Blessed Nicholas of Flüe

Despite his fervent and austere devotion, he was never sad or gloomy, but at all times affable and joyful; and he fulfilled all the duties of his station: in his twenty-third year, at the call of the magistrates, he bore arms in the campaign against the canton of Zurich, which wished to separate from the Helvetic League; he did so again fourteen years later, during the conquest and occupation of Thurgau, where he commanded as captain a company of one hundred men (1450 and 1460). He had displayed such bravery in this war that his country awarded him a gold medal as a reward. A circumstance even more honorable from the same expedition is that the monastery of the valley of Saint Catherine still reveres him today as its liberator. It was thanks to his exhortations that the Swiss refrained from setting fire to this monastery to drive out the enemies, who abandoned it themselves soon after. In war, Nicholas carried his sword in one hand and his rosary in the other; he always showed himself to be both a fearless warrior and a merciful Christian, protecting the widow and the orphan, and he did not allow the victors to commit acts of violence against the vanquished.

Having reached manhood, Nicholas married to obey his parents; he chose from among the virgins of the region a virtuous young girl named Dorothy. They lived together in union and peace, and brought forth ten children, f ive boys Dorothée Wife of Nicholas of Flüe. and five girls, from whom came a large and honorable family that never lost the memory of its ancestors: there are still descendants of the blessed Brother Nicholas today. He took the education of his children so much to heart that one of his sons, during his father's lifetime, attained the highest dignity of the country, and another obtained it after his death; a third, whom he had study in Basel and Paris, became the parish priest of Sachseln. Nicholas himself was unanimously elected governor and judge of Obwalden; we know from his own mouth what his conduct was in this important position. The priest Henri Im Grund, his friend and the director of his conscience, revealed after his death what he Henri Im Grund Parish priest of Stans and friend of Nicholas. had told him one day on this subject: "I have received from God as a share an upright spirit; I have often been consulted in the affairs of my homeland; I have also pronounced many sentences; but, by divine grace, I do not remember having acted in anything against my conscience. I have never shown partiality to persons and have never strayed from the paths of justice." The high office of Landammann or president of the canton was awarded to him by the country's assembly on several occasions; but he feared this great responsibility, and, no doubt, he also felt that God had reserved something greater for him. Nicholas of Flue had thus lived for fifty years for the good of his homeland and his family, when in 1467 a great change took place in his existence.

While he faithfully fulfilled all the duties imposed by his condition, he felt within himself a growing inclination to lead a higher life with God in solitude. Here is the testimony of his eldest son, John of Flue, on this matter: "My father always went to bed at the same time as his children and servants; but, every night, I saw him get up again, and heard him praying in his room until morning." Many times he also went, in the silence of the night, to the old nearby church of Saint-Nicholas, or to other holy places; these peaceful walks were for him the happiest hours of his life. What pushed him more and more to yield to the inner impulse to live only in the contemplation of eternal truths were frequent miraculous visions in which God urged him to take this step. Thus, one day he came to one of his properties, named Bergmatt, to visit his herd. He knelt on the grass and began, as was his custom, to pray from the depths of his heart and to consider the wonders of divine grace.

Then God granted him this vision. He saw a fragrant lily, white as snow, come out of his mouth and rise to heaven. While he was taking pleasure in the scent and beauty of the flower, his herd came toward him leaping, and among them was a superb horse. As he turned in that direction, the lily bent, bowed toward the horse, which ran up and pulled it from his mouth. Nicholas recognized by this that his treasure was in heaven, but that the goods and joys of heaven would be taken from him if his heart remained too attached to the things of the earth. Another time, while he was attending to the occupations of his house, he saw three men of similar and venerable appearance coming toward him, whose manners and speech breathed only virtue. One of them began to question him thus: "Tell us, Nicholas, will you surrender yourself body and soul into our power?" "I do not give myself to anyone else," he replied, "than to the almighty God, whom I have long desired to serve with my soul and my body." At these words, the strangers turned to one another smiling, and the first resumed: "Since you have given yourself entirely to God and have committed yourself to Him forever, I promise you that, in the seventieth year of your age, you will be delivered from all the pains of this world. Remain therefore firm in your resolution, and you will carry in heaven a victorious banner in the midst of the militia of God, if you have borne with patience the cross that we leave you." After these words, the three men disappeared.

