Historical setting: 602 C.E. Luxeuil
Brother Servant calls me from something of an embarrassing conversation with the overseer of gifts while I was negotiating a place for Gabe at this monastery. I find that those monks who knew me from my association with Annegray had been grieving my death. Now they assume they’d received misinformation from Metz.
I’m glad to see Brother Servant’s familiar face here, as he leads me to a small library room where I’m to report on the reception of the Father’s message to that Council of bishops. A scribe is present, along with Brother Servant and Father Columbanus, himself.
Of course, the first question, before there is concern over naming the bishops who had been in attendance, is what led to the rumor of my death? I told Brother Servant and the Father the story.
“I went before the council to deliver the message. They were seated as a circle, so I couldn’t discern which had the most status. And I think the circle was invented to serve themselves in that way as they are always fearing one another’s authority.”
Father Columbanus smiled at that obvious explanation.
I went on, “Baro Dithrum waited outside with the guards, and my sons were expected to remain at the stable, but they were also watching from outside. I delivered your message and it was read aloud by a scribe. Then, instead of an answer for me to bring back here, the guards were called. When Baro Dithrum saw that the orders were ‘death for this messenger,’ as though it were simply a traditional response to an unacceptable message, the baro abandoned my sons and me and apparently scurried back to Metz.
“I was bound and blindfolded and led into a wood. I was aware my sons were following and when the guards noticed them I called out for them not of follow. They stayed out of sight of the guards but were surely watching. They saw it when I was pushed to the ground and driven through with a polearm. I would certainly be buried in the woods of Châlons to this day had my boys not found a way to return my bones to Ana.
“As you might suppose my sons were terrified in witnessing this violence. Yet they did all they could to rescue me. I don’t want them to be burdened with my slow healing, so it is important to me that I show them my full strength now.”
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 