Someone asked Anba Epiphanius what had changed in him after the abbacy. He replied:
The Lord gave me the spirit of Saint Macarius: I see people sin, and it is as if I did not see them.
Anba Epiphanius was like Saint Macarius
: a monk and a father of monks who made simplicity his daily compass, who refused to judge others, who always considered himself 'on the way,' showing how mercy was an expression of
théosis
, while living as an eschatological being in anticipation of the
parousía
of Christ and the life of the world to come.