This apparition and others like it strengthened him more than ever in his resolution to leave the world; he finally declared it to his virtuous wife, and begged her to give him, for the love of God, the permission to fulfill the vocation that God was marking out for him. She consented with quiet resignation, and Nicholas then began seriously to settle everything in his house; he assigned to each their share of the inheritance. In 1467, he gathered his whole household, his seventy-year-old father, his wife, his children, and his friends; he appeared before them, barefoot and bareheaded, dressed only in a long pilgrim's robe, with staff and rosary in hand; he thanked them for all the good they had done him, exhorted them for the last time to fear God above all, to never forget His commandments; then he gave them his blessing and left. He often testified afterward how painful this separation had been for him, always thanking God above all for having enabled him to overcome, in order to serve Him, the love he bore for his wife and children.

Nicholas set out peacefully toward the region where God would lead him; he did not wish to remain in his own country, fearing he might become a subject of scandal and be taken for an impostor who assumes an appearance of holiness. Through the fertile valleys and verdant forests of his homeland, he arrived at the borders of the confederation, at a place where he could see beyond the frontiers the small town of Liestal; there he had a marvelous vision. The town, with its houses and towers, appeared to him surrounded by flames. Frightened by this spectacle, he looked around him and spoke with a peasant he found on a farm. He was a good and honest countryman to whom, after other conversations, he revealed his resolution, begging him to point out a retired place to fulfill it. This man found the project good and praiseworthy, but advised him to return to his homeland, because the confederates were not always well received everywhere: one might, he added, look upon him with a bad eye and disturb his retreat; besides, there were enough deserts in Switzerland to be able to serve God there in peace. Brother Nicholas thanked his host for this good advice and, that same evening, took the road back to his country. He spent the night in a field in the open air, praying to God to enlighten him on the goal of his pilgrimage. Soon he fell asleep, his heart still sad; but suddenly he saw himself surrounded by a bright light, and it seemed to him that a bond was drawing him back toward his homeland. This supernatural light penetrated his entire being and made him suffer as if he had felt the edge of a knife.

Since the vision he had at that place where there still exists today a chapel with his portrait, Nicholas of Flue, during the twenty years he lived thereafter, took no other food or drink than the Holy Eucharist which he received every month. This was done by the grace of the almighty God, who created heaven and earth from nothing and can preserve them as He pleases. This miracle, as recognized by Johannes von Müller himself, a Protestant historian of the Swiss Confederation, was examined during his lifetime, recounted far and wide, handed down to posterity by his contemporaries, and held to be incontestable, even after the change of religious confession.

The next morning, Brother Nicholas rose and went that same day, without stopping, to the Melchthal, his homeland. As he had taken a vow of perpetual poverty, he did not return to his house, but went to one of his pastures, called the Kluster. There he made himself a small hut of branches and foliage under a vigorous larch, in the middle of thick thorn bushes. He remained there, without anyone knowing, until the eighth day, neither eating nor drinking, but absorbed in prayer and in the meditation of divine things; it was then that some hunters discovered him while pursuing game in that wilderness. They spoke of it to his brother, Peter of Flue, who came to beg him not to let himself die of hunger in such a wild solitude. Brother Nicholas urged him to be without worry regarding him, because he had not yet experienced any harm up to that point.

However, so as not to appear to tempt God, he secretly had a venerable priest, the pastor of Kerns, Oswald Isner, called to him. The latter rendered the fol lowing testi Oswald Isner Parish priest of Kerns who testified to the fasting of Nicholas. mony after the death of the hermit, as can be read in the parish book of the year 1488: "When Father Nicholas had begun to abstain from natural food and had thus passed eleven days, he sent for me and asked me secretly whether he should take some nourishment or continue his trial. He had always desired to be able to live without eating, in order to separate himself from the world all the better. I have sometimes touched his limbs, where little flesh remained; everything was withered down to the skin; his cheeks were absolutely hollow and his lips emaciated. When I had seen and understood that this could only come from the good source of divine love, I advised Brother Nicholas to persist in this trial as long as he could endure it without danger of death, since God had sustained him without food for eleven days. This is what Brother Nicholas did; from that moment until his death, that is to say about twenty and a half years, he continued to use no bodily nourishment. As the pious brother was perhaps more familiar with me than with any other, I have many times overwhelmed him with questions and made the most lively entreaties to know how he sustained his strength. One day, in his hut, he told me in great secret that, when he attended Mass and the priest received communion, he received from it a strength that alone allowed him to remain without eating and without drinking; otherwise, he could not resist it."

