The Life of a Holy Woman Who Died in the Wilderness
About twenty miles from Jerusalem, there is a monastery called Sampson, from which two fathers went up to Sinai to pray. When they returned to the monastery, they told us:
"After we had performed our devotions at the holy mountain, on our way back, we got lost in the wilderness. For many days, we were borne along in the wilderness as though we were on the high sea. One day, we saw a little cave in the distance, and we made our way towards it. When we came near to the cave, we saw a very small spring with some vegetation around it, and there were human footprints. We said to each other: 'Indeed, there is a servant of God here.'
When we entered the cave, we could not see anybody, but we could hear somebody breathing. We carefully searched the place and found something rather like a manger with someone lying in it. We came near to that servant of God and begged him to speak to us. When there was no answer, we touched him. The body was still warm, but his soul had gone to the Lord.
Then we realized that he had departed this life as we entered the cave. So, we took his body from where it lay and dug a grave for him there in the cave. One of us took off the pallium he was wearing and wrapped the elder’s body in it; and we buried her. But we discovered that it was a woman—and we glorified God. We performed the office over her and buried her.