Часть 1

Preliminary notice for publication in Russian The writer of this book, Palladius, a Galatian by birth, first traveled for several years to different countries of Egypt, then went to Palestine, from where he arrived in Bithynia, where he was ordained Bishop of Elenopolis and had close communication with Saint John Chrysostom. But, protecting the saint from the attacks of his enemies, he himself was forced to hide for eleven months in a secluded cell. After that he was in Rome. All of Palladius’ travels, as can be seen from the contents of the book, date back to the time from 388 to 404 after the Nativity of Christ. In continuation of these travels, Palladius with great zeal collected information about the lives of the saints and blessed fathers and some wives and offered the collected information in this book, as he himself says in the Preface, “to excite zeal for imitation in men who want to lead a heavenly life... and as an example of love for God for wives who want to adorn themselves with the crown of continence and purity.” This book was written at the request and conviction (as can be seen from the Preface) of one famous man, who occupied a very important position at the imperial Byzantine court 1, named Lavsa, therefore the book was dedicated by the author to him and on his behalf received the name “Lavsaik”. Socrates, in the fourth book of his “Ecclesiastical History,” having spoken briefly about the Egyptian fathers, points to a book written by Palladius for those who want to know more about them, and says this: “Whoever wants to know how they (the fathers of the Egyptian deserts) lived, what they did, what they said for the benefit of those listening, how even the animals obeyed them, there is a special book compiled by the monk Palladius, a disciple of Evagrius. In this book, he offered detailed information about them, and also mentions wives who are similar in their lives to those husbands mentioned above.” The Orthodox Church gives its testimony to the importance of this book for its children by the fact that from ancient times it decided as a rule at Matins of Great Lent, from among the four prescribed readings, to borrow two readings from Lavsaik on all days of the Holy Pentecost, except Saturdays and Sundays. This book describes the virtuous asceticism and wonderful way of life of the blessed and holy monastic fathers and desert hermits to arouse zeal for imitation in men who want to lead a heavenly life; Also described are memories of old wives and godly mothers, who with courageous zeal took up the labors of virtuous asceticism, as an example of love for God for wives who want to be adorned with the crown of abstinence and purity - described at the request of one most venerable husband, and for his knowledgeable mind, and for his quiet disposition, and for his pious heart, and for those in need of the necessary generous, and for honesty morals raised to the very top of dignity, preferably before many excellent men, and undoubtedly preserved by the power of the Spirit of God. He instructed us, or rather, to tell the truth, our mind, slow to contemplate the best, aroused to competition and imitation of the ascetic virtues of our venerable and immortal spiritual fathers, who lived in pleasing God and in great exhaustion of the body, - he instructed us, having described the life of the invincible ascetics, to send this description to him with an image of the strict virtues of each of these great men. The lover of this godly and spiritual desire is the most excellent man Lavs, who, by the will of God, was appointed guardian of the divinely enlightened and pious kingdom. I, uneducated in language, and only slightly tasted of spiritual knowledge, and unworthy to describe the spiritual life of the holy fathers, fearing the importance of the assignment that exceeded my strength, did not want to accept it, since it requires both external wisdom and spiritual knowledge, but, respecting, firstly, the virtuous zeal of him who prompted us to this work, also taking into account the benefit of the readers and fearing to be in danger even for the plausible disobedience, I ascribed this important assignment in advance to the Providence of God and, using great diligence on my part, inspired by the intercession of the holy fathers, I entered into the exploits of this field. However, he described, as if in abbreviation, only the highest deeds and signs of valiant ascetics and great men, and not only famous men who led an excellent life, but also blessed and honest wives who labored in a high life. I was privileged to see the sacred faces of some of them personally, and I learned the heavenly life of others, already accomplished in the field of piety, from the God-bearing ascetics of Christ. For a pious purpose, with great zeal, I walked around many cities and very many villages, also caves and all the deserted huts of the monks. And after I myself saw and described other things, and heard others from the holy fathers, depicting in this book the exploits of great men and women who conquered nature through their trust in Christ, I send this description to your ear that loves the word of God, the adornment of the best and God-loving men and the glory of the most faithful and God-loving kingdom, sincere and Christ-loving servant of God Lavs! With my characteristic brevity, I inscribed the famous name of each of the ascetics of Christ - husbands and wives, then, of the many and very great exploits of each, I spoke only about a few and very briefly, and for most of them I indicated their origin, city (domestic), and place of residence. I also mentioned those husbands and wives who, having reached the highest virtue, through arrogance and vanity, fell into the deepest abyss, to the bottom of hell, and acquired by long and many labors, amiable and great efforts, ascetic perfections from pride and arrogance, were lost in an instant, but by the grace of our Savior, and the care of the holy fathers, and the compassion of spiritual love snatched from the snares of the devil and, through the prayers of the saints, returned to their former virtuous life. Letter written by Bishop Palladius to Governor Lausus I praise your desire; You are worthy to begin a letter to you with praise, because when everyone is busy with vain things from which they will not benefit, you collect books and want to study. Only the God of all things does not need teaching, for He is original and there was no other before Him, and everything else has a need for teaching, because it was created and created. The first ranks of angels have the Most High Trinity as their mentor, the second ones learn from the first, and the third from the second, and so on in order, to the last. Those who are most perfect in knowledge and virtue teach those who are imperfect in knowledge. So, those who think of themselves that they do not need mentors are afflicted with ignorance, which is the mother of pride, and therefore they do not obey those who teach them with love. Such people are preceded on the path to destruction for the same illness by demons cast out from heavenly residence, since they too have rejected heavenly mentors. But the subject of teaching should not be words and habits - such teaching sometimes happens even among the worst people - but good qualities of character: carelessness, fearlessness, lack of anger and boldness in everything, which makes even words a fiery flame. If it were not so, the Great Teacher would not have said to His disciples: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). Thus, He taught the apostles not with eloquent words, but with a good disposition and did not upset anyone except those who hated teaching and teachers. So, the soul that strives for Christ must either itself correctly study what it does not know, or clearly teach others what it has learned. If she does neither one nor the other, then she suffers from unreason. The beginning of falling away is satiety with instruction and aversion from teaching, which the soul of a God-loving person always hungers for. Farewell and be healthy, and most of all, may God grant you the knowledge of Christ. About Isidore the Stranger First I came to the city of Alexandria, during the second consulate of the great King Theodosius (now for his rightful faith in Christ abiding with the Angels), and in this city I met a man marvelous in life, adorned with all perfections - in word, character, and knowledge. It was Presbyter Isidore, a stranger of the Alexandrian Church. They say he spent the first years of his youth in the desert in the labors of asceticism. I also saw his cell in Mount Nitria. He was about seventy years old when I came to him. After living another fifteen years, he died in peace. This holy man, until his death, did not wear linen clothing, except for a covering on his head, did not go to the bathhouse, did not touch meat, and never ate food to the point of satiety. Meanwhile, by the grace of God, his body was so full that everyone who did not know his life thought that he lived very luxuriously. If I began to talk in detail about each virtue, then I would not have enough time to tell. He was so meek, philanthropic and peace-loving that his very enemies, whom he had because of his right faith in Christ, respected, one might say, the shadow of this man for his extreme kindness. And this holy man had such great spiritual grace and such knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and understanding of divine dogmas that even during the meal, at the hours when, as usual, he ate food with the brethren, his mind came into rapture and secluded him. When he was asked to tell what happened during this delight, he said: “I wandered in thought, being delighted with such and such a contemplation.” I myself often saw him cry during meals. To my question about the reason for the tears, he answered: “I am ashamed, a rational creature, to eat dumb food; I should be in the paradise of sweets and there be satisfied with incorruptible food, according to the authority given to us by Christ.” In Rome he was known to the entire Senate and the wives of the nobles from the time he came there, first with Athanasius the Great, and then with Saint Demetrius the Bishop. Although he had great wealth and abundance in everyday needs, he did not write a will before his death. And he left neither money nor things to his sisters, the girls, but entrusted them to Christ with these words: “God, who created you, will give you what you need for life, just as he gave me.” Seventy virgins lived with the sisters in the same monastery. When, in my youth, I came to him (Isidore) and asked him to give me the initial instructions in monastic life - while, due to the ardor of my age, I needed not words, but bodily labor and exhaustion of the flesh - he, as a skillful tamer of young horses, taking me to the so-called desert cells, five miles from the city, entrusted Dorotheus, one ascetic of Thebes, who lived near sixty years in a cave, and orders me to stay with him for three years to tame my passions (he knew that this old man led the harshest life), and after three years, return to him again for further spiritual instruction. But I could not live with him for three years: a severe illness forced me to leave him before a certain period. His life was the harshest, most difficult and strict. All day long, and in the very heat of midday, collecting stones in the seaside desert, he constantly built cells from them and then gave them to those who could not build themselves, and thus built a cell every year. One day I said to this holy man: “What are you doing, father, at such an old age, killing your body in the heat with such labor?” He answered me: “It is killing me, and I will kill it.” He ate 2 six ounces of bread a day and a bunch of vegetables and drank a few water. God knows, I never saw him stretch out his legs or lie down to sleep on the matting or on the bed - all night he would sit and weave ropes from date branches, from which he wove baskets to buy bread for himself. I thought that perhaps he had just begun to lead such a strict ascetic life with me, and I carefully began to ask many of his disciples whether he had been asceticizing like this all his life (some of them lived separately from each other and were already famous for their virtue). They told me that from his youth he lived like this, never going to bed, and only closing his eyes for a few minutes while working or at the table, so that from his drowsiness even a piece would sometimes fall out of his mouth. One day I forced this holy man to lie down on the mat for a while; he was upset and told me: “First persuade the Angels so that they fall asleep someday, then you will persuade the zealous ascetic.” One day he sent me at about nine o'clock to fill the tub from which everyone took water at his well. It was already lunch time. Arriving at the well, I saw an asp at the bottom 3 and, in fear, not having drawn any water, I ran to it shouting: “We are lost, Abba: at the bottom of the well I saw an asp!” He smiled modestly, because he was very attentive to me, and, shaking his head, said: “If the devil took it into his head to throw asps, or snakes, or other poisonous reptiles into all the wells and springs of water, would you not drink at all?” Then, leaving the cell, he himself filled the tub and was the first to immediately drink the water, making the sign of the cross over it and saying: “Where the cross is, there the malice of Satan can do nothing.” Blessed Isidore the Host told me that when he visited Saint and Blessed Anthony, he heard something from him that is worth writing down. Namely: one beautiful-faced maiden, Potamiena, during the time of Maximinus the persecutor, was a slave to some sensualist. The gentleman tried for a long time to seduce her with various promises, but he could not. Finally, becoming enraged, he introduced her to the then prefect of Alexandria as a Christian who blasphemed the present government and the kings for persecution, and promised him enough money for punishing her. “If you,” he said, “convince her to agree to my desire, then do not torture her, and when she still remains adamant, kill her in agony.” “Let,” he said, “let the living not laugh at my passion.” They brought the courageous girl before the court and began to torment her body with various instruments of execution, at the same time they persuaded her with various words, but she remained unshakable in her soul, like a wall. Then the judge chooses the most terrible and painful of the execution instruments: he orders a large copper cauldron to be filled with tar and set on fire with the strongest fire. When the resin began to bubble and boil, the ruthless judge turns to the blessed maiden and says: “Either go and submit to the will of your master, or know that I will order you to be thrown into this cauldron.” Potamiena answered: “Is it possible to be such an unjust judge as to order me to obey voluptuousness?” The enraged judge orders her to be undressed and thrown into the cauldron. Then she screamed and said: “I conjure you with the life of the emperor, whom you fear, at least order me not to undress me, if you have already sentenced me to such an execution, but order me to lower it little by little into tar, and you will see what patience Christ, Whom you do not know, has given me.” Thus, she was gradually lowered into the cauldron for almost three hours, until she gave up the ghost, when the resin had already captured her throat. In the Church of Alexandria at that time there were many holy men and women, perfected in virtue and worthy to inherit the “land of the meek.” Among them, the blessed writer Didim, completely blind, labored. I myself saw him four times when I went to see him ten years ago. He died at eighty-five years of age. He became blind, as he himself told me, in his fourth year; he did not learn to read and write and did not know any teachers: his natural mind was a faithful mentor for him. He was adorned with such grace of spiritual knowledge that what was said was fulfilled on him: “The Lord makes wise the blind” (Ps. 145:8). He knew every word of the books of the Old and New Testaments, and he studied the dogmas so carefully and expounded the teachings contained in them so subtly and thoroughly that he surpassed all the ancients in knowledge. Once he forced me to say a prayer in his house, and as much as I didn’t want to, he told me this: “Blessed Anthony entered this cell three times to visit me, and when I invited him to say a prayer, he immediately knelt in this very cell, without waiting for me to repeat the invitation - so he taught me obedience by the very act. And you, if you follow his life, as a monk and a stranger for the sake of virtue, give up all stubbornness.” He also told me the following: “One day I was thinking about the life of the persecutor, the unfortunate King Julian. I was so sad from these thoughts that I didn’t eat anything until late in the evening. And so, sitting on a bench, I fell asleep and saw in a vision: riders galloping past me on white horses and shouting: “Tell Didim - this day, at the seventh hour, Julian died; get up and eat and send the news to Bishop Athanasius at home, so that he too will know about it.” “I noticed,” said Didymus, “the hour and the day, the week and the month—and so it turned out.” This writer Didim told me about a servant named Alexandra. Leaving the city, she was imprisoned in a tomb and received what she needed through an opening, and she herself did not show herself to either men or women for about ten years. In the tenth year, having rested, this blessed one, they say, prepared herself for burial. The woman who visited her, coming as usual, did not receive an answer and told us about it. We went, opened the entrance to the cave of the coffin, entered there and saw that she had fallen asleep. Melania the Roman, who was close to her, also spoke to us about her, about whom I will tell you in due time and place. “I could not,” she says, “see this blessed one in the face, but, standing at the hole, I asked her to reveal the reason why she left the city and imprisoned herself in a tomb. She answered me through the hole: "One man was crazy about me. In order not to upset or dishonor him, I decided to imprison myself alive in this tomb rather than seduce a soul created in the image of God." When I said to her: “How can you, servant of Christ, bear this, that you see no one at all, but alone fight against sorrow and thoughts?” - she answered: "From the very morning, until about nine o'clock, I pray and spin flax for an hour, during the rest of the hours I remember the legends about the faith of the holy fathers and patriarchs, about the exploits of the blessed apostles, prophets and martyrs. When evening comes, I, having brought praise to my Lord, eat my share of bread, and spend the whole night in prayer, waiting for the end of my life, when I will be released from here with good luck." I will appear in hope and appear before the face of Christ.” I will now tell you about those who, having a form of piety, lived in neglect of their souls - I will tell you for the praise of those who have perfected themselves in virtue and for the warning of readers. About the money-loving virgin There was one virgin in Alexandria - however, only in name, for although she had a humble appearance, in her soul she was stingy, quarrelsome and extremely addicted to money, more a lover of money than a lover of Christ: from her property she never gave a single ovol 4 to a stranger, nor to the poor, nor to a monk, nor to a virgin, nor to the unfortunate, nor to the church. Despite many admonitions from the holy fathers, she did not throw off the burden of wealth. She also had relatives, and she took her sister’s daughter into her care. She promised her her property day and night, rejecting heavenly love herself. And this is one of the deceptions of the devil, that he creates in a person the disease of covetousness under the pretext of family love. He has no concern at all about kinship - this is evident from the fact that he taught fratricide, mother-murder and parricide, as is known from the Holy Scriptures. Sometimes it seems that he encourages one to care for his relatives, but he does this not out of goodwill towards them, but in order to entice the soul to an unrighteous deed, knowing correctly what has been said - “the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9). He who is guided by spiritual understanding and Divine love can, without abandoning care for his soul, help his relatives in need and provide them with various benefits, but whoever has enslaved his entire soul to caring for his relatives is subject to the judgment of the law for the fact that he valued his soul little. And the sacred psalmist David sings thus about those who care for the soul in the fear of God: “Who will ascend to the mountain of the Lord” (instead of saying: rare), “or who will stand in His holy place? He is innocent in hand and pure in heart, who does not take his soul in vain” (Ps. 23:3-4). But those who take their soul in vain think that it is destroyed along with this flesh, and do not care about spiritual virtues. This virgin, who bore only this name, but whose disposition was alien to asceticism, wanted to be cured of the disease of covetousness by His Holiness Macarius, presbyter and overseer of the almshouse for the crippled, and came up with the following remedy. It should be noted that in his youth he worked stones. So he came to her and said: “I came across expensive stones - emeralds and yachts; Whether they were stolen or bought, I can’t say, but these stones are priceless. The owner sells them for five hundred chervonets. If you want to buy them, give me this money. You can use the stones for clothes for your niece.” The virgin, with all her soul attached to her niece, rejoiced at the opportunity to dress her up, falls at the feet of Macarius and says: “Do me a favor, do not give them to anyone!” The holy husband invites her to his place. “Come,” he says, “to my house and look at the stones.” But she didn’t want this and immediately gave him five hundred ducats, saying: “Please, get them as you want: I don’t want to see the person who sells them.” Saint Macarius, taking five hundred ducats from her, used them for the needs of the almshouse. A lot of time passed, and the virgin was ashamed to remind him of the stones, because this husband was highly respected in Alexandria, as a very pious and merciful old man (he lived about a hundred years, and I still found him alive). Finally, having found him in the church, he says to him: “What about those stones for which we gave five hundred ducats?” He answered her: “On the same day that you gave me the money, I paid for the stones, and if you want to see them, go to my hospice house - these stones lie there. See if you like them; otherwise, take your money back.” The virgin went