Venerable Anoub the Confessor, Desert-dweller of Egypt (IV)

The Venerable Anoub the Confessor, a desert-dweller, was tortured in the fourth century for confessing the true God, but remained alive and went out into the desert. There he founded a small brotherhood, where he laboured with six monks. Among them was his own brother, Pimen the Great (commemorated 27 August). Once robbers sacked the monastery, and the monks took refuge in an abandoned idol-temple, and at the same time took a vow of silence for a week. All that week the Venerable Anoub threw a stone at the face of a pagan statue every morning, and every evening he said to it: “I have sinned, forgive me!” At the end of the week the brothers asked Abba Anoub what his conduct meant. The elder answered: “The statue did not grow angry when I threw stones at it, nor did it grow proud when I asked its forgiveness. So you too must live.”

Three days before his death the fathers of the desert visited the saint, now in deep old age, and asked him to tell of his life for the instruction of Christians. The Venerable Anoub answered that he had done nothing glorious or praiseworthy, but at last, by long and fervent entreaty, the monks prevailed on the humble desert-dweller. According to the Venerable Anoub, after he had confessed Christ before the executioners he had never defiled his lips with idle words, for he did not wish, after a true confession, ever to speak falsehood; his heart was ever turned towards God; more than once he had seen the angels and the God-pleasers standing before the throne of the Lord; he had seen the eternal bliss of the righteous in the Kingdom and the torments of Satan and his followers in the unquenchable fire of hell. On the third day the Venerable Anoub reposed. His soul rose to heaven accompanied by the singing of angels.