[3][4][5] According to Jerome, at one point during his life, Or was the father of "one thousand [cenobitic[5]] monks" in the Egyptian Desert.
[citation needed] Most of his recorded life comes from Jerome's account of him in the History of the Monks of Egypt.
[4] He lived for the majority of his life in austere asceticism as a solitary hermit in the deserts of Dalga.
[7] The Vitae Patrum says, "He had lived at first in a remote part of the desert, practicing many works of abstinence, before founding a monastery not far from the city.
"[1] Jerome says, "When formerly the blessed man lived in the desert of Dalga he used to eat roots and herbs, and to drink water when he was able, and he passed the whole time of his life in prayer and praise... he ate only once a week.
It was said that Or received a vision from an angel in a dream who told him to leave his desert seclusion in old age and to become a teacher of other monks in Nitria.
[7] His disciples attested to his virtue, saying that Or never lied, swore, hurt anyone, or spoke without necessity.
[4] "And in his prayer to God he took the same pains and strove that all the needs of the brethren might be supplied ..."[7] A certain Pistos said, "... great was Abba Or's humility.
"[7] According to Jerome, the brotherhood's numbers were so great that the resident monks devoted much of their time to making huts to accommodate all of them.
[7] The brotherhood allegedly tamed the arid region of Nitria, "... he planted so many wild trees at that spot that they formed a dense wood in the wilderness.
[1]“I know a certain man in this desert who for three years past has not eaten anything which is of this earth, but an angel comes to him once in three days, and brings him heavenly food and places it in his mouth, and this suffices him instead of meat and drink.
According to Palladius (Bishop of Helenopolis, born c. 360) in the Lausaic History:"Now in Mount Nitria (c. 390) there was a certain man whose name was Or, concerning whom men, especially all the brotherhood, testify to many of his triumphs, and also that marvelous and excellent woman Melania, the handmaid of Christ, who went into this mountain before I did.
And in his history they say this one thing: "He never told a lie in his life, and he never used oaths; he never uttered a curse, and beyond what was absolutely necessary he never spoke at all.
Selected excerpts are as follows:"And this blessed man had for a very long time lived a life of the utmost austerity at a remote place in the desert, but subsequently he took certain monasteries in the desert which was near Shaina, and gathered together a brotherhood, and he planted so many wild trees at that spot that they formed a dense wood in the wilderness.
"[7] "And when the man of God saw us, he rejoiced in us, and saluted us, and straightway he offered up a prayer; and he washed our feet with his own hands, and began to teach us, for he was exceedingly well acquainted with the Scriptures, even as a man who had received the gift from God, and he expounded to us many chapters of the Scriptures, and delivered to us the orthodox faith; moreover, he urged us to prayer, and to partake of the Mysteries.
"[7]The Prologue of Ohrid (an Eastern Orthodox synaxarium) by Nikolaj Velimirović commemorates Or on August 7 and includes a 26-line "Hymn of Praise".