Abba David

We came to the Thebaid, and at the city of Antino we visited Phebamon the Sophist for the benefit of his words. He told us that in the district around Hermopolius there had been a brigand whose name was David. He had rendered many people destitute, murdered many and committed every kind of evil deed; more so that any other man, one might say. One day, while he was still engaged in brigandage on the mountain, together with a band of more than thirty, he came to his senses, conscience-stricken by his evil deeds. He left all those who were with him and went to a monastery. He knocked at the monastery gate. The porter came out and asked him what he wanted. The robber-chief replied that he wanted to become a monk, so the porter went inside and told the abbot about him. The abbot came out and, when he saw that the man was advanced in age, he said to him, “You cannot stay here, for the brethren labor very hard. They practice great austerity. Your temperament is different from ours and you could not tolerate the rule of the monastery.” But the brigand insisted that he could tolerate these things, if only the abbot would accept him. But the abbot was persistent in his conviction that the man would not be able. Then the robber-chief said to the abbot, “Know, then, that I am David the robber-chief; and the reason why I came here was that I might weep for my sins. If you do not accept me, I swear to you and before Him who dwells in heaven that I will return to my former way of life. I will bring those who were with me, kill you all and even destroy your monastery.” When the abbot heard this, he received him into the monastery, tonsured him and gave him the holy habit. Thus he began the spiritual combat and he exceeded all the other members of the monastery in self-control, obedience, and humility. There were about seventy persons in that monastery; he benefited them all, providing them with an example.

One day when he was sitting in his cell, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, saying, “David, David; the Lord has pardoned your sins and, from this time on, you shall perform miraculous signs.” David replied to the angel, “I cannot believe that in so short a time God has forgiven me all my sins, which are heavier than the sand of the sea.” The angel said to him, “I did not spare Zachariah the priest when he refused to believe me concerning his son. (Lk. 1:20) I imprisoned his tongue to teach him not to doubt what I said; how then should I spare you? You shall be totally incapable of speech from this time onwards.” Abba David prostrated himself before the angel and said, “When I was in the world, committing abominable acts and shedding blood, I had the gift of speech. Will you deprive me of it by imprisoning my tongue, now that I wish to serve God and offer up hymns of praise to Him?” The angel replied, “You will only be able to speak during the services. At all other times you shall be completely silent” and that is how it was. He sang the psalms, but he could say no other word, big or little. The one who told us these things said, I saw him many times and I glorified God.

John Moschus, Leimonarion (The Spiritual Meadow) 143

St. Simeon the Stylite

Again a Magus in the land of the Persians, head of all the Magi (Zoroastrian priests in the Sassanian empire), that is to say, leader of all evil, came before him who is called shahanshah (king of kings) and asked that he be given power over the Christians, whom they called Nazarenes, to afflict and strike, to beat and imprison them as he wished to make them renounce their religion. Over those who stuck by their opinions and would not renounce their religion he would have the power to kill after cruel tortures and ill-treatment. When this wicked and unclean man received power over the flocks of Christ, he was like a brazen wolf without mercy. The devils whelp seized and bound and struck and beat many people both men, women, priests, and sons of the covenant not a few laymen with their wives and sons. He inflicted much harm on them and passed on them all kinds of sentences and tortures like a man who does not have the judgment of God before his eyes. The wicked man did not know that swiftly the sentence of the Lords justice would come upon him.

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Magnetic Humility

An Athonite elder said, “Humility acts like a magnet, drawing to it the grace of God. The humble are granted grace. These things are arranged.”

from An Athonite Gerontikon

Humble Branches

I once asked a simple elderly hermit, “Why are your lemon trees full of fruit?”

“Because I humble their branches, my son,” he replied.

from An Athonite Gerontikon

Abba Poemen

Abba Poemen said that a brother who lived with some other brothers asked Abba Bessarion, “What ought I to do?” The old man said to him, “Keep silence and do not always be comparing yourself with others.”

the Beginners

Abba Isaiah said to those who were making a good beginning by putting themselves under the direction of the holy Fathers, “As with purple dye, the first coloring is never lost.” And, “Just as young shoots are easily trained back and bent, so it is with beginners who live in submission.”