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and this made the torment so sharp I collapsed at his feet, as if dead. He helped me up and comforted me as well as time and the occasion allowed, at the same time reproaching me for my error, asking me if I thought I could oppose the divine order? ‘Do you not know’, he went on, ‘that that is something neither Heaven nor Hell can do? Would you burden this weak body of mine, which is longing for rest? Do you imagine you can force me to stay longer in this vale of tears? No, my son, let me go. All your wailing and sobbing cannot compel me to stay any longer in this place of misery, especially against my will now that God’s express will is calling me away. Instead of indulging in useless crying, follow my last words, which are these: the longer you live, the better you should seek to know yourself, and do not let your heart abandon this practice, even if you should live to be as old as Methuselah. The reason why most men are damned is that they never learn what they are, nor what they can and must be.’
    He went on to advise me to avoid bad company, for the harm it could do was more than he could say. And he gave me an example, saying, ‘If you put one drop of Malmsey into a bowl of vinegar, it will immediately turn to vinegar; if, on the other hand, you put a drop of vinegar in Malmsey, it will mingle with the wine. My dearest son’, he said, ‘above all be steadfast, for those who persevere to the end will find eternal bliss. If, however, contrary to my hopes it should happen that human weakness makes you fall, then quickly rise again through sincere repentance.’
    That was all the advice this conscientious and pious man gave me. Not because that was all he knew, but firstly because he felt I was too young to be able to take in more on an occasion like this, and secondly because a brief word is more easily remembered than a long speech; and if it is pithy and to the point it does more good by making you think than a long sermon which is easily understood and just as easily forgotten.
    The reason this pious man thought these three points – to know yourself, avoid bad company and be steadfast – were essential was doubtless because he practised them himself and found they stood him in good stead. After he had come to know himself, he shunned not only bad company, but the whole world and remained true to that resolve, on which doubtless eternal bliss depends, until the very end, the manner of which I will describe now.
    After he had given me this advice, he started to dig his own grave with the mattock. I helped as best I could, doing as he told me, but with no idea what he was aiming at. Then he said, ‘My dear, true and only son (for apart from you I have fathered no other creature to the glory of the Creator), when my soul has gone to its destined abode, it will be your duty to pay your last respects to my body and cover me with the soil we have dug out of this hole.’ At that he took me in his arms, kissed me and pressed me to his breast, much more strongly than would have seemed possible for a man in his condition.
    ‘Dear child’, he continued, ‘I commend you to God’s care and die happy because I trust He will look after you.’ I for my part could do nothing but weep and moan. I clung to the chains he wore round his neck, thinking I could hold on to him and stop him leaving me. But he said, ‘My son, let me see if the grave is long enough.’ Taking off his chains and his robe, he lay down in the grave, like someone going to bed, and said, ‘O almighty God, take back the soul You gave me. Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit’, after which he gently closed his lips and eyes. But I stood there like a jackass, not imagining his dear soul could have left his body, since I had often seem him in such a trance. As I usually did when that happened, I remained beside the grave for several hours in prayer. When, however, my beloved hermit still did not get up, I got down into the grave and started