St. Merlin of the Borders: A Reply to a Simple Request

I received, by succession of a vast number of passenger pigeons to my study room window, a reply to a simple request I made to my local bishop. So far things are looking good.

[The following is the reply sent to me from my local bishop regarding a request for canonization I had sent earlier in the year. Things are looking good. We have a good bishop here in Avalon. Stay tuned, folks!]

*Please note this is a work of fiction*

Dear faithful one in Christ, Mr. HermetiCat.

I have received numerous requests for consideration of canonization over my many years as Bishop of Avalon. None quite as strange as the one you have presented. At first, I assumed it to be a joke and had quickly dismissed it without even paying thought to an official reply. Something I cannot give name to, though as one given the call from God, perhaps I can give name to it and simply refuse to out of fear of the repercussions, something gave me pause and had me run my eye over your quaint and somewhat poorly written request.

I must admit I was fascinated. I had not heard of this great ascetic and prophet, aside from the depictions in film over the years, all of which I thought naught but fanciful nonsense typical to that industry and surely, they are. The man you have spoken of is not that man I have realized and from the moment of my having glanced an eye over the letter no sooner did I go back and read it in full detail. Then, upon re-reading it a couple more times, I decided to do my own research on this gentleman to see if your words held any weight.

Not just weight but gravitas, I say!

Of his ascetic qualities first let us speak. As you wrote, many years did this man spend in the wilderness, a wild fool for God, away from the world and its temptations. At this time he seems to have been gifted the charism of a kind of proto-Franciscan, or even more accurately of such that we read about in the lives of many of his kinsmen of the early saints of this land. Animals were friend to him. Of particular note, a close friendship with an ageing wolf who, in his twilight years and sensing death upon him, as if a rival alpha male, seeks out our holy man as the sick and afflicted sought out our Lord.

An accounting of his life tells of it in his own words:

You, O wolf, dear companion, accustomed to roam with me through the secluded paths of the woods and meadows, now can scarcely get across the fields; hard hunger has weakened both you and me. You lived in these woods before I did and age has whitened your hairs first.

And further he drives before him wild animals as if sheep to a shepherd. A vision of a woodland Christ:

So he spoke and went about all the woods and groves and collected a herd of stags in a single line, and the deer and she-goats likewise, and he himself mounted a stag. And when day dawned he came quickly, driving the line before him … smiling and marvelling that the man was riding on the stag and that it obeyed him, and that he could get together so large a number of animals and drive them before him just as a shepherd does the sheep that he is in the habit of driving to the pastures.

Surely a man who speaks the good news to all of creation as commanded by our Lord in the Gospel of St. Mark.

Not only his animal friends but it would seem the Blessed Virgin herself may have come to this fellow under the title of Our Lady of the Lake, also calling herself “Shining” or “Radiant” or “Full of Life”. He develops a special devotion to Our Lady even to the point of ecstatic fervour, some might say. It could even be speculated that, contained in the stories of him, such was his love and devotion to Our Lady, she is referred to as his wife who goes by the name Guendoloena or Gwendolen as it is more popularly known. This name, Welsh in origin, gives us the cause for speculation as it comprises two words Gwen, meaning “fair,” “white,” or “blessed” and Dolen, meaning “ring” or even “circle.” Now, there are some etymologies that would have it that the word “Church” is from the same root as “Circle” given the importance for faithful believers, the world over, not only Christian, of gathering together in a circle, if not a literal one, then certainly a symbolic one, for it gives the impression of union, brotherhood, and eternity. Therefore, it can be said in a manner of speaking that this great man was betrothed to the pure, fair, blessed, that is to say, Holy Church. A moniker, easily recognized by we Catholics, given for the Holy Mother. In one accounting our man hears a heavenly music with accompanying words, that, though sung about this “Gwendolen,” we shall see that what they say can only be in regards the Blessed Virgin:

She surpassed in fairness the goddesses, and the petals of the privet, the blossoming roses and the fragrant lilies of the field. The glory of spring shone in her alone, and she had the splendour of stars in her two eyes, and splendid hair shining with the gleam of gold.

Who else but Our Lady Full of Viriditas has the glory of spring shine in her alone? Our Lord is the spring of a renewed creation that fills the Virgin’s womb and bursts into life for the salvation of a cosmos trapped in winter!

All this, indeed, is to speak of a man with an unmatched devotion to Holy Maria-Sophia.

As is often the case concerning appearances of the Blessed Virgin there is association of a holy and healing spring surrounding our potential saint. He is found atop a mountain sitting near a spring which apparently heals him of his initial madness, for a madness even one that is holy, does not allow one to impart their gifts upon their fellow man, and so coming out of his stupor he is able to return briefly to the world of men and bless them with his God-given wisdom. It is not long, however, before our man can no longer endure the presence of crowds of people, mirroring again Our Lord Jesus who would often slip away from the crowds into solitude with His Father in prayer. Also does he undergo the temptations of a prince of this world offering all manner of worldly goods as did Jesus when taken into the desert to face the devil, the high prince of this world.

