The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): MarchBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 03 (of 16): March
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
can go with you." As they rode on their way together, the husband wept,
and Cuthbert, looking at him and seeing the cheeks of the rough warrior
wet with tears, divined the whole; and during all the rest of the
journey consoled and encouraged him, explaining to him that madness was
not a punishment of crime, but a trial which God inflicted sometimes
upon the innocent. "Besides," he added, "when we arrive we shall find
her cured; she will come to meet us, and will help me to dismount from
my horse, taking, according to her custom, the reins in her hand." And
so the event proved; for, says that historian, the demon did not dare
to await the coming of the Holy Ghost, of which the man of God was
full. The noble lady, delivered from her bondage, rose as if from a
profound sleep, and stood on the threshold to greet the holy friend of
the house, seizing the reins of his horse, and joyfully announcing her
sudden cure.
On another occasion, a certain count Henma, from whom he sought
hospitality during one of his pastoral journeys, received him on his
knees, thanking him for his visit, but at the same time telling him
that his wife was at the point of death, and he himself in despair.
"However," said the count, "I firmly believe that were you to give her
your blessing, she would be restored to health, or at least delivered
by a speedy death from her long and cruel sufferings." The saint
immediately sent one of his priests, without entering into the sick
room himself, to sprinkle her with water which he had blessed. The
patient was at once relieved; and herself came to act as cupbearer to
the prelate, offering him, in the name of all her family, that cup of
wine which, under the name of the _loving cup_, has continued since the
time of the Anglo-Saxons to form a part of all solemn public banquets.
A contagious disease at another time broke out in one part of his
diocese, to which Cuthbert immediately betook himself. After having
visited and consoled all the remaining inhabitants of one village, he
turned to the priest who accompanied him, and asked, "Is there still
any one sick in this poor place, whom I can bless before I depart?"
"Then," says the priest, who has preserved this story to us, "I showed
him in the distance a poor woman bathed in tears, one of whose sons
was already dead, and who held the other in her arms, just about to
render his last breath. The bishop rushed to her, and taking the dying
child from its mother's arms, kissed it first, then blessed it, and
restored it to the mother, saying to her, as the Son of God said to the
widow of Nain, 'Woman, weep not; have no more fear or sorrow; your son
is saved, and no more victims to this pestilence shall perish here.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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