The Anonymous History of Abbot Ceolfrith
The Anonymous History of
Abbot Ceolfrith
(Here begins the Life of Saint Ceolfrith the abbot, under whom blessed Bede received the habit of holy religion and after whose death first received the palm of eternal happiness.)1
1. In his letter to the Hebrews Paul the Apostle instructs us: ‘Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the end of their way of life and imitate their faith.’2 Hence it is quite clear that you do very well, dearest brothers, to order an account to be made in memory of our most reverend father and abbot Ceolfrith, who spoke the word of God to us. For truly he was such that not only his departure from a way of life devoted to God should be recorded, but also his entry into it and his progress therein; thus the constancy of his faith unfeigned should be imitated.
2. Born of noble and religious parents, he was given up to the pursuit of virtue from his early years of childhood. When he reached the age of eighteen, he chose to set aside the clothes of this world and become a monk. So he entered the monastery situated in a place called Gilling,3 which had been ruled over by his brother Cynefrith, a devout man, well pleasing to God. Not long before, however, Cynefrith had committed the rule of this monastery to their cousin Tunbert, who was later consecrated Bishop of Hexham.4 So Cynefrith left for Ireland to pursue the study of the Scriptures and to serve the Lord more freely there in prayer and penance.
3. So Ceolfrith was devoutly received by his said kinsman and lived even more devoutly, being zealous in every way for study, work and monastic discipline. Not long afterwards the same Cynefrith, together with other English noblemen who had gone before him to study the Scriptures, when the plague raged far and wide, departed for eternal life through the gateway of death, Tunbert, together with Ceolfrith and not a few monks of his monastery, then left at the invitation of Bishop Wilfrid to the monastery of Ripon. There Ceolfrith, subject to the customary way of life of the rule, was chosen in due course by this bishop for the priesthood at the age of about twenty-seven. Soon afterwards he left for Kent to study more fully the rules both of a monk’s life and that of a priest, which he had undertaken.
4. He also came to East Anglia to see the monastic observance of Abbot Botulf, known everywhere as a man of outstanding life and teaching, and one filled by the grace of the Holy Spirit.1 Ceolfrith returned home as well informed as possible after a short stay, so that no one could be found more learned than he in monastic and clerical rule. Yet neither through consideration of his order, nor of his learning, nor of his noble status could he, like some people, be drawn away from his attitude of humility; rather he took care to be subject in everything to the discipline of the rule. Indeed for a considerable time he held the office of miller-and-baker, in which he applied himself to learn and practise the priesthood’s ceremonies while he ground the flour, cleaned and lit the oven and baked the loaves. At this time also he was told to instruct the brothers in the observance of the rule, which task included both teaching the ignorant and correcting the contumacious, thanks to his acquired learning and his burning zeal for God.
5. As the time drew near when the heavenly Judge had decided for him to become a ruler over faithful souls, our pastor and abbot Benedict of holy memory, knowing of his learning, religion and diligence, when he had decided to found this monastery where God’s goodness has gathered us, obtained that Ceolfrith be given to him by his bishop (Wilfrid) as his helper and fellow-worker in its foundation.1 This he obtained although such an experienced man as he did not need his teaching for his own instruction as, having travelled overseas many times in Gaul, Italy and the Islands, he had already acquired detailed knowledge of the statutes of long-established monasteries.
6. Moreover he often used to say that he had learnt the rule which he taught from seventeen ancient monasteries, and whatever he had found most valuable anywhere he had (as it were) hidden in his inmost heart and brought back to Britain and delivered to us to be followed. But just as the apostle Barnabas, a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, when about to teach in Antioch first came to Tarsus (where he knew Saul was), who he remembered had already given great signs of virtue soon after receiving the faith, so that using this helper he might fulfil the ministry of the word as he had planned; or just as Moses, elected and trained by God himself to lead the people of Israel, lest he shrink from bearing the full weight of so great a charge, asked the help of his brother Aaron and thus fulfilled his office with the help of a priest and prophet;2 so also the famous abbot Benedict, even though very learned in all monastic discipline, sought Ceolfrith’s help in building his monastery. He would both strengthen monastic observance by equal zeal for doctrine and discharge the office of the altar through his priest’s orders.
7. They began to build the monastery close to the mouth of the river Wear in the year of our Lord 674, the second indiction, the fourth year of King Egfrith’s rule, having received from him initially fifty hides of land. Afterwards this was increased considerably by gifts from him and others. In the second year of this foundation Benedict crossed the sea and asked for master-builders from Abbot Torthelm, a friend of long standing, by whose direction and work he could build a church of stone: when he obtained them, he brought them from Gaul to Britain.
8. Meanwhile Ceolfrith found his office of prior irksome: the freedom of monastic peace appealed to him more than the care of ruling others. He suffered acutely from the bitter attacks of certain noblemen who could not endure regular discipline, so he returned to his monastery and hastened to resume his former way of life. But Benedict followed him there and asked for his return. At last, overcome by this request of charity, Ceolfrith went back and with Benedict sedulously continued all they had begun in the foundation and organization of this monastery.
9. When the church of excellent workmanship had been built very quickly and then dedicated in honour of St Peter the Apostle, the most reverend abbot Benedict decided to go to Rome to bring back home a plentiful supply of sacred books, the sweet memorial of the blessed martyrs’ relics, pictures of biblical events worthy of reverence, and other gifts from overseas, as was his custom. Above all however he planned to bring back teachers: these would establish in the church he had just founded the order of chant and ceremonies according to the usage of the Roman rite.1
10. Ceolfrith accompanied him on this journey, hoping to learn more in Rome than he could in Britain about the practice of the priesthood. Eosterwine, a priest and a relative of Benedict, was left in charge of the monastery until their return. With God’s help their plan was accomplished: they learnt in Rome many of the Church’s laws and they brought back with them to England John, the arch-cantor of the Roman Church and abbot of St Martin’s monastery, who generously taught us the order of chanting both by word of mouth and by his writings.2
11. Eight years after they started the foundation of this monastery mentioned above, King Egfrith was pleased to donate for the redemption of his soul another estate of forty hides, on which a church and monastery of St Paul could arise: this was not to be separated from the community of the former monastery but united to it in everything in single-minded brotherhood.1 Ceolfrith energetically accomplished the task entrusted to him. He took with him twenty-two monks, of whom ten were tonsured and the other twelve awaiting this grace, and came to the place where he first built everything necessary for monastic life. He began the same observance of the monastic rule and the same canonical method of chanting and reading as in the first monastery, although by no means all those who came with him knew then how to sing the psalms, still less read in church or sing the antiphons and responsories. But the love of religious life helped them, as did the example of their learned ruler: until he planted a deep root of monastic observance he would often frequent the church with the brothers at all the canonical hours, and would eat and take his rest with them, so that if any corrections had to be made or the novices taught, he would be present to perform these tasks himself.
12. In the third year from the foundation of the monastery he began to build the church to be dedicated to the name of St Paul the apostle, for which Egfrith himself had marked out the site of the high altar. The work proceeded so fast that, although the workmen were few, the dedication day was reached in the second year after its beginning. At the same time that the most reverend Benedict had sent Ceolfrith there, he also appointed Eosterwine (mentioned above) as ruler of the first monastery. This was not because one and the same monastery should have two abbots, but because Benedict often used to be called to the king for his innate wisdom and mature counsel. He did not always have the time necessary for ordering and guiding all monastic matters, so he sought a colleague by whose help he could carry the necessary burden of office more lightly and peacefully. Moreover he was hastening to go to Rome to bring back to the monasteries he had founded those goods which were necessary.
