A long time ago there lived a rich man in Britain, and he had a son named Suetonius. The father really wanted his heir to receive a good education, and one fine day he sent the young man to enlightened Rome to learn the sciences and arts. Rome was then ruled by Emperor Claudius, who loved to distribute the rights of Roman citizenship to talented provincials. Thanks to his diligence and intelligence, Suetonius acquired powerful patrons in Rome. It was they who introduced him to the divine emperor. Claudius liked the young foreigner - handsome, educated, with a wonderful sense of humor. The young man was offered a high post at court. Everything indicated that this lucky man would soon become a noble Roman. But nothing like that happened...
One day Suetonius was returning home from a merry feast. The sun was rising, a new hectic day began. Doors slammed, dogs barked, chickens clucked, and the shrill voices of small traders, cooks, sweepers, beggars and beggars were heard. The young man, tired of the night's fun, dreamed of getting home as quickly as possible, closing all the windows tightly and going to bed.
Suddenly, a poorly dressed old man appeared on the path of Suetonius, staggering from wine. Without having time to step aside, he inadvertently collided with the young man, and he, angry, cursed him rudely. The old man smiled in response and said:
- Peace be with you, good man!
Suetonius felt remorse. He asked the stranger for forgiveness and began asking him about life. It turned out that the poor man, who responds to insults and curses with good wishes, is a Christian, a follower of the Apostle Peter. Suetonius had long wanted to meet the famous disciple of Jesus Christ, and now such an opportunity unexpectedly presented itself to him. He asked the Christian to take him to his shepherd.
The Apostle Peter opened Suetonius' eyes to many things... The young Briton realized that his previous life with feasts, fun, dreams of fame and wealth was empty and meaningless. He decided to leave the bustle of the world, devoting himself to serving the Lord. Suetonius was baptized and received a new name - Beatus.
Beat began to live in a Christian community. He has changed a lot. Which of the former friends would have recognized in this thin, bearded, silent and modest man the vain and refined favorite of the patricians?
One day Beatus decided to go to distant lands to preach the Word of God. The Apostle Peter advised him to go to the Helvetians, who lived in the Alpine mountains and worshiped gloomy and bloodthirsty gods who personified the forces of nature.
Beat has come a long way. From a beautiful country with green hills, calm rivers, vineyards and olive groves, he came to a wild land, where gray rocks were piled up, mountain peaks were covered with snow, streams of icy water fell from the ledges and crashed to the ground with a roar.
The Helvetii warmly greeted the tired traveler. With their characteristic generosity, they invited him to live among them, gave him warm clothes, food and shelter. But as soon as Beat began to tell the pagans about the Holy Trinity, about the Son of God and about the angels of heaven, as soon as he invited them to be baptized and accept the commandments of Christ, the attitude of the mountaineers towards the guest changed. The inhabitants of the Alps feared their gods. Their priests, the Druids, only thought about how not to anger the powerful idols. Every day they made sacrifices to them. In sacred oak groves, even human blood was sometimes shed in front of idols. Seeing that Beatus was rebelling against the ancient lords of fire, water, earth and air, the Helvetii were seriously frightened. They decided that vengeful spirits would destroy their homes with lightning or send some kind of disease to livestock if the stranger was allowed to preach a new faith. And the Helvetii drove out the Christian.
“If you come close to our villages again, you will be killed immediately!” - they told him.
Beat walked along the shore of Lake Thun, surrounded by high cliffs. It was very cold. A blizzard broke out. A piercing wind was blowing, the snow blinded my eyes and did not allow me to breathe. Death threatened a homeless man in this icy desert. However, Beat did not despair. Leaning on his staff, he walked forward and sang:
The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life: whom shall I fear?
Soon Beat noticed a wide crack in the snow-covered rock. Hoping to find shelter from the weather among the stones, Beat slipped into it and unexpectedly found himself in a large cave.
- God bless! I'm saved! - he said and lay down on the dry sand.
Beat looked at the stone arches of his shelter, at the bizarre stalactites that hung heavily overhead, and listened to the howling of the wind.
- Lord, what should I do? How to continue to live? Return to Rome, stay here or go wherever you want? - Beat muttered.
His eyes were sticking together, and sleep was already approaching him like a warm wave, when suddenly a strange noise was heard in the depths of the cave... Beat jumped to his feet and pressed his back against the wall. He saw how two lights suddenly lit up in the darkness and the outlines of a huge body appeared. There was a smell of something nasty, a wild roar was heard, and a moment later a real dragon appeared in front of the astonished Beat! The dragon was covered with shiny scales, had large webbed wings on its back, and formidable claws on its paws. His red eyes flashed sparks, and fiery breath escaped from his mouth. From time immemorial, the dragon ruled this cave. None of the mortals dared to cross its threshold, and now the enraged monster intended to tear into pieces and devour the uninvited guest.
