Ulric

ON BLESSED ULRIC, OR ULFRIC, PRIEST AND HERMIT IN ENGLAND

In the Year of Christ 1154

Preliminary Commentary.

Ulric, or Ulfric, Priest and Hermit in England (Blessed)

By I. B.

[1] England in the twelfth century of Christ was wonderfully illuminated by the austerity of life and holiness, the predictions of future events, and the manifold wonders of St. Ulric, Priest and hermit, enclosed in a cell beside a certain country church — called by others Wlricus, Wulricus, Wolricus, Ulfricus, Wlfricus, or Wilfricus. He died on February 20 in the year 1154. Blessed Ulric died on February 20, 1154, a Saturday On which day John Wilson inscribed him in the English Martyrology in his first edition of the year 1608; in his later edition published in the year 1640 he referred him to the sixteenth day of the same month. Ferrarius likewise ascribed him to two days: February 20 and April 22; but on the former he called him Ulfricus, on the latter Vubricus. Whether he believed them to be different persons, or whether this was a copyist's error, I cannot conjecture. The manuscript codex could otherwise have given occasion for confusion, from which we give his Life, since it reports that he died on the tenth day before the Kalends of May — a manifest error, which we have corrected from John Capgrave and others, restoring it to the tenth day before the Kalends of March. And another detail from the Life confirms this reading: for he is affirmed to have died on a Saturday, on which day February 20 falls in the year 1154, while April 22 falls on a Thursday, since the dominical letter was C and Easter was celebrated on April 4. On this same February 20, Hieronymus Porterus placed his Life in English among the Flowers of the Saints of England.

[2] On the same day, in the Calendar of the Order of St. Benedict, Benedict Dorganius writes the following about him: "Of St. Wulfric the hermit, a man of great virtues." On the same day, Chrysostomus Henriquez in the Cistercian Menology: he does not appear to have been a monk "In England, the birthday of Blessed Ulric the anchorite and Confessor, illustrious for the holiness of his life, revelations, and many miracles." He then remarks in the Annotations that he lived under the rule and obedience of the Cistercians, and that the ancient records of the Order attest this. He cites William of Avalon, who is known neither to us nor to Bale and Pits. But I do not see how Ulric could have embraced the Cistercian institutes, at least from the very beginning of his stricter life, since, as is stated in the Monasticon Anglicanum from the annals of Peterborough, the Cistercian Order first came to England in the year 1128; and Ulric himself enclosed himself in the year 1124. still less a Cistercian He who, as Matthew Paris attests, when he died at the beginning of the year 1154, had already for twenty-nine years been fighting against the enemies of the human race and had won the victory with a happy outcome. Nor is there anything in the whole history of his Life from which we might conjecture that he followed the institutes of the Cistercians or of any other Order. It is written indeed in chapter 3, number 22, that the monks of Montacute — who belonged to the Cluniac congregation — were accustomed to send him a certain portion of food every week; but he is not said to have been subject to them either. Nor does any of the writers whose distinguished testimonies about Ulric we shall cite report that he was a monk. Only Nicholas Harpsfield, in his Ecclesiastical History of England, century 12, chapter 29 — where he elegantly and succinctly encompasses his entire life — calls him an athlete and follower of the monastic and solitary life, as does Porterus in a more extensive Life written in English. But Harpsfield looked to the original meaning of the word "monk," because he indeed lived alone; and for this reason he added the word "solitary," as a synonym for "monastic."

[3] How greatly Ulric was held in honor and renown throughout all England on account of the holiness of his life and miracles is clear from the book On the Saints of England by Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon — or, as he confesses in the Prologue, the penultimate book of his work, which, however, Henry Savile, who published the rest of the work, deliberately omitted. In it, therefore, Henry writes thus: "Someone will ask: when in former times so many Saints became known by so many miracles, we marvel earnestly that in our times neither any spark of miracles glimmers forth, nor does any slight report of such things fly about. Whence it seems either that more was said than actually happened, or that the world has now entirely apostatized from God. most celebrated for miracles To this we respond: we by no means concede that our times have entirely apostatized from God, but they are much worsened and lamentably darkened by the murk of vices. Nevertheless, the Lord knows who are His; and the Most High dwells in the humble, who are very few. Miracles, therefore, occur in our time most rarely, but sometimes most holy. I will relate one concerning a certain man, in whom the breath of life still remains, that is most renowned in memory."

[4] "In the province called Dorset, at the village called Haselberge, there lives a certain servant of God named Wluricus, a Priest by office, an anchorite by manner of life. This man, always wearing a mail coat next to his flesh he cut an iron mail coat with scissors to restrain its unseasonable movements, demanded a new one from his earthly lord, because his own seemed almost demolished and torn apart by his sweat. When he had put it on in the lord's presence, annoyed by its length lest it appear even beneath his garment, he seized scissors and cut through the iron joined in rings and in the sleeves as though it were linen cloth. And applying the scissors again, if anything was uneven, the servant of God cut it off without delay and without difficulty. Seeing this, his lord, filled with inestimable joy, fell at the Saint's feet. The man of the Lord, raising him up, adjured him not to reveal what he had seen to anyone. The matter, however, could not be hidden; for many religious men rejoice in possessing rings of that most holy mail coat, and the celebrated fame has spread far and wide through every part of the kingdom."

