CHAPTER XX

OF A CERTAIN HOLY VIRGIN

ONCE certain of the great sages of Scete were travelling along a road in the desert when they heard a sound, like the groan of a sick person, [rise up] from the ground; and they searched, and found a path which led into a cave, and when they had descended into it they discovered [there] a certain holy virgin. Then they said unto her, “O mother, when didst thou come here? And who ministereth unto thee?” For they saw nothing in the cave except the holy woman herself who was lying on the earth. And she said unto them, “Behold, I have passed eight and thirty years in this cave, and I have satisfied my wants with grass, for I labour for Christ. And I have never seen a man except this day, and God hath sent you to me this day to bury my body”; and having said these words, she died. And when the fathers saw [this], they glorified God, and they buried her body, and prayed, and departed from the place.