When Funerals Are Not Beneficial and It Is More Compassionate to the Dead to Not Conduct Them (From the Life of Saint Pachomios the Great)

Life of Saint Pachomios the Great

Chapter Three

And it came to pass once that Abba Pachomios went to another monastery to visit the brethren who were there, and as he was on his journey he met the funeral of a certain brother of the monastery who was dead, and the monks were going to the funeral and were singing as they went; and there were also among them the parents of the man who had died.

Now the brethren saw from a distance the holy man coming towards them, and they set down the bier upon the ground so that he might come and pray over him. And when the blessed man had come, and had said a prayer, he commanded the brethren not to sing any more psalms and hymns over him; and he also commanded them to bring the garments of him that had died, and they brought them, and in the presence of them all he ordered the men to burn them; then, when they had been burned he commanded that the dead body should be taken and buried without any further singing.

Holy Abba Psoi, Disciple of Saint Pachomios the Great

St. Psoi of Egypt (Feast Day - August 9)

Verses

With the whip of prayer Psoi ended his life,
Smiting terrible noetic demons in the loins.

Around the year 324 A.D., three men came to Saint Pachomios in Tabennisi to follow him, that is, Psentaesi, Sourous and Psoi. They said to him, "We want to become monks in your company and to serve Christ." He talked with them to know whether they would be able to renounce their parents and follow the Savior. Then he put them to the test and, having found that they had the right intentions, he clothed them in the monks' habit and received them as his companions with joy and God's love. Once they had joined the holy community, they gave themselves over to great exercises and many ascetical practices.

The Manner By Which Saint Theodore the Sanctified Embraced Monasticism

The Life of Saint Pachomios

By an Unknown Greek Author

Chapter 29

The name of Pachomios became well known everywhere, giving rise to universal thanksgiving towards God. Numbers of people were renouncing the affairs of the world and turning to this extraordinary monastic way of life and its spiritual search. Theodore was numbered among them, and this is the story of his conversion. He was a young man of nearly fourteen years of age, of Christian parents, highly respected in the world. On the eleventh day of the Egyptian month Tybi, that is, the eighth day before the Ides of January, a certain Egyptian festival was being celebrated as usual. He was giving thanks to God, aware that he had a large and splendid house and an abundance of possessions of all kinds, when he suddenly felt compunction in his heart.

Saint Silvanos of Tabennisi, the Former Actor Who Had the Gift of Tears

St. Silvanos of Tabennisi (Feast Day - May 15);
Rothschild Canticles (f. 3v): Silvanus watering the garden. C. 1300
Description: A bearded and hooded hermit carries a basket over his left arm
as he covers his eyes with his left hand and waters
the leafy foliage at his feet with a bowl of water.
Interpretation: The image illustrates the virtue of sobriety.
Asked by his disciple to water the gardens,
Silvanus does so with his eyes covered to avoid distractions.

Paralipomena

From the Life of Holy Pachomios

Ch. 2

Once there was a brother called Silvanos, who had been wearing the monastic habit for twenty years. He was originally an actor. In the beginning of his renunciation he was extremely vigilant about his soul, spending all his time in fasting and frequent prayers and in all humility. But after a long time had elapsed, he began so to disregard his own salvation that he wanted to live softly and enjoy himself, and even fearlessly declaimed among the brothers improper quips from the theater.

Saint Petronios, Disciple of Saint Pachomios the Great

Saint Petronios of Egypt (Feast Day - October 23)

Verses

Covered by a rock Moses sees God,
And Petronios also, in the heavens on a rock.

Saint Petronios was a fourth-century monk who was a disciple of and briefly the successor of Saint Pachomios as head of the monastic community at Tabennisi, Egypt. Petronios was born of well-to-do parents in the city of Pjoj, in the diocese of Diospolis Parva (Hiw). Moved by the Spirit of God, he withdrew from the world and built a monastery on the property of his parents, where he gathered about him "anyone who wanted to live in Christ." The monastery, called Tbow, was situated on the west bank of the Nile, much farther north than Tmoushons, almost opposite Shmin. He also converted his father, Pshenthbo, and his brother, Pshenapalhi, "with all their household," to the monastic life. When he learned of the holy community of Pachomios, he asked him to receive the monks of Tbow into it. Pachomios came with his brothers and established at Tbow the rules of the other monasteries of the community.

Holy Abba Palamon, Spiritual Father of Saint Pachomios the Great

St. Palamon the Anchorite (Feast Day - August 12)

Verses

Palamon gave his soul into the hands of God,
And was not taken by the hands of the soul-destroyer.

