¹ About to write the life of the blessed confessor Ethbin, I beg to have as my helper Him whom Ethbin himself had dwelling within him. Ethbin was born in the parts of Britain, of a most noble father and mother. He was educated in the liberal arts in his father’s house until his fifteenth year. When his father Eutius died, his mother Eula fled to the protection of Saint Sampson, bishop of Dol, and asked that he consecrate her with the sacred veil; and he, granting his assent to her will and her petition, dedicated her to God, and, shaving the hair of her son Ethbin’s head, made him a cleric. Ethbin remained with the blessed bishop Sampson, serving him day and night for a certain time.

² One day, while the blessed bishop Sampson was discharging the priestly office and Baumer the deacon was reciting the reading of the Gospel, Ethbin heard the words of the Lord saying: “He who does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple.” Compelled by this voice, he left everything, and came to Saint Similian the abbot, and received the monastic habit from his hand, and bowed his neck beneath the yoke of the Lord, in the monastery which is called Taurac.

³ In that same monastery dwelt Winwaloe, priest and monk, a man of great sanctity, who, joining the blessed man to himself, saw from afar that he was illuminated by heavenly grace, and loved him as a father loves a son. Now it was the custom of blessed Winwaloe to visit the church which stood one mile from the monastery, and there to offer hosts, by the abbot’s command, for the living as well as for the dead. In the custom of this visitation he joined Ethbin to himself — the renowned youth, the great deacon — that the worthy priest might be supported by the just deacon.

⁴ Now it happened on a certain day, while their custom fulfilled they were making their way through the fields in harvest time, that they found a certain leper lying on the ground, lamenting grievously, whose whole body was full of wounds, crying out in a tearful voice and begging help of them. Blessed Winwaloe, pricked by his groaning and distress, said to Ethbin the just deacon: “Dearest brother, what shall we give this poor man who begs our help? We have no gold, we keep no silver stored away; stripped of the money of this world, what shall we give to this needy man?” Saint Ethbin, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, said: “We read, father, in the Acts of the Apostles that when blessed Peter entered the Temple with John, a lame man begged an alms, and received from them the health of his steps.” Then blessed Ethbin said: “Go, then: approach the poor man and impart to him the gift of heavenly grace.”

⁵ Then blessed Winwaloe, standing beside the poor man, said: “What infirmities are in you, brother, for which you utter such heavy sighs and such feeble words?” He, drawing sighs from his inmost breast, said with great humility: “A great distress and many grave pains shake my wretched body; but beyond all the rest there is one pain within me so harmful to my infirmity that if I pass this day without a cure for it, I know my death rather than my life is at hand.” Blessed Winwaloe said to him: “Tell me, brother, by what help you can be relieved; God is witness that if the need prove it, we shall set aside a portion of our own flesh in your aid.” “My nostrils,” he said, “full of the pain of wounds, gather filth from the burning of this infirmity, as you see.”

⁶ Hearing this, Ethbin set down upon the ground the book he was carrying in his hand, and seizing the poor man by the sides — for he was lying face-down on the earth — raised him up. But when Winwaloe, the priest of Christ, stretched out his hand to the man’s nostrils, the poor man began to cry out in a tearful voice, as best he could: “Do not, elder, do not take my nostrils in your hand, for the pain does not permit it; but if you wish my pain to be relieved for the remission of your sins, the pain that torments me must be drawn out gently and sucked away with your mouth.” Hearing this, the blessed priest humbled himself — he who had been exalted by his merits in heaven — and while he applied himself to succouring the poor man, he received in his mouth the flesh of the Son of God.

