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(see also: Perfume). We must submit to the unknown destinies of God! I feel sorry for poor D. Patients of this kind must be kept away from relatives and from all those to whom they are close during their usual condition. When K. was in a similar state, his rage was most aroused against his wife and relatives, whom he loved especially dearly in his healthy state. 124. You should not grieve over the temptation that has occurred, but surrender to the will of God, which saves all those who are saved through various sorrows. D.'s allowed insanity was allowed to benefit her, so that her spirit would be saved. Leave it to God. Regarding everything that she said and did in her fit, you should not pay any attention, and you should not take any of her words and deeds to heart, because everything was done and done by her outside of reason. Therefore, it is precisely from such patients that all their relatives and those close to their hearts are separated, because a madman must be controlled by a cold mind and a cold heart, which persons who have a cordial disposition towards the patient cannot bear. When K. lived near us in a state of insanity and for some time his relatives were still allowed to come to him, after each visit he became worse, because they all wanted to reason with him and soften him. A doctor from a mental hospital who was here told me about the actions of my relatives: “Strange people! They want to reason with the patient, while his illness lies in the fact that he is devoid of common sense.” K. grabbed the knife, intending to stab his wife and himself with it, showing the greatest displeasure against her, while in his healthy state he had the greatest affection for her. This is how we should talk about patients of this kind. I advised P.A. not to see my sister until she recovered. – I have a letter from D. dated September 24, from which one can understand the cause of the illness that happened to her. It should also not be embarrassing that some were embarrassed by D.’s words and actions during her madness and found the reason for them according to their own conclusions, and not according to the experiments of science, which looks at this disease and its actions in a completely different way. If God grants D. to recover, then she will be on even closer terms with you. The fact that she reviled you in madness is a sure sign of her devotion to you. You should not grieve for those who were seduced by D.’s position and uttered some unfavorable word about you. This is out of ignorance and by the permission of God’s Providence, apparently, seeing that you need humility and purification through human dishonor. Have love and peace with everyone and with those who insult you, without which it is impossible to have spiritual success. Give thanks to God for everything that happened and surrender yourself to the will of God. 125. Remember in your prayers the sick D., who was betrayed by the destinies of God to Satan, so that her spirit will be saved. She contributed a lot to your peace of mind, and in the last case, to humility and prosperity. In spiritual terms, such punishment from God does not at all serve as a bad testimony about man: many great saints of God were subjected to such a tradition to Satan; the Monk Cassian describes the Monk Moses of Skete, with whom he talked about the reasoning that Moses was subjected to madness and demonic possession for some contradiction with his elder Macarius the Great of Egypt. In another sacred work of the 4th century, it is described that a certain Egyptian elder, due to his holy and pure life, was unusually abundant in the gift of miracles, his fame spread far and wide. Noticing the beginnings of pride in himself, the elder began to pray to God to send him a demon, which the Lord fulfilled. The elder spent eight whole months in a terrible situation, eating even his own eruptions. His worldly admirers, seeing him in such a position, as they should be, were tempted, they changed the good reputation about him for bad, and the elder, having in due time got rid of the demon, worked for the Lord in obscurity and peace and came to much greater prosperity. Being possessed is much less important than accepting any enemy thought that can destroy a soul forever. That D. is sincerely devoted to you is beyond any doubt. One should not pay any attention to her words and actions during madness, and one cannot in any way compare such patients with drunken people, from whom only prudence, and not reason, is taken away. A drunk person expresses his secret thoughts and feelings, and a crazy person or a raving person talks about game that is alien to him. If D. recovers, accept her without hesitation. By this, fulfill the commandment of God, and the people of your monastery, who were tempted by the words and actions of the sick woman, will understand that she reviled you beyond reason, and they will be healed and come to their senses. 126. May God comfort you in the sorrow that has befallen you. The hair of our head does not fall without His will! The world looks differently at adventures with people, and God looks differently. We see that Saint Niphon the Bishop suffered from insanity for four years, and Saints Isaac and Nikita (who was later a saint of Novgorod) suffered from insanity for a long time. A certain holy desert dweller, - Sulpicius, writer IV, mentions this event; century, in the story of Pustominian, who traveled through the monasteries of the East, - who performed many signs and noticed the pride that arose in himself from this, prayed to God that, in order to destroy the glory of man, he would be allowed mental harm and obvious demonic possession, which the Lord allowed to His humble servant. 168. You might be interested in: