The Monks of the Thebaid and Scetis

About the same time Apollos flourished in the Thebaid. He gave himself early to a life of philosophy, and after spending forty years in the desert he shut himself up, by the command of God, in a cave at the foot of a mountain near a heavily populated district. He soon became famous for the great number of his miracles, and he was the head of many monks, for he guided them to their profit by his teaching. Timothy, who governed the church of Alexandria, has given us an account of his way of discipline and of the divine and marvelous deeds he worked. He also tells the lives of other approved monks, many of whom I have mentioned. [a]

At that time many good monks, about two thousand of them, preached philosophy around Alexandria, some in a district called the Hermitage and others further toward Mareotis and Libya. Dorotheus, a native of Thebes, was among the most celebrated of these monks. He spent the day gathering stones on the seashore, and with them he built cells to give to those who were unable to build their own. At night he wove baskets of palm leaves and sold them to earn his living. He ate six ounces of bread a day with a few vegetables, and drank nothing but water. He had trained himself in this extreme abstinence from his youth, and he kept it up in his old age. He was never seen lying down on a mat or a bed, or even settling his limbs in a comfortable position, or giving himself up to sleep willingly. Sometimes, from natural weariness, his eyes would close in spite of him while he was at his daily work or his meals, and when he nodded off while eating, the food would fall from his mouth. One day, utterly overcome by drowsiness, he fell down on the mat. He was displeased to find himself there, and said under his breath, “If the angels are persuaded to sleep, then you will persuade the zealous too.” Perhaps he said this to himself, or perhaps to the demon who had become a hindrance to his zealous exercises. Once someone who came to him while he was wearing himself out asked him why he was destroying his body. “Because it destroys me,” was his reply. [b]

Piammon and John presided over two celebrated Egyptian monasteries near Diolcus. They were presbyters who carried out their priesthood with great care and reverence. It is said that one day, when Piammon was serving as priest, he saw an angel standing near the holy table, writing down in a book the names of the monks who were present and erasing the names of those who were absent. John had received from God such power over sufferings and diseases that he healed those with gout and restored the paralyzed. [c]

A very old man named Benjamin was practicing philosophy with great distinction at this time in the desert near Scetis. God had given him the power to relieve the sick of every disease without medicine, by the touch of his hand alone, or with a little oil consecrated by prayer. The story goes that he was struck with dropsy, and his body swelled to such a size that the door of his cell had to be widened to carry him out. Since his illness would not let him lie down, he stayed seated for eight months on a very large skin, and went on healing the sick without regretting that his own cure did not come. He comforted those who came to visit him and asked them to pray for his soul, adding that he cared little for his body: it had been of no use to him when it was healthy, and now that it was diseased it could do him no harm. [d]

About the same time the celebrated Mark, Macarius the younger, Apollonius, and Moses, an Egyptian, lived at Scetis. It is said that from his youth Mark was marked by extreme gentleness and good sense. He learned the Sacred Scriptures by heart, and showed such outstanding piety that Macarius himself, the presbyter of Cellia, declared that he had never given Mark what priests give to the initiated at the holy table; an angel gave it to him, and Macarius declared that he had seen the angel’s hand up to the forearm. [e]

Macarius had received from God the power to drive out demons. A killing he had committed unintentionally was what first led him to take up a life of philosophy. He was a shepherd, and he led his flock to graze on the shores of Lake Mareotis, when in play he killed one of his companions. Afraid of being handed over to justice, he fled to the desert. He hid there for three years, and afterward built a small dwelling on the spot, where he lived for twenty-five years. He used to say that he owed a great deal to the misfortune of his early life, and he even called the killing he had done unintentionally a deed that saved him, since it had led him to embrace philosophy and a blessed way of life.

Apollonius spent his life in trade, and in his old age withdrew to Scetis. Reflecting that he was too old to learn to write or to learn any other craft, he bought with his own money a supply of every kind of medicine and of food suited to the sick. Some of it he carried, until three in the afternoon, to the door of every monastery, for the relief of any who were suffering from disease. Finding this practice good for himself, he made it his way of life; and when he felt death approaching, he handed his medicines over to someone, urging him to go and do as he had done. [f]

Moses was originally a slave, but he was driven out of his master’s house for his immorality. He joined some robbers and became the leader of the band. After committing many evil deeds and daring several murders, he was suddenly converted, embraced the monastic life, and reached the highest point of philosophy. The healthy and vigorous body that his former way of life had given him spurred on his imagination and stirred up desire for pleasure. So he used every possible means to wear his body down. He lived on a little bread without any cooked food, put himself to hard labor, and prayed fifty times a day. He prayed standing, without bending his knees or closing his eyes in sleep. Sometimes he went at night to the cells of the monks and secretly filled their pitchers with water. This was very hard work, for he sometimes had to go more than a mile, sometimes over two miles, and sometimes three and a half miles or more to find water. For all his efforts to wear his body down, it was a long time before he could subdue the natural strength of his constitution. It is reported that robbers once broke into the dwelling where he was practicing philosophy. He seized and tied them up, threw the four men over his shoulders, and carried them to the church, so that the monks gathered there could deal with them as they thought best; for he did not consider himself authorized to punish anyone. They say that so sudden a conversion from vice to virtue had never been seen before, nor such rapid progress in monastic philosophy. So God made him a terror to the demons, and he was ordained presbyter over the monks at Scetis. After a life spent in this way he died at the age of seventy-five, leaving behind him many eminent disciples. [g]

Paul, Pachon, Stephen, and Moses, the last two of whom were Libyans, and Pior, who was an Egyptian, flourished during this reign. Paul lived at Ferme, a mountain of Scetis, and presided over five hundred ascetics. He did no work with his hands, and he accepted no alms from anyone except the food he needed to live. He did nothing but pray, and every day he offered up three hundred prayers to God. He put three hundred pebbles in the fold of his garment so as not to leave out any of these prayers, and at the end of each prayer he took away one of the pebbles. When no pebbles were left, he knew he had gone through the whole course of the prayers he had set himself.

Pachon also flourished at this time at Scetis. He followed this way of life from his youth to extreme old age, and was never found weak in self-control, whether against the appetites of the body, the passions of the soul, or a demon; in short, against all the things a philosopher must conquer.

Stephen lived at Mareotis, near Marmarica. Over sixty years, by his strictness, he reached the perfection of the ascetic life, became a very well-known monk, and was a close friend of Antony the Great. He was very gentle and wise. His usual conversation was sweet and profitable, well suited to comfort the souls of the afflicted and to bring them back to good spirits, even when they had been weighed down by griefs that seemed unavoidable. He behaved the same way in his own afflictions. He suffered from a severe and incurable ulcer, and surgeons were called in to operate on the diseased parts. During the operation Stephen kept on weaving palm leaves, and urged those around him not to trouble themselves about his sufferings. He told them to think nothing else than that God does nothing except for our good, and that his affliction would serve his true welfare, since perhaps it would atone for his sins; for it is better to be judged in this life than in the life to come. [h]

Moses was celebrated for his gentleness, his love, and his power of healing sufferings by prayer. Pior resolved from his youth to give himself to a life of philosophy. With this in view he left his father’s house, after vowing that he would never again look on any of his relatives. When fifty years had passed, one of his sisters heard that he was still alive. She was so carried away with joy at this unexpected news that she could not rest until she had seen him. The bishop of the place where she lived was so moved by the groans and tears of the old woman that he wrote to the leaders of the monks in the desert of Scetis, asking them to send Pior to him. So the superiors told him to go to the city of his birth, and he could not refuse; for the monks of Egypt held disobedience to be unlawful, and I think other monks do too. He went with another monk to the door of his father’s house and had himself announced. When he heard the door being opened, he shut his eyes, called his sister by name, and said to her, “I am Pior, your brother. Look at me as much as you like.” His sister was overjoyed to see him again, and gave thanks to God. He prayed at the door where he stood, and then went back to the place where he lived. There he dug a well and found the water bitter, but he went on using it until his death. Then it became known how far he had carried his self-denial; for after he died, several people tried to practice philosophy in the place where he had lived, but found it impossible to stay there. I am convinced that, had it not been for the principles of philosophy he had embraced, he could easily have made the water sweet by prayer; for he made water flow in a place where there had been none before. It is said that some monks under the guidance of Moses set out to dig a well. The vein of water they expected did not appear, and no depth yielded water, and they were about to give up the task when, about midday, Pior joined them. He first embraced them, and then rebuked their lack of faith and their smallness of soul. Then he went down into the pit they had dug, and after praying he struck the ground three times with a rod. Soon afterward a spring of water rose to the surface and filled the whole pit. After praying, Pior left. Though the monks urged him to break his fast with them, he refused, saying that he had not been sent to them for that, but only to do what he had done. [i]