_ 297 _ Ark. Three times he tried to go up, but was benighted on the way, and in the morning he found himself again at the foot of the mountains. On the last occasion, when he was already halfway there and very tired, in a place which he had not reached on the other occasions, he began to weep, begging Our Lord with great devotion that He should allow him to see the Ark, which he desired so much [to see]. At this an angel appeared and asked him what he wanted. He answered that he wanted to see the Ark and to complete the pilgrimage as he had promised. The angel told him that this could not be, that he should no longer strive to do this, for no son who had come from the womb of his mother could return to it. Then he brought him a plank from the Ark and told him that it was all like that. He told him he should be content with that and should go back. In spite of this the blessed saint made from it the plank, in that very place, a small altar, where he said Mass. Now a small hermitage has been built, with a hermit living in it. Every year on that day many Christians, Armenians and others, go there on a pilgrimage, and their priests say Mass for them. When it was morning and we recognised the road, we loaded the mules again, and followed it across a large and beautiful plain, all under cultivation and full of villages
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy