السيرة
## In the Monastery of al-Ashmunin
The heart of the young Abu Nofer was set ablaze with the love of God, and he longed for a quiet life of devotion. So he joined the monastery of Hermopolis (al-Ashmunin, in the province of Minya), where about a hundred monks lived a communal life, worshipping in silence while attending to manual labor as an inseparable part of their devotion.
Abu Nofer loved the monastic fathers and conducted himself among them in a spirit of piety and obedience, yet his soul yearned for the solitary life of the wilderness, after the example of Saint John the Baptist and Elijah the Prophet.
## His Departure into the Wilderness
Only a few years had passed before he felt his heart burning for the solitary life. One night he slipped away in silence, unnoticed by anyone, for he knew how much the monks loved him and how they wished that he would never leave them. He carried a single loaf of bread and a few vegetables, enough for four days, and set out southward into the mountains that separate Lower Upper Egypt from the oases. Along the way he prayed, seeking the counsel of God.
As he pressed deeper into the desert, he suddenly saw a radiant light, and he beheld an angel who said to him: "I am your guardian angel; I have not left you since you were in the cradle. Do not be anxious, but always press forward, and you will reach the place that God has prepared for you."
The angel accompanied him until they reached a cave, and then he vanished. Abu Nofer knocked at the door, saying: "Bless me?" There appeared to him a tall and awe-inspiring man, and the young Abu Nofer knelt before him and kissed his feet; but the solitary elder raised him up by the hand and said: "O Abu Nofer, you are my brother in the Lord. Come in and rest a few days, then continue on the journey to which God has called you."
After a few days, the elder walked with him for four days until they reached a cave beside which stood a palm tree. The elder dwelt there with him for a month, training him in the solitary life, intending to leave him and return to him once each year, until the elder reposed during one of his visits to him.
## With Saint Paphnutius
It is said that the solitary Paphnutius longed to go deep into the desert, in the hope of meeting one of the solitaries or the wandering ascetics. So he took a little provision and set out into the desert for seventeen days. Suddenly he saw Saint Abu Nofer the wanderer, who had been in the wilderness between sixty and seventy years. His hair was long and unkempt, and his beard was very long, hanging down over his body; he was girded with a belt of broad leaves. When Saint Paphnutius saw him he was greatly afraid, and he climbed to the top of a nearby hill, his eyes fixed upon this stranger. But the elder, who was exhausted of strength, cried out, saying: "Come down, O holy monk; I dwell in this wasteland for the love of God." So the two met and exchanged the kiss of peace.
Their conversation together was spiritual and delightful. In it Abu Nofer explained that he had lived in the desert for sixty years, wandering through the wasteland and feeding on the herbs of the wilderness and the dates of the palm tree, without ever seeing a human being; and that at the beginning he had endured much hunger and thirst, heat and cold, but God had looked upon his weakness and sustained him. He also told him that many of those who dwell in the wastelands enjoy glorious gifts, so much so that some among them are carried up to heaven to behold the saints in their glory and to rejoice with a joy unknown on earth.
Saint Paphnutius forgot all his weariness as he listened to the words of the holy wanderer, and the two walked to the cave, reaching it at sunset; and they found upon the rock a loaf of bread and a little water.
## His Repose
It seems that Saint Paphnutius the solitary did not remain long with the holy wanderer, for Abu Nofer fell ill, and Paphnutius was troubled; but the saint kept reassuring him, charging him to return to Egypt after shrouding him. And indeed our saint surrendered his pure spirit. Saint Paphnutius bore witness that he saw angels and heard their praises at his repose. He shrouded him, desiring to complete the rest of the days of his sojourning in the cave; but he saw that the palm tree had withered and the spring had dried up, so he wept bitterly and returned to practice the solitary life in his own monastery