Sayings and Stories of Abba Agathon from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (Apophthegmata Patrum) with a Refection and Commentary 1

Finding and Giving: Sayings and Stories of Abba Agathon from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (Apophthegmata Patrum) with a Refection and Commentary 1

Tim Vivian

In Memoriam John Wortley, 1934–2019

Introduction: Abba Agathon

Abba Agathon (4th–5th c.) does not have even a cameo role in Hugh G. Evelyn White’s monumental and magisterial study of the early Chris- tian monks of Egypt,2 William Harmless’s Desert Christians,3 or Adal- bert de Vogé’s Histoire littéraire du movement monastique.4 He does not

1. Te sayings, stories, and notes here will appear as part of my translation of the Greek alphabetical Apophthegmata Patrum [AlphAP], with commentary and notes, Te Sayings and Stories of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, vol. 1 (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications, 2021). 2. Hugh G. Evelyn White, ed. Walter Hauser, Te Monasteries of the Wâdi ’N Natrn, Part II, Te History of the Monasteries of Nitria and of Scetis (New York: Te Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition, 1932), https://suciualin.fles.wordpress.com/2011/09/evelyn-white_monaster- ies-of-wadi-natrun.pdf. 3. William Harmless, Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004). 4. Adalbert de Vogé, Histoire littéraire du movement monastique dans l’antiquité, Première Partie: Le Monachisme Latine de la mort d’Antoine à la fn de séjour de Jérme à Rome (356–385), Patrimoines christianisme (Paris: Cerf, 1991). Cistercian Studies Quarterly 55.3 (2020) 25 tim vivian appear in Te Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity,5 Encyclopedia of the Early Church,6 Encyclopedia of Early Christianity,7 or Te Oxford Dic- tionary of the Christian Church,8 nor does Jean-Claude Guy list him in the “three generations” of his “Prosopography of the Monks of Scetis” or “Te Heirs.”9 Agathon gets two paragraphs in the Coptic Encyclope- dia.10 In works from late antiquity, he does not appear in stalwarts such as Palladius’s Lausiac History11 or Te Lives of the Desert Fathers (Historia Monachorum in Aegypto).12 What we have of Agathon, then, is a sketch, composed almost com- pletely from the surviving sayings and stories concerning him, rather than a fnished painting or a hagiographical portrait. Complicating matters, as Lucien Regnault points out, it is not certain whether we have one Agathon, or several.13 Derwas Chitty notes that the various sayings seem to place him in a variety of places.14 Sayings 6 and 7 suggest that Agathon was in fact peripatetic. It’s best to place him with other monastic worthies of the mid-5th century.15 Saying 1 puts him in the com- pany of Macarius the Great. He may have had connections with another eminent monk, Abba Poemen—if it is the same Agathon; Saying 61 in the collection attributed to Poemen in the alphabetical Apophthegmata

5. Oliver Nicholson, ed., Te Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford UP, 201 ). 6. Angelo Di Berardino, ed., Encyclopedia of the Early Church, 2 vols. (New York: Oxford UP, 1992). 7. Everett Ferguson, ed., Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (New York & London: Garland, 1990). . F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone, eds Te Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford UP, 19 3). 9. Jean Claude Guy, ed., Les Apophtegmes des Pères: Collection Systématique [hereafer SysAP], 3 vols., SCh 3 7, 474, 49 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 2013), I.46–79. Citations of the SysAP are by chapter and saying number (XV.57) and volume and page number(s) (3.322). 10. Lucien Regnault, “Agathon, Saint,” Coptic Encyclopedia, ed. Aziz S. Atiya (New York: Mac- millan, 1991), 64b–65a, Te Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia, http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/ cdm/singleitem/collection/cce/id/79/rec/1. 11. Palladius of Aspuma, Te Lausiac History, trans. John Wortley, CS 252 (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian, 2015). 12. Te Lives of the Desert Fathers, trans. Norman Russell (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 19 1). 13. Regnault, “Agathon, Saint.” 14. Derwas Chitty, Te Desert a City (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1966) 7 n. 64: Scetis, Troë, and the Tebaid. 15. See Abba Isaiah of Scetis: Ascetic Discourses, trans. John Chryssavgis and Pachomios (Rob- ert) Penkett, CS 150 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 2002) 30–31. sayings and stories of abba agathon 259 ofers a delightful story about both an apparently precocious Agathon and monastic envy:

Abba Joseph told this story: While we were sitting with Abba Poemen, he called Agathon “Abba Agathon.”16 So I said to Abba Poemen, “He’s young. Why are you calling him ‘abba’?” Abba Poemen said, “Because his mouth has given him the right to be called ‘abba.’”17

Douglas Burton-Christie’s comment is apposite here: “In spite of his young age, Agathon’s mouth—his words and teaching—were pure and authoritative and gave him the right to be called ‘abba.’”18 But is Poemen saying that the young Agathon is refective and speaks wisely, or is he saying that the young man keeps silent? Both are prized monastic virtues, spiritual values. Appropriately, then, two important modern studies devoted to the spirituality of early Christian monasticism do discuss Agathon: Antony D. Rich, Discernment in the Desert Fathers,19 and Burton-Christie, Te Word in the Desert. In the systematic collection of the Apophthegmata Patrum, sayings by and stories about Abba Agathon appear in chapters on Self-Control (4), Spiri- tual Poverty (6), Patience and Courage (7), Discernment (10), Watch- fulness (11), Praying Continually (12), and Love (17). Six of the ffeen sayings in the systematic collection are in Chapter X, Discernment. As John Wortley emphasizes, “Above all,” the sayings show “his exemplary charity, his spiritual discretion [discernment], and his extraordinary sense of true values.”20

16. He called Agathon “Abba Agathon,” or Poemen “named him ‘Abba Agathon.’” 17. SysAP XV.57 (3.322). Te SysAP places Poemen 61 in the chapter on “Humility,” thus em- phasizing not Agathon but the need for humility of Joseph and others. Te fact that Joseph then later told this story on himself shows that he learned the lesson. 1 . Douglas Burton-Christie, Te Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism (New York & Oxford: Oxford UP, 1993) 110. 19. Anthony D. Rich, Discernment in the Desert Fathers: Διáκρισις in the Life and Tought of Early Egyptian Monasticism, Studies in Christian Teology and Tought (Waynesboro, GA: Pater- noster, 2007). 20. Give Me a Word: Te Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers, trans. John Wortley, Popu- lar Patristics Series (Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s, 2014) 53. On discernment, see n. 54 below. 260 tim vivian A Reflection: Finding and Giving

“Finders, keepers.” When I was eight or nine, living in Anchorage, Alaska, one cold winter’s morning my brother and I were walking to school with some friends. We found a $20 bill in a frozen puddle. Twenty dollars was a lot of money around 1960! Perhaps one of our group wondered aloud whom the bill belonged to. If so, someone else undoubtedly said “Finders, keepers!” And, just as surely, someone chortled “Losers, weepers!” Tis childish aphorism is now, I ofen think, the motto of many in the United States. A corollary to this mantra is what Templeton the rat says (indelibly voiced by the comedian Paul Lynde in the 1973 movie Charlotte’s Web): “What’s in it for me?” Motto and mantra remind me, perhaps surprisingly, that the sayings of the desert fathers and mothers (Apophthegmata Patrum) from fourth- to sixth-century Egypt and Pal- estine still have a great deal to ofer, teach, and correct. With the sayings of Abba Agathon translated below, in this refection I wish to focus on two very much related—and very relevant—themes: simplicity and open-heartedness.

Simplicity: Probe the Earth

I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial afairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day . . . . When the mathematician would solve a difcult problem, he frst frees the equation of all encumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run. —Henry David Toreau, Letter to H. G. O. Blake, March 27, 1 4 21

Thoreau (1 17–1 62), the semi-anchorite and prophet of Walden Pond, like the ammas and abbas of the desert, speaks to us still: “Our life is frit- tered away by detail . . . . Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your afairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-

21. https://www.walden.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/0 /LettersBlake.pdf. sayings and stories of abba agathon 261 n ai l .” 22 With the monks’ love of metaphor for pedagogy, a desert mother or father could easily have used Toreau’s metaphor of a thumbnail. Te desert monastics wanted to simplify life’s daily concerns, especially as manifested in their thoughts, in order to focus their energy on God. Like the early monks, Toreau saw the sacred within; a panentheist, he found God frst in nature, but he learned to see God in his fellow human beings, especially, as with Agathon, in those in need. Below, Agathon speaks of “safeguarding the interior spiritual life” (Agathon ). Spiritual discernment is central to the early monks’ spirituality (see Agathon 5). Tese early monks can help us also make, or remake, discernment a key to our lives. Step 10 of Alcoholics Anonymous asks persons to make a “personal inventory”: “examine yourself as part of your daily routine.”23 A fourth- century monk could easily have said this. For this refection, I am reading the thirty sayings and stories concerning Abba Agathon as a unit with signs of an editorial hand, rather than as a jumble of disparate apophthegms. Whoever in late antiquity edited the sayings translated below placed simplicity and discernment at the beginning: Agathon likens indiscriminate talk to a scorching fre that consumes trees and their fruit (Agathon 1). A nice metaphor, one designed to get us thinking. In Agathon the elder ofers a midrash, as it were, on his earlier monastic “scripture” in Agathon 1. Deepening the simile, he thus asks for deeper refection: the “protective shade and beauty” that a tree’s leaves ofer is “manual labor,” while the monk’s “diligence and zeal is for the fruit, that is, safeguarding the mind.” Tus, simplicity and discernment are twins, fraternal certainly, and perhaps identical. As the conclusion of Saying 1, a story-within-a-story, in response to a query, Agathon makes simplicity a metaphor of a monk who “spent all his time in his cell.” Tis brother’s “cell had a small side- bedroom. He said, ‘I could leave my cell and not [even] know about this small bedroom, if someone else hadn’t told me about it.’” Te original monastic audience experienced the abba’s statement emphatically: it’s not just anyone who has asked Agathon a question, it’s Macarius, sur-

22. Toreau, Walden and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience; Walden, Chapter 2, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/fles/205/205-h/205-h. htm#linkW2. An excellent recent biography is Laura Dassow Wells, Henry David Toreau: A Life (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2017). 23. AA Big Book, 59, https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/alcoholics-anonymous. 262 tim vivian named “the Great,” one of the most eminent of the early monastics. Ag- athon’s response to Macarius implicitly ranks him with Macarius himself. Te theme in Mary Oliver’s poem “Storage” could be one that Ag- athon or a fellow amma or abba taught long ago. Here is the conclusion:

I felt like the little donkey when his burden is fnally lifed. Tings! Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful fre! More room in your heart for love, for the trees! For the birds who own nothing—the reason they can fy.24

Some 1500 years before the poet, the systematic Apophthegmata de- votes chapter six to aktēmosnē, “poverty,” literally “not acquiring/pos- sessing.” As Oliver aspires to, Abba Agathon holds nothing—and, therefore, everything—in his hand: “they said about him that ofentimes he moved from one place to another having only his knife in his basket” (Agathon 7). Is this totally unrealistic? An improbable ideal? But Jews and early Christians held such improbable ideals as the seven- and ffy- year Jubilees in the Hebrew Bible and the early communism of the frst Christians in Acts.25 One wonders how many of the early monks did what Agathon does. Abba Joseph tells us that this is the way Agathon defnes—acts out— love: “he told them about Abba Agathon, that he had a knife: ‘A brother came to see him and praised the knife, and Abba Agathon wouldn’t let him leave unless he took the knife with him.’” Jesus is standing in that cell, next to Agathon: “So, therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”26 Such simplicity, monastic kenosis, “self-emptying,” like Christ’s, is preparation, training (ascesis): empty, or as empty as possible, of the devices and desires of the ego, the monk Agathon can give unreservedly to others.27 Perhaps monastic

24. Mary Oliver, “Storage,” http://asimplelifeafoat.blogspot.com/2016/07/storage-mary-oliver.html; Mary Oliver, Devotions: Te Selected Poems of Mary Oliver (New York: Penguin Press, 2017) 7. See Mt 6:26–27. 25. Lv 25:1–17 and Ac 2:43–47, respectively. 26. Mt 19:21. 27. “Kenosis” (noun) derives from the cognate verb Paul uses, uniquely in the NT, in Ph 2:5–7 sayings and stories of abba agathon 263 kenosis ofers an ascetic midrash on Jesus’ incisive statement: love God and, in doing so, love your neighbor even more than yourself.28

Finders, Givers: the Tools of the Soul

The sayings of and stories about Abba Agathon reinforce, and deep- en, the virtue of simplicity by moving from giving up to giving to, as the story above about the knife illustrates. Te Romantic poet William Wordsworth is kin to Agathon: “Te world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.”29 If keeping—getting and spending—is about the self, then giving is about self- lessness. Te sayings and stories do this lexically and thematically with the verb “to fnd.” Tis verb occurs in fve of the thirty sayings, twice negatively and three times positively. I wonder whether the editor of Agathon’s sayings deliberately put the negative frst (Agathon 11 and 12) to give us bad examples of fnding and keeping and then the positive second (Agathon 26, 27, and 30), fnding and giving; if so, the editor of- fers the reader or listener a holy example of emulation: See, here’s what you don’t do. Now, more importantly here’s what you do do. Seek, and you will fnd; fnding, give. Agathon 11 and 12 embody, with a disciple and a brother, both simplicity and its opposite: selfshness, or at least acquisitiveness. Tat the monks in these sayings are not, apparently, consciously selfsh makes the stories even more striking: the unconscious need to have and hold-on-to can cause grasping that becomes unthinking habit. In Agathon 11, while walking with the abba a disciple fnds a plant by the side of the road. He asks, “Father, do you want me to take it?” Agathon’s response with a won- derful rhetorical question is telling: “Te elder looked at him, astonished, and said, ‘Did you put it there?’” When the disciple (ashamed? bewil- dered? worried?) responds “No,” Agathon replies, “Why, then, do you

(possibly an early hymn antedating Paul): “Christ Jesus . . . though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself [ekénōsen] .” 2 . See Mt 19:19; Mk 12:31; Lk 10:27. 29. Wordsworth, “Te World is Too Much with Us,” Te Poetry Foundation, https://www. poetryfoundation.org/poems/45564/the-world-is-too-much-with-us. Wordsworth uses a key word: “power.” Dnamis is an important term in the NT and early monastic writings. 264 tim vivian want to take something that you didn’t put there?” Saying 12 intensifes the point of 11: a brother is coming to see Abba Agathon to ask if he can live with him (as a disciple). Along the way, he picks up a piece of natron he fnds and takes it with him. When the elder sees it, “he sent him to take it back where he had found it.” Once again, a story surprises—undoubtedly the original intention. But Saying 26 moves from initial surprise to shock: “Abba Agathon used to say, ‘If it were possible for me to fnd a leper, give him my body, and take his, I would gladly do so: this is real love [agápē].’” Within the narrative chronology of the sayings, Agathon later fnds another leper (30). Te staging of these stories ofen calls for the backdrop of a city, “the world” in Biblical and monastic vocabulary: Agathon goes to the city to sell some of his handiwork. A striking feature of the Apophthegmata is how ofen the ammas and abbas fnd wisdom not solely in their cells or communities but rather in the world they have fed from. A story about Antony tells it succinctly: “To Abba Antony it was revealed in the desert: In the city there is a certain person like you, a doctor by profession, who gives his excess income to those in need, and every day he sings the Tri- sagion with the angels.”30 While walking into such a city, Agathon sees a man “cast out into the street, sick and weak, and no one paid any attention to him” (27). “Cast out” here is a participial form of (h)ríptō, “cast, throw, hurl.” In Ag- athon 21, the elder alludes to Psalm 54:23 (LXX), “cast your care upon the Lord, and he will support you,” where “cast” is an imperative of (h)ríptō. Burton-Christie observes that such monastic casting “was a fundamental expression of the freedom from care so cherished by the desert fathers.”31 Abba Poemen exegetes, and signifcantly expands, the Psalm: “To cast [t (h)rípsai < (h)ríptō] yourself before God”; then Poemen continues: “to not think highly of yourself, and to toss behind you your own will—these are the tools of the soul.”32 In helping the city “cast of,” Agathon does all of these. But the focus is not really on Agathon but the topographical and sociological context: in stark contrast, by casting the sick person out into the street, and then

30. AlphAP Antony 24. 31. Burton-Christie 223. 32. SysAP XV.50 (Guy 2.320); AlphAP Poemen 36. sayings and stories of abba agathon 265 ignoring him, the people of the city have, in the view of Abba Poemen, cast themselves away from God. Tis story has become soteriological. To those brave enough to practice spiritual discernment and acting out compassion, this pericope about Agathon and the city-dwellers, as with Biblical verses about idolatry, wealth, and compassion for those in need, asks whom they cast of, thus concomitantly casting themselves away from God. Stage directions in the Agathon collection have him visiting “the city” several times, where spiritual one-act plays take place. In the Greek Life of Antony, its author, the cosmopolitan Archbishop Athanasius of Alexandria, declares that “the desert was made a city by the monks.” Te Coptic version casts of the archbishop’s analogy: “the desert was flled with monks.”33 In many early monastic stories the city has become the desert, that is, the place for monks. In this metaphorical desert, in Saying 21, Agathon stays with the sick man, rents the two of them a place, and spends all the money he makes on him: “He stayed there four months, until the sick man got well. And this way the elder went back home to his cell in peace.” And this way the elder went back home to his cell, in peace. Nothing in his pocket but the soul’s treasury heaped to the ceiling with gold. Again, I like to think that the editor of these sayings and stories had a plan in mind, moving from simplicity to compassion and empathy, self- lessness, and (self-)giving as the exemplars of true love, and peace. In the fnal story of the collection the elder is again going to the city to sell his wares, “and he found a leper by the side of the road.” As the Bible painfully shows, lepers in late antiquity were ostracized as unclean—and feared.34 With “treating someone like a leper,” English metaphorically re- tains this abhorrence. Whether intentional or not, the word for “leper” in the fnale of Agathon’s sayings is diferent from the earlier use. “Leper” here in Greek is lelōbēménos, “maimed, mutilated,” a term particularly used of lepers.35 Te more things change: the homeless are, for many, unclean; many

33. Life of Antony 14.7; Athanasius of Alexandria, Te Life of Antony: Te Coptic and the Greek Life, trans. Tim Vivian and Apostolos N. Athanassakis, CS 202 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 2003) 92–93. 34. Lv 17; Lk 17:11–13. 35. Te verb lobáō in the passive voice, as with its passive participle here, lelōbēménos, means “mutilated, damaged.” See Franco Montanari, ed., English edition ed. Madeleine Goh and Chad 266 tim vivian now also translate “immigrants” and “refugees” as “rapists” and “mur- derers,” those “infesting” the country. But Agathon, who fnds and gives, picks the leper up and carries him into the city.36 Now, at the end of the collection, the dramatizing of Agathon’s goodness intensifes. Te leper, seemingly unlike the sick person in Agathon 27, is importunate, even pushy. Tose who care for the homeless today ofen see this same, under- standable, behavior. When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing, and plenty, to lose. Te text doesn’t say that the leper tests Agathon’s patience, but he sure tested mine—and that’s the point. Te narrative doesn’t depict Agathon mumbling to himself “You in- grate”—or worse. And that’s again the point. And, at this juncture, a person reading the text spiritually asks: “How am I mutilated?” At the end of the story Agathon has entertained an angel unawares.37 A modern may smile at this monastic pas de deux, or deus ex machina, but, if so, he or she will miss the point: the leper twice asks this man of God to “do an act of love.” “Act of love” translates agápē, “love.” So the story has moved from an abstract noun, “love,” to a noun—and practice—of love. In Saying 29b, before dying “with joy,” Agathon tells his disciples, “Keep doing acts of love.” A last will and testament of love as action. Trough 1 Corinthians 13, Paul has made the virtues of love famous, and necessary for the Chris- tian. But love, agápē, is multivalent: in early Christianity it also means a “fellowship-meal” or “love-feast,” a meal with a Eucharist.38 In the sayings here it also means “an act of love” (or, as other translations render it, “an act of charity”).39 Again I want to think, admiringly, that our editor, instead of put- ting Agathon’s death last, as a reader might expect, positions the elder’s commandment to do acts of love as a prelude to the leper asking Ag- athon to in fact carry out such loving, and selfess, acts—without whin- ing and complaining. Perhaps this is generic monastic self-efacement,

Schroeder, Te Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek (Leiden: Brill, 2015) 1263c–64a. Te word does not occur in the NT. 36. Te verb translated as “carried” is the verb in the NT for Jesus carrying his cross; see Mt 27:31–3; Mk 15:20–22; Lk 23:26–32. It is likely that at least some monastic readers or listeners would have made the connection, or had an exegete make it for them. 37. Heb 13:2 (KJV). 3 . 1 Cor 11:17–22. 39. For further material, see Burton-Christie, “Te Commandment of Love,” Chapter 9 of Te Word in the Desert 361–91, fttingly the fnal chapter in the book, and SysAP XVII (Guy 3.12–37). sayings and stories of abba agathon 267 but if we take this collection as a thought-out whole instead of random bricolage, what about Agathon 17, where the saint pointedly declares, “I have never done an act of love”? Once again, surprise—and with the thirty sayings synoptic, even shock. But . . . is it giving the editor too much credit to see Saying 17 as a prelude to—and defnition of—an act of love, and even love itself? Readers may enter Saying 17 thinking they now know what an act of love is: Agathon has demonstrated it. Afer his assertion, he continues, “No, giving and receiving was for me an act of love.” “Was” here may indicate that this saying, too, ofers a summary refection. I think the subtext of the text above ofers this translation: “No, giving and receiving was, in and of itself, always for me an act of love.” As the elder concludes, “As I see it, whatever benefts my brother is work that bears fruit.” So the sayings here begin with simplicity, which is Biblical and dominical, and end with love that, Biblically, bears fruit. Jesus appears in person, so to speak, rarely in the Apophthegmata. But a too-simple conclusion from this “absence” would be very misleading. Jesus has now lef Agathon’s cell and is sitting with the gathered community as the monks quietly pray aloud the Scriptures or discuss them with their fellow ammas and abbas, or share their discernment of thoughts. “Bearing fruit” is quiet here; it doesn’t hold up a sign saying “Look at me!” It is quiet, but it contains multitudes. Karpophoréō (verb), “to bear fruit,” occurs seven times in the New Testament.40 But for Paul, fruit-bearing is christological and soteriological: Christ “has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for G o d .” 41 In the explanation of the parable of the sower, in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says that the person “who hears the word,” and sows it in good soil, “bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”42 Fifeen hundred years ago Agathon and the other monastics, though living in the desert, ofen sowed seed on good soil. In Luke :15 Jesus likens some people to seed falling on good soil; he could be describing Abba Agathon (whose name derives from ag-

40. To my surprise, it occurs only fve times in the systematic Apophthegmata; Guy, “Index des mots grecs” 3.351. 41. Rm 7:4. 42. Mt 13:1–9, 1 –23//Mk 4: , 20; see Gen 16:12. 26 tim vivian aths, “good”): “But as for [the seed sown] in good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.” Not all of the plants that the ammas and abbas of the desert planted and nurtured are still bearing good fruit for us. As gardeners say, “You compost your failures.” But, contrary to our expectations, many of the plants and trees the monks planted still bear good fruit. An image for such long-lived planting is the olive tree. In early 2020 while in southern Italy, I saw olive trees that were one or even two hundred years old. As they age, the branch at the trunk subdivides to bear even more fruit. Mo- nastic good fruit can still nourish and strengthen us. It can even change our (spiritual) diet.

Concerning Abba Agathon

1. [10 ; X.11]43 Abba Peter, the disciple of Abba Lot, said: “I was in Abba Agathon’s cell once and [109] a brother came to see him one time and said, ‘I want to live with the brothers. Tell me, what do I need to do in order to live with them?’ “Te elder said, ‘Just as you were a stranger the frst day you joined them, see that you remain a stranger all the days of your life so you don’t go around talking with everyone.’44

43. Te frst number in brackets here indicates the page number in AlphAP. For other translations, see Benedicta Ward, Te Sayings of the Desert Fathers: Te Alphabetical Collection, CS 59 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 19 5), and John Wortley, trans., Give Me a Word: Te Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Popular Patristics Series (Yonkers, New York: St Vladimir’s, 2014). Te second number above indicates the chapter and number in SysAP; a recent translation is John Wortley, Te Book of the Elders: Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Te Systematic Collection, CS 240 (Collegeville, MN: Cistercian, 2012). 44. "go around talking with everyone," parrēsiázomai (verb) cognate with parrēsía (noun). In the NT, these words are positive: “a use of speech that conceals nothing and passes over nothing, outspokenness, frankness, plainness”; “a state of boldness and confdence, courage, fearlessness”; see Walter Bauer, ed., Frederick William Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 2rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979) 7 1ab. Paul uses the term ofen: 2 Cor 3:12; 7:4; Ph 1:20; Phm ; and in the Pauline or deutero-Pauline Eph 3:12; 6:19. Burton-Christie 110, says that “freedom of speech [parrēsía] . . . characterized the elders of the desert and the authority their words enjoyed.” But the verb, parrēsiázomai, can mean that a person is too confdent: “be over-confdent, presume”; see W. G. H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon, 1961) 1046a (https://archive.org/details/LampePatristicLexicon/mode/2up). Given the context of the story, that is the way I am taking it here. It is striking, then, that such a valued monas- sayings and stories of abba agathon 269 “Abba Macarius said to Abba Agathon, ‘Why? What will talking freely with everyone do?’ “Te elder said to him, ‘It seems to me that talking freely like this is like a roaring fre: when the fre fares up, everyone runs away from its scorching heat45 as it consumes the trees and their fruit.’46 “Abba Macarius said to him, ‘So, talking freely to everyone is harmful, even evil?’ “Abba Agathon said, ‘Tere isn’t a single other passion more de- structive47 than going around talking to everyone; in fact, this gives birth to all of the passions.48 Te monk who is working at being a monk49 is not to talk his head of, even if he’s alone in his cell.50 I know for a fact that one brother spent all his time living in his cell. His cell had a small side-bedroom. He said, “I could have moved around in my cell and not known about this small bedroom, if someone else hadn’t told me about it.” Such a person is both a monk who works at being a monk and a warrior.’”51 2. [XI. ] Abba Agathon said: “Te monk must not allow his con- science to accuse himself about any matter whatsoever.” 3. He also said: “Without keeping52 the holy commandments, a person does not make progress, not even in a single virtue.” tic word is negative here, in the very frst saying. Te noun and verb occur 3 times in the systematic collection (Guy, “Index des mots grecs,” 3.403), and can be positive or negative (e.g. I.34, Guy 1.120). Te verb occurs fve times in this saying; I’ve used three diferent translations: “go around talking with everyone,” “talking freely with everyone,” and “talk his head of.” 45. heat: literally “face.” Te verb cognate with “fre” can mean “scorch, burn up.” 46. trees and fruit: see Agathon . 47. destructive, chaleps: earlier translated as “harmful, even evil.” Chaleps means both “harmful” and “evil,” so I have used both words. 4 . passions,páthos : Te “passions” (páthei) draw a person away from both God and neighbor; the image of a tractor hauling a person away is apposite because tractor derives from Latin traho, “to draw, drag.” Te New Testament generally diferentiates páthei from páthēma, “sufering” or “mis- fortune.” Lampe 170a, translates apátheia, the lack of harmful passions, as “impassibility”; another traditional translation is “passionlessness.” But these are formidable words. “Freedom from (harmful) emotion,” “absence of sin or sinful emotions.” 49. working at being a monk: literally “the worker.” 50. SysAP X.11 (Guy 2.20) ends here. 51. Early monastic cells ofen had two rooms: a small bedroom, and a larger room for prayer and visitors. So this monk, by ignoring the other room and living in the “prayer room,” spatially lived a life of prayer, praying without ceasing; see 1 T 5:17. 52. keeping, phylakḗ: in Agathon 1 “see that” translates the cognate verb, phylássō. Tese words are important in early monasticism and require more than a single English translation: “do, guard, protect, keep.” See Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, rev. Henry Stuart Jones, Greek- 270 tim vivian 4. [XVII. ] Again he said: “I never went to bed holding anything against anyone, nor, to the best of my ability, did I allow someone to go to bed holding anything against me.”53 5. [X.12] Tey used to say this about Abba Agathon, that some people, having heard about his great abilities of discernment,54 came to see him. Wanting to test him to see whether he would get angry, they said to him, “Are you Agathon? We hear that you sin sexually and are ar- rogant.” He said, “Yes, there you have it.” Ten they said, “Are you the Agathon who gossips and tells tales about people?”55 He said, “Tat’s me.” Yet again they said, “Are you Agathon the heretic?” He responded, “I am not a heretic!” So they pleaded with him, “Tell us why, when we said such terrible things about you, you just accepted them, but you wouldn’t stand for it when we asked whether you’re a heretic.” He said to them, “With regard to the frst charges, I fle charges against myself: it’s good for my soul. But as for being a heretic—that separates56 a person from God, and I do not want to be separated from God.” When they heard what he had said, they marveled at his power of discernment and so lef, edifed.57

English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon, 1977), 1961ab; http://www.perseus.tufs.edu/hopper/text?doc= Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3 Aalphabetic+letter %3D*a%3Aentry+group%3D261%3Aentry% 3Da%29polau%2Fw). In the NT, phylássō means both “watch, guard,” and “observe, follow” a commandment (so, here, “safeguarding the commandments”); a phlax is a “guard, watchman” (Bauer 106 ab). See nn. 72, 75, 129, and 134. 53. Epiphanius 4 in the alphabetical collection attributes this saying to Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis in Cyprus. See Cassian 4 for the same idea. See Eph 4:26. 54. discernment: diákrisis, discernment (of spirits), is very important in early monasticism; see n. 97. On discernment of thoughts (logismoí), see the Index in Rich. On “thought(s),” see nn. 62, 75, and 105. Te monastic locus classicus is Evagrius, Praktikos 6–14, where he discusses the eight kinds of evil thoughts (which became the seven deadly sins), and 15–39 where he ofers antidotes for them. Te discussion of the medicine there is almost twice as long as that for the disease(s). 55. tells tales about people: Lampe’s translation of katálos is nice: “scandal-monger” (710a). 56. separates: chōrisms can also mean “divorce” and even “excommunication” (Lampe 1539ab). 57. edifed: see the next note. Rich 136–37, has a good discussion of this saying, observing that Agathon denies being a heretic because of “his commitment to his ultimate goal of union with God,” while he accepts the other charges “without demur” because he “was committed to his proximate goal, apátheia,” being free from sinful emotions (páthei; see n. 4 ). sayings and stories of abba agathon 271 6. [VI.4] Tey told this story about Abba Agathon: He spent a con- siderable amount of time building a cell with his disciples.58 Afer they fnished their cell they later came to live there, but he saw something the very frst week that was of no beneft to him.59 He said to his disciples, “Get up. We’re leaving this place.”60 Te two were very upset61 and said, “If your intention62 all along was to move away, why did we have to endure63 such hard work building the cell? People are going [112] to be scandalized by us and say, yet again,64 ‘Look! Te vagabonds65 are moving—again!’” When Abba Agathon saw that they were disheartened,66 he said to them, “If some67 are indeed scandalized, nevertheless, others will, once again, be edifed, and they’ll say, ‘Blessed are people like these: they have moved on account of God, and haven’t paid any attention at all to

5 . An editor probably put Saying 6 afer 5 (they are in separate chapters in the SysAP) because of the theme of discernment in both (in 6 Agathon discerns that something is “of no beneft to him”) and linked them with each other, either intentionally or unintentionally, with a word play: in 5, the people go away edifed (oikodomēthéntes, “built up”) and in 6 Agathon and his disciples are building (oikodomÔn). As with English “edifce” and “edify” (from Latin aedis, “dwelling” + facere, “make”), the two Greek words are cognate. “To build up” in English. Te NT has both meanings (Bauer 696ab). At the end of 6, Agathon’s disciples too are edifed, though the word used previously does not occur. 59. no beneft to him: perhaps a circumlocution for something that harmed him in some way. 60. See Jn 14:31. 61. upset: tarássō has a wide range of meanings; in Mt 14:26 the word indicates what the disciples experience when they see Jesus calm the waters and walk on the water. Bauer 990b–91a ofers these synonyms for various Biblical passages: “to cause inner turmoil, stir up, disturb, unsettle, throw into confusion.” In the passive voice, as here, it means “be troubled, frightened, terrifed.” 62. intention: logisms: thoughts, discerning them, and removing the bad or evil ones is a key theme in early monasticism. For an excellent recent study, see Inbar Graiver, Asceticism of the Mind: Forms of Attention and Self-Transformation in Late Antique Monasticism, Pontifcal Institute of Me- diaeval Studies, Studies and Texts 213 (Toronto: Pontifcal Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 201 ). See nn. 54, 75, 105, and 106. 63. endure, hypomenéō. Bauer 1039ab, suggests that the verb as a possible variant reading at Rm :24 means “put up with,” which fts here. 64. Te early monastic ideal was to stay put; sayings disapprove of monks gallivanting about or changing locations. Neither the Latin nor Wortley (Give Me a Word, 55) translates pálin, “again, once more.” Since pálin occurs again in what the people say, it could be an accidental redundancy. Or, it could be that people were bothered, even ofended (skandalízō), the frst time, when Agathon built a new habitation and now, when Agathon is moving—again. 65. vagabonds: there is a signifcant play on words in the Greek. “To live” at the beginning of the saying translates kathízomai, “to sit, dwell, live”; “vagabonds” renders akáthistoi (literally “not- sitting/dwelling”), alpha-privative (negation) + káthistoi, cognate with kathízomai. 66. disheartened, oligopsychéō: ligo, “small,” + psychḗ, “soul, spirit,” so also “downhearted,” “discouraged”; 1 T 5:14: “fainthearted” (NRSV). Colloquially: down in the dumps. 67. some, tines < tis, “someone”: or, edgier, “certain people.” 272 tim vivian what people say.’68 But . . . if you want to come, come; I’m leaving in a bit.” So they threw themselves to the ground, asking him to take them with him, until Abba Agathon gave them permission to travel with him.69 7. [VI.5] Again, they said about him that ofentimes he moved from one place to another having only his knife70 in his basket. . [X.13] Abba Agathon was asked: “Which is better, manual labor71 or safeguarding the interior spiritual life?”72 Te elder said, “A human being is like a tree: as such, manual labor is the leaves, while the interior spiritual life, that which keeps watch,73 is the fruit. Since, according to what is written, ‘Every tree that does not pro- duce good fruit gets cut down and thrown into the fre,’74 it’s clear that all of our diligence and zeal is for the fruit, that is, safeguarding the mind.75 But we also need the protective shade and beauty76 of the leaves, that is, manual labor.”77 9. [XII.2] Once again the brothers asked him, “What virtue78 is it, father, among the things we do in our way of life79 that requires the most efort?”

6 . to what people say: I have added this phrase. 69. Burton-Christie 225, observes, “Tis story, with its echoes of Biblical language, conveys well the importance of being willing to leave everything for the sake of the Gospel and how this was related to freedom from care.” 70. knife: SysAP VI.5 (Guy 1.31 ) has mēlōtḗ, “sheepskin,” “sheepskin cloak” (Lampe 6 a). In Life of Antony 91. , Antony, dying, gives his two sheepskin cloaks to Bishop Athanasius and Bishop Serapion; see Te Life of Antony: Te Coptic Life and the Greek Life 252–53. 71. manual labor: sōmatiks kros can also mean “bodily sufering.” 72. safeguarding (phylakḗ) the interior spiritual life (t éndon): on phylak and phylássō, see nn. 52, 75, 129, and 134. T éndon means frst “interior” and then “spiritual,” what is interior in the mind or soul (Lampe 46 b). ḗ 73. that which keeps watch, phylak ; see the previous note. 74. Mt 3:10. 75. mind: we see here that mind, nousḗ , is the habitation of the interior, spiritual life. As Bauer shows, nous in Greek is multivalent: “the faculty of intellectual perception, mind, intellect”; “way of thinking, mind, attitude”; “result of thinking, mind, thought” (6 0ab). Safeguarding: phylake; see nn. 54, 62, 72, and 105. 76. beauty: eukosmía can also mean the “good order” and “harmony” (eu-, “good,” + ksmos) of the universe (Lampe 566a). For the Greeks, what is in good order (t ksmon) is beautiful. 77. On this unity, see Agathon 10. 7 . virtue:aret ḗ is a key concept in early monasticism; see Vivian, “Ama Sibylla of Saqqara,” in Vivian, Words to Live By: Journeys in Ancient and Modern Egyptian Monasticism, CS 207 (Kalama- zoo: Cistercian, 2005) 377–93; and Vivian and Maged S. A. Mikhail, Te Holy Workshop of Virtue: Te Life of John the Little by Zacharias of Sakhā, CS 234 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 2010). 79. way of life: politeía (from plis, “city”) is an important monastic term; like diagōgḗ in the sayings and stories of abba agathon 273 He said to them, “If you’ll allow me, I think nothing requires more efort than praying to God.80 It never fails: when a person wants to pray, the enemies81 want to cut him of at the knees. Tey know that nothing else gets in their way except praying to God. Every ascetic activity82 that a person pursues83 and perseveres in brings peace and tranquility,84 but prayer requires struggle85 until the very last breath.” 10. [X.14] Abba Agathon was wise in his understanding of things, unfagging in his bodily eforts, and moderate and content86 in everything, in both the work he did with his hands and with regards to food and clothing.87 11. Te same elder was out walking with his disciples and one of them found a small green pea plant in the road. He said to the elder, “Father, do you want me to take it?” Te elder look at him, astonished,88 and said, “Did you put it there?” phrase “monastic way of life,” it can mean simply “way of life,” but as a monastic term it has addi- tional resonance: “conduct oneself; live as a member of community, share a particular mode of life” (Lampe 1114a). It ofen appears in the titles of monastic hagiographical Lives. See n. 2. 0. praying to God: SysAP XII.2 (Guy 2.20 ) has “praying to God without distraction.” 1. enemies,echthroí : SysAP XII.2 (Guy 2.20 ), reads “the Enemy,” that is, Satan (Lampe 5 9a); see Lk 10:19. In Arsenius 2 the Devil is “the Enemy.” 2. ascetic activity, politeía: I have translated the word a bit earlier as “the things we do in our way of life.” See n. 79. 3. pursues,metérchomai : or “practices” (English “a pursuit”), an understanding seconded by the variant reading meletáō (PG 65.112–13 n. 31), “practice, train oneself in” (Lampe 40b). English “pursue a vocation.” 4. peace and tranquility: anápausis comes to mean “cessation from wearisome activity for the sake of rest; rest, relief ” (Bauer 69a). It is an important word in early monasticism. Mt 11:29 gives us the Biblical resonance: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will fnd rest (anápausis) for your souls.” See nn. 101 and 112. 5. struggle,ag ṓn: agōnízomai (English “agonize”) is a key monastic term. As we see in Paul, early Christianity uses athletic metaphors. Originally, an agṓn was “a place of contest, the arena,” then “a contest for a prize at the games” (see Ph 3:14), then generally “any struggle, trial, or dan- ger” (Liddell and Scott 1 b–19a). Early monastics used these athletic metaphors to connote spiritual struggle, engagement, in the spiritual life. See AlphAP Arsenius 9 and 15. 6. moderate and content: autárkis suggests “self-sufciency, frugality”; “moderation, content- ment, satisfaction with little” (Lampe 266a); see Agathon 7. “Autarky” has come into English: “self- sufciency.” 7. Rich 147 comments on Agathon’s holistic spirituality: “his own life was an example of an inner and outer life unifed and supporting the development of each other.” On this theme, see Ag- athon . . astonished:thaumázō can mean “be extraordinarily impressed” or “be extraordinarily dis- turbed” (Bauer 444b). Clearly we have the latter here. Te word occurs ofen in the NT for those amazed or impressed by things Jesus does (Mt :27; 9:33; 12:23; 15:51). Here, Agathon is astonished at an act that he probably thinks opposes Jesus. 274 tim vivian Te brother said, “No.” So the elder said, “Why, then, do you want to take something that you didn’t put there?” 12. A brother came to see Abba Agathon and said, “Let me live with y ou .” When he was walking on the road, he found a small amount of natron,89 and brought it with him. Te elder said, “Where’d you fnd the natron?” Te brother said, “I found it on the road, while I was walking, and brought [113] it with me.” Te elder said to him, “If you’ve come to live with me, why didn’t you leave there what you had found?” And he sent him to take it back where he had found it.90 13. [VII.2] A brother asked91 the elder, “I’ve just received an order92 to go somewhere, but there’s fghting93 going on where the command came from. So, I want to go,94 because of the order, but I’m afraid of the fghting. [What should I do?]” Te elder said to him, “If it were me, I’d do what I was ordered, and I would put an end to the fghting.” 14. [X.15] When a council took place at Scetis95 about some matter

9. natron:nítron can mean niter (potassium nitrate, or saltpeter) or natron (sodium carbon- ate decahydrate, or soda ash). Natron contains sodium bicarbonate, baking soda. Te ancient Egyp- tians mined natron in the Wadi Natrun (hence its name), the oasis depression that housed four early monasteries. See n. 95. 90. Chitty 42, and 1 n. 66 reports that a version of the story “in the Syriac collection (clearly translated from the Greek)” says that the monk has to walk back twelve miles. He believes that “Ag- athon 12 is a shortened variant of the story.” 91. Despite “asked,” there is no question, so I have supplied it in brackets. 92. Order: entolḗ also means “command, commandment.” 93. fghting: plemos (“polemics”) also means “war.” SysAP VII.2 (Guy, Les Apophtegmes des Pères 1.336) has a signifcant diference: “there’s fghting going on with me.” I take the dative moi (“me”) in Agathon 12 as a dative of disadvantage, meaning it is not in the monk’s interest to go. But we do not know why. 94. I want to go: or “I’m willing [thélō] to go.” “I’m willing” works better with the text in SysAP VII.2 (see the previous note). 95. Scetis: see Aelred Cody, “Scetis,” Coptic Encyclopedia 2102b–6a: “historically designated the area of monastic settlement extending about 19 miles (30 km) through the shallow valley known in the medieval period as Wad Habb, now called Wadi al-Natrun, which runs southeast to northwest through the Western or Libyan Desert, about 40 miles (65 km) southwest of the Nile Delta. In a very broad sense, ‘Scetis’ or the ‘Desert of Scetis’ also designated the ensemble of monastic colonies in the wilderness or on the edge of the desert southwest of the Delta, thus including Nitria or the ‘Mountain sayings and stories of abba agathon 275 and it had come to a decision, the same Abba Agathon appeared aferwards and said to the abbas, “Te decision you reached concerning this matter isn’t a good one.” Tey said to him, “Who are you to talk this way at all?” He said, “I’m a simple human being; it’s written, ‘If you truly speak justly, mortals,96 you will judge correctly.”97 15. [IV.7] Tey used to say about Abba Agathon that for three years he kept a stone in his mouth until he learned98 to keep silent.99 16. Tey also used to say about him and Abba Amoun100 that when they were selling an item they would state the price once, taking whatever was given to them, with silence and equanimity.101 And again, anytime they wanted to buy something, they would in silence pay whatever price was stated to them and take the item, without saying a word. 17. Te same Abba Agathon said, “I have never done an act of love.102 of Nitria’. . . ; Kellia [Cells], in the desert south of Nitria; and Scetis in the narrower and more proper sense, still farther into the desert, south of Kellia.” 96. mortals: it and “simple human being” translate “son of man/humanity,” huis anthrṓpou. Te “plural form appears frequently in the LXX to render ‘mortals,’” as I have translated the plural in the last sentence (Bauer 1026a). Jesus applies the singular phrase to himself many times (no one ever addresses him as such). For “simple human being” (or “mere mortal”), I have followed James L. Kugel, How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Ten and Now (Boston: Free Press, 200 ). 97. Ps 57:2 (LXX). Rich 210, makes a good observation about this saying: Agathon “regarded sound judgement, and therefore diákrisis [discernment], as an expression of righteousness. Diákrisis could thus be used assertively to uphold the truth.” See n. 54. In Greek, “judge,” “justice,” and “righteousness” are etymological siblings. 9 . learned,katorthō : as the root—rthos, “straight, right”—shows, the verb has a number of apposite nuances here that are difcult to convey in English: “set right, establish”; “perform, carry out precepts”; “attain to, live a good life” (Lampe 735b). Te verb does not occur in the NT but occurs about 25 times in the LXX. 99. In “Te Life of Demosthenes” 11.1 in Te Parallel Lives, Plutarch tells us that the “indis- tinctness and lisping in his speech he used to correct and drive away by taking pebbles in his mouth and then reciting speeches” —the opposite of Agathon! (Loeb Classical Library, http://penelope. uchicago.edu/Tayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Demosthenes*.html). 100. Amoun/Amun: a fourth-century anchorite. Tradition holds that “around the year 320, Amun became the frst monk to settle in the desert of Nitria.” See Lucien Regnault, “Amun, Saint,” Coptic Encyclopedia 119a. 101. Keeping silence (siōpáō, a verb) and equanimity (anápausis) are both prized monastic virtues. Anápausis is a condition or state much desired by the monks. Its meanings are “repose, rest, refreshment,” “a result of training in practice of virtue.” It can mean “rest in eternity” and “tranquility, peace” (Lampe 115a–16a). See nn. 4 and 112. 102. act of love: agápē as an “act of love or charity,” “alms-deed” (Lampe a) does not occur in the NT, though as a “love-feast” or “fellowship meal” it does (Bauer 7a). Te frst instances that 276 tim vivian No, giving and receiving was for me an act of love. As I see it, whatever benefts103 my brother is a work that bears fruit.”104 1 . When the same Agathon saw something and wanted to rush to judgment,105 he would say to himself, “Agathon, don’t you do it!” Calming himself this way, he found peace.106 19. [X.16] Te same person said, “If someone prone to anger were to raise the dead, even this would not be acceptable in God’s sight.”107 20. One time Abba Agathon had two disciples who had withdrawn from the world,108 each living by himself. One day, then, Abba Agathon asked one of them, “What sort of life do you live in your cell?” He said, “I fast until evening and then I eat two small loaves of dried bre a d .” 109 Abba Agathon said to him, “Tat’s a good way to live, not overdoing it by working too hard.” He said to the other one, “And you, how about you?”

Lampe cites for the “act of love or charity” are the Sibylline Oracles .497 (2nd–3rd c.) and John Chryso- stom (d. 407), but it’s common in early monastic use. See nn. 132 and 13 . 103. whatever benefts: kérdos especially indicates a moral or spiritual beneft (Lampe 74 a); see Ph 1:21 and 3:7 (NRSV: “gain”). 104. bears fruit: karpophoría: see Rm 7:4 and especially Mt 13:23 (karpophoréō, the cognate verb). 105. wanted to rush to judgment: literally “his thought [logisms] wanted to judge.” On logis- moí, “thoughts,” see nn. 54, 62, and 75. 106. he found peace: literally “his thought found peace [hēsychía].” English: “his mind was put at rest.” On “thought,” see the previous note. Hēsychía is a key monastic term and concept, which I usually translate “contemplative quiet.” It means “silence, of God prior to the revelation of his mys- teries”; “tranquility, quiet, as a state of the soul necessary for contemplation”; “tranquility as a state of separation from the world, = solitude” (Lampe 609ab). On hēsychía see SysAP II (Guy 1.124–47). 107. See 1 Cor 13:1-3. Rich 157 observes that “anger is not regarded as justifed if it arises from the arrogance or violence of a confrère, but [is] appropriate ‘if he separates you from God’” [Poemen 11 ]. On this separation, see Agathon 5. 10 . withdrawn from the world: I have added “from the world” to “withdrawn,” anachōréō, which is the sense of the verb; but one could also translate “withdrawn from the monastery.” Anachōréō is an important verb and concept in early monasticism; English “anchorite” has its origins here. Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon 12 b: “withdraw from the world to live a religious life.” It could mean “withdraw from the world” as early as Plato. 109. In Lausiac History 22.6, “Paul the Simple,” the loaves of dry bread (paximátion) weigh six ounces each; Antony, “who had adopted a way of life more severe than he had ever practiced in his younger days,” moistens one to eat and gives three to his hungry guest who has not eaten in three days. See Palladius 60. Life of Antony 12.4 states that Antony lays away “enough bread for six months (those from the Tebaid do this, and ofen the bread is stored for even an entire year without harm)” (Vivian and Athanassakis – 9). sayings and stories of abba agathon 277 Te disciple said, “I fast every other day; then I eat two small loaves of dried bread.” [116] Te elder said to him, “Tat’s hard work, fghting a battle on two fronts,110 because if someone eats every day but doesn’t eat his fll, he’s working hard. But another person wants to fast every other day, and then eat his fll. But you fast every other day and don’t eat your fll.” 21. A brother asked Abba Agathon about sexual sin,111 and the elder said to him, “Go, throw your weakness before God,112 and you’ll fnd peace.”113 22. Abba Agathon was sick one time, along with a certain other elder. While they were lying down in the cell, the brother was reading Genesis aloud and came to the passage where Jacob says, “Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you [pl.] will take Benjamin away . . . and you will take my gray hairs down to Hades in grief.”114 In response, the other elder [that is, the brother] said, “Te other ten aren’t enough for you, Abba Jacob?” Abba Agathon said, “Elder, stop. If God says it’s right, who’s to judge?” 23. Abba Agathon said, “If my feelings for someone whom I love very much115 become excessive and I realize that they’re becoming a problem,116 I cut the person out of my life.” 24. He also said, “A person needs always to keep in mind God’s judgment.”117 25. [XVII.7] When the brothers were talking about love, Abba Joseph

110. fghting a battle on two fronts: I wish to thank John Wortley 57 for this image; literally “bearing up under two wars/battles.” 111. sexual sin, porneía (“pornography”): usually translated by others as “fornication.” See Ag- athon 5. 112. throw your weakness before God: Psalm 54:23 has “cast your care upon the Lord, and he will support you.” 113. peace, anápausis: see nn. 4 and 101. 114. Gen 42:36, 3 . 115. love very much, agapēts: “beloved” (KJV); see Mt 3:17, where God says it of Jesus (NRSV: “with whom I am well pleased”). Agapēts is the frst word in the sentence, and thus emphatic. In Agathon 2 he “loved Abba Alexander because he was an ascetic and was gentle and forbearing.” See Agathon 2 and n. 133. 116. problem, eláttōma: Lampe 445b uses “defect,” and notes that the word can indicate a moral defect, one corrected at baptism. 117. judgment, kritḗrion: as English criterion shows, kritḗrion difers from its cognate krísis, “judgment,” in that kritḗrion has the meaning of “criterion, standard, means for judging,” even “test.” Kritḗrion also means “a court of judgment, tribunal” (Liddell and Scott 997a); see nn. 12 and 131. In Patristic Greek it can mean God’s judgment-seat, and could refer to an ecclesiastical court. 27 tim vivian would say, “Do we know what love is?” And he told them about Abba Agathon, that he had a knife: “A brother came to see him and praised the knife, and Abba Agathon wouldn’t let him leave unless he took the knife with him.” 26. Abba Agathon used to say, “If it were possible for me to fnd a leper, give him my body, and take his, I would gladly do so: this is real118 love. 27. Tey also used to say about him that going one time to sell his wares in the city, he found a person,119 someone he didn’t know, cast out into the street, sick and weak, and no one was paying any attention to him.120 So the elder stayed with him, rented a place for a cell, and paid for it with the money he made from selling his handiwork. All the rest he spent for the care of the sick man. He stayed there four months, until the sick man got well. And this way the elder went back home to his cell in peace. 2 . Abba Daniel used to say: before Abba Arsenius came to stay with my fathers, they were staying with Abba Agathon. Abba Agathon loved Abba Alexander121 because he was an ascetic and [117] was gentle and forbearing. It happened that all of his disciples were washing rushes in the river. Abba Alexander was also conscientiously washing his rushes, but the other brothers said to the elder, “Brother Alexander isn’t doing anything.” Wanting to care for them,122 he said to him, “Brother Alexander, wash them carefully; they’re fax.” When Abba Alexander heard this, it saddened him.

11 . real, téleios: the usual translation is “perfect,” and it can mean that, but, as Bauer dem- onstrates, the word has a wide range of nuances applicable both in the NT and here: “meeting the highest standard”; “full-grown, mature, adult”; “being fully developed in a moral sense, perfect” (995b–96a). 119. An editor has connected this saying with Agathon 26 both thematically and lexically: in both, Agathon “fnds,” essentially redefning “Seek, and you will fnd” (Mt 7:7//Lk 11:9) to “Seek to do good, and you will fnd.” 120. and no one paid any attention to him: epimélomai here could also mean “with no one to care for him.” 121. See Agathon 23. 122. care for: therapeō (“therapy”) usually means “heal,” and can also suggest heal spiritually, for purposes of reconciliation, and “care for, look afer” (Lampe 645a). Te word in the Latin translation can mean “correct,” which, as we will see, is also appropriate. See n. 124. sayings and stories of abba agathon 279 Aferwards the elder comforted123 him, saying, “Don’t you think I knew you were doing your washing carefully? I said that to you for the beneft of the others in order to correct124 what they were thinking125 concerning your obedience, brother.” 29a. [XI.9–10]126 Te abbas127 used to recount that Abba Agathon made every efort to keep all the commandments: if he boarded a boat, he was the frst one to take up an oar, and when brothers visited him, im- mediately afer prayer he himself would set the table. He did these things because he was flled with the love of God. 29b. When he was about to die, he remained in bed for three days without moving, with his eyes open. Te brothers nudged him, saying, “Abba Agathon, where are you?” He said to them, “I’m standing before the judgment seat of God.”128 Tey said to him, “And are you afraid, father?” He said to them, “All this time I’ve done everything in my power to keep God’s commandments.129 But I’m a human being. How do I know if my work has been pleasing130 to God? Te brothers said to him, “Aren’t you confdent about your work? Don’t you think it’s what God wants?” Te elder said, “Unless I meet God, I’m not sure. God’s standards131 are one thing, people’s another.” When they wanted to ask him another question, he said to them, “Keep doing acts of love,132 but don’t discuss them with me anymore; I’m occupied.” And he died with joy. Tey saw him set of the way someone says goodbye to friends and

123. comforted, parakaléō (cognate with “Paraclete”): and/or “summoned,” appealed to,” “ex- horted,” “encouraged” (Bauer 764b-65a). 124. correct: therapeō again; see n. 122. 125. what they were thinking, logisms; see nn. 55, 63, and 106. 126. Agathon 29 consists of two sayings that an editor has joined. SysAP XI.9–10 (Guy 2.140) confrms this because Agathon 29a is not there. 127. Te abbas: literally “they.” 12 . judgment seat, kritḗrion; see nn. 117 and 131. 129. keep, phylássō: see nn. 52, 72, 75, and 134. 130. pleasing, euarestéō: see Heb 11:5–6. 131. standards: kritḗrion again; or “judgments.” See nn. 117 and 12 . 132. acts of love, agápē: see nn. 102 and 13 . 2 0 tim vivian loved ones.133 He kept careful watch about everything, and used to say, “Without keeping a careful watch, a person does not make progress, even in a single virtue.”134 13530. One time Abba Agathon went to the city to sell some small wares and he found136 a leper137 by the side of the road. Te leper said to him, “Where are you going?” Abba Agathon said to him, “Into the city to sell some wares.” Te leper said to him, “Do an act of love138 and take me there.” So Abba Agathon carried139 him and brought him into the city. Te leper said to him, “Take me where you sell your wares,” and this he did. When Abba Agathon sold something, the leper would say, “How much did you sell it for?” and Abba Agathon would tell him the amount. So the leper would say, “Buy me some fatbread,” and Abba Agathon would buy it. Ten he sold another item and the leper said, “How much did you get this time?” and Abba Agathon would tell him the amount. So the leper said to him, “Buy me such and such,” and he would buy it. So afer Abba Agathon had sold all his wares and wanted to leave, the leper said to him, “You’re going?” He said to him, “Yes.” “Do another act of love and take me back where you found me.” So Abba Agathon carried him and brought him back to where he was before. Te leper said to him, “Agathon, you have been blessed by the Lord in heaven and upon earth.”140

133. loved ones, agapēts; see n. 115. Set of: anágō can mean “launch a ship into water” or “set of on a boat” so, whether intended here or not, there is the nice image of a person on a boat waving goodbye to friends and family on shore. It could possibly be echoing the Greek myth of Charon, who ferries the souls of the dead across the rivers Styx and Acheron. See Te Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek 131c–32a. 134. keep a careful watch, phylakḗ, cognate with phylássō. At the beginning of the saying, Abba Agathon “made every efort to keep all the commandments.” On phylakḗ and phylássō see nn. 52, 72, 75, and 129. 135. For a longer story about Abba Eulogius helping “a cripple,” see Lausiac History 21 (Wortley, Lausiac History 52–5 ). 136. found, heurískō: thus continuing the theme of fnding and doing good; see Agathon 26 and 27. 137. leper, lelōbaménos < lōbáō: literally “one maimed/mutilated”; Lampe notes that the word particularly indicated lepers. LỐbē equals lépra, “leper” ( 1 a). 13 . act of love, agápē: see nn. 102 and 13 . 139. carried, bastázō: the verb used for carrying the cross; see Luke 14:27. 140. See Ps 115:15, “May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” sayings and stories of abba agathon 2 1 When Agathon raised his eyes, he did not see anyone—it was an angel of the Lord who had come to test him.141

Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies California State University Bakersfeld / [email protected]

141. test, peirázō: or “tempt”; see Mt 4:7; Mk 1:13; Lk 4:2. Copyright of Cistercian Studies Quarterly is the property of Cistercian Studies Quarterly and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.