spoke to those who visited him what might be for their spiritual comfort
and edification. During five days in the week he conversed only with
God: but on Saturdays and Sundays all but women had free access to him
for his instructions and spiritual advice. He never ate till after
sunset, and then very sparingly; but never any thing that had been
dressed by fire, not so much as bread. In this manner did he live from
the fortieth or forty-second to the ninetieth year of his age. For the
reception of such as came to him from remote parts, he permitted a kind
of hospital to be built near his cell or grotto, where some of his
disciples took care of them. He was illustrious for miracles, and a
wonderful spirit of prophecy, with the power of discovering to those
that came to see him, their most secret thoughts and hidden sins. And
such was the fame of his predictions, and the lustre of his miracles
which he wrought on the sick, by sending them some oil which he had
blessed, that they drew the admiration of the whole world upon him.

Theodosius the Elder was then emperor, and was attacked by the tyrant
Maximus, become formidable by the success of his arms, having slain the
emperor Gratian in 383, and dethroned Valentinian in 387. The pious
emperor, finding his army much inferior to that of his adversary, caused
this servant of God to be consulted concerning the success of the war
against Maximus. Our saint foretold him that he should be victorious
almost without blood. The emperor, full of confidence in the prediction,
marched into the West, defeated the more numerous armies of Maximus
twice in Pannonia; crossed the Alps, took the tyrant in Aquileia, and
suffered {665} his soldiers to cut off his head. He returned triumphant
to Constantinople, and attributed his victories very much to the prayers
of St. John, who also foretold him the events of his other wars, the
incursions of barbarians, and all that was to befall his empire. Four
years after, in 392, Eugenius, by the assistance of Arbogastes, who had
murdered the emperor Valentinian the Younger, usurped the empire of the
West. Theodosius sent Eutropius the Eunuch into Egypt, with instructions
to bring St. John with him to Constantinople, if it was possible; but
that if he could not prevail with him to undertake the journey, to
consult whether it was God's will that he should march against Eugenius,
or wait his arrival in the East. The man of God excused himself as to
his journ