s asked pardon of the Abbot and of the brethren
for his pride, but at the same time, after a night spent in prayer, he
decided that he must leave this monastery, and he wrote to the starets
begging permission to return to him. He wrote that he felt his weakness
and incapacity to struggle against temptation without his help and
penitently confessed his sin of pride. By return of post came a letter
from the starets, who wrote that Sergius's pride was the cause of all
that had happened. The old man pointed out that his fits of anger were
due to the fact that in refusing all clerical honours he humiliated
himself not for the sake of God but for the sake of his pride. 'There
now, am I not a splendid man not to want anything?' That was why he
could not tolerate the Abbot's action. 'I have renounced everything for
the glory of God, and here I am exhibited like a wild beast!' 'Had you
renounced vanity for God's sake you would have borne it. Worldly pride
is not yet dead in you. I have thought about you, Sergius my son, and
prayed also, and this is what God has suggested to me. At the Tambov
hermitage the anchorite Hilary, a man of saintly life, has died. He had
lived there eighteen years. The Tambov Abbot is asking whether there is
not a brother who would take his place. And here comes your letter. Go
to Father Paissy of the Tambov Monastery. I will write to him about you,
and you must ask for Hilary's cell. Not that you can replace Hilary, but
you need solitude to quell your pride. May God bless you!'

Sergius obeyed the starets, showed his letter to the Abbot, and having
obtained his permission, gave up his cell, handed all his possessions
over to the monastery, and set out for the Tambov hermitage.

There the Abbot, an excellent manager of merchant origin, received
Sergius simply and quietly and placed him in Hilary's cell, at first
assigning to him a lay brother but afterwards leaving him alone, at
Sergius's own request. The cell was a dual cave, dug into the hillside,
and in it Hilary had been buried. In the back part was Hilary's grave,
while in the front was a niche for sleeping, with a straw mattress, a
small table, and a shelf with icons and books. Outside the outer door,
which fastened with a hook, was another shelf on which, once a day, a
monk placed food from the monastery.

And so Sergius became a hermit.

III

At Carnival time, in the sixth year of Sergius's life at the hermitage,
a merry company of ric