Once Abba Silvanus and his disciple Zacharias came to a monastery. Before they departed, they were made to eat a little. After they went out, the disciple found water on the road and wanted to drink. The elder said to him, “Zacharias, today is a fast.” He replied, “Did we not eat, Father?” The elder said, “That eating was an act of love; but as for us, let us keep our fast, my son.”
Once Abba Silvanus was sitting with the brothers when he was taken into ecstasy and fell on his face. After a long time he rose and wept. The brothers asked him, “What is it, Father?” But he remained silent and wept. When they pressed him to speak, he said, “I was taken to the judgment, and I saw many of our kind going to punishment, and many laypeople going to the kingdom.” The elder kept mourning and did not want to leave his cell. If he was forced to go out, he covered his face with his hood and said, “Why should I want to see this temporary light, which is of no use?”
Another time his disciple Zacharias went in and found Abba Silvanus in ecstasy, with his hands stretched toward heaven. He closed the door and went out. Coming back around the sixth hour and again around the ninth, he found him in the same state. Around the tenth hour he knocked, entered, and found him at rest. He said, “What happened to you today, Father?” The elder answered, “I was ill today, my son.” But Zacharias grasped his feet and said, “I will not let you go unless you tell me what you saw.” Then the elder said, “I was caught up into heaven and saw the glory of God. I stood there until now, and only now have I been released.”
Once, while Abba Silvanus was living on Mount Sinai, his disciple Zacharias went away on a service and said to the elder, “Release the water and irrigate the garden.” When the elder went out, he covered his face with his hood and looked only at the ground near his feet. At that moment a brother came and watched him from a distance. The brother went in to him and said, “Abba, tell me why you covered your face with your hood while you watered the garden.” The elder answered, “My son, so that my eyes would not see the trees and my mind be drawn away from its work by looking at them.”
A brother came to Abba Silvanus on Mount Sinai. Seeing the brothers working, he said to the elder, “Do not work for the food that perishes. Mary chose the good portion.” The elder said to his disciple, “Zacharias, give the brother a book and put him in an empty cell.” When the ninth hour came, the brother kept looking toward the door to see whether someone would be sent to call him to eat. Since no one called him, he rose and went to the elder. He asked, “Abba, did the brothers not eat today?” The elder said, “Yes, they ate.” He asked, “Then why did you not call me?” The elder replied, “Because you are a spiritual man and do not need this food. We, being fleshly, want to eat, and therefore we work. But you chose the good portion: you read all day and do not want to take bodily food.” When the brother heard this, he made a prostration and said, “Forgive me, Abba.” The elder said, “Certainly Mary also needs Martha, for it is through Martha that Mary is praised.”
They once asked Abba Silvanus, “What way of life did you practice, Father, to gain the discernment you have?” He answered, “I never allowed a thought that would provoke God to anger to remain in my heart.”
They said of Abba Silvanus that he sat hidden in his cell with a few chickpeas. While eating them little by little, he made a hundred sieves. Then a man came from Egypt leading a donkey loaded with loaves and left them at his cell after knocking. The elder took the sieves, loaded them on the donkey, and sent the man away.
They said of Abba Silvanus that once his disciple Zacharias went out without him, took some brothers, and moved the garden fence so as to make the garden larger. When the elder learned of it, he took his sheepskin cloak and went out, saying to the brothers, “Pray for me.” When they saw what he was doing, they fell at his feet and said, “Tell us, Father, what is the matter.” He answered, “I will not return to the cell or take off my sheepskin until you put the fence back where it was.” They restored the fence to its former place, and then the elder returned to his cell.
Abba Silvanus said, “I am a servant, and my Master has said to me, ‘Do My work, and I will feed you. Do not ask where it comes from. Whether I have it, or steal it, or borrow it at interest, do not concern yourself; only work, and I will feed you.’ So if I work, I eat from my wages; but if I do not work, I eat from charity.”
He also said, “Woe to the person whose reputation has become greater than his work.”
Abba Moses asked Abba Silvanus, “Can a person make a new beginning every day?” The elder answered, “If he is a worker, he can make a new beginning every hour.”
One of the Fathers related that a man once met Abba Silvanus and, seeing his face and body shining like an angel, fell on his face. He added that some others also possessed this gift.