[5] "I would not have inserted this wonder into so great and careful a work, except that the holy Pope Gregory records that the things he narrates about Father Benedict or other Saints as he wrote from certain knowledge he heard partly from some holy and religious man, and partly from many highly trustworthy persons. This, however, is attested not only by those who saw the cuts in the mail coat, or those who sought his desirable conversation and delightful presence, or those who, themselves religious, willingly inquire into the lives of religious men; of Huntingdon but it has also been made known to all the people."

[6] Thus Huntingdon, while Ulric was still living. Gervase, the monk of Canterbury, in his Chronicles of the Kings, which he brought down to the year 1149, writes thus under the year of Christ 1146: "In those days there lived in the province of Dorset, in the village called Helesberge, while he was still living a certain priest named Wlfricus, an anchorite by manner of life, full of holiness and of the grace of the Holy Spirit." Then what Huntingdon has about the cut iron mail coat, Gervase himself represents in nearly the same words, down to the passage "Which miracle" — both say the mail coat was cut with "forceps" instead of "scissors." Nicholas Harpsfield, century 12, chapter 29, having narrated that miracle, adds the following: "Henry of Huntingdon, a contemporary of that time and otherwise a severe judge of recent miracles, records this story as a most well-established and undoubted miracle of his own time, beyond others who wrote his Life as their express subject. diseases healed by pieces of his mail coat And those pieces afterward so cut were salutary against grave and deadly diseases for many. The same is reported of the chains of Peter and Paul and of many Martyrs in earlier times."

[7] As for his statement that the Life of St. Ulric was written by some as their express subject, it exists in the manuscript codex of the Canons Regular of the monastery of St. Paul in Groenendael near Brussels, the Life of Blessed Ulric published from a manuscript and also in the Legend of the Saints of England of John Capgrave. To it we shall append what Matthew Paris wrote about him in his Greater History under the year of Christ 1154. and from Paris If anyone carefully compares these with the Life, he will judge, I think, that another fuller Life once existed, of which the one Capgrave recites is an epitome — whether he himself composed it or whether John of Tynemouth, who was about a hundred years older than he, whom John Pits (number 611) reports to have written the Work of the Servants of God, or the Greater and Lesser Sanctiloquium, under the year 1366. Paris certainly narrates some things quite differently from Capgrave — such as that miracle about one who had devoted himself to the devil, another once fuller Life where he also expresses the name of the Priest sent by Ulric and other particulars omitted in Capgrave — which he does not seem to have learned from rumor alone (he who died 105 years after St. Ulric) but to have drawn from the commentaries of someone else. Matthew of Westminster also, who was easily 130 years younger than Paris, shows that he had much that he could have related about St. Ulric in his Flowers of History, had he not aimed at brevity. For thus he writes under the year 1154: "In the same year the holy anchorite Wilfricus of Heselberga — whose life and passing would require special treatises — departed to the Lord."

[8] his prophetic prediction Gervase of Canterbury, far older than Paris — who died around the year 1200 — writes the following about St. Ulric (or, as he writes, Wlfric), which was passed over by the rest, under the year 1146: "He predicted in the Spirit to the boy Henry, who was conversing with him, that he would be the future King of England." He had previously predicted the same to Stephen, the uncle of this same Henry II.

[9] where did he live? That village where Blessed Ulric spent his life is placed by all in the county of Dorset; Wilson locates it in Wiltshire and calls it Haselburron, elsewhere Haselbug. There is indeed a village of this name on the chorographic map of Wiltshire published by John Speed; but it is better to stand by the authority of the older writers. A further consideration also supports this: that the monks of Montacute used to send Ulric a certain portion of food every week, as we have already said, and that monastery was in the southern part of the county of Somerset, not far from the border of Dorset. Haselburg in Wiltshire, nearer to Bath, is situated in the northern part of the same county of Somerset, so that it would seem to be more than thirty miles distant from Montacute. In addition, according to Paris as witness, Haselberga was thirty miles to the east of Exeter; but that Haselburg in Wiltshire is much farther, and more to the north than east of Exeter, or Excester, the chief city of Devon. Nor should anyone wish to read "Oxford" for "Exeter," as two editions of Paris have it; for Haselburg in Wiltshire also seems to be farther from Oxford than thirty miles, and not to the east but rather to the west.

* Gervase: "demolished."

* So the MS; but Gervase: "in the vestibules."

LIFE BY AN UNKNOWN AUTHOR, from the MS. of Groenendael and Capgrave.

Ulric, or Ulfric, Priest and Hermit in England (Blessed)

BHL Number: 8745

By an anonymous author, from manuscripts.

CHAPTER I. The Conversion of St. Ulric, the Austerity of His Life, and the Manifestation of His Miracles.

