13. (8) Enough has been said about the ancient glory of the monastery of Bangor. This, long ago destroyed by pirates,[296] Malachy eagerly cherished on account of its remarkable and long-standing prestige, as though he were about to _replant a paradise_,[297] and because _many bodies of the saints slept_ there.[298] For, not to speak of those which were _buried in peace_,[299] it is said that nine hundred persons were slain together in one day by pirates.[300] Vast, indeed, were the possessions of that place;[301] but Malachy, content with the holy place alone, resigned all the possessions and lands to another. For indeed from the time when the monastery was destroyed there was always someone to hold it with its possessions. For they were both appointed by election and were even called abbots, preserving in name but not in fact what had once been.[302] And though many urged him not to alienate the possessions, but to retain the whole together for himself, this lover of poverty did not consent, but caused one to be elected, according to custom, to hold them; the place, as we have said, being retained for Malachy and his followers. And perhaps, as afterwards appeared,[303] he would have been wiser to have kept it all; only he looked more to humility than to peace. 14. So, then, by the command of Father Imar, taking with him about ten brethren, he came to the place and began to build. And there, one day, when he himself was cutting with an axe, by chance one of the workmen, while he was brandishing the axe in the air, carelessly got into the place at which the blow was aimed, and it fell on his spine with as much force as Malachy could strike. He fell, and all ran to him supposing that he had received a death-wound or was dead. And indeed his tunic was _rent from the top to the bottom_,[304] but the man himself was found unhurt, the skin so very slightly grazed that scarcely a trace appeared on the surface. The man whom the axe had laid low, stood unharmed while the bystanders beheld him with amazement. Hence they became more eager, and were found readier for the work. And _this was the beginning of the miracles_[305] of Malachy. Moreover the oratory was finished in a few days, made of smoothed planks indeed, but closely and strongly fastened together--a Scotic work,[306] not devoid of beauty.[307] And thenceforward God was served in it as in the ancient days; that is, with similar devotion, though not with like numbers. Malachy presided over that place for some time,[308] by the ordinance of Father Imar,[309] being at once the ruler and the rule of the brethren. They read in his life how they should behave themselves, and he was their leader _in righteousness and holiness before God_;[310] save that besides the things appointed for the whole community he did many things of an exceptional kind, in which he still more was the leader of all, and none of the others was able to follow him to such difficult practices.