Авва Агафон

1. Among the great Fathers was an old man named Agathon, famous for the virtues of humility and patience. One day some brothers visited him. They heard about his great humility and wanted to test whether he really had humility and patience. For this they said to him: “Father! many are tempted by you because you are possessed to a strong degree by the passion of pride, and you despise others so much that you consider them to be nothing; You also constantly shower the brethren with slander. “Very many claim that the secret reason for this behavior of yours is the lustful passion with which you are consumed: in order to cover up your own vicious life, you are constantly engaged in slandering others.” To this the elder replied: “I am aware of all these vices in myself that you have accused me of, and I cannot allow myself to deny so many of my iniquities.” With these words, he fell at the feet of the brothers and said to them: “I beg you, brothers, pray diligently to the Lord Jesus Christ for me, unfortunate, burdened with countless sins, so that He will forgive me my many and grave iniquities.” But the brethren added the following to the previously spoken words: “We will not hide from you the fact that many recognize you as a heretic.” The elder, hearing this, said to them: “Although I am burdened with many other vices, I am by no means a heretic; This vice is alien to my soul.” Then the brothers who came to him fell at his feet and said: “Abba! We ask you to tell us why you were not at all embarrassed when we accused you of such important vices and sins, but the accusation of heresy alarmed you? when you heard him, you could not bear it and rejected him with determination.” The elder answered them: “I accepted the first accusations of sins in order to acquire humility, and wanting you to have an opinion of me as a sinner: we are convinced that in preserving the virtue of humility is the great salvation of the soul. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when the Jews showered Him with many reproaches and slander, endured all this, and provided us with His humility as a model to follow. The false witnesses brought against Him testified against Him many false things, but He patiently endured the slander that brought Him to the cross. The Apostle Peter, pointing to this, says: “Christ suffered for us; leave us an image so that we may follow His footsteps” (1 Pet. 2:21). It behooves us to patiently, with humility, endure all adversities. But I could not accept the accusation of heresy; I rejected it with great disgust for it: because heresy is alienation from God. The heretic is separated from the Living and True God, and joins the devil and his angels. He who is separated from Christ no longer has God to whom he could pray for his sins, and, in all respects, is lost. If the heretic turns to the faith contained in the true, universal, holy Church, then he is accepted by the good and merciful Redeemer, reunited with the true God, our Creator and Savior, Christ, Who has always been and is consubstantial with the Father and the Holy Spirit. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen" 180. 2. Agathon was wise by his natural nature, alien to laziness in relation to the body, observed proper proportionality in needlework, food and clothing 181. 3. They said about Abba Agathon that he strove to fulfill every commandment of God: when it happened to cross the river, he himself, the first, took to the oars; when the brethren came to visit him, after performing the usual prayer, he immediately served the meal with his own hands, because he was filled with the love of God 182 . 4. One day, in the presence of Abba Joseph, the brethren began a conversation about love. The elder said: “We do not know what love is. Here is an example of love: Abba Agathon had a knife that he needed for his needlework. His brother came to him and, seeing the knife, praised this thing. Abba Agathon immediately began to beg his brother to accept the knife as a gift, and did not allow his brother to leave his cell until he persuaded him to accept the thing he liked” 183. We must take into account how much work it took to re-acquire in the deep desert the tools necessary for needlework, which was both part of the cell feat and the only means of supporting oneself. With only this consideration, one can properly evaluate the action of the elder, who was strictly attentive to himself and valued his silence. The Monk Abba Agathon, although he led the life of a silent man, preferred to silence the fulfillment of the commandments of love for one's neighbor, like the Monk Moses Murin and in contrast to the Monk Arseny the Great. The latter combined love for God with love for one's neighbor and raised the latter to the height of a mysterious feat, higher than deeds performed through the body. 5. Abba Agathon said: “If it were possible for me to take the body of one of the lepers and give mine to him, then doing this would be a pleasure for me.” This is perfect love 184 . 6. They told about Abba Agathon that, once going to the city to sell his handicrafts, he found there a sick wanderer, thrown down on the street - and no one took care of this wanderer. The elder remained with him; For the price received for his handicraft, he rented a hut, and used the remaining money from renting a cell for the needs of the sick man. He spent four months like this until the wanderer recovered. Then Agathon returned to his place 185. 7. Another time, Abba Agathon was walking into the city to sell modest handicrafts, and on the road he saw a leper lying. The leper asked him: “Where are you going?” “I’m going to the city,” answered Abba Agathon, “to sell my handicrafts.” The leper said: “Show your love, take me there too.” The elder picked him up and carried him on his shoulders to the city. The leper said to him: “Place me where you will sell your handicrafts.” The elder did so. When he sold one handicraft item, the leper asked him: “How much did you sell it for?” “For so much,” answered the elder. The leper said: “Buy me bread.” When the elder sold another item, the leper asked him: “How much did you sell this for?” “For so much,” answered the elder. “Buy me more bread,” said the leper. The old man bought it. When Abba sold all his handicrafts and wanted to leave, the leper said to him: “Are you leaving?” “I’m leaving,” answered the Abba. The leper said: “Show me love, take me back to where you found me.” The elder did this. Then the leper said: “Blessed are you, Agathon, from the Lord in heaven and on earth.” Abba looked back at the leper and saw no one: it was the Angel of the Lord who had come to test the elder. 8. Abba Agathon said: “A monk should not allow his conscience to accuse him of anything.” 9. He also said: “Without keeping the commandments of God, the slightest success is impossible.” 10. He said: “As much as it depended on me, I never fell asleep with sorrow in my heart on anyone, and I never allowed anyone to fall asleep with any sorrow on me.” 11. They said about Abba Agathon that all his actions stemmed from spiritual reasoning. This is what he did in relation to his handicrafts and in relation to his clothing. He did not wear clothes that could be called too good, not too bad. To sell handicrafts, he himself went to the city, and while maintaining inner silence, he sold handicrafts to those who wanted to buy them. The price of the sieve was one hundred copper coins, the price of the basket was two hundred and fifty copper coins. He told the buyers the price; he accepted the money they handed him in silence, never counting it. He said: “What good will it do for me if I argue with them and give them a reason to use God, even if at the same time I received extra money and distributed it to the brethren? God does not want such charity from me; He is not pleased that sin should be mixed into the work of love.” To this the brethren said: “Where will the bread for the cell be bought from?” He answered: “What bread for a monk who is silent in his cell” 186. 12. He also said this: “I don’t remember that I returned to my cell after leaving it and brought into it any extraneous thought; I don’t remember that I took up needlework in violation of my silence; I don’t remember that I preferred doing my handicrafts to fulfilling the commandment, as soon as a circumstance presented itself that required fulfilling the commandment” 187. 13. They said about Abba Agathon that he carried a stone in his mouth for three years until he trained himself to remain silent. 14. The brother asked Abba Agathon about his fornication. The elder told him: “Go, surrender your strength before God, and you will find peace.” Here is a remedy taught from the treasury of spiritual reason and indicating that the basis of fornication is pride. Adam, when he wanted to be equal to God, and proved his desire with action, then he lost his spiritual sense of innocence, descended to the carnal feeling of lust for his wife, with this lust he attached himself to senseless beasts and became like them. 15. Abba Agathon said: “Man must incessantly be as if standing before the judgment of God.” 16. He said: “If he who is enslaved to the passion of anger raises a dead man, then even then he will remain a stranger to God because of his enslavement to the passion of anger.” 