Early in 804 he was evidently failing. He prayed earnestly that he might die on the day on which the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles in tongues of fire. All through Lent he was able to move about, night after night, to the several basilicas of saints which were included in the monastery of St. Martin, cleansing himself from his sins with much groaning. He kept the solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection; but on the night of the Ascension he fell upon his couch, oppressed by languor even unto death, and unable to speak. The Annals of Pettau tell us that this was a paralytic stroke, and that it fell on Thursday, May 8, in the evening, after sunset. On the third day before his death he recovered the power of speech, and with a voice of exultation sang through his favourite antiphon, O clavis David, based upon Isaiah xxii. 22: “The key of the house of David I will lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open and none shall shut, he shall shut and none shall open.” Then he repeated a number of verses from several psalms: “Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks.” “O how amiable are Thy dwellings, Thou Lord of hosts; blessed are they that dwell in Thy house.” “Unto Thee do I lift up mine eyes.” “One thing I have desired of the Lord.” “Unto Thee, O Lord, will I lift up my soul.” And others of like kind. On the day of Pentecost, matins having been said, at full dawn, just at the hour at which he was wont to enter the church for Mass, the holy soul of Alcuin was released from the flesh. He had prayed months before that he might die on Whit Sunday; on Whit Sunday he died.
APPENDIX A
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It would appear that when Alcuin was not allowed by Charlemagne to retire to Fulda, as he had wished to do, an impulse of affectionate responsibility brought him to pour himself out in advice and help to those with whom he had hoped to spend his last days. This is his letter to the monks of Fulda.
Ep. 186. A.D. 801-2.
“To the most holy, and by us with all love to be cherished, the brethren of the holy Boniface[285], our father and protector, the humble levite Alchuin wishes eternal beatitude in Christ.
“I am mindful of your most sweet love, with which you most benignantly received me long ago with all joy. Greatly as I then was glad in your presence, so greatly is my mind now tortured in your absence, desiring to see you whom it loves, to have present you whom it esteems. Since this is denied to the eyes of the flesh, let love be made perpetual by spiritual presence; love which can come to an end has never been true love.
“Let us therefore aim at that which is never to have an end, where is blessed eternity and eternal blessedness. That ye may deserve to attain to this, let no labour affright you, no blandishments of this life keep you back. Let there always burn in your hearts the love of Him that appeared as their companion on the way to the two apostles, who, when He was removed from their carnal eyes, said ‘Did not our hearts burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?’ In the writings of the holy fathers let us seek Him whom they, not yet learned in the Scriptures, understood. Now all is open; now He has opened the meaning of Whom it was said ‘Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures.’ Now the gospel truth shines forth in all the world; now the enigmas of the prophets are clearer than the sun in the churches of Christ. This light of truth follow ye with your whole soul and understand Christ; in it love Christ, follow Christ; that cleaving to His most sacred footsteps ye may merit to have in His most holy presence life eternal.
“Be mindful of the apostolic mandate,[286] ‘My brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable; always in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.’ Be stedfast in your own place and in the devotion of your purpose. Leave not your most holy father. Stand about his sepulchre, that he may offer your prayers to Almighty God. Desire not the vanities of the world, but love celestial blessings. ‘And,’ as the teacher of the Gentiles says,[287] ‘be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ It is a base thing for a monk to lose the spiritual warfare and to immerse himself in the affairs of the world.