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Sayings of Sarah of the Desert
Apophthegmata
Date written: collected about 450 to 500; the place is not known. The date is the usual view of scholars; some doubt it.
Sarah of the Desert did not write this text. Another person wrote it about Sarah of the Desert, or wrote down what Sarah of the Desert said.
Sayings and short stories of Sarah of the Desert, taken from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers.
Sayings · first written in Greek
Where she lived is not known: Apophthegmata Patrum, alphabetical collection (English: B. Ward, Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 1975), Sarah 3 says only "beside the river"; some put her near Scetis, some near Pelusium. Sarah did not write this. The sayings are spoken words and stories that the unknown collectors of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers wrote down. The corpus files it under Sarah.
Translated by E. A. Wallis Budge (1907). The Paradise or Garden of the Holy Fathers, vol. 2 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1907); sayings picked out of it Public domain. Source and rights
About this text (1 note)
Where she lived is not known: Apophthegmata Patrum, alphabetical collection (English: B. Ward, Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 1975), Sarah 3 says only "beside the river"; some put her near Scetis, some near Pelusium. Sarah did not write this. The sayings are spoken words and stories that the unknown collectors of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers wrote down. The corpus files it under Sarah.
How we know the date and place
- Date written probable
- Sayings were gathered and written in Greek in the later 5th century (W. Bousset, Apophthegmata, 1923; J.-C. Guy, Sources Chretiennes 387, 1993)
The man spoke in his own lifetime; this date is for the written collection. The English is from Budge, Paradise of the Fathers (1907), made from the 7th-century Syriac of Anan-Isho. - Place written not known
- Guy (SC 387) and L. Regnault think the Greek collection was made in Palestine; no town is known
232 words. 1 section.
Sayings of Sarah of the Desert
§ 1
268. Mother Sarah used to say, " Whensoever I put my foot " on the ladder to go up, before I ascend it I set my death be- fore mine eyes."
276. Mother Sarah sent a message to Abta Paphnutius, saying, "Dost thou think that thou art doing God's work in " allowing thy brother to be reviled?" Abbk Paphnutius saith, "Paphnutius is here doing the work of God, and I have no "concern whatsoever about man."
428. Mother Sarah used to say, "It is a good thing for a " man to give alms, even though he do so for the approbation " of the children of men, for from this he will come to do it for "God's sake."
566. They used to say that Mother Sarah contended against the devil of fornication for seven years on the roof [of her. house], before she vanquished him.
75. Mother Sarah said, 4 4 If I were to pray to God that all 44 men might be built up through me I should be found express- 44 ing contrition at the door of each one of them ; but I pray to 44 God especially that my heart may be pure with Him and with 4 4 every man."
525. Mother Sarah used to say to her brethren, " It is I who " am a man, and ye who are women."