His name in the ancient Syrian synagogues (13th century AD) is Paisios, in the Byzantine synagogues he is called Panesios, and among the Syriacs and Copts, he is called “Bsheih,” “Bishoy,” or “Bishai.” His feast day among the Melkites, Syriacs, Maronites, and Copts, in the past, was on the second of July, which is, according to the biography, the day of his death (June 19 according to the Western calendar, which the Church of Antioch follows). His biography, which we are presenting here, was taken from the Arabic manuscript Sinaiticus 407 from the 13th/14th century AD.

Writer and biography

His biography was written by a monk named John, who said that he was a companion of his in monasticism and a disciple of Bishop Bemboa. God has testified against Himself that He only conveys what His eyes saw. He summarized his spiritual biography as follows: “He is the one whom God elected and stepped aside and distanced himself from all the affairs of the world, conquered all desires, completed the entire path of monasticism, and truly became complete among the martyrs by his favorite deeds, which are monasticism, and by his amazing miracles, because he offered himself and his body an acceptable sacrifice, and began to live in this wilderness by dwelling in different places.” And holes in the ground. This is the one who was seen for the purity of his soul and body. He always kept the Lord’s commandments and cared for the salvation of the souls of most people in order to bring them to the heavenly kingdom with his divine teaching.”

his family

Paisios's parents were good, church-loving, and God-pleasing workers. Their homeland was a village “by the Arabs of Egypt, called Pesichania.” God blessed them with seven sons. The father died while his children were young, so their mother raised them with the fear of God. Paisius was the youngest of his brothers.

Divine view:

One night, the mother saw a scene that looked like she and her seven children, and an angel of God saying to her: “The Lord has sent me to you, saying... Give me one of your children who will sanctify my name and bless him among the people.” The mother said: “Sir, they are all for God’s sake... so take whoever you like.” So the angel extended his hand and took Paisios’ hand, saying to her: “This is the servant of God. This is the one the Lord truly loves.” The mother said to him: “Take something stronger than this, because this poor person... is the weakest and smallest of them.” The angel replied to her: “This is the one who is worthy and fit to serve the Lord, because the strength of the Lord is revealed in weakness.” When the angel said that, he disappeared from her.

Monk:

Paisios grew in grace and stature, and his eagerness for monastic life grew in him. When the fullness of time came, his Lord drew him, like a pure lamb without blemish, to the Sceet wilderness, and he joined one of its saintly sheikhs, Bishop Bemboa.

Paisius behaved in complete obedience to his teacher, with great humility. The old man once said to him: It is not appropriate for a person to look at the faces of the saints, but rather to look. When Paisios heard these words, he spent three years without looking up at a human face.

He studied the holy books and looked at their meanings so that he might obtain from them the water of life, which is the grace of the Holy Spirit. His prayer was unceasing. He was always awake and fasting, loved the word of God more than the witness, and grew in virtue every day like a stick planted by streams of water (Psalm 1:3).

The sheikh loved him very much and called him “the thirsty father who lives for his own light.”

During fasting, Paisios did not taste any food except from Saturday to Saturday. After a while, he increased his fasting and began to eat only once every two weeks, being satisfied with dry bread.

After the death of his teacher, Paisios moved to a cave west of his first place in response to a signal from the angel of the Lord. Many people began to come to him and look at his works and imitate his behavior.

The Lord Jesus visited him:

The Lord Jesus Christ, glory be to Him, came to him once and said to him: “Peace be upon you, my servant Paisios.” He stood up terrified and prostrated to him. Then the Lord said to him: Do you see this wilderness and its vastness? There will be more monks in it from now on, and they will always sanctify my name! Paisios asked him: “Does this wilderness support them, my lord?!” The Lord answered him: Verily I say to you, if I find among them perfect love and they keep my statutes, they will not need to do any of the things of this world. Rather, I will prepare for them with everything they need. Paisius said: And you save them, sir, from bad people and devils?! The Lord answered him: If they keep my commandments, I will save them from all temptations and make them inherit the kingdom of heaven! When the Lord told him that, he rose above him.

The trap of the enemy of good:

The angel of the Lord was attending to Bishop Paisios and serving him, and the enemy of goodness was setting traps for him, one after another, without being able to trap him because the Spirit of God was powerfully residing in him.

