X THE CRUSADER / THE PILGRIM
(Or, The Pilgrim / The Crusader part II)
Xenia Oecumenica
The crusader has returned home
”And no city will ever be lost like Rhodes”
Xenia Oecumenica
The crusader has returned home
”And no city will ever be lost like Rhodes”
The pilgrim sang of the new Heavenly cube
Glowing in peace, both Hebrew and Arabic
And the crusaders have returned home
Isle of roses, Isle of the sun
With Mercury in the evening
Between silence and the azure blue sea
Glowing in peace, both Hebrew and Arabic
And the crusaders have returned home
Isle of roses, Isle of the sun
With Mercury in the evening
Between silence and the azure blue sea
The icon of the archangel Raphael
Beside us, a souvenir healing
(”...that it could guide horses”)
Where all knights rode in pairs
Beside us, a souvenir healing
(”...that it could guide horses”)
Where all knights rode in pairs
The safest harbour in the Levant
No city has been lost like Rhodes
No city has been lost like Rhodes
Timber and the ships, the men sank
What they were made of
Nightfall at the Convent
Divided into seven langues
Each under a grand priory
And with its own auberge
Could I have lived like them
Old monastic life, nursing
With medicine plant or stone
Carved in the weary hall of residence
Moccamaster and Margarita
And darkness over Jerusalem
A chalice full of scorpions
A chalice full of scorpions
Honey, both of us know
The fifth procurator of Judea, the shells
”They really worked a number on....”
The knight fell head over heels
And brought before commission
Who broke through the lines
(Not) a different thing, altogether
”For the love of God and as you
Hope for salvation, judge us
As you will be judged before God”
And when there's no differánce
The Grand Master admitting guilt
With a letter of confession
But the Order was innocent
The Grand Master admitting guilt
With a letter of confession
But the Order was innocent
Elsewhere it was the same
And there was no mercy
And there was no mercy
The poor knights were burned
Like manuscripts, on a slow
Charcoal fire, but the pilgrim sang
For the angels to come and protect
To the city of Constantine (in hoc signo vinces)
The other side of the threshold seen at last
It could have been theirs, had they known
The neighbour, and the changing borders
”What gods or goddesses were worshipped
In this place, they flow together eventually”
It could have been theirs, had they known
The neighbour, and the changing borders
”What gods or goddesses were worshipped
In this place, they flow together eventually”
And to be found it has been given already
Not from this world, not from this world
The Prophet saved a theme, under the moon
What other miracles love has worked
If it's the highest, all else below it
I beg you even more to search the path
That leads home, and take you to choose
(Un)like the rider, with sapphire and ruby
They'll continue when they meet again
If it's the highest, all else below it
I beg you even more to search the path
That leads home, and take you to choose
(Un)like the rider, with sapphire and ruby
They'll continue when they meet again
”As brothers and sisters, together
We'll go there, or not at all”
When there are no sides like...
But who haven't understood yet
The themes of Return, the City
Or the Temple(s), with key and seal
The themes of Return, the City
Or the Temple(s), with key and seal
Written on the 15th - 17th of August, 2015
One must never underestimate the spiritual force of the brethren’s vocation, to be, as the Hospitaller rite of profession put it: ’A servant of the gentlemen that are poor and sick and a person devoted to the defence of the Catholic faith’. The brethren were emulators of the Good Samaritan, including the Poor Knights. The minnesinger Wolfram von Eschenbach visited Outremer during this period and was so overcome by admiration that in ’Parsifal’ he compared the Templars to Knights of the Holy Grail.
-Desmond Seward / The Monks of War
-Desmond Seward / The Monks of War