Abba Peter, the disciple of Abba Lot, said, ‘Once I was in Abba Agathon’s cell, and a brother came to him and said, “I want to live with brothers. Tell me how I should live with them.” The elder said to him, “As you are on the first day when you enter among them, keep yourself a stranger all the days of your life, so that you do not become too familiar with them.” Abba Macarius asked him, “What does this familiarity do?” The elder said to him, “Familiarity is like a great scorching wind. When it comes, everyone flees before it, and it ruins the fruit of the trees.” Abba Macarius said to him, “Is familiarity really so bad?” Abba Agathon said, “No passion is worse than familiarity, for it is the mother of all the passions. A worker should not allow himself such familiarity, even if he is alone in his cell. I know of a brother who spent a long time living in his cell. There was a small sleeping chamber there, and he said, ‘I would have moved out of the cell without knowing about that little sleeping chamber, if someone else had not told me.’ Such a man is a worker and a warrior.”’
Abba Agathon said, ‘A monk must not allow his conscience to accuse him in any matter.’
He also said, ‘Without keeping God’s commandments, a person does not advance even in a single virtue.’
He also said, ‘I have never gone to sleep holding something against anyone; nor, as far as I was able, have I let anyone go to sleep holding something against me.’
It was said of Abba Agathon that some people went to him after hearing that he had great discernment. Wanting to test whether he became angry, they said to him, ‘Are you Agathon? We hear about you that you are a fornicator and proud.’ He said, ‘Yes, it is so.’ They said to him, ‘Are you Agathon, the babbler and slanderer?’ He said, ‘I am.’ Again they said, ‘Are you Agathon the heretic?’ He answered, ‘I am not a heretic.’ They urged him, saying, ‘Tell us why you accepted so many things we said to you, but would not bear this last word.’ He said to them, ‘The first things I ascribe to myself, for that benefits my soul. But to be a heretic is separation from God, and I do not want to be separated from God.’ When they heard this, they marveled at his discernment and went away edified.
It was said of Abba Agathon that he spent a long time building a cell with his disciples. When they had finished the cell, they came at last to settle there. During the first week he noticed something that was not helping him, and he said to his disciples, ‘Get up; let us go away from here.’ They were greatly troubled and said, ‘If you had any thought of moving at all, why did we endure so much labor building the cell? People will again be caused to stumble because of us and will say, “Look, the restless ones have moved again.”’ Seeing them lose heart, he said to them, ‘Even if some are caused to stumble, others will be built up and will say, “Blessed are such men, because for God’s sake they moved and despised everything.” But whoever wants to come, let him come; for now I am going.’ Then they threw themselves to the ground and pleaded until they were permitted to travel with him.
It was also said of him that he often moved, taking only his knife in his basket.
Abba Agathon was asked which was greater, bodily labor or guarding what is within. The elder said, ‘A person is like a tree. Bodily labor is the leaves, and guarding what is within is the fruit. Since, according to what is written, “Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire,” it is clear that all our effort is for the fruit, that is, guarding the mind. Yet we also need the shelter and adornment of the leaves, which are bodily labor.’
The brothers also asked him, ‘Father, which virtue among the practices requires the most toil?’ He said to them, ‘Forgive me. I think there is no other toil like praying to God. Whenever a person wants to pray, the enemies want to stop him, for they know that nothing hinders them except his praying to God. In every other practice a person undertakes, by persevering in it he gains rest; but prayer requires struggle until the last breath.’
Abba Agathon was wise in mind, tireless in body, and self-sufficient in everything: in manual work, food, and clothing.
The same Abba Agathon was traveling with his disciples. One of them found a small green pea on the road and said to the elder, ‘Father, do you want me to take it?’ The elder looked at him in amazement and said, ‘Did you put it there?’ The brother said, ‘No.’ The elder said, ‘How then do you want to take what you did not put there?’
A brother came to Abba Agathon and said, ‘Let me live with you.’ As he was coming along the road, he found a little natron and brought it with him. The elder said, ‘Where did you find the natron?’ The brother said, ‘I found it on the road as I was walking and took it.’ The elder said to him, ‘If you came to live with me, how did you take what you did not put there?’ And he sent him to carry it back to the place where he had taken it.
A brother asked the elder, ‘A command has come to me, and there is a battle where the command is. I want to go because of the command, but I am afraid of the battle.’ The elder said to him, ‘If it were Agathon, he would carry out the command and overcome the battle.’
The same Agathon came later, after a meeting had been held at Scetis about some matter and a decision had been made. He said to them, ‘You did not decide the matter rightly.’ They said to him, ‘Who are you that you even speak?’ He said, ‘A son of man. For it is written, “If indeed you truly speak righteousness, judge uprightly, sons of men.”’
It was said of Abba Agathon that for three years he kept a stone in his mouth until he succeeded in keeping silence.
It was also said of him and Abba Amoun that when they sold an item, they named the price once, and whatever was given them they accepted in silence and at peace. Likewise, when they wanted to buy something, they paid what was asked of them in silence and took the item without saying anything at all.
The same Abba Agathon said, ‘I have never given an agape meal; rather, giving and receiving was an agape for me, because I considered my brother’s gain to be a work that bears fruit.’
When he saw something and his thought wanted to judge it, he would say to himself, ‘Agathon, see that you do not do it yourself.’ And so his thought became still.
The same Abba said, ‘Even if a man given to anger raises the dead, he is not acceptable to God.’
Abba Agathon once had two disciples who lived separately as anchorites. One day he asked one of them, ‘How do you live in your cell?’ He said, ‘I fast until evening and eat two rusks.’ Agathon said to him, ‘That is a good way of life and does not involve very much toil.’ He also said to the other, ‘And how do you live?’ He said, ‘I fast two days at a time and eat two rusks.’ The elder said to him, ‘You labor hard, carrying two battles. If someone eats every day without eating his fill, he labors. Another may want to fast two days at a time and then eat his fill. But you fast for two days and still do not eat your fill.’
A brother asked Abba Agathon about fornication. He said to him, ‘Go, cast your weakness before God, and you will have rest.’
Once Abba Agathon and another elder fell ill. As they lay in the cell, a brother was reading Genesis and came to the passage where Jacob says, ‘Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you will take Benjamin; and you will bring down my old age with sorrow to Hades.’ The other elder said, ‘Are the other ten not enough for you, Abba Jacob?’ Abba Agathon said, ‘Stop, elder. If God is the one who justifies, who is the one who condemns?’
Abba Agathon said, ‘Even if someone is exceedingly dear to me, if I learn that he is leading me into a fault, I cut him off from me.’
He also said, ‘A person must at every hour be attentive to the judgment of God.’
Abba Joseph said, while brothers were speaking about love, ‘Do we know what love is?’ Then he told this about Abba Agathon: he had a small knife, and a brother came to him and praised it. Agathon did not let him leave unless he took the knife.
Abba Agathon said, ‘If it were possible for me to find a leper, give him my body, and take his, I would gladly do it. For this is perfect love.’
It was also said of him that once, when he went to the city to sell wares, he found a sick stranger lying in the public square with no one to care for him. The elder stayed with him, rented a cell, paid the rent from his handiwork, and spent the rest on the sick man’s needs. He stayed four months, until the sick man was healed. Then the elder returned to his cell in peace.
Abba Daniel said, ‘Before Abba Arsenius came to my fathers, they also stayed with Abba Agathon. Abba Agathon loved Abba Alexander because he was an ascetic and gentle. It happened that all his disciples were washing rushes in the river, and Abba Alexander washed them gently. The other brothers said to the elder, “Brother Alexander is doing nothing.” Wanting to heal them, he said to him, “Brother Alexander, wash them well, because they are flax.” When Alexander heard this, he was grieved. Afterward the elder comforted him, saying, “Do you think I did not know that you were doing it well? I said this to you in front of them so that, through your obedience, I might heal their thought, brother.”’
It was said of Abba Agathon that he was eager to carry out every command. Whenever he crossed by ferry, he was the first to take hold of the oar; and when brothers came to him, as soon as the prayer was over his hand began setting the table, for he was full of the love of God. When he was about to die, he remained for three days with his eyes open and unmoving. The brothers nudged him and said, ‘Abba Agathon, where are you?’ He said, ‘I am standing before the judgment seat of God.’ They said, ‘Are you afraid too, Father?’ He said, ‘Up to now I have done what was in my power to keep God’s commandments. But I am a man; how do I know whether my work has pleased God?’ The brothers said to him, ‘Are you not confident that your work is according to God?’ The elder said, ‘I cannot be confident until I meet God. For God’s judgment is one thing, and people’s judgment another.’ When they wanted to ask him something else, he said to them, ‘Show me love; do not speak with me now, because I am occupied.’ And he died with joy. They saw him departing as one greets his friends and loved ones. He exercised great vigilance in everything, and he used to say, ‘Without great vigilance, a person does not advance even in a single virtue.’
Once Abba Agathon went into the city to sell some small wares and found a disabled man by the road. The man said to him, ‘Where are you going?’ Abba Agathon said, ‘To the city to sell wares.’ He said, ‘Show me love and carry me there.’ Agathon picked him up and carried him into the city. The man said to him, ‘Put me where you sell your wares.’ He did so. Whenever Agathon sold an item, the man would ask, ‘How much did you sell it for?’ and Agathon would tell him the amount. Then the man would say, ‘Buy me a cake,’ and Agathon would buy it. Again he sold another item. The man said, ‘And how much for this one?’ Agathon told him. The man said, ‘Buy me this.’ And Agathon bought it. After he had sold all his wares and wanted to leave, the disabled man said, ‘Are you going?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ The man said, ‘Show me love again and carry me back to where you found me.’ Agathon picked him up and carried him back to his place. Then the man said, ‘Blessed are you, Agathon, by the Lord in heaven and on earth.’ Agathon lifted his eyes and saw no one. For it was an angel of the Lord who had come to test him.