Res gestae Johannis Phencadis

[ed. from Rahmani’s Studia Syriaca]

The deeds of John by the name of Bar Phencaja, a Saba ascetic, whose legacy is the work of the institutes of monastic, coenobitic, and evangelical perfection, which begins in this way:

He who restrains his tongue from speaking, guards his own heart from passion [cf. Proverbs 21:23 Lamsa]; and he who keeps his own heart from passion immediately looks to God.

This illustrious John Phencaja achieved the summit of perfection, after he had broken through the river of the passions of carnal lust and, on receiving his entreaties, knocked down the batallions of iniquity.

When this John arrived at the monastery of Mar John of Kamul, by Abbot Sabrjesus he was clothed in a monastic habit; and as soon as possible he kept himself away from all pleasures. But as he suffered slightly from lesions in the body, the same aforesaid abbot Mar Sabrjesus anointed the same with the oil of the candlestick hanging at the tomb of Mar John and Mar Ukamae, so he was immediately healed and cleansed. After having worked diligently in the monastic life in the monastery with a cheerful spirit, he went out into the wilderness, shutting himself in his cell. He would seek their prayers, and also that he might learn from them the battle to fight against the demons. But he assaulted the demon of blasphemy, for the space of one year, by fasting and by vigilance, and by prayer, while standing on the snow most nights. On this matter he wrote in his letter: As long as that struggle lasted, despair so long oppressed me, and therefore I found no consolation in speech or reading, and on account of my troubled mind, I counted all things as nothing, however much I was clothed with a sackcloth, and sat upon the ashes, until the grace of Christ, rising up, visits me. He also wrote about the carnal struggle against which he immersed himself throughout the year in snow and ice until he was liberated from it. He wrote, moreover, of all the other battles of the demon he winnowed and dispersed. He has compiled five tomes on the plan of holiness and then two more tomes, which he termed as "supplement"; and he wrote two works against heresies, one volume on morals, the other on the education of children, and at length another volume containing seven treatises on gain (spiritual), in which he stored his opinions on the monastic institution. So he closes this scroll: The pouch of money which the merchants (Ismaelites) carried on, escaped, at the order of the Lord, the food of the Israelites in the land of Egypt: that pouch foreshadows the seven talents of discernment. Let us give thanks to Christ who has granted the victory to us.

He is also the author of many poems, treatises, and even books, which they call "the beginning of the words" [=Resh Melle]. And he worked many miracles. On this subject John Bishop of Kardu [=Ararat] tells us, When I collapsed one year, my hand was broken, and for three months my pain did not improve through amulets and medicines. Mar John Phencaja anointed me with the oil of prayer three times and so I was healed. In addition, a tiger appeared several times at the door of the cell, and the brothers from that time were alarmed and shouted for help. Mar John went out of the room. When he struck the tiger with his staff, he drove it to flight, so that it could no longer be seen there.

But after he had spent some time in the monastery of Raghuul, he transferred himself to another monastery, called Daliatharum, which the other John had founded, whose life is explicated elsewhere. Finally he wrote a treatise on the relaxation of the monastic life and another treatise on the perfection of the divine monastic institute. At length he died in his seventieth-third year of his life, until the sacred body was buried in the monastery of John of Kamul. And of all his saints; we who have pleased God, let us be made worthy of pardon by our prayers.