Saint Dalmatius

He therefore went to Saint Isaac, bringing with him one of his sons named Faust us, wh Fauste Noble senator of Autun who welcomed the saints. o wished to imitate him in his retreat. He soon became the principal disciple of his spiritual father, through the ardor he showed for penance, through his charity toward the poor, through his love for retreat, and through the progress he made in perfection. His fasts were rigorous and frequent, and it is asserted that he spent an entire Lent without taking anything. His life, reported by the Bollandists, adds that he was then in a kind of ecstasy until the Ascension, during which he was transported in spirit to the church of the Holy Maccabees, while the Patriarch Atticus was celebrating Mass there; and that upon declaring this to his holy abbot Isaac, he assured him that he had seen three religious from his monastery who had attended, one of whom was near the sanctuary, the second in the ambo, and the third at the great door, which Isaac found to be true when he inquired about it from these religious upon their return.

This Saint having gone to receive in heaven the reward for his labors and his zeal, and having left Dalmatus as his successor in the government of the monastery, he applied himself with incredible attention to making religious virtues flourish there. One can judge this by the retreat he kept constantly; for he did not leave his cloister for the space of forty-eight years. During this time the city of Constantinople was shaken by earthquakes; and as processions were being held to appease the wrath of God, the emperor made requests to the Saint to engage him to come to them; but he begged him to be pleased that he should pray in his cell. The prince, who held him in great veneration, did not press him further.

The manner in which God punished a wicked man before his eyes further increased the high esteem in which he was held at court. Two litigants had brought their case before the emperor; and the plaintiff, who was doing so very unjustly, had given, through his chicanery and artful words, such a favorable turn to his cause that the other saw himself on the point of succumbing. In this extremity, he threw himself at the feet of the emperor and said to him: 'Prince, have pity on me, send us both to Abbot Dalmatus so that he may decide: you could not give us a more equitable judge, and I hope that God will manifest the truth through his organ.' The emperor replied that he was willing, and they went to the Saint. 'Explain to me then,' he said to them, 'the subject that brings you.' Then the iniquitous plaintiff, wanting to assert his alleged right, found his tongue tied and he fell dead at the feet of Dalmatus. The Saint sent the report to the emperor in these terms: 'God has judged this cause himself in favor of the one who was wronged.' This filled the prince and all the great men of his court with admiration.

But the virtue and zeal of Saint Dalmace never shone more brightly than in the service he rendered to the Church agains t Nestori Nestorius Condemned patriarch to whom Maximian succeeded. us, who had come fr om Antio Antioche Ancient city where Saint Publia and her community resided. ch to occupy the chair of Constantinople after Atticus. God made known to him the sentiments that this heresiarch held in his soul before he manifested them. When he wished to visit him in his cell, he said to him with firmness: "You may go away; for I will not receive you until you have renounced your errors." Nestorius saw himself forced to withdraw; and the Saint said to his religious: "Take heed, my brothers; there has come into this city a wicked beast, who will wound many people with his doctrine."

The scandal soon broke out. Nestorius finally brought his impious dogmas to light, and in 431, the Council of Ephesus was assembled, where more than two hundred bishops were present, and over which Saint Cyril of Alexandria presided as legate of Pope Celestine. This holy assembly condemned Nestorius and deposed him from his dignity. But it is impossible to express what this heresiarch and his partisans did through their intrigues to prevent its execution. John, Patriarch of Antioch, a friend of Nestorius who had been drawn from his clergy, arrived at the council four days after the sentence had been passed. He was accompanied by the bishops of the East, that is to say of Syria, several of whom were suspected of holding sentiments approaching those of Nestorius. They complained that this judgment had been too hasty, and their passion led them to assemble a false synod, where they dared to depose Saint Cyril and Memnon, Bishop of Ephesus.

Count Cand idian, whom Theod Théodose le Jeune Eastern Roman Emperor, brother of Pulcheria. osius the Younger, then emperor, had sent to the council to maintain peace, sided with John of Antioch and his adherents, and through false reports he made to the prince, who esteemed Nestorius, believing him to be Catholic, he induced him to annul what had been done against him. But three new legates who then arrived on behalf of the Pope confirmed the sentence of the council with their signatures. Meanwhile, the friends of the Orientals continued to act for them and for the cause of Nestorius. The court was divided, and Theodosius, acting on the reports made to him, confused the innocent with the guilty and sent Count John to Ephesus to arrest Saint Cyril, Memnon, and Nestorius at the same time. The first two were placed in the hands of Candidian, and the prelates of the council were not permitted to leave the city. They were scorched there by the burning heat of summer, and several died from it. Calumnies were published against them, and they were loaded with insults and curses; and while the partisans of Nestorius had the freedom to send whatever they wished to the court, the Fathers of the council did not have the freedom to write, or everything that came from them was intercepted by sea and by land. Finally, to get their letters through, they were forced to use a faithful man disguised as a beggar, who hid them in a large cane that served as his walking stick.

