Anubius of Egypt

Venerable Anubius of Egypt, a hermit, lived in the fourth century. He is commemorated on 18 June. A confessor who survived the persecution, he withdrew into the wilderness.

In the time of the persecution of Christians in the fourth century he courageously endured torments, but remained alive and withdrew into the wilderness, where he stayed to deep old age. He founded a small skete, in which he lived with six monks, among them his brother, Venerable Poemen the Great (commemorated on 27 August). After robbers ravaged the skete, they took shelter in an abandoned pagan temple, resolving not to speak to one another for a week. All that week Venerable Anubius threw a stone in the morning at the face of the statue of the pagan god, and in the evening said to it: "I have sinned, forgive me." After the week the brothers asked Abba Anubius what his actions meant, and the elder explained that, as the statue was not angry when he struck it and was not exalted when he asked its forgiveness, so should the brothers live. Three days before the repose of Venerable Anubius he was visited by the hermits Sur, Isaiah and Paul, who asked him to tell them about his life, for the benefit of the faithful. The saint answered: "I do not remember having done anything great and glorious." Yielding nevertheless to their earnest request, he told them with deep humility that, after in the persecution he had confessed the Name of Christ before the tormentors, he had never again defiled his mouth with an unrighteous word, for, having once confessed the Truth, he would not speak falsehood. His heart was always full of longing for communion with the Lord, and more than once he beheld angels and saints of God standing before the Lord; he saw also Satan and his angels, condemned to eternal fire; the righteous too were shown to him, delighting in eternal blessedness. At the end of the third day Venerable Anubius passed to the Lord in spiritual joy. As his soul ascended to heaven, angelic singing was heard in the air.