His upbringing:

On January 15, our church celebrates the memory of our righteous father Paul of Thebes, the first hermit in Christian history. Saint Paul was born in the year 228 in the city of Thebes in Upper Egypt during the reign of the Roman Emperor Alexander Severus, around the year 228 AD. His parents were wealthy, so they educated him in the Greek and Coptic languages and raised him with a good Christian upbringing because they were devout Christians. They planted in his heart the seeds of Christian virtues along with modern sciences in which he excelled. He inherited a huge fortune from his parents after losing them in the prime of his youth, so he left everything to his sister because his soul yearned for spiritual and heavenly treasures, and he went to the wilderness seeking solitude, solitude and tranquility with God. There he found a cave where he spent most of his life praying and prostrating to the Lord, communing with Him and imploring Him for the salvation of all people.

His escape to the desert:

Following the persecution that Decius and Valerian incited against the Church, and after the death of Paul's parents and the marriage of his sister, Paul found himself alone, so he fled to the desert for fear of the Romans, especially after he heard that his brother-in-law was determined to tell the Romans that Paul was hiding in the fields, so that he could lay his hands on his inheritance.

Paul found himself familiar with the desert, and he liked to go deep into it. He continued like this until he reached a mountain where he could see something resembling a cave. He made his way through the densely intertwined branches of a palm tree, blocking the place. He found himself in front of a wide courtyard, and near the palm tree there was clear water running a little and then sinking into the ground.

Paul looked at the place and saw that God had prepared it to be his home. So he abandoned worldly things and lived in the cave for the rest of his life. The place provided him with food, drink, and shelter. He even made his garment from palm branches. Other than that, Paul devoted himself to prayer and praise.

No one knows how he lived or what trials he underwent. We only know that his life was closer to that of angels than to that of men, and that he remained so until the age of one hundred and thirteen, when God revealed his affair to Saint Anthony the Great.

Divine Providence and His Revelation to Saint Anthony:

Saint Anthony was ninety years old at that time. It seems that a thought occurred to him that no one before him had lived in the desert and walked the perfect life like him. Then, in a vision at night, someone came to him and told him that his thoughts were delusional because there was someone in the desert who was better and more knowledgeable than him and that he should hasten to go to him. When dawn broke, he got up, took his staff and walked, not caring about the burden of the days and the asceticism. His concern was to follow the divine voice to where it guided him.

Divine Providence willed that Saint Anthony, after two days' journey in the desert, should find his way to Saint Paul's cave. He looked into the cave and it seemed dark to him. He felt his way through it and saw a faint light shining in the distance. He was certain that this was the dwelling place of the man whom God had revealed to him.

St. Anthony hastened his steps in delight, and his feet hit some stones, and strange sounds echoed in the place. When Paul noticed them from inside, he got up and closed the door. This was the first time that anyone had broken his calm since he had arrived at the place. When St. Anthony saw that the door had been closed in his face, he threw himself on the ground, at the threshold, and begged Paul not to deprive him of the consolation that he had come seeking from afar with great difficulty, affirming that he would never leave the place before he had received the saint’s blessing or died at the door. Paul had no choice but to open the door for him and looked at him with a gentle smile. As they embraced, each called the other by name.

The crow and the loaf of bread:

After Paul and Anthony met and sat down to talk, a raven brought them a loaf of bread and threw it in front of them. The two men thanked God for his great mercy. Paul said, “Do you see how good God is who sends me half a loaf of bread every day? And today, since you have come to visit me, he has doubled the portion because he cares for those who serve him.

Then the two of them got up to eat. After they had prayed, each of them waited for the other to break the bread and give it to him, Paul out of respect for Antony's right as his guest, and Antony out of reverence for Paul's will. When they both insisted in a wonderfully childish way, they agreed to hold the loaf together and break it, each from his side.

