While he was sitting one day in Scetis, Abba Zacharias had a vision. He went to tell his father, Carion, about it. The old man, who was an ascetic, did not understand this matter. He got up and beat him soundly, saying that it came from the demons. But Zacharias went on thinking about it, and he went by night to Abba Poemen, to tell the matter to him and how his heart burned within him. Then the old man, seeing that this came from God, said to him, ‘Go to such and such an old man and whatever he tells you to do, do it.’ Zacharias went to the old man and even before he could ask anything, he forestalled him, telling him everything that had happened and saying that this vision came from God. ‘But go,’ he said, ‘and submit yourself to your father.’
