Book Two - Chapter 27

Of a house untouched in the midst of a fire.

WHO may suffice to set out all the benefits of inexhaustible mercy which men from the seaports are wont to tell of as being graciously and unceasingly granted to them through the merits of the blessed apostle Bartholomew? Very many of which, indeed, I have heard from themselves, but, on account of the prolixity of this treatise and the similarity of the miracles, I have omitted to write. Hence, burning with singular love of him, they rival each other in zeal for his services and to his church or to his relics, and thankfully bring their offerings and a certain part of whatever profit may have arisen from their ships. And not only men but women also are most devout about his service and worship, since indeed by his frequent consolation they have experienced how near he is to those that call upon him in truth. Hence it is that very many of them are wont to visit his holy church every year with lamps and peace offerings of oblations and to tell joyfully of his many miracles worked among them. And, since it is difficult to relate them all, I will nevertheless, for the sake of example, add one whereof there are almost as many witnesses as there are men dwelling in the port of Hastings.

It happened once, either through the want of caution of men, or more likely by divine punishment, that the town which is called Hastings was being destroyed by a raging burning fire. There was there a worshipful matron by name Cecilia, whose husband Ellis, having just returned from foreign parts with his ships laden with wine, had made fast at London and on the very day of that great calamity in ignorance of it -- was visiting the church of the blessed apostle, and on behalf of himself and all that belonged to him was pouring out suppliant prayers to God and his apostle. So the aforesaid woman, when she saw that the flames of the fire had already approached her house, lacking all human counsel and help, betook herself with the fullest faith to the protection of the blessed apostle Bartholomew and, calling upon him continually from the bottom of her heart and most devoutly invoking him, she repeated his glorious name with frequent iteration with a vow to him of a light to be brought to his church in his honour, and then began forthwith to encircle the whole house with a very long thread and left it fixed thereon. Wonderful to relate, and a thing unheard of in past ages, the fire feared the woman's faith, and though it was raging on every side and reducing all things to ashes, it did not presume to touch that thread at all, but, flying across to the neighbouring houses, could in nowise harm the house bounded by the thread. There remains to this day to be seen the glorious miracle of that house, how at first the approaching fire partly touched the turrets of the house but, repulsed by the woman's faith, left these turrets half burnt. But there were near almost adjoining houses, all of which were consumed and reduced to ashes. Behold! how by the merits of the blessed apostle Bartholomew the fire forgot the might of its power so that that house which bore his mark did not feel the flames.

 

The Book of the Foundation of St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield Rendered into Modern English from the original Latin version preserved in the British Museum, numbered Vespasian B. IX, by Mr. Humphrey H. King and Mr. William Barnard for use in the Records of St. Bartholomew's Priory by E.A. Webb.

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