We walked to the highest village in my town. Among Jeffrey did not stop drinking and occasionally remember to offer a drink to me. As we proceed uphill along the half-deserted streets include Jeffrey began to tell the story of his monastery. The FONDORITE that distant outpost of the faith were his disciples, San Jeffrey from which my brother took the name. This holy, be holy before, had challenged the authority of a monarch as powerful as unfair. He had been thrown into the sewers for punishment and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in darkness and stench of the sewers. But God saw that Jeffrey had the makings of a saint, turned him and his fellow prisoners in angels flew out dalle fogne come un esercito alato, una schiera di guerrieri divini benedetti dal Signore. Davanti al loro celeste fulgore i servi e le guardie del crudele sovrano non poterono più nascondere la loro vera natura ed apparvero per la prima volta sotto le loro vere sembianze: quelle di orrendi demoni. Jeffrey guidò il suo esercito all'attacco e insieme trucidarono i protettori del diabolico oppressore. Solo il sovrano rimase in vita e quando le fulgide spade degli angeli stavano per abbattersi su di lui Jeffrey compì il miracolo: d'un tratto il sovrano perse l'atteggiamento di terribile drago per assumere quello di un pavido agnello. Facile, direte, mostrarsi mansueti per fuggire alla lama! Ma qui sta il vero miracolo, il miracolo che fece di Jeffrey un santo: il crudele sovrano si convertì davvero alla fede cristiana, la sua sottomissione ai vicari di Dio fu autentica, il suo pentimento sincero. Davanti alla figura prostrata di colui che era stato un terribile demonio le ali degli angeli avvizzirono e caddero come foglie secche. Assolta la loro missione quelli che erano stati strumento della vendetta di Dio tornarono ad essere comuni mortali. Tutti tranne uno. Jeffrey rimase un angelo in terra, ma non essendo ancora asceso al cielo, nonostante i suoi grandi poteri, la sua vita terrena era destinata a finire: ciò avvenne molti anni più tardi, quando Satana tornò a minacciare gli uomini. Il demonio si era insinuato nel corpo di un giovane fanciullo e Jeffrey lottò per scacciarlo. Ci riuscì, per fortuna, but the effort it wore out so that the breath of life died on his lips and his heart stopped for good. The boy who was saved dall'insidia the Devil, along with the pastor of his community, he founded the monastery in his honor where my brother lived. Between Jeffrey's story was so exciting that when he had finished I was amazed how far we path. We had already been far from the last houses of the country, those rustic stone houses that stood on the edge of the woods and now walked along a path that wound through the trees making their way through increasingly rough up the mountain. To our right the hills formed a deep valley in front and V we extended stretches of autumn foliage that had colored with red and gold brush strokes. Walking in the mountains often head down, for fear of being betrayed by the dangers of rough and stony paths. So often that the traveler, raising his head, surprised the landscape that surrounds it. It was what happened to me when I got back from the story that had long absorbed my attention. I seemed to have listened to the monk for hours, and instinctively I turned to check how far we had the trail: the country appeared to me small and distant, I could barely distinguish the church. Monastery Orlok stood at the bottom of a narrow valley. In reality it was a sort of village. In the monastery true only had four brothers, while others had their rooms in the stone houses that stood on one and on the other side of the stream that ran through the valley. I I counted five. The stream was crossed by means of a spartan wooden bridge, near which was the well. The monastery itself consisted of a square cloister: on one side was the entrance gate, before this there was a church on the right of the rooms of the monks left and a large great room that served as a common table . I was taken almost immediately in that environment, as it was approaching the dinner hour. The canteen was rustic like everything else: the walls were unadorned except for the presence of a grossa croce di legno il cui trave orizzontale poggiava su due grandi chiodi arrugginiti che sporgevano dal muro. Al centro della sala vi era una sola tavola ovale, ed io fui invitato a prendervi posto mentre uno dopo l'altro apparivano i frati e la sala si animava di voci, chiacchiere e saluti reciproci. Un frate particolarmente corpulento fece il suo ingresso reggendo un enorme pentolone fumante che pose pesantemente sul tavolo. Fra Jeffrey si mise in piedi ad un vertice dell'ovale e gli altri, sistemandosi intorno alla tavola, fecero silenzio. -Oggi, cari fratelli, ho invitato un amico alla nostra mensa- disse -Si chiama Gabriele e viene da uno dei paesi che sorgono alle pendici delle nostre montagne. Gabriele capita in una data assai particolare perché proprio stanotte ci sarà un'eclissi totale di luna. Coloro che vivono nei grandi centri abitati hanno da tempo perso l'uso dell'osservazione degli astri ed anzi alzano a malapena il naso in contemplazione di un cielo stellato e se interrogati non sapranno dire se la notte successiva ci sarà luna piena, crescente o calante! Ma non chiamava forse San Francesco la Luna sorella? Noi ci siamo rifugiati in un luogo in cui le luci delle città non contaminano il firmamento, e dove le tentazioni della viata mondana non trovano terreno fertile. Seguendo dunque riti altrove dimenticati stanotte usciremo all'aperto armati di mestoli, cucchiai, tegami e pentolacce per far più baccano possibile. Riteniamo infatti che quando la Luna si eclissa enormi demoni volanti undermine the star dear to us that St. Francis called his sister. These demons, if they are not readily expelled, they could eat whole pieces of the moon. For this we need to make as much noise as possible to scare them. But now evenly split the polenta and wine, as our Lord Jesus taught us- -Amen said the brothers-in chorus and soon the table was all around a scoop of polenta and pour a generous portion of wine, and Riepe a wooden plates and glasses. The astonishment which I had filled in learning the unique customs of these strange brothers turned, toast after toast, in euphoria. -Cheers! - Exclaimed one on my right-the moon! - The echoed another on my left-All 'hell! - made another across the table. -What? - Chesa I could not believe my ears. The brothers broke into a loud and drunken laughter. - Inferno is the name of our wine-he explained-a From time immemorial, the inhabitants of the mountains they call it so because of the difficulty of cultivation and harvest the grapes in these harsh places .- -Ah ...- "Then I said ... to 'hell ! - proclaimed, and in doing so I found myself smiling, a spontaneous smile as I do not remember others.
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