Abba John the Dwarf (the Short)
1. John the dwarf, son of poor parents in Tese, was born about 339. The second story here clearly belongs to his youth at home before he became a monk, while he was living with his family. At the age of eighteen he went to Scetis and was trained by Abba Ammoe for twelve years. One of the most vivid characters in the desert, he attracted many disciples and in order to preserve his own solitude he dug himself a cave underground. He was ordained priest and the number of his sayings, recorded and preserved, points to his importance among his disciples. After 407 he went to Suez and the Mountain of Anthony.
2. Abba John the Dwarf said, "If a king wanted to take possession of his enemy's city, he would begin by cutting off the water and the food and so his enemies, dying of hunger, would submit to him. It is the same with the passions of the flesh: if a man goes about fasting and hungry the enemies of his soul grow weak."
3. He also said, "He who gorges himself and talks with a boy has already in his thought committed fornication with him."
4.He also said, "Going up the road again towards Scetis with some ropes, I saw the camel driver talking and he made me angry; so, leaving my goods, I took to flight."
5.On another occasion in summertime, he heard a brother talking angrily to his neighbor, saying, "Ah! You too?" So leaving the harvest, he took to flight.
6. One day when he was sitting in front of the church, the brethren were consulting him about their thoughts. One of the old men who saw it became a prey to jealousy and said to him, "John, your vessel is full of poison." Abba John said to him, "That is very true, abba; and you have said that when you only see the outside but if you were able to see the inside, too, what would you say then?"
7. The brethren used to tell how the brethren were sitting one day at an agape and one brother at table began to laugh. When he saw that, Abba John began to weep, saying, "What does this brother have in his heart, that he should laugh, when he ought to weep because he is eating in an agape?"
8. It was said of him that one day he was weaving rope for two baskets, but he made it into one without noticing, until it had reached the wall, because his spirit was occupied in contemplation.
9. Abba John said, "Who sold Joseph?" A brother replied saying, "It was his brethren." The old man said to him, "No, it was his humility which sold him, because he could have said, " I am their brother" and have objected, but, because he kept silence, he sold himself by his humility. It is also his humility which set him up as chief of Egypt."
10. Abba John said, "We have put the light burden on one side, that is to say, self-accusation, and we have loaded ourselves with a heavy one, that is to say, self-justification."
11. He also said," Humility and the fear of God are above all virtues."
12. The same abba was sitting in church one day and he gave a sigh, unaware that there was someone behind him. When he noticed it he lay prostrate before him, saying, "Forgive me, abba, for I have not yet made a beginning."
13. The same abba said to his disciple, "Let us honor one only, and everyone will honor us; for if we despise one, that is God, everyone will despise us, and we will be lost."
14. Abba John gave this advice, "Watching means to sit in the cell and be always mindful of God. This is what is meant by, "I was on the watch and God came to me." (Matt. 25, 36)
15. He also said, "Who is as strong as the lion? And yet, because, of his greed he falls into the net, and all his strength is brought low."
16. He also said that the fathers of scetis ate bread and salt and said, "We do not regard bread and salt as indispensable." So they were strong for the work of God.
17. One of the Fathers said of him, "Who is this John, who by his humility has all Scetis hanging from his little finger?"
18. One of the fathers asked Abba John the Dwarf, "What is a monk?" He said, "He is toil. The monk toils at all he does. That is what a monk is."
19. Abba John said to his brother, "Even if we are entirely despised in the eyes of men, let us rejoice that we are honored in the sight of God.
20. Abba Poemen said that Abba John said that the saints are like a group of trees, each bearing different fruit, but watered from the same source. The practices of one saint differ from those of another, but it is the same Spirit that works in all of them.
21. They said that when he was given his wages for all the work he and done in the harvest, he took it to Scetis, saying, "My widows and my orphans are in Scetis."
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