Last Updated on March 13, 2024 by pg@petergamma.org
Milarepa from Tibet
Milarepa – the meditator in solitratry retreat who became from a sinner to a saint meditated in solitary retreat until his skin became green.
«He stayed there for many years, until his clothes turned to rags, his bones protruded, and the nettles he ate turned his skin green. Hunters and thieves who came upon him thought he was a ghost. When he went begging for food, his uncle, aunt, and neighbors attacked him, and he barely escaped. His sister, who had also become a beggar, wept in misery at his apparently even sorrier state.»
Who wants to live like that?
On the other hand
Niklaus von Flue
who lived in Switzerland had a better live than Milarepa
- Niklaus von Flue became is patron of saints in Switzerland
- In October 1467 Niklaus left his family with his wife’s consent to become a hermit.
- Then he lived in solitary retreat until in 1487 Brother Klaus died on the floor of his cell after a hard agony.
- He was declared holy in 1947.
- And we do not know of any complaints of Niklaus von Flue that he had nothing to eat in his stomac during his whole life.