Hellen Dayton: Slapping of a Monk, Evil Possession and tapeinofrosuni (Humility of the Mind) according to Desert Fathers

Chapter 14 of “Libellus 15, De humilitate” (Vitae Patrum Book V, PL73 953-969) contains a story about an “important person”’s daughter, who slapped a monk. The priests could treat such a story of laic female slapping a priest as infamous, and can defame such a woman and help to make her to be forgotten. The Early Christian monks had the same pattern of feelings regarding such a daughter, but their tools were different at those times. First, if the story revealed the name of the monastic storyteller Daniel, it hid the name of “the daughter of an important person,” which can pour the light on why this woman may act in such a way regarding a disciple. Chapter 14 hid the prehistory of this event. Second, the anachorites hid the name of their disciple, who interacted with the woman. ‘Daniel’ may even have changed the place of this event, moving it to faraway Babylon because the same story happened in Alexandria with “one of St. Macarius’ disciples” according to Orthodox Christian Prologue from Orchid (November 18, http://www.stjohngoc-pueblo.org/slap-in-the-face.html). Thirdly, while taking the controversial event out of the historical context, monks wrote it mimicking the Gospels and framed it inside of ‘demonic possession” case of the striking woman, in which they believed but which may not convince many today. One may probably question whether rich nobleman’s “great affection” to a monk could explain truly the behavior of his daughter? What exactly does it have to do with tapeinofrosuni?