Post #30.4, Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Historical setting: 589 C.E. In the Vosges Mountains

         At this waking I see the contents of my travel bag spread out on the ground and Anatase’s sickle is missing. Brother Crathias is still here, and I am lying on my back on a fleece with only my ankles tied now.

         “Good morning, Pirate. Brother Servant will return soon with a cart from the monastery to take you somewhere you can’t escape from in case you really are a pirate. But I don’t think you’re a pirate. You’re teeth are good.”

         “Thank you. I’m definitely not a pirate.”

          “But you know lots of young women and boys have been kidnapped by pirates to be sold for wives and slaves off in distant places where they can’t be found again. That is probably what happened to the girl whose child’s toy you happened to have. It seems unlikely the same woman you lost would be the one they found.”

         “Coincidences happen. Anatase is strong and clever.  And of course there is that possibility of synchronicity.”

         “Yes, Good Pirate, but you might have had a better chance to free yourself had you not given Brother Servant such a unique item to prove your hunch.  Because if she’s not that woman then it will prove you really are a pirate and things could go very badly for you.”

         “But the truth is I’m not a pirate.”

          “I think Brother Servant mentioned an old quarry pit behind the tattered fort of Annegray where they can keep you captive until Father Columbanus decides what to do with you. I know about Annegray because I was there last year at Lent and I saw that it is a ruin of an old fortress that the Irish monks only pretend is a monastery. It has lots of scary hiding places.”

         “I know,” I can speak more easily now, “I’ve even heard rumors from the pagans it is a haunt for the creatures of the underworld. But I wondered with beasts and rumors, and a hard climb to reach it, why would it be so popular for Christian pilgrims?”

         “Christians give no thought to the fears of earth, at least they shouldn’t say it aloud if the do fear, so being haunted surely adds to the challenge. And tattered and hard to reach is what sincere Christians gladly accept to assure the significance of the spiritual challenges they have taken on. And then, of course, Father Columbanus is beloved.”

(Continues Tomorrow)

Post #30.3, Thursday, March 3, 2022

Historical setting: 589 C.E. In the Vosges Mountains

         As the two very different Christian monks continue explaining themselves to one another I gather both a terror and a glimpse of hope. Brother Servant explains why he was chosen as servant because a trusted eunuch was needed.

         “I serve as a messenger back and forth between Father Columbanus and his followers when he is in his solitary wilderness place, but I also am messenger for a woman who followed some monks in a clandestine way. She is in hiding now, never trusting a man and always living in fear of pirates. She was raped and beaten by pirates that captured her on the River Loire. She’s followed that little band of monks all this way from the port at St. Milo and here she trusts me alone among men for her peace and solace.

         “I’m always alert and watching for pirates who would be searching for her. I think we should bind his hands and feet in case he would be able to get himself up.  We must assume he is a pirate unless he can show us otherwise. First we should check his bag for a blade.”

         Dear God, thank you for amazing synchronicity.

         The servant monk kneels here and draws my hands behind me — a terrible hurt to the wound. I try to plea while I can speak. “I’m not a pirate, but I am from the family of Ezra, who owns the vineyards on the Loire. There was a pirate abduction of a girl, surely a woman now; she’s named Anatase. She was apprenticed to a healer in my family.”

         The servant monk is listening as though we share some knowledge of a truth. I tell him more, “I have proof that I am from her teacher’s family. When you search my bag for a blade you will find one. It’s a small hammered blade, a legionnaire’s dagger forged into a child’s-sized sickle. Take that to the woman who was abducted and ask if she has ever seen it before. If she is Anatase she will tell you it was made into this tool as a gift for her when she was a child – it was given her by the monk who taught her to read. His name was Nic. She will know this. Please tell her we’ve been searching for her.”

         With wrists and ankles bound I’m turned again and I can’t speak.

