Office of Readings

Next in my vision I saw Mount Zion, and standing on it a Lamb who had with him a hundred and forty-four thousand people, all with his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. I heard a sound coming out of the sky like the sound of the ocean or the roar of thunder; it seemed to be the sound of harpists playing their harps. There in front of the throne they were singing a new hymn in the presence of the four animals and the elders, a hymn that could only be learnt by the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the world. These are the ones who have kept their virginity and not been defiled with women; they follow the Lamb wherever he goes; they have been redeemed from amongst men to be the first-fruits for God and for the Lamb. They never allowed a lie to pass their lips and no fault can be found in them.

With angry cries and sharpened teeth the idle crowd gathered from all around in anticipation of what the village chief would do with the holy man Adalbert. The saint, for his part, questioned as to who he was, where he came from and why he had come there, by contrast replied with an affable voice: “I was born in Bohemia, my name is Adalbert and I am a monk by profession, consecrated bishop; my task now is to be your apostle. The reason for our journey is your salvation, that you turn away from those deaf and mute idols and recognise your Creator, the only God, apart from whom there is no other, so that believing in his name you may have life and may merit in reward to receive celestial joy in the eternal courts”. Thus spoke saint Adalbert. They, however, already infuriated, shouting blasphemous words against him, threatened him with death.