St. Paul the Simple

From Rufmus, chap. 31, and Palladius, chap. 28

PAUL, surnamed the Simple, from his innocent simplicity, was, by his education, a plain honest husband man, who had led a blameless life to the age of sixty, in a married state, when, upon a certain occasion, having caught his wife in adultery, he resolved to forsake both her and the world; and after travelling eight days into the wilderness, addressed himself to St. Antony, requesting he would receive him into the number of his disciples, and teach him the way to save his soul. St. Antony told him he was now too old to think of becoming a monk, and that he could never be able to support the difficulties and austerities of a monastic life, especially in his eremitical way: " but go," said he, " into the village, and there employ yourself in working for your bread, and praising God:" and having said this, he went in and shut his cell. Paul nevertheless, continued fasting and praying at the door during three days and three nights, till An tony, at length seeing his faith and perseverance, came out cind told him, that the way to salvation was obedience, and that if he would be his disciple, he must do all that he said to him; to which Paul readily gave his assent, and made good his word, by comply ing to a title with every injunction of the Saint, how difficult or irrational soever it seemed to be. Antony, in order to try him, imposed upon him a variety of labors, mortifications, and humiliations, till at length he found him to be a man entirely humble, simple, and quite according to his own heart. He gave him therefore a rule of life which he should follow, and after some time ajfpointed him a cell, at the distance of three miles from his own, where he frequently visit ed him; teaching him to spend his solitary hours in such a manner, as that whilst his hands were at work, his heart should be in heaven: and as to his corporal sustenance, he directed him never to eat or drink till evening, and even then with such moderation as never to satisfy his appetite, especially in his drink, though his beverage was nothing but water.

By following these rules, but more particularly by a constant and fervent application of his soul to God in mental prayer, Paul quickly arrived at great perfection in all virtues; amongst which his obedience, as well as his humility, were particularly remarkable. One day, when many religious were assembled with St. Antony, conferring about spiritual matters, on making frequent mention of the prophets, Paul, who was one of the company, according to his simplicity, asked whether the prophets lived before or since the time of our Saviour? St. Antony, by way of reproving his putting such an absurd question, made a nod to him, saying: £0, hold your peace. Paul, who had previously resolved to obey every word that Antony said to him, as if it. had been an oracle from God himself, immediately departed to his cell, and kept there so trict a silence, that he would not upon any occasion tter so much as a single word; till Antony hearing of it, desired him to speak, and asked him the meaning of his long silence? " Why father," said he, " i' was in obedience to you: for you bid me go and hold my peace." St. Antony took occasion from hence to say to the rest of his disciples: " This man condemns us all; for whereas we are so often wanting in our obedience to our great Master, who speaks to us from heaven; he always scrupulously observes every single word, of what kind soever he hears from my mouth." By these large steps of obedience and humility, Paul advanced rapidly towards God, and was reward ed by him with such admirable gifts and graces, as to work even more and greater miracles than St. Antony himself; insomuch that this holy abbot used to send such possessed persons to Paul as he himself could not cure. An instance of which is thus recorded by Palladius. A young man, possessed by a most furious and obstinate devil, being brought to Antony, he told the people, that this evil spirit was one of the principal demons, and that the power of casting them out: was not as yet given to him, but to the humble and simple Paul. Having therefore himself conducted him to Paul, he said: " Here cast out the devil from this man, that he may return home and glorify God." "Why don't you do it yourself?" said Paul. "I have something else to do," replied Antony, and so hastened back to his cell. Paul fell prostrate in prayer, and then rising up said to the devil, in his innocent way, " Get thee gone out of the man: father Antony says thou must go out." The devil called him a foolish old man, and told him he would not: and when he urged him a second time, repeating again that Antony said he must out, he abused both him and Antony, calling them by contemptuous names, and still refused to depart. " If thou wilt not go out," said Paul, "I will go and tell Jesus Christ, and it shall be worse for thee." The devil broke out into blasphemies against Christ, and obstinately kept his hold. The holy man therefore went out of his cell, in the broiling heat of the sun at noon day (which, in Egypt, says my author, is not unlike the Babylonian furnace), and standing upon a rock, addressed his prayer to Jesus Christ crucified, protest ing in his simplicity, that he would neither come down from the rock, nor eat or drink, till he was pleased to hear him, and to force the devil out of the man when, behold, whilst he was at prayer, the devil roar ed out, " I go, I go, I suffer violence, this is an intolerable tyranny; I am departing from the man, never, never more to return. It is Paul's humility and simplicity casts me out: I know not whither 1 must go." With these words the man was presently delivered; and as a token of the devil's departure, a serpent of an unusual length was seen at the same time to crawl towards the red sea.

Many other still greater miracles were wrought by the prayers of this Saint; but what is related of him in an ancient author, published by Rosweydus, in the 7th book of the Lives of the Fathers, c. 23. is still more admirable; viz. that he had received the gift from God, of reading in the countenances of the brethren their very thoughts, and the whole state of their souls. Thus, one day, whilst the religious were entering into the church, he saw all of them go in with a great serenity and brightness on their countenance, attended by their good angels full of joy, except one who appeared black and gloomy, having on either side of him a devil, who held him with a bridle, whilst his good angel followed behind at a distance, and appeared sad and sorrowful. The man of God, on seeing this, spent the whole time they were at church in weeping and lamenting for his soul, wt;ch he understood to be in the deplorable ^tate of morUl *in; but on looking at him when they came out again, he found him quite changed, — his countenance now bright and beautiful,— his good angel rejoicing, and the devils standing at a distance, grieving for having lost their prey. At the sight of this wonderful change, the Saint could not contain his joy, but broke out into the praises of God, extolling aloud the wonders of his mercy, manifested in behalf of poor sinners. Having related what he had seen, he earnestly entreated the converted monk, for the glory of God, and the edification of his brethren, to declare what change he had experienced in his interior, which could occasion the sudden and wonderful alteration he had remarked in his exterior. In compliance with the request of the Saint, he publicly confessed, that his soul had been, through a habit of impurity, in a most wretched condition, but that upon hearing those words, of God, by the prophet Isaias, read in the church, (Be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes, cease to do perversely, learn to do well, — and then if your sins be as red as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow. — If you be willing, and ivill hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath, the sword shall devour you, because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it), he found himself not only strongly affected with a sense of the heinousness of his sins, had a horror and compunction for them, joined with a great love of the infinite goodness and mercy of God, but had also firmly resolved on the spot to renounce his evil ways, and dedicate himself henceforward in good earnest to the love and service of so good a God; ail 1 that this had been the sub»

|ect of his thoughts and prayers during the -whole time he was in church. Upon this declaration of their penitent brother, all the monks that were present magnified the mercies of God, who so readily for gives the greatest sinners, when, like the prodigal son, they return to him with a contrite and humble heart Whilst this whole passage, as recorded by our author, is an instance of the wonderful efficacy of a perfect contrition, in the speedy reconciliation it effects between the sinner and God, it shows at the same time the wonderful efficacy of the prayers and tears of our Saint, which procured for this sinner the effectual grace of a perfect contrition.

St. Paul the Simple is registered amongst the saints in the Roman Martyrology on the seventh of March.