Poemen

ON ST. POEMEN, ANCHORITE,

ON MOUNT SCETE IN LIBYA, AND IN EGYPT,

About the year CDL.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Pœmen, anchorite, on Mount Scete in Libya, and in Egypt (St.)

BY J. P.

§ I. Knowledge of the places; the Saint's name; Pambo distinct from him; is there a twofold Pœmen? Pimenius not to be confounded with Posthumius.

This mountain, greatly memorable to the ancient followers of the solitary life, we described in the treatise on St. Arsenius the anchorite, volume IV of July, Scete, described by us elsewhere, this Saint makes illustrious, as also Egypt, on the day XIX, page 605; so that it is not necessary to premise more of it here; yet it is worth repeating this one thing, that that mountain is less properly reckoned to Egypt. Besides this mountain we were just now assigning Egypt also to St. Pœmen, as two of the chief places in which he is indicated to have lived (for where he died we have not ascertained). Of these the apophthegms make mention, to be reprinted by us below from Cotelier, IV, LXXVI, and CLXXX. Of the various division of Egypt, that most celebrated region of Africa and best known among geographers, we have treated in volume 2 of January, from page 107. But among the ancient fathers who accomplished the course of the solitary life on that same mountain, you will scarcely find any more remarkable for the celebrity of his name than St. Pœmen or Pastor, who was, as it were, their common oracle, their refuge in doubts, and the rule and pattern of the ascetic life. I named him Pœmen or Pastor, both names being fitted to the same person. Whether therefore you call him Pœmen or Pastor (and indeed why not Pimen or Pimenion?), it seems to us to be the same name and the same etymology of the name: Ποιμὴν in Greek, in Latin Pastor; which some have so translated into Latin, cleaving more to the signification of the Greek word than to the proper name itself, and thus substituting for it an appellative name as though it were proper. To this belongs the fact that we hold it more probable that two Pœmens are not to be admitted, namely one the elder and the other the younger, as will be said below.

[2] Ferrarius, in the General Catalogue, makes Pastor another than Pœmen, wrongly doubled from the name Pastor and Pœmen. and assigns him to the XXV of July; which is altogether improbable, as was long since observed by us in volume 2 of January, on the day XVII, page 111: since it is evident that the same things which are reported of Pœmen by some are attributed by others to Pastor. Peter de Natalibus led Ferrarius into error, whom he wrongly cites as book 6, chapter 112, where, says Ferrarius, he relates his life and his admirable deeds. For Peter de Natalibus in book 6, chapter 141, treats of Pastor, who is venerated on this day among the Greeks and Latins, as is most manifest in that place from the summary of apophthegms which he wove concerning Pastor: since in it there is reported a deed proper to today's Pœmen alone, and to no other. For there is narrated the story of his mother, who had come to the wilderness for the sake of seeing her son, and whom he kept from his sight. But that deed will be narrated more fully below. To the same Saint we refer also the other things which are found in the cited place, since we admit one Pœmen or Pastor only. But it is added at the end: He rested … in the Lord on the VII Kalends of August, which is to go against the stream of the Latin and Greek hagiologists, as will be said hereafter. Our manuscript Florarium committed the same blunder at the day XXVI of July, when it records the following: Likewise the birthday of blessed Pastor, abbot and confessor. He, afflicting himself for many years in great abstinence in the desert, was strong in much religion. See his deeds elsewhere. Hence it follows that what has been said from the same Peter and from the Florarium in our volume VI of July, on the day XXVI of the same month, from page 307, concerning St. Pastor, abbot in Scete, ought to have been deferred to the day XXVII of August. Nor is this the only blunder that has occurred in the matter of St. Pœmen: for another, into which the most eminent Cardinal Baronius fell, our Rosweyde long ago observed, as will become plain from what follows.

[3] He is not to be confounded with Pambo Baronius, at the year of Christ 343, says: The people used to make so much of the testimony of illustrious monks (such as was St. Antony, on whose occasion he writes this) concerning the Catholic faith, that the Arians, perceiving this, did not fear to lie that the great Antony held with them the same view of the faith; so that for that cause it was needful for him, leaving the inmost solitude of the desert, to come down as far as Alexandria, and publicly to give a proof of the Catholic faith which he practiced, lest the people should fall away — which he confirmed also by signs that followed … That abbot Pœmen too, a man of approved sanctity, was at some time called to Alexandria by the same St. Athanasius, is found in the Lives of the Fathers. Thus Baronius. But our Rosweyde, in his notes on the same Lives, book 1, chapter 41, number 85, page 69 of the second edition, in the treatise on St. Antony, refutes the most eminent author thus: What … he says of Pœmen, either his memory failed him, or he thought Pœmen the same as Pammon. Of Pammon you have this here in Rufinus, book 2 (read book 3), number 164, whom you will gather to be the same as Pambo, not as Pœmen, from Pelagius, booklet 3, number 14, and booklet 17, number XI, where the same apophthegms are narrated under the name of Pambo which Rufinus has under the name of Pammon. Other than these is Piammon or Pyaminon, of whom see here in Rufinus, book 1, chapter 31 , who in Palladius, chapter 72, is Ammonas.*

[4] "These things I had already long ago noted on the Life of St. Antony," says the praised Rosweyde in a certain sheet which I have before me; he is not to be confounded. "I now add," he says: "That Pœmen is distinct from Pammon or Pambo is plain from Rufinus, book 2 (in our copy book XI, where these following matters are treated), Ecclesiastical History, chapter 8, where Pambus is placed at the Cells, and Pœmen on Mount Pispir. Likewise he says: 'Macarius of the upper desert, and another Macarius of the lower; Isidore in Scete, Pambus at the Cells, Moses and Benjamin in Nitria, Seyron and Elias and Paul in Apeliotes, another Paul in Phocis, Pœmen and Joseph at Pispir.'" These things Rosweyde recounts from Rufinus, who is treating of the illustrious men and hermits of Egypt, and he rightly indeed proves that Pammon or Pambus must be distinguished from Pœmen: yet the difference of place does not seem to prove it; because those ancient hermits were not so attached to one single place that they never at some time passed to another, as may be seen in our own treatise on St. Pambo himself, volume 1 of July, on the 1st day, page 35. But since we hold it more probable that there existed one single Pœmen, this Pœmen will in our opinion be the same

of whom Rosweyde was treating. But an intricate controversy here offers itself to us, whether there was one Pœmen or Pastor, or two. Tillemont, in volume 15 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 862 and the following, in note 1 upon St. Pœmen, judges that two solitaries of that name are to be distinguished, one indeed the elder and the other the younger. We shall not dissemble his arguments. First, then, let the things be set forth which make for a twofold Pœmen; then let those be subjoined which make for one.

[5] In the Lives of the Fathers, book 3, number 163, page 524, Arguments where the death of St. Arsenius is treated, these things occur: When … abbot Pœmen had seen that he had passed away, he said: Blessed are you, abba Arsenius, because you so bewailed yourself in this world. From this therefore it is known that Pœmen survived St. Arsenius: whose Acts we illustrated in volume IV of July, on the day XIX, from page 604, and whose death, according to the chronological series there roughly arranged on page 613, we assigned to the year 449 or 450. But Tillemont does not see how it can be said that this is that Pœmen to whom St. Antony, who died in the year 356 on the day XVII of January, is related to have uttered this excellent saying, in the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, booklet 15, number 2: Abbot Antony said to abbot Pastor: This is a man's great work, that each one should lay his own fault upon himself before the Lord, and should look for temptation until the last moment of his life. The said collector of Monuments also cites Cotelier, Monuments of the Greek Church, volume 1, page 341, where it is written Ποιμένι, "to Pœmen." He to whom St. Antony spoke so sublime a truth was doubtless no boy: but it is hard to believe that he survived even a hundred years after that, as he goes on, without anyone's observing that Pœmen had reached an unwonted old age. Let us go on with Tillemont: But indeed, he says, this proof would be of less force if it stood alone. For if in the two places just alleged we read that St. Antony spoke that notable apophthegm to Pœmen, in two other places we read that Pœmen himself reported it as having been uttered by the same St. Antony. For from the Cotelier edition, page 623, he indicates this: Abbot Pœmen reported that it had been said by the blessed abbot Antony that it is a man's great power to cast his sin upon himself before the Lord, and to look for temptation to his last breath. The apophthegm designated is the CXXVth among the others which we shall give hereafter from the same edition. He indicates another place from Ephrem. Let us give his words.

[6] are set forth for a twofold St. Ephrem the Syrian, among the Apophthegms of the Fathers which are reported on page 504 of his Works in the Cologne edition, which we here use, of the year 1603, and which Gerard Vossius, provost of Tongres, published and illustrated, speaks thus: Abbot Pastor said that it was wont to be said by the blessed abbot Antony: In this is placed a man's great work and duty, that he cast before God the fault by which he is burdened, and always look for temptations, even to the last breath of life. But Rufinus, says the same collector, citing his history, book 2, chapter 8, page 256 — Rufinus, who visited the solitudes of Egypt from the year 375 — relates that among the holy solitaries whom he had seen there, remarkable for simplicity of life, sincerity of heart, and the great miracles by which God honored their virtue, it fell to his happiness to receive the blessing of the hands of Pœmen at Pispir, which was the monastery of St. Antony. Let us bring forward Rufinus's words as they are in Rosweyde, cited above: Egypt therefore flourished at that season, says Rufinus, not only with men learned in the Christian philosophy, but also with those who, dwelling throughout the vast desert, wrought signs and wonders by an apostolic simplicity of life and sincerity of heart. Of whom, meanwhile, those whom we ourselves saw, and by whose hands we were counted worthy to be blessed, are these: Macarius of the upper desert, etc.; Pœmen and Joseph at Pispir, which is called the Mount of Antony. But that these things are more rightly understood of the earlier Pœmen than of the later Saint of the same name, you might not unfittingly say is urged both from the place and from the time, if with Tillemont you admit two of the same name.

[7] Pœmen From the place, I say: for Scete, Scithi, and Scithium — in Ptolemy the Schitiac region — is a part of Libya, and is therefore commonly distinguished from Egypt in the Lives of the Fathers, as was observed in volume 2 of January, at the day XVII of the same month, in the preliminary Commentary on St. Antony the Great, §1, number 3. Yet in the same place it is said at number 4 that Egypt is by others taken somewhat more widely. Of the twofold Mount of St. Antony, namely the inner and the outer, treatment is made in the same place, §2, and it is noted that Pisper, Pispir, or Pispiri was called a monastery and was founded on that outer Mount, to which St. Antony often went: which things may be read more fully in the place already indicated. Now this outer mount, or St. Antony's monastery of Pispir, in which Rufinus said that he had seen Pœmen, was far distant from the solitude of Scete in which our St. Pœmen flourished, as may be seen in the map of the eremitic dwellings printed before the Lives of the Fathers in Rosweyde: so that, the distance of the places being considered, it appears likely that there were two different dwellers in the desert, of whom the one led the ascetic life at Pispir and the other in Scete.

[8] are set forth, Besides what has been premised concerning the time, that apophthegm may be applied to the Pœmen of Pispir which is found in the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, booklet 15, number 40, page 625: Abbot Joseph related that once, when we were sitting with abbot Pastor, he named abbot Agatho. And we said to him: He is a young man; why do you call him abbot? And abbot Pastor said: Because his own mouth caused him to be called abbot. This apophthegm is the sixty-first in the Cotelier edition, which we shall give hereafter from it, where he is called Pœmen. But the Agatho just mentioned seems to be older than St. Pœmen, because Joseph and Pastor, or Pœmen, occur here — the same, as one may suspect, whom Rufinus above affirmed that he had seen at Pispir. But that Rufinus visited the Egyptian deserts already from the year of Christ 375, Tillemont affirms in his first note upon St. Pœmen, volume 5 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 863: (concerning Rufinus's pilgrimage one may see what is found in Rosweyde, page 425 and following;) and in volume 7, in the treatise on St. Antony, article 17, page 142, making mention of Pœmen and Joseph of Pispir, of whom we have treated from the same Rufinus, he judges that he could have been in those tracts of country about the same year 375.

[9] Now that St. Antony approved the humility of abbot Joseph, and the difficulties which arise hence: who had gone to him together with others, we have from the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, booklet 15, number 4, page 620. I do not report the event at greater length, that I may not be too long. Of St. Antony's apophthegm to Pœmen or Pastor, treatment has been made above: from which, as also from Rufinus, if it be admitted to be more probable that this Pœmen is different from the Saint of the same name most celebrated in the history of the ancient dwellers in the desert, who lived to about the middle of the fifth century, another most difficult question arises: to which Pœmen or Pastor, the more ancient or the younger Saint, ought the sayings in the Lives of the Fathers under that name to be attributed? One uttered by St. Antony to the elder we have already seen in Tillemont's opinion: to whom also the other, which we gave concerning Agatho above at number 8, the same author affirms may be referred. All the rest, he says, suit either the one or the other equally, or belong to the second; of whom the Lives of the Fathers speak more than of any other: because doubtless his memory was even then altogether fresh when they were written. And these indeed are the arguments which we judged should be set forth for a twofold Pœmen, of whom the one is said to have been the elder and the other the younger.

[10] But one single St. Pœmen is more to our liking. Understand, reader, but only one the reasons. Tillemont's opinion has its inconveniences, has its perplexities, because it is not known to which hermit belongs the great or the greater part of the apophthegms which we shall bring forward hereafter. Then, men are not to be doubled without urgent necessity: which does not seem to exist here, as is plain from the answers to the foregoing arguments. To the one which was drawn from the time of St. Antony at number 5, and thus from the extreme old age of St. Pœmen, we answer that nothing hinders that holy abbot from having spoken that notable admonition to our St. Pœmen, not indeed a boy at that time, but a youth of, say, about fifteen or sixteen years: and indeed, admonitions which are received at such an age, as they are wont long to cling, so are they easily imbibed. But the sum of St. Pœmen's age, which Tillemont said was hard to believe, we shall reduce, in the chronology of him, to about a hundred and ten years. And in this, what is so wonderful, what so unwonted, that the Saint must on that account be doubled? For who does not know that it was common enough among those ancient dwellers in the desert to attain to a very aged old age?

