¹ There was in the British isle a certain illustrious man, the hope of blessed offspring, named Fracan, cousin of Catho, king of the Britons, a man most famous according to the world; in whose loins the sacred seed still lay hid. He therefore, with twin sons called Guethnoc and Jacut and their mother named Alba, who was surnamed the Three-breasted because she had three breasts equal to the number of her children — for their sister is not to be reckoned in the count of the breasts, since it is not the custom of women to weave a genealogy in the scriptures: — he, I say, embarked in a vessel and attacked the sea, and, having swum across the British sea with a few companions, was borne, a gentle breeze blowing, into the port called Bracheus. In which, straightway exploring all the nearest parts and finding a certain estate not small, hedged about on every side with woods and thickets and enriched by the overflowing of a river properly called the Blood, he happily began to dwell there with his people. At the same time, as the number of companions gradually grew and a great abundance of things flowed in, a third son, expressing the form of the holy Trinity, was desired — as though it were altogether too little to have but two sons. The blessed woman therefore perceived that she had in herself the desired conception; the husband, rejoicing in the pregnant woman, was touched with great alacrity of heart, hoping that he should be his heir after him; the great birthday of the infant was hoped by all to come. There came therefore the desired day on which the goods long expected are shown to the country: a day, I say, brighter than all days, opened to the western Armoricans. Whom, when born, they called by the name Winwaloe.

² And the most blessed infant, born of a blessed parent and nobly educated according to the dignity of the world, as soon as he began to speak, was wont with wondrous intentness to God’s praise, and asked more eagerly to be given over to be imbued with the sacred studies of letters to a certain spiritual father who could care for his own soul and others’, desiring to lead the perpetual dances among the celibate. But the father of the most blessed boy, refusing his prayers, strove to make his most loving youngest son a soldier of the world. But God, who turns all things for the better, terrified him, as he was one day pasturing the flock with the shepherds, by a terrible crash of flashing heaven. Struck by the unwontedness of the light, near dead and half alive, he fell to the earth, thus praying to God: “Lord God, almighty King, all things are set in your dominion: yours to you, not mine,” he said, “my son Winwaloe I willingly offer on the altar of your praise. And not only him whom you ask, the youngest, but also his two brothers with him I will render to you, O God.” And without delay, shaken with terrible dread, returning home, he related to his wife all that had befallen in the pastures.

³ And after seven days, together with the infant, Christ’s new soldier, he approached a certain angelic teacher named Budoc, surnamed Arduus, endowed with knowledge, excellent in righteousness, whom all alike at that time believed to be, as it were, a foundation and most firm pillar of the church. And while they journeyed to the island called Laurea, where the same light of faith shone, the whole sky was wrapped in darkness, the earth trembled, the air flashed, the straits boiled, and the whole sea was troubled with whirlwind and fire and hail mingled with snow, and was thought to hold all the land around. And the father, seeing himself surrounded by so great a tempest, said: “I fear, beloved of God, lest our journey be hindered today.” But the infant, exulting with joyful spirit: “Why,” he said, “my father, do you fear? That author of creatures himself who made all things when they were not, who enriched the heaven with stars, adorned the earth with flowers, set a bound to the sea: he is able also, when he wills, to assuage the injury of the air and to appease the waves of the sea. For nothing shall be lacking to those who fear him. One thing therefore is necessary, that we have our whole hope in him and ever abide in his love, for he first loved us.” While the boy said these and many other things, the father silently considering the matter in his heart and at the same time wondering: look, suddenly the whole district called Velanensis shone with the appearing sun, and a most serene day beamed forth until evening. The sun therefore at length declining through the slopes of heaven to the south, the same man, using familiar converse with the same teacher, set forth the whole cause of his journey and his difficulty. And the excellent teacher, drinking in the narrator’s words with intent wit and turning them over with himself a little, ordered the little one to be brought to him. But he, stirred by the holy spirit, hastening without delay as if imbued with very many years, with none teaching him, approached so great a patron, prostrate with his whole body on the earth. Then the teacher, foreseeing by the divine spirit, beginning thus addressed the pious father, saying: “The boy whom you commend to me, I see transcending his age in manners, and in a boyish form I see a full-grown man, already skilfully instructed in divine wisdom by the sagacity of his wit.” These and other things being agreed between them, the father of the little one — if it be right to call him little who is already saw great in God’s contemplation — arising in the morning and receiving the man of God’s blessing, returned home prosperously by the way he had come.

⁴ And the blessed boy, though he was still a little child, yet struck by no first pang of longing’s sorrow, as some little ones are wont when sent to school apart from their parents, remained steadfast in the monastery with the same teacher. And straightway within the course of a single day, learning fully all the marks of the whole alphabet, and from then on, as the number of his years grew in him, storing up in his heart all the words of the old and new law with their sacraments, he was made an excellent inquirer of the holy scriptures.

