Write your abstract
here.
Maya, an aging saint of the Christian church in its
first bloom of youth
(542 AD) tells of his life,
consecrated to faith and voluntary poverty, and of the
incident which enriches it immeasurably by planting at
the
core of his faith a sacred seed of doubt. Two beautiful
young street performers---Theophilus and Mary---who
live to
all appearances the typically wanton life of such
itinerants, tell him that their lives are outwardly
sinful
but inwardly ascetic and consecrated to Christ. He
prays
with them till dawn. He is fully persuaded until after
he
has left their hovel and reflected. They could be true
saints, so indifferent to the
judgment of the world
they go
out of their way to appear sinful, or wantons of
unusual
sophistication who make saintliness, for one giddy
night,
their ultimate debauch. Unable to determine which, he
begins to question every ironhard judgment he has
formed of
right and wrong, taking a humble, compassionate role in
the
social world of Byzantium, in place of the fierce
ascetic
renunciation of the world and its snares he had
previously
adopted.
At his age, he's not long for this world---moreover
he
longs for the next one. He'll soon know, absorbed into
the
mind of God who knows all things. . . of course he'll
enter
God's house, sit on His right hand, meet the disciples
and
the Archangel Gabriel, bathe in everlasting light but
above
all else, he's dying to know the truth about the
Jumping
Mimuses of Byzantium.