with joy. The hospice house had two sections: the upper one housed women, and the lower one housed men. When she came to the house, the saint led her into the gate and said: “Which would you like to see first - yachts or emeralds?” “Whatever you want,” she replies. Macarius took her upstairs and, pointing to the crippled and blind women, said to her: “These are the yachts!” Then he took her down and, pointing to the same men, said: “And these are emeralds! And I believe that nothing more precious than these can be found anywhere! If you don't like them, take your money back." Ashamed, the virgin went out and, when she came home, fell ill with great sadness, because she did a good deed not out of love for God, but against her will. Later, when the girl she cared for died childless after getting married, and when she herself began to use her property as it should, she thanked the elder. Having visited many saints and lived for three years in monasteries near Alexandria, where I saw up to two thousand great, very zealous and valiant men, adorned with every virtue, I went from there to Mount Nitria. Between this mountain and Alexandria there is a lake called Maria. It extends for seventy miles. Having crossed it, a day and a half later I came to the mountain from the noon side; adjacent to this mountain is a large desert, extending even to Ethiopia, Maziki and Mauritania. There are up to five thousand husbands living on the mountain, who lead different lifestyles - as many as they can and want, so you can live there one by one, two by one, or many together. They have seven bakeries in which they prepare bread both for themselves and for the hermits who have retired to the great desert, numbering up to six hundred. Having lived in this mountain for a whole year and received great benefit from the blessed and reverend fathers, such as Arsisius the Great, Putuvast, Agion, Chronius and Serapion, I, excited by many of their stories about the most ancient spiritual fathers, went into the very depths of the desert. In this Nitrian mountain there is only one church, a very large one. Near the church there is a hospice house in which the wanderer is kept during his entire stay in the mountain, even if it lasts two or three years, until he wants to leave the mountain. He is allowed to live idle only for one week, and on the following days he is given work either in the garden, or in the bakery, or in the cookhouse. If the wanderer is a noble person, then he is given books to read, but he is not allowed to talk with anyone until the sixth hour of the day. Doctors and pharmacists live in this mountain. They also drink and sell wine here. They all make their own clothes, with their own hands, so in this regard they do not know the need. When evening comes, one can stand and hear in every cell songs of praise and psalms sung to Christ, and prayers sent up to heaven - another would think that he was raptured and transported to a paradise of sweetness. People go to church only on Saturdays and Sundays. There are eight presbyters in this church, but as long as the first presbyter lives, the others do not serve, do not judge, and do not teach, but only sit with him in silence. The Great Arsisius and with him many other holy elders whom we saw were contemporaries of Blessed Anthony. Of these, the Great Arsisius himself told me that he also knew Ammun of Nitria, whose soul the Great Anthony saw when it was received by the Angels and carried to heaven. He also said that he also knew Pachomius of Tavenna, who had the gift of prophecy and was the archimandrite of three thousand men. I’ll tell you about his virtues later. Arsisius the Great told me how Ammun lived. Left an orphan by his parents, at the age of twenty-two he was forced by his uncle to enter into marriage. Unable to resist his uncle's insistent demands, he decided to get married, sit at the wedding celebration and perform all the marriage rituals. But, as soon as all those who accompanied them to the wedding chamber came out, blessed Ammun locks the door and, having sat down, begins to talk with his blessed wife and says to her: “Come here, my mistress and sister, I will talk to you. There is nothing particularly good in our marriage. So, we will do well if from now on we start sleeping separately. By keeping our virginity inviolable in this way, we will also please Christ.” Then taking out the Bible from his bosom, he, as if on behalf of the apostles and the Savior Himself, began to read it to a young girl unfamiliar with the Scriptures, explaining to her most of the passages read with his God-enlightened mind, and instructing her in a virgin and immaculate life, so that she, filled with the grace of Christ, said: “And I, my lord, have decided to joyfully lead a holy life and will do whatever you command me." “I command and ask,” he answered, “that each of us henceforth live separately.” But it was still difficult for her, and she said: “We will stay in the same house, only we will have a separate bed.” So he lived with her in the same house for eighteen years. The whole day he worked in the garden and in the balsam grove (he was engaged in obtaining balsam). The balsam bush grows just like grapes, and in order to cultivate it and go after it, a lot of work is required. In the evening, having come home and prayed, he ate food with his wife, then offered night prayers and performed prayers, and very early in the morning he went to his garden. When in this way both of them achieved dispassion - the prayers of Saint Ammun had an effect - finally the blessed one said to him: “I have something to tell you, my lord; If you listen to me, I will make sure that you truly love me according to God.” He told her, “Say what you want to say.” She continued: “You are a pious man and strive in righteousness, and I am jealous of your life; for sure, it’s better for us to live separately; many will benefit from this. And now, when you live immaculately with me in the Lord, your great perfection of wisdom is hidden from everyone because of me; This is unwise." Having thanked her and given praise to God, Ammun says to her: “You have thought well, my lady and sister; If you wish, you can stay in this house, and I will go and build myself another home.” Having separated from her, he went inside the Nitrian mountain - there were not so many monasteries on it at that time - he built himself a two-story cell, and, having lived another twenty-two years in the desert and having reached the height of ascetic virtue, Saint Ammun died, or, better, rested in monastic life at the age of sixty-two. He saw his wife twice a year. When he was already living alone in the Nitrian mountain, they say that they brought to him a boy bound in chains, who was in a rage, which opened in him from being bitten by a mad dog. From unbearable pain, the boy bit himself all over until he bled. Saint Ammun, seeing his parents come to ask for a son, said to them: “Why are you bothering me, demanding something that exceeds my strength? Help is at your fingertips! Reward the widow whose ox you secretly killed, and your boy will be healthy.” Amazed by the evidence, they joyfully did what they were told. And through Ammun’s prayer the boy became healthy. One day several people came to see him. The holy man, testing them, said: “Bring me one barrel of water so that I have enough to receive those who come.” They promised to bring a barrel. But, leaving the cell, one of them began to regret that he had made a promise, and said to the other: “I don’t want to destroy my camel: it will fall if you carry a barrel on it.” Hearing this, the other harnessed his donkeys and with great difficulty brought the barrel up the mountain. Ammun walked towards him and asked him: “Why did your comrade’s camel fall at the same time as you were coming here?” He returned and actually saw that the camel had been torn to pieces by hyenas. This man performed many other miracles. Blessed Athanasius of Alexandria tells about his next miracle in his description of the life of Anthony. One day he had to cross the Lykon River with Theodore, his disciple, and he was ashamed to undress, so as not to see his nakedness. While in such thought, he suddenly appeared on the other side of the river, as if transported in a frenzy by the Angels. The brothers swam across the river. When he came to Anthony, Anthony was the first to say to him: “God revealed to me many things about you and told me about your repose. That’s why I invited you to my place so urgently, so that, seeing each other, we could mutually help each other.” He showed him a home in one of the most secluded places and asked him not to leave here until his death. And when Ammun died in his solitude, blessed Anthony saw how the Angels carried his soul to heaven. Such is the life and death of Ammun. That river Likon is nothing more than a deep branch of the huge Nile, and even in a boat I was afraid to cross it. In this same mountain of Nitria there was a wonderful ascetic named Or. There were up to a thousand brothers in his monasteries. He looked angelic. He was ninety years old, but his body had lost nothing: his face was bright and cheerful, and at first glance it inspired respect for himself. At first, he labored for a long time in the distant desert, but later he founded monasteries in the nearby one and planted trees in the place of the swamp, whereas there were none here at all, so that a dense forest grew in the desert. The fathers who lived with him told us that there wasn’t even a bush there when this man came here from the desert. He planted this forest so that the brothers who were going to him would not have to go around for the necessary supplies; He took every care for them, prayed to God and himself worked for their salvation, so that they would not lack anything necessary and so that they would not have any excuse for negligence. At first, living in the desert, he ate herbs and sweet roots, drank water when he found it, and spent all his time in prayer and singing. When he reached a very old age, an angel appeared to him in the desert in a dream and said: “You will become a great language, and a great multitude of people will be entrusted to your leadership. Ten thousand will be saved through you, and as many as you gain here will obey you in the next century. Leave all doubt,” the Angel continued, “you will not lack necessary needs until your death, whenever you call on God.” Having heard these words, he went to the nearby desert and, having built himself a small hut, lived in it at first alone, being content with only vegetables, and even those he ate often only once a week. He was completely unlearned, but upon leaving the desert for a populated area, he was given such grace from God that he knew the Holy Scriptures by heart. When the brethren handed him the Bible, he immediately began to read as if he were literate. He also received another grace: namely, the power to cast out demons, so that many of those possessed by them loudly preached about his life, although he did not want to. He performed many other healings. Therefore, three thousand monks flocked to him. Seeing them, he joyfully greeted and kissed them. He himself washed their feet with his own hands and then offered teaching. He was very knowledgeable in the Scriptures, since he received this grace from God. Having explained many chapters from the Holy Scriptures and taught the Orthodox teaching on faith, he invited them to prayer, for great men usually do not begin a carnal meal before they have already nourished their souls with spiritual food - this food is the acceptance of the Body of Christ. After communion and after bringing praise to God, Or invited the brethren to a meal, and during the table he himself offered good and useful instructions and talked with them about salvation. He was also famous for his management. So, he built cells for the many monks who were going to him in one day. To do this, he called together all the available brethren, and one prepared clay for him, another prepared bricks, another drew water. When the cells were ready, those who came received all the necessary things from him. A certain false brother came to him with his own robe, which he had hidden, and Hor denounced him before everyone. That is why no one dared to lie before him, for everyone knew what grace he acquired for himself with his holy life. The host of monks, when they were with him in church, resembled the faces of Angels praising God. All the brethren testify to his great virtues, and especially the servant of God Melania, who came to this Mountain before me. I myself did not find him alive. Talking about the great perfections of this husband, she said that he did not lie and did not swear, did not slander anyone and never spoke unnecessarily. In Mount Nitria lived blessed Pamvo, teacher of Bishop Dioscorus, Ammonius and the brothers Eusebius and Euthymius, also Origen, nephew of Dracontius, a glorious and wondrous man. This Pamvo was decorated with many great perfections and virtues. But the crown of his great perfections was such contempt for gold and silver as the word of the Lord requires. Blessed Melania told me that soon after arriving from Rome in Alexandria, having heard from the blessed presbyter Isidore the Stranger about the virtuous life of Pamvo, accompanied by Isidore himself, she went to see him in the desert. “I brought with me,” she said, “a box with three hundred liters of silver and asked him to accept this offering from my acquisitions. He sat and weaved branches and, without leaving his work, gave me only a verbal blessing, saying: “God will reward you.” Then he said to the steward Origen: “Take this and use it for the needs of the brethren living in Libya and on the islands: these monasteries are poorer than others.” and of the brethren living in Egypt he did not order anyone to give from this money, because this country, he said, is more fertile than others.” “I stood,” says Melania, “and waited for him to honor me with a blessing or at least say a word in praise for such an offering, but, hearing nothing from him, I myself told him: “My lord, let it be known to you that there are three hundred liters of silver here.” Even so, he did not show any attention and answered me, without even looking at the box: “My daughter! To whom you brought this, He does not need to tell how much it weighs: He weighed the mountains and set the hills in weight, especially since he knows the weight of your silver. If you gave it to me, then it would be good to tell about its quantity, but if you brought it to God, Who did not reject even two mites 6, but also valued them more than all others offerings, then be silent and calm." “This is how the grace of the Lord arranged the economy,” said the blessed one, “when I came to the Mountain! After a short time, the servant of God rested without illness and without any bodily suffering. He wove a basket and sent for me. When the last rod was already woven, he said to me: “Take this basket from my hands as a memory of me - I can’t leave anything else for you.” He departed, giving up his spirit to the Lord, without illness at the age of seventy. Having wrapped the saint’s body in thin linen and placed it in a coffin, I left the desert, and I will keep that basket with me until my death.” They also say that Pambo, before his death, at the very hour of his repose, said to the presbyter and steward, Origen and Ammonius, standing at his bedside, men known in life: “From the time when I came to this desert, I built myself a cell and began to live in it, I have not spent a single day without handicraft; I don’t remember ever having eaten a piece of bread given by someone for free; to this hour I do not repent of a single word that I said; and now I am going to God as if I had not yet begun to serve Him.” The servants of Christ Origen and Ammonius precisely confirmed this and also told us that when they asked Pambo about anything from Scripture or regarding life, he never answered the question immediately, but said that he had not yet found the answer. Three months often passed without him giving an answer, saying that he still did not know what to answer. Pamvo, out of fear of God, was very circumspect in his answers, so that they were received with reverence, as if the sayings of God Himself. In this virtue, that is, circumspection in speech, they say that he surpassed even Anthony the Great and all the saints. Among other acts of Saint Pambo, the following is also told. One day, blessed Pior, an ascetic, came to his cell with his bread. When Pamvo reproached him why he did this, Pior answered him: “So that it would not be a burden to you.” Pamvo silently released him. After some time, the Great Pamvo comes to Pior’s cell also with his bread, which was already soaked in his possession. When Pior asked why he brought the soaked bread, Pamvo replied: “So that I wouldn’t be a burden to you, I soaked the bread myself.” Ammonius, a former student of the Great Pambo, together with three other brothers and two sisters, having reached the highest degree of love for God, settled in the desert and built two special monasteries: the brothers - a male one, and the sisters - a female one, at a fair distance from one another. Meanwhile, in one city they wanted to have Ammonius as a bishop, for this great man possessed extraordinary learning. Those sent from the city came to the blessed Bishop Timothy and asked him to ordain Ammonius for them as a bishop. “Bring him to me,” answered the bishop, “and I will ordain him for you.” Taking with them quite a few people, they followed him. But Ammonius fled. Finally seeing that they were catching up with him, he stopped and began to beg them. When they did not listen, he swore to them that he would not take office and could not leave the desert. When this did not work, he took scissors in front of everyone and completely cut off his left ear to the root, saying: “Now you must be convinced that I cannot accept the rank to which you are forcing me, for the law commands that one whose ear is cut off should not be allowed into the priesthood.” After this, they left him, went away and, coming to the bishop, told about it. He tells them: “Let the Jews observe this law, but if you bring to me even a noseless one, only one who is worthy in life, I will ordain him.” The citizens went again to beg Ammonius. When the holy man began to refuse, they wanted to lead him by force. But he swore to cut out his own tongue if they forced him. After that they released him and left. Ammonius' food from his youth until his death consisted of raw vegetables: he did not eat anything cooked over a fire, except bread. He knew all the books of the Old and New Testaments by heart and repeatedly re-read the writings of famous men - Origen, Didymus, Pierius and Stephen. The great fathers of the desert also testify to this. They also talk about his prophecies. No one else was more edifying than him for the brethren who lived in the desert. Blessed Evagrius, a spirit-bearing man and strict in judgment, spoke of him this way: “I have never seen a man more dispassionate than him.” During the departure of the Great Ammonius to Constantinople for the needs of the desert dwellers, this blessed one (Evagrius), upon the conviction of the holy bishops who came from different regions and the local desert dwellers, received from the font of Holy Baptism Rufinus, the then praetorian prefect, who himself asked him about this many times. The baptism was performed in the presence of these bishops in the church that Rufinus himself built for the position of saints in it, on the very tombs. Obedient in everything to the Monk Ammonius, Rufinus honored Evagrius worthy of his holy life. Ammonius after a little time rested and was laid in the church called Rufinovo. His tomb is said to cure colds. In the same mountain of Nitria there was one wonderful man named Benjamin. His virtuous life lasted eighty years. For his high deeds of virtue, he was awarded the gift of healing, so that he only laid his hands on the sick person or gave him the oil blessed by him, and he recovered completely. And, despite such a gift, eight months before his dormition, he became ill with dropsy. His body was so swollen that in terms of his suffering he was like a different Job in our times. Bishop Dioscorus, who was then presbyter of Mount Nitria, took us, me and blessed Evagrius, and said to us: “Come look at the new Job, who, despite such an incurable illness, retains extraordinary complacency.” When we arrived, we looked at his body - it was so swollen that it was impossible to cover his little finger with both hands. Unable to look at such a terrible disease, we turned our eyes away from him. Then Blessed Benjamin told us: “Pray, children, that my inner man does not become sick. And from this body, even when I was healthy, I did not see any benefit, and when I was sick, I did not see any harm.” During those eight months, he constantly sat in a chair of enormous width, because he could not go to bed. And with such an incurable illness, he also healed others from various diseases. I deliberately spoke about the illness of this saint, so that it would not seem strange to us if we see that sometimes disaster befalls even righteous men. When this great man died, they removed the threshold and doorposts so that the body could be taken out of the cell - so swollen was the body of the blessed and venerable Father Benjamin. A certain man named Apollonius, one of the merchants, having renounced the world, settled in Mount Nitria. Since, due to his old age, he could no longer learn either a craft or reading, during his twenty-five-year stay in grief he labored in this way: buying in Alexandria with his own money, acquired through his own labors, all sorts of medical and cell needs, he supplied them to all the brethren during illness. It happened that from early morning until nine o'clock in the afternoon he would walk around the monasteries and monasteries in all the tabernacles, open the doors and look to see if anyone was lying. He carried with him raisins, pomegranate apples, eggs, wheat bread - everything that a patient needed. The servant of Christ led such a useful lifestyle until he was very old. Before his death, he transferred all his belongings to another, similar to himself, begging him to undergo this service. Since up to five thousand monks live in that mountain, such supervision is needed in such a desert. There were two brothers named Paisius and Isaiah. Their father was a Spanish merchant. Having divided the remaining movable property after the death of their parent, which consisted of money (five thousand gold coins), clothes and slaves, they began to reason among themselves and consult what kind of life they should choose. “If we continue the trade,” they said, “which our father conducted, then our labors after us will remain different, not to mention the dangers that we