The Sayings of the DESERT FATHERS
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The Alphabetical Collection Translated, with a foreword by Benedicta Ward, SLG Preface by Metropolitan Anthony The fourth-century ascetic flight to the desert indelibly marked Christianity. The faithful who did not embrace the austerity of the desert admired those who did and sought them out for counsel and consolation. The 'words' the monks gave were collected and passed around among those too far away or too feeble to make the trek themselves - or lived generations later. Previously available only in fragments, these Sayings of the Desert Fathers are now accessible in its entirety in English for the first time. 'We have a great deal to learn from their integrity and their unrelenting courage, from their vision of God - so holy, so great, possessed of such a love, that nothing less than one's whole being could respond to it,' wrote Archbishop Anthony of Sourzah in the preface. 'If we wish to understand the sayings of the Fathers, let us approach them with veneration, silencing our judgements and our own thoughts in order to meet them on their own ground and perhaps to partake ultimately - if we prove to emulate their earnestness in the search, their ruthless determination, their infinite compassion - in their own silent communion with God.' Benedicta Ward graduated from Manchester University with a degree in history and received a D. Phil, from Oxford University. Among her many books and articles are Miracles and the Medieval Mind, the Prayers and Meditations of Saint Anselm, and two companion volumes to the present work: The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers, a translation of the shorter Anonymous Series of apophthegmata, and The Harlots of the Desert, a translation of the lives of penitents and study of contrition in the early Church. A member of the Anglican religious community of the Sisters of the Love of God, she lectures and does research at Oxford. CISTERCIAN PUBLICATIONS Kalamazoo, Michigan DESERT SPIRITUALITY Cover Illusion: Christ protecting Saint Menas. Courtesy of the Louvre, Paris. Cover Design by Tammy M. Kretsch Monastic Egypt The Sayings of the DESERT FATHERS THE ALPHABETICAL COLLECTION Translated, with a foreword by Benedicta Ward, SLG Preface by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh CISTERCIAN PUBLICATIONS Copyright © Sister Benedicta, 1975 Foreword copyright © The Sisters of the Love of God 1975 First published in 1975 by Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo and A. R. Mowbray, Oxford Number 59 in the Cistercian Studies Series Cistercian Publications Editorial Offices The Institute of Cistercian Studies Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008-5415 [email protected] The work of Cistercian Publications is made possible in part by support from Western Michigan University to The Institute of Cistercian Studies, ISBN (Mowbray) 0 264 66350 0 (Cistercian) 0 87907 959 2 Revised edition, 1984 Printed in the United States of America DEDICATED TO GILBERT SHULDHAM SHAW (1883-1967) MOTHER MARY CLARE, S.L.G. 'Quales ipsi extiterunt lime iustitiae sanctique dogtnatis praedictione plurimos tales efficerunt eorum doctrina bactenus rutilat ac refulget ecclesia ut sol et luna' (De Vita Masonae, xiv, 7) Contents Preface xiii Foreword xvii Prologue xxxv ALPHA Anthony the Great 1 Arsenius 9 Agathon 20 Amtnonas 25 Achilles 28 Ammoes 30 Amoun of Nitria 31 Anoub 32 Abraham 33 Ares 34 Alonius 35 Appby 35 viii] Contents Apollo 36 Andrew 37 Aio 37 Ammonathas 37 BETA Basil the Great 39 Bessarion 40 Benjamin 43 .Biare 44 GAMMA Gregory the Theologian 45 Gelasius 45 Gerontius 50 DELTA Daniel 51 Dioscorus 54 Doulas 55 EPSILON Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus 56 Ephrem 59 Eucharistus the Secular 60 Eulogius the Priest 60 Euprepius 61 Helladius 62 Evagrius 63 Eudemon 64 DZETA Zeno 65 Zacharias 67 ETA Isaiah 69 Elias 70 Heraclides 72 Contents [ix THETA Theodore of Pherme 73 Theodore of Enaton 79 Theodore of Scetis 79 Theodore of Eleutheropolis 79 Theonas 80 Theophilus the Archbishop 80 Theodora 82 IOTA John the Dwarf 85 John the Cenobite 96 Isidore the Priest 96 Isidore of Pelusia 98 Isaac, Priest of the Cells 99 Joseph of Panephysis 101 James 104 Hierax 104 John the Eunuch 105 John of the CELLS 105 John of the Thebaid 106 Isidore the Priest 106 John the Persian 107 John the Theban 109 John, disciple of Abba Paul 109 Isaac the Theban 109 Joseph of Thebes 110 Hilarion 111 Ischyrion 111 CAPPA Cassian 112 Cronius 115 Carion 116 Copres 118 Cyrus 118 x] Contents LAMBDA Lucius 120 Lot 121 Longinus 122 MU Macarius the Great 124 Moses 138 Matoes 143 Mark, disciple of Abba Silvanus 145 Milesius 147 Motius 148 Megethius 149 Mius 150 Mark the Egyptian 150 Macarius of