13. While he delayed overseas, a sudden outbreak of plague struck Britain and devastated it far and wide. This carried away to God many monks from each of his monasteries and also the venerable and beloved-by-God Abbot Eosterwine in the fourth year from his appointment. In his place the monks with Abbot Ceolfrith’s advice chose as their abbot Sigfrith, a deacon of the same monastery, a man of wonderful holiness who was very learned in the Scriptures and specially devoted to their study.1
14. But in the monastery which Ceolfrith ruled, all those who could read or preach or were able to sing the antiphons and responsories were carried off by the plague except the abbot himself and one small boy, who has been brought up and taught by him and who until the present day holds the rank of a priest in the same monastery and commends the abbot’s laudable actions in words and writings to all who wish to know them. Because of the plague the abbot was very sorrowful and ordered the previous custom to be interrupted and that the whole psalter except at Lauds and Vespers should be recited without antiphons. But when this was done for the space of only one week with many tears and laments, he felt unable to bear it any longer so he decided that the psalms with antiphons should be resumed as before. With everyone trying their best, he completed this by himself but with the help of the boy mentioned above, with no small labour, until he trained sufficient companions in the work of God or else obtained them from elsewhere.2
15. But when Benedict returned home, laden as always with goods from abroad, he was deeply grieved by the disaster which had taken place. He rejoiced however that Sigfrith, beloved by God, had been chosen as abbot in place of Eosterwine: he told him to take vigorous care of the monastery he had received, while he himself would help by teaching and by praying. But not long afterwards both of them fell ill, and as their infirmities increased with time, both were confined to bed and were even unable to sit up.
16. After taking counsel with the monks, Benedict then called Ceolfrith and appointed him abbot of each monastery, enjoining that it should really be one single monastery although situated in two places, and that it should always be ruled by one abbot and made safe by the same protection of privileges. In conformity with the written privilege which he had received from Pope Agatho as well as the rule of the holy father Benedict, he stipulated that the abbot of this same monastery should never be chosen by hereditary succession, but ‘for his way of life and the soundness of his teaching’, and so he had appointed Ceolfrith to his present post.1 He indeed was linked to Benedict by spiritual rather than carnal affinity, while Benedict also had a physical brother who was very close by blood but far distant from him in mind because of the emptiness of his heart.
17. Ceolfrith then was appointed abbot there in the third year of King Aldfrith, the first indiction on 12 May in the eighth year since his foundation of the monastery of St Paul. And in the same year the venerable abbot and deacon Sigfrith, tested by long illness, departed for the kingdom of heaven on 22 August of the third year since he became abbot. Moreover, at the beginning of the next year, on 12 January, abbot Benedict, beloved by God, after the furnace of long infirmity in which his custom was always to give thanks, also attained to the rest and light of heaven after ruling his monastery for sixteen years.2
18. He had in fact ruled the monastery of St Peter the apostle for eight years, and he had devoted another eight to the monastery of St Paul through Ceolfrith. During the first four years he had ruled the monastery of St Peter (as said above) with Eosterwine as his helper, for the next three he had Sigfrith and for the last year Ceolfrith as his coadjutor. Benedict was buried to the east of the altar, where afterwards the bones of the very reverend abbots Eosterwine and Sigfrith were translated.
19. When Benedict had been taken from death to life, Ceolfrith took charge of both monasteries (or rather of the one monastery on two sites) and cared for it with watchful skill for twenty-seven years. He was a man of keen mind, energetic action, burning with zeal for justice, glowing with both the love and fear of God, severe in correcting wrongdoers yet mild when encouraging the repentant, and assiduous in keeping and teaching the rules of monastic life. He was also kindly in relieving the poor and in almsgiving, generous with money whether by giving what was asked from him or making rewards for gifts offered to him; he was also committed with holy regularity to both psalmody and prayer.
