Pachomius

The lives of the Fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints · 2 · ST PACHOMIUS, ABBOT.

ST PACHOMIUS, ABBOT.

from hii authentic life compiled by a monk of Tabenna soon after his death. See TUlemont, t 7: Ceil lier, t 4; Helyot, 1 1 ; Rosweide, 1. 1, p. 114, and Papebroke, t 3, Maij. p, 887.

A. D. 348.

Though St. Antony be justly esteemed the institutor of the cenobitic life, or that of religious persons living in community under a certain rule, St. Pachomius was the first who drew up a monastic rule in writing. He was born in Upper Thebais about the year 292, of idolatrous parents, and was educated in their blind superstition, and in the study of the Egyptian sciences. From his infancy, he was meek and modest, and had an aver- sion to the profane ceremonies used by the infidels in the worship of their idols. Being about twenty years of age, he was pressed into the emperor's tioops, probably the tyrant Maximinus,* who was master of Egypt from the year 310 : and in 312 made great levies to carry on a war against Licinius and Constantine. He was, with several other recruits, put on board a ves- sel that was falling down the river. They arrived in the evening at Thebes, or Diospolis, the capital of Thebais, a city in which dwelt many Christians. Those true disciples of Christ sought every opportunity of relieving and comforting all that were in distress, and were moved with compassion to- wards the recruits, who were kept close confined, and very ill-treated. The Christians of this city showed them the same tenderness as if they had been their own children ; took all possible care of them, and supplied them liberally with money and necessaries. Such an uncommon example of dis- interested virtue made a great impression on the mind of Pachomius. He inquired who their pious benefactors were, and when he heard that they believed in Jesus Christ the only Son of God, and that in the hope of a re- ward in the world to come, they labored continually to do good to all man- kind, he found kindled in his heart a great love of so holy a law, and an ardent desire of serving the God whom these good men adored. The next day, when he was continuing his journey down the river, the remembrance of this purpose strengthened him to resist a carnal temptation. From his infancy he had been always a lover of chastity and temperance ; but the example oi the Christians had made those virtues appear to him far more am.able, and in a new light. After the overthrow of Maximinus, his forces *ere disbanded. Pachomius was no sooner returned home, but he repaired io a town in Thebais, in which there was a Christian church, and there he entered his name among the catechumens, or such as were preparing for baptism ; and having gone through the usual course of preliminary instruc- tions and practices with great attention and fervor, he received that sacra- ment at Chenoboscium, with great sentiments of piety and devotion. From his first acquaintance with our holy faith at Thebes, he had always made this his prayer : " 0 God, Creator of heaven and earth, cast on me an eye oi* pity : deliver me from my miseries : teach me the true way of pleasing you, and it shall be the whole employment, and most earnest study of my life to serve you, and to do your will." The perfect sacrifice of his heart to God, was the beginning of his eminent virtue. The grace by which God reigns in a soul, is a treasure infinitely above all price. We must give all .o purchase it.1 To desire it faintly is to undervalue it. He is absolutely

i Matt xiii. 44.

• Those who place the conversion of St Pachoinias later think this emperor was Constantine. Bal for our account see TUlemont Hist Eccl. note 2, t. 7. j. 675.

i

j£ay 14.] s. paciiomius, a. 325

disqualified and unfit for so great a blessing, and unworthy erer to receive it, who seeks it by halves, or who does not esteem all other things as dung that he may gain Christ.

When Pachomius was baptized, hj began seriously to consider with him- self how he should most faithfully fulfil the obligations which he had contract- ed, and attain to the great end to which he aspired. There is danger even in fervor itself. It is often an artifice of the devil to make a novice under- take too much at first, and run indiscreetly beyond his strength. If the sails gather too much wind, the vessel is driven ahead, falls on some rock and splits. Eagerness is a symptom of secret passion, not of true virtue, where it is wilful and impatient at advice. Pachomius was far from so dangerous a disposition, because his desire was pure, therefore his first care was to find a skilful conductor. Hearing that a venerable old man named Pale- mon, served God in the desert in great perfection, he sought him out, and with great earnestness begged to live under his direction. The hermit hav- ing set before him the difficulties and austerities of his way of life, which several had already attempted in vain to follow, advised him to make a trial of his strength and fervor in some monastery ; and, to give him a sketch ot the difficulties he had to encounter in the life he aspired to, he added : " Consider, my son, that my diet is only bread and salt : I drink no wine, use no oil, watch one half of the night, spending that time in singing psalms or in meditating on the holy scriptures, and sometimes pass the whole night without sleeping." Pachomius was amazed at this account, but not dis- couraged. He thought himself able to undertake every thing that might be a means to render his soul pleasing to God, and readily promised to observe whatever Palemon should think fit to enjoin him ; who thereupon admitted him into his cell, and gave him the monastic habit. Pachomius was by his example enabled to bear solitude, and an acquaintance with himself. They sometimes repeated together the psalter, at other times they exercised them- selves in manual labors (which they accompanied with interior prayer,) with a view to their own subsistence and the relief of the poor. Pachomius prayed above all things, for perfect purity of heart, that being disengaged from all secret attachment to creatures, he might love God with all his affections. And to destroy the very roots of all inordinate passions, it was his first study to obtain the most profound humility, and perfect patience and meek- ness. He prayed often with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross ; which posture was then much used in the church. He was in the begin- ning often drowsy at the night office. Palemon used to rouse him, and say : " Labor and watch, my dear Pachomius, lest the enemy overthrow you and ruin all your endeavors." Against this weakness and temptation he enjoin- ed him, on such occasions, to carry sand from one place to another, till his drowsiness was overcome. By this means the novice strengthened him- self in the habit of watching. Whatever instructions he read or heard, ht immediately endeavored fervently to reduce to practice. One Easter-day Palemon bade the disciple prepare a dinner for that great festival. Pacho- mius took a little oil, and mixed it with the salt, which he pounded small, and added a few wild herbs, which they were to eat with their bre id. The holy old man having made his prayer, came to table ; but at the sight of the oil he struck himself on the forehead, and said, with tears : " My Saviour was crucified, and shall I indulge myself so far as to eat oil ?" Nor could he be prevailed upon to taste it. Pachomius used sometimes to go into a vast uninhabited desert, on the banks of the Nile, called Tabenna, in the diocese of Tentyra, a city between the Great and Little Diospohs. While he was there one day in prayer, he heard a voice which commanded him to build a monastery in that place, in which he should receive those who

The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 05, May · S. Pachomius in his Eccl. History, lib. iii., c. 14.]

May 14th. Authority : — His life written by a monk of Tabenna, his disciple, who had seen him, as he says himself. Sozomen also praises S. Pachomius in his Eccl. History, lib. iii., c. 14.]

S. Pachomius was the child of heathen parents in Upper Egypt. He was first attracted to Christianity by the charity of the Christians towards himself and some young companions when they had been taken by conscrip- tion to serve in a war that was being carried on. When the war was at an end, and he was released from military service, he placed himself under instruction, and was baptized. Shortly after he made the acquaintance of the hermit Palsemon (January nth), and became his disciple. After some years S. Pachomius felt himself called to found a monastery at Tabenna; he communicated his purpose to S. Palaemon, who at once followed his disciple and took up his abode with him.

The rule of S. Pachomius was very simple. Each brother was allowed to eat and drink as much as he thought fit. All were required to work, but the work was to be adapted to their ages and constitutions.

The monks were to live three together in separate cells, but all were to assemble in a refectory for their meals, and in the church for divine service.

They were to wear linen nightshirts when they went to bed, and white girded goatskins night and day; when they approached the altar to communicate they were to come in their hoods, and with ungirded loins, without their goatskins. They were not to lie flat on their backs in sleeping, but in chairs with sloping backs. They were to be classified according to their proficiency, each class to

The lives of the Fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints · 2 · ST PACHOMIUS, ABBOT.

from hii authentic life compiled by a monk of Tabenna soon after his death. See TUlemont, t 7: Ceil lier, t 4; Helyot, 1 1 ; Rosweide, 1. 1, p. 114, and Papebroke, t 3, Maij. p, 887.

A. D. 348.

Though St. Antony be justly esteemed the institutor of the cenobitic life, or that of religious persons living in community under a certain rule, St. Pachomius was the first who drew up a monastic rule in writing. He was born in Upper Thebais about the year 292, of idolatrous parents, and was educated in their blind superstition, and in the study of the Egyptian sciences. From his infancy, he was meek and modest, and had an aver- sion to the profane ceremonies used by the infidels in the worship of their idols. Being about twenty years of age, he was pressed into the emperor's tioops, probably the tyrant Maximinus,* who was master of Egypt from the year 310 : and in 312 made great levies to carry on a war against Licinius and Constantine. He was, with several other recruits, put on board a ves- sel that was falling down the river. They arrived in the evening at Thebes, or Diospolis, the capital of Thebais, a city in which dwelt many Christians. Those true disciples of Christ sought every opportunity of relieving and comforting all that were in distress, and were moved with compassion to- wards the recruits, who were kept close confined, and very ill-treated. The Christians of this city showed them the same tenderness as if they had been their own children ; took all possible care of them, and supplied them liberally with money and necessaries. Such an uncommon example of dis- interested virtue made a great impression on the mind of Pachomius. He inquired who their pious benefactors were, and when he heard that they believed in Jesus Christ the only Son of God, and that in the hope of a re- ward in the world to come, they labored continually to do good to all man- kind, he found kindled in his heart a great love of so holy a law, and an ardent desire of serving the God whom these good men adored. The next day, when he was continuing his journey down the river, the remembrance of this purpose strengthened him to resist a carnal temptation. From his infancy he had been always a lover of chastity and temperance ; but the example oi the Christians had made those virtues appear to him far more am.able, and in a new light. After the overthrow of Maximinus, his forces *ere disbanded. Pachomius was no sooner returned home, but he repaired io a town in Thebais, in which there was a Christian church, and there he entered his name among the catechumens, or such as were preparing for baptism ; and having gone through the usual course of preliminary instruc- tions and practices with great attention and fervor, he received that sacra- ment at Chenoboscium, with great sentiments of piety and devotion. From his first acquaintance with our holy faith at Thebes, he had always made this his prayer : " 0 God, Creator of heaven and earth, cast on me an eye oi* pity : deliver me from my miseries : teach me the true way of pleasing you, and it shall be the whole employment, and most earnest study of my life to serve you, and to do your will." The perfect sacrifice of his heart to God, was the beginning of his eminent virtue. The grace by which God reigns in a soul, is a treasure infinitely above all price. We must give all .o purchase it.1 To desire it faintly is to undervalue it. He is absolutely

