”Holy Andrew, walking one day along
the streets of Constantinople, saw a great and splendid funeral. A rich man had
died, and his cortege was magnificent. But when he looked more closely, Andrew
saw a host of little black men capering merrily around the corpse, one grinning
like a prostitute, another barking like a dog, a third grunting like a pig, a
fourth pouring something filthy over the body. And they were mocking the
singers and saying: “You’re singing over a dog!” Andrew, marveling, wondered
what this man had done. Turning round, he saw a handsome youth standing weeping
behind a wall. “For the sake of the God
of heaven and earth, tell me the reason for your tears”, said Andrew. The young
man then told him that he had been the dead man’s guardian angel, but that the
man had, by his sins, greatly offended God, casting his angel’s counsel from
him and giving himself over utterly to the black demons. And the angel said
that this man was a great and unrepentant sinner: a liar, a hater of men, a
miser, a shedder of blood and a dissolute man who had turned three hundred
souls to immorality. In vain was he honoured by the Emperor and respected by
the people. In vain was this great funeral. Death had caught him unrepentant,
and the harvest had come without warning.”
(Excerpted and Adapted by St. Nikolai
Velimirovich)
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