[1] Blessed Wlric, drawing his origin from a middling English family, was born, nourished, and lived at Compton, eight miles distant from Bristol, where he also administered the office of Priest for some years. Ulric, formerly a vain Priest As a Priest, he did not abstain from the hunting of hounds and birds. At length he migrated to Haselberge, thirty miles distant from Exeter, where in a cell adjoining the church, with no formal introduction by a Bishop and no solemnity of blessing, he encloses himself but by the familiar authority of the Holy Spirit, he buried himself with Christ. By much fasting he mortified his members and afflicted himself with the labor of vigils, so that his skin scarcely clung to his bones.

[2] For his finer fare consisted of oaten bread and porridge made from oats. Wine and everything that can intoxicate and he mortifies himself by fasting he did not taste, except on the principal solemnities, out of reverence for the feast rather than for the refreshment of the flesh. by vigil The vigilance and indefatigable constancy of his vigils was such that he spent entirely sleepless nights — except when natural weakness sometimes urgently pressed upon him; and then, not under a covering indeed, but with his head leaned against the wall, he rather began sleep than actually took it, by his manner of resting and immediately, as if lamenting an injury done to him, he returned all the stronger for being refreshed to his accustomed practices. He was also accustomed to place under his head a pillow woven from ropes of hay. by a hair shirt He used first a hair shirt next to his skin, then a mail coat. by a mail coat At night, in the cold and nakedness, he would descend into a certain vessel filled with cold water by prayer in freezing water and chant the entire Psalter to the Lord. Coming out of the water, he would put on the mail coat, and he spent devoutly and eagerly what remained of the vigils in hymns and prayers with frequent genuflections.

[3] The enticements of his flesh — whose most bitter stings he endured — he mortified in the most violent waters. For on a certain night, thus overcoming the stings of the flesh while he was ascending from the water as was his custom, shaking the water from his hand, he found a serpent hanging from his thigh. The holy man was immediately terrified, and without delay, violently seizing it, he dashed it to the ground. bitten by a snake Examining it more carefully by the light of the lamp, he saw it with its head cut off, and in his astonishment at what had happened he soon fell into an ecstasy. Aroused from this, he struggled greatly and vomited out all the venom he expels the venom that the wasting serpent had infused, and attending to the care of the wound inflicted, he was restored to health after a short time. Yet the scars of the wounds in which the teeth had been impressed did not leave him until death.

[4] In conversation, he in no way showed respect of persons to the powerful, but was content to call each one by his plain name, he gives titles to no one abstaining from the titles of the great, whether by judgment or by simplicity — stripping kings and princes who came to him of the name of falsehood and silently proclaiming that they are but men.

[5] while praying, he has his iron mail coat cut with scissors When, moreover, the length of the mail coat hindered him in his prolonged genuflection, he summoned the knight who knew of this matter, whom he had formerly served. He complained of the excessive length of the mail coat, saying: "Take the ^e scissors and cut the mail coat before God." And when the knight was struck with amazement and looked at him as if he were mad, Wlricus placed the scissors, which had been brought from the knight's house — with a thread drawn through the rings of the mail coat to mark where the cutting should end — on the windowsill before him, saying: "Be steadfast, and do not be afraid of this. Behold, I am going to pray to my Lord." The knight, therefore, applying himself to the cutting, thought he was cutting not iron but cloth, with such ease did the scissors run through the iron that was not iron-like.

[6] When he had cast out a demon from a possessed body, he commanded the one who had been healed, and those who were with him, not to reveal the miracle to anyone. he frees one possessed by a demon After they departed, the man of God was seized by a divinely sent sleep, and saw a person of venerable countenance standing beside him and saying: divinely admonished not to seek to have miracles kept silent "Why did you wish to do this — to forbid those men from narrating the works of God? See that you do not do so again; but both speak confidently of the powers of the Lord which He is going to work by your hand, and command others to speak of them." The man of God therefore, having awakened, sent a boy after the men, who should say: "Concerning the things I commanded you, do not be silent, but proclaim openly the glory of God which you have seen." he narrates them to religious persons From that time forward the man of God humbly narrated — but only to religious ears — the works that the Lord was performing through him.

CHAPTER II. The Struggles of St. Ulric with Demons; His Manifold Victory over Them.

[7] While Wlric was therefore occupied in prayer in the silence of midnight, malign spirits assembled around him in a heavy multitude, and as if about to conduct a trial, they beset the innocent man on all sides. Blessed Ulric fiercely vexed by demons They deliberated among themselves as to what ought to be done about a man who so resisted them with all his strength, scattered their counsels, seized their spoils, destroyed what they built, and built what they destroyed. Without delay, the judgment of the wicked was defined by unanimous sentence: that this man was guilty of death and must pay fitting penalties for his deeds. Therefore, laying hands on him, he was seized and dragged — first into the church, then through the church — treated without any mercy. And when he was about to be cast outside the church, a most reverend Virgin arrived and, asking why they presumed to vex the innocent man thus, he is freed through a certain Saint spread out her sleeve and drove them all away together. For on that day he had made commemoration for the first time of a certain blessed Virgin in the Mass, and it was she who defended his cause from the hand of his enemies.

