Повесть о затворнике, которому Бог открыл об участи принимающих милостыню

A certain recluse was very famous in his monastery, since he led a holy life from his youth. Having renounced all worldly pleasures, he imprisoned himself in a cramped cell and served God, mortifying his body with fasting and all-night vigil, praying to the Lord of everything for himself and for the whole world, and exercising his mind in the thoughts of God. At certain times he accepted a small amount of food from the hands of the monastery servant; and from what God sent through the Christians to the monastic brethren - gold, silver, food and wine - he never took anything for himself. He once had such a vision about those accepting alms: one day the head of the city came to that monastery to give alms, and gave everyone a piece of silver 1767. He also approaches the recluse, carrying the gold box 1768 with him, and begs him to take it; Ashamed of this honest husband, the elder took the gold coin and put it in his pocket. In the evening, having completed his usual rule, the elder lay down on the matting, intending to get some sleep. And so it seemed to him that he was with the rest of the brethren of that monastery in a spacious field; the whole field was filled with thorns, and a certain young man (it was the Angel of the Lord) said to the monks of that monastery: This young man came up to him (the recluse) and said to him: - Gird yourself and reap thorns. When the hermit began to refuse, the Angel said: “You shouldn’t have any excuses, because yesterday you hired yourself with other monks who took a piece of silver from that Christ-lover; you took the gold, and therefore you must work more than others, reaping the thorns, as if you accepted a large payment. The thorns that you see are the deeds of the man from whom you accepted alms yesterday; So, go ahead and reap with the others. Waking up and reflecting on what he had seen, the recluse became very sad and immediately sent for the man who had given him alms and begged him to take his gold coin. The lover of Christ did not want to take her back and said to the recluse: “Keep it with you, father, or give it to whomever you want.” “I don’t want to reap the thorns of other people’s sins, without being able to get rid of my own sinful thorns.” Then he threw that gold coin out of his cell and closed the window. Having learned the reason for the elder’s rejection of his alms, the husband began to take care of correcting his life and began to give a lot of alms to the poor and needy, remembering that, according to Scripture, sins are cleansed by alms and faith 1770. A silver coin is a silver coin that had different values ​​at different times. Silver from the time of the Savior was equal to approximately 80 kopecks. Zlatnitsa is generally a gold coin of uncertain value. The bed of ancient hermits and ascetics was usually matting, made most often from reeds. OK. 11:41; Comrade 12:9; Sir.3:30. You might be interested in: