De fratre Engelkone viro laudabilis vite de Cristbtirgk.
The Iron Breastplate of Brother Engelko
Brother Engelko of Westphalia, dwelling in the castle of Cristburgk, was a man of extraordinary devotion and abstinence who wore an iron breastplate against his bare flesh, consuming four such breastplates over his lifetime through rust and age.
At this time in the aforementioned castle of Cristburgk there was a brother Engelko, born in Westphalia, a man wonderfully devoted to devotion and abstinence, entirely consecrated to God, who beyond other works of virtue had this remarkable distinction in himself: around his bare flesh he wore an iron breastplate instead of a shirt, and before his death he had worn away four such breastplates, consumed by age and rust.12
Read the original Latin
Hoc tempore in dicto Castro Cristburgk fuit frater Engelko natus de Westfalia, vir mire devocionis et abstinencie, totus deo consecratus, qui preter alia virtutum opera hoc insigne habuit in se, quod circa nudam carnem suam lorica ferrea utebatur pro camisia, et ante mortem suam quatuor tales loricas attritas vetustate et rubigine sic consumpsit.
Notes
- 1 ↩lorica ferrea — literally 'iron breastplate' or 'iron corselet'; rendered as 'iron breastplate' to preserve the concrete, ascetical image of penitential armor worn against the flesh.
- 2 ↩The iron breastplate functions as an instrument of bodily mortification, a practice of ascetical discipline in which physical suffering serves devotion.
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