1.15 The story the Blessed Hugh narrated in chapter at Christmas Vigil.

It is the custom of this monastery to undertake the Nativity of Our Saviour with a singular afffection and more devoutly than other solemnities, and to celebrate it together with the spirits of angels through the harmonies of our songs, the prolixity of the readings, by the lighting of many additional candles and – far surpassing all others in importance – with a special devo- tion and with a great outpouring of tears. After the change of seasons, the brothers in their accustomed manner prepared themselves and everything necessary and, by ornamenting the church and decorating all the places of the monastery in a similarly suitable fashion, they strived to appear festive both inwardly and outwardly. The blessed and venerable father Hugh was then still alive, though close both to corporal death and also to the eternal life after death. With the celebrations about to begin, he entered the chapter where the brothers had already gathered and said these words to all:

You know, brothers, that Jesus, our benign saviour, has chosen to be among us for the celebration of his nativity and your liberation, and he awaits with great joy the worship of your devotion. But also you know that our wicked enemy, jealous of your happiness, labours as much as he can to overshadow our splendour with dark clouds and to diminish, even if only a bit, the glory of so great a feast! For a certain brother, he continued, and by this he certainly meant himself to be understood as this brother, saw on this night the eternal virgin, the Mother of Mercy herself, holding against her softest breast the son whom she bore this very night, and next to them was gathered a crowd of holy angels bathed in a brilliant light. The God-child rejoiced and exulted with great joy and showed the happiness of heart with the gestures of his glorious body and the clapping of his hands. And turning to his mother, he said to her, ‘Do you see, my mother, that the coming night, shall be brightened by the joys of my birth, by which both the oracles of the prophets and the praises of the angels will be fulfijilled and everyone in heaven and on earth will rejoice together due to my birth from you. Where now is the treachery of the damned enemy? Where is his power, which dominated this world before this singular joy?’

With his name evoked and emerging from his hiding place, an impudent fijigure – disgracefully fijilthy – presented himself at a distance, and begged with great wails and lamentation that he be admitted. This he said, sworn as a vow, that in his manner, he would be strong enough to darken in some way even the joys of [Cluny’s] great brightness, which he envied. And he said, ‘Even if I will not be received into the ecclesial space, I might be admitted into another place of the remaining precincts (reliquarum offfijicinarum loco)’. ‘Go ahead, you scoundrel!’ said the Son of the Virgin, ‘Try what you might, so that you stop complaining you are predetermined by my power’. And he [the devil] made for the archway of the chapter room and when he tried to go in, he was unable to enter. For in fact, in that place he found himself so swollen and the entrance of the Chapter room so narrow that he was not in any way able to go inside. Truly inflated by the ancient curse of Pride, he was not able to pass through the humble entrance, since the entrance does not accept this prideful erectness, but only a humble bent-over posture. Then he turned his steps towards the dormitory of the brothers, confijident that he would be able to disturb the brothers with his usual phantasms and tried to enter. But again he retreated – repelled due to his great size. And then he took himself towards the refectory – fijilled with the hope of injuring the brothers and expecting that even the small attention paid to the body there might lead to a large inattention of the mind. There also, he attacked the many wooden barriers created by the reading of the divine words, the many wooden palisades raised by the devotions of the listeners, and the door-bars set by the charity of those serving one another, with the result that he was unable to advance a step, and was forced to retreat anew. Repelled likewise by all the precincts [offfijicinis] of the monastery, this pestilential one fled in retreat, before the sight of the most pious Redeemer and the glorious Virgin Mother, filled with such shame as was suitable.

These words, preached to the brothers by this saintly man, revealed the wickedness of the evil spirits raging against this place and the indulgence of the Lord protecting it. Our dangerous wicked enemies, although they lay snares generally for everyone, pursue even more so those newly converted to the monastic life. They – so envious – certainly do sufffer from the progress of veterans, but they keenly feel, as if a recent open wound, the aforesaid monastic conversion of new recruits.