Book ii.
Chapter i. Questions and Answers on the Rule of Life of the Holy Men which they taught before the Multitude and in their Cells on every kind of Spiritual Excellence
TWO of the fathers entreated God to inform them as to the measure [of spiritual excellence] to which they had arrived, and a voice came to them which said, “In such and such a village of Egypt there is a certain man in the world who is called Eucharistos, and his wife Mary, and ye have not as yet arrived at the same measure as they.” Now when the fathers heard [this] they marvelled, and they rose up and came to that village, and they enquired for and found the house and the wife of Eucharistos, and they asked her, saying, “Where is thy husband?” And she answered and said unto them, “He is a shepherd, and he is in the field pasturing sheep”; and she brought them into her house. And when the evening had come her husband came from the sheep, and seeing the fathers he rejoiced with great joy, and he prepared a table [for them], and brought water that he might wash their feet. Then the fathers answered and said unto him, “We will eat nothing, but tell us what is thy work”; and Eucharistos said unto them with great humility, “I am a shepherd, and this is my wife.” Now the fathers entreated him to inform them concerning his life and works, but he concealed the matter, and refused to speak. Finally they said unto him, “God told us to come to thee,” and when Eucharistos heard this he was afraid, and he told them, saying, “Behold, we inherited these sheep from our parents, and whatsoever God provideth as [our] income from them we divide into three portions; one portion [we devote] to charity, one portion to the love of strangers, and the remaining part serveth for our own use. Since the time when I took this woman to wife we have not defiled ourselves, and she is a virgin, and each of us sleepeth alone; at night time we wear sackcloth, and in the daytime we put it off and array ourselves in our [ordinary] attire, and no man hath known this thing until the present moment.” And when the fathers heard [this] they glorified God.
2. They say concerning Abbâ Anthony that on one occasion, when he was praying in his cell he heard a voice which said unto him, “Anthony, thou hast not yet arrived [at the state of excellence] of a certain man who is a tailor and who dwelleth in Alexandria.” Then Anthony rose up in the morning, and took a palm stick and departed to him, and when the man saw him, he was disturbed; and the old man said unto him, “Tell me what thou doest, and how thou livest,” and the tailor said unto him, “I do not myself know that I do any good, and I know only that when I rise up in the morning, before I sit down to the labour of my hands, I give thanks unto God, and praise Him, and that I set my evil deeds before mine eyes, saying, ‘All the men who are in this city will go into the kingdom of God, because of their alms and good deeds, except myself, and I shall inherit punishment for my sins’; and again in the evening, before I sleep, I do the same things.” Now when Abbâ Anthony heard these things, he said, “Verily, as the man who worketh in gold, and who doeth beautiful work, cleanly, and in peace, even so art thou; through thy beautiful thoughts thou wilt inherit the kingdom of God, whilst I, who have passed the whole of my life in the desert, separated [from men], have never overtaken thee.”
3. Abbâ Anthony received a revelation in the desert, saying, “In such and such a city there is a man who resembleth thee; he is a physician, and he worketh and giveth whatsoever he earneth to the poor and needy, and each day he, with the angels, ascribeth holiness to God three times a day.”
4. When Abbâ Macarius was praying in his cell on one occasion he heard a voice which said, “Macarius, thou hast not yet arrived [at the state of excellence] of two women who are in such and such a city”; and the old man rose up in the morning, and took in his hand a palm stick, and he began to set out on the road to that city. Now therefore, when he had arrived at the city, and learned the place [of the abode of the women], he knocked at the door, and there went forth one of the women and brought him into the house. And when he had been sitting down for a little, the other woman came in, and he called them to him, and they came nigh and sat down before him. Then the old man said unto them, “On your account I have made this long journey, and have performed all this labour, and with great difficulty have come from the desert; tell me, then, what works do ye do.” And they said unto him, “Believe us, O father; neither of us hath ever been absent from, or kept herself back from, her husband’s couch up to this day; what work, then, wouldst thou see in us?” Then the old man made apologies to them, and entreated them to reveal to him and to show him their labour, and thereupon they said unto him, “According to worldly considerations we are strangers one to the other, for we are not kinsfolk, but it fell out that the two of us married two men who were brethren in the flesh. And behold, up to this present we have lived in this house for twelve years, and we have never wanted to quarrel with each other, and neither of us hath spoken one abominable word of abuse to her companion. Now we made up our minds together to leave our husbands and to join the army of virgins, but, although we entreated our husbands earnestly to allow us to do so, they would not undertake to send us away. And as we were unable to do that which we wished, we made a promise between ourselves and God that, until death, no worldly word should go forth from our mouths.” Now when Macarius heard [this] he said, “Verily, virginity by itself is nothing, nor marriage, nor life as a monk, nor life in the world; for God seeketh the desire [of a man], and giveth the Spirit unto every man.”