20. Thus he enriched the monasteries he ruled, externally with substantial wealth and internally with spiritual resources no less important. In order to make them more secure from attacks by the wicked, he sent envoys to Rome who asked for and obtained a letter of privilege from Pope Sergius (of happy memory) similar to that which his predecessor Benedict had obtained from Pope Agatho.1 He also substantially enriched the monasteries with vessels for the service of church and altar, and copiously increased the library which he and Benedict had brought from Rome. Among other projects he had three Pandects copied: two of them he placed in his monasteries’ churches so that all who wished to read a chapter of either Testament could quickly find what they wanted, while the third one he decided to offer when he was going to Rome as a gift to St Peter, Prince of the Apostles.
21. When he realized that he was worn out by old age and could no longer set his earlier vigorous example to his disciples, he thought out an appropriate plan: he would leave the rule of the monasteries to younger men and himself go on pilgrimage to the thresholds of the apostles. Once there and free from earthly cares, he could await the day of his death amidst unhindered application to prayer. Thus he would follow the example of his brother Cynefrith, who (as we said above) left the care of his monastery to pursue the contemplative life, and by voluntary exile for God’s sake exchanged one fatherland for another.
22. Ceolfrith therefore prepared a ship and drew up a list of monks he would send to Rome: he decided which gifts to offer to St Peter and obtained enough of everything for the journey. For a time he hid from the monks that he too would be going, lest if what he planned became openly known, his friends would either forbid or delay his departure, or else many people might give him money which he had neither the time nor the ability to repay. For he always retained the outlook of a really generous soul, so that if any gift were made to him by anyone of either high or low status, he would not send him away unrewarded, but more often than not would give his benefactor something more valuable in return.
23. When everything was ready and the day of his departure was near, he called to the church all the monks of St Peter’s monastery and told them what he intended. They all wept at the news: some fell on their faces and grasped his feet. They besought him with tears not to go away so suddenly, but rather to remain with them for at least one more day. He agreed to their request and stayed with them for a day and a night (it was the Tuesday before Whit Sunday), and in the morning, accompanied by many, he went to the monks living in St Paul’s monastery and spoke to them also, explaining the reasons for his going. They also were very grieved and much disturbed by his sudden departure. He spoke gently and reasonably to all, asking them to keep the rule he had taught them, to remain in the fear of God and not to impede the journey he intended by their entreaties and tears. If he had ever acted intemperately or unjustly, he asked their forgiveness, while he with all his heart forgave all who had offended him in any way: he also desired that God would be merciful to them all, both then and for ever.
24. After they had resisted him for no little time and he had obtained (with many tears) that they would allow him to depart with their favour and approval (as was right), they insistently asked him that if he reached the apostles’ holy places he would commend them to God in frequent prayer; but if he should die first, he would always remember to intercede for their salvation.
25. He left St Paul’s on the same day, eagerly longing to go but driven to dismay at the grieving monks. He told them to choose as abbot for themselves with his blessing, according to the Rule of St Benedict and their statute of privileges, whoever they thought most worthy from their own community. Returning to St Peter’s monastery as soon as morning dawned, they sung Mass at St Peter’s and at St Mary’s and those present received communion.1 Then he called all the monks to St Peter’s church, asked them to pray for him and said the collect himself. Then he lit the charcoal and, taking a thurible in his hand, stood on the steps where he had been accustomed to read, and gave the kiss of peace to most of them. He was prevented by their grief and his from giving it to them all. He went out with the thurible to the oratory of St Laurence the martyr, which is in the monks’ dormitory. The monks followed him, singing the antiphon from the prophet: ‘The way of the just is right and the journey of the holy is prepared’ and ‘going from strength to strength’, adding psalm 66: ‘May God have mercy on us and bless us, lighten his face and have mercy on us.’1 Then, having burnt the incense, he went out and again told them all to keep peace with each other, to beware of quarrels, detractions and scandals; to reprove sinners as the Gospel commands (first alone, then with two or three together) and make every effort to bring them back to the way of truth. If reward follows their efforts, let them rejoice; but if not, then let them bring forward the faults in public. They should preserve concord and unity with the brothers at St Paul’s and remember that they both formed one monastery, to be ruled by one abbot. So if the bond of brotherhood were broken from within, the door should not be opened to harmful interference from outside, as in the case of the Jewish people who, when divided against themselves through the folly of Solomon’s son, never had respite from external disaster.2
26. When his sermon was finished, they repeated the antiphon with the psalm already mentioned and went out towards the river, leading their father with sad songs as if he was already departing this life. As before, he gave to each one the kiss of peace, while their song was often interrupted by tears. After praying on the shore, he went on board ship and sat down in the prow. Deacons sat beside him: one held a cross of gold he had made himself, the other lighted candles.
