Feast Day: December 31st
The Life of Saint Gelasius: Then, taking the thought which troubled him, he refuted it in these words, “If you are not able to perform the works of the desert, live patiently in your Cell, weeping for your sins, without wandering here and there. For the eye of God always sees the works of a man and nothing escapes Him and He knows those who do good.”…
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A Prayer
Saint Gelasius Pray to God for us.
It was said of Abba Gelasius that he had a leather Bible worth eighteen pieces of silver. In fact it contained the whole of the Old and New Testaments. He had put it in the Church so that any of the brethren who wished, could read it. A brother who was a stranger came to see the old man and, seeing the Bible, wished to have it, and stole it as he was leaving. The old man did not run after him to take it from him, although he knew what he was doing. So the brother went to the city and tried to sell it, and finding a purchaser, he asked thirteen pieces of silver for it. The purchaser said to him, ‘Lend it to me, first, so that I may examine it, then I will give you a price.’ So he gave it to him. Taking it, the purchaser brought it to Abba Gelasius for him to examine it and told him the price which the seller had set. The old man said to him, ‘Buy it, for it is beautiful, and worth the price you tell me.’ This man when he returned, said something quite different to the seller, and not what the old man had said to him. ‘I have shown it to Abba Gelasius,’ he said, ‘and he replied that it was not worth the price you said.’ Hearing this, he asked, ‘Didn’t the old man say anything else?’ ‘No,’ he replied. Then the seller said, ‘I do not want to sell it any more.’ Filled with compunction, he went to find the old man, to do penance and ask him to take his book back. But he did not wish to make good his loss. So the brother said to him, ‘If you do not take it back, I shall have no peace.’ The old man answered, ‘If you won’t have any peace, then I will take it back.’ So the brother stayed there until his death, edified by the old man’s way of life.
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It was said of Abba Gelasius that he was often assailed by the thought of going to the desert. One day he said to his disciple, ‘Do me the favour, brother, of bearing with whatever I may do, and say nothing to me for the whole of this week.’ Taking a reed, he began to walk in his little atrium. When he was tired, he sat down a little, then stood up again to walk about. When evening came, he said to himself, ‘He who walks in the desert does not eat bread, but herbs; so because you are weary, eat a few vegetables.’ He did so, then said to himself again, ‘He who is in the desert does not lie in a bed, but in the open air; so do the same.’ So he lay down and slept in the atrium. He walked thus for three days in the Monastery, eating a few chicory leaves in the evening and sleeping the whole night in the open air and he grew weary. Then, taking the thought which troubled him, he refuted it in these words, ‘If you are not able to perform the works of the desert, live patiently in your Cell, weeping for your sins, without wandering here and there. For the eye of God always sees the works of a man and nothing escapes Him and He knows those who do good.’