Satan once set a trap for him of dignity and accepting gifts. He appeared as an angel of light to a very rich nobleman and advised him to go to Scetis with huge gifts and seek blessings from a monk named Paisios. Whatever he asked of God, he would give him. So he got up and went to him. But before he got there, an angel of the Lord came and exposed Satan's trick to him. So the saint went into the wilderness until he met the man. The man asked him about Bishop Paisios. And when the saint said to him: What do you want from him? He replied: I want to give him the gifts that I carried with me and also money that he distributes to the monks so that he can be a blessing in my house. The sheikh replied: The monks in this wilderness do not need money, and they do not accept gifts from you. But, now, God has accepted your offering, so go to the villages of Egypt and distribute what you have to the poor, and the Lord will bless you. So the man returned and did everything the saint ordered him to do, and Satan was humbled and stood before him, saying: “You have tortured me, Abba Paisios!” He replied: “From the beginning, you have resisted good deeds!” Satan said: “From now on, I decide within myself that you are what I was created!” The saint replied: “The Lord rebukes you and annihilates you!” Then the devil went away and did not see him again.

Kidnapped to Paradise:

After this, the saint entered the inner wilderness and stayed there alone, devoting himself to greater measures than the first. So the Lord commanded, and he was caught up to Paradise to see the good things that are there. He was given spiritual food, so he ate it and became strong enough to endure hunger and thirst. Then, every Sunday became sufficient for him, the life-giving body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he did not taste anything other than Him in food or drink. He remained in this state for seventy years. His body was tired as if it did not belong to him.

A special talent from God:

As for his disciples, they celebrated him like bees celebrate the honeymoon. One time, when they crowded him, he went out to a cave in the wilderness, where he stayed for three years, praying continuously before the Lord. It was said that he made himself a stake at the height of the cave to which he used to pull his hair so that he could stand before his Lord at all times. After that, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him, and when the saint saw him, he fell on his face, so the Savior caught him and got him up, saying: Peace be upon you, Paisios. I have looked at the works that you have done and accepted them. And behold, I give you the gift that whatever you ask in my name it will be yours. Paisios said to him: I ask you, my lord, to strengthen me in fulfilling your duties for the sake of your holy name. So the Lord blessed him with peace and exalted him.

His prayer for Zhan Matt:

There was residing next to the cell of Bishop Paisios, a God-fearing sheikh who had a disciple. Satan cast him into adultery, where he died and was cast into hell. The sheikh was distressed and began asking God day and night for his student, fasting for forty days. Then a voice came to him saying to him: “He will remain in hell until the Lord comes in the clouds.” The sheikh also fasted for an additional forty days, asking the Lord to rescue him from hell. Then he heard the voice telling him the same first words. He did not give up or despair, but rather went to Bishop Paisios and informed him of the matter of his student. Bishop Paisios said to him: Get up, brother, let us pray and let the will of God be done. The sheikh said to him: “As the Lord lives, I will not leave your presence until you ask God to have mercy on my student and make my heart rejoice.” So the saint immediately went to the inner wilderness and prayed, saying: “O Lord, have mercy on your creation and save your servant from torment.” Then our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him and said to him: What do you seek, Paisius? He said: May the sheikh’s disciple ascend from hell, O Lord! The Savior answered him: The matter has come out of my mouth that he will remain in hell until I come in the clouds! The saint said to him: Sir, I loved you, and now you are coming on the clouds! So he commanded, and the cloud of light came and rose upon it, and ordered that the soul of that young man be brought and given to Father Paisios. So the saint took the soul and gave it to the sheikh. When the sheikh saw what happened, he was amazed and asked his student what happened to him in hell. He said: I suffered a lot because of my sins, especially because I had no obedience. At that moment, the Lord ordered that the disciple be taken to the land of mourning. The sheikh was happy and thanked the saint very much, then said to him: I ask you to inform me of the deeds that you did until the Lord granted you these great virtues. The saint answered him: Forgive me, Father, because this matter did not happen for me, the vile one, but for your sake and for your forty fast! Afterwards, the parents thanked the Lord and each of them returned to their cell in peace.

A teacher from God:

After this, Bishop Paisios exhausted himself with many difficult tasks, more difficult than the first. He used to roam the wastelands where there was no water to conceal his affairs. While he was like this, the Lord appeared to him and commanded him to go out to the brothers and teach them the monastic duties. He said to the Lord: I do not have the strength for this service, and I am afraid that my labor will perish! Then the Lord said to him: Do not be afraid, for I will reward you for your labors in the Kingdom of Heaven!

With Constantine the King:

One time, John, a fellow student of Bishop Bemboa and his biographer, I say, went to his cave, and before he knocked on the door, he heard the voice of a person talking to Bishop Paisios and crying. When John entered and they sat and prayed, he asked him: Who were you talking to? He replied: If you heard his voice, I will tell you. It was King Constantine who came from heaven sad and crying and said to me: I did not know that monks deserved such dignity and grace for their dwelling on earth and their nakedness for the sake of Christ. If I had known that, I would have given up my kingdom and become a monk. So I said to him: Did the Lord not give you pleasure and honor for the sake of your kingdom? He said: Yes, but it has not reached the status of dignity reserved for monks. For I see some of them who, when they depart, have wings and fly, and come to the walls of heavenly Jerusalem, and enter without hindrance...

In the company of the Lord Jesus:

Bishop Paisios once fasted for twenty-one days, and the Lord Jesus Christ came to him and consoled him, saying: You are exhausting yourself a lot! He said: Oh my lord, let me put my trust in you and I will not be weak at all. So the Lord took him by the hand and brought him to a brother who had fasted for two days. Bishop Paisios saw him lying on the ground, in great distress, tossing and turning and asking for coolness, inflamed by fasting, and he had not completed the second day. Bishop Paisios said to the Lord: Sir, why is this brother in this state? And the Lord said to him: Because he fasted for me. Paisius said: How many days has he fasted, for he has relaxed a lot? He answered: Since his birth, he has not missed eating anything except tonight. Hunger and weakness took over him, as you can see. And now you have fasted for twenty-one days because I give you the power to fast. As for this man, I will reward him according to the strength that I have given him. Amen, I say to you that, as I said in the Gospel, enter all of you into the joy of your Lord. Since then, Paisios began to devote himself to many efforts and asked God, saying: Sir, I do not prefer to eat bread at all. And the Lord said to him: Do not neglect food, for, behold, you do not eat anything. He asked the Lord, saying: If I leave the wilderness, I will be greatly saddened by my departure. And the Lord said to him: Do not be sad when you go out, for I will not leave you to darken. He also said to him: Sir, I have been overcome by many outbursts of anger. Then the Lord said to him: Be careful not to rebuke anyone, hate anyone, or reject anyone. If you preserve yourself, you will not be defeated, but the Holy Spirit will dwell in you. The Lord was going with Bishop Paisios to a place, speaking to him as a man speaks to his companion.

A monk from the Levant:

There was a saint monk in the Levant who lived in some mountains and served God greatly. This man was standing praying once, and he thought in his heart, saying: Do I find mercy before the Lord like some of the saints? Immediately a voice came to him saying to him: In the country of Egypt there is an old man, in the wilderness of Nitria, who always serves God. His name is Abba Paisios. This has a significance with God, so do you. So that monk got up and got into a boat and went to Alexandria and went up and down until he reached the place of Bishop Paisios. Bishop Paisios accepted him with joy, took him into his cave, prayed, and sat down. That monk was Syriac in tongue, and Bishop Paisios did not know Syriac. Bishop Paisios sighed and raised his eyes to the sky and said: I ask you, Lord, to inform me of what this old man is talking about. Immediately God enlightened his mind and began speaking to him in Syriac. After the two exchanged beautiful spiritual words, and the brothers blessed the visiting sheikh for six days, they said goodbye to each other, and the Syriac monk departed to his home. As soon as he left, one of the brothers came and was absent, so the rest of them told him what they had. Then they said to him: Perhaps you will catch him if you go out after him, because he has not left for a long time. Saint Paisios replied: Do not go, brother, for you will not catch him because he walked eighteen miles on clouds of air. When the brothers heard his words, they marveled and praised God.

