79.  He lay, drawing his last breath, and awaited by the choir on high, towards which he had long directed his gaze.  Around him poured the whole city, unable to bear his loss, inveighing against his departure, as if it had been an oppression, and clinging to his soul, as though it had been capable of restraint or compulsion at their hands or their prayers.  Their suffering had driven them distracted, all were eager, were it possible, to add to his life a portion of their own.  And when they failed, for it must needs be proved that he was a man, and, with his last words “Into thy Hands I commend my spirit,”187    Ps. xxxi. 6. he had joyfully resigned his soul to the care of the angels who carried him away; not without having some religious instructions and injunctions for the benefit of those who were present—then occurred a wonder more remarkable than any which had happened before.

Ἔκειτο μὲν ὁ ἀνὴρ τὰ τελευταῖα πνέων καὶ παρὰ τῆς ἄνω χοροστασίας ἐπιζητούμενος, πρὸς ἣν ἐκ πλείονος ἔβλεπεν. Ἐγχεῖτο δὲ περὶ αὐτὸν πᾶσα ἡ πόλις, τὴν ζημίαν οὐ φέροντες καὶ τῆς ἐκδημίας ὡς τυραννίδος καταβοῶντες καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς λαμβανόμενοι, ὡς καθεκτῆς καὶ βιασθῆναι δυναμένης ἢ χερσὶν ἢ δεήσεσιν: ἐποίει γὰρ αὐτοὺς καὶ παράφρονας τὸ πάθος: καὶ προσθεῖναί τι τῆς ἑαυτῶν ζωῆς ἕκαστος ἐκείνῳ, εἴπερ οἷόν τε ἦν, πρόθυμος ἦν, Ὡς δὲ ἡττήθησαν (ἔδει γὰρ αὐτὸν ἐλεγχθῆναι ἄνθρωπον ὄντα) καὶ »Εἰς χεῖράς σου παραθήσομαι τὸ πνεῦμά μου« τελευταῖον εἰπών, τοῖς ἀπάγουσιν αὐτὸν ἀγγέλοις οὐκ ἀηδῶς ἐναπέψυξεν: ἔστιν ἃ τοὺς παρόντας μυσταγωγήσας καὶ βελτίους ποιήσας ταῖς ἐπισκήψεσι: τότε δὴ θαῦμα γίνεται τῶν πώποτε γενομένων ὀνομαστότατον.