Framing the Question
IAccording to a legend recounted in the Apophthegmata Pa-
trum, or Sayings of the Fathers-a name shared in common
by various ancient Christian collations of anecdotes about the
Egyptian "desert fathers" of the fourth century- the holy man
Abba Macarius (c. 300-391) was walking alone in the wilder-
ness one day when he came upon a human skull lying beside
the path and, as he casually moved it aside with his staff, it all
at once began to utter words. Astonished, Macarius asked it to
identify itself, and it obliged. It told him that in life it had been
a pagan high priest who had tended the idols and performed
the rites of the people that had once dwelled in those climes.
It said also that it recognized Macarius, and knew him to be a
bearer of the Spirit, one whose prayers actually had the power
temporarily to ease the sufferings of the damned. Hearing this,
Macarius asked the skull to describe those sufferings. It replied
that he and his fellow pagans were forced to stand crowded
together, day and night, wrapped from head to foot in flames,
suspended above an abyss of fire stretching as far below their
feet as the sky had stretched above their heads when they had
lived upon the earth. Moreover, it added, they were prevented