Isidora of Tabenna

The Venerable Isidora of Tabenna was a nun of the fourth century in Egypt, considered among the first fools for Christ. She fell asleep around 365. Her feast is on 10 May.

Few things are known of her life; most are in the Lausiac History of Palladius of Galatia, written in 419-420, at the request of Lausus, chamberlain at the court of the emperor Theodosius II. Neither the year of her birth nor her age on entering the women's monastery at Tabenna is known; it was founded by Maria, sister of Saint Pachomius, near his community, the first community of women in Egypt. In her time about four hundred sisters lived there. Isidora stood apart from them: she wandered in the kitchen, did the hardest and dirtiest chores, so she was called the monastery sponge, and wore on her head, instead of the tonsure or cowl, a rag, probably a kitchen cloth. She feigned madness and possession; the sisters despised and cursed her, sometimes beat her, and would not eat with her, which she preferred. None of the four hundred ever saw her eat at table; she was content with the crumbs, wiping the tables, and with washing the pots. She never insulted anyone, never grumbled, never spoke little or much, though she was cuffed, mocked and cursed. Thus she hid her struggle, after the word of the Apostle Paul: If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

At the same time the hermit Pitirim (Piteroum) lived in the desert, a well-⁠known and honoured man. An angel appeared to him and told him to go to Tabenna to find the chosen vessel of God's grace by the crown shining above her head. Pitirim came, saw the crown above Isidora and bowed to the ground before her, and she to him. When the sisters told him she was mad, he answered: You are the mad ones, and this one is greater before the Lord than I and than you; I pray only that God give me at the Judgment what he has set aside for her. The sisters were ashamed and, weeping, begged forgiveness of Pitirim and of Isidora, and from then they began to honour her. She, to escape the honour of men, fled secretly from the monastery and died, no one knows where, around 365.