may encounter: robbers will attack, a storm will rise at sea. Let’s better become monks - then we will benefit from our father’s estate, and we will not lose our souls.” Both liked the intention to become monks, but they did not act the same in fulfilling it. They divided the money and all other property - both with the intention of pleasing God, but with different lifestyles. One gave everything to monasteries, churches and prisons and, having learned a craft for his livelihood, devoted himself to asceticism and prayer, and the other, without spending anything on this, built himself a monastery for a small number of brethren, received the strange, treated the sick, gave rest to the elderly, gave alms to every poor person, and on Saturdays and Sundays he arranged three or four meals and treated the poor - that’s what he used to spend his property on! When they both died, the brethren, praising their lives, came into disagreement among themselves, since both of them were perfect in virtue. According to some, the life of Paisius, who from the very beginning rejected everything, was superior, and according to others, the life of Isaiah, who did good to those in need. When a dispute arose between the brethren about the difference in the way of life of these blessed ones, and especially about who was more worthy of praise, they went to the blessed and holy Pamvo and, presenting their dispute to him for judgment, asked to say whose life was more perfect. Pamvo tells them: “Before the Lord, both are equally perfect: the one who received everyone and gave them rest, accomplished the work of Abraham, and the other, for the sake of pleasing God, loved the unyielding zeal of the prophet Elijah.” Then some began to say to him: “We fall at your feet, tell us how can we be equal to them?” Some put the ascetic higher and said that he, having sold everything and distributed it to the poor, fulfilled the commandment of the Gospel and constantly labored in prayer: every day, hour and night he carried the cross, following the Savior. And others, on the contrary, spoke in favor of the other: “Have mercy, he showed so much merciful love for all those in need - he walked the streets and roads to look for the poor, collected them and provided them with everything; Thus, by healing the sick and helping them, he calmed not only his own soul, but also the souls of many others.” Blessed Pamvo answered: “I’ll tell you again: both are equal before the Lord and both sides must agree with me. Paisius, without such high asceticism, would not have deserved to be compared with our good Savior. Isaiah, who calmed strangers and served the poor, also, as far as possible, became like the Lord, Who says: “... I did not come and let them serve Me, but serve Me” (Matthew 20:28). Isaiah also served, and although his labors apparently burdened him, they also gave him peace. Wait a little so that I may receive a revelation of them from God; come later and find out.” After several days, they again came to the great father to ask about them. The blessed one told them in response that he saw them both standing together before God in paradise. About Macarius, who committed an involuntary murder One young man named Macarius, about eighteen years old, was grazing cattle near a lake called Maria, and, while playing here with his peers, he unintentionally killed one of them. Without saying a word to anyone, he went into the desert and lived here for three years in such fear of God and people that he remained all this time without any shelter and did not seem to feel it - and that land is dry, as everyone knows who has been there on any occasion or lived. Finally, Macarius built himself a cell and, living in it for another twenty-five years, was awarded such grace that he found pleasure in solitude and defeated demons. Having lived with him for a long time, I asked him how he thought about the sin of the murder he committed. He said: “Manslaughter was the reason for me to turn to the path of salvation. So sometimes random circumstances lead to virtue, when they do not want to start doing good out of a free disposition: some of the virtues depend on free choice, while others depend on circumstances.” Among the ancient saints there was one valiant ascetic of Christ, named Nathanael. I did not find him alive: he died fifteen years before I came to the mountain. But, having met with contemporaries and associates of this saint, I willingly asked them about the exploits of this man. They showed me his cell, in which no one lives anymore due to its proximity to the populated area. The blessed one built it back then, when hermits were rare here. This is what they told me about his asceticism. He decided to constantly remain in his cell and never deviated from this rule. The devil, who deceives and tempts everyone, first seduced him too - he made him sad and forced him to leave his cell. The saint found it boring in his previous cell, he left it and built himself another one, closer to the village. When he finished it and lived in it for three or four months, the devil appears at night in the form of an executioner with a belt whip, in sackcloth, and makes noise with the whip. Blessed Nathanael, angry with him, said to him: “Who are you and how dare you do this in my refuge?” The devil answered: “I am the one who forced you to leave your previous cell; now I have come to drive you out of this one too.” Blessed Nathanael, having learned that he had been seduced, immediately returned to his former shelter and for thirty-seven years never left the threshold, resisting the devil, who did so much to him to force him to leave his cell that it is impossible to even talk about it. By the way, the hater of goodness also used the following trick to force the ascetic to deviate from the accepted rule. Seven holy bishops once visited Saint Nathanael, and he almost broke his vow. When the bishops, after the visit, prayed and left in prayer, the ascetic did not follow them a single step, so as not to yield to the hater of good. Then the deacons of the bishops said to the saint: “You, Abba, act proudly in not seeing off the bishops.” He told them: “I respect my rulers - the bishops - and I honor the entire clergy; I am a sinner, the scum of all people. But, according to my vow, I died to all this and to all life. I have a hidden purpose, which is why I didn’t see off the bishops; the Lord knows it, He knows the secrets of my heart.” The devil, thus not achieving his goal, again took on a different form. Nine months before the death of the ascetic, he appears in the form of a ten-year-old boy and seems to be driving a donkey that is carrying a basket of bread. In the late evening, near the ascetic’s cell, the donkey fell, and the youth shouted: “Abba Nathanael, have mercy on me and give me your hand!” Abba, hearing the boy’s voice, opened the door and, standing inside the cell, said: “Who are you and what do you want from me?” The devil answered: “I am a servant of such and such a monk and I am carrying bread; Brother so-and-so, whom you know, is having a love supper, and tomorrow, on Saturday morning, prosphora will be needed. I pray you, don’t leave me so that the hyenas don’t eat me.” (There are a lot of hyenas in those places.) Blessed Nathanael became undecided; a feeling of compassion was strongly aroused in him, his heart was indignant, and, pondering what to do, he said to himself: “I must either break the commandment (about helping others), or deviate from my rule (not to leave the cell).” Finally, after reflecting with reverence, he said to himself: “It’s better for me not to break my rule, which I have been following for so many years in order to shame and defeat the devil.” Then, having prayed to the Lord, the ascetic said to the youth who was speaking: “Listen, youth or whoever you are, I believe and serve the One who rules over every breath. If you really need help, then my God will send it to you and neither hyenas nor anything else will harm you, and if you are a temptation, then my God will reveal this to me from what will happen to you.” And, having closed the door, the ascetic went into the depths of the cell. And the devil, disgraced by this defeat, turned into a whirlwind and disappeared with a noise similar to that made by wild donkeys when they run. Such is the victory of blessed Nathanael, such are his ascetic virtues and his irresistible battle with the enemy, such is his life and the end of his glorious life. I am afraid to narrate and write about those many great and, for an unbeliever, almost incredible feats with which the virtuous life of the holy and immortal fathers - Macarius of Egypt and Macarius of Alexandria, valiant men and invincible ascetics is filled. I am afraid that they will consider me a liar, and the saying of the Holy Spirit clearly shows that the Lord will destroy all who “tell lies” (Ps. 5:7). But I, by the grace of the Lord, do not lie, and you, most faithful Lavs, do not doubt the exploits of the holy fathers - on the contrary, glorify these illustrious and truly blessed men, who received names corresponding to their holy labors in asceticism. The first ascetic of Christ, named Macarius, was an Egyptian by birth, and the second in time, but the first in monastic virtues, called Macarius, was an Alexandrian citizen and sold snacks. First I will tell you about the virtues of Macarius of Egypt, who lived ninety years and spent sixty of them in the desert. Having come to it at the age of thirty, he, although he was younger in age than others, for ten years endured ascetic labors so courageously that he was awarded a special distinction: he was called an elder youth, because he excelled in virtues beyond his age. At the age of forty, he received power over spirits, the gift of healing illnesses and the spirit of prophecy, and was also awarded the venerable priesthood. In the inner desert, called Skete, two disciples lived with him: one of them was his servant and was always with him for those who came to be healed, and the other lived in a separate cell. After a long time, having seen into the future with his penetrating eye, the saint says to a disciple named John who served under him, who later became a presbyter in the place of Saint Macarius (for the Great Macarius was awarded the presbytery): “Listen to me, brother John, and accept my admonition with complacency: it will be useful to you. You are in temptation, you are being tempted by the spirit of love of money. This is revealed to me. I also know that if you graciously accept my admonition, you will be perfect in the work of God in this place and you will be glorified and evil will not come close to your cell; If you do not listen to me, the same thing will happen to you as to Gehazi (2 Kings 5:20-27), whose illness you are infected with.” It happened that John, after the death of the immortal Macarius, listened to his words, but listened to the one who, through his love of money, led Judas to be strangled. When another fifteen or twenty years had passed, John, who was holding back the property of the poor, was struck by such leprosy that there was no healthy place on his body on which to place a finger. Here is the prophecy of Saint Macarius! It will be unnecessary to talk about what kind of food and drink the blessed one consumed. Then, not only among the monks there, but also among the most careless of those living in other places, it was impossible to find those who indulged in satiety; the reason for this, on the one hand, is a lack of necessary things, on the other, the zeal for God of those who lived there, each of whom tried to surpass the other with various exploits. I will also tell you about other exploits of this heavenly man Macarius. They say about this saint that he was constantly delighted and spent much more time in conversation with God than in earthly pursuits. They also talk about his various miracles. One dissolute Egyptian fell in love with a noble woman who was married. Not having time to seduce her, because she was faithful to her husband, whom she married as a virgin, the shameless one resorted to the sorcerer and said to him: “Either force her to love me, or use your art to make her husband leave her.” The sorcerer, having received a good payment from him, used his charms and spells. But, unable to arouse love in her heart, he made her seem like a horse to everyone who looked at her. Her husband, coming home, saw his wife in the form of a horse. Calling the elders of the village, he led them into his house and showed her to them, but they did not understand the misfortune that befell her. Finally, to glorify God and to demonstrate the virtue of Saint Macarius, it occurred to her husband to take her to the desert to the monk. When they arrived, the brethren stood at the cell of St. Macarius and, not allowing this woman’s husband, said to him: “Why did you bring this horse here?” The husband answered them: “So that the prayers of the righteous will help her.” They said to him: “What bad happened to her?” He answered: “This horse you see was my unfortunate wife, and I don’t know how she turned into a horse. Now it’s been three days since she’s eaten anything.” The brethren, having heard this, told about this to the servant of Christ Macarius, who was already praying for this woman in his cell, for when they were still going to him, he already had a revelation from God. He prayed that the reason for what had happened would be revealed to him, and during prayer he found out everything that happened. When the brethren announced to Saint Macarius that someone had brought a horse here, he told them: “You do not look with your own eyes: this is a woman as she was created, she has not turned (into a horse), but only appears so to the eyes of the deceived.” 7 When they brought her to him, he blessed the water and, pouring it over the woman’s head, prayed over her head and immediately made everyone who looked at her see a woman in her. Having ordered food to be brought to her, he gave her something to eat and, thus healing her, sent her away with her husband; and they thanked God. And the man of Christ gave her the following instruction: “Never stop attending church, never shy away from partaking of the Mysteries of Christ; the misfortune happened to you because you have not approached the most pure Mysteries of our Savior for five weeks.” Here is another act of his great asceticism. For a long time of his life, he made an underground passage, extending from his cell for half a stage 8, and at the end of this passage he built a large cave. When many people bothered him, he secretly left his cell for a cave, and no one found him. One of Macarius’s zealous disciples told us that the saint, while walking underground to the cave, performed twenty-four prayers and the same number on the way back. There was a rumor about him that he even resurrected a dead person to convince one heretic who rejected the resurrection of bodies 9 (Rufinus talks about this miracle in detail). This rumor was very strong in the desert. One day a demon-possessed young man was brought to this holy man. His mother brought him in, weeping bitterly for him. He was held on either side by two other young men. The demon (who lived in him) had such power that, having eaten three measures of bread and drunk a Cilician bucket of water, he spewed both of them out and turned them into steam. What he ate and drank was consumed as if by fire. (Indeed, there is a special category of demons, called fiery. There are differences between demons, as well as between people, depending, however, on the difference not in the essence, but in the will.) The mentioned young man, when he did not receive enough food from his mother, often ate his own ejection and drank his urine. As a mother, weeping and lamenting about the extreme misfortune of her son, asked and begged the saint for a long time to help him, the invincible ascetic of Christ Macarius, taking the young man to himself, fervently prayed to God for him, and after a day or two the demon stopped tormenting him. Then Saint Macarius said to the young man’s mother: “How much do you want your son to eat?” She answered: “I pray you, tell him to eat ten pounds of bread.” The saint, strongly reproaching her for having prescribed a lot, said: “What did you say, woman!” Having prayed for the young man for seven days with fasting and expelled the fierce demon of gluttony from him, the saint determined for him a measure of food up to three pounds of bread, which he had to consume while doing his job. Thus, the destroyer of every demonic action - the ascetic of Christ Macarius, by the grace of God and his godly life, having healed the young man, gave him to his mother. Such glorious miracles did God perform through His faithful saint Macarius, whose immortal soul now resides with the Angels. I did not see this saint, for a year before my arrival in the desert this conqueror of insane passions died. About Macarius of Alexandria The companion of this Macarius of Egypt in matters of faith, who bore the same revered name, Macarius of Alexandria, was a presbyter in the so-called Cells when I came to him. Having lived in these Cells for nine years, and for three of them, keeping silence with blessed Macarius, I myself partly saw the deeds and signs of his valiant life, partly I learned from those who lived with him, and partly I heard from many others. One day, Saint Macarius, seeing the Great Father Anthony's choice of date branches (he himself wove baskets from them), asked him for one bunch of these branches. Anthony answered him: “It is written: “Thou shalt not covet... the spruce of thy neighbor” (Ex. 20:17)” - and, as soon as he said this, suddenly all the branches withered up, as if from fire. Seeing this, Anthony said to Macarius: “Behold, the Spirit has rested on you, and you will subsequently be the heir of my virtues.” There, again in the desert, the devil, having met Macarius, very tired, says to him: “Here you have received the grace of Anthony - why don’t you take advantage of your advantage and don’t ask God for food and strength for the journey?” Macarius answered him: “The Lord is my strength and my song” (Ps. 117:14), but you will not tempt the servant of God.” And so the devil presents him with a ghost: a camel wandering through the desert with a pack containing all sorts of food supplies. Seeing Macarius, the camel stopped in front of him. The saint, thinking that it was a ghost (as indeed it was), began to pray - and the camel was immediately devoured by the earth. This same Macarius once met with the Great Macarius of Egypt, and as they needed to cross the Nile, they happened to board a large raft, onto which some tribunes 11 also ascended with great pomp: they had a chariot all covered with copper, horses with gilded bridles; with them were several bodyguard warriors and youths decorated with necklaces and gold belts. When these tribunes saw monks in the corner dressed in shabby rags, they began to praise their squalor and one of them said to them: “Blessed are you for despising the world!” City 12 Macarius answered them: “Yes! We despised the world, and the world despises you. Know that you did not say this on your own, but prophetically: indeed, we are both called Macarii - blessed.” Struck by these words, the tribune, upon returning home, threw off his worldly clothes and, devoting himself to monasticism, performed many acts of mercy. Once they sent Macarius a bunch of fresh grapes - and then he was very hungry. To show his abstinence, he sent this brush to one brother who also wanted grapes. Having received the grapes with great joy, this brother, in the intention of hiding his abstinence, sent it to another brother, as if he himself did not want this food. But this brother, having received the grapes, did the same with him, although he himself really wanted to eat them. Thus, the grapes passed among many brothers, and no one wanted to eat them. Finally, the last brother, having received it, sent it back to Macarius as an expensive gift. Macarius, recognizing the grapes and finding out how everything was, was surprised and thanked God for such abstinence of the brothers, but he himself did not want to eat it. Such was the asceticism of the Great Macarius, which I, along with many others, learned from him! If when he heard that someone had accomplished a special feat, he himself certainly did the same with ardor. Thus, having heard from someone that the Tavenna monks ate uncooked food throughout Lent, the saint decided for seven years not to eat anything cooked over a fire, but to eat only raw vegetables or, when it happened, soaked beans. He did not taste anything else during these seven years. Having fulfilled this vow, he, however, abandoned this way of life. Having learned that one monk ate one liter (12 ounces) of bread, this most perfect monk decided to imitate him: breaking all his crackers and putting them in a jug, he made it a rule to eat no more than what his hand could reach. This exhaustion of the body was also great. He cheerfully told us this: “I used to grab more pieces, but my narrow throat wouldn’t let me take them out - my jug wouldn’t let me eat at all.” For three whole years he labored in such abstinence: eating four or five ounces of bread and drinking the corresponding amount of water, and eating butter for the whole year, he ate only a sixth of the conga 13. Here is another feat of this warrior. This adamant intended to overcome sleep. And this is what he said: “For twenty days I did not go under the roof in order to defeat sleep in this way. During the day the heat scorched me, and at night the cold shivered, and as much as I did not want to enter the hut and refresh myself with sleep, my brain became so dry that I finally went into a frenzy. At least, as far as it depended on me, I was overcome by sleep, but I gave in to it as a requirement of nature itself.” One day Saint Macarius was sitting in his cell at dawn; A mosquito landed on his leg and bit into it. Having allowed him to drink blood, Macarius, when he felt pain, crushed him. But later he began to repent that he had avenged himself, and for such a sin he condemned himself to sit naked for six months in a hermitage swamp, which was located in the remote desert. Mosquitoes here are as big as wasps and bite the skin of even wild boars. He was so bitten and eaten away by them that some wondered if he had leprosy. When, six months later, he returned to his cell, they only recognized by his voice that it was Mr. Macarius himself. One day, as he himself told us, he wanted to go to the grave of Jannes and Jambres, the sorcerers who lived under Pharaoh, to look at it or even meet with the demons who lived there, and this place, by the power of their sorceries, Jannes and Jambres populated with many demons, and the most fierce ones at that. The tomb was erected by Jannes and Jambres themselves, who at that time occupied the first place among the pharaohs, as they surpassed everyone in magical art. Taking advantage of their great power in Egypt during their lifetime, they built this building from quadrangular stones, erected a tomb for themselves here and put a lot of gold here, planted all kinds of trees and dug a very deep well in this damp place. They did all this in the hope that after death they would enjoy pleasures in this beautiful garden. Since God's servant Macarius did not know the way to this place, he planned his path with the course of the stars, as sailors do. Thus the holy man walked throughout the desert. Having found several reeds here, he placed one reed in each field 14 so that he would know from them how to return back. In nine days he walked all this desert and was already not far from that garden, when night fell he fell asleep. The evil demon, always at enmity against the ascetics of Christ, while Macarius was sleeping no more than a mile from the tomb, collected all the reeds and, placing them at his very head, withdrew. Waking up, Macarius finds that all the reeds that he placed along the road as a sign have been collected in one place. Perhaps God allowed this, calling Macarius to greater labors, so that he would rely not on the instructions of reeds, but on the grace of God, who led Israel for forty years through the terrible desert through the pillar of cloud. “When I began to approach the tomb,” said the saint, “up to seventy demons in different forms came out of it to meet me; some of them shouted, others jumped, some fiercely gnashed their teeth at me, and others, like winged corvids, rushed into my face and said: "What do you want, Macarius? Why did you come to us? You, together with those like yourself, took possession of our desert, you drove out the demons related to us from there. You and I have nothing in common. Why are you coming to our places? Like a hermit, be content desert. Those who built this place gave it to us, but you cannot be here. Why do you want to enter this domain, where no living person has entered since we buried the brothers who founded it here?" And the demons made a lot of noise and pitifully screamed, but I, says Macarius, told them: “I’ll just go and have a look, and then I’ll leave here.” The demons said: “Promise us this according to your conscience.” The servant of God answered: “I promise,” and the demons disappeared. “When I entered the garden,” he says, “I looked around everything and, by the way, I saw a copper tub hanging on an iron chain above the well (the tub had become covered with rust over time), also apples, completely empty inside, because they had dried out from the sun.” Then, calmly leaving this place, the saint returned to his cell twenty days later. Only a considerable misfortune happened to him: he did not have enough bread and water, which he carried with him; Thus, he ate almost nothing during all those days of wandering in the desert. Perhaps through this he was tempted to be patient, as it turned out to be in reality. When he was already close to exhaustion, someone appeared to him, as he himself said, in the form of a girl dressed in clean linen and holding a jug from which water was dripping. According to Macarius, she was no more than a stage away from him. He walked for three days and saw everything as if she was standing with a jug and calling him, but he could not overtake her. However, in the hope of quenching his thirst, the saint bravely endured fatigue for three days. After this, many buffaloes appeared, and one of them, with a buffalo calf, stopped right in front of the old man (they are found here in large numbers); according to Macarius, milk flowed from her nipples. “When I approached her,” he said, “I drank my fill of milk. But, in order to further show me mercy, the Lord, admonishing cowardice, commanded the buffalo to follow me all the way to my cell. Obedient to his command, she followed me, feeding me milk and not letting her buffalo suckle.” At another time, this valiant man, while digging a well for the benefit of the monks (and all kinds of leaves and brushwood lay near the well), was stung by an asp. The saint took the asp by both jaws with his hands and tore it to pieces, saying: “How did you dare to approach me when my Lord did not send you?” The same Great Macarius, having heard about the wondrous life of the Tavenna monks, changed his attire and went to Thebaid in the worldly dress of a villager. For fifteen days he walked in the desert. Arriving at the Tavennes monastery, the saint began to look for an archimandrite named Pachomius, a very famous husband who possessed the gift of prophecy. Then the intention of the Great Macarius was not revealed to this saint. Having met him, Macarius said: “I beg you, my lord, accept me into your monastery so that I can be a monk.” The Great Pachomius said to him: “In such old age, how can you strive? Here the brethren have been asceticizing since their youth and enduring grueling labor because they are accustomed to it, but at that age you cannot endure the trials of asceticism - you will begin to grumble, and then you will leave the monastery and begin to slander us.” So he did not accept it, and the same on the second day, even until seven days. But Elder Macarius stood firm in his intention and spent all his time in fasting. Finally he says to Pachomius: “Abba, accept me. And if I don’t fast like them and don’t do what they do, then they ordered me to be kicked out of the monastery.” The Great Pachomius convinces the brethren to accept him (and to this day there are one thousand four hundred brethren in this monastery alone). So the Great Macarius entered this monastery. After a little time, Pentecost came; The elder sees that each monk undertakes a different feat: one takes food in the evening, another - after five days, another stands all night in prayer, and during the day sits at handicrafts. And he, Macarius, having broken a large number of palm branches, stood in the corner and during the entire Lent, until Easter, did not take bread, did not touch water, did not kneel, did not sit, did not lie down and did not eat anything except a few leaves of raw cabbage, and he ate them only on Sundays, and then so that they would see what he was eating, and so that he himself would not fall into conceit. And if he left his cell for any need, he returned as soon as possible and got down to business. Without opening his lips or saying a word, he stood in silence; His whole occupation consisted in heartfelt prayer and weaving branches that were in his hands. Seeing this, the ascetics of that monastery began to murmur against their abbot and say: “Where did you bring this disembodied man to us for our condemnation? Either drive him out of here, or all of us, let it be known to you, will leave you today.” Hearing this from the brethren, the great Pachomius began to ask about Macarius and, having learned how he lived, asked God to reveal to him who he was. And it was revealed to him that this was the monk Macarius. Then the Great Pachomius takes him by the hand, leads him out and, bringing him to the house of prayer, where they had an altar, kissed him and said to him: “Come here, honest elder! You Macarius hid this from me! For many years now I have wanted to see you, because I heard about your deeds. I thank you: you have humbled my children - let them not be proud of their exploits. Now I ask you: go to your place, you have already taught us enough, pray for us.” Thus, at the request of Pachomius and at the request of all the brethren, Macarius retired. This dispassionate man also told us the following: “When I had gone through the entire ascetic life that I had chosen, another spiritual desire was born in me: I wanted to do something so that for only five days my mind would not be distracted from God and would not think about anything else, but would be turned to Him alone. Having decided on this, I locked my cell and the vestibule in front of it, so as not to answer anyone who came. I began this from the very next day, giving my mind the following order: “See, do not descend from heaven: there you are with the Angels, Archangels, with all the heavenly Powers - Cherubim, Seraphim and with God Himself, the Creator of all things; be there, do not descend from heaven and do not fall into sensual thoughts.” Having spent two days and two nights like this, I irritated the demon so much that he became a fiery flame and burned everything that was in my cell; The very matting on which I stood was engulfed in fire, and it seemed to me that I was all on fire. Finally, struck by fear, on the third day I abandoned my intention, unable to keep my mind undistracted, and descended to the contemplation of this world, so that it would not be imputed to me as pride.” One day I came to this spiritual monk, the Great Macarius, and found that some presbyter from the village was lying outside his cell. His head was so eaten away by a disease called cancer that the entire bone at the crown of the head was visible. He came to Macarius to receive healing, but he did not even want to accept it. I began to beg Macarius and told him: “I beg you, have mercy on this sufferer, give him at least some kind of answer.” The saint answered me: “He is not worthy of healing. The Lord sent him such a disease to admonish him. If you want him to be healed, then advise him from now on to refuse to perform the Sacraments.” I told him: “I beg you, tell me why this is?” He answered me: “This presbyter performed the liturgy in the sin of fornication and is now being punished for this. If out of fear he stops what he dared to do carelessly, God will heal him.” When I told this to the sufferer, he promised with an oath not to perform the priesthood anymore. Then Macarius received him and said to him: “Do you believe that there is a God from whom nothing is hidden?” He answered: “I believe.” Then Macarius told him: “You shouldn’t have laughed at God.” He answered: “I shouldn’t have, my lord.” The great Macarius said: “If you recognize your sin and the punishment of God that you have suffered for this sin, then correct yourself for the future.” The presbyter confessed his sin and promised not to sin again and not to serve at the altar, but to become one of the laity. Then the saint laid his hands on him, and in a few days he recovered, grew hair and returned home healthy, glorifying God and thanking the Great Macarius. This saint had different cells in the desert, in which he performed feats of virtue: one in a monastery, in the deepest desert, one in Libya, in the so-called Cells, and one in Mount Nitria. Some of them were without windows - they say Macarius spent Pentecost in them in the dark. One cell was so cramped that it was impossible to stretch one’s legs in it; and the cell was also more spacious than the others - in it he received visitors. This God-loving man healed so many demoniacs that it is difficult to list them. In our presence they brought to this monk a noble and rich maiden from Thessalonica, in Achaia; she had suffered from paralysis for many years. Those who brought it threw her down near Macarius’ cell. The saint, having taken pity on her and prayed, anointed her with holy oil with his own hand, prayed incessantly and more mentally for her, and after twenty days he released her to his city healthy. Arriving home on her own feet, she sent rich gifts to the saints. Also, before my eyes, a youth possessed by an evil spirit was brought to Saint Macarius, the spiritual physician of all crazy passions. Placing his right hand on his head and his left hand on his heart, the saint prayed for him until he hung in the air. The boy swelled up like fur with his whole body, became very heavy in weight, and suddenly, crying out, he began to spew water out of himself with all his senses. But when this was over, he returned to his former measure. Then, having anointed him with holy oil and sprinkled him with blessed water, Macarius gave him to his father and ordered that the sick man should not touch either meat or wine for forty days, and thus sent him away healed. One day, Macarius the Great began to be bothered by vainglorious thoughts, trying to call him out of his cell and urging him to go to Rome for the benefit of others, namely to help the sick there, for in him the grace of the Lord had a strong effect on unclean spirits. These thoughts troubled him for a long time, but he did not listen to them. Then they, armed against him more powerfully, began to drive him out. And so the saint fell on the threshold of his cell; stretching out his legs, he let them out and said to the demons of vanity: “Drag me, demons, if you can: with my legs I will not go to another place; If you can carry me away like this, I will go wherever you call.” He swore to them: “I will lie like this until the evening; If you don’t move me, I won’t listen to you.” After lying motionless for a long time, he finally got up when it was already late evening. But as night fell, the demons began to bother him again. The saint stood up, took a basket, poured two measures of sand into it and, putting it on his shoulders, walked with it through the desert. Here Theosebius, a builder, a native of Antioch, met him and said to him: “What are you talking about, Abba? Give me your burden and don’t exhaust yourself.” But Macarius answered him: “I exhaust the one who exhausts me; not liking to work, he instills in me a desire to wander.” He walked like this for a long time and returned to his cell, his body exhausted. The servant of Christ Paphnutius, a disciple of this valiant ascetic, also told us. One day, when the blessed and immortal Macarius was sitting in the vestibule of his cell and talking with God, a hyena brought to him her blind cub. Pushing her head into the hallway door, she went in to Macarius, who was still sitting here at that time, and threw the cub at his feet. Saint Macarius took him and, spitting in his eyes, said a prayer, and he immediately began to see, and his mother fed him and left with him. The next day, the hyena brought the skin of a large sheep to Saint and Blessed Macarius. Seeing this skin, the saint said to the hyena: “You tore apart someone’s sheep - otherwise where would you get the skin? I will not take from you what was gained by injustice.” The hyena, lowering its head to the ground, knelt at the feet of the saint and offered him skin. But he tells her: “I said that I won’t take it unless you take an oath that you will no longer eat the poor’s sheep.” At the same time, she lowered her head again, as if agreeing to the words of the saint. The servant of Christ refused this skin to the holy and blessed Athanasius the Great. And the blessed servant of Christ Melania told me that she took this skin from the holy and wondrous husband Macarius under the name of the gift of a hyena. And what is surprising if to people who have been crucified to the world, and the hyena, who has been blessed by them, brings gifts to the glory of God and in honor of His servants?! He who tamed the lions before Daniel the prophet gave meaning to this hyena. They also say about Saint Macarius that from the time he was baptized he never spat on the ground, and now sixty years have passed since he received Baptism. The faithful servant of Christ and immortal Macarius was baptized in the fortieth year of his life. This invincible ascetic of Christ looked like this (I must tell you about this, servant of Christ: being his contemporary, I, unworthy, knew him well): he was bent and lean. Hair grew only on his lip, and even on the end of his chin there was not much of it - due to his excessive ascetic labors, even his beard did not grow. One day I fell into great melancholy and, coming to this saint, I said to him: “Abba Macarius! What should I do? Thoughts confuse me, telling me: “You are not doing anything here, go away.” The Holy Father answered me: “Say to your thoughts: “For Christ I guard the walls.” Of the many great miracles and exploits of the glorious and valiant Macarius, only these have I described to you, Christ-loving and inquisitive servant of God! This wonderful man told us another miracle: during the teaching of the Mysteries of Christ (he was a presbyter), I myself never gave an offering to Mark the ascetic, but I noticed that an Angel took it from the altar and gave it to him - however, I only saw the hand giving him Communion. This Mark, who was mentioned at the end of the previous legend, in his youth knew by heart the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; he was extremely meek and modest, like hardly anyone else. One day, at my leisure, I went to see him (he was already very old) and, sitting at the door of his cell (as a novice, I considered him superior to a man, and he really was), I began to listen to what he said or what he did. Completely alone inside the cell, an almost hundred-year-old old man who no longer had any teeth, he was still struggling with himself and with the devil and said: “What else do you want, old man? And you drank wine and consumed oil - what else do you ask of me? You gray-haired glutton, you glutton, you are disgracing yourself.” Then, turning to the devil, he said: “Finally, get away from me, devil, you have grown old with me in negligence. Under the pretext of bodily weakness, you forced me to drink wine and oil and made me a sensualist. Do I really still owe you anything now? There is nothing more for you to steal from me, get away from me, misanthrope.” Then, as if jokingly, he said to himself: “Come on, chatterbox, gray-haired glutton, greedy old man, how long will I be with you?” Someone named Moses, an Ethiopian by birth, black in complexion, was a slave of a certain dignitary. The master drove him away from himself for great debauchery and robbery. They say that he even went as far as committing murder - I find it necessary to mention his bad deeds in order to show what the virtue of his repentance was afterward. Some say that he was even the leader of a very large gang of robbers. From his robber deeds, by the way, the following is known. He harbored anger against a shepherd who, with the dogs of his flock, had interfered with him in some nightly enterprise. Having decided to kill him, he walked around the place where his sheep usually grazed. But they let him know that the shepherd was on the other side of the Nile, and as the river at that time overflowed to the width of one field, he took the sword in his teeth, and put the dress he was wearing on his head and swam across the river. Meanwhile, while he was sailing, the shepherd had the opportunity to hide in a secret place. Thus, Moses did not succeed in the enterprise, and he, having slaughtered four selected rams and tied them with a rope, swam back across the Nile. Entering a small hut on the way, he skinned the sheep here, ate the best meat, exchanged the skins for wine and, having drunk it to eighteen Italian measures, went to the gathering place of the gang, which was still fifty miles away. And this terrible chieftain, later struck by some accident, retired to the monastery and showed such repentance that his very accomplice, the devil, who from his youth had incited him to do evil and participated in all his deeds, forced him to confess Christ against his will. By the way, they say that once four robbers attacked him in his cell, not knowing that he was Moses. The blessed one bandaged them all and, lifting them onto his shoulders like a bag of straw, brought them to the meeting of the brethren and said: “I cannot offend anyone, but they came to offend me - what do you order to do with them?” So the robbers taken by Saint Moses confessed their sin before God, and when they learned that it was Moses, the once famous and well-known leader of the robbers, they glorified Christ for him and, touched by his conversion, they themselves renounced the world and became good monks. They reasoned like this: “If this strong man, so famous for his robber craft, feared God so much, then why should we delay the salvation of our souls?” The demons of intemperance rose up against this blessed Moses (that’s what he should already be called), dragging him to his former dissolute and prodigal life. He was so tempted by them that, as he himself said, he almost abandoned his intention to live as a monk. And so he went to the Great Isidore, who lived in the monastery, and told him about his struggle with lustful thoughts. The saint told him: “Don’t be discouraged, this is just the beginning. They attacked you so much because they want to return you to your old habits. If you remain steadfast in the feat of abstinence, “putting to death your flesh... even on earth” (Col. 3:5), and block the entrance to gluttony, which is the mother of lust, then the demon of fornication, no longer finding food that would kindle it, will retreat from you with vexation.” From that time on, Christ's servant Moses withdrew into solitude and, confining himself in his cell, with the greatest patience began to strive most of all in abstinence from food and, except for twelve ounces of dry bread, did not eat any other food. He worked very hard and performed fifty prayers every day. But no matter how much he humbled his body, he was still sometimes troubled by lust, especially in his sleep. Then he went to one monk, the most experienced among the saints, and said to him: “What should I do, Abba? Dreams darken my mind, because my soul, as usual, enjoys them.” The saint answered him: “You have not yet distracted your mind from sleepy dreams, and therefore you are subject to this unclean lust. Do what I tell you: spend some time awake, pray fervently and you will soon be freed from these dreams.” The valiant Moses, having listened to this instruction, as from an experienced mentor, and returning to his cell, promised himself not to sleep all night and not to bend his knees even to pray, in order to avoid the power of sleep. And he lived for six years in his cell, standing whole nights in the middle of the cell, constantly praying to God and not closing his eyes. But even with such exploits he could not overcome unbridled lust. Truly unbridled lust! For, no matter how exhausted he was with his labors, he could not, however, conquer this shameful passion. After all this, he decided to exhaust himself in another way. Going out at night, this opponent of Satan (he fought against him in various ways) went around the cells of those monks who, having grown old in the labors of asceticism, were no longer able to carry water for themselves, took their waterpots and filled them with water, so that they did not even know it. And in those places they get water far away: some - two miles away, others - five, others - half a mile. The demon, unable to bear the patience of the warrior, lay in wait for him and on one of these nights, when Moses was engaged in this matter, as soon as he leaned into the well to fill the water tank of one monk, he hit him on