385. I have heard that Abbâ Isaac said concerning Abbâ Muthues his Rabbâ, now they both arrived at the dignity of the episcopacy, that first of all Abbâ Muthues built his monastery in the country of the Harbĕlâyê (Herakleans), but that being much troubled by the multitudes who came to him, he left that place, and departed, and went to another spot in order that he might find quietness, and he built a monastery for himself there. And by the operation of Satan as it were, he found there a certain brother with whom he was at enmity, and he afflicted him greatly; and the old man saw [this], and he rose up and departed to his village, so that the man might not be vexed through him, and there he built a monastery, and shut himself in it. Now after a time, the fathers of that place wherefrom Abbâ Muthues had departed gathered together, and they took that brother who was aggrieved, and they went to him in order to entreat him and to bring him to his monastery; and when they had arrived at the place where Abbâ Sôrîôn used to dwell, they left their cloaks there, and the aggrieved brother was with them. And when the fathers had knocked, the old man brought forward a ladder, and he recognized them, and said unto them, “Where are your cloaks?” And they said, “They are here with us, with such and such a brother.” Now when the old man heard the name of that brother, in sheer joy he took an axe and opened the door, and he ran to the place where that brother was, and the holy man fell at the feet of the saint, and he made entreaty to him, and he kissed him, and saluted him, and he brought him and the fathers to his cell, and he refreshed both him and them for three days; and he made ready a meal, which he was not in the habit of doing, and he rose up and went with them with great joy. Now afterwards he was called to the office of Bishop, and he became a worker of signs and miracles, and he also made his disciple Abbâ Isaac a Bishop, and he continued to lead a life of spiritual excellence until the end of his life.
386. They used to say of Abbâ Serapion, the Bishop, that whensoever a man came to him to receive the monastic garb, he said these words to him, “When thou prayest say, ‘Lord, teach me to do Thy will.’”
387. On one occasion Abbâ Paphnutius was living in a remote desert, and it happened that a certain brother came to him and found him sick, and the brother took him, and washed him, and of the food which he had with him he boiled a little, and brought it to him to eat. And when he saw [this] he answered and said, “In very truth it had passed from my mind that this gratification for the children of men existed”; and he brought him a cup of cream. Now when the old man saw him, he wept, and said, “I never expected that, even to the day of my death, I should drink wine.”
388. One of the fathers told a story, saying: “On one occasion two brethren according to the body came to the desert to a certain monk, and they conducted themselves in an excellent manner, and they were praised by the whole brotherhood. And it came to pass that one of them fell into a sickness which lasted not a few years, and his brother ministered unto him, and certain fathers came to visit him, and they began to praise him that ministered unto him, saying, ‘Thy willingness and thy abstinence profit the whole brotherhood.’ And he answered and said unto them with great humility, ‘Forgive me, O my fathers, for I have not as yet begun to lead a life of rule, but it is my brother who doeth the works of excellence, and that ye may indeed learn that such is the case, come after me and see.’” Then he took them in to his brother in the cell wherein he lay, and he said unto him, “Father, where is the axe which I gave thee yesterday?” And he began to seek for it. Then he said unto him, “See, O my brother, do an act of grace and seek for it with me,” and the sick brother took it upon himself to be asked for that which he had not taken. And having profited [by his example] the fathers departed from that place.
389. An old man used to say, “Flee from that love which subsisteth by means of the things which are corrupt, for with them a man also passeth away and is destroyed.”
390. Abbâ Elijah used to say, “The love which a man possesseth for his neighbour, and which is caused by some temporal matter is, in the process of time, turned into fierce enmity.”
391. And he also said, “Whatsoever hath its being for God’s sake endureth and abideth for ever with those who are true.”
392. On one occasion the priest of Pîlîsîôn heard that certain of the brethren were idle and lazy, and that they were constantly in the city, and that they swam in the baths, and neglected the works of excellence which belong to the life of the monk, and when they came to the congregation he took their monkish dress from them; and having done [this] he was sad at heart, and repented, and he went to Abbâ Poemen and informed him about them. And the old man said unto him, “Hast thou nothing of the old man about thee?” [And he said “Yea.” And the old man said unto him], “Therefore thou thyself art like unto them, and thou art nigh unto sin.” Then the priest went and expressed his sorrow to them, and he put on them the dress of monks [once more]. Now they were twelve in all.
393. On one occasion tribulation came upon the monks in a certain place where they were living, and they wished to forsake it and come to Abbâ Ammon; and behold, he was travelling in a boat, and he saw them going along by the side of the river, and he ordered the boatmen to bring [the boat] close to land. Then he called these brethren and said unto them, “I am Ammon to whom ye wish to go”; and he entreated them to go back to their place, and he comforted them, and told them to endure patiently, for there was in the matter no loss to the soul, but only human vexation.
