The Greet Soldier, St. Julian the Hospitaller

The Greet Soldier,

St. Julian the Hospitaller

Be kind to churchmen, orphans, widows and above all, old men!

And ye shall live long in battles, says Gustave Flaubert—of,

The Great warrior crusader, Julian.

For he was thought dead twenty times in twenty battles, and lived.

Then by decree, or accident, who’s to say, but it was prophesied:

He accidently killed his father and mother!

So horrified of his own person, he vanished and lived the life of a vagrant, hermit, and then a Hospitaller.

So the legend goes, and upon his death, gave food and warmth to an angel, disguised as a leper.

Note: Gustave Flaubert, was inspired by the large stained window at Rouen Cathedral, in northern France—in  about  1877—once  capital of medieval Normandy, and wrote of the 12^th Century crusader St. Julian, the short story called: ‘The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller’ in the book called “Three Tales”. So was this story poem inspired. The poet was in Northern France on his way to St. Michael’s Monastery, in 2002, and Rouen being nearby, also inspired this poem; Rouen being the very city St. Joan of Arc was burnt at a stake in, in the 15^th Country.