St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of ArmaghBernard, of Clairvaux, Saint
History
St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh
Bernard, of Clairvaux, Saint
Malachy, Saint, 1094?-1148
[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 assembly 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. cxxxix. 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 God, 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 Mass, 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," anticipating, as we may suppose, Malachy's canonization. He
then devoutly kissed his feet (_V.P._ iv. 21).
[914] 1 Cor. xii. 9 (vg.).
[915] 2 Kings xiii. 21.
[916] Mark viii. 3.
[917] Matt. iii. 17.
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