She was neither a nun, nor an ascetic, nor a martyr, but rather a married woman who was a saint, filled with wisdom, humility, frankness, courtesy, and good conduct…

Her story is mentioned in (1 Sam. 25)… Her husband, Nabal, was an evil man. In the same chapter, he is described as foolish, wicked, harsh, and evil in his deeds. He was also stingy, violent, and crude in speech. Abigail lived with him, and perhaps she had been given to him as a wife at a time when women had no freedom of choice…

She is an example of the wife who preserved her holiness despite the wickedness of her husband and the troubles he caused.

Likewise was Saint Monica, the mother of Augustine.

Her husband was very rich, possessing 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. Yet he refused to help David the prophet during his distress while he was fleeing with 600 of his men, unable to find food to eat… He addressed David’s messengers harshly and refused to give them anything… So David became angry and commanded his men to gird on their swords, and he went up to destroy Nabal and all that belonged to him.

Here this wise woman intervened and saved her wicked husband with all the sincerity and faithfulness of a loyal wife. Had another woman been in her place, she might have sought divorce from him or rejoiced in his calamity in order to be rid of him… But when Abigail heard of the problem, she neither panicked nor hesitated, but acted quickly, wisely, and generously… and she did not inform her husband…

She loaded her animals with abundant quantities of sheep, bread, wine, parched grain, raisins, and figs. Then she met David in humility: she fell before him on her face and bowed to the ground and said: “On me, my lord, on me let this iniquity be! And please let your maidservant speak in your ears…” She condemned Nabal and apologized for dismissing his servants, saying: “But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord…”

She calmed David’s angry heart through the gift and through humility.

She never departed from the expressions “my lord” and “your maidservant.” And in presenting the food to him, she did not wound his feelings, but rather said: “This blessing which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord…” Thus she gave him the honor due to him as a master…

And in all this, she did not flatter him, but rebuked him in a courteous way for thinking of shedding blood and avenging himself…

She spoke with frankness without losing her respect for him: “Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand…”

And after referring to the sin of revenge, she returned to praise his position, saying that he “fights the battles of the Lord,” and that evil had not been found in him, and that the Lord would establish for him a lasting house and grant him leadership. Therefore it would not be fitting “that this should be a grief and offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself.”

How great was her rebuke to the Lord’s anointed—done with courtesy and with the tenderness of a mother advising her son…

She saved her husband from death, and she saved the Lord’s anointed from sin. Therefore he said to her: “Blessed is your advice, and blessed are you.” And when her husband died, David the prophet married her, and later she became a queen…

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Ten) 11-3-1977

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