Away from the crowds once more he finds himself back in the wilderness, but not before leaving the courts of the king with a prophecy. Three times a youth is brought before our would-be saint, each time in a different guise, even that the last time he be made to look like a girl in aspect, in attempt to prove him a fool. And a fool they thought they had proved him, for upon seeing the youth each time in a different guise, presumably addressing three separate people, he gave three separate and different prophecies of the youth’s death. A fool and a madman they declared him and let him go, back to the woods where he longed to be.

“he shall die, when a man, by falling from a high rock.”

“when he grows up he shall, while out of his mind, meet with a violent death in a tree.”

“girl or not she shall die in the river.”

These are the three predictions of death given, clearly different circumstances for each youth who, as we have said, was the same youth. Some years later the youth does indeed die. Let us see how:

A young man falls over a precipice; one of his feet is caught in a tree; he drowns while hanging upside down with his body partly submerged.

His prophecy perfectly fulfilled. Astonishing! But I don’t have to tell you that. I am preaching to the choir, am I not? Nevertheless, I feel compelled to continue with my findings, please bear with me. Many other prophecies there are but I will not burden you with things most probably already of your knowing. Only will I copy in full an apocalyptic vision of this blessed fellow, a vision of Johannine scope.

(88) Root and branch shall change places, and the newness of the thing shall pass as a miracle. The brightness of the Sun shall fade at the amber of Mercury, and horror shall seize the beholders. Stilbon of Arcadia shall change his shield; the Helmut of Mars shall call Venus.

(89) The Helmut of Mars shall make a shadow: and the rage of Mercury shall exceed its orbit. Iron Orion shall unsheathe his sword; the marine Phoebus shall torment the clouds. Jupiter shall go out of his lawful paths; and Venus forsake her appointed circuits.

(90) The malignity of the star Saturn shall fall down in rain, and slay mankind with a crooked sickle. The Twelve Houses of the Stars shall lament the irregular excursions of their inmates.

Chilling to the bone, is it not?

Let us continue some more with his life. Into the wilderness again and it is said that his interactions with the world cause him to slip back somewhat into his previous madnesses, though who can say? Are not all the great saints mad in our eyes? Their devotion so unwavering as to be unsettling? Their manner of talking so allusive yet alluring? Their simple good-natured demeanour a confusion to the constant complicating busyness of our minds? Indeed, those of the courts were so short-sighted as to brandish him a madman. So much for that!

This man, I tell you, now begins to speak the very language of the starry heavens, which Holy Writ tells us “Declares the glory of God and proclaims His handywork”. He communicates in the tongue of birds, knowing the life of crane and swan and woodpecker, as per his “Catalogue of Birds”. Which is to say he speaks the eternal language of the Holy Spirit! That third person of the Holy Trinity who became bird, took on avian form as a dove when Jesus Christ was baptised. Also, descended as tongues of fire, like phoenix’s, upon the disciples in their great Pentecostal illumination. This also must have been the way for our wild saint, a great Pentecosting came upon him!

I cannot write any more. I would only sully the life of this wonderful man with my clumsy words, a saint certainly in my eyes. I shall proceed at once to pass my recommendations to the Holy Father for the canonization of Mryddin, also called Merlin. Soon, I pray, to be St. Merlin of the Borders. If not, I may myself become mad and retreat into the woods. I thank you for your request and owe you no small debt of gratitude. I shall leave you with St. Merlin’s own words of praise to Holy God after a second healing at a spring. Glory to God through his Son Jesus Christ!

Therefore, praising God, he [Merlin] turned his face toward the stars and uttered devout words of praise:

O King, through whom the order of the starry heavens exists, through whom the sea and the land with its pleasing grass give forth and nourish their offspring and with their profuse fertility give frequent aid to mankind, through whom sense has returned and the error of my mind has vanished! I was carried away from myself and like a spirit I knew the acts of past peoples and predicted the future. Then since I knew the secrets of things and the flight of birds and the wandering motions of the stars and the gliding of the fishes, all this vexed me and denied a natural rest to my human mind by a severe law. Now I have come to myself and seemed to be moved with a vigour such as was wont to animate my limbs. Therefore, highest father, ought I to be obedient to thee, that I may show forth thy most worthy praise from a worthy heart, always joyfully making joyful offerings.

Yours in Christ, Bishop Hugh of Avalon

P.S There may be some issue over Merlin’s parentage. Let us hope the Holy Father overlooks or indeed sees the glory of God’s work all the more in such a strange siring.

God Bless.