St. Paul the Hermit Fed by a Raven, Guercino (1591-1666)

“UPON this occasion Paul also withdrew himself to a remote country-house, designing to lie concealed there till the storm blew over: but his sister’s husband, who was acquainted with the place of his retreat, conceived a resolution to betray him to the persecutors in hopes of possessing himself of his estate. The Saint being informed of his wicked resolution, quitted his country-house, and fled into the wilderness, where he purposed to pass his time till the danger was over. Here, as he advanced still further and further into the remoter parts of the desert, he came at last to a rocky mountain, at the foot of which he found a large den or cave; and going in, he there discovered a kind of a spacious porch, open at the top to the heavens, but protected by an old palm-tree, which covered it with its spreading branches: near which there was a spring of clear water: and in a hollow part of the mountain, several cells or rooms, which, by the instruments he found there, appeared to have been formerly occupied by coiners. This place the Saint judged to be very proper for his abode; and embraced it as a dwelling assigned him by divine Providence for the remainder of his life. And thus he who thought only at first to hide himself for a while in the wilderness from the fury of the persecutors, was by the design of God conducted thither, to be an in habitant for life, and the first that should dedicate, and, as it were, consecrate, those deserts to divine love …”

— From The lives of the Fathers of the Eastern Deserts, or, The wonders of God in the wilderness 

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