THE GREAT SAINT OF THE DESERT AND THE PIPER IN THE PUB

St Paphnutius

When I first read the name, "St Paphnutius" I presumed I had read it wrong, or that there was a misprint.  Paphnutius sounds too akin to the verb "faffing" as in to waste time doing nothing to be serious. But there was a certain monk, born in the 200s, who was called, Paphnutius. While his name has a ring of frivolity, Paphnutius was a pioneer of severe asceticism, he sequestered himself in the scorching desert of Egypt where he placed himself under the direction of St Anthony the Great.

Paphnutius lived for many years in the desert where he denied his stomach food for extremely long periods, where he was in self-imposed solitary confinement and where he gave himself to intense prayer.

A time came when Paphnutius grew curious as to his degree of merit, or supernatural merit, that is to say the supernatural reward owed him from all his works of penance and piety. He prayed to the Lord that he be shown another fellow man who had the same degree of merit as he, and see what that man had done to arrived at being worthy of the same rewards. His prayer was answered and Paphnutius was told of an Egyptian musician. Paphnutius left to find this fellow, and found him playing his flute in a tavern for the customers who enjoyed his pipings while they drank their drams. Paphnutius was bewildered; how on earth did this piper in a pub have the same celestial reward coming to him as he who had punished himself for years on end?

Paphnutius asked for a meeting with the piper and when the two met, old Paph asked him to give account of his good works. The piper was at a loss; he couldn't remember ever having done any, but he searched his memory for a time when he prevented a woman from being raped even though he was a thief at the time, "One day, while I was pursuing my former trade of stealing, I saved the honor of a virgin consecrated to God, and another time I gave my money to a poor woman who, in her great distress, was about to commit a crime."

The piper was deserving of the same degree of merit as Paphnutius because he had prevented two mortal sins; a man had not violated a woman and on another occasion because he gave money to a woman in dire straits she was not reduced to villainy. This encounter may have been very humbling for Paphnutius, he met a man who had lived life as a criminal who had to think long and hard to come up with his good works; and he was nowhere near as mindful of his reward as Paphnutius was of his, perhaps he did not even consider himself worthy of any heavenly reward.

I found this account very edifying, because personally I would have thought Paphnutius to be of a higher merit than the piper in the pub. His Sandiness Paphnutius had done admirable penance in the desert to atone for sin, while the piper had prevented mortal sins, thus lessening the need for penance in the first place. It goes to show that if a person, including you or me, prevents a mortal sin, it may it contribute significantly to our degree of merit.

You may ask the Immaculate Virgin Mary to offer the Precious Blood that serious sin be prevented. In this month of August, dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we ask the intercession of she who never sinned that she prevent us from committing sin.

I read of the meeting between Paphnutius and the Piper in Devotion to the Precious Blood which you may find here in the Spirit Daily bookstore.

P.S. Paphnutius's feast day is on September 11th, or 9/11, and I hope to write more about him.