⁵ After no long time, the same spiritual father passing over to a certain place for the sake of prayer, his disciples being left in the island, bound by their master’s entreaties: one of them, still flourishing in boyish age, running through the plains with certain lighter playmates and forgetting the elder’s command, was straightway afflicted by a great fall, his leg being broken; and forthwith play was mingled with grief and exceeding pain, and the whole heart of the greater and the less was struck together with vehement sorrow and dread. For all who were there, gathered into one and made exceedingly sad on account of the hurt boy, and especially shaken with fear on account of the elder’s prohibition, began to lament, shedding querulous tears, saying: “What shall we do, or where shall we go? Shall we flee or wait? What excuse shall we have? He taught us to beware of the ancient enemy’s snares by his own words, but we, careless and contemners of his word, held his decree for little.” While they said these and many other things with deep sighing of heart, look, soon the most blessed Winwaloe, moved by the holy spirit, whose power God wills no longer to hide but to set forth before all onlookers as a sign and example, like a torch upon a candlestick, seeing them sad and laying silence upon them with his hand, addressed them with such words: “Men, brothers and fathers, weep no more, be no further cast down in spirit. For there is no passion so great that it cannot be healed: for the physician is not far off if he be sought with an inmost, not feigned mind, who heals all those confessing him even without any poultices of herbs. Let us all therefore approach Christ separately, one by one, with prayers trustfully.” Encouraged by which exhortation, they unanimously prayed to God. But he alone, lifting his eyes to heaven with his hands, most intently prayed, saying: “Lord Jesus Christ, who raised up the world lying in squalor through Adam’s disobedience, who sweetened the forbidden tree’s fruit eaten by our ancient parents with the trophy of your holy cross, who condemned that fugitive tyrant to the fires of hell, who promised your servants eternal life, who are not far from those who seek you, who have adorned the blind with sight, the maimed with hands, the lame with steps and the lifeless with life through your servants: him also we beg you, restore to us whole and sound, though we are far unlike those who merited to obtain these things of you.” And straightway, his prayer finished, turning to the boy and signing the place of the wound with the sign of the cross and holding his right hand: “Arise quickly,” he said, “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And without delay, hearing God’s servant’s voice, he arose sound, as if he had suffered no ill, no trace of any injury remaining. This done, he ordered the brethren to reveal this to no one, imputing this deed to their minds rather than his own. But the more he wished it hidden, the more God caused it to be shown. Therefore to the elder returning from the way, when he had come to the approach of the place, all that had been done was related by those who had seen it. Who, rejoicing with inward joy and revolving with himself who this might be at whose hand, while he was yet of this age, Christ worked these things, gave thanks to God.

⁶ At the same time the grace of God increasing in him before God and men, and wisdom outrunning his still tender age: lest, like an unjust keeper of money ill buried, he should be condemned by the exactor, he began — though the younger — to nourish all the poor whom he found at once, whom the supreme master disdains not to call brethren, with the administration of bodily food and the refreshment of the divine bread, now no deaf hearer of the divine speech saying: “He who stops his ear that he hear not the cry of the poor, shall cry himself and there shall be none to hear him”, and elsewhere: “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me.” For as soon as a poor man cried out, he, giving thanks to God, hastily — yet with all gravity and modesty, unless by chance he was occupied in some business of the divine office which could in no way be deferred — ran to him, at once to give him aid. And those whom he had not the bodily substance wherewith to feed, he bewailed their want with copious plaints of tears and lifted up their hearts with the hope of eternal recompense; and recalling to them the voice of the gospel, “Blessed shall you be who now weep and hunger, for you shall laugh and be filled”, he ceased not to educate them in heavenly riches, which never suffer loss by being scattered, but the more they are lavished, grow the more with fervour to their own increase. Thus when he had not earthly treasures, he offered heavenly.

⁷ Once on a certain day, while according to his wont he softened the hearts of the poor with the sweetness of the heavenly oracle, promising the hope of eternal recompense and mingling the solaces of prayer, greatly bewailing their need: it befell that a certain one of the college of scholars passed that way. Who, straightway struck with the gall of envy and vehemently angry against God’s servant, bursting forth into words of mockery and harshness, rebuked him with such words, saying: “Do you practise these vain works as it were of mercy towards God’s poor? Look, daily the wanderers lying in the streets are gathered from every side to be instructed by you, and return empty, profiting nothing. How then do you, labouring all the day, miserably waste your work on so ignoble a crowd, as if feigning a mercy whose affection you have not? Are you he whose very shadow cures all who ask, or by whose virtue the lame man is raised who denies that he has money?” Against this, blessed Winwaloe, opening his mouth and giving thanks to God, humbly returned him this answer with a most joyful countenance for such a reviling, saying: “Blessed are you, most loving brother, since you have brought forth the most fitting testimonies for me, as was right. While all men’s eyes are shut, shaking the pen of those praising, yours alone are the eyes opened, who could judge this so rightly of me.” Straightway St Winwaloe, seizing a certain blind man from the midst of the languishing, took him apart, leading him with him to a more secret place, and praying thus said: “As you healed the eyes of the blind crying to you, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David’, so may you, Lord Jesus Christ, deign also to heal the eyes of this brother trusting in you.” At length, opening his eyes with his hands and spitting upon them, he said: “Silver and gold I have not; but what I have, this I give you: in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, see.” And his eyes being opened, he who had been led sad from the gate ran back to it joyful, none leading him. The master, when he heard this from those relating it, who yet utterly knew not how it had befallen, giving thanks to God, ran joyfully yet with the utmost gravity, lest any should be exalted in mind on this account, to the gate. And asking who of them and how he had been gifted with sight, he learned from a certain man that he had been blind but had been led in and cured by a certain youth. And the elder, wondering for joy: “What did he do to you,” he said, “or how did he open your eyes?” And he answered: “I sat begging,” he said, “and blind, hoping to receive something from the passers-by in the midst of the poor: but he, drawing me with him by the hand while I thought he would give me alms, when he had excused himself that he had not this world’s money, granted me this better thing for a gift — the light of my eyes.” The elder at this: “What manner of man is he who gave you sight when you had it not?” And he who had been blind answered: “I do not see him among you.” And the elder: “Could you,” he said, “recognise him if you saw him?” He said: “Yes, lord.” And the elder ordered all the scholars to be gathered. And when they were gathered and the faces of all had been surveyed, they came to St Winwaloe: “This is he,” said the poor man, “who made me whole.” Which heard, the elder and his disciples together straightway prostrated on the earth adored. But he, greatly shaken and forbidding them to adore him in such wise, lamented much, saying he was unworthy of this gift, and prayed with exceeding compunction of heart that this virtue, though shown through him, should be ascribed not to his own but rather to their merits together with their master’s. The master at this, restraining him lest his mind should be overmuch bowed, said: “Beware, son, lest you strive to quench the lamp which God himself has kindled. Beware lest, like a niggard keeper of one talent, you be condemned, and lest you despise as superfluous the gifts of God which I have prayed you should have acceptable.”

