Повесть о Таксиоте воине

In Carthage 2242 there lived one man named Taxiot, a warrior who spent his life in great sins. One day, the city of Carthage was struck by a contagious disease from which many people died; Taxiot came into fear, turned to God and repented of his sins. Leaving the city, he and his wife retired to one village, where they stayed, spending time in contemplation of God. Some time later, through the action of the devil, he fell into the sin of adultery with the wife of a farmer who lived in his neighborhood; but after several days, after committing that sin, he was bitten by a snake and died. At a distance of one field 2243 from that place there was a monastery; Taxiot's wife went to this monastery and begged the monks to come and take the body of the deceased and bury him in the church: and they buried him at the third hour of the day. When the ninth hour arrived, a loud cry was heard from the grave: “Have mercy, have mercy on me!” Approaching the grave and hearing the cry of the buried man, the monks immediately dug it up and found Taxiot alive; in horror they were surprised and asked him, wanting to know what happened to him and how he came to life? But he, from strong crying and sobbing, could not tell them anything and only asked to be taken to Bishop Tarasius; and he was taken to him. The bishop begged him for three days to tell him what he saw there, but only on the fourth day did the buried man begin to talk. With great tears he said the following: – When I was dying, I saw some Ethiopians standing in front of me; their appearance was very terrible, and my soul was confused. Then I saw two very handsome young men; my soul rushed to them, and immediately, as if flying from the earth, we began to rise to heaven, encountering on the way ordeals 2244 that hold the soul of every person and each tormenting it for a special sin: one about lies, another about envy, the third about pride; so every sin in the air has its testers. And then I saw in the ark, held by the Angels, all my good deeds, which the Angels compared with my evil deeds. So we got past these ordeals. When we, approaching the gates of heaven, came to the ordeal of fornication, the guards detained me there and began to show me all my fornicational carnal deeds that I had committed from my childhood to death, and the Angels leading me said to me: “All the bodily sins that you committed while in the city, God forgave you, since you repented of them.” But the nasty spirits said to me: “But when you left the city, you committed fornication with your farmer’s wife in the field.” Hearing this, the Angels did not find a good deed that could be opposed to that sin and, leaving me, they left. Then the evil spirits took me, began to beat me and then took me down; the earth parted, and I, being led through narrow entrances through cramped and stinking wells, descended to the very depths of the dungeons of hell, where the souls of sinners are imprisoned in eternal darkness, where there is no life for people, but only eternal torment, inconsolable crying and unspeakable gnashing of teeth. There is always a desperate cry: “Woe, woe to us! Alas, alas! And it is impossible to convey all the suffering there, it is impossible to retell all the torments and illnesses that I saw. They groan from the depths of their souls, and no one has mercy on them; they cry, and there is no comforter; they pray, and there is no one who listens to them and delivers them. And I was imprisoned in those dark places, full of terrible sorrow, and I cried and sobbed bitterly from the third hour to the ninth. Then I saw a small light and two Angels who came there; I diligently began to beg them to take me out of that disastrous place to repent before God. “You pray in vain: no one will come from here until the time of general resurrection comes.” But since I continued to strenuously ask and beg them and promised to repent of my sins, one Angel said to the other: – Do you vouch for him that he will repent, and with all his heart, as promised? Then he gave him his hand. Then they brought me out from there to the ground and brought me to the tomb where my body lay, and they said to me: – Enter into what you were separated from. And so I saw that my soul glowed like beads, and my dead body was black like dirt and emitted a stench, and therefore I did not want to enter it. The angels told me: “It is impossible for you to repent without the body with which you committed sins.” But I begged them not to enter the body. “Enter,” said the Angels, “otherwise we will take you back to where we took you from.” Then I entered, came to life and began to shout: “Have mercy on me!” Saint Tarasius told him then: He did not want to eat, but walking from church to church, he fell on his face and with tears and deep sighs confessed his sins and said to everyone: – Woe to sinners: eternal torment awaits them; woe to those who do not repent while they have time; woe to those who desecrate their bodies! After his resurrection, Taxiot lived for forty days and cleansed himself by repentance; in three days he foresaw his death and went to the Merciful and Humane God, who brings down to hell and gives salvation to everyone, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Carthage is a famous Phoenician colony in ancient times, located in northern Africa. Ancient Carthage reached its peak in the 2nd century. BC, but on the ruins of ancient Carthage, under the first Roman emperors, a new Carthage arose, which existed for quite a long time. Field is a measure of length equal to 1000 steps. About the ordeals, see above in the life of St. Basil the New on March 26 You might be interested in: