Venerable Malchus, Hermit of Qinnasrin

Roman road in Syria, near Qinnasrin

On the twenty-sixth of March, the OCA commemorates the feast-day of a Syrian holy man of the fourth century, Saint Malchus. During his early monastic life, Malchus resided in the wilderness near the town of Chalkis in Syria, which is the modern-day archæological site of Qinnasrin, 25 kilometres from Aleppo. The only source we have concerning the life of this saint is the hagiographical Life of Malchus given to us by the Latin Church Father Saint Jerome, who visited the saint in his old age.

Malchus [Gk. Μαλχος, Sy. Malka ܡܠܟ, Ar. Malik ملك – from a Semitic root meaning king] was born in Nisibis, the only son of a family of fallahîn there. Like many farmers, the parents of Malchus were desirous that he should marry and get children, and tried to cajole him in that direction: his father by threats and his mother by caresses. The young man’s mind was of a different bent, though – he longed for a monastic life, and, when the pressure from his parents became too much to bear, he fled their house. Because the Roman marches with Persia were near then, and because the wars between Persia and Rome threatened to brew up again, he did not flee eastward, but instead westward.

He came to the desert of Chalkis ‘which lies between Immæ and Berœa, but rather more to the south’, and there found a community of monks. He placed himself under their rule, gained subsistence by the work of his hands, and subjected his body to the discipline of their fasts. He kept this way of life for some years, but then news reached him from Nisibis that his father was dead. He made a resolution to visit his elderly mother, to comfort her for the remaining years of her life, and then to sell the farm, distributing one part among the poor and keeping the remainder for himself.

The abbot saw his intentions, and when Malchus came forward to ask leave of the elder, the old monk cried out to Malchus that this was a trick of the Evil One meant to ensnare him, for the Devil often hides under a guise of duty. The abbot pointed to Malchus from the Genesis the guile by which the serpent first tempted Eve, but the young monk would not listen. The abbot implored him with tears not to leave, but Malchus was intent on leaving for Nisibis.

He had not gone far on the road homeward, in the company of some seventy other travellers, but as he neared Edessa he fell into the clutches of wandering brigands. He was taken as plunder and allotted to one of them as a slave, along with a poor woman who was in the same company. He was bound and slung over a camel and taken into the desert. There he was stripped of his clothing and made to tend sheep in the fields for his master. He served his master faithfully, and had even begun in his captivity to become complacent and think his condition to be not so bad. But his master, hoping to bind him more closely to him, compelled him to marry the woman that had been taken with him on the road. Malchus objected, saying that the woman already had a living husband, and that his faith forbade him from committing adultery with a married woman. The master bore them both off to a cave and had them married – in Malchus’s case at swordpoint.

The nuptials were attended with horror, and both the groom and the bride grieved when the rites were finished. Malchus flung himself onto the ground, sobbing that he had forsaken and forsworn his country, his parents, his property, even his monastic vows – and now was even bound to forswear his celibacy and sleep in an adulterous bed. He drew a knife and was about to plunge it into his breast, but as he was about to commit suicide his new bride took pity on him and held his hand back. She told him she would not compel him to sleep with her, but instead they would live in a celibate union: she knew how to fool their master into thinking Malchus her husband, but Christ would know Malchus as her brother.

Malchus then did not fear for his celibacy, though he notes to Jerome that he loved his new sister more than he could have loved a wife. The two of them spent many years together under service to the same master, who was then content that neither of them would run away. But while Malchus was out tending sheep he began thinking on his old abbot, and he observed a colony of ants. He saw how the ants cleared the path for each other, and helped one another when they were overburdened, and he began to long for the life that he once had under the cœnobites, who laboured together for the common good, with all things belonging to the community and nothing to the individual.

The saint made a resolution to leave his master’s house, and told his wife so. She took kindly to the idea. Saint Malchus slaughtered two goats, kept both the skins and the meat, and prepared the meat so that the two of them would have something to sustain them on their journey. They left during the night while their master slept, and when they came to a river they made rafts from the goatskins and floated them downstream. They had made three days’ progress, keeping an eye out for the brigands that had captured them, when two riders were seen bearing down on them – it was their old master, following their tracks, visible in the sand. Malchus signalled to his wife to hide in a nearby cave. They did not go far inside, for they feared the poisonous snakes that often inhabited such caves. The master sent another of his slaves, with blade drawn, to fetch out Malchus and his wife, that he might take out his displeasure upon them. But as the slave drew near the mouth of the cave, which was in fact the den of a lioness, the lioness pounced upon the slave and dragged him off. Then their master, too, in a rage drew his sword and entered the cave. The lioness killed him as well.

Saint Malchus and his wife were seized by amazement and fear, but the lioness which mauled their pursuers did them no harm; it occurred to them only later that it was Christ who had been protecting them. They emerged from the cave only after some hours, and found outside the camels and the horses that had belonged to their master. They took these, and after ten days travel came to the Roman camp. They told their story to the tribune, who sent them to Mesopotamia under the protection of the governor, Sabinian. There they were able to sell their camels and make their way back to Chalkis.

The abbot whom Saint Malchus had known and loved had reposed in the Lord during his captivity, but Malchus nonetheless settled down to the cœnobitic life. He also made provision for his wife in a cloister nearby. By the time that Saint Jerome came to them, before the death of Saint Malchus in the year 390, he found the saint living together in a hut with his wife. Both of them were markedly devout and made regular attendance at the Liturgies; and they had the trust and respect of the local people, who related to Saint Jerome several of the wondrous healings the two of them accomplished. Holy Father Malchus, and his faithful and holy wife, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!