# Ælfric's Lives of Saints/Of Saint Oswold

XXVI.
AUGUST 5. ST. OSWALD, KING AND MARTYR.
[See Beda, Hist. Eccl. iii. 1-13.]
After Augustine came to England
there was a noble king called Oswald
in the land of the Northumbrians, who believed greatly in God.
​He went in his youth from his friends and kindred
to Scotland by sea, and there was forthwith baptised,
together with his companions who had travelled with him.
About that time Edwin his uncle,
king of the Northumbrians, who believed in Christ,
was slain by the British king named Cadwalla,
and [also] two of his successors within two years;
and this Cadwalla slew and shamefully ill-treated
the Northumbrian people after their lord's fall,
until Oswald the blessed extinguished his wickedness.
Oswald came to him and fought boldly against him
with a little army, but his faith strengthened him,
and Christ helped him to the slaughter of his enemies.
Then Oswald raised a cross quickly
to the honour of God before he came to battle,
and cried to his companions, ' Let us fall down before the cross,
and pray the Almighty that He will save us
against the proud enemy who desires to kill us.
God Himself knoweth well that we fight justly
against this cruel king, to deliver our people.'
Then they all fell down in prayer with Oswald,
and afterward on the next morning went to the fight,
and there won the victory, even as the almighty ruler granted them
for Oswald's faith, and subdued their enemies,
the proud Cadwalla, with his great host,
who thought that no army could withstand him.
The same cross which Oswald had there erected,
afterward stood there for worship. And many infirm men
were healed, and also cattle
through the same cross, as Beda hath related to us.
A certain man fell on ice and broke his arm,
​and lay in bed very severely afflicted,
until some one fetched to him, from the aforesaid cross,
some part of the moss with which it was overgrown,
and the sick [man] was forthwith healed in sleep
I in the same night, through Oswald's merits.
The place is called Heayenfield in English,
near the long wall which the Romans built,
where Oswald overcame the cruel king.
And afterward there was reared a very famous church
to the honour of God who liveth for ever
Well then! Oswald began to enquire concerning the will of God
as soon as he obtained sovereignty, and desired to convert
his people to the faith and to the living God.
Then he sent to Scotland where the faith was then,
and prayed the chief men that they would grant his requests,
and send him some teacher who might allure
his people to God, and this was granted him.
Then they sent straightway to the blessed king
a certain venerable bishop, named Aidan.
He was a very famous man in the monastic way of life,
I and he had cast away all worldly cares from his heart,
desiring nothing but God's will.
Whatever came to him of the king's gifts,
or [of those] of rich men, that he quickly distributed
to the poor and needy with benevolent mind.
Lo then! Oswald the king rejoiced at his coming,
and honourably received him as a benefit to his people,
that their faith might be turned again to God
from the apostasy to which they had been turned.
It befell then that this believing king
explained to his counsellors in their own language
the bishop's preaching with glad mind,
​and was his interpreter, because he knew Irish well,
and bishop Aidan could not as yet turn his speech
into the Northumbrian dialect quickly enough.
The bishop then went preaching
faith and baptism throughout all Northumbria,
and converted the people to God's faith,
and he ever set them a good example by [his] works,
and himself so lived as he taught others.
He loved self-restraint and holy reading,
and zealously drew on young men with knowledge,
so that all his companions, who went with him,
had to learn the Psalms or some reading,
whithersoever they went, preaching to the people.
He would seldom ride, but travelled on his feet,
and lived as a monk among the laity
with much discretion and true virtues.
King Oswald became very charitable
and humble in manners, and in all things bountiful,
and they reared churches everywhere in his kingdom,
and monastic foundations with great zeal.
It happened upon a certain occasion that they sat together,
Oswald and Aidan, on the holy Easter Day;
then they bare to the king the royal meats
on a silver dish. And anon there came in
one of the king's thegns who had charge of his alms,
and said that many poor men were sitting in the streets,
come from all quarters to the king's alms-giving.
