Oriental wit and wisdom, or, the "Laughable stories" / collected by Mar Gregory John Bar-Hebraeus ; translated from the Syriac by E. A. Wallis Budge.

  • Bar Hebraeus
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Oriental wit and wisdom, or, the "Laughable stories" / collected by Mar Gregory John Bar-Hebraeus ; translated from the Syriac by E. A. Wallis Budge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and they said to one of the old men, “What do ye “more than us? For we fast, and pray, and watch, and “lead lives of self-abnegation.” And they replied, “We “do not only preserve our minds from turning to de- “bating and reasoning but every aspect of our minds “is in converse with God.” CLXXXVIII. Abba Macarius the Great arrived at so great a pitch of humility that when the brethren spake with him they spoke as unto a saint, and the great old man answered them never a word. But when a certain man of the brethren said unto him insultingly, “Ho father, if only thou hadst been a camel “thou mightest have stolen natron and they would “never have beaten thee”, he gladly made answer unto them. CLXXXIX. Abba Kirnen used to say^ “If the man “who dwelleth with a young man would be mighty in “the ascetic life, he will not descend [from his cell] even “for a moment, and he will not stretch himself out in “his presence even for the sake of comfort. For young “men excite lust by means of their faces, which are “like those of women, and they stir up tribulation by “their audacity.” CXC. When Abba Pachomius was afflicted by the ^ In Palladius:—cujo r^hA.xs» »CQO^r<' .ocn ^coO!y3jn\ Compare also:—r<'oc!3 v.Tri^ iCOCVrisLCU) *0^1 jjJLU (fol. 234^, Nos. 289 and 194).