Once when the Abbot Macarius was climbing up the mountain in Nitria, he bade his disciple go a little way before him. And as he went on ahead, the disciple met a priest of the idols, hurrying swiftly, and carrying a great log. And the disciple shouted at him, “Where are you going so fast, devil?” At which the irate priest beat him so soundly that he left him half dead: and again hurried on his way.
A little further on, the pagan priest met the blessed Macarius, who said to him, “May it be well with you, O toiler, may it be well!” The priest, in surprise, said, “What good do you see in me that you should wish me well?” To which the old man answered, “Because I see you working and hurrying about and you do not know why.” And the priest said, “I was moved by your greeting for I knew you to be a great servant of God. Some other miserable monk, I know not who, met me and threw insults at me, but I gave him back blows for words.” Then, seizing the feet of the blessed Macarius, he cried to him, “Unless you make me a monk, I shall not let you go.” So taking the road together they came to the place where the stricken brother lay, whom they both lifted up, and as he could not walk, they carried him in their arms to the church.
When the brethren saw the priest in the company of the blessed Macarius they were dumb-founded. In wonderment they made him a monk, and because of him many pagans were made Christian. And the abbot Macarius would say, “That prideful and uncharitable speech would turn good men to evil, but a kind and humble speech would turn evil men to better.”
