De mirabili evasione cristifidelium de manibus infidelium.
Outnumbered and Afraid
Brother Conrad Stango and his men discover the countryside is overrun with enemy forces and are filled with dismay, wondering how they can possibly escape.
In this year, around the feast of the blessed apostle James, Brother Conrad Stango, a commander of the Teutonic Order from Raganita, went with a few brothers and men-at-arms toward the fortress of Junigedam, sending a scout ahead to find out the condition of the garrison. The scout returned in haste and said the entire countryside and fortress, along with the surrounding settlement, was filled with the fighting force of the enemy. Hearing this, the brothers and the others were dismayed in spirit and said, 'So we can't escape them? What, then, are we to do?'
The Commander's Maccabean Counsel
The commander rallies his men with the words of Judas Maccabeus, declaring that victory comes from heaven and not from numbers, and the counsel pleases all.
The commander answered, encouraging them with the words of Judas Maccabeus. He said, 'It is easy to trap many in the hands of a few, and in the sight of the God of heaven there is no difference between delivering by many or by few, for victory does not come from the size of an army but strength comes from heaven. Let us, then, engage them bravely, and the Lord will set us free.' This plan pleased everyone.
The Miraculous Breakthrough
Signing themselves with the cross, the brothers cut through the Lithuanian army, kill and wound many, and return unharmed — fulfilling the scriptural promise that one pursues a thousand.
So they signed themselves with the sign of the holy cross, marched through the said army of the Lithuanians, killed several of them, and wounded some fatally. When the rest had turned to flight, the brothers returned safely and unharmed with their own. See how one pursued a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight.✦
A Doxology of Deliverance
The chronicler marvels that God delivered the enemy into the hands of the faithful and offers praise to Christ as the God who alone works great wonders.
Isn't this precisely why God sold them into their own hands, and the Lord delivered them up?✦✦ Truly, you are therefore the God who alone works great wonders — Jesus Christ, who are blessed forever and ever. Amen.✦✦
Read the original Latin
Hoc anno circa festum beati Jacobi apostoli frater Conradus Stango comjnli mendator de Raganita cum paucis fratribus et armigeris ivit versus castrum Junigedam, premittens nuncium, ut investigaret statum castrensium, qui cum festinacione reversus ait, totum campum et castrum cum suburbio pugnatorum potencia plenum esse. Hoc audito, fratres et alii consternati mente dixerunt: ergo evadere ipsos non possumus; quid ergo faciemus? Respondit commendator, confortans eos verbis Jude Machabei. Dixit: facile est concludere multos in manu paucorum, et non est differencia in conspectu dei celi liberare in multis aut in paucis, quia non in multitudine exercitus victoria, sed de celo fortitudo est; pertranseamus ergo eos viriliter et dominus liberabit nos. Quod consilium placuit omnibus. Unde signantes se signo sancte crucis, transeuntes dictum exercitum Lethowinorum, plures interfecerunt, aliquos letaliter vulneraverunl. Ceteris in fugam conversis, fratres cum suis sani et incolumes redierunt. Ecce quomodo unus persequebatur mille et duo fugabant decem milia.
Nonne ideo, quia deus suusa vendidit eos, et dominus conclusit eos? Utique tu es ergo deus, qui facis mirabilia magna solus, Jesu Criste, qui es benedictusb in secula seculorum c.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Deut.32.30 — How could one pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had given them over?
- ↩Judg.2.14 — So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies on every side, and they were no longer able to stand before their enemies.
- ↩Ps.106.41 — He gave them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.
- ↩Ps.71.19 — And your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heights, you who have done great things; O God, who is like you?
- ↩Rom.9.5 — whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
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