Isaacus (28). Several eminent solitaries of the Egyptian deserts in
the 4th cent. bore this name. The references are scattered up and down in the
Vitae Patrum, and it is not always clear which Isaac is intended. The
following seem to be distinct persons.
(i) Abbat Isaacus, presbyter of the anchorites in the Scetic desert (ἡ
Σκῆτις, Copt. Schiêt), S.W. of Lake Mareotis. At 7 years of age he withdrew
from the world, 358, and attached himself
to Macarius of Alexandria, the disciple of St. Anthony. Palladius relates of abbat Isaac that he knew the Scriptures by heart, lived in utter purity, and could handle deadly serpents (κεράσται) without harm. He lived in solitude for 50 years, his followers numbering 3150. Certain anecdotes in the Apophthegmata Patrum appear to belong to him. "Abbat Isaac was wont to say to the brethren, Our fathers and abbat Pambo wore old bepatched raiment and palm husks (σεβένια); nowadays ye wear costly clothing. Hence! It was ye who desolated the district." (Scetis was overrun, c. 395, by the Mazices, a horde of merciless savages.)
Cassianus, who was in Scetis 398, conversed with Isaacus, to whom he assigns the 9th and 10th of his Conferences (Collationes), which treat of prayer. In the former Isaacus distinguishes four kinds of prayer, according to I. Tim. ii. 1 (Collat. 9, cc. 9–14). Then he expounds at length the Lord's Prayer (cc. 18–23). The highest type, however, is prayer "unuttered, unexpressed," like that of Christ on the mountain or in the garden (c. 25, de qualitate sublimioris orationis). In c. 36 he advises short and frequent petitions ("frequenter quidem sed breviter"), lest, while we linger, the foe suggest some evil thought.
The 10th Conference begins by relating how the patriarch Theophilus of
Alexandria scandalized the Scetic anchorites by his Paschal Letter denouncing Anthropomorphism, and how the aged abbat Serapion, though convinced of his error, could not render thanks with the rest, but fell a-weeping and crying, "They have taken my God from me!" Cassianus and the other witnesses asked Isaacus to account for the old man's heresy. Isaacus made it a survival of heathen ideas of Deity in a simple and unlettered mind (cc. 1–5). Isaacus proceeds to shew how to attain to perfect and unceasing prayer. That will be realized when all our love and desire, every aim, effort, thought, all that we contemplate, speak of, hope for, is God; when we are united with Him by an enduring and indissoluble affection. C. 10 gives as a prayer suited to all emergencies the verse Ps. lxx. 1. Ill prays he who only prays when upon his knees. He prays never, who even upon his knees is distracted by wandering thoughts. Such as we would be found when praying, such should we be before we pray.
When 50 years old Isaacus was expelled from his desert by Theophilus of Alexandria, albeit that prelate had made bishops of seven or eight of his anchorites. Isaacus turned for succour to St. Chrysostom and Olympias. He was still living in 408.
Sources.—Pallad. Dialog. de Vita Chrysost. in Patr. Gk. xlvii. 59, 60; Cassiani Massil. Collat. 9, 10, in Migne, xlix. 770 sqq.; Apophthegmata Patr. ib. lxv. 223; a number of anecdotes headed περὶ τοῦ Ἀββᾶ Ἰσὰακ τοῦ πρεσβυτέρου τῶν Κελλίων, but referring to several persons, cf. de Vit. Patr. lib. iii. col. 752, in Migne, lxxiii.; Tillem. Mém. viii. 650, 617, 648, and 813, n. vi.; Ceillier, viii. 174–177.
(ii) Isaacus, presbyter and abbat of the Nitrian desert, sometimes called
Presbyter of the Cells (Κελλία N. of Nitria). The chief