TE17 Mysterious Montenegro

Dominik (novel excerpt) by Milovan Radojević Translated fromMontenegrin by Will Firth

Prologue

I will long remember that stormy night, in the fall of 1180 in the year of our Lord, I suppose for as long as I live. A mighty gale arose, and the raging sea and the heavy clouds joined together. Thewaves beat fiercely against the cliff beneath thewalls of Ratac Abbey. 1 And what the Lord wanted came to pass. I dare say there was some sin hidden among us, and although Abbot Martin persistently encouraged us in prayer and humility, lightning struck our library and set it on fire. Brother Silvester saw the glare on the wall of his cell and roused us all with a loud cry. Although the rain came down like rivers from the heavens, we fought the flames far into the night because they were fanned by the wind and fed by the fir resin dripping from the beams. At daybreak, from great fatigue or agitation, and perhaps sorrow he had long borne in his heart, our dear Abbot Martin died, in prayer. His heart broke to see how many books and scrolls had been lost, how much of our labor and that of our predecessors had been irrevocably lost in a short pace of time. We found him slumped at the base of the altar, gripping the small wooden cross on his breast, from which he never parted. It was similar to that over which the blessed Vladimir was slain, and Abbot Martin

1 . A fortified monastery on the Adriatic coast just north of Bar. 11