CHAPTER 44: A sick man is cured by praying at the tomb
CHAPTER 44
A sick man is cured by praying at the tomb
ONE of the clergy of the reverend and holy Willibrord, Clement, bishop of the Frisians, came from abroad and stayed for a few days as a guest at Lindisfarne. Suddenly he fell gravely ill; his condition gradually worsened and was finally pronounced desperate. So severe was the pain that life and death seemed equally intolerable. Then he had an inspiration.
‘Take me, I beg you,’ he said to his servant, one Sunday, ‘to honour Cuthbert’s most holy body; for I hope to be delivered from my agony by his intercession, either by being restored to this present life or carried off to the life to come.’
The servant obeyed and – no mean task – led him hobbling along on a stick into the church. Kneeling down at the sepulchre of our most holy father and God’s beloved he bowed his head to the ground and prayed for recovery. Immediately he felt such strength flow into him from the saint’s incorrupt body that he rose to his feet without the least effort and walked back to his rooms without the aid of servant or staff. A few days later when he was fully himself again he set off on his intended journey.