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Sayings of the Fathers (Systematic Collection, Latin)

tr. Chadwick, 1958; selections

14. Part 14: Of Obedience

Abba Arsenius, of blessed memory, once said to Abba Alexander: “When you have finished your palm-leaves, come and have supper with me. But if pilgrims come, eat with them.”

Abba Alexander worked away gently and unhurriedly. And at supper-time he had not finished his palm-leaves. Wanting to obey the old man’s order, he went on, hungry, until he had finished the palm-leaves. Abba Arsenius saw that he was late, and had his own supper: for he thought that perhaps pilgrims had come, and he was eating with them. Abba Alexander finished his task, and in the evening came to Abba Arsenius. And Abba Arsenius said to him: “Did pilgrims visit you?” And he said: “No.” And Abba Arsenius said: “Then why did you not come?” And he answered: “Because you told me, come when your palm-leaves are finished. I kept your word in mind, and did not come, and have only just now finished the work.” And the old man admired the exactness of his obedience, and said to him: “You should lay aside your work sooner, so as to make your psalmody, and fetch water for yourself: otherwise your body will soon grow weak.”

Abba Abraham came to Abba Ares; and while they were sitting together, a brother came and said to Abba Ares: “Tell me, what must I do to be saved?” And the old man said: “Go away, eat bread and salt every evening for a whole year: and come back, and I will talk to you.” So the brother went away and did so, and at the end of a year came again to Abba Ares. By chance Abba Abraham was again with him. This time Abba Ares said to the brother: “Go away, fast for a year, and eat every second day.”

When he had gone, Abba Abraham said to Abba Ares: “Why, when you put a light yoke on all the brothers, have you laid such a grievous burden on this brother?” And the old man said to him: “Other brothers come to ask questions and go away as they came. But this brother comes to hear a word for God’s sake, and he is a mighty labourer of God who takes the greatest trouble to do whatever I tell him. That is why I speak to him the word of God.”

They told this story of Abba John the Short. He went to an old man from the Thebaid, who was living in the desert of Scete. His abba once took a dead stick and planted it, and told him: “Pour a jug of water over its base every day until it bears fruit.” Water was so far from their cell that he went away to fetch it every evening and did not return until dawn. At the end of three years the stick turned green, and bore fruit. The old man picked some of the fruit and took it to church, and said to the brothers: “Take and eat the fruit of obedience.”¹

They said of Abba John, the disciple of Abba Paul, that he was a man who possessed the virtue of obedience in great measure. There was a tomb, in which lived a dangerous lioness. The old man saw the dung of the lioness lying round, and said to Abba John: “Go fetch that dung.” And Abba John said to him: “And what am I to do, Abba, about the lioness?” The old man smiled and said: “If she comes at you, tie her up and bring her here.”

So the brother went there in the evening, and the lioness rushed out at him. He obeyed the old man’s word, and ran at her to catch her. The lioness turned and fled: Abba John chased her, shouting: “Wait! My abba told me to tie you up.” And he caught her and tied her up.

The old man sat a long time waiting for him, and was greatly troubled in his mind because he was late. But at last he came, and brought the lioness with him, tied. The old man marvelled at the sight. But wanting to humble him, he beat him and said: “You fool, have you brought me a silly dog?” And the old man immediately untied her, and drove her away.

They said that Abba Silvanus had a disciple in Scete named Mark, who possessed in great measure the virtue of obedience. He was a copyist of old manuscripts: and the old man loved him for his obedience. He had eleven other disciples, and they were aggrieved that he loved Mark more than them. When the nearby old men heard that he loved Mark above the others, they took it ill. One day they visited him. Abba Silvanus took them with him, and went out of his cell, and began to knock on the door of each of his disciples, saying: “Brothers, come out, I have work for you.” And not one of them appeared immediately. Then he came to Mark’s cell, and knocked, saying: “Mark.” And as soon as Mark heard the voice of the old man, he came outside; and the old man sent him on some errand.

So Abba Silvanus said to the old men: “Where are the other brothers?” And he went into Mark’s cell, and found a book which he had just begun to write, and he was making the letter O. And when he heard the old man’s voice, he had not finished the line of the O. And the old men said: “Truly, Abba, we also love the one whom you love; for God too loves him.”²

Once the mother of Mark, with many attendants, came to see him. She said to the old man, when he went out to receive her: “Abba, tell my son to come out to me, so that I can see him.” The old man went into Mark’s cell, and said to him: “Go out, so that your mother can see you.” Mark was clad in a torn piece of sackcloth patched with rags, and his head and face were sooty from smoke of the cooking fire. He came out obediently, but closed his eyes, and so greeted his mother and her attendants, saying: “I hope you are well.” And none of them, not even his mother, knew who he was. Again she sent a message to the old man, saying: “Abba, send me my son, so that I may see him.” And he said to Mark: “Did I not tell you to go out so that your mother could see you?” And Mark said to him: “I went out as you said, Father. But I beg you, do not give me that order again, for I am afraid of seeming disobedient to you.” The old man went out and said to his mother: “Your son is the man who came out and greeted you with ‘I hope you are in good health.’” And he comforted her, and sent her on her way.

