Or of Nitria

Saint Or of Nitria (also called Hor or Horus) was a hermit and spiritual father of Egypt in the fourth century, one of the Desert Fathers, who lived in the desert of Dalga, in Nitria and in the Thebaid. Saint Jerome says that he became the father of thousands of monks, and those who knew him counted him among the foremost monks of his time. He died around 390, at nearly ninety, and the Church commemorates him on 7 August.

In the desert

Nothing is known of his youth; he seems to have been born at the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century. Most of what is known of him comes from Saint Jerome's account in the History of the Monks of Egypt. He was known for his exceeding love for people, his hospitality and his humility. He lived most of his life as a solitary hermit in austere asceticism in the desert of Dalga, in a remote place, where, as the Vitae Patrum says, he practised many works of abstinence before founding a monastery not far from the city. He ate roots and herbs, drank water when he had it, spent all his time in prayer and praise and ate only once a week. Saint Nikolai Velimirović writes that he strove above all never to speak an untruth and that he had great temptations from demons but overcame them all with sobriety and courage.

Father of monks

It is said that in old age an angel appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to leave his solitude and become a teacher of other monks in Nitria, promising him that a numerous people would be entrusted to him and that those saved through him would be tens of thousands, and that in the age to come he would lead as many as he won in this one. Or obeyed and became the spiritual father of many anchorites in the Egyptian desert. According to Jerome he took charge of certain monasteries in the desert near Shaina and gathered a brotherhood; the Vitae Patrum calls him the father of many monasteries. The brotherhood was so numerous that the monks spent much time making huts for those who came, and he planted so many wild trees at that place that they formed a dense wood in the wilderness. Tradition says that, though he could not read, by a divine miracle he read and knew Scripture by heart. His disciples testified that he never lied, swore, hurt anyone or spoke without need, and one of them, Pistos, said that his humility was great. In prayer he strove that all the needs of the brotherhood be supplied. Jerome says he also had the gift of casting out demons, who came to him even against their will and shrieked through his deeds. He is said to have received communion daily.

When Jerome visited the place he related that the man of God rejoiced in them, greeted them, offered a prayer at once, washed their feet with his own hands and began to teach them, for he knew Scripture very well, like one who had received the gift from God, explained several chapters and urged them to prayer and to partake of the Mysteries. Rufinus, who saw him, described him as having the form of an angel, about ninety years old, with a white and beautiful beard flowing over his chest and a face so glorious that those who looked on him were reproved by the sight alone; the Vitae Patrum adds that at ninety he had lost nothing of his bodily strength. Palladius, in the Lausiac History, says of him that he never lied, never took an oath, never uttered a curse and beyond what was necessary never spoke at all.

Stories and sayings

Or taught his disciples to be always ready for the Lord to take their souls. It is told that, while he and Theodore were building a cell out of clay, they said to each other what they should do if God were to visit them just then; then, weeping, they left the clay there and each went back to his cell. In another story a charitable nobleman, Longinos, wished to visit him, and one of his disciples praised the nobleman and asked the old man's leave; Or saw that the monk really wanted money, which would incite them to avarice, and refused, saying there was no need for the man to cross the valley to see him. Jerome also tells that his disciple Paul went to buy reeds and, learning that others had paid deposits while Or never paid deposits but the whole price at once, took from a farmer some palm branches left by another who had not come for them. The old man clapped his hands and said that this year Or would not work, and did not let the branches into his cell but waited for them to be returned.

Once he told of a man he knew in the desert who for three years had eaten nothing of the earth, but an angel brought him heavenly food every third day. Demons came to this man in the forms of horses and chariots of fire and horsemen, telling him he had become perfect and should bow down to them so that they might take him up like Elijah; the monk answered in his mind that he worshipped the King and Redeemer every day and that if the speaker were a king he would not ask for worship, and the demon vanished. The Vitae Patrum shows that the man was Or himself. Because of his struggles he was constantly ill; Sisoes said that Abba Or was ill for eighteen years. Once his disciples reminded him it was the feast of the Resurrection, and he raised his hands to heaven and prayed for three days without ceasing.

His teachings are kept in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers. He said that the crown of the monk is humility. When you wish to subdue high and proud thoughts, examine your conscience carefully: have you kept all the commandments, loved your enemies, been kind to them in their misfortune, counted yourself an unprofitable servant and the worst of sinners? Even if you have done all this, do not think well of yourself, for even that thought is destructive. He who is honoured and praised beyond his merits will suffer much, while he who is held of no account among men will receive glory in heaven. When Sisoes asked him for guidance, the old man said: "In my own opinion, I put myself below all men." He also said: do not think against your brother that you live more soberly than he, but submit yourself to the grace of Christ, in the spirit of poverty and true love; and if you have spoken ill of your brother, tell him: "I spoke badly of you; let this be my surety that I will spread this slander no further." In every temptation do not complain of anyone but say of yourself: "These things happen to me because of my sins." To his disciple Paul: "Be careful never to let an irrelevant word come into this cell", and on meeting people: "If you are fleeing, flee from men, or the world and the men in it will make you do many foolish things." For the monk, he said, the celebration of Christ's Resurrection is to raise the mind and unite it with God. From every sin you will easily flee if you flee evil conversation, which is death to the soul and smothers every good deed in the heart.

Veneration

He is recognized as a saint in the Orthodox and the Catholic Church, and his day is 7 August. The Prologue of Ohrid of Saint Nikolai Velimirović devotes to him a hymn of praise of twenty-⁠six lines.