When the rumor of this miraculous life had spread, a crowd of people flocked from all sides to see the man whom God had honored with such grace, and to be convinced of it with their own eyes. One can well imagine that no woodcutter went to fell a tree in that canton, no shepherd visited those meadows, without seeking the conversation of the wonderful inhabitant of the solitude. His quiet life was so disturbed by this that he wished to seek a refuge even more isolated and less accessible to men. After having traveled through several of the wildest valleys with this in view, he finally saw, above a dark gorge through which the Melk rushed roaring, four lights descending from the sky, sparkling like lit candles. Obeying this sign of God's will, he built himself a small hut there surrounded by thick brushwood, located only a quarter of a league away from his wife and children. But that same year his neighbors, the inhabitants of Obwalden, edified by his holy life, and knowing from his entire past life that he was neither a vain enthusiast nor an impostor, built him a chapel as small as he wished to have it, and presented it to him to show their attachment. Brother Nicholas entered this new dwelling and continued to serve God there with all his body and all his soul.

However, the fame of his extraordinary and supernatural life resounded from afar, and many men refused to believe that a man could live so miraculously by the grace of God alone. While some regarded his life as an imposture, many others believed in it. Wishing to verify the fact, the magistrates sent guards, who for a month occupied all the avenues of this retreat day and night, so that no one could bring him food.

The Prince-Bishop of Constance used another method: he sent his suffragan, the Bishop of Ascalon, to the scene with orders to neglect nothing to acquire complete certainty of the facts that had been reported to him, and to unmask the imposture if he recognized it. The Bishop went to Sachseln, first blessed the chapel next to Nicholas's cell, then entered the pious hermit's home, and asked him what was the first virtue of a Christian. Brother Nicholas replied: Holy obedience. Well then! the Bishop immediately replied, if obedience is the best and most meritorious thing, I command you, by virtue of holy obedience, to eat these three pieces of bread, and to take this wine blessed by Saint John. Nicholas begged the Bishop to dispense him from this obligation, for the reason that it would be excessively painful and distressing to him; he begged him several times and with insistence; but the Bishop would not yield. Then Brother Nicholas obeyed. But he had barely swallowed a little bread and wine when such a strong stomach pain occurred that it was feared he would expire on the spot. The suffragan, astonished and confused, apologized to him, and declared that what he had just done had been ordered by the Bishop of Constance, who wanted to test through the brother's obedience whether his path was from God or from the evil spirit.

Archduke Sigismund of Austria also sent his physician, the learned and skillful Burcard of Hornek, so that he might observe Nicholas attentively for several days and nights. Frederick III, Emperor of Germany, also sent him delegates to examine him; but all these investigations and searches served only to confirm the truth; all those who visited him were so struck by the piety and humility of the servant of God that all their doubts vanished, and they parted from him filled with the deepest respect, to go and announce this miracle to all of Christendom. Nicholas himself never boasted of it; he believed that God had granted him a much greater grace by making him capable of triumphing over his love for his own, by making him obtain their consent to his renunciation of the world, and by not letting him feel the desire to return to them too keenly. When asked how he could exist without eating, he was accustomed to reply: God knows!

To record the fact of this extraordinary life, the following was inscribed in the archives of Sachseln: "Let it be known to one and all that, in the year fourteen hundred and eighty-seven, lived a man by the name of Nicholas of Flue, born and raised near the mountain, in the parish of Sachseln; he abandoned father and brother, wife and children, five sons and five daughters, and went away into the solitude that is called the Ranft, where God has sustained him without food or drink until today when the fact is written, that is to say for eighteen years. He has always been of an enlightened spirit, of a holy life, which we have seen and know in truth. Let us pray therefore that, delivered f rom the le Ranft Location of Nicholas's hermitage. prison of this life, he may be led to where God dries the tears from the eyes of his saints!".

