not find it on the instant. He heeded not the flames which shot out of
the oven's mouth but caught the hot bread and shifted it with his hands
and suffered no hurt whatever. On another day the monks were engaged in
labour beside the river which runs through the monastery. One of the
senior monks called upon a young monk named Colman to do a certain piece
of work. Immediately, as he had not named any particular Colman, twelve
monks of the name rushed into the water. The readiness and exactness of
the obedience practised was displayed in this incident.

Great moreover was their meekness and patience in sickness or ill-health
as appears from the case of the monk out of the wounds of whose body
maggots fell as he walked; yet he never complained or told anyone or
left his work for two moments although it was plain from his appearance
that his health was declining, and he was growing thinner from day to
day. The brothers pitied him very much. At length Mochuda questioned
him--putting him under obedience to tell the truth--as to the cause of
his decline. The monk thereupon showed him his sides which were torn by
a twig tied fast around them. Mochuda asked him who had done that
barbarous and intolerable thing to him. The monk answered:--"One day
while we were drawing logs of timber from the wood my girdle broke from
the strain, so that my clothes hung loose. A monk behind me saw this
and cutting a twig tied it so tightly around my sides that it has caused
my flesh to mortify." Mochuda asked--"And why did you not loosen the
twig?" The monk replied--"Because my body in not my own and he who tied
it (the withe) has never loosed it." It was a whole year since the
withe had been fastened around him. Mochuda said to him:--"Brother, you
have suffered great pain; as a reward thereof take now you choice--your
restoration to bodily health or spiritual health by immediate departure
hence to eternal life." He answered, deciding to go to heaven:--"Why
should I desire to remain in this life?" Having received the Sacrament