Paul

One of the Fathers related about an Abba Paul from lower Egypt who lived in the Thebaid, that he would seize horned vipers and snakes with his hands and tear them in half. The brothers made a prostration before him and asked, “Tell us what practice you did to receive such a grace.” He answered, “Forgive me, Fathers. If a person acquires purity, everything is subject to him, just as everything was subject to Adam when he was in Paradise before he transgressed the commandment.”