wrought by him for edification. This brother, of blessed memory, because he was afflicted in his body had a cell separate from the brethren; he lived upon bread and salt only, and he used to make one mat of plaited palm leaves each day, and it would happen often, when he was plaiting the ropes which were being used in making the mats, that his hands would become covered with blood, and they were so full of wounds caused by the reeds, that the very mats which he was making were wetted with blood. But although he suffered from such a weakness as this, he never turned away from the congregation of the brethren, and he never lay down to sleep in the daytime until the end of his life. And it was his habit every night before he lay down to sleep to repeat some portion of the Scriptures, and then he would go to sleep until they beat the board to summon the congregation to the service of the night.
Now on one occasion a certain brother went to him, and seeing that his hands were covered with blood through plaiting mats, he said unto him, “Why dost thou work and toil in this manner, seeing that thou art so seriously ill? Thinkest thou that thou wouldst not obtain permission not to work and to be idle from God? God knoweth that thou art sick, and no man who hath thy complaint hath ever worked. We feed and take care of strangers and poor folk, and are we not in duty bound to minister unto thy wants, thou who art one of us, and art so holy a man, with all our soul and with the greatest joy and gladness?” And the monk said unto him, “It is impossible for me not to work,” and the brother replied, “If it pleaseth thee to act thus, at least anoint thy hands with oil at eventide, for thou wilt not become as weary as thou art now, and thou wilt not become covered with blood.” And the monk hearkened unto that brother, and anointed his hands with oil, even as he had told him to do, yet because they were tender they were grievously chafed, and cut, and torn by the sharp reeds (or palm-grass). Then Rabbâ himself went to visit him in his cell, and he said unto him, “Thinkest thou, O Theodore, that the oil had any beneficial effect upon thee? Who forced thee to work? Didst thou not place thy hope of being healed rather upon the operation of the oil than upon God? Peradventure was not thy God able to heal thee? Yet when He saw that thou wast ordering help for thyself He left thee [to fall into] this pain.” Then the monk answered and said unto Rabbâ, “O father, I have sinned against God, and I give thanks (or confess), and I entreat thee that God may forgive me this sin.”
And, according to what those fathers who were with him