⁸ From this time St Winwaloe began to be of great authority in the divine worship, and merited to have a famous name before all his contemporaries. On a certain day, while his only sister, a little girl of yet lighter and less stable age, named Cheiriua, was playing with other girls, it befell that she met a goose passing by, and it, tearing out her eye, plucked it clean out and swallowed it. From there the girl, her face stained with blood, returned deformed with lamentation, and then there arose the cry of the wretched and the wailing of her parents. And look, while these things were being done, the angel of the Lord appeared in dreams the following night to St Winwaloe, saying: “Saint of God, Winwaloe.” And he answering “Here am I”, the angel said: “Arise, make haste, relieve your parents’ hearts, for they are now distressed with exceeding sorrow; give not rest to your eyelids nor let your eyes take sleep, until you have fulfilled Christ’s command enjoined on you. For today, a gander drawing on a goose, your only sister has lost her eye, but the place in which it is hidden is the goose’s belly. And do not hesitate in your heart, but ever trusting in the mercy of God who is wont to bring aid to those who rightly ask, when you have come to the appointed place, you shall take the same bird — for it will not be unknown to you at all, for it towers high above the rest — and disembowelling its little belly, you shall recover your sister’s eye, and shall place it whole and sound in its former place. For the Lord, to whom no word is impossible, will do this sign through you, and through you will restore your sister to your parents whole. Nor let any small thought cleave to you in excusing yourself, saying: ‘I have left Egypt and am unwilling to return to it,’ and remembering the gospel: ‘Let the dead bury their dead.’ For if these things were suggested to you by human speech, most truly fitting testimonies they would be for you to utter. But if divine or even, as you hear, angelic, how will you refuse to impart them to your parents, which you have bestowed on all in common?” St Winwaloe, standing unmoved at this, said: “All the mists by which I was forbidden far from you being rolled away, look, I am the servant not only of the Lord and of his servants for all things which the Lord’s command shall bid me: indeed, I am eager and willing therefor.” And the angel: “This is the sum of obedience, that what is commanded be done neither tardily nor tepidly; for obedience devout in mind to God is greater than all sacrifices and burnt-offerings.” These things said, the angel of the Lord straightway went out into the air, and St Winwaloe, girding himself, made his journey.

⁹ And when he had come to his parents, seeing them worn down with sorrow on account of their daughter, who was now almost breathing out her last breath, he inquired, as if unknowing, the cause of this grief and groaning and its order. But they, saying that they utterly knew not, answered thus again and again: “You yourself know, you know, saint of God, for we are certain that no secret is hid from you, God revealing it. But if you can do anything, and if any grace of your own blood summons you to mercy, help us while we yet live.” At length therefore he ordered the flock of geese to be gathered, and commanded that one which he saw more eminent than the rest be taken and disembowelled: and he brought forth his sister’s eye from her divided little belly according to the same angel of God’s word, and, thanksgiving being made to God, replaced it in its place as it had been before. And the same bird, sustaining no injury, unhurt and as if touched by none, went to the other birds. These things at length being done, his parents being admonished by him peacefully and with consoling words and confirmed in good works with a humble blessing, he returned to his own.

¹⁰ Likewise concerning his marvellous deeds, this seems to us by no means to be passed over untold. For on a certain day, while one of his disciples, sleep growing heavy on him, had given his wearied limbs to slumber: look, a cold serpent hurt his foot with a bite and infected it wholly with venom. And he, awaking, the venom now creeping not only through the foot but through all his members, went and showed it to his master. And St Winwaloe, seeing the foot distended beyond what can be believed and the other members already beginning to grow white with swelling: “Go,” he said, “show me the place in which the unlawful sleep seized you.” And without delay, though weak, yet driven by necessity, he went to the place. And St Winwaloe, his body prostrate on the earth in prayer, surveying all the places round about, found a certain cleft in which the slippery snake had hidden itself: and soon, when its marks were found, he cried: “Whatever of deadly seed you lie hid in this chink, burst forth, come out, learn Christ’s trophies.” And not long delaying, hearing Christ’s name, the scaly serpent appeared hissing: but straightway, pierced by the banner of Christ’s cross, it perished, none striking it. And the holy man, giving thanks to God, asked for water and, mingling it confusedly with oil in blessing, offered it to the sick man, nearly consumed with venom, to drink: and straightway the vital strength of him who had nearly died gradually revived. But his father Fracan, hearing this miracle also, ran to him and spoke thus: “My son, I beg you, entreat the Lord your God that so pestiferous a kind may appear nowhere in this region.” And he invoking God, it was done that from then on no kind of serpents at all is said to have appeared in that region. And if ever it be brought there by anyone even to this day, even for proof’s sake, it quickly hisses as if pierced by a trident and straightway stretches itself out about to die.

