De morte sancti regis et exsequiis.
A Holy Deathbed
Aware of his approaching death, King Edward restrains weeping, commends his queen and followers, arranges his burial and viaticum, and comforts his wife with words of hope in God.
The king knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to Christ, and so he ordered his household to hold back their tears and not let the joy that hope was bringing forth be cut off by any useless grief. And as if speaking words fitting to those standing near: 'If you loved me, you would surely rejoice, because I am going to the Father, about to receive the joys promised to the faithful — not by my own merits, but by the grace of the Lord and Savior, who shows mercy to whomever he wills and bestows compassion on whomever he pleases. As for you, follow your friend with prayers, and when what blocks my journey to things above resists, push back with psalms and alms, since even though the faith of the Crucified could not be overcome by such things, yet scarcely anyone is so perfect that they won't try to hinder or to terrify.' Then commending the queen to his brother and the nobles, he praised her obedience very highly and proclaimed her chastity — how she bore herself as a wife in public, yet as a sister or daughter in private. He also gave orders that everything he had bestowed on her by royal generosity as a dowry should remain hers always, secure and undiminished. But he also commended to the native people those who had followed him from Normandy, whether they chose to return home with favor or to remain with honor. In the church of the blessed apostle Peter — the one he himself had built from its foundations — he requested that burial be prepared for him, and that his passing be announced soon to everyone, so that knowledge of his death, once it was delayed, would not also delay the support of their prayers. With everything arranged as was fitting, he ordered the holy priests and the church's ministers to be present, and soon he fortified his departure by receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord. Seeing the queen among the others weeping more freely and sighing more often, he said: 'Don't weep, my daughter. I will not die, but I will live, and as I depart from the land of the dying, I believe I will see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.'
Departure and Honor
Edward dies and is received in heaven, while his body shines with miraculous purity and his funeral gathers clergy, nobles, and people in mingled grief, praise, and almsgiving.
At last, commending himself entirely to God, in faith in Christ, under the Sacraments of Christ, in hope of Christ's promises — an old man, full of years — he departed from the world, and as a pure spirit, leaving the flesh pure, he is joined to the Author of spirits, about to live forever; the citizens of heaven go out to meet him, the key-bearing one of heaven opens heaven for him, the disciple whom Jesus loved, John, the true executor of his own promise, meets him, and with him a virgin, as a virgin, will follow the Lamb wherever he goes.✦ He died in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1066, when he had reigned twenty-three years, six months, and twenty-seven days, in the fourth indiction, on the day before the Nones of January — and with him all the prosperity of the English fell, freedom perished, and every strength came to an end. Words cannot tell how quickly fear seized everyone, grief overwhelmed them, how a kind of dark horror filled the whole island as well. They stood by the sacred remains of the king — his family and friends — when suddenly the lifeless body bore a sign of the blessedness to come: its face, flushed with a heavenly redness, turned the gaze of all who stood by upon itself. Everyone is amazed, but the glory of his stripped body only deepened their wonder: it shone gleaming with a snowy brightness, so radiant that the honor of his virginhood couldn't escape even unbelievers. Meanwhile royal funeral rites are prepared; the body is wrapped in precious linens and the finest cloaks, and Christ's poor are relieved with abundant alms. The bishops are present, a crowd of priests and clerics gathers, the leaders of the kingdom assemble with their companions and nobles, columns of monks rush together, and an innumerable multitude of both sexes from villages and cities flew to the king's funeral rites. On this side psalms resound, on that side tears and groans burst forth; everywhere joys are mingled with grief, when all saw in the king the reason for their rejoicing, and felt in themselves the reason for their pain. They carry to the church that temple of chastity, that dwelling of virtue, and a saving sacrifice is offered on his behalf.
Buried in Hope
Edward is honorably buried in the place he chose, in hope of resurrection through Christ, and the chapter closes with a doxology and 'Amen.'
And so he is honorably buried in the place he himself had chosen, to be granted on the last day the blessed resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever.✦ Amen.
