Abbot Pinufius Seeks to Be a Novice

The limits of this book compel us to bring it to a close. Yet the virtue of obedience, which holds first place among the other good qualities, will not let us pass over in complete silence the deeds of those who have excelled in it. So, to combine the two aptly, that is, to have regard both for brevity and for the wishes and profit of those who are in earnest, we will add just one example of humility. Because it was shown not by a novice but by a man already perfect, and an abbot, it may not only instruct the younger but also spur the elders on to the perfect virtue of humility as they read it. [a]

We saw Abbot Pinufius ourselves. He was the presbyter of a huge coenobium in Egypt, not far from the city of Panephysis, and everyone held him in honor and respect, out of reverence for his life, or his age, or his priesthood. But he saw that for this very reason he could not practice the humility he longed for with all the ardor of his nature, and that he had no chance to exercise the virtue of submission he desired. So he fled from the coenobium in secret and withdrew alone into the farthest parts of the Thebaid. There he laid aside the habit of the monks, put on the clothes of a man living in the world, and so made his way to the coenobium of Tabenna. He knew it to be the strictest of all, and he imagined that he would not be known there because the place was so far away, or else that he could easily stay hidden in so large a monastery with so many brothers.

There he stayed a long time at the entrance, and on his knees before the brothers he begged with the most earnest prayers to be admitted. At last, with much scorn, he was let in, as a feeble old man who had lived all his life in the world and had asked in his old age to be allowed into a coenobium now that he could no longer gratify his passions. For they said he was seeking this not for the sake of religion but because hunger and want drove him to it. They gave him the care and management of the garden, since he seemed an old man and not especially fitted for any particular work. He did this work under another brother, a younger one, who kept him at his side as someone placed in his charge. He was so submissive to him, and cultivated the humility he longed for so obediently, that every day he did with the utmost care not only everything that belonged to the care and management of the garden, but also all the jobs the other brother regarded as hard, degrading and unpleasant. He would also get up at night and do many things in secret, with no one watching or knowing, when the darkness hid him so that no one could find out who had done them.

He had hidden himself there for three years, and the brothers had searched high and low for him all through Egypt, when at last he was seen by someone who had come from those parts of Egypt. Even so, the man could scarcely recognize him, his clothes were so poor and the work he was doing so lowly. He was stooping down, hoeing the ground for vegetables, carrying manure on his shoulders and spreading it around their roots. Seeing this, the brother hesitated a long time over recognizing him. At last he came nearer, and after carefully noting not only his looks but also the sound of his voice, he immediately fell at his feet. At first everyone who saw it was utterly astonished that he should do this to one they regarded as the lowest of all, a novice who had only lately left the world. But they were still more amazed afterward, when he at once made known his name, for it was well known among them too by reputation. Then all the brothers asked his pardon for their earlier ignorance, because for so long they had counted him among the juniors and the children, and they brought him back to his own coenobium. He went against his will and in tears, because through the envy of the devil he had been cheated out of a worthy way of life and out of the humility he had rejoiced to find after his long search, and because he had not managed to end his life in the state of submission he had secured. And so they guarded him with the utmost care, so that he would not slip away again in the same way and escape from them as well.