At a distance of about two stadia from great Euthymius’ monastery there are two large cisterns, anciently hewn by the Amorreans; later, during, Euthymius’ life, the great man had them restored and a door fastened at the mouth of one of these cistern. for the use of the fathers of his laura. The other cistern he left for a fixed period to the Saracens he had baptized. In those days <when the writer first arrived in Euthymius’ coenobium = AD 544>, as there was a scarcity of water, we had closed the cistern belonging to the monastery. Since the two phylarchs of the Saracens under treaty with the Byzantines, Arethas and Assuad, were engaged in an implacable struggle against each other and there was anarchy, groups of barbarian (Arabs) wandering in (this part of) the desert did many unlawful deeds, as is generally known.’ One day, while we sat before the gate-house, suddenly two of these barbarians arrived accompanied by a Christian Saracen called Thalabas. an offspring of the Saracens formerly baptized by the great Euthymius. They brought with them an Arab who was terribly possessed by a demon. Thalabas told us that (these Arabs) had come to water their camels, and finding the reservoir of the monastery shut up, this man, excited in a truly barbaric manner, seized a big stone and broke the door; and as soon as this was broken, the man was smitten by a demon, fell on the ground and lay there tearing himself to pieces. “I was passing by” concluded Thalabas, “and hearing the cause of this misfortune I said to them: “Take him to the monastery of the saint, and learn by the witness of your own eyes that it is impossible to damage property of the holy man’s monastery without the culprit being exposed”. After we heard the story from Thalabas, we took the sufferer down to the funeral chapel, and laid him before the holy father’s grave, and after he remained near the grave for a time, the saint purified him from the demonic power and enlightened his soul: for we learned that after a few days he deemed worthy of the holy baptism.
(transl. Leah Di Segni)