St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh Part 26

[865] 2 Tim. iv. 8.

[866] All Souls' Day.

[867] For the Cistercian method of administering unction see _Usus antiquiores ordinis Cisterciensis_, iii. 94 (_P.L._ clxvi. 1471).

[868] _Solario._

[869] Cp. Letter iv. - 2, where it is added that he commended the Irish brothers to the care of St. Bernard.

[870] _Solio._

[871] Matt. xxiv. 33.

[872] 2 Cor. iii. 7.

[873] Tim. iv. 7.

[874] 2 Sam. i. 23 (inaccurate quotation).--Contrast St. Bernard's lament for his brother Gerard (_Cant._ xxvi. 4): "We loved in life, how have we been divided in death? Most bitter separation!"

[875] Ireland.

[876] John xi. 16.

[877] November 1. For the translation of relics which took place, apparently on that day, see Serm. i. - 2.

[878] Ecclus. xxii. 6.

[879] 1 Thess. iv. 17.

[880] Ps. lxxvi. 10 (vg.).

[881] _Sanctorum ... sollemnitatem._ Not the Festival of All Saints, for that had already come, but, as the next sentence shows, the festival a.s.sembly of the saints in heaven. Compare Ps. lxxiv. 4, where _congregations_ represents _solemnitatis_ in the Vulgate.

[882] John xiv. 19, etc.

[883] Cp. _Cant._ xxvi. 11, "For thee, brother, even at midnight the day dawned."

[884] Rom. xiii. 12.

[885] Ps. lxvi. 12.

[886] See - 71.

[887] Luke xxii. 51.--This saying is quoted in Serm. i. - 5.

[888] Ps. lxxviii. 30 (vg.).

[889] Ps. cx.x.xix. 11 (vg.).--Cp. _Cant._ xxvi. 11: "Already for thee, my brother, even at midnight the day was dawning, and _the night was shining as the day_; straightway _that night was light about thee in thy pleasure_. I was summoned to that miracle, to see a man exulting in death and mocking death."

[890] John xiv. 1.

[891] Mark ix. 23.

[892] 1 Cor. xiii. 8.

[893] Mark vii. 34.

[894] John xvii. 11.

[895] John xvii. 20.

[896] Cp. Praef. 2.

[897] John vii. 30.

[898] John i. 5.

[899] Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16.

[900] The meaning of the phrase is explained in _De Cons._ v. 2: "This will be a returning to our own country, when we leave the country of our bodies and reach the realm of spirits--I mean our G.o.d, the Mighty Spirit, the great abiding place of the spirits of the blest" (Lewis's translation, slightly altered). Cp. Serm. ii., - 6.

[901] _A.F.M._ say, "after the fifty-fourth year of his age." St.

Bernard appears to be right. For Malachy was made bishop of Connor when he was just entering his thirtieth year (- 16), _i.e._ about his twenty-ninth birthday. _A.F.M._ give the date as 1124. But if he was over fifty-four on November 2, 1148 (- 75), his twenty-ninth birthday would have been before November 1123. If he was under fifty-four on that day it may have been in 1124.

[902] Luke xvi. 22.

[903] Acts vii. 60 (vg.).

[904] Luke iv. 20.

[905] Esth. xiii. 17 (vg.); xvi. 21 (vg.); cp. John xvi. 20, etc.

[906] Cp. Amos viii. 10.

[907] 1 John v. 5.

[908] Ps. cxvi. 15.

[909] Cp. Serm. ii. - 8.

[910] John xi. 11.

[911] Ps. cxxvii. 2, 3 (vg.).

[912] Matt. xxv. 21, 23.

[913] St. Bernard himself celebrated Ma.s.s, and by divine inspiration, "when the sacrifice was finished, changed the order of the prayer and introduced the collect for the commemoration of saints who were bishops instead of that which was used for the commendation of the dead," antic.i.p.ating, as we may suppose, Malachy's canonization. He then devoutly kissed his feet (_V.P._ iv. 21).