[8] At another time also, when the man of God was ill, the enemy entered and, looking at him with terrible eyes, raised on high the staff he held in his hand struck by a demon and struck him powerfully three times. To whom the servant of God, unmoved, replied: "Depart now, evil one, for you have no further power over me; he drives him off nor would you have even this at all, unless it had been given you from above." For the enemy was once held by the man of God and flogged for a long time, at other times he flogs him nor could he obtain permission to depart before he had promised by oath that he would not return to him again.

[9] In the northern parts of England there was a certain very wretched man, who, not bearing the lot of poverty equably, gave his hand to the devil a certain man given over to the demon and did homage to him. At last, the wretch, understanding his guilt, began to repent; and when he had revealed his fall and his resolution to a certain person, the devil stood beside him in his accustomed form and, then led to repentance accusing him of betrayal, threatened to punish the man himself with cruel chastisement if he should presume to attempt any such thing in the future. But that man, seeing that his enemy had not known the thoughts of his heart unless he had first betrayed them by word or sign, concealing for some time his resolution of repentance, at last set out on the journey to Wlric, the friend of God, and came to a certain ford of that small river which is situated outside ^c Helesberge. And when he had entered the ford, the devil came upon him, inflamed with great wrath, therefore held in the river by the demon and laying hands on the man, he gnashed his teeth and said: "What is this, traitor, that you wished to do? You are plotting to dissolve our pact, but in vain — for you must now pay the penalties of the betrayal by which you once renounced God and by which you now think to renounce me, because you shall now be miserably drowned." And the devil, holding him, made him so immobile that he could neither advance nor turn to either side.

[10] While these things were happening in the river, the man of God Wlric, learning all things by the Angel's revelation, he learns through an Angel called a Priest to him and said: "Hasten, and taking a cross with holy water, go to meet the man whom the devil holds captive in the ford outside the village; and having sprinkled him with holy water, bring him to me." The Priest, going forth, found the man so immovably fixed in the water that he could not move from the spot. he has the man sprinkled with holy water and brought to him Dousing him with holy water, he put the robber to flight and brought the man himself to the man of God. The servant of God took hold of the man's right hand, while the devil, holding the left, was pulling with all his might. For Wlric held the captive with one hand he drives off the demon with holy water and with the other, sprinkling holy water against the face of the enemy, drove him away in great confusion from the house.

[11] The penitent man, making a pure confession, and the man, having confessed saw the Body of the Lord offered to him in the appearance of flesh. And when he was asked whether he believed with his whole heart, he said: "I believe, Lord, because I, wretched and sinful, behold the body and blood of my Lord in your hands under the appearance of flesh." he wondrously fortifies him with communion To whom Wlric said: "Thanks be to God. But now let us pray together, that you may be worthy to receive it in its customary appearance." And thus he dismissed the man, having given him communion and confirmed him in the faith, in peace.

[12] Power was given to the enemy over his flesh, and he struck him with a most foul ulcer on the arms, to such a degree that his flesh from the shoulder down was putrefied, teeming with worms, and flowing with bubbling pus. vexed by the demon with a foul ulcer The man of God, embracing the heavenly judgment with thanksgiving, endured it patiently and rejoiced in these things as one who finds great spoils. And after a little while, as he was recovering, Leviathan inflamed his flesh with a certain invisible and — as is believed — infernal fire, so that he said he was being burned by the conflagration of a raging flame beyond all human measure, by horrible heat and as if about to be dissolved presently into embers and ashes, he called for a Priest and commended his soul to God. After some hours, however, the invisible torturer changed the torment — but the man of God did not change his patience — for suddenly, just as it had come, the heat was taken away, and he was immediately seized by an exceedingly icy cold and began to stiffen and freeze entirely, then by cold awaiting the end of this hour with patience. In this alternation of torments, his flesh, given into the hand of the wicked one, labored from morning until evening, giving to those who fear God a certain signification of the future judgment, in which "they pass from waters of snow to excessive heat." Job 24:19

[13] When the sacred night of the Paschal solemnity dawned, a nocturnal pollution stirred by the demon the unclean spirit cast sleep upon the man of God, and through sleep triumphed over the weakness of the flesh. In the morning, with the whole Church assembled, he came forth from his cell to the public and, opening his mouth and directing his speech against himself, he said: "To this wretched Ulric there happened thus, on this most sacred night, as my sins demanded: thus my enemy miserably mocked me. he humbly confesses it publicly I confess my sin to God and to you; I beg pardon from God with you interceding; I complain before God and you of this injury, by which my enemy did not spare to dishonor me on so revered a feast day." Thus the valiant pursuer of humility, in no way sparing his own shame, nor the modesty of those standing by, nor, finally, the reputation for holiness which breathed of him far and wide. Having said these things, he returned to his cell.

[14] For the man of God was very often stiffened by excessive cold, a coverlet is given to him by divine warning to such a degree that a certain man from the borders of ^b Bristol, warned by a vision, sent him a new coverlet of fox skins with which he had covered himself. For the Lord said to him in the vision: "My servant Ulric is tormented by cold, while you are warmly nurtured here. Rise as quickly as possible and send this coverlet to him with haste." And so it was done.

CHAPTER III. The Divine Illuminations of Blessed Ulric, His Knowledge of Hidden Things, His Healing of Diseases, and Other Miracles.

