Famous Women
A Virtuous Woman Who Loved Her Mother-in-Law
O Saint Ruth, who was deemed worthy to have one of the Holy Scriptures bear your name.
Indeed, you were also found worthy to become an ancestress of the Lord Christ, and your name was recorded in the genealogy, because you married Boaz, the grandfather of the Prophet David.
You were living as a stranger in the land of Moab. When your husband died, your mother-in-law, Naomi, decided to return to her hometown, Bethlehem.
But Ruth insisted on following her mother-in-law and refused to let her go alone.
She said to her: “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn back from following you. For wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.”
Thus, Ruth showed a marvelous love, rarely seen from a daughter-in-law toward her mother-in-law!
Even though her mother-in-law repeatedly urged her to leave…
Because of this love, the Lord rewarded her by bringing forth His lineage through her, and she became the ancestress of the Prophet David.
Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – El-Keraza Magazine – Eighth Year, Issue No. 48 – December 2, 1977.
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