Friday 7th February 2014
A READING
ABOUT THE DEATH OF
A 12th.CENTURY MONK OF CLAIRVAUX.
There lived in the
monastery of Clairvaux a monk called Alquirin who was skilled in the art of medicine,
and so nobles and great men of that region were always asking his help and
drawing him, unwilling and resisting, to
many places. Yet he
was always solicitous about the poor and needy and would go to any lengths to
cure them. Not only did he treat their sicknesses and
and wounds, but he
tended with his own hands their putrid flesh and ulcered limbs with such care
that it was as if he were caring for the wounds of Christ. And this really was
so, he did everything for Christ, and Christ received everything he did as
being done for him, so that at the end he could say to him what was said of
those who do works of mercy, ‘I was sick and you visited me’.
Having lived his
life this praiseworthy manner, the time came when he would receive in eternity
the reward of his labours and his works of mercy, and he fell ill and neared
his end. His Abbot came to visit him, and asked him what he was doing and how
he was. He replied, 'My Father all is very well with me, because I am going to
my Lord.' The Abbot asked him: 'But are you not suffering in body and do you
not fear the agony of death? The monk replied, , I look upon it all with
tranquillity and joy, because I have received beforehand from the Lord the
blessings of sweetness, and that has taken all sorrow from my heart and nearly
all pain from my body.' Then the Abbot asked him, ‘I beg you, my dear brother,
for the love of God and for our edification , tell us anything that God has
revealed to you.' To which he replied, 'Before you came in, I saw, miserable and
unworthy though I am, the Lord Jesus who looked at me with a kind and serene
expression and showed me the marks of his Passion, saying, "Lo your sins
are taken away from before my face, Come and kiss my wounds which you have
tended so often." I was so strengthened by this promise that I do not now
fear to die.'
(from an article in the Fairacres Chronicle Spring 1984.
The Death of the Saints in some 12th Century Sources by
Sister Benedicta Ward).
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