A brother who had been wronged by another brother came to Abba Sisoes and said, “I have been wronged by a brother, and I want to avenge myself.” The elder urged him, saying, “No, my child; rather leave vengeance to God.” But he said, “I will not stop until I have avenged myself.” The elder said, “Let us pray, brother.” He stood and said, “God, we no longer need You to care for us, for we ourselves exact punishment for the wrongs done to us.” When the brother heard this, he fell at the elder’s feet and said, “I will no longer contend with my brother. Forgive me, Abba.”
A brother asked Abba Sisoes, “What should I do? I go to the church, and an agape is often held there, and they keep me.” The elder said, “This is a difficult matter.” Abraham, his disciple, asked him, “If a gathering happens on Saturday or Sunday and a brother drinks three cups, is that a great deal?” The elder answered, “If Satan is not there, then it is a great deal.”
Abba Sisoes’s disciple said to him, “Father, you have grown old. Let us now go near inhabited places.” The elder said, “Let us go where there is no woman.” His disciple said, “And what place is there without a woman except the desert?” The elder said, “Take me to the desert.”
Often Abba Sisoes’s disciple said to him, “Abba, get up; let us eat.” He would answer, “Have we not eaten, my child?” The disciple would say, “No, Father.” Then the elder would say, “If we have not eaten, bring the food and let us eat.”
Once Abba Sisoes said with confidence, “Take courage. For thirty years now I have no longer prayed to God about sin, but I pray like this: ‘Lord Jesus, protect me from my tongue.’ And to this day I fall through it every day and sin.”
A brother said to Abba Sisoes, “Why do the passions not leave me?” The elder said, “Their instruments are inside you. Give them their pledge, and they will go away.”
Once Abba Sisoes was sitting on the mountain of Abba Anthony. Because his attendant delayed in coming to him, he did not see a person for ten months. Walking on the mountain, he found a man from Pharan hunting wild animals. The elder said to him, “Where do you come from, and how long have you been here?” He answered, “Truly, Abba, I have been on this mountain for eleven months, and I have seen no one except you.” When the elder heard this, he went into his cell, struck himself, and said, “Look, Sisoes, you thought you had done something, and you have not yet done even as much as this layman.”
An offering was made on the mountain of Abba Anthony, and a small vessel of wine was found there. One of the elders took a little vessel and a cup, brought them to Abba Sisoes, gave him some, and he drank. He did the same a second time, and Sisoes accepted it. He offered him a third cup, but Sisoes did not take it. He said, “Stop, brother. Do you not know that Satan exists?”
One of the brothers came to Abba Sisoes on the mountain of Abba Anthony. As they were speaking, he said to Abba Sisoes, “Father, have you still not reached the measure of Abba Anthony?” The elder said to him, “If I had one of Abba Anthony’s thoughts, I would become entirely like fire. Yet I know a man who, with toil, is able to bear his own thought.”
Once a man from the Thebaid came to Abba Sisoes wanting to become a monk. The elder asked whether he had anyone belonging to him in the world. He answered, “I have one son.” The elder said to him, “Go, throw him into the river, and then you will become a monk.” When the man went off to throw him in, the elder sent a brother to stop him. The brother said, “Stop! What are you doing?” The man answered, “The Abba told me to throw him in.” The brother said, “But now he has told you not to throw him in.” So the man left his son and came to the elder, and because of his obedience he became a proven monk.
A brother asked Abba Sisoes, “Did Satan persecute the ancients in the same way?” The elder said to him, “Now even more, because his time has drawn near, and he is troubled.”
Once Abraham, the disciple of Abba Sisoes, was attacked by a demon, and the elder saw that he had fallen. He rose, stretched out his hands toward heaven, and said, “God, whether You want to or not, I will not let You go unless You heal him.” And immediately he was healed.
A brother asked Abba Sisoes, saying, “I see that the remembrance of God remains with me.” The elder said to him, “It is no great thing for your thought to be with God. The great thing is to see yourself beneath all creation. This, together with bodily toil, leads to the way of humility.”
