Saint Pambo

Pambo of Nitria (died c. 390) was a Coptic Desert Father of the fourth century and disciple of Anthony the Great. His feast day is July 18 among the Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and Catholic churches. Pambo was a disciple of Anthony the Great. He lived in the Nitrian Desert where he founded many monasteries. He was renowned for his wisdom, and was consulted by many, including Athanasius, Melania the Elder, and Ammonas of Egypt. He was the spiritual father of several other canonized saints, including Pishoy and John the Dwarf. Much of the biographical information about Pambo is related through Palladius' Lausiac History and briefer mentions by Jerome and Tyrannius Rufinus. Little is known of Pambo's life prior to his becoming a monk and disciple of Anthony. His most striking penance was silence. This began early in his monastic life after receiving the opening of Psalm 39 from his spiritual father: "I said, I will watch my ways so as to be unable to sin with my tongue.'" He did not say a word to his master for six months but worked to internalize this passage, and he humbly told other monks that he had scarcely internalized it even eighteen years later. He is known for having founded monasteries in the Nitrian Desert. Pambo and his monastery received many gifts of support from Melania the Elder and had a close relationship with her. Pambo was either banished or simply went on pilgrimage to Palestine with Isidore, Pisimius, Adelphius, Paphnutius and a dozen other clergy, and Melania came with them. It is also related that he did not accept all of the gifts graciously, instead seeing an opportunity to invert her "haughty attitude about money." A particular account relates Melania gifting Pambo several hundred pounds of silver, which he promptly distributed to poor monasteries without acknowledging her. During the early Christian debates over Arianism, Athanasius brought Pambo from Nitria to support him in the Alexandrian courts.