(This is the second set of reflections about the lives of the hermits and of excerpts from their own writings. See Wisdom of the Hermits for an introduction)

The Life of the Hermit as the Teaching -
Tales of the Hermits

St. Paul, the Hermit (circa 250-342, Egyptian) "the great St. Antony, who was then ninety years of age, was tempted to vanity, thinking that no one had served God so long the wilderness as he had done, since he believed himself to be the first to adopt this unusual way of life; but the contrary was made known to him in a dream…(God told him to start off and find St. Paul) after two days and a night spent in the search, St. Antony discovered the saint's abode by a light which shone from it and guided his steps….St. Paul opened the cell door with a smile; they embraced, and called each other by their names which they knew by revelation…While they were discoursing together, a raven flew towards them and dropped a loaf of bread before them. Upon which St. Paul said, 'Our good God has sent us a dinner. In this manner have I received half a loaf every day these sixty years past; now you have come to see me, Christ has doubled His provision for His servant.'" St. Paul told St. Antony that he, St. Paul, would soon die and asked St. Antony to leave and fetch the cloak of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria to wrap up his body. When St. Antony returned he found St. Paul in a kneeling position but already dead. "Whilst he stood perplexed how to dig a grave, two lions came up quietly, and as it were mourning; and, tearing up the ground, made a hole large enough." (from Butler's Lives of the Saints)