Venerable Sisoes the Great (+429)

The Venerable Sisoes the Great left this world in his early youth and laboured for more than sixty years in the Egyptian desert, at the place where Anthony the Great (commemorated 17 January) had laboured. By unceasing fasting, prayer and vigil he completely purified his soul, and he was granted by the Lord the gifts of wonderworking, of raising the dead and of casting out demons.

Very strict and demanding towards himself, the Venerable Sisoes was full of love for his neighbour. Above all he urged everyone who came to him towards humility. When a desert-dweller asked the saint how he had attained unceasing remembrance of God, he answered: “That is nothing yet, my child; the main thing is to count oneself the lowest of all, for such self-abasement is the mother of humility.” When the monks asked whether one year of repentance was enough for a brother who had fallen into sin, the Venerable Sisoes replied: “I trust in the mercy of the man-loving God. If a man repents with his whole soul, the Lord will accept from him even three days of repentance.”

When the Venerable Sisoes lay on his deathbed, his face suddenly shone. His disciples asked him what he saw. “The prophets and apostles are standing before me,” he said. Then they noticed that the dying man was talking with someone: he was asking the angels who had come to take his soul for time for repentance. To the astonished brethren the humble ascetic replied: “Truly I do not know whether I have even made a beginning of repentance!” As soon as he had finished these words, such radiance shone from the blessed one’s face that the disciples could not look at him. Saint Sisoes managed to say that the Saviour Himself had come, and commended his soul to the Lord (+429).