⁷ O wondrous and admirable thing, stupendous to all who hear it! As soon as blessed Winwaloe drew it to himself, a wondrous stone fell into his mouth. And blessed Ethbin, holding the Lord by the sides, looked up, saw heaven opened, and upon the head of the Lord whom he held a holy cross appeared; and he saw Angels coming to meet Him, and then he said to the blessed priest: “Holy father, I believe that He whom I hold in my hands and you in your mouth is our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us.” And while, exulting with great joy at these words, they desired to hold Him in their hands, the Lord Jesus Christ lifted Himself up into the clouds, saying: “You were not ashamed of me, my servants, in my distress; nor shall I be ashamed of you in the kingdom of my Father. Your inheritance is with me; and for those for whom you ask, there is salvation in my kingdom.”

⁸ These things said, He vanished from their eyes and was received into heaven with a great voice. The voice indeed they heard, but they saw no one. Astounded and joyful beyond measure, they praised Him who had so loved them that He deigned to reveal Himself to them in the likeness of a poor man. Then blessed Winwaloe said: “This, brother Ethbin, has befallen us through your merits, you who are of such humility and obedience that whatever the human tongue can command, you fulfil with a most devoted heart.” But Ethbin answered him: “It is not so, father; rather it is you who, daily offering the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, have deserved to see Him in His own body — Him whom you bear unceasingly in your soul. See that this be not disclosed; for no one knows of this deed except God alone and we two.” Thereafter, returning to the monastery, they made it known to no one; but they persevered in the accustomed practice of prayer they had begun, until the devastation of that temple.

⁹ For the invading Franks laid waste that temple and the whole of Britain. Then blessed Ethbin, fleeing to Ireland, made a hut as a poor pilgrim in the wood which is called Nectensis, and built a church in honour of Saint Silvanus the martyr, in which, like a good servant, he unceasingly served his Lord.

¹⁰ Once, then, as Ethbin sat before the doors of the monastery one day, a lame man came to him and begged an alms of him. Blessed Ethbin said to him: “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, rise up whole and stand upon your feet, and bless God, who saves those who hope in Him.” And immediately he rose up whole, as if he had never been lame.

¹¹ A certain woman who had a paralytic son came to the man of God and asked that he come to her house and obtain health for him from the Lord. Then the blessed servant of God said to her: “We are sinners; we do not have this miracle in our usage. But if you seek your son’s health, I will lead you to the sepulchre of Saint Brigid. I believe that through God’s mercy he will there receive his health by the merits of the holy Virgin.” But she answered and said: “There, father, I have already carried him; and when one night I had kept vigil, I fell asleep for a little while, and in my sleep I heard a voice saying to me: ‘In the wood which is called Nectensis dwells Ethbin, the servant of God; if you bring your son to him, he will obtain his health by his merits, God granting it.’ And as the Lord lives, I will not let you go until I have brought back my son sound before me.” Then blessed Ethbin entered the oratory and lay in prayer before the altar, until the youth, coming from his mother’s house, said to the blessed man: “I give you thanks, father, who visited me lying on the bed of sickness, and raised me up with your hands, and granted the healing of so great an infirmity.” At this, blessed Ethbin rose and blessed the Lord, who deigned to work wonders in His Saints. “See, brother,” he said, “that you tell no one; for you have received the gift of health not by my merits, but by the grace of God.”

¹² Now blessed Ethbin lived in that same place for twenty years, faithfully working the work of God and giving health to the infirm. And this blessed man was of such abstinence there that he was refreshed with food only once a week — that is, on the fifth feria — and then with bread alone and water. He drank no wine in that place, except only when he approached the sacred mysteries.

¹³ Then, when he was already nearly eighty-three years old, he began to be wearied by a sharp pain. Calling together the brothers who dwelt in the same wood, he foretold his death, saying: “I commend you, brothers, to the almighty Lord, who is present to His servants in all their necessities. Know that I am now to die in the body: place me at the right side of this altar, and offer the sacred hosts upon it for the remission of my sins.”

¹⁴ And so, when all had been set at peace, he gave up his spirit before the altar, on the fourteenth kalends of November. He was buried honourably in that same place, as he had commanded; where, by the Lord’s gift, miracles are worked to the praise and honour of His name — whose power and dominion endures through infinite ages of ages. Amen.