27. As the ship sailed across the river, he looked towards the brothers mourning his departure and heard the sublime sound of their song mixed with grief; he could not prevent his sobbing and tears. He repeated frequently this prayer: ‘O Christ, have pity on this band. Lord Almighty, protect this community. For I know very well that I have found none better than them or more inclined to obedience. O Christ, O God, defend them.’ Then, leaving the ship, he bowed to the cross, mounted his horse and departed, his material cares set aside; he hastened away from the English people, his kindred, to be a stranger in foreign lands so that he might with greater freedom and purity of heart devote himself to contemplation with the legions of angels in heaven.
28. The brothers returned to the church and when the office was ended took counsel what to do. It seemed right that with prayer and fasting they should seek from the Lord whom they should appoint as abbot over them. But since the venerable father (when leaving) had said that none of them were to fast on the day of his departure but rather all hold a greater feast, and had even told some of those accompanying him on no account to wait with them until the end of the midday meal (it was the Thursday before Whit Sunday), it seemed proper to fast the following day and night and refresh themselves on the Saturday at the ninth hour, for they could not prolong the fast further because of the vigils of the Sunday solemnity. They would also add several psalms to each of the appropriate hours of canonical prayer and all would implore the Almighty that on the day when He sanctified the beginning of His Church through the coming of the Holy Spirit, He should also indicate to them, who were truly a part of that Church, a worthy abbot through the grace of the same Spirit.
29. When these matters were thus concluded, there came from the monastery of St Paul several brothers on the day of Pentecost, and by unanimous consent they chose Hwaetberht as their new abbot. He had passed his life in the same monastery from an early age and had been well trained in ecclesiastical as well as monastic learning: at this time he already exercised priestly orders. As soon as he was elected abbot, he wrote a letter to the apostolic pope commending his father and predecessor. At the same time he prepared presents to send and, following in Ceolfrith’s footsteps with some of the brothers, he read the letter to him and showed the gifts he was to deliver, having found him in Ælfberht’s monastery, situated in a place called Cornu Vallis.1
30. Ceolfrith gladly accepted the community’s choice and confirmed it with his blessing. He also gave him full instruction how to govern the monastery in many matters. The letter begins as follows:
‘To the lord most beloved by the Lord of lords and thrice blessed Pope Gregory, Hwaetberht, your humble servant, abbot of the monastery of the most blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, situated in the land of the Saxons, sends perpetual greetings in the name of the Lord.
