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21
In the town of Treves there is a
convent of nuns,1 which in the days of Willibrord was visited
with a terrible plague. Many of the nuns died of the infection,
others were confined to bed by severe sickness, whilst the rest were
in a state of extreme terror, expecting death at any moment. At a
short distance from this town stands the monastery of the holy man,
called Echternach, in which his body reposes to this day and which
his successors are known to have held by lawful bequest of the said
father and through the goodwill of pious kings. Learning that the
holy man was coming thither, the women of the abovementioned convent
sent a deputation beseeching him to come to them without delay. When
he heard their request, the man of God, instructed by the gracious
[17] example of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, who went
from Joppa to Lydda at the request of the widows of Christ in order
to raise holy Tabitha to life, went to their assistance without
delay. On arriving at the convent, he immediately celebrated Mass for
the sick and then blessed water and ordered it to be sprinkled about
the buildings and given to the nuns to drink. Through the mercy of
God they speedily recovered and there were no more deaths in that
convent from the plague.
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