Four monks once came from Scete to Abba Pambo, clothed in tunics of skin. And each described the goodness of one of the others, though not in his presence. One of them fasted much, one of them owned nothing, the third was a man of great charity; and they said of the fourth that he had lived in obedience to the elders for twenty-two years.

Abba Pambo answered: “I tell you, this last is a greater virtue than the others. Each of you others has to use his own will to keep his virtue. But he eradicates his self-will and makes himself the servant of another’s will. Men like that, if they persevere till death, are confessors.”

There once came to Abba Sisois of the Thebaid a man who wanted to become a monk. And the old man asked him: “Have you any ties in the world?” And he said: “I have a son.” And the old man said to him: “Go and throw him in the river, and then you would be a monk.” He went away to throw his boy into the river. But the old man sent a monk to stop him. He was already holding his son, ready to throw him in, when the brother said: “Stop! What are you doing?” And he said: “The Abba told me to throw him in.” And the brother said: “Now the Abba says, do not throw him in.” So he left his son, and came to the old man, and became a monk of high worth, tested through obedience.³

Saint Syncletice said: “I reckon that for coenobites obedience is a higher virtue than continence, however perfect. Continence carries pride with it, obedience has the promise of due humility.”

She also said: “We ought to rule our souls with discretion: and to remain in the community, not following our own will, nor seeking our own good. We are like exiles: we have been separated from the things of the world and have given ourselves in faith to the one Father. We need nothing of what we have left behind. There we had reputation and plenty to eat: here we have little to eat and little of everything else.”

Abba Hyperichius said: “The monk’s service is obedience. He who possesses it shall have his prayers answered, and shall stand by the Crucified in confident faith. For that was how the Lord went to his cross, being made obedient even unto death.”

The old men said: “If a man trusts another man, and makes himself his servant, he ought not to think about God’s commandments, but give himself completely to obey the will of his spiritual father. If he obeys him in everything, he will not sin against God.”

The old men used to say: “God demands this of Christians: to obey the inspired Scriptures, which contain the pattern of what they must say and do, and assent to the teaching of the orthodox bishops and fathers.”

A brother from Scete was going to harvest: and he turned to a great old man and said: “Tell me, Abba, what am I to do, for I go to harvest?” The old man said to him: “If I tell you, will you do as I say?” The brother answered: “Yes; I will obey you.” The old man said: “If you do what I say, you will rise, and give up your harvesting: and come here, and I will tell you what to do.”

So the brother abandoned his harvesting, and came to the old man. The old man said: “Go into your cell, and stay there fifty days without a break. Eat bread and salt once a day. At the end I will tell you what to do next.” And he did so, and at the end came back to the old man. The old man knew him for an earnest person, and told him what sort of a person he ought to be in his cell. And the brother went down to his cell, and for three days and nights he lay prone upon the ground, in penitence before God. Then the thought came into his mind: “You are exalted, you are a great man,” and so he took control of his thoughts, and in humility called his sins to mind, saying: “And where are all the sins I have done?” And if the thought rose in his mind that he had much neglected the commandments of God, he said to himself: “I will offer God a little service, and I believe that he will have mercy upon me.” So he conquered the spirits which sent wicked thoughts: and the spirits appeared before him in a visible form, and said: “You are troubling us.” He said to them: “Why?” They said: “If we exalt you, you are quick to be humble: if we humble you, you lift yourself on high.”

The old men used to say: “From those who have not long been converted to the life of a monk, God demands no virtue so much as earnest obedience.”

An old hermit had a servant, who himself lived on a nearby estate. Once it happened that because the servant did not come, the hermit had not what he needed, neither food to eat nor materials to work. He was troubled at having neither means of work nor means of keeping alive, and said to his disciple: “Do you want to go to the estate, and call here the servant who usually brings what we need?” And he answered: “I will do as you say.” But the old man would not yet give him an order to go, for he did not dare to send the monk. After they had suffered for a long time because the servant did not come, the old man again said to his disciple: “Do you want to go to the estate, and bring him here?” And he answered: “I will do what you want.” The disciple was afraid that if he went down to the estate, he would cause scandal: but so as not to be disobedient to his father, he consented to go. The old man said: “Go, and believe in the God of your fathers, who will protect you in every temptation”: and he prayed, and sent him on his way.

