CHAPTER 45: How his shoes healed a paralytic
CHAPTER 45
How his shoes healed a paralytic
THERE was a youth in a near-by monastery who had lost the use of all his limbs through that disease which the Greeks call paralysis. His abbot knew that the Lindisfarne monastery housed some extremely skilful physicians, so he sent him there with the request that they should do everything within their power to cure him. In compliance with the abbot’s and their own bishop’s command they applied every ounce of skill and knowledge they possessed, but all to no effect. The disease advanced from day to day and he became so helpless that in the end he could only open his mouth. His doctors, having so long exerted all their human skill in vain, gave up hope. Lying there despaired of, he had recourse to the Divine physician, to Him who when sought with sincerity of heart ‘pardoneth all our iniquities and healeth all our infirmities’. He asked his servant to bring him a piece of the incorruptible garments from the sacred body, believing that God, by virtue of the relic, would grant the grace of recovery. On the abbot’s advice the servant brought the shoes which Cuthbert had worn in the tomb and put them on the lifeless feet of the invalid, for the paralysis had first taken hold in the feet. This was done at sunset when it was time to rest. The invalid immediately fell into a calm sleep. Suddenly, as the hours were drawing on into the silence of the night, first one foot, then the other began to twitch. The servants who were watching over him saw this quite clearly and realized that the power of the saint’s relics was at work, travelling upwards through the rest of the body from the soles of the feet. The bell for the night office woke him and he sat up. He knew at once that he was cured – the muscles and all the joints of his limbs felt strong and solid and the pain had gone. He rose and stood all through matins giving thanks to God. In the morning he went to the church, and with the whole community looking on and congratulating him he went round the holy places, praying and offering the sacrifice of praise to his Saviour. There now occurred a most delightful reversal of procedure. He had been carried to Lindisfarne on a cart, completely paralysed; he walked away safe and sound with every member strong and under perfect control.
Let us not forget that this was the work of the unchanging might of God’s right hand; His wonders, memorable from of old, cease not to be poured forth in brightness on the world.