17. He said: “If I see that my most beloved is dragging me into spiritual harm, then I will immediately reject him from myself, i.e. I will stop acquaintance and relations with him.” This saying depicts how carefully the true monks kept themselves from the sinful infection, and how they feared it. The infection is terrible! When the poison of sin, in an apparently insignificant amount, penetrates the living vessel of the Holy Spirit and spills into it, it produces terrible devastation and transformation. Protecting themselves from the sinful infection so strictly and decisively, sacrificing everything to preserve virtue in themselves, the holy fathers fulfilled with accuracy the commandment of the Lord, who commanded to cut off a hand and cast out an eye when they seduce (Matthew 5:29-30). The following story also serves as an expression of a direction that is not in the least shaken by human considerations, but strives with determination to fulfill the will of God and to please the one God. 18. They told about Abba Agathon that for a long time he worked with his disciples to build his cells. Not even a week had passed since they finally set up the cell and began to live in it, - the abba saw something harmful to the soul in the place, and told his disciples what the Lord had said to the Apostles: “Arise, let us go from here” (John 14:31). The disciples were very upset by this and said to the elder: “If you had the intention of moving from here, then why did we undergo such labor, building the cell for a long time? And people will begin to be tempted by us, they will begin to say: here they are moving again! They can’t get along in one place!” The elder answered: “If our relocation will serve as a temptation for some, then for others it will serve as an edification; There will also be those who will say: blessed are these monks who emigrated for the sake of God and despised their property for His sake. I tell you emphatically that I am going immediately: whoever wants, let him go, and whoever doesn’t want, let him stay.” The disciples fell at his feet, asking him to agree to take them with him 188. 19. One day Abba Agathon was walking along the road with his disciples. One of them found a small bunch of small green peas on the road and said to the old man: “Father! If you bless me, I will take it.” The elder looked at him carefully and, as if surprised, asked: “Did you put this bundle here?” The brother answered: “No.” The elder said: “How do you want to take what you didn’t put in?” 189. 20. They asked Abba Agathon: “Which is greater: physical feat, or spiritual activity?” The elder answered: “The ascetic can be likened to a tree: bodily deeds are its leaves, and spiritual activity is its fruit. Scripture says: “Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). From this it is clear that the goal of the entire monastic life is to acquire fruit, i.e. mental prayer. However, just as a tree needs cover and decoration with leaves, so a monk needs physical feat.” 21. The brothers asked Abba Agathon: “Which feat in monastic life is more difficult than others?” He answered: “Forgive me! I believe that the feat of prayer is more difficult than all other feats. When a person wants to pour out his prayer before God, then the enemies, demons, rush to prevent the prayer, knowing that no feat is as dangerous for them as a prayer offered to God with all the soul is dangerous. In every other feat that one dedicated to monastic life undertakes, even if he carries out this feat persistently and constantly, he gains and has some peace; but prayer until the last breath is associated with the labor of a difficult struggle” 190. 22. Abba Agathon said: “I never gave a supper of love: receiving and giving soul-saving instructions was for me a supper of love. I think: delivering spiritual benefit to one’s neighbor replaces providing him with material food.” 23. Abba Agathon, when he saw something and a thought prompted him to condemn, said to himself: “Agatho! don't do this! Thus his thoughts calmed down 191. 24. The brother said to Abba Agathon: “I have been given a commandment, but fulfilling the commandment is associated with sorrow: I want to fulfill the commandment, and I am afraid of sorrow.” The elder answered: “If you had love, you would fulfill the commandment and overcome sorrow” 192. 25. When the time came for the death of Abba Agathon, he remained for three days without moving, having his eyes open and keeping them in one direction. The brothers pushed him, saying: “Abba! where are you?" He answered: “I stand before God’s judgment.” The brothers said to him: “Father! Are you really afraid too? He answered: “Although I tried my best to fulfill God’s commandments, I am a man, and I don’t know whether my deeds are pleasing to God.” The brothers said: “Are you not sure that your deeds are pleasing to God?” The elder said: “It is impossible for me to be convinced of this before I stand before God: because there is another judgment of God and another of man.” When the brethren wanted to ask another question, he told them: “Show love, don’t talk to me, because I’m busy.” Having said this, he immediately breathed his last with joy; the brethren saw that it was over, as if greeting their beloved friends. 26. Abba Agathon strictly observed and guarded himself in all respects. He used to say: “Without the strictest vigilance over oneself, it is impossible for a person to succeed in any virtue” 193. Alphabetical Patericon and Memorable Legends. Isaac of Syria, word 55 and Memorable Tales. Alphabetical Patericon and Memorable Tales. Patrologiae pag. 1030 and the Alphabetical Patericon. You might be interested in: