A deafening roar shook the cell hidden by the branches of the centuries-old oaks on the steep side of the canyon, where two middle-aged nuns lived. Sister Nina rushed to the window and immediately backed away from it in fear. In a small clearing in front of the cell entrance, a huge bear was sitting with its paw raised. She seemed to show it to her sisters, and, swaying with her whole body, roared with a kind of cry. Mother Elena walked over to the window and noticed a large torn gash sticking out of her swollen leg.
"Look, she's crying," the nun shook her head. - Obviously, she's in pain... Well, what can you do now, we have to help her. I'll go get the shard.
- What are you, what are you sister!? – Nina pressed her hands to her chest in horror, "she's going to eat you!"
- Why would he eat me? Do you see how much it hurts her? Look, she has tears in her eyes!
And no matter how hard Nina tried to hold her sister, Mother Elena kept walking out the door... Long ago, as a young novice, Elena, with Mother Abbess's blessing, completed paramedic courses and until the Bolsheviks dissolved the monastery in 1923, the monastery cared for sisters and parishioners.
With a customary movement, he took tweezers and a scalpel from the camp sterilizer, crossed himself at the icons, and went out into the clearing. After examining the swollen leg, the nun sighed:
"Well dear, we'll have to be patient." Obviously, you can't do without a scalpel here.
He grasped the huge clawed leg and first tried, shaking the fragment, to pull it up. The bear, like a man, groaned in pain. But the fragment sat firmly and did not move. I had to make an incision. A stream of pus and blackened blood gushed out from under the skin. The huge fragment looked like a harpoon with serrations spread along the sides that held it firmly under the skin. Having washed the wound with clean water, the nun, in the absence of other means, moistened a swab with blessed oil and tied a long piece of an old sheet to the sore spot.
"Well, mother, now come and get the bandage," the old woman fearlessly stroked the huge bear's forehead.
And the bear, as if he understood human speech, nodded his head several times in gratitude, as if thanking her for the help.
Holding her sore leg up and hopping playfully on her three legs, she made her way down the slope and quickly disappeared into the thorn bushes.
The next morning, when Mother Elena was still carrying out the rule of her cell, Sister Nina heard her sister's voice.
"Mother, come look out the window!" What a miracle! Your patient has arrived. You can see the bandage.
- Nothing, let him wait. I will finish the rule soon.
The bear sat patiently right next to the door, holding its sore leg up as before.
Mother Elena tied her up and then, taking a piece of bread from her apron pocket, placed it in her palm.
The patient carefully, with her lips stretched like a pipe, took the treat from her palm and chewed for a long time, with undisguised pleasure, appreciating the hitherto unknown delicacy. This was repeated for several days.
And finally, the leg was completely healed, but the bear continued to visit the nuns every week.
He sat in the middle of the clearing right next to the cell and waited for a treat. But the sisters could not always pamper Aphrodite, as the bear was nicknamed, with bread. Often they themselves sat without crumbs. And then mother Elena, having collected various edible herbs in a pot, added some flour there and, after cooking for a few minutes, treated the bear to this stew.
It happened that the sisters forgot the guest, and then Aphrodite, after waiting half an hour, began to scratch impatiently at the thick oaken door until they remembered her and got at least a small piece of something eatable. As a result, the entire cell door was covered with deep scratches from the huge claws of a forest animal.
In those post-war years, there were neither doctors nor medicine in Abkhazia. God-fearing residents of the surrounding Greek villages of Georgievka, Chyny and Apushta with all their problems and illnesses came to nun Elena for advice and help. The ascetic healed many people: children and adults, not only thanks to her medical knowledge and rich practice, but, as many noticed, with prayer, the cross, sanctification and great sanctification.
Early in the morning, arriving in the cold, several women were waiting for Mother Elena not far from the cell. Suddenly, a huge bear's head appeared from the dense thorns. Out of surprise, the women could not open their mouths for several seconds. But then out loud, the whole
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