“There are some wild swallows that build their nests on the very high external walls of the monasteries. However they are so wild and when they see a human being they fly like airplanes and leave. And yet when the Elder was once praying on the balcony a swallow approached and sat on his shoulders!… A certain brother mentioned the following to me: when a person with the cooperation of grace rediscovers the state of Adam before the fall, the animals recognize the state and run to him like they used to do with Adam. This has happened to many saints. It seems that the Elders pure prayer greatly pacified this wild bird.”
Elder Arsenios
~Elder Arsenios the Cave-dweller