Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 2.djvu/335

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awaiting the resurrection and the eternal glory.

His body showeth us, which lieth undecayed,

that he lived without fornication here in this world,

and by a pure life passed to Christ.

A certain widow who was called Oswyn

dwelt near the saint's burial-place in prayers

and fastings for many years after.

She would every year cut the hair of the saint,

and cut his nails soberly and lovingly,

and keep them in a shrine as relics on the altar.

So the people of the land faithfully venerated the saint;

and bishop Theodred exceedingly [enriched the church]

with gifts in gold and silver, in the saint's honour.

Then once upon a time came some unblessed thieves,

eight in one night, to the venerable saint,

desiring to steal the treasures which people had brought thither,

and tried how they might get in by craft.

One struck at the hasp violently with a hammer;

one of them filed about it with a file;

one dug under the door with a spade;

one of them by a ladder wished to unlock the window:

but they toiled in vain, and fared miserably,

because the holy man wondrously bound them,

each as he stood, toiling with his implement,

so that none of them could do that evil deed,

nor stir thence; but they stood there till morning.

Then men wondered to see how the wretches hung there,