# Ælfric's Lives of Saints/06mau eng

VI.
JANUARY 15. ST. MAUR, ABBOT.
There was a very holy abbot named Maurus;
who from his early youth was confided
to Saint Benedict for instruction, though he was of noble birth.
He throve well in learning, and was very obedient
to Saint Benedict in all his commands,
and served God Almighty in all goodness,
and gave moreover a good example to his brethren
in all holy observances, and therefore was he dear
to his master Benedict, whom he rejoiced by his works.
We have said aforetime in another place,
how this same Maurus, through God's might, walked
upon running water on a wide pool,
when Benedict bade him help the boy,
who had fallen into the stream, as he was fetching water.
On a certain occasion Saint Maurus was going homewards to the monastery with his brethren,
while Benedict was with a pious man,
because his wife was vexed with madness ;
and Maurus met there, before he came to the monastery,
a dumb boy, who was also a cripple,
but the father and mother carried him thither.
Then they both fell with flowing tears
at Maurus' feet, and embraced his knees,
entreating him in God's name to heal their child.
But Maurus did not wish to grant this to the couple ;
and said that the deed was not becoming to him,
until the brethren earnestly besought him
to pray for the healing of the halting boy.
So then Maurus looked up straightway to Heaven, and said,
​' Thou, our Saviour Christ, who didst promise unto Thy disciples,
"Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask
shall certainly be granted you on this (condition),
that ye believe that ye receive the gifts,"
show forth now in us, Almighty Lord,
that we are Thy servants, though we are sinful,
and we will keep the same faith with (true) love.'
After these words he said to the diseased,
'In the name of the Holy Trinity, be thou whole, boy,
and stand on thy feet sound before us,
assisted also by my master's merits.'
Then arose the boy, and walked upright,
and with blithe voice blessed his Lord,
who had healed him through the holy man.
Then, after Saint Benedict had come home to the monastery,
(and the woman had become sane, whom he had delivered from madness,)
he did honour to Maurus for the glorious miracle
which he in the meanwhile had wrought, when he [Benedict] was far off.
Maurus was moreover oftenest about the blessed Benedict,
and knew his miracles, and -worked miracles with him;
some of these we will tell here, some we will pass over;
and he was the principal monk next to the great Benedict,
and governed the monastery as Benedict shewed him.
At that time a certain blessed bishop from the kingdom of the Franks sent to the holy patriarch
manifold presents, and besought him much,
to send him, if it seemed well to him,
some pious monks who should found monasteries for him,
because he desired to establish in his bishopric
the monastic rule according to Benedict's design.
Then Benedict, by his brethren's counsel,
as God revealed to them, sent Maurus ​(though he hardly might, for their great love,
let him go from him) to the distant land.
He found also four other monks as companions for him,
and some laymen, to go with them to that land,
and took the holy rule, which he had written with his own hand,
and delivered it to Maurus, to have with him,
together with the weight for their bread, and the measure for their wine,
and sent them with his blessing to the aforesaid bishop.
Afterwards in early morning the venerable Benedict sent forth
twain of his monks to Maurus with gifts,
that is, with holy relics, of the Saviour's Hood,
and of Mary's garments, and of a hanging from S. Michael's Altar
and of Stephen's body, and of Martin's relics,
and a written message in these words ;
' Receive, my beloved, these last gifts
of thy master, for a long remembrance,
and for a shield to you against the devil's snares.
I say to thee, in sooth, that thou shalt depart,
in the sixteenth year since thou becamest a monk,
out of this world to glory with God,
even as Christ yesterday showed me concerning thee,
after thou wentest from us on thy journey.
I tell thee also now that your way
shall not at all be such as we imagined,
but shall be ordered otherwise, and in another place;
but Almighty God will never forsake you
until ye [all] shall be established.
Fare ye now well, and be ye blessed.'
Then Maurus fared with great joy,
and his companions together, to the kingdom of the Franks ;
but twain of his companions fell by the way,
one from off a tower, the other on a stone,
so that they were crushed, and lay dying,
but Maurus healed them in the name of Jesus.
​Also they found in a monastery on the way
a blind man who earnestly besought his cure
from the holy Maurus, and he healed him through God,
and bade that he should abide without wandering
in God's service, there in the monastery, for ever;
and he did so afterwards from that day.
Again he healed in another place
a widow's son, who lay there unconscious,
and comforted the mother, and men wondered thereat,
and the boy ran straightway to Maurus,
crying out, and saying, 'Thou hast delivered my soul
from the fiery torments,' and he afterwards became a monk.
Maurus saw also, as God revealed to him,
on that same journey, Benedict's departure,
and how he went to Heaven, though he was far away.
Then they fared forth to the aforesaid bishop,
who had bidden to send for them, but he was not then living,
but a few days before had departed from life,
and another bishop was set in his episcopal chair.
Then they were sorrowful, but went nevertheless
to the new bishop, and asked his counsel,
and enquired whether he would fulfil the other's desire,
and establish monasteries for himself, as the other had intended.