A monk named John:

One day, a monk, Bishop John, came to visit Bishop Paisios. This man had stayed up very long, day and night, living in the wilderness, neither eating nor drinking. He was extremely tired, and his soul was low. When he knocked on the door, Bishop Paisios came out to him, hugged him, and took him into his cell. They prayed and sat exchanging useful words. The grace of the Holy Spirit revealed to Father Paisios that John had been fasting for many days and was burning with thirst, so he ordered his disciple to bring him bread to eat, but Father John did not want to eat. After Bishop Paisios urged him repeatedly and he refused, he rose, out of love for him, and extended his hands and prayed to God like this: O my God and Master, come to my aid and answer me and have mercy on your servant John, for his soul has become weak due to fasting and thirst. While the saint was immersed in supplication, Bishop John was taken away by the spirit and saw a man who fed him and gave him drink until he was full. They both praised God and John returned to his cell.

Junior brother:

Once again, a brother was a novice in the monastic order and he was saddened by the demons who tired him all the time. So he came to Bishop Paisios and asked him to pray for him, saying: Satan keeps bringing me thoughts and making me sad! The saint answered him: What you are saying is the case of complete people, not beginners in monasticism, and as for you, the devils have not yet known that you are in the wilderness. Now go and ask God and He will take care of you. So the brother returned to his cell, and the saint stood up and prayed to God to have mercy on the saintly brother and comfort him. Then the devil himself appeared to the saint and said to him: Why do you make me sad?! The saint replied: Stay away from the novice brother and do not insist and harass him with ideas! Satan said to him: I swear to you that I have not yet felt that he is in this wilderness, but rather that he is being tested by smallness of mind. But from now on I am trying it with all my might. The saint rebuked him, saying: May the Lord disgrace you and cast you away! Satan disappeared from him. After that, fierce fighting befell the novice brother, to the point that he fled from his cell naked and came to the saint, complaining and crying. So the saint took him by the hand and brought him in to rest. Then he got up to pray and raised his hands to the sky and said: O Lord, my God, the Almighty, the Creator of creation in His wisdom, and the Preserver of our souls, I ask you and I ask you to ease this brother’s fight against the devils and strengthen him to reside in this wilderness with complete rituals. You said, Lord, that I will increase the number of monks in this wilderness, and they will sanctify my name. For this reason, I ask you to be a cover and a salvation for us from our enemies, because you are capable of all things, and you have glory forever and ever. As soon as Bishop Paisios sealed himself with the sign of the cross and said “Amen,” an angel of the Lord appeared to him and put Satan around him with chains and placed him before him. Then Satan addressed the saint, saying: Woe to you, O reproach of Paisios, because you have tortured me so much! The saint said to him: O enemy of truth who is never satisfied with fighting the servants of God and his son Christ, tell me why you are fighting this brother? The devil replied: Because I want him to abandon monasticism from the beginning, lest if I neglect it, he will become stronger against me and cause more grief to me than you do. The saint said to him: The Lord rebukes you and keeps you away from His servants! Then Bishop Paisios prayed for the brother, admonished him, and sent him to his cell, but Satan did not return to him and he advanced in a life of virtue.

Isaac the Jew repented:

Once again, a brother named Isaac followed his own desires, did his own will, and did not consult the elders. This man went to the city of Arwad, in the country of the Taimen, near Yastus, and lived there alone. One day, he entered the city of Yustus to sell his cloves, and a charming Jewish woman seduced him and made him take off his monastic mask and join her and the Jewish community. It was said that out of her hatred for the Lord’s Christ, she placed the man on her knees, drank vinegar, and mixed between his bones and teeth so that nothing of Christ’s body would remain in her. Isaac sent monks who had passed through the place to Bishop Paisios, saying to him: Isaac the Jew begs you to pray for him because he has fallen into Satan’s traps! But Satan struck the messengers with forgetfulness. Then the Spirit of the Lord moved Bishop Paisios and asked them: Did not Isaac the Jew command you to say anything to me? They said: Yes, and they told him about his condition. So the saint began to pray for him day and night. Then the Lord heard his prayer and appeared to him, saying: Why did you labor, O my chosen one, for the sake of Isaac, who disbelieved in me and denied my baptism!? The saint cried and said: I am not calm enough to pray to you, my Lord, until you forgive him. The Lord said to him: If you desire that I forgive him, then I will take a lot of your labors and give him an alternative. He said to him: Lord, you know everything. Just as I love to be saved, I also love everyone to be saved because I cannot see my brother sad and perishing while I am in mourning. Yes, sir, I ask you to send him your mercy and restore him to your destiny, otherwise I will not stop crying. And the Lord said to him: You have done well, Paisius, and you have become like me, for there is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his neighbor. From now on, I will not make you sad or take any of your labors, but rather I will increase your reward and fulfill your request. After a few days, God's grace illuminated the fallen Isaac, so he rose and returned to the wilderness with great repentance, and he became a complete monk, and God was pleased with him.

