Three Stories from the Book of the Foundation

 

[image error]GODRIC THE BUTCHER

One day, as was his custom, Alfune from the Priory

was visiting the butchers one by one,

asking them for gifts to feed the poor;

he decided to approach a man named Godric,

famed as very stern and niggardly of mind.

When Alfune saw that Godric would give nothing,

being moved by neither fear nor love of God,

nor any human sense of shame,

he prayed for Godric and his hardened heart

and broke out with these words:

‘Oh you unhappy man! I beg you, wretch,

to lay aside your stubbornness;

give me just one morsel of your meat

and I swear you’ll sell that heap before the others,

losing nothing by this act.’

Exasperated by the old man’s importunity,

Godric turned towards his cheapest heap;

he chose a single piece of meat

and flung it at the priest,

calling him a vagrant.

At once a citizen drew near,

wanting meat for all his family;

just as Alfune had predicted,

he bought that cheapest heap

and took it all away.

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MIRACLES

One day, towards evening, darkness at hand,

a light sent from heaven gleamed over the church

and remained for the space of an hour.

The sick lay prostrate, begging the mercy of God,

and calling on blessed Bartholomew.

The lamps glowed redly,

nor was God’s love far away.

For one man rejoiced with a cry of delight

at the cure of his aching head;

another man walked, a third heard again,

the limbs of a fourth healed of ulcers:

and all the people thundered praises to the saint.

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HUBERT’S VISION

There was in the congregation of the canons

one Hubert of distinguished birth,

advanced in years and wonderfully gentle.

In old age leaving all for Christ,

he had been admitted to the brethren

and directed all his zeal to loving God.

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Once as he was praying at the altar

in the oratory which bore her name,

the Mother of Mercy appeared to him

and spoke to him with honeyed lips:

‘Here will I received the brethren’s prayers and vows,

for ever granting mercy and my blessing.’

 

©Virginia Rounding, 1996

 

 

 

 

First published in Awaiting an Epiphany