One of the fathers said...

…that there was one of the elders who was pure and holy; who, when he was celebrating the Eucharist, used to see angels standing to his right hand and to his left. He lad learned the eucharistic rite from heretics but, as he was unlearned in theological matters, when he offered the Eucharist he spoke the prayer in all simplicity and innocence, unaware that he was at fault. 

By the providence of God, there came to him a brother who was skilled in theology and it happened that the elder offered the Eucharist in his presence. The brother, who was a deacon, said to him, “Father, these things which you say at the Eucharist are not in accordance with the orthodox faith. They are not orthodox but kakadox (“bad-believing”). Since the elder could see angels when he was celebrating, he paid no attention to what was said, and thought nothing of it. But the deacon went on saying, “You are at fault, good elder; the Church does not allow these things to be said.” 

When the elder realized that he was being accused and blamed by the deacon, the next time he saw the angels, he asked them, “When the deacon speaks to me like this, what am I to make of it?” They said to him, “Pay attention to him; he is giving good counsel.” The elder said to them, “Then why did you not tell me so?” They said, “Because God has ordained that men should be corrected by men,” and from that time forth, he accepted correction, giving thanks to God and to the brother.

John Moschus, Leimonarion, 199

After leaving his solitude...

…[St. Gregory the Wonderworker] at once hastened to the city where he felt obliged to establish a church for God. He knew that the whole region was under the grip of demons and that the temple of the true God was not yet constructed; the entire city and surrounding area was filled with pagan altars, sacred places and all the people were devoted to images. They adorned the temples and sacred places with images and the madness of idolatry with processions; their defilement gave substance to rites and ceremonies. Just as a noble commander routes the enemy in combat by the strength of his battle order, so does that great man’s valor set an example against the demons. How does he accomplish this? 

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There were two brothers...

…young in age, recently dividing their father’s estate among themselves. Their dispute was over a lake, each claiming the whole of it and neither willing to accept the other as joint owner. (Gregory the Wonderworker) became the judge of the case, and, arriving at the spot, he applied his own laws on their behavior, leading them to reconciliation and exhorting the youths to love, that they might set a higher value on concord than on profits; for peace abides forever among the living and the dead, whereas the enjoyment of profits is ephemeral, but entails an eternal judgment upon their wickedness. So he said what was suitable and repressed their ungovernable youth.

His exhortation, however, availed nothing. Youth was on fire and burnt in their hearts and was swollen with hopes of gain. Each one got ready an army of his people, a bloodthirsty multitude of servants governed by wrath and youth. The day of conflict was set. But on the day before the battle was to begin from both sides, man of God, abiding on the banks of the lake, enduring the night through in sleeplessness, wrought a miracle like Moses’ upon the waters. Not by a blow of his staff did he divide the deep in two; rather by prayer did he dry up the whole of it at once, and at dawn revealed the lake as dry land, parched and without moisture, having not even in its cavities any remnant of water, where before the prayer there had been a sea. And thus, giving judgment through God’s power, he returned again to his home, while between the young men the decision that emerged from the events ended the strife. 

from St. Gregory of Nyssa, Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgos (the Wonderworker),
commemorated 17 November

I remember Elder Auxentios...

…from the Gregoriou monastery (on Mt. Athos). He was blind and he would guide himself from his cell to the church by touching the monastery courtyard walls, saying as he did so the Jesus Prayer or the salutations to the Theotokos. Inside the church, having first venerated the icons, he would stand upright at his bench, like a pillar of fire.

from An Athonite Gerontikon

One Sunday when this saintly man (St. John the Almsgiver)...

…was going down to his church there came to him one whose whole house had been despoiled by burglars; they had taken everything even down to his mattress. The sufferer was in great distress but, as those who had robbed his house could not be found in spite of a strict search, he was finally obliged by his extreme want, very shamefacedly, to apply to the Saint and told him about his misfortune. The Saint was very sorry for him—for he was one of the prominent foreign residents—and whispered to the man in charge of the gold to give him fifteen pounds of gold. When the latter went out to give the money to the man he took counsel with the cashier and with the treasurer and at the Devil’s prompting they grudged him so large a sum and gave him only five pounds.

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Another father, called Abba Helle...

