_ 171 _ in chastity and poverty. All he preached about was death and he had built a monastery on a hill near the city, where he lived with other yogis. One of their company went to the mountains of Arabia, where he installed himself in a cave to do penances, from which he never again emerged. He was a man of great virtue among these people, who always go about sprinkled with ashes. At the end of the final debate about chastely, he told me that he was held captive by my love, because his heart already belonged to me, and he asked me for a period of 30 days to deliberate. I replied that he should give himself five strokes of a rod, for the love of Christ, and that he should beg to be enlightened as to what religion he should follow. While he was thus engaged, and in contemplating God’s perfections, as is the custom among some of these yogis, while others meditate on death, he heard a voice that said: “What are you doing? Take the path that they show you, as that is the true religion of the Christians”. Afterwards he had a vision of many church ornaments like those used on solemn and episcopal feasts. Then, the following day, when he caught sight of the King of Ormuz searching for him, he hid and had no wish to show himself. With the King’s departure, he hurriedly came to me and begged for Baptism, after telling me what they had heard.
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