FOR THE GREAT VASILIE
1. One of the old men was saying that Saint Vasilie, when he went to a monastery, after respectful teaching, said to the abbot: do you have here any brother that has obedience? And he said to him: all are your slaves and they strive to redeem themselves, master. Again he said to him: do you truly have any that has obedience? And that one brought him a brother. And the great Vasilie used him as sevant at the table. And after he tasted, he gave him to wash. And saint Vasilie told him: come that I give you, too, to wash yourself. And he accepted, the saint pouring the water. And he told him: when I will enter in the church, come so that I make you a deacon! And after this was done, he made him priest and took him with himself at the bishopric for his obedience.
FOR AVVA VISARION
1. Avva Dula, the apprentice of avva Visarion, was saing: while we were travelling once on the sea shores, we got thirsty. And I said to avva Visarion: avva, I am very thirsty. And doing prayer, the old man said to me: drink from the sea. And the water got sweet and I drank, but I also took in a jar, so that I am not thirsty later on. And seeing, the old man said to me: why did you take in the jar? I said to him: forgive me, so that I am not thirsty later on. And the old man said: God here and God everywhere.
2. Another time, having need to, he did prayer and he crossed the river Hrisoroa on his feet, and he walked on that side. And wondering, I made prostration to him, saying: how did you feel your feet, when you were walking on the water? And the old man said: up to my ankles I was felling the water, and the other was hard.
3. Another time, again while we were going to an old man, the sun was about to set. And praying, the old man said: I pray to You, Lord, for the sun to stay until I will reach to your servant. And it was done so.
4. Another time, again I came to his cell and found him standing in prayer and his hands were stretched towards the sky. And he spent fourteen days, doing this. And after that, he called me and he said to me: come after me! And coming out, we went into the wilderness. And getting thirsty, I said: avva, I am thirsty. And taking my waistcoat, the old man went away about a stone’s throw, and praying, he returned it to me filled with water. And wandering, we came on top of a cave. And entering inside, we found a brother sitting and working rope for the baskets, and not looking up at us, nor bowing, nor wanting to take word with us. And the old man said to me: let us go from here, maybe the old man does not have annunciation to talk to us. And we went to Lico, until we reached avva Ioan, and bowing to him, we prayed. Then they sat down to talk for the vision he saw. And avva Visarion said: the command was issued for the idols’ temples to be brought down. And it was done so, and they were brought down. And when we returned, we arrived again at that cave, where we saw that brother. And the old man said to me: let us enter to him, maybe God announced to him to talk to us. And as we entered we found him ended. And the old man said to me: come, brother, let us gather his body! For this is why God sent us here. And gathering him, to burry him, we found out that he was a woman by nature. And the old man marveled, and said: there, how also the women overcome Satan, while we spend time in cities carelessly. And giving praise to God, the defender of the ones who love Him, we went away from there.
5. Once a demon-possessed came to the skete, and prayer was done for him in the church, and the demon was not coming out, for it was harsh. And the clerics said: what can we do to this demon? Nobody can remove it, aside from avva Visarion. And if we will ask him for this, he will not even come to the church. So let us do this: there, he comes in the morning to the church, earlier than all. Let us make the one who is suffering to sit in his place and, when he will enter, let us stay at prayer and tell him: wake the brother, too, avva! And they did so. And coming the old man in the morning, they sat at prayer, and said to him: wake the brother, too! And he said to him: “Arise, get out!” And immediately the demon came out of him, and he was healed in that hour.
6. Avva Visarion said: forty days and nights I have spent in brambles, staying, not sleeping.
7. A brother, mistaking, was split from the church by the priest. And avva Visarion, getting up, went out together with him, saying that he also is a sinner.
8. The same avva Visarion said: forty years I have not slept on my ribs, but sitting or standing was I sleeping.
9. This same one said: when you are at peace, and have no other struggle, humble yourself then even more, so that no foreign joy enters, and we proud ourselves, and we are to be sent to war. For many times God, because of our helplessnesses, does not allow us to be given to struggle so that we do not perish.