‘I do not cease to give thanks (together with the holy brothers who in these places desire with me to bear the most sweet yoke of Christ to earn rest for their souls)2 for the decision of the heavenly Judge to appoint you, a glorious vessel of election, to govern the whole Church in our times, so that through this light of truth and faith with which you are filled from heaven all those of lower degree may be illumined with the radiance of its goodness. We commend to your holy kindness, most beloved father and lord in Christ, the venerable grey hairs of our most beloved father Ceolfrith, abbot and provider and guardian of our spiritual freedom and of our peace in monastic quiet. First indeed we give thanks to the holy and indivisible Trinity, that although he departed from us accompanied by our intense sorrow, groans, grief and tears, he has nevertheless reached the joy of his longed-for rest. Now, even though worn out with age, he has devoutly sought again those thresholds of the apostles which (as he often told us) he had approached, seen and venerated in his youth. After the long labour and continuing care of over forty years, during which he presided with abbatial authority, ruling our monasteries with unique love of virtue, he once more begins as if newly summoned to the society of heaven, although worn out with old age and already near the point of death, to live as an exile for Christ: thus the glowing fire of penance may more freely burn away the old thorns of earthly cares in the furnace of the Spirit. Finally we venture to ask your Fatherhood to diligently fulfil for him (which we have been unworthy to do) the last acts of kindness, as we know for certain that although you have his body, yet we too have his spirit devoted to God, whether remaining in the body or freed from bodily ties, as a strong intercessor with God for our transgressions, and as a heavenly protector.’
31. Ceolfrith set out from his monastery on Thursday 4 June, intending to embark by sea at the mouth of the river Humber. On Saturday 4 July he boarded a ship, which before it reached the coast of Gaul landed in three provinces, in each of which he was received with honour by all because he had decided to crown the grace of his earlier perfection with an example of outstanding excellence.
32. This journey ended when he reached Gaul on Wednesday 12 August. Here too he was warmly welcomed by all, especially King Hilperic himself,1 who besides offering gifts gave him letters for all parts of his kingdom so that in all places he could be received in peace and nobody could delay his journey. Moreover he recommended him and all his followers to the kind treatment of Liutprand, king of the Lombards.2 He arrived at Langres, a city of Burgundy, on Friday 25 September, where, worn down by great age and by sickness and declining in a good old age, as the Scriptures say, ‘he was gathered to his fathers’.3 For he was seventy-four years of age and had served the Lord in priest’s orders for forty-seven years and held the office of abbot for thirty-five years.
33. He left in his monasteries a company of soldiers of Christ, more than six hundred strong, with land of nearly one hundred and fifty hides, according to the usual English computation.4 From the time he left his monastery until he ended his last day, he chanted the psalter of David right through three times a day besides the canonical psalmody; thus he increased his former practice by which for several years he had habitually recited the whole psalter twice a day. On no day did he omit to offer to the Lord the sacrifice of the Eucharistie offering both for himself and for his friends, not even when he was unable to ride through considerable weakness and had to be carried in a horse-drawn litter. The only exceptions were when he was tossed all day at sea for one day, when storms were beating on the ship, and the four days before his death.
34. In his company were about eighty men, assembled from different places, who all followed him and cherished him like a father. For he had told his attendants that if they found anyone accompanying him was without provisions of his own, they were to give him either food or money.1 For indeed Ceolfrith was very kind-hearted and a great benefactor of the poor. This was why, when he was on the point of departure and actually leaving, the general lamentations by the poor and the homeless indicated that they were being deprived (as it were) of their father and supporter. He took care to practise assiduously this kind of virtue, not only as commended by the fear and the love of God but also as something acquired from his father by hereditary right. When he held a noble office in the king’s household, his father always took great pleasure in works of mercy on behalf of the poor. On one occasion when he had prepared a splendid banquet for the king but the necessities of war had prevented his coming, then he gave thanks to Providence and at once caused all the poor, the strangers and the sick to be summoned from all sides to the feast; so with the goods he had intended for entertaining an earthly king and his thanes he welcomed instead the King of kings in the person of his humble followers and for the sake of eternal reward. He indeed discharged all the service of his male guests while entrusting to his wife the lowliest service to the women.2
35. Ceolfrith reached Langres about the third hour of the day on 25 September (as we have said) at the beginning of the fifteenth indiction; when he arrived at the countryside around this city, he was gladly received by Gangulf, the lord of this region. He indeed had previously met Ceolfrith on the way and invited him to come and stay with him and assured him of a warm welcome even if he himself were not present. He urgently pressed him not to depart until he was well, or, if God so willed it, to await his entry into the life of heaven by the tombs of the holy martyrs.
