HumanitiesWeb.org - Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book III (Chapter XII) by Venerable Bede
Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book III Chapter XII
by Venerable Bede
OF A BOY CURED OF AN AGUE AT ST. OSWALD'S TOMB. [A.D. 642.]
SOME time after, there was a certain little boy in the said monastery, who had been
long troubled with an ague; he was one day anxiously expecting the hour that his fit was
to come on, when one of the brothers, coming in to him, said, "Shall I tell you,
child, how you may be cured of this distemper? Rise, go into the church, and get close to
St. Oswald's tomb; stay there quiet, and do not leave it; do not come away, or stir from
the place, till the time that your fit is to go off: then I will go in and fetch you
away." The boy did as he was advised, and the disease durst not affect him as he sat
by the saint's tomb; but fled so absolutely, that he felt it no more, either the second or
third day, or ever after. The brother that came from thence, and told me this, added, that
at the time when he was talking with me, the young man was then still living in the
monastery, on whom, when a boy, that miraculous cure had been wrought. Nor is it to be
wondered that the prayers of that king who was then reigning with our Lord, should be very
efficacious with him, since he, whilst yet governing his temporal kingdom, was also wont
to pray and take more pains for that which is eternal. In short, it is reported, that he
often continued in prayer from the hour of morning thanksgiving till it was day; and that
by reason of his constant custom of praying or giving thanks to God, he was wont always,
wherever he sat, to hold his hands turned up on his knees. It is also given out, and
become a proverb, "That he ended his life in prayer;"for when he was beset with
weapons and enemies, he perceived he must immediately be killed, and prayed to God for the
souls of his army. Whence it is proverbially said, "Lord, have mercy on their souls,
said Oswald, as he fell to the ground." His bones, therefore, were translated to the
monastery which we have mentioned, and buried therein: but the king that slew him
commanded his head, hands, and arms to be cut off from the body, and set upon stakes. But
his successor in the throne, Oswy, coming thither the next year with his army, took them
down, and buried his head in the church of Lindisfarne, and the hands and arms in his
royal city.
