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1. The brothers said that Gelasius had a parchment book worth eighteen shillings, containing the whole of the Old and New Testaments. The book was put in the church, so that any monk who wanted to could read it. But a travelling monk came to visit the hermit and when he saw the book, he coveted it, stole it, and took it away. The hermit knew who the thief was, but he did not give chase or try to catch him. The thief went to a city and looked for a buyer. He found a man who wanted it, and began by asking sixteen shillings for it. The man, who wished to beat him down, said, ‘Let me have it first to show someone and get advice, and then I will pay whatever is the right price.’ So the monk gave him the book for this purpose. He took the book to Gelasius to discover whether it was a good bargain and worth this high price. He told Gelasius the price the seller was asking. The hermit said, ‘Buy it. It is a good bargain, and worth that much.’ So he went back to the seller, but instead of doing as the hermit had told him, he said, ‘I showed this book to Gelasius and he told me it was too highly priced and not worth what you said.’ The thief said, ‘Did the hermit tell you anything else?’ He answered: ‘Nothing.’ Then the thief said, ‘I don’t want to sell it.’ Stricken to the heart, he went to the hermit, did penance, and asked him to take the book back, but he did not want to take it. Then the monk said, ‘Unless you take it back, I shan’t have peace of mind.’ Then the hermit said, ‘If you can’t have peace of mind unless I take it back, I will do so.’ The brother remained with the hermit until his death, and made progress by learning from his patience.
2. At a meeting of the hermits in Cellia, Evagrius made a speech. Then the priest there said, ‘Evagrius, we know that if you were in your own country, perhaps you would already be a bishop, ruling over many. Here you are only a pilgrim.’ Evagrius was pierced to the heart at these words, but he bent his head calmly and without haste and looked at the ground, then wrote in the dust with his finger, and said, ‘Truly, brothers, that is right. But, as it is written, “I have spoken once and I will no more answer” (Job 40:5).’
3. The brothers surrounded John the Short when he was sitting in front of the church, and each of them asked him about their thoughts. When he saw this, another hermit was jealous, and said, ‘John, your cup is full of poison.’ John answered, ‘Yes, abba, it is. But you said that when you could only see the outside; I wonder what you would say if you saw the inside.’
4. John the Less of the Thebaid, a disciple of Ammon, was said to have lived for twelve years serving a hermit who was ill, sitting on a mat near him. But the hermit was always cross with him, and although John worked a long time for him, he never said, ‘May it be well with you.’ But when the hermit was on his deathbed, in the presence of the brothers of the place, he held John’s hand and said, ‘May it be well with you, may it be well with you.’ The hermit commended John to the others, saying, ‘He is an angel, not a man.’
5. They said of Isidore, the priest in Scetis, that if anyone had a monk who was sick or weak or insolent and wanted to send him away, he would say, ‘Bring him to me.’ Then he would take him, and cure him by his patience.
6. When Macarius was living in Egypt, one day he came across a man who had brought a donkey to his cell and was stealing his possessions. As though he was a passer-by who did not live there, he went up to the thief and helped him to load the beast, and sent him peaceably on his way, saying to himself, ‘We brought nothing into this world (1 Tim. 6:7) but the Lord gave; as He willed, so it is done: blessed be the Lord in all things.’
7. At a meeting of monks in Scetis, the hermits wanted to test Moses. So they poured scorn on him, saying, ‘Who is this black man who is here with us?’ Moses heard them, but said nothing. When the meeting had dispersed, the monks who had insulted him asked him, ‘Weren’t you upset inside?’ He replied, ‘I was upset, and I said nothing.’
8. Paesius, the brother of Poemen, loved one of the monks and Poemen did not like it. So he went and visited Ammonas, and said to him, ‘My brother Paesius loves someone else and I don’t like it.’ Ammonas said to him, ‘Poemen, are you still alive? Go and sit in your cell, and think to yourself that you have been in your grave a year already.’
9. Poemen said, ‘Whatever hardship comes upon you, it can be overcome by silence.’
10. A brother who was hurt by another brother went to the Theban Sisois and said, ‘I want to get back at a brother who has hurt me.’ The hermit begged him, ‘Don’t do that, my son, leave vengeance in the hands of God.’ But he said, ‘I can’t rest till I get my own back.’ The hermit said, ‘My brother, let us pray.’ He stood and said, ‘O God, we have no further need of you, for we can take vengeance by ourselves.’ The brother heard it and fell at the hermit’s feet, saying, ‘I won’t quarrel with my brother any longer; I beg you to forgive me.’
11. Someone who saw a religious person carrying a corpse on a bed, said, ‘Are you carrying dead men? Go and carry the living.’
