Thanks to his good fortune in battle, the legionnaire Romanos of Constantinople2 was so well known that many foreign kings trusted him with the command of their campaigns. His way of life, however, was much criticized because he never attended religious services nor fasted.
At this time there also lived a hermit in the desert who once asked God to show him who among men was his equal in merit(3). In answer, an angel appeared and told him that he was as highly valued as Romanos of Constantinople. This unsettled the hermit, who traveled to the city to meet the legionnaire.
He arrived in Byzantium on a festival day at the time of high mass. Everyone was at church except a well-dressed man who was wandering about the public plaza. The man greeted the hermit in an honorable manner and asked him brought him there. The hermit answered that an angel had told him he would find a man in Constantinople who God valued as much as he himself. When the man asked after his name, the hermit also asked the man’s name. “I’m Romanos”, the man answered. “This is exactly the name the angel told me”, the hermit said. “Please tell me about the way you live so that I can dispel my concern.”
Romanos first tried to avoid to avoid the matter and said that his way of living was quite different from that of a humble hermit, that he was the most unworthy of all and that was shown by his wandering about while the Christian community was gathered inside. But finally, moved by the hermit’s tears, he revealed what until now he had kept hidden to prevent anyone doubting his belief: in self-chastisement, he bathed each day in a seething hot well wearing a ring of armor on his naked body. He avoided religious services to avoid becoming conceited from praise and to learn to bear harmful rumors with patience. In addition, he cared for 13 poor infirm in a hidden chamber in his house. Learning this, the hermit bid Romanos a hearty good-bye and with a lighter heart returned to the desert.
Not long after this encounter, Romanos became extremely ill. Feeling that his end was near, he instructed a trusted friend to seek out the hermit. As soon as Romanos died, the friend departed to fulfill the task only to find the hermit had also died on the same day. The friend had the hermit’s body returned to Constantinople where it was buried next to Romanos.
2The original manuscript’s author gave no indication that the Romanos of this tale was one of the Byzantine emperors Romanos I/II/III/IV.
3In this and other similar tales, men ask who their equal is. This is apparently based on the belief that in Providence one keeps company with equals.