Read the original Latin
Sciens itaque rex quia appropinquavit hora ejus ut transiret ex hoc mundo ad Christum, jubet suos a fletibus temperare, nec laetitiam quam spes parturiebat inutili quadam interpolare tristitia. Et quasi his verbis astantes conveniens: «Si diligeretis, inquit, me, gauderetis utique, quia vado ad Patrem, promissa fidelibus gaudia percepturus, non meis meritis, sed gratia Domini Salvatoris qui miseretur cui voluerit, et misericordiam praestat in quem sibi placuerit; vos autem amicum persequimini precibus, et obsidentibus iter meum ad supera psalmis eleemosynisque resistite, quoniam licet ab his superari fides crucifixi non posset, vix tamen quispiam ita perfectus est, ut vel impedire cum vel terrere non tentent.» Reginam deinde fratri proceribusque commendans, ejus plurimum laudabat obsequium, et pudicitiam praedicabat, quae se quidem uxorem gerebat in publico, sed sororem vel filiam in occulto. Imperat etiam quatenus omnia quae ei dotis nomine munificentia regali contulerat, firma ei semper et illibata permaneant. Sed et eos qui eum de Normannia secuti fuerant, indigenis sedulo commendabat, sive praeeligerent repatriare cum gratia, sive cum honore subsistere. In ecclesia sane Beati Petri apostoli quam a fundamentis ipse construxerat, sepulturam sibi fieri postulavit, suumque transitum mox omnibus propalari, ne mortis suae cognitione dilata, orationum quoque suffragia differrentur. Omnibus igitur sicut oportebat dispositis, jubet sanctus sacerdotes cum ecclesiae ministris adesse, et mox exitum suum Dominici corporis et sanguinis perceptione munivit. Cernensque reginam inter caeteros flentem uberius et crebrius suspirantem: «Noli, inquit, flere, filia mea, non enim moriar sed vivam, recedensque de terra morientium, credo videre bona Domini in terra viventium.»
Totum se demum commendans Deo, in fide Christi, sub sacramentis Christi, in spe promissorum Christi, senex et plenus dierum migravit a saeculo, et puram relinquens purus spiritus carnem auctori spirituum in aeternum victurus conjungitur; cui coeli cives obviant, cui claviger aethereus coelum reserat, cui verax sui exsecutor promissi discipulus ille quem amavit Jesus Joannes occurrit, cum quo virgine virgo sequetur Agnum quocunque ierit. Obiit autem anno Incarnationis Domini 1066, cum regnasset viginti tribus annis, mensibus sex, et viginti septem diebus, indictione IV, pridie Nonas Januarii: cum quo tota pariter Anglorum felicitas ruit, periit libertas, vigor omnis interiit. Dici non potest quantus mox omnes timor invaserit, occupaverit moeror, quomodo totam quoque insulam tenebrosus quidam horror impleverit; stabant [ad] exuvias sacras regis cognati ejus et amici, cum subito cadaver exanime quoddam futurae beatitudinis praeferret insigne, cujus vultus coelesti rubore perfusus omnium assistentium in se convertebat aspectus. Mirantur omnes, sed nudati corporis gloria auxit admirationem quod niveo candore coruscans ita resplenduit, ut virginitatis illius decus etiam incredulos latere non posset. Parantur interim regales exsequiae, pretiosis linteis et optimis palliis corpus involvitur, pauperes Christi copiosis eleemosynis sublevantur. Adsunt pontifices, sacerdotum et clericorum frequens turba occurrit, duces regni cum comitibus proceribusque conveniunt, agmina concurrunt monachorum, innumerabilis multitudo utriusque sexus de vicis et civitatibus ad regis exsequias convolarunt. Hinc psalmi resonant, illinc lacrymae gemitusque prorumpunt; ubique gaudia mista dolori; cum omnes et in rege cernerent unde gauderent, et in se sentirent unde dolerent. Deferunt ad ecclesiam illud pudicitiae templum, virtutis domicilium, offertur pro eo sacrificium salutare.
Et sic in loco quo ipse decreverat honorifice sepelitur, in die novissimo beata resurrectione donandus per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum, cui est honor et gloria in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rev.14.4 — These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among mankind as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
- ↩1Tim.1.17 — Now to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris companion
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