7

FORTITUDE

1. Once when Antony was living in the desert his soul was troubled by boredom and irritation. He said to God, ‘Lord, I want to be made whole and my thoughts do not let me. What am I to do about this trouble, how shall I be cured?’ After a while he got up and went outside. He saw someone like himself sitting down and working, then standing up to pray; then sitting down again to make a plait of palm leaves, and standing up again to pray. It was an angel of the Lord sent to correct Antony and make him vigilant. He heard the voice of the angel saying, ‘Do this and you will be cured.’ When he heard it he was very glad and recovered his confidence. He did what the angel had done, and found the salvation that he was seeking.

2. A brother asked Agatho, ‘I have been instructed to go somewhere, and I have serious doubts about the place where I have been told to go. I want to obey the order, yet I’m frightened of the inner struggle which will follow.’ The hermit said, ‘Agatho was like that. He obeyed orders, and so he won the battle.’

3. Ammonas said that for fourteen years in Scetis he had been asking God day and night to give him strength to control his temper.

4. Bessarion said that for forty nights he had stood among thorns and had not slept.

5. A hermit who was anxious went to Theodore of Pherme and told him all about it. He said to him, ‘Humble yourself, put yourself in subjection, go and live with others.’ So he went to a mountain, and there lived with a community. Later he returned to Theodore and said, ‘Not even when I lived with other men did I find rest.’ He said to him, ‘If you’re not at rest as a hermit, nor when you’re in a community, why did you want to be a monk? Wasn’t it in order to suffer? Tell me, how many years have you been a monk?’ He said, ‘Eight.’ Theodore said, ‘Believe me, I’ve been a monk for seventy years, and I’ve not been able to get a single day’s peace. Do you expect to have peace after only eight years?’

6. A brother asked Theodore, ‘If you suddenly hear the sound of falling masonry, are you frightened, abba?’ He said, ‘If the heavens fell down on the earth, Theodore would not be afraid.’ For he had prayed to God that fear might be taken from him. That was why the brother questioned him.

7. They said about Theodore and Lucius from the town of Alexandria that for fifty years they strengthened themselves like this. They used to say, ‘When this winter is over, we will move from here,’ then in the summer they would say, ‘At the end of the summer let us go away.’ Those renowned monks lived their whole life devoutly in this way.

8. Poemen said about John the Short that he asked the Lord to take away his passions. So his heart was at rest, and he went to a hermit and said, ‘I find that I am at peace, with no war between flesh and spirit.’ The hermit said to him, ‘Go and ask the Lord to stir up a new war in you. Fighting is good for the soul.’ When the conflict revived in him, he no longer prayed for it to be taken away, but said, ‘Lord, grant me strength to endure this fight.’

9. Macarius the Great came to Antony on the mountain. When he knocked at the door, Antony went out and said, ‘Who are you?’ He said, ‘I am Macarius.’ Antony went in and shut the door, and left Macarius outside. Afterwards, when he saw how patiently he waited, he opened the door to him and welcomed him saying, ‘I have heard of you, and for a long time I have wanted to see you.’ He was hospitable and refreshed him, for Macarius was tired with his hard work. In the evening Antony put out a few palm leaves for himself. Macarius said to him, ‘Give me some, so that I can work at them.’ Antony said, ‘I only have these.’ So he made a pile of what he had, and they sat late, talking to the good of their souls, and made a plaited rope, and the rope hung out of the window in the cave. At dawn Antony went out and saw the plait which Macarius had made, and he marvelled and kissed his hand, saying, ‘There is great virtue in those plaits.’

10. This same Macarius once went down from Scetis to a place named Terenuthis, and he climbed into an old pagan burial place to sleep. He put one of the bodies under his head as a pillow. The demons hated him when they saw his assurance and tried to frighten him by calling out, ‘Lady, come with us to bathe.’ Another demon answered from underneath Macarius, as though he were the dead woman, ‘I have a pilgrim on top of me, and can’t move.’ Macarius was not frightened, but confidently thumped the body, saying, ‘Get up and go if you can.’ When the demons heard it, they cried out and said, ‘You have defeated us,’ and they fled in confusion.

