served Christ, and dost thou fear death?" With these words, he
breathed out his soul. They covered him forthwith in earth, and
told them in the city that he was buried, before it was known that
he was dead.

The holy man Hesychius heard this in Palestine; reached Cyprus; and
pretending, in order to prevent suspicion on the part of the
neighbours, who guarded the spot diligently, that he wished to dwell
in that same garden, he, after some ten months, with extreme peril
of his life, stole the corpse. He carried it to Maiuma, followed by
whole crowds of monks and townsfolk, and placed it in the old
monastery, with the shirt, hood, and cloak unhurt; the whole body
perfect, as if alive, and fragrant with such strong odour, that it
seemed to have had unguents poured over it.

I think that I ought not, in the end of my book, to be silent about
the devotion of that most holy woman Constantia, who, hearing that
the body of Hilarion, the servant of God, was gone to Palestine,
straightway gave up the ghost, proving by her very death her true
love for the servant of God. For she was wont to pass nights in
watching his sepulchre, and to converse with him as if he were
present, in order to assist her prayers. You may see, even to this
day, a wonderful contention between the folk of Palestine and the
Cypriots, the former saying that they have the body, the latter that
they have the soul, of Hilarion. And yet, in both places, great
signs are worked daily; but most in the little garden in Cyprus;
perhaps because he loved that place the best.


Such is the story of Hilarion. His name still lingers in "the place