Historical Setting: 793 C.E. Lindisfarne Monastery
The monk with an unlit lantern was shorn just this morning as any monk would prepare for a normal day. I think I had a glimpse of him, looking down from the tower when I was outside. But when I turned around now, he was startled by the sight of me, bearded, as I am, and unkempt as a slave. Or maybe he is terrified by me, because I am dressed as a monk in a robe cut for a giant. Surely, he was expecting me to be someone he knew – “Brother Jabari” — he called me. I try to explain myself.
“I was just sent back here to return the book.”
“Who sent you here?”
What should I say? The Marauders? The fear of God? Was it God who allowed me to return to Christians, as wounded as Christianity is in this time and place?
“I was a slave for them, but I am a Christian here.”
He takes a small flame of a still burning candle tucked into a niche, and he lights the lantern illuminating the heap of pale corpses strewn on the altar steps, each step named for a piece of Trinity, “Father, Son and Holy ghost.” It is how the priest who ascends to the most holy place. It is the place where these guardians of the holy were felled.
“I was a slave waiting with the ships when they returned with a heap of robes, and the stolen treasures. They had no understanding of the gospel, so I was sent to return it to its place here. I traded my slave shirt for this stolen monk’s robe. It must have belonged to the one you knew as Brother Jabari.”
“When I looked out from the tower, you were there and I thought surely Brother Jabari was safe also. He had the dark black hair – he was from Egypt, Alexandria, rich with the spirit of ancient saints.” This monk is weeping in his grief, “and now I see his robe was collected from him as he was slain. I saw them. One-by-one everyone was stripped of their robes, then driven through with sword or spear. Some howled, some just gasped, no one fought. I ran into the tower to reach for the bell to toll the danger for others when I looked out and saw the looters tumbling their way over the rocks, and sailing off in their ships. Then I looked down, and saw you there.”
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 