Coffee With Sister Vassa -- THE INTRIGUING NUMBER 17

 

The number 17 has special meaning in the Bible and in certain Lives of the Saints, like Mary of Egypt and Alexios the Man of God. It consists of the number 10, signifying perfect order (and it’s easiest to order or count things in groups of 10, not only because we have ten fingers on our hands), and the number 7, signifying completion (of something either bad or good) and/or complete victory. Thus, Joseph was 17 years old when he was sold into slavery in Egypt, completing the childhood years he had spent at home; The Great Flood in Noah’s time began on the 17th day of the second month, putting an end to the wickedness of the rest of humanity; Noah’s Ark rested on the mountains of Ararat on the 17th day of the seventh month; and Jesus Christ is often interpreted to have resurrected from the Tomb on 17 Nisan, completing His victory over death.

In the Life of St. Mary of Egypt: 1. She spends 17 years as a sex-addict in Alexandria (and on that 17th year, she goes to Jerusalem and experiences conversion); and 2. She then spends 17 years in the desert ‘ in constant danger,’ battling her passions, until she attains peace, after which she lives for another 30 years in the desert until Zosimas discovers her there. I also noticed recently that another saint, Alexios the Man of God, celebrated on March 17 on the Orthodox church-calendar and on July 17 on the Roman Catholic church-calendar, also has other significant 17’s in his story: 1. Alexios spent 17 years in fasting & prayer in Edessa in Syria, after he secretly left home; and 2. He then returned home and spent a further 17 years under the stairs of his parents’ home, until his death.

All-of-the-above helps to read and interpret the little symbolic details of traditioned texts, like the Lives of the Saints. The 17-year periods in the abovementioned lives are the periods in which something in them was brought to completion; was overcome. And then came the next 17-year phase, when something else still needed to be worked on, either in themselves or in others, or both. In the case of Alexios the Man of God it is most intriguing, because one wonders, why in the world he returned home, specifically to his childhood home. But the number 17 does give us a clue, that he needed to work on something unresolved, un-healed, between him and his family, to which he ministered, in a way, during the time he was under the stairs. They didn’t have the eyes to ‘see’ or recognize him for who he was, until he died, probably because they could only see him in the role they expected of him, to be their son or (in the case of his wife) her husband. But they did nourish him from their table, as a beggar, which was a strange way in which they did share a certain kind of communion, and extended their hearts to a beggar, in ways that they could not to their son/husband, insofar as he was not meeting their expectations.

Anyway, Happy Tuesday of the Fifth Week! ❤