THE famous abbey of Mailross, which in later ages embraced the
Cistercian rule, originally followed that of St. Columba. It was
situated upon the river Tweed, in a great forest, and in the seventh
century was comprised in the kingdom of the English Saxons in
Northumberland, which was extended in the eastern part of Scotland as
high as the Frith. Saint Boisil was prior of this house under the holy
abbot Eata, who seem to have been both English youths, trained up in
monastic discipline by St. Aidan. Boisil was, says Bede, a man of
sublime virtues, and endued with a prophetic spirit. His eminent
sanctity determined St. Cuthbert to repair rather to Mailross than to
Lindisfarne in his youth, and he received from this saint the knowledge
of the holy scriptures, and the example of all virtues. St. Boisil had
often in his mouth the holy names of the adorable Trinity, and of our
divine Redeemer Jesus, which he repeated with a wonderful sentiment of
devotion, and often with such an abundance of tears as excited others to
weep with him. He would say, frequently, with the most tender affection,
"How good a Jesus have we!" At the first sight of St. Cuthbert, he said
to the bystanders: "Behold a servant of God." Bede produces the
testimony of St. Cuthbert, who declared that Boisil foretold him the
chief things that afterwards happened to him in the sequel of his life.
Three years beforehand, he foretold the great pestilence of 664, and
that he himself should die of it, but Eata, the abbot, should outlive
it. Boisil, not content continually to instruct and exhort his religious
brethren by word and example, made frequent excursions into the villages
to preach to the poor, and to bring straying souls into the paths of
truth and of life. St. Cuthbert was taken with the pestilential disease:
when St. Boisil saw him recovered, he said to him: "Thou seest, brother,
that God hath delivered thee from this disease, nor shalt thou any more
feel it, nor die at this time: but my death being at hand, neglect not
to learn something of me so long as I shall be able to teach thee, which
will be no more than seven days." "And what," said Cuthbert, "will be
best for me to read, which may be finished in seven days?" "The gospel
of St. John," said he, "which we may in that time read over, and confer
upon as much as shall be necessary." For they only sought therein, says
Bede, the sincerity of faith working through love, and not the treating
of profound questions. Having accomplished this reading in seven days,
the man of God, Boisil, falling ill of the aforesaid disease, came to
his last day, which he passed over in extraordinary jubilation of soul,
out of his earnest desire of being with Christ. In his last moments he
often repeated those words of St. Stephen: "Lord Jesus receive my
spirit!" Thus he {453} entered into the happiness of eternal light, in
the year 664. The instructions which he was accustomed most earnestly to
inculcate to his religious brethren were: "That they would never cease
giving thanks to God for the gift of their religious vocation; that they
would always watch over themselves against self-love, and all attachment
to their own will and private judgment, as against their capital enemy;
that they would converse assiduously with God by interior prayer, and
labor continually to attain to the most perfect purity of heart, this
being the true and short road to the perfection of Christian virtue."
Out of the most ardent and tender love which he bore our divine
Redeemer, and in order daily to enkindle and improve the sane, he was
wonderfully delighted with reading every day a part of the gospel of St.
John, which for this purpose he divided into seven parts or tasks. St.
Cuthbert inherited from him this devotion, and in his tomb was fouled a
Latin copy of St. John's gospel, which was in the possession of the
present earl of Litchfield, and which his lordship gave to Mr. Thomas
Philips, canon of Tongres.
Bede relates[1] as an instance that St. Boisil continued after his death
to interest himself particularly in obtaining for his country and
friends the divine mercy and grace, that he appeared twice to one of his
disciples, giving him a charge to assure St. Egbert, who had been
hindered from going to preach the gospel to the infidels in Germany,
that God commanded him to repair to the monasteries of St. Columba, to
instruct them in the right manner of celebrating Easter. These
monasteries were, that in the island of Colm-Kill, or Iona, (which was
the ordinary burial-place of the kings of Scotland down to Malcolm
III.,) and that of Magis, in the isles of Orkney, built by bishop
Colman. The remains of St. Boisil were translated to Durham, and
deposited near those of his disciple St. Cuthbert, in 1030. Wilson and
other English authors mention St. Boisil on the 7th of August; but in
the Scottish calendars his name occurs on the 23d of February. See Bede,
Hist. l. 4, c. 27, l. 5, c. 10, and in Vita S. Cuthberti, c. 8.
Footnotes:
1. Hist. l. 5, c. 10.