the thighs with a club so that he fell there dead, completely not understanding what had happened to him and who had done it. The next day, one monk who came here for water, seeing that he was lying there and barely breathing, went and told the Great Isidore, the monastery presbyter, about this, who, going to that place with several of the brethren, took him and brought him to the monastery. Moses was sick for a whole year, so that he was finally strengthened in body and soul. Then Isidore, the great priest of Christ, began to say to him: “Finally stop fighting the demons, my brother, and do not step on them, for in asceticism there is a measure for exploits against demons.” The invincible servant of Christ says to the Great: “I will not stop fighting with them until sleepy dreams leave me.” Then Presbyter Isidore said to him: “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, from now on there will be no unclean dreams with you. Now partake of the Holy Mysteries with hope. So that you would not be conceited, as if you had conquered lust with your own exploits, the devil struck you so hard for your own good, so that you would not fall from arrogance.” Having heard this, Moses returned to his cell and already quietly spent his life in moderate asceticism. When, two or three months later, the blessed presbyter Isidore asked the ascetic whether that spirit had bothered him, he answered: “From the very hour you prayed for me, servant of God, nothing like that has happened to me.” This saint was granted great grace against demons. Just as we are not afraid of flies in winter, so, exactly, and even more, did this great warrior Moses despise demons. Such was the holy life of the invincible ascetic Moses, an Ethiopian by origin, but adorned in soul by Divine grace. Due to his valor, he was numbered among the great fathers, died in the monastery at the age of seventy-five years from birth in the rank of presbyter and left behind seventy disciples. There is a mountain in Egypt through which the path goes to a desert hermitage; it is called Ferma. About five hundred ascetics live on this mountain. Among them was someone named Paul, a valiant monk who constantly led the following way of life: he never took part in work or any worldly business, and took nothing from anyone, except for daily food. His asceticism consisted of unceasing prayer. Since he was supposed to perform three hundred prayers a day, he, having collected the same number of pebbles, kept them in his bosom and, as soon as he finished one prayer, threw one pebble out of his bosom. One day this pious man, having come to Saint Macarius, the so-called City One, for a meeting and spiritual edification, said to him: “Abba Macarius! I am in great tribulation." The servant of Christ forced him to say the reason for his sorrow, and he said to him: “In one village there lives a virgin who has been asceticizing for thirty years. Many told me that she does not eat food on any day except Saturday and Sunday, that, always spending weeks like this, she eats every five days and performs seven hundred prayers every day. I reproached myself when I found out about this, reasoning that I, being a man and surpassing her in the strength of my bodily strength, could not perform more than three hundred prayers.” Saint Macarius answered: “For the past sixty years I have been performing only one hundred prescribed prayers, earning what I need for food with my own hands, for a long time I have not refused to see the brothers, and yet my mind does not reproach me for negligence. If, after performing three hundred prayers, you are condemned by your conscience, then it is obvious that you are either praying with an unclean heart, or you could pray more and yet do not pray.” Kronius, presbyter of Nitria, told me the following about himself: “In my early youth, out of cowardice, I ran away from the monastery of my archimandrite and, wandering, reached Mount Saint Anthony. And this blessed one lived between Babylon and Iraklea, in a vast desert extending to the Red Sea, thirty miles from the Nile River. Arriving at his monastery (it was located near this river, in a place called Pispir), where his disciples Macarius and Amatas lived, who buried him when he died, I waited five days for the opportunity to see Saint Anthony. I was told that he visits the monastery sometimes after ten days, sometimes after twenty, sometimes after five - as God puts it in his heart to go there for the benefit of those who come to the monastery. This time a lot of us gathered for different needs. Among them was one Alexandrian monk, Eulogius, and with him another crippled man. They came for the following reason. This Eulogius knew the sciences taught in schools, but, moved by the love of God and desiring immortality, he renounced the noise of the world and, having distributed all his property to the poor, kept a small part of the money for himself, because he could not work. Being indecisive with himself because he did not want to join the hostel and did not consider himself capable of solitude, he found in the marketplace one crippled man who had neither arms nor legs, but only his tongue remained intact to beg those passing by. Eulogius stopped, looked at him, prayed to God and made the following vow to God: “Lord! In Your name I will take this crippled man and will rest him until his death, so that for his sake I too may be saved. Grant me, O Christ, patience to serve him.” Then, approaching the crippled man, he said: “Do you want, my friend, that I take you into the house and put you to rest?” “Oh, that you would honor me! - answered the crippled man. “But I don’t deserve this.” “So I’ll go,” said Eulogius, “I’ll bring the donkey and take you from here.” The crippled man agreed to this with great joy. Eulogius brought a donkey, put the crippled one on it, brought it to his home and began to take care of it, satisfying all its needs. The crippled man lived for fifteen years in all contentment, because Eulogius cared for him as a father, washed him with love, anointed him with oil, pleased him in everything, carried him with his own hands, took care of him more than he deserved, and rested him as soon as his illness required. But after fifteen years, the demon entered the crippled man, wanting, of course, to deviate Eulogius from his vow, and to deprive the crippled man of peace and gratitude to God. The crippled man rebelled against Eulogius, began to revile him and shower him with curses, saying to him: “Wretched fugitive! You apparently stole other people's money; You, perhaps having been a slave, robbed your master and want to hide behind me, as if you accepted me into your home under the pretext of charity, and because of me you want to be saved? Eulogius begged and reassured him, saying: “No, my friend. Don’t say this, but rather tell me why I upset you, and I will correct myself.” But the crippled man said with insolence: “I don’t want these caresses of yours; take me and throw me into the market place, where before I was so calm.” “Do me a favor, my friend,” Eulogius told him, “calm down, what upsets you?” But the crippled man, hardened with anger, told him: “I can’t stand your insidious and hypocritical affection. This meager and hungry life disgusts me - I want to eat meat!” The generous Eulogius also brought him some meat. Seeing him, the obstinate crippled man shouted again: “I’m bored of living with you alone - I want to see a lot of people.” Eulogius answered: “I will now bring many brothers to you.” But he again says indignantly: “Oh, I’m unhappy! I can’t look at you, and you want to bring parasites like you to me.” And, tormenting himself, he shouted in a frantic voice: “I don’t want, I don’t want - I want to go to the marketplace! Leave me where you found me." In a word, if he had had hands, he would not have failed to take his own life - the demon drove him into such a rage! After this, Eulogius went to the ascetics who lived in the neighborhood and asked them: “What should I do? Leave him? But I made a vow to God and I’m afraid to break it. Don't quit? So he gives me no peace day or night. I don’t know what to do with him.” They answer: “The Great (as they called Saint Anthony) is still alive - go to him. Place the crippled man in a boat and, having carried him to the monastery, wait there until the Great One comes out of the cave, and bring the matter to his judgment. Whatever he tells you, do it: through him God will speak to you.” Eulogius listened to the advice of the ascetics: he caressed the crippled man, put him in a shepherd’s boat and, leaving the city at night, arrived with him at the monastery of Great Anthony. It happened that the Great came to his monastery, as Cronius said, late in the evening the next day, dressed in a leather robe. He used to call Macarius to him and ask him: “Brother Macarius! Have any brethren come here?” Macarius answered: “They have arrived.” “Egyptians or Jerusalemites?” – the Great One asked further. (You need to know that the Great Anthony instilled in Macarius in advance: “When you see that people who are not entirely zealous have come to the monastery, then say: “Egyptians.” And when quite pious and intelligent people come, say: “Jerusalemians.”) So, the Great, as usual, asked his disciple, Macarius: “Are these brethren Egyptians or Jerusalemites? Macarius answered: “A mixture.” When Macarius said that the Egyptians had arrived, the Great One ordered him to make juice for them, feed them, and then, having made one prayer for them, he sent them away. And when Macarius said: “People of Jerusalem,” the saint spent the whole night with them in conversation about the salvation of the soul. That evening, says Cronius, the Great sat down and invited everyone to him. It was already very late when he began to call: “Evlogius, Eulogius, Eulogius!”, although no one told him the name of this scientist. He said this name three times. But Eulogius did not answer, thinking that this was the name of someone else. Anthony another time says to him: “I tell you, Eulogius, who came from Alexandria.” Then Eulogius said: “What do you want?” The Great One says to him: “Why did you come here?” Eulogius answered: “He who revealed my name to you will also reveal the cause for which I came.” “I know why you came,” Saint Anthony tells him, “but tell it in front of all the brethren, so that they too can hear.” Obeying the order of the Great, the servant of God Eulogius said in front of everyone: “I found this crippled man in the marketplace, he was lying there without any care. Taking pity on him, I prayed to God that He would grant me the grace of patience in serving the crippled, and took him to myself, vowing to Christ to follow him, so that I could be saved for his sake, and he could have peace from me. We have been living together for fifteen years now - of course, everything is open to your holiness. But now, after so many years, I don’t know for what fault on my part he insults me to the extreme, and I decided to leave him, because he himself forces me to do so. That’s why I came to your holiness, so that you could give me advice on what I should do and pray for me, for he seriously offends me.” The Great Anthony says to him in the most stern and stern voice: “Eulogius! Do you want to leave him? But He who created him will not abandon him. You will abandon him, and God will raise up one better than you and raise him up.” Eulogius fell silent and was afraid when he heard this. And the Great Anthony, leaving Eulogius, begins to punish with the words of the crippled man and loudly says to him: “You, crippled, dirty, unworthy of either earth or heaven, will you stop rebelling against God and irritating your brother? Do you not know that Christ serves you? How dare you speak so against Christ? Was it not for Christ’s sake that he gave himself into your service?” Having humbled the crippled man with these denunciations, Anthony left them and began talking with all the brothers about the needs of each of them, then again he turned to Eulogius and the crippled man and said to them: “Stop quarreling, children, but go in peace; do not be separated from each other, give up all the grief that the demon has sowed between you, and with pure love return to the cell in which you lived for so long. God is already sending for you. This temptation is brought upon you by Satan: he knows that you are both already at the end of the race and will soon receive crowns from Christ - he for you, and you for him. So, don't think about anything else; if the Angel, coming for you, does not find both of you in the same place, you will lose your crowns.” And so they hastily set off and returned to their cell in perfect love. Less than forty days passed before blessed Eulogius died and went to the Lord, and three days after him he died, crippled in body, but already strong in soul, having given up his spirit into the hands of God. Cronius, having spent some time in Thebaid, went to the Alexandrian monasteries. It happened that at this time the brethren had already celebrated the fortieth day for the blessed Eulogia, and the third day for the crippled one. Having learned about this, Cronius was amazed and, taking the Gospel to confirm those who listened to him, he placed it among the brethren and, telling how the Great Anthony knew about them and everything that happened in advance, he added with an oath: “I myself was a translator during their conversation, for blessed Anthony did not know Greek, and I know both languages (Greek and Egyptian), therefore I translated for the blessed already in the grace of Christ, Eulogius and the crippled, in Greek the words of the Great, and to the holy, blessed and Great Anthony, in Egyptian the words of both.” The Legend of Blessed Anthony Cronius said: "Antony the Great, on the night when he released blessed Eulogius after reconciliation with the crippled, he told us the following: “For a whole year I prayed that the place of the righteous and sinners would be shown to me. And then I saw a huge black giant who rose to the clouds and reached with his hands to the sky; under him there was a lake the size of the sea. Then I saw human souls; they flew like birds and, which flew over the hands and head of the giant, everyone was protected by Angels, and those whom he hit with his hands fell into the lake. And a voice came to me: those whom you see flying over the head and hands of the giant are the souls of the righteous, Angels protect them in paradise, and those whom the black giant hits with his hands plunge into hell, because they were carried away by the desires of the flesh and indulged in memory." I will now tell you what I heard from the holy servant of Christ Hierax, also from Kronius and many other brethren. A certain Pavel, a rural farmer, extremely gentle and simple in disposition, married a very beautiful wife, but of dishonest behavior. She had been sinning for a long time, but her husband did not know it. One day, coming home from the field suddenly, he discovered her relationship with a stranger. Providence turned this incident to the benefit of Paul. He leaves that wife, then, without saying a word to anyone, he goes around eight monasteries and, coming to Blessed Anthony, knocks on the doors. Anthony, coming out, asks him: “What do you need?” Paul answers him: “I want to be a monk.” “You cannot,” said Anthony, “you are already sixty years old; Better go back to your village, work and live in labor, thanking God: you cannot endure the sorrows of the desert.” The elder again answered: “I will do whatever you teach me.” “I told you,” continued Anthony, “that you are old and cannot be a monk - get out of here. If you want to be a monk, then go to a communal monastery, where there are many brothers who can bear with your weaknesses. But I live here alone, I eat every five days, and even then I don’t get enough.” With these and similar words, Anthony drove Paul away from him and, in order not to let him in, locked the door and did not leave him for three days, even for his own needs. But the old man still stood and did not leave. On the fourth day, Anthony, of necessity, opened the door, went out and, seeing Paul again, said to him: “Get away from here, elder. What are you asking from me? You can’t stay here.” “It is impossible for me to die in any other place as here,” answered Paul. Looking at him and seeing that there was nothing edible with him: no bread, no water and nothing else - and that he had been left completely without food for the fourth day, the Great Anthony thought: “Lest he, not being accustomed to fasting, would not die and put a stain on my soul” - and after that he received Paul to himself, telling him: “You can be saved if you are obedient and begin to do everything that you hear from me.” “I will do whatever you order,” Pavel answered. And in the following days Anthony began to lead such a harsh life that he had not led in his early youth. Tempting Paul, he said to him: “Stay here and pray until I come and bring you work.” Then, having gone into the cave, I looked at him through the window and saw how, scorched by the heat, he stood motionless in that place for a whole week. Then, having wetted the palm branches, he said to him: “Take and weave a rope like I did.” The elder weaved until the ninth hour and with great difficulty wove a rope fifteen cubits long. Having looked at the weaving, the Great Anthony was dissatisfied with it and said to Paul: “You wove it badly, unweave it and start again.” Meanwhile, Pavel had not eaten anything for four days - at such an advanced age! Anthony tormented Paul so that this elder, losing patience, would run away from him and give up monasticism. But he unraveled the rope and began to weave it again from the same branches, although it was already more difficult than before, because the branches were spinning from the first weaving. Anthony the Great, seeing that the elder did not grumble, did not become faint-hearted, and was not at all offended, and did not even change his face at all, took pity on him and at sunset said to him: “Shall we, father, eat a piece of bread?” “As you wish, Abba,” answered Paul. This touched Anthony even more that he did not run immediately when he heard about the food, but gave it up to his will. “So set up the table,” Anthony said to the elder. He did it. Anthony brought and placed on the table four dry loaves of bread, six ounces each, and soaked one for himself and three for him; then he began to sing a psalm that he knew, and, having sung it twelve times, he prayed the same number of times in order to test Paul in this too. The elder prayed with the Great One, and even more fervently than him. After twelve prayers, Anthony said to him: “Go and eat.” But as soon as he sat down at the table and began to take the bread, Anthony said to him: “Sit and don’t eat until the evening, but just look at the bread.” Evening came, but Pavel still did not eat. Then Anthony said to him: “Get up, pray and go to bed.” Paul did just that. At midnight, Anthony woke him up to pray and continued his prayers until the ninth hour of the day. Having then prepared a meal, he again invited Pavel to join her, and they sat down to eat late in the evening. Anthony the Great, having eaten one loaf of bread, did not take another, and the elder, eating more slowly, did not yet have time to eat even the loaf of bread he had started. Having waited until he finished, Anthony said to him: “Take another loaf of bread.” “If you eat, then I will,” answered Paul, “but if you do not, then I will not.” “That’s enough for me,” Anthony told him, “I’m a monk.” “That’s enough for me,” Paul answered the Great, “and I want to be a monk.” Then they stood up, and Anthony read twelve prayers and sang twelve psalms. After the prayers, they fell asleep for a little while in their first sleep, then got up again and sang psalms from midnight until the day. Then Anthony sent Paul to go around the desert, telling him: “Come here in three days.” Having done this and finding several brothers with Anthony, Paul asked him what he would order him to do? Anthony answered: “Without saying a word, serve the brethren and eat nothing until the brethren set off on their journey.” And so for three whole weeks Paul did not eat anything. The brothers asked him: “Why are you silent?” Pavel did not answer. Then Anthony said to him: “Why are you silent? Talk to your brothers." And he began to speak. One day a vessel of honey was brought to Paul, and Anthony said to him: “Break the vessel, let all the honey flow out.” He did just that. “Collect honey again,” said Anthony. And it was done. Then Anthony tells him: “Collect the honey another time in the sink - so that there is no debris in it.” Anthony also ordered him to draw water all day. Another time he tore his clothes and ordered them to be sewn, and he sewed them again. This man acquired such obedience that he was given by God the power to cast out demons. The Great Anthony, seeing that the elder zealously imitated him in every kind of asceticism, said to him: “Look, brother! If you can strive like this every day, then stay with me.” Pavel answered: “Maybe you will show me something more over time - I don’t know, but what you did before with me, I do everything easily.” The next day after this, Anthony said to Paul: “In the name of the Lord, you have already become a monk.” Finally, fully convinced that the servant of Christ Paul, although very simple and unlearned, was perfect in soul, the blessed and Great Anthony, a few months later, with the assistance of the grace of God, arranged for him a special cell three or four miles away from his own and said: “Now you, with the help of Christ, have already become a monk; live alone now so that you may be tempted by demons.” After living in solitude for a year, Pavel the Simple, for his high perfection in ascetic virtue, was awarded the gift of casting out demons and healing all sorts of diseases. One day they brought to Blessed Anthony an extremely possessed young man: he was possessed by the main, fiercest demon, who even spewed blasphemies at heaven. Anthony the Great, looking at the young man, said to those who brought him: “This is none of my business: I have not yet received power over this main rank of demons. Pavel the Simple has this gift.” Having said this, blessed Anthony went with them to the valiant Paul and, coming to him, said: “Abba Paul! Cast out the demon from this man, so that he can return to his home healthy and glorify the Lord.” Pavel asked him: “What are you doing?” “I don’t have time,” Anthony answered, “I have something else to do,” and, leaving the boy with him, he went to his cell. The gentle old man stood up, prayed fervently and, calling the demoniac, said: “Abba Anthony commands you to leave this man, so that when he recovers, he glorifies the Lord.” The devil cried out with a curse: “I won’t go out!” Paul, taking his mantle 15, began to hit the possessed man