394. On one occasion an old man went up from Scete to the brethren in the mountain, and when they saw that he was a man of great ascetic labours, and that he practised stern self-denial, they entreated him to let them make a meal for him, and they brought him a little wine to drink. Now the people of the country heard about him, and they brought him a man who was afflicted with a devil that he might heal him; and when the devil saw him, he began to revile him, saying, “Hast thou brought this winebibber to me?” And the old man did not wish to cast him out because of the praise of men, but, because the devil had reviled him, he said unto him, “I believe in Christ, and I shall not have drunk [this] cup of wine until thou hast gone forth”; and as he began to drink that devil cried out, and said, “Thou art consuming me”: and before the old man could drink that cup [of wine] the devil went forth by the grace of Christ.
395. They used to say that a certain father who was a recluse had a brother, according to the body, who lived in another cell, and that this brother fell ill, and sent to him a message to come and see him before he died; and his brother said, “I am unable to go out for the sake of my brother in the flesh.” And his brother sent him another message, saying, “Come, if it be only in the night, that I may see thee”; and the recluse said, “I cannot do so, for if I did my heart would not be pure before God.” So the brother died, and they did not see each other.
396. They once wanted to make Abbâ Isaac priest in Scete, and when he heard [this] he fled to Egypt, and he went into a field and hid himself among the crop because the fathers were pursuing him, and when they came to that field they began to weary a little; and they turned the ass which they had with them out to feed, but he left the whole field, and went and stood up in that place where Abbâ Isaac was hidden. And in the morning they went out to look for the ass, and they found the ass and the old man [together] and they marvelled; and when they wished to make Abbâ Isaac take an oath [not to run away] he would not allow them [to do so], and he said unto them, “I shall not flee again, for it is the will of God, and whithersoever I flee I shall come to this thing, for this is a consecration by God.”
397. Abbâ Macarius asked Abbâ Arsenius, saying, “Is it good for a man not to have any pleasure at all in his cell? I know a brother who used to have a few garden herbs in his cell, and to prevent himself from having any gratification therefrom, he pulled them up by the roots”; and Abbâ Arsenius said unto him, “This is good, but every man [must do] as he is able, and if he hath not strength to persist in this perhaps he should plant others.”
398. The old men who were in Egypt told Abbâ Elijah that Abbâ Agathon was a great man. And the old man said unto them, “Considering his youth he was a great man in his generation, but he was very far removed from the men of old. I saw in Scete an old man who was able to hold back the sun in his course in the heavens like Joshua, the son of Nun”; and when they heard [this] they marvelled and praised God.
399. A certain brother asked Abbâ Poemen about fornication, and he answered and said, “[It cometh upon a man] because our eyes will not allow us to see the help of God which surroundeth a man, for a man is constrained to humility and to the fear of God at all times, even as he is constrained [to draw] the breath which goeth forth from his mouth.”
400. An old man used to say, “If thou wishest to learn to know [thy] neighbour praise him more than thou rebukest him.”
401. They used to say that whensoever one of the fathers wished to sleep a little, he would sit down in his cell at some distance from the wall, so that whenever he nodded his head he became wide awake.
402. And whensoever another of the old men lay down he used to hold up a book above him, and when he dropped off to sleep the book would fall down and wake him.
403. Abbâ Besarion said, “I stood up for forty nights and did not sleep.”
Abbâ Anthony said, “I do not fear God, on the contrary I love Him.”
404. One of the old men whilst exhorting the brethren to work of spiritual excellence used to say, “Troubles are hard unto those who are not accustomed to them. Troubles are like unto dogs; for as dogs bite those who are not familiar with them and wag their tails at those who are, so also are labours, because they give pain to those who have no experience of them, and they are pleasing unto those who are trained in bearing them. This exception must, however, be made: lusts are wont to produce troubles and adversities, but troubles are the cause of pleasure and delights.”
405. On one occasion Abbâ Ammon came to cross the river, and he found that they were making ready a boat to take [some] men over, and he sat down in it; and behold, there was another boat which was going to take over some women, and they cried out to him, “Come thou, father, and cross over with us.” And he answered and said unto them, “If I had not been going to cross over in the public boat I could not cross [with you].” Now he had with him a bundle of palm leaves, and he sat down and plaited mats until that boat was ready, and then he crossed over the river [in it]. And the brethren expressed their regrets, saying, “Why hast thou done thus?” Then the old man said unto them, “Because I do not at all times travel in great haste, and because my thoughts are not always in a turmoil.” Now this is a proof that a man should travel on the path of God with a well ordered mind.