 (Continues Tuesday, March 8)


Post #30.2, Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Historical setting: 589 C.E. In the Vosges Mountains

         When I wake from this faint Brother Crathius, it seems, has never ceased his chatter and all the while he’s bandaged my wound and set me in a position that allows me to catch my breath.

         As they are starting the fire he tells the servant of Columbanus that he was chosen by his abbot to accompany the pilgrims on this Lenten journey to Annegray because the brothers from his abbey on this pilgrimage are elderly and have stiffened with age and from years working at the benches of a scriptorium.

          Brother Crathius explains, “I was sent with them prepared with herbs and oils and wraps to comfort them on the climbs; but as it turned out all this walking to reach the mountain trail had limbered their joints and, like a true miracle, they can continue the long climbs without the constant care of a physician. So by the Grace of God and with the help of Christ I am free to answer to this need.

         He just talks on, “So, you see Brother Servant, some miracles happen by magic and wonder, but often a Christian miracle is simply noticing the patterns of pain and an awareness of an unlikely synchronicity such as finding a physician with supplies in his bag, just when an angel for God speaks of need.”

         “I’m well aware,” said the servant to the physician.

         Another comfort in my healing is the cool damp cloth Brother Crathius washes over my face.

         “Brother Servant, take a look at this thief. His dark eyes, and swarthy hair… he may be Persian.”

         “No” I need to explain, “I was born in the east near Jerusalem, and I’m a Christian in these times.”

         “See how he defends?  Could he be a pirate?” The servant asks the physician.

         “Pirates are rarely so far from the sea, and with no deep river or  channel to the sea in this place it would be unlikely.”

         “No.” argues the servant. “Some monks who have come up from the sea to Annegray warned us so we’ve been keeping watch for pirates who might have followed them.”

         “Why? Why would pirates follow holy men? Is there some treasure they want?”

         The servant explains, “My service to Father Columbanus is to watch in the wilderness when he is away in solitary for prayer and fasting. But my other task these days calls for a trusted eunuch.”

(Continues tomorrow)

Post #30.1, Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Historical setting: 589 C.E. In the Vosges Mountains

                 Winter night won’t linger as dusk very long. The hunters are anxious to return to their base camp by dark so they leave at the first sight of the monks. I think the two Christians plan to stay with me here for the night then drag whatever is left on to a proper death or maybe a healing in the morning. Thank you God for sending Christians.

         One has a fire start but their traveler’s bags are probably as sparse as my own, which I still have and I also still have my fleece. It was across my shoulders under the deerskin at the time of the so-called accident. We also have that deer hide I’m partly laying on, though it is surely bloodied by now. But it could be lashed to a frame for a night shelter for the three of us.

         The taller of the Christians has the tonsure of the Irish monks as I had expected to see, knowing that Father Columbanus came from the Scoti with his followers.

         He kneels down here by me and asks if I would like to make a confession. “The hunter who sent the angel to find us with the message said that you were a thief who had stolen an arrow and taken a fishhook from the fairies. We, who follow Father Columbanus accept private confession if you have need for absolution.”

         “Thank you” I find I have a breath to speak now, though very softly, “The arrow was returned. But please pray that the fishhook can be used to feed the hungry.”

         The other monk, the shorter fellow shorn in the Latin style asks, “Do you want me to witness his confession with you Brother?”

         “Thank you Brother Pilgrim. That won’t be necessary, because the Rule of Columbanus follows the way of St. Patrick who advocated for only private confession.”

         I can see that the difference between these two is more than height and haircut.

         “Now Brother Pilgrim, you may collect the bramble for our fire while I offer him a quiet absolution.”

         “I have a name. It’s Brother Crathius. And it may be by the holiness of Christ that you selected me from my fellow pilgrims for this mission.  You see, I am a physician. So while you gather brambles I shall see to wound.”

         “Very well, who am I to argue a true calling?”

(Continue tomorrow)

Post #29.12, Thurs., February 24, 2022

Historical setting: 589 C.E. when Brittany was forest

          “Auldouff? This is no deer. Couldn’t you see it was Ezra?”

