History of the Monks in Egypt 11–17

There was also another holy man named Helenus. Brought up from boyhood in the service of the Lord with all continence and the most chaste training, he had reached the highest merits. Indeed, when he was still a boy in the monastery, if fire was needed and had to be fetched from nearby, he would carry burning coals in his garment without harm to it. All the brothers present, admiring this, wished to imitate the zeal of his soul and his life and merit. Once when he was alone in the desert, a desire arose in him to eat honey; and turning round he saw a honeycomb clinging to a rock. Understanding that this was the enemy’s deceit, at once rebuking himself he said: “Depart from me, deceitful and seductive craving. For it is written: Walk by the Spirit, and do not fulfil the cravings of the flesh.” And at once leaving the place itself, he went away into the desert, and there, as if to punish the craving of the flesh, began to afflict himself with fasts. In the third week of his fast he saw various fruits lying scattered in the desert; and understanding the enemy’s tricks, he said: “I will not eat, nor touch, lest I cause my brother, that is, my soul, to stumble. For it is written: Man does not live by food alone, but by every word of God.” And when he fasted the following week too, he was drawn a little into sleep, and behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him in a vision, saying: “Rise now, and eat without hesitation what you find set before you.” Rising, he saw a spring of water filled with gentle streams, its banks round about fringed with tender and fragrant herbs. Going up, he began to pluck and eat, and likewise to take drink from the spring; and he affirmed that never in all his life had he tasted anything of such sweetness and such pleasantness. He also found in that place a cave, in which he rested for some time. And when the time and need for refreshing his little body came, by God’s grace nonetheless nothing was lacking of what he asked of the Lord.

At one time he was going to visit sick brothers, to whom he was also bringing what was needed for the refreshment of the body. And when on the way he was weighed down by the load he was carrying, he saw in the distance wild asses passing through the desert, and he cried out, saying: “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, let one of you come here and take up my burden.” And behold, one out of the whole herd came to him with all gentleness. Then he put the load on the one that offered itself willingly, sat on it himself, and was carried by it with all speed to the cells of the brothers to which he was going.

At another time, on the Lord’s day, he came to a certain monastery of brothers, and when he saw them not keeping the solemnity of the day, he asked the reason. They said it was because the presbyter was not there, since he lived across the river, and no one dared to cross for fear of a crocodile. Then he said: “If you wish, I will go and bring him to you.” And at once he went to the bank of the river; where, when he had called on the name of the Lord, the beast was there at hand, and the one that used to come for the destruction of people came then as the conveyance of the righteous man, taking him on its back, submissive with all fear, and carried him to the other bank. Helenus went at once to the presbyter and began to beg him to come to the brothers; for he was dressed in the most worthless and abject garment. At which the presbyter, amazed, asked who he was, where he was from, and what he wanted. But when he learned that he was a man of God, he began to follow him to the river. And when he complained that no boat could be found by which he could cross, then abba Helenus said to him: “Fear nothing, father; I will prepare a conveyance right now.” And crying out with a loud voice he ordered the beast to come. It, hearing his voice, at once swam up and calmly made its back ready for carrying. Climbing on first himself, he invited the presbyter too, saying: “Get on, fearing nothing.” But he, seeing the beast, was terrified and began to draw back and flee. Great amazement and fear seized all who were present, seeing the man of God crossing the river’s bed carried on a crocodile. When he had got off, he brought the beast out onto dry land with him, saying to it: “Death is better for you than to be bound in the guilt of so many crimes and so many murders.” And it at once fell down and died.

Meanwhile, staying three days in the monastery, holy Helenus taught the brothers spiritual teaching, so that he even brought out into the open the thoughts of the hearts and the secret counsels of some, and disclosed that one was driven by a spirit of sexual immorality, another by a spirit of anger, another by greed for money, and that some were deluded by boasting and a spirit of pride. To another he bore witness of gentleness, to another of righteousness, to another of patience; and so on both sides, emphasizing the vices of some and the virtues of soul of others, he cultivated progress in them all wonderfully. Each one, recognizing that things were going on among them as he had declared, was pricked in heart and amended. As he was about to leave, he said to them: “Prepare vegetables for the arrival of brothers.” And while they were preparing them, at once brothers arrived; and when they had been received with honour, he hurried off to the desert.

