Память преподобного Мавсимы Сирина

The Monk Mavsima was a Syrian, from the outskirts of the city of Cyrus 936; Having received a simple upbringing in the village, the saint showed success in all virtues. Having become famous in his private life, he received spiritual leadership in one village, close to the city. While performing priestly duties and tending the sheep of God's flock, he both said and did what the Divine Law commanded. He had only one robe; when it was torn from decay, the monk sewed more and more patches on it and thus covered his nakedness. Saint Mavsima cared so zealously for the charity of wanderers and the poor that the door of his home was always open to all who came. The saint, they say, had two vessels: one with grain seeds, and the other with oil, from which the saint distributed to all those in need. The merciful Lord, who blessed the widow of Sarepta, sent down the same blessing on the vessels of the Monk Mavsima: “He is good and merciful and abundant in mercy to all who call on Him” (Ps. 85:5); Having commanded that the flour in the tub and the oil in the jug, from which the widow fed the great prophet, not be exhausted, the Lord gave the wondrous Mavsima an abundance equal to his care for the poor. Having lived piously and godly to a very old age, the saint peacefully departed to the Lord 938. Syria is a country north of Palestine; in its northern part, adjacent to Asia Minor, was the province of Cyrestica, with the main city of Cyrus. Arriving, at the command of God, to the gates of Zarephath of Sidon, St. The prophet Elijah asked a widow who was collecting firewood to bring him a piece of bread. She replied that she only had a handful of flour left in a tub and a little oil in a jug. I’ll go, she said, and prepare this for myself and my son; Let's eat this and die. At that time, due to lack of rain, there was famine in the land of Israel. The holy prophet said to the widow: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: The jar of flour will not run out and the jar of oil will not run low until the day when the Lord gives rain on the land. The woman fed the man of God, and her supply of flour and oil did not run out during the entire famine (1 Kings 17:8–16). You might be interested in: