Pimen the Great, also rendered Poemen, was an Egyptian desert father of the fourth and fifth centuries who became one of the most influential figures of early Christian monasticism. By tradition he was born around the year 340 in Egypt and entered the monastic life together with his two brothers, all three receiving tonsure in an Egyptian monastery. He is commemorated on August 27.
Pimen lived for a time at Scetis, one of the earliest and most renowned centers of desert monasticism. The synaxarion relates that he and his brothers practiced so strict a discipline that when their mother came to visit, they would not leave their cells to see her. Although capable of severe fasting—sometimes abstaining from food for a week or more—he counseled the brethren toward moderation, advising others to eat each day rather than imitate his rigor.
His name means "shepherd," and the tradition remembers him less for ascetic extremity than for his gift as a spiritual guide. His counsels, recorded by the monks who sought him out, concentrate on the practical struggle against the passions rather than on abstract or speculative questions. He taught self-examination in place of judging others, saying that those who reproach the sins of the brethren will themselves be reproached by God, and that wickedness is never overcome by wickedness but only by returning good for evil.
Pimen is said to have died around the year 450, by tradition at a great age. He was surnamed "the Great" in recognition of his humility, his uprightness, his ascetic labors, and his self-denying service to God and to those who came to him for direction.