on the back with it, saying: “Come out, Abba Anthony commands.” But the demon began to revile Paul and Anthony even more strongly: “You old parasites, sleepy, insatiable, never satisfied with yours! What do you and I have in common? Why are you torturing us? Finally Paul said: “Go out, or I will go and tell Christ; If you don’t come out, I swear by Jesus, I’ll go and tell Him right away, and then woe to you!” The fierce demon began to revile Jesus, continuing to shout: “I will not come out!” Angry at the demon, Saint Paul left his cell at noon. (At this time, especially in these places, the Egyptians have such a fever, as if in the cave of Babylon.) And he stood on the mountain, like a motionless pillar in the open sky, and prayed like this: “Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate! You see that I will not come down from the stone, I will neither eat nor drink until I die, unless You hear me now, and cast out the demon from this man, and free him from the unclean spirit.” The simple and humble Paul was still crying out to Jesus, the words of his pure lips had not yet ended, when the demon cried out below the cell: “I will go out, they are forcibly casting me out; I am leaving this man and will not come to him again; Paul’s humility and simplicity drive me away, and I don’t know where to go.” Immediately the demon came out and, turning into a huge dragon 16 cubits 17 at seventy, went into the Red Sea. Thus, what was said by the Holy Spirit was fulfilled: “The righteous proclaims manifest faith” (Proverbs 12:17); and in another place: “On whom will I look,” says the Lord, “only to him who is meek and silent and trembles at My words” (Is. 66:2). (Usually lower demons are cast out by men high in faith, and the initial demons are driven out by humble ones.) Behold the miracles of the simple and humble Paul! He performed many other, even greater miracles. The brothers all called him Simple. There lived in a monastery someone named Pakhon; he was already about seventy years old. It happened that, by demonic inspiration, I was tormented by fornication, so that I was unable to fight my thoughts and night visions. Strongly driven by passion, I was ready to leave the desert from this temptation; Meanwhile, he did not tell the neighboring fathers about this, nor even his teacher Evagrius, but secretly went into the very depths of the desert and there he spent fifteen days in conversation with the fathers of the monastery, who had grown old in the desert. Between them I met Pakhon. Noticing more sincerity and spiritual experience in him, I dared to open my heart to him. And this is what this saint told me: “Do not be embarrassed by this temptation. You are not suffering this out of carelessness. The location, the scarcity of essential needs and the inability to see women here speak in your favor. On the contrary, it was brought upon you by the enemy because of your zeal for virtue. Prodigal warfare is of three kinds: sometimes the flesh, devoted to bliss, attacks us; sometimes passions arise in us from thoughts, and sometimes the devil himself rises up against us out of envy. I learned this from many observations. Here I am, as you can see, an old man: I have been living in this cell for forty years and am concerned about my salvation, but, despite my years, I am still subject to temptations.” And here he added with an oath: “For twelve years, after I reached the age of fifty, not a day or night passed without the enemy attacking me. Thinking that God had abandoned me and that was why the demon was torturing me so much, I decided it would be better to die recklessly than to shamefully indulge in the voluptuousness of the flesh, and, leaving my cell, I walked through the desert and found a hyena’s cave. I lay naked in it all day, so that the animals would devour me when leaving the cave. And so, as evening came, and, according to what is written, “the sun knows its west. Thou hast laid down the darkness, and the night has come, in which all the beasts of the oak forest will pass, the roaring ones will snatch and seek food from God for themselves” (Ps. 103:19-21), the male and female, leaving the cave at that time, sniffed me from head to toe and licked me. I already thought that I would be eaten, but they left me. So, after lying there the whole night and not being eaten, I became convinced that, of course, God had mercy on me, and immediately returned to my cell. The demon, having waited a few days, again rebelled against me even stronger than before, so that I almost blasphemed God. He took the form of an Ethiopian maiden, whom I saw in my youth when she was collecting straw in the summer. I imagined that she was sitting with me, and the demon drove me to such an extent that I thought that I had already sinned with her. In a frenzy, I slapped her and she disappeared. Believe me, for two years I could not eradicate the unbearable stench from my hand. Therefore, I began to feel even more despondent and finally, in despair, I went to wander through the desert. Having found a small asp, I took it and began to bring it to my body, so that when it stung me, I would die. But no matter how much I offered it, it did not sting me, by the providence of grace. After this, I heard a voice saying to my heart: “Go Pahon, strive. I allowed the demon such power over you for this purpose, so that you would not dream that you could defeat the demon yourself, but so that, having recognized your weakness, you would never rely on your life, but would always resort to God’s help.” Calmed by this voice, I returned to my cell. From that time on, I felt cheerfulness in myself and, no longer disturbed by this warfare, I spend, after the struggle, the rest of my days in peace. The shamed demon, seeing my contempt for him, no longer approached me.” With these words, Saint Pachon strengthened me to fight Satan, made me more vigorous for exploits, taught me to easily withstand the battle with the demon of fornication and, letting me go, ordered me to always maintain courage. A certain Stefan, originally from Libya, lived for about sixty years between Marmarika and Mareot. Having achieved high perfection in asceticism and in the knowledge of the human heart, he was awarded such grace that anyone who had any sadness, after talking with him, left him without sadness. He was also known to Blessed Anthony and lived in my time, but I did not see him along the distance of my journey. The disciples of Saints Ammonius and Evagrius saw him and told me the following about him: “We came to him at a time when a terrible disease appeared in him in the most dangerous place - cancer. Some doctor treated him in front of us. Having placed the diseased parts of the body at his disposal, the holy man worked with his hands, weaved baskets and talked to us. While cutting off the infected parts, he remained motionless and showed such patience, as if they were cutting someone else's body, or as if it was not his limbs that were cut off, but his hair: he seemed to feel no pain at all. So God’s help strengthened him! When we grieved over this and wondered how a man of such a life fell into such an illness and was subjected to such medical measures, Blessed Stephen, understanding our thoughts, said to us: “Do not be tempted by this, children; God does nothing to harm, but everything is for a useful purpose. Apparently, the Lord found these members worthy of punishment, and in this case it is better for them to suffer here than after departing from this life.” Thus, having enlightened us and with these words strengthened us in patience, he taught us to courageously endure sorrows.” I told this with the intention that we would not consider it strange when we see that some saints were subjected to such serious illnesses. There was a certain Valens, a native of Palestine, proud in spirit, like a Corinthian (the Corinthians and the blessed Apostle Paul in his Epistle reproached them for the vice of pride: “And you will become proud” (1 Cor. 5:2)). This Valens lived with us in the desert for a long time, exhausted his flesh a lot and was a great ascetic throughout his life, but then, deceived by the spirit of conceit and pride, he fell into extreme arrogance, so that he became the playground of demons. Puffed up by the destructive passion of conceit, he finally began to dream in self-delusion that Angels were talking to him and serving him in every matter. This is what people who knew him well said about him. One day in the late evening, when it was already dark, he was weaving baskets and dropped the awl on the floor. For a long time he did not find it, when suddenly, by demonic inspiration, a lit lamp appeared in the cell, and with it he found the lost awl. This gave new food to his arrogance; in the ecstasy of pride, the ascetic dreamed of himself even more, so that he finally began to despise the very Mysteries of Christ. One day some wanderers brought fruit to the church for the brethren; Blessed Macarius, our presbyter, sent them to the cells, a handful to each brother, including this Valens. Having received the fruit, Valens cursed and beat the one who brought it and said to him: “Go tell Macarius: “I am no worse than you that you send me a blessing.” Having learned from this that Valens was under seduction, Macarius a day later went to admonish him and said to him: “Brother Valens! You are seduced. Stop and pray to God.” But Valens did not heed the admonitions of Father Macarius. And since he did not listen to his convictions, he left in great sorrow over the fall of Valens. The devil, convinced that Valens has completely given himself over to deceiving him, takes on the appearance of the Savior and at night comes to him, surrounded by a host of demons in the form of Angels with lit lamps. And then a circle of fire appears, and in the middle of it Valens sees, as it were, the Savior. One of the demons, in the form of an Angel, approaches him and says: “You pleased Christ with your exploits and freedom of life, and He came to see you. So, don’t do anything else, but just stand in the distance and see Him standing among the entire crowd, fall down and worship Him, then go to your cell.” Valens went out and, seeing many spirits with lamps at a distance of about a stage, fell and bowed to the Antichrist. The deluded man revealed his madness to such an extent that, coming to church the next day, he said in front of all the brethren: “I have no need for communion: today I saw Christ.” Then the holy fathers bound him with chains and cured him for a year, destroying his pride with prayers, various humiliations and a harsh life, as they say, healing the opposite with the opposite. It is necessary to place in this book the lives of those who were subjected to deception to warn the readers (since in paradise, along with good plants, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil grew) so that even if they accomplish any feat, they do not think much about their virtue, for often virtues serve as a reason for falling when we do them not with spiritual wisdom and not for the sake of piety, as it is written: “...there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness... And this is vanity” (Eccl. 7:16, 8:10). I had a neighbor, Eron, a native of Alexandria, a well-bred young man with excellent mental gifts and an impeccable life. And he, too, after great labors, valiant deeds and a very virtuous life, having risen to the dreamy heights of insane arrogance, fell from there in a pitiful fall for everyone and destroyed himself. Driven by vain arrogance, he became proud before the holy fathers and began to revile everyone, including the blessed Evagrius, saying: “Those who follow your teaching are mistaken, because they should not follow other teachers except Christ alone.” He also abused the testimony of the word of God with the perverse purpose of supporting his madness and said that the Savior Himself said: “... do not call teachers” upon the earth (Matthew 23:8). Finally, vain arrogance completely darkened his mind, and he fell to such an extent that he was tied with chains, since, out of pride, he did not want to begin even the Mysteries themselves. The truth must be told: his life, according to the stories of the people who lived with Eron, was unusually strict and definitely ascetic. Some say that he often ate food after three months, being content with just partaking of the Mysteries, and perhaps where else did he come across a wild vegetable. I myself saw the experience of his fasting together with Blessed Albin on the way to the monastery. Before the monastery we were forty miles away. During the journey we ate twice and drank water three times. But he ate nothing at all and, walking, read fifteen psalms by heart, then the great psalm, then the Epistle to the Hebrews, then Isaiah and part of the prophet Jeremiah, then Luke the Evangelist and Proverbs. And at the same time he walked in such a way that we could not keep up with him. The wicked demon finally so dominated him that he could not live in his cell, as if the strongest flame was driving him away. Eron went to Alexandria, of course, according to the providence of God and according to the saying: “knocked out a wedge with a wedge.” There he began to attend shows and horse racing and spend time in taverns. Thus indulging in gluttony and drunkenness, he fell into the unclean lust of lust. As a result of his unclean life, he developed a malignant disease, which tormented him terribly for six months. When he felt better, he came to a good feeling, remembered his heavenly life, confessed everything that happened to him before the holy fathers, but, without having time to do anything, he died a few days later. There was another ascetic named Ptolemy. His virtues were so great that it is difficult or, better yet, impossible to talk about them. At first he lived behind the monastery, on the so-called staircase. Not a single monk could live in this place, because the well with water was eighteen miles away. Ptolemy came here with large clay vessels and took water for himself. And in December and January he was content with the dew, which he collected from the stones into his jugs (heavy dew falls there during these months). So he lived here for fifteen years and during all this time he met almost no one. But, deprived of spiritual guidance and conversation with reverend men and the edification of the holy fathers, as well as constant communication of the Mysteries of Christ, he strayed from the right path and reached such madness that, like some wicked people, this unfortunate one began to recognize the dominance of chance, because he was controlled by the demon of error. This enemy inspired him to say this news: as if things don’t matter, but that everything in the world simply happens by chance. Then the enemy of human life, having completely taken possession of his soul, began to inspire him with this: “If this is true, then why are you exhausting yourself so needlessly? What good will it do you, Ptolemy, if there is no reward? Yes, even if there was a Vindicator, how could He reward you worthily for such deeds? And what kind of judgment is this that Scripture threatens when everything happens without Providence? These satanic suggestions crushed the unfortunate Ptolemy, so that he completely lost his mind and, they say, still wanders around Egypt, indulging in gluttony and drunkenness, does not speak to anyone, but silently wanders through the squares, presenting himself to the eyes of Christians as a pitiful and deplorable sight and serving as a toy and a laughing stock for those who have no idea about our life. And this incurable disaster befell the unfortunate Ptolemy because of his insane pride: deceived by the evil one, he thought that he had knowledge above all the holy fathers. Having become proud of this, he - his own enemy - plunged into this abyss of destruction because he never talked with the holy fathers, these wise helmsmen, and did not listen to their spiritual guidance; therefore, having no helmsman and beset by a gloomy storm, he plunged into the extreme abyss of death. Or it can be likened to a beautiful tree, which, having been covered with leaves and fruits, in one minute lost everything and dried up. So it was with him, according to the word of Scripture: “Those who have no control, like leaves fall” (Proverbs 11:14). About the Virgin of Jerusalem I also knew a virgin in Jerusalem who wore a hair shirt for six years and, confining herself in her cell, renounced all pleasures and led the most abstinent life among women. But then, having been abandoned by God's help for excessive pride - this nourisher of all evil - she fell into fornication. This happened to her because she labored not out of spiritual disposition and not out of love for God, but for show to people, for the sake of vain glory, which the corrupt will seeks. The demon of vanity, having distracted her from pious thoughts, aroused in her a desire to condemn others. When she became intoxicated by the demon of pride and still enjoyed him, then the holy Angel, the guardian of chastity, retreated from her. I have described to you, most pious man, the lives of both those who remained in virtue to the end, and those who, from the height of asceticism after many labors through negligence, were drawn by the devil into his various snares so that everyone in his life could recognize the secret machinations of the hater of goodness and avoid his snares. There were many great men and women who at first labored zealously in virtue, but were finally overthrown by the enemy of the human race. Of the many of them, mentioning only a few, I will keep silent about most of them, because by talking a lot about them, I would not correct them, and would not bring any benefit to myself, moreover, I would show inattention to the chosen ascetics of Christ if I stopped further narration about the virtues of their pious asceticism. There was a virgin named Piamun, who lived her whole life with her mother and ate food with her alone only in the evening, and during the day she spun flax. She was awarded the gift of prophecy. Once, during the flood of the Nile, one village attacked another, for there are quarrels between villages over the division of water that feeds parts of the land, on which its fertility depends, and often leads to bloodshed and murder. So, the strongest village attacked the village where Piamun lived. Many people went there with stakes and clubs to completely ruin her village. But an Angel of God appeared to the blessed virgin and revealed to her about the upcoming attack. She called the elders of her village and told them: “They are coming at you from such and such a village; go to meet them and beg them to abandon their plan against you, otherwise all of us, the inhabitants of this village, will suddenly perish.” The frightened elders fell at her feet and began to beg and beg her, telling her: “We do not dare to go towards them, for we know their rage and fury, but do us, and the whole village, and your home a favor - go out to meet them and tame them so that they come back.” The saint did not agree to this, but, going up to her cell, she stood in prayer all night, begged God and said: “Lord, Judge of the universe, You, Who are not pleased with all untruths! When this prayer comes to You, may holy power stop them in the place where it overtakes them.” This is what happened through the prayer of the holy virgin. At about one o'clock on the first day, the enemies were three fields from the village and stopped at this very place, as the saint asked, and could not move from their place. And it was revealed to these enemies themselves that this happened to them through the intercession of Christ’s servant Piamun. Therefore, they sent to her village to ask for peace and tell the inhabitants: “Thank God and the righteous Piamun: her holy prayers saved you and did not allow us to commit a great sin.” In Thebaid there is a place called Tavenna; there was the monk Pachomius, one of the great ascetics, who was awarded the gift of prophecy and angelic visions. He was very poverty-loving and philanthropic. One day, when he was sitting in his cave, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: “Pachomius! You have done your job, so now you should not stay in this cave. Go gather all the young monks, live with them and govern them according to the rule that I will give you.” Then he gave him a copper plaque, on which was written the following: “Let everyone eat and drink according to their need; Assign them work commensurate with the strength of each; do not forbid either fasting or eating; Assign heavy labor to those who are stronger in strength and eat more, and assign small and light labor to the weak, who are not accustomed to asceticism. Set up separate cells in one building, and let three live in each cell. Let food be offered to everyone in one place. They should not sleep lying down, but let them make themselves seats with sloping backs and sleep on them sitting, having made their bed. At night they must remain in linen tunics and girded. Everyone should have a white goat's mantle (robe); without it they should neither eat nor sleep. But let them begin to receive the Mysteries of Christ on Saturdays and Sundays only with the head, having untied the belt and taken off the mantle.” And the Angel appointed the heads for them without garters, like children’s, and ordered them to put an image of a purple cross on them. He ordered the brethren to be divided into twenty-four ranks: according to the number of twenty-four letters - so that each rank was designated by Greek letters from “alpha” and “beta” in order to “omega”, so that when the archimandrite needed to ask or find out about any of so many brethren, he asked his assistant in what state the rank of alpha α or the rank of beta β was, or asked to carry the blessing to the rank of ro ρ ... The name of each letter would itself indicate the rank it signifies. “To the monks who are more simple and gentle than others,” continued the Angel, “give the name iota ι, and mark the rebellious and tough-tempered ones with the letter xi ξ, thus expressing by the very form of the letter the property of the inclinations, character and life of each rank. These signs will be understandable only to the spiritual.” It was also written on the board that if a wanderer comes from another monastery, where they live according to a different rule, he should neither eat nor drink with them, nor even enter the monastery, except in the case when he is found on the road. And once entered must remain with them forever. “Do not allow him to perform the highest feats before three years - only after three years, when he has completed hard work, let him enter this field. At meals, everyone's head should be covered with a cap, so that one brother does not see how the other eats. One should also not talk during a meal, nor look around, but only at the table or