Abbot Spiridion 209

wine and corn, and even charters of large
demesnes, fruitful fields and woods and
waters — were bestowed as thank-offerings to
the saintly man.

Then over his tomb rose a vast and beau-
tiful minster, and the tomb itself was
covered with a shrine, brilliant with blue and
vermilion and gold and sculptured flowers,
and guarded by angels with outspreading
wings.

At the beginning Abbot Samson was well
pleased, for the great church rose like a
dream of heaven, but when he perceived
that the constant concourse of people was
destroying the hushed contemplation and
piety of the house, and that the brethren
were distracted with eagerness for gain and
luxury and the pride of life, he resolved to
make an end. Wherefore after High Mass
on the feast of All Saints’, he bade the reli-
gious walk in procession to the splendid
shrine, and there the Abbot, with the shep-
herd’s staff of rule in his hand, struck thrice
on the stone coffin, and three times he called
aloud: “Spiridion! Spiridion ! Spiridion !”
and begged him as he had been founder and
first father of that monastery, to listen to the

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