Neither fornicators, nor adulterers... shall inherit the kingdom of God
In the days of the Alexandrian patriarch John the Merciful there came to Alexandria from the monastery of Abba Seridos a monk named Vitalis. He was sixty years old, but he chose for himself such a manner of life that in the eyes of men he seemed a seducer and a great sinner, though before the Lord he was a virtuous and righteous man.
Coming to Alexandria, he wrote down the names of the harlots of that place and prayed the Lord to heal them of this grievous and deadly sickness. From morning until evening he worked as a hired labourer, and of his daily wage, which came to twelve copper coins, he spent only one upon food; then he would go to the house of harlots, give the remaining coins to one of them and ask her:
— For God's sake I entreat thee, for this payment keep this night in purity and let no one come near thee!
The harlot would lie down to sleep, while the venerable Vitalis spent the whole night in vigil and in the singing of psalms. And in the morning he would charge the harlot to tell no one anything. Thus the venerable Vitalis spent every day in labour and in prayer for the harlots. Often the harlots, reproved and put to shame by the conduct of this virtuous man, would bend their knees together with him and begin to pray. Vitalis called them to repentance, told them what a dreadful punishment awaits harlots and what a great and glorious one awaits the penitent. After his preaching many of them went to a monastery. Some made families, and others, leaving this sinful trade, began to earn their bread by honest labour.
Taisia was a Christian. She was early left an orphan and resolved to give her life to good works: she built a lodging for travellers and helped wayfarers. But in time she grew poor, and sinful people corrupted her, and she began a dissolute life.
The holy fathers in the monastery heard of her and were greatly grieved; they called John to them and told him everything.
— Bring Taisia to repentance, — they said to him, — and we shall pray for her here!
John went to the city. He came to the doors of Taisia's lodging and opened them. The gatekeeper announced to his mistress the coming of the monk; he was sure that Taisia would order him driven away, but the woman said:
— The monks who live by the Black Sea sometimes find precious stones. Well then, bring him to me.
John came in to Taisia, looked into her eyes, sighed heavily and wept bitterly.
— Why dost thou weep? — Taisia asked the monk.
John answered: — What did not please thee in our Lord Jesus Christ, the immortal Bridegroom, that thou hast scorned His dwelling and set thyself to lawless deeds?
The monk's words pierced like a fiery sword into Taisia's frozen heart and filled it with the fire of repentance. Taisia understood that she was drowning in the marsh of dissolute living, and she came to hate her former life.
— Is there repentance for sinners? — she asked.
— There is, — answered the monk, — and the Saviour has long awaited thee. I shall be surety for thee before the Lord, if thou showest true repentance and provest it by thy deeds. Our Lord will love thee again, will receive thee into His Kingdom, and the angels will keep festival with us over thy return.
— Let the will of God be done! — said Taisia, — take me away from here and lead me where it will be better for me to repent.
Taisia left house and servants without a word and followed the monk.
John was astonished at her sudden transfiguration and glorified God.
The monk went into the desert, and Taisia followed at a distance behind him, with bowed head. When it grew dark, John made a small pillow by the sand, blessed Taisia that she should sleep, and himself went a little way off, fulfilled his usual rule and also slept upon the ground.
At midnight the monk awoke and saw a light coming down from heaven, which in the form of a pillar descended upon the sleeping Taisia. Then he saw angels of the Lord who with singing were bearing Taisia's soul up to heaven. When the vision had ended, John came to Taisia and saw that she was dead. With fear and reverence he fell down before the Lord, and from heaven he heard a voice: “Her repentance, accomplished in one hour, was more pleasing to the Lord than that of those who long bewail their sins.”
Two brothers in the spirit went out from the monastery to sell their handiwork. When they were parted for a time, one of them, by the evil working of the devil, fell into fornication. When they met again and the younger proposed that they return to their cell, he answered that he would go there no more. His brother asked the reason, and in answer heard: when I was parted from thee, I fell into fornication, and therefore I do not wish to come.
The other brother showed forth true Christian love. Wishing to turn his brother back to the truth, he said to him: when I went away from thee, the same thing befell me also. Now then, let us both return and with repentance entreat the Lord to forgive us. I believe in His love for mankind: He “Who took upon Himself the sins of all the world” is ready to receive the penitent and will forgive us our sins. * * * * * * * * * * * *
Thus he brought that brother also to repentance, and they returned to their monastery. They confessed to their spiritual father what had befallen them and received a rule of penance. The one brother repented of the other's sin as though he had sinned himself, and fervently besought God to forgive him. So he laid down his soul for the love of his brother. Soon the prayer of both was fulfilled, and they received: the one, forgiveness of sins, and the other, a crown for divine love.
Once a certain wayfarer came to a monastery and resolved to become a monk. He had an infant child. When the little one had grown and reached the age of youth, the evil power attacked him and gave him no rest. The youth said to his father: “I must return to the life of the world; I can no longer bridle the passion of the flesh.” The father calmed his son. After some time the youth complained again: “Let me go; I have no strength left to subdue the passion.” The father answered: “Hear me; take forty loaves and palm branches, settle for forty days in the desert, and let the will of God be done.” The son obeyed his father, went into the desert, spent his time in labour, plaited baskets from the palm branches and fed on dry bread. After twenty days he saw that some devilish phantom was drawing near him; it stopped a little way off, resembled an Ethiopian woman, was exceedingly hideous, and a foul stench came from it. The youth would not let it near him, drew away and tried to escape it. But the stinking creature said to him: “I am that very thing which seems to men so alluring and so sweet. For thy obedience and for thy labour God did not let me come to thee for temptation, but instead showed thee what I really am.” The youth glorified and thanked the Lord. Then he returned to his father and said to him: “I no longer wish to go away from here, for the Lord in a vision has set before me the devil and his stench.” To the father everything was already plain, and he answered his son: “Hadst thou believed me and remained in the desert forty days, thou wouldest have seen and learned yet more.”
Father John the Grazer, whom they called the Red, told us: during my stay in the monastery of Saint Theodosius there struggled there two brothers who had sworn to one another never to be parted, neither in life nor in the grave. To one brother the demon of fornication attached itself and weakened him. When he could bear it no longer, he said to his brother: let me go into the world; the thought of fornication so fights against me that I can no longer withstand it. The other brother begged him not to cast into the water what he had gained from his youth, but he could not persuade him and was obliged to go with him himself. That brother with whom the demon fought went in to a harlot, while the other stood outside, poured ashes upon his head and wept bitterly for his brother.
When the first had fulfilled his desire and came out, the other brother began to entreat him: “Well, what profit hast thou found, brother, from this sin? Thou hast only harmed thyself and destroyed thy soul. Now at least let us return to the monastery and entreat God to forgive thee this sin, for the Lord is merciful to penitent sinners.” The fallen one answered: “From henceforth I shall not go into the desert; but go thou, brother, and leave me.” Since he could in no wise persuade him to return to the desert, the other brother too remained in the city. They worked for hire, to feed themselves.
In those days Father Abraham, a good and gentle shepherd, who afterwards became catholicos of Ephesus, began in Byzantium, near the Mount of Olives, to build a monastery. To the building came the brothers also. The sinful brother took himself the wage for the labour of them both, went into the city and spent it upon harlots, while the other fasted every day, sang psalms without ceasing, laboured without sloth and said nothing to anyone. The builders, seeing such piety in him, his daily fasting and his silence, told Saint Abraham of him. Saint Abraham called the monk, led him into his cell and asked him about his case. And he told him in what dissolute living his brother lived, and said: I labour for this, that God may see my labour and save my brother from perishing.
Hearing this, the glorious Abraham said to the brother: for thy humility and for thy love God has granted thee thy brother's soul. The monk went out and saw his brother, who with repentance was begging him to take him into the desert — perhaps God would forgive him his countless sins. The brother at once took him into the Jordan desert and settled him in a cave. The sinner with tears and with sighs of repentance bewailed his fall, and thus God received his soul. And the other brother, according to his vow, remained in the cave until his death.
A monk of Choziba shut himself up in the desert and gave himself to the labour of prayer and psalmody. Once he heard demons saying to one another: let us go to such-and-such a village, to cast the priest down into fornication, for it is decreed that tomorrow, at the eighth hour of the morning, he shall die. The monk was merciful. Hearing this, he set off at once for the village where the priest lived. All night he walked, and at dawn he entered the village. At the doors of the church he saw a troubled man sitting and asked him: art thou not the priest of this village? I am, answered the priest. Rise, I must tell thee something dreadful, said the monk. The priest in his sorrow would not listen to him, but the monk entreated him, raised him up, drew him aside and told him what he had heard from the demons. The priest sighed deeply and said to him with tears: hadst thou but come an hour earlier, brother; a little while ago a woman came here to light a candle from the lamp, and I fell with her into fornication. Scarcely had he said this when he fell to the ground and gave up the ghost.
Trembling and fear seized the holy monk when he saw with what diligence the demons labour for the perishing of a man, if God permits it to them. It is plain that had the priest not deserved it, God would not have sent him this trial.
The archdeacon of the church of the holy great martyr Theodore, the God-loving Theodore, told us: the wife of the deacon Zacharias, named Golden, came to Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem, and accused her husband of fornication. The devout patriarch called Zacharias and asked him whether what he had heard of him was true. The poor man denied it. Canst thou prove what thou hast said? asked the patriarch of the woman. The woman answered: many know of this, but I shall not be able to prove it, for no one will wish to meddle in such a matter. The patriarch looked at the woman's husband and said to him: come to thyself, brother, and trample not thy conscience underfoot; think not that thou wilt hide anything from God, Who sees everything and from Whom not even our thought is hidden; if anything of the kind has happened, do not dare to enter the holy altar; but if thy conscience does not reprove thee, here is the holy altar, and, if thou darest, enter.
The deacon entered the altar without fear. Soon leprosy covered him from head to foot. Almighty God by this wonder showed that a man must not so dare and dishonour the work of God.
Father Elijah, who struggled in the monastery of Kalamon, told us: I had shut myself up in a cave near the monastery. At midday someone knocked at my door. I went out and saw a woman. I asked what she wanted. Forgive me, father, she answered me, I live here as thou dost, some two hundred paces away, in a small cave; walking in the desert I grew thirsty; do me a kindness and give me water to drink. I brought her water and gave her to drink; but when I returned to the cave, a strong warfare of fornication began in me. The devil roused in me desire for that woman. I did not overcome the thought, went out and followed the woman's tracks. It was August, and from the great heat the earth was burning. Quickly I walked two hundred paces, and suddenly terror seized me: I saw the earth split in two, ready to swallow me up. Within lay the rotted bodies of the dead, worms swarmed and matter flowed. A certain beautiful old man pointed to them and said to me: this is the body of a woman, this of her child, this of a beautiful woman, and this of a handsome youth. Go then, fulfil thy desire as thou wilt! O wretched one, for the fulfilment of one thought art thou ready to cast into the water so many labours? For this loathsome sin wouldest thou lose the Kingdom of Heaven? O unhappy man, how weak thou art and how feeble is thy mind, if for one vile thought thou thinkest of the perishing of thy soul.
From the stench I fell to the ground. The old man came to me, raised me up and took from me the warfare of the thought. I returned to the cave and offered thanksgiving to God.
