LONGINUS

1. One day Abba Longinus questioned Abba Lucius about three thoughts saying first, 'I want to go into exile.' The old man said to him, 'If you cannot control your tongue, you will not be an exile anywhere. Therefore control your tongue here, and you will be an exile.' Next he said to him, 'I wish to fast.' The old man replied, 'Isaiah said, "If you bend your neck like a rope or a bulrush that is not the fast I will accept; but rather, control your evil thoughts." ' (of. Isaiah 58) He said to him the third time, 'I wish to flee from men.' The old man replied, 'If you have not first of all lived rightly with men, you will not be able to live rightly in solitude.'

2. Abba Longinus said, 'If ever you are ill, say to your body, "Be ill and die; if you ask me for food outside the agreed time, I will not bring you even your daily food any more."'

3. A woman had an illness they call cancer of the breast; she had heard of Abba Longinus and wanted to meet him. Now he lived at the ninth milestone from Alexandria. As the woman was looking for him, the blessed man happened to be collecting wood beside the sea. When she met him, she said to him, 'Abba, where does Abba Longinus, the servant of God live?' not knowing that it was he. He said, 'Why are you looking for that old imposter? Do not go to see him, for he is a deceiver. What is the matter with you?' The woman showed him where she was suffering. He made the sign of the cross over the sore and sent her away saying, 'Go, and God will heal you, for Longinus cannot help you at all.' The woman went away confident in this saying, and she was healed on the spot. Later, telling others what had happened and mentioning the distinctive marks of the old man, she learned that it was Abba Longinus himself.

4. Another time, they brought him one possessed by a demon. He said to those who were escorting him: 'I can do nothing for you; but go instead to Abba Zeno.' So Abba Zeno began to put pressure onto the demon to cast it out. The demon began to cry out: 'Perhaps, Abba Zeno, you think I am going away because of you; look, down there Abba Longinus is praying, and challenging me and it is for fear of his prayers that I go away, for to you I would not even have given an answer.'

5. Abba Longinus said to Abba Acacius: 'A woman knows she has conceived when she no longer loses any blood. So it is with the soul, she knows she has conceived the Holy Spirit when the passions stop coming out of her. But as long as one is held back in the passions, how can one dare to believe one is sinless? Give blood and receive the Spirit.'