[11] The other argument, drawn from the diversity of places, is admitted by us. has already been met at number 4 from the volume there assigned by us: in which, among the arguments which Tillemont devised for doubling Pambo, one also is drawn from the head that that Saint is placed in different places. But it is rightly objected to him that in the Life of St. Macarius of Alexandria, volume 1 of January, page 87, one reads that he had different cells: one indeed in Scete, which is the inner part of the solitude, and one in Libya, and one at the Cells, and one on the mountain of Nitria. Why then might not Pœmen, one and the same, have been in Scete and at Pispir? Why not in Egypt, or outside it, from apophthegm XXVI in Cotelier: Abbot Pœmen, once passing through Egypt, etc.? Why not also in the Thebaid, according to what was said of St. Antony above in the Commentary, number 7? Hence it is gathered that he was not always so fixed to one place as never to pass over to another. For abbot Pœmen sometimes passed with abbot Anub into the parts of Diolcos, from apophthegm LXXII. These considerations persuade us not to think of doubling Pœmen. It remains to clear up a question of another kind.

[12] St. Pœmen, or Pimenius In the preliminary Commentary on St. Antony the Great, which we cited above, §5, page 111, where his disciples in the lower Thebaid are treated of, mention is made of that Pœmen of whom we have already spoken from Rufinus, and who in book 7 of the Lives of the Fathers is called Pimenius, as was indicated on the same page 111, another question being referred to this day, the XXVII of August: whether he is the same as Posthumius, of whom among

the said disciples of Antony he is also written of in the place designated. His Life you have in Rosweyde's Lives of the Fathers, book 1, from page 233. But in the first note on that Life, page 238, Rosweyde affirms that other editions read Pasthumius, and adds that concerning this man nothing has occurred to him either in ecclesiastical registers or among historians. Many things here I connect with Pachomius and his rule. And since Pachomius is by some called Pachumius, I fear that Pasthumius crept in out of Pachomius. But that this is not approved by us we indicated in the Commentary just mentioned. Of the true St. Pachomius we treated in volume III of May, on the day XIV of the same month: but against the other, who is in Rosweyde, various difficulties were objected on the said day from page 357, and his Life was given as apocryphal.

[13] distinct from Posthumius. What pertains to the question just proposed is this: whether Pimenius is the same as that Posthumius. We answer that we can by no means find the latter in the former. Not in the name: for the name Pœmen, Pastor, Pimenius or Pimenio, and the name Posthumius — whatever kind of name that may be, whether true or apocryphal — differ too much from one another to be able to seem taken for the same. Nor in the deeds; of whom indeed no mention is made in Rosweyde in the Index of proper names after the Lives of the Fathers, save one only, by which is designated that same Posthumius whose Life the same Rosweyde published, and that with the title of Blessed: and yet of his death nothing is there read; nay rather, in the various indexes of the sacred calendars which we have inspected, we have thus far been unable to find his name. These considerations we judge abundantly to suffice for the question proposed, which was formerly referred hither. Let us therefore return to our St. Pœmen.

* rather book 2, chapter 32, page 484

§ II. St. Pœmen's brothers; his authority and virtues; the chronology of his life; his cult and eulogies.

The Saint had six brothers: The holy Man had a brother named Anub, Nuph, or Nub, who was older than he in birth. He had likewise five other brothers, among whom was one whose name was Paysius or Paësus, from the Lives of the Fathers, where in book 3, number 199, page 529, these words occur: Abbot Pœmen with another abbot older than himself, named Nub, and with five other fathers, etc. In the same place, number 154, page 523: Abbot Pœmen and abbot Nuph, after they had come into the desert, their mother desired to see them. In book 5, booklet 4, number 33, he is called Anub. And in the same work, book 5, booklet 15, number 11, page 622, this man says to Pastor his brother: Let us, who are seven brothers … become like this statue, etc. But that these seven brothers were of one womb, it is there read in the preface: Abbot Anub and abbot Pastor, and the rest of their brothers born of one womb, were monks in Scete. Of Paysius mention is likewise made in the same place, booklet 16, number 8, page 631, who is also Paesius in the second apophthegm of the Cotelier edition. That among these St. Pœmen prevailed by a certain singular authority is gathered from the narration of the deed which we subjoin.

[15] In volume IV of July, on the day XIX of the same month, page 605 and following, we illustrated the Acts of St. Arsenius the anchorite on Mount Scete, he prevails among the hermits by singular authority: and in the Commentary preliminary to them, §2, it seemed good to us to tie his withdrawal into the solitude to about the year 394. About which time St. Pœmen or Pastor corrected a certain fault which St. Arsenius had brought with him from the world into the solitude, and which the other ascetics did not dare to correct on account of the man's eminence, if what we narrated under the name of Metaphrastes in the said Commentary from page 607 is true. The matter there reported contains this: Arsenius was seen, even after he had come to the monastic life, to keep with him as it were certain relics of courtly arrogance and superfluity: for in sitting he would hold one foot raised, and often unwittingly lay it upon the other. This was seen by the fathers …; but the man's great dignity and the reverence they bore him drew them away from what they had determined. (And so, when the fathers dared not admonish him of it,) after … monk Pastor also, who was incomparable at once in prudence and in virtue, learned of it …, "When I", he said, "shall come to the monks at the synaxis and, sitting with you, shall sit in the same posture …, come forward at once to rebuke me, and I will at once give way, and, as one who behaves amiss in this matter, will correct myself." Which deed, when the divine Arsenius understood …, he let down his foot, and thereafter abstained altogether from that unseemly manner of sitting. Here now for you, reader, are the notable virtues in which the great Man shone, reduced to certain fixed heads.

[16] The Man's most rigid abstinence from food, while he was a young ascetic, is narrated in Cotelier in apophthegm XXXI. his excellent virtues: Invited by another to take food, he obeyed even against his will, fulfilling that compliance with tears, from apophthegm XVII. He abstains from wine, as something wholly not belonging to monks, apophthegm XIX. How greatly he excelled in tempering the use of food is plain from this answer in apophthegm CLXVIII: To sit in one's cell … is to work with the hands, to eat once a day, etc. Among the four instruments of the solitary life he sets fasting, in apophthegm LX. He made much of the mortification of the affections, from apophthegm CLXXXIV. His desire of advancing in the spirit is gathered from apophthegm 1; his hatred of particular friendship is indicated by apophthegm 2; examples of his gentleness toward offenders are furnished by apophthegms CLXXIII and CLXXX. The mutual regard of Pœmen toward Anuph as his elder in birth, and of the latter toward him as one who had nothing disordered in him, is reported in apophthegm CVIII. He had no disordered love toward his mother and kinsfolk, as may be seen in apophthegms V, VII, and LXXVI. From his most profound humility, the foundation of all virtues, arose that desire of his by which he took pains to do all things in secret. Go to apophthegm CXXXVIII. In the Ascetic Treasury which our Poussines published, page 230, among the apophthegms the law of charity toward one's neighbor and prayer are commended by him in these words: The law by which we are forbidden to render evil for evil is fulfilled in four ways: in heart, in look, in tongue, in deed. But if you can well purge the heart by prayer, you have conquered all, and have fully carried out the commandment. Add that very brief saying in the same place: Self-will and slackness cast a man down. Finally, that he was endowed as few are with the divine spirit, with counsel, prudence, and skill in spiritual things, and that recourse was had to him as to a kind of common oracle, is proved by his own deeds, sayings, and answers, which are contained in the body of the often-mentioned apophthegms; and to these we send the reader. Let us meanwhile pass to weaving the chronology of his life and death.

[17] the chronology Since above, at numbers 10 and 11, we have admitted one Pœmen only, we shall now try so to arrange the times that on their account he need not be doubled. We set down therefore the following by way of a chronological scheme. He was born about the year 340; became a solitary in the year 355, in his fifteenth year, when he could have heard the saying of St. Antony spoken of above; admonished St. Arsenius about the year 394, in about the fortieth year of his solitary life; then, when the remaining years of his life had been run out in the same, he died about the year 450, after St. Arsenius (whom he survived, according to the apophthegm cited at number 5), in the hundred and tenth year of his age, and the ninety-fifth of his anchoretic life. Nor do we see why there may not be roughly combined with these calculations of the times that apophthegm of St. Pœmen which is reported as a thing lately done, and in the times of the emperor Theodosius, and therefore, as it seems, after his death.

[18] of his life. But in our scheme Theodosius the elder must be understood; it cannot be the younger: because, since the latter died in the year 450, it has no appearance of probability that St. Pœmen's brothers lived so long, to whom he is written to have uttered that same apophthegm, in the Lives of the Fathers, book 3, number 19, page 498, where these words are read: Now the blessed elder Pœmen related to the brethren, saying: There was lately a certain monk at Constantinople in the times of the emperor Theodosius. And he dwelt in a little cell outside the city. Now the emperor, hearing that there was there a certain solitary monk … began to go on foot to that place where the aforesaid monk was, and commanded the eunuchs who followed him that none should come near the monk's little cell. But he alone went on, and knocked at the door. And the monk rose, and opened to him, and did not know him, that he was the emperor. For he had taken the crown from off his head, that he might not be recognized. And after many other things which follow, and which may there be read, for the sake of avoiding honor he fled thence that same night, and went into Egypt. Let us therefore consider, dearly beloved brethren, with how great care the servant of God strove to keep the virtue of humility, that he might be counted worthy to receive from Christ the Lord eternal glory in the heavenly kingdom for the labor of his holy life, which he had exercised for the name of the Lord.*

[19] His memory in the Greek calendars: Concerning the Saint's public cult these things occur to be recorded by us. His memory occurs frequently in the sacred calendars of the Greeks on this day, of which it will suffice to have recited these by name. The Typicon, as it is called, of St. Sabas reports him thus: Of our holy father Pœmen, and it designates his Office. The Synaxarium from the Menology collected at the command of the emperor Basil has this: Μνήμη τοῦ ὁσίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ποιμένος τοῦ ἀναχωρητοῦ. That is: The memory of our holy father Pœmen the anchorite. Nearly the same the Sirletian Menology records, which in its eulogy of him adds this: So excellently did he practice every virtue that all the elders in Egypt and the Thebaid called this man Father, and, being instructed by him, ordered themselves after the pattern of right living. The great Menæa published in print chant these verses to him, which, rendered by us into Latin after our custom, run thus:

Ὡς ἐκ λύκου χαἴνοντος ἡρπάγη βίου Ποιμὴν τὸ θρέμμα τοῦ μεγίστου Ποιμένος. Ποιμένα εἰς μέγαν ἑβδόμῃ εἰκάδι ᾤχετο Ποιμήν.

As from a gaping wolf was he snatched away, Pœmen, the nursling of the greatest Shepherd, in his passing. The twenty-seventh sets Pœmen before the Prince of Shepherds.

The poet plays upon the proper name Ποιμὴν and upon the synonymous common noun, which in Latin signifies shepherd. By Pœmnarcha understand the great shepherd, as it is in the Greek — that is, Christ or God.

[20] The Synaxarium just designated contains a laudation of the Man, a eulogy: whose Greek text may be read in our edition at the end of volume 1 of the month of August, page 668. This we present with a Latin translation to this effect: Our holy father Pœmen had his origin from the region of Egypt. But leaving the world, he went away to a monastery together with his brothers,

and became a monk. But after many years, when their mother had gone to see them, she could not: for they shut the door against her. And while she waited weeping, Pœmen, not seeing her, said to her: What do you wish, mother? And she said: I wish to see you. To whom Pœmen: In that other world we shall see one another. And hearing this she withdrew. Nor was this the only thing he did worthy of memory, but many others also. For the prefect of the region wished to punish the son of his sister, who had been taken in wickedness; and being informed that he was the son of the Saint's sister, he signified to him: If you will entreat me, I release him. But he signified in reply: Examine what pertains to him; and if he be worthy of death, let him die; if not, do what you will. And the prefect, marveling that there was no partiality in him, released him. And having wrought many miracles, he rested in peace.

[21] From what has been said it follows that this Man, both living and dead, was held in great veneration among the Greeks, he is venerated also among the Latins: which was propagated even to Gaul under this title, that, on the testimony of Castellain at this day in a marginal note, his body is at Durvel (he writes in French a Durvel) in the province of Cahors, that is, as he calls it, en Quercy. In that province of Aquitanian Gaul I find in Blaeu Durevel on the river Lot toward the west. But far greater splendor of celebrity accrued to the Man in the rest of the West, when his yearly memory was inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, which briefly announces him thus on this day: In the Thebaid, of St. Pœmon the anchorite. Ποιμενος (in Latin Pœmenis) is constantly written by the Greeks in the genitive case; why then is Pœmonis here put in Latin? But it seems not altogether properly announced in the Thebaid: for although I have not excluded him from this region in §1, number 11, yet because I hold Scete and Egypt more suitable to him, I have preferred to announce him there rather than elsewhere in the title which we have prefixed to this Commentary. Take now, reader, some eulogies of this great Man, drawn from the Greeks in this manner.

[22] eulogies: In apophthegm 1 an anonymous elder addresses and praises him thus: Your name shall be celebrated in the speech of men throughout the whole region of Egypt. The Greeks, among other things which they recite of him in the great Menæa, celebrate his memory with most honorable titles, of which it will suffice to have tasted these few out of many. There, then, he is called a citizen of the angels, the leader of monks, the prince of the desert, a luminary shining with miracles for the whole world, a most true worker of miracles, the lamp of discretion, the guest-house of the virtues, the spotless mirror of God. By these and other titles the Greeks wished the great esteem which they had conceived of this most illustrious Man to be expressed not obscurely, in conformity with the apophthegms, in which both the celebrity of his name and the exercises of his virtues, his authority among the monks, and the innocence of his life shine forth as in a mirror of holiness. His virtues, even in the solitude of a novice, the Life narrates at number 1. Lastly, let us observe some things also concerning his Life, which we have turned from the Greek tongue into Latin.

[23] The Life which we give, It bears this title: Βίος καὶ πολιτεία τοῦ ὁσίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ποιμένος τοῦ ἀναχωρητοῦ. That is, The Life and conversation of our holy Father Pœmen the anchorite, with a marginal note in Greek, μηνὶ τῷ αὐτῷ κζ᾽, that is, in the same month (August), on the XXVII day. A Greek copy of the same Life our Papebroch transcribed from a codex, as he adds, Ambr. f. N. n. 152. And for fuller knowledge of the same, See, he says, the Martyrdom of St. Maximus: of whom we treated on the day XIII of August; and in the same place, in the Commentary on that Saint's Acts, page 116, number 80, we indicated that they had been taken from the Ambrosian codex N. 152, containing the Lives of the month of August, written four hundred years ago by a certain monk Laurence in the monastery of Rossano, which is in Calabria. One may also consult what we said of this Laurence on the day XVII of this month, page 420. Few are the things which that biographer reports of St. Pœmen, and almost all of them will recur in the apophthegms to be reprinted hereafter: but because they are few, we shall not withdraw from the reader's eyes the Life of the Saint which he wrote, that we may give some Life. His narration is confirmed from the same apophthegms. Singular are the things which he reports of the Saint's miracles at number 1. That he was an Egyptian he affirms in the same place. Furthermore we shall give short Annotations on this Life; longer ones will follow upon the apophthegms of Cotelier, to be produced after it.

