Today, besides being the incomparable Good Friday, is the feast of Blessed Notker Balbulus. "Balbulus" means "stutterer" and since I used to stutter, I have a special devotion to him. He was never completely cured of this speech defect, but surprisingly enough (or not really, if you have studied the disorder) he never stuttered when he sang. In fact, he developed the singing school at his abbey of Saint-Gall. He also wrote 38 hymns and developed (although he did not originate) the practice of singing the alleluia before the Gospel and using so-called sequences which are kind of like lyrics written on the topic of the high holy days. He was a librarian and concierge for the guesthouse. He was a great favorite of Emperor Charles the Fat, who often came to visit. But Charles was not always the best Christian. Once, when a messenger arrived from the monarch while Notker was weeding his garden, he said, "Tell the emperor to do what I am doing now." Charles, who was no fool, understood immediately what he meant.
The royal chaplain, a vain and well-educated man, sought to trip Notker up when he said to him: "Tell me, you who are so learned, what God is now doing" and Notker, without missing a beat, replied, "He is doing now what He has done in the past, He is putting down the proud and exalting the humble." The chaplain took off while the community laughed.
Notker died in 912 and for many years his brother monks could not speak of him without tears. He was beatified in 1512.
No comments:
Post a Comment