ST. TRIPHON'S MONASTERY 177 



Holy Man. Thereupon the Saint chastised the culprit, warned him 

 never again to disturb the monastery, and dismissed him. And 

 henceforth no bear ever harmed the reindeer, or any other living 

 being of the monastery. 



In his latter years the Holy Man frequently went away to his 

 hermitage, where he built a church in honour and memory of the 

 Assumption of the Holy Virgin, and passed his days in prayer. He 

 also ordained that he should be buried in this hermitage. 



o 



In this manner, performing many noble actions and doing much 

 work, he reached a venerable age ; and after living for seventy years in 

 this most desolate of wildernesses, as related by the local contempo- 

 rary ecclesiastical historians, he at last fell dangerously ill. To the 

 Holy Triphon came Abbot Gouri and the brothers who had been 

 his pupils ; and seeing him so seriously ill, they bemoaned deeply 

 that they should be bereft of such a noble teacher, and be left 

 orphans. 



" Do not grieve brethren," said the Holy Man, " and do not 

 interrupt the even flow of my tide. Put all your trust in the Lord, 

 because if the Lord my God Jesus did not abandon me, then so much 

 the less will He desert you, who are gathered together in His holy 

 Name. But I commend you with all your heart and the whole of 

 your soul to love God glorified in the Holy Trinity, and to love one 

 another ; my children, preserve your brotherhood in continence and 

 honesty, and keep away from the love of power. You have known 

 me for many years ; and you have seen with your own eyes that my 

 hands have v/orked not only for my own, but also for your needs ; and 

 that I was a lay brother to all of you. I entreat you, do not grieve when 

 I have departed this life, because such is the lot of every man ; and 

 even if the body goes to dust, yet the soul rises to Heaven. Struggle 

 onward to where death is not, where shines eternal light, and one day 

 is more than a thousand ; and love not the cursed world, false and 

 troubled like the sea, and frothy with sinful waves. But when my 

 soul has left this body, I enjoin you to bury me by the Church of the 



M 



