Page:John Feoktist Dudikoff - Beasts in Cassocks (1924).djvu/51

 Orthodox Bishop and the Roman Catholic nun."—"Why then don't you try to listen in?" was my question. To this the monk waved his hand and replied: "We are plain monks, and poor in the bargain. I have watched the Bishops more than once, but it only caused me annoyance, may the Lord forgive me." The monk made the sign of the cross and entered the church, and I, being only human, and overcome by curiosity, stepped to the door of Alexander's room and peeped through the keyhole. What I beheld was very much like what I had seen in Platon's apartment before this. Bishop Alexander took a sponge and washed the nun between the legs. Then, having sucked her rather full breasts, he began to tickle her womb with his tongue. About an hour and a half later the monks assembled in the mess hall. Bishop Alexander came there and in a touching speech told them how to keep their monastic vows all through life. He cited the example of the Roman Catholic nun who had just visited him and who enjoyed a far-reaching reputation as a "miracle worker." He stated that she reached her position of pre-eminence because of her incessant prayers and because of her rigid celibacy. Being unable to listen to Bishop Alexander's hypocrisy any longer, I pretented to be suffering from a headache and left the mess hall.

As far back as January I took back from Platon the money I had given him for safekeeping. In April I spent a few months in Philadelphia, assisting Father Alexis Gromstev with his parochial work. After that 1 returned to New York. Early in May Father Ivan Slunin came to me and after greeting me, told me that he was in great trouble. To my question as to the cause of his distress, he replied that the Andrei Church in Philadelphia was to be sold in a few days. "Too bad," he continued, "we have a bank of our own, lend out money on mortgages to strangers, and now this is happening to our own property and … we are helpless. It's a sure sign of war when people carry their money in purses or put it in Sheeny banks