19. Such was her life. Most of its
details I have left untold, lest my speech should grow to undue
proportions, and lest I should seem to be too greedy for her fair
fame: but perhaps we should be wronging her holy and illustrious
death, did we not mention some of its excellences; especially as she so
longed for and desired it. I will do so therefore, as concisely
as I can. She longed for her dissolution, for indeed she had
great boldness towards Him who called her, and preferred to be with
Christ, beyond all things on earth. Phil. i. 23. And
there is none of the most amorous and unrestrained, who has such love
for his body, as she had to fling away these fetters, and escape from
the mire in which we spend our lives, and to associate in purity with
Him Who is Fair, and entirely to hold her Beloved, Who is I will even
say it, her Lover, by Whose rays, feeble though they now are, we are
enlightened, and Whom, though separated from Him, we are able to
know. Nor did she fail even of this desire, divine and
sublime though it was, and,
what is still greater, she had a foretaste of His Beauty through her
forecast and constant watching. Her only sleep transferred her to
exceeding joys, and her one vision embraced her departure at the
foreappointed time, having been made aware of this day, so that
according to the decision of God she might be prepared and yet not
disturbed.