Sabas ended up as “one of the most renowned patriarchs of the monks of Palestine,” living for over 90 years–most of them spent avoiding apples. He started, however, as a foster child being shipped among aunts and uncles who gravely abused him but didn’t discard Sabas because he was an inheritor of a fortune. And because he was himself worth a considerable amount of money, Sabas found his uncles suing each other for the right to control his assets and mistreat his person.

This upbringing fully convinced the young Sabas of the disgusting nature of people who grasp for money, losing all sense of humanity, warmth, and familial love. In response to that disgust, Sabas–still a tender youth–“resolved to renounce forever” earthly riches and seek the safe harbor of a monastery. Once Sabas was safely away from his family, his uncles found common cause in trying to get the boy to change his mind, make his wealth once more accessible, and be restored to quote-unquote family life. The boy saw through that quickly enough and continued his life at the monastery.

These abuses and the need for protecting himself had left their indelible mark on Sabas, so much so that the following scene transpired within the confines of his life as an aspiring monk:

One day, whilst he (Sabas) was a work in the garden, he saw a tree loaded with fair and beautiful apples, and gathered one with an intention to eat it. But reflecting that this was a temptation of the devil [recalling the serpent in the Garden of Eden], he threw the apple on the ground and trod upon it. Moreover, to punish himself, and more perfectly to overcome the enemy, he made a vow never to eat any apples as long as he lived.

Butler goes on to discuss that this victory (over apples? over the devil?) became emblematic of the commitment, self-mortification, and humble determination of the “youngest in the house” to do whatever it took to survive temptation and to lead a righteous life.

But consider this scenario above: the boy is punishing himself because–for a fleeting moment–he wanted to eat an apple! His mistreatment as a foster child of nasty, greedy relatives had already been so internalized by young Sabas that he somehow equated the idea that God, the Ultimate Power Figure, would be most pleased with Sabas if Sabas worked tirelessly without so much as the joy of an apple off the tree, and if Sabas policed his own wishes to the point of forsaking joy in the name of servitude and self-denial.

<sigh>