CHAPTER LX

COLLYTHUS

[1] ANOTHER virgin was a neighbour of mine, but I did not see her face, for she never came out, so they say, from the day she renounced the world. But having completed sixty years of asceticism in company with her own mother (-superior), at last she was about to depart from this life. And the martyr of the place stood over her—Collythus was his name—and said to her: “To-day you are going to travel to the Master and see all the saints. Come then and breakfast with us in the chapel.” So she got up at twilight and dressed and took in her basket bread and olives and shredded herbs, after all those years going out, and she went to the chapel and prayed. [2] And having marked that moment of the whole day when no one was inside, she took her seat and called on the martyr, saying: “Bless my food, holy Collythus, and accompany me with thy prayers on the journey.” Then having eaten and prayed again she went home about sunset. And having given her mother (-superior) a writing of Clement, author of the Stromateis, on the prophet Amos, she said: “Give it to the exiled bishop and say to him, Pray for me, for I am going on a journey.” And she died that very night, with no fever nor pain in the head, but having decked herself for the funeral.