Brother Sebastian
In an ancient monastery in a far away place, a new monk arrived to join his brothers in copying books and scrolls in the monastery's scriptorium. He was assigned as a rubricate on copies of books that had already been copied by hand.
One day he asks Brother Sebastian, the Armarius of the Scriptorium, "Does not the copying by hand of other copies allow for chances of error? How do we know we are not copying the mistakes of someone else? Are they ever checked against the original?"
Brother Sebastian was set back a bit by the obvious logical observation of this youthful monk. "A very good point, my son. I will take one of the latest books down to the vault and compare it against the original." Brother Sebastian went down to the secured vault and began his verification.
A day passed and the monks began to worry and went down looking for the old monk. They were sure something may have happened. As they approached the vault they heard sobbing and crying. They opened the door and found Brother Sebastian crying over the new copy and the original ancient book, both opened before him on the table. It was obvious to all that the poor man had been crying his old heart out for a long time.
"What is the problem, Brother?" asked one of the monks.
"Oh, my Lord," sobbed the priest. "The word is 'celebrate'!!!"
Originally published November 14, 2002.