10. A brother, living together with other brothers, asked avva Visarion: what will I do? The old man said to him: shut up and do not count yourself with the others.
11. Avva Visarion, dying, was saying that the monk must be like the Heruvims and the Seraphims, all eyes.
12. Avva Visarion’s disciples told about his life: this is how he was, like one of the birds in the sky, or of the fish, or of the animals on the land, without unrest and without care for home, nor did desire for any place mastered his soul, nor filling from food, nor amassing wealth, nor power of books, but in everything proved himself complete, free from the body’s passions, feeding himself with the faith of the things to come, and sustaining himself with the hardening of the faith, he was enduring like a slave here and there, in frost and in nakedness living, getting burned from the heat of the sun, being always without shelter. Living in the precipices of the deserts, like a lost one, and through the uninhabited widenesses of the sands wondering, like through a wave. And if he would chance to come to a place where the monks lived the commune life, outside of the door sitting, he would cry. And like one who would have been thrown away by the sea, from the breaking of a ship, he would wail. And then, coming out, one of the brothers would find him sitting like a begger from the poor of the world, with sadness would ask him saying: why do you cry, man? If you need something from the useful ones, as much as we are able to, you will take, only come inside and eat with us at the table, to gain comfort. And he answers that he cannot stay under shelter until he will not find the wealth of his house, saying that he has lost much richness for many types of reasons. For even for the sea robers did I fall, he was saying, and breaking of ship did I suffer, and from my good lineage I did fall, dishonest from honest making myself. And that one, from his words humbling himself, coming in and taking bread, was giving it to him saying: take this, father, while the other ones: inheritance and lineage and the wealth that you said, will be given to you by God. And he, wailing even harder, was shouting saying: I do not know if I will be able to find the ones that I have lost. But ever more happiness will it be to myself, by always endangering mylself everyday towards death, not having rest from my counless sufferings. For it is meant to me by much wandering, loosing myself to complete my race.
FOR AVVA VENIAMIN
1. It was said for avva Veniamin that, when we descended from sickle harvesting to the skete, they brought to each of us as a gift from Alexandria a jar with oil, glued with plaster at its opening. And when the time for sickle harvesting came again, the brothers were bringing to the church whatever was in excess. And I did not open my jar, but I made a hole in it with the needle, and tasted a little bit; and my heart was having that I did a big thing. And when the brothers brought their jars covered at their openings with plaster, and mine was pierced, I found myself ashamed, as if I would have adultered.
2. So said avva Veniamin, the priest of the cells, that we went in the skete to an old man, and we wanted to give him a little bit of oil. And he says to us: there, where the small jar sits, which you brought to me three years before; as you put it, so it remained. And upon hearing we marveled at the old man’s way of life.
3. This same one said that we went to another old man and he kept us at his place to eat, and pouring to us some oil made of radish seeds we said to him: father, pour to us a little better oil! And upon hearing, he crossed himself, saying: if there is any other oil, aside from this one, I do not know.
4. Avva Veniamin, when he was about to die, said to his sons: do these, and you cand save yourselves. Always rejoice, pray ceasesly, and thank for everything!
5. This same one said: walk on the king way, and count the blessings, and do not slander!
FOR AVVA VIARIE
1. Somebody asked avva Viarie, saying: what shall I do, to redeem myself? The old man answered to him: go and make your belly smaller, and the work of your hands little, and do not get disturbed in your cell, and you will redeem yourself.
FOR AVVA VICTOR
1. A brother came to avva Victor, the one who was living in silence in his monastery, saying: what shall I do, father, for the laziness is overcoming me? The old man said to him: this sickness, my son, is of the soul. For just as to the one who has an eye sickness, out of terrible pain, it seems to him that he sees the light, and to the healthy one it seems that he sees little, just the same to the one whose soul is weak, out of a little idleness he praises himself, seeming to him that the laiziness is grand, while the one whose soul is healthy, he rejoices even more in temptations.