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Likewise on another occasion,91 when he was sacrificing and praying at the hour of sacrifice with his accustomed sanctity and purity of heart, the deacon standing by him, a dove was seen to enter through the window in great glory. And with that glory the priest was completely flooded, and the whole of the gloomy basilica became suffused with light. But the dove, after flitting about for a while, at length settled down on the cross before the face of the priest. The deacon was amazed; and trembling on account of the novelty both of the light and of the bird, for that is a rare bird in the land, fell upon his face, and palpitating, scarcely dared to rise even when the necessity of his office required it. After Mass Malachy spoke to him privately and bade him, as he valued his life, on no account to divulge the mystery which he had seen, as long as he himself was alive.

Once, when he was at Armagh with one of his fellow-bishops, he rose in the night and began to go round the memorials of the saints, of which there are many in the cemetery of St. Patrick,92 with prayer. And lo, they saw one of the altars suddenly take fire. For both saw this great vision, and both wondered. And Malachy, understanding that it was a sign of the great merit of him, or those, whose bodies rested under that altar, ran and plunged into the midst of the flames with outstretched arms and embraced the sacred altar. What he did there, or what he perceived, none knows; but that from that fire he went forth ablaze more than his wont with heavenly fire, I suppose there is none of the brothers who were with him then that does not know.

  1. These things have been mentioned, a few out of many, but many for this time. For these are not times of signs, as it is written, We see not signs; there is no more any prophet.93 Whence it appears sufficiently how great in merits was my Malachy, who was so rich in signs, rare as they now are. For in what kind of ancient miracles94 was not Malachy conspicuous? If we consider well those few that have been mentioned, he lacked not prophecy,95 nor revelation,96 nor vengeance upon the impious,97 nor the grace of healings,98 nor transformation of minds,99 nor lastly raising the dead.100 By all these things God was blessed who so loved and adorned him, who also magnified him before kings,101 and gave him the crown of glory.102 That he was loved is proved in his merits, that he was adorned, in his signs, that he was magnified, in his vengeance on enemies, that he had glory, in recompense of rewards. You have in Malachy, diligent reader, something to wonder at, you have also something to imitate. Now carefully note what you may hope for as the result of these things. For the end of these things is a precious death.103

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Footnotes

  1. Rem. This may have been a follower of Berengarius, who in his recantation in 1059 anathematized the heresy that the bread and wine “after consecration are merely a sacrament and not the true Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Mansi, xix. 900). ↩

  2. Compare St. Bernard’s method with Abélard, V.P. iii. 13; and for his dealing with a brother who did not believe in transubstantiation, ibid. vii. 8, 9. ↩

  3. I follow the printed text: de consensu confusus quidem exiit, sed non correptus. But Mabillon, supported by A, has “he retired from the assembly confounded, but not brought to the right opinion” (de conuentu … non correctus). K reads de conuentu … non correptus. ↩

  4. It would seem from this that Malachy was acting as legate. The date is therefore after 1140. ↩

  5. Prov. xxviii. 21 (vg.). ↩

  6. John xi. 51. ↩

  7. Isa. xxviii. 19 (vg.). ↩

  8. In §§ 58-62 we have three stories in which Malachy appears as a peacemaker. ↩

  9. 1 Sam. xvii. 37, combined with 1 Chron. xxii. 16. ↩

  10. Gen. xi. 3 (vg.). ↩

  11. Judg. xvi. 24. ↩

  12. Mark v. 38. ↩

  13. This expression indicates that Malachy had a special relation to one monastery. It can hardly have been any other than Bangor. ↩

  14. Matt. xi. 17. ↩

  15. 1 Kings xxii. 22; 2 Chron. xviii. 21. ↩

  16. Josh. vi. 21; Judg. iv. 15, etc. ↩

  17. Heb. xi. 8. ↩

  18. Cp. Ps. x. 2. ↩

  19. 1 John iv. 6. ↩

  20. Cp. Mal. i. 6. ↩

  21. Cp. Ps. vii. 16. ↩

  22. Exod. viii. 19. ↩

  23. Hos. ii. 6. ↩

  24. Josh. vii. 15, etc. ↩

  25. In Serm. ii. § 2, where this story is again briefly told, the miracle is more directly ascribed to Malachy, and the stream is said to have swelled suddenly. ↩