5. They used to tell a story about certain brethren who were members of the household of Abbâ Poemen. Now whilst these men were dwelling in Egypt their mother wished to see them, but was unable to do so, and she watched for them as they were going to the church, and went out to meet them, but as soon as they saw her they went back to their cell and shut the door on themselves, and then their mother took up her stand by the door, and spake [unto them], and wept and sighed heavily. And when Abbâ Job heard her, he went in to Abbâ Poemen and said unto him, “What shall we do in respect of this old woman who is weeping by the door?” Then Abbâ Poemen rose up and drew nigh to the door and pressed himself against it and, hearing her speaking in the deepest sorrow, he said unto her, “Wilt thou, who art an old woman, cry in this fashion?” Now as soon as she heard his voice she wept the more, and she cried out, saying, “I want to see my sons. For what is this that I see in you? Peradventure I did not rear you? Peradventure I am not your mother? Peradventure ye did not suck at my breasts? Peradventure ye did not go forth from my womb? I am prevented by mine old age, but now that I have heard thy voice my bowels have been moved.” The old man said unto her, “Dost thou wish to see us here, or wouldst thou see us in that country [beyond the grave]?” She said unto him, “My sons, if I do not see you here I shall see you there.” And the old man said unto her, “If thou wilt compel thyself not to see us here, thou shalt, in very truth, see us there.” Then the old woman departed, saying, “Yea, my son, if I shall see you there I shall not seek to see you here.”
6. There was a certain old man who lived a life of such strict self-denial that he never drank wine. And when I arrived at his cell we sat down to eat, and one brought dates and he ate, and he took water and drank; and I said unto him laughingly, “So thou art angry with absinthe, O father? Since thou hast eaten dates and hast drunk water, why dost thou not drink wine?” And he answered and said unto me, “If thou takest a handful of dust and throwest it on a man will it hurt him?” and I said unto him, “No.” And he said unto me, “If thou takest a handful of water and throwest it over a man, peradventure he will feel pain?” and I said unto him, “No.” And he said unto me, “And again, if thou takest a handful of chopped straw and throwest it over a man, peradventure it will cause him pain? and I said unto him, “No.” Then he said unto me, “But if thou bringest [them all] and dost mix them together, and dost knead them well, and dost dry them, thou mayest throw and hurl the mass on the skull of a man and thou wilt not break it”; and I said unto him, “Yea, father, [that is true].” And he said unto me, “The monks do not abstain from certain things without good reason, and thou must not listen to the men who are in the world who say, ‘Why do they not eat this, and why do they not drink that?’ Is there not sin in them? Such people know not. Now we abstain from certain things not because the things themselves are bad, but because the passions are mighty, and when they have waxed strong they kill us.”
7. On one occasion the priest of Scete went to the Archbishop of Alexandria, and when he had returned to Scete he wanted to send the brethren [to Alexandria], and he said unto them, “I have heard you say that there is a large assembly of people in Alexandria. Verily, I say unto you that I who went there did not see the face of any man except the Archbishop.” Now when they heard [this] they were disturbed, and said, “Have they sunk into the ground, then?” And he said, “Nay, not so, but my thoughts did not compel me to look at a man”; and when they heard [this] they marvelled, and they were greatly confirmed by these words [in their desire] to keep themselves from looking upon the vain things of the world.
8. One of the old men used to say: On one occasion the fathers were sitting and conversing together on the subject of ascetic excellence, and there was in their midst one of the old men who was a seer of visions, and he saw angels flying about over [the fathers]; but when they came to another subject of discourse, the angels departed, and he saw pigs rolling about among them and wallowing in the mire. And afterwards when the fathers renewed their conversation on spiritual excellence the angels came back and glorified God.
