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5. He was returning home one day and planning for the morrow when about noon, he felt very tired in his body and particularly weary in his mind. For a while he wandered off the road, stretched out on the ground and fell asleep. When he awoke his body seemed to be deprived of all its strength so that he could not walk at all. After a long time, by crawling along the ground, he managed with great effort to get back to the road, and there he lay, calling with heart and voice on God, the helper in all kinds of trouble. Even in his distress, he gave thanks to God for his mercy that He had thought him worthy to undergo this affliction. He had read, in Holy Scripture, "Whom the Lord loves, he chastises" and "whom the Lord receives as a son, he chastises." But our Holy Creator did not leave him without consolation as he had such faith in God even in his torment. He lay there in his sickness not knowing what would happen to him in God's Providence. Some horsemen came along the road where he was lying and saw him afar off. There was a certain citizen of Angers among them who was going the same way as the sick man wanted to go. He had compassion on him and with his friends quickly lifted the man onto his horse (he actually knew him quite well) and took him as far as the Belgian Castle (or Camp), Then he was carried by a donkey to his own home where for a whole year he lay on his bed, completely paralysed.
6. At the end of the year when ail his savings had gone, he had no hope of recovery but was compelled by necessity to try and lift himself off his bed. Thanks to the working of Divine Grace, he felt his right hand and foot gradually recovering their former strength - but the left side of his body was still paralysed as before. Faced with such affliction, he obtained the support of some sticks and helped by these, he began at first to visit the churches in the area and the monasteries. He went very frequently to the monastery of St Aubin, not just for food for his body which he received from the Poor Fund of the monastery, but also because he hoped he would regain strength of body and mind through the intercession of the Confessor. Finally, when he had sold his scanty pieces of furniture, he prepared to travel on his donkey and finally arrived at Rome with his faithful wife to invoke the help of the holy Apostles.
7. On his return journey, a certain woman of noble birth and deeply religious offered him hospitality in the city of Lucca. When she saw the gentleness of the man, she begged him to stay in her home and promised that while she lived, she would look after him just as if he were here own father. The man gave thanks to God for remembering him, and immediately accepted her offer; but after fifteen days, he began to be troubled in himself because of certain strange inner voices persuading him to return to his own lands. At first, he put them out of his mind by reasoning thus with himself: "In my wretched condition, who in my own city would devote themselves in this way to help my infirmity? I shall not leave this place and here I shall await the day of my death." But later, when he was asleep, he seemed to behold the figure of a man of great authority, who smiled at him and said: "Go - leave this place and return to Angers; you will recover health of body and mind better there than in this spot." Then his face took on a threatening and frightening aspect, and he said that if the man did not leave, he would suffer something even worse. He was terrified at this and on the following say, he prepared to leave this pious lady who had waited on him, not as a beggar but as a lord. She wept bitterly (so I am told) and he was very sad to leave. He returned to Angers where all his needs were provided quite voluntarily by the faithful. But he left all the other lodging houses, influenced by some sort of presentiment, and only found satisfaction by staying in the monastery of the Blessed Aubin. There, night and day, he poured out his soul in prayer to the holy Confessor to intercede for him with the merciful Judge of us all.
8. The sick man carried on earnestly in this way and seven years passed from the time he took ill. Then came the feast day of the Saint to whom he had prayed so often. The night before was celebrated with sacred vigils and watchings with resounding hymns, psalms and spiritual songs and when the next day dawned, they all met together in one mind and heart. A priest officiated with people of both sexes and a large section of the nobility - a choir of monks was busy ministering in the church. The Abbot Hubertus, a man of great kindness and simplicity of life, presided as the happy congregation remembered the time of the Blessed Aubin. Several other abbots came with their monks and when the appointed prayers of Prime were said, they went into the Chapter-House as laid down by the holy Fathers.
