Dc sancto Oswaldo
The Charitable King
King Oswald is introduced as a man of profound charity and prayerful devotion to his people and God.
Oswald, King of the English, was the son of Acha, sister of the holy King Edmund, who also died for Christ; he was a man of great charity. On Easter Day, while listening to the divine service from Aidan of Lindisfarne, the king acted as interpreter for the people because they didn't know the language. One day, when the poor were gathered and all the food had already been distributed, he had a silver dish broken up and given to the needy. The bishop, rejoicing, kissed his hand and said, "May this hand never wither," and it happened just so; it remains that way even today. He also devoted himself to divine things day and night, and would offer thanks either lying prostrate or on his knees. After his brother Cynefrid was killed by the wicked, he defeated the leader of the Britons, who was coming against him with a large force, by raising the sign of the cross and kneeling in prayer.
Martyrdom and Miraculous Grace
Following his death in battle, the relics of King Oswald become a source of miraculous healing and divine grace.
In the ninth year of his reign, at the age of thirty-eight, the King of the Mercians—who had killed his own intercessor—slew him in battle and hung his head, along with his hands and arms, on a stake in ignominy; he later became famous for many miracles. A certain scholar, who spoke of good things but did evil, was brought to the point of death and saw himself being led to the underworld; he called upon the help of Oswald, and when a piece of the stake on which Oswald’s head and hands had hung was brought to him and placed in blessed water, he drank it and regained both his life and his health.
Read the original Latin
Oswaldus rex Anglorum filius Achiae sororis sancti Admundi regis, qui et pro Christo occubuit, fuit vir magnarum elemosinarum. In die paschae ab Aydano Lindifarnensi divina audiens, et cum linguam ignoraret, rex populo interpretabatur, Et die, dum panperes coniluerent et jam omnia victualia essent distributa, discum argenteum fecit confringi et dari egenis, Cui episcopus congratulans manum ejus osculabatur dicens: nunquam inveterascat haec manus, et factum est ita, Permanet enim usque hodie, Qui etiam die ac nocte vacabat divinis et aut supinis ant flexis genibus gratias agebat, Fratre suo Camfrido ab impiis peremto ducem Britonum cum multis super se venientem ipse erecto crucis vexillo et flexis genibus superavit. Nono autem regni sui anno, aetatis vero XXXVIII rex Mericiorun, qui inlercessorem suum peremerat, ipsum in proelio occidit et caput cum manibus et brachiis ignominiose stipiti suspendit, Qui postea multis claruit miraculis.
Scholasticus quidam bona dicens et màla faciens ad extrema perductus vidit se ad inferos duci, invocat auxilium Oswaldi et allata sibi particula pali, in quo caput Oswaldi cum manibus pependit, et in aqua benedicta posita et ea potata vitam obtinuit et salutem,
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