Wash the Lord's feet:

One time, the saint was sitting in his cave in the desert of Upper Egypt, and our Lord appeared to him with two angels and greeted him. Paisios immediately got up and prostrated to him. Then he took water and washed his feet. When the Lord ascended in glory, the saint took the water, drank from it, and left the rest for his absent disciple in Egypt. When the disciple returned, the saint said to him: Son, get up and drink a little of the water in the pail. He said: Yes, my father, and he did not drink because he said in his heart: Instead of telling me to drink something cold because of the intense heat, he tells me to drink from the washing water!? The sheikh also said to him: Drink a little water, my son! The disciple said: Pray for me while I was drinking, but he did not drink. The saint told him a third time to drink, but he did not drink either. When the student saw his teacher sad because of him, he went to the pot and uncovered it, but did not find anything in it. He returned to the saint, objecting and complaining: You were mocking me, father, because I did not find water in the pot. The saint said to him: Did you want the water to remain on the earth until this hour? The student said to him: What is that water? He said to him: Christ came to one of the brothers, and the brother asked him for permission to wash his feet, so he gave him permission. He washed them with that water and brought me some, so I drank and saved the rest for you. When she did not accept it from me and did not want to drink, the angel of the Lord came down and took him. The disciple fell on his face and wept bitterly.

He and his disciples:

The Lord once appeared to Abba Paisios and said to him: If you were to build a monastery for yourself in the Scetis Desert and gather in it monks, they would offer sacrifices to your name, and your remembrance would be in that place forever. The saint said to him: Forgive me, sir, for I am an old man, I am not strong, I am not competent, and I am a sinful person. So the Lord gathered many brothers to Him, and Bishop Paisios dressed them in monastic uniforms, and they lived in the caves around him. He taught them to fear God, read books, and recite psalms. He also advised them to work with their hands to eat from their labor and to give alms for their sins. One of the brothers was sitting listening, and he thought in his heart, saying: If the father had done anything with his hands, he would have known what the pain of the work was. So the saint knew in spirit what was in his heart and said to him: This is what I thought about me, complaining that I am urging the brothers to work and read books. Do you not know, my son, that in every prayer I am careful before God to ask for your souls? When the brother heard these words, the braid fell from his hand and he fell on his face, prostrating. The saint said to him: My son, if I work, God knows that since the day I came to this place I have not left work, neither day nor night, continuing my prayers and the work of my hands, rebuking my body so that it does not inherit hell. When the brothers heard the words of the saint, they realized their shortcomings and asked for forgiveness.

His death:

When the saint's death approached, he had become very old and weak, and his body became a pure offering to God. He always used to say: There is no greater virtue than a person being careful not to do anything according to his own opinion, but rather to accept what his brother advises him to do and run away from false praise, because when false praise takes over a person, it shakes him and drops its fruit just as strong winds drop fruit from trees. The saint had shunned false praise and relied on God from his childhood, thus inheriting the heavenly kingdom and attaining eternal bliss. His death occurred on the second day of July, around the year 417 AD. He had lived in the wilderness for sixty years - as people who knew - testified - apart from the years he spent in March in Upper Egypt. His intercession benefits us, Amen.

The Orthodox Church celebrates him on the nineteenth of June. Through the intercession of your saint Paisios, O God, have mercy on us and save us, Amen.

They asked him: Which virtue is the greatest? He said: “That which happens in secret.” They also asked him: What is the greatest virtue? He replied: To listen to the opinions and advice of others with humility and not to cling to your own opinion and will. The church called him the Great because he acquired great virtues and great talents.