Religious affairs were in this sad state at Ephesus, and Saint Dalmace, to whom the Fathers of the council communicated this, as well as to the clergy and abbots of Constantinople; Saint Dalmace, we say, answered them by assuring them of the efforts he was about to make to remedy it. He took for this a striking means which succeeded for him, and it is said that he was moved to it by a voice from heaven.

Theodosius was not rendering the justice he owed to the council, because he was deceived by the false reports that the friends of Nestorius were making to him, and the good ones did not reach him. Then Saint Dalmace, who, for forty-eight years, had kept himself enclosed in his monastery, and whom the emperor would go to visit in his cell when he wished to see him, came out for the glory of God, accompanied by a portion of his monks, to whom several others joined with their abbots, and all together, followed by a crowd of people, went in procession to the emperor's palace, having lit candles in their hands and singing psalms.

The emperor, hearing the singing, asked what it was: he was answered that it was the Abbot Dalmace who was coming to the palace with his monks. He was astonished by it and went to meet him. His monks stopped outside the palace, and Dalmace entered it alone with the prince. He then presented to him the letters of the council, by which he was extremely surprised and even troubled, seeing that what they contained was entirely different from what had been reported to him. He told him to have them read before everyone, so that each might be instructed in the truth, and made him understand that he gave full liberty to the council to send him deputies, and that he would use his authority to support what had been done there.

Saint Dalmatus said, upon leaving the audience, to all those who were awaiting the result outside the palace, that they should go to the monastery of Saint Mocius, martyr; and there, having ascended the pulpit, he read before everyone the letter from the council which contained the true account of what had happened in the judgment rendered against Nestorius, and declared everything the emperor had said to him regarding it for the support of the orthodox faith. He finished his report by assuring the people, as much out of prudence as humility, that if things had succeeded so well, it should not be attributed to his persuasions or his prayers, but to the piety of the prince, who professed to follow the faith of his ancestors, and he recommended praying for him. Then the people, who had already pronounced anathema against Nestorius, anathematized him again.

Saint Dalmatus, Samson, Maximian, and others of the clergy of Constantinople hastened to inform the council of everything that had happened, and begged it to give their church a pastor in place of Nestorius. Saint Dalmatus qualifies himself in this letter as priest, ar archimandrite et père des monastères Archimandrite of Constantinople and a key figure against Nestorianism. chimandrite, and father of the monasteries, and humbly commends himself to the prayers of the council. This title is also given to him in the response that the bishops of this assembly sent him, which is very glorious to the memory of this Saint. "We have given thanks to God," they tell him, "who raised you up to support the orthodox faith, and to make known to the most pious emperors Theodosius and Valentinian, as well as to the holy archimandrites, to all the beloved clergy and to the people, what pains and labors we have endured to preserve it: for you are the only one who has helped us; thus we willingly lift our hands to heaven, and we pray to the heavenly Father for the preservation of our most pious emperors, and for Your Holiness.

"We exhort you to unite yourself ever more with us, and to act in our name in all that concerns the faith; but you do not need us to recommend it to you; for we are not ignorant that God had made known to you the poison that Nestorius had in his soul, before he arrived in Constantinople."

The Greeks give the Saint in their office the glorious title of Advocate of the Council of Ephesus, in memory of what we have just reported. They say that the council established his monastery as the head of all those in Constantinople. The Pope Saint Celestine gives him the same prerogative in writing to the council, and confirms that the Saint had known by a celestial light, that when Nestorius came to Constantinople he had an soul infected with error. Saint Dalmace was already very old at that time; it is believed that he was about eighty years old. Maximian, a religious and then a priest of the clergy of Constantinople, was put in the place of Nestorius, on October 25 of the year 431; but he held this seat for only two years, five months and nineteen days; for he died on Ap ril 12 of th saint Procle Successor of Maximian to the see of Constantinople. e year 434, and Saint Proclus succeeded him. It was under the episcopate of the latter that Saint Dalmace, after having saintly governed his disciples and all the monasteries of the imperial city, went to gather in heaven the fruits of his holy works, around 440. His body was first carried solemnly to the great church, preceded by Bishop Proclus, all his clergy and the people, each carrying lit candles and singing hymns and spiritual canticles. He was then carried back to his monastery, where he was buried. The history of his life assures that from time to time a liquid flowed from his tomb which served to heal the sick who had themselves anointed with it with faith. Excerpt from the *Lives of the Fathers of the Deserts of the East*, by the Rev. Fr. Michel-Ange Marin.