[24] and another transcript. We have another copy of the Greek Life or eulogy, transcribed from a codex of the Imperial Library of Vienna, of which we have often made mention through the course of this month. It begins thus: Ὁ ὅσιος πατὴρ ἡμῶν Ποιμὴν Αἰγύπτιος ἦν τῷ γένει. In Latin: Our holy Father Pœmen was an Egyptian by race. It narrates the story of his mother, who was most eager to see her sons, but was not admitted to the sight of them. It then subjoins the deed of the prefect of the region concerning the son of St. Pœmen's sister. Of these Laurence writes at numbers 2 and 4. The Vienna manuscript already assigned has a long apophthegm, which is the VIIIth in Cotelier, and may be read below. Of these things I wished you to be warned, reader, before I brought forth the Life. Receive it now.

* that is, chamberlains or great officers of the court

LIFE

By Laurence, monk of Rossano in Calabria,

from the Ambrosian codex, John Pinius being the translator.

Pœmen, anchorite, on Mount Scete in Libya, and in Egypt (St.)

By Laurence the monk.

ΠΟλλοὺς καὶ ἄλλους ἤνεγκε τῶν ἐπιφανῶν καὶ μεγάλων πατέρων ἡ Αἴγυπτος, ἤνεγκε δὲ σὺν ἐκείνοις καὶ Ποιμένα τὸν ἀναχωρήτην καὶ λεγόμενον καὶ γενόμενον, οὗ τὸν βίον ἐθαύμασαν ἄγγελοι, ἐξεπλάγησαν ἄνθρωποι· ἡδέσθη δὲ καὶ φύσις αὐτὴ τῶν ἀψύχων ὑπὲρ φύσιν, ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις, σχεδὸν ἀνθρωπίνην τυγχάνοντα. Οὗτος τοιγαροῦν (ἵνα τὰ ἐν μέσῳ παρῶ· τίς γὰρ ἔπαινος ἀνθρώπῳ γένος καὶ πλοῦτος, δόξα, καταπτύσαντι μὲν ὡς λυομένων· ἑλομένῳ δὲ μόνον τα μέλλοντα καὶ ἀθάνατα) Οὗτος οὖν ὁ τῷ ὄντι ποιμὴν λογικῶν οὐκ ἀλόγων προβάτων καλῶς τὴν εὐαγγελικὴν φωνὴν διδαχθεὶς τὴν, Ὅστις θέλει ὀπίσω μου ἐλθεῖν, λέγουσαν, ἀπαρνησάσθω ἑαυτὸν, καὶ ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀκολουθείτω μοι, πάντα δεύτερα τούτων θέμενος, καταλιπὼν πατρίδα, γένος, πλοῦτον, δόξαν, καὶ τ᾽ ἀλλα τὰ τοῦ βίου τερπνὰ, τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ λαβὼν ἀδελφοὺς, (εἷλκε γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἡ τῶν ἐκείνου λόγων σειρήν) τὴν ἔρημον κατειλήφει· καὶ σεμνῶν ἀνδρῶν μοναστῶν, καὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν περιφήμων μωνῇ προσβαλὼν, κείπεται τὴν κώμην σὺν ἐκείνοις, καὶ τὸν μοναχὸν ὑπερδύεται, ταπεινοῦται, καὶ σώζεται, νηστείαν ἀσκεῖ καὶ χαμευνίαν, προσευχὴν ἀσπάζεται καὶ ἀγρυπνίαν, δάκρυα χέει τὰ τῆς χαρᾶς παραίτια, καὶ ἁπλῶς, μέγας γίνεται τὴν ἀρετὴν καὶ περίβλεπτος, καὶ τόσον, ὡς καὶ δαίμονας ἐξ ἀνθρώπων μόνῃ εὐχῇ διώκειν, καὶ πάσην ἄλλην νόσον αὐτῶν θεραπεύειν, καὶ κοινὸν εἶναι θησαυρὸν θαυμάτων τοῖς κάμνουσι.

[2] Τί οὖν τὸ ἐξῆς; χρόνοι παρῆλθον συχνοὶ τῆς ἀναχωρήσεως, καὶ μήτηρ, οἷα δὴ μήτηρ, τοῦ καλοῦ παιδὸς, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τέκνων εἰς ἐπιθυμίαν ἐλθοῦσα (καὶ γὰρ ἔφλεγε ταύτης τὰ σπλάγχνα ὁ θερμὸς ἔρως αὐτῶν, καὶ πυρπολεῖν ἐδόκει τὴν ταύτης φυχὴν) οὐκ εἶχεν ὅτι καὶ πράξειεν· ὅμως ἐπιλαθομένη καὶ γήρως καὶ γυναικείας ἀσθενείας, καὶ πάντα δεύτερα τῶν φιλτάτων παίδων θεμένη, κατατολμᾷ μὲν μήκους ὁδοῦ, καὶ τῶν ἐκ ταύτης κακῶν, ὁρῶν, ποταμῶν, ἐρημίας, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων αὐτῶν. Κατατολμᾷ δὲ καὶ ζωῆς τὸ καλὸν ἐκεῖνο γήρας καὶ ὅσιον, καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ποθεινοὺς ἔρχεται παῖδας. Μηνύεται τούτοις ἡ ταύτης ἄφιξις, καὶ ὡς παρὰ τῇ θύρᾳ ἔστηκεν ἡ φιλόπαις, τὴν εἴσοδον ἀναμένουσα· καὶ ἦν πάντως ἀκόλουθον, καὶ ἦν πάντως ὅσον πρὸς ἑτέρους καὶ θέσμα φύσεως δίκαιον, ἐκδραμεῖν ἅμα τῷ λόγῳ τούτους πρὸς τὴν τεκοῦσαν, περιχυθῆναι ταύτῃ, κατασπάσασθαι ταύτην, εἰσαγαγεῖν, φίλα ταύτῃ προσλαλῆσαι ῥήματα, ἁλῶν αὐτῇ κοινωνῆσαι, κοινὴν ἑσθίαν προθεῖναι, καὶ τ᾽ ἀλλα πρᾶξαι, οἷς ἂν ἐκ μακροῦ χρόνου παῖς, κατιδὼν γήρᾳ καμπτομένην μητέρα, σπουδαίως ἅμα καὶ θερμῶς ἐχρήσατο.

[3] Οἱ δὲ οὐδὲν τούτων εἰς νοῦν λαβεῖν ἐμελέτησαν, μὴ τρίχα πολιὰν αἰδεσθέντες μητρὸς γηραιᾶς, μὴ μασθοὺς, ὧν ἐτράφησαν γάλακτι, μὴ δ᾽ ἄλλο μηδὲν οἷς μήτηρ ὑπ᾽ ἀναγωγῇ παίδων πονεῖ· ἄλλ᾽ ἅματε ἤκουσαν ἐκείνης τὴν ἔλευσιν, καὶ ἀπεστράφησαν, καὶ ἀπείπαντο τὴν θέαν, καὶ μὴ ἐγχωροῦν ἐδήλωσαν εἶναι ταύτην ἐν ζωῇ κατιδεῖν, τὸν πλάστην πάντως τῆς τεκούσης αὐτοὺς, καὶ τὰς ἐκείνου σωστικὰς ἐντολὰς προτιμότερα θέμενοι, Ὁ φιλῶν, λέγοντος, πατέρα ἢ μητέρα ὑπὲρ ἐμὲ, οὐκ ἔστι μου ἄξιος. Τί οὖν οἴεσθε παθεῖν τὴν μητέρα τούτων ἀκούσασαν; ἐκεῖνα δηλαδὴ, ἃ καὶ πέπραχεν. Ἔκραζε μεγάλα, ἐβόᾳ συνεχῆ, δάκρυσι τὸ ἔδαφος ἔπλυνεν, εἴπως κᾄν αὐτοῖς ὁ τῶν τέκνων χορὸς μαλαχθῇ, καὶ καμφθῇ πρὸς ἔλεον. Οὐκ ἠνέσχοντο τοιγαροῦν τὴν μητέρα ἴδεῖν, ἧτταν φανερὰν τοῦ πρὸς Χριστὸν αὐτὸ λογισάμενοι πόθου, τῷτοι καὶ πάλιν αὐτοὶ τὰ αὐτὰ μηνύουσιν· Εἴπερ ἡμᾶς, ὦ μῆτερ, ἐθέλοις ἰδεῖν, κατ᾽ ἐκείνην πάντως ὄψει τὴν μεγάλην ἡμέραν, τὰ νῦν δὲ ἀναχώρει τῶν ὧδε. Συνεῖσα τοίνυν ἡ καλλίπαις τὸ μηνυθὲν, ἀπῆρε πρὸς τὴν ἐνεγκαμένην, δοξάζουσα τὸν Θεὸν ἐφ᾽ οἷς ἤκουσέ τε καὶ εἶδε, καὶ ἐφ᾽ οἷς οὗτοι μέγιστοι τὴν ἀρετὴν οἱ παῖδες γεγόνασιν. Καὶ τοῦτο μὲν οὕτως.

[4] Ἄλλοτε δὲ τοῦ τῆς χώρας ἄρχοντος ἰδεῖν ἐθέλοντος τὸν ἀββᾶν Ποιμένα, καὶ λόγων τῶν ἐκείνου μεταλαβὼν καὶ εὐχῶν, οὔμενουν ἐκεῖνος οὐ δὲ τὸ παράπαν ἠνέσχετο. Καί ποτε * τὸν ἀδελφιδοῦν αὐτοῦ κακοῦργον ὡς ἅτε κατασχὼν, καὶ τῇ εἰρκτῇ παραδοὺς, οὐδ᾽ οὕτως ὁ Γέρων ὑπεῖξε τῷ ἄρχοντι πρὸς ὄψιν ἐλθεῖν. Ἡ τοίνυν ἀδελφὴ, διὰ τὸν ἀδελφὸν τ᾽ ἄλλα δεύτερα θεμένη, τῇ θύρᾳ τῆς αὐτοῦ κέλλης ἐφίσταται, τὸν ἥσυχον ἐν ᾗ διήνυε καὶ ἀνακεχωρημένον βίον, πολλὰ τοῦτον ἐκλιπαροῦσα κᾂν γραφῇ δηλῶσαι τῷ ἄρχοντι τὴν ἀπόλυσιν τοῦ παιδός. Τούτου γοῦν μηδ᾽ αὐτῆς αὐτὴν ἀποκρίσεως ἀξιώσαντος, ἐκείνη κατεβόᾳ τούτου, καὶ κατηγόρει, ἀσπλάγχνον, ἀκάρδιον, ἀνελεήμονα λέγουσα, καί τινα ἄλλα, ὅσα δὴ καὶ οἷα τὸ τῆς γυναικείας φύσεως ἀσθενὲς οἶδε λέγειν ἀχθόμενον. Πρὸ τούτοις, Ἐλέησόν με, μέγαν ἐβόα, ὅτι μοι μονογενὴς ὁ παῖς ἐστι, καὶ φλέγει μου τὴν ψυχὴν τῇ φρουρᾷ καὶ τοῖς δεσμοῖς ταλαιπορῶν. Φεῦ μοι, Τί γένωμαι; ποῖ τράπωμαι; τίνος ἐξ ἑτέρου τὴν λύσιν εὕροιμι τοῦ κακοῦ; Οὕτω τῆς γυναικὸς σὺν δακρύων πηγαῖς ἀνακλαιομένης, πέμψας ἐκεῖνος τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἕνα, τοῦτο ταύτῃ δηλοῖ· Ἄπελθε, γύναι, τῶν ὧδε· τί

μου καταβοᾶς; Ὁ Ποιμὴν τέκνων πατὴρ οὐκ ἐγέννετο.

[5] Μανθάνει ταῦτα ὁ ἄρχων, καὶ θαυμάσας, κᾂν λόγῳ κελεύσει μόνον, καὶ λύσω τὸν παῖδα τῆς φυλακῆς. Ἀνηγγέλη ταύτα τῷ Γέροντι, καὶ ἀντιλέγει πρὸς τοῦτο μηνύμασιν οὕτως· Ἐξέτασον, ἄρχον, τὸν παῖδα κατὰ τοὺς νόμους, καὶ εἰ ἄξιός ἐστι θανάτου, θανατωθήτω· εἰδ᾽ οὐκ ἀλλ᾽, ὃ βούλει ποίησον ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ. Ἤκουσεν ὁ ἄρχων, ὑπερεθαύμασεν, καὶ τῆς φυλακῆς τὸν παῖδα ἀπέλυσε. Πολλῶν τοίνυν παραβαλλόντον πρὸς τὸν Γέροντα ὠφελείας χάριν καὶ εὐχῆς, πάντας ὁ Γέρων ὠφελεῖ θεοπνεύστοις διδασκαλίαις. Ἠρώτησεν οὖν τις αὐτῶν ποτε τῶν συνιόντων, εἰ χρὴ τὸ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ἁμάρτημα τὸν βλέψαντα συγκαλύψαι. Καὶ ὁ Γέρων· Εἰ καλύψομεν, ἔφη, τέκνον, τὰ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἁμαρτήματα, καλύψει πάντως καὶ Θεὸς τὰ ἡμέτερα· οἵῳ γὰρ μέτρῳ μετρήσομεν, ἀντιμετρηθήσεται ἡμῖν. Τούτου τοίνυν μετὰ τοῦ ἀββᾶ Ἀνοὺβ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ παρερχομένου, ὁροῦσι γυναῖκα κλαίουσαν, καὶ δεινῶς κοπτομένην, καὶ στάντες αὐτὴν κατενόουν· μικρὸν δὲ προβάντες συναντήσαντές τινι, τὴν αἰτίαν ἠρώτων τοῦ πικροῦ ἐκείνου τῆς γυναικὸς ὀδυρμοῦ. Τοῦ δὲ τὸν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς θάνατον, τοῦ υἱοῦτε καὶ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ὀδυνᾶται φαμένου, ἐκεῖνος, Ἐὰν μὴ, λέγει τῷ ἀδελφῷ Ἀνοὺβ, νεκρώσει ἄνθρωπος τῆς ψυχῆς τὰ θελήματα πάντα, καὶ κτήσει τὸ πένθος τοῦτο, οὐ δύναται γενέσθαι μοναχός.