         “What?  You mean, this isn’t a deer?” Auldouff is still holding the bloody arrow he just withdrew.

         “No you idiot, it’s Ezra. How is it that you pulled the arrow, without even noticing it was Ezra you shot?”

         “You can put him out of his suffering with your blade.”

         “I can’t kill a man. He is looking right at me. We’ll suffer a Christian curse if he dies. Believe me Christian curses are far worse than any fairy pranks. Their underworld is Hell.”

         “The Christians don’t know him. They won’t notice.”

         “This is what we have to do. One of us should stay here to scare off the vultures and wolves, and the other should find the Christians.”

         “I’ll go for the Christians because I can tell them it was simply an accident.”

         “Be back by nightfall. These hills are surely haunted.”

         Dear God, did you mean to send those Christians of Annegray into a place with a fearsome darkness? Please stay close.  Waking and sleeping I don’t know of hours passing.  Heinrique is using his blade to whittle a stick. He is sitting near but looking out across the hills. I can’t tell if the darkness that is settling in is my vision alone or if it is already dusk. A wolf howls from a distant hill and Heinrique pulls his fleece closer around his shoulders. I feel the chill of fever drawing my life and releasing it as though I no longer need warmth. I’m remembering now the child’s flute, the little practice tune that played for me in an earlier time and danced me back from death to life – the peaceful meadow of healing herbs where my children, each in their own way, were candles of love and kindness.

         Awake I am again, and Auldouff returns breathless, having run ahead of the Christian monks he found.

         “Heinrique! Good you are still here!  I have to tell you the horrors of it!  The howling banshee was right in my path. I saw her even in the daylight, I saw her. I told her we needed Christians to come, so she went away and sent them to follow me.” We hear the wolves howl. “Listen, she is keening for his death right now!”

         “It’s only wolves, Auldouff. It’s alright now. And I see the Christians are coming.”

         The darkness is on all of us.

(Continues Tuesday, March 1, 2022)

Post #29.11, Weds., February, 24, 2022

Historical setting: 589 C.E. when Brittany was forest

         Today, we set out again for the hunt. And again, all I really want is to find that group of Christians they say are in these hills. On our first venture into the mountains I did see a cairn marking a trail for pilgrims, but I haven’t seen any other person who might know more of this than these pagan hunters. I was told the place where the Irish father and his followers have a community is a ruin of a fortress called Annegray.  If I would see another person at least I could ask for direction. These mountains are a forested wilderness and I can’t even guess how vast.

         Auldouff is a good distance ahead of us, Heinrique is still within my sight and here is a meadow with some deer grazing. Maybe Auldouff was right about a deer disguise.  I seem to be able to move in fairly close to them even though they are alert to danger and listening in my direction. Then again, I guess Heinrique was right, as soon as one sniffs the air they bolt – leaping away in ever direction as fast and far as they can. Just now Auldouff rises up from the brush ahead of me, with his bow drawn, first aiming and missing a deer then notching another arrow and aiming straight at me, eye-to-eye, as though I were a partridge in hiding. Surely he sees I’m not prey. But he releases his arrow straight to … it must be close to my heart, I can’t catch my breath. Now here I am lying like a slain creature wrapped in the skin of the animal who once met this same fate.

         Auldouff calls Heinrique to bring his blade because he thinks he’s wounded a buck. Auldouff comes nearer and he sees I am conscious so he says it was an accident. “You looked just like a deer to me, though I’ve never seen one face to face like that before.” He reaches to draw out the arrow, and I plead for him not to, but it is too late.  Now there will be so much bleeding.

         “I had to get my arrow back. Heinrique will stop the hurt. Don’t worry Ezra.” He backs off.

         Heinrique is here now, and Auldouff is at a distance. “What have you done, Auldouff?”

