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The Life of S. Hilarion

22.

It was not only in Palestine and the neighbouring cities of Egypt or Syria that he was in high repute, but his fame had reached distant provinces. An officer ¹ of the Emperor Constantius whose golden hair and personal beauty revealed his country (it lay between the Saxons and the Alemanni, was of no great extent but powerful, and is known to historians as Germany, but is now called France), had long, that is to say from infancy, been pursued by a devil, who forced him in the night to howl, groan, and gnash his teeth. He therefore secretly asked the Emperor for a post-warrant, plainly telling him why he wanted it, and having also obtained letters to the legate at Palestine came with great pomp and a large retinue to Gaza. On his inquiring of the local senators where Hilarion the monk dwelt, the people of Gaza were much alarmed, and supposing that he had been sent by the Emperor, brought him to the monastery, that they might show respect to one so highly accredited, and that, if any guilt had been incurred by them by injuries previously done by them to Hilarion it might be obliterated by their present dutifulness. The old man at the time was taking a walk on the soft sands and was humming some passage or other from the psalms. Seeing so great a company approaching he stopped, and having returned the salutes of all while he raised his hand and gave them his blessing, after an hour’s interval he bade the rest withdraw, but would have his visitor together with servants and officers remain: for by the man’s eyes and countenance he knew the cause of his coming. Immediately on being questioned by the servant of God the man sprang up on tiptoe, so as scarcely to touch the ground with his feet, and with a wild roar replied in Syriac in which language he had been interrogated. Pure Syriac was heard flowing from the lips of a barbarian who knew only French and Latin, and that without the absence of a sibilant, or an aspirate, or an idiom of the speech of Palestine. The demon then confessed by what means he had entered into him. Further, that his interpreters who knew only Greek and Latin might understand, Hilarion questioned him also in Greek, and when he gave the same answer in the same words and alleged in excuse many occasions on which spells had been laid upon him, and how he was bound to yield to magic arts, “I care not,” said the saint, “how you came to enter, but I command you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to come out.” The man, as soon as he was healed, with a rough simplicity offered him ten pounds of gold. But the saint took from him only bread, and told him that they who were nourished on such food regarded gold as mire.

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Vita S. Hilarionis

22.

Candidatum Constantii a daemone liberat. Decuriones locorum. – Non solum autem in Palaestina, et in vicinis urbibus Aegypti vel Syriae, sed etiam in longinquis provinciis fama eius percrebuerat. Namque Candidatus Constantii imperatoris, rutilus coma, et candore corporis indicans provinciam (inter Saxones quippe et Alemanos gens eius non tam lata quam valida; apud historicos Germania, nunc Francia vocatur), antiquo, hoc est, ab infantia [0039B] possessus daemone, qui noctibus eum ululare, ingemiscere, fremere dentibus compellebat, secreto ab imperatore Evectionem petiit, causam ei simpliciter indicans. Et acceptis ad Consularem quoque Palaestinae litteris, cum ingenti honore et comitatu Gazam deductus est. Qui cum a decurionibus illius loci quaesisset, ubi habitaret Hilarion monachus, territi Gazenses vehementer, et putantes eum ab Imperatore missum, ad monasterium adduxerunt; ut et honorem commendato exhiberent; et si quid ex praeteritis iniuriis in Hilarionem esset offensae, novo officio deleretur. Deambulabat tunc senex in arenis mollibus, et secum de psalmis nescio quid submurmurabat; vidensque tantam turbam venientem [al. venientium], substitit. Et resalutatis omnibus, manuque [0039C] eis benedicens, post horam caeteros abire praecepit, illum vero cum servis suis et apparatoribus remanere; ex oculis enim eius et vultu, cur venisset agnoverat. Statim ergo ad interrogationem Dei servi suspensus homo, vix terram pedibus tangere coepit, et immane rugiens, Syro quo interrogatus fuerat sermone, respondit. Videres de ore barbaro, et qui Francam tantum et Latinam linguam noverat, Syra ad purum verba resonare: ut non stridor, non aspiratio, non idioma aliquod Palaestini deesset eloquii. Confessus est itaque, quo in eum intrasset ordine. Et ut interpretes eius intelligerent, qui Graecam tantum et Latinam linguam noverant, Graece quoque eum interrogavit. Quo similiter et in verba eadem respondente, multasque incantationum [0039D] occasiones, et necessitates magicarum artium obtendente, non curo, ait, quomodo intraveris; sed [0040A] ut exeas in nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi, impero. Cumque curatus esset, simplicitate rustica decem auri libras offerens, hordeaceum ab eo panem accepit: audiens quod qui tali cibo alerentur, aurum pro luto ducerent.