The Medieval Canon: part three
The Hermits of the Desert
The very earliest heroes of the Christian church were the martyrs who perished in public blood-entertainments, victims of official persecution. The next group of heroes were the hermits who cast off life itself in secret devotion to a heavenly ideal. Their mystical experience of the Holy in their desert campsites gave inspiration to the new Imperial Christian Church which struggled, under official direction, to keep in touch with its own mystical reality. The bishops of the church would themselves sometimes visit those hermits in order to renew their own faith, and to assure themselves that, at least in the saintly hermits, the faith which the bishops professed was alive, and true.
When the abbot Macarius was in Egypt, he had gone out of his cell: and returning found someone stealing whatever he had in his cell. So he stood by as if himself had been a stranger, and helped load the animal with all stealth and led him out, saying, "We brought nothing into the world. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: and as He willed, so is it come to pass. Blessed be the Lord in all things."
.......
One of the brethren, that had been insulted by another, came to the abbot Sisois and told him the scorn that had been put upon him, and said, "I am set to revenge myself, Father." And the old man began to entreat him to leave vengeance to God. But he said, "I shall not stay till I have stoutly avenged myself." So the old man said, "Since thou hast made up thy mind once for all, now let us pray," and rising, he began to pray in these words, "God, Thou art no longer necessary to us, that Thou needst be anxious for us: for we ourselves, as this brother hath said, are both willing and able to avenge ourselves." But when the brother heard it, he fell at the old man's feet seeking his pardon, and promised that he would contend no more with the man against whom he was angered.
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.......
A brother said to an old man, "I see no war in my heart." And the old man said to him, "Thou art like a chariot-gate, and whosoever will may enter and go and come where he pleases, and thou knowest not what is going on. But if thou hadst a door and wouldst shut it, nor suffer evil thoughts to come in by it, then wouldst thou see them standing without and warring against thee."
.......
There came three brethren to a certain old man in Scete, and one of them asked him, saying, "Father, I have committed the Old and New Testaments to memory." And the old man answered and said, "Thou hast filled the air with words." And the second asked him, saying, "I have written the Old and New Testaments with my own hand." But he said to him, "And thou hast filled the windowsills with manuscripts." And the third said, "The grass grows on my hearthstone." And the old man answered and said, "And thou hast driven hospitality from thee."
.......
An old man said, "Even as a tree cannot bear fruit if it be often transplanted, no more can a monk that is often removing from one place to another."
.......
Certain old men said, "If thou seest a young man ascending by his own will up to heaven catch him by the foot and throw him down upon earth, for it is not expedient for him."
.......
The Abbot Allois said..."If a man willed it, in one day up till evening he might come at the measure of divinity."
.......
A certain monk Serapion owned a Gospel: and he sold it and gave to the hungry, following the memorable saying: for, said he, "I sold that same word that ever used to say to me 'Sell that thou hast and give to the poor.'"
.......
An old man said, "There is no stronger virtue than to scorn no man."
.......
Said the abbot Antony, "I do not now fear God, but I love Him, for love casteth fear out of doors."
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The holy Syncletica said, "...Even as wax is melted before the face of fire, so is the soul enfeebled by praise, and loses the toughness of its virtues."
.......
The abbot Pastor said that when brother Zachary was dying, the abbot Moses asked him, saying, "What seest thou?" And he answered, "Naught better, Father, than to hold one's peace."
.......
The full text (with Waddell's own essay) of the VERBA SENIORUM, The Sayings of the Fathers, compiled by an anonymous Greek scholar and translated into latin by Pelagius the Deacon and John the Subdeacon, both of whom became Popes in the sixth century.
[ back to Part Two ]
[ Part Four: Jesus ]
The Hermits of the Desert
The very earliest heroes of the Christian church were the martyrs who perished in public blood-entertainments, victims of official persecution. The next group of heroes were the hermits who cast off life itself in secret devotion to a heavenly ideal. Their mystical experience of the Holy in their desert campsites gave inspiration to the new Imperial Christian Church which struggled, under official direction, to keep in touch with its own mystical reality. The bishops of the church would themselves sometimes visit those hermits in order to renew their own faith, and to assure themselves that, at least in the saintly hermits, the faith which the bishops professed was alive, and true.
When the abbot Macarius was in Egypt, he had gone out of his cell: and returning found someone stealing whatever he had in his cell. So he stood by as if himself had been a stranger, and helped load the animal with all stealth and led him out, saying, "We brought nothing into the world. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: and as He willed, so is it come to pass. Blessed be the Lord in all things."
.......
One of the brethren, that had been insulted by another, came to the abbot Sisois and told him the scorn that had been put upon him, and said, "I am set to revenge myself, Father." And the old man began to entreat him to leave vengeance to God. But he said, "I shall not stay till I have stoutly avenged myself." So the old man said, "Since thou hast made up thy mind once for all, now let us pray," and rising, he began to pray in these words, "God, Thou art no longer necessary to us, that Thou needst be anxious for us: for we ourselves, as this brother hath said, are both willing and able to avenge ourselves." But when the brother heard it, he fell at the old man's feet seeking his pardon, and promised that he would contend no more with the man against whom he was angered.
