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Sayings of the Fathers (Systematic Collection, Latin)

tr. Chadwick, 1958; selections

17. Part 17: Of Charity

Abba Antony said: “Now I do not fear God, but I love him: for love casteth out fear.”¹

He also said: “From our neighbour are life and death. If we do good to our neighbour, we do good to God: if we cause our neighbour to stumble, we sin against Christ.”

Abba Ammon of Nitria came to Abba Antony, and said to him: “I see that I endure more than you: how is it that your reputation is great among men?” And Abba Antony said: “It is because I love God more than you do.”

Abba Hilarion once came from Palestine to Abba Antony on the mountain: and Abba Antony said to him: “Welcome, morning star, for you rise at break of day.” And Abba Hilarion said: “Peace to you, pillar of light, for you prop up the earth.”

Abba Mark said to Abba Arsenius: “Why do you run away from us?” The old man said: “God knows I love you. But I cannot be with God and with men. The countless hosts of angels have but a single will, while men have many wills. So I cannot let God go, and come and be with men.”

Abba Agatho said: “I never went to sleep intentionally while I kept a grudge against anyone. Nor did I let anyone go away to sleep while he had a grievance against me.”

Once when Abba John was going up from Scete with other monks, their guide missed his way in the night. The brothers said to Abba John: “What are we to do, Abba, to prevent ourselves dying in the desert, now that this brother has missed the way?” The old man said: “If we say anything to him, he will be grieved. Look, I will pretend I am worn out, and say I cannot walk, and will lie here till daylight.” And they did so. The others said: “We will not go on, but will stay with you here.” They stayed there until daybreak, so that they should not abuse the monk who had wrongly guided them.

Before Abba Poemen went to Egypt, there was an old man there with a great reputation. But when Abba Poemen came up from Scete with his monks the people left this old man in favour of Abba Poemen. The old man was jealous, and spoke ill of them. When Poemen heard this, he was sad, and said to his monks: “What shall we do for that old man? These people have made us suffer, by leaving that old man and visiting us who are nobody. How can we heal his mind?” And he said to them: “Make some supper, and take a little jug of wine: we will go and eat with him, perhaps we shall be able to heal his mind.” So they took the bread which they had made ready, and went to the old man’s cell.

When they knocked, his disciple answered the door, and said: “Who are you?” They said: “Tell the abba that it is Poemen, who wants to be blessed by you.” The disciple told the old man, who returned the message: “Go away, I am busy.” But they persevered and said: “We will not go away until we have got the old man’s blessing.” So seeing their perseverance and their humility, the old man was stricken with remorse, and opened the door to them. They entered, and supped with him. While they were having supper, the old man said: “Truly, I have heard less than the truth about you. I see that you do a hundredfold more than I was told.” And he became their friend from that moment.

Abba Poemen said: “Try, so far as you can, to do wrong to no man, and keep your heart chaste to every man.”

He also said: “There is nothing greater in love than that a man should lay down his life for his neighbour. When a man hears a complaining word and struggles against himself, and does not himself begin to complain; when a man bears an injury with patience, and does not look for revenge; that is when a man lays down his life for his neighbour.”

Abba Pambo happened once to be travelling in Egypt with some monks. He saw some men from the world sitting down, and said to them: “Stand up, and give a greeting, and kiss the monks that you may be blessed. For they often talk with God, and their mouths are holy.”

Abba Paphnutius is said to have drunk wine seldom. But once on a journey he happened upon a meeting-place of robbers, while they were drinking. The chief of the robber band recognized him and knew that he would not drink wine. He saw that he was tired out. So he filled a cup with wine, held a naked sword in his other hand, and said: “If you do not drink, I will kill you.” The old man knew that the robber chieftain was trying to obey the commandment of God: and in his desire to help him, he took the cup and drank.

Then the robber chieftain did penance before him, and said: “Forgive me, Abba, that I grieved you.” And the old man said to him: “I believe that because of this cup my God will have mercy upon you in this world and the next.” And the robber chieftain answered: “And I believe in God that henceforward I shall harm no one.” And the old man won over the whole band of robbers, because for God’s sake he let himself fall into their power.

Abba Hyperichius said: “Snatch your neighbour from his sins, so far as you can, and refrain from condemning him: for God does not reject those who turn to him. Let no word of wickedness towards your brother dwell in your heart, so that you can say: ‘Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.’”

Two monks were in Cellia. One of them was an old man, and asked the younger: “Let us stay together, my brother.” The other said: “I am a sinner, and cannot stay with you, Abba.” But he begged him: “Yes, we can stay together.” The old man had a clean heart, and the younger did not want him to know that he sometimes fell to lust. The monk then said: “Let me go away for a week, and we will talk about it again.” At the end of the week the old man came back, and the younger, wishing to test him, said: “I succumbed to a great temptation during this week, Abba. When I had gone to a village on an errand, I lay with a woman.” The old man said: “Are you penitent?” And the brother said: “Yes.” The old man said: “I will carry half the burden of the sin with you.” Then the brother said: “Now I know that we can stay together.” And they remained together till death parted them.

One of the fathers said: “If anyone asks you for something, and you give it to him; even if you are forced to give it, let your heart be in the gift: as it is written: ‘If a man forces you to go with him one mile, go with him two’:² it means, if you are asked for something, give it with a willing heart.”

A monk is said to have made baskets and put handles on them, when he heard another monk saying nearby: “What am I to do? The trader is soon coming, and I have no handles to put on my baskets.” So he took off the handles he had put on his own baskets, and took them to the nearby monk, saying: “I do not need these: take them and put them on your baskets.” And he allowed the brother to finish his baskets, but left his own unfinished.

They said that an old man in Scete, who was ill, wanted to eat a little new bread. One of the experienced monks heard of it: and he took his cloak, put stale bread into it, went to Egypt, changed the stale bread for new, and brought the new bread back to the old man. When the brothers saw the new bread, they were astonished. The old man did not want to eat it, and said: “It is the blood of this brother.” And the old men begged him, saying: “For God’s sake eat, so that his sacrifice is not vain.” And so he ate it.

A brother asked an old man: “There are two monks: one stays quietly in his cell, fasting for six days at a time, and laying many austerities upon himself: and the other ministers to the sick. Which of them is more acceptable to God?” The old man answered: “If the brother, who fasts six days, even hung himself up by his nostrils, he could never be the equal of him who ministers to the sick.”

An old man was asked: “How is it that some struggle away at their religious life, but do not receive grace like the old fathers?” The old man said: “Because then charity ruled, and each one drew his neighbour upward. Now charity is growing cold, and each of us draws his neighbour downward, and so we do not deserve grace.”

Three monks once went to harvest, and were given a big area to harvest. But the first day one of them fell sick, and returned to his cell. Of the two remaining, one said to the other: “Look, brother, our brother has fallen ill: you work as hard as you can, and I will do what little extra I can, and we will trust God that by our sick brother’s prayers we shall harvest his part of the field as well as finishing our own part.” So they harvested the whole area which they had been given, and went to receive their pay.

And they summoned their brother, saying: “Come, brother, take your money.” He said: “I have not harvested, so I have earned nothing.” They said to him: “We finished the harvest through your prayers: come and take your pay.” And there was fierce argument between them, the one saying: “I will not take it because I have not earned it,” the others refusing to accept their pay unless he would take his share. So they went off to a great old man, to accept his judgement. And the brother who had been sick said to him: “We three went to earn money by harvesting in a man’s field. When we came to the place, I fell ill on the first day and returned to my cell, and I could not harvest a single day with them. And now they are forcing me, saying: ‘Come, brother, take your pay for work you have not done.’”

But the other two said: “The truth is this. When we arrived at the field, we were given a big area to harvest. If there had been three of us, we might with the greatest difficulty have just finished the work. But by the prayers of this our brother, the pair of us harvested the field more quickly than three of us would have done. So we say to him: ‘Come, take your pay,’ and he will not.”

The old man marvelled to hear them, and said to one of his monks: “Ring the bell in the brothers’ cells to gather them here.” When they had assembled, he said to them: “Come, brothers, and hear today a just judgement.” And the old man told them the whole story, and decided that the brother should receive his pay, and do with it whatever he would. And the brother went away grieved and weeping like a man who has been sentenced.

An old man said: “Our fathers had the custom of visiting the cells of new brothers who wanted to lead a solitary life, to see if any of them was tempted by demons and had taken harm from his thoughts. And if they found anyone who had taken harm, they brought him to church. A basin was filled with water. Then, after they had all prayed for the one who was suffering under temptation, all the monks washed their hands in the basin: and then the water was poured upon the tempted brother, and he was at once cleansed.”

Two old men lived together for many years without a quarrel. One said to the other: “Let us have one quarrel with each other, as is the way of men.” And the other answered: “I do not know how a quarrel happens.” And the first said: “Look, I put a tile between us, and I say, That’s mine. Then you say, No, it’s mine. That is how you begin a quarrel.”

So they put a tile between them, and one of them said: “That’s mine.” And the other said: “No; it’s mine.” And he answered: “Yes, it is yours. Take it away.” And they went away unable to argue with each other.

A brother asked an old man: “If I see a monk of whom I have heard as guilty of a sin, I cannot persuade my soul to bring him into my cell. But if I see a good monk, I gladly bring him in.” And the old man said: “If you do good to a good brother, it is little to him. To the other, give twofold, for it is he who is sick.”

