The Bishop and the Chatterbox
One week into a Lenten retreat with the Bishop of Hexham, a boy’s miserable life is turned right around.
700-721
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
One week into a Lenten retreat with the Bishop of Hexham, a boy’s miserable life is turned right around.
700-721
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
Bishop John of Hexham (?-721) is better known today as St John of Beverley, as he had been Abbot of the monastery in Beverley, North Yorkshire, before being elevated to the See of Hexham. His contemporary Bede was a great admirer, and told this story of him.
DURING the Lenten fast, Bishop John and his monks used to retire to a cottage in woodland across the Tyne, beside a graveyard dedicated to the Archangel Michael.* One year, John persuaded a young lad to stay with them whose head was all scabs and scales and sorry wisps of hair, and who had never been able to speak a word.
At the end of the first week, John called the boy in, and made him put his tongue out. The bishop traced the sign of the cross over it, and ordered him to say ‘Yes’ – which he did. John then had him repeat the alphabet, some words, and finally some whole sentences; but soon the lad was talking without any help – non-stop, for a day and a night, until he fell asleep from exhaustion.
Under John’s direction, the local doctor cured the scabs and scales, and the hair grew luxuriantly back; and that silent, disfigured boy went home a very chatty, confident young man.
On St Michael the Archangel, see also Michaelmas and St Wilfrid’s Debt. Bede’s authority for the miracle was Berthun, Bishop John’s former chaplain and his successor as Abbot of Beverley.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Where did this miracle take place?
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Bishop John spent every Lent in a cottage. He invited one sick or poor person. Once it was a boy who could not speak.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IAsk. IICustom. IIIStay.