Blessed Nicholas of Flue lived thus peacefully in solitude, for the glory of God and the salvation of men. Only on Sundays and feast days did he leave his cell and attend, like all the children of the parish, the divine service in the church of Sachseln, not wishing in any way to be distinguished from others. Likewise, he was seen traveling annually to Lucerne for the great procession of Our Lady of March, and visiting the sites of famous pilgrimages, as well as those where the Church granted some indulgence. When the road became too arduous for him due to his advanced age, and the generous gifts of pious persons allowed him to establish the service of a chaplain in that solitude, he heard Mass every day in his own chapel; he confessed there and received Holy Communion three times a month.

For the rest, all his days were alike, flowing in a deep peace that the base passions of carnal men could not alter: such are the high peaks of the mountains of his homeland, which often shine with the brilliant rays of the sun, while at their feet thick clouds have descended upon the valleys.

He dedicated to the service of God all the time that elapsed from midnight until noon; it was then that he prayed, that he considered the mercy of God in the government of the human race; it was then that he meditated above all on the life and passion of Jesus Christ our Savior, who, as he said, communicated to him a miraculous strength, a supernatural nourishment. He possessed no books; but here is, among other prayers that escaped from the impulses of his heart, the one he never failed to say each day.

"O Lord! Take away everything that keeps me from You! — O Lord! Grant me what leads to You! — O Lord, take me from myself, and give me entirely to You!"

The subject of this short prayer, that is to say, the desire to become constantly more like God, to become holy like the Father who is in heaven, was the sole goal of his entire life.

Often, in the midst of his prayers and meditations, the ardor of contemplation carried him into a higher world; before this vivid light, his bodily eyes closed, the inner eyes of his soul opened, his gaze penetrated that other world which radiates with divine magnificence. In these hours of ecstasy, when his soul was awake, he appeared outwardly like a man asleep or dead. One day, those who found him in this state having awakened him and asked him what was happening to him, what he was doing, he replied that he had been very far away, and that he had experienced infinite joys.

During the rest of the day, from noon until evening, he received those who visited him; or else, when the weather was fine, he would roam the mountains while praying, visit his friend Brother Ulrich, and converse with him about heavenly things. Ulrich was a German gentleman, originally from Bavaria, who, after unknown adventures, had left the world to settle near Nichola s in this so frère Ulrich Bavarian nobleman who became a hermit alongside Nicholas. litude. Established in the hollow of a rock, he led a similar life; only he could not do without food, and pious country folk provided for him. In the evening, Brother Nicholas resumed his prayers; then he would take a very short rest on his bed which consisted only of two planks, with a piece of wood or a stone for a pillow; he would soon wake up to pray again.

The number of those who visited this man so perfectly separated from the world soon became infinite. His holy and miraculous life inspired in all Christians, without distinction of rank, such confidence in the power of his prayers and in the virtue of his advice that, in other Swiss cantons or elsewhere, whoever had a sick heart, whoever desired wise counsel in public or private affairs, went on a pilgrimage to the oratory of Brother Nicholas, found advice and consolation with him, and commended themselves to his prayers. Army generals and statesmen, bishops and scholars did not believe it beneath their dignity to visit this poor hermit in these wild gorges, who knew neither how to read nor write; they were astonished by his simple wisdom, and his clear and deep gaze on divine and human things. All those who, from near or far, went on a pilgrimage to Einsiedeln to invoke the holy Mother of God there, did not believe they could return in peace to their homes if they had not first visited and spoken with Brother Nicholas. Sigismund, Duke of Austria, and Eleanor, his wife, daughter of the King of Scotland, sent him, as a sign of their veneration, a rich altar ornament for his chapel. Other great personages visited him or sent their delegates to him. From that time, Albert of Bonstetten wrote his life for the King of France, Louis XI.

Nicholas always showed himself, in his speech as in all his conduct, kind and affable toward those who visited him; he offered them his hand when they entered and left. He called men "my son," women "my daughter"; at the moment of parting, he always said: "Pray for me, my son!" He refused an audience only to those he knew came to him, not with uprightness and the intention of becoming better, but out of vain curiosity, to tempt him as the Pharisees tempted Our Lord. He recognized these men well; for, thanks to his pure life entirely in God, the Holy Spirit made his gaze so enlightened and so piercing that he could see into the depths of the human soul and the thoughts of men could not remain hidden from him.