Abba Palamon was fervent in his asceticism and worship. He persevered, all the days of his life, in daily and nightly prayers, and watching all night in ascetic worship. Saint Pachomios, the father of monastic communal life, otherwise known as cenobitic monasticism, was the disciple of this Saint. When Pachomios rejected paganism and adopted Christianity, he wished to live a life of asceticism and worship, so the priest of his hometown directed him to go to the great hermit Abba Palamon. Pachomios handed the care for the poor and the needy in his town to another elder monk, and went to Abba Palamon. When he arrived, he knocked on the door of his cell. The old man looked from an aperture and asked him, "Who are you O brother? And what do you want?" Pachomios answered hastily, "I, O blessed father, am looking for Christ God Whom you do worship, and I beg your fatherhood to accept me and to make me a monk." Abba Palamon told him, "O my son, monasticism is not an unrestricted labor, and a man does not come into it as he pleases, for many had adopted it not knowing its hardships, and when they adopted it they could not endure it, and you have heard about it without knowing its contention."

Saint Theodore the Sanctified, Disciple of Pachomios the Great

St. Theodore the Sanctified (Feast Day - May 16)

Verses

You are shown to be a divine gift Theodore,
Among the Saints O sanctified Saint.
On the sixteenth Theodore flew away from the earth.

Saint Theodore was called “Sanctified” because he had purified his heart of its passions and made his body a worthy temple of the Holy Spirit, so that he was the first in his monastery to be ordained to the priesthood.*

Synaxarion of Holy Abba Pachomios the Great

St. Pachomios the Great (Feast Day - May 15)

Verses

Pachomios made thin the stoutness of his flesh,
Gathering strength in his soul before his departure.
On the fifteenth Pachomios was carried off to the other side.

Our Holy Father Pachomios was from Egypt in the Lower Thebaid, and lived during the reign of Constantine the Great (306-337). He was the son of impious parents who venerated idols. Once the Saint went with them to a temple of idols, and he heard the caretaker of the temple say to his parents, as they were offering a sacrifice to the idols: "Lift up the enemy of the idols and be gone from here," which he spoke concerning Pachomios. It appears the demon that dwelt in the temple was frightened of the future virtues of the Saint. For when the Saint drank from the wine offered to the demon, he immediately regurgitated it.

When Abba Pachomios Received the Gift of Tongues

By Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis

(Rule of Pachomios, Ch. 15)

And it came to pass that, when the blessed Pachomios was visiting the brethren in their cells, and was correcting the thoughts of each of them, he was obliged to visit a certain Roman, who was a nobleman of high rank, and who knew the Greek language very well. Now therefore, having come to this great man, so that he might exhort him with words which would be beneficial to him, and might learn the motions of his heart, the blessed man spake unto him in the Egyptian tongue, but the brother did not know what the blessed man said. And because the blessed man did not know how to speak Greek, Abba was obliged to call some brother who would be able to interpret to each of them the things which were said by the other.

The Angelic Revelation of the Cenobitic Rule to St. Pachomios the Great

By Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis

(Lausiac History, Ch. 33)

In the land of Thebes, and in the district thereof which is called Tabenna,* there was a certain blessed man whose name was Pachomios, and this man led a beautiful life of ascetic excellence, and he was crowned with the love of God and of man. Now therefore as this man was sitting in his cell, there appeared unto him an angel who said unto him, “Since you have completed your discipleship it is unnecessary for you to dwell here; but come, and go and gather together unto yourself those who are wandering, and dwell with them, and lay down for them such laws as I shall tell unto you;" and the angel gave him a book (or tablet) wherein was written the following:

Saint Pachomios the Great, Founder of Cenobitic Monasticism

St. Pachomios the Great (Feast Day - May 15)

Saint Pachomios was born of pagan parents in the Upper Thebaid of Egypt. He was conscripted into the Roman army at an early age. While quartered with the other soldiers in the prison in Thebes, Pachomios was astonished at the kindness shown them by the local Christians, who relieved their distress by bringing them food and drink. Upon inquiring who they were, he believed in Christ and vowed that once delivered from the army, he would serve Him all the days of his life. Released from military service, about the year 313, he was baptized, and became a disciple of the hermit Palamon, under whose exacting guidance he increased in virtue and grace, and reached such a height of holiness that "because of the purity of his heart," says his biographer, "he was, as it were, seeing the invisible God as in a mirror." His renown spread far, and so many came to him to be his disciples that he founded nine monasteries in all, filled with many thousands of monks, to whom he gave a rule of life, which became the pattern for all communal monasticism after him. While Saint Anthony the Great is the father of hermits, Saint Pachomios is the founder of the cenobitic life in Egypt; because Pachomios had founded a way of monasticism accessible to so many, Anthony said that he "walks the way of the Apostles." Saint Pachomios fell asleep in the Lord before his contemporaries Anthony and Athanasius the Great, in the year 346. His name in Coptic, Pachom, means "eagle."

