“Know, my brothers, that the penance I endure is barely equal to the temptations which are sent me, the number and force of which astound me.  A man, viewed externally, is but small, and, from the height of the pillar to which God has called me, I see human beings moving about like ants.  But, considered internally, man is immense; he is as large as the world, for he contains it.  All that is spread before me—­these monasteries, these inns, the boats on the river, the villages, and what I see in the distance of fields, canals, sand, and mountains—­is nothing in respect to what is in me.  I carry in my heart countless cities and illimitable deserts.  And evil—­evil and death—­spread over this immensity, cover them all, as night covers the earth.  I am, in myself alone, a universe of evil thoughts.”

He spoke thus because the desire for woman was in him.

The seventh month, there came from Alexandria, Bubastis and Sais, women who had long been barren, hoping to obtain children by the intercession of the holy man and the virtues of his pillar.  They rubbed their sterile bodies against the stone.  There followed a procession, as far as the eye could reach, of chariots, palanquins, and litters, which stopped and pushed and jostled below the man of God.  From them came sick people terrible to see.  Mothers brought to Paphnutius young boys whose limbs were twisted, their eyes starting, their mouth foaming, their voices hoarse.  He laid his hands upon them.  Blind men approached, groping with their hands, and raising towards him a face pierced with two bleeding holes.  Paralytics displayed before him the heavy immobility, the deadly emaciation, and the hideous contractions of their limbs; lame men showed him their club feet; women with cancer, holding their bosoms with both hands, uncovered before him their breasts devoured by the invisible vulture.  Dropsical women, swollen like wine skins were placed on the ground before him.  He blessed them.  Nubians, afflicted with elephantiasis, advanced with heavy steps and looked at him with streaming eyes and expressionless countenances.  He made the sign of the cross over them.  A young girl of Aphroditopolis was brought to him on a litter; after having vomited blood, she had slept for three days.  She looked like a waxen image, and her parents, who thought she was dead, had placed a palm leaf on her breast.  Paphnutius having prayed to God, the young girl raised her head and opened her eyes.

As the people reported everywhere the miracles which the saint had performed, unfortunate persons afflicted with that disease which the Greeks call “the divine malady,” came from all parts of Egypt in incalculable legions.  As soon as they saw the pillar, they were seized with convulsions, rolled on the ground, writhed, and twisted themselves into a ball.  And—­though it is hardly to be believed—­the persons present were in their turn seized with a violent delirium, and imitated the contortions of the epileptics.  Monks and pilgrims, men and women, wallowed and struggled pell-mell, their limbs twisted, foaming at the mouth, eating handfuls of earth and prophesying.  And Paphnutius at the top of his pillar felt a thrill of horror pass through him, and cried to God—­