(4TH CENT.)
[Roman Martyrology, not to be confounded with the S. Jonas, monk,
commemorated by the Greeks on Sept 21st. Authority:--Mention in the
Life of S. Pachomius.]
In the monastery of Muchon, in Egypt, lived an old monk who acted as
gardener. For eighty-five years he cultivated the fruits of the
monastery garden, and gathered them, and gave of them to the monks,
and to guests, and to travellers, as much as they would, but in all
those years he never tasted so much as a grape, a date, or a fig; but
lived on raw herbs with a little vinegar. Now, there stood in the
midst of the monastery a very fruitful fig-tree, and the boys were in
the habit of climbing it to gather and eat the luscious figs. And when
S. Pachomius came one day to inspect the monastery, he saw that this
fig-tree was a cause of self-indulgence and gluttony to some of the
younger aspirants after an ascetic life. So he said to Jonas the
gardener, "Cut that tree down!" Then the gardener lifted up his hands
in dismay, and when Pachomius saw how greatly it would grieve the good
man, he let him spare it. But lo! on the morrow the fig-tree was
withered away, and Jonas knew that he had acted wrongly in opposing
his will to the command of his superior. Jonas wore a dress made of
three sheep-skins sewn together, and over this he cast a linen
surplice without sleeves,[35] when he approached the Divine Sacrament
of the Body and Blood of Christ; but as soon as he had communicated,
he laid it aside. Jonas, after supper, was wont to retire to his cell,
sit on his chair weaving rushes in the dark, reciting passages of
Scripture, till the midnight call to the monks to rise for the night
office. Then, when that was concluded, he returned to his seat, and
slept seated till dawn. And one day he was found dead in his chair
with the rushes in his stiff hand. Then the monks buried him as he
sat, with the half-plaited mat on his knees.