The Monk Horus

Commemorated on August 7

      The Monk Horus (IV Century) in his youthful years withdrew into the Thebaid wilderness and asceticised in complete solitude for many years, leading the life of a strict hermit. Having gotten up in years, the Monk Horus was granted to see an Angel, which announced, that the Lord had destined him for the salvation of the many people, who would seek his guidance.
      After this, the monk began to accept everyone who came to him for advice and help. The Lord granted him a gift of reading the Holy Scripture, despite the fact that the saint since childhood had not been taught reading and writing. Gradually around the Monk Horus there formed a large monastery, in which the holy elder was the spiritual guide. The monk never entered the refectory for the tasting of food, nor ate of it on the day of partaking the Holy Mysteries. He often taught the brethren by means of stories about the temptations, which might beset a monk living in solitude. But he always told it such that everyone would know literally that it was in regard to wilderness-dwellers known to him. The monk concealed his own ascetic exploits. One time, back when the saint still lived with only one disciple, that one brought to his attention the approach of Holy Pascha. The Monk Horus immediately stood up at prayer, and raising his hands, he stood thus for 3 days under the open sky, in contemplation of God. He thereupon explained to his disciple, that for the monk every feastday, and especially Pascha, consists in this – to remove oneself from everything mundane,, and to come nigh in heart and thought to God.
      All the thoughts and doings of his disciples was revealed to the Monk Horus, and no one dared to lie to him. Having survived well into old age, the Monk Horus founded several monasteries, comprising altogether as many as 1,000 monastics. He died at age 90 in about the year 390.