SO GOOD QUOTES

One of those abbesses was Sarah, who lived in Pelusium, and her sayings were mentioned in the “Apothegmata”,7 from which I quote the following texts: 

• It was said about Abbess Sarah that for thirteen years she was fiercely attacked by the demon of lust; and she never prayed deeply that the battle should cease, but all that she used to ask of God was, “O God, grant me strength!” 

• Once the same spirit of lust attacked her more insistently, reminding her of the vanities of the world. But she gave herself up to the fear of God and maintained the rigor of her fasting and went up to the roof to pray. Then the spirit of lust appeared to her in a bodily form and said to her, “Sarah, you have overcome me.” She replied, “It is not I who have overcome you, but my Lord, Christ!”

EARLY MONASTICISM AMONG WOMEN IN THE COPTIC CHURCH
Father Tadros Y. Malaty

Coptic Church Review
Vol. 1 Num. 4