[6] Καί ποτε πολλοὶ τῶν γερόντων τούτου παραβαλόντες, τῶν συγγενῶν αὐτοῦ τις προσεκομίζατο παιδίον κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν τοῦ σατανᾶ τὸ πρόσωπον ἔχον στρεβλὸν, καὶ ἰδὼν τὸ πλῆθος ἐκεῖνο τῶν πατέρων ἔξω τοῦ μοναστηρίου, μετὰ τοῦ παιδὸς ἐκάθητο κλαίων. Τοῦτον δὲ οὕτως ἔχοντά τις ἰδὼν τῶν γερόντων, ἠρώτᾳ μαθεῖν τὴν αἰτίαν. Ὁ δὲ, Συγγενὴς, εἶπέν, εἰμι τοῦ Ποιμένος, καὶ προσήνεγκα τὸ παιδίον κεκακωμένον οὕτως· ὑπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ, καὶ ἐφοβήθην, μήπως ἐνταῦθα παραγενόμενόν με ἀκούσας, ἐκπέμψας διώξει με· οὐ θέλει γὰρ ἰδεῖν τινα τῶν αὐτοῦ. Ἀλλὰ σὺ ἐλεήσας με παράλαβε εἴσω τῆς μονῆς τὸ παιδίον, καὶ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ προσεύξασθε. Λαβὼν οὖν αὐτοῦ ὁ γέρων, καὶ εἰσελθὼν ἐχρήσατο οἷα εἰκὸς συνετῶς, καὶ οὐ προσήνεγκεν εὐθέως τῷ Ποιμένι, ἀλλ᾽ ἀπὸ τῶν μικροθέρων ἀρξάμενος ἀδελφῶν παρεκάλει ἕνα ἕκαστον τούτων ἀκολούθως, τὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ σφραγίδα ποιῆσαι μέχρι καὶ τῷ Ποιμένι. Ὑστερον δὲ προσαγιοχὼς καὶ αὐτῷ, ἐκεῖνος τὴν αιτησιν παρεκρούετο, καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐδέοντο· Καθὼς πάντες, καὶ σὺ, πάτερ, λέγοντες. Ὁ δὲ ἀναστὰς καὶ στενάξας τῷ πνεύματι προσηύξατο εἰπών· Ὁ Θεὸς, ἴασαι τὸ πλάσμα σου, ἵνα μὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ δαίμονος κατακυριευθῇ, καὶ τὸ σταυρικὸν σημεῖον αὖθις ποιήσας, ὑγιῆ ἀπέδωκε τῷ πατέρι.

[7] Ἕτερος δέ τις τῶν ἀδελφῶν κατὰ τὴν τῆς τεσσαρακοστῆς πρώτην ἑβδομάδα προβαλὼν τῷ Ποιμένι ἐξεῖπεν αὐτῷ τοὺς λογισμοὺς, καὶ τυχὼν ἀναπαύσεως παρὰ βραχὺ λέγει· Κατεσχέθην παραγενέσθαι ὧδε σήμερον. Καὶ ὁ Γέρων, Διατί λέγει; Ὅτι, εἶπεν ἀδελφὸς, μήποτε διὰ τὴν τεσσαρακοστὴν οὐκ ἀνοίξῃ μοι. Καὶ ὁ Ποιμὴν πρὸς αὐτόν· Ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἐμάθομεν τὴν ξυλήνην κλείειν, ἀπεκρίνατο, θύραν, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον τῆς γλώττης. Καὶ ἄλλος δέ τις εἰς αὐτὸν κατά τινα χρείαν παραβαλὼν, καὶ ἰδὼν μικρὸν ὕδωρ εἰς τοὺς πόδας βάλλοντα, Πῶς τινες, ἔφη, ἀποτομίαν ἐχρήσαντο σκληραγωγῆσαι τὰ ἑαυτῶν σώματα· καὶ προς αὐτὸν, Ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἐδιδάχθημεν, ἀντέφησεν, εἶναι σωματοκτόνοι, ἀλλὰ παθοκτόνοι. Ἱκανὰ ταῦτα παραστῆσαι τὴν τοῦ Ποιμένος μεγαλειότητα, ναὶ μὴν καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τούτου μέγιστα κατορθώματα.

[8] Ἡμεῖς οὖν πρὸς αὐτὸ τὸ τέλος τῆς παρούσης αὐτοῦ ζωῆς τὸν λόγον τρέψομεν. Ἤδη μὲν οὖν, ὧ μακάριε Ποιμὴν, ἡμερῶν πλήρης γενόμενος τῶντε λυομένων, καὶ τῶν τοῦ πνεύματος, καὶ πασῃ διαπρέψας ἀρετῇ, καὶ παντων πατὴρ τῶν τε κατ᾽ Αἴγυπτον καὶ Θηβαΐδα γενόμενος ἐν Χριστῷ, μικρὸν νοσεῖς, καὶ τοὺς πόδας ἐξάρας, καὶ καλῶς αὐτὸν ἀναθεἰς χερσὶ τοῦ δεδωκότος τὸ πνεῦμα παρέθου, καὶ νῦν ἀγγέλοις συνευφραίνῃ, δικαίοις τοῖς ἀπ᾽ αἰῶνος συναγαλλόμενος, καὶ τρανώτερον συνὼν τῇ θεότητι· ἧς γένοιτο καὶ ἠμᾶς ἀξιωθῆναι ταῖς σαῖς πρὸς τὸν φιλάνθροπον Θεὸν ἱκεσίαις· ᾧ πρέπει ἡ δόξα, καὶ τὸ κράτος νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.

The Saint's excellent virtues, Many other illustrious and great fathers Egypt brought forth, and with them she brought forth also Pœmen, an anchorite both in name and in fact: whose life the angels admired and men were amazed at; while the very nature of inanimate things took pleasure in those deeds of his which were, so to speak, almost above human nature. He therefore (that I may pass over what lies between: for what praise belongs to a man who despised birth, riches, and glory as fleeting things, and chose only what is to come and immortal?) — he therefore, who was truly the shepherd of rational, not of irrational sheep, being rightly taught that evangelical word which says: He that will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me — putting all things after these, leaving country, kindred, riches, glory, and all the delights of life, together with his brothers (for the sweet force of his words drew them), came into the desert; and joining himself to the company of solitary men, distinguished and remarkable in virtue, he has his hair shorn with them and puts on the monk's habit, is humbled and comes to good fruit; he practices fasting and sleeping on the ground, embraces prayer and vigils, pours forth tears for joy, and, in a word, becomes great and remarkable in virtue, and so indeed that he cast out demons from men by prayer alone, and cured every other disease of theirs, and was a common treasure of miracles to the afflicted.

[2] What then afterward? When very many years of the solitude had passed, a longing came upon his mother — a mother indeed — for so notable a child and for her other sons and various things (for the fervent love of them burned her bowels, and her soul seemed to be consumed with fire), and she knew not what to do: and forgetting at once her old age and her womanly weakness, and putting all things after her dearest sons, she dares to face the length of the way and its hardships, mountains, rivers, the solitude, and other things of this kind; that excellent and venerable old age despises life, and betakes itself to the sons for whom it burned with longing. Her coming is made known to them, and that the loving mother stood at the door, awaiting entrance: and it was altogether fitting, and with others it would have been an altogether just law of nature, that as soon as they had heard this, they should run to their mother, throw themselves about her, embrace her, bring her in, speak friendly words to her, make her a partner of their table, set before her a family feast, and do the other things which a son, after long time beholding his mother bowed with age, would carefully and warmly perform.

[3] But they took care to admit none of these things into their minds: neither the gray hairs of their aged mother, concerning him nor the breasts with whose milk they had been nourished, nor anything of that wherein a mother labors in the rearing of her children, did they reverence: but as soon as they heard of her coming, they withdrew and hid themselves from her sight, signifying that it could not be that they should behold her in this life, holding their mother's Creator and his saving commandments altogether in greater esteem — he who says: He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. What then do you think the mother suffered when she heard these things? Namely, those things which she did. She cried out much, she shouted continually, she washed the ground with tears, if by these the company of her sons might be softened and bent to pity. They did not, then, endure the sight of their mother, reckoning it a manifest loss of their desire toward Christ; and therefore again they signify these same things: If you desire to see us, O mother, in that great day you shall surely see us; but now depart hence. When therefore the parent of those notable sons had understood these things, she returned into her country, glorifying God for what she had heard and seen ^a, and for the things in which those greatest sons of hers had advanced to virtue. And thus indeed it was.

[4] deeds, But at another time, when the prefect of the region wished to see abbot Pœmen and to have part in his converse and his prayers, he by no means complied. And when at one time he had arrested the son of his sister as an evildoer and had consigned him to prison, not even so did the old man gratify the prefect by coming into his sight. His sister therefore, putting all else after her brother, stood at the door of his cell, in which he led a quiet and solitary life, earnestly asking him that at least by writing he would obtain from the prefect the release of her son. When therefore he had not deigned her even an answer, she cried out against him, accusing him as harsh, heartless, and unmerciful, and saying over besides such things and so many as the impotence of a woman's nature, when offended, knows how to say. Moreover she cried out with a loud voice: Have mercy on me, for he is my only-begotten son, and he burns my soul, afflicted with prison and chains. Alas for me! what shall become of me? whither shall I turn? through whom else shall I find deliverance from this evil? To the woman, thus pouring forth fountains of tears, he signifies this by one of the brothers whom he sent: Go hence, woman: why do you cry out against me? Pœmen has not become the father of sons.

[5] or apophthegms, The prefect learns these things, and marveling says: If he shall but give the word, I will free the young man from prison. This is reported to the old man, and he contradicts it, thus indicating his mind: Examine the young man, prefect, according to the laws, and if he be guilty of death, let him die; if not, do with him what you will. The prefect heard, marveled greatly, and freed the young man from prison ^b. When therefore many came to the old man for the sake of profit and of prayer, the old man profits all by teachings inspired by God. One therefore of those who came to him once asked whether he who has seen a brother's sin ought to cover it. And the old man said: If we cover, my son, the sins of our brothers, God will surely cover ours: for with what measure we shall have measured, it shall be measured to us again ^c. Then, as he was passing by with abbot Anub his brother, they see a woman weeping and grievously afflicted, and standing still they looked upon her; and going forward a little they met someone, and inquired the cause of that bitter mourning of the woman. And when he said that she grieved for the death of her husband, her son, and her brother, he said to his brother Anub: Unless a man mortify all the pleasures of the soul, and possess himself in that mourning, he cannot become a monk.

[6] by the biographer Once, when many elders were coming to him, one of his kinsmen brought a boy who, being possessed by Satan, had his face distorted: and seeing that multitude of fathers outside the monastery, he sat down with the boy weeping. And one of the elders, beholding him in this state, asked, that he might learn the cause. And he said: I am a kinsman of Pœmen, and I have brought the boy so grievously vexed by the evil spirit, and I feared lest, hearing that I had come hither, he should send me away and drive me off: for he does not wish to see any

of his own. But do you have pity on me, and take the boy within the monastery, and pray for him. The old man therefore, taking him and going in, prudently did whatever was fitting: nor did he at once bring him to Pœmen, but beginning with the least of the brothers, he asked each of them in order to form the sign of Christ over him, and so on up to Pœmen. But afterward, when he had brought him to Pœmen also, and he refused the petition, they entreated, saying: As all have done, so do you also, Father. And rising and groaning in spirit, he prayed, saying: O God, heal your creature, that the demon may not have dominion over him: and, having made afterward the sign of the cross, he gave him back whole to his father.

[7] A certain other of the brothers, coming to Pœmen in the first week of Lent, are recorded: related to him his thoughts, and having taken a little rest, says: I scarcely dared to come here today. To whom the old man said: Why? Because, said the brother, during Lent you will by no means open to me. To whom Pœmen answered: We have not learned to shut a wooden door, but rather the door of the tongue. But another, having gone aside to him for the sake of some necessity, and seeing that he was putting a little water on his feet, said: With what severity have some men used their bodies harshly! And he answered him: We have not been taught to kill the body, but our evil affections. These things suffice to show the great deeds of Pœmen, nay, also his other very great exercises of the virtues.

[8] We shall therefore turn our discourse to the very end of his present life. he dies full of days and of merits. Now therefore, O blessed Pœmen, full of days, both of those that pass away and of the things of the spirit, and adorned with every virtue, and made in Christ the father of all, both of those in Egypt and of those in the Thebaid, you sicken a little, and stretching out * your feet, and piously commending your spirit, you have delivered it into the hands of him who gave it. And now you rejoice with the angels, you exult with the just who have been from the beginning of the world, and more clearly you dwell with the Godhead: of which may we too be made worthy by your intercessions with the kindly God; to whom belongs glory and dominion now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

Cotelier: προφάσει δὲ, that is, taking a pretext*

perhaps ἐκτάνας, stretching out*

APOPHTHEGMS

From Cotelier's edition, volume 1 of the Monuments of the Greek Church, page 585 and following.

Pœmen, anchorite, on Mount Scete in Libya, and in Egypt (St.)

FROM PUBLISHED SOURCES.

Certain preliminary warnings. This volume that distinguished man Jean Baptiste Cotelier published at Paris in the year 1677, and rendered the Greek text into Latin. Among other things contained in the same volume are the Apophthegms of the Fathers, the Royal Manuscript 2466 being cited for them at the beginning of the volume after the Preface. We shall not give the Greek text, which, so far as it concerns St. Pœmen, may be read there by the curious reader. The same author elucidated it with Observations at the end of the said volume, which will be of use to us also; but not the notes or variant Greek readings in the margin, which are set beside the Latin version of St. Pœmen's apophthegms. But it will not be beside the purpose to reprint here from him the marginal citations, by which, besides other writers, the Lives of the Fathers are indicated — the books, booklets, and numbers, and not rarely also the Appendix to the same Lives being marked. Further, since those apophthegms are long enough, it seemed good to us to divide them into three parts, and to distinguish them also by arithmetical numbers, or figures, as they are called: that the matter might appear more orderly, and fitter for the Annotations to be appended to the several parts. Of these things we wished to warn the reader. Now we set forth the Apophthegms themselves, keeping the Roman numerals which are set to them in the Cotelier edition; but not the marginal citations of Sacred Scripture, which for a long while now we have not been accustomed to note, and which can be found by the help of what are called Concordances to the Vulgate Bible, here marked off by the sign “.

