XVI Here It Is Told of the Great Mercy Wrought by Saint Paulinus the Bishop
Blessed Bishop Paulinus was so full of charity that when a poor woman asked a charity for her son who was in prison Blessed Paulinus replied: I have nothing to give to you, but do this. Lead me to the prison where your son is.
The woman led him there.
And he put himself in the hands of the prison-keepers1 saying to them: give back her son to this good woman, and keep me in his stead.2
Notes
1 The word in the original is tortori, literally torturers, though it means, of course, the keepers of the prison.
2 Also in Saint Gregory, Dialogues, III, 1.