The history did not write everything
The history did not write everything
The history of the world included great figures of many types: men of war, men of politics, philosophers, scientists, writers, and thinkers… and also prominent social figures.
And ecclesiastical history recorded other kinds of lives of persons who had their notable role in the life of the universal Church… at the forefront of these are the apostles, the prophets, and the patriarchs, such as Abraham, Noah, and Job.
And at the forefront of these also are the martyrs, who gave their lives for the Lord, and the confessors who accepted suffering for His sake. The famous martyrs are known by name in history. And some saints combined martyrdom and prophecy, as with the majority of the apostles of Christ.
And there are thousands of martyrs whose names history did not write, but the Lord knows their names.
Among these were cities that were martyred in their entirety, as happened in Esna and in Akhmim, and as happened with the Theban Legion, and in the incident of the thirty thousand who were all martyred in one day.
We know only prominent names among the martyrs, while the overwhelming majority we do not know their names. And this is not surprising! The prophet Elijah did not know the “names” of the seven thousand knees that had not bowed to Baal, but the Lord knew them all.
And although history did not write their names, they are written in the Book of Life… There is another book of numbers besides the one written by Moses. And in that book are all the children of God, with their number, their names, and their lives.
How poor history is! And how little its information!
It recorded some of what reached it. But what reached it was not everything, and was not the greatest—especially in the spiritual realm, in which the hiding of virtues is greater than their revelation… An example of this is clear in the history of monasticism. There were saints visited by foreign pilgrims such as Palladius, Jerome, Rufinus, and Cassian, and they wrote for us their names and life stories. But many hermits lived in the depth of holiness, hidden from people, and were greater before God, and history did not know them nor write about them!
And the same we say about the anchorite fathers. Some of them God allowed to be visited by saints who wrote about them; yet even what they wrote is not their whole life, but only the outer frame of that life… And other anchorites history knows nothing about, because they were greater than history. They disappeared from it entirely, out of love for God.
God alone is the One who wrote the history of these in a book we shall read in eternity.
Visible works, such as composing books and written sermons—history recorded these… but how many deep sermons did history write nothing about, though they had their impact!
And likewise we say about the sermons of Christ and His miracles.
A few examples were recorded by the apostles, and they left the rest (Jn 20:30) (Jn 21:25). How poor history is!
And what shall we say about twelve centuries that passed, during which ecclesiastical history grew sluggish and did not lift its pen to write except rarely!!
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