Remain Patient

One of the hermits said that he had heard holy men say that there are young men who show old men how to live and they told this story.

There was a drunken old hermit, who wove a mat a day, sold it in the next village, and drank as much as he could buy with the money. Then a young monk came to live with him, and he also wove a mat a day.

The old hermit took this mat as well, sold it, bought the wine with the price of both, and brought back to the monk only a little bread for the evening meal. This went on for three years and the brother said nothing.

At the end of three years the monk said to himself, "I have very little bread here and nothing else, I will go away." But then he had second thoughts, and said to himself, "Where can I go? I will stay here, and for God's sake continue with this communal life."

Immediately an angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said, "Don't go away, we shall come for you tomorrow."

That day the monk begged the old hermit, "Don't go out, today they will come to take me away."

At the the time when the old hermit usually went out to the village, he said to the monk, "They won't come today, my son, it's late already."

The monk used every argument to show that they would come and even while he was talking, he died in peace.

The old hermit wept, and said, "I'm filled with grief, my son; I have lived negligently for so many years, and you through patience have saved your soul in so short a time." Thereafter the old hermit became sober and serious.

~~Patience by Karina Gherbst