trance, and from that same hour there was no more pain in me, neither is the place of the disease manifest.’

Notes

cast out. περιέγραψεν, in the sense of ‘reject’.
the sacred Skull. So, too, in Luke xxiii. 33 τὸν τόπον τὸν καλούμενον κρανίον the more common designation is ‘the place of the skull’.
Luke xxiii. 42.
the same precious wood, τὸ αὐτὸ τίμιον ξύλον, perhaps for αὐτὸ τὸ τ. ξ.,’ the precious wood itself’.