The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-09-24

er John said that the brotherhood OF
st. Luke existed for copying manu-
scripts and not for nursing sick beg
gars.
Then Brother Paul had long been an
offender. Many time 1t had hap
pened that when the other brothers
were diligently copying the scored
texts, Brother Paul had been absent,
cultivating the garden Of the old wild
ow who lived by the edge Of the Innes-
fel woods. Or he was helping to Sc
cure the hay for Farmer Cedric, who
had rheumatics. keeping him in thu
chimney-corner half a year His farE.
| would have utterly gone to waste hat
1t not been for the visits of the sturd,
Brother Paul, who could delve and
ditch and harvest as well as the best
Saxon churl In the shire.
Indeed, whatever standing Brother
Paul had inside the monastery, his
standing In the village and through
| the whole countryside was by no
means doubtful. The people held him
In greater reverence than the parish
priest, and Father John Of the Monas
terry" as the villagers called him
| could not count upon one half the af-
lection which continually went out to
| Brother Paul.
Eldorman Beowulph pointed to his
bright son OF fourteen summers and
told how Brother Paul rescued the lad
from the mad waters of the river
Alnes, the year of the great freshet
And Jenny, the weaver, told of that
| hard winter when his house was snow
bound and he himself sick with fe-
yer. And the children were crying for
| bread, and not crumb in the house.
| when Brother Paul broke a path
through the forest and in spite of the
terrible storm, found his way with
bread for the weaver and his children
And SO one could go on for a day
! picking up tales OF the goodness which
the simple village folk had received
from Brother Paul.
But all this counted but little inside
the monastery of st. Luke. There
Brother Paul was surely the least OF
all the little brotherhood, with more
duties omitted and more tasks upper
formed than all the other brothers
twice over. More than once Father
John had prohibited Brother Paul from
leaving his cell for long periods, under
pain of serious penalty. And it was
suspected that more than once Brother
Paul had broken his arrest by nightly
visits of help and mercy to the suffer
ing poor in the village.
So when 1t happened during the next
to the last week in Lent that Brother
Paul fell sick of lung fever, and when
he grew steadily worse in spite of all
remedial herbs in the corner closet OF
the refectory. and when, about sunset
of Good Friday the good brother closed
his eyes forever upon earthly scenes,
1t was matter of less regret in the
monastery of st. Luke than in the vii
lege Of Innesfel.
Saturday sufficed for the simple
preparations for the burial. and at
sunset the body of Paul was laid upon
a bench in the chapel OF the monastery
while the brothers sang the requiem
for a brother gone to rest. They left
him there, to await the burial on
Monday.
Father John slept, as became the SUI
perior of monastic house, in the cell
just beyond the chapel. From his
plain couch he could see the lamp
burning before the little white altar.
And the pious monk awaited sleep,
watching the lamp and thinking who
should be admitted to the place of
Brother Paul, who had died.
To his surprise. suddenly the little
lamp blazed wondrously The chapel
was in glow. What could it mean?
And he saw one gloriously vested as
cending the altar steps. The brilliant
light shone on. And the stranger
turned wondrous face upon the
startled monk, the countenance of the
Archangel Gabriel.
Il bring" the angel said, "a crown
Of exceeding richness for the man
among all men who in his life has best
transcribed the Gospels of our adora-
BILE Lord. For such one there waits
an endless benediction.' 1t was one
blissful moment for the superior of st.
Luke's. Heaven, as we'll as earth, had
recognized the matchless work of those
tireless copyists. Father John AMI
Brother Stephen and Brother Philip
It was bliss indeed!
But Gabriel began to speak again:
Here Is the home of one who made
the truest copies OF Gods Word. No
other manuscript was ever SO fair as
his. For he. Brother Paul, wrote the
gospel of our Lord in his life. With
words Of love and tender care he wrote
his days full of gentle ministries and
made the nights shine with help and
cheer Hereafter let 1t be known that
the best copy Of Gods Word is liv-
ing copy, and they are the best copyists
who write the Holy Gospels in their
hearts and illumine them with Christly
lives"
And then the superior OF st. Lnke's
beheld two angels raise the form OF
Brother Paul from the bench on which
1t had been laid, and bear 1t through
the lifted roof of the chapel along the