How an Elder Found Work for Abbot Simeon

A brother who was very dear to us, named Simeon, had come from Italy. He knew no Greek at all. One of the elders wanted to show him an act of kindness, since he was a stranger, but to make it look as though the benefit were mutual. So he asked him why he sat in his cell doing nothing. He guessed from this that Simeon would not be able to stay in his cell much longer, both because of the wandering thoughts that idleness produces and because he lacked the necessities of life. For the elder knew well that no one can endure the attacks that come in solitude except a man who is content to get his food by the work of his hands. [a]

Simeon replied that he could not do or manage any of the kinds of work the brothers there usually did, except that he wrote a good hand, if anyone in Egypt wanted a Latin book for his use. Then at last the elder seized the chance to do the act of kindness he had long wished for, under cover of a mutual benefit. He said: “This opportunity comes from God. I was just looking for someone to copy out the Epistles for me in Latin. I have a brother who is bound in the chains of military service and is a good Latin scholar, and I want to send him something from Scripture to read for his edification.”

Simeon gratefully took this as an opportunity God had offered him, and the old man gladly seized the pretext under cover of which he could freely carry out his kindness. At once he brought him, as a matter of business, everything he could need for a whole year, and also brought him parchment and everything required for writing. Afterwards he received the manuscript. It was not of the slightest use, since in those parts everyone was entirely ignorant of that language. It did no one any good except the good that came from this device and this large outlay: the one man, without shame or embarrassment, got his necessary food and keep as the wages of his work and labor, and the other carried out his kindness and generosity as though compelled by a debt. In this way the elder secured for himself a fuller reward, in proportion to the zeal with which he provided his foreign brother not only with his necessary food but with writing materials and an opportunity to work.