Saturday 6 November 2010

No less edifying

"I steadfastly believe that the holy deeds of the Angles and Saxons of England could be no less edifying to northern Christians than the deeds of Greeks and Egyptians, which devoted scholars have fully recorded in lengthy narratives that are freely studied and give much pleasure. Moreover, I believe that, little as these things are known amongst our own countrymen, they must prove all the more pleasing and full of grace to men of ardent charity."

Thanks, Orderic Vitalis; I quite agree.


And a miracle of St Guthlac:

"A jackdaw dropped a document it had seized into the middle of a pool; yet by the merits of the man of God it was undamaged by the water as it caught on a reed, and Guthlac restored it safely to the anxious scribe".

There you go, a saint for any student who's ever dropped their work in a puddle.

2 comments:

Trychay said...

But would the good Guthlac recognise a memory stick if he saw one?

Clerk of Oxford said...

I was going to say that by the same principle, he would make a good patron for computer troubles...