CHAPTER V

THE TRIUMPHS OF ABBA ABBAN [BENUS]

AND we saw another blessed man whose virtues were more abundant than those of all [other] men, and whose name was Abbân [Benus]; the brethren who were with him related that he had never sworn, or told a lie, or been angry with any man, or rebuked any man even by a word. He had passed his whole life in silent contemplation and in humility, and in his manner of life he was as one of the angels, and he clothed himself in the deepest humility. And when we had entreated him earnestly to address to us a word of exhortation, it was only with the greatest difficulty that he could be persuaded to say unto us a few words. On one occasion, when the labourers in the fields which were near the river begged him [to drive away] a certain hippopotamus which was doing them harm by his [great] strength, the blessed Abbâ Abbân [Benus] commanded the animal in a gentle voice, saying, “I adjure thee to depart in the name of Jesus Christ”; and the hippopotamus, as if driven away by an angel, never more appeared in that district.

Here end the Triumphs of Abba Abban [Benus]