One of the brothers asked him to allow him to live with him in the desert. And when he answered him that it was a grave business and very great labour to resist the temptations of demons, the young man persisted the more stubbornly, promising that he would bear everything patiently, if only he would grant him his company. And when he had allowed it, he followed him to the desert, and Helenus ordered him to live in a cave near him. Then the demons flew at him by night: first they harassed him with foul and shameful thoughts, and after this they also began to rush on him violently and to try to kill him. The young man fled and, flying to the cell of holy Helenus, set out by what evils he was being pressed. Then the old man comforted him in a few words and, admonishing him about the strength of faith and patience, at once sent him back to the cave from which he had fled; and drawing with his finger something like a furrow through the sand outside the young man’s cell, he commanded in the name of the Lord that the demons should not dare to cross the boundary set. And so, by the power of his word, the young man remained secure from then on.

It was reported of him that he too, when as a young man he was living in the desert, often received heavenly food; and that when brothers came to him and he had nothing to set before them, a young man was present bringing him loaves and what was needed, and when he had laid them before his cave, he never appeared again; and that Helenus said to the brothers: “Let us bless the Lord, who has prepared a table for us in the wilderness.”

Telling us these and very many other things about the life and ways of the holy fathers, and instructing us with all affection, after the building up of his words father Copres brought us into his little garden and showed us palm trees and other fruit trees which he himself had planted, and said: “The faith of the countrymen urged me to plant these in the desert. For when I saw them have such faith that, collecting the sand under our footsteps, they scattered it over their fields and turned barren land to the richness of all fruitfulness, it is a shame, I said, if we are found inferior in faith to those whose faith was sealed to God through us.”

We also saw another venerable old man named Elijah, in the territory of the city of Antinoë, which is the metropolis of the Thebaid, already almost a hundred and ten years old, as was said; and they said of him that the spirit of Elijah had truly rested on him. For many magnificent things were reported of him. They declared that he had spent seventy years in a most vast solitude, the horror and terror of which desert no words could worthily set out. There, then, the old man sat through all this age, not knowing the places of human habitation. The path that led to him was narrow and rough, so that it could hardly be found by travellers. The place itself where he sat was a terrible cave, striking great horror into those who looked at it. He himself was now shaken, his limbs trembling from extreme age. Yet every day without ceasing he did signs, and those who came to him held fast by any infirmity he released in every way. All the fathers affirmed that no one at all remembered when he had withdrawn to the desert. His food was a little bread and very few olives, right up to extreme old age; for in youth he was said to have often fasted for weeks.

Meanwhile, returning from the Thebaid, we saw a steep mountain overhanging the river, with a height of threatening rock, terrible even to look at, in which there were caves, difficult of ascent, along the very precipices. In these very many monks lived, whose father was named Pithyrion. He was one of the disciples of blessed Antony, and after his death had lived with holy Ammon; after his departure too he had settled on this mountain. And there was in him such abundance of virtues, such grace of healings, and such power against demons, that by the merit of two very great men he alone seemed to have obtained a double inheritance. He built up many with admonitions and instructed them with much teaching; but above all he taught us about the discernment of spirits, saying that there are certain demons who serve particular vices, and when they see someone’s affections moved passionately and viciously, they turn them to every evil deed. “If, then, there is anyone who wishes to rule over demons, let him first rule over his own vices and passions. For whatever vice of your own passion you have cast off, you will be able to drive out the demon of that vice even from possessed bodies. And therefore one must strive little by little to overcome one’s own vices, so that we may overcome the demons too who serve such vices.” He ate twice a week, taking a little gruel of flour; nor could he now take any other food, neither his age nor his habit permitting it.

We also saw another holy father named Eulogius, who in offering the sacraments had received such grace from the Lord that he knew the merits and faults of each of those approaching the altar of God. Indeed, some of the monks who wished to come to communion he held back, saying: “How have you dared to approach the divine sacraments, when your mind and purpose are set on evil?” Indeed he would say: “This night you had thoughts of committing sexual immorality. And you said in your heart: It makes no difference whether a righteous man or a sinner approaches the sacraments. And another had doubt in his heart, saying: For how can communion sanctify me?” These, then, he removed one by one from communion in the sacrament and said to them: “Withdraw a little and do penance, so that, purified by satisfaction and tears, you may be held worthy of the communion of Christ.”

We also saw another presbyter in the neighbouring region named Apelles, a righteous man. He was a smith, and made the iron things the brothers needed. Once, when he was keeping vigil at his smith’s work in the silence of the night, the devil, turned into the form of a beautiful woman, came to him as if bringing him some work. Then he snatched up with his bare hand a red-hot iron from the furnace and thrust it into her face. She fled shrieking and howling, so that all the brothers who lived round about heard the howling of her flight; and from then on that man was accustomed to hold red-hot iron in his bare hand without being harmed.

