t on he led a more
and more austere life, refusing everything superfluous, and finally he
accepted nothing but rye-bread once a week. Everything else that was
brought to him he gave to the poor who came to him. He spent his entire
time in his cell, in prayer or in conversation with callers, who became
more and more numerous as time went on. Only three times a year did
he go out to church, and when necessary he went out to fetch water and
wood.

The episode with Makovkina had occurred after five years of his hermit
life. That occurrence soon became generally known--her nocturnal visit,
the change she underwent, and her entry into a convent. From that time
Father Sergius's fame increased. More and more visitors came to see him,
other monks settled down near his cell, and a church was erected there
and also a hostelry. His fame, as usual exaggerating his feats, spread
ever more and more widely. People began to come to him from a distance,
and began bringing invalids to him whom they declared he cured.

His first cure occurred in the eighth year of his life as a hermit. It
was the healing of a fourteen-year-old boy, whose mother brought him
to Father Sergius insisting that he should lay his hand on the child's
head. It had never occurred to Father Sergius that he could cure the
sick. He would have regarded such a thought as a great sin of pride; but
the mother who brought the boy implored him insistently, falling at his
feet and saying: 'Why do you, who heal others, refuse to help my son?'
She besought him in Christ's name. When Father Sergius assured her that
only God could heal the sick, she replied that she only wanted him to
lay his hands on the boy and pray for him. Father Sergius refused and
returned to his cell. But next day (it was in autumn and the nights were
already cold) on going out for water he saw the same mother with her
son, a pale boy of fourteen, and was met by the same petition.

He remembered the parable of the unjust judge, and though he had
previously felt sure that he ought to refuse, he now began to hesitate
and, having hesitated, took to prayer and prayed until a decision formed
itself in his soul. This decision was, that he ought to accede to the
woman's request and that her faith might save her son. As for himself,
he would in this case be but an insignificant instrument chosen by God.

And going out to the mother he did what she asked--laid his hand on the
boy's head and prayed.

The mother