¹¹ And this eminent virtue of his also is not to be passed over untold. For when a certain shepherd of sheep who was called Wedmon, under his chief Quonethedus, was pasturing his flock in the pastures beside the wood, suddenly the air, troubled with dense darkness, began to thunder with frequent lightning-strokes. All things being darkened round about, the shepherd, unable to endure so great an inclemency of the air, fell blinded to the earth in dread. And the keeper of the cattle, when he came to himself, his head erect, the night already covering all things, saw no sheep but wolves gathered around him in their stead. Shaken therefore with great fear, he said: “Saint of God, Winwaloe, do not, I beg, let the fury of these prevail against me.” And the man of God, not much entreated, delayed not to bring aid to the asker. For he was seen between himself and the others, as he afterwards related, that St Winwaloe stood there until morning. And when morning came, undaunted he gathered all the fugitive sheep without any danger and brought them back; and straightway, leaving the flock, went to God’s saint Winwaloe, telling him all that had been done for him by him in the night. The man of God, hearing this from the rustic, strove after his wont to take the praise of this virtue from himself: but the rustic, now insisting on praises, now with rebuke, ceased not to accuse him of wishing to hide God’s mysteries.

¹² On a certain day, when a playful contention had arisen between Fracan his father and Riwal of the Domnonian part concerning the swiftness of their horses, a convention of the appointed day was made by the consent of both, in which it should be proved which of them was the swifter. And then, very many as well noble as ignoble being gathered to that spectacle, the lightest boys, most skilfully taught to ride, mounted the horses. The course therefore of very many horses being begun, all moving themselves together in rivalry from the place of the contest, Fracan’s steed alone ran before all. But when the boy could not bear the rush of the running horse, he fell by chance amid the sharpest rocks. Whose little body straightway, its members broken through all and miserably shattered, they took up dead, and striving to recompose all the members piece by piece, they laboured in vain. Fracan above all wept, on whose account they said all the evils that had befallen had happened, and the whole air on every side was filled with the weeping of promiscuous sex with deep groaning and wailing. At length, when they had sufficiently given measure to weeping, they said: “Take him hence to be buried: nothing else is now owed to the dead save the sepulchre.” But they who had before heard and known St Winwaloe said: “Truly, if your holy son Winwaloe were now here present, this little boy could indeed have come to life again.” While these things were said, God so ordering, St Winwaloe was present. Who, soon seeing their most sad countenances, said: “Stand back, the boy is not dead, but lies sick.” All being bidden to withdraw a little and making a ring around to see what he would do: as soon as he saw their most ardent faith, taking the dead boy’s right hand, “The Lord,” he said, “Jesus Christ, who formed you when you were not and, taking flesh of the immaculate Virgin, did not doubt to suffer for you, raise you up.” And then the boy who had been dead, as if roused from sleep, straightway arose, and from there rode home with his own, sound and unharmed, they returning and rendering thanksgiving to God and St Winwaloe in common.

¹³ From then on, by heaps of miracles, sermons of instruction, examples of manners, his name became famous through the whole region of Armorican land. And look, not long after these and other very many multitudes of miracles, on a certain night, when after his accustomed labour, compline being ended, he had given himself a little to quiet, this thought suddenly clung to him, that he should visit the holy places in which St Patrick had dwelt and enjoy his discipline and examples as an excellent disciple. He, not long before, like a most bright candle set on high scattering most ample lights, had illuminated all the churches of the island of Ireland, and not only them but also those of the whole world to which his fame and merit could be brought. While he pondered this, there appeared to him the same night in dreams a most splendid man of angelic habit and as it were crowned on the head, and he said to him: “Saint of God, Winwaloe.” Who answered: “Here am I. Who are you, lord?” And he: “Dearest brother,” he said, “let it not be your care to swim so many seas, to traverse so many spaces of lands. I am Patrick whom you desire to approach; be not vexed: all the things which you desire to know in an alien soil you can for certain know while remaining in your own. But you shall not dwell here long.” When he had spoken these and many other things, he quickly vanished from his eyes. And he, eager, went in the morning, humbly adoring, to the cell where his master alone slept, read and meditated, to relate to him all things in order concerning his thought and vision. And the elder: “This is a divine revelation, not a feigned temptation. Do not fear,” he said, “but go, drawing back from nothing divine; fulfil the divine command which has been sent you through the holy man.” And weeping much, he added, saying: “I will give you the eleven disciples whom God had given me, men after you according to my heart, most prompt in every work of God. Happy the land to which you, most splendid stars, are sent, each one sufficient to illuminate the greatest part of the great world. Unhappy before others is she who, after she has nourished you, is spoiled of you like a bereft mother.” And embracing each one of the eleven after St Winwaloe, their arms interlaced with one another, giving most lovingly the kiss of peace with tears: “Yet I rejoice,” he said, “on account of those for whom God has chosen you, though carnal affection suddenly suggests this sadness to me. Farewell, farewell, and have peace.”