He said that he could not concern himself about monasteries
at another bishop's dictation, but must attend to his affairs
according to his own disposing, and make rules for his houses.
Then they departed from the bishop of that diocese,
and God provided them, in another province
of the kingdom of the Franks, an excellent dwelling-place.
There was a wealthy viscount in that country,
named Florus, and he had been minded
to build a monastery and to set monks in it,
if he could find out any that were pious men,
because that Benedict's fame had come into that country,
and men had also told him of Maurus' arrival.
​This noble was living without a wife's companionship,
because his consort had departed from life,
and left him one son, who afterwards was a monk
and abbot after Maurus, living gloriously,
even as this book telleth clearly hereafter.
Then Floras went joyfully to meet them,
and with great honour received to himself
the noble men of God, and provided for them a dwelling,
praising his Lord, and the holy Benedict.
This Florus was then the first of the Frankish nobles,
and dearest to the king who reigned over that people,
because he had ever been pious from his youth,
and all the king's counsel went by his advice.
Then Florus made known his desire to the king,
and, with his leave, established, in his own land,
a monastery and monastic discipline, as Maurus directed him,
and with great favour he benefited the monastery,
and assigned privileges to it in clear testimony [thereof],
and altogether made over the monastery to Maurus
with full liberty, for his soul's profit.
He offered also then on the same day,
his only son to Almighty God
for the monastic life under the care of Maurus,
saying that he himself desired, if God so ordained,
to forsake all worldly things, and dwell in the monastery,
in God's service, and he even so fulfilled it.
Then he gathered very good workmen from all quarters,
and built the monastery entirely by Maurus' direction,
near the great river that men call the Liger [Loire],
Then on a certain day were sitting together
Florus and Maurus in the midst of the workmen,
and Maurus was reading, and relating it to Florus.
Then suddenly a priest fell off the work,
so that he lay half alive, as if dying,
and all flowing with blood, but Maurus bade them bear him
​to Saint Martin's church, and Maurus went in,
and prayed the Almighty, of His clemency,
that He would have mercy on the priest, and mightily heal him.
He arose then straightway, and went up to the priest,
and made the sign of the cross on his wounds, and said to him boldly,
'In the Creator's name who created man out of the earth,
arise thou sound, and go out quickly,
to thy wall-building, and finish it well.'
He arose then sound, as if aroused from sleep,
and began to wonder how he had been brought thither.
Then said the holy man, 'Thou wast not borne hither
on thine own feet, but others bare thee ;
but now go back quickly to thy work,
lest it be hindered too long through thee.'
Then went the priest back to his work,
and Florus prostrated himself at the feet of Maurus, and said,
'Verily thou, Maurus, art the great Benedict's successor
in miracles, of whom we very often have heard
tell the like,' and he thereafter exceedingly
honoured Maurus, and had him in admiration.
After this began some of the assembled workmen
to accuse the saint who had healed the priest,
saying, that he, by enchantments, not by God's power,
had wrought this, and desired to be greater
in another country, than he had been in his own,
rather for covetousness than for piety.
But while they were most fiercely blaming the upright Maurus,
then were filled with the evil spirit
three of the workmen, and they became exceedingly mad,
so that one of them died immediately,
and the other twain tare themselves severely
with their own teeth, and roared fearfully.
Then straightway Maurus was greatly troubled,
and weeping, went into the church,
and with great agitation besought the Almighty,
​that He would have mercy on the dead
and the possessed with devils, and help their souls.
Then he went out again to the miserable madmen,
and in the Lord's name put the devils to flight
out of the possessed workmen, and they were healed.
Then he commanded to bear into his oratory
the corpse of the departed that the fiend had killed,
and kept the vigil all night by the madman's corpse,
and bade that in the morning mass should be said for his soul,
and raised the dead man through the Lord's might,
and gave orders to warn him, if he wished to live,
that he should never be seen in the monastery again
after the present day whereon he arose from the dead.
So all the work of the monastery was ended within eight years,
and also hallowed with high solemnity.
Then Florus remembered what he had at first intended,
and what he had vowed to God when he began the monastery,
and besought leave for himself from his royal master,
that he might turn from the deceitful riches,
and dwell in the monastery which he had wrought,
and spend his life according to Maurus' direction,
and live holily in God's service,
and so merit the bliss eternal.
So the king granted the thane his wish,
though he could hardly find it in his mind
to let so dear a friend go from him,
and said, that he himself desired to see the place,
and to be present there when he laid aside his beard [received the tonsure].
After these things, Florus went to the monastery,
and his royal master came even as they had said,
and prayed that he might be their brother for [the love of] God,
and gave certain property to the holy place,
and spake affably to all the monks,
but especially, however, to Maurus in particular,
and promised that he would be friendly to them all ;
​and himself bare his offering, and laid it upon the altar.
Then Florus bade men bring forth his fair treasures
in gold and silver, and he offered them to God,
and freed his serfs before the altar,
and threw away his weapons, and was there shorn
in the presence of the king, for the service of Christ;
and the king rejoiced, and was blithe in mood
for the thane's conversion and true faith.
