The Mystery of the Son of Man by Michael Wood

Michael Wood’s “The Mystery of the Son of Man” follows Brother Gorlois, an orphaned child of a murdered heathen woman, whom Brother Pacificus finds and brings to the House of the Cold Strand. Raised by monks, baptised, and made to take monastic vows while still too young to understand them, Gorlois grows into a strong and handsome but dull, pleasure-loving young man. He dislikes fasting and discipline, traps and fishes for the House, and repeatedly causes scandal: he secretly cooks a coney during a fast, is found drunk, and is discovered with the swineherd’s daughter. The brethren condemn him for breaking his vows and consider sealing him in a cell to die slowly of hunger and thirst. Brother Pacificus, the aged monk who rescued him as a baby, intervenes. He argues that Gorlois never truly chose the vows imposed upon him, comparing him to a creature whose nature cannot be changed by rules. Gorlois, he says, is no monk but still a child of their House, heathen in heart and unready for holiness. The brethren accept Pacificus’s counsel, pardon Gorlois, release him from his vows, and retain him only for work suited to his bodily strength. As Pacificus becomes frail, Gorlois is assigned to watch over him one warm night in May. Drawn by the moonlit forest and tempted by the swineherd’s daughter, who throws bluebells through the window, Gorlois abandons the old man and pursues her. Pacificus wakes desperately thirsty and calls for him. Receiving no answer, he tries to reach water himself, falls, and lies suffering for hours. Gorlois returns at dawn and, frightened of discovery, summons the brethren. Pacificus survives long enough to receive the last rites and asks to be left alone with Gorlois. Though Gorlois lies about having remained at his side, Pacificus knows the truth and gently asks why he left him. He makes Gorlois hold him upright so that he can breathe, and Gorlois silently bears the old man’s weight while hearing his delirious cries of thirst and abandonment. For the first time, Gorlois feels a heavy, unfamiliar pain: not yet conscious repentance, but the beginning of shame and remorse. At midnight, while the monks sing in the chapel, Pacificus dies joyfully, calling on Jhesu. Blue flowers are thrown again through the casement and fall upon his body. Gorlois reacts with a cry of wounded rage, leaps outside, and kills the swineherd’s daughter with his hunting knife. The monks find Pacificus dead with flowers on his breast and the girl’s body beneath the window. Gorlois has fled, driven from the House at the moment when the Son of Man is born in him through his first agonised conviction of sin.

By Michael Wood · First published 1935 · Genre: Religious Fiction, Christian Allegory, Tragic Fiction · 3,730 words

First lines

Lord God of Glory, Pow'r of Perfect Light, / Look on Thy little children of the wild, / In whose frail souls the Son of Man is born / Thine is the pow'r of pain and anguish, Lord, / Thine is the chrysm of the agony, / The bitter wisdom born within the soul / That knows the sorrow of sin's piteous load. / Father in Heaven, blessed be the hour / When in the beast-soul rises the sad voice / Of human shame, crying: "I will arise, / And seek my Father's feet, and mourn my sin. " / Blessed the hour when the dread scourge of pain / Is gladly borne by some poor tortur'd soul, / Because it sees its foulness before Thee / By the white light of Christ, Who dwells within / The outrag'd temple of humanity.

• Open reader

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Genres

• Religious Fiction — The narrative is governed by Christian doctrine, monastic life, sin, repentance, grace, death, and the awakening of moral conscience.
• Christian Allegory — Gorlois's movement from instinctive wrongdoing toward remorse is presented as an allegorical birth of the 'Son of Man' within fallen humanity.
• Tragic Fiction — The story culminates in the preventable death of Brother Pacificus and the violent murder of the swineherd's daughter, making moral awakening inseparable from catastrophe.
• Historical Fiction — Its remote medieval setting, religious house, monastic vows, penitential practices, Latin liturgy, and archaic social world evoke historical fiction.

Tags

medieval Christian fiction · monastic life · Christian morality · sin and repentance · guilt and remorse · religious vows · forced monasticism · pagan conversion · redemption · spiritual awakening · mercy and forgiveness · murder

What this Textopian page supports

The Mystery of the Son of Man is listed on Textopian as a short story by Michael Wood, dated 1935 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Short story
• Author: Michael Wood
• Date: 1935 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Religious Fiction, Christian Allegory, Tragic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Medievalist Fiction
• Length: 3,730 words
• Structure: 1 section, 57 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for The Mystery of the Son of Man by Michael Wood
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
• Readability and classroom-planning context
• Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph

More by Michael Wood

• Forty-Eight Hours (2015)
• The Bending of the Twig (1961)
• The Breath Upon the Slain (2010)
• The Excellent Versatility of the Minor Poet (1979)
• The Glamour-Land (1987)
• The Tree of Beauty (2007)
• The Willow Weaver (2013)
• All works by Michael Wood