240 “II ne faisoit pas aussi difficulté dans sa vieillesse de se laver quelquefois les piez. Et comme on témoignoit s’en étonner et trouver que cela ne répondoit pas à la vie austère des anciens, il se justifioit par ces paroles: Nous avons appris à tuer, non pas notre corps mais nos passions.”—Tillemont, _Mém. Hist. eccl._ tome xv. p. 148. This saint was so very virtuous, that he sometimes remained without eating for whole weeks. 241 “Non appropinquavit oleum corpusculo ejus. Facies vel etiam pedes a die conversionis suæ nunquam diluti sunt.”—_Vitæ Patrum_, c. xvii. 242 “In facie ejus puritas animi noscebatur.”—Ibid. c. xviii. 243 Socrates, iv. 23. 244 Heraclidis Paradisus (Rosweyde), c. xlii. 245 “Nulla earum pedes suos abluebat; aliquantæ vero audientes de balneo loqui, irridentes, confusionem et magnam abominationem se audire judicabant, quæ neque audi tum suum hoc audire patiebantur.”—_Vit. S. Euphrax._ c. vi. (Rosweyde.) 246 See her acts, Bollandists, April 2, and in the _Vitæ Patrum_. 247 “Patres nostri nunquam facies suas lavabant, nos autem lavacra publica balneaque frequentamus.”—Moschus, _Pratum Spirituale_, clxviii. _ 248 Pratum Spirituale_, lxxx. An Irish saint, named Coemgenus, is said to have shown his devotion in a way which was directly opposite to that of the other saints I have mentioned—by his special use of cold water—but the principle in each case was the same—to mortify nature. St. Coemgenus was accustomed to pray for an hour every night in a pool of cold water, while the devil sent a horrible beast to swim round him. An angel, however, was sent to him for three purposes. “Tribus de causis à Domino missus est angelus ibi ad S. Coemgenum. Prima ut a diversis suis gravibus laboribus levius viveret paulisper; secunda ut horridam bestiam sancto infestam repelleret; tertia _ut frigiditatem aquæ calefaceret_.”—Bollandists, June 3. The editors say these acts are of doubtful authenticity. 249 See his Life by his disciple Antony, in the _Vitæ Patrum_, Evagrius, i. 13, 14. Theodoret, _Philotheos_, cap. xxvi. 250 Palladius, _Hist. Laus._ lxxvi. 251 Rufinus, Hist. _Monach._ xxxiii.