De glandibus et vermibus regio tactu a quadam femina expulsis.
The Affliction of a Young Wife
A young wife is ravaged by a disfiguring disease that breeds worms and foul stench, while childlessness costs her her husband's love and leaves her isolated, scorned, and unable to afford medical care.
From this point on, miracles grow more frequent, signs multiply, and the hand of the Almighty is stretched out more gloriously still to proclaim the king's merits. A young woman, given in marriage, was afflicted with a double trouble. Disease had disfigured her face, and the barrenness of childlessness had stolen away her husband's love. Beneath her throat, glands had swollen up, as it were, deforming her whole face with their ugly growth, and the corrupted fluids under the skin had turned to pus. Worms were born from them, giving off a foul stench. So the disease struck her husband with dread, and her barrenness weakened his affection. The wretched woman lived on, hateful to her husband, a burden to her parents. Rarely did she or her friends have access to her, because of the stench; rarely did her husband look at her, because of his revulsion. Hence grief, hence tears, hence sighs by day and night, since childlessness brought her reproach, and her affliction brought contempt. Poverty turned away the diligent care of physicians.
A Dream and a Desperate Approach
Driven to despair, the woman cries out for divine aid, is told in a dream to seek healing from the king's hands, and boldly rushes before him to plead her cause.
What was the poor woman to do? Her only remaining recourse, where human help fell short, was to beg for divine aid, as if crying out in the voice of that other equally wretched woman: 'I beg you, Lord, free me from this bond of reproach, or at least snatch me away from this world.' At last she is told in a dream to come to the palace and hope for healing from the king's hands: if she were washed, touched, and signed with them, she would receive health through his merits. The woman woke up, forgetting both her sex and her condition, rushed into the court, presented herself to the king's gaze, explained the oracle, and begged for help. He, moved by his customary compassion, did not flinch from the filth or recoil from the stench.
Healing Touch of the King
Moved by compassion, the king does not recoil from her filth; she washes and signs herself with the cross, and suddenly the pus and worms gush out as all pain vanishes, revealing the holiness and power dwelling in the royal hands.
Once water was brought, she washed with her own hands the parts of her body the disease had disfigured, and touching the swollen places with her fingers, she pressed upon them the sign of the holy cross. What more is there to say? Suddenly the skin broke open, and as the pus and worms gushed out, the swelling subsided and all the pain left: leaving those who stood by in awe at such great holiness beneath the royal purple, such great power residing in the hands of the sceptered king.
Restoration and Fruitfulness
The woman recovers at court and returns home healed, while the barren wife is granted the long-desired fruit of her womb, winning back her husband's favor.
Indeed, after just a few days the woman stayed on at court, where the royal ministers needed her care, until her wounds had healed over with scar tissue and she could return home unharmed. But so that nothing would be lacking from the king's glory or the poor woman's reward, an unexpected fruitfulness was given to the barren one; enriched by the long-desired fruit of her own womb, she easily won back her husband's favor.
Read the original Latin
Exhinc crebrescunt miracula, signa multiplicantur, et ad regis merita sublimius declaranda manus omnipotentis extenditur. Adolescentula quaedam tradita nuptiis duplici laborabat incommodo. Nam faciem ejus morbus deformaverat, amorem viri sterilitas prolis ademerat; sub faucibus quippe quasi glandes ei succreverant, quae totam faciem deformi tumore foedantes, putrefactis sub cute humoribus, sanguinem in saniem verterant, inde nati vermes odorem teterrimum exhalabant. Ita viro incutiebat morbus horrorem, sterilitas minuebat affectum. Vivebat infelix mulier odiosa marito, parentibus onerosa. Rarus ad eam vel amicorum accessus propter fetorem, vel aspectus viri propter horrorem. Hinc dolor, hinc lacrymae, hinc die noctuque suspiria, cum ei vel sterilitas opprobrium, vel contemptum infirmitas generaret. Industriam medicorum avertebat inopia.
Quid ageret misera? Quod solum supererat, ubi humanum deerat divinum precabatur auxilium, quasi in illam illius aeque miserae mulieris vocem erumpens: Peto, Domine, ut de vinculo improperii hujus absolvas me, aut certe super terram eripias me. Jubetur tandem in somnis adire palatium, ex regiis manibus sperare remedium, quibus si lota, si tacta, si signata foret, reciperet ejus meritis sanitatem. Expergefacta mulier, sexus simul et conditionis oblita, prorumpit in curiam, regis se repraesentat obtutibus, exponit oraculum, auxilium deprecatur. Ille more suo victus pietate, nec sordes cavit, nec fetorem exhorruit. Allata denique aqua, partes corporis quas morbus foedaverat propriis manibus lavit, locaque tumentia contrectans digitis, signum sanctae crucis impressit. Quid plura? Subito rupta cute, cum sanie vermes ebulliunt, resedit tumor, dolor omnis abcessit: admirantibus qui aderant tantam sub purpura sanctitatem, tantam sceptrigeris manibus inesse virtutem.
Paucis vero diebus substitit in Curia mulier regiis ministris necessaria ministrantibus, donec obducta vulneribus cicatrice incolumis rediret ad propria. Verum ut nihil deesset regi ad gloriam, pauperculae nihil ad gratiam, donatur sterili inopina fecunditas, ventrisque sui desiderato fructu ditata, facile sibi mariti gratiam conciliavit.
Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris companion
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