According to Besa (wissa), Shenoute's relationship with God began early in life and was the reason he joined the White Monastery. Besa portrays the seven-year-old Shenoute as a boy with mystical powers that led his parents to place him in the care of his uncle Pcol. It is noteworthy that Besa, as narrator, did not …
One day Abba Serapion passed through an Egyptian village and there he saw a courtesan who stayed in her own cell. The old man said to her, ‘Expect me this evening, for I should like to come and spend the night with you.’ She replied, ‘Very well, abba.’ She got ready and made the bed. …
Tradition has bestowed on Antony and Pachomius the status of founders of early Egyptian monasticism. They serve as the movement's primary icons; Antony represents the anchoritic model of the ascetic life, Pachomius its coenobitic form. Antony's earlier date has fashioned him as the individual representative of monastic origins. His discovery of the "ascetic" desert, marks …
To understand the system of Pachomius’ communal monasticism is to understand Pachomius’ spirituality. In the first place Pachomian spirituality was one of community. His conversion had been brought about by the charity of the Christians, after which he became inspired by the image of service. This inspiration came to typify the expression of Pachomius’ own …
As was pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, the suffering required for spiritual martyrdom may arise from exterior agents, or from natural evils, or from the evil spirits. It may also arise from the practice of one of the evangelical counsels, such as the practice of virginity. The high respect entertained for the …
The blessed virgin S. Agnes was much wise, and well taught, as S. Ambrose witnesses, and wrote her passion. She was fair in countenance, but much fairer in the Christian faith, she was young of age, in the thirteenth year of her age she lost the death that the world gives, and found life in …
My task begins favorably, that since today is the birthday of a virgin, I have to speak of virgins, and the treatise has its beginning from this discourse. It is the birthday of a martyr, let us offer the victim. It is the birthday of St. Agnes, let men admire, let children take courage, let …
Let then, the life of St Mary be as it were virginity itself, set forth in a likeness, from which, as from a mirror, the appearance of chastity and the form of virtue is reflected. From this you may take your pattern of life, showing, as an example, the clear rules of virtue: what you …
There is no doubt that St. Antony gave to God everything he possessed; He did according to the commandment: "He went and sold all he had and gave it to the poor." (Mt 19:21) He gave to God 300 acres of the most fertile land in Bani-Souif. He gave to God all that awaited him …
Confessors prepared to die for their convictions can hardly be ignored, many have died, most of their names remain quite unfamiliar Listen: Januaria, Generosa, Vestia, Donata and Secunda. Note that all these were women. These five were among the earliest African martyrs in AD 180. Other women who followed them are Perpetua, with a child in her arms in prison before she died, and Felicitas, who …
