A Deathbed Scene

The parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids in the Gospel of St. Matthew prompts us to consider the end of the world as well as our own personal end on earth.  Pope St. Gregory the Great (d. 604) often told characteristic stories in his homilies, and he does so here, in his homily on this parable:

"Most beloved brothers, I relate an event which will instruct you powerfully by its careful consideration, if your charity wishes to hear it attentively.  There was a certain noble man named Chrysaorius who lived in the province of Valeria.  The people called him 'Chryserium' in their rustic language.  He was a very capable man, but full of vices.  He was swollen with pride, overcome by delights of the flesh, and burning from the logs of greed for the acquisition of things.  But when God decreed to put an end to these wicked deeds, as I have learned from his neighbor, a certain religious who survives to this day, he was attacked by a disease of the body.  Coming to his end, in the same hour when he was about to depart from his body, he opened his eyes and saw very black, fearsome spirits standing before him, terribly ready to seize him for the prison of hell.  He began to tremble, to grow pale, to perspire, and to beg for time with a loud voice, and to cry out for his son Maximus, whom I saw as a monk, as a monk myself, with terrible and frightened cries, saying, 'Run, Maximus!  I never did anything wicked to you!  Receive me into your faith!'  Soon the troubled Maximus was present, and the family gathered together, weeping and making a clamor.  Gravely he bore with those who insisted to him that they could not see these evil spirits, but they did see the presence of these spirits in his confusion, and in the paleness and trembling with which his soul was being hauled away.  He was turned this way and that in his bed by his shaking at their fearful image.  He lay on his left side, and could not bear their appearance; he turned to his other side, and they were present there, too.  And when he was bound tightly together, he despaired that he could be loosed now, and he began to cry out with a loud voice, saying, 'Give me until morning!  Give me until morning!'  But when he had cried this, he was torn from the dwelling of his flesh.  He did not see this vision for himself, but for our sake, so that it may profit us who now patiently wait with divine patience.  For what did it profit him that he saw fearful spirits before his death and beg for time, which he did not receive?  Most beloved brothers, we ourselves should consider this now with care, lest our times fall into emptiness and then we should seek to do well in our lives when we are already forced to depart our bodies."