When we had come to him and he had received us most kindly, we asked him to speak to us either of his own deeds or of the virtues of those whom he knew to be outstanding in holy living. Then he said: “There is in this nearby desert a certain brother named John, advanced in age, surpassing all in life and character and abstinence. When he first came to the desert, for three continuous years he stood under the overhang of a rock and prayed constantly, so that he never sat down at all nor lay down. He took only as much sleep as he could take standing. He never took food except on the Lord’s day; for a presbyter would then come to him and offer the sacrifice for him, and that alone was his sacrament and his food. One day Satan, wishing to steal in on him, transformed himself into the presbyter who used to come to him, and arriving before the usual hour pretended that he had come for the sake of the sacraments. But John, watchfully perceiving the devil’s fraud, said to him with a certain indignation: ‘O father of all deceit and all fraud, enemy of all righteousness, you do not cease leading Christian souls astray, but you have dared to thrust yourself even into the awesome and most holy mysteries themselves!’ He answered him: ‘I thought I could win you over; for so I deceived another of you, so that he went out of his mind and lost his senses. When I had made him mad as he believed me, so many righteous men praying for him could hardly restore him to his place and to health.’ And when the demon had said this, he fled from him.

“The man mentioned above persevered in the work he had begun and continued in prayer. His feet, because they had been motionless for a long time, burst open, so that pus flowed from them. When the three years were completed, an angel of the Lord came and said to him: ‘The Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit have accepted your prayers, and heal the scars of your body, and give you abundance of heavenly food, that is, of his word and knowledge.’ And touching his mouth and feet, he made him sound of his ulcers, and, filling him with the grace of knowledge and teaching, he made him feel no hunger for food. He ordered him to move to other places and, going round the desert, to visit other brothers too and build them up in the word and teaching of the Lord. On the Lord’s day he always returned to the same place, likewise for the sake of the sacraments; on the other days he also did the work of his hands and laboured, weaving girths for beasts of burden from palm leaves, as is the custom in those places.

“Once a lame man wished to go to him to be healed by him. It happened that the animal he was to ride had a girth made by the hands of the man of God. When, then, he was set on the beast, as soon as his feet touched that girth he was made well. And to whatever sick people he sent blessed bread, as soon as they partook of it they were healed. And the Lord accomplished many other mighty works and healings through him. He had also this grace above all the fathers and other people: that the way of life of each of the brothers of the neighbouring monasteries was revealed to him, so that he wrote to their fathers and warned them that such and such were acting sluggishly and did not keep a right purpose in the fear of God, while such and such were advancing in faith and strength of soul. He also wrote to the brothers themselves, to some that they were very wearisome toward the brothers and faint of heart in patience, to others that they were acting well, steadfastly and carefully, and were comforting the brothers sufficiently. And he foretold what reward from the Lord awaited this one for his virtues, and what correction that one for his sloth; and so he described the acts and motives and merits or negligence of those who were absent, so that those of whom it was said, hearing it, were convicted by their conscience and could not deny it. He taught all to transfer their minds from visible and bodily things to invisible and incorporeal ones. ‘For it is time,’ he said, ‘to pass over to pursuits of this kind; for we ought not always to be boys and always infants, but at last to climb to spiritual and higher things, to take on the understanding of men, and to go up to a more perfect understanding, so that we may shine with the virtues of the soul.’”

The holy man of God Apelles commended to us many other things about this man by a most trustworthy account; but to write them all down seems long, and because of their greatness hardly credible to some who hear.

We also saw the monastery of holy Paphnutius, the man of God, who had been a most renowned anchorite in those places and the last inhabitant of the desert in the regions of Heracleopolis, a splendid city in the Thebaid. About him, then, we learned by a most trustworthy account of the fathers that, though he lived an angelic life, he once prayed God to show him which of the saints he was held to be like. An angel stood by and answered him that he was like a certain musician who sought his living by the art of singing in a certain village. Then he, astonished by the novelty of the answer, went to the village with all haste and searched for the man. And when he had found him, he asked him most earnestly what holy and religious work he had done, and examined all his acts very closely. He answered what was the fact: that he was a sinful man of most unworthy life, and that not long before he had come down from being a robber to this foul trade which he now seemed to practise. Paphnutius pressed him the more, asking whether perhaps he had done any pious work even among his robberies. “I am conscious of no good in myself,” he said; “yet I know this: that when I was among the robbers, a virgin consecrated to God was once captured by us; and when my fellow robbers were eager to rob her of her chastity, I threw myself into their midst and rescued her from the defilement of the robbers, and leading her by night to the village, restored her untouched to her home. At another time too I found a woman of respectable appearance wandering in the desert. When I asked her why or how she had come to these places, she answered: ‘Ask me nothing, a most unhappy woman, and do not seek the reasons; but if you would like to have a slave woman, take me away wherever you wish. For I, unhappy woman, have a husband who for a debt to the treasury has often been hung up and flogged, and tortured with every punishment, and is kept in prison; and he is brought out for no other reason than to suffer torments. We had three sons, who have already been sold for the necessity of the same debt. I too, most wretched, since I am sought for similar punishments, fleeing from place to place, worn out by hunger and misery, now wander hiding through these places, having now gone three days without food.’ When I heard this, I pitied her and brought her to my cave, and reviving her soul, which had collapsed from hunger, I also gave her three hundred solidi, for which she said she and her husband and sons were liable not only to slavery but also to punishments; and when she had gone back to the city, she freed them all by paying the money.”

Then father Paphnutius said: “I have done nothing of the kind; yet I believe it has reached you too that the name of Paphnutius is famous among the monks. For it was no small effort of mine to cultivate my life in disciplines of this kind. God, then, has revealed to me about you that you have no less merit with him than I. Since, then, brother, you see that you are held in no low place with God, do not neglect your soul.” And he at once threw away the pipes he was carrying in his hand and followed him to the desert; and changing the art of music into a spiritual harmony of life and mind, he gave himself to the strictest abstinence for three whole years, exercising himself day and night in psalms and prayers, and, travelling the heavenly road by the virtues of the soul, he gave up his spirit among the angelic choirs of the saints.

After Paphnutius had sent on before him to the Lord the musician mentioned above, perfected by every exercise of the virtues, he himself, driving himself with sharper efforts than he had practised before, again besought the Lord to show him who was like him on earth. So again the voice of the Lord came to him, saying: “Know that you are like the headman of that village which is nearby.” When he heard this, Paphnutius hurried to him without delay and knocked at the door of his house. The man, whose custom it was to receive guests, came out to meet him and brought him into his house, washed his feet too, set a table, and held a meal. During the meal Paphnutius began to ask his host what acts he had, what pursuit, the exercises of what work. And when he answered humble things about himself, preferring to hide in good works rather than be made public, Paphnutius pressed him, saying that it had been revealed to him by the Lord that he was worthy of the fellowship of monks. He, thinking still more humbly of himself, said: “I am conscious of no good in myself in anything; but since the word of God has come to you, I cannot hide from him from whom nothing is hidden. I will tell, then, the things that are my practice, placed as I am in the midst of many. Thirty years are now completed since I have had, with my wife’s consent, a life of continence, and no one has known it. I had three sons by her; for their sake only did I know my wife, and no other besides her, and she herself no longer known. I have never ceased to receive guests, but in such a way that I allowed no one to go out before me to meet an arriving stranger. I have never sent a guest from my house without provision for the journey. I have despised no poor man, but have provided what was needed. If I sat in judgment, I did not show partiality even to my son against justice. The fruits of another’s labour have never entered my house. If I saw a quarrel, I never passed by until I had reconciled those at odds to peace. No one has ever caught my servants in a fault; my flocks have never harmed others’ crops. I have never forbidden anyone who wished to sow in my field, nor chosen the richer fallow land for myself and left the more barren to them. As far as was in me, I have never allowed the more powerful to oppress the weak. I have always striven in my life to grieve no one. If I was head in a judgment, I condemned no one, but strove to bring those at odds back to concord. This, by God’s gift, has been the rule of my life until now.”

Hearing this, blessed Paphnutius kissed his head and blessed him, saying: “May the Lord bless you from Zion, and may you see the good things that are in Jerusalem. Since, then, you have fulfilled these things well and fittingly, this is lacking to you, which is the highest of all goods: that, leaving everything, you now follow the true wisdom of God itself and seek out the more hidden treasures, to which you can come in no other way than by denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Christ.” When he heard this, without delay, and without arranging anything at all in his house, he followed the man of God, going with him to the desert. When they came to the river and no boat was found anywhere for crossing, Paphnutius commanded him to enter the river on foot with him, although in those places it was very deep. So they crossed the river together, the water barely reaching their sides. When they came to the desert, Paphnutius placed the man in a cell not far from his own monastery, handed him the order of the spiritual life, taught him the exercises of perfect pursuits, and entrusted him with the more hidden things of knowledge. And when he had instructed him in everything, he gave himself again to greater exercises, reckoning his former labours slight, since he could be compared with one who seemed occupied in the business of the world. For he said to himself: “If those who are in the world do so much good work, how much more ought we to strive to surpass them in the labour of abstinence?”

