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Abba Pambo
Pambo, born about A.D. 303, was one of the firs tot join Amoun Nitria. He was an Egyptian and illiterate, until taught the Scriptures as a monk and ordained priest, in 340. He was invited by Bishop Athanasuius to go to Alexandria. With Macarius and Isidore he was counted by Jerome as one of the masters of the desert. Melania met him when she visited Egypt. He died about A.D. 373.
1. There was a monk named Pambo and they said of him that he spent three years saying to God, "Do not glorify me on earth." But glorified him so that one could not gaze steadfastly at him because of the glory of his countenance.
2. Four monks of Scetis, came one day to see the great Pambo. Each one revealed the virtue of his neighbor. The first fasted a great deal; the second was poor; the third had acquired great charity; and they said of the fourth that he had lived for twenty-two years in obedience to an old man. Abba Pambo said to them, "I tell you, the virtue of this last one is the greatest. Each of the others has obtained the virtue he wished to acquire; but the last one, restraining his own will, does the will of another. Now it is of such men that the martyrs are made, it they preserve to the end."
3. Athanasuis, Archbishop of Alexandria, of holy memory, begged Abba Pambo to come down from the desert to Alexandria. He went down, and seeing an actress he began to weep. Those who were present asked him the reason for his tears, and he said, "Two things make me weep: one, the loss of this woman; and the other, that I am not so concerned to please God as she is to please wicked men."
4. Abba Pambo said, "By the grace of god, since I left the world, I have not said one work of which I repented afterwards."
5. He also said, " the monk should wear a garment of such a kind that he could throw it out of his cell and No-one would steal it from him for three days."
6. Once it happened that Abba Pambo made the journey to Egypt with some brothers. Meeting some lay people who were sitting down, he said to them, "Stand up, greet the monks, so that you may be blessed, for they speak with God without interruption and their lips are holy."
7. He was greater than many others in that if he was asked to interpret part of the Scriptures or a spiritual saying, he would not reply immediately, but he would say he did not know that saying. If he was asked again, he would say no more.
8. Abba Pambo said, " If you have a heart, you can be saved."
9. The priest of Nitria asked him how the brethren ought to live. He replied, "With much labor, guarding their consciences towards their neighbor."
10. They said of Abba Pambo that he was like Moses, who received the image of the glory of Adam when his face shone like lightening and he was like a king sitting n his throne. It was the same with Abba Silvanus and Abba Sisoes.
11. Abba Theodore of Pherme asked Abba Pambo, "Give me a word." With much difficulty he said to him, "Theodore, go and have pity on all, for through pity, one finds freedom of speech before god.
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