satisfaction, even with admiration and awe, on practices which were
more fit for worshippers of Moloch?

Those who think these words too strong, may judge for themselves how
far they apply to his story of Marana and Cyra.

Marana, then, and Cyra were two young ladies of Berhoea, who had
given up all the pleasures of life to settle themselves in a
roofless cottage outside the town. They had stopped up the door
with stones and clay, and allowed it only to be opened at the feast
of Pentecost. Around them lived certain female slaves who had
voluntarily chosen the same life, and who were taught and exhorted
through a little window by their mistresses; or rather, it would
seem, by Marana alone: for Cyra (who was bent double by her
"training") was never to speak. Theodoret, as a priest, was allowed
to enter the sacred enclosure, and found them shrouded from head to
foot in long veils, so that neither their faces or hands could be
seen; and underneath their veils, burdened on every limb, poor
wretches, with such a load of iron chains and rings that a strong
man, he says, could not have stood under the weight. Thus had they
endured for two-and-forty years, exposed to sun and wind, to frost
and rain, taking no food at times for many days together. I have no
mind to finish the picture, and still less to record any of the
phrases of rapturous admiration with which Bishop Theodoret comments
upon their pitiable superstition.



SIMEON STYLITES