Ammas and Abbas
Above is the somewhat forbidding location of the C6th "lavra" of St. Firminus. A "lavra" is a group of cells enabling the combination of the hermit life with close association with an abba and a form of common life, as at Scetis and Nitria (see "Additional Information" for last week). Close inspection of the photograph above will show a man on a ledge (about one and a half inches from the left and two and half inches from the bottom) this is the only point of access to the lavra's seven interconnected cells. St. Firminus' lavra lay northwest of Jerusalem.
The C4th lavra at Souka, near Herodium, southwest of Bethlehem, also known as the Old Lavra of St. Chariton. The name "Souka" is probably related to the arabic "suk," used for an street with shops on either side, and suggests the location of the cells opening onto a narrow path, in this case, above a ravine.
Ammas in the Desert
Not all hermits were male. There is clear tradition of "ammas" as well as "abbas." Below are some sayings from the Egyptian "mothers." As with much of the desert wisdom, the sayings are at least as strange as they are recognizable.
Amma Theodora
She also said that neither asceticism, nor vigils nor any kind of suffering are able to save, only true humility can do that. There was an anchorite who was able to banish the demons; and he asked them, 'What makes you go away? Is it fasting?' They replied, 'We do not eat or drink.' 'Is it vigils?' They replied, 'We do not sleep.' 'Is it separation from the world?' 'We live in the deserts.' 'What power sends you away then?' They said, 'Nothing can overcome us, but only humility.' 'Do you see how humility is victorious over the demons?'
Amma Theodora also said, 'There was a monk, who, because of the great number of his temptations said, "I will go away from here." As he was putting on his sandals, he saw another man who was also putting on his sandals and this other monk said to him, "Is it on my account that you are going away? Because I go before you wherever you are going."
The same Amma was asked about the conversations one hears; 'If one is habitually listening to secular speech, how can one yet live for God alone, as you suggest?' She said, 'Just as when you are sitting at table and there are many courses, you take some but without pleasure, so when secular conversations come your way, have your heart turned towards God, and thanks to this disposition, you will hear them without pleasure, and they will not do you any harm.'
Amma Sarah
Once the same spirit of fornication attacked her more insistently, reminding her of the vanities of the world. But she gave herself up to the fear of God and to asceticism and went up onto her little terrace to pray. Then the spirit of fornication appeared corporally to her and said, 'Sarah, you have overcome me.' But she said, 'It is not I who have overcome you, but my master, Christ.'
It was said concerning her that for sixty years she lived beside a river and never lifted her eyes to look at it.
Another time, two old men, great anchorites, came to the district of Pelusia to visit her. When they arrived one said to the other, 'Let us humiliate this old woman.' So they said to her, 'Be careful not to become conceited thinking to yourself: "Look how anchorites are coming to see me, a mere woman." 'But Amma Sarah said to them, 'According to nature I am a woman, but not according to my thoughts.'
Amma Sarah said, 'If I prayed God that all men should approve of my conduct, I should find myself a penitent at the door of each one, but I shall rather pray that my heart may be pure towards all.'
She also said, 'I put out my foot to ascend the ladder, and I place death before my eyes before going up it.'
She also said, 'It is good to give alms for men's sake. Even if it is only done to please men, through it one can begin to seek to please God.'
Some monks of Scetis came one day to visit Amma Sarah. She offered them a small basket of fruit. They left the good fruit and ate the bad. So she said to them, 'You are true monks of Scetis.'
She also said to the brothers, 'It is I who am a man, you who are women.'
Amma Syncletica
She also said, 'We who have chosen this way of life must obtain perfect temperance. It is true that among seculars, also, tem-perance has the freedom of the city, but intemperance cohabits with it, because they sin with all the other senses. Their gaze is shameless and they laugh immoderately.'
She also said, 'Just as the most bitter medicine drives out poisonous creatures so prayer joined to fasting drives evil thoughts away.
She also said, 'Do not let yourself be seduced by the delights of the riches of the world, as though they contained something useful on account of vain pleasure. Worldly people esteem the culinary art, but you, through fasting and thanks to cheap food, go beyond their abundance of food. It is written: "He who is sated loathes honey" (Prov. 27.7) . Do not fill yourself with bread and you will not desire wine.'
Blessed Syncletica was asked if poverty is a perfect good. She said, "For those who are capable of it, it is a perfect good. Those who can sustain it receive suffering in the body but rest in the soul, for just as one washes coarse clothes by trampling them underfoot and turning them about in all directions, even so the strong soul becomes much more stable thanks to voluntary poverty."
Dorotheos of Gaza on the Love of Neighbor
Here is a fine passage from the work of the C6th Palestinian monk, Dorotheos of Gaza.
Suppose we were to take a compass and insert the point and draw the outline of a circle. The centre point is the same distance from any point on the circumference. Now concentrate your minds on what is to be said! Let us suppose that this circle is the world and that God himself is the centre; the straight lines drawn from the circumference to the centre are the lives of men. To the degree that the saints enter into the things of the spirit, they desire to come near to God; and in proportion to their progress in the things of the spirit, they do in fact come close to God and to their neighbor. The closer they are to God, the closer they become to one another; and the closer they are to one another, the closer they become to God. Now consider in the same context the question of separation; for when they stand away from God and turn to external things, it is clear that the more they recede and become distant from God, the more they become distant from one another. See! This is the very nature of love. The more we are turned away from and do not love God, the greater the distance that separates us from our neighbor. If we were to love God more, we should be closer to God, and through love of him we should be more united in love to our neighbor; and the more we are united to our neighbor the more we are united to God. May God make us worthy to listen to what is fitting for us and do it. For in the measure that we pay attention and take care to carry out what we hear, God will always enlighten us and make us understand his will.