We have preserved many conversations and exhortations, from which those who visited Nicholas benefited, and which are salutary for every Christian. When, for example, artisans asked him how they should go about earning eternal life, and if they should not take refuge in solitude, he answered them with kindness and gentleness that everyone must do their work, their trade, their occupations, whatever they may be, honestly and loyally, not to overcharge, not to deceive anyone, and not to neglect their interests under the pretext of working for eternal life. One must, in the state of marriage, direct one's house in the fear of God, and fulfill with uprightness the charge to which one has been called; in this way, one attains an existence as happy as by living in a cell in the middle of the forests. The path of solitude is not the only one that leads to heaven; it is neither the vocation nor the salvation of everyone to live in the desert like Saint John the Baptist. Thus spoke Brother Nicholas.

If they asked him what conduct to hold in matters of faith, and regarding the divine commandments and precepts? He exhorted them to let themselves be instructed in Christian doctrine by the pastors of souls, to listen to it with a pure heart, and to fulfill its duties with all their strength. If sometimes, he said, it unfortunately happens that the life of the priest is in opposition to the doctrine he teaches, there is no reason for you to disobey his instructions; for you drink the sweet and pleasant water from the same fountain, whether it reaches you through lead or copper pipes, or through silver and gold pipes; likewise, you receive, through the mediation of bad priests, the same graces, the same gifts of God, provided that beforehand you make yourself worthy of them.

Nicholas urged the Swiss, with a mixture of gentleness and severity, to preserve the simplicity and manly virtues of their ancestors, their brotherly love, their Christian sentiments, their attachment to the Church. He made a prophetic allusion to the religious revolution that broke out soon after his death, when he said: "An unhappy time of revolt and dissension in the Church is coming. O my children! Do not let yourselves be seduced by any innovation! Rally and hold firm; remain in the same way, in the same paths as our pious ancestors, preserve and maintain what they have taught us. It is thus that you will resist the attacks, the hurricanes, the storms that are going to rise with such violence!"

Blessed Nicholas of Flüe was neither a scholar nor a prince; yet by his holiness alone, he was the savior, and by that very fact, the prince of his fatherland.

In the year 1481, after the three glorious victories over the Duke of Burgundy at Grandson, Morat, and Nancy, the deputies of the Swiss Confederation were assembled at Sta assemblés à Stanz Crucial political meeting where Nicholas intervened for peace. ns, in the land of Unterwalden, to deliberate on the division of the spoils and on the admission of the cities of Fribourg and Solothurn into the Confederation. It was mid-December. After many speeches, they could agree on nothing. The deputies were preparing to leave, irritated with one another. A civil war and the rupture of the Confederation were expected. In this extreme peril, the parish priest of Stans (whose name was Henry) remembered Brother Nicholas of Flüe. He believed that his virtue alone and the confidence it inspired could save the fatherland.

Night had already fallen when Father Henry arrived at the hermitage. The cell where the pious brother had lived for nearly twenty years was so low that he touched the ceiling with his head; it was only three paces long and half that in width; to the right and left were small windows the size of a hand, and a door and a small window opened onto the chapel. It was through there that Nicholas usually greeted those who visited him. No furniture was to be seen other than a bed where he rested, with a poor gray blanket and a stone and a piece of wood for a pillow.

The good priest explained to the brother the great peril in which they stood; he told him how the assembly, which he himself had advised to pacify spirits, had had a deplorable outcome, and that the gravest things were to be feared; he urged him in the name of God to come and rescue his poor fatherland in this pressing danger. Brother Nicholas told him to announce his coming. Soon, indeed, the holy old man was seen at Stans. He wore a simple dark-colored habit that fell to his feet; he held his staff in one hand and his rosary in the other; he was barefoot and bareheaded, as always. When he appeared in the hall, the entire assembly rose spontaneously and bowed before Brother Nicholas.

