De mirabili facto.
A Bond of Brotherly Love
Two brothers in Mergenburgk share an extraordinary mutual love, desiring neither to live nor die without the other.
At this time in the castle of Mergenburgk there were Brother Henemannus and Brother Fridericus, who had such great love for each other that neither wished to live without the other, or to die without the other.
Suffering and Loss
Brother Henemannus is struck with leprosy, and Brother Fridericus dies from a fall from his horse.
At last Brother Henemannus was struck with leprosy, and Brother Fridericus, not long after, fell from his horse and died.
Faithful unto Death
Upon hearing of Fridericus's death, Henemannus affirms their covenant of shared destiny, receives the sacraments, and peacefully dies the same day.
When his death was announced to Brother Henemannus the next day, he said: "So our agreement was not that he should go first and I afterwards, but that we should be brought together into eternal joy."1 And since he was free from every infirmity except the one I mentioned, he called a priest, received the church's sacraments, and on that same day fell asleep happily in the Lord.2
Read the original Latin
Hoc tempore in Castro Mergenburgk fuerunt frater Henemannus et frater Fridericus, qui tantam inter se charitatem habuerunt quod unus sine alio vivere non voluit, neque mori. Tandem frater Henemannus lepra percussus fuit, et frater Fridericus non longe post cadens de equo expiravit. Cujus mors dum in crastino fratri Henemanno nunciaretur, ait: sic non erant pacta nostra, quod ipse prius et egg postea, sed simul deberemus ad eterna gaudia introduci. Et cum esset sine omni infirmitate, preter eam, quam predixi, advocans sacerdotem perceptis ecclesie sacramentis, eodem die in domino feliciter obdormivit.
Notes
- 1 ↩The word 'egg' (token 18) is an uncertain form, possibly an error for 'ego' or 'ergo'. The translation assumes the intended sense is 'I' (ego), yielding 'he first and I afterwards.' If the reading is instead 'ergo' (therefore), the sense would shift. This requires source-text review.
- 2 ↩Sacramentis rendered as 'sacraments' with capital-S force implied by context of final anointing and Eucharistic reception; the passage carries full sacramental gravity.
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