Again, after the feast, the noble king bade
that Florus should speak with him, ere he went thence,
and he came immediately with some other monks,
clad in monkish-wise. Then the king wept,
and thanked God for his good will,
and earnestly exhorted him to be zealous
in the spiritual life, and in God's service,
as he had before lived prudently in the things of the world;
and the king afterwards journeyed thence.
After this, in the morning, rode Maurus to the estate,
which the king had given him, and a bed-ridden man sought him,
who had lain seven year with relaxed limbs,
and was borne thither to pray for his healing.
Then Maurus blessed [signed] the bedridden man,
and he immediately rose up by himself sound,
so that it could not be perceived that he had been sick.
Then all the nobly-born men devoted themselves
to the monastic work in Maurus' monastery;
some also committed their sons to him
for God's service, until there were gathered together
one hundred and forty monks in all.
Then said the abbot and all the brothers,
that no more monks could dwell there,
lest victuals should fail the brothers,
but that the tale (of 140) should always continue,
neither less nor more, in the monastic life.
​It befell thereafter, that the blessed Florus
departed from the world, full of glory, to Christ,
in the thirteenth year after he became a monk.
Also a certain archdeacon came once upon a time
to Maurus, and then they had no wine,
except in one large-sized bottle.
Then Maurus blithely blessed the wine,
and said, that God could increase the drink,
He who of old in the wilderness drew out water
from the hard stone-cliff, and sent from Heaven
food for his people for forty years.
Then verily they drank of that wine, full seventy men,
and the bottle was ever after brimful of wine.
Again Maurus found a man
who was evilly stricken, and a cancer was eating him,
and his lips were rendered loathsome thereby,
and likewise his nose destroyed by the poison;
then Maurus blessed the man from afar,
and he instantly was wondrously healed.
After that Maurus would not journey from the monastery,
for any need, unless he were obliged,
because he knew what had been foretold him
by Saint Benedict, when he had left him,
that he should depart from this world to God
in the fourteenth year after he had gone from him;
and dwelt there apart, and set over the brothers
another abbot, by the counsel of them all,
that same Florus' son, of whom we have before spoken.
He was then very much busied with his prayers
in St. Martin's church, with his two monks,
for two years and a half with all fervour,
and, with holy desire, besought God's mercy.
Then on a certain night he saw the devil,
when he was about to go into God's church.
The fiend had with him many other devils,
​and prevented his entrance, and with rage said to him,
'Thou earnest hither, Maurus, to a strange land,
and thoughtest that thou couldest drive us away
out of our dwellings, but thou shalt know now,
that I will, with divers deaths, kill thy monks,
so that hardly shall any one of them remain
of so great a company as now dwell with thee.'
Then said the holy man to the hateful devil,
'Christ, who hath power over all, rebuke thee,
thou lying fiend, and author of wickedness.'
So then the devil straightway vanished
out of his sight with a mighty outcry,
so that the monks, much affrighted,
were aroused by his furious voice,
and went to nocturns, but before the right time.
Maurus then went into Saint Martin's church,
and with great sorrow besought the faithful God,
that He would reveal to him concerning the devil's boasting,
and disclose to him more certainly the accursed one's saying,
Maurus then saw a shining angel
standing beside him, and saying these words to him,
'Thou, God's darling, why art thou so sorrowful
Verily the devil knoweth future things
sometimes, but not alway, through some token
of what he has oft seen, though he himself be false;
and that which he said to thee is true in part,
so that the most part of thy monks shall
depart from life within a little while,
and they all shall come to the eternal life,
and thou thyself afterward shall blessedly follow them
to God's kingdom through good deserts.'
After these words the angel departed from him,
and Maurus then, in the morning, spoke to the monks,
and told them openly all his vision,
and earnestly exhorted them to be ready,
​and to wash their souls by true repentance
from all sins, that they might journey
to God's brightness with brotherly love.
After these words the monks became
greatly moved (to devotion), and sang their offices,
and prepared themselves for the true life,
and committed themselves to the faithful Creator.
The pestilence then came upon them even as the angel said,
so that one hundred and sixteen monks,
within five months, departed from the monastery,
and Maurus the abbot died afterwards,
as the angel had told to him before.
There remained alive, however, in the monastery,
four and twenty monks after Maurus' death,
and he was buried within Saint Martin's church.
There miracles are wrought by the holy man
to the praise of God, who liveth ever in eternity.
This holy Maurus' life was thus divided ;
when he was twelve winters old, he was committed to Saint Benedict,
and he remained with him twenty winters thereafter,
and in his own monastery just forty years;
these are altogether seventy-two years.
Two of the monks who came with him thither,
died there in the aforesaid pestilence,
and two returned again, as he himself commanded,
back to Monte Cassino, whence they had first come,
and one of them [named Faustus] wrote this true history
in the Latin tongue, but we tell it in English.
Be glory and praise to the benevolent God,
who rewardeth His saints with glory in eternity. Amen.