PART THE FIRST.

[2] I. Abbot Pœmen once went, when he was a young man, to a certain elder, to question him about three thoughts. Lives of the Fathers, book V, booklet XI, number 19. When therefore he had come to the elder, he forgot one of the three; and he returned to his cell: but when he had laid his hand upon the key to open, he remembered the forgotten matter. Whereupon, leaving the key, he went back to the elder. Who said to him: You have made haste to come, brother. He related: When I put my hand to take the key, I remembered the word which I was seeking; and I did not open, and therefore I came back. Now the distance of the way was very great. The elder said to him: Pœmen of the flocks, that is, shepherd. And your name shall be celebrated in the speech of men throughout the whole region of Egypt.

II. At a certain time a familiarity arose between Paësius, the brother of abbot Pœmen, and a certain other man outside his cell; but abbot Pœmen was unwilling. Lives of the Fathers, book V, booklet XVI, number 8. Whereupon, rising up, he fled to abbot Ammonas ^a, and says to him: My brother Paësius has a familiarity with a certain man, which does not suffer me to live in quiet. Abbot Ammonas said to him: Pœmen, are you still alive ^b? Go, sit in your cell, and set it in your heart as though you had already been lying a year in the tomb.

III. At one time the priests of the district came to the monasteries where abbot Pœmen was; and abbot Anub went in and said to him: Let us today invite the priests here. V. X. 38. And when he had stood a long while, he gave him no answer. Wherefore he went out sorrowful. Those who sat near said to him: Abba, why did you not answer him? Abbot Pœmen replied: I have neither cause nor fault. For I am dead. And a dead man does not speak.

[3] IV. A certain elder was living in Egypt before abbot Pœmen came thither with his companions, and he was much known and honored. III. 93. V. XVII. 8. When therefore Pœmen came up from Scete with his companions, men left the elder and came to abbot Pœmen; who was distressed. And so he says to his brothers: What shall we do for this great elder? For men have brought us into trouble, in forsaking the elder and attending to us, who are nothing. In what way, then, can we heal the elder's mind? He added: Prepare a little food, and take at least ^c some wine; and let us go and eat together: perhaps by this we shall be able to soothe him. They took the food therefore and set out. And when they knocked at the door, the elder's disciple, hearing them, asked: Who are you? They answered: Tell the abba: It is Pœmen, who wishes to be blessed by you. And when the disciple had reported this, he signified in these words: Go away, I have no leisure. But they remained in the heat of the sun, saying: We will not depart until we have been judged worthy to be admitted by the elder. Then the elder, seeing their humility and their patience, being moved with compunction, opened. And going in, they took food with him. And as they ate, he said: Truly, those things are not the only things which I have heard of you, but I have beheld a hundredfold in your work. From that day therefore he was their friend.

V. At one time the governor of that province wished to see abbot Pœmen; but the elder would not admit him. Therefore, taking a pretext, having arrested as a criminal the son of his sister, he sent him to prison, saying: If the old man comes and prays for him, I will release him. V. VIII. 13. Rader, Viridarium, III. VI. 18. His sister came, weeping, to the door. But he gave no answer. Wherefore the woman assailed him with these reproaches: Man with bowels of brass, have mercy on me, for I have this one child. But he, sending word, replied: Pœmen has not begotten children. And she withdrew in this manner. When therefore these things were heard, the governor sent word, saying: Let him but give the word; I will release him. But the elder in turn signified: Inquire according to the laws; and if he be worthy of death, let him die; if not, do as it shall please you.

[4] VI. At one time a brother sinned in a monastery: and there was living in those parts an anchorite who for a long time had not come forth. V. IX. 7 The abbot of the monastery therefore, coming to the elder, told him of the brother who had sinned. He said: Expel him. But the brother, going out from the monastery, entered a cave, and there wept. It happened opportunely that certain brothers who were journeying to abbot Pœmen heard him weeping: who going in found him afflicted with the utmost grief, and exhorted him to go to the elder; but he would not, saying: Here I die. Coming then to abbot Pœmen, they told him the matter. He, moved by their entreaties, sent them back thither to say to the brother: Abbot Pœmen calls you. The brother came. And the elder, beholding him afflicted, rose, embraced him, and dealing kindly with him, asked him to take food. And abbot Pœmen sent one of his brothers to the anchorite, to announce: For many years I have desired to see you, since I have heard of your affairs; but through the sloth of us both we have not met. Now therefore, God willing, the occasion being offered, undertake the labor of the journey, and we shall see one another. For he did not go out of his cell. He, hearing this, said within himself: Unless God had inspired the elder, he would not have sent to me. Wherefore, rising, he came. And when they had joyfully greeted one another, they sat down. Then abbot Pœmen addressed to him this discourse: There were two men living in a certain place, who both had their dead with them: one left his own dead and went off to weep for the dead of the other. And the elder, hearing this, was pricked in conscience by that speech, and remembered the thing which he had done, and said: Pœmen is up above, above in heaven; but I am down below, below on the earth.

[5] VII. At one time many elders came to abbot Pœmen; and behold, a certain one of abbot Pœmen's kinsmen had a son whose face, by the devil's working, had been turned round backward. VI. II. 10. VII. XIV. I. And so the father, beholding the multitude of the fathers, taking his son sat weeping outside the monastery. And it happened that a certain elder came out. He, seeing him, said: Why do you weep, man? He answered: I am a kinsman of abbot Pœmen; and behold, this trial has befallen this boy: and wishing to present him to the old man, we were afraid. For he does not wish to see us. And now, if he learns that I am here, he will send and drive me away. But I, when I saw your coming,

dared to come. As therefore it shall please you, abba, have pity on me: bring the boy in, and pray for him. The elder, taking the boy, went in. Moreover he used prudence; nor did he at once present him to abbot Pœmen, but beginning with the least of the brothers, he said: Sign the boy with the cross. And when he had caused him to be signed by all in order, at last he brought him to abbot Pœmen. He would not have him come near him. But they entreated, saying: As the others have done, so do you also, Father. Then, groaning, he rose, and prayed thus: O God, heal your creature, that he be not brought into bondage by the enemy. And when he had signed him, he cured him on the spot, and restored him whole to his father.

VIII. At one time a certain brother departed from the parts of abbot Pœmen into a foreign land: and there he came to a certain anchorite who was endowed with charity, and whom many visited. III. 184. V. X. 39. The brother told him of abbot Pœmen. He, hearing the man's virtues, was touched with a desire of seeing him. When therefore the brother had returned into Egypt, the anchorite, rising a little after, went from the foreign region into Egypt to that brother who had met him: for he had told him where he dwelt. And when he saw him, he marveled and greatly rejoiced. The anchorite said: Show your charity, lead me to abbot Pœmen.

[6] And so, taking him, he came to the elder. To whom he announced what concerned him, in these words: He is a great man, of much charity, in great honor among his own: I have told him of you, and, desiring to see you, he has come. He received him therefore with joy; and after they had greeted one another, they sat down. Then the stranger began to speak from Scripture, of spiritual and heavenly things. But abbot Pœmen turned away his face, and gave no answer. Whereupon he, seeing that he would not converse, went out sorrowful. And he said to the brother who had brought him: In vain have I undertaken all this pilgrimage. For I came to the elder, and behold, he will not even converse with me. And so the brother, going in to abbot Pœmen, said: Abba, for your sake this great man has come, shining with so much glory in his own place; why did you not discourse with him? The elder answered: He is from things above, and speaks of heavenly things; but I am from things below, and speak of earthly things. If he had had discourse with me about the affections of the soul, I would have answered him. But if the matter be of heavenly things, I know them not. And so the brother, going out, reported to the stranger: The elder does not readily speak of the Scriptures; but if anyone ask him about the affections of the soul, he gives an answer. He, being pricked in conscience, went to the elder, and said to him: What shall I do, abba, since the affections of my soul have dominion over me? Then, casting his eyes upon him, the elder joyfully says: Now you have come well: now open your mouth about these things, and I will fill it with good things. And he, having gained very great profit of soul, declared: Plainly this is the true way. And having given thanks to God that he had been counted worthy to meet with such a Saint, he returned into his own country.

[7] IX. At one time the governor of the province arrested a certain man from abbot Pœmen's village; and all came, asking the elder to go and get him released from prison. V. IV. 32. He said to them: Leave me three days, and then I will set out. Abbot Pœmen therefore prayed to the Lord in these words: Lord, do not grant me this favor: otherwise they will not permit me to sit in this place. The elder therefore came and made request to the judge. Who says to him: Do you make request for a robber, Abba? And the elder rejoiced that he had not obtained the favor from him.

X. Certain men related that at one time abbot Pœmen and his brothers were making baskets ^d; and it did not go forward, because they had not the means to buy the cords. And someone dear to them told the matter to a certain merchant, a pious man. But abbot Pœmen was unwilling to accept anything from anyone, so as to avoid the annoyance of a crowd. And so the merchant, wishing to do a work for the elder, pretended that he himself had need of baskets. And he brought a camel and took them. But a brother, coming to abbot Pœmen, having heard what the merchant had done, as one who wished to praise him, says: Truly, abba, though he had no need, yet he took them, that he might do us a service. But abbot Pœmen, hearing that he had taken them without need, said to the brother: Rise, hire a camel, and bring them back. And if you do not bring them, Pœmen will no longer dwell here with you. For I do not wish to do injury to anyone, when he has no need, that he should suffer loss and take my gain. His brother went off, and after much labor brought them. For if he had not brought them, the elder would have departed from them. When therefore he saw them, he rejoiced as though he had found a great treasure.

XI. At one time the priest of Pelusium ^e heard concerning certain brothers that they were constantly in the city, that they bathed, that they neglected themselves: wherefore, coming to the assembly, he took from them the monastic habit. But afterward he felt himself touched in heart, and was led to repentance. He came therefore to abbot Pœmen, as though drunk with his thoughts, carrying also the brothers' tunics ^f; and he tells the elder the matter. The elder said to him: Have you nothing of the old man in you? have you put him off? The priest answered: I am still a partaker of the old man. The elder replied: Behold then, you also are as the brothers. For though you retain but little of the old state, yet you lie under sin. Then the priest, going away, called the brothers, humbly begged pardon of the eleven of them, clothed them in the monk's habit, and dismissed them.

[8] XII. A brother thus questioned abbot Pœmen: I have committed a great sin, and I wish to do penance for three years. V. X. 40. The elder says to him: It is much time. The brother said: But up to a year? Again the elder: It is much. And those who were present said: Up to forty days? Again he said: It is much. And he added: I affirm that if a man repent with all his heart, and sin no more, God will receive him even in three days of penance.

V. VII. 13. Dorotheus, Doctrina 13 XIII. He said further: The mark of a monk appears in temptations. V. V. 8. In Ephrem, page 387, number 12.

XIV. Again he said: As the emperor's swordbearer ^g stands by him, always ready, so ought the soul to be prompt against the demon of fornication.

XV. Abbot Anub questioned abbot Pœmen about the impure thoughts which a man's heart begets, and about vain desires. V. X. 41. Abbot Pœmen says to him: Shall the axe boast itself against him that cuts with it? Do you likewise not stretch out your hand to them, and they will be idle.

XVI. Abbot Pœmen said again: Unless Nebuzaradan the chief of the cooks ^h had come, the temple of the Lord would not have been burned. Appendix, page 999, number 20. Now this signifies that unless the refreshment of gluttony had come into the soul, the mind would not have fallen in the war against the enemy.

XVII. They used to say of abbot Pœmen that, when he was invited to eat against his will, he set out with tears, that he might not be disobliging to his brother and afflict him with sorrow. V. IV. 30.

XVIII. Abbot Pœmen said moreover: Do not dwell in a place in which you see some men envying you. Otherwise you will make no progress. V. X. 45.

XIX. Certain men told abbot Pœmen of a certain monk that he did not drink wine. And he said: Wine belongs to monks not at all. V. IV. 31.

XX. Abbot Isaiah questioned abbot Pœmen about filthy thoughts. V. X. 42. And he answered him: Just as in a chest full of garments, if one leave them there, they rot in time: so with thoughts; if we have not carried them out with the body, in time they are done away or rot.

XXI. To abbot Joseph, questioning him on the same matter, abbot Pœmen answered: Just as if one should put a serpent with a scorpion into a vessel and shut it, after some time they will certainly die: so also the evil thoughts which spring up at the demons' prompting fail through endurance. V. X. 43.

[9] XXII. A brother came to abbot Pœmen, and said to him: I sow my field, and out of it I make a love feast ⁱ. The elder answered him: You do rightly. V. X. 46. And he went away with alacrity, and increased his almsgiving. But abbot Anub, having heard the saying, says to abbot Pœmen: Do you not fear God, that you have spoken thus to the brother? But the elder kept silence. And after two days abbot Pœmen summoned the brother, and says to him, abbot Anub hearing: What was it you said to me the other day? for my mind was elsewhere. Then the brother: I said that my field was sown by me, and that alms were given out of it. Abbot Pœmen replied: I thought you were speaking of your brother who lives in the world. But if it is you who do this work, this is not a monk's business. And he, hearing this, was made sorrowful, and poured out these words: I know no other work but this, nor can I refrain from sowing my field. When therefore he had departed, Anub bowed himself before Pœmen, saying: Forgive me. Then abbot Pœmen said: I too knew from the beginning that it was not a monk's work ^k; but I spoke according to his mind, and gave him alacrity, for the advance of charity. But now he has gone away sorrowful; and he will do this same thing again.

XXIII. Abbot Pœmen said: If a man has sinned, and denies that he has sinned, do not rebuke him; else you cut away his zeal. V. X. 48. But if you say to him: Do not lose heart, brother, but beware in future — you rouse his soul to repentance.

XXIV. Again he said: Experience is a good thing: for it teaches a man to be upright. V. X. 49.

XXV. Again he said: A man who teaches, and does not do what he teaches, is like a fountain: because it gives drink to all and washes all, but cannot make itself clean. V. X. 50.

XXVI. Abbot Pœmen, once passing through Egypt, beheld a woman sitting on a tomb and weeping bitterly. V. III. 10. Whereupon he said: Even if all the delights of this world should come, they will not draw her soul away from mourning. So likewise a monk ought always to have mourning within himself.

XXVII. He said further: There is a man who seems to keep silence, and his heart condemns others: he is always speaking. V. X. 51. There is another who speaks from morning to evening, and yet keeps silence; that is, he utters nothing outside of what is useful.

