ey to court, but assured Eutropius that his prince should be
victorious, but not without loss and blood: as also that he would die in
Italy, and leave the empire of the West to his son; all which happened
accordingly. Theodosius marched against Eugenius, and in the first
engagement lost ten thousand men, and was almost defeated: but renewing
the battle on the next day, the 6th of September, in 394, he gained an
entire victory by the miraculous interposition of heaven, as even
Claudian, the heathen poet, acknowledges. Theodosius died in the West,
on the 17th of January, in 395, leaving his two sons emperors, Arcadius
in the East, and Honorius in the West.

This saint restored sight to a senator's wife by some of the oil he had
blessed for healing the sick. It being his inviolable custom never to
admit any woman to speak to him, this gave occasion to a remarkable
incident related by Evagrius, Palladius, and St. Austin in his treatise
of Care for the Dead. A certain general officer in the emperor's service
visiting the saint, conjured him to permit his wife to speak to him; for
she was come to Lycopolis, and had gone through many dangers and
difficulties to enjoy that happiness. The holy man answered, that during
his stricter enclosure for the last forty years since he had shut
himself up in that rock, he had imposed on himself an inviolable rule
not to see or converse with women; so he desired to be excused the
granting her request. The officer returned to Lycopolis very melancholy.
His wife, who was a person of great virtue, was not to be satisfied. The
husband went back to the blessed man, told him that she would die of
grief if he refused her request. The saint said to him: "Go to your
wife, and tell her that she shall see me tonight, without coming hither
or stirring out of her house." This answer he carried to her, and both
were very earnest to know in what manner the saint would perform his
promise. When she was asleep in the night, the man of God appeared to
her in her dream, and said: "Your great faith, woman, obliged me to come
to visit you; but I must admonish you to curb the like desires of seeing
God's servants on earth. Contemplate only their life, and imitate their
actions. As for me, why did you desire to see me? Am I a saint, or a
prophet like God's true servants? I am a sinful and weak man. It is
therefore only in virtue of your faith that I have had recourse to our
Lord, who grants you the cure of the cor