St. Athanasius: The Paradise of the Holy Fathers

[Stone]

CHAPTER XXXVIII

OF THE VIRGIN TAOR

NOW in this nunnery there was a certain virgin whose name was Taor, who was the disciple of a certain old woman of ascetic excellence, and who had lived therein for thirty years; and she would consent to receive neither beautiful apparel, nor a veil, nor sandals, saying, “I do not require [them], for I am not compelled to go down into the market.” Every First Day of the Week the other women used to go down to the church to partake of the Offering, but this virgin used to remain by herself in the nunnery dressed in rags, and she would sit at her work at all hours. And by these means she acquired such a sagacious, wise, and ready appearance that every man who was wont to abhor the sight of women would have been nigh to being snared and falling at the sight of her, had it not been that shamefacedness, which is the guardian of chastity, was ever with her, and that she ordered her gaze in a chaste manner by means of shame and fear.