[10] XXVIII. A brother came to abbot Pœmen and said: Abba, being agitated by various thoughts, I am endangered by them. V. X. 55. The elder leads the man out and places him in the open air; and bids him hold back the winds with his bosom spread out. But he answered: I cannot do this. Then the elder: If you cannot do this, neither can you hinder thoughts from coming in: but it is your duty to resist them.

XXIX. Abbot said

Pœmen: If three men meet together, of whom one leads well a quiet life, another is sick and gives thanks in his sickness, and the third ministers with a pure thought, these three are of an equal and, as it were, of one operation and virtue. V. X. 52. VII. XXXVI. I.

XXX. Again he said: It is written: As the hart desires the fountains of waters, so my soul desires you, O God. V. XVIII. 17. Since harts in the wilderness swallow many serpents; and when the venom burns them, they long to come to the waters; but after they have drunk, they grow cool from the serpents' venom: so also monks, sitting in the desert, are burned by the venom of the evil demons, and long for the Sabbath and the Lord's Day, that they may come to the fountains of waters, that is, to the body and blood of the Lord, and be purged from the bitterness of the evil one.

XXXI. Abbot Joseph asked abbot Pœmen in what manner one ought to fast. V. X. 44. Rule of the Solitaries, chapter 54. To whom he answered thus: I wish that a man should eat daily, but a little, so that he be not filled. Abbot Joseph said: When you were a young man, did you not abstain from food for two days, abba? The elder answered: Indeed, even for three and four, and a whole week. And all these things the Fathers proved, as men mighty in virtue: but they found that it is better to eat a little daily; and they handed down to us the way which is royal, because it is light.

XXXII. They used to say of abbot Pœmen that when he was about to come to the synaxis, he would sit apart, discerning his thoughts for about an hour; and so he would go forth. V. XI. 22. Appendix, page 1004, number 32.

XXXIII. A brother, questioning abbot Pœmen, said: An inheritance has been left me; what shall I do with it? V. X. 56. The elder said to him: Go, and come after three days, and you shall have an answer. He returned therefore, as the elder had appointed. And he spoke thus to him: What shall I say to you, brother? If I say, Bring it to the church — there they make dinners and banquets. If, Give it to your kinsman — you will receive no reward. But if I pronounce, Distribute it among the poor — you will neglect to do it. Whatever therefore shall please you, do. I am not a partner in the fault.

ANNOTATIONS.

PART THE SECOND.

[11] XXXIV. Another brother asked him what that meant: Render not evil for evil. V. XVIII. 18. The elder said: This affection has four modes: the first from the heart, the second from the look, the third from the tongue, and the fourth is not to do evil for evil. If you can cleanse your heart, it does not come to the look; but if it come into your look, take care not to speak; and if you have even spoken, cut it off quickly, that you do not do evil for evil.

XXXV. Abbot Pœmen said: To keep watch, to attend to oneself, and discretion — these three virtues are the guides of the soul's way. V. I. 12.

XXXVI. Again he said: To cast oneself down before God, not to measure oneself, and to put one's own will behind, are the instruments of the soul. V. XV. 34.

XXXVII. He said also: Of every labor, whatever shall come upon you, the victory is to keep silence. V. XVI. 9.

XXXVIII. He said further: All bodily rest is an abomination to the Lord.

XXXIX. He said again: In mourning there are two things: it works, and it keeps watch. V. III. 12.

XL. Again he said: If a thought come upon you about things necessary for the body, and you have once determined; and it come again a second time, and you have determined; if it come a third time, do not attend to it: for it is idle. V. X. 57.

XLI. Again: a brother questioned abbot Alonius: What is it to make oneself as nothing? The elder answered: To be beneath the beasts that lack reason, and to know that they are not liable to condemnation. V. XV. 36.

XLII. Likewise: If a man remember that saying which is read in Scripture, By your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned, he will rather choose to be silent.

XLIII. He said moreover: The beginning of evils is distraction. V. II. 12.

XLIV. And he reported this, that abbot Isidore, priest of Scete, once spoke thus to the multitude: Brothers, did we not come to this place for the sake of labor? V. VII. 14. But now it has no more labor. I therefore, having made ready my sheepskin, go off to a place in which there is labor, and there I shall find rest.

XLV. A brother said to abbot Pœmen: If I see a thing, do you bid me report it? V. X. 58. The elder said to him: It is written: He that answers a word before he hears, it is folly to him, and a reproach. If therefore you are asked, tell it; if not, be silent.

XLVI. A certain brother questioned abbot Pœmen: Can a man trust in one single action? The elder answered that it was a saying of abbot John the Short ^a: I desire to take something from all the virtues.

XLVII. The elder also related that a brother asked abbot Pambo ^b whether it was good to praise one's neighbor; and that he answered: It is better to be silent.

[12] XLVIII. Abbot Pœmen said again: Though a man should bring forth a new heaven and a new earth, he cannot be free from cares. L. Dorotheus, Doctrina 7 and Letter 8.

XLIX. Again he said: A man needs humility and the fear of God as much as the breath that comes forth from his nostrils. V. XV. 32.

L. A brother asked abbot Pœmen what he ought to do. V. III. 13. The elder said to him: When Abraham entered into the land of promise, he bought himself a tomb, and through a sepulcher received the land in inheritance. The brother asks: What is the sepulcher? The elder answers: A place of weeping and of mourning.

LI. A brother said to abbot Pœmen: If I give my brother a little bread, or something else, the demons defile it, as though it were done to please men. V. XIII. 6. The elder said to him: Though it be done out of eagerness to please men, yet let us give the brethren what is necessary for them. And he added also this parable: Two husbandmen lived in the same city: one of them sowed, and gathered a little and that impure; the other, having neglected to sow, gathered nothing at all. If therefore a famine come, which of the two will find whereby to live? The brother answered: He who got in that little impure crop. Then the elder: In like manner then let us also sow a little, though it be unclean, that we perish not of hunger.

LII. Abbot Pœmen also reported this saying of abbot Ammonas: A certain man carries an axe all his life long, and does not find the way to fell a tree. V. X. 59. But there is another skilled in cutting, who lays the tree low with a few strokes. And he said that the axe is discretion.

LIII. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen, saying: In what manner ought a man to order his life? V. I. 13. And the elder to him: We see Daniel; no accusation could be found against him except in the worship which he rendered to the Lord his God.

LIV. Abbot Pœmen said: A man's own will is a wall of brass between him and God, and a rock that beats him back. [V. X. 60. Dorotheus, Doctrina 5, and St. Ammoes, number 4, in Cotelier; Dorotheus, ibid.] When therefore a man has forsaken it, he too will say, In my God I shall leap over the wall. And so, if righteousness agree with his own will, the man labors.

LV. A report of the same: When the elders were once sitting and eating, abbot Alonius stood ministering; and seeing him, they praised him. V. XV. 39. But he answered nothing at all. Therefore someone said to him apart: Why did you not answer the elders who were praising you? Abbot Alonius replied: If I had given them an answer, I should have seemed to admit the praises.

LVI. He said again: Men are perfect in speech, but very small in action. V. VIII. 14.

[13] LVII. Abbot Pœmen said: As smoke drives away bees, and then the sweetness of their work is taken away, so also bodily ease casts the fear of God out of the soul, and dissolves all its work. V. IV. 32.

LVIII. A brother came to abbot Pœmen in the second * week of Lent; and when he had uncovered his thoughts and found rest, he said: I almost kept myself from coming here today. V. XIII. 5. The elder said to him: Why? And the brother: I considered whether on account of Lent the door would not be opened to me. Then abbot Pœmen said: We have not learned to shut the wooden door, but rather the door of the tongue.

LIX. Abbot Pœmen also admonished: Bodily things must be fled from. V. II. 12. Miscellanea Vossiana, page 132. For when a man is near to a bodily assault, he is like a man standing beside a very deep pit, whom his enemy, at whatever hour it shall seem good to him, will easily cast down and plunge in. But if he be far from bodily things, he is like a man who is far from the pit; so that, although the enemy drag him to the precipice, while he drags and does violence, God sends him help.

LX. Again he said: Poverty, tribulation,

straitness, fasting — these are the instruments of the solitary life. V. I. 14. For it is written: If these three men, Noah, Job, and Daniel, were there, as I live, says the Lord. Noah bears the person and figure of voluntary poverty; Job, of labor; Daniel, of discretion. If therefore these three acts exist in a man, the Lord dwells in him.

LXI. Abbot Joseph related: When we were sitting with abbot Pœmen, he gave the name of abbot to Agatho. V. XV. 40. We say to him: He is younger; why do you call him abbot ^c? Abbot Pœmen answered: Because his own mouth caused him to be called abbot.

LXII. A brother once came to abbot Pœmen and said to him: What shall I do, Father, for I am afflicted with fornication? And behold, I went to abbot Ibistion, who said to me: You must not permit it to abide in you. V. V. 9. Abbot Pœmen answered: Abbot Ibistion's doings are up above with the angels, and it is hidden from him that you and I are in fornication. If a monk hold his belly and his tongue, and the life of a stranger and pilgrim, trust me, he shall not die.

LXIII. It was said by abbot Pœmen: Teach your mouth to speak the things which you carry in your heart. L. III. 183 and V. VIII. 14. I. number CLXIV.

LXIV. A brother asked abbot Pœmen: If, he said, I see my brother's fault, is it good that I cover it? V. IX. 6. The elder answered: As often as we cover our brother's sin, God also will cover ours; but in the hour in which we make our brother's fall manifest, God will make ours manifest.

[14] LXV. This too was a narration of abbot Pœmen: Someone once asked abbot Paisius thus: What shall I do for my soul, since it is destitute of feeling and does not fear God? V. XI. 23. L. Dorotheus, Doctrina 4. He answered: Go, cleave to a man who fears God; and in drawing near to him, he will teach you also to fear God.

LXVI. Again he said: If a monk overcome two things, he will be able to become free from the world. V. I. 15. VII. XXVI. 2. A brother asked: What are they? He answered: Carnal ease, and vainglory.

LXVII. That Abraham who was abbot Agatho's ^d questioned abbot Pœmen: How comes it that the demons assail me? V. X. 62. VII. XXV. 3. Abbot Pœmen said to him: Do the demons assail you? They do not contend with us so long as we do our own wills. For our wills have turned into demons; and it is these that press us to fulfill them. But if you wish to know with whom the demons have fought, it is with Moses and men like him.

LXVIII. Abbot Pœmen said: This form of life God prescribed to the Israelites, that they should abstain from things which are against nature; that is, from anger, from blazing wrath, from envy, hatred, and detraction toward a brother: and the rest which belong to the old Law.

LXIX. Abbot Pœmen, being asked by a brother to speak a word to him, spoke thus: The beginning of the matter, which the fathers laid down, is mourning. Again the brother asked another word. The elder answered: Exercise yourself according to your strength in the work of your hands, that out of it you may do mercy. For it is written that alms and faith purge sins. The brother said: What is faith? Then the elder: Faith is to live in humility and to do mercy.

LXX. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen in this speech: If I see a brother of whose fall I have heard, I do not wish to bring him into my cell; but if I see a good brother, I am glad in his company. [Miscellany of the Fathers, by Vossius after Gregory Thaumaturgus, page 133; III. 140; VII. XVI. 4.] The elder says to him: If you do a little good to a good brother, do double to the other: for he is infirm. There was, namely, a certain man in a monastery named Timothy, an anchorite; and the superior of the monastery heard a report of a certain brother concerning a temptation, and inquired about him of Timothy; who gave counsel that he should expel the brother. When therefore he had cast him out, the brother's temptation was laid upon Timothy, so that he was in peril. Timothy therefore wept before God, saying: I have sinned, forgive me. And a voice of this kind was brought to him: Timothy, do not suppose that I have done these things to you for any other cause than that you despised your brother in the time of his temptation.

[15] LXXI. Abbot Pœmen said: We lie under so many and so great temptations for this reason, that we do not keep our names and our rank, even as the Scripture teaches. Miscellanea Vossiana, page 134. Do we not behold that Canaanite woman, who admitted her name, and the Savior granted her rest? Again of Abigail ^e; because she said to David, In me is the sin, he heard her, he loved her. Abigail takes the person of the soul, David of the Godhead. If therefore the soul accuse itself before the Lord, the Lord loves it.

LXXII. Abbot Pœmen once was passing with abbot Anub into the parts of Diolcos ^f; and coming near the tombs, they behold a woman grievously lamenting and weeping bitterly; and standing still they looked upon her. V. III. 11. But having gone forward a little, they met someone; whom abbot Pœmen asked what ailed that woman, that she wept so bitterly. He answered: Because her husband is dead, and her son, and her brother. Then abbot Pœmen, taking up the word, said to abbot Anub: I tell you, unless a man make dead all the wills of the flesh, and obtain this mourning, he cannot become a monk. For this woman's whole life and mind is in mourning.

LXXIII. Abbot Pœmen said: Do not measure yourself, but cleave to a man whose conversation is good. V. XV. 35.

LXXIV. Likewise he reported that if any brother came to abbot John the Short, he handed on to him that charity of which we read in the Apostle: Charity is patient, is kind.

LXXV. Again he reported concerning abbot Pambo that abbot Antony said of him: Through the fear of God he brought it to pass that the Spirit of God dwelt in him.

LXXVI. A certain one of the fathers related concerning abbot Pœmen and his brothers that they dwelt in Egypt; and their mother, desiring to see them, could by no means do so. V. IV. 33. But she watched for the time when they went to church, and met them. They, seeing her, turned back, and shut the door in her face. But she cried at the door, weeping piteously and saying: Let me see you, my beloved sons. When he heard her, abbot Anub went in to abbot Pœmen and said: What shall we do for this old woman weeping at the doors? Then, standing within, he heard her wailing pitifully; and he said: Why do you cry out thus, woman? She, recognizing his voice, cried out much the more, weeping and saying: I wish to see you, my sons. For what harm is it if I behold you? Am I not your mother? Did I not give you suck? I am all gray-haired ^g. And when I caught your voice, I was confounded. The elder answered: Do you wish to see us here, or in that other world? She answered: If I do not see you here, shall I behold you in that other world? He said: If you do violence to yourself, so as not to behold us here, there you shall behold us. She departed therefore joyful, with these words: If I am surely to behold you there, I do not wish to see you here.

[16] LXXVII. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen: What is understood by the heights? The elder answered him: Righteousness.

LXXVIII. Certain heretics once came to abbot Pœmen, and began to speak against the archbishop of Alexandria, as though he had received ordination from priests. Appendix, page 1003, number 20. But the elder, when he kept silence at these things, called his brother and said: Set out the table, and make them eat, and so dismiss them in peace.

