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| Chapter I. Of the life and conduct of Abbot Paphnutius.
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Chapter I.
Of the life and conduct of Abbot Paphnutius.
In that choir of saints
who shine like brilliant stars in the night of this world, we have seen
the holy Paphnutius,1199
| 1199 Paphnutius. The name
is not uncommon in the annals of the fourth century: (1) A Deacon who
bore it suffered in the persecution of Diocletian; and (2) a Bishop of
the same name, who had been a confessor, was mainly instrumental in
preventing the rule of celibacy being forced on the clergy by the
Council of Nicæa; (3) another was a prominent member of the
Meletian schism; while (4) a fourth was present, as Bishop of Sais in
Lower Egypt at the Council of Alexandria in 362; and (5) the life of a
fifth is given by Palladius (Hist. Laus. lxii.–lxv.) and Rufinus
(Hist. Monach. c. xvi.). The one whom Cassian here mentions, surnamed
the Buffalo, is apparently a different person from the last mentioned.
Further details of his history are given in the Institutes IV. c. xxx.
xxxi., and in Conference X. ii., iii. Cassian tells the interesting
story of his share in the Anthropomorphite controversy, and the
beneficial influence which he then exercised. | like some great
luminary, shining with the brightness of knowledge. For he was a
presbyter of our company, I mean of those whose abode was in the desert
of Scete, where he lived to extreme old age, without ever moving from
his cell, of which he had taken possession when still young, and which
was five miles from the church, even to nearer districts; nor was he
when worn out with years hindered by the distance from going to Church
on Saturday or Sunday. But not wanting to return from thence empty
handed he would lay on his shoulders a bucket of water to last him all
the week, and carry it back to his cell, and even when he was past
ninety would not suffer it to be fetched by the labour of younger men.
He then from his earliest youth threw himself into the monastic
discipline with such fervour that when he had spent only a short time
in it, he was endowed with the virtue of submission, as well as the
knowledge of all good qualities. For by the practice of humility and
obedience he mortified all his desires, and by this stamped out all his
faults and acquired every virtue which the monastic system and the
teaching of the ancient fathers produces, and, inflamed with desire for
still further advances, he was eager to penetrate into the recesses of
the desert, so that, with no human companions to disturb him, he might
be more readily united to the Lord, to whom he longed to be inseparably
joined, even while he still lived in the society of the brethren. And
there once more in his excessive fervour he outstripped the virtues of
the Anchorites, and in his eager desire for continual divine meditation
avoided the sight of them: and he plunged into solitary places yet
wilder and more inaccessible, and hid himself for a long while in them,
so that, as the Anchorites themselves only with great difficulty caught
a glimpse of him every now and then, the belief was that he enjoyed and
delighted in the daily society of angels, and because of this
remarkable characteristic of his1200
| 1200 i e., his
solitariness. | he was surnamed
by them the Buffalo.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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