  26. Cp. Luke iv. 14, etc. ↩

  27. Job v. 13, combined with 1 Cor. iii. 19. ↩

  28. Ps. lxxv. 10. ↩

  29. 1 Sam. ii. 10. ↩

  30. Probably Turlough O’Conor, who is said by the annalists to have imprisoned illegally several persons of high position, viz. (1) his own son Rory O’Conor, together with Donnell O’Flaherty and Cathal O’Conor, in 1143, (2) Murrough Ua Maelsechlainn, king of Meath, in 1143, and (3) Teague O’Brien, in 1148. Release was obtained, in the first instance, in 1144 by the clergy of Ireland and the “coarb of Patrick,” who fasted at Rathbrennan. The coarb may have been Malachy. In the second instance, it was secured through the influence of certain “sureties”; and in the third, “at the intercession of the bishops of Ireland with the coarb of Patrick, Mael Maedoc Ua Morgair” (A.F.M., A.T.). The Annals, however, know nothing of the blinding of O’Conor. The incident in the text is mentioned in Serm. ii. § 2. ↩

  31. Gal iii. 19. ↩

  32. Josh. vii. 15, etc. ↩

  33. Acts xxiii. 14. ↩

  34. An example of the well-known Irish custom of “fasting on” a person with a view to his discomfiture (cp. p. 106, n. 9). ↩

  35. Ps. lxxi. 4 (inexact quotation). ↩

  36. Exod. viii. 19. ↩

  37. Rev. v. 8. ↩

  38. Isa. xxi. 15 (vg.). ↩

  39. Ps. cxxxix. 7. ↩

  40. Acts xiii. 11. ↩

  41. Acts xxvi. 14. ↩

  42. Ps. cxx. 4. ↩

  43. Isa. xxviii. 19. ↩

  44. Acts ix. 8. ↩

  45. Acts ix. 18. ↩

  46. Job xxx. 29. ↩

  47. Luke x. 19 (quotation not exact). ↩

  48. Ps. cxlix. ↩

  49. See § 13. ↩

  50. This remark proves that the building of the oratory was begun after Malachy’s return from France. The same conclusion follows from the words “We are Scots, not Gauls,” lower down. ↩

  51. St. Bernard is speaking, not of stone churches in general, as has sometimes been assumed, but of stone oratories, which may have been unknown in “that land,” i.e. the district about Bangor (see p. 32, n. 3). The innovation would naturally cause dissatisfaction among a conservative people. Indignation may also have been excited by the unusual size of the building; for it was “a great oratory” (§ 63). But on the other hand, its ornate style cannot have contributed to the opposition which the project aroused; for it commenced when the foundations were being laid. Indeed, however “beautiful” it may have been (§ 63), it was probably, like the churches of the Cistercians, of simple design and devoid of ornament. See St. Bernard’s Apologia ad Guillelmum, § 28 ff. (P.L. clxxxii. 914 f.). The only relic of the medieval monastery of Bangor is a rudely built wall, once pierced by a door and a window, now built up. It seems to be later than the twelfth century. About 120 yards to the south-west of it is “The Abbey Church,” still used for worship. The main part of this structure dates from the seventeenth century. But the core of the tower appears to be much earlier, and may be on the site of St. Malachy’s oratory. ↩

