E05315: John Moschus, in his Spiritual Meadow, recounts how Abba George, archimandrite of the monastery of Theodosios outside Jerusalem, was building a church of *Kyrikos (presumably the martyr of Tarsus, S00007) in the city of Phasaelis in Palestine. In a dream, a monk appeared to him and asked if it was just that he be left outside the church; the next day the body of this monk, a certain Peter, was found; Abba George buried the body in a tomb in the right aisle of the completed church. Written in Greek, probably in Rome, in the 620s or 630s.

John Moschus, The Spiritual Meadow, 92

In this chapter Moschus retells what he heard from Abba George, archimandrite of the monastery of Theodosios which lay in the wilderness around Jerusalem. Abba George was about to build a church of Kerykos at Phasaelis [in Palestine]. When the foundations had been dug, a monk appeared to Abba George in a dream. He describes the dream as follows:

Φαίνεταί μοι κατὰ τοὺς ὕπνους μοναχός τις πάνυ ἀσκητὴς, φορῶν ἀπὸ σειρᾶς κολόβιον, καὶ μικρὸν εἰς
τοὺς ὤμους αὐτοῦ ἐπιῤῥιπτάριον ἀπὸ ψιαθίου· καὶ λέγει μοι πραείᾳ τῇ φωνῇ· Εἰπὲ, κῦρι ἀββᾶ Γεώργιε,
ἁπλῶς ἔδοξέν σοι μετὰ τοσούτους κόπους καὶ τοσαύτην ἄσκησιν ἔξω με ἐᾶσαι οὗ κτίζεις ναοῦ; Ἐγὼ δὲ τὸ ἱεροπρεπὲς τοῦ γέροντος αἰδεσθεὶς, λέγω αὐτῷ· Ὄντως γὰρ σὺ, κύριε, αὐτὸς τίς ὑπάρχεις; Ὁ δὲ ἔφη· Ἐγώ εἰμι Πέτρος ὁ βοσκὸς τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰορδάνου.

'A monk, very much an ascetic, appeared to me in my sleep. He wore a tunic of sackcloth and on his shoulders he had an over-garment made of rushes. In a gentle voice he said to me: "Tell me, Abba George, did it really seem just to you, sir, that after so many labours and so much endurance, I should be left outside the church you are building?" Out of respect for the worth of the elder, I said to him: "Who in fact are you, sir?" He said: "I am Peter the grazer of the holy Jordan."'

Abba George woke up at dawn of the following day and enlarged the plan of the church. When he started digging anew, he found the corpse of the monk whom he had seen in his dream. When the oratory was built, Abba George constructed a monument in its right aisle and buried the monk there.

Text: Migne 1865 (PG 87.3). Translation: Wortley 1992. Summary: J. Doroszewska.