De alio caeco similiter per beatum virum illuminato.
The First Blind Man Healed
A blind man healed by the king's washing water is sustained at court, and England rejoices in a prophet-king who heals and judges in justice.
What had been done in such a place, at such a time, by such a person could not be hidden, and the man whose sight had been restored, supported at the royal court by a stipend, lived on for a long time. It is told everywhere that through the water with which the king had washed his hands a man lost the blindness of his eyes. England rejoices to have a prophet as its leader, not a king, one who both healed diseases and foretold the future, who judged the earth in justice and the peoples in equity.
A Blind Man's Resolve
A blind citizen of Lincoln, after three years of darkness, hears of the saint's power and resolves to seek healing, recognizing the king as a prophet.
Now there was a certain man, a citizen of the city of Lincoln, to whom chance or disease had taken away the light and swallowed up the sweetness of life. From this came sorrow. And now, as he walked in darkness, a third year had passed, when the report of such great power was raised up in the hope of recovering his health, and as if turned back upon himself, he said: 'What is this?' Why do I delay? There is a prophet in England, and I am blind.
A Vision and a Healing
The blind man contrasts his darkness with the king's holiness, receives a night vision promising healing, obtains the healing water at court, and returns home restored with thanksgiving and joy.
I sit in darkness and walk in darkness, while this man beside me shines with a new holiness, and in our king apostolic power is manifest. It happened, in the midst of this, that a man fell fast asleep, and behold, in a night vision a remedy is promised to him, if he himself might obtain the same medicine by which he had learned that a blind man was healed.12 Without further hesitation the man went to court, and asked for and obtained from the chamberlains the service he desired for himself to be given him.34 His face is washed in the saving waters, and soon the longed-for light succeeds the long darkness.5 The man gives thanks, and from that moment the champion of the king's holiness returns to his homeland, bringing his people the greatest joy along with his restored health.67
Read the original Latin
Non potuit latere quod tali loco, tali tempore, a tali persona actum fuerat, et vir ille cui lux fuerat restituta, stipe regia sustentatus in curia, multo tempore supervixerit. Narratur ubique, per aquam qua rex manus abluerat, hominem oculorum amisisse caliginem. Gaudet Anglia prophetam sibi praeesse, non regem, qui et morbos curaret et ventura praediceret, qui et judicaret terram in justitia et populos in aequitate. Erat autem vir quidam Lincolniae civitatis municeps cui casus vel morbus lumen ademerat, vitaeque suavitatem absorbuerat. Hinc nata tristitia. Et jam agenti in tenebris tertius effluxerat annus, cum tantae virtutis fama in spe recuperandae sanitatis erigitur, et quasi in semetipsum reversus: «Quid est hoc, inquit? quid moror? propheta in Anglia est, et ego caecus sum.
Ego in tenebris sedeo, et in tenebris ambulo, cum hic juxta me lux novae sanctitatis resplendeat, et in rege nostro apostolica virtus emineat.» Accidit inter haec hominem somno sopiri, et ecce in visione nocturna citum ei remedium promittitur, si eadem qua caecum curatum didicerat medicina, et ipse potiretur. Nihil ulterius haesitans vir accessit ad curiam, et a cubiculariis desideratum sibi munus et dari petiit et promeruit. Abluitur facies lavacro salutari, et mox tenebris diuturnis lux optata succedit. Agit gratias homo, et ipse deinceps regiae sanctitatis assertor ad patriam revertitur, summam suis reportans cum sanitate laetitiam.
Notes
- 1 ↩sopiri: 'lulled to sleep' rendered as 'fell fast asleep' to capture the passive/inchoative sense of being overcome by sleep.
- 2 ↩medicina: 'medicine/remedy' here refers to the healing water associated with the king's washing; kept as 'medicine' to preserve the metaphor of spiritual remedy.
- 3 ↩munus: can mean 'gift' or 'service/office'; rendered as 'service' in a courtly context where a favor or boon is being requested from royal officials.
- 4 ↩cubiculariis: medieval court title for chamberlains or personal attendants to the king; kept as 'chamberlains' for accessibility.
- 5 ↩lavacro salutari: 'salutary washing' — rendered as 'saving waters' to evoke both the literal healing water and its sacramental resonance without flattening the image.
- 6 ↩assertor: literally 'one who asserts/defends'; here rendered as 'champion' to convey the sense of one who advocates for or embodies the king's sanctity before his people.
- 7 ↩regiae sanctitatis: 'royal holiness' — the holiness associated with the king's sacred person; rendered as 'the king's holiness' to keep the possessive force.
Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris companion
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