down at his feet making entreaty unto him, and saying, “I beseech you to let no other person take them.” Macarius saith unto her, “Come to my house and see them,” but she would not consent to this; and she poured out for him five hundred dînârs, and said unto him, “According to what thou dost require even so take, but I do not wish to see the man who is selling them.”
And having taken the five hundred dînârs he spent them on food and on things for the use of those who were hungry, and on the poor. And when much time had passed, inasmuch as he was a famous man in Alexandria—now this blessed man was well known for his love of God, and for the merciful disposition which was in him, and he was almost one hundred years old, and we also knew him and had tarried in his house with him—the virgin was ashamed to call the matter [of the five hundred dînârs] to his mind. But finally she found him in the church and said unto him, “I beseech thee [to tell me] how thou hast disposed of the gems for which we gave thee the five hundred dînârs.” And he answered and said unto her, “When thou gavest me the money I gave it for the price of the gems; if thou wishest come and see them in my house, for there are they deposited. Come and see them, if it pleaseth thee [so to do], and if thou wilt not then take thy money.” So she went with him joyfully. Now the place to which [she went] was a house of the poor; in the upper parts thereof were lying women whose bodies were destroyed, and in the lower parts were men. And when they had come there Macarius brought her in through the door, and said unto her, “Which wouldst thou see first, the emeralds or the gems?” She saith unto him, “Whichever thou pleasest.” Then he took her up to the upper parts of the house and showed her the women whose faces and bodies were diseased and deformed, and said unto her, “These are the gems”; and he brought her down to the lower parts, and showed her the men, and said unto her, “These are the emeralds. If these please thee [good and well]; but if not take thy money.” Then was the virgin ashamed, and she went forth and departed, and by reason of her grief she fell into a sickness, because it was through God and of her own will that she had in this wise performed the matter. Finally, however, she came to herself, and was exceedingly grateful to the priest, and as for the maiden for whose wedding feast she was laying up her riches, she died.
