For my Turkish brothers

 

Ahmet once lived in Constantinople, the first assistant of the chief accountant class of the sultan's palaces, the foremen.

He was rich, and everyone respected him because of his position in the palace. In fact, he was a very devout Muslim.

Ahmet had three servants in his cohort to serve him.

We were a little Turkish boy, Khalil, who was twelve years old, Khalil to do the housework, and two Russian women, Christians, Vera, who had kept him employed for years, and Olga, who was younger.

Because Ahmet was a good man and respected the two women, they had the courage to ask him to go to church on Sundays and on the great Christian holidays.

Ahmet thought for a moment about what the women had asked him and then answered.

- Neither of you can go. Cognac has business, and Khalil is worth nothing. Only one of them will go.

He said to Vera, "You go, old woman."

And it was as Master Ahmet described it. Vera went to church almost every day, while Olga stayed at home with little Halil and did the housework.

On the way back, old Vera brought Olga a gift from church and ate it with great respect after making her first cross.

When Ahmet Bey woke up in the morning, Olga made him coffee. Then she put cold water and a piece of syrupy sweets, sometimes baklava, sometimes saragli, on the tray held by little Halil and took him to her presence.

- What did you eat in the morning, and your mouth smells like musk, as if you were talking to me? The master asked Olga there, offering her coffee and syrupy sweets.

"Nothing, my lord, I didn't eat," she answered, bowing her head before him.

- And how does your breath smell like that? Didn't you chew mint? Didn't you hide a Chian gum bullet or a cinnamon stick on your tongue?

- No, my lord, I didn't do anything, he said, scared, and I don't understand what you're saying! I don't smell anything!

- Negative. You do something, and your breath smells every day.

- What do these women do in the kitchen, Halil, and they don't tell me? He secretly asked his little slave.

"How do I know, my lord?" he said and raised his back when it came to the subject.

Ahmet Bey had the same conversation with Olga and Halil every morning, but he could not come to a conclusion. And the smell from his breath was always the same and spread throughout the room, filling the place with musk. But Olga's answer was always the same:

- I have not eaten anything except my lord. One morning he suddenly said as if he was thinking better.

Master Ahmet opened his eyes and waited for his speech to take a breath.

- The only thing I put in my mouth in the morning is the antidote. There is nothing else, master.

- And why didn't you tell me for so long because I asked you? he said angrily.

- I didn't hide it, master; I had never thought about it before.

- And what is this? ...sacred bread, Ahmet asked.

The ransom is a piece of sacred bread that Vera brings me from church every morning. I just put it in my mouth.

-And does this bread smell like musk? He asked.

"It is sanctified, my lord," the girl answered.

It is sanctified by Christ Himself.

Master Ahmet did not want to hear anything else. The strange smell he felt coming out of his slave's mouth every morning was enough to set his mind on fire and to want to know what was going on in those Christian churches.

The next day, without his knowledge, he put on Christian clothes and unknowingly left his cognac. And before the Divine Liturgy began, he dug into the semi-darkness of a church and was thrown into a barn lit by the light of candles.

But Christ, who knows everyone's heart, showed that good man another miracle that happens at every Divine Liturgy.

Thus Ahmet saw the Priest at the Grand Entrance, as if he had passed before him holding the Holy Gifts in his hand, so as not to step on the ground. And he also saw the clock, blessing the faithful, with rays of light coming out of his hands and bathing the heads of the Christians with light.

But the rays of light did not approach him, did not touch him, but stood at a distance, leaving him in darkness.

Every day for a week, Ahmet went to another church to see the miracle.

And this was repeated in exactly the same way.

Then, as if convinced of what he had seen, he secretly met a priest.

We never learned when the priest gave him religious instruction, when he baptized him, when he anointed him.

All we know is that when he was asked who he thought was the most important thing in the world, it was the light that bathed him in the Sultan's Sera, in front of all the viziers, and St. Ahmet answered boldly, without counting his life:

- The most important thing in the world is the faith of Christians!!!