When some time had passed in these things, and he had brought to the perfection of knowledge the man whom he had already received perfect in works, one day Paphnutius, sitting in his cell, saw his soul taken up among choirs of angels who were saying: “Blessed is he whom you have chosen and taken up; he will dwell in your tabernacles.” And when he heard this, he recognized that the man had been taken from this world. Then Paphnutius persevered in fasts and prayers, stretching himself to greater and more perfect things. And again he prayed the Lord to show him whom he was held to be like among men. Again the divine voice answered him, saying: “You are like the merchant whom you will see coming to you; rise quickly and go to meet him. For the man to whom I have declared you like is at hand.” And Paphnutius, going down without delay, met a certain Alexandrian merchant bringing from the Thebaid in three ships merchandise worth twenty thousand solidi. And since he was devout and zealous for good works, he was bringing ten sacks of vegetables, loaded on his servants, to the monastery of the man of God; and this was his reason for coming to Paphnutius. As soon as he saw him, he said: “What are you doing, O most precious soul, worthy of God? What labour have you with earthly things, to whom a lot and fellowship with heavenly things has been given? Leave these things to those who are of the earth and think of the earth; but you, become a merchant of the kingdom of God, to which you have been called, and follow the Saviour, by whom you are soon to be taken up.” He, delaying nothing at all, ordered his servants to give to the poor everything that remained (for he had already distributed much himself). He himself, following holy Paphnutius to the desert, was placed by him in the same place from which the former ones too had been taken up to the Lord. Likewise instructed by him in everything, he remained in spiritual exercises and pursuits of divine wisdom; and when a short time was completed, he too was translated to the congregation of the righteous.

Not long after, when Paphnutius himself too was spending his life in these very exercises and labours of the utmost abstinence, an angel of the Lord stood by him, saying to him: “Come now, blessed one, and enter the eternal tabernacles that are owed you. For see, the prophets are here to receive you into their choir. I did not reveal this to you earlier for this reason, lest perhaps, lifted up, you incur some loss of your labour.” And after this, spending one day more in the body, when some presbyters had come to visit him, he made known to them everything the Lord had revealed to him, saying to them that no one in this world ought to be despised, even if he be a robber, or on the stage, even if he works the land and seems bound by marriage, even if he is called a merchant and serves trade; yet in every order of human life there are souls pleasing to God and having some hidden acts in which God delights. “Hence it is clear that it is not so much the profession of a way of life, or the outward form of dress, that is pleasing to God, as sincerity and the disposition of the mind and uprightness of works.” And when he had discoursed on each of these things in like manner, he gave up his spirit. And the presbyters who were present, and all the brothers, clearly saw him taken up by angels singing a hymn and praising God.

We also saw in the Thebaid the most renowned monastery of Isidore, enclosed within very wide grounds and surrounded by a wall, in which ample dwellings were provided for the men who lived there. Inside there were many wells, watered gardens, orchards too of all fruits and trees, and whatever was needed for use, provided sufficiently, indeed abundantly, so that none of the monks living within should have any need to go outside to seek anything. A certain old man, a man of weight, chosen from among the first, sitting at the gate, had this office: to receive those who arrived on this condition, that having entered they never go out again. If, then, one has once chosen to enter, the law stands unmoved; but what is more wonderful, it is no longer the compulsion of the law that keeps those who have entered, but the blessedness and perfection of the life. This old man at the gate, then, where he himself lives, had a guest cell joined to his own, in which to receive arrivals with hospitality and refresh them with every kindness. When, then, we too had been received by him, we had no opportunity at all to enter; but we learned from him what blessedness of institutions was practised within. He said that there were only two old men who were allowed freedom to go out and come in, to look after the distribution of the brothers’ work and bring in what is needed; but that the rest lived in such silence and quiet, giving their effort to prayers and devout pursuits, and so strong in the virtues of the soul, that all of them do signs. And what is truly the most marvellous sign of all, none of them falls into the sickness of any infirmity; but when the end of life has come for each, knowing it beforehand in every way and telling his brothers of his departure, and bidding all farewell, he lies down for this very purpose and gladly breathes out his spirit.