.......
.......
A brother said to an old man, "I see no war in my heart." And the old man said to him, "Thou art like a chariot-gate, and whosoever will may enter and go and come where he pleases, and thou knowest not what is going on. But if thou hadst a door and wouldst shut it, nor suffer evil thoughts to come in by it, then wouldst thou see them standing without and warring against thee."
.......
There came three brethren to a certain old man in Scete, and one of them asked him, saying, "Father, I have committed the Old and New Testaments to memory." And the old man answered and said, "Thou hast filled the air with words." And the second asked him, saying, "I have written the Old and New Testaments with my own hand." But he said to him, "And thou hast filled the windowsills with manuscripts." And the third said, "The grass grows on my hearthstone." And the old man answered and said, "And thou hast driven hospitality from thee."
.......
An old man said, "Even as a tree cannot bear fruit if it be often transplanted, no more can a monk that is often removing from one place to another."
.......
Certain old men said, "If thou seest a young man ascending by his own will up to heaven catch him by the foot and throw him down upon earth, for it is not expedient for him."
.......
The Abbot Allois said..."If a man willed it, in one day up till evening he might come at the measure of divinity."
.......
A certain monk Serapion owned a Gospel: and he sold it and gave to the hungry, following the memorable saying: for, said he, "I sold that same word that ever used to say to me 'Sell that thou hast and give to the poor.'"
.......
An old man said, "There is no stronger virtue than to scorn no man."
.......
Said the abbot Antony, "I do not now fear God, but I love Him, for love casteth fear out of doors."
.......
The holy Syncletica said, "...Even as wax is melted before the face of fire, so is the soul enfeebled by praise, and loses the toughness of its virtues."
.......
The abbot Pastor said that when brother Zachary was dying, the abbot Moses asked him, saying, "What seest thou?" And he answered, "Naught better, Father, than to hold one's peace."
.......
The full text (with Waddell's own essay) of the VERBA SENIORUM, The Sayings of the Fathers, compiled by an anonymous Greek scholar and translated into latin by Pelagius the Deacon and John the Subdeacon, both of whom became Popes in the sixth century.
When the abbot Macarius was in Egypt, he had gone out of his cell: and returning found someone stealing whatever he had in his cell. So he stood by as if himself had been a stranger, and helped load the animal with all stealth and led him out, saying, "We brought nothing into the world. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: and as He willed, so is it come to pass. Blessed be the Lord in all things."
.......
One of the brethren, that had been insulted by another, came to the abbot Sisois and told him the scorn that had been put upon him, and said, "I am set to revenge myself, Father." And the old man began to entreat him to leave vengeance to God. But he said, "I shall not stay till I have stoutly avenged myself." So the old man said, "Since thou hast made up thy mind once for all, now let us pray," and rising, he began to pray in these words, "God, Thou art no longer necessary to us, that Thou needst be anxious for us: for we ourselves, as this brother hath said, are both willing and able to avenge ourselves." But when the brother heard it, he fell at the old man's feet seeking his pardon, and promised that he would contend no more with the man against whom he was angered.
.......
.......
A brother said to an old man, "I see no war in my heart." And the old man said to him, "Thou art like a chariot-gate, and whosoever will may enter and go and come where he pleases, and thou knowest not what is going on. But if thou hadst a door and wouldst shut it, nor suffer evil thoughts to come in by it, then wouldst thou see them standing without and warring against thee."
.......
There came three brethren to a certain old man in Scete, and one of them asked him, saying, "Father, I have committed the Old and New Testaments to memory." And the old man answered and said, "Thou hast filled the air with words." And the second asked him, saying, "I have written the Old and New Testaments with my own hand." But he said to him, "And thou hast filled the windowsills with manuscripts." And the third said, "The grass grows on my hearthstone." And the old man answered and said, "And thou hast driven hospitality from thee."
.......
An old man said, "Even as a tree cannot bear fruit if it be often transplanted, no more can a monk that is often removing from one place to another."
.......
Certain old men said, "If thou seest a young man ascending by his own will up to heaven catch him by the foot and throw him down upon earth, for it is not expedient for him."
.......
The Abbot Allois said..."If a man willed it, in one day up till evening he might come at the measure of divinity."
.......
A certain monk Serapion owned a Gospel: and he sold it and gave to the hungry, following the memorable saying: for, said he, "I sold that same word that ever used to say to me 'Sell that thou hast and give to the poor.'"
.......
An old man said, "There is no stronger virtue than to scorn no man."
.......
Said the abbot Antony, "I do not now fear God, but I love Him, for love casteth fear out of doors."
.......
The holy Syncletica said, "...Even as wax is melted before the face of fire, so is the soul enfeebled by praise, and loses the toughness of its virtues."
.......
The abbot Pastor said that when brother Zachary was dying, the abbot Moses asked him, saying, "What seest thou?" And he answered, "Naught better, Father, than to hold one's peace."
.......
[ back to Part Two ]
[ Part Four: Jesus ]