Another murderous saint

  • From Daily Lives and the OCA site: A lit­tle bit about St. David of Her­mopo­lis in Egypt, a saint com­mem­o­rated today. Maybe the story’s not that unusual. I just never heard of a saint enter­ing the monas­tic life by issu­ing death threats.

    Like St. Moses the Ethiopian, David was at first the leader of a mur­der­ous group of ban­dits in the Her­mo­plois wilder­ness of Egypt. But as he grew older, he looked back on his life with fear at what he had done. David went to a monastery and asked the abbot if he might be accepted there to repent. The abbot refused him, say­ing that their ascetic life was extremely sever and beyond his ability.

    David per­sisted and finally, he revealed to the abbot that he was the noto­ri­ous rob­ber David. He said that if they did not accept him, he would return to his for­mer life, then come back and plun­der the monastery and kill the monks.

    The abbot recon­sid­ered. [I’ll bet!]

    Through his intense efforts as a monas­tic, David sur­passed all the brethren, and after some time God sent Archangle Gabriel to tell David that he had been for­given. Out of humil­ity, David would not believe that God could for­give him so quickly. Because of his dis­be­lief, Gabriel told him that he would be left speech­less. Yet, David asked per­mis­sion to at least be able to say his prayers and to par­tic­i­pate in the ser­vices. He was granted this, but was speech­less otherwise.

    As time passed, David was granted the gift to work mir­a­cles with his prayers; he healed the sick and cast out demons. He died peacefully.


    Related posts:

    1. St. Sisoes
    2. St. Mary of Egypt
    3. No foolin’
    4. It is truly meet
    5. 9/11, Kat­rina and St. Euphrosynos

    September 6th, 2008 | Grace | 1 Comment |

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