De sancto Moyse abbate
The Wisdom of the Cell and the Perils of Pride
Abbot Moses teaches the necessity of monastic stability and illustrates the danger of overconfidence through the fall and public repentance of an elderly monk.
Abbot Moses said to a brother who asked him for a word: "Sit in your cell, and it will teach you everything." When a certain old man, having fallen ill, wanted to go to Egypt so as not to burden the brothers too much, Abbot Moses said to him: "Do not go, for you are about to fall into fornication." Saddened, the man replied, "My body is dead, and you say these things to me?" When he had gone, and a certain virgin was serving him out of devotion, he recovered and violated her; and when she had given birth to a son, the old man took the boy in his arms and entered the church of St. Sixtus on the day of the great feast, in front of a multitude of brothers. As everyone wept, he said, "Do you see this infant?" "He is a son of disobedience. Beware, brothers, because I did this in my old age; please pray for me." And going to his cell, he returned to his former state.
The Burden of Our Own Sins
Abbot Moses and Abbot Priorius use the visual metaphor of sand-filled bags to teach brothers to focus on their own sins rather than judging the faults of others.
Another old man also, when he had said to another, "I am dead," the other said: "Do not trust in yourself until you depart from the body; for if you say that you are dead, Satan, however, is not dead." When a brother had sinned, they sent for Abbot Moses, who came to them having taken a basket full of sand. When the brothers asked him what this was, he said: "My sins are running behind me, and I do not see them, and I have come today to judge the sins of another." Hearing this, they spared the brother. A similar story is told of the Abbot Priorius; for when the brothers were talking about a certain brother who had sinned, he remained silent. So, when he had taken a bag full of sand and was carrying it behind him, while also carrying a little of that same sand in front of him, he was asked what this meant. He said, 'The large amount of sand represents my sins, which I carry behind me, so I don't see them and don't feel sorry for them; but the small amount of sand represents the brother's sins, which are placed before me, which I am always looking at and judging him for, even though I ought to be carrying my own sins before me always, thinking about them, and asking God for mercy for them.'
The Interior Life of the Cleric
Abbot Moses demonstrates true humility when tested by the bishop, prioritizing the state of his soul over the honor of his new office.
When Abbot Moses had been made a cleric and they had placed the stole on him, the bishop said to him, 'The abbot has now become a candidate.' And he replied, 'On the outside, Lord, it is purple; if only it were so on the inside!' The bishop, wanting to test him, told his clerics that when he approached the altar, they should drive him out with insults, and then follow him to hear whatever he might say. As they were throwing him out, they said, 'You did well to be dressed in those robes, for since you are not a man, why did you presume to present yourself in the midst of men?' This is found in the Lives of the Fathers.
Read the original Latin
Moyses abbas dixit fratri petenti a se sermonem : sede in cella tua et docebit te universa. Cum quidam senex infirmatus in Aegyptum ire vellet, ne fratres nimis gravaret, dixit ei abbas Moyses: non vadas, quoniam in fornicationem casurus es. Qui contristatus dixit: mortuum est corpus meum, et tu mihi ista dicis? Cum ergo ivisset et quaedam virgo ex devotione sibi serviret, ille convalescens eam violavit, Quae cum filium peperisset, senex puerum im ulnis accipiens in die magnae festivitatis, quae erat in Sixti ecclesia, coram multitudine fratrum intravit. Cum autem omnes flerent, dixit: videtis infantem hnnc? filius est inobedientiae; cavete ergo vobis, fratres, quia in senectute hoc feci, et orate pro me. Et pergens ad cellam ad pristinum statum reversus est. Alius quoque senex um dixisset alteri: mortnus sum, ille dixit: non confidas in te, donec exeas de corpore, nam si dicis, quia mortuus es, Sathanas tamen mortuus non est, Cum frater peccasset, miserunt ad abbatem Moysen, qui accepta sporta plena arena venit ad eos, Quem cum fratres, quidnam hoc esset, interrogarent, dixit: peccata mea sunt post me currentia et non video ea et veni hodie aliena judicare peccata, lli autem hoc audientes fratri pepercerunt.
Simile legitur de abbate Priori, Nam cum fratres de quodam fratre cnlpabili loquerentur, ille tacebat. Gum ergo accepisset sacculum plenum arena retro et de eadem arena modicum ante se ferret, interrogatus, quid hoe essel, dixil: malta arena sunt peccata mea, quae post me ferens ipsa non considero nec pro iis dolco, modica vero arena sunt peccata fratris ante me posita, quae semper considero et ipsum judico, cum tamen peccata mea ante me semper portare deberem et de ipsis cogilare et pro ipsis Deum rogare. Cum abbas Moyses factus fuisset clericus et imposuissent ei superhumerale, dixit ei episcopus: abbas factus est candidatus. Et ille:a foris, domine, purpura, utinam intus! Volens autem episcopus eum probare, dixit clericis suis, nt, quando ad altare accederet, ipsum cum injuria expellerent, deinde eum sequentes, quidquid loqueretur, audirent, Projicientes autem eum foras dixerunt: bene tibi fecerunt cineratae etcaccabatae, quia, cum homo non sis, quare te in medio hominum dare praesumsisti? Haec in vitis patrum.
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