And the woman, not allowing the elder to bow down before her, said: “I beg you, holy father, for the sake of Jesus Christ our God and Savior, tell no one what you have heard, until God delivers me of this earth. And now depart in peace and again next year you shall see me, and I you, if God will preserve us in His great mercy. But for God’s sake, do as I ask you. Next year during Lent do not cross the Jordan, as is your custom in the monastery.” Zosima was amazed to hear that she know the rules of the monastery and could only say: “Glory to God Who bestows great gifts on those who love Him.” She continued: “Remain, Abba, in the monastery. And even if you wish to depart, you will not be to do so. And at sunset of the holy day of the Last super, put some of the Life-Giving Body and Blood of Christ into a Holy Vessel worthy to hold such Mysteries for me, and bring it. And wait for me on the banks of the Jordan adjoining the inhabited parts of the land, so that I can come and partake of the Life-Giving Gifts. For, since the time I communicated in the temple of the Forerunner before crossing the Jordan even to this day I have not approached the Holy Mysteries. And I thirst for them with irrepressible love and longing. and therefore I ask and implore you to grant me my wish, bring me the Life-Giving Mysteries at the very hour when Our Lord made His disciples partake of His Divine Supper… Pray for me!” With these words she vanished in the depths of the desert. And Zosima, falling down on his knees and bowing down to the ground on which she had stood, sent up glory and thanks to God.
+
For the whole year he kept silent, not daring to tell anyone of what he had seen. To himself he prayed God to show him again the face that he desired. He tormented himself and worried himself to pieces, imagining to himself how long a year is and wanting, if possible, that the year be shortened into one single day. And when at length the first Sunday of the Great Fast came, all went out into the desert with the customary prayers and the singing of psalms. Only Zosima was held back by illness — he lay in a fever. And then he remembered what the saint had said to him: “and even if you wish to depart, you will not be able to do so.”
