Thursday 17 April 2014

Alcuin, Vita Willibrordi: Date et dabitur vobis.



I live in the Dutch province of Groningen, neighbouring the province of Friesland. The Frisians have their own language within the Germanic languages. In some respects it resembles English in phonology and Anglo-Saxon in vocabulary: no wonder, as the Frisians belong to the Germanic tribes invading England.  Some thousand years ago the area under their control was much larger, including northern and mid Netherlands and Ostfriesland in Northern Germany. Attempts to Christianize those stubborn heathens were not that successful, but that did not deter missionaries from trying. One of them was Willibrord (c. 658 – 7 November 739), who at the request of the Frankish king Pepin tried to bring the Frisians over to Christianity. Success was limited, but Willibrord was able to found an episcopate at the Dutch city of Utrecht. Due to his incessant attempts to bring the light in this part of my country, he got the name `Apostle to the Frisians’.
Willibrord founded the abbey of Echternach (Luxembourg) and often returned to that place. Up to this day a dancing procession is held every year at Whit Tuesday (the Tuesday in the week of Pentecost) in honour of Willibrord.
After his death he was highly venerated and Alcuin  (735 - 804) put his deeds to immortality by writing the Vita Willibrordi. As it befits the life of a man who was soon to become a saint, this Vita contains many miracles. In this miracle Willibrord sees a group of beggars and he and his men drink wine together with these beggars. When Willibrord and his men leave, they find out that the jug from which they have drunk together with the beggars is full again. Wish I could perform such a miracle! Next week I have my birthday, but I am afraid one bottle of wine is not enough….

Alcuinus, Vita Willibrordi, c.17:

Iterum sanctus Dei sacerdos in quodam loco iter agens, vidit mendicantes inopes duodecim, pariter postulantes sibi aliquid a praetereuntibus solatii. Quos,  ut fuit mitissimus, benigno aspexit animo, unique ex suis mandavit specialem suam flasconem sumere, ac pauperibus miscere Christi. Ex qua omnes illi duodecim usque ad sacietatem bibebant, et mirum in modum, illis abeuntibus ex optimo vino fiasco, de qua tanti bibebant homines, inventa est plena ut ante. Hoc conperto benedicebant omnes dominum nostrum, dicentes: Vere impletum est in nobis, quod in euangelio Deus Christus dixit : " Date et dabitur vobis."

iterumand again, also (an adverb often used in vitae to introduce a new anecdote. It does not mean that Willibrord visited that place for a second time!)
sanctus Dei sacerdos: i.e. Willibrord
iter ago: to make one’s way to
mendico: to beg
inops inopis: poor
pariter: together
postulo: to ask
praetereo: to pass by
aliquid solatii: some alms
ut fuit mitissimus: as he was very mild
ex suis: from his: (i.e Willibrords) men
mando: to order
flasco flasconis (f.): jug, pitcher (A late-Latin loanword from Germanic, c.f. German Flasche)
sumo sumpsi sumptum: to take
pauperibus Christi
misceo miscue mixtum: to mix (wine was normally mixed with water, so: to fill (with water and wine)
ad sacietatem = ad satietatem: till being sated
et mirum in modum, illis abeuntibus ex optimo vino fiasco, de qua tanti bibebant homines, inventa est plena ut ante = in mirum modum, illis abeuntibus (abl. abs. Willibrord and his men), flasco, de qua bibebant tanti homines ex optimo vino, inventa est plena ut ante.
conperio conperi conpertum: to find out
Date et dabitur vobis:  Luke 6,38

About Willibrord, but the German wiki is mor informative:




Statue of Willibrord at Utrecht.





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