CONCERNING SAINT ANUB, HERMIT IN EGYPT.
A compilation of Acts from the Lives of the Fathers, and others.
ABOUT 460.
CommentaryAnub, Abbot and Hermit in Egypt (S.)
BY THE AUTHORS G. H. & D. P.
The Greeks in a manuscript Synaxary, which we found at Dijon in the college of the Society of Jesus with Pierre Chifflet in the year 1662, celebrate the memory of S. Anub, in Greek Ἄνουβ, consummated in peace. Concerning him many things are read in the Lives of the Fathers published by our Rosweyde, and first in book 3 under the name of Rufinus no. 199, in book 5 with Pelagius as translator, in tract 15 no. 11, and in book 7 with Paschasius as translator, chapter 42 no. 4, the Acts are recounted, of which this is the beginning in Pelagius: The Abbot John related, A monk with 6 brothers in Scetis. that Abbot Anub and Abbot Pastor, and the rest of their brothers born from the same womb, were Monks in Scetis. He who is here called Pastor is, with the Greek name preserved by others, Pœmen, and from this, by a distortion of the word, Pimenius. Hence in Paschasius it is read thus:
[2] When at one time the people of the Mazyces, falling upon Scetis, had killed many of the Fathers, Abbot Pimenius, together with another elder Father, Anub, and with five other Fathers, fleeing from there, came to a place called Terenuthis; and they found there an ancient abandoned temple, he goes off to Terenuthis, and these seven remained together, until each should learn where in Egypt he was to dwell. And they decided among themselves, saying: In this week let each one rest by himself, and let one not speak to another. But when they were doing this, there was in that temple a statue of a certain idol. And Abbot Anub, rising in the morning, would throw stones at it in the face; and coming in the evening, he would say to it, I have sinned, forgive me; and thus he did throughout the whole week. But on the Sabbath day, when they had come together, Abbot Pimenius said to him: What did you mean to do this whole week, that as a faithful man you would say to an idol, Forgive me? where, stoning the idol in the morning, and at evening seeking pardon from it, The elder Anub said to him: This I did for your sake. Tell me: When I was stoning this idol, did it speak or grow angry? Or when I sought pardon, did it exalt itself or boast? To which Abbot Pimenius replied: By no means. Then the elder said: Brothers, behold, we are seven; if therefore you wish to remain together, so that we may gain profit for the soul, let this idol be for us an example: that when anyone is wronged, he not grow angry; that when pardon is sought from him, he not boast or be exalted; he sets it before them as an example of patience and humility: but if you do not wish it thus, let each go where he will. And they, casting themselves on the ground, promised that they would do so; and thus they remained for many years, with great humility and abstinence, making one of themselves the steward. And there was in them perfection and one single desire; and whatever was set on the table, they refreshed themselves with, none saying, Bring us that; or, I do not wish to eat this. For they slept four hours in the night, and four they chanted psalms, and four they worked. And in the day they devoted themselves to the divine offices at intervals of the hours, working and reading and splitting the leaves of herbs until the ninth hour. and for some years he perseveres with them: After this they would prepare food for themselves, gathering certain herbs of the earth.
[3] These things there, which are found nearly the same in Pelagius, and also in Greek and Latin in the Apophthegms of the Fathers, published by John Baptist Cotelier in volume 1 of the Monuments of the Greek Church, page 393. But in Rufinus, where, the first letter omitted, it is written Nub, in chapter 154 the narrative is continued thus: Abbot Poemen and Abbot Nuph, after they had come into the desert, their mother desired to see them, and often came to their cell, yet she could not gaze upon them there. nor does he permit himself or his brother to be seen by their own mother. Having seized therefore the opportunity, she met them, as they were hastening to the church. When she was seen, they returned swiftly and shut the door of the cell; but she, standing outside with tears, sought them. Then Abbot Nuph, going out to the blessed Pœmen, said: What shall we do about this our mother, who weeps at the door? Then rising up, Abbot Pœmen goes to the door; and not opening it, hearing her continually lamenting, he said to her: Why such great outcries, since you are already worn out with age, and pour out laments? But she, recognizing the voice of her son, cried out all the more, saying: Because I wish to see you, my sons. For what is it if I shall see you? Am I not your mother? Did I not nurse you at these my breasts? Now I am filled with all the wasting of delays, and having heard your voice, all my inmost parts are stirred up with desire. To her Pœmen said: Do you desire to see us more here, or in the age to come? But she said: What then, if I do not see you here, as though there I would surely see you? And the elder answering, Because if you can restrain yourself here, so as not to see us, there you will without doubt always see us; then she departed, saying with joy: If for certain I shall see you there, here I now do not wish to see you. These things there, which also are recounted in Pelagius, tract 4 no. 33; but he who above is called Nub and Nuph, is there called Anub, and in place of Pœmen, the name of Pastor is written; whose memory under the name of Pœmen is celebrated in the printed Menaia and in various Manuscripts on the 27th day of August. Christopher of Mitylene, in his Menologion on this 6th of June, inserts only Ποιμένα πανάριστον, Pœmen the altogether best.
