Letter CCCXLI. To Malachi, Archbishop of Ireland

:! (Circa A.D. 1140.)

Bernard receives with thanks the letter and the staff, and welcomes the monks sent by him. He recommends Malachi to have an abode prepared ft for Religious: and commends himself to his prayers.

To the venerable lord and most blessed father MALACHI, by the grace of God Archbishop of the Irish¹ and Legate of² the Apostolic See, Brother BERNARD, called Abbot of Clairvaux, desires that he may find grace in the Lord.

1. Among the multitude of my anxieties and heartfelt cares, which distract my mind by their multitude, the brethren which have come to me from a distant land, in order that they may [learn to] serve the Lord, your letter, and the staff which you have sent me, have consoled me much: the letter as a pledge of your kindly feeling towards me; the staff to sustain my body, which is bowed down by infirmity; the brethren to serve God in the spirit of humility. All I have accepted with pleasure; all equally work together for good. As to your desire that I should send you two Religious to assist you in choosing a fit place of settlement,³ I have thought it expedient not to send you these before the others, but to wait until Christ be more fully formed in them, until they shall be entirely equipped for the wars of the Lord. When then they shall have be come instructed in the school of the Holy Ghost and endued with virtue from on high, then at length your sons shall return to their father, that they may sing the Lord's song in their own land, and not any longer in a foreign country.

2. In the meantime do you, according to the wisdom which has been bestowed upon you by the Lord, make choice of a place of settlement for them, separated from the tumults of the world, according to the principles of choice which you have seen acted upon with us. For the time is at hand when, with the grace of God helping, I shall be able to send you back new men, instead of those clothed with the old man whom you entrusted to me. May the Lord be blessed for ever, of whose gift it comes that your sons have become also mine; and that from the trees planted by your preaching and watered by my exhortation, God has given increase.⁴ pray your Holiness to apply yourself to the preaching of the Word of God, that you may give to your flock the knowledge of salvation. You lie under a twofold obligation to do this; from your quality as Bishop, and your delegation from the Holy See. For the rest, since in many things we offend all (S. James iii. 2), and being placed among men of this world, we frequently contract much of the dust of the world; 1 commend myself to your prayers and those of your brethren, that Jesus Christ, who is Him self the fountain of holiness, who once said to Peter, If I wash thee not, thou liast no part with Me (S. John xiii. 8), would deign to wash me, and to cleanse me in the waters of His mercy. And, indeed, I not only earnestly entreat this of you, but require it as in some sense the payment of a debt, since I do not cease to call upon the Lord for you, if the prayer of a sinner is of any avail. Farewell in the Lord.

Footnotes

1. " Formerly No. 315. the former No. 34. is now No. 385. ↩

2. Usher brings forward this Letter among Irish precedents, where he shows against John Picard, that the Bishops of Armagh were styled Archbishops, and exercised metropolitan power, before they began to receive the pallium, which was first given in 1150. Usher is surprised at the title of Archbishop being given to Malachi, who had resigned his Archbishopric several years before, to undertake the administration of the Diocese of the Dunes (Life, c. 14). Bernard, however, calls him by that title probably because of his former dignity; but in following Letters he styles him only Bishop. ↩

3. Later the Abbey of Mellifont (Dioc. Armagh) was thus chosen, and founded in 1141. The first Abbot was named Christian, who is mentioned in Letter 357, n. 3. Respecting this Abbey, see Acts of S. Malachi, Life of S. Bernard* and Duchesne, Tome iv. ep. 254. ↩

4. A new Letter; the former No. 342 is now No. 383. ↩