The monk came to the estate, and enquired where the servant lived, and found his house. The servant happened to be away from the estate with all his family except a daughter. When the monk knocked, the daughter opened the door. And when he asked her where her father was, she urged him to come into the house, and indeed tried to pull him inside. He at first refused to go in, but in the end she pressed him and succeeded in persuading him in. Then she flung herself about him and tried to seduce him to lie with her. He felt lust rising in him, and his mind in a turmoil; and he groaned and called out to God: “Lord, for the prayers of my father, give me liberty now.” As soon as he said it, he found himself by the river on the path to the hermitage, and so was restored, unharmed, to his abba.

Two men, who were brothers (in the worldly sense) came to live in a monastery. One possessed the virtue of self-control, the other the virtue of obedience, each to a remarkable degree. If the abba said to the second, Do this, he did it: if he said, Sup at dawn, he supped at dawn. And so he gained a reputation in the monastery for his obedient conduct. But the other brother was pricked by the needle of envy against him, and said to himself: “I will test whether he is so obedient.” He went to the father of the monastery, and told him: “Send my brother away with me, and we will go somewhere else.” The abba sent them on their way.

And the ascetic brother wanted to tempt the obedient brother. They came to a river infested by crocodiles. And he said to him: “Walk down into the river, and cross.” He immediately walked into the river and the crocodiles swam to him, and licked his body, but did not hurt him. And when his brother saw what happened, he said: “Come out of the river.”

On their journey they found a corpse lying by the wayside. And the ascetic said to his brother: “If we had an old coat, we could put it over the corpse.” And he answered: “We had better pray: perhaps he will live again.” And when they had stood in earnest prayer, the dead man stood up. The ascetic brother was proud, and said: “This dead man has been raised because I am so self-controlled.”

But God revealed what had happened to the abba of the monastery, how he had tempted his brother, how the crocodiles had not hurt him, and how the dead had been raised. And when they came back to the monastery, the abba said to the ascetic: “Why did you do this to your brother? The dead man was raised because he is so obedient.”

A man of worldly life, who had three sons, renounced the world: and leaving his sons in the city, came to a monastery. After three years in the monastery, he began to be much troubled in his mind by memories of the three sons, and was very grieved for their sakes: he had not told his abba of their existence. The abba, seeing him to be grieving, said: “Why are you sad?” He told him that he had three sons in the city, and he wanted to bring them to the monastery. The abba told him to bring them.

When he arrived at the city, he found that two of them were already dead, and only one survived. He took him back to the monastery, and looked for the abba but could not find him. He asked the brothers where was the abba, and was told that he had gone to the bakery. He took his child in his arms and went to the bakery. The abba saw him coming, and greeted him. And he took the child, and hugged and kissed him. Then he said to the father: “Do you love him?” He said: “Yes.” And he said: “Do you love him with all your heart?” He answered: “Yes.” At these words the abba said: “Then, if you love him, pick him up and throw him into the oven, throw him now while it is red-hot.” And the father took his son, and threw him into the red-hot oven. And in that moment the oven was transformed and became as cool as the dew. So the father received glory for an act like that of the patriarch Abraham.

An old man said: “A brother who entrusts his soul in obedience to a spiritual father has a greater reward than the brother who retires alone to his hermitage.” And he said: “One of the fathers saw a vision of four ranks in heaven. The first rank was of men who are sick, yet are grateful to God. The second rank was of men who minister to them with willingness and generosity. The third rank was of men who live in the desert and see no one. The fourth rank was of men who for God’s sake put themselves under obedience to spiritual fathers. But the rank of the obedient men had a golden necklace and a crown, and shone more than the others. And I said to the being who showed me the vision: ‘How is it that the rank, which is least, shines the most?’ And he answered: ‘Hospitable men do what they themselves want. Hermits have followed their own will in withdrawing from the world. But the obedient have cast away their self-will, and depend on God and the word of their spiritual father: that is why they shine the most.’

So, my sons, obedience is good, if it is for God’s sake. Strive to win at least some trace of this virtue. It is the salvation of the faithful, the mother of virtue, the opening of the kingdom of heaven, the raising of men from heaven to earth. Obedience lives in the house of the angels, is the food of all the saints, who turn to it at their weaning and by its nourishment grow to a perfect life.”

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