Saints Always Forgive

​Anastasias was the abbot of a monastery in Egypt. The monastery had a large collection of spiritual books. One of those books was a very precious, rare old volume, worth a fortune.

One day a monk visiting the monastery saw the book and succumbing to temptation made off with it. The theft was discovered the same day and it was not hard for Anastasias to guess the culprit. However, He refused to send anyone after the monk to inquire about the book; for fear that the monk might refuse having taken the book and add the sin of perjury to that of theft.

Meanwhile, the monk tried selling the book and found an interested buyer - a rich man who asked him to leave the book with him for a day so that he could get it evaluated. When the monk left, the rich man hastened to the monastery and showed the book to Anastasias. The abbot instantly recognized the book but did not say anything. The rich man said, “A monk wants to sell this book to me. He’s asking for a gold sovereign. You are very knowledgeable about books. Is this book worth that much?”

“This is a very fine book. It’s worth at least a gold sovereign,” said the abbot.

The rich man thanked the abbot and left. The next day when the monk came, he informed him that he would like to buy the book and was prepared to pay the price he had mentioned. The monk was overjoyed. “Who did you show it to?” he asked. 

The rich man said - “Anastasias, the abbot.”
His visitor turned pale. “A-And what did he say?”
He said the book was worth a sovereign.”
“And what else?”
“Nothing”

The monk was both amazed and touched. He realized that the abbot had refused to reclaim his lost treasure so that he, “the thief” would not get into trouble. Nobody had ever shown him such love or had ever behaved so nobly towards him.

“I’ve changed my mind, I don’t want to sell it,” said the monk and took the book from the rich man.

“I’ll give you two sovereigns”, said the rich man. The monk walked away without answering. He went directly to the monastery and handed the book to the abbot, tears brimming in his eyes.

“Keep it,” said Anastasias. “When I learnt you had borrowed it I decided to gift it to you.”

“Please take it back, else I shall never have any peace” pleaded the monk, “please also let me stay here and gain wisdom from you.”

His wish was granted. He spent the rest of his years in the monastery modeling his life after that of the saintly Anastasias.