CHAPTER 19: How, at a word, he drove the birds away from the crops he had sown with his own hands
CHAPTER 19
How, at a word, he drove the birds away from the crops he had sown with his own hands
AT first he took bread from his visitors and water from his own well; then he thought it would be better to follow the example of the fathers and live by his own hands. He asked for implements to work the land with and wheat to sow, but though he planted in spring there was nothing ready by mid-summer.
‘It’s either the nature of the ground,’ he said to the brethren, ‘or the will of God, but the wheat certainly is not growing. So bring barley and we shall see whether that will produce anything. If God does not see fit to give increase, then rather than live off others I shall return to the monastery.’
The barley was brought long past the proper time for planting, when there was no hope of it growing, but it soon sprang up and brought forth a very good crop. When it began to ripen the birds came down and set about devouring it. (This tale was told by the pious servant of God himself, for it was his custom, being by nature friendly and cheerful, to strengthen the belief of his colleagues by recounting some of the blessings with which his own faith had been rewarded.)
‘Why are you eating crops you yourselves did not grow?’ he asked the birds. ‘Perhaps you have greater need of them than I. If God has given you permission, then do as He bade you; if not, be off with you, stop damaging other people’s property.’
They flew off at his first word and did no further damage. These two miracles of the venerable servant of God are reminiscent of the doings of two of the fathers. In bringing water out of the rock he reminds one of a similar miracle performed by St Benedict – only he brought it forth more abundantly because there were more people in need – and in driving away the birds he was following the example of St Antony who, by words alone, restrained wild asses from trampling his little garden.