Masha died. Maria, to be exact. She was already over 60, but at Father Eugene's parish everyone called her Mashka, called her by her first name, and considered her a local fool.

Masha died. Maria, to be exact. She was already over 60, but at Father Eugene's parish everyone called her Mashka, called her by her first name, and considered her a local fool.

Masha spent all her time in the church. Though she almost never attended a service, she mostly played with children in the churchyard. And sometimes they even gave her communion without confession, like a child. And she behaved like a little girl.

The adult parishioners didn't like her, but shunned her. She was very obtrusive: she would cuddle, she would ask for things, she would just talk the whole time. She complained that her pantyhose were torn, that somebody had hurt her, that her father had scolded her.

And father Eugene loved her. He just asked not to disturb him during the service...

"Masha, leave me alone, Cherubimskaya," some people said to her.

"Take a candy and go, let me pray," said some people who pushed her to the exit.

And she walked sadly with her head down. But she saw children in the yard and she bloomed. And immediately she gave someone the candy she had asked for.

Church kids considered Masha equal and hung on her in bunches.

She played with them in hide-and-seek, chase, dolls, in the sandbox, read them some nursery rhymes. And most of all she liked to drive someone's stroller with a baby around the yard. She was sometimes trusted. Masha walked with the stroller proudly and shyly at the same time, stopping often and looking inside. She looked at the baby with inexpressible tenderness and a kind of deep sadness. It was as if the soul of this aching woman was crying for a failed motherhood.

She was also very fond of the Virgin Mary.

Once a miracle-working icon of the Mother of God was brought to that temple. Only for a day. All day long people were coming to see Her. At one point an important, fashionable and very fragrant lady came up to the relic.

Masha for some reason began to pull her by the sleeve and laughing.

"Leave me alone, stupid!" with anger blurted out a woman. "Somebody take her away."

Father Eugene heard this. "The Virgin has come to fools, too," he said quietly.

The lady was taken aback, but Masha was more taken aback. She grew serious, knelt before the icon, bowed and quietly left.

Then sometimes she would stand for a long time in front of some icon of the Mother of God. She would look at the One that had come to her and thought about something...

And then she was gone. It happened after the service.

Masha went somewhere to do her business. And, passing by one of the houses, she saw that an apartment was on fire.

Firefighters had already managed to get the tenants out, but some little boy was sobbing and shouting at the whole street: "There's Fluffy, there's my kitty!" His mother held him close to her, but he just kept screaming and screaming.

Then they said that Masha rushed into the entryway.

They tried to stop her: "Where are you going, stupid! You'll get yourself killed!" But she didn't listen.

Amazingly Masha found the kitten. And she herself died in the intensive care unit. She was poisoned by carbon monoxide.

There was no one to bury her, so the church took care of everything.

After the funeral someone said:

"You can't die of stupidity like that."

"Not out of stupidity, but out of love,"Father Eugene answered.

And told me something that no one here but him knew.

Once in her childhood little and healthy Masha climbed up in the same way for a kitten, which was stuck high on a tree. She rescued it, but fell herself, hit herself, and hurt her head. She was treated - nothing came of  it. And she remained a child for life, a silly little Masha, whom no one took seriously, but who loved and pitied all living things and was adored by children, and children cannot be cheated.

"Yes, she died for love," repeated Father Eugene. "Heavenly kingdom to the servant of God Maria."

Elena Kucherenko