Palladius of Galatia

“ Now the desire of the Holy Spirit is thus:—Remoteness from the habitation of men, continual quiet, weeping and sorrowful cries, joyful hymns, the singing of the Psalms, and praises, fasting, and abstinence, and vigil, poor apparel, a humble gait, the cloaking of the thoughts of the passions, the hidden prayer of the mind; know ye that such are the things in which those who are in the desire of the spirit wish to walk, and they never wish to perform the lusts of the flesh. ”

“ O ye truly wretched men, who deserve sorrow of every kind, how is it that ye cannot understand that it was Satan who was working in you, and that, because of this, ye made yourselves to be remote from God? Oh, what a great and wonderful thing it is that God humbled Himself, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and put on his body and dwelt in him, and became obedient even unto death for our sakes! And yet we who are by nature low puff ourselves up with pride! ”

“ A certain brother vexed an old man several times by saying unto him, “What shall I do in respect of the wicked and filthy thoughts of all sorts and kinds which go through me?” And the old man answered and said unto him, “Thou art like unto a stagnant pool which is at one time filled with water, and which at another, when water hath been drawn up from it, runneth dry. Why canst thou not rather be like unto the spring which never faileth? Patient persistence is victory, and victory is constancy, and constancy is life, and life is kingdom, and kingdom is God.” ”

“ I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaiden, O Lord, by Thy will, vivify Thou me.’ The old man is falsehood, and the new man is truth; the truth is the root of good works, and falsehood is death. ”

“ And the pots which thou seest hanging from my neck and back have in them the thick darkness of my temptations, wherewith I am able to vanquish those who are so bold as to contend against me; and I lay ambushes behind me, and I rush out to overthrow those who depend upon and who boast in their own strength. And the pots which thou seest hanging on my loins and thighs, and which are arranged downwards to my feet, are full of the snares and nets which I pour out, and with which I make crooked and confound the ways of those who wish to journey in the narrow path of the fear of God ”

“ BLESSED be God Who desireth the welfare of all the children of men, Who wisheth that they may live and come to the knowledge of the truth, Who hath led us also into Egypt, and hath shewed us the great and marvellous things which are worthy to be remembered at all times, and to be written down in a book, Who hath given us the Cause of our salvation and of every one who wisheth to be helped further, and Who hath given unto us a demonstration of the good life and the doctrine which is able to rouse up the soul to the excellent rule of the ascetic life. ”

“ But because I did not want to grieve him, or to say what was evil unto him, or to be to him an occasion of sin, I chose rather to shut myself up alive in this grave than to cause a man who was made in the form of the image of God to stumble.’ And I said unto her, ‘How canst thou bear [to] live here not seeing the face of any man without being driven to despair?’ Then she answered and said unto me, ‘I occupy myself with my prayers and with the work of my hands, and I have no idle moments. ”

“ Whensoever we draw nigh to each other we come to speak that which is hateful about one another, and one by one we are raised up that we may descend to the bottom of the deepest abyss. And we do not make to sink ourselves and each other only, but also the fathers who come to us, and the strangers who gather together to us, and also the people who are in the world who visit us as if we were solitary monks, and as if we were holy men, and to these last we become a cause of stumbling and loss. ”

“ A brother asked an old man, saying, “What work ought the soul to do in order to produce fruits of excellence?” The old man said unto him, “In my opinion the work of the soul is as follows: To live in silence, persistent endurance, self-denial, labour, humility of body, and constant prayer. And a man should not consider the shortcomings of men, but his own lapses; if now a man will persist in these things the soul will after no great time make manifest the fruits of spiritual excellence.” ”

“ And when the blessed Macarius had heard these things, he plucked up courage, and said unto Satan, “By Christ, Who caused thee to make a mockery of the holy angels, explain to me, one by one, each and all of the things which thou carriest, for by this thou shalt be revealed, so that a man may see the insidiousness of thy arts and wiles, and may learn thy hidden snares, and may recognize the multitude of the burning arrows of thine error, and may flee from the performance of thy will.” ”

“ I have never gone to sleep in the daytime, and during the night season I have never rested from making supplication to God, and the angel of God hath accompanied me always and hath shewn me the might of the world which is to come, and His light hath never gone out in my mind. Every request which I made unto God I have received straightway. At all times I have seen myriads of angels standing before God. ”

“ My son, we are not able to dwell in a monastery because our sins are many, and because we are not worthy so to do; for it is great wickedness for us to dwell under the cloak of falsehood among monks, whilst our deeds are more evil than those of the folk who are in the world. But do thou remain in this dwelling, O my son, and the God Whom thou hast loved, and Whom thou hast made plans to please in everything, shall be unto thee a father, and a fellow monk ”

“ AGAINST THOSE OVER WHOM EVIL THOUGHTS HAVE DOMINION, AND IN WHOSE MIND WICKED COGITATIONS RISE UP. Those who through their sluggishness give a hand to the thoughts which make a mock of them, and by their negligence help filthy devils to have dominion over them, are like unto an abode which is full of snakes, and a house which is full of evil-smelling things, and a ship which is tossed by the waves, and a poor piece of land which is full of briars and brambles, and unto the thorns that choke it, the end of which is burning. ”

“ Thou, O Theodore, and all those, who like thee, strive in the fight, have bound the Calumniator with fetters like a kid of the goats, and have placed him under your feet, and daily ye trample upon him as ye trample upon dust; but if ye are the least unmindful of yourselves, the Calumniator, who hath been cast under your feet, will rise up again, and will set himself against you like an armed man. ”

“ If thou, O man of God, whithersoever thou goest, thinkest these and suchlike things continually, and if thy humility be in proportion to the greatness of thy power, thou shalt never fall. But if a man be neglectful, even for the twinkling of an eye, of his humility, and if pride be mingled in his negligence, he shall be cut off quickly from the height of the love of God, and he shall fall, even as quickly as a glass vessel full of water, which is suspended by a thread of a spider’s web, would fall if that thread were to be severed. ”

“ It is right that a monk should be superior to the law of nature, and that the smallest impurity whatsoever should not be in his body; but he should humble himself in such wise that owing to much fasting the physical matter of the body may not be able to increase. And it is not right for a monk to approach lusts, for if he doth, in what respect are we superior to the men of this world whom we see in several cases curbing their lusts, either for the sake of the health of the body, or for other befitting causes? ”

“ O Thou Merciful One, Who desirest that the Barbarians and all the people who are without God should have knowledge of Thee, and should turn to Thee, and Who alone art the true Physician of souls, have mercy upon me, for I know that I have made Thee wroth not a little. I have obeyed the Enemy even to my death and, behold, I am a dead man. O Thou Who didst teach the children of men who were not merciful to shew mercy to each other, O have mercy upon me! For unto Thee nothing is impossible, even though I be brought down as as low as the dust in Sheol. ”

“ I have destroyed pitilessly the labour of your hands, and have burned it in the fire, so that ye may learn what it is for a man to treat lightly the laws of the fathers, which have been given for the benefit of souls. How great is the help which ye have removed from the brethren through your not having cooked food for them! Have ye forgotten that a man hath power over a desire for food, and that he who restraineth himself from such and such a food, for God’s sake, shall obtain from God wages which are not small? ”

“ Then the old man, though unwilling, confessed and said, “I am he whom thou callest by the name of ‘Calumniator,’ and these things which thou seest upon me are those wherewith I draw towards myself the children of men, and with each one of these, according as it befitteth and is suitable for a man, I take care to fulfil the work of error; and by means of their lusts, as with wings, I make to turn backwards those who are obedient unto me, and I have great happiness in those who, through my crafts and wiles, stumble and fall.” ”

“ Let us not then, O my brethren, allow this world, which is a small and a contemptible thing, and which resembleth a fleeting shadow, to steal away from us blessed and immortal life.
Verily I fear lest your fathers in the flesh, who lived in the world, and who were carried away by the anxious cares and afflictions of the world, and who imagined about you that ye were nigh unto the Lord, whereby ye received a pledge that ye would enter into a life of blessedness, will be more worthy than ye are of assistance in the world which is to come. ”

“ Abbâ John Kolob used to say, “I am like unto a man who is sitting under a great tree, and who seeth multitudes of wild beasts and creeping things coming towards him, and because he is unable to stand up against them, he runneth and goeth up the tree, and is delivered. In like manner I sit in my cell, and I see evil thoughts coming against me, and because I cannot stand against them I flee and take refuge in God by prayer, and I am delivered from the enemies, and I live for ever.” ”

“ Abbâ Macarius said unto Abbâ Arsenius, “Why fleest thou from us?” And the old man said unto him, “God knoweth that I love you, but I cannot be both with God and with men. The thousands and ten thousands of beings who are above have only one will, but men have many wills: I cannot, therefore, leave God and be with men.” ”

“ Blessed be God, Who hath made those who have put their hopes in Him to make thee a mockery and a laughing-stock, and Who hath preserved me wholly and completely from thy error, so that whilst turning aside from the same I was able to advance in the good fight ”

“ The brethren said, “With what can we vanquish lust?” The old man said, “With the remembrance of the good things of the spirit; for, if the desire for the good things which are to come doth not abrogate the lust for the delights of this world, a man cannot overcome at all. Except the merchant’s ship be laden with manifold hope it will not be able to endure the storms, and will sail on the path of tribulation.” ”

“ O.M. This world troubleth thee because its care is in thy mind, and the love of it is in thy body, and its pleasures are in thy heart; forsake the world and it will depart from thee, and root up from thyself all its branches, and behold, the war thereof will die down in thee. For as long as thy body seeketh its gratifications, and its lust is of this world, thou art not capable of life. ”

“ And two of the fathers heard this word which he spake, but because they knew of his sublime works and labours, they imagined that he had spoken it in his innocence and simple-mindedness; and they came to him and said unto him, “Father, we have heard a thing from a man which we do not believe, for he saith that this bread which we receive is not in very truth the Body of Christ, but a mere similitude.” ”

“ And he said, “To cultivate [all] the virtues, to make themselves strangers to all wickedness, and to be watchful against judging and condemning others; prayer, and obedience, and the cultivation of the virtues are the mirror of the monk. For his soul is a fountain, and if it cast forth from it the things which are abominable it shall be made pure; but if he dig a pit, God is not wicked that He should lead us out from one house of bondage and carry us into another.”
192. An old man used to say, “Do nothing without prayer, and afterwards thou wilt never be sorry.” ”

“ If thou wishest to live with me a life of purity I will regard thee as the husband and lord of my life; but if, inasmuch as thou art a young man, this is too hard for thee, take everything which I have and leave only free to me my own body, for in this way I shall be able to fulfil my desire which is in God, and I shall become the heir of the excellences of that woman after whose name I have been called. ”

“ I have passed the whole period of twenty years in striving so that a strange thought might not enter into my heart, and I have seen Satan, until the ninth hour, with his bow stretched ready to shoot an arrow into my heart ”

“ For sufficient for thee are those whom thou hast drawn unto thyself by flattery, through thy evil wiles and their own sluggish will, and made to travel on the flat, wide road of destruction. Thou shalt not then dare to draw nigh unto those who of their own will have elected to travel in the narrow, and straight, and troubled, and vexatious way of life, but have fear, and depart from those who dwell in waste places and in deserts. ”