cistercian studies series: number two hundred forty

The Book of the Elders

Sayings of the Desert Fathers
The Systematic Collection
cistercian studies series: number two hundred forty

The Book of the Elders

Sayings of the Desert Fathers
The Systematic Collection

Translated by
John Wortley
Foreword by
Bernard Flusin

Cistercian Publications
www.cistercianpublications.org

LITURGICAL PRESS
Collegeville, Minnesota
www.litpress.org
 A Cistercian Publications title published by Liturgical Press

Cistercian Publications
Editorial Offices
Abbey of Gethsemani
3642 Monks Road
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www.cistercianpublications.org

All the quotations from Scripture in this book are presented in translation exactly
as they are found in the Greek text of The Book of the Elders. Quotations from
Psalms are identified by reference to the Septuagint numbering.

The punctuation used throughout this book is the publisher’s, not the translator’s.

© 2012 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, micro-
fiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means,
known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews,
without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey,
PO Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States
of America.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Book of the Elders : sayings of the Desert Fathers : the systematic
collection / translated by John Wortley ; introduction by Bernard Flusin.
    p. cm. — (Cistercian studies series ; no. 240)
  Includes index.
  ISBN 978-0-87907-201-8 — ISBN 978-0-87907-770-9 (e-book)
   1. Desert Fathers—Quotations.  2. Spiritual life—Christianity—
  Quotations, maxims, etc.  3. Monastic and religious
  life—Quotations, maxims, etc. I. Wortley, John.
 BR60.A62B66 2012
 271.009'015—dc23 2011051559
 gratam in memoriam
Joseph Paramelle, s.j., 1925–2011
 Contents
Foreword ix
  Bernard Flusin

Introduction xiii

Acknowledgments xxiii

List of Abbreviations  xxv

Glossary xxvii

The Book of the Elders  1

Index of Personal Names  383

vii
 Foreword
Writing in the 850s, the future patriarch Photios took note in his
celebrated Bibliotheca of a collection of apophthegms very similar
to the one John Wortley has translated here: “This is a book espe-
cially useful to those who organise their lives with a view to their
heavenly legacy. There is clarity in its style and moreover it is what
a book ought to be that is in tune with people who are not thinking
of exercising their talent but who have devoted all their effort and
zeal to the doing of good works.”1 Thus are specified both the nature
of the collection (this is ascetic literature) and that which above all
makes it attractive to the eyes of the modern reader: its clarity and
the absence of rhetoric.
The Sayings of the Fathers is first and foremost an ascetic work
assembled by monks primarily for their own use. It brings together the
sayings of “the fathers,” meaning the great monks (the “elders”) who
were responsible for training disciples living in the semianchoretic
communities of Egypt in the fourth and fifth centuries of this era. So
these very short texts, presented in large collections, are firmly rooted
in a very precise milieu, and they ought to be read in the way they
were originally intended to be received: each one as the charismatic
utterance of a spiritual father, addressed to his familiar disciples or,
on occasion, to visitors who came asking for a saying that would help
them in their quest for salvation.
This is why the apophthegms make such an impression on us. The
reader is directly confronted by the person of Antony or of Poem∑n with
nobody in between, and the elder speaks to him as to a disciple, guid-
ing him along the steep and narrow path of asceticism. And yet this is
not the teaching of only one father or mother: numerous monks speak
with many voices. The editors of the collection gathered up what they
could find of the sayings of the fathers and mothers of old time and in

1
Photius, Bibliothèque, cod. 198, vol. 3, ed. and trans. René Henry (Paris: Société
d’Éditions Les Belles Lettres, 1962), 95.

ix
x The Book of the Elders

this way tried to show that while in one way the elders proclaimed a
single message, each person could doubtless find what was appropriate
(even intended) for him in the diversity of the advice that was given.
The apophthegms are nothing other than what the elders said or
the brief, edifying tales they told. It is in their simplicity that the say-
ings convey a sense of freshness and immediacy: it is Antony himself
or Arsenius who is speaking to us or of whose life we catch a brief
glimpse. Yet it is important not to lose sight of the fact that we are
dealing with a literary work. A considerable space of time separates
the monks of the apophthegms and the text that we read now. After the
age of the great anchorites who inspired them to do so, more than a
century went by before the refugee monks from Scete assembled their
collections of sayings—in the Gaza region or elsewhere in Palestine.
And there was a difference of language. Most of the Desert Fathers
spoke Coptic, while the collections were written in Greek. Literary
elaboration has played its part too; extracts from written works (e.g.,
of Evagrius or of Doulas) might be included under cover of a small
collection of sayings. It is also possible to detect some variation
in spiritual sensibilities lurking behind the apparent consensus of
teaching when certain dossiers are subject to intense scrutiny. The
apophthegms were essentially conceived to give the impression of
direct contact between a disciple and his spiritual master. They are
nothing other then the transformation of that contact into writing,
and their greatest success (due to the exclusion of all rhetoric) is
their ability to recapture the irreplaceable element in the saying that
is heard and in the example that is seen.
The apophthegms are addressed, as Photios says, “to those who
organise their lives with a view to their heavenly legacy”; hence, this
is a literature of an essentially ascetic nature; or, to use the categories
popularized by Evagrius at the end of the fourth century, it restricts
itself to the praktika. So nothing is to be found in it of the theoria: no
theology, no teaching on the difficulties arising from Scripture. Even
though the apophthegmatic collections (in their original form) were
put together at a time when the Eastern churches were being disturbed
by serious christological dissensions, they are silent on this subject.
This characteristic assured them of a wide distribution. First edited
in Greek (the alphabetic/anonymous collection perhaps at the end
 Foreword xi

of the fifth century, the systematic, translated here by John Wortley,

probably at the beginning of the sixth), they were quickly diffused
in Latin and Syriac. Then they were translated back into Coptic and,
subsequently, into all the languages and confessions of medieval
Christianity. In the Greek-speaking world they never ceased to be
recopied, and from the second half of the sixth century they figured
among the favorite readings of Eastern monks.
Lacking the protection of an author’s name, the collections are
defined by their function, which is to concentrate the teaching of the
Fathers (insofar as this can be done). Hence, their contents are of
many kinds and (especially in earlier times) always susceptible to
modification and enrichment. This is why, although the collections
are well known, they are still very badly edited. Their value for the
history of monasticism or of spirituality became ever more clearly
recognized in the course of the second half of the twentieth century
when the fascinating and diversified world they bring back to life
was more fully explored. But the immense effort they demand of
the philologist has so far only very imperfectly been accomplished.
Following in the footsteps of Wilhelm Bousset (1923), Jean-Claude
Guy was able to unravel the manuscript tradition of the systematic
collection (1962), and before his death he produced an edition of that
collection, which Bernard Meunier was able to bring to completion.
For many years John Wortley has taken an interest in monastic
literature, having produced some work on the related genre of the
spiritually beneficial tale: a Repertoire2 that can be consulted on-
line, an edition of the Tales of Paul of Monembasia,3 and an English
translation of John Moschos’s Spiritual Meadow.4 Now, going back
in time, he has turned to the older texts. With his linguistic abilities
and his familiarity with early monastic literature, he has focussed his
attention on the apophthegms, and in this volume he offers a precise