  52. Job xv. 35 (vg.); Ps. vii. 14 (vg.). ↩

  53. Lev. xix. 16. ↩

  54. Ps. ci. 5. ↩

  55. Acts xiv. 12. ↩

  56. Ps. lxxiv. 21. ↩

  57. Luke xiv. 28. ↩

  58. Viro, i.e. Malachy. ↩

  59. Cp. John vi. 66. ↩

  60. Quia non uis non uidebis. ↩

  61. John viii. 21. ↩

  62. Heb. iv. 12. ↩

  63. 1 Kings xvii. 18. ↩

  64. Perhaps because he imitated the customs of the Gauls. ↩

  65. 1 Pet. iii. 9. ↩

  66. Isa. liii. 7. ↩

  67. Ps. xxxix. 1. ↩

  68. Rom. xii. 19. ↩

  69. 1 Sam. xvi. 14; xix. 9 (vg.). ↩

  70. 2 Cor. xii. 7 ↩

  71. 1 Tim. i. 20. ↩

  72. Susanna, 35. ↩

  73. Ecclus. xxxi. 8 (vg.: with variant). ↩

  74. Prov. i. 14. ↩

  75. Ps. l. 12. ↩

  76. Malachy disposed of the treasure according to his will. That fact, together with his relation to the brothers, revealed by the next few sentences, makes it exceedingly probable that he was still their abbot. ↩

  77. Ps. lv. 23 (vg.). ↩

  78. Bangor was apparently his headquarters. ↩

  79. Heb. viii. 5. ↩

  80. Jocelin, writing towards the end of the twelfth century, declares that St. Patrick founded a monastery at Saul (Vita S. Patricii, cap. 32). But, apparently, neither in the Annals nor in any other authority earlier than Jocelin, is mention made of a monastery there before St. Malachy’s time. The text seems to imply that there were no monastic buildings on the site when he founded (or re-founded) it. Malachy placed in his new monastery a convent of regular canons of St. Augustine (A.U. 1170); but it never became an important establishment, though it was still in existence in the sixteenth century. See Reeves, pp. 40, 220 ff. ↩

  81. This and the next story (§ 65) illustrate Malachy’s power of reading the hearts of men. ↩

  82. Luke xix. 1-4. ↩

  83. Luke i. 17. ↩

  84. 2 Cor. x. 18. ↩

  85. See p. 4, n. 7. ↩

  86. Suriensis monasterii. The monastery of Inislounaght, close to the River Suir, a mile or two to the west of Clonmel, co. Tipperary, is commonly known as De Surio. The present passage seems to show that it was founded before 1148. For information about it see an article by the late Dr. Bagwell, in J.R.S.A.I. xxxix. 267 f. and Janauschek, Orig. Cist. p. 131. This incident must have been considerably later than the foundation of Mellifont (see p. 75, n. 4). It may therefore be dated between 1143 and 1147. ↩

  87. Rev. xix. 10. ↩

  88. This word is constantly used in the plural of the Eucharist, each of the elements being regarded as a “sacrament.” ↩

  89. John i. 20. ↩

  90. Gen. xxxix. 17. ↩

  91. This story is suggested by the last because the incident occurred during the celebration of Mass. ↩

  92. Evidently the cemetery in which, according to local tradition, St. Patrick was buried (see § 19). It was probably the Ferta Martair, the site of St. Patrick’s earlier settlement at Armagh (Reeves, Churches, p. 5; R.I.A. xviii. 660). It seems to be hinted that St. Malachy received a revelation of the position of his grave. ↩

  93. Ps. lxxiv. 9. ↩

  94. Secret of Mass for Kings, etc. ↩

  95. A fresh classification of Malachy’s miracles. For prophecy see §§ 36, 48, 52, 57, 62, 64 f. ↩

  96. §§ 11, 63, 64, 65. ↩

  97. §§ 22 f., 48, 57, 60, 62. ↩

  98. 1 Cor. xii. 9 (vg.).—§§ 14, 15, 40, 45-47, 49-52, 60, 62. ↩

  99. §§ 26, 54, 57, 61. ↩

  100. § 53. ↩

  101. Ps. cxix. 46.—§§ 10, 40, 60. ↩

  102. 1 Pet. v. 4. ↩

  103. Rom. vi. 21, combined with Ps. cxvi. 15. ↩

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