…had persevered since childhood in the ascetic life. He often carried fire to his neighboring brethren in the fold of his tunic, and stimulated them to advance to the point of performing miracles, saying to them, “If you practice true ascesis, then you will show the supernatural signs of virtue.” 

Once on a Sunday he went to see some monks and said to them, “Why have you not celebrated the Divine Liturgy today?” When they replied that it was because the priest had not come from the other side of the river, he said to them, “I shall go and call him.” But they said it was impossible for anyone to cross the ford, partly because of the depth, but most of all because there was a huge beast at that spot, a crocodile which had devoured many people. The father did not hesitate. At once he jumped up and rushed into the ford. And immediately the beast took him onto its back and set him down on the other side. On finding the priest at his place, he entreated him not to neglect the community of brothers. The priest, seeing that he was dressed in a rag with many patches, asked him where he had found it, saying, “You have a most beautiful mantle for your soul, brother,” for he was amazed at his humility and poverty.

He followed Helle back to the river. As they failed to find a ferry, Helle let out a cry calling the crocodile to him. The animal obeyed him instantly and offered its back as a raft. Helle asked the priest to climb on with him. But the priest was terrified at the sight of the beast and backed away. While he and the brothers who lived on the other bank watched, seized with dread, he crossed the ford with the beast, came ashore, and hauling the beast out of the water, said to it, “It is better for you to die and make restitution for all the lives you have taken.” Whereupon the animal at once sank onto its belly and died. 

Historia Monachorum in Aegypto 12.1,6-9 

Abba Zosimos the Cilician said...

…When I was a young man, I left Mt. Sinai and went to Ammoniac to stay there in a cell. There I found an elder dressed in a short-sleeved shirt of palm-fibre. When the elder saw me, before greeting me, he said, “Why have you come here, Zosimos? Get away from here. You cannot stay in this place.” I thought he knew me. I made a prostration before him saying, “Of your charity, elder, whence do you know me?” He said to me, “Two days ago, a being appeared to me who said, ‘A monk is coming to you whose name is Zosimos. Do not allow him to stay here. It is my will to entrust him the church of the Egyptian Babylon (Old Cairo).’ He fell silent and left me, going about a stone’s throw from me. There he spent some two hours in prayer. Then he came back to me and kissed me on the forehead, saying, “Naturally, child, you are welcome, for God has brought you here to bury my body.” I asked him, “How many years have you been here, abba?” “I am completing my forty-fifth year,” he replied. It looked to me as though his face were of fire. He said to me, “Peace be with you, child; pray for me.” And with that, the servant of the Lord lay down and fell asleep. I dug a grave and buried him. Two days later I went on my way, glorifying God.

John Moschus, Leimonarion (The Spiritual Meadow) 123 

During the reign of the emperor Decius (249-251) ...

…when there was a persecution against the Christians, seven men were captured and brought before the emperor. These seven men were named Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Constantinus, Dionysiu, Johannes, and Serapion. Althought though were tempted by various suggestions to yield, they never acquiesced. Because of his regard for them, the emperor granted time to think, so that they would not die immediately. But the seven men shut themselves up in a cave, and there they lived for many days. One of them would leave, purchase supplies, and bring back necessities.

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Now it happened one year...

…that the Nile did not rise enough to water all our fields, and a multitude of the poor came to Abba Aaron weeping and saying, “Our holy father, we and our children are going to die because the waters have not risen!” He said to them, “Believe in God and He will deliver you. As it is written, ‘The prayer of the poor man who is downhearted, he pours out entreaty before the Lord.’ Again it says, ‘The Lord has heard the desires of the poor.’” He quoted them numerous other passages from scripture and explained them to them, and he comforted them, and in this way they departed from him praising God. Now the holy man Aaron was not unconcerned about their distress, and he would go to the river each evening and immerse himself in the water up to his neck and he would pray to God, saying, “My good Christ, compassionate one, have compassion upon your image and likeness.” Indeed, he continued this practice until God had compassion for his tears and made the waters of the Nile flow over the face of the whole country. 

Paphnutius, Life of Abba Aaron, 131 (trans. Tim Vivian) 

I once related to him (St. Herman of Alaska)...

