Pitirim of Egypt

Venerable Pitirim of Egypt, also called Pitirim of Porphyry, was an Egyptian monk of the fourth century, a disciple of Saint Anthony the Great. He was abbot of many monks and the third successor of Anthony in his hermitage, and is said to have received Anthony's virtues. He lived on Mount Porphyry in the Thebaid, probably named after the nearby Roman quarry at Mons Porphyrites, which mined the rare stone called porphyry.

He continued Anthony's work by instructing monks along the Nile in the Thebaid, and lived with his disciples in austere asceticism. It is said that he ate only water mixed with a little flour twice a week, and sometimes fasted from food entirely. He died toward the end of the fourth century or the beginning of the fifth.

A story is preserved from Palladius' Lausiac History (chapter 34). Pitirim, while praying in the mountains, received a vision from an angel: "Why are you proud of yourself for being religious and dwelling in a place like this? Do you want to see a woman more religious than you?" The angel sent him to the monastery at Tabennisi, founded by Pachomius, and there he met Isidora, a woman of extreme humility among her fellow nuns. Pitirim rebuked the nuns for treating her unkindly; they said to him in amazement: "Father, do not let her insult you, she is dumb." And he answered: "You are dumb. For she is an Amma both of me and you." He is commemorated on 29 November (new style).