Gleanings from Orthodox Christian Authors and the Holy Fathers

maximos_the_kafsokalyvitan

One year during winter, Gregorios the orderly of Lavra (on Mt. Athos), together with one of the brothers, put in a knapsack bread, wine, and other food supplies and headed for the cell of holy Maximos the Kafsokalyvitan. It had snowed heavily and all the paths were covered. There were no human footprints anywhere to be seen. The holy one was sitting in his hut, which was made sticks and dry brush. He was isolated totally and no one knew how long he had been without food. When with great difficulty they reached the hut, they entered and, to their astonishment, saw something entirely unexpected: a loaf of bread still hot and smelling as if it had just come out of the oven. They looked around with curiosity to see if there was any fire. There was nothing. This bread had come from heaven, a heavenly consolation to holy Maximos, that fowl of the sky. In great reverence they gathered around the mysterious bread, full of wonder at this manna for some ascetics in the inconsolable desert, and then fell on their knees before the holy one, begging him to give them a small piece for a blessing. "I will give you some," he said, "but under this agreement: that you will not say anything of what you have seen to anyone until I die." An Athonite Gerontikon






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