When the Desert Fathers Saw Snow

On the Origin of the Saying “Cold Feet, Warm Heart”

With their hands they cannot feel;

with their feet they cannot walk.

Psalm 115

It is said that one winter, through some failure of the natural order or perhaps through the sins of a young monk, snow fell upon the desert.

The brothers awoke and found the ground covered in a strange white substance which neither bit nor stung like sand but lay quietly, as though it had nothing to prove.

One brother ran to Abba Poemen and said, “Abba, the desert has become sick.”

Poemen went outside, stood for a long time, and said, “No. It is we who are sick. The desert is only revealing it.”

Another brother said, “Abba, it is cold.”

Poemen replied, “Yes.”

He then returned to his cell, which the brothers later recorded as a complete teaching.

A younger monk, who had not yet learned discretion, removed his sandals and stepped into the snow.

He immediately cried out, “Abba, it burns!”

Abba Moses, who was passing by, said, “Everything burns when you are not used to the truth.”

The young monk began hopping on one foot and said, “What should I do?”

Moses said, “Stand still.”

The brother tried this for several seconds.

Then he said, “Abba, it still burns.”

Moses said, “Then learn to endure.”

The brother said, “For how long?”

Moses said, “Until your heart becomes warmer than your feet are cold.”

The brother did not understand this, but he wrote it down anyway.

Another monk, wishing to surpass the others, decided he would remain barefoot in the snow until he achieved dispassion.

After a short time, he achieved running.

He ran back into his cell and closed the door.

Later, when asked what he had learned, he said, “Humility.”

Abba Arsenius was also asked about the snow.

A brother said, “Father, what is the meaning of this?”

Arsenius said, “God has taken the desert and made it honest.”

The brother said, “What should I do?”

Arsenius said, “Keep your feet cold and your heart warm.”

The brother said, “How do I do this?”

Arsenius said, “Do not protect yourself from small discomforts, and you will be protected from great ones.”

Another brother, who was elderly and whose circulation was poor, said, “Abba, my feet are always cold.”

Arsenius replied, “Then you have been given a great help.”

Abba Macarius, seeing the brothers troubled, gathered some snow in his hands and held it.

A disciple said, “Abba, why do you hold it?”

Macarius said, “To see how long it takes to disappear.”

The disciple said, “Why?”

Macarius said, “So I will not trust what vanishes.”

But later, it was said that Macarius stood at the window watching the snow long after it had ceased to fall.

One brother asked him, “Abba, why do you still look?”

Macarius said, “Because it did not ask to be seen.”

Years later, the brothers would repeat the saying without remembering where it came from.

Cold feet, warm heart.

Some thought it meant endurance.

Some thought it meant love.

Some thought it meant foolishness.

But the elders knew.

The feet grow cold when a man stops arranging the world for his own comfort.

The heart grows warm when he stops protecting himself from God.