¹⁴ And on the following day, after such an address, Winwaloe went out with the eleven brethren given him, knowing not to which part he should turn; but trusting in God’s aid and committing all things to his disposition and governance, the blessed man went the blessed way. Passing therefore through the Domnonian districts to the west and surveying the confines of the Cornubians, at length on the island called Theopepigia he was prosperously lodged with his same companions. Which place is most rough, exposed to every wind, girded on every side almost with seas and sharp rocks, worthy of no human habitation. Nevertheless when they had come to the same place, each one straightway ministered voluntarily like bees to hives. There therefore certain huts and a small oratory being built and a garden planted for supplying herbs, they dwelt three years. But because the place in no way fitting was agreeable to them, not so much on account of its infertility as of the fierceness of the winds and storms, they were grieved at being hindered. Now there was a certain hill in the midst of the island on which the saint was wont to sit with the eleven and dictate to his disciples: hence a fair wood is seen and a valley set in the midst, saw toward the rising sun; but the great sea, to which a huge river named Ampnis is joined, was between them, as it were a space of two miles. And from the midst of the valley’s bottom, the sun being straightway risen daily, a mist like smoke was stretched upward, and the place from there appeared lightest to those seeing it daily. To this place therefore they begged to be led, and the rest.

¹⁵ Therefore on a certain day, when according to their wont they had gathered together in one upon the same hill, the third hour being ended, and saw the place beyond the sea — where afterwards his holy body rested with the innumerable bodies of his holy companions — set apart, and had the will of going to it: prayer being first made, he said to the brethren: “Is there so great and still so strong a love in you that you hasten to the place which you see from afar?” And they, astounded in confusion, answered: “Lord, we know that you are a man of God; as yours, so shall ours be, your will.” And he most meekly said: “If you wish to cleave so great a deep and approach that place, bend your knees thrice and humbly ask Christ the Lord that if he deigns to be present as your leader and companion, he would show you today a most known sign.” Which said: “Let each one,” he said, “hold the hand of the one going before him.” And when he had said this, the next holding the right hand of the one before, the rest doing so in this order, he struck the deep sea’s mouth with the point of his staff. And when he had touched its edge, chanting the Mosaic hymn after the passage of the Red Sea with the eleven, troubled by no fear they passed through the dry with dry feet. Entering therefore the very great wood set upon the edge of the shore, and surveying the valley which had before appeared to them from afar, they found a certain bottom in its midst formed in the manner of a sling. There therefore they chose rather to dwell in safety, glorifying God through all.

¹⁶ And when on a certain day the disciples, wearied by the water’s distance, had begun to ask him to give them water, he advisedly appointed them to set about the enjoined works; and they obeying his commands, he was left alone in the enclosure. Spreading himself in prayer, he begged God, saying: “Lord Jesus Christ, who made the dry rock bring forth in plenty water for your thirsting people in the desert, deign, I beg, to open also for this smallest flock of monks and give a spring of water, from where they who are to minister in this place may quench their thirst.” When therefore he had said this, he made as it were a circle in the manner of a spring with the point of his staff: and look, waters straightway issued most plentifully and an open, clearest spring appeared, and straightway, exceeding the bound of its limit and flowing toward the sun’s rising, directed itself seeking the shore. And the brethren, returning when the enjoined works were ended and seeing this great miracle, rejoiced much and adored God, praising him in this as in all his virtues.

¹⁷ Amid these so great and wonderful marvels, on a certain night while he prayed alone in the oratory, there appeared to him a certain huge, most foul and horrible monster, feigned by malign contrivance. For it was as it were an image made of iron and soot, woven with sooty feathers, swiftest of feet, most swift of wings; having sometimes a hundred flaming eyes, now none, meanwhile one fixed in the midst of the forehead, revolving like a very great shield; fashioning a hundred tongues, and as many mouths and ears; now raising itself even to the clouds, now hanging downward and descending with the dust. These so profane things the saint seeing through the whole night, answered, saying: “O madman, O profane one, why do you flaunt these so vain things against the soldiers of Christ? Or is it hidden from you that the perpetual torments of eternal fire await you with your fellows? For though you now suffer certain grievous things, yet you shall suffer greater when Christ shall appear, our life and lawgiver.” Now Brother Thegonus, whose cell was nearest to the oratory, hearing at first so great strivings between the saint and the devil, arose to learn the event of this matter more fully. Then he saw such phantasms of this malign one and learned such answers of this saint reviling that worst one; and he revealed them to the brethren. And they, hearing these things, the more and more inflamed in every good work and made more cautious, were much edified.

