Introduction
Shortly before Lent each year, the Church dedicates one Sunday to reflection on the Last Judgment. For the seventh-century monk Bede, the go-to authority on the matter was Fursey (?597-650), an Irish missionary to the Kingdom of the East Angles just a generation earlier, who had received several visions of the soul’s journey to heaven.
AN elder in the monastery of St Paul in Jarrow, so Bede tells us, once met a man who knew St Fursey, the Irishman who established a monastery in East Anglia in the 630s, and was famous for his visions.*
Bede learnt how back in Ireland, Fursey had fallen ill and had a near-death experience in which he was led as if to heaven’s gate. Dark yet shapeless demons persistently accused him of various crimes, but were out-debated by two angels of God. “Do not be filled with fear” they told Fursey; “you have a defence.”
The angels waved small faults aside, and assured Fursey that while there was even the slightest chance of a change of heart, God stood by ready to forgive anything.* But the devils hurled Scriptural passages like darts, demanding what they called justice. Unless, they sneered, God himself was untruthful. “You, adversary — do not revile,” warned the angels sternly, “while you are ignorant of the hidden judgments of the Lord.”
For an account of St Fursey’s life, see ‘Saint Fursey Of Ireland’ by Dmitry Lapa, at Orthodox Christianity.
“One who has departed unrepentant and with an evil life” said St John Damascene (?675-749), a contemporary of St Bede and a vigorous champion of human freewill, “cannot be helped by anyone in any way. But the one who has departed even with the slightest virtue, but who had no time to increase this virtue because of indolence, indifference, procrastination, or timidity — the Lord who is a righteous judge and master will not forget such a one.”
Précis
Seventh-century Irish missionary St Fursey was well known for a vision of the afterlife, in which he was subjected to a barrage of of accusations from demons like so many lawyers. They demanded that God punish Fursey for his sins, only for two angels to leap to his defence, and dismiss all charges out of hand. (56 / 60 words)
Seventh-century Irish missionary St Fursey was well known for a vision of the afterlife, in which he was subjected to a barrage of of accusations from demons like so many lawyers. They demanded that God punish Fursey for his sins, only for two angels to leap to his defence, and dismiss all charges out of hand.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, besides, just, must, or, otherwise, ought, who.
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