2
home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~wortley/; Scripta & E-scripta 8/9 (2010): 93–306, with
introductory essay by John Wortley.
3
The Spiritually Beneficial Tales of Paul, Bishop of Monembasia, and of Other
Authors, intro., trans., and commentary John Wortley, CS159 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cis-
tercian, 1996).
4
John Moschos, The Spiritual Meadow, trans. John Wortley, CS 139 (Kalamazoo,
MI: Cistercian, 1992).
translation into simple English of Jean-Claude Guy’s edition of the
systematic collection.

Bernard Flusin
(translated by John Wortley)
 Introduction
The early part of the fourth century of our era was a time of
many changes. It saw the Roman Empire itself gradually transformed
from a loose federation of provinces administered from Rome on the
Tiber into a tightly controlled monarchy ruled (after 329) from the
new capital on the Bosporus, Constantinople. It experienced the first
shock waves from the movements of the so-called barbarian peoples
who would eventually dominate a large part (and overshadow even
more) of that Empire. It saw a new religion scarcely three centuries
old gain the ascendancy over the many old religions that Rome had
cheerfully tolerated, eventually to exclude them. It was in this context
that certain devotees of the new religion, many men and some women,
began to withdraw from “the world” (as they called society as we
know it) to retreat into the desert, there to practice their new religion
more seriously. They may have felt that its recent legalisation and the
subsequent influx of people who merely liked to be on the winning
side threatened its purity. Or they may have feared that the Hellenism
of urban society was too strong for the new, largely Semitic faith to
challenge without being compromised. They may simply have been
trying to escape the increasing demands, fiscal and other, that the
centralization of government was placing on all levels of society with
increasing vehemence. But, whatever the reasons, out into the desert
they went; and they did so in ever-increasing numbers.
These “withdrawers” (anchorites) were the first Christian monks;
their luminaries were the so-called Desert Fathers. It was in what is
now called Egypt that this great withdrawal first occurred. Most of
the land there is desert, relieved only by the fertile valley of the Nile
and its great estuary where sits that jewel of the Mediterranean, Al-
exandria. The earliest monks, however, were not from the Hellenized,
urbanized delta; they were simple Coptic-speaking peasants (fellahin)
from the smaller towns and villages of the Nile valley. We cannot say
with certainty when their withdrawal first began, but we can say what
xiii
xiv The Book of the Elders

was the immediate cause of many taking the desert road. According
to Athanasius, the contemporary and the biographer of Antony the
Great (ca. 250–356), when Antony was still a very young man, he
was reflecting on

how the apostles abandoned everything and followed the Savior;

how others sold their goods “and brought the prices of the things
that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles’ feet” [Acts 4:35]
to be given to those in need and what a great hope awaited them in
heaven. While thinking about these things, he went into church just
when the Gospel was being read and he heard the Lord saying to the
rich man: “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all your belongings;
give [the proceeds] to the poor. Then come and follow me and you
will have treasure in heaven” [Matt 19:21].5

In response, Antony promptly embarked on a long and highly influ-

ential monastic career. Largely on account of Athanasius’s chronicle
of that career, Antony is traditionally hailed as “the first monk” and
the founder of the monastic tradition. Certainly many others heard
the dominical challenge “If you wish to be perfect .  .  .  ,” sold up,
and retreated into the desert; but it is clear from Athanasius’s words
that Antony was not exactly a pioneer:

Now there was at that time an elder in the adjacent village who fol-
lowed the ascetic, solitary life from his youth. When Antony saw
him, he imitated him well and truly. At first he began himself living
in the area outside the village. Then if he heard of anyone seriously
[doing likewise] he would go and search him out like a wise bee
and would not return to his own place until he had seen him and
received from him provisions (as it were) for the road to virtue.6

We may never know who first embraced the desert “road to virtue,”
but it is clear from this passage that one who would do so had first to
learn from another. The word “monk” does indeed mean “a loner,”
but the person who aspired to “renounce the world” must first find
an “elder” (gerøn)—meaning a person advanced not necessarily in

5
Athanasius, Vita Antonii, ed. and trans. G. J. M. Bartelink, Athanase d’Alexandrie,
Vie d’Antoine, SCh 40 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1994), 2.2–3. Hereafter VA.
6
VA 3.3.
 Introduction xv

age but certainly in monastic practice—who would accept him as

a disciple and apprentice. To his elder (whom he would address as
abba, “father”) the neophyte owed complete obedience; from his abba
(and other elders) he would receive “provisions (as it were) for the
road to virtue.” This provender came in two forms: first, there was
the practical example of the abba’s own way of life; second, there
was the verbal teaching of the elders in sayings and tales, setting out
the theory and practice of the eremitic life.
Characteristically, the saying was a short, laconic statement ex-
pressing some vital point—for example, “Humility effaces many
sins” [1.9; Isaiah of Scete]. On receiving a saying, the disciple would
memorize and meditate upon it until his abba judged him ready for
another piece of instruction. (For the early monks, “meditate” seems
to have meant repeating something out loud, over and over again.7)
After some considerable time and only in some cases, the abba might
suggest that a disciple go and set up his own hermitage elsewhere.
And if, in due course, that brother (now an “elder”) were to receive
disciples of his own, to these he would impart the tales and sayings he
had learned from his abba. They in turn would teach them to others,
all by word of mouth, and in this way an ever-increasing folklore of
the desert was created and diffused.
In this desert lore, tales and sayings are intermixed like sand and
gravel, and, as with sand and gravel, it is not always easy to say which
is which. A mere glance at the surviving material reveals that there
are several narratives or tales interspersed with the sayings, showing
the sort of life an elder led and the actions he performed. Thus one
can say that while the sayings define the theory, the tales describe
the practice of desert monasticism (eremitic monachism). There are
exceptions, but on the whole the distinction is a valid one. In due
course the tales achieved an existence independent of the sayings
and circulated freely outside the monastic community as “spiritually
beneficial tales.” There are already some tales in the present collection
whose monastic connection is by no means evident.

