Bishop Archebius

When we arrived there, God granted our wishes and had brought about the arrival of that most blessed and excellent man, Bishop Archebius. He had been carried off from the company of the anchorites and given as bishop to the town of Panephysis. All his life long he kept so strictly to his purpose of solitude that he relaxed nothing of the character of his former humility, and did not flatter himself on the honor that had been added to him. For he declared that he had not been called to that office because he was fit for it. Instead he complained that he had been driven out of the monastic way of life as unworthy of it, because, though he had spent thirty-seven years in it, he had never been able to reach the purity that so high a calling demands. He received us kindly and most graciously in Thennesus, where the business of electing a bishop for that town had brought him. As soon as he heard of our wish and desire to seek out the holy fathers even in still more remote parts of Egypt, he said: “Come, and in the meantime see the old men who live not far from our monastery. The length of their service shows in their bent bodies, as their holiness shines out in their faces, so that even the mere sight of them will give a great lesson to those who see them. From them you can learn, not so much by their words as by the actual example of their holy life, what I grieve that I have lost, and, having lost it, cannot give to you. But I think my poverty will be somewhat lessened by this zeal of mine, if, while you are seeking that pearl of the gospel which I do not have, I at least show you where you can conveniently obtain it.” [a]