LXXIX. Abbot Pœmen related that a brother living with brethren asked abbot Bessarion ^h what he ought to do; and the elder said to him: Keep silence, and do not measure yourself.

LXXX. Again he said: In a matter of which your heart does not fully persuade itself, do not attend to it in your heart.

LXXXI. Again he said: If you hold yourself of little worth, you shall have rest in whatever place you sit.

LXXXII. He also reported this saying of abbot Sisoes: There is a shame which has the sin of that confidence by which we lack fear.

LXXXIII. Again he said that self-will and ease, and habit in them, cast a man down.

LXXXIV. He uttered this sentence also: If you keep silence, you shall have rest in whatever place you dwell.

LXXXV. He also narrated of abbot Pior ⁱ that he made a beginning for each single day.

LXXXVI. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen in these words: If a man be overtaken in some sin and turn himself about, will pardon be granted him by God? The elder said to him: Truly God, who commanded men to do this, will he not himself do it the more? For he declared to Peter: Until seventy times seven.

LXXXVII. A brother inquired of abbot Pœmen, saying: Is it good to pray? And the elder reported to him this sentence of abbot Antony: This voice comes forth in the person of the Lord: Exhort my people, says the Lord: Pray.

LXXXVIII. A brother thus questioned abbot Pœmen: Can a man hold back or guard all his thoughts, and give none of them to the enemy? The elder answered: There is a man who receives ten, and gives one.

LXXXIX. The same brother brought the same question to abbot Sisoes. And he said to him: Certainly there is one who gives nothing to the enemy.

[17] XC. There dwelt on the mountain of Athlibeos ^k a certain hermit of great virtue, upon whom robbers rushed; but the old man cried out, and his neighbors hearing him seized the thieves and sent them to the governor, who cast them into prison. III. 83. Rader's Viridarium III. VI. 8. But the brethren were afflicted with sorrow, and said: For our sakes they have been given up. Rising therefore, they went to abbot Pœmen, and told him the matter. And so he wrote to the old man in these words: Consider the first betrayal, whence it came, and then you will see the second. For unless you had first been betrayed within yourself, you would not have committed the second betrayal. He, having received abbot Pœmen's letter (now he was famous in the whole region, and did not go out of his cell), rising, came into the city, brought the robbers out of prison, and openly set them free.

XCI. Abbot Pœmen said: A monk is not a grumbler; a monk does not render requital in evil; a monk is not wrathful. Appendix, page 1005, number 82.

XCII. Certain of the elders, having gone to abbot Pœmen, said to him: Do you bid us, if we see brothers dozing at the sacred Office, to pinch them, that they may be roused to their vigil? But he said to them: For my part, when I see a brother dozing, I put his head upon my knees and procure him rest.

XCIII. They used to tell of a certain brother that he suffered a temptation of blasphemy, and blushed to tell it; but when he heard that there were elders of great merit, he would come to them to disclose it; yet when he had arrived, he did not dare for shame to confess it. III. 57. Often therefore he came also to abbot Pœmen. But the elder

perceived that he was vexed by thoughts, and was troubled that the brother would by no means declare them. And so one day, taking him aside, he said: Behold, for so long a time you have come hither to disclose your thoughts to me, and when you are here, you will not speak out, but as before you go away anxious with them. Tell me, my son, what is the matter with you. He answered: The demon drives me into blasphemy and an evil opinion of God, and, covered with shame, I have kept silence until now. And when he had told him the matter, he at once felt relief. The elder said to him: My son, do not afflict yourself, but as often as that thought comes on you, say: I am not in cause or fault; your blasphemy be upon you, Satan. For my soul does not wish this thing. And whatever the soul does not wish endures but a short time. And the brother departed, having received healing of soul.

[18] XCIV. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen in this speech: I see that wherever I go, I find support. The elder said to him: Those who hold the sword in their hands perceive that God is mercifully helping them in the present time. If therefore we shall have proved strong, he will show us his mercy.

XCV. Abbot Pœmen said that if a man blame himself, he will endure anywhere. III. 110. VII. XII. I.

XCVI. Again he reported this saying of abbot Ammonas: There is a man who perseveres a hundred years in his cell, and does not learn in what manner one must sit in a cell. Dorotheus, Doctrina 7.

XCVII. Abbot Pœmen said: If a man attain to this saying of the Apostle, All things are clean to the clean, he will find himself less than every creature. III. 131. A brother said: How can I judge myself worse than a murderer? And the elder said: If a man has come to the aforesaid word, and beholds a man committing murder, he will say: This man has committed this sin alone; but I bring death daily.

XCVIII. A brother questioned abbot Anub about the same saying of the Apostle, reporting what abbot Pœmen had pronounced. And he said: If a man attain to that word, and see the faults of his brother, he causes his own righteousness to devour them. The brother asked: What is his righteousness? The elder answered: That he always rebuke himself. Ibid. Appendix, page 1000, number 5.

XCIX. A brother said to abbot Pœmen: If I fall into a pitiable sin, my mind gnaws at me and accuses me, why I fell. The elder said to him: In the hour in which a man who has fallen under a fault shall pronounce, I have sinned, the sin at once has an end.

C. A brother inquired of abbot Pœmen: Why do the demons persuade my soul to converse with him who is above me, and cause me to hold cheap him who is beneath me? The elder answered: For this cause the Apostle said: In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of clay. If any man therefore cleanse himself from all these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, useful to the Lord, prepared unto every good work.

CI. A brother inquired of abbot Pœmen in this manner: Why am I not suffered to speak freely with the elders of my thoughts? And the elder reported to him this sentence of abbot John the Short: In nothing does the enemy so rejoice as in those who will not make manifest their thoughts. Miscellanea Vossiana, pages 132, 133; III. 177.

[19] CII. A brother said to abbot Pœmen: My heart is made faint if even a small vexation befall me. Miscellanea Vossiana, page 133. The elder said to him: Do we not marvel at Joseph, a youth of seventeen years, how he endured temptation to the end? and God made him glorious. Do we not see Job also, how to the end he did not sink down, holding fast his patience? nor could temptations move him from his hope in God.

CIII. Abbot Pœmen said: For a monastery three acts are required: one of humility, another of obedience, the third that which restrains impulse and goading, on account of the work of the monastery.

CIV. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen, saying: In the time of my necessity I borrowed something from one of the Saints, and he gave it me out of charity, as an alms. If therefore God shall so dispense with me that I have the means, shall I too give it to others as alms, or rather to him who lent it me? The elder answered: It is just before God that it be rendered to him: for it belongs to him. The brother added: If then I bring it, and he will not take it, but says to me: Go, give it as alms as you please — what ought I to do? The elder replied: Certainly it is his affair. But if anyone give you anything of his own accord, without your asking, this is yours. But if you have asked it, whether from a monk or from a layman, and he will not take it back, this is the middle course: that with his knowledge you lay it out on his behalf by way of charity and almsgiving.

CV. They used to record of abbot Pœmen that he never wished to give his own counsel after another elder's answer, but rather extolled it altogether with praises. V. XV. 41.

CVI. Abbot Pœmen said: Many of our Fathers have been strong in austerity of life; but in the subtlety of discretion, one, one only.

CVII. When abbot Isaac was once sitting with abbot Pœmen, the voice of a cock was heard. He says therefore to him: Are these things here, abba? He answered: Isaac, why do you force me to speak? You and men like you hear such things; but to a watchful man there is no care about these matters.

CVIII. They used to say that if any came to abbot Pœmen, he first sent them to abbot Anub, because he was the elder in birth. But abbot Anub said to them: Go to my brother Pœmen; for he has the gift of speech. But if abbot Anub was sitting there beside abbot Pœmen, Pœmen would by no means speak in his presence.

[20] CIX. There was a certain layman, a man most religious in his life. He came to visit abbot Pœmen; and other brothers had also come, who asked the elder to hear some word. The elder said to the faithful layman: Bring forth a word to the brothers. But he entreated, saying: Forgive me, abba: I have come to learn. But being compelled by the elder, he says: I am a man of the world, selling vegetables and trading: I loose the bundles and make them smaller; I buy for little and sell for much. For the rest, I do not know how to speak from Scripture; but I will bring forth a parable. A certain man said to his friend: Since I burn with a longing to see the emperor, come with me. His friend said to him: I will go with you as far as the middle of the way. He says to another friend: Come you, lead me to the emperor. He replies: I lead you as far as the emperor's palace. He asked likewise of a third that he should come with him to the emperor. He answered: I come, I lead you to the palace, I stand, I speak, I bring you in to the emperor. They asked him what was the meaning of the parable. And he gave answer in these words: The first friend is bodily exercise, which leads as far as the way; the second is chastity, which reaches as far as heaven; but the third is almsgiving: for it brings one in to God the emperor with confidence ^l. And so the brothers departed edified and instructed.

CX. A brother dwelt outside his village, and for many years did not go to it, and he used to say to the brothers: See, for how many years I have been here, and I have not come into the village; but you go so often. And they reported of him to abbot Pœmen. The elder said: I should have come by night and gone round the village, that my mind might not boast that I had not gone.

CXI. A brother asked abbot Pœmen to give him some instruction. VII. XXXIX. 3. And he said to him: As long as a pot is heated by the fire beneath it, neither fly nor any other creeping thing can touch it; but when it has grown cold, then they settle upon it. In like manner a monk: as long as he abides in spiritual actions, the enemy finds no way to cast him down.

CXII. Abbot Joseph reported of abbot Pœmen that he said: This is the sentence written in the Gospel: He that has a coat, let him sell it and buy a sword. That is: He that has ease, let him leave it, and hold to the narrow way. VI. IV. 14.

CXIII. Certain of the fathers questioned abbot Pœmen: If we behold a brother sinning, do you bid us reprove him? The elder answered: For my part, if I had need to pass through those places, and saw him offending, I would pass by and would not rebuke him. VI. IV. 36.

ANNOTATIONS.

of the patriarchate of Alexandria, page 270. In volume 2 of the Councils of the Harduin edition, at the Council of Constantinople of LXXXI bishops, column 786, Apollonius bishop of Athribis subscribes. And in volume 1, in the Council of Alexandria, column 738, there is Theodore of Athribis. In the map in Rosweyde designated above it is written Atribis, and it is placed in the district of Cairo. From what has been said we deduce that the mountain of Athlibeos was situated in the district of the city or the river of the same name: which mountain under that name we have sought in vain. Nor need the trifling discrepancy of a single letter detain us: for either it might be written in both ways, or ῥ might be faultily changed into λ.

* above in the Life, number 7, the first

PART THE THIRD.

[21] CXIV. Abbot Pœmen said: It is written: What your eyes have seen, of these bear witness. But I say to you: Though you have handled with your hands, do not testify. For a certain brother suffered an illusion of this kind: he seemed to himself to see a Brother sinning with a woman; and when he had been much vexed by the temptation, going up he stamped with his foot, thinking that it was they, and says: Cease now; how long, at last? When lo, he found that they were sheaves of grain. For this cause I have declared to you that although you have grasped with your hands, you ought not to accuse.

CXV. A brother inquired of abbot Pœmen what he ought to do, since he was driven by temptations to fornication and anger. III. 16. In Ephrem, page 387, number 13. The elder answered: For this cause David said: The lion indeed I smote, but the bear I strangled. And this signifies: Anger indeed I cut off, but fornication I crushed by labors.

CXVI. Again he said: One cannot find a greater charity than this, that a man lay down his soul for his neighbor. V. XVII. 10 So that if anyone hear an evil word, that is, a saddening one, and though he could himself return the like, overcome himself so as not to say it; or if he be cheated, and endure it, and not requite the defrauder — such a man lays down his soul for his neighbor.

CXVII. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen, saying: What is a hypocrite? The elder said to him: A hypocrite is one who teaches his neighbor a thing to which he himself has not attained. For it is written: Why do you see the mote in your brother's eye, and behold, a beam is in your own eye? — and what follows.

CXVIII. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen what it is to be angry with one's brother without cause. V. X. 47. And he answered: With whatever injury your brother has afflicted you, if you are stirred to anger against him, you are angry without cause. Though he should have dug out your right eye and cut off your right hand, yet if you are roused to anger against him, you are angry without cause. But when he wishes to separate you from God, then be angry.

CXIX. A brother proposed a question to abbot Pœmen: what he should do about his sins. Miscellanea Vossiana, page 132. The elder spoke thus to him: He who wishes to redeem his sins will redeem them by weeping; and he who wishes to acquire virtues will acquire them by weeping. For to weep is the way which the Scripture handed down to us, and our Fathers also, by saying: Weep. For there is no other way besides this.

CXX. A brother inquired of abbot Pœmen: What is repentance for a sin? The elder said: To commit it no more. For it is for this reason that those who were just were called unspotted, because they forsook their sins and were made just. VII. XXII. 1. Miscellanea Vossiana, ibid.

CXXII. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen: What shall I do about these disturbances which vex me? The elder said to him: Let us weep before the goodness of God in all our labor, until he shall have shown us his mercy.

CXXIII. Again a brother inquired of him: What am I to do about the useless desires by which I am held? He said: There is a man who lies snoring toward death, and yet attends to the desires of this world. Do not draw near to them, do not touch them; and they will withdraw of themselves.

CXXIV. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen with this speech: Can a man be dead? He said to him: If he come to sin, he dies; but if he come to good, he shall live and will work it.

CXXV. Abbot Pœmen reported that it had been said by the blessed abbot Antony that it is a man's great power to cast his own sin upon himself before the Lord, and to look for temptation to his last breath. S. in Antony, number 4.

CXXVI. Abbot Pœmen was asked to whom that word of Scripture applied: Dorotheus, Letter I. 7. Be not solicitous for the morrow. The elder answered: It suits a man set in temptation and failing, that he be not solicitous, saying: How long must I be vexed by this temptation? but rather let him consider, and say each day: Today. VI. IV. 9; L. Dorotheus, Institutions 17.

CXXVII. Again he said: To teach one's neighbor is the business of a man who is sound and free from disturbance. Otherwise, what is the profit if a man build another's house and overthrow his own?

CXXVIII. Again he said: What profit is it that a man go to a craft and not learn it?

CXXIX. He said moreover: All things that exceed measure are of the Demons.

CXXX. He spoke this also: A man about to build a house gathers many necessary things, that he may be able to raise it; and he collects various kinds of materials. So let us also take a little from all the virtues.

