Feast Day: July 18th
The Life of Saint Pambo: When he came to the brothers he went and found an old man and said to him, “Teach me a Psalm,” for he was illiterate, and the old man began to teach him this Psalm: “I said, ‘I will watch my ways so as to be unable to sin with my tongue.’” And after the old man had given him the beginning of the text, Pambo stopped him, saying, “My father, since I haven’t yet learned the beginning of the text, I will not learn the rest.” And when Abba Pambo went to his cell, he spent eight years putting into practice the saying that he had learned, for he came into contact with no one, saying, “Unless I first master my tongue, I will come into contact with no one lest I fall on account of my tongue.”…
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Prayers
A Verse: Pambo crucified himself in life, and he stands at Your side O Crucified Saviour.
Hymn of Praise, by Saint Nikolai Velimivorich: The Monks asked Pambo the Blessed: ‘Is it good to praise your neighbour?’ Then Pambo was silent and to the brethren replied: ‘It is good to praise but it is better to remain silent.’ And still, they asked Pambo: ‘And who is perfect?’ ‘For the sake of the Will of God, one who denies his own.’ The Monks remained silent while one will say: ‘Yet one more reply, do not deny us: And what kind of garment should a Monk have?’ ‘The kind you throw away and no one takes.’ Thus the Saint spoke and closed his mouth, For he protected his tongue in order not to speak unnecessarily. Pambo, all radiant at the hour of his death questioned about his life, he uttered: ‘Undeserving bread, I never did taste, neither for a word, my Soul repented.’
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“If you have a heart, you can be saved.”
“My child, in these times whoever will save his Soul and prompt others to be saved will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
“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.”
At the very hour of his death, Abba Pambo said to the Holy men who were standing near him, “Since I came to this place of the desert and built my cell and dwelt here, I do not remember having eaten bread which was not the fruit of my hands and I have not repented of a word I have said up to the present time; and yet I am going to God as one who has not yet begun to serve Him.”
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Two brethren came to see Abba Pambo one day and the first asked him, ‘Abba, I fast for two days, then I eat two loaves; am I saving my Soul, or am I going the wrong way?’ The second said, Abba, every day I get two pence from my manual work, and I keep a little for my food and give the rest in alms; shall I be saved or shall I be lost?’ They remained a long time questioning him and still the old man gave them no reply. After four days they had to leave and the Priests comforted them saying, ‘Do not be troubled, brothers. God gives the reward. It is the old man’s custom not to speak readily till God inspires him.’ So they went to see the old man and said to him, Abba, Pray for us.’ He said to them, ‘Do you want to go away?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ Then, giving his mind to their works and writing on the ground he said, ‘If Pambo fasted for two days together and ate two loaves, would he become a Monk that way? No. And if Pambo works to get two pence and gives them in alms, would he become a Monk that way? No, not that way either.’ He said to them, ‘The works are good, but if you guard your conscience towards your neighbour, then you will be saved.’ They were satisfied and went away joyfully.
Four Monks of Scetis, clothed in skins, came one day to see the great Pambo. Each one revealed the virtue of his neighbour. 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, if they persevere to the end.’
Athanasius, 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.’
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.’
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.
The Priest of Nitria asked him how the brethren ought to live. He replied, ‘With much labour, guarding their consciences towards their neighbour.’
They said of Abba Pambo that he was like Moses, who received the image of the glory of Adam when his face shone. His face shone like lightening and he was like a king sitting on his throne. It was the same with Abba Silvanus and Abba Sisoes.
They said of Abba Pambo that his face never smiled. So one day, wishing to make him laugh, the demons stuck wing feathers on to a lump of wood and brought it in making an uproar and saying, ‘Go, go.’ When he saw them Abba Pambo began to laugh and the demons started to say in chorus, ‘Ha! ha! Pambo has laughed!’ But in reply he said to them, ‘I have not laughed, but I made fun of your powerlessness, because it takes so many of you to carry a wing.’
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.’
The same Abba Theophilus, the Archbishop, came to Scetis one day. The brethren who were assembled said to Abba Pambo, ‘Say something to the Archbishop, so that he may be edified.’ The old man said to them, ‘If he is not edified by my silence, he will not be edified by my speech.’
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 God Glorified him so that one could not gaze steadfastly at him because of the glory of his countenance.