9. One of the fathers used to say that there were two brethren who were neighbours of his in the desert, and that one was a stranger and the other a native of the country; now the stranger was a man of little faith, but the native performed many works in the service of God. And it happened that the stranger died, and the old man, who saw divine visions, saw multitudes of angels bearing away in triumph his soul until it arrived in heaven. And an inquiry arose concerning this, and the old man heard a voice from heaven which said, “He was certainly a negligent man, but because of his being a stranger they opened unto him.” And afterwards the man who was a native of the country died, and his kinsfolk came to him and buried him, and the old man saw that there were no angels with him, and he marvelled, and he fell on his face and entreated God to inform him how it was that the stranger who was a negligent man was worthy of glory, whilst the man who had all those labours [to his credit] was not granted the same thing. And he heard a voice which said, “When the native with all his works came to die, he opened his eyes and saw his kinsfolk weeping, and his soul was refreshed; but the stranger, although he was negligent, saw none of his kinsfolk, and he sighed and wept.”
10. One of the fathers told a story, saying: There was a certain monk in the desert of Linopolis, and a man who was in the world ministered unto him; and there was in the city a certain rich and wicked man who died, and he was accompanied to his burial by the whole city, and by the Bishop, with lights and great honour. Now the man who ministered to the monk went forth to give him some bread, but he found him dead and eaten by the panthers; and he fell upon his face before the Lord and said, “My Lord, I will not rise up from this place until Thou makest me to know why this wicked man is buried with such great honour, and why this monk who served Thee by night and by day hath come to such an end.” And an angel came and said unto him, “That wicked man did one good work, and he was rewarded here so that he might not find even one pleasure in the world to come; but this holy man, because he was a man who was adorned with divine virtues, although inasmuch as he was a man he possessed certain shortcomings, will receive these things in the world to come, so that there he may be found perfect therein.” And having heard [this] he returned, and glorified God for His judgements because they are good.
11. A brother asked an old man, saying, “Is it the name or the work which maketh to live?” The old man said unto him, “I knew a certain brother who was praying on one occasion, and who thought within himself, saying, ‘I wish to see the soul of a righteous man, and the soul of a sinner when they are leaving the body’; and because God wished neither to make him grieve, nor to deprive him of his desire, whilst he was sitting in his cell a wolf went in to him, and laid hold of him by his clothes and dragged him outside, and then having pulled him along he carried him to the outside of a certain city, and then he left him there and departed.
“Now whilst he was sitting outside the city there was a man who lived in a monastery, and who had gained renown, and concerning whom a report had gone forth that he was a monk of spiritual excellence; and this man was grievously sick, and was waiting for the hour of his departure [from this world]. And that brother looked on and saw the preparations which they were making, and the things which they were putting ready for the event, namely, the wax candles, and the lamps which they were trimming and preparing, and he saw that all the city was weeping for him, and that his people were in grief, and saying, ‘By his hand God hath given us meat and drink, and by his hands He hath delivered us, and hath kept us and the whole city alive; if anything happeneth to him we shall die.’ And when the time for this man to end his life had come that brother looked, and saw, and behold, the keeper of Sheol went in having in his hand a fork of fire with three prongs, and he heard a voice which spake [to the keeper], saying, ‘Thou shalt not give his soul any rest, even for a moment, and thou shalt not shew any compassion unto him when thou takest away his soul.’ Then he who had appeared to that brother went in, and he drove that fiery, three-pronged fork which he had in his hand into the heart of the dying man, and he tortured him for a long time, and then he carried away his soul. And after these things, when that brother was going into the city, he saw a certain brother who was a stranger, and who was lying sick in the market-place, and there was none to care for him; and he remained with him for one day, and at the time when his soul was departing the brother saw Gabriel and Michael come for his soul, and they sat down, one on his right hand, and the other on his left, and they stayed there entreating his soul and wishing to carry it away. And since his soul refused to leave its body, Gabriel said to Michael, ‘Lift up his soul and take it, so that we may depart’; and Michael said unto him, ‘We were commanded by our Lord to bring it out without pain and without suffering, and therefore we cannot constrain it and do it violence.’ Then Michael cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘What dost Thou command concerning this soul which will not be entreated to come forth, O Lord?’ And there came unto him a voice which said, ‘Behold, I will send David and his harp, and all those who sing with him, so that when the soul heareth the sweetness of their voices it shall come forth’; and they came down and surrounded the soul, and as they were singing psalms and hymns the soul leaped forth, and it was rejoicing in the hands of Michael, and was taken up on high with gladness.”