¹⁸ From the twenty-first year of his age therefore even to his death, he was never seen to sit in church; never cast down by sadness nor loosed by joy, never known to mock another, never exceeding the bound of moderation, nor yet angry or turbulent. For while from his infancy he showed most devoted service to St Budoc, by whose word as well as example he was instructed and made a most religious youth, he still transcended all grace while set in the clergy at such an age. For he assumed to himself nothing of arrogance, nothing of pride in his manners, but affable and benevolent in all things, set on the earth he showed himself apt for heavenly manners. For he was wont to sing thrice fifty psalms daily in detail, now in the manner of the cross, now fixed immovable as a statue, now prostrate on his knees. These things have been briefly said of his former conversation. From that day on which he began to build his place, he was never clothed in a woollen garment or linen, but was clad in goats’ skins; nor did he lie in a bed strewn with feathers or clothes or even straw: he was wont to use the hardest nut-shells for feathers; for painted foreign carpets he delighted in sands mingled with pebbles; for pillows of silk or fine linen or interwoven flax he caused his head and feet to be supported merely on two stones placed beneath them on either side. What more? With such a garment as in the day, with the same he was also clad at night. Wheaten bread he ate not, save only that from which the sacrifice is wont to be made, but fed on a little barley bread mingled with ashes, weighed out in equal weight. Except that in Lent he abstained two or three days; and then he took more of the ashes, mindful of the scripture saying that “I ate ashes like bread”. His pottage also — this dish was made for him of the same flour or of herbs, but fattened with no fatness. On the sabbath and the Lord’s day he used a little cheese boiled in water; he also took a few little fishes in the holy resurrection. And his drink was such as could be made of water and the juices of trees or of wild or forest apples; with such a kind of drink therefore both he and his own were wont to be refreshed. Never was his mouth seen idle from spiritual things or empty. Many therefore — blind, deaf and lepers, lame, paralytics and demoniacs, and all kinds of the infirm and weak — were brought to him, and all returned cured from him. Now through all the region of Britain his name is celebrated far and wide with his merits. Whose countenance, shining like an angel’s, all strove to contemplate, and he was now called not a monk but an angel conversing among men.

¹⁹ These things therefore being thus ordered, it was announced to a certain disciple of his that his mother was sick: who while he seemed anxiously to beg to be released, at length obtained licence to go; but the saint knew that she was already dead, divine providence showing it. He therefore, hastening, content with one boy as companion, took blessed water from his master and went to accomplish the journey. And when he had come to the place where the dead woman lay, he cast out all who were around her tumultuously, rebuking and saying: “Stand back; why do you act foolishly? For you profit nothing.” For he thought that her soul was still contained within her members. And sprinkling sanctified water over the now cold corpse, he said: “The Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name my master has already worked very many mighty works, deign himself to heal you.” But those who stood without mocked him, because they knew she had been dead before he came. But she, as if roused from sleep, arose, and sitting on her bed wiped her sweat, as if returning from no light labour. And they who had before mocked him fell prone on the earth before his feet, glorifying God and saying: “Truly he is near to God, at whose invocation his disciple could do this greatest sign, though he was absent.” Then she, being asked to what places or by whom she had seen herself led, spoke in this manner: “I saw around me, before I lost my last breath, certain little men blackest like cold coals, ready to devour me, who surrounding me and binding my feet with my hands, dragged me through rough places to the upper regions. But when they, exulting, wished to draw me miserably through the awful torments, St Winwaloe met them, terribly rebuking and saying: ‘Release her to me; for why do you so boldly attempt to perpetrate this crime against my handmaid?’ They, dismayed and stupified, wishing to resist but not daring, the divine command terrifying them, at length left me to the man of God, who soon, having delivered me from the enemy, willed, God favouring, to place me in this little body.” And from then on they more and more called Winwaloe not a monk but an angel. And she, returning, changed her pursuit, bringing forth fruit wholly in good work.

²⁰ Now it was the custom of blessed Winwaloe to visit a church which was set a mile from his monastery, and there to offer sacrifices as well for the living as for the dead. For in this custom he joined with himself Ethbin, an illustrious youth, a great deacon, that a worthy priest might be sustained by a just deacon. It befell on a certain day, while they fulfilled their custom and made their way through the fields in harvest-time, that they found a certain leper lying in the harvest grievously lamenting, his whole body full of wounds, crying out with mournful voice and asking aid of them. Then St Winwaloe said to Ethbin the deacon: “Dearest brother, what aid shall we give to this poor man asking of us? Gold we have not, silver we store not, naked of this world’s money what shall we do for this needy man?” And St Ethbin, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, said: “We read, father, in the Acts of the Apostles that when the blessed apostle Peter entered the temple with St John, a certain lame man asked alms and received of them the health of his steps. But you approach the poor man and impart to him the gift of the higher degree.” Then blessed Winwaloe, standing beside the poor man, said: “What infirmities are in you, brother, for which you utter such grievous sighs and such feeble words?” He, drawing sighs from his inmost breast, with great humility said: “Great straits and grievous pains are shaken in my body. Yet besides, one pain is in me which is so noxious to my infirmity that if I pass this day without this pain’s relief, I deem death rather than life to be at hand.” To him blessed Winwaloe said: “Tell me, brother, by what aid you can be relieved? God is my witness that we will set part of our flesh for your relief in your aid, if necessity proves it.” “My nostrils,” he said, “full of the pain of wounds and filth, are burnt up by the burning of so great an infirmity, as you see.” Ethbin heard this, and laid on the earth the book which he carried in his hand, and seizing the poor man by the sides — for he lay prone on the earth — raised him. The priest Winwaloe therefore, stretching out his hand to his nostrils, the poor man began to cry with mournful voice as he could: “Do not, elder, do not touch my nostrils with your hands, for the pain permits it not. But if you wish to lighten my pain for the remission of your sins, it is needful for me that you put my nostrils in your mouth, and so draw.” Blessed Winwaloe humbled himself, who was exalted in mind to heaven, and when he thought that the poor man was relieved in his mouth, he received the flesh of God’s Son. O thing wondrous and to be admired and stupendous to all who hear: as soon as blessed Winwaloe drew to himself, a wondrous stone fell in his mouth. And blessed Ethbin, holding the master by the sides, looked upward, saw heaven opened, and on the head of the master whom he held the holy cross appeared, and he saw angels coming to meet the Lord. He said to the priest: “Holy Father, believe that he whom I hold in my hands and you in your mouth is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who for us gave himself to be crucified.” And they desiring to hold him in their hands, the Lord Jesus Christ raised himself in the clouds, saying: “You have not blushed for me, my servants, in my straits, nor will I blush for you in my Father’s kingdom. Your inheritance is with me; and for those who shall be mindful of you in their prayers, there is salvation in my kingdom.” These things said, he vanished from their eyes and was received into heaven with great praise: they indeed heard praising, but saw no one. And they, astonished and joyful with exceeding joy, praised him who so loved them that he showed them God’s Son’s flesh in the likeness of a poor man. Blessed Winwaloe said: “This has befallen us for your merits, Ethbin, who are of so great humility and obedience that whatever a human tongue can command, you fulfil with most devout heart.” And on the other hand Ethbin said: “Not so, father, but you, who daily offer the flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, have merited to see him in his body, whom you assiduously hold in your mind.” Then returning to the monastery, they made the deed known to none; but devoutly completed their custom.