9. Meanwhile, Girmundus, in spite of his affliction and the enormous crowd of people who filled the basilica right up to altar, made his way to the presbytery early in. the morning. He prostrated himself between the two altars and with sighs and tears begged the holy Confessor to help him. Then (as he himself relates it) through this fervent devotion, the contrition in his heart and his abounding love for our Saint, he felt himself "kindled within"; with devoted spirit, he vowed that he would serve the saint for ever if he were to be healed. Then he arose from his prayers in which he had been absorbed for a long time. He went up to the gates of the Lord's altar; his sticks with which he supported himself fell to one side just as if someone had taken them off him and he fell semi-conscious on the other side. Some of the crowd said that he had died of his sufferings but others insisted that these were the reactions of one who was getting better. (From this you will have gathered that he had been healed in that very spot through the work and virtue of the Holy Spirit.) They all joined together in prayer and shouted "St Aubin help!" At this noise the shoulder and the withered hand of the sick man moved and so did his foot which had shrunk and hung loose for a long time, as if it were dragged along with much effort. His foot began to stretch - and, as it did, some of the bystanders said that they heard the sinews of his knee creaking. From that spot the blood started to flow towards his heel. And so, after an illness lasting seven years, by the work of Christ and the merits of the holy Confessor, Aubin, without any support to help him, he stood up on both feet and with firm steps walked in the sight of all, glorifying the holy Confessor who had brought about his healing and recovery.
10. There was great exultation amongst the people and the hearts of all were filled with heavenly joy and a new spirit of contrition came into their hearts. Soon praise and jubilation rose to the heavens and they sang the TE DEUM LAUDAMUS with ringing voices as the news of these signs spread around. Amidst this shouting the crowd burst into the Chapter-House of the monks all calling together in the name of the Lord, giving thanks to Aubin the Bishop who did not desert his people even now when he was released from the bonds of this transitory life. When the Abbot was informed, he called for Girmundus and learnt from him his vow that as long as he lived he would devote himself to serve the monastery. So he gave him the task of looking after strangers, the sick and the needy under the direction of the monk who had the responsibility for the poor. He said to Girmundus: "Come now, show the same concern to the sick as you wanted to be shown to you; be guided by your conscience - give in turn the same care to those who are as ill as you not long ago asked to be given to you." He humbly obeyed this charge with great devotion and for seven years he performed these works of charity with even greater devotion. The Abbot and the whole community, by seeing him every day, recognised his utmost humility, charity and obedience and so they received him into the cloisters of the monastery and invested him with the sacred habit .I am a monk and I saw him when he became one; and as far as I could see, he was most devoted and fervent in his office and prayers.
11. I was able to hear these things which I have written from the Lord Walterius who was the Dean of the monastery and is now the Abbot (- it was he who persuaded me to write the story -) and from several others who were there and saw the miracle. But it was from Girmundus' own lips that I learnt with greater accuracy about these happenings. I have written because he continually asked and begged me to do so. On several occasions, I refused his request because I am not skilled in such things; I also said that I was afraid of him asking this to seek vain glory for me. I said: "Let it suffice, Father, that you have gained two things in this life which you had lost; by the prayers of the Holy Confessor, you have obtained health of body and an opportunity to save your soul : and this hope will be yet more glorious in the Resurrection when the just will receive both in body and soul the prize of immortality." But he protested and said: "The grace of our most holy father, Aubin, has granted to me who can plead no merits of my own, such good things as I thought I could not hope for. But this is something in which I rejoice not for myself but for the glory of Christ because ail those who knew me in my sickness saw that I was cured by the intercession of our Patron Saint. They glorify the name of Christ and praise and magnify the virtue of his Confessor, the Blessed Aubin. So I desire you to do this with all my heart; people will see me and learn how my life was preserved and in your writings they will read and hear what the Blessed Aubin, our Patron Saint, did in me to the praise and glory of our Master Jesus Christ. So this story will be preserved to the end of time."