In short, the prince was shown all kinds of things and animals. The royal servants who accompanied the prince told him afterwards, according to his wishes, the names of everything he had seen. When he asked about women, the king's bodyguard jokingly told him that they were called demons, who lead people astray. When the prince was then brought back to the king, his father asked him what he had seen that pleased him best. The prince answered him vividly: "Most of all I liked those demons that lead people astray; for my soul was aflame only at the sight of them from all that I saw." And the king was amazed at these words of his son. Look, O king, what love for women means. And only in this way will you make your son obey you."

The Tsar was very pleased with this method. And so, by his order, the chosen, blooming beauties are brought to him. Having decorated them with appropriate clothes, he appointed them to the palace of his son in place of the former servants, whom he ordered to be removed. The women tried by all means to lure Joasaph to their company, embraced and caressed him, trying to cheer him up. He had no other company and did not see anyone else, in accordance with the order of the tsar. Theudas then returned to his cave and again took up his magical, as he called them, books, summoning the evil spirit against the soldier of Christ, not knowing himself how pitiful and worthy of ridicule he was with all his army of the devil. Summoning other evil spirits to help, the demon summoned by Theudas goes to the bedroom of a noble youth, whom he finds asleep. It inflamed in him various voluptuous feelings, from which the prince woke up. Then he sees beautiful in appearance, but ugly in soul, maidens who try to fan the flame that burns even more within him.

But the blameless youth sensed evil intent and, seeing the approaching struggle with impure feelings, he fell into confusion and began to seek deliverance from the threatening evil, wishing to appear before Christ with a pure soul, and not defiled by the filth of passions, wishing to preserve unsullied the holy garment in which he had been clothed with the gift of Holy Baptism. And immediately the thought came to him of the greatness of the inexpressible glory of Christ in the heavenly world, the eternal bliss of righteous souls, and at the same time of the parable of those who were expelled from the wedding feast because they did not appear in wedding clothes, and who were cast into fiery hell and extreme darkness. Remembering all this, he shed tears and beat his chest, as if banishing all evil thoughts and feelings from himself. Then he arose, stretched out his hands to heaven and, weeping and weeping fervently, called upon God for help, saying: "Almighty Lord God, the All-Merciful, the hope of all those who despair and the help of all the helpless, remember in this hour of me, Thy worthless servant, look upon me with Thy merciful eye, save my soul from the devil's sword, and pluck me out of the dog's tooth! Do not let me fall under the power of my enemies, lest those who hate me rejoice. Do not let me perish in iniquity and defile my body, which I promised Thee to keep pure! For my soul desires Thee only, and to Thee do I worship the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages."

As he said "Amen," he felt that divine consolation had come to him from heaven. All bad feelings disappeared, and he spent his time in prayer until dawn. Having come to know through this the intrigues of the devil, he began to constrain his flesh even more, forcing himself to endure hunger, thirst and other deprivations. He spent whole nights standing, constantly reminding himself of the covenant he had made with God; of the blessedness of the righteous in the world to come, and of the fiery Gehenna that threatens the wicked. He worked tirelessly on himself so that the enemy would not find his soul intemperate and pliable, and therefore would not easily instill bad feelings in it and not confuse his pure thoughts.

The evil spirit, thus failing, and despairing of taking possession of the noble youth, devised another, still more cunning stratagem. Being always evil, he never ceases to invent all kinds of evil and harm people. Therefore, with incomparably greater zeal, he tried to carry out what was entrusted to him by Theudas. For this purpose he enters into one of the beauties mentioned, namely, the most beautiful of them in appearance, the daughter of a certain king, who was brought from her homeland as the greatest gift to King Abner, and he, on account of her beauty, chose her among others to be sent to his son's palace. The evil spirit, having entered into it, inspires it with thoughts and desires that completely take possession of its reason, for it is always very resourceful for evil. Then the demon also managed to instill love for her in the prince, who drew attention to her both because of her intelligence and beauty, and because of her royal origin, the deprivation of her homeland, and at the same time of due honor and glory. In addition, he had a desire to turn her away from idolatry and make her a Christian. All these were the insidious intrigues of the devil. Meanwhile, Blessed Joasaph, not noticing in himself any passionate love, any impure feeling towards this maiden, explained his attraction to her by simple sympathy and compassion for her miserable fate and spiritual destruction, in no way assuming that these were the intrigues of an evil spirit.

He began to seek the company of the girl and, instilling in her the doctrine of the true God, said: "Turn, woman, to the living, eternal God, and do not err in this service to idols; believe in the Lord, the Creator of all things, and you will be happy, you will inherit eternal bliss." And many other similar things he said to her. The demon, the seducer, inspired her to set deceptive nets and push an innocent soul into the pit of passions, just as he did with the first man, who through Eve deprived of paradise of eternal bliss, tearing her away from God and making her a partaker of death.

When he asked what her desire was, she said: "I am fascinated by your appearance, look, and speech, and therefore unite with me in marriage, and then I will gladly fulfill your commands."

To this the young man said: "In vain, woman, you have addressed me with such an unsuitable request; although I am very anxious for your salvation and for distracting you from the fatal abyss, it is difficult and absolutely impossible for me to defile my body through carnal union."

But the girl already had objections ready for everything. Therefore she said to him: "Why do you, my lord, being wise, say such things to me? Why do you consider such a union to be a defilement for yourself? I, too, am somewhat versed in Christian books, and have heard from Christians whom I have seen in my own country, that many of you are united by the bonds of marriage. One of your books says the same: "Let marriage be honorable among all, and the bed blameless" (Hebrews 13:4). And in another place: It is better to marry than to be inflamed (1 Corinthians 7:9). And again: "What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matt. 19:6). Did not all the ancient patriarchs, prophets, and righteous men marry? And that Peter, whom you call the supreme Apostle, did not have a wife? By whose suggestion do you call marriage a defilement? It seems to me that you are far from understanding the true teaching of your faith!"

"Everything that you say is perfectly true," answered Joasaph, "but since he who has made a vow to Christ not to marry, he cannot break this vow. At the time of receiving Holy Baptism, when I was forsaken the sins of my youth, I made a vow to appear pure before Christ. How can I break it?"

"Let it be your way," answered the maiden, "so grant at least this little request of mine, if you wish to save my soul, spend only this night with me, let me enjoy your beauty, and, for your part, enjoy my beauty, and I give you my word to become a Christian at dawn, and to avoid serving my gods with all your might; for this conversion of me to Christianity, you will not only be forgiven the fulfillment of my desire, but will also be rewarded by God for my salvation, for in heaven there will be more joy over one repentant sinner than in ninety-nine righteous men (Luke 15:7).

If in heaven they rejoice at the conversion of a sinner, will there not be a great reward for the author of this conversion? Did not the Apostles, the preachers of your faith, transgress some commandment for the sake of fulfilling another, greater commandment? Is it not said that the apostle Paul circumcised Timothy for another great cause? Does this circumcision seem to you a crime for a Christian? And you will find many more similar examples in your Scriptures. Therefore, if you truly want to save my soul, then fulfill this insignificant request. At first I wished to be united with you in a lawful marriage, but since this is not to your liking, I no longer insist on it, trying to do everything pleasing to you. Do not disdain me completely, listen to me for the first and last time: by this you will free me from my error, and you yourself will fulfill everything prescribed by the dogmas of your faith for the rest of your life."

Thus the girl spoke, at the instruction of the evil spirit, which was pleasing to him, for this creator and teacher of evil was versed in the Holy Scriptures. Scripture. Speaking and caressing, entangling Joasaph in her nets and luring him into the intrigues that had been set, she had already begun to shake the firmness of his soul, to untie the strong knots of his will. But the sower of evil and the enemy of the righteous, seeing his hesitation, was filled with the greatest joy and immediately summoned the evil spirits that had come with him, shouting to them: "See how this maiden successfully does what even we could not do. Let us attack it now, for we will not find another more convenient opportunity to fulfill the will of Him who sent us." As soon as the evil one says this to his dogs, they immediately rush at the soldier of Christ, throw all his spiritual feelings into confusion, put into him a strong love for the maiden, kindle a passionate fire in him. Joasaph, experiencing this terrible fire, seeing his enslavement to a sinful feeling, and, at the same time, thinking that all this would be only a means for the salvation of the maiden, for her conversion to God, and his adultery with her, which occurred for the salvation of her soul, would not be considered a sin, nevertheless felt that here was hidden a hook surrounded by the bait of the enemy. In the struggle of these opposite feelings, in helplessness and indecision as to what to do, he resorts to prayer and, raising his eyes full of tears to heaven, exclaims to Him who is able to save all who trust in Him:

"In Thee, O Lord, I have placed my hope, that I shall not be put to shame for ever, that my enemies, the enemies of Thy servant, shall not laugh at me; Give me help in this hour and arrange all things according to Thy will, that Thy name may be glorified in me, Thy servant, for to Thee is due glory forever and ever. Amen."