11. Mathois said, ‘I like to find some light but continual work, rather than a heavy work that is quickly finished.’

12. They said of Milidus, that while he was living on the frontiers of Persia with two disciples, two sons of the emperor came on their usual hunting expedition, and put nets round an area of forty miles, and speared whatever they trapped. They found the monk and his disciples within this area. When they saw his hairy and forbidding face, they were astonished and said, ‘Are you a man or a demon?’ He said, ‘I am a sinful man, and I have come out here to repent of my sins. I worship Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.’ They said to him, ‘There is no god but sun, fire and water. Worship them and sacrifice to them.’ He replied, ‘You are wrong, they are only creatures. I beg you, be converted and recognize the true God who made these and everything else.’ But they mocked him and said, ‘Are you saying that the true God is a condemned and crucified man?’ ‘Yes,’ said Milidus, ‘I say that the true God is He who crucified sin and killed death.’ So they tortured him and the two monks to force them to sacrifice. After many tortures they beheaded the two monks but they went on torturing Milidus day after day. Then they fastened him in one place and fired arrows into him, one in front and one behind, so that he looked like a signpost. He said to them, ‘Because you have conspired to shed innocent blood, tomorrow, at this very moment of the day, your mother shall lose her children and your care for her, and you will spill each other’s blood with your own arrows.’ They thought his words were nonsense and next day went out again to hunt. It happened that a stag escaped from their net, and they mounted their horses and chased him. Each fired an arrow which hit the heart of the other, and so they died as Milidus had foreseen.

13. Poemen said, ‘The character of the genuine monk only appears when he is tempted.’

14. Poemen also said this: Isidore, the presbyter in Scetis, once spoke to a group of monks and said, ‘My brothers, isn’t work the reason why we are here? But now I see that no work is done here. So I will take my cloak and go where there is work and so I shall find rest.’

15. Syncletica said, ‘If you live in a monastic community, do not wander from place to place; if you do, it will harm you. If a hen stops sitting on the eggs she will hatch no chickens. The monk or nun who goes from place to place grows cold and dead in faith.’

16. She also said, ‘When the devil does not use the goad of poverty to tempt us, he uses wealth for the same purpose. When he cannot win by scorn and mockery, he tries praise and flattery. If he cannot win by giving health, he tries illness. If he cannot win by comfort, he tries to ruin the soul by vexations that lead us to act against our monastic vows. He inflicts severe sicknesses on people whom he wants to tempt and so makes them weak, and thereby shakes the love they feel towards God. But although the body is shattered and running a high temperature and thirsting unbearably, yet you, who endure all this, are a sinner; you should therefore remember the punishments of the next world, the everlasting fire, the torments of judgement. Then you will not fail in the sufferings of this present time, indeed you should rejoice because God has visited you. Keep saying the famous text: “The Lord hath chastened and corrected me: but he hath not given me over unto death” (Ps. 118:18). Iron is cleaned of rust by fire. If you are righteous and suffer, you grow to a higher sanctity. Gold is tested by fire. When a messenger from Satan is given to you to be a thorn in your flesh, lift up your heart, for you have received a gift like that of St Paul. If you suffer from fever and cold, remember the text of Scripture, “We went through fire and water,” and “thou broughtest us out into a place of rest” (Ps. 66:12). If you have overcome suffering, you may expect rest, provided you are following what is good. Cry aloud the prophet’s words, “I am poor and destitute and in misery” (Ps. 66:29). Threefold suffering like this shall make you perfect. He said also, “Thou hast set me at liberty when I was in trouble” (Ps. 4:1). So let this kind of self-discipline test our souls, for our enemy is always in sight.’

17. Syncletica also said, ‘If you are troubled by illness, do not be miserable, even if you are so ill that you cannot stand to pray or use your voice to say psalms. We need these tribulations to destroy the desires of our body; they serve the same purpose as fasting and austerity. If your senses are dulled by illness, you do not need to fast. In the same way that a powerful medicine cures an illness, so illness itself is a medicine to cure passion. A great deal is gained spiritually by bearing illness quietly and giving thanks to God. If we go blind, let us not be upset. We have lost one means to excellence, yet we can contemplate the glory of God with the inward eyes of the soul. If we go deaf let us remember that we shall no longer hear a lot of silly talk. If suffering has weakened the strength of your hands, you still have inner strength against the enemy’s attacks. If the whole body is afflicted by disease, your spiritual health is still increasing.’

