Discipleship Under Anthony the Great
When Paul presented himself to Anthony the Great, the elder discouraged him, doubting that a man of sixty could take up so radical a way of life and urging him instead to remain content as a pious laborer. Paul refused to leave, standing outside the cell until Anthony, by one account fearing he might die from exposure, took him in.
Anthony then subjected him to a deliberate course of testing. The vita describes hard labor, severe fasting, nightly vigils, constant singing of Psalms, and prostrations. The tradition relates that among his tasks Paul was set to weave rope from palm leaves, which Anthony would have him undo and redo to prove his obedience, and that at one meal Anthony gave him only a crust of bread to teach that a single crust suffices for a monk — a lesson Paul accepted without complaint. Satisfied with his dedication and humility, Anthony eventually permitted Paul a separate cell some distance from his own.
Miracles and Traditions
Paul became known for casting out demons, and the tradition holds that Anthony acknowledged Paul's gift as surpassing his own in this respect, saying that he himself had not received power over the prince of the demons but that Paul the Simple had this gift.
His life records that, after many years of ascetic struggle marked by numerous miracles, he departed to the Lord. The later monastic tradition cherished his memory: John Climacus, abbot of Sinai, praised him as a clear example, calling Paul the Simple the rule and type of blessed simplicity.
Sources and Veneration
Paul's life is preserved in the early monastic literature, notably the account associated with Palladius of Helenopolis (the Lausiac History) and that of Tyrannius Rufinus, sources that transmitted the lives of the Egyptian desert fathers to the wider Church.
He is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox tradition and is also commemorated in the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions. In Orthodox usage his feast is kept on March 7 and again on October 4.
