Edition Masquer
Vita Pauli

6.

Igitur adamato quasi a Deo sibi offerretur habitaculo, omnem ibidem in orationibus et solitudine duxit aetatem. Cibum et uestimentum palma praebebat.

Quod ne cui impossibile uideatur, Iesum testor et sanctos angelos eius, in ea parte eremi quae iuxta Syriam Saracenis iungitur et uidisse me monachos et uidere, e quibus unus triginta iam per annos clausus hordeaceo pane et lutulenta aqua uiuit. Alter in cisterna ueteri (quam gentili sermone Syri 'gubbam' uocant) quinque caricis per singulos dies sustentatur. Haec incredibilia uidebuntur eis, qui non crediderint omnia possibilia esse credentibus.

Traduction Masquer
The Life of Paulus the First Hermit

6.

Accordingly, regarding his abode as a gift from God, he fell in love with it, and there in prayer and solitude spent all the rest of his life. The palm afforded him food and clothing. And, that no one may deem this impossible, I call to witness Jesus and His holy angels that I have seen and still see in that part of the desert which lies between Syria and the Saracens’ country, monks of whom one was shut up for thirty years and lived on barley bread and muddy water, while another in an old cistern (called in the country dialect of Syria Gubba ) kept himself alive on five dried figs a day. What I relate then is so strange that it will appear incredible to those who do not believe the words that “all things are possible to him that believeth.”