(6TH CENT.)
[Roman Martyrology, inserted by Baronius, after Molanus; but the
Greeks venerate these saints on October 29th. Authority:--The Life of
SS. Abraham and Mary, by Ephraem, the companion of Abraham, but not,
as has been commonly stated, S. Ephraem Syrus.]
Abraham was the son of very wealthy parents at Chidama, in Mesopotamia,
near the city of Edessa. His father sought a young and beautiful girl
in marriage for his son, and Abraham was married to her with all the
pomp befitting the splendour of the rank and wealth and the family. The
young man had now tasted all that the world could give, riches, honour,
and love, and his heart was still void and craving for something more.
Then he felt, with a conviction it was impossible to resist, that God
alone could fill that void, and that satisfaction could alone be found
in serving Him most perfectly. So, secretly in the night, seven days
after his marriage, he escaped, and hid himself in the desert.
His parents, who had refused him nothing for which he had expressed
a wish, his wife, who had given him no occasion of offence, were
in amazement. They searched for him everywhere, and at the end of
seventeen days discovered him in the desert, resolved to live alone.
It was in vain that parents and bride urged him to return; he was
inexorable, and they were obliged to leave him in his solitude. He
had found a small hut, and now he walled up the door, leaving only a
window, through which bread and water could be passed in to him by
a friend. He had spent ten or twelve years in this retreat when his
parents died, and left their immense property to him. He entrusted it
to the care of his most intimate friends, to be used for relieving the
necessities of the poor.
Now there was, not far off, a village of idolaters, who had stubbornly
resisted every missionary effort made to convert them. The bishop of
Edessa bethought him of Abraham the hermit, visited him in person,
and insisted on his coming forth and preaching to these heathen. In
vain did the hermit implore to be permitted to remain in his dear
solitude: the bishop put the matter on his obedience, brought him
forth, ordained him priest, and sent him amongst the pagans. Abraham
then built a church in their midst, and finding that they were deaf to
his exhortations, he spent his nights and days in tearful intercession
for them, and then, armed with zeal, he rushed upon their idols and
overthrew them. A mob at once assembled, and he was beaten till he
could not move; and whenever he appeared in the streets, he was
assailed with sticks and stones. Undeterred by this opposition, Abraham
continued instant in prayer; and, after three years, saw the tide of
popular opinion turn, and the villagers who had treated him so ill, now
venerated him as an apostle of the truth. Abraham tarried with them
another year, to confirm them in the faith, then commended them to the
supervision of the bishop, and returned to his cell. Now it happened
that a little girl, named Mary, the niece of Abraham, had been left an
orphan, and she was brought to the hermit, as her sole relative, to
educate. She was aged seven. Abraham bade a cell be built for her near
his own, and there the child grew up under his supervision till she was
twenty, when a young man, having conceived a violent passion for her,
led her away, and then abandoning her, the unfortunate girl fell deeper
into degradation, and became a common harlot in the city of Assos, in
the Troad. Her the uncle had bewailed her fall with the deepest grief,
and had instituted inquiries as to her whereabouts. Hearing that she
was at Assos, Abraham broke down the wall which closed his door, and
came forth, cast off his habit and sackcloth, and disguising himself
as a soldier, went to Assos. And when he came there, he hired a lodging
next door to the house of ill-fame where dwelt his niece, and he sought
opportunity to meet and speak with her, but could not. Then he went
to the house, and ordered supper, and bade that Mary should eat with
him. So she, knowing him not, lost to shame, came, tricked out with
necklaces and rings, in gaudy wanton dress. Then Abraham reddened
with grief, and could ill restrain his tears. But making an effort,
he controlled his emotion. So they sat down, and ate, and drank, and
she laughed noisily, and talked in a light and wanton way; and as she
spake the shadow on Abraham's brow deepened, the corners of his mouth
quivered with pain, and a film formed on his eyes. Then the girl kissed
him, and looked at him, and suddenly saw in the grave, suffering face
before her, something that recalled past days, and she moaned. The man
of the house hearing this, said, "Mary, what is the matter with thee?
These two years that thou hast been with me thou hast been ever gay."
But she looked up again, and met the tearful eyes of Abraham; then she
cried out, "Oh, God! would that I had died three years ago. This man
recalls to me my dear old uncle in the desert, and days of innocence
and pure joy." Then Abraham put the man forth, and locked the door, and
turning, threw back his hood, and caught Mary by both hands, and looked
at her and said, "Mary, my child!" Then she knew him, and became cold
and motionless as a stone. And he said, "My dearest child, what has
befallen thee? How hast thou sunk from heaven in the abyss! O why didst
thou not disclose to me thy first temptation, and I and Ephraem would
have besieged heaven with tears and prayers to save thee? Why didst
thou desert me like this, and bring this intolerable anguish of soul
upon me?" But she, frightened and trembling, answered not a word. And
he, holding her hands fast in his own, said again, "My own Mary, wilt
thou not speak to me?" Then his tears burst forth, and the whole man
was shaken with sobs. "Upon me be thy sin, my child," he said; "I will
answer for it at the Judgment day to God. I will do penance and suffer
in expiation of thy crime; only return, my child!" Then she burst forth
with, "I cannot look thee in the face, uncle, and how can I call on
God, whom I have so outraged?" "I will bear the burden of the sin, let
it weigh on me, Mary," said the hermit vehemently; "only return to the
old place, and dear Ephraem and I will pray instantly to God for thee.
Come child, follow me." Then she fell down, and laid her brow on his
feet, and sobbed, and held them, and kissed them, and stammered, "I
will follow thee, uncle. What reward shall I give unto the Lord for all
the benefits He has done unto me?" But he caught her up, and would not
suffer her thus to lie. And she fell again and kissed the ground he
had trodden, bringing her hopes of pardon and salvation. And he urged
her to fly at once. Then she said, "Uncle, I have here some valuable
trinkets, and some dresses. What shall I do with them? Shall I not pack
them up and carry them with me?" But he cried out, "Leave them, leave
them, they scent of evil." And he took her on his back, as a shepherd
carrying his strayed sheep, and unlocked the door, and ran out. And
when he came to his hut, he set Mary in the inner cell, and went into
the outer room himself. And she, bitterly repenting the past, served
God instantly, night and day, with tears. Abraham lived ten years
longer, and rejoiced to behold the sincerity of his niece's contrition,
and died at the age of seventy, in the fiftieth year of his solitary
life; and Mary lived five years after her uncle's death. God wrought
miracles of healing by her hands, to comfort the penitent soul, and
assure her that her tears had blotted out her transgression.