Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XII/Chapter 23

Chapter XXIII.&#8212;Reward of Hospitality.

But Peter said, &#8220;Alas!&#160; What are you doing, my son Clement, shaking off your real mother?&#8221;&#160; But I, when I heard this, wept, and falling down by my mother, who had fallen, I kissed her.&#160; For as soon as this was told me, I in some way recalled her appearance indistinctly.&#160; Then great crowds ran together to see the beggar woman, telling one another that her son had recognised her, and that he was a man of consideration.&#160; Then, when we would have straightway left the island with my mother, she said to us, &#8220;My much longed-for son, it is right that I should bid farewell to the woman who entertained me, who, being poor and wholly debilitated, lies in the house.&#8221;&#160; And Peter hearing this, and all the multitude who stood by, admired the good disposition of the woman.&#160; And immediately Peter ordered some persons to go and bring the woman on her couch.&#160; And as soon as the couch was brought and set down, Peter said, in the hearing of the whole multitude, &#8220;If I be a herald of the truth, in order to the faith of the bystanders, that they may know that there is one God, who made the world, let her straightway rise whole.&#8221;&#160; And while Peter was still speaking, the woman arose healed, and fell down before Peter, and kissed her dear associate, and asked her what it all meant.&#160; Then she briefly detailed to her the whole business of the recognition, to the astonishment of the hearers.&#160; Then also my mother, seeing her hostess cured, entreated that she herself also might obtain healing.&#160; And his placing his hand upon her, cured her also.