Jean Colobos
vers 339-vers 409 4th century
Humility learned the hard way, the marriage of ordinary work and ceaseless prayer, wisdom compressed into short unforgettable sayings.
Who was Jean Colobos?
A monk of the Egyptian desert in the 4th century, small in stature (his name means "the dwarf"), he asked an elder once to let him live like the angels, free of all daily work and care. The elder sent him away for a week without food to learn otherwise. He came back, admitted the lesson, and spent the rest of his life mixing the ordinary work of hands with unceasing prayer, becoming one of the most quoted voices of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers.
In their own words
I am like someone seated at the foot of a tall tree, watching beasts and crawling things come at him in numbers. When he can hold out no longer he goes up into the tree, and there he is safe. So with me: I sit in my cell, I watch bad thoughts come over me, and when my strength fails I flee to God by prayer, and I am safe from the enemy.