²¹ There was a certain man named Cathmaglus, who had three sons, malignant, robbers of others’ goods, and what they could not openly carry off they took away by theft through wrong. These therefore, thinking that moneys and treasures of the whole region were deposited there with the same saint, taking counsel, invaded the holy place’s enclosure by ship in blind night. And when they had entered, they found the barn open and barley placed in the midst. And as they entered, a most splendid light appeared like the light of the sun: on account of which, much encouraged, they said among themselves: “If this which we do displeased God, so great a light would not have been given us; nor would the door of this house, closed and fortified with the strongest bolts, open itself. See what darkness we have sustained throughout until we came here, and now a most splendid light is ministered. Come then; if we find nothing else, at least let us fill our little sacks with this barn’s barley. For it becomes us not to return empty.” Now it was about the middle of the night. And while these things were being done, Winwaloe, knowing nothing of this matter, was keeping the night in the basilica with his own. And when they had duly celebrated the nocturnal vigils, the brethren being gathered together he broke the silence in this manner, saying: “See, brethren, whether all goes right with the monastery’s goods.” And again indicating with his hand he said: “Do not fear, do not be troubled. For certain men, thinking they would receive many moneys, have invaded our barn and now purpose to fill our sacks, that they return not empty: yet suffer them, for God is able to convert their hearts also, that they may desire to steal a heavenly no less than an earthly treasure. For if indeed they did not need these things, perhaps they would in no way do so detestable a deed.” Saying no more, he ordered all to pray. And as they went out of the monastery heavily laden, it was made known whether this, as they had said, displeased God or not. For the first of them, proudly withdrawing, was straightway prostrated on the earth, his rib broken and crushed, and the wretch lay pressed down under the burden. And the second following, his feet fixed to the earth, able in no way to move himself here or there, stood planted like a log, patiently though unwilling. And the third, not far distant from them, smitten with dense blindness, running here and there before the monastery’s gate, wandered straying along the shores. And the fourth also, who had watched in keeping the boat, as if mad, straining with great hissing vainly at the oar, cried without ceasing, saying: “Come, robbers! Come, pestilent ones! Why have you delayed, evil-doers? Nothing in robbers is sound or strong, nothing but folly. Great are the treasures with which you are laden: you carry the burdens, I will divide them. What then? Do you think you will receive a greater share? Did I therefore provoke you to these shores that you might rage there? Not sound are the men who deign not to answer me even a word.” But they, urged by fear and pain, held their silence. These things therefore being thus done, after the first hour had been celebrated, the man of God related to the brethren all that had befallen these men. And they giving thanks to God, not only on account of the prostrate men but also for God’s glory manifested in his servant: “Do not,” said St Winwaloe, “rejoice in the misfortune of your enemies, nor seek glory one from another but that which is from God. For it is written: ‘He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.’ Or rather, we ought willingly to fulfil the Lord’s command. Let us hasten therefore,” he said, “to the wretched: for they are nearly consumed in pain and anguish of heart.” Prayer being first solemnly made, they went. And when St Winwaloe and the holy congregation with him appeared before them: how great, O good Jesus, was the sorrow held with trembling in the wretched men’s hearts who stood in punishment! For they thought they would soon be dragged either to death or to penal vengeance. To whom the saint: “How foolishly you have done! For did it not rather become you to ask something from the brethren’s labour with cheerfulness, and to receive by permission what might suffice, than to perpetrate an unlawful fraud upon God’s servants? But now may he himself who bound you, Jesus Christ our Lord, free you from this plague.” And while he thus asked, they were straightway loosed from all bodily plague. And he added, saying: “See that you do these things no more; take up hence your burdens with you, and as often as need shall be, ask of us and we will give unhesitatingly, God granting, and do not lose your souls for transitory and perishing things.” And they, wondrously converted and straightway made lambs of wolves, said: “We never wish to be separated from you, but we will perpetually obey your commands.”

²² And that this may never be committed to oblivion — that no one could die in that same place unless he was heavy with old age — it is pleasing to insert it here. And so the aged brethren, sorely wearied by long old age and desiring now to be dissolved from this heavy body and asking for the rewards of their labours to be rendered them, and now knowing not what they should do on account of their growing and decrepit age, compelled him to transfer the buildings of this place a little and carry the furniture with them towards the sun’s rising, and there to be fixed nearer the shore. For it has often been heard from most holy men relating it, who had both heard it among their predecessors and seen what they most truly had seen and said: that so great a space of heaven was opened above that place in the sky as it had occupied of earth, and that they there enjoyed the vision of angels ascending and descending — St Winwaloe pointing it out — in the likeness of the patriarch Jacob’s vision; and on this account they thought they could not be dissolved in body where they had seen in mind life erected stable and indissoluble.

²³ While on a certain night St Winwaloe, after compline, passed the night alone in the oratory, he saw standing by him the angel of the Lord, most splendid, whose brightness shone as the sun, from whose splendour and odour the whole world might be illuminated, saying to him: “Saint of God, Winwaloe, most beloved of Christ, do you watch?” And he, as a friend to his friend, answered with the humblest response in the voice most familiarly uttered to him: “I watch, lord.” The angel at this: “The time of the ripe harvest and good crop which you have sown is at hand to be gathered. But a few grains, yet riper ones, shall now be received as the firstfruits of the new good seed.” And St Winwaloe, hearing this, humbly begged that nothing of imperfection be found in them, lest the enemy, the man who never ceases to harm, envying this harvest, should insult anything imperfect. The angel at this: “Believe me, for unless I had foreseen, I would in no way reap.” The saint also: “As your will, so be it done to me.” And so at length it was done that one was taken from the elders of great age, and the rest followed in this manner, so that each one, as he excelled in age, so also rejoiced in a chosen assumption, nor did the younger precede the elder; and this order was kept in the same monastery so long until not long ago it was changed.

²⁴ Moreover another thing worthy to be told in praise is what befell in the moment of the same time. A certain most noble matron had been smitten with sudden blindness. Therefore on a certain night, when amid many vigils she had given herself a little to slumber, the angel of the Lord appeared to her in dreams and filled the whole house in which she slept with splendour, and said to her: “Arise, go to St Winwaloe, and through him you shall receive health.” Saying no more he straightway ascended into heaven. And she, arising at daybreak with her own and her son leading her, took her way. And straightway approaching him, after she had adored, she told him all that had been said by the angel. And he, humbly answering and giving thanks to God, said: “God can do this, faith being applied.” And straightway he wiped her eyes with his right hand, saying: “May he who made these deign to cure them.” And straightway her eyes were opened, clearest light being given from above. And she went rejoicing and magnifying God.

²⁵ And when the time of his going out from the holy body was nearest at hand, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said to him: “Winwaloe.” And he: “Here am I.” And the angel: “Venerable brother,” he said, “the citizens of heaven demand you as their fellow-citizen. Set your house in order therefore, that they may ever exercise themselves most fervently in every good work: for soon you shall be freed from the toil of this contest.” And saying this he was lifted into the sky. And St Winwaloe, after he had related all these things to the brethren, they rejoicing and weeping alike, said: “To whom will you commend us, father, lest, bereaved like sheep having no shepherd and left, we be scattered through diverse places?” And he: “You have with you men most skilled in all spiritual doctrine: but rather choose for yourselves that one as pastor who shall be sweet as honey and bitter as absinthe.” And saying this, he speaks again: “Prepare yourselves today, for after I shall have sung mass and received that most holy mystery of the Lord’s body, at the sixth hour of this day our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will receive me, snatched from this body.” Then the sign of the third hour being heard: “Arise,” he said, “let us pray. Look, the hour of most serene rest now approaches for the old man passing away. See now the gates of the kingdom of heaven are opened, Christ’s trophies now flash, the camps shine, the heavenly streets now appear — how beautifully are the citizens of heaven shown! Do not therefore, my most beloved brethren, seek peace here with the world, that you may deserve to have there the greatest and quiet tranquillity and the most tranquil quietude in heaven, where the highest peace is and the highest tranquillity and tranquil height.” At length, these things said, he is clad in the sacred vestments in which he should celebrate mass. Then the most holy mass being ended, strengthened by the refreshment of the assumed most holy mystical Lord’s body and blood, standing honourably before the altar sustained on either side between two monks, singing psalms together with the brethren, the angelic choirs standing by, he rendered his most holy soul to God and the Lord Jesus Christ, as clean from carnal pollution as untouched by bodily sickness. St Winwaloe therefore, a venerable old man, the lord and excellent father of monks, full of days, so as it has been said, died on the fifth of the Nones of March, on the fourth weekday in the first week of Lent, whole both in body and in mind, without any pain of his members’ dissolution — for he had judged himself beforehand with the most severe examination, that he might not again be judged with this world, as the apostle says: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” And the brethren honourably buried the most holy body with the utmost reverence, with hymns and spiritual songs, giving thanks to God our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.