Blanquerna

OF THE FAREWELL

While Blanquerna spake thus with Aloma his mother they came to the place where Blanquerna should enter the foreft. At this place Blanquerna and all the reft made halt. Then Blanquerna kneeled firft to Evaft and begged that he would grant him grace and blessing in place of his worldly in¬ heritance. And Evaft kneeled and prayed to God for Blanquerna, saying these words: “ Divine Essence, that art infinite in goodness, greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, love and perfeftion, and virtue in all things without differ-

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ence! I adore Thee in Thy Virtue and in Thy virtues. My son Blanquerna goes to serve Thee and to contemplate Thee in Thy honours. In what place he will dwell, I know not- but well do I know that Thou, in what place soever ’ v be art in essence, power and presence with all virtues^ with all powers and with all fulness. O Divine Essence that comprehended all things, to Thee I commend Blanquerna my son. Guard Thou him, since he has placed in Thee his devotion and his hope. Fill him with love in Thy service, and reveal Thy Virtue to his undemanding, that his will may love Thee the more fervently. Thou that art eternal, receive my son Blanquerna, that he may per¬ severe all the days of his life and think upon Thy bliss. Impute not my guilt to my son Blanquerna, and, if in him there be guilt or sin, may it please Thee that I for him may do penance. Forget not how my soul delights that Blan¬ querna my son goes to serve Thee nor how my body suffers at his absence. O Simple Essence, pure aft without end or beginning 1 Thou had given me my son Blanquerna, and according to my power I have brought him up to serve Thee. Virgin is he in body and in mind. To Thee I give and commend him in the grace of Thy Trinity, in the blessing of the human nature which Thou didd assume. To the Son of the Heavenly Father Who is in Thee I com¬ mend my son Blanquerna. May the Queen of Heaven and Earth, our Lady Saint Mary, Saint Michael and all the angels, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Saint Joachim and all the patriarchs, Saint Peter, Saint Paul and all the apodles, Saint Lawrence, Saint Vincent and all the martyrs, Saint brancis, Saint Dominic and all the confessors,— may all these be for the proteftion and help of my son Blanquerna. In the hands of Elias and of Saint John Baptid, who were hermits, I place him, that Thou by their merit may pre¬ serve my son in his hermitage.”

him t^rte" fhafhtt^H “* ^ BIan<luerna begged 72 ’ t0 him the honour that was

OF THE FAREWELL meet. So Evaft rose, and Blanquerna, kneeling, kissed the hands and the feet of his father Evaft, and Evaft kissed his son Blanquerna, and made the sign of the Cross over his head, and gave him his grace and blessing, weeping with great suffering of mind. When Blanquerna had received the blessing of his father, he kneeled before Aloma his mother, craving her blessing and grace through the favour of the King of Glory.

3. Blanquerna, kneeling upon his knees, regarded his mother Aloma with devout countenance, while she, as she flood, gazed upon the goodly features of Blanquerna her son. And the fervency of her love, together with her yearning for her son, conflrained Aloma so that she could not speak. So Aloma and Blanquerna remained for a great while in that ftate, that neither could speak a word to the other. Finally Blanquerna, who desired to go upon his journey, gathered flrength of mind and said : “ It is the hour of my departure, and I muft needs be away.” And he said to Aloma that he awaited her farewell and her blessing.

4. Then by the virtue of God was power given to Aloma to speak to her son, and she spake these words : “ Beloved son ! I muft needs make remembrance of the Queen of Heaven, Mother of the Son of God, Jesus Chrift, that she may aid thee in all thy necessities.” Then Aloma kneeled, and kissed the ground, and raised her hands and her eyes to Heaven, speaking with great devotion and many tears, in these words : “ Glorious Queen and Virgin, who through thy glorious Son art in so many places honoured and in¬ voked 1 All alone goes from me Blanquerna my son, I know not whither. To serve and make remembrance of thy Son he goes, to love and to obey Him. Since he goes to honour and love thy Son, do thou proteft, defend and love my son. Thou art with thy Son in glory. Thy Son it is that makes my son leave me, and makes me to remain alone and com¬ fortless. I will love thy Son, for thou loveft Him; thou

blanquerna

wilt love my son, for he is loved by me. Sorrowful is my soil at the departure of my son, but in the Presence of thy Son thou art joyful. I have had but one son and he it is that thy Son takes from me. In peril of evil men and of wild beafls He makes him to go; alone He will make him to be all the days of his life; raw herbs he will eat; his dothing will be but his skin, and his locks, and the air around him. Do thou look down and see how fair is my son Blanquerna in his person and in his mind : think thou how sun and wind and nakedness will darken him and deftroy the beauty of his features. When he is cold, who will give him warmth? When he is sick, who will tend him ? When he hungers, who will give him to eat ? If he fears, who will strengthen him ? If thou aidedSt not my son, even without my prayers, where would be thy pity and thy mercy? Let the grief that I have for my son, as I behold him going to his death, in affliction and penance, alone in the foreft, I know not whither, call to thy mind the grief that thou hadSt for thy Son when thou saweSt Him done to death and crucified. If thy Son died for love, with¬ out sin, what sin has my son, save love, that makes him die ? From that which 1 understand of thy Son and mine, and from the hope which I have in thee, there will surely proceed some virtue which will be profitable to my son.”

