is in your country, named Oswald;
now if thou hast anything (as a) relic of the saint,
give it me, I pray thee.' then the priest said to him,
' I have [a piece] of the stake on which his head stood,
and if thou wilt believe, thou shalt soon become whole.'
So the priest had pity on the man,
and scraped (shaved) into holy water some of the sacred tree,
and gave to the diseased man to drink,
and he soon recovered, and afterward lived
long in the world, and turned to God
with all his heart, and with holy works;
and whithersoever he came he made known these wonders.
Therefore no man ought to nullify that which he of his own will
promiseth to Almighty God when he is sick,
lest that he should lose himself, if he deny that to God.
Now saith the holy Bede who indited this book,
it is no wonder that the holy king
should heal sickness, now that he liveth in heaven,
because he desired to help, when he was here on earth,
the poor and weak, and to give them sustenance.
Now he hath honour with Almighty God
in the eternal world for his goodness.
Afterward the holy Cuthbert, when he was yet a boy,
saw how the angels of God carried the soul of Aidan,
the holy bishop, joyfully to Heaven,
to the eternal glory which he had merited on earth.
The holy Oswald's bones were afterwards brought
after many years into Mercia
to Gloucester, and God there often showed
many wonders through the holy man.
For this be glory to the Almighty God,
who reigneth in eternity for ever and ever. Amen.
