De conversione cujusdam viri mirabili.
A Wicked Life and Its Consequences
Brother Johannes of Gilberstete, a Saxon layman of disgraceful life, falls gravely ill and, despite receiving the sacraments, commits a grievous sin against a serving woman.
That same year at the castle of Königsberg, Brother Johannes of Gilberstete, a Saxon, died. While still living as a layman, he had led a disgraceful life. At home the Lord struck him with a severe sickness. In his final hardship he had received Communion and the other sacraments of the church, and then he forced a young woman who was serving him, overpowering her and knowing her carnally.
Demonic Punishment and a Cry for Mercy
Demons seize Johannes and hurl him into a marsh for his sacrilege, but in mid-flight he calls upon the Virgin Mary and vows to enter religious life.
So with God's permission, willing to punish this wickedness, demons seized him in his bed and carried him through the air and threw him into a marsh half a league away. And they said: 'Wretch, how in your state did you dare to show such great irreverence to God and to the sacraments of the church?' But while he was being carried through the air like this, he called on the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of mercy, for help, vowing that he would take up the religious habit.
Deliverance and Confirmation
Johannes escapes the marsh, returns to Hallensern, and his miraculous ordeal is confirmed by the discovery of his bed and clothes in the marsh.
He escaped from the marsh and returned to the city of Hallensern, where he recounted what had happened. And through his bed and his clothes, which were later found in the marsh, his story was confirmed.
Read the original Latin
Hoc anno in Castro Kunigsbergk frater Joannesc de Gilberstete Saxo mortuus fuit, qui dum adhuc esset secularis, vitam duxit indecentem. Unde domi nus plagavit eum gravi infirmitate, in qua dura sacram communionem et alia ecclesie sacramenta percepisset, quandam juvenculam, que ministrabat ei, vi opprimens carnaliter cognovit. Unde ex permissione dei volentis ulcisci hanc maliciam demones ipsum cum lecto rapuerunt et per aera ducentes in quandam paludem distantem per dimidiam leucam projecerunt, et dixerunt: 0 miser, quomodo in hoc statu tuo ausus fuisti facere tantam irreverenciam deo tuo et eccle sie sacramentis. Sed cum sic in aere duceretur, invocavit beatam virginem Ma riani matrem misericordie pro auxilio, vovens, quod vellet assumere ordinis dopaludem. De qua exiit et reversus ad civitatem Hallensern, que gesta fuerant, enarravit, et per lectum et vestes ipsius, que postea in palude invente fuerant, comprobavit.
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