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| St. Mastridia of Jerusalem (Feast Day - February 7) |
We learn about our Venerable Mother Mastridia of Jerusalem from the Leimonarion of Saint John Moschos, who writes:
Once we came to the hermit Abba John, surnamed the Fiery. He told us the following, as he had heard it from Abba John the Moabite:
“In the holy city there was a certain nun distinguished for her piety and great zeal in pleasing God. The devil, envying the virgin, inspired a young man with a satanic passion for her. But the wondrous maiden, perceiving the snares of the devil and having compassion on the young man, took a basket and, placing in it a small amount of soaked beans, withdrew into the desert. By removing herself, she delivered the young man from temptation, caring for the salvation of his soul, and for herself she sought safety in the desert.
A considerable time passed. By the providence of God it came about that her virtuous life did not remain hidden: in the desert of the holy Jordan a hermit once saw her.
‘Mother,’ the hermit asked her, ‘what are you doing in this desert?’
‘Forgive me,’ she replied, wishing to conceal her ascetic struggle, ‘I have lost my way. For the Lord’s sake, father, have mercy and show me the road.’
But the hermit, having learned from above about her ascetic feat, said to her: ‘Believe me, mother, you have not lost your way at all, nor are you seeking it. Knowing well that falsehood is from the devil, tell me the whole truth: why did you come here?’
‘Forgive me, father,’ the maiden replied. ‘A certain young man was tempted because of me, and for this reason I withdrew into this desert. I chose rather to die here than to become a cause of temptation for anyone, according to the word of the Apostle.’
‘How long have you lived here?’
‘By the grace of Christ, seventeen years.’
‘But how have you sustained yourself?’
The hermitess, pointing to the basket of soaked beans, replied: ‘This very basket which you see left the city with me. In it were only a few of these beans… But God showed me, though unworthy, such mercy that for all this time I have eaten from them, and they have not diminished. And know, father, that His goodness so covered me that during these seventeen years—until this very day—not a single person has seen me, while I have seen everyone.’
Having heard this, the hermit glorified God.”