They said of Abba Sisoes that when he was about to die, while the Fathers were sitting around him, his face shone like the sun. He said to them, “Look, Abba Anthony has come.” A little later he said, “Look, the choir of the prophets has come.” Again his face shone still more, and he said, “Look, the choir of the apostles has come.” His face became twice as radiant, and he seemed to be speaking with someone. The elders begged him, “With whom are you speaking, Father?” He said, “Look, angels have come to take me, and I am begging to be allowed a little time to repent.” The elders said to him, “You have no need to repent, Father.” The elder said to them, “Truly, I do not know that I have even made a beginning of repentance.” Then they all understood that he was perfect. Suddenly his face became like the sun again, and they were all afraid. He said to them, “Look, the Lord has come, and He says, ‘Bring Me the vessel of the desert.’” At once he gave up his spirit. He became like a flash of lightning, and the whole place was filled with fragrance.
Abba Adelphius, bishop of Nilopolis, visited Abba Sisoes on the mountain of Abba Anthony. When they were about to leave, before they set out on their journey, Sisoes had them eat early in the morning, although it was a fast day. As they set the table, some brothers knocked. Sisoes said to his disciple, “Give them a little porridge, for they are tired from their journey.” Abba Adelphius said, “Leave it for now, so that they will not say that Abba Sisoes is eating in the morning.” The elder looked at him and said to the brother, “Go, give it to them.” When the visitors saw the porridge, they said, “Do you have guests? Is the elder also eating with you?” The brother said, “Yes.” They became distressed and said, “May God forgive you for letting the elder eat now. Do you not know that he will afflict himself for many days because of this?” When the bishop heard them, he made a prostration before the elder and said, “Forgive me, Abba. I thought in a human way, but you did what belongs to God.” Abba Sisoes said to him, “Unless God glorifies a person, human glory is nothing.”
Some people came to Abba Sisoes to hear a word from him, but he said nothing to them and kept saying, “Forgive me.” When they saw his baskets, they asked his disciple Abraham, “What do you do with these baskets?” He answered, “We give them away here and there.” When the elder heard this, he said, “Sisoes too eats from here and there.” Hearing this, they benefited greatly and went away with joy, edified by his humility.
Abba Ammon of Rhaithou asked Abba Sisoes, “When I read Scripture, my thought wants to prepare a saying so that I will have something ready when I am questioned.” The elder said to him, “There is no need. Rather, from purity of mind acquire freedom from care, and then speak.”
Once a layman came with his son to Abba Sisoes on the mountain of Abba Anthony. On the way his son happened to die. The father was not disturbed, but in faith carried him to the elder. He prostrated himself with his son as though making a prostration to receive the elder’s blessing. Then the father rose, left the child at the elder’s feet, and went outside. The elder, thinking the boy was making a prostration to him, said, “Get up and go outside,” for he did not know that he was dead. Immediately the boy got up and went out. When his father saw him, he was amazed. He went back in, made a prostration before the elder, and told him what had happened. When the elder heard it, he was grieved, for he had not wanted this to happen. His disciple then instructed the man to tell no one until after the elder’s death.
Three elders came to Abba Sisoes, having heard about him. The first said, “Father, how can I be saved from the river of fire?” He did not answer him. The second said, “Father, how can I be saved from the gnashing of teeth and the worm that does not sleep?” The third said, “Father, what shall I do? The remembrance of the outer darkness is killing me.” The elder answered them, “I remember none of these things. Since God is compassionate, I hope that He will have mercy on me.” Hearing this, the elders went away sorrowful. But the elder did not want to let them leave in sorrow, so he called them back and said, “Blessed are you, brothers; I envy you. The first of you spoke about the river of fire, the second about Tartarus, and the third about the darkness. If your mind is ruled by the remembrance of such things, it is impossible for you to sin. But what shall I do, hard-hearted as I am, since I am not even permitted to know that there is punishment for people? Because of this I sin at every hour.” They made a prostration before him and said, “Just as we had heard, so we have seen.”