1 1 1 1

7
John Wortley, “How the Desert Fathers ‘Meditated,’” Greek, Roman, and Byz-
antine Studies 46 (2006): 315–28.
xvi The Book of the Elders

From an early date an important transition began to take place in

the nature of the monastic community as the rough, Coptic-speaking
first monks were joined by increasing numbers of the more sophisti-
cated, Greek-speaking denizens of Alexandria, other cities of Egypt,
and even further afield.8 With their arrival the tales and sayings began
to circulate in Greek as well as in Coptic. In due course they began
to be written down; that is, they were written in Greek, and it is in
Greek that they have come down to us. Those who composed the
extant collections may have been refugees from Scete, the monas-
tic location that features most prominently in the tales and sayings,
known to have been devastated by barbarians from the Libyan desert
three times at least. Scete had been the main, the most remote, and
the most advanced center of monastic activity. At some point the
displaced community of Scete and its hinterland seems to have been
partially reconstituted in Palestine, in the wadis of the West Bank;
and it was probably there that, at the end of the fifth century, refugee
monks made the first attempts to record the lore of the Desert Fathers
(gerontika, paterika) in writing. Their object was almost certainly to
fix for posterity the memory of a land and a life they had been forced
to abandon. Thus so many of the tales and sayings begin with the
nostalgic phrase “Abba N. used to say” back in Scete, at The Cells,
on the Mountain of Nitria, or simply “in the desert.”
The earliest attempts to codify tales and sayings are lost; we only
know of their existence because they are mentioned by the editor(s)
whose work has survived. Those editors, presumably to impose some
sort of order on the confusing mass of oral material in circulation,
adopted the very sensible principle of gathering all the known sayings
or activities of a certain abba under one head; then, by reference to
the initial letter of the abba’s name, they set the heads in the order of
the letters of the Greek alphabet. They started with Antony the Great,
Arsenius, and Agathon and (about a thousand items later) concluded

8
It is alleged that even Poemen, to whom an enormous number of sayings is at-
tributed, did not speak Greek: “Abba John who was exiled by [the Emperor] Marcian
[450–57] used to say: ‘Coming from Syria, we once visited Abba Poemen and we
wanted to ask him about hardness of heart. The elder did not speak Greek and there
was no interpreter to hand. Perceiving our dismay, the elder began speaking in the
Greek tongue, saying .  .  .’” Poemen 183, APsys [see n13 in this introduction] 18.21.
 Introduction xvii

with Cheremon, Psenthaisius, and Ør (C, Y, W). Incidentally, it was

those editors who first employed the word “apophthegms” (apo-
phthegmata) to describe the tales and sayings; hence the collection
just described is known as apophthegmata patrum alphabetica, the
Alphabetic Apophthegms of the Fathers (APalph).
The same editors realized, however, that there was still a large
amount of material in circulation that, for some reason or other, had
not been incorporated into APalph. Much of this consisted of tales and
sayings with no name attached—for example, “An elder was asked
.  .  .” or “One of the fathers used to say. . . .” This material they
gathered into a supplementary collection now known as the Anony-
mous Apophthegmata (APanon) and also as Nau after Frédéric Nau
who first published the items 1–400 at the beginning of the twentieth
century.9 The second half remains unpublished, but a complete edi-
tion and translation will shortly appear.10 It is clear from the extant
manuscripts that the editors attempted to impose some sort of order
on these anonymous items too. They did this in the earlier part of the
collection by grouping items of similar import with each other—for
example, items dealing with humility, those on the subject of Christian
charity, and so forth.
It would appear from the introduction to APalph that the two parts
of the collection just described were made by the same person(s)
at more or less the same time. Another major collection, the text
of which is presented in this volume, probably began to emerge a
generation or so later. It is easy to see why it was made: those at-
tempting to live the monastic life needed to be able to consult all the
available tales and sayings on any one topic without having to search
through the two huge parts of the former collection, contained no
doubt in several scrolls. The partial attempt of the editors of APanon
to sort by topic was apparently appreciated; now that procedure was
extended to the entire corpus. Thus there was generated the system-
atic collection (APsys). Twenty-one chapter heads were identified,
each of them a monastic virtue or desideratum; then much of the

9
Frédéric Nau, “Histoires de solitaires égyptiens,” Revue de l’Orient Chrétien
12 (1907) to 18 (1913).
10
Ed. and trans. John Wortley, Cambridge University Press.
xviii The Book of the Elders

extant material was arranged under those heads. A typical chapter of

APsys as it now stands contains, first, a selection from APalph (often
preserving the original alphabetic order of the items), then maybe
some extracts from the Spiritual Discourses of Isaiah of Scete11 and/
or sundry other items, mainly anonymous (for instance, the curious
“medical” items in 16.17–20). Finally, each chapter reproduces a
considerable number of selections from the anonymous apophthegms
[APanon], to which some additional matter may have been appended.12
Some of the chapters are quite short: no. 19, on miracles, has only
twenty-one items, while no. 10, on discrimination, is the longest with
almost two hundred. The entire collection now contains about 1,200
items compared with about one thousand in APalph and more than
eight hundred in APanon.

1 1 1 1

While everything that has been stated so far is correct generally

speaking, there is a complicating factor that must be taken into con-
sideration: the instability of the texts. Until the invention of print-
ing (and well beyond it in some cases), texts were transmitted in
manuscript form; they were written out by hand. For the most part,
copyists made it a point of honor to reproduce the exemplar before
them as accurately as possible, so that (apart from the inevitable
mistakes of human frailty) all the extant manuscripts of a given text
tend to resemble each other fairly closely. Such, however, is not by
any means the case where apophthegmatic material is concerned.
The actual sayings of the fathers seem to have suffered least, maybe
because these are usually short and therefore could be easily memo-
rized verbatim. But alternative wordings, amplifications, additions,
and changes in emphasis are not by any means uncommon even in
the sayings. Some variations in sayings could also be due to a variety
of translation from the original Coptic, a fortiori in the case of tales.

11
Isaiah was a Monophysite monk who died at Gaza in 488. See Abba Isaiah of
Scetis: Ascetic Discourses, trans. John Chryssavgis and Pachomios Penkett, CS 150
(Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2002).
12
Chap. 21 exceptionally has no selections from APalph and only three pieces from
Isaiah of Scete. Nearly all the rest of the contents are from APanon.
 Introduction xix

Here there can be such a breadth of variation that in extreme cases

no more than the basic structure of the tale remains unchanged. This
variation in sayings and tales may be explained by the coexistence
over several centuries of the oral and written forms, which constantly
contaminated each other. Thus a scribe might well set down not the
dead text found in his exemplar but the living word he had received
from the mouth of a charismatic abba. And if he had heard other tales
not found in his exemplar, these he might not hesitate to include; or
he might regroup material the way his teachers grouped them—and
even omit items for which he had no oral authority. Thus the collec-
tions themselves vary in content almost as much as the tales vary in
form, to the extent that it is rare indeed to find two manuscripts of
apophthegmatic material that contain the identical contents in the
same order as each other.
These variations present a great problem for today’s scholars;
doomed to disappointment are they who attempt to establish the Ur-
text of this material, for it is a structure based on the shifting sands of
hearsay. The one thing that can be said with a degree of confidence
is that the individual items, just like the collections in which they
are found, do tend to expand (rarely to contract) with the passage of
time. This tendency is clearly discernible when one examines an item
at subsequent stages of its transmission: first in APalph or APanon,
again in APsys, and then in the great eleventh-century Synagogê of
Paul Euergetinos.13 Indeed, the tales in particular are so skeletal and
laconic when they first appear that one is led to suspect that the inten-
tion of the earliest editors may have been to present no more that the
bare bones of a tale, never intended to be more than notes or even
mere mnemonics for a story-teller who was expected to tell it in his
own words and, of course, at his own length. If such were the case,
then it was almost inevitable that the role of raconteur would begin
to impinge on that of scribe.

1 1 1 1

13
Paul Euergetinos, A Collection [Synagøg∑] of the inspired sayings of the godly and
holy fathers [ .  .  . ] (Venice: 1783; sixth edition, 4 vols., Athens: 1980).
xx The Book of the Elders

When was APsys created? Clearly later than the two parts of the
former collection, since it draws heavily on both: hence (roughly)
after AD 500. A terminus ante quem is established in the third quarter
of the sixth century by the existence of a Latin translation of the text
made by the deacon Pelagius and the subdeacon John (P&J),14 each
of whom subsequently became pope of Rome (556–61 and 561–74,
respectively). However, whereas the modern critical edition of APsys
contains about 1,200 items, there are only 737 in P&J. Examination
of the extant Greek manuscripts of APsys suggests that P&J is the
earliest surviving evidence of a text in a state of evolution, two further
stages of which are discernible. As there are no extracts from Isaiah
of Scete in P&J, this would appear to represent the most primitive
extant version of the text. A second version is characterized by the
incorporation of a little material by Isaiah of Scete, while a third one
not only includes a large amount of Isaiah but also presents evidence
of the other contents having been somewhat rearranged to accom-
modate it.15
It is this third version that is translated in this volume. A terminus
ante quem is established by the oldest extant manuscript of the text,
Athos Lavra B 37, copied in AD 970. One might suspect that the
process of the evolution of the text had more or less come to an end
some considerable time before that date, but it might nevertheless
have been a long process. It should be noted in passing that APalph
may well have also undergone a similar process of evolution, for it
now contains material that the editors of APsys appear not to have
known. But these are thorny problems; there appears to have been
hardly anything fixed about the apophthegmatic texts, with the excep-
tion, that is, of the alphabetic system in one case and the twenty-one
heads in another. “The philological problem of the Apophthegmata
Patrum is one of the most complex problems posed by the editing of
patristic texts,” wrote Père Guy, citing Wilhelm Bousset, who wrote,

Pelagius and John, Apophthegmata Patrum, ed. Heribert Rosweyde, in Vitae

14

Patrum VI and VII, Anvers 1615 and 1623, repr. in PL 73:851–1022; The Desert
Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks, trans. Benedicta Ward (New York:
Penguin, 2003).
15
Such is the conclusion of Guy, Recherches sur la tradition grecque des Apoph-
thegmata Patrum, SH 36 (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1962), 182–84.
 Introduction xxi

“The transmission of the Apophthegmatic literature is astonishingly

complicated considering the extraordinarily varied nature of the source
materials.”16 The difficulties are by no means reduced by the absence
of reliable editions of both the alphabetic and the anonymous series.
Fortunately this is no longer the case so far as APsys is concerned.
Of this there is an excellent critical edition and French translation, the
work of the late Father Jean-Claude Guy17 and (to a certain extent) of
Bernard Flusin and Bernard Meunier; the present translation is based
entirely on their Greek text. Needless to say, given the instability of
the text, the editors had to make some arbitrary choices; these have
been neither challenged nor altered in this translation. Yet here, as
ever, the translator has to serve two masters. On the one hand, he is
bound to express the meaning of the text as precisely as possible; on
the other hand, he is obliged to do so in English that is smooth to the
ear and easily understood. How far he can compromise in reconciling
these two aims is a matter of choice for each translator. If the present
writer has offended or confused the English reader, he apologizes;
if he has dismayed the Hellenist, he begs forgiveness. His aim was
to make the wisdom of the Desert Fathers as widely available as the
English language is read. Not all of this book will appear to be wis-
dom to every one of its readers; some of it may indeed appear to be
foolishness, for it speaks of an arcane wisdom to which we may have
partly lost the keys. Nevertheless, every reader will find something
in the apophthegms of the fathers that will ring true for him or her.
For those who, like those fathers, strive to lead the Christ life but “in
the world” (as the fathers would have said), the hope is that they too
will find in this book abundant “provisions (as it were) for the road
to virtue,” as does your translator,

John Wortley
Winnipeg, mmxi

16
Jean-Claude Guy, 7: “Die Überllieferung der Apophthegmata-Literatur ist eine
erstaunlich verwickelte, und das in Betracht kommende Quellenmaterial ungemein
weitschichtig”; Wilhelm Bousset, Apophthegmata; Studien zur Geschichte des ältesten
Mönchstums (Tubingen: Mohr, 1923) 1.
17
Jean-Claude Guy, Les Apophtegmes des Pères: collection systématique, SCh
387 (1993), 474 (2003), and 498 (2005). Hereafter APsys.
 Acknowledgments
The translator wishes most gratefully to signal and acknowledge
the unstinting aid and encouragement he has received throughout the
preparation of this volume from his colleague and friend Dr. Robert
Jordan of Belfast. Without his eagle eye and wise scholarship, more
than a few infelicities would have slipped through in this translation.
It is thanks entirely to his diligent reading of the manuscript that this
treasury of early monastic wisdom can now be presented to the public
with a degree of confidence that it fairly represents what the Desert
Fathers bequeathed to posterity.
The translator and his publisher both wish to warmly thank
Sources Chrétiennes for the generous permission to translate the
text of Guy’s edition (cited in note 13 above) of the collection systé-
matique of apophthegms and to publish it.

Jw

xxiii
 Abbreviations
Items found in other collections are identified either by a name and
a number (e.g., Arsenios 14) or by N and a number (e.g., N 253). In
the former case the reference is to Apophthegmata patrum, collec-
tion alphabetica [APalph], ed. Jean-Baptiste Cotelier, in Monumenta
Ecclesiae Graecae, vol. 1 (Paris: 1647), re-ed. Jacques-Paul Migne,
PG 65:71–440, English translation by B. Ward, The Sayings of the
Desert Fathers (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1975).
In the latter case the reference is to the appendix of the above, the
so-called anonymous collection of apophthegmata (APanon), first
partially edited by Frédéric Nau (hence “N”), “Histoires de solitaires
égyptiens,” Revue de l’Orient Chrétien 12 (1907) through 18 (1913).
The first complete edition and translation (by John Wortley) is about
to be published by Cambridge University Press.

BHG François Halkin, Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca, 3rd ed.,

3 vols., Subsidia Hagiographica N° 8a (Brussels: 1957); and
idem., Novum auctarium Bibliothecae Hagiographicae Graecae,
Subsidia Hagiographica N° 65 (Brussels: 1984).

Disc Abba Isaiah of Scetis: Ascetic Discourses, trans. John Chrys-

savgis and Pachomios Penkett (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian
Publications, 2002).

CPG Corpus Patrum Graecorum

HL Palladius of Hellenopolis, Historia Lausiaca, ed. Cuthbert

Butler, in The Lausiac History of Palladius, 2 vols (Cambridge:
1898, 1904); ed. G. J. M. Bartelink, trans. Marino Barchiesi,
Palladio, La Storia Lausiaca (Fondazione Lorenza Valla:
1974); trans. Les sœurs carmelites de Mazille, Les Moines du
désert (Paris: 1981).

xxv
xxvi The Book of the Elders

HME Anonymous, Historia Monachorum in Ægypto, ed. André-

Jean Festugière, Subsidia Hagiographica N° 53 (Brussels,
1971); trans. André-Jean Festugière, Enquête sur les Moines
d’Egypte, in Les Moines d’Orient IV/1 (Paris: 1964); trans.
Norman Russel, The Lives of the Desert Fathers (Kalamazoo,
MI: Cistercian Publications, 1981).

LXX Septuagint

N (Nau) = APanon

PG Patrologia Graeca

PL Patrologia Latina

PO Patrologia Orientalis

P&J Pelagius and John, trans., Apophthegmata Patrum, ed. Heri-

bert Rosweyde, in Vitae Patrum VI and VII (Anvers 1615 and
1623); repr. in PL 73:851–1022; trans. B. Ward, The Desert
Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks (London and
New York: Penguin Books, 2003).

Pract Evagrius Ponticus, Practicus

PS John Moschos, Pratum Spirituale, ed. Jacques-Paul Migne (after
Fronto Ducaeus and Jean-Baptiste Cotelier), with the Latin trans.
of Ambrose Traversari, PG 87:2851–3112; trans. John Wortley,
The Spiritual Meadow (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications,
1992; repr. 1996, 2001); trans. Jean Bouchet, Fioretti des moines
d’orient (Paris: 2006).

S Supplementary items published by Jean-Claude Guy in Re-

cherches sur la tradition grecque des Apophthegmata Patrum
(Brussels: 1962; repr. 1984 with corrections).
 Glossary
Non-English Words Retained in the Translation

abba. Father, a senior monk but not necessarily an old one; see 15.57.
accidie (ak∑dia). “Sloth, torpor, especially as a condition leading to
listlessness and want of interest in life” (OED), probably akin to
depression.
agap∑. Literally “love,” used to designate a common meal shared by
monks on special occasions (hence “love feast”), possibly originally
made possible by some freewill offering.
amma. Mother.
apatheia. Literally “unfeeling”; indifference to physical conditions; a
term found rarely in the Apophthegmata but common in later mo-
nastic writing.
ask∑sis. Literally “a formation,” usually meaning the practice of asceti-
cism; the discipline associated with the monastic way of life.
ask∑t∑s. One who practices ask∑sis.
coenobion, adj. coenobitic. Here transliterates koinobion, “common
life,” meaning wherever persons live together in community (a con-
vent) under the supervision of a koinobiarch, here translated “supe-
rior” or rendered higoumen, q.v. A place or a community in which
monks live together with shared worship, meals, and responsibilities.
dynamis. The healing “power” believed to be given off by holy persons
and their relics and effects, as in Mark 5:30.
higoumen (h∑goumenos). The head of a monastic community.
h∑sychia (h∑suchia). Not merely (or necessarily) silence [siøp∑; see 2.4
and 2.12] but an interior silence characterized by a tranquil acqui-
escence in the will of God, producing a “profound calm and great
peace within” (2.22).
xxvii
xxviii The Book of the Elders

leviton. (That is, “Levite’s.”) The monk’s garment for prayer, usually
white.
logismos, pl. logismoi. A word of many meanings. It can simply mean
one’s thinking process, but it can also mean everything that goes on
in that process—good, bad, and indifferent—from a mere whim to a
serious temptation.
porneia. Any illicit sexual movement of body, mind, or spirit.
synaxis, pl. synaxes. Literally “a congregating”; it means an act of wor-
ship, either of one or a few monks (the “little synaxis,” also called
“liturgy”) or of an entire community (e.g., at weekends and festivals)
at a central location. The Holy Eucharist (“Offering”) is also called
synaxis.

English Words Used with Specific Meanings

act of obeisance. A prostration; to throw oneself at somebody’s feet.

alienation. Translates Greek xeniteia and Latin perigrinatio; making
oneself a “stranger and sojourner” [1 Pet 2:11], usually in an unin-
habited place (but see 4.52).
anchorite (anachor∑t∑s). One who withdraws; one who has abandoned
“the world” for the desert or (more usually) has left a community to
live alone. See 10.172; N 243.
ascetic, asceticism (ask∑t∑s, ask∑sis). The practitioner and practice of
monastic discipline, perceived as a training or formation in travelling
the way to perfection.
burnt-faced one (aithiops, from which “Ethiopian” derives). A devil
or demon.
dried loaf (paxamas). “Biscuit,” named after the baker Paxamos; a bread
roll that has been sun dried or baked hard.
Egypt. Only the inhabited part of what is now known as Egypt, mainly
the valley of the Nile and its delta region.
elder. Here translates gerøn, often misleadingly rendered “old man,”
but age is not necessarily implied (compare “elder” among North
American Indians). An elder is one advanced not so much in age as
in experience; hence a senior monk, as opposed to a junior (brother).
 Glossary xxix

expatriation. See alienation.

loose talk (parrh∑sia). “Outspokenness,” “familiarity,” also in a good
sense; “freedom of access” (e.g., to the Deity, as at 1 John 2:28).
Lord-and-master. Translates despot∑s.
monastery. Here means any place where monks live, from the smallest
hermitage to the vast Pachomian establishment.
poverty. Here inadequately translates akt∑mosyn∑, literally “without
possessions.” In the Apophthegmata the word means not only the
voluntary abandonment of material possessions but, a fortiori, indif-
ference to possessions even when they are accessible.
Rome. In most cases in the Apophthegmata: Constantinople, “New
Rome.”
sorrow for sin. Here translates katanyxis, sometimes rendered
“compunction.”
voluntary exile. See alienation.
worldling. “One who is devoted to the interests and pleasures of the
world” (OED). This obsolete English word has been resurrected to
represent the Greek kosmikos, a person “of the world” as opposed to
one “of the desert” (that is, a “non-monk”), sometimes translated “lay-
man” or “non-clergyman” (although very few monks were clerics);
also sometimes translated “secular,” but that usually means a cleric
who is not a monk—almost no worldlings were clerics.

1 1 1 1

Where words are found in square brackets in the text, these are words that
are not found in the Greek but are desirable to make the meaning clear.
The Book of the Elders
 Prologue to
The Book of the Elders
Called Paradise
1. In this book the virtuous asceticism, the wondrous
way of life, and the sayings of holy and blessed fathers
are recorded to school those who are desirous of suc-
cessfully pursuing the heavenly way of life and willing
to travel the road to the kingdom of heaven by emulating
and imitating them.
2. Now it has to be known that the holy fathers who
became emulators and teachers of this blessed monastic
life, once they were enflamed with divine and heavenly
love and had concluded that all that is good and hon-
orable among people was worth nothing, made a great
effort above all to do nothing for show. They traveled the
way prescribed by Christ while concealing the greater
part of their good deeds through extreme humility.
3. So nobody has been able precisely to describe their
virtuous life for us. Those who labored most painstak-
ingly at the task have bequeathed to us in writing a few
examples of [the elders’] achievements in word and
deed, not in order to flatter [the elders] but to rouse
those who came after to emulation. At different times
they set down these very many of the elders’ sayings and
good deeds in narrative form, in simple and uncontrived
language, with only this one object in view: to benefit
many people.
4. But since the relating of many of the things was
confused and disordered—their meaning haphazardly
3
4 The Book of the Elders

spread throughout the book, which did not help the

memory to keep track of it—it caused some difficulty
in the reader’s mind. That is why we have moved to this
arrangement by chapters, for it is able to provide very
clear comprehension and ready benefit for those who
wish it because a statement unanimously sustained by
many virtuous persons makes no small contribution to
the advance of virtue.
5. For when Abba Antony says that “humility evades
all the snares of the devil” [see 15.3, Antony 7], an-
other [elder] that “humility is a tree of life, raised up
on high” [see 15.67, Hyperechios, N 699], another that
“humiliation neither angers anyone nor gets angry” [see
21.34; N 115], while yet another says that “if one says
to another in humility, ‘Forgive me,’ he burns the de-
mons” [see 15.98], from all these the mind of the reader
receives confidence to make every effort in pursuit of
humility. And you will find the same in the other chap-
ters; for the arrangement of the chapters all together and
each one of them separately is beneficial in the highest
degree to him who undertakes the reading of the book.
6. Since each chapter contains the various sayings of
fathers, named and unnamed, one should know that
we have first set out in alphabetical order those whose
names we were able to discover, unless of course the
initial letter has disappeared with the disappearance of
the name.
7. The general sequence of the chapters is not arranged
without plan or haphazardly; it too is very convenient
for him who is willing to apply his mind.
8. For after the exhortations, it begins with the practices
most particular to, and primarily for, monks: h∑sychia,
sorrow for sin, self-discipline. Then, going somewhat
deeper, it describes the more perfect practices a little
at a time, finally proceeding to those that are generally
 Prologue 5

beneficial, both integrating and perfecting those that

have been enrolled in and are components of the com-
mon life, which are obedience, humility, love. For what
is more beneficial or greater than obedience? What [is]
more perfect than love? What [is] more elevated than
humility?
9. To these are added some other great things, but these
are charismata rather than correct forms of behavior;
for revelations and explanations of divine sayings, the
workings of miracles and powers would be donatives of
God rather than human pursuits. But if someone adds
to such things [the practice of] totally alienating him-
self from men or always going naked or feeding on
wild herbs, he will not fall short of what is appropriate.
For such practices are set out here so that we might
practice them in every way in order to know in what
relationship our holy fathers stood with God and with
what distinctions he glorified those who were sincerely
devoted to him.
10. Providing a final ornament, the entire book con-
cludes with the sayings [apophthegmata] of the fathers
that teach the task of monks in brief.
11. The chapters are as follows:1

i. An Exhortation of Holy Fathers on Advanc-

ing toward Perfection  7
ii. Every Effort Should Be Made to Pursue
H∑sychia  15
iii. Sorrow for Sin [Katanyxis,
“Compunction”]  25
iv. Self-Control [Egkrateia] Should Be Achieved
Not Only in the Case of Food but Also in
Other Movements of the Soul  38
1
The arabic numerals have been added for the convenience of
the reader.
6 The Book of the Elders

v. Various Narratives for Security in the Wars

Arising against Us from Porneia  59
vi. Poverty [Akt∑mosyn∑] and That It Is Necessary
to Guard against Covetousness  89
vii. Various Narratives Preparing Us for Patience
and Courage  98
viii. One Should Do Nothing for Show  123
ix. One Should Guard against Judging
Anybody  133
x. Discretion [Diakrisis] 143
xi. One Should Ever Be on Watch  189
xii. One Should Pray without Ceasing  216
xiii. One Must Joyfully Practice Hospitality and
Show Compassion  224
xiv. Obedience  233
xv. Humility  246
xvi. Forbearance [Anexikakia] 289
xvii. Love [Agap∑] 300
xviii. Those Who Have Second Sight
[Dioratikoi] 310
xix. Wonder-Working Elders  350
xx. Virtuous Living  357
xxi. Sayings [Apophthegmata] of Those Who
Grew Old in the Ascetic Life, Briefly Demon-
strating Their Supreme Virtue  376
 1