[15] Once, while sitting in his cell and seeing that his cloak had been gnawed by a mouse, he said: Blessed Ulric grieves that he killed a mouse by a curse "Let the mouse perish that presumed to damage my cloak thus." And behold, quicker than the word, the mouse, leaping from the wall, fell at his feet and died. The man of God therefore called the Priest and humbly confessed that he had killed the mouse by a word of heedless cursing. The Priest said to him: "Would that you would deign to destroy all the mice of this region by a similar anathema." "Far be it from me," he said. "Too much was erred this one time in this one matter. Truly, if I did not believe this displeased my Lord, I would even pray for this one, that it might be restored to its former life."

[16] The light of his lamp, twice extinguished, was divinely rekindled. his lamp divinely lit It happened that a certain Priest named Osbernus, at the very twilight of night, was hastening to the church for the purpose of resting. And behold, he saw the church gleaming with an immense light, so that from the face of the flame bursting through the window the entire cemetery shone. he himself is illuminated by divine light, and by the approach of an Angel The man was terrified and stood still and chanted psalms. After a short time an Angel entered through the window in a flame of fire. In the morning the man of God called him and said: "What was that vision you saw last evening, Osbernus?" He replied: "I saw a flame of no small fire within the church." "You have spoken well," he said, "because my Lord was present and consoled His servant, and He provides such consolations. Moreover, I prayed to my Lord he obtains that a certain man may see this; he knows things at a distance that He might open your eyes to contemplate these things, and I was scarcely able to obtain it. But I also know this: that you chanted such and such psalms in the meantime and waited outside the cemetery for the end of the vision."

[17] When a certain Priest was standing beside him at table, water was changed into wine. On another occasion, water offered by the people itself took on the taste of wine, water frequently changed to wine for him, health-giving for the sick with its former color in no way altered. Water blessed by him is changed into wine, and a woman almost at the point of death, taking some of it, is immediately healed.

[18] A noble Lady, visiting him with her entire retinue, he satisfies many with a single loaf was sumptuously refreshed by a single loaf blessed by the holy servant of God. From its remains, a considerable crowd of men standing before the doors — seeking to see him, to speak with him, and to be blessed by him — was satisfied; they exceeded, it was said, the number of forty.

[19] A certain virgin, taken ill to the point of death, waking from sleep, said to her mother: "Behold, by the grace of God and of St. Ulric His servant, appearing to a sick woman in sleep, he heals her I have been healed. For as it seemed to me in my dreams, I came to him, and I tasted the holy water I received from him in a cup as he offered it, and health was brought to my inward parts and my body. And that you may more easily believe: such and such is the man, and such and such is the place."

[20] A certain woman, among other little gifts, used to send the man of God three loaves from each baking. And on a certain day she sent him three loaves by one of her boys. He indeed kept one loaf for himself and hid it, a loaf turned to stone because of the boy's theft offered two to the Saint, and returned. Having produced the loaf from its hiding place, he attempted to cut it. But making no progress, he found the loaf entirely inviolable; for the loaf did not allow itself to be defiled or harmed by a thief, but in place of bread presented a stone to the hands of the transgressor. Seeing this, the boy returned to the man of God, disclosed what had happened, and implored mercy. Pardon having been given to the boy, he blessed the bread, and breaking it with the greatest ease, blessing it, he restores it to its own form he ate of the warm and steaming bread and, giving a portion to the boy, sent him away edified with a blessing.

[21] When a certain man carrying a loaf sent to the holy man turned aside to lodge at the house of a certain poor man, and seeing the children asking for bread and no one offering any, a loaf given to the poor contrary to obedience, therefore dripping with blood he prepared to cut the loaf produced from his sack. And indeed he perceived the loaf being cut; but because the work of mercy was being presumed this side of and contrary to obedience, it began to flow with blood. He carried it with fear and trembling to the Saint. Having heard what had happened, the holy man said: "Son, you ought not to have presumed even a pious work contrary to a command." he cleanses it with a blessing And receiving the loaf, he blessed it; and cleansing it of blood, he said: "Take now the bread and carry it to those little ones for whom you prepared it." And so it was done.

[22] A certain monk from Montacute, the Cellarer, hostile to the boy of the man of God Ulric and inflicting injuries on him, on a certain occasion came to the house of the servant of God. To whom Ulric said: he curses one who withholds what was sent to him by monks "You have hitherto walked contrary to me and have exasperated my spirit; and now let God judge between me and you." But he, going out and making light of his warnings and words, did not fear to show contempt. For the monks were accustomed to send Ulric a certain portion of food every week by established custom, which that Cellarer had arranged to be taken away. And Ulric, hearing that his heart was hardened, said: "Let God take from him his food today, who has taken mine from me." he is drowned On that very day, that monk was caught by the waters and drowned, and ended his life.

