The Prophecy of Julianus the Monk

There was a man who, while still in the body, imitated the life of the bodiless beings: Julianus, surnamed Sabbas in Syriac, whose life I have written in my Religious History. When he heard the threats of the impious tyrant, he went on offering his prayers to the God of all with all the more zeal. On the very day that Julian was killed, he learned of it while he was at his prayers, although his monastery was more than twenty stages, some four hundred miles, from the army. It is said that while he was calling on the Lord with loud cries and pleading with his merciful Master, he suddenly stopped weeping and broke into an ecstasy of delight. His face lit up and showed the joy that filled his soul. When his friends saw this change, they begged him to tell them the reason for his gladness. “The wild boar,” he said, “the enemy of the Lord’s vineyard, has paid the penalty for the wrongs he did him. He lies dead. His mischief is ended.” As soon as the whole company heard these words, they leaped for joy and struck up the hymn of thanksgiving to God. And from those who brought the news of the emperor’s death they learned that it was on the very day and at the very hour the accursed man was slain that the aged saint knew of it and announced it. [a]