18. She also said, ‘Those in the world who commit crimes are thrown into prison against their will. For our sins, let us put ourselves under guard, and by willingly accepting it now we shall avoid punishment in the future. If you fast, you should beware of thinking that it is by weakening your body that you have fallen ill, for people who do not fast fall ill in the same way. If you have begun some good work, you should not be turned from it by the enemy’s attempts to hinder you, indeed your endurance will overthrow the enemy. Sailors beginning a voyage set the sails and look for a favourable wind, and later they meet a contrary wind. Just because the wind has turned, they do not throw the cargo overboard or abandon ship; they wait a while and struggle against the storm until they can set a direct course again. When we run into headwinds, let us put up the cross for our sail, and we shall voyage through the world in safety.’

19. They said of Sarah of blessed memory that for sixty years she lived on the bank of a river, and never looked at the water.

20. Hyperichius said, ‘Keep praising God with hymns, and meditating continually, and so lighten the burden of the temptations that attack you. A traveller carrying a heavy burden stops from time to time to take deep breaths, and so makes the journey easier and the burden light.’

21. He also said, ‘Temptations come to us in all kinds of ways. We ought to put on full armour, and then we shall seem to them to be expert soldiers when they attack us.’

22. A hermit said, ‘If a man is tempted, sufferings crowd round him on all sides, and he becomes timid and begins to grumble.’ He told this story: A certain temptation beset a brother who lived at Cellia and if anyone saw him, they did not greet him, or ask him into their cells. If he was short of bread, no one gave him any. If he was on his way back from harvesting, no one invited him in for refreshment in the usual way. Once when he had been reaping, he was parched with thirst and had nothing to eat in his cell. But in all these difficulties he kept on thanking God. God saw his patience and took away his inner struggle and gave him rest from his temptation. Immediately there was a knock on his door, and a man from Egypt was outside leading a camel laden with bread. When the brother saw it, he began to weep, and said, ‘Lord, am I not worthy of even a little suffering?’ Now that his trial was over, the brothers welcomed him in their cells and into the church, and refreshed him.

23. A hermit said, ‘We do not make progress because we do not realize how much we can do. We lose interest in the work we have begun, and we want to be good without even trying.’