[23] A certain great Prince of the household of King Henry, having heard the fame of Blessed Ulric, said: a certain man punished by God for calumny "The King would do well to send to the cell of that impostor to collect his money, because it cannot be that he has not stored up much for himself, since so many people come to him." The words were still in his mouth when, behold, he was dashed to the ground, with his mouth twisted to his ear, and was wallowing and foaming. When the King heard this, he seized the opportunity and turned aside to the cell of the servant of God, at the request of Henry I and earnestly commending himself to his prayers and telling all about the knight, he besought him. "I do not impute this sin to him," said the King, "and I am ready to do whatever I ought." he heals by touching One of those standing by therefore took the hand of Ulric and applied it to the face of the sick man, and immediately his mouth returned to its place, and having recovered his mind, he spoke soundly, glorifying God.

[24] While he was assisting at the sacred mysteries, and the Lord's Prayer having been completed and finished, a doubt arose in him as to whether he had poured water into the chalice. he sees blood in the chalice Revolving many things in his mind, at last turning to God with his whole heart, he besought God with purity of heart. When the prayer was completed, he saw in the chalice a rosy blood, as of the immaculate Lamb Jesus Christ, overflowing up to the lip of the chalice; and having received the Sacrament, he drank the blood of the most pure grape.

[25] The servant of God Ulric, appearing to a certain mute person in sleep, placing his finger on his mouth, opened his mouth he obtains speech for a certain man, sight for another and released his tongue. To a robber punished by the gouging out of his eyes, he restored new eyes and sight by his prayer.

CHAPTER IV. The Predictions and Death of St. Ulric.

[26] A certain knight sent two boys with loaves, pastries, and two vessels of wine to Blessed Ulric. They, keeping back a portion from each item, deposited them at the house of a certain poor man along the way. he knows of the boys' theft though absent When they were therefore knocking at the door, Ulric called his boy and said: "Go, and receive from the hands of those men the things they have brought, but do not permit them to enter to me. But under threat of death forbid them to taste those things which they defrauded and stored away for themselves." When they heard this, they returned in great confusion; the stolen goods, spoiled for they found the wine full of the spawn of poisonous frogs, and what they had kept back of the bread and pastries they saw full of a swarming of worms. Beating their breasts, therefore, they brought the things quickly to the man of God just as they were. When their fault was confessed and pardon obtained, he restores them to their own form Blessed Ulric restored the wine and bread to their former condition by his blessing, and commanded them to carry them back unharmed to the poor man at whose house they had deposited them.

[27] When Ulric, wearied by his nocturnal vigils, gave his limbs to sleep, he saw in his dreams as it were three boys suspended beyond his altar and already nearly strangled by the nooses with which they were bound. he is taught through a dream that certain men would be converted One of them, turning to him, said: "O my Lord Ulric, why do you delay to help and rescue us?" When the holy man said that he could not find a way to do it, the boy replied: "Climb upon this altar, and standing, stretch forth your hand and bring aid to those who are about to die." Complying immediately, he stretched out his hand and freed them from death and from hanging. While he was pondering this vision after awakening, three Priests came to him, doing penance and groaning for their sins, and they obtained from him pardon for their sins and the form of sounder counsel. How these three had been hanging beyond the altar up to that time, while they attended the sacred rites without holiness, is easily understood.

[28] Henry the First, King of the English, was planning a journey to parts beyond the sea. And when the servant of God heard this, he said: "He will go indeed, but he will not return; he predicts the King's death and even if he does return, he will not return whole or complete." This was reported to the King, and the King took this word harshly, and sent to him someone to ask whether he himself was the author of this statement. "If I said it," he replied, "I do not regret it, because I did not speak of myself." And so, when the King had ^b departed and some time had elapsed, the servant of God called the lord of that same village and said: "The King died yesterday; then he knows of it though absent see what you must do." When the knight was stupefied and demanded silence, he said: "It is very easy for me to be silent, but the time is near when all shall speak of it." Finally, he prophesied that the King was destined to obtain mercy from the Lord, because he had served peace and justice in his life and that he was saved on account of his good works and had built the house of ^c Reading with royal munificence.

[29] ^d Count Stephen, who afterward reigned in England, came to the man of God — and even then, being a kinsman of the King, he abounded with many and great possessions in England. His brother ^e Henry, Bishop of Winchester, also came with him. The holy man, therefore, looking upon the Count, he predicts the kingdom to Stephen said: "Hail, King." When they looked at one another, supposing that perhaps the holy man was being deceived by the uncertainty of human opinion, he said: "To you I speak, O Stephen — hail, King, for God has delivered the kingdom of England into your hand. Endeavor to attend to peace and equity, and take care to protect and honor the Church of God." Therefore, when Stephen reigned the disturbances that would arise in it and others sought the kingdom from his hand, peace was utterly driven out of England. The holy man had prophesied this disturbance and said to the lord of the same village: "King Stephen will ^f tomorrow be given into the hands of his enemies he predicts his captivity and liberation to another and will be led away captive; yet he will be freed, and ^g he who captures him will in consequence drink of the same cup." Finally, when King Stephen came to him, after many reproofs and salutary exhortations, he promised him among other things that it was necessary for him to reign ^h as long as he lived. And he exhorted the King to do penance for a certain sin of his, he warns the King himself of a secret sin which he even specified by name, adding that until he repented, it was impossible to establish his throne and to give peace to affairs. At these words, the King began to weep copiously, and making a heartfelt confession of that same sin, he offered his cheek to the Prophet who struck and spat upon him.