Beat looked sadly at the beast and said to him:
- Brother dragon, give me your cave! People are chasing me and I have nowhere to hide from the wind and snow!
And then a miracle happened. The terrible dragon lay down at Beat’s feet and curled up around him in a sparkling warm ring.
Beat began to live in the dragon's cave. While it was winter, his new friend got him tasty fish in the depths of the lake. And with the onset of spring, when Beat was already able to find food for himself, the dragon left him. He sank to the bottom of Tuna, and since then no one has seen this wonderful creature.
Residents of the villages located around the lake immediately noticed that the dragon had disappeared. The Helvetii considered the dragon an ancient deity, the ruler of Thun and the surrounding lands, and tried in every possible way to appease him. They allowed him to steal their livestock and often themselves brought sheep and cows to his cave, which the voracious monster immediately swallowed whole.
-Who drove the dragon away? – the fishermen and shepherds asked each other, shrugging their shoulders in bewilderment.
One day, on a clear sunny day, the little son of a fisherman made his way to the dragon's cave and looked in with curiosity. There was no trace of the terrible winged creature, and instead of him, a bearded man sat on the sand, who smiled affectionately at the boy and gave him a cross carved from wood. The fisherman's son returned to the village and told everyone about what he had seen. People immediately guessed that Beat, a Christian, lived in the dragon’s lair and preached a new faith to them. The foolish Helvetii thought that the stranger had destroyed the dragon in order to become the master of the lake himself. In fear, they decided to bow to him and ask for mercy, but suddenly a strange disease attacked their cattle, and a storm swept over the land, destroying many houses. And then the Druids said:
- The spirits are angry that Beat took the place of the dragon, and now they want revenge!
The pagans set out to kill Beatus. But how to defeat a great warrior who could defeat the dragon itself? A whole army gathered to march against Beatus. The Helvetii, armed with swords, spears, bows and axes, got into boats and sailed across the lake to the dragon's cave.
Beat was sitting on the bank of Thun. He watched how the clouds merrily ran across the blue sky, how the sun’s reflections danced on the water, how the rocks and trees were clearly reflected in its mirror-like surface, and thanked the Lord God for creating the world so beautiful. But clouds rolled in and it began to rain. A strong wind blew, and suddenly, out of nowhere, many large and small boats appeared in the distance, sailing straight to the place where our hermit’s refuge was located. Beat stood up.
Seeing the Christian, the Helvetii shouted angrily. The enemy flotilla was quickly approaching the shore. Dozens of strong hands raised their bows, pulled the bowstrings, and deadly arrows flew towards the lonely man.
- Why do you want to kill me? Have I done anything bad to you? - Beat asked the pagans, but they, hearing nothing but their own screams, continued to shoot at him and now took out their swords, eager to chop his body into pieces. Beatus looked at the faces of the pagans, distorted with anger. How he wanted them to stop fearing and hating him!
- Calm down and listen to me! I'm not the enemy. I bring good news! - he shouted to the Helvetii, but they did not pay any attention to his words.
Meanwhile, it began to quickly get dark, thunder rumbled, and waves appeared on the surface of the lake. But even the approaching thunderstorm could not stop the angry pagans. Death again threatened Beatus on the shores of Lake Thun. However, the hermit was calm. He believed that the Lord would again deliver him from death.
“If evildoers, my opponents and my enemies come against me to devour my flesh, then they themselves will stumble and fall. If a regiment takes up arms against me, my heart will not fear; “If war comes against me, then I will hope,” Beat said quietly.
Suddenly, bright lightning flashed in the black sky, and at that same moment the surface of the lake between the shore and the Helvetian boats turned into a fiery shroud. The water was burning! The pagans screamed in horror. They decided that it was Beat who set fire to Tun, and now they begged him to take pity on them and put out the terrible fire. Beat himself was amazed. He was expecting a miracle, but he never imagined that it would be so amazing. Beat began to pray earnestly for the fire to go out. After a few minutes, the flames sank and then disappeared.
The Helvetii began to thank the Christian for saving them from a terrible death. They asked Beata for forgiveness and promised that they would never go against him again. Finally, Beat was able to tell them about the Savior. Right on the shore of Lake Thun, he began preaching the Word of God to the Helvetii and teaching them to live in peace and love.
Some scientists argue that on that significant day the surface of Thun caught fire not from any intervention from above, but simply from the fact that streams, whose waters were saturated with oil, flowed into the lake. Water is known to attract electricity. During a thunderstorm, lightning struck the lake, and the surface of Thun, covered with an oil film, suddenly caught fire... Do you believe this explanation of the fire on the lake? I don't. After all, even if there was oil in the waters of Lake Thun, ready to ignite from a strong electrical discharge, then the appearance of blinding lightning at that terrible hour when the Helvetii decided to deal with Beatus, could it just be a happy coincidence?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru