Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/177

 It befell  thereafter,  that  the  blessed  Florus

departed from  the  world,  full  of  glory,  to  Christ,

in the  thirteenth  year  after  he  became  a  monk.

Also a  certain  archdeacon  came  once  upon  a  time

to  Maurus,  and  then  they  had  no  wine,

except in  one  large-sized  bottle.

Then Maurus  blithely  blessed  the  wine,

and said,  that  God  could  increase  the  drink,

He who  of  old  in  the  wilderness   drew  out  water

from the  hard  stone-cliff,  and  sent  from  Heaven

food for  his  people  for  forty  years.

Then verily  they  drank  of  that  wine,  full  seventy  men,

and the  bottle  was  ever  after  brimful  of  wine.

Again Maurus  found  a  man

who was  evilly  stricken,  and  a  cancer  was  eating  him,

and his  lips  were  rendered  loathsome  thereby,

and likewise  his  nose  destroyed  by  the  poison;

then Maurus  blessed  the  man  from  afar,

and he  instantly  was  wondrously  healed.

After that  Maurus  would  not  journey  from  the  monastery,

for any  need,  unless  he  were  obliged,

because he  knew  what  had  been  foretold  him

by Saint  Benedict,  when  he  had  left  him,

that he  should  depart  from  this  world  to  God

in the  fourteenth  year  after  he  had  gone  from  him;

and dwelt  there  apart,  and  set  over  the  brothers

another abbot,  by  the  counsel  of  them  all,

that same  Florus'  son,  of  whom  we  have  before  spoken.

He was  then  very  much  busied  with  his  prayers

in St.  Martin's  church,  with  his  two  monks,

for two  years  and  a  half  with  all  fervour,

and, with  holy  desire,  besought  God's  mercy.

Then on  a  certain  night  he  saw  the  devil,

when he  was  about  to  go  into  God's  church.

The fiend  had  with  him  many  other  devils,