Questions And Answers On The Rule Of Life Of The Holy Men Which They Taught Before The Multitude And In Their Cells On Every Kind Of Spiritual Excellence
TWO of the fathers entreated God to inform them as to the measure [of spiritual excellence] to which they had arrived, and a voice came to them which said, “In such and such a village of Egypt there is a certain man in the world who is called Eucharistos, and his wife Mary, and ye have not as yet arrived at the same measure as they.” Now when the fathers heard [this] they marvelled, and they rose up and came to that village, and they enquired for and found the house and the wife of Eucharistos, and they asked her, saying, “Where is thy husband?” And she answered and said unto them, “He is a shepherd, and he is in the field pasturing sheep”; and she brought them into her house. And when the evening had come her husband came from the sheep, and seeing the fathers he rejoiced with great joy, and he prepared a table [for them], and brought water that he might wash their feet. Then the fathers answered and said unto him, “We will eat nothing, but tell us what is thy work”; and Eucharistos said unto them with great humility, “I am a shepherd, and this is my wife.” Now the fathers entreated him to inform them concerning his life and works, but he concealed the matter, and refused to speak. Finally they said unto him, “God told us to come to thee,” and when Eucharistos heard this he was afraid, and he told them, saying, “Behold, we inherited these sheep from our parents, and whatsoever God provideth as [our] income from them we divide into three portions; one portion [we devote] to charity, one portion to the love of strangers, and the remaining part serveth for our own use. Since the time when I took this woman to wife we have not defiled ourselves, and she is a virgin, and each of us sleepeth alone; at night time we wear sackcloth, and in the daytime we put it off and array ourselves in our [ordinary] attire, and no man hath known this thing until the present moment.” And when the fathers heard [this] they glorified God.
2. They say concerning Abbâ Anthony that on one occasion, when he was praying in his cell he heard a voice which said unto him, “Anthony, thou hast not yet arrived [at the state of excellence] of a certain man who is a tailor and who dwelleth in Alexandria.” Then Anthony rose up in the morning,
