illustration
A Man of Trust?
A monk told his monastic leader, Poeman, “I am troubled in spirit, and I want to leave this place.”
The old man said, “Why?”
He said, “I have heard unedifying stories about one of the brothers.
The old man said, “Are the stories true?”
He said, “Yes, Father. The brother who told me is a man of trust.
The old man answered, “The brother who told you is not a man of trust. For if he was so, he would not have told you these stories.
Sayings of the Desert Fathers, translated by Owen Chadwick, in Western Asceticism (Westminster, 1983)