CHAPTER 14: How Cuthbert checked the flames of a house that was really on fire
CHAPTER 14
How Cuthbert checked the flames of a house that was really on fire
ONE day on his travels – for, like the apostles, he went everywhere preaching the way of salvation – he came to the house of a holy woman who was much given to good works. He often visited her because she was his old nurse, indeed he always called her mother. She lived towards the west of the village. No sooner had he entered the place than a house in the eastern quarter caught fire through carelessness and began to blaze. A wind sprang up from the same direction, tore away wisps of blazing straw from the roof, and scattered them far and wide. As the fire got hotter it kept back the men who were throwing water, finally forcing them to retreat. This holy woman ran back to her home in great consternation to find Cuthbert and implore him to pray; otherwise the whole village would be destroyed, her house with it.
‘Do not worry, mother, keep calm. You and yours will be safe, no matter how fierce the flame.’
He went out and lay full length on the ground in front of the door. Before he had finished praying the wind had changed to the west and put the house the man of God had entered completely out of danger. In these two miracles he imitated the wonders of two of the fathers. In foreseeing and getting rid of phantom fire he followed the most holy and reverend father Benedict, who cast out a fire kindled by our ancient foe in the form of a burning kitchen, and in extinguishing and changing the direction of great sheets of flame he is comparable to the venerable Marcellinus, bishop of Ancona. When that city was burning Marcellinus stationed himself in front of the flames and damped them by prayer when the efforts of the whole city had proved useless. No wonder that the tried and faithful servants of God should have power over ordinary fire; hard daily practice has taught them both to subdue the fires of their own flesh and ‘to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one’. The following prophecy fits them aptly: ‘When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.’ Myself and those like me, knowing well our own weakness and helplessness, would not dare take any such measures against fire; we are not even sure of escaping scot-free from the undying fire of future punishment. But the loving kindness of Our Saviour is mighty and abundant. He will give us grace, unworthy though we are, to extinguish the flames of vice in this world, and escape the flames of punishment in the next.