36. It happened on the very day that he arrived, he departed to the Lord at about the tenth hour. On the next day, with a great company of his own followers and of the local inhabitants, his body was brought for about three miles to Gangulf’s monastery about a mile and a half from the city, on the south side. It was buried in the church of the holy martyred brothers whose names are Speusippus, Eleusippus and Meleusippus, who were born triplets of their mother and were crowned with martyrdom there in times gone by. They were buried in the same place where their grandmother called Leonella was buried, who had also left this life by the confession of a martyr.1
37. So when the father had been buried, some of the brothers who had escorted him returned home to tell in his own monastery where and when he had died; some however completed the proposed journey to Rome to deliver the presents which he had sent. Among these was the Bible (as we have said) translated from the Hebrew and Greek originals according to the interpretation of the blessed priest Jerome, which had written at its beginning verses as follows:
To the body of sublime Peter, justly venerated, whom ancient faith declares to be head of the Church, I, Ceolfrith, abbot from the furthest ends of England send pledges of my devoted affection, desiring that I and mine may ever have a place amidst the joys of so great a father, a memorial in heaven.2
38. Moreover some preferred to dwell in that same city of Langres through love of their father buried there, but afterwards these fulfilled their resolve and desire to visit Rome. The companions of the most reverend abbot found such great favour with Gangulf that he entertained them all to a splendid feast after the funeral and also provided guides to those who departed in different directions as well as supplies for their journeys. He also arranged for an allowance for those who stayed on, for as long as they wished to remain.
39. The letter which the apostolic pope sent in reply tells how highly he thought of Ceolfrith and his gifts. It begins as follows:
‘Bishop Gregory, servant of the servants of God, to the religious abbot Hwaetberht.
‘We have read the content of your writings of admirable piety, which show that you rejoice in the truth by whose grace “those things which are not” are called as “those that are”1 with regard to our promotion, and that you profess yourself willingly subject to the authority of the apostolic law, whose duties we, although unworthy, discharge. For this reason, sharing in prayer with him whose supremacy you welcome, you should pray more earnestly that he may benefit himself and you and many others. Furthermore, he whose venerable grey hairs, dedicated to God, you were anxious to commend to us, was by God’s summons removed from temporal matters to eternal ones before we could receive him, after he had sent as an everlasting memorial a gift to our lord and patron in common the blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles. Approving of his faith in offering us this gift, we have judged him worthy of constant commemoration. We pray that this most approved teacher of the holy precepts of the rule may show the way in God’s sight to worthy disciples. May divine grace, which has taken him away, perfect his merits like those of Aaron and Moses, the holy leaders of the chosen people who were called away before they reached the promised land, or like Elias, suddenly removed to heaven. May it also adorn Ceolfrith’s disciple, who survives and succeeds him, along with the followers he is to govern, with the spiritual gifts and dignities of Joshua, the admirable leader, and of Phineas and Elisha. Farewell.’2
The companions of our father, beloved of God, who returned to us, used to tell us how in the night after his venerable body had been committed to the tomb, while three custodians of this church were keeping their night watch (as was usual), the fragrance of a wonderful smell filled the whole church. This was followed by a light, which remained for no short time, and at last arose to the roof of the church. They quickly went out and saw the same light rise quickly to the sky, so that all the places around seemed to be lit up by its glow as if it were day-time. Thus they clearly understood that ministers of eternal light and perpetual sweetness had been present and had consecrated by their visit the resting-place of this holy body. Thus a custom arose among the inhabitants that through the various hours of day and night prayer, when the canonical office of psalms was ended, all the men should go to kneel at his tomb. Reports also were spread abroad that other signs and cures took place there by the grace of Him who is accustomed to help His saints as they strive in this present life, and to crown them as victors in the life to come. Amen.