[30] When a year or more still remained to him of life, he knows that death is at hand as he was sitting one day in his cell, the mail coat was divinely unsewn from his shoulders and suddenly fell to his knees. Immediately drawing the mail coat back to his shoulders, he gathered it together with stronger straps. And behold, his entire body began to swell with blisters, and the flesh that shortly before had been like iron from the Spirit of God was now found to be flesh of itself. Thus the mail coat and the flesh together, by a similar presage, foretold that the time of his warfare was fulfilled. And he said to the Priest Osbernus: "The hour of my calling has come, and on Saturday evening I must be ready. and he predicts his day of death For I go to my Lord, whom I have served, and the day that is now at hand is the day I have long desired." Therefore, at the hour he had predicted, with hands joined and directed toward heaven, he dies on February 20, 1154 he departed to the Lord in the year of grace 1154, the tenth day before the Kalends of ⁱ March.

ANOTHER LIFE from the History of Matthew Paris.

Ulric, or Ulfric, Priest and Hermit in England (Blessed)

BHL Number: 0000

From Matthew Paris.

[1] In the same year (1154) the holy anchorite and solitary Ulfric of Heselberga departed to the Lord, after for twenty-nine years, fighting against the enemies of the human race, he had won the victory with a happy outcome. Blessed Ulric served God for 29 years Concerning his life and virtues, we have thought it useful to make at least a small mention, for the adornment of the history.

[2] The blessed man Ulfric, sprung from a middling English family, was born, nourished, and lived in the village of Compton, eight miles distant from Bristol, where he also exercised the office of Priest for some years. formerly a light-minded Priest This, in his youthful age, he is believed to have received from lightness of mind rather than from the desire of reason; for he did not yet know the Lord, and hence he was led by the flesh rather than by the spirit.

[3] For while he was earnestly occupied with the care of dogs and birds alike, and a hunter one day, while he was not sluggishly engaged in this kind of exercise, a man suddenly appeared, bearing the countenance and garb of a pauper, humbly begging a new coin from him in alms. England at that time had a new coinage in the days of Henry the First, but it was still rare because of the novelty of the coin. When Ulfric said he did not know whether he had a new coin, the man said: "Look in your purse, and you will find in it two and a half coins." having given alms to the poor man Struck with amazement at this response, he looked, and finding it just as he had been told, he devoutly gave what was requested. That man, having received it from his hand, said: "May He repay you for whose love you have done this. And I proclaim to you in His name: he learns from him that he would live holily elsewhere because from this place you will shortly migrate to another, and passing from there to yet another, you will at last find rest, persevering there to the end in the service of God, and in the end you will be summoned to the company of the Saints."

[4] Then, shortly afterward, as a needy Priest, attaching himself to William, the lord of the village in which he had been born, he ate bread at his table every day. There also, girding his loins with much fortitude, he entirely renounced the use of meat. he abstains from meat But the man of God, now longing for solitude with his whole desire, was directed by his lord, the aforesaid knight, to another village, named Haselberga, which appears to be thirty miles distant from Exeter to the east — the Holy Spirit, as it seems, dictating this. There, in a cell adjoining the church, burying himself with Christ, enclosed in a cell he procured for himself the grace of Christ by much labor and much affliction of flesh and spirit. For by so great fasting and abstinence and so great constancy of vigils he mortified his members upon the earth that, with his skin in a short time clinging to his bones, he mortifies himself by abstinence he presented to those beholding him no longer a carnal man but a spiritual one in a human body.

[5] He was content with simple clothing, with a hair shirt clinging within. by a hair shirt When this had hardened within a few days according to his custom, he began to take up the use of a mail coat. When his lord, the aforesaid knight, learned of this, he bestowed a mail coat upon the man of God and consecrated a weapon of war to the heavenly militia. by an iron mail coat At night he was accustomed to descend naked, in the cold, into a certain vessel full of cold water, in which he would offer the Psalms of David to the Lord; praying in cold water and persevering thus for some time, he mortified in the waters the enticements of the flesh, whose most bitter stings he endured. He was humble and pleasant to all in conversation, whose words breathed a certain heavenly harmony to his hearers — speaking through a window although he always spoke to people through a closed window.

[6] In the midst of these things, the man of God Ulfric — known to God alone — burst forth into the knowledge of men, for their salvation, like a new dawn. For when the mail coat with which he was clothed struck against his knees and hindered the constancy of his genuflections, he summoned the knight who was privy to his secret and complained to him of the excessive length of the mail coat. The knight said to him: "Let it be sent to London and, as you yourself shall designate, let it be cut." The man of God answered: "That would involve too great a delay, nor could it be free from the mark of ostentation. But you," he said, "take these scissors before God he has the mail coat cut with scissors and with your own hand complete this work." And he placed in his hands scissors brought from the knight's own house. And to the knight, who was hesitating and thinking him delirious, he said: "Be steadfast, and see that you do not tremble. I am going to pray to my Lord about this matter, while he himself prays and in the meantime apply yourself to this work with confidence." Both soldiers set to work — one at prayer and the other at cutting — and the work prospered in their hands. For the knight thought he was cutting not iron but cloth, with such ease did the scissors run through the iron.

