A brother was beset by the demon of lust. It so happened that the brother once passed by a village in Egypt and saw a beautiful woman, who was the daughter of a pagan priest. On seeing her, he was wildly aroused and, under the influence of his passions, went to the father of the girl and said: “Give me your daughter as my wife.”
“I cannot give her to you,” the pagan priest answered, “without asking my god. Wait a bit.”
Indeed, the pagan priest went to his god’s oracle (through which, as we know, the Devil speaks) and asked: “A monk came to my home and wants my daughter as his wife. Shall I give her to him?”
The demon hidden in the oracle answered him: “Ask him if he will deny his God, his baptism, and the vows he made as a monk.”
When the pagan priest returned, he said to the monk: “Will you deny your God, your baptism, and your monastic vocation?” Indeed, the monk accepted his terms. But immediately he saw something bright come from his mouth and, like a dove, go up into the heavens.
Right away, the pagan priest ran to the demon and said: “Behold, the monk did all that you asked.” Then the demon said to him: “Do not give you daughter to him as a wife, for his God has not departed from him, but is still helping him.”
So once again, the pagan priest went to the monk and told him: “I cannot give my daughter to you as a wife, since your God continues to remain near you and help you.”
On hearing this response, the monk was deeply moved and said within himself: “Even though God in His singular goodness has bestowed upon me so many good things, I—wretch that I am—have denied Him, His Holy baptism, and monastic vows.
