Saint Sisoes

His prayer was so sublime that it frequently reached the point of ecstasy. At other times his heart was so strongly inflamed with the fire of divine love that, being almost unable to bear its vehemence, he found relief through frequent sighs that escaped him without his noticing and even against his will. He held it as a maxim that a solitary should not choose the manual labor that pleases him most. Ordinarily, he occupied himself with making baskets. One day, while selling the fruit of his labor, he was tempted to anger; immediately he threw his baskets on the ground, left them there, and fled. By dint of conquering himself, he acquired a gentleness that nothing could alter. He was not astonished by the faults of his brothers; and instead of reproaching them with indignation, he helped them to rise again with a truly paternal tenderness. When he wished to recommend to others gentleness and exactitude in observing the rules, he would tell the following story:

« Twelve brothers were on a journey when night overtook them, and they noticed that their guide was losing his way. They did not, however, warn him

VIES DES SAINTS. — TOME VIII. 4 of it, for fear of breaking the silence, thinking to themselves that he would see his mistake when day had come and that he would then put them back on the true path: they therefore followed him in patience and traveled up to twelve miles. When day came, the guide, noticing that he had gone astray, offered them great apologies; and as it was permitted to speak, the brothers replied to him calmly: "We saw well that you were leaving the path, but we did not wish to say anything." This man admired their patience and was greatly edified by their exactitude in keeping the rule ».

Some Aria ns, ha Ariens Heresy opposed by Columbanus in Italy among the Lombards. ving come to his mountain, dared to preach their dogmas among the brothers. The Saint answered them nothing; but he ordered his disciple to read in their presence a treatis e by Saint Ath saint Athanase Father of the Church who cited Leontius among the Catholic luminaries. anasius against Arianism, which closed their mouths. After having confounded them, he sent them away with his customary gentleness.

Saint Sisoes was also an accomplished model of humility; he always returned to this virtue in the advice and instructions he gave to others. A solitary having said to him one day: "My father, I consider myself as being always before God"; he replied: "That is not enough, my son, you must also consider yourself as being below all creatures: this serves effectively to acquire humility." He walked unceasingly in the presence of God, concentrated on his nothingness and his lowliness. "Become small," he said to a brother, "renounce the satisfactions of the senses, detach yourself from the vain anxieties of the world, and you will find peace of heart." He said to another who complained of not yet having attained the perfection of Saint Anthony: "Ah! if I had in my heart a single one of the sentiments of that great man, I would be all embraced by the fire of the love of God." He had such low opinions of himself that, despite the austerity of his way of life, he regarded himself as a sensual man, and wanted others to have a similar idea of him. If by chance charity for strangers obliged him to advance the hour of a meal, he would compensate for it afterwards by a long fast, and would, so to speak, make his body pay for a condescension whose motive had been so praiseworthy. He feared praise so much that, sometimes praying with his hands raised toward heaven, he would lower them as soon as he thought someone might see him. He was always ready to excuse himself. He saw nothing good in others without taking the opportunity to condemn himself.

Three solitaries having come to see him, one of them said to him: "My father, what shall I do to avoid the fire of hell?" And he answered nothing. "And I," continued the second, "how shall I be able to avoid the gnashing of teeth and that worm which will not die?" The third added: "What shall I do also? for every time I imagine the outer darkness, I am seized with a mortal fear." Then the Saint, taking the word, answered them: "I confess to you that I do not think of these things; and as I know that God is full of goodness, I hope that He will have pity on me. You are very happy," he added, "and I envy your virtue. You speak of the pains of hell, and you are so penetrated by them that they can help you powerfully to avoid sin. Ah! what shall I do then, I who have a heart so insensible that I do not even think that there is after death a place of torment destined to punish the wicked? which is without doubt the cause for which I commit so many faults." The three solitaries, edified by this answer, returned to their homes.

The Saint said that for thirty years he had been making the following prayer to Jesus Christ: "Lord Jesus, do not allow me to sin today by my tongue; and yet," he added, "I always commit some fault in that regard." This discourse could only be an effect of his humility: for he kept exactly to his retreat and silence; he kept the door of his cell always closed, in order to be less interrupted; and when he was consulted, he never answered except in a few words.

The servant of God, being worn out by old age and infirmities, finally yielded to the advice of his disciple Abraham, and went to dwell for some time at Clysma, a city situated on the shore or at least in the vicinity of the Red Sea. Ammon or Amun, abbot of Raithu, came to visit him. Seeing him afflicted because he had left his solitude, he consoled him by representing that, being broken by old age, he needed help that he would not find in the desert; but the Saint cast a look of sadness upon him and replied: "What are you saying to me? Was the freedom of spirit I enjoyed there not enough for me?"

Sisoes returned to his solitude. When he had reached the end of his course, the solitaries gathered around him. Rufinus says that, being in his agony, he cried out: "Behold, Abbot Anthony, the cho ir of the Prop l'abbé Antoine Patron saint of hermits, first dedicatee of the chapel. hets, and the Angels are coming to take my soul." At the same time, his face became luminous; and after conversing interiorly with God, he cried out again: "See Our Lord who is coming to me." He expired while pronouncing these words, and his cell was perfumed with a celestial fragrance. His death occurred around the year 429, at least seventy-two years after he had retired to the mountain of Saint Anthony. His feast is marked in the Greek menologies under July 6, and in some Latin calendars under the 5th of the same month.

This saint must not be confused with two other Sisoes who lived in the same century. One, surnamed the Theban, lived at Calamon, in the territory of Arsinoe; the other had his cell at Petra. It is of Sisoes the The ban that the foll Sisoès le Thébéen A contemporary namesake living at Calamon. owing anecdote is told, which some authors have mistakenly attributed to Saint Sisoes of Scetis.

A solitary, who had been offended by another, came to find Sisoes and told him that he was resolved to take revenge. The holy old man implored him to leave the care of vengeance to God, to forgive his brother, and to forget the injury he had received; but seeing that he gained nothing over his spirit, he said to him: "Let us at least both address the Lord together." And then, rising, he prayed aloud: "My God, it is no longer necessary that You henceforth take care of our interests and that You be our protector, since this brother maintains that we must take revenge ourselves." The solitary was so singularly touched that, throwing himself at the feet of Sisoes, he asked for his forgiveness and promised him to forget from that moment the injury he had received.

The same saint loved retreat so much that, when he was at the church of the solitaries, he would leave as soon as the sacrifice was finished, and hasten to return to his cell. In this, he was only following the Spirit of God, and his taste for silence and prayer. On occasion, he knew how to lend himself to the duties of society, especially if charity required it. He was not attached to his practices with that stubbornness which comes from self-love.

Ordinarily, he did not eat bread. When the brothers invited him during the Easter holidays to take part in the small meal they were having at this holy time: "I will eat," he told them, "either bread or the other things that you have prepared." Upon their reply that they would be content if he ate bread, he ate some immediately, contrary to his custom.

He is represented working the land: this is the ordinary characteristic of the Fathers of the deserts of the East.

We have borrowed this life from Godeseard. — Cf. Bulteen, Hist. monast. Orient., I, I, c. 5, n. 7; Tillemont, t. xii, and Pinius, one of the continuators of Bollandus, under July 6.