They said of Abba Isidore, the priest of Scetis, that if someone had a weak, negligent, fainthearted, or insolent brother and wanted to cast him out, Isidore would say, “Bring him to me.” He would receive the brother and, through patience, bring him to salvation.
A brother asked him, “Why are the demons so terribly afraid of you?” The elder said, “Since I became a monk, I have practiced not allowing anger to rise as far as my throat.”
He also said that for forty years he had been aware of sin in his thought, but had never consented either to desire or to anger.
He also said, “When I was younger and sat in my cell, I had no fixed measure for the synaxis. Night and day were my synaxis.”
Abba Poemen said of Abba Isidore that he used to braid a bundle of palm leaves at night. The brothers begged him, saying, “Rest yourself a little, for you are now old.” He said to them, “Even if they burned Isidore and scattered his ashes to the wind, not a single grace would yet be mine, because the Son of God came here for us.”
The same Abba Poemen said of Abba Isidore that thoughts would say to him, “You are a great man.” He would answer them, “Am I like Abba Anthony? Have I become at all like Abba Pambo, or like the other Fathers who pleased God?” When he brought these things before his mind, he found rest. But when the enemies tried to make him fainthearted by suggesting that after all this he would still go to punishment, he said to them, “Even if I am thrown into punishment, I will find you beneath me.”
Abba Isidore said, “Once I went to the marketplace to sell some small vessels. When I saw anger approaching me, I left the vessels and fled.”
Abba Isidore once went to Abba Theophilus, the Archbishop of Alexandria. When he returned to Scetis, the brothers asked him, “How is the city?” He said, “Truly, brothers, I saw no human face except the archbishop’s.” They were disturbed and said, “Were the people all destroyed, Abba?” He said, “No. But the thought of looking at anyone did not overcome me.” When they heard this, they marveled and were strengthened to guard their eyes from wandering.
The same Abba Isidore said, “The understanding of the saints is this: to recognize the will of God. A person surpasses everything through obedience to the truth, because he is the image and likeness of God. Of all spirits, the most dangerous is to follow one’s own heart—that is, one’s own thought—and not the law of God. Later this becomes grief to the person, because he did not know the mystery or find the way of the saints so as to work in it. Now, then, is the time to act for the Lord, for salvation is found in a time of affliction. As it is written, ‘By your endurance gain your souls.’”