J. These devout words and many others of pure and unfeigned sorrow did Aloma speak to the Queen of Heaven. While Aloma adored, Blanquerna raised his eyes to the sun and saw that night was drawing nigh ; so he said to Aloma that it was time that she and EvaSt should return to the city with all the reSl, and that he should go upon his way. Then Aloma rose, and Blanquerna kissed her hands and her feet, and she kissed the eyes of her son and his mouth and his c ee s, an over his head she made the sign of the Cross “ig,aTe h™ her blessing her grace. And again she a " T’ and words: “ Fair son Blan¬

querna 1 I offer and commend thee to the care and support

OF THE FAREWELL

of the glorious Virgin and of her virtues, whereby multi¬ tudes of sinners gain help and proteaion. May her mother Saint Anne, and the holy man Joseph of Arimathaia who begged the Body of Jesus Chrift, be to thee protection ; to Saint Catherine, Saint Mary Magdalen, Saint Margaret, Saint Clare and all other sainted women1 I commend thee : be thou ever in their hands 1 And by the grief and sorrow that I have and shall have at thy departure, may all that can aid and defend thee have pity upon thee and help thee against thine enemy, even againft the Spirit of evil. And do thou, son, as thou art of so noble temper, continue in thy holy life, that, by the grace and virtue of God, I and Evaft may see thee in the glory that knows no end.” When Aloma had said these words, she embraced and kissed Blanquerna her son and fell in a swoon to the ground.

6. When Blanquerna had received from Evaft grace and blessing, and Aloma had recovered her consciousness, he kneeled, and looked up to Heaven, weeping and raising his thoughts and his hands to God, Whom he adored in each of the fourteen articles of the holy Catholic Faith, saying these words: “ Lord God, Who art Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity 1 In Thee I adore Unity of Essence and Trinity of Persons, without composition soever and with¬ out diminution. I adore, O Lord, the Father Who in His infinite goodness, greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, love and perfection, engendered a Son Who is infinite in good¬ ness, greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, love and per¬ fection; this Son I adore in Himself and in the Father, and the Father I adore in Himself and in the Son. I adore the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son infinitely in goodness, greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, love and perfection; this Holy Spirit I adore in Himself and in the Father and in the Son, and the Father and the Son I adore in the Holy Spirit. And the three Persons and

' unt's. The reference is to canonised women, for which no single

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. ,ree essential Virtues aforesaid I adore in Essence and Unity ; and the Essence and Unity I adore in the personal t es Lord God! (said Blanquerna) I adore Thee as Creator that ha£ created out of nothing the world and all that is, that Thou mayeft be known and loved and that in Thv glory we may share in Thy bliss, and Thou mayeft glorify us. I adore Thee, O Lord, as ReiStoreU and Saviour. I adore Thy Conception through the operation of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Saint Mary, whereby two natures were united in one Person called Jesus Chrift. I adore Thee in Thy Nativity and in the virginity of our Lady Saint Mary, who before Thy Birth was a virgin, and after Thy Birth remained a virgin also. I adore Thee, Lord, in Thy Passion which Thou didft endure on the Cross to redeem the human race; and I adore Thy Soul which descended into Hell to bring thence Adam, Noah, Abra¬ ham and the other prophets who for so long had desired Thy holy Advent. I adore Thee, Lord, for that it pleased Thee to rise again and to reveal Thy glorified Body to the Virgin, that Thou mightefl comfort her, and be to us an earned of the Resurreftion. I adore Thee, Lord, for that Thou didft ascend to the Heavens, and dofl sit for ever in glory at the right hand of the Heavenly Father. I adore Thee and fear Thee, Lord, because at the Day of Judgment Thou wilt come to judge the good and the evil : the good Thou wilt send to glory without end and the evil to eternal

7. When Blanquerna had adored God in the articles aforesaid, he adored and blessed our Lady Saint Mary, and b essed the angels and the apoftles and all the saints in glory, and commended himself to the proteffion of God and he whole court of Heaven, and gave thanks to God and to all the company of the saints. For Evaft and Aloma he P aye or a great space to God. And his prayer and the

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FURTHER HISTORY OF EVAST AND ALOMA manner of it were so pious and devout that all who were with him wept, and begged the God of Heaven to guide Blanquerna that he might have a long life and enjoy the prote&ion of God.

8. When Blanquerna had ended his prayer and asked the pardon of Evaft and Aloma for the grief which for his sake they were suffering, he took from a messenger of the house of Evaft the mean garments that he was wearing and gave him his own. He took also seven loaves in significance of the seven virtues, which he desired to have with him all the days of his life. Thereafter he made the sign of the Cross before his eyes, and turned his face towards the foreft, and went forward saying these words: “ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God : may He be the Beginning of this my journey, the Con¬ tinuance and the End.”

9. Then Evaft and Aloma and all the reft remained in that place where Blanquerna had taken leave of them, look¬ ing after him as he went, until he was within the foreft. And Aloma said : “ Alas, unhappy that I am 1 Now have I loft from sight my son Blanquerna, and never shall I see him more in this present life.” Then with great weeping and sorrowing did Evaft and Aloma and all the reft return to the city, speaking of Blanquerna and of the great de¬ votion which God had given him above that of all other men that they had seen at any time soever in their lives.