Saint Paul's knowledge of his imminent death:

After Paul and Anthony had spent the night in prayer, they wanted to continue talking the next day. Paul said to Anthony: “For a long time, my brother, I have known that you have been living in this desert. For a long time God has revealed to me that you are spending yourself in His service. Behold, my last hour has come, and my soul has longed to be united with the Lord Jesus. All that remains for me is to receive from His hand the crown of righteousness. And the divine Master has sent you to bury my body. Or, to speak more appropriately, to return the dust to the dust.”

When Antony heard Paul speak of his imminent departure, he burst into tears and begged him not to leave him alone or to follow him. Paul replied, “You should not desire what is good for you at this time. It is certainly a pleasure for you to be freed from the burden of this mortal body, but your brothers need your example. Therefore I ask you, if I do not burden you too much, to go and bring me the cloak which Athanasius the bishop (the saint) gave you to wrap me in and warm me.” Paul asked him this not because he was very concerned about his burial, wrapped in a cloak or not, but because he wanted to keep Antony away from him for a few days to spare him the pain of seeing him die, and he also wanted to announce that he was dying in communion with St. Athanasius, the staunch defender of the Orthodox faith against the Arian heresy.

Anthony was amazed at the grace of God dwelling in this great old man and the greatest one who revealed to him the matter of the cloak. After he shed tears and kissed the old man’s eyes and hands, he returned to his monastery.

The return of Saint Anthony to the hermitage of Saint Paul and his burial of him:

Antony walked back with enthusiasm. Longing for Paul renewed his youth like an eagle. When he reached his monastery, he grabbed his cloak and hurried out, not thinking about what food to take with him. His concern was to catch up with Paul before he died.

Antony walked for three hours and suddenly he saw Paul ascending to heaven in a bright light among the blessed souls. He fell to the ground and covered his head with sand and cried out: “Ah, Paul, why have you left me? Why do you not let me say goodbye to you? Should I have lost you so quickly after meeting you so late?”

Then he got up and walked again. When he reached the cave, he found the body of the saint kneeling, so he thought that he was still alive, so he knelt beside him and began to pray. When he noticed that Paul was not breathing audibly as he had found him the first time, he knew that he was dead, so he got up and threw himself on his neck and kissed him a sad kiss and wept over him for a long time.

Finally, Antony got up and dragged Paul's body out of the cave to bury him, chanting hymns and psalms. But when he wanted to dig a hole to bury the body, he found nothing to help him, so he became confused. Then two lions appeared from the depths of the desert and came forward to lie down next to Paul's body, caressing him with their tails and roaring as if they were mourning him. Then they began to dig the ground with their claws and throw sand here and there, until they made a hole large enough to hold Paul's body. When they had finished their work, they approached Antony with their heads bowed and licked his hands and feet. Antony realized that they were begging him for a blessing, so he blessed them in this way: "O Lord, without whose will not a single leaf falls to the ground, nor the least bird of the air perishes, you give these two lions what you know is necessary for them." When he had said this, he motioned to the lions to leave, and they left. He went to the body, put it in the hole, put the earth back on it, and returned to his monastery. One thing he took with him from the place was Paul's tunic made of palm leaves, which he began to wear from then on at the feasts of Easter and Pentecost.

The Church commemorates him (with Saint John the Coptic) on January 15.

Troparion to St. Paul in Tone 8 and to St. John in Tone 4
For the barren wilderness you fed with the streams of your tears, and with the sighs from the depths you bore fruit with your labors a hundredfold. You became a star for the inhabited world, shining with wonders, O our righteous father Paul, so intercede with Christ God to save our souls.
When you longed for the Lord fervently from childhood, you left the world and the worldly pleasures, and practiced virtuous asceticism, and set up a hut at the door of your parents, you crushed the dens of the devils, O most blessed John, and therefore Christ has honored you with merit.

Kontakion of St. Paul in Tone 4 and of St. John in Tone 2
Let us all, O believers, praise the shining star in the sublimity of virtues, the noble Paul, crying out: You are the joy of the righteous, O Christ.
When you, O wise John, desired the poverty similar to that of Christ, you left the wealth of your parents and followed Christ God, carrying the Gospel in your hand, always interceding for us all.