[7] But when the man of God ceased from prayer before the work was completed, the knight was compelled to cease from cutting. Ulfric stood beside the knight and inquired how the matter had progressed. "Well thus far," even with broken scissors he said, "but now, at your coming, the scissors broke and stopped." And Ulfric said: "Let this not trouble you, but with the same scissors complete what you began." The knight therefore, resuming confidence, with the same ease as before, happily completed the work and evened out whatever was unequal without any difficulty. From that time onward, the man of God, without scissors, with his own feeble fingers and with no less faith, indeed he plucks off pieces with his fingers divided and distributed the rings of the mail coat, for various remedies of health, to all who asked in charity. The knight, seeing this virtue, struck with ineffable admiration, fell at the feet of the man of God. Whereupon Ulfric, embarrassed, raised the knight up and adjured him not to reveal this to anyone as long as he lived. But the celebrated fame of the matter could not be hidden, since many religious men rejoiced in possessing rings from the same mail coat, which many sought and the celebrated fame of the man of God spread far and wide throughout the borders of the entire kingdom.

[8] In the northern parts of England there was a certain very wretched man, who, not bearing the lot of poverty equably, gave his hand to the devil and did homage to him. a certain wretch gives himself over to the devil When the devil had brooded over his captured prey for some time, the wretch, understanding his guilt, began to repent, looking about and deliberating to whose patronage he should commit himself — one who would free him from the death of the soul. At last he resolved to approach Blessed Ulfric, in whose hand salvation was said to rest. And being greatly anxious about his progress, when he had revealed the matter to one of his associates, the devil stood beside him in his accustomed and familiar form, having spoken about a remedy, he is rebuked by the devil accusing him of betrayal and threatening to punish the man himself with cruel chastisement if he should attempt any such thing in the future. But the man, imposing silence upon himself, saw clearly that his enemy had not known the thoughts of his heart unless he had first betrayed them by word or sign.

[9] Therefore, concealing his resolution of repentance for some time, he at last set out on his premeditated journey to come to Ulfric, the friend of God. and approaching Blessed Ulric Having traversed a long stretch of road, he came to the ford of that river which is situated outside Heselberga, with the Lord prospering his journey. But when the man had entered the ford and had conceived a certain hope of Blessed Ulfric's assistance, the devil came upon him, inflamed with heavy wrath, he is held in the middle of the river and laying violent hands upon the man, he gnashed his teeth and said: "What is this, traitor, that you wished to do? You are plotting to dissolve our pact, but in vain — for you must soon pay the penalties of the betrayal by which you once renounced God and by which you now think to renounce me, because you shall now be miserably drowned." And the devil, holding him, made him so immobile that he could neither advance nor turn to any side.

[10] While these things were happening in the river, the man of God Ulfric — the things that were occurring having been revealed to him by God through the spirit of prophecy — Blessed Ulric learns of it divinely called to himself his Priest ^e Brithric, and said: "Hasten, and taking a Cross with holy water, go to meet the man whom the devil holds captive in the ford outside the village; and sprinkling him with holy water, bring him to me." he sends one to drive off the devil with the Cross and holy water The Priest, setting out with the greatest speed upon the errand commanded, found, just as had been told him, the man sitting upon a horse in the ford, and so immovably fixed in the water that he could not move from the spot. When Brithric saw him, he immediately, in the power of his master, doused the man with holy water in the name of Jesus Christ, shook loose the prey, and put the robber to flight. And thus, taking the captive from the waters, he led him with joy to the man of God, who meanwhile, praying for his misery, had his hands raised to God.

[11] The demon followed from behind the man who had once been his own. the demon, however, following and pulling back Seeing him standing before the man of God, he seized him as the man cried out and said: "Servant of God, help me — behold, my enemy attacks me." The Saint, however, took hold of the man's right hand, and the devil, holding the left, was pulling with force. Ulric himself puts him to flight with holy water And as they pulled thus, the man of the Lord held the captive with one hand, and with the other, sprinkling the water he had blessed against the face of the enemy, drove him away in great confusion from the house.

[12] The man of God led the trembling man, snatched from the jaws of death, into the inner part of his cell, holding him there until, through confession, the penitent vomited out at the Saint's feet the poison that the demon had infused in him. Then the man, having resumed his strength, saw the Body of the Lord offered to him by St. Ulfric in the appearance of flesh. ^f he fortifies the man with the Eucharist And when he was asked whether he believed with his whole heart, he said: "I believe, Lord, because I, wretched and sinful, see the body and blood of my Lord in your hands under the appearance of flesh." The holy man said to him: "Thanks be to God. Now let us pray together, seeing in it the Body of Christ that you may be worthy to receive it in its customary appearance." And thus he dismissed the man, having given him communion and confirmed him in the faith, in peace.

[13] The friend of God, St. Ulfric, died on the tenth day before the Kalends of March he himself after death is illustrious for miracles and was buried in his oratory at Heselberga — at which place, to the praise of God and the glory of the Saint, innumerable miracles have been seen to this very day.