The Life of S. Hilarion 36

St Jerome (AD 345–420) · Vita S. Hilarionis · PL 23, 29–54

36 PL 23, 47

36. On approaching Pachynus, a promontory of Sicily, he offered the master the Gospel for the passage of himself and Gazanus. The man was unwilling to take it, all the more because he saw that excepting that volume and the clothes they wore they had nothing, and at last he swore he would not take it. But the aged saint, ardent and confident in the consciousness of his poverty, rejoiced exceedingly that he had no worldly possessions and was accounted a beggar by the people of the place.

Ingressus autem Pachynum promontorium Siciliae, obtulit nauclero Evangelium pro subvectione sua et Gazani. Qui nolens accipere, maxime cum videret illos, excepto illos codice, et his quibus vestiti erant, amplius nihil habere, ad extremum jurat se non accepturum. Sed et senex accensus fiducia pauperis conscientiae, in eo magis laetabatur, et quod nihil haberet saeculi, et ab accolis illius loci mendicus putaretur.

Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.), New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1890-1900. Public domain: English translation first published 1885-1900 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series). Latin: Migne, Patrologia Latina (1844-1855), public domain; transcription from Corpus Corporum (University of Zurich).