Some people asked Abba Sisoes, “If a brother falls, does he need to repent for a year?” He said, “That saying is harsh.” They asked, “Then six months?” He said again, “That is a long time.” They said, “Up to forty days?” Again he said, “That is a long time.” They asked him, “Then what? If a brother falls and an agape meal happens immediately, should he enter the agape?” The elder said to them, “No. He needs to repent for a few days. For I trust in God that if such a person repents with his whole soul, even in three days God receives him.”
Once, when Abba Sisoes had come to Clysma, laypeople came to see him. They talked at length, but he did not answer them. Finally one of them said, “Why are you troubling the elder? He does not eat, and that is why he cannot speak.” The elder replied, “When I have need, I eat.”
Abba Joseph asked Abba Sisoes, “How long does a person need in order to cut off the passions?” The elder said to him, “Do you want to learn about lengths of time?” Abba Joseph said, “Yes.” The elder said, “At the hour when the passion comes, cut it off at once.”
A brother asked Abba Sisoes of Petra about the way of life. The elder answered, “Daniel said, ‘I ate no bread of desires.’”
They said of Abba Sisoes that when he sat in his cell, he always kept the door closed.
Once some Arians came to Abba Sisoes on the mountain of Abba Anthony and began speaking against the Orthodox. The elder answered them nothing. He called his disciple and said, “Abraham, bring me the book of Saint Athanasius and read it.” As they fell silent, their heresy became evident. Then he sent them away in peace.
Once Abba Ammon came from Rhaithou to Clysma to visit Abba Sisoes. Seeing him distressed because he had left the desert, he said to him, “Why are you distressed, Abba? What could you still do in the desert now that you have grown so old?” The elder looked at him sternly and said, “What are you saying to me, Ammon? Was not the freedom of my thought in the desert enough for me?”
Once Abba Sisoes was sitting in his cell. When his disciple knocked, the elder cried out, “Go away, Abraham; do not come in. There is no leisure here now.”
A brother asked Abba Sisoes, “Why did you leave Scetis, where you were with Abba Or, and come to sit here?” The elder said to him, “When Scetis began to become crowded, and I heard that Abba Anthony had fallen asleep, I rose and came here to the mountain. Finding the place quiet, I sat here for a little while.” The brother asked, “How long have you been here?” The elder said, “Seventy-two years.”
Abba Sisoes said, “When someone is taking care of you, you should not give orders.”
A brother asked Abba Sisoes, “If we are walking on a road and the one guiding us goes astray, should we tell him?” The elder said, “No.” The brother said, “Then should we let him lead us astray?” The elder said, “What then? Will you take a staff and beat him? I know some brothers who were traveling, and their guide lost the way during the night. There were twelve of them, and all knew that they were lost, but each struggled not to speak. When day came, the guide realized that they had strayed from the road and said, ‘Forgive me; I lost the way.’ They all said, ‘We knew it too, but we kept silent.’ When he heard this, he marveled and said, ‘The brothers restrain themselves from speaking even to the point of death,’ and he glorified God. The distance they had gone astray was twelve miles.”
Once Saracens came and stripped the elder and his brother. They went out into the desert looking for something to eat. The elder found camel droppings, broke them open, and found grains of barley. He ate one grain and put another in his hand. When his brother came, he found him eating and said, “Is this love—that you found something edible and are eating alone without calling me?” Abba Sisoes said to him, “I have not wronged you, brother. Look, I kept your portion in my hand.”
They said of Abba Sisoes the Theban that he stayed at Calamon of Arsinoe. Another elder was sick in a different laura, and when Sisoes heard of it he was distressed. He used to fast two days at a time, and it was a day on which he was not eating. When he heard, he said in his thought, “What shall I do? If I go, perhaps the brothers will make me eat; but if I wait until tomorrow, he may die. I will do this: I will go and not eat.” So he went fasting, fulfilled God’s commandment, and did not break the way of life he had undertaken for God.
One of the Fathers related about Abba Sisoes of Calamon that once, wanting to overcome sleep, he suspended himself from the precipice at Petra. An angel came and released him, and instructed him not to do this again and not to hand on such a practice to others.
