‘The Sayings of the Desert Fathers’

Posts in The Copybook credited to ‘‘The Sayings of the Desert Fathers’’

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Abba John and the Lost Guide Clay Lane

A guide loses his way on the edge of the merciless Egyptian desert, but Abba John is too kind-hearted to tell him.

Abba John Colobus (?339-?405), sometimes called John the Dwarf, was a monk and abbot of a monstery in Scetis in western Egypt, on the edge of the desert. Remembered today mostly for an act of remarkable obedience, in this short tale he teaches another important virtue: tact.

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