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Life of St Wilfrid
Eddius Stephanus, tr. Colgrave, 1927
39. How the Queen Was Scourged and Healed
Meanwhile the king and queen, who had been making their progress with worldly pomp and daily rejoicings and feasts, through cities, fortresses, and villages, came upon a certain occasion to a nunnery called Coldingham, over which presided a very holy and discreet abbess called Aebbe, the sister of King Oswiu. At this place the queen became possessed with a devil that same night, and like Pilate’s wife was so plagued and scourged that she scarcely expected to live till day. On the next day however, as soon as dawn appeared, the discreet abbess came to the queen and saw that her limbs were all contracted and tightly bound together and that she was manifestly dying; Aebbe went to the king and with tearful voice reminded him of the reason why, in her opinion, that wretched calamity had happened to him, boldly declaring: “I know, and know for a fact, that you drove Bishop Wilfrid the beloved of God from his episcopal see for no crime whatever; that he was driven into exile and went to the Apostolic See; when he intended to return thence with the writings of the Apostolic See which has, in company with St Peter the Apostle, the power of binding and loosing, you foolishly despised them and despoiled him, and then adding evil to evil, you shut the saint up in prison. And now, my son, obey the instructions of your mother; break his bonds, send back to him by a faithful messenger those holy relics of which he has been robbed, which the queen took from his neck and carried about from town to town like the ark of God, to her own destruction. And, if you will not have him back as bishop (which would be best of all), then at least send him away free and let him depart with his friends and go wherever he will, away from your kingdom. Then, according to my belief, you will remain alive and the queen will recover, but if you refuse to do this, God is my witness that you will not be unpunished.” Thereupon the king obeyed the chaste matron, released our most holy bishop and allowed him to depart freely with his relics, in company with all his friends; and the queen was healed.