Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/205

 find me  now  a  successor,  that  I  may  serve  God

in true  religion,  as  I  vowed  to  the  Almighty.'

Then the  emperor  embraced  the  soldier  of  God,

and told  him  how  his  daughters  were  serving  the  Lord,

and his  two  sisters  likewise  believed  afterward.

Then went  they  into  the  hall,  and  the  holy  Helena  came

with the  aforesaid  maidens,  greatly  rejoicing;

they continued  in  virginity,  leading  glorious  lives,

until they  departed  from  the  world  to  Christ.

Then Gallicanus  freed  five  thousand  men,

and endowed  them  with  goods,  and  distributed  to  the  poor

his manifold  riches,  and  turned  him  thence

to a  certain  holy  man  called  Hilarion,

with some  of  his  men  who  would  not  leave  him.

Four estates  he  gave  up  entirely,  together  with  himself,

for the  reception  of  strangers  and  for  alms-deeds.

Then his  fame  spread  widely  throughout  the  land,

how the  great  man  washed  men's  feet,

and carried  water  for  their  hands,  and  served  them  with  food.

Then he  grew  so  holy  that  he  healed  the  impotent,

and as  soon  as  he  looked  on  the  possessed,

they were  at  once  cleansed  from  the  unclean  spirits.

Afterward when  Julian,  the  infamous  apostate,

was chosen  emperor,  though  he  had  been  shorn  for  the  priesthood,

he proclaimed  an  edict,  being  full  of  wickedness,

that the  Christians  should  own  nothing  in  the  world.

Then he  banished  Gallicanus  the  man  of  God;

and he  went  to  Alexandria,  the  Egyptian  city,

going afterward  to  the  desert,  and  was  there  an  anchorite;

until a  certain  heathen  slew  him  there,

because he  would  not  sacrifice  to  the  foul  gods,

and so  he  departed  victoriously  to  Christ.

After that  Julian,  the  same  apostate,  desired  to  turn