Then the king immediately sent to the poor
the silver dish, victuals and all,
and bade men cut the dish in pieces and give it to the poor,
to each of them his portion, and they then did so.
Then the noble bishop Aidan
​took the king's right hand with much joy,
and cried out with faith, thus saying to him;
'May this blessed right hand never rot in corruption.'
And it happened to him, even as Aldan prayed for him,
that his right hand is sound until this day.
'Then Oswald's kingdom became greatly enlarged,
so that four peoples received him as lord,
Picts, Britons, Scots, and Angles,
even as the Almighty God united them for the purpose,
because of Oswald's merits, who ever honoured Him.
He completed in York the noble minster
which his kinsman Edwin had before begun,
and laboured for the heavenly kingdom with continual prayers,
much more than he cared how he might preserve
the transitory dignities in the world, which he little loved.
He would very often pray after matins,
and stand in the church apart in prayer
from the time of sun-rise with great fervour;
and wheresoever he was he ever worshipped God
with the palms of his hands uplifted heavenward,.
At that same time also a certain bishop
came from the city of Rome, called Birinus,
to the king of the West Saxons, called Cynegils,
who was yet a heathen, as was all the land of the "West Saxons.
Birinus indeed came from Rome
by desire of the Pope, who was then in Rome,
and promised that he would execute God's will
and preach to the heathen the Saviour's name
and the true faith in far lands.
Then he came to Wessex, which was as yet heathen,
and converted to God the king Cynegils
​and all his people to the faith with him.
Then it happened that the faithful Oswald,
the king of the Northumbrians, had come to Cynegils,
and took him to baptism, fain of his conversion.
Then the kings, Cynegils and Oswald,
gave to the holy Birinus the city of Dorchester
for a bishop's see, and he dwelt therein,
exalting the praise of God, and guiding
the people in the faith by his teaching for a long time,
until he happily departed to Christ;
and his body was buried in the same city,
until Bishop Hedda afterwards carried his bones
to Winchester, and with honour deposited them
in the old Minster, where men honour them yet
Now Oswald the king held his kingdom
gloriously as for the world, and with great faith,
and in all his deeds honoured his Lord,
until he was slain in the defence of his people
in the ninth year that he had obtained the rule,
when he himself was thirty-eight years old.
It happened because Penda, king of the Mercians,
made war upon him, he who formerly had assisted
Cadwalla at the slaying of his kinsman king Edwin;
and this Penda knew nothing of Christ,
and all the Mercian people were unbaptised as yet.
They came both to battle at Maserfield,
and engaged together until the Christians fell,
and the heathen approached the holy Oswald.
Then he saw approach his life's ending,
and he prayed for his people who died falling,
and commended their souls and himself to God,
​and thus cried in his fall, 'God, have mercy on our souls.'
Then the heathen king commanded to strike off his head
and his right arm, and to set them up as a mark [trophy],
Then after the slaying of Oswald his brother Oswy
succeeded to the kingdom of Northumbria, and rode with an army
to where his brother's head was fastened on a stake,
and took the head and his right hand,
and with reverence brought them to Lindisfarne church.
Then was fulfilled, as we said before
that his right hand continueth whole with the flesh,
without any corruption, as the bishop had said.
The arm was laid reverently in a shrine
wrought of silver-work in Saint Peter's Minster
within the town of Bamborough, by the sea-strand,
and lieth there as sound as when it was cut off.
His brother's daughter afterward became Queen of Mercia,
and asked for his bones and brought them to Lindsey,
to Bardney Minster, which she greatly loved.
But the monks would not, by reason of human error,
receive the Saint, but they pitched a tent
over the holy bones that were within the hearse.
Behold then God showed that he was a holy Saint,
so that a heavenly light, being extended over the tent,
stood up to heaven like a lofty sunbeam
all the night long, and the people beheld it
throughout all the province, greatly wondering.
Then the monks were much affrighted,
and prayed then in the morning that they might reverently receive
the Saint, him whom they had before refused.