CXXXI. Certain of the fathers asked abbot Pœmen, saying: For what reason did abbot Nisterus so bear with his disciple? Abbot Pœmen answered them: If it had been I, I would even have put a pillow under his head. Abbot Anub said to him: And what would you have said to God? Abbot Pœmen replied: Assuredly I would say: Yours is the word: Cast out first the beam out of your own eye, and then you shall see to cast out the mote from your brother's eye.

CXXXII. It was said by abbot Pœmen: Hunger and drowsiness have not suffered us to see these little things.

CXXXIII. Again he said: Many have been mighty, but few provoking.

CXXXIV. Again he said, uttering groans: All the virtues have entered into this house except one; without which, however, a man will hardly stand. They asked him therefore what that one was. And he says: That a man should rebuke himself. Dorotheus, Doctrina 7.

[23] CXXXV. Abbot Pœmen often said that we need nothing else but a watchful mind.

CXXXVI. One of the Fathers questioned abbot Pœmen: Who is he that says, I am a partaker of all them that fear you? And the elder answered that it was the Holy Spirit.

CXXXVII. Abbot Pœmen recorded that a brother thus questioned abbot Simon: If I go out of my cell and find my brother distracted, I too am distracted with him; and if I find him laughing, I laugh also with him; and when I have entered into my cell, I am not suffered to be in quiet. And the elder said to him: Do you wish, when you have gone out of your cell and found men laughing, to laugh also; and men talking, to talk likewise; and, when you have entered into your cell, to find yourself such as you were? The brother said: But what then? The elder answered: Within keep guard, without keep guard.

CXXXVIII. From the mouth of abbot Daniel: We came once to abbot Pœmen, and together took food. Afterward he said to us: Go, brothers, take a little rest. And so the brothers went off to lie down for a short time; but I remained, that I might converse with him apart. Then rising I came to his cell. When therefore he perceived me coming to him, he laid himself down as though he slept. For this was the elder's practice, to do all things in secret.

CXXXIX. An admonition of abbot Pœmen: If you see sights and hear words, do not report them to your neighbor. For it is an overthrow as in war.

CXL. He said also: First flee once, secondly flee, thirdly become as a two-edged sword. Appendix, page 1004, number 42

CXLI. Again abbot Pœmen said to abbot Isaac: Make light your share of righteousness, and you shall have rest in your few days.

CXLII. A brother visited abbot Pœmen; and, some sitting together, he praised a certain brother as being a hater of evils. III. 132. Abbot Pœmen says to him who had spoken this: And what is the hatred of evils? But the brother was struck dumb, and found nothing to answer: whereupon, rising, he bowed himself to the elder, asking that he would teach him what the hatred of evils was. The elder replied: This is the hatred of evils: if a man hate his own sins and think his neighbor just.

CXLIII. A brother who had come to abbot Pœmen said to him: What shall I do? The elder to him: Go, join yourself to a man who says, What do I want? And you shall obtain rest.

[24] CXLIV. Abbot Joseph related that abbot Isaac said: I was sitting once with abbot Pœmen, and I saw him rapt in ecstasy; and since I used much freedom of speech toward him, I bowed myself before him and entreated him in these words: Tell me, where were you? But he, being constrained, answered: My mind was in that place in which holy Mary the Mother of God stood, weeping beside the cross of the Savior: and I would that I might always weep in that manner.

CXLV. A brother asked abbot Pœmen: What shall I do about this burden which weighs me down? The elder answered him: Small ships and great are furnished with tow-lines, so that, if a favoring wind be lacking, the sailors may put the rope with its girdles about their breasts and drag the ship little by little, until God shall send a wind: but if they perceive that a fog has risen, then they put in to shore and fix a stake, that the ship may not drift.

CXLVI. A brother inquired of abbot Pœmen about thoughts

and their assaults. III. 209. The elder said to him: This matter is like a man who has fire on his left and a bowl of water on his right. If therefore the fire be kindled, he will take water from the bowl and quench it. The fire is the enemy's sowing; but the water is to prostrate * oneself in the sight of God.

CXLVII. A brother inquired of abbot Pœmen whether it was better to speak or to keep silence. Miscellanea Vossiana, page 134. And the elder answered: He who speaks for God's sake does rightly; and in like manner also he who keeps silence for God's sake.

CXLVIII. A brother asked abbot Pœmen: How can a man escape speaking ill of his neighbor? III. 133. Miscellanea Vossiana, ibid. The elder says to him: We and our brothers are two images; and in whatever hour a man attends to himself and rebukes himself, he will find his brother honorable in his eyes; but when he seems to himself excellent, he finds his brother evil in his sight.

CXLIX. A brother inquired of abbot Pœmen about sloth. And the elder said to him: Sloth stands at every beginning, and there is no worse vice than it: but if a man recognize it for what it is, he will obtain rest.

CL. Abbot Pœmen said: We noted three bodily practices in abbot Pambo: daily fasting until evening, silence, and much work of the hands.

CLI. He also reported a sentence of abbot Theonas: Though a man acquire a virtue, God does not grant him grace for himself alone. For he knows that he would not be faithful in his own labor. But if he go to his companion, then it abides with him.

[25] CLII. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen thus: I wish to enter a monastery and to remain there. The elder says to him: You who desire to live in a monastery — unless you cast away care of all conversation and of every thing, you will not be able to work as befits a monk of a community. For you are not master even of a single pitcher.

CLIII. A brother inquired of abbot Pœmen what he ought to do. Appendix, page 1004, number 45. He answered: It is written: For I will declare my iniquity, and I will think for my sin.

CLIV. Abbot Pœmen said: As regards fornication and detraction, a man ought by no means even to speak of these two temptations, nor at all to think of them within himself. Appendix, page 1002, number 3. In Ephrem, page 387, number 12. For if he wish to sift them in any degree in his heart, he will get no profit; but when he has borne himself fiercely toward them, he will have rest.

CLV. Abbot Pœmen's brothers said to him: Let us go away from this place; for the monasteries which are here disturb us, and we lose our souls. Besides this, behold, wailing infants do not suffer us to be in quiet. Abbot Pœmen replied to them: It is on account of the voices of angels that you wish to depart hence.

CLVI. Abbot Bitimius questioned abbot Pœmen with this saying: If anyone have a quarrel against me, and I humbly beg his pardon, but he will not be softened, what shall I do? The elder answered: Take with you two other brothers, and humbly submit yourself to him. But if he be not persuaded, take five others. And if even so he refuse, bring a priest. And if then also he resist, do you thenceforth confidently pray to God that he may put it into his mind, and be free from care.

CLVII. Abbot Pœmen said: To teach one's neighbor and to reprove him are alike.

CLVIII. Again he said: Do not carry your own will into effect: it is rather necessary that you show yourself humble toward your brother.

CLIX. A brother asked of abbot Pœmen, saying: I have found a place endowed with all quiet from the brothers; do you wish me to dwell there? And the elder said: Where you will not hurt your brother, there stay.

CLX. Abbot Pœmen said: These three heads are profitable: to fear the Lord, to pray, to do good to one's neighbor. Miscellanea Vossiana, page 132.

CLXI. A brother said to abbot Pœmen: My body has grown feeble, and my passions do not grow feeble. Dorotheus, Doctrina 18. The elder said to him: The passions are thorny brambles.

[26] CLXII. A brother asked of abbot Pœmen: What shall I do? The elder said to him: When God visits us, of what ought we to be careful? The brother answered: Of our sins. And so the elder said: Let us go into our cell, and sitting, let us remember our sins, and then the Lord will concur with us in all things.

CLXIII. A brother going to market asked abbot Pœmen what counsel he would give him. Appendix, page 1002, number 5. But the elder answered him: Be the friend of him who has done you violence; and you will sell your vessels in quiet.

CLXIV. Abbot Pœmen said: Teach your mouth to speak what you feel in your heart. S. number LXIII.

CLXV. Abbot Pœmen, being asked about defilements, answered: If we make ourselves active and watch diligently, we shall find no defilement in us. V. XI. 21.

CLXVI. Abbot Pœmen said: From the third generation of Scete ^a, and after abbot Moses ^b, the Brothers made no further progress.

CLXVII. Again he said: If a man keep his own rank, he will by no means be disturbed. V. XV. 38.

CLXVIII. A brother thus questioned abbot Pœmen: In what manner ought I to sit in my cell? V. X. 64. Appendix, page 1003, number 21. He says to him: To sit in one's cell, as regards what appears outwardly, is to work with the hands, to eat once a day ^c, to keep silence, to meditate: but the hidden progress in the cell is to wring from yourself ^d a complaint against yourself in whatever place you go; not to neglect the hours of the Office, nor the things that are hidden. Dorotheus, Doctrina 7. But if it happen that you have time free from the work of your hands, go into the assembly and perform it without disturbance. And the sum of these things is: obtain the good company of the brotherhood, but abstain from evil intercourse.

CLXIX. A brother asked of abbot Pœmen: If a brother has a little of my money, do you wish me to ask it back? The elder said to him: Ask it of him once. III. 170. The brother replied: What then shall I do? For I am not master of my own thought. The elder answered: Let your thought stagnate ^e; only do not be troublesome to your brother.

CLXX. It happened that certain of the Fathers, among whom was abbot Pœmen, came into the house of a certain religious man; and as they ate, meat was set before them; and all ate except abbot Pœmen: whose abstinence the elders admired, knowing his discretion. John Geometres, Paradise 32. When therefore they rose from table, they say to him: You are Pœmen, and have you done thus? The elder answered them: Forgive me, fathers; you ate, and no one suffered scandal; but if I had eaten, since many brothers come to me, they would have been harmed and would have said: Pœmen ate flesh, and shall we not eat? Then they marveled at his discretion.

[27] CLXXI. Abbot Pœmen said: I say, Into the place into which Satan is cast, thither am I cast.

CLXXII. The same urged abbot Anub: Turn away your eyes, that they may not see vanity. For liberty slays souls.

CLXXIII. Paisius and his brother once came to blows, even to the shedding of blood from their heads, abbot Pœmen looking on; and the elder said nothing at all to them. Appendix, page 1003, number 19. And so abbot Anub came in, and seeing them, says to abbot Pœmen: Why have you suffered the brothers to fight together and said nothing? Abbot Pœmen answered: They are brothers; they will return to peace. Then abbot Anub: What is this? You saw them acting so, and you say, They will return to favor? Abbot Pœmen replied: Set it in your heart that I was not here within *.

CLXXIV. A brother inquired of abbot Pœmen: Brothers dwell with me; do you advise that I give them orders? The elder said to him: No; but do you first do the work, and if they desire to live, they themselves will see to it. The brother added: They too desire it, Father, that I should command them. The elder answered: By no means; but be to them a pattern, not a lawgiver.

CLXXV. Abbot Pœmen said: When a brother has come to you, and you perceive that you were not helped by his coming, search in your mind and consider what thought you were turning over in your soul before his entrance: and then you will know the cause why you got no profit. But if you do this with humility and attention, you will be blameless toward your neighbor, bearing your own defects. For if a man make his sitting with caution, he will not offend. For God is before him. And as I see it, from this sitting a man possesses the fear of God.

CLXXVI. Again he said: A man who has a boy as his companion, by whom he is led into any passion of the old man, and yet keeps him with him none the less — such a man is like one who has a field which worms devour.

CLXXVII. He also said: Malice by no means takes away malice: but if anyone do you evil, do him good, that by the good deed you may destroy the malice. V. X. 53. Dorotheus, Doctrina 10.

CLXXVIII. He said further: David, when he joined battle with the lion, held it by the throat and at once slew it. If therefore we too hold our throat and our belly, with God's help we shall conquer the invisible lion.

[28] CLXXIX. A brother asked of abbot Pœmen: What shall I do, since annoyance befalls me and I am stirred? The elder answered: Force makes both small and great to be moved.

CLXXX. They used to report this of abbot Pœmen: When he was dwelling in Scete with two of his brothers, the younger afflicted them. Wherefore Pœmen spoke thus to the other brother: This younger one unnerves us and turns us aside; rise, let us go hence. And so, going out, they left him. But when he saw that they lingered, and afterward beheld them far off, he began to run after them with a cry. Abbot Pœmen says: Let us wait for the brother, for he is wearied. When therefore he had reached them, he humbly greeted them, saying: Where are you going, and leaving me alone? The elder answered him: Because you vex us, therefore we withdraw. Then he to them: Nay, nay, let us go together wherever you will. And the elder, seeing his simplicity, said to his brother: Let us go back, brother: for he does not do these things of his own accord, but it is the devil who prompts him. Returning therefore, they came to their own place.

CLXXXI. The superior of a monastery questioned abbot Pœmen: How can I obtain the fear of God? Abbot Pœmen answered: In what way can we possess the fear of God, we who have within us bellies full of cheeses and jars of salt fish?

CLXXXII. A brother proposed a question to abbot Pœmen, saying: Abba, there were two men, one a monk, the other a layman. The monk in the evening resolved to cast off his habit the next morning; the layman determined to become a monk: and both died that night. What shall be reckoned to them? Below, in the treatise on Sisoes, number 38. The elder answered: The monk died

a monk, and the layman died a layman. For in that state in which they were found, they departed.

[29] CLXXXIII. Abbot John related: We once came from Syria to abbot Pœmen, wishing to question him about hardness of heart: but the elder did not know Greek, nor was an interpreter found. V. XVIII. 16, VII. XXIX. 1. And so, seeing us afflicted, he began to speak in the Greek tongue, and said: The nature of water is soft, but that of stone is hard: yet a vessel ^f which is hung above the stone bores it little by little with its dripping. So also the word of God is soft, but our heart hard; yet when a man has often heard the word of God, his heart is opened, that he may fear God.

CLXXXIV. Abbot Isaac came to abbot Pœmen; and seeing him put a little water upon his feet, since he had freedom of speech toward him, he said: How is it that some have used severity ^g, treating their body harshly? Lives of the Fathers, page 1000, number 4. And abbot Pœmen said to him: We have not been taught ^h to be slayers of the body, but of the passions.

CLXXXV. Again he said: These three things I cannot remove — food, clothing, sleep: yet in part we can remove them. L. John Geometres, Paradise 20.

CLXXXVI. A brother questioned abbot Pœmen in these words: I eat many vegetables. The elder said: It does not profit you: but eat your bread with few vegetables; and do not go to your father's house because of your needs.

CLXXXVII. They used to report of abbot Pœmen that, if elders sat before him and spoke of the elders, when they named abbot Sisoes he was wont to say: Let alone the things that concern abbot Sisoes: for his deeds cannot come within the measure of narration.

ANNOTATIONS.

read prosternere*

* These things are marvelous, and not to be imitated.