54. 1. Accordingly, a certain Donatus, an African by birth but a presbyter of the church of Milan, slandered the reputation of the bishop when he was at a banquet attended by a number of devout military men. As they were repudiating and rejecting his wicked tongue, he was suddenly smitten with a grave wound, and from the spot where he lay he was borne off by the hands of strangers and put in a bed, from which he was taken to his grave. Likewise, in the city of Carthage, when I had been invited to the home of the deacon Fortunatus, the brother of the venerable man Bishop Aurelius, along with Bishop Vincent of Colossitanum, Bishop Muranus of Bolita and other bishops and deacons, I told the story of the death of the aforementioned presbyter to Bishop Muranus when he was slandering the holy man. These words about someone else turned out to be a prophecy of his own speedy death. For he was suddenly smitten with a terrible wound, and from the spot where he lay he was; from there he was taken to the house were he was staying, and there he met his end. That was the fate of the men who slandered Ambrose, and those who were present at the time and saw it were amazed at it.

 

(trans. Ramsey 1997: 217-218)