406. One of the old men came to one of the fathers [and asked him] to go and visit Abbâ Joseph, and he said to him, “Tell thy disciple to go with us”; and the father said, “Call him, and whatsoever thou commandest him, he will do.” The old man said unto him, “What is his name?” and the Rabbâ of the disciple said, “I know not.” The old man said unto him, “And how long hath he been with thee? Dost thou not know his name?” And the father said, “Behold, he hath been with me for two years”; then the old man answered and said, “If he hath been with thee for two years, and thou hast not learnt his name, how can I learn it in one day?”
407. A brother asked Abbâ Poemen, and said, “On one occasion I was distressed, and I begged one of the holy men to lend me a certain thing, and he gave it to me as a free gift; now if God prospereth me shall I give it to another man, or shall I return it to him that gave it to me in the time of my tribulation?” The old man saith, “The gift was most certainly from God, and it is meet for thee to return it to Him, for it belongeth to Him.” And that brother said unto him, “Supposing that I carry it to Him, and He refuse to take it, and say unto me, ‘Get thee gone, and give it as a free gift to anyone at thy pleasure,’ what am I to do?” The old man said, “The thing still belongeth to Him. For if a man bringeth thee something of his own accord and thou hast no knowledge about it, in this manner the thing is his; but if thou hast borrowed something, either from a monk or from a man in the world, and he refuseth to take it back, it belongeth to thee and thou mayest do what thou pleasest with it.”
408. Abbâ Joseph related that Abbâ Isaac said, “I was on one occasion sitting with Abbâ Poemen, and I saw that he was in a state of great stupefaction, and because I possessed some influence over him, I offered entreaty to him, saying, ‘Father, where is thy mind?’ And after I had pressed him greatly, he answered and said, ‘My mind was in the place of the Crucifixion, where the holy woman Mary, the God-bearer, was standing and weeping by the Cross of our Redeemer, and I was wishing that I might at all times feel thus.’”
409. They used to say that Abbâ Sisoes the Theban was wont to dwell among the reeds of Arsânîâ, where there was, at some distance from him, an old man who was sick; and when he heard [of it] he was distressed, for he fasted two days at a time, and that day was the day on which he ought not to eat. And he said in his mind, “What shall I do? For perhaps the brethren will compel me to eat, and if I wait [to go to the old man] until to-morrow perhaps he will be dead. I can only do this. I will go, but will not break the law and eat”; so he went, and he ate not, and he did not break the rule of life which [he observed] for God’s sake.
410. They used to say that Abbâ Netîrâ, who was the disciple of Abbâ Sylvanus, and who dwelt in his cell in Mount Sinai, trained his body, and exercised it in ascetic labours with moderation; but when he was called by force to the episcopacy, he afflicted himself with stern and laborious works. And his disciple said unto him, “Abbâ, when we lived in the desert thou didst not lead such a life of abstinence and self-denial as thou now doest”; and the old man said unto him, “There I had the desert, and silence, and poverty, and I only had to direct my body in moderation so that it might not become ill; but here I have the world, and I must vex my body so that it may not be caught by any lust whatsoever, and that I may not lose my labours.”
411. They used to relate that Abbâ Poemen and the brethren at one time worked with their hands, but he could not sell their work; and they were distressed because they had no one to buy their work; and one of the brethren, who was a friend of theirs, went to a certain believing merchant and informed him of the matter. Now Abbâ Poemen [always] refused to accept anything from any man, so that he might not be entreated [for alms] by the multitude. And when the merchant heard [about their need], because he wished to do something for the old man, he made the excuse that he was in need of [the kind] of work [which they did], and he bought a camel and carried away the work as if he had been in need of the same; and the brother who had told the merchant came to Abbâ Poemen, and hearing that the merchant had come and carried away what they had to sell, he said before Abbâ Poemen, “Verily, O father, the merchant hath taken [the work] away, although he did not want it.” Then Abbâ Poemen said to Abbâ Job, his brother, “Arise, stop the camel, and bring him back, for if thou dost not do so Poemen will not dwell here with you. For I do not wish to wrong any man by making him unnecessarily to suffer loss on my account, and to take my profit.” And the brother departed and brought the camel back with great difficulty, and then Abbâ Poemen was persuaded to stay with them, and when he saw [the camel] he rejoiced as one who had found a great treasure.
412. A certain stranger came to Scete, and brought there much gold, and he entreated the priest that it might be given to the brethren, and the priest said unto him, “It is useless to them”; and having entreated him many times, and the priest not consenting [to this], the man laid the gold down openly at the door of the church. And the priest said, “My brethren, if any man hath need let him take [some],” but they refused to touch it, and some of them would not even look at it. Then the priest said unto him, “God hath accepted thy gift, go, and give it to the poor”; and having been greatly helped he departed.