Today October 21

Today is the feast of St. Ursula and her eleven (thousand) companions in Cologne -- probably a misreading of the Latin inscription XI M. V. ("undecim martyres virgines") into eleven THOUSAND (M) -- who existed, but we know little about them; so we are going to go with St. Agathon, Desert Father. We know quite a bit about him: he was trained by Abba Poemen, lived with Abbas Alexander and Zoilus in Scetis, and moved to the Nile with his disciple Abraham. Here are some of his sayings and stories which survive.

I like this one. On his way to town to sell his baskets, he met a cripple by the roadside. Abba Agathon greeted him and the cripple said, "Do me the favor of carrying me there." So he hiked him up upon his back and carried him to town. After Agathon sold a basket, the cripple asked him how much he made. He told the truth, and the cripple said, "Good. You can buy me a cake." He continued to take advantage of him after each sale. "Buy me this," he said, or "Buy me that." Finally, Agathon had sold all his wares and was going to go home. "Do me the favor of carrying me back to the place where you found me," said the cripple. Agathon did so, and when he finally, wearily, set him down, heard: "Blessed are you, Agathon, in heaven and on earth." And looking up, he saw no one, for it had been an angel, coming to test him.

Abba Agathon used to say: "No passion is worse than an uncontrolled tongue, because it is the mother of all the passions."

"Under no circumstances should the monk let his conscience accuse him of anything."

He was goaded by some monks to try to make his angry: "Aren't you that Agathon who is said to be a fornicator and a proud man?" "Yes, it is very true," he answered. They resumed, "Aren't you that Agathon who is always talking nonsense?" "I am." Again they said, "Aren't you Agathon the heretic?" But at that he replied, "I am not a heretic." So they asked him, "Tell us why you accepted everything we cast you, but repudiated this last insult." He relied, "The first accusations I take to myself, for that is good for my soul. But heresy is separation from God. Now I have no wish to be separated from God." At this saying they were astonished at his discernment and returned, edified.

It was said of Abba Agathon he spent a long time building a cell with his disciples. At last when it was finished, they came to live there. Seeing something during the first week which seemed to him harmful, he said to his disciples, "Get up, let us leave this place." But they were dismayed and replied, "If you had already decided to move, why have we taken so much trouble building the cell? People will be scandalized at us, and will say, 'Look at them, moving again; what unstable people!' " He saw they were held back by timidity and so he said to them, "If some are scandalized, others, on the contrary, will be much edified and will say, 'How blessed are they who go away for God's sake, having no other care.' However, let him who wants to come, come; as for me, I am going." Then they prostrated themselves to the ground and besought him to allow them to go with him.

"In other forms of labor a man gets some rest, but for the man who prays, it is a battle til the very last breath."

He battled well, for when the monks around him asked him for a final word he said, "Show me some charity and don't talk to me any longer, for I am busy now." And he died with joy, as if greeting old friends. Abba Agathon, pray for us.