Soon, Father Anatoly blessed the peasant girl Daria Timagina...
to take care of Dunya.
This girl sang well, knew the psalter by heart, but her parents were of little faith, and not wanting their daughter to go to a monastery, they soon married Daria. In order to maintain her purity and to lead a devout life, Daria fled from her parents' house to Dunyushka.
When her parents found her, they dragged her out of the cell by her hair, and beat her heavily for her disobedience. Twice she was married to suitors, and twice Daria ran away from them. Finally, the parents came to terms with the choice of their daughter, and for the next twenty years...
she practically did not leave Dunya's house.
Due to her weakness...
Dunya was unable to visit the church...
so the local priests came to the girls with the Eucharist to took home communion.
When the sisters prayed...
they did not allow anyone into their home.
Dunya and her assistants were treated differently in the village and in the district. Many loved her and felt sorry for her, they went to her for advice, and helped and prayed with her.
But there were also people among the peasants who hated her. This happened because Dunya exposed their sinful life, and saw in the souls and minds of people what was hidden from others.
Once, on the first Easter day, windows in their house were broken. Dunya lay wounded to blood by them, until the sisters finished reading their lines. Only after she herself had prayed, did she have the glass removed from her bed.
Seeing the spiritual warfare of evil spirits going on around them, Dunya constantly protected everything - walls, food and water - with the sign of the cross with a prayer: 'Protect, o Lord, with the power of Thy Honorable and Life-giving Cross.'
[bron]
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