Chapter x. The History of the Blessed Man Pambo [Died A.D. 393]
IN this mountain there also lived the blessed man Pambô (or Panbîs), who was the teacher and master of the Bishops Dioscorus, Ammonius, Eusebius, [Euthemis] (Eutymius), and Origen the nephew of Dracontius, a marvellous man. Now this man Pambô possessed [the power to utter] words of prophecy, and splendid triumphs, yet with all these he despised gold and silver, even as the Word demandeth. Now the following things [concerning him] were related unto me by the blessed woman Melhâ (i.e., Melania):
When I first came from Rome to Alexandria I heard concerning the life and deeds of Pambô, inasmuch as the blessed man Isidore, who also brought me unto him in the desert, told me about him. And I brought unto him a basket which was filled with stamped silver (i.e., coined money) three hundred pounds [in weight], and I begged him to accept some of my possessions for his needs. He was sitting and plaiting the leaves of palm trees, and as he was doing this he merely blessed me, and said, “God give thee thy reward!” Then he said unto his steward, whose name was Origen, “Take and distribute [this] among all the brethren who are in the ‘Island’ and in Libya”; for these monasteries are exceedingly poor, and he commanded the steward not to give unto any man who dwelt in Egypt, for those who dwell therein have [abundant] means of subsistence. Now I stood there and I expected to be treated with honour or to be praised for the greatness of the gift, but when I heard nothing from him, I said unto him, “Master, knowest thou how much money it is, and that there are three hundred pounds [in the basket]?” Then Pambô, without lifting up his gaze, said unto me, “My daughter, He unto whom thou hast offered thy money hath no need [to know] the weight. For He who weighed the mountains in a balance knoweth how much is the weight of thy silver. If thou hadst given the money unto me thou wouldst have done well to have informed me concerning the weight thereof; but since thou hast given it to God, Who did not despise the two mites of the widow, [what need hast thou to tell Him?] Hold thy peace.”
Now our Lord so directed that in the day on which I entered the mountain this blessed man died without having been ill, for he died whilst he was sewing together palm leaves for mats, without fever and without sickness. And he was seventy years old. Now he was sewing together palm leaves for a mat, and coming to the end of it he sent and called me.
