There were two monks who, tired of the discipline, or offended at being set to work that displeased them, resolved to go away. They met in the oratory at night, going thither under pretence of keeping vigil, and one said to the other, "You take spade and axe, and I will carry off the coverlets, and so we shall do well where we are going." Now in a dark corner was the abbot praying, and he heard them, and he cried out, "How, my children, is this! Will ye, going away, and disturb our peace?" Then the two monks fell down dismayed at his feet, but he extending his hands, put one under each of their chins, and stooping gently, kissed them, said no one word of reproach, but betook himself to the arms of prayer to God. Then the two monks stole back, penitent and humbled, to their beds, and one remained at Condate till he died, twenty years after; but the second after a while ran away, but returned again to Lupicinus, sorrowful for what he had done, and resolved to continue with him through the rest of his life.
When Lupicinus was old, he sought king Chilperic who governed Burgundy, and who was then in Geneva.[75]
He went to him to plead the cause of some poor natives of the Sequanaise, who had been reduced into slavery by a subordinate potentate. This petty tyrant was one of those degenerate Romans, courtiers and oppressors, who, by flattering the new-born authority of the barbarian kings, found means of trampling on and spoiling their inferiors. He was perhaps one of those senators of Gaul whom the Burgundians had admitted in 456 to a share of the conquered soil, and Lupicinus, although of Gallo-Roman origin, seems to have been less favourably disposed towards the Roman government than that of the Barbarians. Gregory of Tours has recorded a tradition which well depicts the impression made on the popular imagination by this apparition of the monks confronted with the triumphant Barbarians. He relates that when Lupicinus crossed the threshold of the palace of Chilperic, the throne upon which the king was seated trembled, as if there had been an earthquake. Reassured at the sight of the old man clothed in skins, the Burgundian prince listened to the curious debate which arose between the oppressor and the advocate of the oppressed. "It is then thou," said the courtier to the abbot, "it is thou, old impostor, who hast already insulted the Roman power for ten years, by announcing that all this region, and its chiefs, were hastening to their ruin." "Yes, truly," answered the monk, pointing to the king, who listened, "Yes, perverse traitor, the ruin which I predicted to thee and to thy fellows, there it is. Seest thou not, degenerate man, that thy rights are destroyed by thy sins, and that the prayers of the innocent are granted? Seest thou not that the fasces and the Roman purple are compelled to bow before a foreign judge? Take heed that some unexpected guest does not come before a new tribunal to claim thy lands and thy domains." The king of the Burgundians not only justified the abbot by restoring his clients to liberty, but overwhelmed him with presents, and offered him fields, and vineyards for his abbey. Lupicinus would only accept a portion of the produce of these fields and vineyards, fearing that the sentiment of too vast a property might make his monks proud. Then the king decreed that they should be allowed every year three hundred measures of corn, three hundred measures of wine, and a hundred gold pieces for vestments; and the treasury of the Merovingian kings continued to pay these dues long after the fall of the kingdom of the Burgundians.
The old abbot was true to his profession of self-mortification to the last. As he lay a dying he asked for a drink of water. One of the brethren sweetened it, by pouring in a spoonful of honey. But the dying man, when he tasted the sweetness, turned his head away, and refused to drink.
S. ENDA, AB. OF ARAN-MORE.
(ABOUT A.D. 540.)
[Irish Martyrologies. Authority:—A fragment of the Life by Augustine MacCrodin, published by Colgan, written about 1390. The following account of the home of S. Enda, and sketch of his life, is taken from the Bishop of Ardagh's charming "Visit to Aran-more," Brown and Nolan, Dublin, 1870.]
S. Enda, whose name in Irish is written Einne and Ende, and in Latin, Endeus and Anna, was born in Louth about the middle of the fifth century, and was the only son of Conall, king of Oriel, whose territories included the modern counties of Louth, Monaghan, Armagh, and Fermanagh. Three of his sisters, Fanchea, Lochinia, and Carecha, were nuns, and Darenia, the fourth sister, was wife of Engus, king of Cashel, whose death is placed by the Four Masters in the year 489. On the death of his father, the youthful Enda was chosen to succeed him as head of the men of Oriel. The warlike spirit of the times took strong hold of the young prince's heart, and we find him at an early period of his life captivated by the love of glory, and eager to show by his military prowess that he was worthy of the royal race from which he had sprung, and of the throne which he filled. His holy sister, Fanchea, was incessant in her exertions to win for God her brother's heart, which, with all its defects, she knew to be chivalrous and pure. For a time her words of warning and entreaty remained without result; but the season of grace came soon. Enda had asked from his sister in marriage one of the royal maidens who were receiving their education in the convent which she ruled. Fanchea communicated his request to the maiden: "Make thou thy choice, whether wilt thou love Him whom I love, or this earthly bridegroom?" "Whom thou lovest," was the girl's sweet reply, "Him also will I love." She died soon after, and gave her soul to God, the Spouse whom she had chosen.
"The holy virgin," says the ancient life, covered the face of the dead girl with a veil, and going again to Enda, said to him: "Young man, come and see the maiden whom thou lovest." Then Enda with the virgin entered the chamber where was the dead girl, and the holy virgin uncovering the face of the lifeless maiden, said to him: "Now look upon the face of her whom thou didst love." And Enda cried out: "Alas! she is fair no longer, but ghastly white." "So also shalt thy face be," replied the holy virgin. And then S. Fanchea discoursed to him of the pains of hell, and of the joys of heaven, until the young man's tears began to flow. O! the wondrous mercy of God in the conversion of this man to the true faith! for even as He changed the haughty Saul into the humble Paul, so out of this worldly prince did he make a spiritual and a holy teacher and pastor of His people. For having heard the words of the holy virgin, despising the vanities of the world, he took the monk's habit and tonsure, and what the tonsure signified, he fulfilled by his actions.
After having founded a monastery in his native place, S. Enda is said to have proceeded to Rosnat or Abba, in Britain, where he remained for some time under the spiritual direction of S. Mansenus or Manchan. Thence, according to the above-mentioned life, he went to Rome, where "attentively studying the examples of the saints, and preparing himself in everything for the order of priesthood, having at length been ordained priest, he was pleasing to the most high God." He built a monastery called Lætinum or the Place of Joy; and rightly so called, adds the life, "because therein the command of loving God and our neighbour was most faithfully carried out."