By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Venerable Paul lived during the time of the persecutors of Christianity, Decius and Valerian, and was from Egypt of the Lower Thebaid. When he realized that his brother-in-law, through his sister, intended to betray him in order to seize his share of the inheritance, he withdrew and fled to the mountains. Advancing ever deeper, in time he overcame his fear, and instead of fearing the persecutors, he came to desire the solitary life. Thus he approached a cave, the deepest in the desert, in which he passed in peace the whole of his life, which was long, and departed to the Lord with untroubled calm of soul. As it is said, the great Anthony reached him and marveled at the harshness of the place and the length of time of his ascetic struggle and withdrawal. For he was the first among others to dare to advance into the inner depths of the desert and extended the path of asceticism to the one hundred and thirteenth year of his life. Thus long he lived, having withdrawn from the cares of life from a young age.
And the very fact alone that the great ascetic Anthony marveled at the ascetic conduct of Saint Paul, and that the great theologian and poet of our Church, John of Damascus, composed his Canon, is sufficient for us to understand the height and magnitude of the holiness of the Saint celebrated today. According to his Holy Hymnographer, moreover, Saint Anthony reached the remote places where he was practicing asceticism by divine illumination, both in order to take him as an example himself and also to make him known to the world for the benefit of all. Otherwise, he would have remained a most great Saint, unknown to all except, of course, the Lord Himself.
“You were the first to advance into the deepest desert, Paul, beyond every monk, and you seemed to live your whole life unknown. Therefore Anthony found you by divine illumination, like a hidden treasure, and revealed you to the inhabited world.”
Saint John of Damascus shows that this primacy of Venerable Paul was not something insignificant. On the one hand, he highlights it many times, evidently because it reveals the great strength of soul of the Saint and his fervent love for the Lord — “you loved God alone with all your soul, and thus you reached the desert, Paul, as though it were a city inhabited” — and on the other hand, he considers that in this way the Saint lived a life corresponding to that of Saint John the Forerunner (“you emulated John the Forerunner, O divinely-minded one, and practiced asceticism in the desert”), and further back still to the Prophet Elijah, Saints who also had a similar primacy. Indeed, the wondrous nourishment of the Saint with heavenly bread stirred Saint John of Damascus even more to compare him with the Prophet Elijah, who was likewise nourished in the desert by a raven.
“You were fed with heavenly bread, as Elijah once by a raven, and you escaped the noetic Jezebel, Father, with the help of Christ.”
In the desert he excelled in hymns and fasts, in prayers and vigils, and therefore he made his dwelling in God Himself.
“Having excelled in hymns and fasts, O blessed one, in prayers and vigils, O venerable one, you made your dwelling with God.”
For indeed, only one who dedicates time to God and occupies himself with Him can truly know Him, in the sense of a genuine relationship with Him. As Saint Gregory the Theologian expressed it: “One must have leisure in order to know God.” This perseverance in the things of God is what enables the believer to transcend his passions and to make desolate whatever evils are within him. The passions do not easily depart from the human soul; they are described by the fathers of the Gerontikon as “deep wrinkles in the soul.” One must therefore persist. This is what the Holy Hymnographer also observes concerning Saint Paul: he advanced with joy into pathless deserts, inflamed by the eros of the Lord’s affection; therefore, by perseverance in the theoria of God, he laid waste to his shameful passions and lived henceforth like an angel:
“With joy you reached the pathless deserts, inflamed by eros for the Lord’s affection; therefore, by laying waste to the passions through perseverance in higher things, you lived as an angel.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