24. A brother asked a hermit, ‘What am I to do? My thoughts will not let me sit alone in my cell even for an hour.’ He said, ‘My son, go back and stay in your cell, wash your hands, pray to God continually, turn your thoughts towards God: and let no one persuade you to go out of your cell.’ He added this story: A boy who was living in the world with his father, decided to become a monk. Though he begged his father to allow it, the father kept refusing, but in the end, at the request of some devout friends, he consented grudgingly. The boy left home and entered a monastery. As soon as he had become a monk, he began to keep the monastic rule perfectly, and to fast every day. He even began to go without food for two days and to eat a proper meal only once a week. His abbot noticed this and marvelled, and thanked God for his self-discipline. After a short time it happened that the monk began to say to his abbot, ‘Please let me go into the desert.’ The abbot said, ‘My son, don’t think of it. You can’t endure austerity like that, or the skill and temptation of the devil. When you are tempted in the desert, there is no one to comfort you in the troubles which the devil stirs up.’ But the monk continued to ask him even more urgently to let him go. His abbot, seeing that he could not hold him, said a prayer and let him go. Then the monk said to his abbot, ‘Please give me a guide to show me the right way.’ The abbot selected two monks from that monastery to go with him. For two days they walked through the desert, and then were exhausted with the heat. So they lay down and slept for a little. While they were asleep, an eagle swooped down and beat at them with its wings, then flew off a little way and alighted. They woke up and saw the eagle, and said, ‘Here is your guide; get up and follow him.’ The brother got up, said goodbye to the brothers and followed the eagle, which flew a little way and then alighted; on his approach it flew a little further; this went on for three hours. Then the eagle flew off to the right of the pursuing monk, and did not reappear. Nevertheless the monk went in that direction, and saw three palm-trees, a spring, and a little cave. He said, ‘Here is the place God has made ready for me.’ He went into the cave and stayed there, eating dates and drinking the water from the spring; for six years he lived there alone and saw no one. But one day the devil came to him disguised as a monk, with a stern expression on his face. The brother saw him and was frightened, and knelt down to pray. When he got up the devil said to him, ‘Let us pray again, brother.’ When they got up again, the devil said, ‘How long have you been here?’ He replied, ‘Six years.’ The devil said, ‘This is amazing. You have been my neighbour, and I did not realize it until four days ago. I have a hermitage not far from here, and this is the first day in eleven years that I have left it, because I discovered that you were living near me. I thought about it, and said to myself, ‘Shall I go to this man of God, and consult him for the good of my soul? I tell you, brother, we do no good sitting alone in our cells. We cannot receive the body and blood of Christ, and I am afraid that he will cast us away if we separate ourselves from that sacrament. But listen, brother, three miles from here is a monastery that has a priest. Let us go there every Sunday, or every other Sunday, and receive the body and blood of Christ, and then return to our cells.’ The brother was persuaded by the devil’s suggestion. On Sunday the devil came and said, ‘Come on, it is time to go.’ They went out and came to the monastery where the presbyter was, entered the church and began to pray. When the monk ended his prayers, he could not see his guide anywhere, and said to himself, ‘Where he has gone? Has he had to go out?’ He waited a while but his guide did not return. He went out of the church and looked round for him, but could not find him. So he asked the monks of the place, ‘Where is the abba who came to church with me?’ They said, ‘We saw no one but you.’ Then the brother knew that it had been a demon, and said, ‘See the cunning by which the devil has drawn me out of my cell. Yet he cannot harm me, because I have come here for a good reason. I shall receive the body and blood of Christ, and go back to my cell.’ After mass in the church, the brother wanted to go back to his cell. But the abbot of the monastery kept him, saying, ‘We will not let you go back until you have eaten with us.’ So he shared their meal and went back to his cell. Then the devil came again, this time appearing like a young man of the world, and began to look him up and down from head to foot staring at him and saying to himself, ‘Is this the man? No.’ The brother said to him, ‘Why are you staring at me?’ The devil said, ‘I think you do not recognize me. How should you know me after such a long time? I am the son of your father’s neighbour. Is not your father’s name this and your mother’s that, and your sister’s that, and your name that? Are not your two serving girls called such and such? But your mother and sister died three years ago. Now your father has died, and left his property to you, saying, “My son, who out of goodness left the world and followed God, is the only heir left to me, so I will leave him everything. If anyone is a prophet of the Lord and knows where he is, let him find him. Then my son can come and take my wealth and give it away to the poor for the good of my soul and his soul.” Many people have been looking for you but could not find you. I was brought here accidentally by some work and recognized you. Do not delay, but come, sell everything and do what your father wanted.’ The brother answered, ‘I ought not to go back to the world.’ The devil said, ‘If you do not come and your wealth vanishes you will have to give an account of it before God. Surely I am saying nothing wrong in telling you to come and give money to the poor and needy like a good and generous man, and so prevent money left to the poor from being misappropriated by evil men and women? What is the difficulty about coming to give alms as your father wanted for the good of your soul, and then returning to your cell?’ So he persuaded the brother to return to the world. He went with him as far as the town and left him. The brother was about to enter his father’s house, as if it were the house of a dead man, when his father came out alive and well. He did not recognize his son, but said: ‘Who are you?’ The monk in his surprise could not say a word. His father began again to ask him who he was and where he came from. Then, in confusion, he said, ‘I am your son.’ His father said, ‘Why have you come back?’ He was ashamed to say why he had come, so he said, ‘My affection for you made me return; I wanted to see you.’ He stayed at home and soon he fell into fornication, and was severely punished by his father; he was miserable and did not repent but remained in the world. So I tell you, my brothers, that a monk never ought to let himself be persuaded by anyone to leave his cell.