at the dish.” The angel ordered the monks to perform twelve prayers every day, also twelve in the evening, twelve at night, and three at nine o’clock. When the brethren decide to come to the meal in large numbers, then each order must sing a psalm before performing the prayer. When Pachomius the Great responded to this by saying that there were not enough prayers, the Angel said to him: “I have put in so much so that the weak can comfortably, without burden, follow the rule; those who are perfect have no need for a rule, for, being alone in their cells, they spend their entire lives in the contemplation of God. I gave the charter to those whose minds have not yet matured, so that they, although like disobedient slaves, out of fear of the master, fulfilling the general rule of life, achieve freedom of spirit.” Having given this charter and thus fulfilled his ministry, the Angel departed from the Great Pachomius. This rule was adopted by very many monasteries, in which the number of brethren reaches up to seven thousand people. The first and great monastery, in which Blessed Pachomius himself lived and which was a breeding ground for other monasteries, has brethren of about one thousand three hundred people. Among the monks of the Pachomiev Monastery there is a servant of God named Afphonius, who now occupies second place in the monastery, my sincere friend. He, as no longer susceptible to temptation, is usually sent to Alexandria for monastic needs, such as: to sell handicrafts and to buy supplies. There are other monasteries in which two and three hundred people live. So, for example, in the Panopol monastery the brethren consist of three hundred people. In this monastery I saw fifteen tailors, seven blacksmiths, four carpenters, twelve camel drivers, fifteen fullers. Here they engage in all sorts of crafts and use the remainder of the proceeds to support the nunneries and to give alms to the prisons. Having risen early in the morning, everyone gets down to their daily work: some work in the kitchen, others prepare the meal. There they are busy until the third hour of the day - setting up tables, laying bread, various kinds of vegetables, olives, cheese and dried fruits on the tables. Not everyone gathers for meals at the same time. Those who are not yet accustomed to a strict life come to the table at six o’clock (this is around noon), the weak - at seven, others at eight, others at nine, and others at ten or late in the evening; some after two days, others after three and even after five days - in a word, each category knows its hour. Their occupations are as follows: one cultivates the land, another works in the garden, another works at the forge, at the mill, at the tannery, others go to the workshop to do carpentry, others felt cloth, others weave baskets of various types and sizes and while working they read the Scriptures by heart. The Pachomius monastery also includes a convent with about four hundred nuns; it contains the same rules and way of life, only they do not wear coats. The nuns live on one bank of the Nile, and the monks live opposite them on the other. If a virgin dies, other virgins, having prepared her for burial, carry her out and lay her on the bank of the river. The monks, having crossed the river, carry the deceased to their shore with palm and olive branches and psalmody and bury her in their tombs. Apart from the presbyter and the deacon, no one enters the nunnery, and even they do so only on Sundays, for worship. About the slandered virgin This is what happened in this convent. A tailor, a layman, crossed the river, out of ignorance, looking for work. One of the younger virgins, leaving the monastery for some reason, happened to meet him (the place was deserted) and told him: “We have our own tailors.” Another sister saw this meeting and, after some time, quarreled with that sister, in the heat of her evil anger, at the instigation of the devil, she slandered her before the sisters about that meeting. Some who did not wish harm to their sister joined the slanderer. This one, unable to bear the shame of having been subjected to such slander when sin had never even crossed her mind, out of sadness secretly threw herself into the river and drowned herself. The slanderer could not bear it either. Having come to her senses, she saw that out of malice she had slandered and destroyed her, and she hanged herself. When the presbyter came to the monastery and the sisters told him about what had happened, he forbade commemoration of the criminals, and excommunicated others who knew the matter and did not persuade the slanderer, but still believed her words, from communion for seven years. In the same monastery there was a virgin named Isidora. For Christ's sake, she showed herself to be a holy fool and crazy, choosing this type of asceticism out of her rare humility and self-abasement. Others despised her so much that they did not even eat with her, but she accepted this with joy. While serving in the kitchen, she performed all obedience for all the sisters, like a submissive slave, ready for any service. This blessed one was, as they say, the rabble of the monastery and in fact fulfilled what was written in the Holy Gospel: “Whoever wills to be in you, let him be a servant of all and a servant of all” (Matthew 20:26; Mark 10:43); also: “If anyone thinks that he will be wise in you in this world, let him be, for he will be wise” (1 Cor. 3:18). Other virgins, already tonsured, wore dolls on their heads, but her head was always covered with an old bandage. Of the four hundred sisters, not one saw her eat. She never sat down to a meal, never took a loaf of bread for herself, but was content with the crumbs collected after the table and the leftovers in the vessels that she washed. She also never wore shoes and, despite all the reproach, abuse and contempt that many showed her, she did not offend anyone and did not show a word of grumbling. An angel appeared to the holy hermit Pitirim, who lived in Porfirit, a man famous for his exploits, and said about the Monk Isidora: “Why do you exalt yourself with your exploits, as a pious person and living in such a place? Do you want to see a woman more pious than you? Go to the convent of Tavennes and you will find one there who wears a bandage on her head - she is better than you, for she fights with such a crowd, serves everyone in a different way and, although everyone despises her, her heart never departs from God. And you, sitting here and never having lived in the world, your mind wanders through the cities.” Rising from his place, the Great Pitirim went to the Tavenna monastery and asked the teachers there to take him to the nunnery. Having crossed the river, they joyfully brought him there, like a man famous among the fathers and who had grown old in asceticism. When they prayed, the Great One expressed a desire to see all the nuns in person. Everyone had gathered, but Isidora was not the only one who came. Saint Pitirim said: “Bring me everyone.” And when they answered him: “We are all here,” he said: “There is not one here that the Angel showed me.” Then they said: “We have one crazy woman - she’s in the cookery.” “Bring her too,” says the Great, “let me look at her.” And they went to call her. But Isidora, understanding the matter, did not listen; maybe she had a revelation. She is led by force, saying: “Saint Pitirim wants to see you.” And his name was glorious. When they brought her and the Great One saw her face and the old bandage on her head, he fell at her feet and said: “Bless me, mother.” And she, also falling at his feet, said: “Bless me, my lord!” Seeing this, everyone was amazed and began to say: “Abba! Don’t shame yourself: she’s crazy!” “You are crazy,” answered the holy elder, “and she is better than you and me - she is our mother, and I pray to be equal to her on the Day of Judgment.” Hearing this, everyone fell weeping at his feet, confessing how much they had grieved this saint. One said: “I always laughed at her.” Another: “I mocked her humble appearance.” Another said: “I insulted her, while she was silent.” And she: “I often poured slop on her.” One said: “I beat her.” Another: “I punched her.” In a word, everyone admitted to some kind of insult inflicted on her. Having accepted their repentance, Saint Pitirim prayed for them together with her and, having greatly consoled the honest servant of Christ, left the monastery. A few days later, this blessed woman, impatient with the glory, honor, and services that all the sisters began to provide her, and burdened with apologies, secretly left the monastery. Where she went, where she hid and where she died, no one knows to this day. This is how this valiant, humble and blessed virgin labored. There lived a man named John in Lycopolis. From childhood he learned to carpenter, and his brother was a dyer. Having reached the age of twenty-five, John renounced the world and after five years spent in various monasteries, he retired alone to Mount Liko. At the very top of the mountain, he built himself a cell consisting of three rooms, and he remained in them without leaving. He prayed in one room, worked and ate in another, and the third was designated for bodily needs. Having spent thirty years in this prison, during which he received everything he needed from a servant through the window, he was awarded the gift of prophecy and with this gift he became known to everyone based on the events themselves. By the way, he also sent various predictions to the pious Tsar Theodosius. So, for example, he revealed in advance the indignation of the rebels, predicted their imminent death, predicted about the tyrant Maximus 18 that the king would return, having won a victory over him in Gaul, also about the tyrant Eugenius that Theodosius would defeat him, and he would end his days there and leave the kingdom to his son. Great fame spread everywhere about the holiness of this man, and therefore Emperor Theodosius honored him as a prophet. One military leader came to him to find out whether he would defeat the Ethiopians, who at that time invaded Syene, in the Upper Thebaid, and devastated its surroundings. The Holy Father told him: “If you go against your enemies, you will take possession of them, tame and subdue them, and you will be in honor of the sovereigns.” And so it happened, events confirmed the prophecy. He also said that the pious Emperor Theodosius would die his own death. In general, he possessed a prophetic gift to an extraordinary extent, as we heard about this from the fathers who lived with him, whose honesty was known to all the brethren there. They did not say anything biased about this husband, but only reported in a lesser form. One tribune asked the Abba for permission to bring his wife to him, who had been suffering from illness for a long time and now, getting ready to go to Siena, wanted to see the saint, so that he would first pray for her and let her go with a blessing. But the saint did not agree to see the woman, since he, a ninety-year-old elder who had lived hopelessly in his cell for forty years, never received women into his eyes, even no one from the men ever came to him, but only through the window he blessed and greeted those who came, talking with each about his needs. No matter how many tribunes asked the abba to allow his wife to come to him (the abba lived in the desert on a mountain, five furlongs from the city), but the saint did not agree, saying: “Impossible,” and released him with sorrow. Meanwhile, the wife pestered her husband day and night and swore that she would never leave the city unless she saw the prophet. When the husband told Blessed John about his wife’s oath, the saint, seeing her faith, said to the tribune: “That night I will appear to her in a dream - only so that she will no longer seek to see my face in the flesh.” The husband told his wife the Abba’s words. And indeed, the wife saw the prophet in a dream; he came to her and said: “What do you care about me, wife? Why did you want to see my face? Am I a prophet or a righteous man? I am a sinful person and servile to you. However, I have prayed for you and for your husband’s house, that everything may be done to you according to your faith. Now go in peace." Having said this, he left. Waking up from sleep, the wife told her husband the words of the prophet, described his appearance and sent her husband to thank him. Seeing him, Blessed John preceded him and said: “Now I have fulfilled your request: having seen your wife, I convinced her so that she would no longer seek to see me, but said to her: “Go in peace.” The time has come for the wife of another dignitary to give birth in his absence. On the very day when she, having resolved herself, fell dangerously ill from grief, her husband was with Abba John. The saint tells him the good news, saying: “If you knew the gift of God - that a son was born to you today, you would glorify God. Only his mother was in danger. When you come home, the baby will be seven days old. Give him the name John and, having carefully raised him until he was seven years old, they went to the monks in the desert.” John performed such miracles for those who came from foreign countries, and for his fellow citizens who constantly came to him for their needs, he predicted the future and revealed the secret affairs of everyone, predicted both the flooding of the Nile and whether it would be fruitful. In a similar way, he announced in advance about some kind of punishment from God that threatened them and denounced the guilty. Blessed John himself obviously did not perform healings, but gave oil, with which many of the suffering were healed. Thus, the wife of one senator, having lost her sight from a thorn, asked her husband to take her to John. He assured her that John never accepted women, but his wife demanded that he alone go to the Abba and ask for prayers for her. When the saint did this and sent the oil, the sick woman, having anointed her eyes with it three times a day, after three days received her sight and thanked God in front of everyone. We were seven brothers (all aliens) in the Nitrian desert: I, blessed Evagrius, Albinus, Ammonius and others. We tried to find out exactly what John's virtue was. And so Evagrius says: “I would like to learn about the dignity of this man from a man who knows how to judge mind and words. If I find out, I will visit him; If I don’t find out how he lives, then I won’t go to the mountain to see him.” Hearing this and not saying a word to anyone, I hesitated one day, and on the next I locked my cell and, entrusting myself to God, went to Thebaid. Sometimes I walked, sometimes I swam by water, and finished my journey in eighteen days. (This was during the flood, when there are many sick people; I also fell ill.) Having come to John, I found his vestibule locked (later the brethren built a spacious vestibule in front of the saint’s cell, which could accommodate a hundred people). They locked these passages with a key for a whole week and opened them only on Saturdays and Sundays. So, having learned why the porch was locked, I waited until Saturday and then at two o’clock in the afternoon I came to the righteous husband. I found him sitting by the window through which he always seemed to converse with visitors. Having greeted me, he asked through an interpreter: “Where are you from and why did you come here? It seems that you are from the Evagrian Brotherhood? While we were talking, the ruler of that region named Alypius entered. As he approached, the Great One stopped talking to me, and therefore I moved a little to the side so as not to disturb them. But since their conversation was long, I became bored, and I began to grumble at the old man, that he despised me, but honored him. In this state of mind, I already decided to leave with contempt for the elder. But the servant of Christ called to him a translator named Theodore, and said to him: “Go tell that brother: “Don’t be faint-hearted; now I will release the ruler and talk to him.” Then I became convinced that he was a spiritual man and knew everything in advance. Encouraged by this, I waited. When the ruler left, the saint called me to him and said: “Why are you upset with me? How have I insulted you so that you have thoughts that are both unusual for me and indecent for you? Don’t you know what is said in Scripture: “...they do not require a doctor to be healthy, but those who are sick” (Matthew 9:12)? I can always find you whenever I want, and you can find me too. Even if I don’t give you instructions, other brothers, other fathers will. And this man, who, due to worldly affairs, was in the power of the devil, barely found a free hour, like a slave who got rid of a cruel master, and came to me to receive benefit, so it would be strange if I, leaving him, took up with you - such a person who is constantly concerned about the salvation of his soul.” I asked him to pray for me and was completely convinced that he was definitely a spiritual man. Taking on a gentle look and lightly hitting me with his right hand on my left cheek, he said: “Many sorrows await you; You have already struggled a lot with the thought of leaving the desert, you have experienced and overcome many fears, but the demon still angers you, presenting you with pious and plausible excuses; he seduces you with the desire to see your father and persuade your brother and sister to become a monk. I’ll tell you good news: they are both saved because they renounced the world, and your father will live another seven years. So, stay in your desert and do not return to your homeland for them, for it is written: “...no one lays his hand on his head and in vain turns back, he is ruled in the Kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).” Having received sufficient edification and reproof from the words of the inspired man, I thanked God that the pretexts that prompted me to leave the desert were eliminated by the foresight of the holy man. Then he again said to me with a gentle look: “Do you want to be a bishop?” I answered that I was already a bishop. “Which city?” - asked the saint. I tell him: “I oversee the dishes, the tables and the earthen bowls; if the wine is sour, I put it aside, if it’s good, I drink it; I also keep an eye on the pots and, if there is not enough salt or any seasoning in them, I immediately add more and then eat. This is my bishopric! But gluttony set me up.” The blessed one, smiling, said: “Stop jokes! You will be ordained a bishop and will experience much labor and sorrow. If you want to avoid them, do not leave the desert: in the desert no one can ordain you as a bishop.” Leaving him, I returned to my beloved desert and told all this to the holy fathers about the blessed and spirit-bearing John. Two months later, they went along the river to the holy man and talked with him. And I, unfortunate one, forgot his words. After three years, I fell ill from a disorder in the liver and stomach, and the brethren sent me from the desert to Alexandria, because my illness threatened to turn into a water illness. From Alexandria, doctors advised me to go to Palestine for a change of air, because the air there is lighter than in our countries. From Palestine I arrived in Bithynia, and here - I don’t know how to say, whether by human disposition or by the will of the Most High (God alone knows) - I was awarded an ordination that is higher than me. Having taken part in the work of Blessed John (Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople), I was forced to hide in a dark cell for eleven months and here I remembered that that blessed and wonderful man, that is, John of Lycopolis, had predicted to me what was happening now. This great ascetic of Christ also told me (and with this story, of course, he wanted to inspire me with the determination never to leave the desert) that he had been living in his cell for forty-eight years and during all this time he had never seen a woman or a coin, and no one had seen him eat or drink. I have already said that two months after me, the fathers from our desert went to this saint. They told the following about their meeting with him: “When we arrived, the blessed one greeted us, turning to everyone with a cheerful face, and we first of all asked him to pray for us (this is the custom of all Egyptian fathers). Then he asked if any of the clergy were with us? When we answered that no, he, having examined everyone, found out that there was a cleric among us, but he was hiding. (There was indeed one deacon with us, but no one knew about this except his brother, whom he, out of humility, forbade to talk about this, considering himself, in comparison with such saints, barely worthy of the name of a Christian, not only this rank.) Pointing at him with his hand, the monk said to everyone: “Here is the deacon.” When he, wanting to hide his title, continued to deny, the saint, taking him by the hand, kissed him from the window and, admonishing him, said: “Child! Do not reject the grace of God and do not lie, denying the gift of Christ; a lie is alien to Christ and Christians, whether it will be told in a small or important matter. If they tell a lie even for a good purpose, this is not commendable, for a lie, according to the word of the Savior, is from the devil (John 8:44). " The convicted man remained silent and accepted the meek reproof of the elder. When we prayed, one of our companions, who had already been suffering from a strong fever for three days, began to ask the Abba for healing. The Abba said that this illness would serve his own good and befell him for lack of faith, but at the same time gave him oil and ordered him to anoint himself. When he did this, an eruption of everything that was inside followed through the mouth, and the fever completely passed, so he went to the hotel on his own feet.” Saint John was already ninety years old, and his body was so withered from asceticism that even the hair did not grow on his beard. His food consisted of only fruits, and he ate them after sunset. At such a great age, after such a difficult life, he did not eat bread or anything else cooked on fire. When he ordered us to sit down, we thanked God for our meeting with this husband. He received us like family and asked with a cheerful look: “Where are you children from? From what country did they come to sinful man?” As soon as we announced our fatherland and said that we had come to it for spiritual benefit from Jerusalem, in order to see with our eyes what we had heard (the ears can be trusted less than the eyes: what is heard is often forgotten, but the memory of what is seen is not erased, and the event seems to be impressed on the soul), the blessed one answered us: “Why did you walk so far and exhaust yourself, beloved children? What wonderful things will you see here? You wanted to see humble and insignificant people, who are not worth looking at and in whom there is nothing special. There are people