12. They said of a monk that the more bitterly anyone injured or assailed him, the more he was well disposed to that person, for he said, ‘People like this are a means to cure the faults of serious men. People who make them happy do their souls harm. For it is written, “They that call thee blessed, deceive thee.” ’
13. Some robbers once came to a hermitage and said, ‘We’ve come to take everything out of your cell.’ The hermit said, ‘Take whatever you see, my sons.’ So they took what they found in the cell, and went away. But they missed a little bag that was hidden in the cell. The hermit picked it up, and ran after them, shouting, ‘My sons, you missed this; take it.’ They were amazed at his patience and restored everything, and did penance to him. They said to each other, ‘Truly this is a man of God.’
14. Some brothers came to a holy hermit who lived in the desert and outside the hermitage they found a boy tending the sheep and using uncouth words. After they had told the hermit their thoughts and profited from his reply, they said, ‘Abba, why do you allow those boys to be here, and why don’t you order them to stop hurling abuse at each other?’ He said, ‘Indeed, my brothers, there are days when I want to order them to stop it, but I hold myself back, saying, if I can’t put up with this little thing, how shall I put up with a serious temptation, if God ever lets me be so tempted? So I say nothing to them, and try to get into the habit of bearing whatever happens.’
15. It is said that a hermit had a little boy living with him. Seeing him doing something that was not fitting, he said, ‘Don’t do that,’ but the child did not obey him. Seeing that he was disobedient, the hermit washed his hands of his upbringing, and let him do as he liked. For three days the boy kept the door of the room which had the food in it shut and let the hermit go without anything to eat. The hermit did not say, ‘Where are you?’ or ‘What are you doing out there?’ A neighbour of the hermit noticed that the boy was late in bringing food so he made a little stew, and passed it to the hermit through a hole in the wall of the cell, and asked him to eat. He said to the hermit, ‘Why is that disciple of yours so long away?’ The hermit said, ‘When he has leisure, he will come back.’
16. There was a story that some philosophers once came to test the monks. One of the monks came by dressed in a fine robe. The philosophers said to him, ‘Come here, you.’ But he was indignant, and insulted them. Then another monk came by, a good person, a Libyan by race. They said to him, ‘Come here, you wicked old monk.’ He came to them at once, and they began to hit him, and he turned the other cheek to them. Then the philosophers got up and did homage to him, saying, ‘Here is a monk indeed.’ They made him sit down among them and asked him, ‘What do you do in this desert other than we do? You fast: and we fast also. You chastise your bodies and so do we. Whatever you do, we do the same.’ The monk replied, ‘We trust in God’s grace, and keep a watch on our thoughts.’ They said, ‘That is what we cannot do.’ They were edified, and let him go.
17. A hermit, who had an experienced disciple, once turned him out in a fit of irritation. The disciple sat down outside to wait and the hermit found him there when he opened the door. So he did penance to him, saying, ‘You are my abba now, because your humility and patience have overcome my weakness. Come inside, now you are the old abba, and I am the young disciple; my age must give way to your conduct.’
18. One of the hermits said that he had heard holy men say that there are young men who show old men how to live and they told this story. There was a drunken old hermit, who wove a mat a day, sold it in the next village, and drank as much as he could buy with the money. Then a young monk came to live with him, and he also wove a mat a day. The old hermit took this mat as well, sold it, bought wine with the price of both, and brought back to the monk only a little bread for the evening meal. This went on for three years and the brother said nothing. At the end of three years the monk said to himself, ‘I have very little bread here and nothing else, I will go away.’ But then he had second thoughts, and said to himself, ‘Where can I go? I will stay here, and for God’s sake continue with this communal life.’ Immediately an angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said, ‘Don’t go away, we shall come for you tomorrow.’ That day the monk begged the old hermit, ‘Don’t go out, today they will come to take me away.’ At the time when the old hermit usually went out to the village, he said to the monk, ‘They won’t come today, my son, it’s late already.’ The monk used every argument to show that they would come and even while he was talking, he died in peace. The old hermit wept, and said, ‘I’m filled with grief, my son; I have lived negligently for so many years, and you through patience have saved your soul in so short a time.’ Thereafter the old hermit became sober and serious.
19. A brother who lived near a great hermit was said to enter his cell from time to time and steal the contents. Though the hermit saw him do so, he did not rebuke him, but struggled to produce more than usual, saying, ‘I believe that brother is in need.’ While he worked harder than usual he tightened his belt and ate less. When the hermit was on his deathbed, the brothers stood round him. He looked at the thief, and said, ‘Come here and touch me.’ He grasped his hands and kissed them, saying, ‘I thank these hands of yours, my brother; it is because of them that I go into the kingdom of heaven.’ The thief was stricken with remorse and did penance, and he became a true monk, and followed the example of that great hermit.