25. In the desert some people came to a great hermit and said, ‘How can you be content here with this severe way of life?’ The hermit replied, ‘All the severity of my life here cannot compare with a day of the torment prepared for sinners in the next world.’

26. A hermit said, ‘Our predecessors were reluctant to move from place to place, except perhaps for three reasons: first, if a man was angry with them and no amount of satisfaction would calm him down; secondly, if many praised them; and thirdly, if they were tempted to lust.’

27. A brother said to Arsenius, ‘What shall I do, abba? My thoughts trouble me, telling me, “You cannot fast, nor work, nor visit the sick, because even these things are selfish.” ’ He saw that the devil had put these thoughts in his mind and said, ‘Go, eat, drink and sleep, only do not leave your cell; remember that staying in the cell is what keeps a monk on the right path.’ He did this for three days and then he began to be bored. So he found a few palm leaves and split them; the next day he began to make a plait from them. When he grew hungry, he said to himself, ‘Here are a few more palm leaves. I shall lay them out before I eat.’ After he had finished he said, ‘I shall read a little before I eat.’ When he had finished that, he said, ‘I shall say a few psalms, and then I shall eat with a calm mind.’ So step by step he made progress with God’s help, until he came back to the right way. When he was sure he had received strength against evil thoughts, he overcame them.

28. A hermit was asked by a brother why, when he stayed in his cell, he suffered boredom. He answered, ‘You have not yet seen the resurrection for which we hope, nor the torment of fire. If you had seen these, then you would bear your cell without boredom even if it was filled with worms and you were standing in them up to your neck.’

29. The brothers suggested to a hermit that he should take a break from his great labours. He answered, ‘Believe me, my sons, if Abraham repented when he saw God’s glorious gifts, should we not try to work even harder?’

30. A brother said to a hermit, ‘My thoughts wander, and I am troubled.’ He answered, ‘Go on sitting in your cell, and your thoughts will come back from their wanderings. If a she-ass is tethered, her foal skips and gambols all round her but always comes back to the mother. It is like that for anyone who for God’s sake sits patiently in his cell. Though his thoughts wander for a time, they will come back to Him again.’

31. A hermit lived in the desert twelve miles from the nearest water. Once, on his way to draw water, he was tired out. So he said, ‘Why suffer this? I will come and live by the spring.’ As soon as he said this, he turned round and saw a man following him and counting his steps. He asked him, ‘Who are you?’ He said, ‘I am an angel of the Lord, sent to count your steps and reward you.’ When the hermit heard this, his resolve was strengthened, and he moved his cell five miles further from the spring.

32. It used to be said that if you were tempted where you were living, you should not leave the place at the time of the temptation. If you did leave it then, you would find that the temptation that you were fleeing would go with you to the next place. You should be patient till temptation is over, then you could leave without upsetting anyone or troubling others who lived there.

33. A brother was restless in his community and he was often irritated. So he said, ‘I will go and live somewhere by myself. I will not be able to talk or listen to anyone and so I shall be at peace, and my passionate anger will cease.’ He went out and lived alone in a cave. But one day he filled his jug with water and put it on the ground. Suddenly it happened to fall over. He filled it again, and again it fell. This happened a third time. In a rage he snatched up the jug and smashed it. Coming to his senses, he knew that the demon of anger had mocked him, and he said, ‘Here am I by myself, and he has beaten me. I will return to the community. Wherever you live, you need effort and patience and above all God’s help.’ So he got up, and went back.

34. A brother asked a hermit, ‘What am I to do, abba? I do nothing like a monk. I eat, drink and sleep as I like, I am much troubled by vile thoughts, I shift from task to task, and my mind wanders everywhere.’ The hermit answered, ‘Stay in your cell, and do what you can without anxiety. It is not much that you do now, yet it is the same as when Antony did mighty things in the desert. I trust God that whoever stays in his cell for God’s sake, and guards his conscience, will be found where Antony is.’