…how the Spaniards in California had taken fourteen of our Aleuts prisoner, and how the Jesuits (more likely Franciscans - CJH) had tortured one of them to try and force them all to take the Catholic faith. But the Aleuts would not submit, saying, “We are Christians, we have been baptized,” and they showed them the crosses they wore. But the Jesuits objected, saying, “No, you are heretics and schismatics; if you do not agree to take the Catholic faith, we will torture you.” And they left them shut up two to a cell until the evening to think it over.

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Helena, the emperor (Constantine's) mother...

–from whose name having made Drepanum, once a village, a city, the emperor called it Helenopolis– being divinely directed by dreams went to Jerusalem. Finding that which was once Jerusalem, desolate “as a Preserve for autumnal fruits,” according to the prophet, she sought carefully the sepulchre of Christ, from which he arose after his burial; and after much difficulty, by God’s help she discovered it. What the cause of the difficulty was I will explain in a few words.

Those who embraced the Christian faith, after the period of his passion, greatly venerated this tomb; but those who hated Christianity, having covered the spot with a mound of earth, erected on it a temple to Venus, and set up her image there, not caring for the memory of the place. This succeeded for a long time; and it became known to the emperor’s mother. Accordingly she having caused the statue to be thrown down, the earth to be removed, and the ground entirely cleared, found three crosses in the sepulchre: one of these was that blessed cross on which Christ had hung, the other two were those on which the two thieves that were crucified with him had died. With these was also found the tablet of Pilate, on which he had inscribed in various characters, that the Christ who was crucified was king of the Jews. Since, however, it was doubtful which was the cross they were in search of, the emperor’s mother was not a little distressed; but from this trouble the bishop of Jerusalem, Macarius, shortly relieved her. And he solved the doubt by faith, for he sought a sign from God and obtained it.

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Alban was still a pagan...

…at the time when the cruelties of wicked emperors were raging against Christians, and he welcomed into his house a certain clergyman who was fleeing from the persecutors. This man he observed to be engaged in continual prayer and watching day and night. All of a sudden, Divine grace shone on Alban, and he began to imitate the example of faith and piety which was set before him, and being gradually instructed by his wholesome admonitions, he cast off the darkness of idolatry, and became a Christian in all sincerity of heart. The aforesaid clergyman having been some days entertained by him, it came to the ears of the wicked ruler, that this holy confessor of Christ, whose time of martyrdom had not yet come, was concealed at Alban’s house. Whereupon he sent some soldiers to make a strict search after him. When they came to the martyr’s house, St. Alban immediately presented himself to the soldiers, instead of his guest and master, in the habit or long coat which he wore, and was led bound before the judge.

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Father Ilarion of the holy monastery of Simonopetra...

…whose obedience it was to nurse the sick, never went to sleep if any of the fathers were ill. He was entirely self-sacrificing in his care of his patients. Using his prayer rope, he prayed all night long, pacing up and down saying, “Lord, have mercy on your servant,” and “Holy Unmercenary Physicians, intercede for this servant of God.” He also went fishing for his patients, after which he would cook his catch for them in an attempt to help them become stronger and feel better.

from An Athonite Gerontikon

History of the Patriarchs:St. Cyril of Alexandria

Now Theophilus (patriarch of Alexandria, 385-412) had a nephew, his sister’s son, named Cyril, whom he had instructed and brought up to the best of his power. And after some time the patriarch sent him to the Mount of Nitria, to the desert of St. Macarius. And Cyril dwelt there five years in the monasteries, reading the books of the Old and New Testaments; for Theophilus urged him to apply himself assiduously to his studies, saying to him, “By these studies thou wilt someday arrive in Jerusalem on high, which is the dwelling place of the saints.” For Cyril was the attendant of Theophilus in the patriarchal cell, and was ordained reader.

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Antioch had another patriarch...

…who was compassionate and merciful. His name was Alexander. One of his secretaries once stole some gold from him, fled in fear and came to the Thebaid in Egypt. He was found wandering around by the bloodthirsty barbarians of Egypt and of the Thebaid; they took him as a slave to the remotest corner of their land. When the godly Alexander heard about this, he ransomed him from captivity at a cost of eighty five pieces of gold. When the captive returned, the bishop was so loving and gentle with him that one of the inhabitants of the city once said, “There is nothing more profitable or advantageous than to sin against Alexander.” On another occasion, one of the deacons slandered Alexander before all the clergy. But the godly Alexander prostrated himself before the man saying, “Brother, forgive me.”

