For Christ and the Poor

Peter was an immensely rich tax-gatherer in the Thebaid who gave nothing either to God or to the poor. The brothers brought a blind man to his door who charged Peter to give thanks to God for his good fortune; all he received was a pittance and a dismissal. But by night Peter had a vision of Christ carrying the pittance he had given the blind man and he realised that whatever a man does for the poor, he does it for God.  Going to the tax-house he saw one about to be choked for a debt of forty pieces of gold, which he supplied. Then, newly widowed, he went out into the square and saw a naked man. Taking off his under-garment (valued at one hundred pieces of gold) he gave it to him, and in his sleep he saw Christ wearing it. Now he resigned his post, giving many gifts to charitable causes and freeing all but his chief slave. With him he went to Jerusalem where he charged the slave to sell him into slavery. This he did, for forty pieces of gold - which were then given to him, together with his liberty. The former tax-gatherer served his new master, an ργυρoπράτης, as a faithful slave for about eighteen years, as his major-domo. Then some guests from Thebes came to the house who recognised him. He rewarded the dumb gate-keeper with the gift of speech for letting him slip away -- to become a monk, in which capacity he attained a high standard both as ascetic and as healer.