Barsanuphius

Barsanuphius a solitary of Palestine, an Egyptian'by birth, in the reign of Justinian, about 540. According to the story related by Evagrius (Hist. Eccl. 4:33), he shut himself up in his cell in a monastery at Gaza, where he remained for more than fifty years, seeing and seen by no human being, and eating no earthly food. Eustochius, the bishop of Jerusalem, disbelieving the tale, commanded the cell to be broken open, wvhereupon tire burst out and consumed the sacrilegious disturbers of the holy man's repose. Barsanuphius was the author of Questiones et Responsiones Asceticoe Valric. and a Parcenesis ad Proprinm Discipulum, originally printed by Montfaucon, Biblioth. Coislin. p. 394; and'afterwards by Galland, Biblioth. Vet. Patr. xi; and Migne, Patrolog. 86, pars i, 887 sq.