(4TH CENT.)
[Greek Menæa and Roman Martyrology on the same day. But
some Latin Martyrologies on Dec. 18th, others on Jan. 11th.
Authorities:--Palladius, in his Hist. Lausiaca; Ruffinus, in his Lives
of the Fathers of the Desert; and Sozomen, Hist. Eccles., lib. i., c.
13.]
Paul the Simple was one of the first disciples of S. Antony. He did
not embrace the religious life till he was sixty, and then it was in
consequence of the bad conduct of his wife. He had been a labourer in
a village of the Thebaid, and was very ignorant. He came to S. Antony,
but the patriarch of hermits refused to admit him, thinking him too
old to adopt the monastic life. Paul, however, remained three days and
nights outside the cell of Antony, and would not leave. Antony then
came forth, and found that the man had no food; he, therefore, received
him for a while, hoping to disgust him with the life of a hermit by the
severity of his discipline. He set Paul to pray outside his door, and
told him not to desist till he was released. The simple old labourer
obeyed, and Antony observed him, unseen, praying with the blazing sun
shining down on his head at noon-day, and the moon looking on him at
night, as rigid and immoveable as one of the date palms of the desert.
He then brought him into his cave, and gave him some platting to do.
When it was accomplished he rebuked Paul for his having doing it badly,
and bade him undo his work again. The postulant did as ordered without
a murmur. Then Antony brought bread, and set the table in order for
supper, and called the hungry Paul to it; then he said, "Before we eat,
let us recite twelve psalms and twelve prayers," and he did so; and
when the psalms and prayers were done, Antony said, "We have looked on
the bread, that will suffice for supper; now let us retire to rest."
Yet Paul murmured not; so Antony saw that he was qualified to be a monk.
Once, as Antony and some of his guests were discoursing on spiritual
matters, Paul asked very simply, "Were the prophets before Jesus
Christ, or Jesus Christ before the prophets?" Then Antony reddened,
and bade him keep in the background, and hold his tongue. Now Paul at
once obeyed, and remained for some time silent, and out of sight, and
they told Antony of it. Then he said, "Oh, my brethren! learn from this
man what our obedience towards God ought to be. If I say anything, he
does it instantly and cheerfully, and we--do we thus behave towards our
God?"