« Dear lords, faithful confederates! » he said to them, « be greeted in the name of Jesus! My good Father sent me here so that I might harangue you regarding your discords which may lead to the ruin of the fatherland. I am a poor man without learning, but I wish to give you counsel with all the sincerity of my heart, and I speak to you as God inspires me. I wish you much good, and, if I were capable of doing you a little, I would want my words to lead you to peace. O dear confederates! conduct your affairs with good sentiments, for one good leads to another. Remember that it is to constant union that you and your fathers owe your prosperity. Now that, thanks to the concord that reigned among you, God has granted you such beautiful victories, would you, out of jealousy and greed for a share of the spoils, separate and destroy one another? Guard yourselves well against all dissension, all distrust; in God one must always find peace: God, who is peace itself, is subject to no change; but discord is subject to change and it destroys everything.

« That is why I conjure you, dear confederates of the countryside! receive into your alliance the two good cities of Fribourg and Solothurn; they have lent you faithful aid in danger; they have suffered with you through good and bad fortune; they have lost much for your cause. I do not wish only to exhort and advise you, but I implore you urgently, because I know that it is the will of God. A time will come when you will have great need of their help and support.

« And you, confederates of the cities! renounce those rights of guarantee that you have established with these two cities, for they are a cause of discord. Do not extend the circle of the Confederation too far, in order to maintain peace and unity all the better, and to enjoy in rest your liberty so dearly bought. Do not burden yourselves with too many affairs abroad, and do not ally yourselves with foreign powers.

« Do not accept, O dear confederates! neither gifts nor subsidies of money, so as not to appear to have sold your fatherland for gold, so that jealousy and selfishness do not germinate among you and poison your hearts. Maintain in all your relations your natural equity; share the spoils according to services; the conquered lands, according to the localities. Never let yourselves be drawn into unjust wars by the hope of pillage; live in peace and good understanding with your neighbors; if they attack you, defend the fatherland valiantly and fight like men of heart. Practice justice within, and love one another as Christian allies. May God protect you and be with you for all eternity! »

Thus spoke Brother Nicholas, and God gave his grace to the words of the holy Anchorite, said the old chronicler Tschudi, to the point that in one hour all difficulties were smoothed over. The confederates, following his advice, received the cities of Fribourg and Solothurn into their league; the old treaties of alliance were confirmed, and they were consolidated by giving them as bases new laws received unanimously. The pacification of all the cantons of Switzerland, the maintenance of public order and the power of the magistrates against troublemakers, the sharing of the spoils according to the rule that Brother Nicholas had given, such were the points on which these confederates, who had struggled so long and with so much animosity, agreed that very day. This unhoped-for happiness was due to the holiness of Brother Nicholas, with whom was the blessing of God.

The brother returned that same evening to his peaceful hermitage. At Stans, they set the bells in motion; this concert of jubilation resounded from one place to another, along the lakes and valleys, through the villages and cities of all Switzerland, from the heights of the Saint-Gotthard, covered in snow, to the smiling plains of Thurgau. There was everywhere as much joy and gladness as after the victories of Grandson and Morat. It was with good reason: there the confederates had saved their fatherland from foreign enemies; here they were saving it from their own passions. Their true liberator, who had made them win this great victory over themselves, was the poor Brother Nicholas; all recognized him and praised him as their savior. In the authentic letters that each delegate brought back from the assembly of Stans to his native place, one reads: « All the envoys must in the first place make known to their country the fidelity, the solicitude, the devotion that the pious Brother Nicholas showed in this whole affair, and it is to him that one must render thanks for what has been done ». The cantons vied with each other in expressing their gratitude to the good anchorite, by offering him ornaments for his chapel. What other gifts could have flattered him? He accepted, however, from Fribourg a piece of cloth to replace his robe which was falling into rags. The Bernese gave him a sacred vessel as a gift. He thanked them in a letter where his patriotic and Christian tenderness contained precious advice: « Take care to maintain peace and concord among you, for you know how pleasing this is to Him from whom all things come. When one lives according to God, one always preserves peace; even more, God is the sovereign peace which can never be troubled in Him. Protect the widows and orphans, as you have done until now. If good comes to you in the world, thank God for it so that He may grant you its continuation in heaven. Repress public vices, always exercise justice. Engrave deeply in your hearts the memory of the Passion of Jesus Christ, and you will feel great consolations in moments of adversity. One sees in our days a great number of people who have doubts about the faith, and whom the demon tempts. But why have doubts? the faith of today is the same as that which has always been ». This friend of God, this guardian angel of his country, intervened in a great number of other circumstances: thus, fire having broken out in a neighboring town, our Saint ran up and extinguished it with the sign of the cross.