Alexandria 151 NU Nilus 153 Nisterus 154 Nisterus the Cenobite 155 Nicon 156 Netras 156 Nicetas 157 XI Xoius 158 Xanthias 159 OMICRON Olympius 160 Orsisius 161 PI Poemen (called the Shepherd) 163 Pambo 195 Pistus 198 Pior 199 Contents [xi Pityrion 200 Pistamon 200 Peter the Pionite 200 Paphnutius 202 Paul 204 Paul the Barber 204 Paul the Great 204 Paul the Simple 205 Peter of Dios 207 RHO An Abba of Rome 208 Rufus 210 Romanus 211 SIGMA Sisoes 212 Silvanus 222 Simon 224 Sopatrus 225 Sarmatas 225 Serapion 226 Serinus 228 Spyridon 228 Saius 229 Sarah 229 Syncletica 230 TAU Tithoes 236 Timothy 237 UPSILON Hyperechius 238 PHI Phocas 240 Felix 242 xii] Contents Philagrius 242 Pbortas 243 CHI Chomas 244 Chaeremon 244 PSI Psenthaisius 245 - OMEGA Or 246 Glossary 240 Chronological Table for Early Egyptian Monasticism 251 Select Bibliography 254 General Index 259 Index of People and Places 265 Preface The Sayings of the Desert Fathers has been for centuries an inspiration to those Christians who strove for an uncom promising obedience to the word and to the spirit of the Gospel; yet the modern reader, used to an intellectual, dis cursive way of exposition and also to greater emotional effu sions in mystical literature may find this direct challenge difficult to face and even more difficult to assimilate and to apply to everyday life. This prompts me to give here a few explanations and to try to bring out some of the features which seem to me essential in the attitude to life of these giants of the spirit. The first thing that strikes a reader is the insistence in the stress laid on the ascetic endeavour. Modern man seeks mainly for 'experience' - putting himself at the centre of things he wishes to make them subservient to this aim; too often, even God becomes the source from which the highest [xiii] xiv] Preface experience flows, instead of being Him Whom we adore, worship, and are prepared to serve, whatever the cost to us. Such an attitude was unknown to the Desert, moreover, the Desert repudiated it as sacrilegious: the experiential knowl edge which God in His infinite Love and condescension gives to those who seek Him with their whole heart is always a gift; its essential, abiding quality is its gratuity: it is an act of Divine Love and cannot therefore be deserved. The first Beatitude stands at the threshold of the Kingdom of God: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God' - blessed are those who have understood that they are nothing in themselves, possess nothing which they dare call 'their own'. If they are 'something' it is because they are loved of God and because they know for certain that their worth in God's eyes can be measured by the humiliation of the Son of God, His life, the Agony of the Garden, the dere liction of the Cross - the Blood of Christ. To be, to be pos sessed of the gift of life and to be granted all that makes its richness means to be loved by God; and those who know this, free from any delusion that they can exist or possess apart from this mystery of love have entered into the Kingdom of God which is the Kingdom of Love. What then shall be their response to this generous, self-effacing, sacri ficial Love? An endeavour to respond to love for love, as there is no other way of acknowledging love. And this response is the ascetic endeavour, which can be summed up in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ: 'Renounce yourself, take up your Cross and follow Me'. To recognize one's own nonentity and discover the secret of the Kingdom is not enough: the King of Love must be enthroned in our mind and heart, take undivided possession of our will and make of our very bodies the Temples of the Holy Ghost. This small particle of the Cosmos, which is our soul and body must be conquered, freed by a lifelong struggle from enslavement to the world and to the devil, freed as if it were an occupied country and restored to its legitimate King. 'Render unto Cesar that which is Cesar's and to God that which is God's': the coins of the earthly kings bear their mark, Man bears the imprint of God's Image. He belongs to Him solely and Preface [xv totally; and nothing, no effort, no sacrifice is too great to render to God what is His. This is the very basis of an ascetic understanding of life. Yet many will be surprised by the insistence of the Sayings on what seem to be incredible feats of physical endurance. Are these at the centre of a spiritual life? Why not tell us more about the secret, inner life of these men and women? Because the life of the Spirit cannot be conveyed, except in images and analogies which are deceptive: those who know do not need them, and those who do not know are only led by them to partake imaginatively, but not really, in a world which to many is still out of reach.