An old man said: “I never wanted a work to be useful to me while causing loss to my brother: for I have this hope, that what helps my brother will bring fruit to me.”

There was a brother who served one of the fathers. The old man’s body happened to be badly hurt, and evil-smelling pus flowed out of the wound. The serving brother thought to himself: “Get out of here. You cannot bear the smell of the gangrene.” To quell the thought, he took a bowl, washed the wound, and kept the water which he used: and whenever he was thirsty, he drank from it. But the thought began to trouble him again, saying to him: “If you will not go away, at least do not drink this pus.” The brother struggled away with endurance, and went on drinking the washing water. And God saw his charity as he ministered to the old man; and God turned the washing water into the purest water, and by some unseen means healed the old man.

* * * *

Part XVIII of the Sayings is of ecstasies and raptures and prophecies and wondrous visions: such as this:

A brother went to the cell of Abba Arsenius in Scete, and looked through the window, and saw him like fire from head to feet. (He was a brother worthy to see such sights.) And when he knocked, the old man came out, and saw the brother standing there in amazement, and said to him: “Have you been knocking long? Did you see anything?” And he answered: “No.” And after talking with him, Abba Arsenius sent him on his way.

In the middle of Part XVIII is the division, where it is believed that the deacon Pelagius ceased to translate, and the subdeacon John continued the work.

Part XIX is of the holy men who wrought signs: for example:

A demoniac once came to Scete. Prayer was made for him in the church, and his demon could not be cast out because it was a powerful demon. The clergy said to each other: “What shall we do to this demon? Nobody but Abba Bessarion can cast him out: and if we ask Abba Bessarion, he will not even come to the church. This is what we will do: he will come to the church at daybreak tomorrow before anyone else: and we will make the demoniac sit in Abba Bessarion’s seat. And when he comes in, we will stand in prayer, and say: ‘Abba, wake up that brother!’” And they did so. When the old man came at daybreak, they stood in prayer, and said: “Abba, wake up that brother!” And the old man said to the sufferer: “Get up and go outside”: and at once the demon went out of him, and he was made whole.

Part XX is of the holy life of various men, and contains a miscellany of stories, some of which might from their subject have been included under one of the existing headings. Here is one example (5):

Abba Sisois was once living alone on the mountain of Antony. His servant was slow in coming to him, and for ten months he did not see a single human being. But walking one day on the mountain, he found a tribesman herding beasts. The old man said to him: “Where have you come from, and how long have you been here?” He said: “Abba, I have been eleven months on this mountain, and you are the first person I have seen.” When he heard this, the old man went back to his cell, and struck himself, and said: “Look, Sisois, you thought you had done something: and you have not even done as much as that man from the world.”

And it contains one of the most celebrated of the Macarius stories (17):

Once when Abba Macarius was praying in his cell, he heard a voice which said: “Macarius, you have not yet reached the standard of two women in that city.” On his arrival, he found the house and knocked at the door. A woman opened it, and welcomed him to her house. He sat down, and called them to sit down with him. Then he said to them: “It is for you that I have taken this long journey. Tell me how you live a religious life.” They said: “Indeed, how can we lead a religious life? We were with our husbands last night.” But the old man persuaded them to tell him their way of life.

Then they said: “We are both foreigners, in the world’s eyes. But we accepted in marriage two brothers. Today we have been sharing this house for fifteen years. We do not know whether we have quarrelled or said rude words to each other; but the whole of this time we have lived peaceably together. We thought we would enter a convent, and asked our husbands for permission, but they refused it. So since we could not get this permission, we have made a covenant between ourselves and God that a worldly word shall not pass our lips during the rest of our lives.”

When Macarius heard it, he said: “Truly, it is not whether you are a virgin or a married woman, a monk or a man in the world: God gives his Holy Spirit to everyone, according to their earnestness of purpose.”

Part XXI is another miscellany; in some early manuscripts (MP) there is a Part XXII, of various final sayings (Sententiae Patrum), but in spite of Dom Wilmart’s judgement I do not think they formed part of the original translation.

The M manuscript gives at the end this prayer:

“Lord Jesus Christ, whose will all things obey: pardon what I have done and grant that I, a sinner, may sin no more. Lord, I believe that though I deserve it not, thou canst cleanse me from all my sins. Lord, I know that man looks upon the face, but thou seest into the heart. Send thy spirit into my inmost being, to take possession of my soul and my body. Without thee I cannot be saved. With thee to protect me I long for thy salvation. And now I ask thee for wisdom. Deign of thy great goodness to help and defend me. Guide my heart, Almighty God, that I may remember thy presence day and night.”

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