CHAPTER XII

OF ABBA MOSES THE LIBYAN

THERE was also another old man whose name was Moses, who came from the country of the Libyans; he was exceedingly meek and compassionate, and through this was held to be worthy of the gift of healing. And this old man himself related unto us the following story, and said: When I was a young man and dwelt in the monastery, we dug out a large cistern which was twenty cubits wide, and eighty men were digging it out, and we set seventy men to build [walls round it]; and they dug down according to their knowledge, and they passed the place where they expected [to find water], and went down even one cubit more, but they did not find water, and being greatly distressed at this we wished to abandon the well and go away. But when Abbâ Pîôr came from the desert at the season of noon, now he was an old man and was covered in his head-cloak, he saluted us, and said unto us, “Why hath your spirit lessened, O ye of little faith? For I observe that your spirit hath diminished since yesterday because ye have not found water.” Then he went down by a ladder to the bottom of the well, and made a prayer with the men, and having prayed he took up an iron tool and drove it into the earth three times, saying, “O Lord God of the holy Fathers, make not the weariness [of these men] to be in vain, but send them water in abundance”; and straightway the waters sprang up in such quantity that they all were wetted, and having prayed a second time he went forth and departed. And when they urged him to remain with them and eat he would not be persuaded to do so, but said unto them, “The matter concerning which I was sent hath come to pass, and to eat I was not sent.”