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Life of St Wilfrid
Eddius Stephanus, tr. Colgrave, 1927
On another occasion also the Lord manifested to men His saint, our wondrous and …
On another occasion also the Lord manifested to men His saint, our wondrous and praiseworthy bishop, in accordance with His wont. For certain exiles of noble birth who were ravaging with an army, because of some wrong done to them, burned the whole of the above-mentioned monastery at Oundle, where our bishop had been gathered to his fathers, with the exception of the one house where our holy father died: this they diligently attempted to set fire to, for no reason, by means of firebrands and torches. But their fires were extinguished contrary to nature as though the torches were damped down by the thatched roof. At last one of them boldly entered, thinking that he would more easily set fire to the dry hay within, and saw a young man in white who stood holding a golden cross in his hand. As soon as he saw him he was amazed and rushed out, beside himself, crying, “Let us depart from here, for lo! an angel of the Lord is defending this house.” And they went away from it.
Again, as is proved by the witness of many, a great hedge of thorn, which surrounded the whole monastery, was at once devoured on one side by flames which burned it up to the place where, as we have said, the wooden cross was erected on the site of the bath. At the place where the cross was erected that devouring fire immediately died away. The fire burned on the other side of the monastery and quickly crept round the parched thorn-hedge to the projecting corner of the above-mentioned house, and there the flame sank and went out, so that this was the only part of the hedge remaining undestroyed.
These evil-minded men mentioned above perished by the punishment of God. For certain of the most noble of them, with their troops, a short time afterwards, became blinded in the full light of day, and seeing nothing, they were hemmed in by their enemies on every side without knowing it, and were soon overthrown and slain. A few of their companions escaped by defending themselves with the sign of the cross. And so with such a miracle Wilfrid, the saint of God, by his prayers avenged his wrongs.