who had assembled.
_With psalms and hymns and spiritual songs_[899] we followed our
friend as he returned to his own country.[900] In the fifty-fourth
year of his age,[901] at the place and time which he had chosen
beforehand and predicted, Malachy, the bishop and legate of the holy
Apostolic See, taken up _by the angels_,[902] as it were from our
hands, happily _fell asleep in the Lord_.[903] And indeed he slept.
His placid face was the sign of a placid departure. And verily _the
eyes of all were_ fixed _upon him_;[904] but none could perceive when
he departed. When dead he was thought to be alive, when alive, dead;
so true was it that there was no difference which might distinguish
death from life. The same vivacity of face, the same serenity, as
commonly appears in one who sleeps. You might say that death robbed
him of none of these things, but rather very greatly increased them.
He was not changed; but he changed us all. In wondrous fashion the
sorrow and groaning of all suddenly sank to rest, _sadness_ was
changed _into joy_,[905] singing banished lamentation.[906] He is
borne forth, voices are borne to heaven, he is borne into the oratory
on the shoulders of the abbots. _Faith has conquered_,[907] affection
triumphs, things assume their normal course. All things are carried
out in order, all proceed in the way of reason.

75. And in truth what reason is there to lament Malachy immoderately, as
though his _death_ was not _precious_,[908] as though it was not rather
sleep than death, as though it was not the port of death and the portal
of life?[909] _Our friend_ Malachy _sleepeth_;[910] and I, must I mourn?
such mourning is based on custom, not on reason. If the Lord _hath given
His beloved one sleep_, and such sleep, in which there is _an heritage
of the Lord_, even _children, and the reward, the fruit of the
womb_,[911] which of these things seems to call for weeping? Must I weep
for him who has escaped from weeping? He rejoices, he triumphs, he has
been brought _into the joy of his Lord_,[912] and I, must I lament for
him? I desire these things for myself, I do not grudge them to him.
Meanwhile the obsequies are prepared, the sacrifice is offered for
him,[913] all is performed according to custom with the greatest
devotion. There stood some way off a boy whose arm hung by his side
dead, rather burdensome to him than useful. When I discovered him I
signed to him to come near, and taking his withered hand I laid