CHAPTER XXVI

OF A CERTAIN VIRGIN WHO WAS IN JERUSALEM

AND moreover, I saw a certain virgin in Jerusalem who had been clothed in sackcloth for three years, and she had secluded herself in a solitary cell, and had never permitted herself to enjoy any of the desirable things wherein there is pleasure. Now this woman, having been forsaken by the Divine Providence, because of her immeasurable pride and arrogance fell into the ditches of fornication, and she opened the window of the habitation in which she had secluded herself, and received [therein] the man who ministered unto her, and she had intercourse with him. And because she did not continue to persevere in faith and in the ascetic life with a perfect will, and with a mind which possessed Divine love, but [departed therefrom] for the sake of men, that is to say, for the sake of vainglory, doing so, moreover, with an evil intent and with a corrupt and lascivious mind—for her own thoughts having been cut off, since they had been robbed of the Divine understanding, she came to the condition of casting blame upon others—the guardian of chastity did not remain with her.