The Rule Of Saint Pachomios as revealed to him from an angel of the Lord: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, & Part 4

Select Apophthegmata:

-- The great Pachomios was asked once by a brother, ‘Why is it that before the demon comes to trouble us, we possess our mind’s understanding in a healthy state and we philosophize about temperance, humility, and the other virtues, but when the hour comes to display in deed what we have been philosophizing about, such as longsuffering in the time of anger, absence of vainglory when subjected to praise, and many other similar things, we are often defeated?’ In answer to this the Great Man said, ‘Because we do not pursue the active life perfectly—that is why we do not understand all the demons’ mind and versatility well enough to be able, when the Troubler manifests his presence, to repel swiftly the confusion of such thoughts which surrounds us by the contemplative power of the soul. Therefore,’ he said, ‘let us pour the fear of God like oil upon the contemplative part of the soul, every day and every hour. That fear, which accomplishes works and is a lamp for the contemplation of the things that concern us, makes our mind unshakable, not carried away by anger, wrath, rancor, and any of the other passions which lead us to wickedness. It makes it contemplative and raises it to that incorporeal region; it forces it to hold in contempt the things which are wrought by devils and prepares it to "tread underfoot serpents and scorpions and all the whole strength of the enemy"' (Luke 10:19).

-- Once, while living in the desert, Pachomios learned that the city of Alexandria was being ravaged by famine and epidemic. He spent several days in tears, not even eating the meager ration of food which he allowed himself. His novices begged him to eat and restore his strength but St Pachomios replied, "How can I eat when my brethren do not have bread?" How far are even the best of us from such love and commiseration?

-- Pachomios memorized the Holy Scriptures. When he started reciting God’s words by heart, he did not do it in the fashion of many other people, but he strove to comprehend it himself, each and every thing through humility, gentleness and truth, according to the Lord’s word, “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart" (Matthew 11:29).

-- Pachomios was…in the habit of stretching his arms out in prayer, without folding them soon again into a resting position, but rather keeping them stretched out, as if on a cross, in order to force the body to labor and stay awake in prayer.

-- Pachomios believed that “it was not good to ask for office and glory” and, wary of ecclesiastical politics, felt that “a clerical office is the beginning of contemplation of the lust for power”.

-- As the Vita Prima Graeca informs us, the few monks of the early days of the Pachomian community marveled at him exceedingly, because they saw him toiling…through his assumption of nearly all the care of the monastery. For he prepared the table for them at mealtime…he sowed and watered the vegetables…he answered the door every time someone would knock at it…if any one of them were sick, Pachomios himself took care of him and ministered to him during the night…he freed them of all care.

-- One day Pachomios was weaving a rush mat in Tabennesis and a boy came to the weekly service in the monastery. When the boy saw him weaving, he told him, ‘Not so father! Do not turn the thread this way. Father Theodore showed us another style of weaving.’ Pachomios rose and said to the boy: ‘Yes, teach me this style.’ After the boy taught him, he sat to work gladly, having even in this matter anticipated the spirit of arrogance. If his way were the way of the flesh, he would not have cared but would even have reprimanded the child for having spoken out of turn.

-- It was while Pachomios was in the desert alone, praying to be taught God’s perfect will, (that) an angel sent by the Lord appeared to him…and (said) ‘The Lord’s will is to minister to the race of men and to reconcile them to him.’ It was after he thought about the voice which he had heard and realized its meaning (that) he started to receive those who came to him.

-- The wife of one of the area’s leading politicians was bleeding. And when she heard about the great Pachomios, she asked…Dionysios to summon him. After the Great Man was summoned, he sat inside the church…and she…coming near him…touched the cowl on his head and was immediately cured.

-- Elder Pachomios would say: "He who in my view is a sinner is not to ask of God to see visions. For without God’s will, visions are misleading…hear now about a great vision: it is a great vision to see a pure and humble man. For what is greater…than to see the invisible God in the visible man who is his temple".

-- Abba Psenthaisios, Abba Souros and Abba Psoios used to agree in saying this: “Whenever we listened to the words of our father, Abba Pachomios, we were greatly helped…(and) we saw how, even when he kept silence, he taught us by his actions. We were amazed by him and we used to say to each other: ‘We thought that all the saints were created as saints by God and never changed from their mother’s womb, not like other men. We thought that sinners could not live devoutly, because they had been so created. But now we see the goodness of our God manifested in our father: for see, he is of pagan origin and he has become devout; he has put on all the commandments of God. Thus even we also can follow him and become equal to the saints whom he himself has followed.’”

Apolytikion in the Plagal of the First Tone

Thou didst prove a chief pastor of the Chief Shepherd, Christ, guiding the flocks of monastics unto the heavenly fold, whence thou learntest of the habit and the way of life that doth befit ascetic ranks; having taught this to thy monks, thou now dancest and rejoicest with them in heavenly dwellings, O great Pachomius, our Father and guide.

Kontakion in the Second Tone

Since thou hadst shown forth the life of the Angels while in a body, O God-bearing Pachomius, thou wast also counted worthy of their glory; and with them thou standest before the Lord's throne, interceding that divine forgiveness be granted unto all.