Venerable Dorotheus, Hermit of Egypt (IV)

The Venerable Dorotheus, a hermit of Egypt, was born in Egypt, in the region of the Thebaid. For more than sixty years he laboured on the western bank of the river Nile, in the desert of Scete. In his youth the disciple of the venerable father was Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis, the author of the well-known “Lausiac History”, who preserved for us his memories of the saint. Father Dorotheus lived a strict ascetic life. After prayer, in the midday heat, he would go down to the seashore and gather stones for building cells for other hermits. At night the blessed one wove baskets, and by selling them earned his daily bread. The Venerable Dorotheus’s food was bread and the meagre plants of the desert. He ate only once a day. The saint never lay down to sleep: at times he would doze while eating or working. Once the venerable father sent his disciple to fetch water, and the disciple came back with an empty vessel and said: I saw a snake in the well; the water is poisoned. Then Dorotheus himself went to the well, made the sign of the cross over it, drank and said: “Where the cross is, the devil is powerless.” The blessed hermit reposed in peace in deep old age (4th century).