ST POEMEN, DESERT FATHER

ST POEMEN, DESERT FATHER - 27 AUGUST

SAINT POEMEN, DESERT FATHER

This great light among the ancient fathers of the desert forsook the world about the year 385, and retired into the great wilderness of Scete, in Egypt.

He often passed several days, sometimes a whole week, without eating; but it was his constant advice to others that their fasts should be moderate, but constant, and that they should take some nourishment every day. It was a maxim with him, that no monk ought ever to taste wine, or to seek any superfluous gratification of the senses.

THE BROTHERS RETIRED TO TERENUTHI

The barbarians ravaging Scete in 395, he and his brothers retired to Terenuthi, near an old temple of idols, and lived there for several years. Anubis, the eldest, and Poemen governed this little community by turns. Of the twelve hours of the night, they allotted four for work, four for singing psalms together, and four for taking their rest. In the day they worked till sext; then read till none, or three in the afternoon; after this they gathered a few herbs for their refection.

YEARNING FOR HOLY COMMUNION AS THE STAG PANTS AFTER THE COOL SPRING

St Poemen feared the least occasion that could interrupt his solitude, or make the distractions of the world break in upon him. He used strongly to exhort the faithful to the most frequent devout communion, and to a continual vehement thirst after that divine table, as the stag pants after the cool spring... souls, in the wilderness of this world always suck in something of its poison, and must languish perpetually to approach the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which powerfully fortifies them against, and expels all such venom, he said. He also said: "Evil cannot be cast out by evil; wherefore if any one doth evil to you, do good to him, that you may overcome his evil by your good."

"EVIL CANNOT BE CAST OUT BY EVIL"

St Poemen died about the year 451, and is commemorated on this day in the Roman Martyrology, and in the Menaea of the Greeks.

From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Poemen may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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