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Vita S. Hilarionis

13.

Mulier sterilis prima irrumpere ausa est ad eum. – Viginti et duos iam in solitudine habebat annos, fama tantum notus omnibus, et per totas Palaestinae vulgatus urbes, cum interim mulier quaedam Eleutheropolitana cernens despectui se haberi a viro ob sterilitatem (iam enim per annos quindecim nullos coniugii fructus dederat), prima irrumpere ausa est ad beatum Hilarionem; et nihil tale suspicanti, repente genibus eius advoluta: Ignosce, inquit, audaciae: ignosce necessitati meae. Quid avertis oculos? quid rogantem fugis? Noli mulierem aspicere, sed miseram. Hic sexus genuit Salvatorem. [0033D] Non habent sani opus medico; sed qui male habent (Luc. V, 31). Tandem substitit, et post tantum [0034A] temporis visa muliere, interrogavit causam adventus eius ac fletuum. Et postquam didicit, levatis ad coelum oculis, fidere iussit: euntemque lacrymis prosecutus, exacto anno vidit cum filio.

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The Life of S. Hilarion

13.

He had now spent twenty-two years in the wilderness and was the common theme in all the cities of Palestine, though everywhere known by repute only. The first person bold enough to break into the presence of the blessed Hilarion was a certain woman of Eleutheropolis who found that she was despised by her husband on account of her sterility (for in fifteen years she had borne no fruit of wedlock). He had no expectation of her coming when she suddenly threw herself at his feet. “Forgive my boldness,” she said: “take pity on my necessity. Why do you turn away your eyes? Why shun my entreaties? Do not think of me as a woman, but as an object of compassion. It was my sex that bore the Saviour. ¹ They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.” At length, after a long time he no longer turned away, but looked at the woman and asked the cause of her coming and of her tears. On learning this he raised his eyes to heaven and bade her have faith, then wept over her as she departed. Within a year he saw her with a son.