"The eyes of all look upon You, and You give them their food in due season ..." (Psalm 145:15)
SINAI DESERT FATHERS and the Lord's Creatures:
From Anastasius of Sinai, Concerning the Holy Fathers in Sinai
- Abba Kyriakos narrated to us concerning Abba Stefanos his director when he lived in Malocha. This is a precipitous place some forty miles from the holy mountain, difficult to traverse and indeed nearly inaccessible, where I myself once visited. The elder said, “Plant some herbs to support us,” for he ate nothing else. Some rodent came and ate up the herbs and left the garden ruined. One day as the elder was sitting and sorrowing, behold he saw a leopard passing and he called it. The beast coming and sitting at his feet, he spoke to it. “Do me a favour and don’t leave here, but guard this little garden and catch the rodents and eat them.” And the leopard stayed for years and guarded the little plants until the elder died. ...
- Abba John the Roman, the disciple of the wonderful John the Sabbaite, told me the following: When we were dwelling in Arselaou, behold one day a certain wild animal came and carrying in its mouth its little one which was blind. And it laid it at the feet of the elder. Seeing that it was blind the venerable one spat in the dust and made mud and anointed its eyes, and immediately it saw again. Coming forward the mother kissed the footprints of the elder and taking its child bounced away happily. The next day, behold, the mother brought the elder a whole cabbage which it carried in its mouth with great difficulty. Chuckling, the elder said to her, “Where did you get that? Certainly, you stole it from the gardens of the fathers. I don’t eat stolen things; but wherever you stole it from, put it back.” And thus reproved, the beast went and returned it to the garden from which it had taken it.
From Anastasius of Sinai, Concerning the Holy Fathers in Sinai
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