Then they washed the holy bones, and bare them reverently
to a shrine in the Church, and laid them up.
And there were healed through his holy merits
​many infirm men of various diseases.
The water with which they had washed the bones
within the church had been poured out
as it were in a corner, and the earth afterward
that had received the water became a remedy to many.
By means of that dust devils were put to flight from men
who before were afflicted with madness
So also from the spot where he fell slain in the battle
men took of the earth for diseased men,
and put it in water for the sick to taste,
and they were healed through the holy man.
A certain wayfaring man rode towards the field,
when his horse became sick, and soon fell down there
rolling all over the earth, most like a mad creature.
"While it was thus rolling about the extensive field,
it came at length where king Oswald
fell in the fight, as we have said before;
and it rose up as soon as it touched the place,
whole in all its limbs, and the master rejoiced thereat;
the rider then went forward on his way
whither he had intended. There was there a maiden
lying in paralysis, long afflicted;
he began to relate what had happened to him during the ride,
and they carried the maiden to the aforesaid place.
Then she fell asleep, and soon afterward awoke,
sound in all her limbs from the terrible disease;
she covered up her head and blithely journeyed home,
going on foot as she had never done before.
Again afterward, a certain horseman bound on an errand
was passing by the same place, and bound up in a cloth
some of the holy dust from the precious place,
and carried it forward with him to where he was hastening.
​He met with some merry guests at the house;
he hung the dust on a high post,
and sat with the revellers rejoicing together.
There was a great fire made in the midst of the guests,
and the sparks wound towards the roof quickly,
until the house suddenly became all on fire,
and the revellers fled frightened away.
The house was entirely consumed except the one post
whereon the holy dust was hung.
The post alone remained whole, together with the dust,
and they greatly wondered at the holy man's merits,
that the fire could not consume the mould.
And many men afterward sought the place,
fetching thence their cure, and (some) for each of their friends.
His fame spread widely throughout those lands
and also to Ireland, and also southward to Frankland [Germany],
even as a certain mass-priest told concerning one man.
The priest related that there was in Ireland a learned man
who took no heed of his doctrine, and he cared little
about his soul's needs, or his Creator's commands,
but passed his life in foolish works
until he became sick, and was brought [near] to his end.
Then he called the priest who afterwards thus made it known,
and said to him forthwith with sorrowful voice,
' Now I must die a wretched death,
and go to hell for wicked deeds;
now would I make amends, if I might remain
and turn to God and to good ways,
and change all my life to God's will;
and I know that I am not worthy of the respite,
except some Saint intercede for me to the Saviour Christ.
Now it is told us that a certain holy king
​is in your country, named Oswald;
now if thou hast anything (as a) relic of the saint,
give it me, I pray thee.' then the priest said to him,
' I have [a piece] of the stake on which his head stood,
and if thou wilt believe, thou shalt soon become whole.'
So the priest had pity on the man,
and scraped (shaved) into holy water some of the sacred tree,
and gave to the diseased man to drink,
and he soon recovered, and afterward lived
long in the world, and turned to God
with all his heart, and with holy works;
and whithersoever he came he made known these wonders.
Therefore no man ought to nullify that which he of his own will
promiseth to Almighty God when he is sick,
lest that he should lose himself, if he deny that to God.
Now saith the holy Bede who indited this book,
it is no wonder that the holy king
should heal sickness, now that he liveth in heaven,
because he desired to help, when he was here on earth,
the poor and weak, and to give them sustenance.
Now he hath honour with Almighty God
in the eternal world for his goodness.
Afterward the holy Cuthbert, when he was yet a boy,
saw how the angels of God carried the soul of Aidan,
the holy bishop, joyfully to Heaven,
to the eternal glory which he had merited on earth.
The holy Oswald's bones were afterwards brought
after many years into Mercia
to Gloucester, and God there often showed
many wonders through the holy man.
For this be glory to the Almighty God,
who reigneth in eternity for ever and ever. Amen.