i Matt xiii. 44.

• Those who place the conversion of St Pachoinias later think this emperor was Constantine. Bal for our account see TUlemont Hist Eccl. note 2, t. 7. j. 675.

i

j£ay 14.] s. paciiomius, a. 325

disqualified and unfit for so great a blessing, and unworthy erer to receive it, who seeks it by halves, or who does not esteem all other things as dung that he may gain Christ.

When Pachomius was baptized, hj began seriously to consider with him- self how he should most faithfully fulfil the obligations which he had contract- ed, and attain to the great end to which he aspired. There is danger even in fervor itself. It is often an artifice of the devil to make a novice under- take too much at first, and run indiscreetly beyond his strength. If the sails gather too much wind, the vessel is driven ahead, falls on some rock and splits. Eagerness is a symptom of secret passion, not of true virtue, where it is wilful and impatient at advice. Pachomius was far from so dangerous a disposition, because his desire was pure, therefore his first care was to find a skilful conductor. Hearing that a venerable old man named Pale- mon, served God in the desert in great perfection, he sought him out, and with great earnestness begged to live under his direction. The hermit hav- ing set before him the difficulties and austerities of his way of life, which several had already attempted in vain to follow, advised him to make a trial of his strength and fervor in some monastery ; and, to give him a sketch ot the difficulties he had to encounter in the life he aspired to, he added : " Consider, my son, that my diet is only bread and salt : I drink no wine, use no oil, watch one half of the night, spending that time in singing psalms or in meditating on the holy scriptures, and sometimes pass the whole night without sleeping." Pachomius was amazed at this account, but not dis- couraged. He thought himself able to undertake every thing that might be a means to render his soul pleasing to God, and readily promised to observe whatever Palemon should think fit to enjoin him ; who thereupon admitted him into his cell, and gave him the monastic habit. Pachomius was by his example enabled to bear solitude, and an acquaintance with himself. They sometimes repeated together the psalter, at other times they exercised them- selves in manual labors (which they accompanied with interior prayer,) with a view to their own subsistence and the relief of the poor. Pachomius prayed above all things, for perfect purity of heart, that being disengaged from all secret attachment to creatures, he might love God with all his affections. And to destroy the very roots of all inordinate passions, it was his first study to obtain the most profound humility, and perfect patience and meek- ness. He prayed often with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross ; which posture was then much used in the church. He was in the begin- ning often drowsy at the night office. Palemon used to rouse him, and say : " Labor and watch, my dear Pachomius, lest the enemy overthrow you and ruin all your endeavors." Against this weakness and temptation he enjoin- ed him, on such occasions, to carry sand from one place to another, till his drowsiness was overcome. By this means the novice strengthened him- self in the habit of watching. Whatever instructions he read or heard, ht immediately endeavored fervently to reduce to practice. One Easter-day Palemon bade the disciple prepare a dinner for that great festival. Pacho- mius took a little oil, and mixed it with the salt, which he pounded small, and added a few wild herbs, which they were to eat with their bre id. The holy old man having made his prayer, came to table ; but at the sight of the oil he struck himself on the forehead, and said, with tears : " My Saviour was crucified, and shall I indulge myself so far as to eat oil ?" Nor could he be prevailed upon to taste it. Pachomius used sometimes to go into a vast uninhabited desert, on the banks of the Nile, called Tabenna, in the diocese of Tentyra, a city between the Great and Little Diospohs. While he was there one day in prayer, he heard a voice which commanded him to build a monastery in that place, in which he should receive those who