One day the patriarch John (the Almsgiver) gave to one of his servants who had been reduced to extreme poverty two pounds of gold with his own hands so that no one might know of it. When his servant said, “After this gift I shall no longer have the courage to look you in the face, a face so dear, so like an angel’s,” he made this wise and praiseworthy answer, “I have not yet shed my blood on your behalf, brother, as Christ, our God, my Master and the Master of us all, commanded me.”
