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THE THE
EIGHTH
MONTH IN THE NAME
OF THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, On this day died Saint Mary, the Egyptian, the dweller in the desert. This holy woman was a native of Egypt, and she came from the city of Alexandria, and her parents were Christians. When her days were twelve years, the Hater of good and the Adversary of men seduced her, and led her astray and made her his net wherein he caught innumerable souls, that is to say Satan made her to love fornication. And she gave her body up to fornication, without payment, because of her love for the deadly sin, and she continued in this filthy work for a period of seven and twenty years; and her love for this filthy work increased [with her years]. And by the Will of God, the Lover of mankind, He showed her the men who wished to go and be blessed at the tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ in the city of Jerusalem, and the thought stirred in her mind that she would go with them; and she embarked in a ship, with many people. When they were about to set sail, the sailors said unto her, “Give us the passage money for the ship,” and as she had not the money with her to give them, she gave them her body so that they might take fornication with her in place of the ship’s passage money. When she arrived in Jerusalem, she did the same thing, and played the whore continually. When she wished to go in with the rest of the people through the door of the church of the tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Power prevented her from entering. And it came to pass that when she wished [to fornicate] with the people who were coming [there] the Power of God prevented her from doing so. And when she drew nigh, and the Power prevented her from entering the church because of her filthy deeds, she lifted up her eyes to heaven, to God the Merciful, being sad and sorrowful in her heart, and she saw above her a picture of our Lady, the holy Virgin Mary, the God-bearer. And she wept before it, and made entreaty unto it, saying, “O intercessor for all Christian people, O God-bearer, make a pact with me. If I can go in and celebrate the festival with all the [other] people, I will do everything which thou commandest me.” And saying these words she went quickly into the church of the tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when she had finished the keeping of the feast, she returned quickly to the picture of our Lady the holy Virgin Mary, the God-bearer; and she made long prayers before it, and wept bitterly, and made entreaties before it that the Virgin would send her where ever she pleased, so that she might save her soul. And a voice came out from the picture of our Lady, the holy Virgin Mary, the God-bearer, saying, “If thou wilt go into the desert of the Jordan thou wilt find rest and salvation.” And she accepted the words, and prayed and saluted the picture of our Lady, the holy Virgin Mary, the God-bearer, and then she went forth. When she had gone forth from the church she met a certain man, and he gave her three small coins wherewith she bought bread. Then she crossed the valley (or, river) of the Jordan, and dwelt in the desert of the Jordan for seven and forty years; and she strove strenuously, and Satan fought against her by means of her love for the impure thing, which she had worked formerly. And she lived upon the bread, which she had bought for many days, and every two days she used to fast for two days, and every three days for three days, and little by little she ate up her bread. When the bread was finished she lived upon the herbs in the desert. When the seven and forty years wherein she had wandered up and down the desert had come to an end, the holy priest Zozimas went out into the desert of the Jordan, in order to complete therein the holy Forty Days’ Fast, according to the custom observed in his monastery--now it was the custom with the monks of his monastery to go out each year for the Great Fast (i.e. Lent) into the desert, and to devote themselves to severe ascetic labors, and to fight in the spirit until the end of the Fast. When Saint Zozimas had gone out into the desert of the Jordan, he entreated God to show him, that which would give him consolation. As he was going along in the desert he saw the holy woman Mary in the distance, and he believed her to be Satan himself. And having prayed, it was shown to him that she was a human being, and he went towards her, and she fled from him; and he followed her and ran after her to come up to her, but she still fled from him. Then she called out to him by his name, saying, “O Zozimas, why dost thou want to talk to me; throw me a rag that I may cover myself therewith, for I am naked.” And he marveled exceedingly when she called him by his name, and he threw to her the wherewithal to cover herself; and straightway she came to him and bowed before him, and he bowed before her, and they embraced each other, and she asked him to pray for her, for he was a priest. Then he asked her to tell him the story of her fight, and then she told him everything, which had happened to her from the beginning to the end. Then she asked him to come and visit her each year, and to bring with him the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he said unto her, “I will.” When a full year had passed he took some of the holy Body, and the honorable Blood in a cup, and he carried with him figs, and dates, and also lentils for soaking in water. And he came to the bank of the River Jordan, and saw the holy woman coming in the distance, and she was walking towards the River Jordan; and when she came up to him they embraced each other and prayed. Then he administered to her the Holy Mysteries, and he brought forth the dates, and the figs, and the lentils, and asked her to accept them from him; but she asked him to come back to her in the desert in the following year. When the second year was ended, and he went to the valley of the Jordan, he found that the holy woman was dead, and lying near her head was a paper whereon was written, “Bury Mary, the poor woman, in the dust of which she was created”; and he marveled at the writing. And he saw near her feet a lion, which was guarding her, and whilst he was wondering in his mind with what he should dig her grave, the lion came and dug a grave for her; then the holy man prayed over her and buried her. And he returned to his monastery and related to the monks the story of the strife of this holy woman Mary the Egyptian from the beginning to the end thereof, even as she had told it to him; and they all marveled exceedingly, and they praised the glorious and Most High God. And all the days of her life were seven and seventy years. Salutation to Mary, whose dead body was guarded by a lion in the desert. And on this day our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Thomas, the apostle, on the eighth day after His resurrection. And Thomas saw the marks of the nails which were in His hands and feet, and he took his hands and laid them in His Divine side, where the spear had pierced it, and he said, “My Lord and my God.” And our Lord said unto him, “Thou hast believed on Me, because thou hast seen Me; blessed is he who shall believe on Me without seeing Me.” In a commentary on the Gospel it saith that when Thomas the apostle laid his hand in our Lord’s side, his hand was burnt with divine fire; and that when he believed in His Godhead his hand was healed of the burn. Glory be to God, and let us beseech Him to have mercy upon us through the prayers of all His holy apostles and righteous ones, forever and ever. Amen. Salutation to the chamber wherein Christ showed His pierced side, and the hand of Thomas was burnt. And the fathers have commanded us to celebrate the commemoration of the deaths of our father Adam and our mother Eve on this day. Before God created this our father Adam He created the heavens and the earth and all that therein is, and the angels and the archangels. And having planted for him the Garden of Edom containing every kind of fruit pleasant to the taste, and having furnished it with every desirable thing, He created Adam. He took dust from the centre of the earth, that is to say Golgotha, at the third hour of the day of the Eve of the Sabbath (Friday), and He created him out of four things, that is to say, water, fire, air, and dust. And He made him in His own image and likeness, and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and He dressed him in the dress of life, and light, and He made him king, and priest, and prophet, and administrator of everything he wished. Then He brought to him all the beasts, and cattle, and birds of the heavens so that Adam might see them, [and give unto] each of them its name, even as he pronounced them, through the Holy Spirit, which was on him. And God having wished to make for him a companion to help him, brought upon him slumber, and he slept, and then He took a bone from his side and filled [the place thereof] with flesh, and set her before him. When Adam woke from his sleep he prophesied, and said, “Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, assuredly thou be to me my wife”; and he called her name “Hewan” (Eve). And as Adam was standing [there] on the place of Golgotha, he heard the voice of his God, and behold a cloud of light took him up with Eve his wife and carried them into the Garden of Edom, and the voices of every rank of the angels, the Cherubim and the Seraphim, went before him praising and thanking God because He had done honor to Adam. And God said unto Adam and Eve, “Of every tree which is in the Garden eat, but of the tree which is in the middle of the Garden eat not, for on the day wherein ye shall eat of it ye shall surely die.” And Adam continued to till the Garden, and to eat of the fruit thereof, and he praised [God] with the angels. And when Satan, the Enemy of all good, had fallen from his exalted state and honor, because of his arrogance concerning Adam, and the honor and glory [which God had given him], he went to the place where Eve was, in the form of a serpent, and he persuaded her to eat of that tree which God had set apart, and promised to her the nature of God [if she did so]. And having looked at the tree, and seen that the fruit thereof was good, she ate thereof, and made Adam to eat thereof. And their raiment of light was stripped from them, and they knew that they were naked, and they covered their shame with the leaves of the fig tree. And when God knew their fault, He cursed the serpent, and He made enmity to exist between it and the seed of Eve. And her also He cursed, saying, “In pain conceive and bring forth thy children; and thy turning shall be to thy husband, and he shall serve thee.” And to Adam He said, “Cursed shall the ground be for thy sake. With the sweat of thy face eat thy bread; dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return.” And he made for them tunics of hide, and they put them on, and they went forth from the Garden of Edom, at the turn of the evening, after seven years of joy and delight. In the morning, at sunrise, he used to smell the smell of incense, and perfume, and water of frankincense, and aromatic herbs. And Adam dwelt in the land of Elda and tilled the ground according to what he had learned in the Garden of Edom, and he knew his wife Eve and she bore him Kayl (Cain) and after him Abel. When Kayl (Cain) slew Abel in his jealousy. And Adam continued to lament the death of his son for seven (?) years, and then Seth was born unto him in exchange for Abel his son, in whom stood his memorial, and after him came many children (?). When Adam went forth from the Garden, God saw his tears and his repentance, and He gave him the promise of a hope of salvation, and He said unto him, “In five thousand and five years I will come into the world, and I will be born of what is in thee, and I will deliver thee in a wide place, and I will redeem thee by My Cross.” And Adam took from the Garden gold, and myrrh, and incense, and gave them to his son Seth, and he wrote for him, saying, “In the last days the Son of God shall come, and He shall be born of a virgin, and then the Magi shall bring (as) gifts unto Him this gold, and myrrh, and incense.” And this writing after begin handed down from generation to generation came to our Lady, the holy Virgin Mary, and she gave it to our father Peter, and Peter gave it to Clement. When our father Adam knew his death was near he called his son Seth, and Seth drew nigh unto him in the Cave of Treasures. And Adam said unto him, “Make thy children and thy children’s children to come unto me before I die.” When Seth heard the words of his father Adam, he went forth from his presence, with the tears flowing down his cheeks, and he gathered together his children, and his children’s children, and brought them to him. When Adam saw them he wept because of his [approaching] separation from them, and when they saw him weeping they all wept together before God, and they fell down upon their faces, saying, “How can the earth cover thee, and hide thee from our eyes?” Then our father Adam blessed all his children, and he said unto Seth, “O my son, this world is full of weariness; preserve righteousness and purity; let us trust in God. And incline not to the voice of Satan, and his wiles, which he will make apparent to thee. When I die take my body, and prepare it for burial with myrrh and cassia and stacte, and bury me in the cave of a store-chamber. And there shall come a water-flood, and it shall drown every created thing, and only eight souls shall be left. Be thou a protector of thy people. Watch over them and protect them in the fear of God, and teach them the way of salvation, and take care of them so that they may not be in subjection to Satan, and that he may not destroy them. Separate thy children and thy children’s children from the children of Kayl (Cain), and do not let them mix in any way, and they shall draw nigh neither to their works nor their fables.” Then Adam turned to Seth his son, and to Eve his wife, and he confided to their care the gold, and the myrrh, and the cassia, so that they might bury them with him. And he said unto them, “In the days wherein the Water-flood shall come, they shall take my body into the ark, with the gold, and the myrrh, and the cassia, and shall lay them in the middle of the earth. After many days [enemies] shall capture this country, and they shall [not] take the gold, and the myrrh, and the cassia, together with the [other] spoil, but they shall be preserved here until the time when the Word of God shall become flesh, when kings shall take them and bring them unto Him--gold because of His kingship, and incense because He is God of heaven and earth, and the myrrh is the symbol of His Passion.” And when Adam was nine hundred the thirty years old (Genesis v, 5), in the 135th year of the life of Mahalaleel, he died, at the ninth hour of the day, on Friday, the day on which he was created, now the hour in which he died was that in which his going forth from Paradise had taken place; at that moment hosts of angels gathered together to his children. And they prepared his body for burial carefully, and they anointed him with scented unguents of every kind, which are [found] in the trees of the Holy Mountain. And they laid his body facing the east of the Cave, and they set a lighted lamp before him, and they laid by his side the gold, and the myrrh, and the cassia; and they sealed the doors of the Cave with the seals of Adam and Eve and Seth. And Seth and his children continued to minister unto the body of our father Adam, until the Water-flood came. Then Noah took Adam’s body into the ark, and by the command of God he carried it with him until he brought it to Mount Ararat. Then Shem and Melchisedek, an angel of the Lord guiding them, took it from this place and buried it in the “place of a skull”; and Melchisedek continued to minister unto it with incense and offerings. And when the Son of God came, and was born of Adam’s daughter, He redeemed Adam by His death, and restored him to his former inheritance, for he was the father of the prophets and apostles, and the father of the saints and martyrs, and through him the Son of God came into the world. Salutation to Adam, the first man created, and salutation to Eve, a bone of him. And on this day were born Noah and David, the king, the father of Solomon.
Glory
be to God Who is glorified in His Saints.
Amen. |
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