nnocence and purity,
having just died at the age of twenty-two, a virtuous widow saw in a
dream a certain deacon who, with other servants of God, of both sexes,
ornamented a palace which seemed to shine as if it were of silver.
She asked who they were preparing it for, and they told her it was for
a young man who died the day before. She afterwards beheld in the same
palace an old man, clad in white, who commanded two persons to take
this young man out of his tomb and lead him to heaven.

In the same house where this young man died, an aged man, half asleep,
saw a man with a branch of laurel in his hand, upon which something
was written.

Three days after the death of the young man, his father, who was a
priest named Armenius, having retired to a monastery to console
himself with the saintly old man, Theasus, Bishop of Manblosa, the
deceased son appeared to a monk of this monastery, and told him that
God had received him among the blessed, and that he had sent him to
fetch his father. In effect, four days after, his father had a slight
degree of fever, but it was so slight that the physician assured him
there was nothing to fear. He nevertheless took to his bed, and at the
same time, as he was yet speaking, he expired.

It was not of fright that he died, for it does not appear that he knew
anything of what the monk had seen in his dream.

The same bishop, Evodius, relates that several persons had been seen
after their death to go and come in their houses as during their
lifetime, either in the night, or even in open day. "They say also,"
adds Evodius, "that in the places where bodies are interred, and
especially in the churches, they often hear a noise at a certain hour
of the night like persons praying aloud. I remember," continues
Evodius, "having heard it said by several, and, amongst others, by a
holy priest, who was witness to these apparitions, that they had seen
coming out of the baptistry a great number of these spirits, with
shining bodies of light, and had afterwards heard them pray in the
middle of the church." The same Evodius says, moreover, that
Profuturus, Privus, and Servilius, who had lived very piously in the
monastery, had talked with himself since their death, and what they
had told him had come to pass.

St. Augustine, after having related what Evodius said, acknowledges
that a great distinction is to be made between true and false visions,
and testifies that he could wish to have some sure me