John Moschus, Leimonarion (Spiritual Meadow) 43

This Simeon far surpassed all his contemporaries in virtue...

…and endured the discipline of a life on the top of a column from his earliest years. The occasion on which he was first elevated on the column, was the following:

While still very young, he was roving about, sporting and bounding along the eminences of the mountain, and meeting with a panther, he throws his girdle round its neck, and with this kind of halter led the beast, beguiled of its ferocity, to his monastery. His preceptor, (John the Stylite) who himself occupied a column, observing the circumstance, enquired what he had got; to which he replied, that it was a cat. Conjecturing from this occurrence how distinguished the child would be for virtue, he took him up upon the column; and on this column, and on another, towering above the summit of the mountain, he spent sixty-eight years; earning thereby the highest gifts of grace, in respect of the ejection of demons, the healing of every disease and malady, and the foresight of future things as if they were present.

Evagrius Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History 6.23
St. Symeon Stylites the Younger, 521-597, commemorated 24 May

Sophronius and I went to the same Abba Palladios with this request, “Of your charity, tell us, father, where you came from, and how it came about that you embraced the monastic life.” He was Thessalonica, he said, and then he told us this: “In my home country, about three stades beyond the city wall, there was a recluse, a native of Mesopotamia, whose name was David. He was a man of outstanding virtue, merciful and continent. He spent about twenty years in his place of confinement. Now at this time, because of the barbarians, the walls of the city were patrolled at night by soldiers. One night those who were on guard duty at that stretch of the city walls nearest to where the elder’s place of confinement was located saw fire pouring from the windows of the recluse’s cell. The soldiers thought the barbarians must have set the elder’s cell on fire, but when they went out in the morning, to their amazement, they found the elder unharmed and his cell unburned. Again the following night they saw fire, the same way as before, in the elder’s cell - and this went on for a long time. The occurrence became known to all the city and throughout the countryside. Many people would come and keep vigil on the wall all night long in order to see the fire, which continued to appear until the elder died. As this phenomenon did not merely appear once or twice but was often seen, I said to myself, “If God so glorifies his servants in this world, how much more so in the world to come when He shines upon their faces like the sun? This, my family, is why I embraced the monastic life.”

John Moschus, Leimonarion (The Spiritual Meadow) 69

And when those that believed in the Lord were multiplied...

…and the people of the city (Alexandria) heard that a man who was a Jew and a Galilean had entered the city, wishing to overthrow the worship of the idols, their gods, and had persuaded many to abstain from serving them, they sought him everywhere; and they appointed men to watch for him. So when the holy Mark knew that they were conspiring together, he ordained Annianus bishop of Alexandria, and also ordained three priests and seven deacons, and appointed these eleven to serve and to comfort the faithful brethren. But he himself departed from among them, and went to Pentapolis, and remained there two years, preaching and appointing bishops and priests and deacons in all their districts.

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And after His Ascension into heaven...

…Mark went with Peter to Jerusalem, and they preached the word of God to the multitudes. And the Holy Ghost appeared to Peter, and commanded him to go to the cities and the villages which were in that country. So Peter, and Mark with him, went to the district of Bethany, and preached the word of God; and Peter remained there some days. And he saw in a dream the angel of God, who said to him: “In two places there is great dearth.” So Peter said to the angel: “Which places do you mean?” He said to him: “The city of Alexandria with the land of Egypt, and the land of Rome. It is not a dearth of bread and water, but a dearth arising from ignorance of the Word of God, which you preach.” So when Peter awoke from his sleep, he told Mark what he had witnessed in his dream. And after that, Peter and Mark went to the region of Rome, and preached there the word of God.

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As a youth (in Britain)...

…nay, almost as a boy not able to speak, I was taken captive, before I knew what to pursue and what to avoid. Hence to-day I blush and fear exceedingly to reveal my lack of education; for I am unable to tell my story to those versed in the art of concise writing—in such a way, I mean, as my spirit and mind long to do, and so that the sense of my words expresses what I feel…

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