Between Monks: Tales of Monastic Companionship in Early Byzantium

The Latin version of John Moschos's Spiritual Meadow preserves a story narrated to John and his companion Sophronios by Abba Stephen the Cappadocian while they visited Mount Sinai. Stephen was in church on the Thursday of Holy Week, the feast of the Lord's Supper, when in his words "as the holy sacrifice was being offered and all the fathers were present, I looked and saw two anchorites enter the church. They were naked, yet none of the other fathers perceived that they were naked except me." After communion, as the two monastic brothers left the church, Stephen followed them and begged them to take him with them. They refused, saying, "It is not possible for you to be with us; stay here; this is the place for you." The men offered prayer on his behalf, and then in Stephen's words, "before my eyes, they went onto the water of the Red Sea on foot and departed across the sea."1

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