(Continues tomorrow)

Post #29.10, Tues., February 22, 2022

Historical setting: 589 C.E. when Brittany was forest

         We leave the camp for the steeper walk into the hills ahead with a buckskin we use for shelter slung over my back because Auldouff thinks the deer won’t fear us if they don’t see our clothing. Since my tunic and cowl are of brighter colors Auldouff thinks I need a disguise. I don’t mind the extra weight, it’s more warmth on this frosty morning.

         I guess Auldouff’s theory of a deer’s point of view is something like God noticing the first sin in the garden because the people were wearing clothing. [Genesis 3:7-10]

         I’ve learned that one of the rumored magical features of the Vosges is that the animals of this wilderness might give up their wild ways and follow certain people. It’s said by Christians and maybe pagans too that Father Columbanus tames wolves and he even ousted a bear from her cave. [Footnote] And maybe Auldouff expects me, a Christian, to run with the deer and tame them for easier kill.

         Heinrique argues that deer pay no attention to our fashion. They sniff the air for predators and they stand very still and twitching their ears to listen for us. Either way, I am creeping through the forest wearing a heavy buckskin trying to keep completely silent and downwind from whatever makes these deep hoof prints in the mud.

         Suddenly, ahead of us a huge buck leaps up and Auldouff’s arrow knocks it to the ground. Heinrique uses his sharp blade as clean as any rabbi would for the slaughter. We return to our campsite with the kill. The creek is thawing already and we can’t depend on the cold to keep the kill, so we must work now to soak the hide and set up some spits over a smoky fire to prepare the meat, then we will cover over the smoker with the wetted hide before we head back for the hunt. The brothers are hoping for another hard freeze this winter to save us all this work with the next kill but the season is already changing.

         I’m getting a bit impatient with the hunters, I think because I have come here with a different purpose than they.  And our differences are weighing on all of us.  I am pretty sure these hunters would gladly leave me with the Christians if they could.

[Footnote] Sellner, Edward C. Celtic Saints and Animal Stories: A spiritual lkinship, (NewYork: PaulistPress) 2000 .pp.52-54.

(Continues tomorrow)

Post #29.9, Thurs., February 17, 2022

Historical setting: 589 C.E. when Brittany was forest

         Today we’re hunting partridge for food and feathers. Heinrique studies the mud patches where the meadow wears thin and he studies the earth along the barren mud banks of the creek looking for partridge tracks. Auldouff plunders through the brush hoping to stir them from sheltering places close to the ground.

         Heinrique speaks, “This whole bevy of partridge must be onto us by now. They’ve moved on or else they’re hiding too well. They just don’t forget these fellows with arrows coming often, picking them off one at a time.”

         We walk on following the creek into a piney wood as the earth slopes more and more from meadow toward mountain. Auldouff blunders on ahead. Heinrique is on his slow search for detail and I am a distance behind noticing the beauty of this nature. It seems winter hardened and stripped bare anything that once lived to set this season’s empty silence. Then I notice a quivering stalk in the grasses by a fallen log, and on closer look I’m staring straight at a large partridge staring right back at me too close to me for it to fly, trapped by his own shelter, completely depending on my human numbness, possibly blinded by its rote stillness. But my one arrow makes us a feast. As I am gathering the bird Auldouff has just stirred a flapping bew ahead of us, and in an instant several partridges are perching on far distant branches. By the time I’ve caught up with the brothers they’ve wasted several arrows missing the birds.

         Their pattern of hunt, now that we have one bird, is to set their base camp here before we begin the climb into the mountains where they will find the larger prey they seek, the deer and the boar. So here we spend a few days hunting up a few more birds, preparing arrows, and making a sledge to haul some yet unseen great kill back to the tribe and to lighten our travel of these buckskins and fleece we’ve brought for shelter.

         My prayer at this fireside is silent. Dear God, my prayer is for the spirit of that other life that stood perfectly still and looked me in the eye, that I made into food with my arrow. Let me remember the life gift as we are all living with shared spirit. Thank you God, Christ, Spirit, whatever names we make to sort it all out. Amen.

