A Description of a Monk
Written in the 9th Century

Notker was frail in body, though not in mind, a stammerer in voice but not in spirit; lofty in divine thoughts, patient in adversity, gentle in everything, strict in enforcing the discipline of our convent, yet somehwat timid in sudden and unexpected alarms, except in the assaults of demons, whom he always withstood manfully. He was most assiduous in illuminating, reading, and composing; and (that I may embrace all his gifts of holiness within a brief compass) he was a vessel of the Holy Ghost, as full as any other of his own time.

Ekkehard, "History of the Vicissitudes of St. Gallen," in G.G. Coulton, ed., A Medieval Garner, London: Constable, 1910.