Palm-frond tunic by Paul of Thebes |
Paul hiked into the desert and found a nice cave with a clear spring and a palm tree. What more could anyone want? The palm offered fruit, and Paul used its fronds to weave a simple garment for himself. Eventually, a raven started bringing him half a loaf of bread every day. There must have been many generations of ravens stepping up to the task since he lasted out there for seventy years until his death at age 113.
When Paul died the next day, Anthony swapped the palm frond garment fora tunic that Saint Athanasius of Alexandria had given him. A couple of lions wandered over and dug Paul's grave, and then Anthony buried him and went away. Later, when Anthony was in a monastery and still later in Alexandria, he wore the palm frond garment on two occasions: the Feast of the Resurrection (Easter) and Pentecost.
Paul was a desert father with or without his palm fronds. Had he been naked, he would have been no less a hermit. But like John the Baptist with his camel hair coat and leather belt, Paul must have made a deep impression on anyone who spotted him, caveside in a stiff, scratchy, and ill-fitting pale green tunic, kneeling in prayer.
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