(Continues Tuesday, February 22, 2022)

Post #29.8, Weds, February 16, 2022

Historical setting: 589 C.E. when Brittany was forest

         I lay my fleece under the thatch roof of the hunters, Auldouff and Heinrique, while the thief, who is now known to these people by a name is welcomed into the shelters of the women of this tribe. And the white berries of the mistletoe ritual affirm the magic still works for them.

         This new morning the hunters pack light travel bags and take up their quivers of arrows. I have my bag, and only the one arrow that was probably in these quivers before it was offered to quill the evils of the underworld in the gift of rabbit. It is no secret I am ill prepared for the hunt. Leaving on the same path the thief and I followed yesterday we find our bows still hanging in the limbs of the tree. Of course, Auldouff nudges his brother for a rude remark about the greenwood stick I’m calling a bow.

         “I can learn from you Auldouff, how to make a proper bow, and I will listen carefully to your instruction for making the arrows. One of you must be an excellent fletcher.” I humbly yield.

         “We both are.” answers Heinrique,

         “But how would you know an arrow from a stick?” adds Auldouff.

         “I know because this arrow that I found while following your tribe was probably the work of one of you, and it is an excellent arrow.” I string my greenwood stick, and notch the arrow on the string, then I draw the bow and the arrow takes a quick straight path precisely into a piece of dead wood. They’re surprised and possibly impressed. But with nearly six hundred years to learn many things and lots of time to practice each thing, one would suppose I would have outgrown my need for such a prideful display of my talents. But really, aren’t we all waiting for me to show off a bit?

            Heinrique and Auldouff each take a turn testing my bow. It really is nothing more than a green stick, and I choose not to explain that the so-called ‘magic’ is simply years of practice.

         This day the other two don’t walk ahead of me. I seem to be accepted now as one of the hunters as we search a very specific target for our first day out. Heinrique says we are hunting partridge today, for food we can carry with us, and feathers for making arrows.

(Continues tomorrow)

Post #29.7, Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Historical setting: 589 C.E. when Brittany was forest

         The village is just ahead. It’s a nestling of thatched round houses common among Celtic people. I’ve seen these also on the Island where Bishop Patrick set his Christian communities. There is a wide swath of these people it seems.

         Here I am looking for those hunters assigned by Guldilyn to mentor me in hunting and hopefully to help me find the Vosges Mountains and the Irish Christians. The thief will, no doubt, be looking for loot here in this village to add to his burden. He is already wandering away to meet the women. Wait a minute. Now that may be a perfect synchronicity, the answer to my selfish prayer of how to rid myself of this thief. First I should speak to their druid.

         Here he is, still in his ceremonial white robes — like the weasel changing his coat to white for the winter.

         “Druid Balfour…”

         “So it is you, Ezra! We trusted you, but you ran from your duty. I thought you drowned but Guldilyn said you’re an able swimmer so you meant to run away.”

         “I can explain…” And maybe I have a defense because I was brought up in a Jewish home where the marriage bond is sacred; so of course, I’m not of a presence to plant my seed amid the last women of this pagan tribe just to insure its continuation. And yes, “I escaped.” But he has no interest in my explanation. He interrupts my thought.

         “We didn’t take you in just to give you hunting lessons. Of course you have a duty to our tribe!  We gave you shelter and you gave us, what?”

         “I understand. So now I’ve brought you this other man. See him there near the well? He’s already eyeing your women, and he has a whole sledge of treasures, gifts you yourself would give to elves for good luck. He will enrich your tribe. But let this be our secret. You will need to work your magic on him. Guide him in your ways, and surely your fertile daughters will bear lots of beautiful children maybe with his golden curls.”

         The druid takes a long moment to ponder, then breaks into a jovial smile, a welcoming grin it is, as he grips my shoulder, and calls forth the hunters. They are instructed to take me on to the Vosges.  Thank you, God.

(Continues tomorrow)