One of the Fathers asked Abba Sisoes, “If I am sitting in the desert and a barbarian comes wanting to kill me, and I am able to overpower him, should I kill him?” The elder said, “No. Entrust him to God. Whatever trial happens to a person, he should say, ‘This happened because of my sins.’ But if something good happens, he should say, ‘It is by God’s providence.’”
A brother asked Abba Sisoes the Theban, “Tell me a word.” He said, “What do I have to tell you? I read the New Scripture and then return to the Old.”
The same brother asked Abba Sisoes of Petra about the saying spoken by Abba Sisoes the Theban. The elder said, “I go to sleep in sin, and I wake up in sin.”
They said of Abba Sisoes the Theban that when the church gathering was dismissed, he would flee to his cell. People said, “He has a demon.” But he was doing the work of God.
A brother asked Abba Sisoes, “What shall I do, Abba? I have fallen.” The elder said, “Get up again.” The brother said, “I got up, and I have fallen again.” The elder said, “Get up again and again.” The brother asked, “Until when?” The elder said, “Until you are taken, whether in what is good or in the fall. For in whatever state a person is found, in that state he also departs.”
A brother asked an elder, “What shall I do? I am troubled because of my handiwork. I like working with rope, but I am unable to do it.” The elder said that Abba Sisoes used to say, “We should not do the work that gives us ease.”
Abba Sisoes said, “Seek God, and do not seek where He dwells.”
Abba Sisoes also said, “Shame and lack of fear often bring sin.”
A brother asked Abba Sisoes, “What shall I do?” He said to him, “What you are seeking is this: great silence and humility. For it is written, ‘Blessed are those who remain in Him.’ In this way you can stand firm.”
Abba Sisoes said, “Become despised, put your own will behind you, and become free from care; then you will have rest.”
A brother asked Abba Sisoes, “What shall I do about the passions?” The elder said, “Each of us is tempted by his own desire.”
A brother asked Abba Sisoes, “Tell me a word.” He said, “Why do you force me to speak idly? Look—do what you see.”
Once Abraham, the disciple of Abba Sisoes, went away on a service. For many days the elder would not accept service from anyone else, saying, “Am I to let another person become accustomed to me besides my brother?” He did not consent until his disciple returned, but endured the hardship.
They said of Abba Sisoes that while he was sitting, he cried out in a loud voice, “Oh, wretchedness!” His disciple said to him, “What is it, Father?” The elder answered, “I am looking for one person with whom I can speak, and I cannot find one.”
Once Abba Sisoes left the mountain of Abba Anthony and went to the outer mountain of the Thebaid, where he lived. Meletians were living there at Calamon of Arsinoe. Some people, hearing that he had gone to the outer mountain, wanted to see him. But they said, “What shall we do? There are Meletians on the mountain. We know that the elder will not be harmed by them, but perhaps, in wanting to meet the elder, we may fall into temptation through the heretics.” So, in order not to encounter the heretics, they did not go to see the elder.
They said of Abba Sisoes that when he became ill and the elders were sitting around him, he was speaking with certain persons. They asked him, “What do you see, Abba?” He said, “I see some who have come for me, and I am asking them to let me repent a little.” One of the elders said to him, “If they allow you, can you now make useful repentance?” The elder answered, “Even if I cannot, I will groan a little over my soul, and that is enough for me.”
They said of Abba Sisoes that when he came to Clysma he became ill. While he was sitting in the cell with his disciple, they heard someone knock at the door. The elder understood and said to his disciple Abraham, “Tell the one who is knocking: ‘I am Sisoes on the mountain; I am Sisoes on the mat.’” When the visitor heard this, he disappeared.
Abba Sisoes the Theban said to his disciple, “Tell me what you recognize in me, and I in turn will tell you what I recognize in you.” His disciple said, “You are good in disposition, but a little hard.” The elder said, “And you are good, but rather soft in disposition.”
They said of Abba Sisoes the Theban that he did not eat bread. At the feast of Pascha the brothers begged him to eat with them. He answered, “I will do one of two things: either I will eat bread, or I will eat the dishes you have prepared.” They said, “Eat only bread.” And so he did.