IV. [...] However, since a city that is set on a hill cannot be long hid [Matt 5:14], the fame of his holiness spread to such a degree that it came to the notice of almost everyone.
[V. Bishop Didymus assigns a church to Aemilian]
12. When this news was brought to Didymus who then held the office of bishop in Tarazona, he pursued the man, wishing, as he was in his diocese, to put him into Holy orders. At first it seemed a harsh and hard thing to Aemilian to flee back, to return, to be, as it were, dragged from heaven to earth, from the rest which he had now almost obtained from wearying tasks, and to be taken back to the active life from the contemplative. Finally, he was unwillingly compelled to obey, and so performed the office of presbyter in the church of Berceo. Then setting aside those things to which men of that order, the men, that is, of our day, are accustomed to dedicate themselves, he imparted his holy care on this life to which he had been dragged back. In this, however, through continual prayer, week-long fasts, perpetual vigils, true discernment, sure hope, great frugality, kindly righteousness, and firm endurance, in short with the greatest austerity he tirelessly kept himself from all evil things. He so plucked flowers of knowledge from the meadows of the ineffable Godhead that he who had scarcely committed the eighth psalm to memory far surpassed without compare the ancient philosophers of the world in practical knowledge, wisdom, and sharpness of perception; [...]
Braulio compares Emilian to St Anthony and St Martin.
(trans. A.T. Fear 1997: 24-25)