1.8 About Gerard, a monk of pure and simple life

Partial

Educated from his childhood in the clerical habit at the feet of father Hugh of blessed memory, he made the living image of the majority of virtueswhich this last man had incarnated... He preferred the company of clerics and monks from a young age. Fashioned by their contactto a great love of chastity, he was also formed little by little to frequent and to love the liturgical offices.

He demonstrated thus by his virtuous comportmentand almost to say perfect that in putting on the religious habit, he was stripped of the world.

[25]

A monk of pure and simple life, truly in accordance with the saying of the Lord “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” Unmindful of injury, he maintained patience. If he happened to become angry, a little afterwards, he would harshly do penance that he had been angry. He did not know to feign anything; as he was inwardly, he showed himself outwardly. If you attended to his mouth, you would immediately confirm what I say to be true. He so strongly maintained the flavour of divine matters, which he had drunk from boyhood, that to attentive observers almost every of his words and deeds smelled only of a heavenly fragrance”.[1]He was so devoutly keen at the liturgical offices that neither daily work nor nightly sleep was ever able to render it unfinished. He would condemn himself so seriously guilty if, overcome by sleep or distracted by his thoughts, he skipped a sing verse of the substantial Cluniac psalmody. Since his mouth never left out any of the psalms or anything of the other offices, he devoted also his intellect as much as he could, to what he was reciting, his soul and heart sang according to the precept of the apostle, unceasingly offering a sacrifice of praise to God.

Now, if our pen is devoted to [describing] the condition [habitum] of his body, it itself is judged to speak sufficiently. Truly, his thin body, his lean face, his hair —unkempt and venerable in its very whiteness— his bowed head, his eyes scarcely ever revealed, [and] his mouth ruminating the sacred words without pause indicated a man fixed not on earth but on heaven.[2]

In this place (Altum jugum) Gerard, …

with a few brothers and themselves God-Fearing,

as usual occupied most zealfully with divine works, he persisted in prayer, he allowed himself to read, and in the frequent conversation of sacred words, he ascended himself more strongly to the love of God.

Contenting himself with limited food, expiated, by this abstinence, any faults which he might have at some time committed in this area. Stripped of all the cares of the world, he became all the more close to God in his spiritual desires the more he was made distant from human activities.[3]

Eucharist: He offered it himself with a great devotion of the heart and a suitable/ equal profusion of tears. One ought to see him celebrating at the altar, most often totally caught up by profound tears, his speech interrupted by sobs, his breast oppressed by deep sighs.

he lived in the heavens not only in spirit but also with his own body.... Our beloved Gerard desired the heavenly bread with such an desire, as it was insatiable, and calmed his happy hunger of the soul with this daily food.

as was his habit, dressed outwardly in sacred vestments, and filled inwardly with faith, he approached the altar.

(ps. 83.3) His heart and his flesh exulted in the living God.

[in hermitage]

Contenting himself with limited food, he expiated, bu this abstinence, those faults which he might have otherwise committed in this area. Delivered from all the cares of the world, he became all the more close to God by his spiritual desires which he had removed further from human activities.

He certainly had a great devotion to the liturgical offices (as I already said) but he now applied himself to them with an extreme devotion, with all the desires of his soul and with all the forces of his body.

[in a vision] Gerard had a ‘serene soul and a shining countenance’.

p. 31. l. 235 … started to hear angelic voices in the church of his hermitage

l. 325. Having heard these things from a brother, I am not able to doubt the vision… For the prior of that other brother had heard everything about Gerard…

[1]DM I, viii, 27-28.

[2]DM, I, xx, 76- 80.

[3]DM I, viii, 221-224.