On a ship sailing from Archangel into the White Sea is
an Archbishop and several of his followers. While on deck, the Archbishop
overhears a little fisherman telling the other passengers about three old men,
“servants of God,” who live on an island barely visible on the distant horizon.
At the Archbishop’s request, the fisherman tells about
his encounter with the three old men, who had once helped him when his boat stuck on the remote island. The old men, he tells the Archbishop, were most
peculiar in appearance. One was very old and hunchbacked, with green hairs
mingled in his grey beard. Another, who had a yellowish-grey beard and wore a
ragged caftan, was also very old, but taller than the first and strong enough
to turn the fisherman’s boat over “as if it were a pail.” The third was the
tallest of the three, and he had a snowy beard that reached to his knees.
The Archbishop, having heard the fisherman’s story,
asks the helmsman about the presence of three “holy men” on the distant island.
The helmsman’s response indicates that the fisherman may have been merely
“spinning yarns.” Nevertheless, the Archbishop goes to the captain and requests
that the ship be brought close enough to the island that he can be rowed to it.
This request does not please the captain, who tells the Archbishop that it
would not be worth his while to see the old men. They are, he has heard,
“imbeciles who understand nothing and are as dumb as the fishes of the sea.”
Neither the helmsman nor the captain, however, is able
to dissuade the Archbishop, who offers to pay the captain well for changing the
ship’s course so that he can visit the island. Thus, the captain changes the
ship’s course and in a short while brings it to anchor near the island. A
rowboat is lowered, and several rowers are commissioned to take the Archbishop
to the beach, where, by telescope, three old men can already be seen standing
near a large rock.
When the Archbishop lands on the shore, he finds the
three old men just as the fisherman described them, all ancient in age, with
long beards of varying shades of grey, and very poorly dressed. The old men say
very little but are impressed by the presence of the Archbishop, who asks them
how they make their devotions and how they pray to God. The oldest of the three
answers for the others that they do not know how to make any devotions but know
only how to serve and support themselves. As for prayer, says the old man, they
only know to say, “Three are Ye, three are we. Have Ye mercy upon us.” As soon
as the one old man says this simple prayer, the others look to Heaven and
repeat in unison, “Three are Ye, three, are we. Have Ye mercy upon us.”
The Archbishop is amused by the old men’s simple
prayer. Citing Holy Scripture, he endeavours to teach them a prayer that he
considers more pleasing to God, the Lord’s Prayer. Over and over he has them
repeat the words after him: “Our Father, who art in Heaven.” The old men are
very slow to learn this prayer, but at last, they do manage to say it without
the Archbishops...
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