Venerable Sisoes the Great

Life and Ascetic Labors

Sources describe Sisoes as Egyptian by birth, who withdrew from the world while still young. He entered the desert of Sceté (Wadi El Natrun) and placed himself under the guidance of the abba Hor. In time he sought still deeper solitude, crossing the Nile to settle in a cave at Mount Colzim, the place where Saint Anthony the Great had lived and died.

There he remained for roughly sixty years in solitary ascetic struggle. The tradition records that he was extremely strict with himself yet merciful and compassionate toward others, welcoming all who came to him with love despite the severity of his own discipline. His ordinary work was the weaving of baskets, and he fasted frequently, at times going two days without food when absorbed in prayer.

His prayer was so fervent that it was said often to lead him into ecstatic states, and he kept his cell locked to guard his silence. The accounts attribute to him the gift of wonderworking, including the tradition that he restored a dead child to life through his prayers.

Teaching on Humility and Repentance

The sayings remembered of Sisoes center on humility, which he held to be the foundation of spiritual growth. When asked about attaining a constant awareness of God, he answered that this was no great thing, but that it was a great thing to regard oneself as inferior to everyone else.

On repentance, he taught that sincere repentance offered even within three days would be accepted by God. His own humility was most sharply expressed at the end of his life, when, though dying, he continued to seek repentance and declared that he did not think he had even begun to repent.

Repose

By tradition, at his death Sisoes' face shone with a supernatural light. Witnesses described him as reporting visions of Saint Anthony, the prophets, and the apostles before the angels came for his soul. Even in that hour he humbly asked for more time to repent. The accounts relate that his repose was accompanied by an extraordinary radiance and a fragrant odor. He died about the year 429.

Legacy

Sisoes is counted among the Desert Fathers, and his words are recorded in the Apophthegmata Patrum, the collected Sayings of the Desert Fathers. He is venerated in both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

A notable sixteenth-century icon depicts Sisoes standing at the tomb of Alexander the Great, an image read as a meditation on the vanity of earthly glory and the certainty of death (memento mori).