Historical Setting: The Great Skellig in an unknown time
Brother Timothy’s sister tells me of Saint Brendan here on this Great Skellig. Discussing signs and miracles and we discover a twinkle of humor in the distinction between a saintly miracle and a simple sign of God’s gracious abundance. Apparently, a miracle has furniture. Her humor is gratifying. A miracle requires a great hall with tables, and an earthly sign is just a picnic with an abundance of food.
From my viewpoint though, as one who was rescued to be a redundant mortal as a sign, I too, find it better to be a sign than a saint. I tell her my name is Eleazor. It has more clarity than “Lazarus” just now.
She tells me how she was charged at birth to always care for her twin, Brother Timothy.
“Then I was named Brigid after a goddess, but the old woman who kept infant orphans wanted to call me Eunice to pledge my care for Timothy, as though giving me the name of a mother would provide him with a mother. But when we were cast out no longer infants, to live by the sea, God was with us and sent a ‘holy person’ to watch over us, who always called me Sister Brigid so that’s who I am.”
“Very well, Sister Brigid, may you know me as Lazarus.”
“Lazarus, who rose from the dead in John’s gospel?”
“One in the same.”
She laughs. She thinks that’s funny.
Returning to her cell she ties some hands full of chard in bundles to take to Brother Timothy.
She asks, “Do you know how to cook chard?”
“I’ve always prepared it with the roots or beets boiling in the pot first, then when the skins are loose, I add the chard; it softens quickly and it is all good to eat. But here you leave the roots in the garden.”
“Set in your old ways, Eleazor who calls yourself “Lazarus” you don’t need beets to redden the stew, the chard will grow again from the root left in the ground.”
She wraps a bundle of chard in a swath of cheese cloth.
“When the pot is boiling take a stick and hold this bundle in the rising steam. When it softens, and the blood-red drops redden the frothy boil the chard will be sweet and soft and warm to eat, and the water will be a very fine broth as well. And in the garden chard will grow again from the beet. It is a sign.”
(Continues Tuesday, July 14)
Lazarus Ink 