An Exhortation of Holy Fathers

on Advancing toward Perfection
1. Somebody asked Antony, “By observing which [pre- Antony 3
cept] shall I be well pleasing to God?” The elder an-
swered, “Observe what I am telling you: Always have
God before your eyes wherever you go. Whatever you
are doing, have the testimony from Holy Scripture to
hand. Wherever you are living, do not be in a hurry to
move away. Observe these three [precepts] and you will
be saved.”
2. Abba Pambo asked Abba Antony, “What am I to do?” Antony 6
The elder said to him, “Have no confidence in your own
righteousness; have no regrets about a past action; get
your tongue and your belly under control.”
3. The blessed Gregory said, “God requires these three Gregory of
Nazianzus 1
things of every person who has received baptism: cor-
rect faith of the soul, truth of the tongue, self-control
of the body.”
4. Somebody else said that one of the fathers said, “A Evagrius
Ponticus 6;
dry and monotonous diet coupled with love speedily see 17.35
bring the monk to the haven of apatheia.”
5. He also said, “When one of the monks was informed Evagrius,
Pract 95;
of the death of his father, he said to the messenger, ‘Stop HL 37.13
blaspheming, for my father is immortal.’”
6. Abba Macarius said to Abba Zacharias, “Tell me, Zacharias 1
what is the task of the monk?” “You are asking me,
father?” he said, and Abba Macarius said, “I have full
7
8 The Book of the Elders

confidence in you, Zacharias my son, for there is one

who is goading me to question you.” Abba Zacharias
said to him, “In my opinion, to coerce oneself in all
things, that is [the task] of the monk.”
Disc. 23; 7. Abba Isaiah the priest said, “One of the fathers used to
CS 15:173
say that a person ought before all things to acquire belief
in God, a ceaseless yearning for God, guilelessness, not
returning evil for evil, mortification and humility, purity,
clemency and love for all, submission, gentleness, long-
suffering, patience, a desire for God, and [the practice
of] constantly calling upon God with a painful heart and
genuine love, with a view to not paying attention to what
is past but attending to that which is to come, having no
confidence in one’s own good works and service, and
ceaselessly invoking the help of God in the things that
happen to one each day.”
Disc. 25; 8. A brother asked Abba Isaiah for a saying, and in an-
CS 15:212
swer the elder said to him, “If you want to follow our
Lord Jesus, observe his word, and, if you are willing
for your old man to be crucified with him, until you die,
you ought to cut off those who bring you down from
the cross. You have to prepare yourself to tolerate being
set at naught; to repose the hearts of those who do you
wrong; to humble yourself before those who would have
dominion over you; to maintain silence of the mouth;
and to refrain from judging anybody in your heart.”
Disc. 9; 9. He also said, “Toil, poverty, voluntary exile, fortitude,
CS 15:97
and keeping silent produce humility, and humility ef-
faces many sins. The renunciation of one who does not
observe these [practices] is in vain.”
Disc. 26; 10. He also said, “Hate everything in the world and
CS 15:214 repose of the body, for these made you an enemy of
God. As a person who has an enemy fights with him,
so we ought also to fight against the body to allow it
no repose.”
 1. An Exhortation 9

11. A brother asked Abba Isaiah about the phrase of the Disc. 26;
CS 15:214
prayer in the Gospel: “What is this ‘Hallowed be thy
name’?” “This is for the perfect,” he answered, “for the
name of God cannot be hallowed in us who are domi-
nated by a passion.”

12. They used to say of Abba Theodore of Pherm∑ that Theodore of

Pherm∑ 1
he exceeded many in these three points: poverty, asceti-
cism, and fleeing from folk.

13. Abba John Colobos said, “Personally, I would like a John

Colobos 34
person to participate in all the virtues. So when you arise
at dawn each day, make a fresh start in every virtue and
commandment of God with greatest patience, with fear
and long-suffering, in the love of God, with all spiritual
and physical fervor, and with much humiliation; endur-
ing affliction of the heart and prevention, with much
prayer and intercession, with groans, in purity of the
tongue and custody of the eyes; being reviled and not
getting angry, living peaceably and not giving back evil
for evil; not noticing the faults of others; not measuring
oneself, but for you to be beneath the whole of creation,
having renounced material goods and the things that
pertain to the flesh; on a cross, in combat, in poverty
of spirit, in determination and spiritual asceticism; in
fasting, in repentance, in weeping, in the strife of battle,
in discretion, in purity of the soul, in generous sharing,
[doing] your manual labor in h∑sychia, in nightly vigils,
in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, in toils,
closing your tomb as though you were already dead, so
that death seems to be near to you every day.”

14. Abba Joseph the Theban said there are three things Joseph the
Theban
that are precious in the sight of the Lord. When a person
is sick and temptations come upon him, he accepts them
gratefully. The second is when someone renders all his
deeds pure in the sight of the Lord, with no human ele-
ment in them. The third is when someone is living in
10 The Book of the Elders

submission to a spiritual father and renounces all his

own desires.1
Cassian 5 15. Abba Cassian recounted of one Abba John, superior
of a coenobion, that he was great in his lifetime. “When
this man was about to die and was migrating to God
joyfully and eagerly,” he said, “the brothers gathered
around him, asking him to leave them some concise and
salvific saying as a legacy by which they would be able
to advance toward perfection in Christ. But he sighed
and said, ‘I have never done my own will, nor did I
teach anyone to do that which I did not first do myself.’”
Macarius the 16. A brother asked Abba Macarius the Great about per-
Great;
PG 34:232–33
fection, and in answer the elder said, “A person cannot
be perfect if he does not acquire great humility in his
heart and in the body, declines to measure himself in any
matter but rather places himself in humiliation beneath
the whole of creation, and refuses to judge anybody at
all except himself alone; unless he endures insult and
tears all evil out of his heart, forces himself to be long-
suffering, kindly, brotherly, chaste, and self-controlled
(for it is written, ‘The kingdom of heaven suffers vio-
lence and the violent take it by force’ [Matt 11:12]), see-
ing what is right with the eyes, maintaining a guard on
his tongue, and turning aside from every vain and soul-
destroying rumor; there being justice at his hands, purity
of heart toward God, and a spotless body; unless he has
the remembrance of death before his eyes every day and
has renounced all spiritual anger and evil, renounced
material goods and the delights of the flesh, renounced
the devil and all his works, but has firmly committed
himself to God, the universal sovereign, and to all his
commandments and is constantly waiting upon God on
every occasion, in every matter and every undertaking.”