[4] Finally, in the same Rufinus, chapter 10, are indicated the revelations and pious death of the same Anuph (as he is there called), which same things we give from the Lausiac History of Palladius the Bishop, related in Greek and Latin in volume 2 of the Library of the ancient Fathers, printed in Greek and Latin at Paris in the year 1574, where in chapter 55 and following it is written in Greek Ἀνοὺβ, in Latin Anuph, and these things are recounted. to be visited by three Abbots, Abbot Sarus, and Isaiah, and Paul, suddenly met one another at a river, pious and excellent men, practicers of the discipline, about to visit the great Abbot Anub. But the distance between them was three stages; and they say to one another: Let each one of us show his rule of life; and how he was honored by God in this life. And Abbot Sarus said to them: I ask of God a gift, that we may by the power of the spirit arrive untired at the place. And when he alone had prayed, immediately a boat ready and a favorable wind were found, and in a moment of time they were found at the place, having sailed against the current of the river. But Isaiah says to them: And what wonder, O friends, if a man of God should meet us, who would tell the life of each one? But Paul says to them: What if God should reveal to us that after three days he will take up a man?
[5] he meets them: And when they had gone a little farther, a man met them and greeted them. But Paul says to him: Tell us what right things you have done; for after tomorrow you will go away to the Lord. And Anub said to them: Blessed be God, who has signified to me these things also, and your rule of life and your coming. And when he had told what each of them had rightly done, he then set forth what he himself had done, saying: he relates the things done by him: From the time when I professed the name of the Savior on earth, from my mouth no lie has gone forth; of human food I have taken nothing, an Angel daily feeding me with heavenly nourishment; no desire of any other thing ascended into my heart, except of God. Nothing of earthly things has God hidden from me, which he has not signified and shown to me. I did not take sleep by day, nor rest by night, seeking God. One Angel was always present with me, showing the powers of the world. The light of my thought was never extinguished. Every petition I received from God at once. and the revelations made to him, I saw many a time the myriads of Angels standing before God; I saw the choirs of the Just; I saw the throng of Martyrs; I saw the order of Monks; I saw the work of all who praise God; I saw Satan handed over to fire; I saw his angels punished; I saw the just rejoicing forever. Telling these and many other things, on the third day he gave up his soul; and dying he is carried into heaven: and the Angels and the choirs of Martyrs, at once receiving it, bore it into the heavens, while they themselves saw and heard the hymns.
D. P.
[6] Thus far the things collected by our Henschenius; let there conclude them a Distich on St. Anub, found in the above-cited Manuscript Synaxary of Chifflet, of this kind: To the living, as one living up to now, even though dead, he shows— working signs— the grace of Anub.
Working signs after death, as though living, and he works miracles. Anub bestows graces even to this day.
As regards his age, it can be derived from what was said by me on the 4th of June, where, concerning St. Alonus, on that occasion I inquired into the age of St. Pœmen; whom I found speaking of the times of Theodosius the Younger, as recently past. Since therefore Pœmen survived that Emperor, who died about the year 450, it becomes probable that his elder brother Anub died not long before or after Theodosius. The Mazyes or Mazyces, whose incursion into Scetis compelled the holy brothers to flee elsewhere, are said by Stephanus to have been peoples of Mauretania Caesariensis, he seems to have lived beyond the year 450, and their King Iarbas is mentioned by Suetonius. Therefore, before they penetrated into Scetis, the solitude near Alexandria, they must have ranged plundering through Mauretania Sitifensis, and Numidia and Byzacena, and the Tripolitan provinces, with both Libyas, and thus through nearly the whole of Africa, as long as it is. But it is probable that they, equally with the other Moors, then fought not under their own, but under Vandal auspices; and that thereby the more obscure among the Historians was made the memory of the damages inflicted upon Egypt by them, inasmuch as they were Vandal mercenaries. Now the Moors, as many as inhabited the interior of Africa, were still heathen, as is clear from Procopius of Caesarea, book 1, chapter 8, relating how after the death of Geiseric they revolted from the Vandals, and even conquered them under their own King Trasamund about the year 490.