Chapter XLI
A Letter Which He Wrote To One Of The Brethren Who Loved Solitude Concerning How Satan Contrives To Divert The Zealous From Constant Solitude Under The Pretext Of The Love Of Relatives And Honoured Men, And That It Is Becoming That All Should Be Despised In The Eyes [Of The Solitary] Compared With The Knowledge Of God Which Is Found In Solitude As May Be Seen In The Example Of Our Ancestors
Because I know that thou lovest solitude and that Satan, knowing the intention of thy mind, impedes thee in many respects under the pretext of excellence, in order to divert thee from this comprehensive and manifold excellence, o virtuous brother, I was anxious to help thy good will as one limb helps its partner, with an excellent word, which I have received from prudent men and from the writings of the Fathers and from experience. For if a man does not despise honour and dishonour and bear for the sake of solitude abuse and derision and loss, nay even blows, and become an object of laughter and be reckoned mad and foolish by those who see him, he 3os cannot master the advantages of solitude. For if a man once open the door to [worldly] things, Satan will not cease to bring unto him men under every pretext, a continual, innumerable series of associations. Therefore, my brother, if thou lovest the veracious discipline of solitude without distraction and shocks and sudden pauses, as it has been eminently practised by the ancients, thou wilt be able to carry out this laudable desire by trying to resemble thy Fathers and by retaining in thy mind, as if it were written down, the memory of their histories [ascertaining] that those of them who loved complete solitude, did not care to practise love of their fellows at the cost of distracting themselves, neither were they ashamed of avoiding such persons as were reputed to be in honour. J\nd though they were thus, devoted to complete solitude, yet they were not deemed by those who know and are wise,
206
to despise their brethren, nor were they thought of as scorners or destitute of distinctions, as it was pretended by some in the way of apology against those who honour quiet and reclusion more than meeting their fellows. For the man that has experienced the quiet of his cell does not avoid meetings because he despises his fellow, but because of the fruits he gathers from solitude. How did they practise reclusion? Aba Arsenius would not meet with any one. Aba Theodore, when meeting anyone, was like a sharp sword; he did not greet anyone when he happened 309 to be outside his cell. But the holy Arsenius did not even
greet him that came to greet him. Once one of the Fathers went to see Aba Arsenius who opened, thinking that it was his servant. When, however, he saw who it was he prostrated himself. And when the visitor sought to persuade him, saying: Rise, o father, that I may greet thee, were it only in the doorway, then I will go, the saint protested saying: I will not rise until thou goest; and he did not rise until the other had left him and was gone. Thus the blessed one acted, lest they should come again if he once gave way to them.,One of the Fathers' - pay careful attention to this phrase lest thou think perhaps that Aba Arsenius despised his visitor on account of his mean estate; but it was one of the Fathers who spoke to him. But we have also a strong proof from another side, lest thou say that he despised one, but received another favourably on account of his high position and conv<'<rsed with him. No, in his reclusion he avoided alike all kinds of association; and in his eyes to despise the association with high or low for the sake of solitude, and to bear the reproaches of all in view of the honour of solitude and silence, was one and the same thing. We know namely that once the blessed Theophilus, the archbishop of Alexandria, visited him accompanied by the judge of that place, because they longed for the honour of seeing the saints. As he sat with them he did not comfort them even with a single word such as would have been fitting their high position, although they were very eager to hear his speech. 310 And when the archbishop tried to bring him to speech, the solitary was silent for a short time, and answered, saying: If I speak to you, will you remember what I say? They promised to do so. Then the solitary said to them: Wherever you hear that Arsenius is, do not come near to that place.
207
Doest thou see the wonderful way of the man? Doest thou see how he despised the honour of men? The blessed. one knew how to gather the fruits of solitude without a thought to the fact that he was in the presence of the katholikos, the head of the whole church. But he thought thus: I am now dead to the world; what profit will a dead man give the living? He was vituperated for this in a loving way by the blessed Macarius who said to him: Why doest thou flee from us? The holy solitary made a wonderful praiseworthy apology: God knows that I love you; but I cannot be with God and with men. Another time the archbishop sent him a message concerning this subject. The solitary answered, saying:,If thou comest I shall open the door to thee. But if I open to thee, I shall open to every one. And if I open to every one, I shall not remain here'. This wonderful doctrine he had heard from none other than from a divine voice, saying:, Arsenius, flee from men and thou shalt live'. None of the idle men who seek an occupation, will venture to refute this message by his objections or to speak against it, as if to seek peace proceeded 3 1 1 from human invention. For this is a doctrine from heaven. The opinion that this was said to him with a view to reclusion and retreat from the world only, not with the intention that he should also avoid the brethren, is refuted thereby that, when he had retreated from the world and was abiding in the monastery, he again prayed to our Lord in order that he should know to live well.,0 Lord', he said,,teach me to live', thinking that now he would hear another message. The divine voice proclaimed the same words again, adding as in explanation:,Flee and be silent and keep in solitude. Though the sight of and intercourse with the brethren be very profitable to thee, still intercourse with them is not as profitable as with drawal from them'. When the blessed Arsenius, while he was still in the world, had heard by divine revelation the order to withdraw from it, and when the same had been said to him while he was with the brethren, he knew certainly that in order to acquire a steadfast life, not only withdrawal from lay people was necessary but from every human being. Lest any one should venture to speak against the divine voice, it was also said to A ha Antonius in a revelation:,If thou desirest to be in solitude,
208
do not only go to the Theba"is, but to the heart of the desert. If now God in this way commands us to witdraw from all, and wishes that His friends dwell in solitude, who should then, for other reasons, cling to intercourse and the vicinity of men? 3 1 2 If watchfulness was profitable and withdrawal helpful to Antonius and Arsenius, how much more then to the weak? And if the solitude of those whose words and the help that is inspired by the sight of them the whole world needs, is estimated by God higher than their useft1lness to mankind in its entirety, how much more will this be the case with him that is not able to guard even his own person properly. We know another of the saints whose natural brother was ill. He lived as a recluse in a different cell. During the whole period of his brother's sickness he restrained his mercy, so that he did not go out to visit him. When the sick man was on the point of departing from this world, he sent his brother a message to this effect: Come that I may see thee before I depart the world, even if it be in the night. Then I will take leave from thee and go to rest. The blessed one, however, was not to be persuaded even at this time, when natural mercy usually is stirred, to transgress the voluntary borders, saying:,If I go out, my heart will not be pure before God, for I despise visiting spiritual brethren, should I then honour nature above Christ? So his brother died without his having seen him. No one, therefore, should consider the weakness of feelings as an insuperable and invincible reason, nor as a providential institution, implying the denial of solitude. If the saints subdue nature which is so strong, and Christ, though despised in His children, loves to be where solitude is honoured, what other necessity should then exist which could not de despised when it presents itself? The commandment: Love the Lord thy God 3 1 3 with thy whole soul and with thy whole heart 1) and more than the whole world and nature and what belongs to nature - is accomplished when thou abidest in solitude. And also the commandment ordering the love of our fellow men, is included in it. Wilt thou acquire the love of thy fellow-man, according to the commandment of the Gospel, within thyself, then withdraw from him. Then the flame of his love will burn in thee and
1) Deuteronomy 6, 5
209
thou wilt run to see him as if thou wouldst see the angel of light. Doest thou further desire that thy beloved ones long after thee? S.ee their faces at fixed days only. Verily, experience is the teacher of all. Be in health.