Nicholas spent another six years in retirement, living a peaceful life rich in blessings. Before his death, God sent him an acute illness, where unspeakable pains penetrated to the marrow of his bones. In this state of torment, he turned in every direction, moving on his bed like a worm trodden underfoot that can no longer remain at rest. These frightful sufferings lasted eight days, during which his body was as if annihilated; he bore them with the greatest resignation; he still exhorted those who surrounded his deathbed to always conduct themselves in this life so as to be able to leave it with a calm conscience. Death is terrible, he said, but it is even more terrible to fall into the hands of the living God. When these pains were somewhat appeased and the moment of his death approached, Brother Nicholas, with all the ardor of his piety, desired to receive the adorable body of the Savior and to be strengthened by the sacrament of Extreme Unction. Near the dying man stood his faithful companion, Brother Ulrich; his old friend, the parish priest Henry of Stanz, and a pious anchoress named Cecile, who, after his death, led this solitary life for another seventy years in a neighboring cell; around him were his faithful wife and his pious children. In their presence, he received the last sacraments with profound humility; then he thanked God for all the benefits He had bestowed upon him, prostrated himself, and died the death of the just on March 21, 1487, the very day on which, seventy years earlier, he had been born for the glory of God and the edification of all the faithful.

His death spread mourning throughout the people. All the workshops were closed, and every house wept for Brother Nicholas, as if the father of the family himself had died. His body was transported with pomp to Sachseln and interred in the church of Saint Theodore. All the cantons held magnificent funerals for him; Sigismund, Archduke of Austria, had one hundred Requiem masses said for him.

God continued, at his tomb, the grace of miracles that He had granted him during his lifetime. This served as the foundation for the cult rendered to him. People began by invoking him at Sachseln, where a pilgrimage in his honor was formed; his statue was then placed in churches, and this sort of veneration soon spread to France and the Netherlands. His body was exhumed on March 31, 1540, at which time an annual gathering of the people was already taking place to honor his memory. The Bishop of Lausanne performed the ceremony; and having himself placed the bones upon his ashes in a new coffin, he had it put into a magnificent tomb of Lucerne stone, which was opened in 1600 to visit them again. His feast was celebrated with a service of three masses in his honor: the first, of the dead, for the relatives of the Blessed; the second, of Saint Benedict, because of the day; and the third, of the Holy Trinity. Several Popes have approved the cult rendered to him; the procedure for his canonization was begun in 1590, and after having been interrupted several times, it was resumed again in 1872. Clement X permitted the office and mass in his honor for th e church Clément X Pope who extended the cult of Saint Gonsalo to the entire Dominican Order. in which he rests: Clement XI extended this concession to the diocese of Constance and to all of Switzerland. Pilgrims who today visit the small church of Sachseln see under the high altar the skeleton of a man adorned with gold and diamonds, wearing around his neck the decorations of several military orders, among others the cross of Saint Louis and the Legion of Honor: it is that of Nicholas of Flue, called by his compatriots Brother Klaus. The Orders whose insignia he wears are the decorations that his descendants earned in the service of foreign powers.

Nicholas was of tall stature: his cell was six feet high, and he could barely stand upright in it. He was nothing but skin and bone; his complexion was tanned, and when he spoke, his veins seemed to be swollen with air rather than blood. As he advanced in age, the top of his head became covered with dark gray hair; two locks of beard descended from his chin; he had black and serene eyes, with an energetic and piercing gaze; the sound of his voice was manly, measured, and imposing. His feet touched the earth, but his spirit soared in the celestial regions.

He is represented either as a hermit covered in blood, in the midst of the thorns where the demon had cast him, it is said, on the slope of a mountain, while the man of God was busy with his field work; or as a warrior, and he is then given a tall stature, which he had, moreover, during his lifetime, to recall that he had been one of the champions of Switzerland in the War of Independence.

Brother Nicholas often had poetic outbursts, which expressed with admirable sweetness the fire of love by which his soul was devoured. He then experienced what happened to that person of whom Saint Teresa speaks, who, without being a poet, sometimes had moments of true poetic inspiration.