35. A hermit was asked how a watchful monk could prevent himself from being shocked if he saw others returning to the world. He replied, ‘A monk should remember hounds when they are hunting a hare. One of them glimpses the hare and gives chase, the others merely see a hound running, and run some way with him, then they get tired and go back to their tracks. Only the leading hound keeps up the chase until he catches the hare. He is not deterred by the others who give up, he thinks nothing of cliffs or thickets or brambles, he is often pricked and scratched by thorns, but he keeps on until he catches the hare. So the man who runs after the Lord Jesus aims unceasingly at the cross, and leaps over every obstacle in his way until he comes to the Crucified.’

36. A hermit said, ‘A tree cannot bear fruit if it is often transplanted. So it is with the monk.’

37. When a brother was troubled by thoughts of leaving the monastery, he told this to his abbot. He said, ‘Go and sit down, and entrust your body to your cell, as a man puts a precious possession into a safe, and do not go out of it. Then let your thoughts go where they will. Let your mind think what it likes, so long as it does not drive your body out of the cell.’

38. A hermit said, ‘The monk’s cell is the furnace in Babylon in which the three children found the Son of God. It is the pillar of cloud out of which God spoke to Moses.’

39. For nine years a brother was assailed by the temptation to leave his community. Every day he got ready to go and picked up the cloak in which he used to wrap himself at night. At evening he would say, ‘I will go away tomorrow.’ At dawn he would think, ‘I ought to stay here and bear this temptation just today for the Lord’s sake.’ He did this every day for nine years, until the Lord took the temptation away.

40. A brother fell into temptation, and in his struggle he stopped keeping the monastic rule. When he later tried to start keeping the basics of the rule, he was hampered by his suffering; and he said to himself, ‘When shall I be as I once was?’ In this gloomy state of mind he could not make himself begin the monastic office. So he went to a hermit and told him what had been happening. When the hermit heard of his sufferings, he told him this story by way of example: A man had a plot of land. Through his carelessness brambles sprang up and it became a wilderness of thistles and thorns. Then he decided to cultivate it. So he said to his son, ‘Go and clear that ground.’ So the son went to clear it, and saw that the thistles and thorns had multiplied. So his resolve weakened, and he said, ‘What a lot of time I should need to clear and weed all this.’ So he lay down and went to sleep. He did this day after day. When his father came to see what he had done he found him doing nothing. He said to him, ‘Why have you done nothing till now?’ The boy said to his father, ‘I was coming to work, father, when I saw this wilderness of thorn and thistle, and I was too intimidated to start, and so I lay on the ground and went to sleep.’ Then his father said to him, ‘Son, if you had cleared each day the area on which you lay down, your work would have advanced slowly and you would not have lost heart.’ So the boy followed his father’s advice and in a short time the plot was cultivated. The hermit added, ‘So, brother, do a little work and do not be discouraged, and God will give you grace and bring you back to your proper way of life.’ The brother went away and patiently did what the hermit had told him. So he found peace of mind, and made progress with the help of the Lord Christ.

41. There was a hermit who was often ill. But one year he did not fall ill and he was very upset and wept saying, ‘The Lord has left me, and has not visited me.’

42. A hermit said that for nine years a brother was goaded by his thoughts to despair of his salvation. He judged himself and said, ‘I have ruined myself, I have perished already, I will go back to the world.’ On his journey he heard a voice saying, ‘Those temptations which you endured for nine years were your crowns. Go back to your cell, and I will take these evil thoughts from you.’ So he realized that it is not right to despair of oneself because of the temptations that come. If we use these thoughts well they will give us a crown.

