Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XII/Chapter 17

Chapter XVII.&#8212;The Fruitless Search.

&#8220;But when the day dawned, I shouted aloud, and howled miserably, and looked around, seeking for the dead bodies of my hapless children.&#160; Therefore the inhabitants took pity on me, and seeing me naked, they first clothed me and then sounded the deep, seeking for my children.&#160; And when they found nothing of what they sought, some of the hospitable women came to me to comfort me, and every one told her own misfortunes, that I might obtain comfort from the occurrences of similar misfortunes.&#160; But this only grieved me the more for I said that I was not so wicked that I could take comfort from the misfortunes of others.&#160; And so, when many of them asked me to accept their hospitality, a certain poor woman with much urgency constrained me to come into her cottage, saying to me, &#8216;Take courage, woman, for my husband, who was a sailor, also died at sea, while he was still in the bloom of his youth; and ever since, though many have asked me in marriage, I have preferred living as a widow, regretting the loss of my husband.&#160; But we shall have in common whatever we can both earn with our hands.&#8217;