THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ABBA POEMEN, THE SOLITARY
Abba Agathonicos, higoumen of the community of our holy father Sabas at Castellium, said: One day I went down to Rouba to visit Abba Poemén the grazer. When I found him, I told him the thoughts which troubled me.
“When night fell, he left me in a cave. It was winter, and that night it got very cold indeed; I was freezing. When the elder came at dawn, he said to me, ‘What is the matter, child?’ I said, ‘Forgive me, father; I had a very bad night because of the cold.’ He said to me, ‘Indeed, child? I did not feel the cold.’ This amazed me, for he was naked. I asked him out of his charity to tell me how he did not feel the cold. He said, ‘A lion came down and lay beside me; he kept me warm. But I tell you, brother: I shall be devoured by wild beasts.’
I asked him why, and he told me, ‘Because when I was in our homeland—we were both from Galatia—I was a shepherd. I was hostile to a stranger who came by, and my dogs devoured him. I could have saved him, but I did not. I left him to his fate, and the dogs killed him. I know that I too must die in that way.’
Three years later, that elder was devoured by wild beasts, as he himself had foretold.