1
“This person has an extraordinary crown; but I would prefer
sickness,” adds APalph.
 1. An Exhortation 11

17. Abba Mark said, “The law of freedom teaches all Mark
the Hermit,
truth. Most people read [this law] in the light of what Opuscula
they know, but a few think of it as an analogy for the 1.28–29
fulfilling of the commandments. Do not look for its
perfection in human virtues, for nobody is found to be
perfect in them; its perfection is encrypted in the cross
of Christ.”
18. A brother asked an elder, “What good activity is Nisteros
there, that I could practice and live in it?” The elder the Great 2

said, “God knows what is good, but I heard that one

of the fathers questioned Abba Nisteros the Great, the
friend of Abba Antony, saying to him, ‘What good work
is there, that I might practice [it]?’ and he said to him,
‘Are not all undertakings equal? For the Scripture says,
“Abraham was hospitable and God was with him” [see
Gen 18:2]; Elijah loved h∑sychia and God was with him;
David was humble and God was with him.’ So whatever
you observe your soul wishing to do for God, do it—and
watch over your heart.”
19. Abba Poemen used to say of Abba Nisteros, “Just as Nisteros
with the case of the brazen serpent in the wilderness— the Great 1

anyone of the people who looked at it was healed [see

Num 21:9]—so it was with the elder. Possessing all
virtue and keeping silence, he would heal everybody.”
20. Abba Poemen said, “Being on the alert, paying at- Poemen 35
tention to oneself, and discretion—these three virtues
are the working tools of the soul.”
21. He also said, “God gave this rule of life to Israel: to Poemen 68
refrain from what is contrary to nature, that is, from anger,
bad temper, jealousy, hatred, slandering a brother, and
the rest of the things [pertaining] to the old way of life.”
22. A brother asked him how a person ought to order his Poemen 53
life, and the elder said to him, “Let us look at Daniel;
no accusation was found against him other than the way
he served his God” [Dan 6:5–6].
12 The Book of the Elders

Poemen 60 23. He also said, “Poverty, affliction, and discretion:

these are the working tools of the monastic life, for it
is written, ‘There were these three men: Noah, Job, and
Daniel’ [Ezek 14:14]. Noah represents indifference to
material goods, Job toil, and Daniel discretion. If there
are these three activities in a person, God is dwelling
in him.”
Poemen 66 24. Abba Poemen also said, “If a monk hates two things,
he can become free of the world.” “What are they?” said
the brother to him, and the elder said, “Repose of the
flesh and vainglory.”
Pambo 8 25. They said of Abba Pambo that when he was dying, at
the moment of departure, he said to the holy fathers who
were present, “From the time I came to this place in the
desert, built my cell and dwelt in it, I do not recall eating
bread except what came from my hands, nor do I repent
of anything I said until this time. And yet I am going
to God as one who has not even begun to serve him.”
Siso∑s 43 26. Abba Siso∑s said, “Be of no significance, cast your
will behind you, do not worry yourself [see Matt 6:25]
about the concerns of the world, and you shall have
repose.”
Chomai 27. When Abba Chomai was going to die, he said to
his sons, “Do not dwell with heretics; do not become
acquainted with persons in power. Do not let your hands
be open to gather in; let them rather be open to give.”
Euprepios 4 28. Speaking about life, a brother asked an elder and the
elder said, “Eat hay, wear hay, sleep on hay (meaning:
despise everything), and acquire a heart of steel.”
Euprepios 5; 29. A brother asked an elder, “How does the fear of
N 137
God come into the soul?” “If a person has humility, is
indifferent to material goods, and refrains from judg-
ing, in this way the fear of God comes upon him,” the
elder said.
 1. An Exhortation 13

30. An elder said, “May fear, humility, shortage of food, Euprepios 6

and sorrow remain with you.”
31. One of the elders said, “If you hate something, re- N 253
frain from doing it to anybody else. Do you hate it when
somebody speaks ill of you? Then speak no ill of any
person. Do you hate it when somebody makes false
accusations against you? Then do not accuse anybody
falsely. Do you hate it if somebody sets you at naught
or insults you or makes off with what is yours or [does]
whatever is like that? Then do nothing of that sort to
another. For the person who can keep this saying, it will
suffice for his salvation.”
32. An elder said, “This is the life of the monk: work, N 225
obedience, meditation, not judging, not backbiting, not
grumbling; for it is written, ‘O you that love the Lord,
hate the things that are evil’ [Ps 96:10]. The life of a
monk is to have nothing to do with that which is unjust,
not to see evil with one’s eyes, not to be a busybody,
not to listen to other folks’ affairs, to give rather than to
take away with one’s hands, not to have pride in one’s
heart nor wicked thoughts in one’s mind nor to fill one’s
belly, but rather to act with discretion in all things. In
these the life of the monk consists.”
33. An elder said, “He who does not receive all persons
as brothers but discriminates, such a one is not perfect.”
34. An elder said, “Beseech God to give you sorrow in Mato∑s 11;
your heart and humility. Be always attentive to your sins N 330

and do not judge others; rather, rate yourself beneath

all others. Maintain no friendship with a woman, with a
child, or with heretics. Disassociate yourself from loose
talk; control your tongue and your belly, [abstaining]
from2 wine. If somebody speaks to you about any matter
whatsoever, do not argue with him. If he speaks well,

2
Here Mato∑s 11 (but not N 330) adds, “more than a little.”
14 The Book of the Elders

say, ‘Yes.’ If he speaks badly, say, ‘You know what you

are talking about,’ and do not contend with him about
what he says; then your mind will be at peace.”
see N 664 35. A brother asked one of the fathers, “What is life?”
and in answer he said, “A truthful mouth, a holy body, a
pure heart, thoughts that do not wander off to the world,
psalm singing with sorrow for sin, living in h∑sychia,
and having nothing in mind other than the expectation
of the Lord.”
36. An elder said, “Let us practice gentleness and long-
suffering, forbearance, and love, for in these the monk
consists.”
Basil the 37. He also said, “The definition of Christian is the
Great, imitation of Christ.”
Asceticum
magnum 43.1;
PG 31:1028B