worthy of surprise and praise wherever God’s prophets and apostles are read in churches—one should imitate them. And I am very surprised at you and your zeal. How you, having despised so many dangers, came to us for the sake of edification, while we, out of laziness, do not want to leave our cave. But even now, although your work deserves praise, do not think that, having done this good deed, you have done everything, but imitate the virtues of your fathers. Even if you have acquired all their virtues (which rarely happens), you should not rely on yourself. Many fell from such self-confidence at a time when they were already at the very height of virtue. See if you pray well, if the purity of your thoughts is not clouded, if your mind is not distracted by other concerns during prayer, if some other thought, having entered your soul, does not draw your attention to foreign objects. Does the memory of any impure wishes revolt your soul? See if your renunciation of the world is sincere, if you came here to take advantage of our freedom, if you are not looking for vain glory in virtues, just to appear before people as imitators of our deeds. See that you are not outraged by any passion, honor, glory and praise of people or feigned piety and self-love. Do not consider yourself righteous, do not boast of righteousness. During prayer, do not be entertained by the memory of relatives, or by feelings of compassion, or by thoughts about some other thing or about the whole world, otherwise your work will be in vain when, during an interview with the Lord, you are carried away by thoughts that lead you in the opposite direction. Such a fall of mind happens to anyone who has not completely renounced the world, but still tries to please it. His soul is entertained by many plans, various carnal and earthly concerns, and the mind, struggling with passions, can no longer see God. And he should not zealously strive for the very knowledge of God, so that, being unworthy of such an acquisition, having been awarded even a small part of it, he would not think of himself as if he had comprehended everything, and would not be subject to complete destruction. One must approach God with fear and gradually, in proportion to how much each person can move forward with his mind and how much this is generally accessible to a person. He who seeks God must have a heart free from everything extraneous, according to the Scripture: “Become silent and understand that I am God” (Ps. 45:11). When he is worthy to know God in part (no one can know Him completely), then at the same time he receives knowledge about all other subjects: he sees mysteries, because God shows him, foresees the future, contemplates revelations along with the saints, works miracles, becomes a friend of God and receives from God everything he asks.” John also spoke a lot about asceticism, and about the fact that one should expect death as a transition to a better life and that one should not be too concerned about the infirmities of the flesh and fill the belly with whatever happens, for the satiated one is born with the same lusts as the sensualist. But one must try, he said, through ascetic labors to acquire freedom from passionate desires. No one should seek the comforts of life and peace, but one must now endure hardship and sorrow in order to inherit the breadth of the Kingdom of God. “For through many tribulations,” says Scripture, “it is fitting for us to enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22); and again: “What a narrow gate and a strait path you lead into the stomach, and there are few of them who find it. ...As a wide gate and a broad way you lead into destruction, and many are those who enter through them” (Matthew 7:14,13). As those who have departed after a short life to eternal rest, we should not worry much about worldly things. One should also not, he said, be proud of one’s exploits, but one should always humble oneself and retire into the deepest deserts as soon as one notices a movement of pride in oneself. Living near villages often harmed perfect men. For this reason, David, having experienced a similar temptation, says in the psalm: “Behold, he went away in flight and settled in the desert. I hope for God to save me from cowardice and from the storm” (Ps. 54:8-9). Many of our brothers were subjected to the same temptation and, out of vanity, deviated from the goal. The story of Abba John about the brother who repented In one city, said Abba John, there was a young man who did a lot of bad things and sinned grievously, who, however, by the grace of God came to contrition over his many sins. He settled in a cave near the tombs and mourned his former life. Throwing his face to the ground, he did not dare to utter a word of prayer, nor to pronounce the name of God, but before death he shut himself up in tombs and, considering himself unworthy of life and having renounced it, only groaned from the depths of his heart. When he spent the week like this, at night the demons, the culprits of his previous bad life, rise up against him, screaming and screaming: “Where is that wicked man, satiated with lust? He, now unfit for us, appeared chaste and kind and wants to be a well-behaved Christian when he can no longer! Filled with our evil, what good do you expect for yourself? Will you not soon follow us from here to do your usual business? Harlots and innkeepers are waiting for you - won’t you go and enjoy the pleasures of voluptuousness when all other hope is lost for you? Soon, of course, judgment will befall you when you destroy yourself like this. Why are you rushing to torment, unfortunate one? Why are you trying to speed up your execution?” And they told him many other things, for example: “You are ours, united with us, committing all iniquity; You were submissive to us in everything and now you dare to leave us? Why don't you answer? Won't you come with us? But amid the continuous lamentations, he did not listen to them and did not answer them a word, no matter how much the demons attacked him. When, having repeated this many times, they did not have time to do anything, they grabbed him and began to severely beat and torment his entire body and, having cruelly tortured him, left him half dead. Lying motionless where the demons had left him, he, however, immediately began his groans as soon as he came to his senses. Meanwhile, his relatives who were looking for him, having found him and learned who had so ulcerated him, wanted to take him home, but he did not agree, despite their repeated convictions. The next night the demons attack him with even greater ferocity than the previous night. But even now his relatives could not persuade him to leave this place. It is better, he said, to die than to live in sinful filth. On the third night, the demons beat him so severely that they almost took his life completely. But, not having time to defeat him and leaving him lifeless, they left and, leaving, shouted: “You have won, you have won!” After this, he no longer experienced such terrible temptations - on the contrary, until his death he fearlessly lived in a cave near the tombs, striving in pure virtue, and was so glorified by God with signs and wonders that he aroused wonder and zeal for good in many. Even very many of those who gave themselves up to despair began to perform good deeds and exploits, and the word of Scripture came true over them: “everyone... who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). So, children, let us especially strive in humility: it is the foundation of all virtues. The desert, which is more distant from the villages, is also very useful to us for this asceticism. Another story of Abba John about the fallen and the repentant There was also another monk who lived in the distant desert and labored in virtue for many years. Finally, in old age, he was tempted by demons. The ascetic loved silence and, spending his days in prayer, chants and contemplation, had several divine visions both while awake and in sleep. He had almost already achieved an incorporeal life: he did not cultivate the land, did not care about food, did not look for food for the body in plants and herbs, did not catch birds or any other animals, but, filled with hope in God, since he left the world for the desert, he did not think at all about how to nourish his body. Forgetting everything voluntarily, he directed all his desire to God in anticipation of the hour when he would be called out of this world; fed most of all on the sweetness of visions and hopes. Meanwhile, his body did not weaken from tension, and his soul did not lose vigor - he acquired such a strong skill in piety! However, God, having mercy on him, at a certain time sent him bread for a meal for two or three days, which he ate. Every time, feeling the need for food, he entered his cave, he found food there. After offering prayer to God, he strengthened himself with food and then enjoyed singing. Prayer and contemplation were his constant occupation. So he improved every day and, laboring in the present, constantly became closer to the expected future and was almost sure of his best lot, as if already having it in his hands, which was the reason that he almost fell from the temptation that then befell him. When he reached such confidence, the thought quietly crept into his heart that he was superior to others and that he knew and had more than other people. In such thoughts, he has already begun to rely on himself, and from here carelessness is soon born in him, at first small, then it grows more and more and becomes noticeable. He no longer gets up from sleep to sing with such vigor, he became lazier in prayer and his singing was not so long; the soul wanted to rest, the mind fell down, and thoughts began to wander; carelessness was already secretly loved, and only the former skill, as a stronghold, somewhat stopped the ascetic in this endeavor and protected him for the time being. Also, entering the cave in the evenings after the usual prayers, he sometimes found bread sent to him from God at the meal, and ate it, but did not expel those unprofitable thoughts from his mind, did not think that inattention ruined work, and did not try to heal evil. A slight evasion of duties seemed of little importance to him. And so passionate lust, taking possession of his thoughts, drew him into the world. But he still held out, spent the next day in ordinary labors, and after prayer and chants, entering the cave, he still found the bread prepared for him - however, not as carefully prepared and clean as before, but with rubbish. He was surprised and somewhat saddened, but he ate it and strengthened himself. The third night came, and the evil tripled. His mind was even more likely to indulge in lustful thoughts, and his imagination imagined impure dreams as vividly as if they were actually coming true. Despite this, even on the third day he continued his exploits - he prayed and sang psalms, but no longer with a pure disposition and often turned around and looked around. His good deed was interrupted by various thoughts. In the evening, feeling the need for food, he went into the cave and, although he found bread for the meal, it seemed to have been eaten away by mice or dogs, and outside the cave there were dry remains. Then he begins to groan and cry, but not as much as was necessary to tame his unclean lust. However, having tasted, although not as much as he wanted, he decided to calm down. Here thoughts attack him in multitudes, conquer his mind and immediately drag the captive into the world. He left his desert and went to the village at night. The day had come, but the village was still far away. The monk, scorched by the heat, became exhausted and began to look around him to see if there was a monastery somewhere in which he could rest. There really was a monastery nearby. The pious and faithful brethren received him as their own father, washed his face and feet and, through prayer, offered him a meal, asking him to accept with love what had happened. After the meal, the brethren begged him to teach them the word of salvation, how to avoid the snares of the devil and how to overcome unclean thoughts. Talking to them like a father with children, he taught them to be courageous in their labors and assured them that they would soon turn into great pleasure. The elder told them a lot of very edifying things about asceticism. At the end of the instruction, he involuntarily thought about himself and began to reason about how, while admonishing others, he himself remained uninstructed. Then he saw his defeat and immediately returned to the desert to mourn his fall. “If the Lord had not helped me,” he said, “my soul would have entered hell” (Ps. 93:17); I was completely mired in evil “and for a little while I did not die on the earth” (Ps. 119:87).” And the Scripture came true over him: “We help brother from brother, like a strong city” (Proverbs 18:19) and like an immovable wall. From that time on, he cried all his life and, no longer receiving food from God, obtained food for himself through his labors. Having locked himself in a cave and spread sackcloth on the floor, he did not rise from the ground until then and did not stop crying until he heard the voice of an Angel telling him in a dream: “God accepted your repentance and had mercy on you; just make sure you don’t flatter yourself. The brothers whom you taught will come to visit you and bring you loaves of bread for blessing - share them with them and always thank God.” I told you this, children, so that you would most of all practice humility, even if your exploits already seemed great to you. It is the first commandment of the Savior, Who says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for of them is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Be careful not to be seduced by demons with any dreams. When someone comes to you - a brother, or a friend, or a wife, or a father, or a mother, or a teacher, or a son, or a servant - first of all, stretch out your hands in prayer, and as soon as it is all a ghost, he will disappear. If demons or people also seduce you with affection and praise, then do not listen to them and do not be puffed up in thought. And demons often deceived me with ghosts, so that sometimes they did not allow me to pray or rest all night, and in the morning they bowed to me and said with mockery: “Forgive us, Abba, that we troubled you all night.” But I answered them: “Depart from Me, all you who do iniquity” (Ps. 6:9); do not tempt the servant of the Lord.” So you too, having devoted yourself to contemplation, always remain silent, so that when you pray to God you will have a pure mind. A good ascetic is one who, while living in the world, always does good deeds, shows brotherly love, kindness to strangers, gives alms, does good to those who come to him, helps the sick and guards himself from temptations. This is a good, truly good ascetic: he actually fulfills the commandments, although he is not alien to earthly concerns. More perfect and higher than him is the one who, having devoted himself to the contemplative life, has risen from everyday affairs to contemplation and, leaving others to take care of them, himself, having rejected and forgotten himself, is engaged in heavenly things - who, having renounced everything, stands before God and is not distracted by any other concern. Such a one unites with God and lives with God, always praising Him with continuous songs. Giving us such and many other instructions for three days, until the ninth hour every day, Blessed John healed our souls. Then, having given us a blessing, he ordered us to go in peace and also said a prophecy that today the news came to Alexandria about the victory of the pious Tsar Theodosius and the defeat of the rebel Eugene, and that the emperor would die a natural death. That's exactly what happened. When we visited many other fathers, the brethren came to us with the news that blessed John died in a miraculous way: he commanded that no one should be allowed to come to him for three days, and, kneeling down in prayer, he died and went to God, to whom be glory forever. Amen. He (John) did not show his face to Christ’s servant Pimenia, who came to him for a meeting, but nevertheless revealed something secret. He ordered her on her return journey from Thebaid not to sail to Alexandria, otherwise she would fall into temptation. But Pimenia either neglected or forgot the Great One’s prediction and sailed to Alexandria - perhaps out of curiosity, to see the city. On the way, near Nikiopol, her ships landed on the shore to rest. The servants, having gone ashore, because of some quarrel, started a fight with the local residents, violent people, who cut off the finger of one eunuch, killed another, and even threw the holy Bishop Dionysius into the river, however, out of ignorance, and she herself was showered with curses and frightened with threats, and the other servants were all injured. We also saw another man in Thebaid, named Ammon. He was the father of about three thousand monks, who were called Tavennisiots. They observed the great rule (Pachomiev), wore sheepskins, ate food with their faces covered, with their eyes down, so as not to see the brother sitting nearby eating, and everyone kept such a strict silence that it seemed like you were in the desert, because everyone fulfilled their rule in secret. They sat down to the meal only for show, in order to hide their fasting from each other. Some of them raised their hand to their lips once or twice, taking bread, or olives, or anything else that was offered at the meal, and, having tasted of each dish once, they were satisfied. Others, having eaten a little bread, did not touch anything else. And others were content with only three spoons of the mush. Having rightly marveled at all this, I did not fail to derive benefit from it for myself. We also saw another elder who surpassed all people in his meekness - Abba Vin. The brothers who lived with him assured that he never swore, did not lie, was not angry with anyone, and never insulted anyone even with a word. His life was the quietest, he was of a meek and angelic disposition. His humility and self-abasement were great. For a long time we begged him to tell us something for edification, and he barely agreed to offer a few words about meekness. When at one time a hippopotamus was causing devastation in a neighboring country, this saint, having been begged by the farmers, stood by the river and, seeing a huge beast, said to him in a meek voice: “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you not to devastate this country anymore.” The beast, as if driven away by the Angel, completely disappeared. Similarly, another time he drove away the crocodile. In the desert, not far from the city of Alexandria, we saw another holy man named Theon. He locked himself in a cramped cell alone and practiced silence for thirty years. His miracles were so numerous that the inhabitants of Alexandria called him a prophet. Every day many sick people came to him, and he laid his hands on them through the hole and sent them away healthy. His face was like that of an Angel, his gaze was cheerful and very affectionate. One day (it was not so long ago) in the dead of night, robbers attacked him in order to kill him, hoping to find gold from him. The saint prayed, and they remained motionless at his door until the morning. When people began to gather to him and wanted to burn them, the saint, forced by extremity, said only the following words to the people: “Let them go unharmed, and if you don’t let them go, the grace of healing will depart from me.” The people obeyed, for no one dared to contradict him, and the robbers immediately went to the neighboring monasteries to visit the monks and, repenting of their previous deeds, changed their lives. Abba Theona read fluently in three languages: Roman, Greek and Egyptian, as we learned from many and from himself. When he learned that we were foreigners, he made a grateful prayer to God for us, writing it on a tablet. He ate only uncooked seeds. They say that at night he left his cell and gave water to the wild animals that gathered to him with the water that he had. Sure enough, near his cell there were traces of buffaloes, wild donkeys and goats, with which he always consoled himself. In the desert near Antinous, the main city of Thebaid, we saw another old man, one hundred and ten years old, named Elijah. On it, they said, the spirit of the prophet Elijah rested. He was famous for having lived seventy years in this desert, so terrible and wild that it is impossible to depict it in words as it should. It was here, on the mountain, that Elijah lived, never going to inhabited places. On the narrow path that led to it, sharp stones stuck out here and there and were barely allowed to walk on it. The cave in which the elder lived was under a rock, so it was scary to see him. He trembled all over from old age, performed many signs every day and did not stop healing the sick. The fathers said that no one remembers when he ascended the mountain. In his old age he ate three ounces of bread in the evening and three olives, and in his youth he always ate once a week. In the Preface of the book, Palladius calls him the guardian of the divinely enlightened and pious kingdom, and in the Conclusion - the chief of the royal bed, or the bed-keeper. An ounce is a measure of weight (in Russia - 29.86 g), used before the introduction of the metric system of measures. Asps are a family of poisonous snakes (cobras, echidnas, etc.). A liter is a unit of weight equal to 327 g. Mite is the smallest copper coin, sometimes called a copper coin. Rufinus conveys the words of Saint Macarius this way: “I see nothing bestial in her; what you are talking about is not in her body, but in the eyes of those looking at her. This is the deception of demons, and not the truth of things” Rufinus. The life of desert fathers. Ch. 28). A stage is a measure of length equal to 189 m. Rufinus betrays it this way: “They say that when he went out into the desert at night, many desert animals accompanied him, and he gave them water to drink, drawing it from his well, and thereby rewarded them for the work of accompanying him” (Ibid. Chapter 6). A pound is a measure of weight equal to 409.5 g. Tribunes were the highest (elected) officials in ancient Rome. Urban, that is, a resident of the city (here: Macarius of Alexandria, so named because before becoming a monk he was a citizen of the city of Alexandria). Conga is a measure of weight in three circles. The field is a distance of a thousand long steps, each of which has five feet. Milt - outerwear made of sheep or goat skin with the fur facing out. Dragon - this may refer to a large snake or crocodile. The cubit is a measure of length equal to approximately 38–46 cm (the length of the human ulna). A tyrant is a sole ruler. You might be interested in: