Biographies of the Ascetics of Athos. Hegumen Fr. Gerasim, a Bulgarian († 1875).
Something like this also happened: in the monastery, there lived one monk, already tonsured to the Stavrophore, a Greek by birth. He gave a large amount of money to the monastery, but also kept a little for himself. The hegumen told him: - If you want to live with us, then don't have anything at your place; it is now in your power. And if you miss it and don't want to part with it, then don't give anything, but find a place where you can live with it. And if you hide it, and after death it will be found, then it will be thrown into the grave with you, and you, as the destroyer of the cenobium, will not be considered worthy of commemoration of the brethren. He answered: - Holy Father, what I have, I give everything. The hegumen accepted him, and then tonsured him into the schema. The monk was very humble and meek, and useful to the monastery, as a good craftsman and carpenter, and the brethren loved him very much. But the hegumen saw the serpent of greed for money lurking in him, and often he called and exhorted him with tears to reveal his money.
Being hardened in it, he said that he no longer has it. The hegumen, seeing his hardening and the death of his soul approaching, wanted to correct him. One day, in front of all the brethren, he ordered some of the brethren to drive him out of the monastery with dishonor, and throw away all his property, and gave him his money. He did not take the money, and said that the money was donated to the monastery forever. The brethren greatly regretted him and tearfully mourned that the hegumen punished such a humble man without mercy. The monk left the monastery and found himself a friend and bought a cell. He paid 4,000 levs, and used 2,000 for the construction. Then all the brethren understood why the abbot had expelled him from the monastery. But when he bought a cell, and spent all the money, despondency fell upon him, and he could no longer live in a cell, and gave it to a friend, and he himself went to the monastery and began to ask the gatekeeper to report to the abbot that he wanted to ask for forgiveness. The gatekeeper said to the hegumen. He, having heard, ran out himself, took him into his arms and said: - You spent all your money, is there anything left? He replied with shame and tears: “Forgive me, Holy Father, that I have sinned before God and before you. Now there is nothing left but my sins”. The hegumen said to him: “And now I rejoice that the Lord has cleansed you; now you will be a monk. And he gave him a cell.
In general, Elder Gerasim almost every day does deeds worthy of surprise: he knows whom to punish, and whose infirmities to forgive.
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