Bothelm's Broken Bones - The Healing Powers of Holy Moss
An injured monk seeks divine healing, and finds it in the mossy relic of a historic battle.
As the monk Bothelm groped his way across the rugged landscape of eighth-century Northumbria, his eyes squinting through the dark for the distant lights of the church at Hexham, his feet met a patch of ice.1 He slipped, falling hard onto his arm, shattering the bones.2 In excruciating pain, and unable to move his broken limb, he had stumbled his way back to the church.
Time passed, but the bone did not heal. Bothelm became desperate, each day sapped away by the chronic pain. He found no relief in the medicine of Hexham, nor in his daily prayers, and so he asked his fellow brothers for advice. They recounted to him a tale of divine favour, and exhorted him to follow suit.
Bernicia had once been ruled by a great king and saint, Oswald, who had spent his youth in exile. Here, among men learned in Christian lore, he had recieved baptism and been accepted into the faith. Upon his return to England, his brother Eanfrith had taken the crown of Bernicia. Happy days were short-lived. Cædwalla, King of the Britons, rampaged across the land, putting the people to fire and to sword. Eanfrith had sued for peace, and had been cut down by Cædwalla under the guise of friendship. Oswald, in search of vengeance, had set out to right this wrong.
King Oswald met Cædwalla in battle at a place called Denisesburn.3 Outnumber, and seeing the fear in the eyes of his men, Oswald drew them up before him. Fashioning a crude cross from wood, he planted the symbol in the ground before his assembled troops, and called out:
Kneel with me, soldiers of Christ, and offer up your prayers to almighty God that he might deliver to us a victory. For Cædwalla, although he professes to follow the true faith of the Lord, turns daily away from His teachings through his blood-shed and his heathen allies. The Lord fights with us!
Remember the oaths you have made to me, and to Christ, and show them no mercy! Turn them back with the points of your spears!
Victory was won, Cædwalla slain, and Oswald’s cross was left to stand as a symbol of divine favour. Each year, the monks of Hexham sought out this weather-beaten monument to celebrate the life of this distinguished, and well-guided, king. Those seeking miracles came to gaze on the cross. They prized small splinters from its surface, soaking the holy wood in water, and drank deeply. They soon found their ailments healed. Might Bothelm find solace in a similar act?
And so, come the morning, a kindly fellow monk set off for this holy site to aid his stricken comrade. There he scraped from the cross the cover of moss that had crept over the aged wood and, wrapping it delicately in a piece of cloth, began the long trek back home. When he returned he found his fellow brothers sat down for dinner and Bothelm, wincing in pain as always, among them. He passed his holy package over to Bothelm, who tucked the cloth away in his robe. As the night wore on, Bothelm forget the treasure that he harboured and, laying down to sleep, drifted off quickly. He awoke suddenly to feel a chilling cold in his side and, frantically seeking its source, he found his shattered arm miraculously healed.
SeaxEducation seeks to explore the forgotten lives of early medieval England, and those who pass briefly into the pages of our history. You can find a wealth of previous stories throughout the archives of this blog: the thieving monk Eadwine, the prophetic Saint Ælfheah, and the hunt for Hereward. Subscribe to the blog for free to keep up-to-date in the future.
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Photo credits: https://www.pexels.com/photo/big-wooden-cross-on-green-grass-field-under-the-white-clouds-635699/
The following account is preserved in Bede, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, eds. and trans. B. Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969), 216-8.
I did this too, two years ago, slipping over the flagstones of the Radcliffe camera and falling gracefully into a huge puddle. It really hurt. Somebody in the distance laughed.
This battle, variously called the ‘Battle of Denisesburn’ or the ‘Battle of Heavenfield’, took place in either 633 or 634. Oswald died in the year 642.