It is true, says Mr. Guido Goerres, that Brother Nicholas left no writings; he lived in a time when men were more occupied with engraving the doctrines of eternal wisdom in their hearts and thereby making their lives better than with composing large books on the subject. However, we still possess several salutary considerations and several beautiful maxims from him, which those who visited him were able to collect from his mouth. They went to the heart, because they came from the heart, and they have been preserved among the people by passing from mouth to mouth.

We are going to cite a few of them here; they will be a precious memory for many, and will become a treasure of consolation and salvation for those who engrave them in their hearts and conform their lives to them, as Brother Nicholas did.

One of his ordinary exhortations on the degrees by which man ascends to eternal life was this: "O man, believe firmly in God! In faith resides hope, in hope resides love; in love, feeling; in feeling, victory over oneself; in this victory, the reward; in the reward, the crown; in this crown, the eternal things, which are valued so little here below."

The sentences that follow are clothed in German in a metric form that adds the charm of poetry to their value; their very simplicity cannot make it possible to preserve it in translation.

"O man, carry God in your heart, hold Him as the best of all goods and the universal good!

"Who could speak of his own wisdom, and at the same time recognize the miracles of God?

"Do you have the strength to endure pain and affliction for God alone, to suffer the mockery of the world? You can then recognize that you love God.

"God has nothing dearer than the life of man; it is for it that the Son of God gave Himself to the torment of the cross.

"This cross has borne flowers and fruits; to him who desires them from the bottom of his heart, they will obtain fruits of holiness.

"Many a man crosses the sea and goes to the holy tomb to win the glory of a knight; he is a noble and generous knight who knows how to carry God in his heart.

"When the deceitful world hates you, when all betray and abandon you, think of your God; He was mocked and covered with spit.

"The Son of God was suspended on the cross; He delivered all those who were slaves. O my God! I must lament bitterly before You, for not having the strength to carry the cross willingly.

"O man! Hope in God with confidence, and ask Him for a persevering repentance.

"Think of the crown of thorns that the Lord wore on the cross, and which was driven onto His sacred head with impious laughter; He suffered horrible pains from it, but prayed for those who put Him to death.

"Think well, O man! of the tender little flowers that bloom gently on the earth: you must likewise bloom by meditating on the passion of God.

"How rich in grace and mercy God is, then, to have brought the soul into the Divinity! Is the joy greater in my heart, or in the bosom of supreme goodness?

"The soul must keep the treasure of innocence, so that God may come to dwell there.

"God knows how to draw sweetness from a pure heart, as the young bee draws honey from a May flower.

"What do you present to this noble guest whom you have invited to your home? Let love be the cup of the feast; let free will be the wine.

"O mortals! How could God be better known to you, since His love is sent from heaven toward you?

"O my God! At what height You reside in Your majesty, and how deeply You have lowered Yourself toward the sinner!

Consider, O man! how the sun, radiating in the tent of the heavens, illuminates the entire world; thus your soul must radiate with divine light. When God is pleased to reflect Himself in man in this way, heaven blooms joyfully and blossoms.

"Ah! My God, how are You good enough to come and dwell with pleasure in the heart of man! The soul that desires You is at the height of joy; more than one sinner receives the grace of conversion from it.

"Let gold, silver, and the most brilliant precious stones be gathered in a superb casket; all this splendor pales before the sweet light of the soul, white as the lily, when the grace of God comes to radiate in its night.

"Do you possess, O man! all the goods and honors that the earth possesses or can possess; nothing is of use to you at your final hour, except the martyrdom and the painful passion of God.

"Do you want to pick roses in heaven, avoid sin on earth.

"Remain always submissive to wisdom, and never give entry to anger in your heart.

"O my God! You are a generous guest; You work tirelessly in man, You give the soul the power to conform its life to Your will: I praise You for it, Lord Jesus! You who are the source of grace and virtue."

His life was written the year after his death, in 1488, by Henri de Gundelfingen, canon of Bern, and by two other authors of the same time. Many have worked on it since; the one who did it most amply based on the memoirs of the first is the Jesuit Pierre Hugues, of Lucerne, who addressed his work, in 1636, to the seven Catholic cantons. Heuschenius gave it in the confirmation of Bellandus. See also Jean de Malter, History of Switzerland. Guerres, in his Life of the Blessed, translated from the German; Bahrbacher; L. Vouillot, Pilgrimage of Switzerland, etc.