Father Sergius lived as a recluse for another seven years.

At first he accepted much of what people brought him--tea, sugar, white
bread, milk, clothing, and fire-wood. But as time went on he led a more
and more austere life, refusing everything superfluous, and finally he
accepted nothing but rye-bread once a week. Everything else that was
brought to him he gave to the poor who came to him. He spent his entire
time in his cell, in prayer or in conversation with callers, who became
more and more numerous as time went on. Only three times a year did
he go out to church, and when necessary he went out to fetch water and
wood.

The episode with Makovkina had occurred after five years of his hermit
life. That occurrence soon became generally known--her nocturnal visit,
the change she underwent, and her entry into a convent. From that time
Father Sergius's fame increased. More and more visitors came to see him,
other monks settled down near his cell, and a church was erected there
and also a hostelry. His fame, as usual exaggerating his feats, spread
ever more and more widely. People began to come to him from a distance,
and began bringing invalids to him whom they declared he cured.

His first cure occurred in the eighth year of his life as a hermit. It
was the healing of a fourteen-year-old boy, whose mother brought him
to Father Sergius insisting that he should lay his hand on the child's
head. It had never occurred to Father Sergius that he could cure the
sick. He would have regarded such a thought as a great sin of pride; but
the mother who brought the boy implored him insistently, falling at his
feet and saying: 'Why do you, who heal others, refuse to help my son?'
She besought him in Christ's name. When Father Sergius assured her that