“Another time too I found a comely woman wandering in the desert. And when I asked her why and how she had come into these parts, ‘Ask me nothing,’ said she, ‘nor question me for reason, that I am the wretchedest of women, but if it pleases thee to have a handmaid, take me where you wilt’. And when I heard this, I had pity for her and took her to the cave…and gave her three hundred solidi [the Roman coin the solidus, containing 4.5g of pure gold each].” As recorded by the 4th C. Egyptian anchorite St. Paphnutius the Ascetic
-The Desert Fathers: Translations from the Latin
The Way of the Forty was by and large a men’s way. My friend Lorraine and her friend Angela had ridden part of it and gotten themselves arrested by the Egyptian border police, but how much of their trouble was caused by them being women, and how much their eventual release was due to that very same thing, is not known.
In my experience, only a few women were to be found at watering stations and in goatherders’ tents. One even washed my hair and my clothes when we passed by. I doubt she had ever done that before. And I sure did not pay her a kilo of gold for her services.
By the way, St. Paphnutius’ account is not what it seems. He did not take her to his cave and pay then for her services. After all, he was called The Ascetic. The woman was wretched because her husband could not pay his taxes. And the goodly saint did not give her everything he had so she could bail him out of debtors’ prison. Instead, Paphnutius was quoting another man’s story, a man who said of himself that he was sinful and degraded. So it is not known what the saint himself would have done with a comely woman offering to be his handmaid in the desert. Maybe ask her to wash his hair.