Achilleus

ON ST. ACHILLEUS, CONFESSOR.

Achilleus, Confessor (Saint)

From various sources.

[1] The Greek Menaea and Maximus of Cythera on this day: St. Achilleus rests in peace. The Menaea add this distich: The feast of St. Achilleus.

Achilles with arms laid waste the terrestrial (that is, the lower) cities: Achilleus with labors enriches the supernal city.

Raderus considers this to be the same as Achillius, or Achilleas, Metropolitan of Larissa, who is recorded in the same Menaea and Menologium on the 15th of May. To us it seems rather that this is the one who is frequently praised in the Lives of the Fathers as Achillas, or Achilles, or Achilleus the Abbot, and is not recorded anywhere in any Martyrology that we have seen. Concerning him, therefore, Rufinus, or whoever is the author of book 3 of the Lives of the Fathers, numbers 9 and 107, narrates the following.

[2] When one of the Fathers had come to Abbot Achillas, he saw him spitting blood, and asked what this was. He generously restrains vengeance. And he answered: It was a word of a brother that had saddened me, and I struggled not to utter it, but asked the Lord to take it from me; and that word became blood in my mouth, and after I spat it out, I found rest; indeed I forgot even the sadness and the word itself. The same is reported in book 5, booklet 4, on continence, number 9.

[3] Another brother asked Abbot Achillas, saying: Why, sitting in my cell, do I suffer from listlessness? To whom the old man said: Because you have not yet seen the rest He suggests a remedy against listlessness. which we hope for, my son, nor the torments which we fear. For if you diligently considered these, even if your cell were full of worms up to your neck, you would nevertheless lie among them remaining without listlessness. The same is found under the title of an unknown in book 5, booklet 7, number 28.

[4] In book 5, booklet 10, number 14, his remarkable discretion is thus described: Three old men once came to Abbot Achilleus, and one of them had a bad reputation. One of the old men said to him: Abba, make me a fishing net. And he said: I will not make it. He takes care not to sadden a brother. And another said to him: Make one for us, so that we may have a memorial of you in our monastery. And he answered: I have no time. The third, the one who had the bad reputation, said: Make me a net, so that I may have a blessing from your hands, Abba. And he immediately answered him: I will make one for you. Then the two former ones, to whom he had not agreed, said to him privately: How is it that when we asked, you would not make one, and to this one you said: I will make one for you? The old man answered them: To you I said: I will not, because I have no time, and you will not be saddened; but to this one, if I did not make it, he would say: The old man heard about my reputation, which is bad, and therefore he would not make the net; and immediately we were cutting cord to calm his spirit, lest he be swallowed up by sadness of this kind.

[5] Lastly, in book 7, chapter 25, number 4, an excellent apophthegm of his on the assault of the demons is reported: A certain brother asked Abbot Achilleus: Evil will, the handle of the devil's axe. How do the demons have power against us? The old man answered: Through our own wills. And he added, saying: The timbers of Lebanon said: How great and tall we are, and we are cut down by the smallest iron tool; therefore let us give it nothing of ourselves, and it will not be able to cut us. Then men came and made a handle for the axe from those very timbers, and thus cut them down. The timbers, therefore, are our souls; the axe is the devil; the handle is our will. Through our evil wills, therefore, we are cut down.