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History of the Franks
St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927
Book 5, 10. Of Patroclus, the Recluse
In the territory of Bourges there was also a recluse named Patroclus, holding the dignity of the priesthood, a man of wondrous holiness and piety, and of great abstinence, who was often vexed with divers ailments by reason of his fastings. He did not drink either wine or cider, or anything that can make drunken, only water a little sweetened with honey. Neither did he touch any food in which there was flesh, but his diet was bread steeped in water and sprinkled with salt. His eyes were never darkened with sleep, for he was continually in prayer, which if he intermitted for a while, he would either read or write. Often he would heal by prayer persons suffering from fever, pustules, or other affections. And he wrought other miracles too many to recount in their order. He wore always next his skin a shirt of goat’s hair. He was eighty years of age when he left this world, and passed away to Christ. Of his life also I have briefly written.1
Notes
- Ibid. ix.