Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book IV Chapter X
by Venerable Bede
A BLIND WOMAN, PRAYING IN THE BURIALPLACE OF THAT MONASTERY, WAS RESIORED TO HER
SIGHT.
[A.D. 676]
HILDELITH, a devout servant of God, succeeded Ethelberga in the office of abbess, and
presided over that monastery many years, till she was of an extreme old age, with
exemplary conduct, in the observance of regular discipline, and in the care of providing
all things for the public use. The narrowness of the place where the monastery is built
led her to think that the bones of the male and female servants of Christ, which had been
there buried, should be taken up, and translated into the church of the blessed mother of
God, and interred in one place; whoever wishes to read it, may find in the book from which
we have gathered these things, how often a brightness of heavenly light was seen there,
and a fragrancy of wonderful odour smelled, and what other miracles were wrought.
However, I think it by no means fit to pass over the miraculous cure, which the same
book informs us was wrought in the churchyard of the said religious house. There lived
in that neighbourhood a certain earl, whose i wife was seized with a dimness in her eyes,
which at length became so bad, that she could not see the least glimpse of light: having
continued some time in total darkness, on a sudden she bethought herself that she might
recover her lost sight, if she were carried to the monastery of the nuns, and there pray
for the same, at the relics of the saints. Nor did she lose any time in performing what
she had thought of: for being conducted by her maids to the monastery, which was very
near, and professing that she had perfect faith that she should be there healed, she was
led into the burialplace, and having long prayed there on her knees, she did not fail to
be heard, for as she rose from prayer, before she went out of the place, she received the
gift of sight which she had desired; and whereas she had been led thither by her servants,
she now returned home joyfully without help: as if she had lost her sight to no other end
than that she might make it appear how great light the saints enjoyed in heaven, and how
great was the power of their virtue.
