A Story of the Same Elder
The elder told us this too: Twenty years ago, I came to Porphyreén intending to settle there; I took my disciple, John, along with me. When we arrived, we found two anchorites there and settled near them. One of them was from Melitene, a man named Theodore; the other was from Galatia, Paul by name. Theodore came from the Monastery of Abba Euthymios. They wore shirts made from antelope skins. I stayed there for approximately two years; we were about two stades from each other.
One day, when my disciple, John, was sitting down, a serpent struck him, and he died immediately, with blood flowing from all his members. In my great distress, I went to the anchorites. When they saw me, distraught and distressed, before I could open my mouth, they said to me, “What is the matter, Abba Zosimos? Is the brother dead?” I replied that he was.
They came with me, looked at him stretched out on the ground, and then said to me, “Do not be sorrowful, Abba Zosimos; God is helping.” They called the brother, saying, “Brother John, arise; the elder has need of you.” The brother got up from the ground at once. They looked for the snake, caught it, and cut it in two before our eyes.
Then they said to me, “Abba Zosimos, go to Sinai; it is the will of God to entrust you with the church of Babylon.” We immediately left those parts, and a few days after we had come to Sinai, the Abbot of Sinai sent me and two others to Alexandria. The Pope of Alexandria, the most blessed Apollinarios, kept us there and made all three of us bishops: one for Heliopolis, one for Leontopolis, and me for Babylon (Cairo).