There was another holy man called Helenus who had been serving the Lord since boyhood. Schooled in the ways of chastity and moderation in all things, he had become a very praiseworthy person. While he was still a boy in the monastery, if he needed to ask a neighbor for fire, he would carry burning coals away in pieces of cloth without their getting burnt. All the brothers admired him and tried to follow the example of his attitude of mind, and the good points of his way of life.
Once when he was alone in the desert he felt a sudden craving for honey. Looking around, he saw a honeycomb fixed to a rock and immediately recognized it as a deception from the devil. Angrily he said within himself: “Depart from me you deceiver with your illicit desires. For it is written ‘Walk in the spirit and do not fulfill the desires of the flesh'” (Galatians, 5.16). And from then on he left his own home and went to the desert, where he began to discipline himself with fasting in order to punish his fleshly desires. In the third week of his fast he saw several apples scattered about in the desert, but knowing the wiles of the enemy he said: “I won’t eat them, I won’t even touch them, lest I cause offense to my brother, that is, my soul. For it is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God'” (Deut. 8.3 & Matt. 4.4).
After he had fasted another week he had been asleep for a little while when an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a vision and said: “Get up, and what you find put ready for you, eat without fear.” He got up and found a gently flowing stream of water, with its banks teeming all around with tender and sweet-smelling fruits. He went up to them and picked and ate, and drank from the stream. He realized that never in his whole life had he tasted anything quite so sweet and delicious. In this same place he found a cave where he stayed for quite some time. And whenever his body needed refreshment he prayed to the Lord and by the grace of God he lacked nothing.
