ABSTRACT
In accordance with the causes which summoned us to converse with each other from time to time, and the histories of the holy men, praises of whom were stirred up in us, and the glorious stories and rehearsings of whose histories I was shewing forth before thee, O our brother ‘ Abhd-ishóc, thy mind was filled with truth, and thy tongue with the praise of the power Who made them victorious, and Who moved His saints. And thy wisdom offered to me earnest supplications, and helpful persuasions and directions, to set down [my] stories of holy men in writing, in order that their unwritten histories might neither be forgotten nor sink into oblivion. And [thou didst ask] me to give to thee written accounts of them as a rich inheritance, and as an excellent loan, that thy holiness might meditate upon them, and that thy divine understanding might be sanctified thereby. And although for some years past this wish hath never been absent from thee, and thou wast diligently urging me to do [this], sometimes with the living voice, and
1 Literally ‘the writing’. Here oiáÑaá = joá¿. 2 This apology has been published from the Vatican MS.