43. A hermit was living in a cave in the Thebaid with one well-tested disciple. It was usual for him to teach the disciple during the evening and show him how the soul should progress, and after the address he used to pray and send him away to sleep. Some devout laymen who knew of the hermit’s ascetic life happened to visit him. He gave them counsel and they went away. Then he sat down after the evening prayers as usual to instruct the brother. But while he was talking, sleep overcame him. The brother waited for the hermit to wake and end with the usual prayer. But he went on sleeping and the brother went on sitting for a long time and in the end the disciple felt he must go and sleep though he was uneasy about it. So he pulled himself together, and resisted the temptation, and went back to sit by the hermit. A second time he was forced away by the longing for sleep, but he sat down again. This happened seven times, and still he went on resisting it. In the middle of the night the hermit woke up, and found him sitting nearby and said, ‘Haven’t you gone away yet?’ He said, ‘No, you did not send me away, abba.’ The hermit said, ‘Why did you not wake me up?’ He answered, ‘I did not dare to nudge you for fear of upsetting you.’ They both got up and began to say the morning prayers. After that the hermit sent his disciple away. When the hermit was sitting alone, he was shown a vision of a glorious place, with a throne in it, and on the throne seven crowns. He asked the angel who showed him the vision, ‘Whose crowns are those?’ and he replied, ‘They are the crowns of your disciple. God had given him this place and throne because of his goodness and tonight he has been granted these seven crowns.’ The hermit was amazed and called his disciple to him with wonder and said, ‘Tell me what you did all night.’ He answered, ‘Alas, abba, I did nothing.’ The hermit could see that he was being humble and concealing something, and said, ‘Look here, I can’t rest until you tell me what you did and thought last night.’ But the brother was not aware that he had done anything and could not say a word. Then at last he said to the hermit, ‘Indeed, abba, I did nothing, except that seven times I was driven by wandering thoughts to go away and sleep; but you had not sent me away as you usually do, so I did not go.’ Then the hermit at once understood that every time he resisted the temptation, God bestowed a crown on him. To the disciple he said nothing, thinking it best for his soul, but he told other directors of souls, to teach us how God can bestow crowns upon us even for resisting little temptations. It is good that a man discipline his whole self for God’s sake. As it is written, ‘The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by storm’ (Matt. 11:12).

44. Once a hermit fell ill. Because he had no one to look after him, he got up and ate whatever he found in his cell. Though this happened for several days, no one came to visit him. Even after a month no one had come. Then the Lord sent an angel to take care of him. After the angel had cared for him for a week, the monks remembered him and said to each other, ‘Let us go and see if the hermit is ill.’ They went to his cell: and the moment they knocked on the door, the angel left him. The hermit inside shouted, ‘Go away, my brothers.’ But they lifted the door off its hinges and went in, and asked him why he shouted. He said, ‘For a month I was ill and no one visited me. Now for a week an angel of the Lord has taken care of me, but he went away the moment you arrived.’ With these words, he died peacefully. The brothers wondered, and glorified God, saying: ‘The Lord does not forsake them who trust in him’ (Ps. 9:10).

45. A hermit said, ‘If you fall ill, do not complain. If the Lord God has willed that your body should be weakened, who are you to complain about it? Does he not care for you in all your needs? Surely you would not be alive without him. Be patient in your illness and ask God to give you what is right, that is, that which will enable you to do his will, and be patient, and eat what you have in charity.’

46. One of the brothers said, ‘When I was in Oxyrhinchus, the poor came on Friday evening to eat the love-feast. When they went to sleep afterwards, only one of them had a covering. He put half the blanket underneath him and the other half on top; but he was still very cold. When he went to relieve himself, I heard him grumbling and moaning about the cold and he consoled himself like this, “Thank you, Lord. How many wealthy men are in prison, sitting in irons or with shackled feet, so that they cannot even go out and relieve themselves when they want to. But I am like an emperor, I can stretch my legs and walk wherever I like.” I was standing there and heard what he said and I went in and told the brothers, and they were very edified to hear it.’

47. A brother asked a hermit, ‘If I were somewhere where there was no one whom I could consult about a temptation which afflicted me, no one who could show me the root causes of it in my soul, what could I do?’ The hermit said, ‘Trust in God, for he will send grace, and will himself be your consolation, if you ask him in charity.’ He added, ‘I have heard a story about this from Scetis. There was a man who suffered temptation, and he had no confidence in any of the others, so he got his bundle ready to go away. But during the night he saw a vision of God’s grace in the form of a maiden, who said to him, “Do not go; stay here with me, for nothing bad will happen to you from what you have heard.” He believed her words, and stayed in his cell, and at once was healed inwardly.’