On the commemoration at the proskomedia

In the days of Saint Basil the Great there lived a priest full of grace who, being an ordinary man, fell into debt through various circumstances. The debt grew from day to day, and the creditors stood at the priest's door every day. The troubled priest was obliged to turn to a merchant of his acquaintance who, having heard his request, gave him five hundred gold coins. With this money the priest paid all his debts, and in return promised the merchant that he would commemorate him and all his kinsfolk at the proskomedia all his life long. The merchant reckoned that the priest was young and would live long, and that commemoration at the liturgy over a long time was to his advantage and satisfied him entirely.

Having settled his debts, the priest was able after this to serve only one Divine Liturgy, at which he did indeed commemorate his benefactor, and shortly afterward he fell ill, and after the illness he died.

When he learned of his death, the merchant was grieved. He was sorry for the money he had lost, since only one liturgy had been served by the priest. This the merchant had not expected; his reckoning had been altogether otherwise, and for its sake he had given the five hundred gold coins to the man now departed. The merchant began to trouble the mother of the dead man. He demanded his money back, for he held that the agreement with the priest had been broken.

The mother answered that she had no money: what she had, had gone for the burial. But the merchant demanded the money insistently and threatened the woman with the court. The troubled woman turned to Saint Basil the Great and told him what had happened. Having heard all, the saint said to her: “Tomorrow I shall serve the Divine Liturgy; come to me in the church together with the merchant, and bring a balance with you. On one scale we shall lay one particle taken out of the prosphora, with which the merchant and his kinsfolk will be commemorated. And as much as this one particle of the prosphora shall weigh, so much gold let the merchant lay on the other scale, and with this let him be paid for that one liturgy which the departed priest served.”

The woman went to the merchant and told him what Saint Basil the Great had said. The merchant rejoiced, and in the morning went to the church with the gold and the balance.

Saint Basil the Great, at the proskomedia, took out of the prosphora one particle for the health and salvation of the servants of the Lord, laid it on one pan of the balance, and bade the merchant lay gold on the other pan; and the more coins the merchant laid on the pan, the heavier grew that one small particle of the prosphora.

Seeing this greatest and divine wonder, the merchant was afraid, repented of what he had done, and asked forgiveness of Saint Basil the Great and of the priest's mother, and after that he demanded his money no more.