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== Feast Day ==
The Church remembers St. Thais on [[October 8]].
intro paragraph
The Righteous '''Thais the Former Harlot''' was a [[saint]] of the early Egyptian Church. Her [[feast day]] is celebrated on [[October 8]].
== Life ==
There was a certain harlot called '''Thais''' and she was so beautiful that many for her sake sold all that they had and reduced themselves to utter poverty; quarrels arose among her lovers and often the doorstep of this girl's house was soaked in the blood of young men.
When Abba [[Paphnutius]] heard about it, he put on secular clothes and went to see her in a certain city in Egypt. He handed her a silver piece as the price for committing sin. She accepted the price and said, 'Let us go inside." When he went in, he sat down on the bed which was draped with precious covers and he invited her, saying, 'If there is a more private chamber, let us go in there.' She said, 'There is one, but if it is people you are afraid of, no one ever enters this room; except, of course, for God, for there is no place that is hidden from the eyes of divinity.'
He began to open the door for her which he bad sealed up, but she begged to be left shut up in there. When the door was open he said to her, 'Come out, for God has forgiven you your sins.' She replied, 'I call God to witness that since I came in here my sins have always been before my eyes as a burden; they have never been out of my sight and I have always wept to see them.' Abba Paphnutius said to her, 'God has forgiven your sins not because of your penances but because you have always had the remembrance of your sins in your soul.' When he had taken Thais out, she lived for fifteen days and then passed away in peace.
== Source ==
*English translation from a Latin translation of a Greek text by an anonymous author. Paraphrased from ''Harlots of the Desert'' by Benedicta Ward.
[[Category:Saints]]