They said of Abba Pambo that he was like Moses, who received the image of the glory of Adam when his face shone. His face shone like lightening and he was like a king sitting on his throne. It was the same with Abba Silvanus and Abba Sisoes.
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.’
Which is more pleasing to God: a life of mortification in the wilderness or works of mercy? Men of Prayer in the wilderness think that man among men, no matter how many good works he performs, will find it difficult to safeguard the purity of the heart and to direct the mind toward God. Benefactors of men say: that the man in the wilderness is totally occupied with his own salvation and does not help in the salvation of others. Two Egyptian brothers, Paisius and Isaiah, inherited a great estate from their parents, sold the estate and each took their share of the money. One of them immediately distributed his money to the poor, became a Monk and withdrew into the wilderness to lead a strict life of Asceticism that through patience, fasting, Prayer and purifying the mind from all evil thoughts in order to save his Soul. The other brother likewise became a Monk, but did not want to enter the wilderness rather he built a small Monastery near the town, a hospital for the sick, a public refectory for the needy and a resting place for the sorrowful. He dedicated himself completely to the service of his fellow men. When both brothers died, a dispute ensued among the monks of Egypt: which of the two fulfilled the law of Christ? Unable to agree among themselves they came to Saint Pambo and questioned him about this. Saint Pambo replied: “Both are perfect before God; the hospitable one is similar to the hospitable Abraham and the Ascetical one is similar to Elijah the Prophet, both of whom equally pleased God.” But not all the Monks were satisfied with this response. Then Saint Pambo Prayed to God to reveal the truth to him. After Praying for several days, Saint Pambo said to the Monks: “Before God I tell you that I saw both brothers Paisius and Isaiah together in Paradise.” With this, the dispute was settled and all were satisfied.
in his 22nd Letter, ‘To Eustochium’, Saint Jerome tells us:… As I have been led to touch to the subject— it shall have a treatise to itself if Christ permit— I will relate what took place not very many years ago at Nitria. A brother, more thrifty than covetous, and ignorant that the Lord had been sold for thirty pieces of silver (Mt 26:15), left behind him at his death a hundred pieces of money which he had earned by weaving linen. As there were about five thousand monks in the neighbourhood, living in as many separate cells, a council was held as to what should be done. Some said that the coins should be distributed among the poor; others that they should be given to the church, while others were for sending them back to the relatives of the deceased. However, Macarius, Pambo, Isidore and the rest of those called fathers, speaking by the Spirit, decided that they should be interred with their owner, with the words: ‘Your money perish with you’ (Acts 8:20). Nor was this too harsh a decision; for so great fear has fallen upon all throughout Egypt, that it is now a crime to leave after one a single shilling.
There appeared in the Monastic community of Nitria a certain person named Abba Pambo. He was second after Abba Antony. Abba Pambo was thus called alethenos (“the true one”) concerning whose virtues the whole brotherhood testified. I myself did not meet him in my time there, but the brothers spoke with me about him, saying that that man never said a lie nor ever commited a sin with his tongue from the time that he became a Monk; neither oath nor curse ever came from his mouth, nor did he ever speak an unnecessary word. He had a wife and two sons, but they themselves did not agree to become monastics. When he came to the brothers he went and found an old man and said to him, “Teach me a Psalm,” for he was illiterate, and the old man began to teach him this Psalm: “I said, ‘I will watch my ways so as to be unable to sin with my tongue.’” And after the old man had given him the beginning of the text, Pambo stopped him, saying, “My father, since I haven’t yet learned the beginning of the text, I will not learn the rest.” And when Abba Pambo went to his cell, he spent eight years putting into practice the saying that he had learned, for he came into contact with no one, saying, “Unless I first master my tongue, I will come into contact with no one lest I fall on account of my tongue.” After eight years, he went and paid a visit to the old man who had given him the Psalm. The old man said to him, “Pambo, why haven’t I seen you until today? Why didn’t you come to learn the Psalm?” Abba Pambo said to him, “Since I hadn’t learned the first verse, I didn’t return to you to get the second since God had not given me the Grace until now to learn it. In order not to act as if I despised you, I have come to visit you, my Father. For if I learn the first verse, I will come to see you again.” And when he returned to his cell, he stayed there another ten years and did not come into contact with anyone.
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