THE THREE HERMITS by LEO TOLSTOY

-

 

                Count Leo Tolstoy was a great Russian writer of novels and short stories. His works embody a moral vision based on love of God and Man. His short stories read like parables and are often based on Biblical texts. “The Three Hermits” was published in 1886. The title refers to its three central character who are unnamed simple monks living on a remote island. They are spending their life in prayer and contemplation for the salvation of their souls.

                A group of pilgrims were travelling from Archangel to the Solovetsky Monastery in a ship.  A Bishop who was one among the pilgrims saw a fisherman pointing out at something in distance. The Bishop went near him and asked what he was talking about. The fishermen said about the three hermits who were living in a distant island. The Bishop asked more details about them. The fishermen described the three hermits.

He said that first hermit was more than 100 years old and his face was bright like that of an angel. The second hermit too was old but was stronger, kinder and cheerful and the third hermit was tall and unsmiling and he was only half dressed. On hearing about the three hermits, the Bishop wanted to meet them. But the captain said that it was waste of time, because the hermits are not so much worth and they can’t even speak or understand anything. But still the Bishop was stubborn on meeting them. So they anchored the ship and the Bishop went to the island in a boat.

On reaching the island the Bishop found that the three hermits are praying towards God for their soul’s salvation in a primitive way. So the Bishop started to teach them the Lord’s prayer, which God in the holy scriptures has commanded all men to pray to him. But the three hermits were slow in learning. For one hermit the over grown hair over his mouth disturbed his speech and the oldest hermit could not pronounce the words properly because of his toothless mouth. The unsmiling hermit was the first one to learn the prayer taught by Bishop. It became dark before the three hermits could learn the prayer by heart.

On returning to the ship the Bishop felt sleepless and he was thinking about the hermits. He thanked God for having sent him to teach and help such godly man. Suddenly the Bishop saw something white and shining pursuing the ship, but he could not understand what it was. The light was approaching the ship swiftly. Once the shining light neared the ship, the Bishop found out that it was the three hermits. The Bishop was shocked and surprised on seeing them. The hermits asked the Bishop to teach the prayer once again since they have forgotten it.

The Bishop realized his mistake on seeing the hermits. He said to them that their own prayer will reach the lord and asked them to pray to God to forgive his sins too. The Bishop bowed down before the three Hermits. Thus this story of Leo Tolstoy emphasis true piety as against vain verbiage faith is shown as working miracles.

---HAPPY LEARNING----

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thundu and Other Stories by K. V. Balasubramanian

-
  Dr. K. V. Balasubramanian, was the former professor and head, Department of Literature, Tamil University, Thanjavur. He believed that in every breath of people and in every eye there is a story hidden. His first short story “ Thundu ” was published in a monthly magazine named Annam. The social awareness imbibed in this short story is noteworthy.             Dr. R. Shanti, translated this work in English in 20 13 . The translation is excellent. She has brought the portraits alive in the foreign tongue. The flavor and the breath of the original are alive in her translations.   A LESSON: This is the first short story in this collection. The unnamed protagonist was worried about the debts that surrounds him.   Most part of his salary is spent for milk, curd, school fees, and electricity bill and so on. He could not save his income. He suffer financially. Though his family is just limited to two children his sa...
Read more

Spoon Feeding by W.R. Inge

-
William Ralph Inge is well known as a genial writer on topics of contemporary interest. In “Spoon Feeding”, he elaborates on how mankind is dwindling into a race of pygmies by excessive dependence on the comforts of science and technology.                 He begins his essay by comparing the noble savage with the modern man. According to Inge, the noble savage is far better than the civilized people because he never had any trouble with his teeth. He was able to tear tough meat without the help of knife and fork. But the modern man eats with the help of knife and fork and that became the reason for the most of his diseases.                 Earlier the house wives used to bake bread and make her own jam but now she has become incapable of anything. The laborers before industrial revolution were self-sufficing, but now he depends on tool...
Read more