Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

84 CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES OF EGYPT.

monks except the fishing-pool, on the produce of which they make
a profit.
Pol. 62 b One of the government scribes of Misr came to this monastery to
ask for water to drink, and to wash his hands; but he found the water
there scanty in quantity, and so he caused a well to be dug within the
enclosure, opposite to the southern wall of the church. Those who
dug the well met with a rock [in the course of their work] and so
he caused it to be cut through, at the cost of one dinar for every
cubit, and the number of cubits amounted to fourteen; and this was
in addition to the money that he spent on the digging and fitting up
of the well. It is this well from which water is drunk at the present
day. May God rest the soul, and reward the intention of the founder!
The water which comes up from this well is sweet, good, light, and
digestive.
~ The reporter of this narrative, whom I have already designated,
said that the church of this monastery was named after Martha and
Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, whom our Lord Jesus Christ raised from
the dead, and who lived nine years after that, and became bishop of
Cyprus' for a considerable time. The number of the Jews who
witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus was 7,400 men, besides women
and children. The reporter of this true narrative said to me: 'I used
to receive counsel from the monk who was my spiritual father, and he
informed me of all that you have heard from me, for he lived in this
monastery, and met here with old men who told him all that I have
Pol. 63a told you. On a certain occasion I was about to behave irreverently
in a place opposite the well; but this old man forbad me, saying:
"This place, my son, contains the tomb of Martha and Mary2, which
1 The resurrection of Lazarus is commemorated by the Copts on Barmahat
20=March I6. The emperor Leo translated the reputed relics of Lazarus from
Cyprus, where he was said to have been bishop of Citium, to the monastery
which the emperor had built in his honour at Constantinople. See Ac/a SS.
at May 4.
2 Nothing is known in the west of the reputed relics of St. Martha and
St. Mary in Egypt.