Didymus, and by Pierius, and by Stephen [containing] about ten thousand six hundred sayings; concerning this the great fathers who lived in the desert bear witness. It is also said that this man possessed the power of foretelling events, and living in his cell he was so great a comforter to the brethren who lived in the desert that no other man could be compared with him. Now the blessed Evagrius, who was clothed with the spirit, and was skilled in examining thoughts, used to say, “I never saw any man who had attained more closely unto impassibility than Ammonius.”
Once a certain need of those who were dwelling in the desert called the blessed man Ammonius, and Rufinus who was at that time the prefect [also] greatly persuaded him, and he went up to Constantinople. And with him there were also the holy bishops, and other monks who had come from various provinces [to be present] at the service of restoration of a certain martyrium which Rufinus had built. And Rufinus wished him to receive him after holy baptism at the service of restoration of the temple which he had built, and so the blessed man received him from the bishops who had baptized him. Thus, as was right, Rufinus paid to the blessed man Ammonius the honour which is due to a life of asceticism, and he used to listen to him in everything; and after a short time he died and was buried in the martyrium which is called the “martyrium of Rufinus,” and many helpful acts took place at his grave on behalf of those who [were worthy] of help.
Chapter XII. The History of the Blessed Benjamin
AND there was also in the mountain of Nitria a marvellous man whose name was Benjamin, who attained to a high state of perfection in the ascetic life, for he had fasted and toiled for eighty years. Now he was held to be worthy of the gift of the craft of the physician, and from every wound (or stripe) upon which he laid his hand, and which Christ blessed or gave [him the power to heal], straightway every pain departed. And this man, who was worthy of such a gift, collected water in his body for eight months before his death, and he was so much swollen that he might well have been called a second Job. And Dioscurus took us, that is to say, the blessed Origen and myself, and said unto us, “Come ye and see a new Job, who whilst [suffering from] such a severe disease of the body as this healeth others.” And Benjamin gave thanks concerning his affliction beyond measure, and glorified God continually, and his soul rejoiced and was glad in the hope which it laid up for the saints. Now when we had gone and seen the swelling of his body we found
