From the Prologue of Ochrid
One of the Seventy. He is mentioned in the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans (Rom. 16:14). He was a Greek by birth, but lived for a long time in Rome. He was a bishop in Philippopolis, and ended his life as a martyr. He composed a very instructive book, The Shepherd, based on the revelations of an angel of God. Hermas was a wealthy man, but on account of his own sins and those of his sons, he fell into utter poverty. Once at prayer, a man appeared to him in white garments and with a staff in his hand, and told him that he was the angel of repentance, who had been sent to him until the end of his (Hermas's) life. And the angel gave him twelve commandments: 1. to believe in God; 2. to live in simplicity and innocence, not to do evil, and to give alms to everyone who asks; 3. to love truth and avoid falsehood; 4. to preserve chastity in one's thoughts; 5. to learn patience and magnanimity; 6. to know that beside every man there is appointed both a good spirit and an evil spirit; 7. to fear God and not to fear the devil; 8. to do every good deed and to refrain from every evil deed; 9. to pray to God from the depths of the soul with faith that our prayer will be heard; 10. to guard oneself from sorrow, as the sister of doubt and anger; 11. to discern true and false prophecies; 12. to guard oneself from every evil desire.
