Chapter 15: Journal Entries

-- Entry 21 --

Every morning the patient was found sitting in front of the asylum’s barred windows. He would stare out into the sunlight with his eyes wide open and his jaw dropped down. His arms would stretch out into the air as if he were reaching for someone. Then, fear would wash over his face followed by panic. Despair, and finally a blanket of bleakness would wrap itself around his entirety. His muscles relaxed, his breathing slowed down, his raised arms drooped down his sides like meat dangling off the hooks in a butcher’s shop. The patient would then retire to his favorite spot a few inches near the window and stare into the distance with a wistful look on his face.

The patient arrived in the monastery a week ago. Father Noir discovered the patient gasping for air and choking on his own blood near a burnt piece of infrastructure. He appears to be a survivor of a horrible fire or perhaps something worse. According to Father Noir, the exhaustion the patient was suffering from had made weakened his body’s defenses and caused his coughing sickness to worsen. It was so terrible that he was sputtering blood. He had a fever that burnt your touch when you laid a hand on his forehead. For weeks, he was shivering, coughing blood and gasping for air. It was a disturbing sight. Whenever the monks would get up to pray their matins, the patient’s gurgling bloody coughs would interlace with the chants they recited.

Father Noir had given the patient a drug that remedied his physical symptoms. The monks tried to talk to him, but he would stare at them blankly as if he could not understand a single word they uttered. He would then turn away and sit himself in his usual spot. The patient was a complete mystery to the entire monastery. However, he is not the only mystery in this monastery.

The monastery was located along the outskirts of the town. Physicians, like me, have heard countless miracles performed in these grounds. For example, in the year the country was at war, a peasant named Jean-Toi, was raised by Father Noir after he was found dead near the local tavern. No one knew how the good father was able to perform a task that only the Christ could perform. Eventually, cripples and mutes from the town came to the good father. After a few days, they were all remedied by the good father. When they were asked how he cured them, all they could answer was that he was a saint endowed by God with curative powers. News of his miracles spread across the town and into the other towns. People began to flood into the monastery, hoping for a cure for whatever disease they possessed. Most of the father’s patients left the monastery cured. The others…well, that’s a mystery. Where are the others?

-- Entry 12 --

Several questions raced in my head. Like, how does he cure these people or where did he learn how to cure these people? I have refused to accept the idea that he is a saint. It simply is unacceptable. Miracles like this are a thing of the past. The good father knows something that the people do not know. I strongly suspect that it has a lot to do with the forbidden science, alchemy. I have heard of alchemists who, in the process of transmuting gold, have discovered remedies for the black plague or the sniffles. However, all their discoveries were destroyed by the church in an attempt to cleanse the church of “black magic” or “witchcraft”. I believe the exact opposite of the church. What they consider as “black magic” or “witchcraft” or whatever they may call it is science. It is the Renaissance of our time, but I refuse to go against their teachings or say anything against them. I understand their power and influence on the people. Perhaps this is why Father Noir does not attempt to correct the perception of the people. Instead of attributing his discoveries to his own intellect and science, he attributes his “miracles” to God and the church. I respect his choice wholeheartedly. We share the same dilemma in life: claim your discovery as your own doing and be accused of witchcraft or attribute it to God and live. All I want to know is how he performs his “miracles”.