Feast day: 1 April

The Life of Our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt

"It is good to keep the royal secret, but it is glorious to reveal and preach the works of God" (Tob. 12:7), - this is what the Archangel Raphael said to Tobit when the miraculous healing of his blindness was accomplished. Truly, not to keep the royal secret is terrible and disastrous, and to keep silent about the most glorious deeds of God is a great loss for the soul. "And I," says St. Sophronius, who wrote the Life of St. Mary of Egypt, "am afraid to conceal the Divine deeds by silence, and remembering the impending misfortune of the servant (Matt. 25:18, 25), who buried the talent given by God in the ground, I cannot help but tell the holy story that has come down to me. And let no one think, continues St. Sophronius, that I have dared to write a lie, when anyone has doubts about this wondrous event: it is not fitting for me to lie about the holy. But if there are people who, after reading this scripture and being struck by the glorious event, do not believe, then may the Lord be merciful to them, because they, contemplating the weakness of a human being, consider impossible those miraculous deeds that are done with holy people. However, it is necessary to begin the story of a glorious event that took place in our race.

In one of the Palestinian monasteries there lived an elder adorned with piety of life and intelligence of speech, and from his early youth valiantly asceticized in monastic asceticism. The name of the elder was Zosima. (Let no one think that Zosimas is a heretic, although they have the same name: one deserved a bad reputation and was a stranger to the church, the other was righteous and was glorified.) Zosima went through all the degrees of fasting asceticism and observed all the rules taught by the greatest monks. In doing all this, he never ceased to learn the Divine words: when he lay down, when he got up, when he worked, and when he ate food (if only that which he ate in very small quantities can be called food), he incessantly and constantly performed one thing - he sang divine hymns and sought instruction in the Divine books. As an infant he was sent to a monastery, where he valiantly asceticized in fasting until the age of 53. But then he began to be troubled by the thought that he had reached full perfection and no longer needed any instruction.

"Is there a monk on earth," he thought, "who can instruct me and show me an example of such fasting as I have not yet passed? Will there be a man in the wilderness who surpasses me?"

While the elder was thus meditating, an angel appeared to him and said:

"Zosima! Thou hast labored diligently, as far as it is in the power of man, and thou hast valiantly passed through the ascetic feat of fasting. However, there is no person who can say of himself that he has attained perfection. There are feats unknown to you, and more difficult than those you have traversed. In order to know how many other paths lead to salvation, leave your country, like the most glorious of the patriarchs Abraham (Gen. 12:1), and go to the monastery that lies by the Jordan River."

Following this instruction, Zosima left the monastery in which he had asceticized from infancy, went to the Jordan and reached the monastery where the voice of God had directed him.

Pushing the monastery gates with his hand, Zosima found the monk-gatekeeper and said to him silently. He informed the hegumen, who gave orders to summon the elder who had come to him. Zosima came to the hegumen and performed the usual monastic prostration and prayer.

"Where are you from, brother," the abbot asked him, "and why have you come to us, poor elders?"

Zosima answered:

"Where I came from, there is no need to say; And I have come, Father, seeking for my own spiritual benefit, for I have heard many great and praiseworthy things about you, which are able to lead the soul to God.

"Brother," the abbot said to him, "God alone can heal the infirmities of the soul; May he guide both you and us in his ways for the benefit of the soul, but man cannot correct a person if he does not constantly delve into himself and vigilantly, with God's help, does not perform podvigs. But since the love of Christ has impelled you to visit us, the wretched elders, then stay with us, if you have come for this. May the Good Shepherd, who gave his life for our salvation, send down upon us all the grace of the Holy Spirit.