DURING the Lenten fast, Bishop John and his monks used to retire to a cottage in woodland across the Tyne, beside a graveyard dedicated to the Archangel Michael.* One year, John persuaded a young lad to stay with them whose head was all scabs and scales and sorry wisps of hair, and who had never been able to speak a word.
At the end of the first week, John called the boy in, and made him put his tongue out. The bishop traced the sign of the cross over it, and ordered him to say ‘Yes’ – which he did. John then had him repeat the alphabet, some words, and finally some whole sentences; but soon the lad was talking without any help – non-stop, for a day and a night, until he fell asleep from exhaustion.
Under John’s direction, the local doctor cured the scabs and scales, and the hair grew luxuriantly back; and that silent, disfigured boy went home a very chatty, confident young man.
On St Michael the Archangel, see also Michaelmas and St Wilfrid’s Debt. Bede’s authority for the miracle was Berthun, Bishop John’s former chaplain and his successor as Abbot of Beverley.
Précis
In the early eighth century, Bishop John of Hexham invited a mute and sickly boy to join his monks on a Lenten retreat. During the fast, John made the sign of the cross on the boy’s tongue, and coached him in basic words until he spoke fluently by himself. John also helped the local doctor cure the boy’s physical ailments. (60 / 60 words)